#ALSO RIN WORKS AT A PUBLISHER I CONNECTED TO HER SO MUCH ALREADY BUT I TOO WORKED AT SOUL CRUSHED PUBLISHER

[risingshards]

me watching the laid back camp movie like

(very happily but it's late so I didn't want to loudly squeal and wake everyone up in the house at every callback and cute moment)

[sasodei-is-real]

Good afternoon💙 Well, or just Hello if you have a different time of day 😅💙

Thank you for your answers!)

And I still can’t reply to comments (I don’t know what is wrong), so I’ll answer like this)

@justanotherblonde thank you very much, it's so nice 🥺💙 And I'm glad that it will be interesting for you) Because the topic is actual and worth discussing.

@movethisalong Thanks for the answer!) I will soon work on the text in drafts, I will publish it today)💗

@bodoquehenko Weeell ... it's not directly related. But indirectly, yes. After all, even though Deidara is an adult, he has a big age difference with Sasori. So, for us - Sasodei fandom, this topic is not completely alien. Anyway, in any fandom, this is a very controversial and interesting topic that is worth discussing. As a sasodei shipper, I was asked questions about this topic. I think it would be nice to say my opinion on this issue and put all the points above and. I will talk not only about the general phenomenon, but also about sasodei separately in this topic.

But of course I will continue the analysis💛. This is not even discussed, because it is for this analysis that my blog was invented. But the point is, right now I only have time for one post. And analysis consists of many parts. And if I had written today about Onoki and Gaara (that is, I would have continued the analysis), I would have been able to move on to the next part of the analysis only in two weeks (this is how long my studies at the university will last). And that's not very good. Because although the analysis consists of different parts, the thing is integral. And it is best to read it without long breaks. I already postponed the analysis for a long time because of the uni , and then I did not want to continue again and stop the two weeks between the next part. I thought, since there is only time for one post, why not write about an actual topic that I would still raise and which would fit into one post. And then continue writing the analysis during the holidays and without long delays between continuation in order to maintain integrity.

Well, then the question was whether it would be interesting for you to discuss the topic of the age difference))

As for the ships, I think to talk after a specific stage in the analysis - when we analyze the characters of Sasori and Deidara. That is, the storage of posts turns out to be something like this - 1 question about the age difference 2 analysis where we left off - Onoki and Gaara (Iva and Suna) 3 The next stage of the analysis is Sasori and Deidara's relationship with the rest of the characters 4 Sasori and Deidarf characters 5 Short conversation about crack ships (which is not part of the analysis of sasodei, but what is worth discussing) 6 Philosophy of Sasori and Deidara, the symbolism of their characters 7 FINALLY 😂 Analysis of the relationship between Sasori and Deidara - Sasodei

Thank you for answer ^w^🧡

@deidaraakasuna Yes, I myself really want to move on to their relationship as soon as possible 🤧❤ Yes, they were created for each other. It is obvious.💫💗

And yes. I agree, everyone has the right to ship whatever they want. I am not against any crackships, or ships with questionable context ... well, any. A person's taste is formed on the basis of his lived life and emotions, and this is too personal to criticize.

But. I'm not talking about WHAT they ship, but HOW they raise their ship, for example, how, by substituting facts, they justify their ships.

I will try to explain what I think about this. The bottom line is that Naruto is a very elaborate and fragile story, the essence of which is her philosophy. Naruto has a very interesting build scheme. Recently I talked with my friend, and she noticed that in its structure Naruto is similar to the Russian classic novel "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov. And this is so. The bottom line is that there are a lot of characters in Naruto. Each character has its own story, its own psychology, motivation and internal conflict, the solution of which manifests one thought. The character has a conflict, the opposite or controversial side of his conflict is put in front of him, most often with the help of another character and ultimately, thanks to the contradiction, the truth is found - that is, we get a ready-made thought about any aspect of life. And so on. Everything is connected together, and each such thought, which is formed with the help of the character's life - by doing it with the rest, creates the philosophy of the work.

For instance. Sasori and Deidara degenerate their vision of the world in their art. They were a contradiction, in the end they found harmony, Deidara accepted eternity, and Sasori the truth of transience. Thanks to the fact that Sasori took instant and soul - Kankuro managed to dissuade him and Sasori decided to find eternity in the continuation of generations. During Edo Tensei, we see Sasori no longer hide his concern for Deidara with excuses and aggression - he has evolved. Therefore, Kankuro deals with the question of the soul. Sasori dies while Deidara screams and he pretends to embrace his parents. During the conversation, Edo Tensei, with the help of Kankuro and Sasori, reveal to us the theme of the soul. What is the soul? A haven of pain that poisons the heart, but without which you become a weak-willed marilnet. And Sasori's conflict is directly related to Obito. After discussing the soul issue, we see Obito pointing at the hole in his chest and saying that he doesn't feel anything. This is great preparation for Obito. These two characters are somewhat similar. Both wanted to escape their pain and forget themselves in illusions. Sasori replaced people with puppets, and love with universal contempt and control. Obito wanted to forget himself in the eternal Tsukuemi. Sasori accepted his feelings for Deidara. Obito realized that he shouldn't forget Rin. Sasori died in such a pose like hugging his parents. Obito died again while saving his friend Kakashi. Both died in the same situations that doomed them to suffering and pushed them into the dark. Simbolic 👀.(By the way, did you notice that Sasori's main OST is playing in the background? "Despair"). I mean, in Naruto, everything is very closely related to each other. Sasori and Deidara's relationship is their development. And when, for example, I see the sasosaku shippers dismantle the battle scene and say that Sakura influenced Sasori, proving her validity, it's not very pleasant. Primarily as a Naruto fan. Let's imagine for a minute If Sakura really influenced Sasori.

Sasori would not be able to achieve what he most desired - true eternal art. The role of Kankuro would not be needed and he would not have developed as a character and would not have received future Puppets . Since Kankuro is not needed, then his conversation with Chiyo and her acceptance will not take place. Since Sakura has already influenced him, there is no need to talk about the soul - there is no full disclosure of Sasori and the prologue to Obito's conflict. Complete disregard for Sasori's feelings for Deidara and for finding harmony.

And the most important thing. Sasori is a complex and deep character with his own feelings and motives. Each of his actions is based on his state of mind and thoughts. And when they explain Sasori's decision by the fact that he was influenced by a 15-year-old girl who then shouted that she wanted to get rid of her parents and who was unable to understand Sasori continued to scream, and not his character - this is a spit towards Sasori. As a Sasori stan, I am not pleased.

And so with everyone. I love Deidara. Obito is my heart. But in the pairing, Obiday Deidara is presented not as a deep character with his own conflict, but as a cliché "I behave aggressively, but I like you." Rin and Obito's wonderful story...?? No?😅😂

And yes, of course it is clear that in canon these are all crackships.

And I don't mind when people ship characters for themselves, draw art, write fanfiction and have fun. no, that's cool. BUT when they try to prove the canonicity of such an absurdity ... I'm Here 🌚👍

And after all, philosophy really changes. I was talking to my friend last week and he said, "It would be cool if in the Kazekage arc it turned out that Gaara is Uzuma. It would turn out that Naruto Uzumaki saved Uzumaki." Umm ... no. It wouldn't be.

The fact that Gaara was none for Natuto was done for a reason. From the very beginning, Gaara's history and development prepared us for 1 Pain's Philosophy. 2 To resolve the conflict between Suna and Iva. Two old villages.

