#(this is not to say he can’t be the protag of his own series Boy Goes to Egypt)

[mangk0]

If we get a gow6 they better call it God of War: The Retirement Home

[eshithepetty]

LISTEN. I KNOWWW that the polls haven't even started, but I'm impatient, ok, I'm just putting this out there now cause I can't take it..... anyways - I've seen people do powerpoints as a way to campaign for their blorbos in the various polls that have been going on, so!! I thought I'd do one of my own for the @autismswagsummit ^^ as I simply can't pass on any chance to be brainrotted over this series, it seems...

ID under cut, as it's very long!

[ID: a powerpoint presentation campaigning for Mob from Mob Psycho 100. It's formatted in dark purples and pinks.

The first slide is the titlecard, differing from the main slides by having a pink holographic aura, like the ones from the show, as the background. The text says:

"#MOBSWEEP 2023

Aka why you should vote for Mob in the upcoming autistic swag summit. Please

(JK follow your own heart ^^ but for your consideration:)"

The second slide is titled: "Who is Mob, aka Kageyama Shigeo?" and below the text lists:

"Source: Mob Psycho 100, which is also where Reigen comes from;

The protagonist! Only with background character syndrome (which is why he’s named ‘Mob’ – it’s kinda like naming your protag ‘John Doe’ lol);

A 14 year old with the psychic strength to destroy the world. Which he’s not very happy about actually;

Cause really, he’s just a nice, gentle boy who simply wants to improve and impress his crush by getting swole :) Oh, and he also experiences the horrors. Btw."

On the right of this text, there are two images: One is a zoomed in screenshot of Mob, his face blank and confused, and the other is an official art of the show, depicting Mob in the center, aura glowing, with many of the show's other characters around him, with the show's title at the bottom of the image.

The third slide's title is "Ok but tell me more about the autism", and below, the text says:

"Gladly ^^

Ok, first off – symptoms:

Bad at reading social cues, detecting sarcasm, lies, etc.;

Struggles with recognizing/expressing emotions. Has what could be called psychic meltdowns;

Very honest and blunt, sometimes appearing ‘ruthless’ as a result;

Explicitly low empathy, in that he can’t feel what others are feeling;

Actually very compassionate, and follows a really strict moral code;"

There are no images in this or the next slide.

The fourth slide is a continuation of the previous, with the text being:

"Abnormal reaction to sensations, but instead of overreacting, he underreacts, rarely responding to physical touch and disturbing imagery. Has shown to be at times sensitive to loud sounds, however;

Prefers following a routine. One of his biggest conflicts with Reigen literally arise from the man often calling him out of the blue and making him suddenly adapt, which Mob finds really annoying/upsetting;

Struggles in school. Explicitly bad at math, japanese and PE (really passionate about the latter tho), which could be for a variety of reasons, autism related conditions (like dyscalculia/dyslexia/dyspraxia) being one of them;

Has felt like an outcast for most of his life. Even if he grew up in a pretty loving environment, he recognizes that he is different to others, and people sometimes treat him as such (in a /neg way);

His main arc is about overcoming trauma and… just masking (and how to stop doing it), pretty much, lol."

The fifth slide, in contrast, is mostly just images, placed upon a white background. The title for this one is "Alternatively, just look at him:"

The images, from top to down, and then left to right, are:

Three cropped subtitles out of screenshots of the show, which say:

"I'm sure I just got the wrong idea again. How embarrassing."

"He's detached from urban legends, fads, and other hot topics among people."

"You just can't lie, can you?"

The fourth is a cropped screenshot of Mob's explosion meter. Both in Japanese and English. Specifically, it says: "Progress towards Mob's explosion: 92%". Additionally, there is an annotation above this image, saying: "Literally has a meltdown meter ksfdks"

In-between these and the next column of images, there is also a transparent image of Mob, him standing stiffly, faced towards the camera, his standard, blank expression with a small smile on his face.

The next column of images goes like this:

A screenshot from the show, done in paint on glass, of various kids towering over Mob, who's standing in the middle of the image, small. Their expressions wary, from sneering, to frowning, to looking disgusted. The subtitles at the bottom say, with one part blocked out due to spoilers: "[spoilers] didn't treat me any differently even though I could use psychic powers."

Next two are cropped dialogues as well. They say:

"This version of him was created from being suppressed and locked away."

"Social skills like that are beyond you."

And on the right of the slide is one vertical image, showing one of Mob's books, with the subtitles translating the Japanese title of the book as "The Proper Way of Reading the Room". Next to this one, there is also an annotation, saying: "He has a book on learning social cues :’)" That's all for this slide.

The sixth slide is titled "Is he good rep though?" Text below is:

"Well, to answer the first thing relevant to this question… no, he’s not actually confirmed canon autistic. But c’mon.. it’s so obvious. This kid is not fucking allistic like c’monnnn

Of course, what people consider good and bad rep is gonna vary from person to person. But to explain why a lot of people see him as very positive rep:

"1) He’s the main character, so he gets the most spotlight, and the narrative is formed around his pov, in that we only see things that are relevant to Mob, and visually things are often represented in the way Mob sees them as well (take the body improvement club or Tsubomi, for example), which puts all viewers soundly in his shoes and makes him easy to relate to and sympathize with, and makes it clear how important his emotions and view of things really are;"

On the right of this are 3 images against a white background. The first one is a screenshot of the Body Improvement Club - 5 very buff and large dudes - standing against an explosively red and yellow background, with all of them enthusiastically flexing. The caption below that is "The body improvement club! ...they're supposed to be middle schoolers lol".

The next two, below the first one, are two screenshots of Tsubomi. The one on the left has her smiling, her eyes wide and bright, the background being pastel pinks and yellows. The one on the right, however, has her frowning, the background turned black, her eyes dark and disinterested. The caption below says: "Tsubomi :) And how her design subtly changes alongside Mob’s view of her".

The seventh slide is a continuation of the previous, with the text being:

"2) He’s a very well rounded character, with well thought out strengths, flaws, motives, and his overall story is very cohesive and satisfying; 3) His autistic traits are portrayed neutrally – in both where they help, and where they can cause conflict. It balances between him learning what things he would benefit to address and deal with, and what things he shouldn’t be trying to change at all, and as the whole message of the show emphasizes – he is no more or less special than anyone, no more or less of a person – he is simply human, and his autistic traits are just part of what makes him himself."

This one has images next to it as well. The first one is a screenshot of Reigen looking towards the camera (at an off-screen Mob), hand to his chin, eyebrow raised and smiling, some food crumbs still stuck to his face, as he says: "Today you happened to save some people that only you could have saved." Next to it is the annotation: "Reigen reassuring Mob about how his inability to read the room and feel empathy actually can be a huge benefit sometimes :)"

The next image below is a zoom in of Mob's face, his eyes shadowed by his hair, the scene's lighting dark, as he says: "I'm not being mocked, nor am I easily taken advantage of." The annotation next to this one says "Mob learning to recognize his emotions and assert himself better as the story goes on!"

And the last two images is a screenshotted dialogue, saying "You don't think changing yourself for someone you love is natural?" "I don't. At least, not when we're talking about [spoilers]" (The last bit is blocked out again).

The eight slide is also a continuation. The text says:

"4) He is loved. Loved by his friends, his family, his allies… even most villains come to take a liking to him. In fact, he’s something I haven’t seen many autistic characters be – he’s admired! So many characters, and even viewers of the show I’ve found, really admire him and want to be more like him. And not because he’s a perfect person, or super smart or anything, but because he sincerely tries his best. And I just really appreciate that, personally,, 5) And more than just loved, he is accepted – the whole main arc and the resolution of his story centers around that, around how important it is to feel accepted by the people around you, in all your entirety, no matter how strange or destructive you may feel yourself to be. And how you need to come to accept yourself in the same way as well. I just think that’s a really sweet in a story centering around a neurodivergent person :’)"

And the images next to it are as follows:

A screenshot of dialogue from the show, saying: "At first glance, Mob may seem unreliable, but his strength is undeniable." The annotation clarifies with: "The ‘strength’ in question, in this case, being Mob’s ability to reach out to people ^^";

A screenshot of Teru placed against a blindingly white background, him grinning widely, looking down, eyes shining, as he says: "I knew it, you really are amazing!". Next to him, there is a small caption of "Lol gayass /pos";

And a screenshot of Mob, in the bottom center of the image, small, as he is surrounded by various characters. Most of them are smiling encouragingly, with the ones closest to him, like Reigen, Ritsu, Dimple, Teru and Tsubomi, being bigger and placed in the front. A small caption at the top says: "He has so many friends and allies ueueeueueue.."

The ninth slide is titled "Additionally:" and the text lists:

"Psychic powers as a metaphor for being nd/othered, if that suits your fancy;

His design is iconic and versatile;

The boy has. Issues;;

There are many other characters in mp100 who can be read as autistic. Not a single neurotypical in this show /hj

Mob has more than just autism swag. I’ve seen people with bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety and those who are plural (etc.) also relate to him :)

He is simply the Boy ever"

Next to the last line is a small, low quality image of Mob smiling from the manga. The rest of the images, on the right, are:

The meme "I can be your angle....or yuour devil", with images of Mob instead - on the left, him smiling brightly and blushing, placed upon a colorful magenta background, and on the right, a panel from the manga: Mob in one of his explosion states, surrounded by fire, face shadowed, hair pushed back by his powers and waving in the air, and his eyes, wide and eerie, being the only features on his face that are visible.

On the right of these images, there is a smaller one, of Mob in another one of his explosion states (the one from episode 3, season 1 of the anime). He is facing to the side, aura surrounding him, hair pushed back by his powers and his eyes a glower. His pupils are red.

Below these, there are three images of, in order, Serizawa, Tome and Ritsu. Serizawa is sweating, nervous, Tome is sweating even more and yelling into a phone, and Ritsu is simply glaring towards the camera. The annotation pointing to them says: "A few of the other autistic blorbos in question :] (as I personally see them at least)".

And the last is a panel from the manga, of Mob sobbing, tears and drool dripping messily down his face, his hair waving in the air. His expression is somewhat blank despite the clear distress, and the text boxes next to him read: "His tears won't stop. It's an emotion he has never experienced before."

And the tenth, final slide, is formatted the same as the titlecard with the pink aura background, and says:

"Thank you if you got this far <3

Have good days everyones, and remember, the true win for autism is the fun we had along the way :]

Buh bye!! ^_^"

Around this text, there are various images of Mob. Counter clockwise, starting at the left corner:

A low quality screenshot of Mob flying in the air;

Mob, in his puppy hoodie, sweating in distress as he points at a vase;

Mob caught mid smear frame, his leg kicked high in the air as he jumps, his school bag swinging to the side, his expression comically flustered.

A panel from the manga. Mob's eyes are shadowed, chopsticks held to his face, as he stares to the side and says "Tch... Shut up and eat.";

A Mob in an alleyway from the anime, smiling, pointing and looking up and to the left (the center of the slide);

A photo of a Mob plushie tucked into bed;

A low quality screenshot of Mob, standing against a wire fence, facing forwards, his eyes appearing a bit angry due to his hair cowering them.

End ID.]

[crystalelemental]

I may have a full writeup opinion thing later on, but for now, a general gist for Mob Psycho 100 now that we’ve finished.

Holy shit this show is fantastic.  Legitimately one of the best anime I’ve seen.

Shigeo is my boy.  I think this is a pretty common response but that is baby.

Ritsu’s great too, and I adore that conclusion in the final episodes.  He had been repeating that phrase a lot throughout the series, and I had noticed it as a thing where he’s constantly offering to talk, but Shigeo refuses to really tell him what’s up, and the payoff to that is fantastic.

Teru’s the fucking man.  Rival characters are great broadly, but this dude is the shit.  His piece in the final episodes is legitimately my favorite; he cannot match Shigeo by power, and cannot truly stop him raging out of control.  So instead, he goes out of his way to protect what he knows Shigeo would care about.  I can’t stop your powers.  But I can stop you from betraying your own ideals.  You are my rival, and I am here for you so hard that I will protect you from yourself.  Fucking love this kid.

I wound up really liking Reigen too.  He’s such an interesting character.  Kind of a shithead, but at the same time...he legitimately does help people, even if he lies about what the help is, and has a pretty solid sense of ethical action and what’s right to do.

