#Christian Ishida

[geekynerfherder]

Supersonic Art presents 'Supersonic: Visions', a group art exhibition of otherworldly and futuristic visions, featuring new artworks from 30 of the world's leading and groundbreaking New Contemporary artists.

Selected art by Michael Camarra, Shoichi Okumura, Nicolas Craig, Tom Bagshaw, Shoko Ishida, Christian Orrillo and Paulette Jo.

On view now through Supersonic Art.

[neo-zone]

Me : *eating dinner peacefully*

My brain : If Yhwach is Bleach's (evil) Jesus, does that make Ishida Judas? What about Ichigo? Is he the Antichrist? How about the relation between Sternritters and Jesus' Apostles/Disciples?

[autolenaphilia]

Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida is so fascinating to me, like it's one person mental decline over a period of decades in a webcomic form. Like the political evolution over the years is insane. Ishida started out as a fairly normal liberal dude, who reacted to Bush-era christian conservatism with sex-positive edgelording. He depicted Obama as over-the-top cool in a way that felt only half-ironic. Ironically in light of his later politics, he also had some caricatures of man- and sex-hating feminists. It wasn't really a heavily political strip either, there were character-based stories.

And then in the 2010s Ishida had a weird conversion to radical feminism. This took over the comic, and it became extremely political in a strident and unsubtle way.

It started out with a heavy focus on SWERF and anti-porn stuff, and there are some porn addiction arcs that it's easy to read autobiographically. Like you get the impression Ishida thinks he has a porn addiction and feels really bad about it, and radical feminism felt like an easier outlet for his feelings about it than the religion he had mocked so much before. He had drawn man-hating sex negative caricatures of feminists before, and that's ironically the exact kind of feminist he decided to become.

And how it depicts male consumption of porn is telling. Like porn is bad, but men are compelled to consume it and can never stop, because men are all irredeemably horny misogynists. It feels like a expression of self-hatred. Sinfest became a vehicle for unsubtle caustic moralistic invective, but it always seem to spill back on Ishida himself.

Ishida is heavy on the performative man-hating that male radfems usually aren't. And his main mouthpiece character during this phase is a lesbian woman.

Ishida's depiction of porn and sex work also consistently feels off, like the victims of the sex trade are drawn too sexy to really work as anti-porn. The sex workers in the comic are also literally sex robots, but clearly meant to stand in for real life human sex workers. It's very condescending.

It took a few years before Ishida fully revealed his transmisogyny. And since then it has increasingly dominated the comic. Extremely transmisogynist caricatures of transfems everywhere. Like every online transmisogynist, it has become an obsession for Ishida. And it's weird, like he has this obsession with drawing girlbulge on his transmisogynist caricatures that feels downright fetishistic.

Like I'm not usually like "transmisogynists are rotten eggs", but honestly Ishida feels like that might be true. The lesbian author stand-in, the self-hatred that extends to men as a gender, the obsessive transmisogyny. Reading Sinfest there feels like there is something deeply wrong with Ishida. He is not just a bigot, but feels deeply disturbed. And a case of extreme internalized transmisogyny and repression is as good an explanation as any.

Ishida has however gotten worse, and zoomed down the terf-to-fascist pipeline. The comic has evolved from terfy to full-on MAGA fascist. His transmisogyny has guided Ishida to darker and darker territory. There is an comic where his lesbian mouthpiece character abandons the left precisely because the left accepts trans people. He is now an anti-vaxxer and covid denialist of course, and his literal in-comic reason for distrusting vaccines is that medical scientists also favor trans healthcare.

Most recently Ishida has done an anti-immigration arc, where immigrants are depicted as evil alien invaders from pop culture. And that illustrates how self-defeating and ironic his views are. He is literally condemning immigration as an American man named Tatsuya Ishida.

Lesbian radfems beset by porn culture and the tranny menace no longer play a large part in modern Sinfest. His heroes are now redneck magahats, depicted as unfairly prosecuted by far-left cancel culture. And he seems entirely okay with their social conservatism, a right-wing redneck family has a housewife, and its depicted as okay.

By now he has done a full 180 over the last 20 years. The right-wing conservatives who he mocked in the 00s, are now his heroes.

The recurring characters and the storylines based around them are barely there, it's all political commentary at this point. When the old characters appear it's usually as props in his heavy-handed commentary.

Sinfest was never a great comic even at its 00s peak, but it was a normal comic. Now it's just a sad record of one person's mental and political decline.

[supersonicart]

SUPERSONIC: VISIONS

Opening this Friday, January 6th, 2023 at 1PM PST on Supersonic Art Shop is the group exhibition, "SUPERSONIC: VISIONS."

The group exhibition, curated by Supersonic Art, features stunning works of futuristic and otherworldly visions.