Remember the first season? As after the fight Naruto said "I understand your pain, I went through the same." Gaara was not Naruto's relative, his friend from the start, he was from another village and was his enemy because

1. This resolved the conflict between Chie and the conservative villages. Chie asked, "Why does he care so much about Gaara? They are from different villages." Chie of the old school has broken the world into structures, forgetting that, first of all, they are all people and not representatives of countries. Kakashi replies, "He doesn't care what village he is from. They went through the same pain and are the best at each other." Chie dies realizing the old mistakes imposed by generations "You will change this world invented by old and stupid people."

2. Gaara was preparing us for a meeting with Pain. Pain's philosophy was that people who were completely alien to each other could understand each other by knowing the same pain. If Gaara was Naruto's relative, it would destroy the entire structure of philosophy.

3 The example of Naruto and Gaara is Jiraiya's true teaching. "We know what pain is and try to be merciful to others." The idea seems to be the same as that of Pain, but at the same time it is completely different. Pain used pain ( ahh sorry 😂) as a weapon. Against the background of Gaara's example, this looks even more obvious.

4 In the future, just like Naruto changed Chiyo, Gaara will change Onoki.

I want to say that in Naruto everything is very fragilely interconnected. This is the order and the relationship of the characters of the link. So why when the same shippers Sasosaku, Tobidei and Itadei prove their "canonicity" by

1 Sakura influenced sasori

2 Tobi called Deidara his favorite senpai

3 Deidara hates sharingan and talks about Itachi

Well, on the one hand, I don't care as the sasodei shipper , because as many canonical proofs and justifications as Sasodey has, not a single ship has

but on the other hand, as a fan of Naruto philosophy, I hate to see how people are ready to distort the idea of ​​anime and the characters of in order to prove their canon.

So,

In a word, I want to talk about this first of all as

1 A fan of the naruto philosophy that becomes meaningless due to the substitution of facts for some ship

2 A fan of all these characters who are distorted trying to prove their "canonicity"

3 Sasodei shipper

In general, I do not mind "I like this ship and I ship it. Ok"

I do not like "I will ignore the facts and at the same time do not care that I made the philosophy of the anime useless, distort the characters of the persona only in order to prove their some crackship's canonicity 🌚👍"

I hope I could explain why I want to talk about it😶

And this one is so sweet🥺💗Yes, I also know people with a huge difference in age who are beautiful and happy together for a long time. And although I agree that a lot is not visible from the outside, but age really does not matter. It's all about people.

And I'm sorry that it turned out so long 😅

This was a good chance to explain why I decided to talk about other ships (/> <)/

So, thanks again for the answers ^=^ ❤💛

I’ll go and write a post about the age difference in the drafts, edit it a little and post 🐥🦂

[viktormaru]

a super post on some kakashi and sakumo meta

Alright lets do this

BOOKS?? idk is there any connection how lil Sass and Strict Kakashi somehow ends up to porn?? did he accidentally read the word 'boob' in one of Sakumos books and was forever tainted.

According to Naruto Online, Kakashi starts reading Jiraiya’s books at age 18. So what I think happened is well ... puberty. Kakashi shows a bit of an interesting in reading early on so we can assume he was already into books. But then I imagine that like... he hit puberty at around 14 but things were still a mess back then, seeing minato dies then and so on so Kakashi never had a chance to process those things properly. But then time passes, he’s ANBU and he needs to do something whenever he’s stuck on the village be it to recover or simply because he has no missions. He’s gotta isolate himself and Gai keeps giving him frowny looks at the depressing books he has so he goes to the bookstore to get a new one and its like... he bumps into some sales and oh.. its Jiraiya’s book... Kakashi knows Jiraiya. And he opens the thing and goes red. Glances around and its like, his whole new set of hormones make themselves very known and Kakashi buys the thing and reads it alone and is super embarrassed but LOVES it. Its so different from everything else his read he cannot stop reading it. Travel fowards a little and Kakashi notices he can use it to troll other people so he starts reading it in public.

Do you think Sakumo brought Kakashi along on missions a lot? Lower ranked missions, as bonding and training? And and, because the leaf village doesn't vet these things, one of those D/C missions actually turns out much more dangerous than intended and Sakumo has to teach Kakashi how to kill much earlier than he intended to, which is partially why Kakashi is desensitized to violence until the one dead is his dad

Yes! I think at first Sakumo would bring Kakashi along because he didn’t trust anyone with the baby (and he was paranoid the kid would die if he got too far away ever since his wife died) so kakashi is a mandatory company for any missions within the village. It becomes a habit and when Kakashi’s curious eyes just swept over anything Sakumo did , he found it cute. And then Kakashi started to try to copy what Sakumo did and proved that maybe he could do those things as well. So sakumo takes him along as a learning experience and just a way to spend time with him (sakumo is not good at Dad-ing in his own opinion but he’d good at ninja-ing, so if he can teach kakashi how to ninja, he will). And yes, I can see missions going south and Sakumo having to teach Kakashi about life and death, about in the shinobi world sometimes its you or them, and Kakashi having to process it the best way he can. Kakashi knows early on that poorly trained shinobi are dead shinobi.

Opinions on animals that are not dogs?? Are they okay with cats or do they Dislike because of the cat v dog natural fight

They are probably ok with other animals, including cats. Dogs are just their favorites. Also, Kakashi might be a dog lover but he’s sure cat-like often! Gotta stick with the pack though, dogs number 1.

What was Sakumo's relationship with the ninken?

With his own or Kakashi’s? I love the idea that Sakumo had a pack of wolves that he called The Ladies (read that on a fic but can’t remember it now). Just a bunch of amazing wolves that Sakumo respects a lot (hes the babiest of them all, they call him soft). If you mean Kakashi’s... idk if like... 5 years old is an age in which summoning is possible but I think Sakumo would love them as his own children as well (in a way).

What did Kakashi tell his dad in the afterlife?

Tales of team minato at first! Sakumo would have loved clumsy obito, kind rin and the lovely Minato. He tries to tell him happy stories. He goes over the sad stories and the losses and he tells him about Gai, about how sakumo had been right and how Gai really has made a difference. He tells about team 7 and their potential. He talks about himself and about how much he’s changed from the little girl he used to be and he hopes he could be something his father could be proud of. 

Did Sakumo attend PTA meetings

*googles PTA*

AH

Well, he had to when they decided to boost Kakashi through the ranks. Sakumo was shitting his pants in fear thinking something might have happened to Kakashi or some trouble was stirred with the kids but then they were just like “yea hes too good to be in this class” and gave praises about his childs performance and sakumo was just like “..... ok....”

Do you think Kakashi hated his dad for a while after his suicide? Or do you think he hated the village?

I think he hated his father, or tried really hard to. It’s really complex. Kakashi seems to still love his father despite everything but... hating the village is something that is just.. its not possible. Its not allowed. Kakashi was bred to fight and die for the village first and foremost and what that means is that if the village turned against him then its cause he must redeem himself. And if his father died under the pressure, then its cause his father couldnt give the village what he should have given. The village abandoned him cause he deserved it, sakumo abandoned him cause he chose to. 

Kakashi understands the reason his father did what he did, but falls into denial because the opposite would turn against the village. And now that he was alone, how the hell could that even be possible? If he becomes a better ninja he will prove himself to everyone. If sakumo had been a better ninja he wouldnt have been scorned so much. Simple logic. 

Its easier then thinking about the morals of one actions and the whole deal of humanity versus being a weapon of the village. 

What happened to Sakumo's ponytail

Kakashi cut it

Did Sakumo read Jiraiya's books

I dont think sakumo was alive by the time jiraiya published his first book! I think Jiraiya had a few drafts before though, just random stuff he’d scribble. Sakumo liked the cheesy romance shorts (they were bad).