To avoid going on about all the characters, I’ll just say no one missed.  Everyone’s solid.  Body Improvement Club are fantastic bros, Dimple’s a bro, telepathy club are great when they get serious, it’s nice to see literally every antagonist come around.

Okay I lied one more: Boss.  Like, not a huge fan of him broadly, but I adore how they wrapped him up.  It was so set to be an attempted self-sacrifice for Shigeo, who had done similar without the sacrifice bit, but it mirrors the student council president bit.  Just stepping out of it isn’t atonement.  You have to work hard and be there to make things right.  And when making that final choice...he does choose to stay, to put in that hard work for his son and his estranged wife.  And it’s so goddamn good.

With that, I think I can start gushing about themes.  Human connection being the biggest.  I love how this show handles connection, because I feel like it’s a fairly simple premise?  Like a lot of shows go for that as a major facet.  How often is your shonen protag’s thing “magical ability to be friends with anyone?”  But I think what works for this show is two things.  One, that they never back down from it.  In most stories, there’s the inevitable exception.  Someone you can’t reach out to and change.  And the notion is that you’re supposed to know when to draw that line, and when it’s okay to avoid “going soft” to protect everyone else.  That doesn’t really happen.  Shigeo will fight anyone who is a legitimate threat and not seriously hold back, but at no point is it fully malicious “you have to be destroyed,” which is something for later.  The other is...it’s not friendship.  Like, he has a very clear group of friends.  But there are plenty of people who aren’t strictly friends with him.  They’ve reformed, but not in a way where they’re integral to his life and all about staying close.  Rather, it’s more about what some stranger has done to really change your life, and what you in turn can do for others.

The other big one is that sense of special vs. average, and that what’s important is self-improvement.  Shigeo’s is really interesting as a protagonist, in that he’s...well, a lot like most shonen protags that never lose, but specifically my comparison was always Saitama.  There is never, at any point, a question of whether or not Shigeo’s gonna win.  He isn’t just strong, he’s virtually untouchable.  He is, by the standards of psychic powers, the most specialest ever.  And while Saitama’s power is played for comedic anti-climax, Shigeo’s is both to showcase a theme, and to a degree to set up for the final battle that’s ultimately against himself.  But his power, and him being the strongest, would usually be a huge deal, and the thing to focus on as he meets other people who test those limits and he has to refine that one major focus.  That’s really what shonen focuses on: what makes you special, and that being the area to refine as you become the best.  But...not here.  Shigeo is, from the start, very focused on the idea of being nothing without his powers.  If he didn’t have this, what would be left?  A lot of characters seem to have this history of wanting to be someone important; of wanting to leave a mark.  And that aspect that makes you special becomes the focus, only to be revealed that it’s either not really want you wanted, or you’re not actually the best at it, or that being so successful has gone to your head and poisoned your relationships with others.  It’s why I loved the Body Improvement Club so much.  They’re complete bros, and are super supportive.  Yeah, Shigeo passes out like every time.   But one time, he passes out a little later than he used to, and that’s a celebration.  You’re getting better.  You’re improving yourself.  The critical focus is on the idea that getting better as a person, and being well-rounded, is far more important than being “special.”  It’s Reigen’s first real teaching.  Take pride in what you can do, but don’t let it convince you you’re better than anyone.

The best bit for this was near the end of season 2, when Shigeo confronts the Claw underlings about what they’re destroying, and pressing “Could you make these things?  Can you do all the things that these people you claim are beneath you have done?  No one lives alone; everyone relies on the kindness of others.”  That’s honestly one of my favorite scenes in...anything?  It’s so strong.

But really, the biggest angle is just in that sense of Shigeo’s conflict always being with himself.  Don’t use your powers on others.  Don’t lose control.  Maintain.  And that’s important, but then to some degree he’s not honest with himself, and that repression manifests directly as the final conflict, as he loses control, something others have alluded to throughout the series.  It’s so good.

What that I want to talk about an aspect I was the most concerned about: Tsubomi.  She doesn’t get a ton of play.  Most of what we know of her is flashbacks, or other characters’ descriptions.  It makes her kinda hard to read, but the final episodes do handle this really, really well.  The first part of the final arc hammers in that Shigeo...doesn’t even entirely know why it is he likes her so much.  He comes to an answer, and it’s very sweet, but you realize that they haven’t interacted once.  It’s all memories, and nothing in the present moment.  So when they started teasing stuff like she’s thinking of cheering for him at the rally, it’s like oh, are they really setting up that this is reciprocal?  And I think the absolute best way to finish off the series?  Was the rejection.  There...really wasn’t a strong sense of romance there.  And Shigeo shouldn’t be with her just because he’s the protagonist, and we’re all rooting for him.  There’s more to it than that.  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that conclusion.

This...is absolutely one of my favorites.  This show is incredible.  Looking back, I can’t think of a single thing that really missed its mark.  Even in episodes where it can feel a bit slow, it trains you quick to understand, this is buildup.  And the payoff at the end is gonna be something incredible.

[marysunshine23]

Okay, lemme explain.

S Rank - Best of the Best

Magical Miracle Girl Usami - I. Love. Her. Like... I feel like if I were a magical girl, I’d be Usami. I want to cosplay her. I just... I love her so much.

Nagito Komaeda - I mean... He’s clearly neuro-divergent, he’s chronically ill, he’s basically chaotic neutral, and I’ve loved him almost as long as I’ve loved the series. What can I say?

Angie Yonaga- PRAISE BE TO ATUA. She’s a vibe. I want to be her friend.

Kokichi Oma - A perfect example of “I initially hated him with every fiber of my being, but then he did a thing and now I like him”.

Korekiyo Shinguji - Similar to Kokichi, but the incestuous thoughts kind of... eh...

A Rank - I love them, but...

Ibuki Mioda - They did her dirty, I swear.

Mikan Tsumiki - I may prefer more masc-presenting women, but I would date her.

Kotoko Utsugi - I will protect this brat for the rest of my life

Monophanie - I dunno. I just think she’s neat. You know… besides the incestuous stuff…

Monomi - Monokuma did her dirty. And… again… incestuous stuff…

Aoi Asahina - I love her relationship with Sakura! But I also feel like she was just… token big boobs girl…

Miu Iruma - I love the spin of having a super-perverted girl. But also kind of the token big boob girl.

Hajime Hinata - Of all the protags, he just seemed the most fleshed out. Also. Tig o’ bitties on a guy

Junko Enoshima - Fun design? Check. Interesting Personality? Check. Would wear similar clothes? Check.

Kaito Momota - I feel like we’d be best friends.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - He and Mondo are the best homo ship in the series fight me

Mondo Owada - He and Kiyotaka are the best homo ship in this series fight me

Rantaro Amami - He’s the midpoint between Nagito and Shun Kamiya from Tribe Nine and you can’t tell me he’s not

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu - Severely underrated. And he and Peko are the best canon relationship in the series fight me

Peko Pekoyama - At first I thought she was just meant to be a sexy Sakura, but I felt like she was super underestimated as a rival and a character. And she and Fuyuhiko are the best canon ship in the series fight me

Sonia Nevermind - First of all, her name. Secondly, I love that she was just… always 100% herself. Like… she was a princess into horror shit. I dig that.

Sayaka Maizono - I kinda wish she was in the series longer. I just really liked her.

Mahiru Koizumi - She’s the mom friend and I love it.

Kaede Akamatsu - I wanted her to be the protag, is that so much to ask?

Gundham Tanaka - He’s the type of person we all wish society would let us be; absolutely unhinged and in our own world.

Gonta Gokuhara - Best bean.

Chisa Yukizome - Ultimate Mom is best.

Monodam - I mean, he had everyone’s best interest at heart.

Ruruka Ando - Excuse me, she makes sweets and she’s cute.

Yuta Asahina - Good boi. Possible sister complex.

B Rank - I mean, they’re good, but…

Kirumi Tojo - I mostly like her because of her design and her execution.

Leon Kuwata - Not gonna lie, he was my first Danganronpa crush. Had I not read his Free Time events, I might have ranked him higher.

Maki Harukawa - At first I was thoroughly pissed off that she was the Ultimate Childcare Provider, but then her true identity came through and I liked her a lot more.

Chiaki Nanami - She’d be higher but I feel like the developers got tired part way through per backstory and just threw something together

Himiko Yumeno - She did the whole “too much effort” schtick for too long.

K1-B0 - Underrated.

Sakura Ogami - Great character overall, but I feel like her design was just… 100% shock value.

Shuichi Saihara - Like… I’d be fine if the game started with him being the protagonist, but I’m still kinda peeved that they just threw him in last minute.

Tenko Chabashira - I’m sorry, misandry is not a personality trait or a quirk and the joke got old quick.

Tsumugi Shirogane - I hate her and everything having to do with the ending of this series.

Toko Fukawa - Why are people cool with her but not Miss Piggy? At least Kermit is into what Miss Piggy does.

Genocider Jack/Jill - Yandere.

Jataro Kemuri - He’d be higher if it weren’t for his voice.

Hiroko Hagakure - 

Akane Owari - Token Big Boob Girl mixed with zero impulse control. But her and Nekomaru are cute together so…

Celestia Ludenberg - 

Chihiro Fujisaki - Let our friend be happy, okay?

Nekomaru Nidai - He made me tired.

Izuru Kamukura - He’s fine. He’s mostly here because he’s in Hajime’s body.

Masaru Daimon - I’ve worked with children like him. They’re fun!

Monosuke - I like the mobster penny pincher persona that he’s got going on.

Monotaro - I liked him for 90% of the game. But then the incest stuff happened and… yeah…

Shirokuma - I knew he was putting on a ruse from the beginning, but I enjoyed him

Taichi Fujisaki- WHAT A GOOD PARENT.

Kiyondo - I think I prefer them in separate bodies, but it’s a sweet sentiment and an… interesting way to cope.

C Rank - They’re Fine

In C Rank, if I don’t mention them by name, it’s just “they’re fine”.

Kyoka Kirigiri - I wish we knew more. Like… she seems very two dimensional

Mukuro Ikusaba - I’m glad we had some time with her in the anime… but it wasn’t enough. More please!

Haiji Towa - The only reason he isn’t lower is that he got his comeuppance

Koichi Kazakura - That’s blond Johnny Depp and you can’t say he’s not.

Monokuma - I actually threw him in C because I didn’t know where else to throw him. I actually don’t have a lot of feelings about him as a character.

D Rank - Either I hate them or I don’t know them

I’m only elaborating on some.

Teruteru Hanamura - Perverted characters that are just there to be perverted are annoying.

Monokid - I absolutely hate that he represents the percentage of people that shit in the shower. Like… I’m so glad he died first. I hate him so much.

[sagespirit-wc]

since i (finally) finished reading wind i thought id give some of my thoughts on it. might be whiny <3

spoilers probably beneath the thing - beware

overall i think it’s ok! (for warriors). it’s definitely getting more interesting from a plot perspective but im personally less invested than i was the first few books and i think it mostly has to do with nightheart and sunbeam. i like them okay and i do think they’re cute together - and it’s really nice to see a healthy romance front and center in warriors (looking at you bramblestar).

one of my biggest things - which isn’t necessarily a criticism of the books but more a personal thing - is that nightheart has become a bit boring since his character arc. i think it was relatively well done and i liked seeing him grow up a bit and grow closer with his clan and family, but he’s just so … meh now. i really liked what a spunky little shit he was at first, it was very fun to read. i wish we got more protags that aren’t viewed by the authors as perfect golden boys that can do no wrong - but now he might as well be one.

they’re getting better at handling squirrelstar - i remember being pretty pissed about how they just completed changed her character at first after she became leader (which happens too much imo) but i think we’re starting to see a little bit of her old self shine through. i especially loved her whole thing with sunbeam when she wanted to see her family. i didn’t want to see bland perfect thunderclan leader #4 i wanted to see squirrelflight as a leader. so hopefully they’re sticking with that.

on that note - this is old news i think but im glad they picked ivypool as deputy. i’m definitely biased (i adore her) but i think she’s a really interesting character and id love to see her get more spotlight again. (it also fuels my delusions that if we get ivystar we’ll maybe get twigbranch as deputy - ill never forgive the authors for abandoning her and violetshine). anyway i think there’s also a lot of interesting stuff that can be done with ivypool as deputy/ leader especially with dovewing in shadowclan. i know they won’t make her deputy too but imagine ?!!!??

it’s been said many many times but holy shit there’s too many damn cats now - especially in thunderclan. like jesus christ i can’t keep track of them all - i miss when there were like 10ish background characters with their own personalities and dialogue instead of the occasional one liner from whoever the fuck this guy is and nothing from cats that used to be protags/plot relevant (looking at you twigbranch. alderheart.)

i still adore frostpaw and i love how confident in herself she’s become. honestly i want more of her. the nightheart and sunbeam (especially) chapters dragged a bit for me. she probably had the same amount of screen time (page time?) as she did in previous books but it felt like less this time to me.

there’s just. not a lot going on. which is saying something for me cause i could read an encyclopedia’s worth of just fun character dialogue and no action - but we’re not getting much of either. it just feels a lot less charming than earlier books/series. it might just be me growing up but i just read avos for the first time this year and i ate that shit up. it feels a lot of the time like they’re just padding this shit out to meet the page count. like if you only need four books to tell this arc’s story you know you can do that right ???

like fr what happened in this book actually plot wise - splashtail is leader now. frostpaw is in shadowclan. berryheart and fam are rogues and hurt and sunbeam is worried about them. frostpaw is slowly convincing people she’s not a liar. she and puddleshine see splashtail being shady. frostpaw saves windclan(???) and then they spy on river clan some more and watch him kill harelight. maybe i’m being silly but it just - that’s not like. a story. but at least something happened i guess, like it’s moving along. i miss the park.

some little things that they would never do that would make things a little better (to me):

- frostpaw and whistlepaw. enough said. would fix all my qualms forever.