In SD, there's a joke that Sakumo is the inventor of the One Thousand Years of Death. Thoughts?

i LOVE IT. Sakumo impressing Kakashi with a super secret dangerous forbidden technique and Kakashi is like oh?!?!!! And he tries to get Jiraiya with it.

Relationship between Sakumo and Minato?

Ah! Theres one fic out there that i really like that shows how i picture their relationship to be like. Minato at first being a nervous puppy around this Man of Legends Sakumo, and said man  being completely unaware of his status and just being like “oh wow what a nice boy”

 this fic btw: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854022

Relationship between Sakumo and the three sannin?

Jiraiya likes Sakumo because Sakumo is very easy to be dragged to places and he can talk nonstop to him and Sakumo is usually too nice to call him an idiot. Sakumo hangs out with Jiraiya cause he fills the silence for the both of them and makes him leave his home and try to have fun some times (sakumo is a workaholic unfortunetely)

Tsunade thought he was a coward at first but its also very easy to make him pay for your tab so she keeps him around. She learns eventually that he!s smart and a good person and a good listener! So they become friends and they can gossip about jiraiya too. Sakumo was definitely terrified if tsunade at first but shes too fucking cool and smart. Hes always scared into hanging out with her but ends up enjoying himself around her.

Orochimaru finds him too bland. Sakumo is boring and soft and he fights like a legend but says sorry too much. They only hang out because of their shared friend circle. Sakumo is too busy being socially inept to know what to do around Orochimaru. Its painfully awkward, he feels bad.

Has Sakumo beaten up Hiruzen?

Oh hell yeah! They totally must have sparred at some point and DAMN Sakumo’s a beast when hes fighting. Hits like a fucking truck. Destroy that old man.

Is Kakashi gay

Yes

What do you think if kakashi wanted to be a medical and how will that affected the storyline

Oh! Ive read a fanfiction on this! Its pretty good and I think its about how things would have happened if Kakashi was a medinin.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1273706

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/hi-tech-news-vod-34-20-lovecraft-territory-mystery-racism-and-monsters/

Hi-Tech : News VOD 34/20: 'Lovecraft Territory': mystery, racism and monsters

VOD news brings you the best releases of the week on Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video … And we continue in the deepest of the summer, so it is not surprising that the content that arrives is quite, but generally weak. However, there are always exceptions and the big exception this week is Lovecraft Territory, an HBO series that premieres with a hitch strategy that we have not seen until now.

HBO

HBO is simmering this summer and this week more if possible: four garbage is what comes to offer, with the honorable exception of the featured title. And it is that Lovecraft Territory is not only very good, but it is available to anyone, since its first and only episode at the moment is free on YouTube.

Lovecraft Territory

Indeed, HBO Spain has put the first episode of Lovecraft Territory free on YouTube, where it will remain available until September 2. Just enough time for a few to dare to hit play … and end up subscribing to HBO, even until the series is completed. Because, I warn you, if you start it you will want to continue it (the only downside of the free chapter is that it is only dubbed).

Territory Lovecraft is based on a novel and mixes the typical terror of the American writer with the racial conflicts of the fifties with those who are still obsessed there, which in principle could set back more than one. However, the formula worked with Watchmen and – in a somewhat more pronounced way – it does it again in the case of Lovecraft Territory, which manages to hook immediately. If it maintains the level we can be facing one of the best releases of the year in its genre.

New chapters:

Axios (T3) Could destroy you (T1) Room 104 (T4)

Enter catalog:

Damned Two Dumb Fools: When Harry Met Lloyd Lego DC Superheroes: The Flash Pursuit to the Limit Power Players (S1)

Netflix

Netflix arrives as usual with a multitude of new own content, among which the coarsest filler predominates, but among which you can also find interesting things: the fifth and final season of Lucifer, a new anime series (The scammer) … and the launch we highlight, of course.

High Score: The World of Video Games

High Score: The World of Video Games It is undoubtedly the most interesting launch of the week on Netflix, at least from the cousin we have in MC: a documentary series that reviews the history of video games since its inception, addressing the most popular genres in its different chapters and with the participation of prominent names in the industry. Its main attraction is that it is not a common material due to the length of the work, but even so it knows little and will be superficial for those who have lived part of that history. If you see it in its original version, perhaps the voice of the narrator, Charles Martinet (It’s me, Mario!) Sounds familiar.

More exclusive content:

Alien tv (T1). “Alien reporters Ixbee, Pixbee and Squee travel to a fascinating but strange planet called Earth, where they try to understand humans and their hobbies.” Makeup artists (T2). “In this contest, aspiring makeup artists face colorful challenges to earn a foothold in the beauty industry.” Biohackers (T1). “A medical student enters a German university with the purpose of uncovering a conspiracy linking a family tragedy with a biology professor.” Class of ’83. “A demoted police officer and sent to an academy trains five students in the arts of killing to avenge police corruption and the underworld.” Family crimes. “Alicia sets out on a journey that will change her life forever when her son is accused of raping and attempting to murder his ex-wife.” The scammer (T1). “Makoto Edamura, a great Japanese con man, gets into the wolf’s mouth while trying to rob Laurent Thierry, a criminal of international stature.” It is good not to be good (T1). «An asocial children’s book writer meets a devoted caretaker in a mental hospital. A path to emotional sensation opens before them. ” Black fire (T1). “A renegade criminal looking for his sister arrives at a seedy hotel where he dazzles a mysterious waitress and meets a sinister guest.” Glitch Techs (T2). “Two teenagers work in a game store as a cover for their true mission: to hunt down video game monsters that have appeared in the real world.” Hoops (T1). “The basketball team he trains is terrible. But this foul-mouthed high school coach thinks he’ll make it to the big leagues. Long live optimism! ” John wanted to contact aliens. “A lone electronics genius beams radio frequencies into space looking for signs of extraterrestrial life, but makes a more important connection on Earth.” The DeMarcus: The singer and the miss (T1). “Rascal Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus and former beauty queen Allison DeMarcus set their own rules for combining family and fun in this reality show.” Lucifer (T5). “Tired of being the lord of hell, the devil moves to Los Angeles, where he opens a bar and meets a homicide investigator with whom he quickly connects.” Professors on the attack. “After a school payroll money was stolen, a teacher decides to get it back and soon discovers the pleasure of teaching.” Rita (T5). “Danish dramatic comedy about Rita, an independent teacher, without mincing words and much loved by her students, though not so much by adults.” A crazy night. What do you do if an international gang of thieves kidnaps your parents? You embark on a full-blown spy adventure. ”

Enter catalog:

Inglourious Neighbors 2 Semesta: Islands of Faith Stardust The Underclass Zoo (S3)

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video also remains in its usual trend, although exclusive premieres only bring one and it is not worth much; but it makes up for it with over eighty-odd movies, series and documentaries, some of which are not bad at all.