- give splashtail a personality?? he just seems like a very generic villain too similar to the others we’ve gotten. just a tigerstar/hawkfrost rehash. give him something new !! at least make him more charming and manipulative, dont just lead with the whole fear/intimidation thing again. he just comes off as brash and a bit stupid which is fine but not that exciting

- more mothwing??? like they’re hinting that mothwing is connecting the dots between this situation and hawkfrost but i want more !! give her the chance to right things this time! i wanna see her beat that little shit up!!! a lot of people think she’s going to be riverclan’s new leader and i wouldn’t be mad about that - i do love her - but i also think icewing would be a fun fresh choice

- shadowsight and frostpaw friendship. i mean come on!!!!

anyway i’m sure i could go on forever but that’ll do. sorry im sure that was extremely negative and ranty but no one’s gonna read this anyway!!!

[polandspringz]

If anyone cares about my Anime Awards votes here’s the messiest description of what I voted for so far (did not vote for film and eng VA yet; need to watch deer king this weekend + need to listen to the voice acting performances). And this was just copy pasted from a notepad so excuse the mess again:

aoty- spy x family; brought more ppl into anime + prompted most discussion

original- lycoris; out of the choices this is like, the only one deserving

charater design- ranking of kings; i try to avoid adaptions bc the character designs are just being translated BUT this is kind of a mp100 situation with how they adapted the character designs from the original art + the unique storybook style for the coloring of the characters

animation- ranking of kings; Not only did it have great action animation, they animated the sign language AND it was done by animators who WERE hard of hearing/deaf.

new series- Ya Boy Kongming!; This show was incredible, I'm so sorry but it was.

continuing- One Piece; The animation quality for the recent arc has been spectacular and so it has IMPROVED especially in the episode 1015 from this year.

opening- ranking of kings opening 2; JUST WATCH THE OPENING AND YOU UNDERSTAND. They got that 18 year old Vercreek on that shit I still can't believe they can do that level of animation at that age JESUS.

ending- Kaguya-sama; Listen I hated Kaguya sama and refused to watch it and then this ending happened and I was so hyperfixated on it that I binged the entire series and the emotions shown in the ending + the symbolism/them combining the myth of princess kaguya with a star wars esque fight was so cool

best score- Ya Boy Kongming; This is hard because it's like score so... instrumental? But Kongming was like a music anime with vocals and the rap battle fight was so good but also it had a lot of original songs.

Song- new genesis; Listen, Ado hit those notes

director- Spy x Family; BECAUSE THIS MAN SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVING CLOVERWORKS AFTER THE WONDER EGG DISASTER AND ALSO AT WIT NAVIGATING THEIR OWN CRUMBLING FINANCIAL SITUATION!!! Plus they did deviate from the manga at times and go above and beyond (see the castle episode)

Main chara- Bojji; You have a child prince who is deaf and everyone thinks they can talk shit about him in FRONT of him because they think he doesn't know what theyre saying but he CAN read lips and he defies death + saves his entire kingdom despite his lack of physical strength and learns to overcome many things and isn't "fixed" ever need I say more

Supporting- Kage from Ranking of Kings; ties into the above

Must protect- Kotaro; Anya can handle HERSELF. Kotaro literally was neglected and ate LEAVES he was starving so badly and has been forced to learn how to be independent despite being liek SIX YEARS OLD ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

action- Spy x Family; I didn't give them the animation vote so they're getting this since they excelled in action animation.

Comedy- Ya Boy Kongming; This is the only isekai that matters you've got a chinese war tactician reincarnated into present day and he just becomes a rising singer's manager and he does a fucking rap battle need I say more.

Drama- dance dance danseur; SO TORN because the ending of eighty six was so good for the episodes that DID come out in 2022 but its more Historic Drama? Fantasy Drama? Idk its a fictional war but Dance Dance Danseur deserves recognition too and Jumpei's journey and the conflict between him and the other two protags is staged like a ballet's story etc. etc.

Fantasy- ranking of kings; see everything ive already said

romance- call of the night; This series takes a really unique look on romance by basically having someone who is aromantic trying to fall in love with an asexual, romance repulsed vampire because to become a vampire you need to fall in love with one. And it explores the feelings (although it never outright uses the terms) of being ace well imo.

japanese va- Yor

[oshiawaseni]

The atypical shounen MC and his tsundere deuteragonist boyfriend

Izuku’s mental is cooked and one of my favourite gags in doujinshi is when someone, usually Kacchan, references his emotional instability. I’ll laugh and think “true sis” because I feel a kinship in that doujinka seeing it in him too. And then Izuku can also be a trigger happy cry baby and that’s not “normal” for shounen MCs. I adore Horikoshi for designing and fitting him outside the box of certified normal™ standards. Because that box is a trap. It’s a stereotypical, overused and tiring pitfall of shounen protags past. It does make you wonder, though… if Horikoshi isn’t afraid of making his MC completely susceptible to his emotions, what else isn’t he afraid of..?

Izuku presents as a high in “typically feminine” energies, incredibly giving, considerate, loving, sensitive, yet somehow still ambiguous teenager (none of us know for sure what he truly thinks or feels most of the time, as he is prone to keeping his innermost feelings tightly locked inside his chest, where they can’t be judged or rejected) and to round his personality off, his role was cast to a seiyuu who has a higher vocal register and the same beautiful soul, but Izuku can sometimes be emotionally volatile. I can’t think of any major shounens that have written their MC in this way. I think that is why we sometimes see people call bnha mid. Because just like the mha fandom dudebros who stan Izuku when he was at his worst because he was more of a Chad for them, I think these people simply don’t understand Izuku and his sensitivity to emotions he feels with his whole self, so they can’t relate to him well.

But that’s what makes him so unique and loveable to the rest of us - just as he represents quirklessness in the series, he is also a king of neurodiversity. His head’s got a screw or two loose, right? His thinking has always been out of whack and we know this to be true because the person who knows him best says it too and he doesn’t even know the other half of it.

Kacchan sees the boy who’s pushing himself too hard to prove his worth but from our perspective, Izuku also has breakdowns, ptsd, memory lapses and is losing his shit at the slightest slight to Kacchan. All of this is in contrast to Kacchan who used to be just as screwed up with his own lifelong misunderstandings and foul temperament, but has been slowly getting his act together, and while doing so, metaphorically grabbing Izuku by the hands, gently taking him along with him, to that same path of self-care that Kacchan also longs for him. So that they can live healthier lives together. Apologetically so, because Kacchan feels a lot of Izuku’s messed up thinking/behaviour is somewhat his fault. That simply by being in each other’s lives, their problems and feelings had become so tangled and twisted for years. So Kacchan has been desperately trying to unravel and blow away the garbage of it all and go back to how it should have been, had he taken that small, unassuming and kind hand 12, 13 years ago.

Their struggle and battle with feelings for each other is what makes the main bnha relationship so interesting and endearing. They say there’s a fine line between love and hate and they have both loved each other a lot and hated each other in between, but through it all, through every moment, in every interaction they have together, it is so clear to me and to all of us here rooting for them that they need and complete each other.

They are both for each other: the Ying to the other’s Yang, the quiet and understanding kindness to the fragile vulnerability, the heart on the other’s sleeve, the anchor of reason to the unreasonable and the personal hero who always saves them, again and again, without hesitation. Two complete opposites that eventually lost to their unshakeable magnetism, overcoming their messed up history together and subsequently revealing feelings that yield the angsty fine print of them both screaming out into the void:

 “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE MY SIDE!”

This kizuna-bound pair have gone through so much pain and misunderstanding, only to realise the life-or-death need and crazy, obsessive, passionate love for their “most closest” other half, and damn it, if they were never meant to become canon after all this slowburn buildup, I’m going to throw down with Kohei🥊😤… 😂

[dna-d2]

MY THOUGHTS ON RANKING OF KINGS

Alright so I gotta get this outta my system before my train of thought goes off a cliff, so here’s my thoughts on RANKING OF KINGS.

I just watched the first five episodes, and I’m not gonna say I was surprised, because I already expected this anime to be great, but the thing is that it’s AMAZING so far.

[Spoilers for Ranking of Kings ahead. If you haven’t watched it, DO IT because I PROMISE you won’t regret it. There’s only 5 episodes so far, it won’t take that long. DO IT]

Also goddamn this is about to be a long post, so buckle the fuckle in I guess.

TL;DR Ranking of Kings is GREAT and the characters are a major reason why

So to sum it up, Ranking of Kings is about a young prince named Boji, who is both deaf and mute. Because of this, as well as his small stature and physical weakness, people around him are constantly looking down on him and ridiculing him.

Or, you would THINK that, at least

Yes, there are a lot of people around him who belittle him on a daily basis, but it turns out that not everyone around him actually looks down on him.

Underestimate him? Absolutely. But it ends up not being as black and white as you would think, and THIS is what I think makes this anime great so far.

Almost right off the bat, we’re introduced to a bunch of characters who say things like “Oh he’s weak, he’s not fit to be king, etc.” One of whom is the Queen, his stepmother Hiling.

You immediately see this woman and think, “Oh, evil stepmother, here we go again.” And for a minute there, it seems like this is going to be the case, as she berates Boji and says that her own son is more fit to be king, and even altering her husband’s will after he names Boji king after his death. So it would make absolute sense to assume she’s gonna be a villain, right?

WRONG.

At one point, Boji got hurt pretty badly, and we a woman go to heal him, but we can’t actually tell who she is. And Kage (The little shadow thing) says something like “Oh man is she gonna hurt him?” But instead she heals him.

The literal thought in my head when I saw this was was “Wait is it the Queen? Nah, probably not, I don’t see why she would do that.” Only to later on be revealed that it was her and proven very wrong.

We find out relatively quickly that the Queen genuinely seems to love Boji, to the point where she ACTUALLY tried to dive out a window in an attempt to save him. We learn that her mindset isn’t that she doesn’t like Boji, but she doesn’t think he’s able to be King. She’s worried that the pressure would be too much for this small, weak boy who can’t even hear or talk. She isn’t looking down on him, at least not out of malice. She has genuine concern for him because she doesn’t see how he would be able to do anything challenging because of his weaknesses. But she still absolutely loves him.

And THIS is the best example of what I think is gonna be the real strength of this series.

GENUINE THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS.

So far, we haven’t gotten ONE SINGLE major character who is all this or all that, all good or all bad. We have characters who are legitimately doing what they think is right.

A Queen who is worried about her disabled son.

A knight who will follow any order, even if he regrets it immediately.

A new King, who wants the same power as his father, but not at the expense of his memory.

His knight and teacher, who knows his duties and will carry them out, even if it means going behind his king’s back, or if it results in his own (apparent) death. 

None of these characters are just a good or bad guy. They are people. And this is what carries a story like this to greatness.

And this is all of course ignoring the main character of the show and his new shadow best friend, Prince Boji and Kage.

Boji is one of the best and well executed hopeful protagonists I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a sucker for this type of protag, and he is a prime example of how to do it right. You immediately wanna see him succeed, just like Kage does. He’s the type of person who really can win people over to his side just by being who he is. (And it also helps that he happens to be absolutely fucking adorable) He has a real disability, and he has people around him constantly thinking he can’t be good enough because of it. And it hurts him. It really, really hurts him.

But he keeps on a brave face around them, and only really lets himself cry when he’s alone. Whether it’s because he doesn’t want to worry people, or because he has his own pride, I’m not actually sure at the moment. I could easily see it being one or the other, or even both.

And then KAGE, Boji’s best friend (because I said so) and number one backer. This little guy started out bullying Boji and straight-up stealing his clothes for cash. He almost immediately changes his tune when he sees that Boji is REALLY TRYING HIS FUCKING BEST, and immediately tells Boji that he’s always gonna be on his side, and that he is GREAT as he is right now. He’s the first person who ever really acknowledges Boji like this. And it’s of course as heartbreaking as it sounds. (Were I not dead inside, I surely would have cried)

To sum it up (since I have essentially rambled for an entire page at this point) Ranking of Kings is amazing, and the characters are only one part of it that makes it so amazing.

Believe me, I’m doing you a favor by not starting on about the animation. (THOUGH THE ANIMATION IS INCREDIBLE AND BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT’S SO EXPRESSIVE AND SMOOTH AND PRETTY)

So yeah, you should watch Ranking of Kings

Also I’ll probably have more thoughts on this later, and if I do, I’ll put links to them below or something, because I am NOT done with this series and what I have to say about it yet.

[animecreator3000]

About the Boueibu iceberg

@delphoxqueen asked me to explain about my list for the iceberg so here it is. I might update this from time to time with links and stuff if I stumble across the original posts. This is all from what I know so feel free to add new info. Also, spoiler warning for RobiHachi and the Boueibu manga and novels. (This is like a masterpost it’s very long)

1. There’s a theory in tumblr about which decade the series is set in, using data like the friday the 13th calendar in s2 ep11. In HK we got a second number for when the next monthly Pretty Boy Contest was happening and using the one from Love it was theorized that around a decade had passed since then, which ended up being true.

2. The stage play had a few original songs and characters exclusive to it so unless you watched the full performance, you probably weren’t able to witness all of them. One of the characters is called “Robato Deniro”, as romanized in the stage play booklet I own.

3. The nurse and the cafeteria staff from the s1 mobile game appear in the background in around the first half of s2 ep3.

4. S2 had an unfinished manga that was only available online and was never released on physical format; it was centered around the defense club and sometimes the conquest club and Beppu brothers. All that’s left from what I know are the scans linked on magicalgirlsandcerulean’s blog.

5. This isn’t that obscure because it’s talked about in the anime, but I’m mentioning it because I think many people dropped it before the ova, where right at the beginning it is revealed that the alien that resucitated Mr. Tawarayama twice was, as described by Io, a “mulberry-colored naked mole rat-looking thing”, and was nicknamed “Moley-san” by Yumoto. At least in the anime, we had never heard before of who this was and it never appeared on screen nor was mentioned again.

6. In HK ep8, Karurusu promises the knights to grant a wish if they show him how earthlings spend summer. Kyoutarou reveals at the end of the episode that he wished that summer lasted one more day so he could spend it doing nothing, which prompts Ichiro to theorize that it’s the 32nd of august, and the next day is the second 1st of september.

7. The stage play was was held from march 10th to 13rd, of which the latter is Ryuu’s birthday. There’s an additional recording of a small celebration with cake focused on Ryuu and Io.

8. Atsushi mentions his older sister in the flashback at the beginning of s1 ep4, but she never appears or is mentioned again.

9. There’s a few posts on tumblr theorizing about what happened to the Hakone parents since Yumoto only says in s2 ep3 that according to Gora, “they are busy with their hot springs tour”. En mentions that it’s a bit suspicious, but it’s all the information we have from the anime. Posts talk about the parents perhaps passing away from an accident or an illness, thus the reason why Gora was so worried about Yumoto’s cold in s1 ep10, but from another post I think it’s implied in the second novel that they actually left their home when Yumoto was still a toddler.

10. It’s no secret that the surnames of the characters are all real onsens in Japan that even the seiyuus have visited, but apparently the Arima onsen has two different kinds of water, “kinsen (gold hot spring)” and “ginsen (silver hot spring)”, with different properties each, and the Kusatsu onsen water also has certain properties, both that were used to build the characters. Additionally, Ryuu’s favorite food are Sato Nishiki cherries, which are grown in the same prefecture, Yamagata, as his onsen, Zaou.

11. The press club lose relevance after s1, with only Kinosaki and Tazawa reappearing briefly in s2 ep2 to interview the Beppu twins after they arrive at the school. Tazawa doesn’t even have lines. Hireashi is mentioned by Zundar in ep11.

12. What the heck

13. Exclusively in the manga we see that Arima met Kinshiro and Atsushi when they were little and they were good friends, but when they met again as adults, Kinshiro seemingly didn’t remember Arima. Atsushi, however, stated that Kinshiro’s talent is remembering people’s faces and names, so Arima wonders if he’s just trying to distance himself from him. He also explains to Akoya that he follows Kinshiro and obeys him because as a child, he was fascinated by his radiant smile. This is never talked about in the anime.

14. Like the previous point, the anime never shows Akoya being bullied, at most just a slight dislike of his full name, but the manga shows that he was made fun of for it and how he actually hates his surname, to the point of introducing himself formally to the president and vicepresident of the student council as “Holy Angel Akoya”.

15, 16, 17, 19. Batonama lives were the livestreams done through the franchise by the defense club seiyuus on youtube and niconico. They’re all on youtube, without any kind of translation.

Love-ko is a girl with a shell bikini drawn on a piece of cardboard that was used as a girlfriend in the Batonama Love! lives, acted by the seiyuus themselves.

RobiHachi has one episode full of official Boueibu artwork and a parody of the series too, a Love-ko doll appears, and Wombat appears as well, named “The Don”. It received an english dub, so for a bit, people were excited that Wombat was going to speak in english too. Also, various mechas appear in both Boueibu and RobiHachi.

18. The director of Fairy Ranmaru (Masakazu Hishida if I’m not wrong) revealed in an interview that he was inspired by Boueibu and aimed to make a show like that.

20, 21. The website super-groupies.com has results for defense and conquest club lingerie sets, dc and VEPPer tote bags, the Beppus’ scarf rings, dc bath sets and the pumps magicalgirlsandcerulean mentioned. I’ve found the s1 Loveracelets and Caerula Adamas’ ring on different sites, the True Loveracelets on TheChara’s twitter and the Happybraces (apparently called “Hapibure”) on broccoli.co.jp but I’m not sure where exactly they were all announced and sold, so I’ll just drop that.

22, 33. Boueibu was originally pretty much a copy of Sailor Moon, I think they were all going to be called “Lackluster Moon” and that stuff and be literally Sailor Moon genderbent. They were all different from color palettes to physical features (except Yumoto’s), and Ryuu was a shota, even smaller than Yumoto. Their names were also very reminiscent of the five Sailor Senshis’. Even if they made it more original, the show is still clearly inspired by Sailor Moon (just look at Caerula Adamas lol) and Pretty Cure. It has also referenced, very blatantly, animes like Doraemon, Detective Conan, Aikatsu and even Vocaloid, when Kyoutarou tries to guess what Karurusu is saying with ““Just Google It, Asshole”?” in ep1.

23. Wombat’s real name and the name of his planet sound like gibberish to the earthlings and ends up being named after the Earth animal, but Zundar, Dadacha, Karurusu and Furanui all have original names. And I think Hireashi means “goldfish”?

24. If you google “zundar technology”, it’s actually a company in Shanghai, China. Aren’t Wombat and Zundar always talking about “advanced alien technology”?

25. Zundar and Dadacha are siblings, so are Karurusu and Furanui, and so are their father King Kamopapa and their uncle minister Wao, but neither are the same species and, except the first two, not even the same color. But they are supposedly related because they share birthmarks or something like that...

26. Everyone who’s in this fandom knows about the pixel blur and voice pitch censor from s1, but I’ve added it anyway because it’s so rare for mahou shoujo and shounen animes to explain why the heroes aren’t recognized when transformed.

27. A good while of s2 ep11 is spent discussing Zundar’s ex-wife and his problems to give child support. Naturally, he gets mad at this.

28. “Money doesn’t betray” (s1 ep6) and “The despair hidden behind your smile that comes from not being understood” (s3 ep11) are sentences that came out of nowhere and implied that the people they were said by (Io) or about (Taiju) respectively had some kind of angst going on but were never explained at all. They’re famous for just that.

29. The Beppu twins’ house in Andromeda shown in flashbacks had strange green circles that apparently are from another anime I don’t know but honestly I didn’t get it very well... It was revealed on a tweet from Takamatsu.

30. Alien language mostly appeared in s2 due to the many flashbacks of Aki and Haru in Andromeda, but in Boueibu s1, it appears on the Zundar Needle before it is shot on the human. It appears a lot through RobiHachi as well, due to being a story about travelling through space. There might be an alphabetical chart somewhere, but I can’t assure it exists, I might even have dreamed it.

31. Hikaru Midorikawa as the melon monster, Kousuke Toriumi as the bishounen monster, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the kotatsu and panda monsters and Takuya Eguchi as the remote controller monster in s1 and 2, before going on to voice the main cast in HK. Keisuke Koumoto voiced Hatchi Kita in RobiHachi as well as Akihiko in Boueibu, and the characters look similar.

A new addition is that so far Boueibu is the only anime I’ve seen where children weren’t voiced by female seiyuus, but by actual children. Personally, it’s charming and makes it so much more realistic, specifically since no women appear in the franchise at all either (not counting Protag-chan in the game).

32. Speaking of seiyuus, Can I Destroy The Earth? had a dub shown in ep11/12 (?) that made Gora the villain that wanted Earth to stay the same and not progress, against the monsters that supposedly wanted to bring good things to earthlings. Aki and Haru quickly dismissed this dub as fake. (I made a mistake in the title in the previous post btw)

34. As seen in the glossary in the Boueibu Mook (I think, but might not be the mook), Caerula Adamas’ speeches are based on an old japanese detergent commercial that went “Gold, silver, pearl, gift”.

35. In the manga there’s a short parody of the first chapter of Sailor Moon with “Pretty Boy Guardian Gakuran Akoya”. The conquest club manga was released before the anime, so I remember reading somewhere that a fake website appeared for the Gakuran Akoya manga, before turning into the conquest club manga website in the day of its release.

36. Cgi was used a few times in the anime: s2 ep10 for a short sequence of the defense club on a rollercoaster and the carousel monster, ep11 for a cenital shot of the Battle Lovers singing, and HK ep12 for the Honyalaland soldiers and the Wao mecha.

37. The toothbrush incident in s1 ep7. (It’s definitely well-known but it’s so weird lol)

38. “We hope we can see each other again someday!” Something along those lines was the last text to appear in the last episode of HK, implying a s2. We all know how that went.

[characteroulette]

okay okay okay okay

now that I’ve finished DGS1 and can think of nothing else, let me elabourate on what I’ve been ranting about to Verse and my sister (thanks for putting up with me hahaha)

(spoilers for all of DGS1 by the by we going HARD)

So the overarching theme of DGS1 is Trust. How it’s built up, who deserves it, how to extend your hand to those who may not deserve it, and how to build it back up when it’s been broken. Each case builds on this as Ryuunosuke goes on his journey and I think it’s handled really, really well

Case 1, Asougi teaches you the basics of Trust. He tells you that he will trust you and follow you until the end. Twice, right at the beginning of the trial, he tells you that your actions are betraying his trust, even though Ryuunosuke thinks he’s doing it to spare his friend the pain.

(like, seriously, Asougi pretty much says “How sad. You don’t trust that I actually believe in you.” and then “You would throw that trust right back in my face by just accepting a Guilty verdict, huh?” it’s really explicit) (which is probs the only reason why I noticed it hahaha)

But as the trial goes on, Asougi’s unwavering belief in Ryuunosuke helps our protag boy believe in himself. And he trusts Asougi easily due to their close friendship, but you see the shift from “there’s no way I’m gonna be able to prove my innocence” to “I can’t do anything except prove my innocence” as the trial goes on, just because Asougi never stops believing in Ryuunosuke.