More exclusive content:

Side Effects of Love (Chemical Hearts). When a hopeless romantic high school senior falls in love with a mysterious new classmate, the two embark on an unexpected journey that will teach them about love, loss, and most importantly, themselves. »

Enter catalog:

7 raons per fugir Abulele Goodbye with the heart Naked souls Clams and mussels Black bay Under calm waters Bel Ami, story of a seducer Beyond Re-Animator Gross, dirty and evil When the dinosaurs ruled the earth Dark Was the Night Dictation Two women The attack of the five-headed shark The way of the wine The duel The infinity The Garden of Allah The legacy (S1) The evil Zaroff The worst man in the world The Polaquito The first circle The last hunter The last refuge The old rifle Ignite my passion Freaks and Geeks (T1) Freeheld, an unconditional love Escape from Alcatraz Great duel at dawn Screams in Oldfield Until marriage do us part Criminal impulse Collective unconscious (Miniseries) Joe Jubal Killer Joe The end The formula for happiness Maze’s escape Benny’s story Goodman The Best Offer The Promise (Wu Ji) The Last Hunt The truth about 5G The Adventures of Tintin (T1-T3) The New Adventures of Rin Tin Tin Lavallantula LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash The unexpected of love Italian marriage Separate tables Deep fear While you sleep Momentum Music and tears No refunds Night on the town Odd Thomas: Ghost Hunter Over the limit Pagafantas Paintball Untamed Romania Second Best (Difficult choice) Seven Days of May Story of Eva Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor Teo, intergalactic hunter Land of ruffians (Miniseries) Topkapi A love from movie A Bloody Wedding (Cottage Country) A Great Family Unacknowledged: An Expose of the Greatest Secret in Human History Vanished Go Hangover Revenge (In the Blood) Summer and Smoke Walkabout Welcome Home (S2) And in the center of the earth there was fire Zafari (T1-T2)

Apple TV +

Apple TV + reappears, which premieres a couple of things plus another couple that it has in broadcast.

Ted lasso

Apple TV + is resurrected once again with a series that is already applauding the critics: Ted lasso, a British comedy about the world of football.

New chapters:

Boys State (T1) Little Voice (T1)

Disney +

And we end up with Disney +, which barely dropped four crumbs.

New chapters:

Marvel’s Hero Project (T1) One Day at Disney (T1) The Incredible Dr. Pol (T4)

Enter catalog:

In search of the abominable snowman The big lie (S1) Rio Rio 2

[hardbacksandcoffeeshops-blog]

Non-Spoiler Review: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Book: The Bone Witch Author: Rin Chupeco Publishing Date: March 7th 2017 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Page Count: 411 Age Suggested: 15-17 (personal opinion) Goodreads Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Blurb:

Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there’s anything I’ve learned from him in the years since, it’s that the dead hide truths as well as the living.

The beast raged: it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer.

Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living- and of the human.

Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong-stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.

Non-spoiler review:

I bought the book purely for the opening line. I was extremely curious as to what exactly the book would entail. The unfortunate thing was I was not a fan of the way the story was written. The characters were interesting, the plot sounded very intriguing, the problem was that when it comes down to it, there’s not actually a lot of plot, and even less resolution when it comes to wrapping up the story.

Let me try and clarify. Throughout the story we get two different time periods, the character’s present, and the past for the main character. The snippets of the present includes our main character, Tea, telling her story to a man she calls the Bard. They progress the plot forward in their realm, but do not actually add that much to the story. The main bulk of story involves Tea as she goes through how she became the exiled bone witch we see interacting with the Bard. Basically, we see Tea telling her story through the Bard, so we have her story told by her through him. I’m personally not a fan of this form of story telling, and because these flash forwards happened before each chapter of the main story, it took us out to remind the reader that other things were going on. Not only that but we see two sides of our main character, what she is now and what she was then. This makes us stuck with the fact that we know exactly what type of person she’s going to turn into, revealing a lot about the plot without saying much at all or driving the plot forward. We know she’s going to be exiled, we know that something bad will happen, but we are forced to learn it through seeing a future that we know it’s already happened. Any and all of the danger she faces throughout the novel isn’t all that worrying to the reader because we know she’ll survive it. Usually this wouldn’t bother me as much, but I think that’s because usually it’s a prologue to the story and not a lot more. We forget that it’s happening, but because it happened before ever single chapter, it was hard to fully immerse myself in the novel, in the world, I was pulled out of it to be reminded that there were two parallel parts to this story that I had to keep remembering.

Going onto the characters, I’m going to discuss three in depth. Our protagonist, Tea, her brother, Fox, and her mentor, Mykaela. Once I’m finished I’ll go into a little bit of depth for some of the more secondary characters.

Tea is our protagonist. We see her go from a young teen to a mid teen in the main story arc, and see her as a more confident seventeen year old in the flash forwards prior to each chapter. In both different settings she’s stubborn, slightly awkward, doesn’t take no for an answer, and pretty headstrong. In the main bulk of the story we see her growing up, learning who she is and what her powers do, because of this I don’t blame the change in character between the two different times. I think it’s very likely for people to change over time, and I think that’s something that I could understand and was done to a pretty alright extent. The problem with this though, is that because this isn’t a fully finished series, it’s one book, and we don’t see the entire transformation of her from one thing to the next. We see the beginning of it, but not the full picture. I don’t feel as though we get to experience her to the extent that I wanted to. I was curious about her from this extremely strong capable witch from the first pre chapter that starts the book off, and then continuing forward I don’t feel as though we saw enough of that girl, we saw the girl she was prior, the girl who was young and inexperienced and not as well written. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading the prechapters, but I feel as though this seemed like more of a prequel than the start of a story. We got a taste of what she’s doing now and honestly I wanted more of that than I wanted what it took for her to get there. There was a lot of character building for her with little plot which was rather frustrating.

Next we have Fox. Fox is your generic older brother character, apart from being dead. He’s a soldier, or he was a soldier. When he’s brought back his only job is to protect Tea. There’s a few interesting plot points that are started but not fully explored in this novel, but I’m hoping since the next book comes out this month that they’ll be explored further in this series. The thing is, because he is the older brother, and we don’t get to see him before he dies, there’s no real way to know what he was like. I feel as though the overprotective sibling, though sometimes relative, is often not entirely needed. I feel like because there only seems to be one primary goal for this character throughout this book, we don’t get to see him as a fully realised character. He’s almost like a dog. You could never relate to him fully because he’s not treated as a real human. They honestly treat him like a pet. I understand why, as throughout he’s called her familiar, but I think because personally he was one of the reasons I picked the book up, it was disappointing to see so little thought put into his character. Maybe this has to do with how the author wants to reveal things, but unfortunately it didn’t connect with me.

Mykaela was always going to be a different type of character in this novel. Mentor to Tea, she’s the blend of kind and stern that you don’t see in many characters. She tried to show Tea how to work as a bone witch, but also had to do her own job as well. She popped in and out of the story with some interesting plots that weren’t fully explained. I can’t go into too much detail about her character without spoiling, but she was one of the kinder characters, and she had some plot points I was extremely interested about. She never seemed to do anything without reason, and even when we didn’t know the entirety of the story, it didn’t feel like she did anything out of malice. She was a kind face in a lot of questionable characters, and honestly a character I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

I feel as though I have to talk about the Bard. Though not part of the real story, his presence is needed. He gave us the narration for everything going on in the character’s present, giving us a glimpse of who Tea is now. To be honest I found these parts of the novel far more interesting than the main story line, and I wanted to know some of his backstory more, as it was hinted at but not fully shown.

Zoya was probably the character I disliked the most. She brought on my least favourite trope in the book, which is when a character goes out of their way to humiliate the main character. This has always been something that makes me cringe, and here it was no different. I don’t think we were meant to like her, and personally she made the least sense to me as to why she was in the story. A lot of the conflict she brought to the book was so unbelievably petty that I thought it took away from the fantasy side of the story.