And then Case 2 hits and you have to learn to trust others who might seem like enemies at first. This chapter’s mostly for Susato’s growth, because she starts off absolutely not trusting you, but as you hang out and investigate together she just naturally slots into your little sister role and, before she even realises it, she’s trusting Ryuunosuke and working hard to help him prove his innocence. She admits in the end that she should never have doubted you, but you can tell this experience made a deep impression on her, as her trust in Ryuunosuke never wavers and I think that’s beautiful. ;w;

Next is Hosonaga! An odd addition, but he places his trust in Ryuunosuke pretty immediately and easily, showing just how much of an impact Asougi and Ryuunosuke’s relationship made on him during Case 1. The fact that he places any trust in Ryuunosuke at all is enough to bolster Ryuunosuke’s resolve, since Ryuunosuke needed to not be so alone while grieving for his best friend’s death on top of having to prove his innocence. (The whole of DGS1 handles grief really well, I think also, but that’s another essay I’ll have to write.)

And then the disaster man himself, Sherlock. (/Herlock) He’s the reason why Ryuunosuke’s been arrested again and it’s very, very hard to trust this man. I think they did a really good job of making his personality abrasive enough to be just exasperating enough that you can’t take him seriously, but also for you to feel fondness towards his dumb ass. (The perfect AA balance, honestly.) Sherlock is a hard nut to crack, appearing as if he never truly suspected you of any wrongdoing to begin with (it’s his whimsical nature that does it), but you really get a sense of how easily he builds up a rapport with Ryuunosuke from their first whole conversation.

Once you engage in your first Dance of Deduction with Sherlock, that’s it. You’re his friend now. And he basically is just treating you as such from then on, no hesitations on letting you out of your shackles and mischievously putting you right back in them once you’ve finished. Sherlock has seen your character and trusts you, even if he won’t say so outright.

(That one line really hits me, where he basically admits that he was treating this as a game and not fully realising how deeply the whole event has hit Ryuunosuke and Susato. Asougi was their friend, and his admitting that all of his mischief and jokes weren’t ever quite appropriate, given the circumstances, is touching and the actual moment, I think, where Ryuunosuke starts placing his trust in Sherlock in return.)

Case 3 is the big one. Ryuunosuke is sent to defend a man whom he’s not even sure is innocent. The trial goes along and you, the player, can do nothing even if you know what’s really happening. All you can do is trust that Ryuunosuke can handle things and it’s a huge, HUGE step for them to take to have your client mislead you like this. And so successfully!

But the damage is done and Ryuunosuke’s trust in his resolve, his friend’s belief, is broken. Not shattered, thankfully, but broken enough to make Ryuunosuke hesitant to place his trust in anyone again.

Unfortunately, Case 4 comes barrelling out the gate and you’re called upon to place your trust in someone yet again. Ryuunosuke is clearly not ready for it, his narration makes it clear, but you as the player ask Ryuunosuke to trust in you. He goes along and investigates despite being unsure, which as Susato points out (I think it was Susato), he’d made his mind up long before actually taking on the case.

This is also! Where we get to see that, despite all the airs and pretences Barok van Zieks puts on, he’s willing to place more trust in Ryuunosuke than he rightly should. Once Ryuunosuke has the truth in his sights, Van Zieks allows him to continue on his fancies. Van Zieks willingly engages him in discussions and helps iron out all the logic along the way. And though Ryuunosuke doesn’t realise it fully himself, he also starts to trust Van Zieks in return, thinking of him not as an opponent so much as a colleague. Maybe even a friend.

(All I can say is that it’s 1-3 Edgeworth all over again and I LIVE for this shit owo)

Since the truth is secured, along with your client’s innocence, Ryuunosuke’s willingness to trust has been mended somewhat. So we next turn to our client of Case 5, who needs to learn the same lesson after similar events have broken her ability to trust. Gina makes for an interesting parallel to Ryuunosuke in this regard, since they experience a whole slew of terrible events that test their ability to trust. The difference is simply that Ryuunosuke was willing to have friends, to keep trusting others, whereas Gina refused to have friends or place any trust in others even though she desperately wanted to.

That conversation she, Susato, and Ryuunosuke have about it at her cell is really good. The one they have during their night together at Sherlock’s attic is great, too! Iris admitting that she does have her own doubts and Gina, through no benefit of her own, going to confirm on Iris’ behalf because maybe this Sherlock person could be trustworthy after all. Ryuunosuke admitting that he had doubts about Asougi’s trust in him, but as the trial progressed, finding that it was an unwavering belief that Asougi placed in him and how it stopped even being a question in his mind.

Because, to place your trust in someone else, you must first trust yourself.

(shit I forgot to mention) This is a big breaking point for Susato, too! Because she loses her trust in the Law after both Case 3 and Case 4. She’s seen what the London courts will do and realises that, if others are going to play dirty, then it might be better to engage right back. But her unwavering faith in Ryuunosuke helps her realise that what she’s done is wrong and, though her faith in the legal system has taken a big hit, she knows that Ryuunosuke won’t give up the fight. Ryuunosuke will do everything he can to help his clients and she believes in him whole-heartedly.

And Van Zieks sees this, too! He sees this fierce dragon before him, fighting even the government of Britain to protect his client, and thinks to himself, “This is exactly what our system has been needing.” And he joins in the fight! The police hold no authority in the courts; to Van Zieks, it is just him and Ryuunosuke, figuring out the whole truth, no matter how painful it may be.

And Ryuunosuke takes this trust with him all the way through, even getting his permission to participate in trials revoked in order to save Gina.

And that’s why Ryuunosuke is probably the greatest lawyer next to Apollo in the whole series thanks for coming to my essay talk

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 49: The God Of Evil Descends, Millenniumon (Review)

Thoughts on the forty-ninth episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

This was a pretty decent build-up episode.

The white foamy blob thing (WIP Kimeramon) is hideous. :D

Yamato: “Gabumon. Can you fight? Koushirou! Sora! Let’s go . . . stop them! You guys stay here to protect Patamon and Tailmon until they recover. Got it?” I love Yamato taking charge. In fact, reboot Yamato is just as competent a leader as reboot Taichi . . . which begs the question: WHY IS TAICHI THE LEADER? XD; (No, seriously, there is really nothing distinct about Taichi’s “leadership” in the reboot compared to the OG . . . he’s just the leader because he’s the main protag. That’s it.) But . . . we finally got Yamato uttering Sora’s name! uwu

MetalGarurumon “flying” looks so lame and hilarious, lol.

Wow, Hikari can actually emote! :o She definitely seems the most human she’s ever been in this series. I like!

I admit I laughed when Gomamon fell. :P But aww, Gomamon wanting to fight. <3

Komondomon trying to cheer the kids up with flowers was cute. I guess he isn’t completely useless/just transport. :P

Mimi comforting Hikari was A+ material. She is 100% the best character in the reboot - anyone who disagrees is just extremely biased. :P

Mimi: “Taichi-san sure smiles a lot. I like it when Taichi-san smiles. My grandpa usually has a stern face, but his smiles are just lovely too. Maybe I like people who smile.” Yo . . . we got any Michi fans up in here!? XD I liked Michi in the OG too. :3

The quick Taichi/Hikari flashback scenes were super cute - but it’s amazing that they did more for this particular sibling relationship than most of their shared screentime together so far. XD; 

MetalGarurumon v. Griffomon was fleeting and a non-event, but it was cool to see MGMon’s Grace Cross Freezer attack. :D

Millenniumon is freakin’ HUGE. Now that’s a big boi. :o

And WarGreymon returns! After one episode. XD; Can’t say I didn’t expect that . . . having the main protagonist “die” is pretty traumatising for little kids, so best to have him return ASAP. But I still wish it had been for a few more episodes. :P

But I hope Taichi doesn’t defeat Millenniumon on his own . . .

I loved the emotional beats of the episode. The kids’ interactions - especially the Mimi stuff - elevated it, because without them I would’ve just thought it was ho-hum. I liked seeing Jou and Mimi support Hikari - it was one of the few times I actually felt like the kids were friends and actually cared about one another.

I wonder how long the series can stretch the Millenniumon battle out for . . .

[charmspoint]

how was it ^-^

Let's seee. It was good, perfectly enjoyable, it reads fast and i was never really bored with it. I'd give most chapters like a 7/10 and then chapters 71-82 like 8 or 9/10 and then back to like 7/10 and the ending was weird but also kinda sweet in its own way.

Now to preface anything else: This isn't my type of manga. I can easily see it being a 10/10 for someone who really likes fight scenes and death and gore and what not. I'm not really into that, I'm a character and story driven person which is why the manga as a whole scored as just goodish to me while chapters 71-82 which kinda make a lot of emotional and psychological aspects of the chapters before them come to culmination scored a lot better. You know I don't GET fights. Chainsaw man was very gory but I didn't even really register it. Like because of all the gore I feel I heard people say it has horror aspects but I never really felt scared or off put or anything. It was just kinda like 'oh a lot of people are in pieces rn, okay, that's a thing that's happening'. So yeah that's why the score is the way it is, it simply isn't a manga that focuses on things I like and that's perfectly alright. I couldn't buy into the hype like I did with jjk and I certently didn't feel 'oh this is the best thing ever' like I felt with witch hat atelier.

With all that out of the way let me talk long and hard about Denji and sexual aspects of the series in a surprisingly positive light:

I like Denji as a character. I think he's still a bit rough around the edges but he's not a character made for introspection so that's fine, you really kinda have to take what he says and how he acts and think about it because the author won't do it for you. That being said, I think Denji is probably the most compelling shonen protagonist I've read so far. Like when I read bnha or jjk I see Izuku and Yuji and I'm like 'this is a shonen protagonist'. They are a likable character but they won't be your favorite character. They are largely made for japanese high school boys to project themselves on and I'm not a japanese high school boy. That being said, Denji feels like a character of his own and not something meant to be projected on to. Honestly if anyone projected on to Denji I'd be worried about them. But that makes him probably the most compelling shonen protagonist I've ever read. You just wanna dig a shovel into his skull and go 'man kid ur fucked up'.

I know when you first read csm you were off put by Denji because it felt like a manga put a pervert character as a protag which is naturally off putting and I can 100% see that. Now be it because I was warned about it first or something else, I didn't actually find fanservice jarring at all. It kinda was integrated into the world in a way that made me think 'yeah of course it's like this'. This is a very grim and rough and drty world and things in it would be just like that. It is a story about base desires and sex is one of those. These are people who expect they will die any day now and Denji is a person who's just now getting to experience a somewhat decent standard of living. Here's a thing I noticed though: even as Denji thinks many sexual things (which, he's a teenager, that's normal) he's actually very respectful. I don't think I've ever seen him touch anyone without their permission, in fact i think things like that mostly happen to him. Like example how Power comes in just as Denji is in the middle of his 'i wanna touch some boobs' phase. You would almost expect that what happens next is we see him try to grope Power as she's sleeping or something. But no, he doesn't do a thing until she asks him to help her save her cat and he gets to touch her boobs for it. And it's like this with p much every other sexual encounter through the series. Both partners are consenting and getting something out of the whole thing. Sexual aspects are used as normal bartering chips in a world where your whole body is a bartering chip. It's normal and no one is forced into it. I've told you before that my biggest misgiving with fanservice is that it's often based on embarrassment and unwilling participation of the girls. Like fanservice isn't fanservice because you saw a boob it's fanservice because you saw a boob when you weren't supposed to, when the girl didn't want you, when she's angry or scared or embarrassed because you did. A lot of fanservice feels very much like taking something from the girl, debasing and humiliating her for the sake of watchers/readers satisfaction.

Despite all it's sexual jokes and themes and everything else Chainsaw man never once made me feel like that. It never once made me feel like the author expected me to gain sexual satisfaction out of debasement of female cast. Which is why even though boobs and naked women are literally all over the manga I didn't mind it at all. It stopped being fanservice and became just a natural part of characters lives as sexuality and sex is a natural part of real world.

Back to Denji.

So I mussed a bit about Denji and Maslow before but here it is in total

Denji is 16 years old and at the beginning of the series he's just starting to have his physiological and safety needs met. Like he doesn't live like a human being at the start of the series and Makima recruiting him is A BIG CHANGE for him. Like for a good while Denji is like 'Now I have three meals a day and a place to sleep at so I'm good with whatever'. He's given reliable sources to fulfil his needs and he's given a way to keep those sources stable. He has a job, it's not a good job but he has it. He has a place to live and a theoretical safety net. He's immortal so there's nothing to fear in the death and injury department which means the otherwise unsafe job is perfectly fine for him. Now what Denji gets stuck on through most of the series is Love and Belonging. Because you can't just give someone love like you can give them food (not that Makima doesn't try). People are more complicated. Compromises need to be made and human connections are hard to establish, especially if you are someone like Denji who has no idea how to interact with others aside from obeying orders. This is why his need for love and belonging first manifests as a sexual need (that and he's an allo teenager). Human connections are hard but sexual contact doesn't have to come tied with connections so it's easier (if unsatisfactory as Denji finds out with Power) to achieve. A lot of Denji's personal growth is tied to him finding out that this need can be fulfilled by other things alongside sex. This is why I love chapters 71-82 so much because they are really a culmination of Denji's emotional journey in that category. Along the way along with sexual love he finds romantic one. He wants to spend time with girls he likes, he wants them to like him beyond the sexual. Of course sexuality is always an aspect of it but after that scene with Power it's never the only thing. Human connection, understanding the other person, knowing them, loving them, making them happy. And it all culminates in the familial love he finds with Aki and Power, taking care of someone and being taken care of for no other reason than they are your family and you love them, you care for them, you want them to be well and happy. There's this scene with Power later on when they are taking a bath together and Denji is like 'huh we are both naked but it doesn't feel naughty at all'. He's stopped seeing Power sexually because he started to see her as his sister and it's just really nice, those few chapters we get to see them as a family are really nice.

By the end of the series Denji starts checking off the esteem box too, by people accepting him and loving him and him feeling like he wants to respond to that, but I feel like that aspect and possible self actualization will be more explored in part 2.

There you have it, my essay about why Denji is the most compelling Shonen protagonist I've ever read :)

Also I really liked the girls in this series, it really isn't afraid of letting it's female characters be weird and gross and in Makima's case just plain evil and I appreciate it for that. I just wish Quanxi got more time and things to do but she's a side character and it's not her fault she's cooler than the whole main cast (Power best girl tho).

I feel like I talked a lot already about what was my most important take away from the whole thing but yeah, in general: pretty entertaining read, would probably be a complete blast for someone who's invested in fights, a little thin on psychology and emotion for my tastes but when it delivers them it delivers them good.

Also I like how it basically ended on 'you should give people more hugs' it was cute

Additionally I think the authors idea to basically release manga in seasons like you would an anime is straight up genius I hope that more mangakas start picking this up because it allows them more rest in between big arcs.

Ok now that's it for real this time.

[foryoumyheroes]

Their S/O takes them to an Asian House Party

[Midoriya + Todoroki + Bakugou + Kaminari + Kirishima] 

A/N:  Hey here’s a niche that no one asked for. 

I know that Japanese is a type of Asian but I am a wildly different type of Asian 🤣🤣, so my headcanons are based entirely off of being this other racial group. 

I just want to say that most of the time older Asian relatives really step out of line with their comments and can be really hurtful. I absolutely hate that behavior and their mindset, but for the purposes of this let’s just say that they’re not being harmful at all and it’s mostly light teasing :) If they’re like that in real life :) screw them >:) Also P.S. if these sound familiar it’s because I’ve recycled a lot of ideas from my other blog where I wrote “Asian House Party” headcanons already! 

Warnings: mentions of alcohol, hints at underage drinking  

Midoriya Izuku: 

For the longest time it has only been him and his mom, so when he enters the house and sees it packed with people his brain just goes blank because this is a family party. 

These people are all related to you somehow?? 

He asks you how you guys are all related and you’re genuinely like, “I don’t know???” You just call everyone auntie and uncle and hope for the best.  

If you start taking him to parties before he becomes a Pro, he has enough of a baby face that your older relatives and grandparents give him a red envelope without thinking too hard about it. But he gets so embarrassed and feels so bad that he ends up giving it to your mom. 

At his first party he’s supperrr nervous and wants your family to like him. He’s stuttering nearly every other syllable. 

Never leaves your side. Trails behind you like a puppy the entire time. 

After he’s been to several parties with your family, they recognize his red Nike Air Forces in the pile of shoes outside the house enough to be like, “Hey, [Name]! Your boyfriend’s here!” 

Midoriya is kinda of a pushover during the beginning of the series, and Asian families have the tendency to tease without knowing how it might sound, so he becomes an easy target until you pull him aside and tell him to argue back. 

He’s like noooo I don’t want to be disrespectful :(. He says that he’s used to bullying so this is nothing which makes you kinda sad and angry. You’re like hahahaha no. 

You two eventually get your family to stop and that’s when he’s finally indoctrinated into your fam. 

He’s kind of the quintessential Asian boyfriend? He goes to a good school, is sweet and innocent, polite to elders, etc. When he goes to the party with you your aunties are going to your cousins and say, “Why can’t you get a boyfriend like [Name].” 

Your female relatives kinda baby him because every time they see him he’s always in a new cast with another broken bone, so when there’s no more space left on the couches or the folding stools they kick your cousins off to make room for him. 

When he later becomes Pro-Hero Deku, everyone’s in love with him. He becomes the talk of the party. Everyone brags about him saying that they practically saw him grow up when they only see him once or twice a year. 

He also becomes the “cool uncle” that offers to take your younger relatives out for boba. But you pay. You have to pay or else your mom will yell at you for making the guest spend money. 

Yes, you will polite fight your own boyfriend. 

No, he will not win, but he’s determined to win one time like the shonen protag he is. 

Always leaves the party with the large trays of leftovers for him and his mom. 

Even when he’s like in his late twenties he’s still sitting at the kid’s table. 

Todoroki Shouto: 

When you first invited him to a party with your family he’s just like, “Oh. Sure.” Most of the parties he’s been to is the rich people parties that his dad took him to for publicity, so he arrives to the house in a whole suit and tie. 

Your cousins and uncles are clowning him while the older women swoon. You’re in the background panicking because everyone else is in sweats or shorts while he looks like he’s going to prom?? 

[Your auntie says, “Oh my god, he’s making such a good first impression!” 

You: Hahahaha! Yea!〔´∇｀〕

Inner You: Oh god I forgot he’s clueless ⊙▽⊙] 

Brings an expensive pastry every time because Fuyumi said it was polite. From that everyone’s like, “Oh??? You’re invited to every party from now on!” 

Becomes the source of your mom’s humble brag. “Oh, your son goes to Stanford and is studying medicine? My kid and their boyfriend are both Heroes-in-training and he’s the son of the Number One Hero — “ 

Kinda just does whatever your aunties and mom tells him to do? 

He’ll sit wherever they tell him to sit, even if it’s far away from you and he’ll even take the many family photos for you guys in the end. Even though he’s shit at photography. 

If they’re like, “Oh, you’re so skinny, you should eat some more!” He’ll just shrug and be like okay, and doesn’t stop them when they continue to put food on his plate even though he’s full and gets into a big food coma that knocks him out on the couch right away. 

Every time he appears, your aunties will just stop and say, “Oh, he’s so handsome!” 

He’s getting better at handling kids and it shows by the way he’s more willing to play with them then hang out with your cousins that are around your age. He’s in the room upstairs and is ;; just napping with them.   

The kids in the party call him Zuko.  

Before you brought him your aunts and uncles would be like, “Do you have a boyfriend?? Do you have a girlfriend??” and you would say, “Yeah, Todoroki Shouto.” And they would laugh in your face. 

NO ONE BELIEVED THAT HE WAS YOUR BOYFRIEND UNTIL YOU BROUGHT PROOF!! HERE HE IS !! IN THE FLESH!! 

I feel like he would have the most culture shock? You guys conduct yourself in such a different way than his own family and from everyone in 1-A. You guys go batshit insane. 

When you wake him up and offer to walk him to the train station to take him home, he offers to walk you back to your house as well and you say, “Oh, I’m going back to the party after this.” 

It’s almost midnight?? 

He asks you where are you going to sleep or if you’re going to sleep at all and you don’t know how to explain the concept of how you and all of your cousins and siblings are going to cram into one room upstairs and sleep on every blanket in the house on the floor while only three or four lucky relatives are able to get the bed. 

Older Asians have no filter so they will straight up say to his face that he looks nothing like his dad he’ll just go, “ :’) Thank you, that means a lot to me.” 

Before Endeavor’s redemption arc he’s prone to oversharing and one day he tells your mom that his dad is a piece of shit and his mom is in the hospital. 

Your mom, taking her sandal and holding it like a weapon: Oh? Where’s your father?? I just want to talk. Your mom is welcome to every [Surname] party from now on!! Haha! (◕ᴗ◕✿)

His brain is doing backflips trying to figure out how you’re related to everyone. 

The only guy that neatly puts his shoes off to the side at the front door. 

Bakugou Katsuki: 

At first you didn’t invite him to the party, he kinda just figures it out from how your relatives are all tagging you on social media and forces you to invite him. 

Not because you’re ashamed of him but because they’re somewhat overbearing ;; and Bakugou has no filter. 

For someone who’s so “badass” he’s super anal about the rules and punctuality. 

You tell him the party is at 18:00 and by 17:45 he goes into your house and finds you still napping with your PJs on. Even though you tell him that the party isn’t really starting at six he doesn’t listen. He forces you to get dressed and takes you to the party and whatdoyouknow no one is there yet. No one is going to be here until at least two hours after the designated time. 

He instead forces you to help the women in the kitchen prepare the food, aka he’s helping while you laze around in the living room. 

All of the women are like, “Wow! You can cook so well! [Name] you should be more like him!!” 

If this is the first time he meets your entire extended family, he’s inwardly hyping himself up to make a good first impression. If you are not Japanese, he manages to memorize several greetings in your language and the proper formalities when greeting an older relative. Then he goes in and everyone’s already drinking and screaming their throats out to karaoke. 

When he walks into the party with his black tank top and saggy pants everyone’s first thought is that he’s an Asian Baby Boy. Like he probably takes social media pictures in front of cars, is going to break your heart, goes to raves, is named Kevin Nguyen. 

Everyone is loud af at this party so they don’t really care that he’s screaming. They love teasing the shit out of him because his reactions are so fucking funny. 

When one of your uncles offers you alcohol he immediately snatches it away from you. No, you guys are underage, have an athletic lifestyle, and he’s so protective of you asdfg 

He’s been so focused on being a Hero that when your cousins play against him in video games or card games he loses horribly. He’ll just keep going, “One more round!” until he finally wins. 

Your mom forces you to do a convenience store run to get something that the party is running out of and when you come back Bakugou managed to find is way into the “women” side of the room where they’re all gossiping with him and playing poker together like they’ve been friends forever. 

Your mom honest-to-god acts like he’s more of her child than you are. 

When you guys finally get your families to meet, his mom and your female relatives are going to be so powerful together. 

Is trying his damned hardest to get through the entire party because it can go all night long and he sleeps at 8:30PM. 

Kaminari Denki: 

The KING of the Asian House Party.

Absolutely CRUSHES it at karaoke with your family. Even though he might not speak your language, he’s putting so much passion into it that no one cares anyway. 

Sings so loud that the neighbors complain. 

Your family loves him because he’s just so happy-go-lucky. The life of the party. 

He goes around eating all night and continually asks you, “Hey [Name], what’s this? What’s this one?” 

You can drop him off in the designated kids room and not see him for hours on end. He’s too busy playing video games with your cousins and siblings. 

But he’s such a sucker. Your uncles and older cousins pull him into any gambling game and he loses so bad, even if he’s gambling things like candy or food. 

Kinda gullible when your family teases him?? If you’re not Japanese they teach him an insult in your language but tell him it’s a complement or “It’s like saying, I love you more than words,” and they send him off to tell you it. 

And he acts super fucking cocky like the e-boy smirk while he’s rubbing his hands together, and biting his lip and shit. While you’re just sitting on the stool with a drink in your hand like, “Okay....” 