There are so many characters in this book that it would take a long time for me to go through all of them and explain things I do and don’t like, side plots that don’t get finished, characters who were introduced, but weren’t fully explored, love stories that were explained in the end of the novel to be fully fleshed out, but didn’t even start to take place in the real narrative. So many things were happening in this book and I don’t know how much of it was necessary, there were some plot points that I loved, but they were entirely unnecessary to this specific book. I may do a spoiler filled review to explain in more detail at a later date.

I don’t like being negative about books. Someone has spent a lot of time and energy to write something they’re proud of and put it out to the masses, so I try to look for the positives. My main one from this book was its ending. I had a rough time getting through this book because it’s not my type of book, however the ending of it made me want to preorder the next one. I wanted to know what happens next, and though I did not preorder the next one, maybe in a few months I’ll order it and give it a shot.

To summarise, this is not my favourite book. There were some interesting plot threads that I wanted more out of, and while some of the characters were very interesting, it unfortunately didn’t make this book what I wanted it to be. I think if you want a very different look at fantasy, definitely give it a try though. Just because it’s not to my tastes doesn’t mean it won’t be to yours.

[readatmidnight]

It’s been a while since my last update since most of April and May left me with very little time for blogging. I just wanted to do a quick catch up on what I’ve been reading and what I plan to read in the coming month.

What I’ve Read

Almost 100% of the reading I’ve done in the past two months have been done via audiobook. Bless them for enabling me to finish all these novels while I completed my chores or during my morning commute, I would have fell into a book slump without them. I know at the beginning of the year I said I would cancel my Scribd account, but since I read so much via audio now, the set up is working great for me.

These aren’t even in chronological reading order because I am a Mess.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★★☆ This novel is best enjoyed via audiobook, sorry I don’t make the rules. TJR has a way of making her characters feel so raw and real, if I didn’t know any better I would have been searching for the discography of Daisy Jones & The Six after completing this novel. Epistolary novels don’t always work for me (see: Illuminae), because I sometimes find it hard to connect to the story. 100% not the case here, and I loved how utterly flawed everyone was allowed to be. To tell the truth, I didn’t like most of them, but they sure captured my imagination.

The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang ★★★★ HELLO IS ANYONE SURPRISED I AM COMPLETE TRASH FOR THIS BOOK. NO? OK. Ahem. With complete objectivity, this book was a stunning follow-up to The Poppy War. It’s more introspective, it deals with PTSD, it brings in all of the threads that complicates and muddies the war Rin is waging on Nikara and with herself. The ending left me literally reeling and screaming in random DMs for weeks. I still have not completely stopped and I fear I will never be coherent again. Give me book three or give me death.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey ★★★★☆ I finished this book about two hours ago and edited the post to include it. Although it contained the familiar tropes like a magical school, a jaded private detective, a dark prophecy, a hidden world of mages, a murder mystery – Magic for Liars combined them in a way that kept the plot fresh and engaging. Imagine if Aunt Petunia never married Vernon Dursley but instead became a private investigator – who’s then called back to Hogwarts to unravel a murder, with Lily as one of the professors on tenure. Except better, because the character work in this book is freaking top notch. Just go read it OK, this is the gay and messy magical school we all deserve.

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman ★★★★☆ Billed as The Raven Cycle meets Stranger Things, this is one of those rare instances where the book matches the comp perfectly. While I found the pacing to be slow, I thought it suited this character-driven story. It’s all about families and legacies and finding your own paths despite the weight of all that history. I adored all of the characters, especially Harper – my sworld-wielding warrior queen. I cannot wait to see the sequel and watching how entangled relationships will develop.

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan ★★☆☆☆ I love the idea of hate-to-love, especially with a villain love-interest, so that’s what initially drew me to this book. When I learned that the heroine could converse with the gods, I got even more excited. Alas, it was a bit of a missed opportunity. I saw shadows of a fanfic-worthy broody bad boy in every scene with Malachiasz. I can understand insta-attraction, what I can’t understand is how poorly the character and relationship development was done. The stars are wholly reserved for Serefin, my drunken drama-queen and the only part of this novel I enjoyed.

We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal ★★★☆☆ I expected this to be a five star read, so while it was good, I am disappointed I didn’t love it more. The prose were gorgeous and I am definitely checking out whatever Hafsah Faizal writes next. However, the writing style’s penchant for beautiful metaphors sometimes felt jarring with the pacing of the book. While I liked the characters indivdually, I didn’t feel compelled by any relationships aside from the one shared between Altair and Nasir in the beginning. I’m definitely in the minority with my lukewarm response to this title, though – there are tons of fans so don’t be put off by my review.

Verity by Colleen Hoover ★☆☆☆☆ The sole star is for the fact that while the plot of this book was so improbable it veered into farcical, it was a page-turner. Toxic relationships is the bread-and-butter of crime, but there was something particularly tasteless about the way adultery and marriage was depicted in this book. Partly due to the casual nonchalance that CoHo tends to dismiss cheating, but also because even with my few remaining brain cells I could still figure out the plot was BS. The way disability was handled in this novel also left a lot to be desired, and the ‘twist’ at the end disappointed me so much I wanted to hurl this book into the sun. This was 7 hours of my good life wasted.

The Bride Test ★★★★★ I cannot remain calm or objective about Helen’s books, I love them completely – because they’re unabashedly Vietnamese, because they’re proudly diasporic, because they’re filled with characters who feel so real I’m mildly miffed we’re not invited to their weddings. Khai and Esme slowly but surely stole my heart over a course of a long haul international flight. I laughed and cried and went through all of the emotions of first love. Along with its powerful emotional resonance, The Bride Test also offered sharp societal critique on the accessibility of the American Dream. These books are so special to me and I am so glad we have more Helen content to look forward to for years to come.

Ruse ★★★★☆ This is the second and final instalment to Cindy Pon’s high-octane and prescient eco-dystopia – if you haven’t read Want, go visit your local bookshop right now and change this immediately. The bar is raised with Ruse, from the character development, the scope of the world, and the ever heightened stake. I loved seeing the gang again, even though Cindy did not pull any punches when it came to making my children suffer. It was such a satisfying and well-earned conclusion.

Wilder Girls ★★★★☆ Whew, this book was harrowing and intense. It felt dangerous and unknowable, with the plot constantly shifting right under my feet – just as the physical world in the book warps and distorts everything from plants to landscape to school-girls. I read it in a rush over two days because I could not put it down. If you’re after a novel with ride-or-die friendship and sapphic romance, this is one to keep an eye out for.

Red, White, and Royal Blue ★★★★★ I am completely bereft that Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of Wales are not real people – for these two I would take up reading gossip magazines again. This book was rambunctious and as irrepressible as the passion that drives its main characters. The supporting cast are equally impressive, and I love the chemistry imbued into the various relationships in this novel. I can’t remember the last time I rooted so hard for fictional characters to overcome and triumph. Although we can’t have Claremont 2020, can we please please please get a Jude and Nora spin-off instead?

Looks like romance is my new favourite genre, judging by my latest two five star reads. Please give me all the recs, but no mayo toxic romance please. I feel like whenever I stray from the usual diet of speculative fiction, I become very picky in which books I read – which tends to mean that I end up loving the ones I do pick up.

What I’m Reading

I usually have numerous books on the go because I have no self-control. I have two going at the moment, but this number will undoubtedly multiply before I have the chance to publish this post.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet – I am about 5 hours into the audiobook and I am already completely charmed by this world and its characters! The rogue-archetype has always been one of my favourite fantasy trope, and to make it even better Santia comes with a snarky talking key. The world building is a marvel, especially the magic system and how it is manipulated by the characters and governing bodies within the novel. I also heard there is a budding sapphic romance in this one – I think I just met the love interest and I already love her as well. Very excited to continue on!