He tells you the insult and butchers the pronunciation already, but acts like you’re about to fall in his arms and you just ;; burst out laughing ;;; until you fall off your chair. 

Has the party time down pat. He won’t arrive until three hours later, and that’s when you tell him an earlier time than everyone else. 

Will drink anything your uncle offers up. He’s a lightweight. You end up half-carrying him half-dragging him back to his house. Nearly trips on the sea of shoes outside the front door and falls on you. 

You’re just lucky that he doesn’t discharge his Quirk randomly when he’s drunk.

Doesn’t get Asian glow.  

When your mom discovers you struggling outside she just tells him to sleep over and if this is his first party with you guys, you’re able to get the bed because he’s the guest 😌😌. If he’s been here several times before, yeah ;; you guys are going back to a pile of blankets on the floor.  

Kirishima Eijirou: 

The “big brother” figure of the party. 

The kids love him and he’s willingly playing “Heroes and Villains” with them for hours. 

Since he’s so broad they hang off of him like a limpet and he walks around with children draped around him. 

Ngl... He walks into the party dressed like all of your other male cousins. 

Basketball shorts, t-shirt, crew socks. 

He’s able to find his shoes super fast at the end of the party because he’s the only person that’s willing to wear crocs. 

Willing to go outside with your cousins to play basketball with them but he’s so out of practice that he fumbles so bad. 

After several games he gets the hang of it and isn’t deadweight to your team anymore. 

LOVES going to your family’s parties because he gets to eat whatever he wants without holding back. Eats several plates and when someone suggests going to get ice cream he’s like, /gasp/ “Ice cream???” 

They were offering the little kids, but okay, a teenager can come along too. 

You’re never too old for ice cream. 

For some reason he’s able to get along with everyone at the party?? He just has a personality that makes him easy to talk to, and by the end of the night or the next day, he’s saying goodbye to everyone by name. 

[“No, wait, [Name], I haven’t said goodbye to your cousin’s sister-in-law’s daughter yet. 

You do a double-take because even you have no idea who that is.] 

When he gets a little bit older and he’s finally allowed to move out of the kid’s table and eat with the older male relatives he’s so ;;; awkward. 

They’re just all in the garage eating, drinking, and smoking and he’s just sitting there having no idea what to do. 

Eventually he convinces you to join him in the garage because he wants your emotional support and is super shocked when you fit right in. He’ll just ;;; go back to the kid’s table. 

Can’t sing to save his life. 

You guys heard him do karaoke once and you never let him do it again. 

If one of your relatives teases him he’s able to laugh it off and not think too much about it, but if they say something that might be hurtful to you he’s so quick to shut it down. He doesn’t care that they’re blood related to you or not. 

Does not let up until they apologize. 

For some reason all of the ladies are confused af when they find out that he dyed his hair?? They’re like omg is he a secret delinquent. 

LOVES to hear your relatives talk about what you were like when you were a kid. 

It’s embarrassing af but he just laughs it off like, “It’s okay, babe! You sound like you were super cute as a kid!” 

[king-maven-calore]

Odd question no. 16, who are your top 5 fave Red Queen characters and which part of the series/books did you start to like them.

You know anon, your questions aren’t odd at all 😊 but I’m guessing this is your signature at this point. Here you go! (it got a little long, sorry)

5-Farley: She grew on me tbh, there wasn’t a point in particular that made me feel like wow now I stan her. Nah, I just thought she was badass, smart (also she got that short haircut at some point that I totally fell in love with 🥵) ) and I liked how idealistic she is. She is the female version of one of my favorite characters in all of literature, Enjorlas from Les Miserables. (Except her revolution did work 🤧 )

4-Evangeline: I fell in love with her the moment she shows up at Queenstrial clad in leather and spikes and smirks like she owns the place. 10/10 stole my heart and kept stealing it every time she opened her mouth (except when she screams “he was supposed to be mine” about Cal in the Bowl of Bones yikes) I was praying to the literature gods that she would be a lesbian and they answered. When she said fuck the war, I’m going to Montfort with my GF to sip piñas Coladas? Absolute legend behavior. Unparalleled.

3-Mare: She started to grow on me when she decided to go through with the shooting and again in Glass Sword when she straight up maims those prison guards despite Cal asking her not to do it. Not her best moments for a lot of people, but for me, this is exactly the kind of behavior you can expect from a girl who has been oppressed and starved all of her life and has seen the torture inflicted upon her people. White people tend to have this high and mighty rhetoric about how oppressed people should react to shit, how they should be the better person. FUCK that. I’ve seen it play out a thousand times on TV and in books. Characters of color and especially women aren’t allowed to be raging, teeth bared, screaming and kicking angry about anything, or they are called crazy, irrational, and barbaric. 

tl,dr: Mare is rightfully angry, she acts on it, she has love for her people and her family, I love ❤️❤️❤️her. I love she gets everything she wanted. More brown women getting everything they want, please.

2-Cal: I liked him when he showed up and helped Mare tossing a coin at her, later when he helped her get a job, the dancing lessons. All good things. But the moment I really was like damn, silver boy 😏😏 was after the shooting, how this cold, pragmatic part of him comes out. Like Mare says, he’s a warrior through and through. And later when he refuses to join the Red Rebellion, that completely sold me. Too often YA love interests have “the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair” and throw their beliefs out of the window to make out with the protag and there’s nothing I loathe more. He slowly changes as the series progresses and I love his character arc so much sometimes my heart aches lmao. Because he starts off as an upholder of the oppressive system with a ver flimsy sense of compassion and ends the books wiser, actually compassionate, with a sense of striving for the greater good, and a huge softie. As I said before, I consider him the Darcy of YA.

1-Maven: oh my tragic child. First started liking him when he seeks out Mare under the rain and then takes her to Cal so she can see her family. Completely owned my soul when he rises from the ground as Mare asks for help and he’s like “Nah, fam. I’m good.” how easily he drops the act and how far he is willing to go to get power. I’m going to cut it here because when I start talking about him I can’t stop (That’s why I don’t include him in fics that much oops). There are personal reasons why I like him and literary ones. He’s extremely layered and whenever he showed up, he elevated the story to a whole new level.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Hi! I happened to stumble across your analyses on both Majima and Saejima and boy am I blown away by them! You captured their personalities so well it’s awespiring. Is there a chance you’ll write a post about Kiryu as well? It’s just that originally I’ve had a hard time liking him as a character because of the numerous mistakes he has made across the series (and the fact that others don’t really address them for some reason). Despite that I’m a huge fan of kazumaji and that’s why I feel conflicted sometimes. Anyway, I would really like to hear your thoughts about it!

Awww, you’re very kind ^^; Thanks for asking for more c: So, the reason why I haven’t yet made a post about Kiryu is NOT due to my lack of feelings about him, it’s quite the opposite. I have essays worth of feelings about Kiryu and just... have not found the time to really give those feelings credit ^^; But, since you ask and you’re having a hard time with his character, let me at least start. 

As a preamble, let me first say that there’s a difference between a character making a mistake and the writing making a mistake. This is not to say Kiryu never makes mistakes, far from it. I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu’s mistakes, they’re one of the reasons I love him, but a lot of the more egregious fuck ups are the writers making weak or poorly thought out choices. For example, like you point out, Kiryu makes mistakes and no one ever calls him out for it... that’s a writing flaw, not a problem with Kiryu. 

(Please note that to give my best reading of Kiryu, I’m going to reference as many games as I have seen, which is through game 6. If you do not wish to be spoiled through at least game 5 (I never reference game 6 if I can help it), do not read further.)

Continuing with that example... I cannot tell you how simultaneously OVERJOYED and FURIOUS I am about game 3 when Mine, MINE YOSHITAKA, a character who was introduced that game and then never appears again, is the only person who criticizes Kiryu’s decisions when he has DEMONSTRABLY made bad ones! Like, Mine’s criticisms are ENTIRELY valid, but because they come out of his mouth it’s hard to say if the audience is meant to sympathize or not. Especially since Mine is sort of the antagonist of that game and he’s not really pitched as a sympathetic character. You have to really be willing to be critical of Kiryu to hear what Mine’s saying there and agree with him. The way the scene is played, you’re sort of supposed to still identify with Kiryu and insist that he’s never done anything wrong ever, even though he’s put all of his friends in a vulnerable position and IS arguably to blame for the state Daigo’s in now, as Mine points out. 

And the writing is on some level aware that it is Kiryu’s fault or they wouldn’t have brought it up. They wouldn’t have had Mine say that if they didn’t see that problem. But the problem is they’re afraid of letting Kiryu be flawed. They’re afraid that if Kiryu’s wrong, even once, he won’t be The Good Guy anymore and the audience won’t like him anymore. This is weak and cowardly writing. Characters aren’t compelling because they’re never wrong, characters are compelling from what they do when they’re wrong. Any character who’s never wrong is unrealistic and, ultimately, boring. We all fuck up, we’re all only human. You ultimately will not identify with an infallible god because they would make choices you wouldn’t. I’m sure we can all think of characters who were pitched to us as infallible that, sooner or later, we ended up hating because of this very trait. So trying to pitch Kiryu as infallible is a ginormous mistake. But an understandable one, especially in a franchise that depends on the likability of its main character. But this means that they don’t trust their own writing, they don’t trust Kiryu’s inherent appeal and they fuck up the story around refusing to take risks. It’s one of the most heartbreaking writing decisions for me that those words come out of Mine’s mouth and not one of Kiryu’s friends. 

Because it’s Kiryu’s friends who deserve to get to say that. It’s Kiryu’s friends, the people who are directly affected by his actions and the people who CARE about Kiryu, who have the right to criticize him. Not some fucking young blood with a chip on his shoulder. Having Mine say it makes the criticism look biased an illegitimate when it isn’t. I understand the writing impulse to not let us criticize Kiryu, but think how much more compelling it would be to show that Kiryu’s relationships are strong enough to handle criticism. That the trust and love is there for a friend to come to Kiryu with this and to force Kiryu to confront himself and listen rather than ignore the problems and insist that he’s never done anything wrong. But to make that call, to let us doubt Kiryu, you, as the writer, have to trust your story, you have to trust your character, and, worst of all, you have to trust your audience. Many many writers of popular media do not trust their audiences. They don’t trust that if they let you doubt, you’ll come with them and see where the story leads. They’re afraid you’ll lose interest and turn away. Many writers feel that they cannot take the risk of trusting their writing for fear of losing their base and therefore their income.

And, again, part of the issue is the aims of the story. At the end of the day, RGG is here to produce a fighting video game, that’s it. Wrapping that up in a compelling story makes it more sellable, but their primary focus isn’t the story itself. It’s getting you to buy a fighting video game. If the mechanics aren’t up to par, if they fights aren’t cool and interesting, the rest doesn’t matter. RGG came up with a story to link the games together and invested in making an interesting protag, but it was to sell the games. If the point of this story was the story, I think we’d be seeing different writing decisions and maybe some of these flaws could have been avoided. And I don’t actually mean to point this out as a criticism and say why aren’t they creating art for art’s sake? I mean it really as a grain of salt that I personally use to try not to hold the writing here up to the standard that I would a novel or something. That may not be useful perspective for anyone else, but it’s a thing I like to keep in mind. 

So, part of what we see in Kiryu is that the writing fucking sucks. And it’s fair not to want to redeem Kiryu’s character or dig deeper into him when the writing hasn’t provided you with much. So no one feel bad if you’re not persuaded by my assessment, I’m not here to shame or convince anyone, I’m just offering my two cents. 

And now alllll of that said... Let’s talk about my boy, Kiryu Kazuma. 

I said earlier that characters are compelling based on how they react to mistakes, how they deal with them. Let me tell you, Kiryu is aware that he’s made mistakes. And he has regrets. 

What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he tries so fucking hard to do the right thing, all the fucking time. What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he wants so much to make people happy, to make people proud of him. He is scared all the time of doing wrong by people and making himself untrustworthy, making himself scary. He has lost so much, he has lost everything and he still gets up every goddamn day and tries. 

Does he fuck up? YES. ABSOLUTELY. ALL THE FUCKING TIME. But he gets up. Every. Fucking. Day. And tries. And you can’t buy that. You can’t ask for that. That’s just who he is, a guy who tries. 