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – I am three chapters into this novel and it’s already taken my very soul apart. Written by a Vietnamese-American son for his illiterate mother, it’s part-meditation and part-confessional on PTSD, inherited trauma, and how a you learn to communicate with a mother-tongue you can barely speak. I am ready for it completely wreck me.

I forgot that I am technically still reading The Priory of the Orange Tree but I am so exhausted with this brick at this point in time, I’m not sure I will ever finish it. The world building (West and East dragon mythology), and the characters (sapphic Queens and her bodyguard) had so much potential – but I kept feeling like an emotional weight was missing.

What I’m Planning to Read

I am an expert is making up TBR and then not sticking to them. So to save myself the embarrassment here’s two I am definitely reading this month, the rest is c’est la vie.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson I know y’all keep saying that Enchantment of Ravens is lame because it has no plot but I loved Rook and Isobel with all my heart OK. I know nothing about this one except that it has a librarian babe (maybe?). Therefore, I am very excited.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim This is part of the Caffeine Book Tours that Shealea organised (thank you!!). This is one of my most anticipated read of this year because fashion and East Asian fantasy? Relevant to my interest. I think we can all agree that this is the best cover of 2019. I want this illustrator to draw my life.

What are you reading and what are you all up to? I miss you!! Hope you’re going to have an amazing month and Happy Pride everyone!!

June Reading Updates It's been a while since my last update since most of April and May left me with very little time for blogging.

[kyemeruthie]

Belated.

Happy birthday to me!

First quarter of 2019 ends today. It came like a storm, really battering me through, and challenging my faith and overall resolve. I felt like giving up most of the time, asking when will these end? Then you’d realize it’ll only end once you completed the stuff you undertook to begin with. Ayun, so kayod din talaga. Picked up a few insights along the way. Here goes:

Napagod ako. It was like running a marathon and I constantly need to look for some breathing time, then plunging right back to work. The breathers were supposed to be long enough to recharge me, but I felt like working on half battery lives most of the time. Gahhhd. To be fair, kasalanan ko rin. I said yes to two research papers. With pay naman. And then I also had to write my own paper for an international conference by March. Then the school journal editor emailed me to say I had to revise the paper I submitted years back, for possible publication. I had until May. Then teaching and also some ministries I said yes to our church. Looking back, I realized what stressed me most at that time was the fact that: one, everything had to be done in a month or impromptu; second, I’m alone or I’m leading the team and everyone’s quite dependent on what I had to instruct or say. It made the work doubly gruelling. Delegation was key and worked for some tasks. May ilang nainis nalang ata ako, so ako na nga. Third, partly doing it for the money or a different motivation that set me apart my passion to undertake the job. This is directly connected with the fourth factor: I was stressing the fact that after March, it’s possible that I’d be jobless and insecure. So I need other side jobs to keep me afloat and pay the necessary bills that are starting to pile up. So yun, andaming pagod-- most of it was me stressing out stuff. Natural to be one. But it also put my faith to the test.

May sagot si Lord sa tamang panahon. So totoo yung sinasabi ng AlDub. Talagang darating yung mga bagay na pinagdarasal natin at minimithi sa takdang panahon. I was already thinking of alternatives-- where to work, which jobs I need to take just to get me through the year financially, what should I improve on to get back on track, etc. Ganon na yung level of planning. The sem’s about to end and I needed a back-up plan. Pero ilang araw palang dumaan ng January, sumagot na si Lord. Permanent sa Univ, lumabas yung papel. My “thank you, next” turned out to be the best “thank you, Lord” I’ve uttered for the longest time. No need to look for a job. The next issue I had to contend was finances. Really struggling on this since I went freelance on 2016. He answered through friends who were willing to prolong terms of payment sa ilang bayarin, also my parents and siblings who lent me money just to get through. Grabe yung asa ko sa mga tao sa paligid. By Feb, wala pa ring kasiguraduhan yung sweldong tunay sa univ, pero yung mga raket na bigay ni Lord yung tugon. Sabe ko nga, God provides not by how you see it, but through His perspective. Darating sa oras na kelangan mo na talaga. Di naman pinagkulang. Just a few weeks back, I was already decided not to pursue the conference in Yogya; but God again intervened. Yung di inaasahang lovegift meron; tapos habang andun ako, dumating na yung pinaka-aantay na sahod. Sumasapat at dumarating sa oras na tingin mo gipit ka na.

Gumagamit Siya ng unlikely people to help us get through difficult times. The whole trip to Indonesia was a lesson on trusting and on kindness. Sabe ko nga yung kinaiinisan ko pang pastor yung nagpaabot ng panggastos ko for Indo through the lovegift I received for lay-out ng Sunday School lessons project niya. A friend still allowed me to use her card to book tickets kahit may utang pa ako. My aunt sent money for registration fee. And two new friends I met at Yogya really went out of their way to help me find a bank that would allow me to get the money wired to me by my aunt. It took us three tries before we got the money. They were even chatting and telling me a lot of stories bec they sensed I was already panicking. Without them, stressed talaga ako. By night, I ran out of time to buy souvenirs but the caretaker of the hostel I stayed also graciously drove me to the night market to get last minute pasalubong. If not for him, lugi ako sa tawaran at oras. Maraming beses na parang feeling ko keri ko naman mag-isa. Pero andun yung wisdom ni Lord: hindi, may tutulong sayo past those hurdles. Naalala ko tuloy si Taekkie-apa sa R1988 when he was talking to Sunwoo’s omma about depending on friends and people around you. People are pressed to work on their own, individualistic ba-- pero we really rely on community to accomplish much better goals. So wag mahiya magtanong. Wag mahiya humingi ng tulong. Pero wag din abusado siguro. Hahaha!

Wala pala akong matinong birthday celebration. The closest I had was dinner with family, and watching Charot! with friends. Well, may sorbetes para sa lahat on Sunday at may bonus na temple visits on my last day at Yogya. Grateful na ako dun. Gusto ko ba ng bonggang bday celeb? Hindi naman. Gusto ko lang siguro ng oras na ma-set aside yung araw na yun para namnamin yung me-time. Mas mahalaga na yata sakin yung me-time. Haha! Gusto ko lang umakyat ng bundok para magmuni muni but the deadlines won’t allow it for now. I had to finish checking final requirements as soon as I returned home, upload grades, and also complete the papers I need to write and submit. Maybe this April I can find some time to do late celebration. Sana.

Friendship never ends. Or so the Spice Girls think. I remembered I did not turn on my FB bday notifs which led me to a few thoughts too: onti lang talaga nakakaalala ng bday ko + salamat sa fb for reminding us of special days + ok rin sya para di ka marindi sa dami ng notifs for a day. No unnecessary catch-ups (hahaha ang sama!), no need to reply to everyone hahaha! Naalala ko yung isang article online about FB cultivating seemingly dead connections; para kang bumubuhay ng zombie-- unless you feed it with a conversation-starter or a common ground di naman kayo mag-uusap even in real life. Or unicorn blood. Immortal virtually yung friendship, but in real life parang wala na yung spark, yung connection. Sakin mahalaga din talaga yung real-life convos at yung usual kwentuhan at tambay. Nakakahinayang kasi may ilang gusto mo pa rin kausap pero parang di na yun yung wavelengths nyong ginagalawan; o di kaya, marami na nagbago; o ganun pala talaga siya kaya di naman talaga kayo sobrang close. Hahaha hello mga ka-dede-es na kakilala. No hate naman, no tampo sa mga di naka alala. Nakakatuwa lang isipin na technology really brings both the best and worst in human connections; and we’re glad to realize these despite our constant dependence on these things.