I don’t... have time to explain the depths of my love for Kiryu, but let’s take my favorite Kiryu, what I think the best characterization of Kiryu is in the entire fucking series: game 5. Game 5 Kiryu is my favorite fucking Kiryu, including 1, including Zero, bar fucking none. I fucking love game 5 Kiryu. 

And Game 5 begins with a colossal mistake. 

Before the game starts, Kiryu is convinced, either earnestly or nefariously, to leave his little family and specifically abandon AHEM release his daughter Haruka to someone else. This is the stupidest fucking thing Kiryu’s done since giving up the chairmanship. But he does it because he is told that he is a greater threat to his family WITH them than abandoning them. I want you to think about that. Kiryu loves his family so much he would sooner leave them than do them harm. I need to remind you that Kiryu has already destroyed and rebuilt his own life once already. He has repeatedly given up everything for his dream of having a family and for all his beautiful kids more than once. And he just loves his little Okinawa home so much, he can’t stand the idea that he would bring it harm, so he fucks off. This is categorically the wrong decision and any other reasonable adult would know this. I’m sure you yourself understand intuitively why a parent, no matter how dubious, can’t just leave a brood of underage children to fend for themselves in the world.

But here’s the thing: Kiryu’s made a number of dumbass decisions that have led him to this point in his life. He doesn’t have any adult, peer friends to counsel him about this. He’s deliberately estranged himself from Majima, from Date, from all the people who could have helped him out here and told him not to. And deep down Kiryu’s always been worried that he was unworthy of this. He’s always been afraid that he didn’t really deserve to be happy, deserve his little family of innocents. And the plot SURE AS FUCK has confirmed that for him, repeatedly putting the kids in danger and reminding him that you can never actually leave the yakuza. Kiryu knows he’s fucked up. He knows adopting his family was a mistake, but it was too late, what was he gonna do now? But here comes this little insidious voice confirming his worst fears, telling him he needs to go, and Kiryu listens. He has no one else to listen to and he’s been so beaten down by the plot by this point, he’s lost so fucking much now, that he doesn’t have the strength to believe in himself anymore. So he goes. Believing that he is doing the right thing.

And then, as it always does, the plot comes for him, telling Kiryu he needs to come help, telling Kiryu only he can fix it. And Kiryu, for the first time in his life, puts his foot down. He’s so fucking tired, he won’t fucking do it, not one more time. Because every time he gets his ass up to help, what happens? Someone else dies. Someone else dies and it’s Kiryu’s fault all over again, and it’s Nishiki all over again, and Kiryu can barely fucking live with himself for all the guilt that he feels. He starts to help and he just loses. Every fucking time. So this time, no, this time he won’t do it. He can’t do it anymore. He just wants... everyone to be okay. And he’s so sure that everyone would be better off without him. 

If that’s a huge screaming red flag for anyone else IT SHOULD BE. Kiryu is in a depression spiral. He’s suicidal. He’s cut himself off from all his meaningful relationships, he’s not participating in his favorite hobbies, he’s alone and isolated in a new city where he doesn’t know anyone. He’s Not Doing Good. Game 5 is about finally, FINALLY confronting Kiryu’s demons, all the pent up unresolved guilt and turmoil that we never fucking addressed for 5 games running. (And if you’re hearing Bitter Resentment in the way the games have handled Kiryu’s emotional reactions OH BOY YOU BETCHA but that’s for another post.)

So Kiryu finally says no. He won’t fucking do it. But the plot comes for the fucking carotid. It’s Majima. It’s Majima. The only person Kiryu really, truly trusts. The person Kiryu was relying on to still be there, to be strong, to do the things Kiryu couldn’t. It’s Majima this time. And Kiryu loses his goddamn mind. That was the one thing you had left to take from him, his belief in Majima, and you took it. Kiryu nearly has a psychotic break at the news and decides, fine. Fine. I’ll go fix this, and then I can die. Then it’s over. Because there ain’t nothing left for him now. 

And he does. Kiryu gets his ass down there, he solves the fucking problem, and then he does his level best to die there. Because it’s what he feels he deserves. He’s let down everyone. All those losses, all those people... they’re his fault. If he was really the hero, he could have saved them. If he was really a good person, these tragedies wouldn’t keep happening. It must be his fault. Fuck, even Majima died, even Majima... and he wasn’t even there, he couldn’t even have helped him, he just... He abandoned him. And Kiryu feels intensely that guilt and grief for his mistakes and his missed opportunities. And all he can think to do with that feeling... is die. It’s what Nishiki did before him. It’s what Kazama did before that. That’s what you do when you’ve fucked up and you don’t know how to fix it. You die. Then no one has to deal with you anymore.

But Haruka. His daughter. The best thing he ever did. She’s up there on stage and she loves him. She still loves him and wants him to be her dad. She’s been with him the whole time, she knows all about it. And she’s not scared. And she doesn’t think he’s bad. Maybe... maybe he can stay alive then. Maybe it’s okay if Haruka is still his daughter. And against all belief, he finds his way back to Haruka. He stays alive for her. He won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. And maybe... he can learn to do something different this time.

Kiryu... makes mistakes all the time. But he knows. And he feels so guilty. The writing doesn’t always do a great job of showing it. We don’t process Nishiki the way we should. We kill Rikiya for no reason. We forget that game 3 should have been TRIGGERING AS SHIT. And we awkwardly no homo out of Kiryu’s most important relationship while still insisting that it is Kiryu’s most important relationship. The writing is spotty and flawed and sometimes you can barely piece together a coherent narrative out of it. 

But at its white burning core is a guy who just keeps trying. Who gets up the next day and tries again. Because he’s lost so much. Because he loves so much. Because he believes there is value in being nice to people and being a good person. And I love that.

[atlcsfcllen-a]

Alright, now that we know his semblance, heres my take on why Ironwood shot Oscar. Now that he has panicked for a bit, Ironwood is actively using his semblance to focjs on one thing, saving Atlas. Based on the convo he had with Oscar earlier in the volume about humanity, I beleive he may be using his semblance to shut out anything that might stop him from saving Atlas, incluiding his own empathy and compassion. Combine that with what he percieves as a betrayal from Oscar, and you get... that

Which is a super valid point to make!

Before I like-- get into this, I just want to express, very clearly, that just because I have salt with the series, does not mean that you can’t enjoy the show. I’m not going to come down your throat and rip you a new one, or slide into you DM’s / inbox and be like ACTUALLY. YOU’RE WRONG. Because genuinely, love what you want to love. Enjoy the show for what it is and indulge to your heart’s content. The biggest reasons I even have my salt tags are so people can continue to enjoy the show, even while I’m over here going harumph.

With that being said, I just want to make this clear to you, too, that anything said is based on my salt. Not against you. Not against the ask you sent. Your opinion is valid. It will always be valid and it will always earn & deserve a safe space here on this blog. I get heated, but I get heated about the subject material - not the person involved.

That being said...let’s dive in.

SO.

I imagine that with the timing of the reveal of James’s Semblance, this is what RoosterTeeth wants you to take away from that information. They want you to know his Semblance and recognize that because he has ‘Semblance-based-hyperfixation’ [ which is a complaint all on its own for me... ] he’s able to bypass everything within him that should tell him ‘no. this is wrong. don’t do this.’ His goal is set on saving Atlas and nothing is going to get in his way.

That’s dope.

The problem I have is that, if he’s forgoing his sense of humanity in an effort to do what he feels is right, why not shoot Team RWBY? Why not shoot Yang when she admits to giving Robyn the information about Amity Tower? Why not shoot Ruby when she attempts to evade arrest and hides behind his desk to send out her warning message? Because they’re Team RWBY? Because they’re exempt of any and all consequences in the story?

So then, what about the twelve-year-old farmer boy with zero Huntsman training? James, the 40+ year old general of Remnant’s most powerful army, can’t just tackle him to the ground? Subdue him if he doesn’t like the kid talking shit?

Oscar backs away from him. Is clearly intimidated and frightened by him. Puts his cane away. Insists that he doesn’t want to fight and based on previous interactions with other characters [i.e. Qrow at Beacon ] James also doesn’t want to fight. So like-- why even reach for his gun at all? If Oscar is clearly backing down, why doesn’t the dude with military training read that and put him on the ground? Knock him unconscious, even, and throw him in a cell?

James doesn’t sentence Roman to death.

James doesn’t drop Watts into the lava.

WHICH. To be totally honest? Could have easily swayed my decision on him shooting Oscar. I wouldn’t have liked it, but that’s the point. Imagine how much more weight and sincerity this would have had for his actions. If he dropped Watts into that lava pit, and then turned around and acted the way he did in the office, and then shot Oscar? OOF. I could’ve bought the whole ‘tinman losing his heart’ in a SECOND.

Then we have scenes like Nora screaming at him about Mantle and rightfully so! He is taking Mantle’s resources for a project that he believes is for the greater good. It doesn’t make it right, even if he, as a character, believes it to be - a morally grey conundrum that was perfect for his eventual fall. And I was freaking ready for it. I was ready for James to snap back at her. I was ready for us, as the audience, to go-- gasp! James! You’re really coming apart at the seams, aren’t you?? I was ready for him to be demanding and commanding in a way that raised immediate alarm bells. Instead, the dude says nothing.

Instead, he sits down. Has a bit of a moment, but tries to concede with Nora. With Ruby. Agrees, even, to meet with Robyn and negotiate a deal. To assist Mantle in this way. Even despite later on choosing to abandon it, in an effort to ‘save who they can’ - which, again, morally grey conundrum that could have been done so much better.

But it’s like-- James concedes. Time and time again, we watch him fold. With Jaune, we get the brief, momentary glare, but then he stops. Breathes. Recognizes that he knows Jaune is right and that he’s trying.

These are the biggest problems that I have with the end result being shoot Oscar. There is nothing in his character beforehand that eludes to him making this decision. To falling apart this violently literal seconds after apologizing to, who he presumes is Winter initially, for the presumed fate of Fria.

I want James to make bad decisions.

I want to be mad at him and not the story, because that’s what his character was built to be. From his first introduction, we know that James’s end result is stepping into the shoes of a morally grey character. One that will leave you screaming at him because he’s making all these horrible decisions, under the assumption that he’s doing the right thing, protecting his people, keeping everyone safe, but we, as the audience, recognize this isn’t the case, because the story has built around that.

What we get, in actuality, is a sudden and immediate thrust into villainy. Even the part at the end, when Winter texts him about the Winter Maiden’s powers, and he has that cliched villain scream that just eludes to what’s going to come next-- it’s all there, setting him on a path that he doesn’t belong in.

Personally? The only way that I could make peace with Oscar being shot [ I guess?? ] is if the conversation between the two didn’t just elude to James speaking at Ozpin. Show me that he’s speaking to Ozpin. Show me that he’s so lost, so upset, and so paranoid, that he hallucinates - momentarily - seeing Ozpin standing in front of him. That he’s slipping and falling and he has nowhere else to go anymore, and because of that, he’s absolutely losing it. Give me that angst. Let it be something like:

James: “I am done letting other people’s inability to see the big picture, get in the way of doing what’s right. Robyn. The Council. This kingdom. Even you, Ozpin.”

Oscar, tentatively: “...James?”

James: “...No. To you, it’s general.”

Feed me that level of angst. It would give his actions so much weight, and there would be so much to unpack there. Let the light leave his eyes as soon as he pulls that trigger; shattering what little of himself remained. Severing all ties with everyone he’s ever known and/or loved for the sake of completing his goal. For the sake of doing what he thinks is right.

Let me be mad at the character for his pisspoor actions. Don’t make me be mad at him. Don’t shove it down my throat like-- hey. hey. did you get it?? do you get that he’s the villain of this arc??? 

No. I don’t. Because there is a massive difference between villain and antagonist. So smooth into his antagonist arc. Show me that he’s going to be the force against the protags. Let James get mad. Let him make several bad decisions, such as [ if the story continued to care about these plot points ] leaving Mantle to freeze to death because Amity is more important. Declaring that Robyn is an enemy and should be treated as such; no negotiation. Sending Winter to retrieve the Maiden’s powers while simultaneously drawing back his forces from Mantle; Clover included - leaving a serial killer loose on the streets.

There was so much they could have really played up before reaching the dramatic climax for James’s character, and it just kinda really grinds my gears, given that James had everything required to get him there.

At the end of the day, however, it is RoosterTeeth’s story to tell and I do recognize that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t be salty about it.