Andami kong gusto at pangarap. Isa-isang ipagdarasal. Relationship at life partner is number one, wow. Willing pala ako i-set aside ang doc studies to spend time to get to know people and that one person. Naks. Sabe ko nga dun sa isang post, I’m trying to enjoy this season. Mejo confused din ako kung kukuha pa ako ng Econ degree-- pero naalala ko, pangarap ko din talaga ang development economics even before I did SEA studies. Di ko pa rin alam. May options to study at a private uni or at our uni pero depende pa rin. Pangarap kong ma-publish in an acad journal this year. Salamat kay Lord kase pinush nya rin talagang matuloy ako sa Yogya and hopefully, todo na ni Lord, mapublish na rin yun sa ASEAN journal kung san man. Mahal ko research at gusto kong karirin to. Di ko pa alam pano exactly, really praying hard for these things. Salamat kase bakasyon na. May oras mag-relax at mag-re strategize ng ilang mga bagay. Also, yung last minute chika kanina with several church friends ay enlightening. Kaluha actually. The reminder was that God doesn’t want a life of compromise for us. He designed us to live a full life. Bibigay naman niya yan. Kapit lang at siyempre talagang bibitiw ka din dun sa ilang bagay na akala mo iyo na pero di pala. Yun yung masakit pero yun din yung ikakapit mo sa kanya.

Overall, saks ang feeling ko sa first quarter. Parang tumatawid ka ng Red Sea. Hahaha! May dry land na at pwede na lumakad patungong land flowing with milk and honey; pero syempre di natin maiwasang matakot sa metaphorical Egyptians na may banta sa buhay at freedom natin; at naroon din yung takot na baka biglang bumalik yung mga tubig at lunurin tayo. Si Moses na rin nagsabi e, trust talaga at full obedience kay Lord. So far, the devos point to focusing our lives to God. He will direct our paths. Katakot, mahirap, often masakit, pero may peace of mind recently. Paulit-ulit pero ok ring balikan ang lessons na ito.

[recentanimenews]

Off the Shelf: Cautiously Optimistic

MELINDA: Well, hello, Michelle! Can you believe we’re back again in just two weeks? I hope you’ve had time to come up with a new joke.

MICHELLE: That last one I made was so very bad, I’m starting to feel remorse for inflicting terrible dad jokes on people at the start of these columns. So, you get a reprieve, everybody!

MELINDA: I dunno, I think you may be disappointing more people than you know!

MICHELLE: If you actually miss the terrible jokes, leave a comment and I’ll do better next time. How about that?

MELINDA: Fair enough! Well, if we’re not telling dad jokes, I suppose we’d better talk about some manga. What have you been reading this week, Michelle?

MICHELLE: I finally took the plunge and read the first two volumes of Fruits Basket Another, the three-volume Fruits Basket sequel by Natsuki Takaya. I was wary about this one, but though it has some significant flaws, I liked it more than I expected to.

In volume one, we’re introduced to Sawa Mitoma, an exceptionally meek girl who spends so much time thinking things like “Why do I always irritate others without even realizing it?” and being perhaps the most passive protagonist I’ve ever seen that she actually becomes irritating to the reader. She has just started her first year at Kaibara High School, and soon encounters “an incredibly sparkly boy” when she drops her student ID. This boy looks a lot like Yuki Sohma and, surprise, it’s his and Machi’s son, Mutsuki. Be prepared for a bunch of this sort of thing, because in short order we learn that Hanajima’s little brother is Sawa’s homeroom teacher and that Makoto Takei (remember that overzealous student council guy?) is a teacher whose obsession with Yuki has now transferred to Mutsuki. (He’s really creepy about it, too, and desperately needs to be fired.)

Sawa next meets Hajime, the son of Kyo and Tohru, who is serving as student council president. Mutsuki is the vice-president, and soon Sawa’s been drafted to be the first-year member. Over time, she meets more Sohmas, including Riku and Sora, the twin children of Hatsuharu and Rin. She gains confidence by being useful to the council and Riku helps her realize that by always keeping her head down, she’s missing opportunities available to her, like the nice girls in class who want to ask her to have lunch with them.

By the end of the second volume, Sawa has become a much more sympathetic character. Not just because she finally starts taking the initiative and actually engaging with life, but because readers can finally see what Takaya-sensei was doing. It turns out that all of Sawa’s issues stem from her abusive mother, who doesn’t come home for long periods of time, and when she does deign to appear, demands gratitude and apologies from the daughter she viciously belittles. No wonder Sawa got warped into thinking everything she does is wrong and that she’s a useless lump who causes trouble for others!

In the end, the not-very-subtle premise of the series seems to be “this generation of the Sohmas all love their parents very much, so this time they’re going to be the ones to save and accept a girl cursed with a shitty home life.” The execution is rather clumsy, however, as the Sohma offspring talk about their parents way too much for normal teenagers. I did like that Ayame’s son, Chizuru, struggles because he’s the normal one in his eccentric family, and that Mutsuki’s love for his parents is partly due to realizing not everyone has it so good. There’s one worrisome panel that suggests young Mutsuki witnessed Akito protecting her and Shigure’s son, Shiki, from Ren wielding a butcher knife! I hope that’s explained in the third and final volume, as well as whether Shiki was responsible for getting Mutsuki to help out Sawa in the first place.

In any case, I liked it enough to finish out the story, and that’s more than I expected.

MELINDA: Okay, so I’ll admit that the parade of Sohma children just reminds me how irritated I was by the neat pairing-off of everyone that happened at the end of the original series (Ayame, seriously??) so it’s probably getting off on the wrong foot with me from the start. But more than that, I’m struck with your description of the kids talking soooo much about their parents… like, some kind of weird collision of “let’s make more money off of Fruits Basket” and “let’s assume that nobody actually read Fruits Basket and we have so much explaining to do!” Or maybe it’s just “let’s make more money off of Fruits Basket, but in only a few volumes, so DUMP THAT INFO.”

Honestly, the only thing that gives me hope is that butcher knife. Akito with a butcher knife is keeping me alive here. I might read it just for that.

Do we have to have the creepy teacher-student obsession, though? I let that stuff go with older manga, but seriously. It’s 2019.

Or wait. Is it Ren with the butcher knife? I think I added a comma in my mind to draw my attention. Without the comma, I’m suddenly less interested.

MICHELLE: Yeah, it was Ren with the knife. She didn’t go away just ‘cos the curse was lifted, so she’s still around being horrible, apparently.

And yes, after everyone paired off neatly at the end of the main series, all of the couples seem to have stayed together for the next twenty years, judging from the age of Hatori’s daughter. At least Hanajima didn’t marry Kazuma! The parent talk isn’t as bad as recapping the events of the original series, at least, but there is a little bit of explanation when introducing new Sohmas to Sawa. Like, no one says Momiji’s name or what particular business he’s doing, but we know he’s extremely successful at it, which is kind of nice.

It’s more like someone saying, “I want to be like them,” which is still more than teenagers generally say, in my experience.

MELINDA: So, okay, you’re enjoying this more than you expected and you’ll likely read to the end. Should I be following your lead, or should I just reread Fruits Basket? I do suddenly have an urge to reread, especially since I recently lent out the first few volumes to one of my teen students!

MICHELLE: I honestly don’t know. I think it might bug you somewhat more than it did me. Maybe wait until volume three comes out and I can give a definitive answer as to whether this series adds anything to the Fruits Basket experience.

What have you been reading this week?

MELINDA: This week, I dug into the debut volume of For the Kid I Saw in my Dreams, a new series from the creator of Erased, Kei Sanbe. Like Erased, it was originally serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace and is being published in English by Yen Press.

Senri Nakajou had a twin brother, Kazuto, with whom his connection was so strong, they experienced shared vision and literally felt each other’s pain when one was beaten by their abusive, alcoholic father. As the older of the twins, Kazuto was intensely protective of Senri, and would manipulate his way into taking the beating for both of them, to spare them “double the pain.” He’d also insert himself between their parents when they were fighting, to spare their mother from the father’s abuse. On those nights, Senri, hidden in the cupboard under the stairs, would experience Kazuto’s pain as he took their mother’s beating on himself, until one night, when the beating never came. Instead, Senri emerged from his cupboard to find both his parents murdered and his twin missing. Based on the two brief visions he shared with his twin afterwards, Senri is certain that his brother was kidnapped and murdered as well. Now, Senri is a high school delinquent, still searching for the man who murdered his brother.

It takes a chapter or two for Sanbe-sensei to introduce Senri’s twin into the story—a choice that pays off, I suppose, by denying us full insight into Senri’s state of mind, which makes his morally-gray existence hit a bit harder in the beginning. The first things we find out about him are that he was discovered sitting in a pool of his parents’ blood as a child and that he now helps run an ongoing con in which his partners steal someone’s money and then Senri gets paid to pretend to recover it for the victim. He’s so cold and remorseless, we’d wonder if he might have murdered his parents himself if we weren’t also looking at his terrifying childhood drawings in which he repeatedly depicts the murderer (whose head he eventually lops off with a pair of scissors). Then the twin revelation transforms him from typical anti-hero into a scarier but more sympathetic anti-hero, which works much better, for me anyway.

While Senri and Kazuto’s extreme twin connection doesn’t so far reach the supernatural heights of the protagonist’s time-traveling in Erased, there is a bit of a similar feel in this series that I admit I’m hoping might pan out into something just as fantastical, because an average tale of vengeance isn’t all that interesting to me. That said, there’s a lot going on here, and I am not at all sure where it’s leading. There is quite a bit of mystery introduced in this volume, beyond the identity of the murderer, and there are some supporting characters I’m already very fond of, including Senri’s grandparents, who raised him after he was orphaned, and his childhood friend, Enan, whose backstory is nearly as tragic as his own.

MICHELLE: Aside from an aborted attempt to read volume one, I haven’t read any of Erased, which I’m hoping to rectify this year. And this certainly sounds a worthy successor! I’m a little concerned I’ll have trouble getting into it, as I generally don’t love narratives that focus on remorseless anti-heroes, but it seems like the mystery of what happened to his parents will compel me forward. I confess that, even with this brief synopsis, I’m already expecting kind of a Loveless outcome with the older brother.

MELINDA: Well, maybe I’m overstating the antihero-ness? He’s got a lot of compassion in him (he’s the one who reached out to Enan when they were young and accepted her when nobody else would). He’s just very much intent on being the one to kill his brother’s murderer and it’s what drives his whole narrative at this point. He also tends to inflict physical pain on himself a lot, and I don’t know whether it’s an attempt to recreate the shared pain he no longer can with his brother or a survivor’s guilt thing, but he’s definitely a sympathetic character.

You’re not the only one thinking Loveless here, though. I’m also absolutely expecting that the brother is alive.

MICHELLE: Alive and potentially culpable! This really does sound pretty neat, though. I do like a good mystery.

MELINDA: I’m certainly intrigued! So would you like to talk a bit about our mutual read this week?

MICHELLE: Sure!

Ran and the Gray World is a seven-volume seinen series by Aki Irie. In this first volume, we’re introduced to Ran, a headstrong fourth-grader, who lives with her father and older brother, Jin. Ran and Jin’s mother, Shizuka, doesn’t live with them because her presence is required elsewhere to keep a pair of mysterious giant doors from opening. She’s a Grand Sorceress and it soon becomes apparent that Ran, at least, has inherited her mother’s abilities (and impulsivity). I’m assuming Shizuka also gave her the sneakers, currently far too large, which allow her to transform into a teenage version of herself. For his part, Jin has a magic coat that allows him to transform into a wolf, perfect for tracking Ran when she goes off on ill-advised adventures.

Insisting she’s already grown-up, Ran dons the shoes and hitches a ride with strangers to go visit her mother and, inspired by a special lesson from her kindly science teacher, attempts to fly from the school roof. She has some success at the latter and winds up in the garden of a rich guy named Otaro, who doesn’t endear himself to me when he returns to his apartment building naked, exposing himself to a couple of kids in the lobby in the process. Jin rightly pegs him as fishy, and it’s clear by the end of the volume that he’s become obsessed with Ran. Despite declaring he’d never touch a kid—she’s in teenage form for the entirety of their acquaintance—he soon suggests they become more than friends. He’s a creep, and I’m so glad Ran whisks herself off when he embraces her (“I’m outta here!”) but I do worry about what lies ahead.

MELINDA: I love a lot of things about the premise, and the art is freaking gorgeous, which is what drew me to the book in the first place. I’m also pretty into what’s going on with Ran’s family dynamic, MAGIC (always a winner), and wow, her mom and brother are both absolutely fascinating characters with so much going on. But I am super creeped out by Otaro and worried about what’s going to happen there. It’s funny as someone from the Big generation, I suppose, that I’m so disturbed by a story in which a young girl is inhabiting a much older body. But at least in Big (and I suppose also in something like 13 Going On 30), the young character is at least at an age where they are already experiencing sexual attraction and an interest in romance, so it somehow didn’t feel quite so incredibly wrong as this does. So I’m worried about where this story is going to take Ran in that regard, but trying to be optimistic, I guess?

MICHELLE: Yeah. At the very least, she’s able to extricate herself from these kinds of situations when they arise, but I can’t say I have any faith that she’s going to get any more savvy any time soon.

Jin is hands-down my favorite character in the series. He’s like a Doumeki type or something. Knows that magic exists, but sensible. Looks dour, but actually kind. And so, I side with him where Shizuka is concerned, finding her to be profligate with her magic when she comes to their house. I mean, it looked like people genuinely had car accidents when she rained giant desserts down upon the town!

MELINDA: You have hit the nail on the head with Jin as the Doumeki type! And that explains why I like him so much, too. I always identify with the Watanuki characters, but I adore and crave a Doumeki for reasons that are probably obvious. Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that the loose canon character here shares her name with him. Shizuka is a terrifying mess and her power lets her get away with it, so I feel that we can count on her to provide plenty of conflict here. We don’t need the creepy dude!

MICHELLE: Definitely not. Perhaps she’ll do us all a favor and turn him into a turnip.

MELINDA: I could get behind that!

Despite my reservations about Otaro and where that storyline might lead, I am probably more excited and intrigued about this series than anything else we’ve discussed here today. It’s whimsical, original, filled with mysterious potential (what’s behind those doors??), and I can’t overstate how beautifully drawn it is. With the artwork alone, I’m besotted.

MICHELLE: I failed to say this the first time you mentioned the art, but I absolutely agree. There’s a certain retro, Moto Hagio-ish quality to it that’s very appealing.

MELINDA: Yes, it’s sort of Heart of Thomas meets Bride of the Water God, art wise—detailed and ornate, but also flowing, always in motion, like Ran’s personality. I’m definitely looking forward to more!

By: Melinda Beasi