Featuring work by Cam Floyd, Brian Mashburn, Tom Bagshaw, Ken Garduno, Andie Taylor, Alex Garant, Paulette Jo, Kazuhiro Hori, Shoko Ishida, Shoichi Okumura, Armani Howard, Robert Bowen, Adam Caldwell, Andrew Degraff, Manuel Zamudio, Nika Mtwana, Rain Szeto, Mikko Heino, Michael Dandley, Wiley Wallace, Kevin Peterson, Christian Orrillo Tejada, Gerhard Human, Chris Leib, Paul Barnes, Nicolas Craig, Danzhu Hu, Paul White, Michael Camarra and Jarvis Brookfield.

To request a collector's preview or purchase work, be sure to email shop@supersonicart.com or visit Supersonic Art Shop.

[stargazer-sims]

The Art Of Redemption - Timeline

Okay, so this isn't a timeline strictly for The Art of Redemption. It's more like a timeline for characters that appear in that story as well as in We Are Sugar Valentine, since the two are more than tangentially connected.

We Are Sugar Valentine is taking place in present day (2022-2024) and The Art of Redemption takes place in 2011-2012.

I noticed that several people may have been confused because I tend to jump around a lot between stories and also with random vignettes. It's all perfectly clear in my head, but since nobody else is living in my head, I thought a timeline of important events for all the major characters would help everyone make sense of it.

Anyway, for anyone who's interested, you can find the timeline under the cut:

1950

Nikolai Pavlenko (Nikolai’s grandfather) - 1 December 1950

1951

Stanislav Kovac - 3 June 1951

Milena Novotný (later Kovac) - 6 June 1951

1963

Jason Jones (brother of Beth-Anne) - 26 August 1963

1966

Elena Federova (later Pavlenko) - 13 January 1966

Mikhail Pavlenko (Nikolai’s father) - 28 December 1966

1968

Stan comes to Canada from Czech Republic to train with a renowned figure skating coach and to compete at ISU Senior level

Milena comes to Canada from Czech Republic as part of a foreign exchange student program

Stan and Milena meet at their high school

1970

Seong Min-Joon (a.k.a. George Seong) - 13 May 1970

Beth-Anne Dorothy Jones (born Jennifer Elizabeth Anne Jones) - 30 October 1970

1972

Stan wins an Olympic silver medal

1973

Milena finishes her undergraduate degree and begins law school

Stan and Milena become Canadian citizens

1976

Stan asks Milena to marry him

Milena graduates from law school

Abby Jones (sister of Beth-Anne) - 19 August 1976

Kim In-Hae (later known as Evie Seong) - 5 November 1976

1977

Stan and Milena get married on Valentine’s Day

Peace Adebayo - 25 June 1977

1978

Sae (Sarah) Ishida - 21 July 1978

1979

Stan & Milena’s daughter Alžbeta is born

Stan retires from competing and decides to pursue coaching as a profession

1980

Satoru (Stephen) Fujikawa - 16 January 1980

1981

Beth-Anne is put in foster care in April when she ends up in the hospital after being seriously injured by her mother

Jason turns 18 in August and becomes Beth-Anne's guardian

Jason and Beth-Anne's mother Claudia tells them their sister Abby is deceased and they try to find out if this is true, but the Department of Community Services won't give Jason any information

Jason and Beth-Anne experience several months of homelessness

1982

Beth-Anne's coach, Nancy Rogers, lets Jason and Beth-Anne move in with her until Jason gets a job and the siblings find a place of their own

Nancy helps Beth-Anne and Jason track down their father. He doesn't want contact with them but he sends them money each month.

Beth-Anne is able to resume skating

Christian Lindeman - 11 April 1982

1983

Hunter MacKay - 18 March 1983

Nikolai’s grandfather and parents immigrate to Canada six months before Nikolai and Natascha are born

Nikolai and Natascha Pavlenko - 18 December 1983

1985

Anna-Valentina Baranova (Anya Pavlenko) - 22 April 1985

Vivienne Louise (Ginger) Holmes - 14 September 1985

Juliet Cole - 8 October 1985

1987

Viktoriya (Vika) Vasilieva - 26 February 1987

Stan becomes Beth-Anne's coach

1988

Beth-Anne legally changes her name to Beth-Anne Dorothy Jones

Mikhaïl (Mishka) Vasiliev - 10 February 1988

1990

Mishka and Vika are taken away from their biological parents due to neglect and unsafe living conditions, and placed with the Vasiliev family. They are adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Vasiliev later that year.

1991

Beth-Anne wins gold at Skate Canada and eventually goes on to win bronze at the World Championship

Death of Jason Jones

Beth-Anne is in an accident during the off-season that ends her competitive skating career

Stan and Milena take Beth-Anne into their home while she recovers from her injuries

1992

Beth-Anne is sufficiently recovered from her accident to move out of Stan and Milena's house and go forward with her life, and she decides to go to university. She also decides to keep skating, even if she can no longer do it competitively

Grandpa Nikolai, Mikhail and Elena become Canadian citizens

1994

Nikolai competes in his first ISU event, in the Novice division, and wins silver

Nikolai’s grandfather gives him Champion the teddy bear

1996

Beth-Anne graduates with a degree in education and gets a job at an all-girls school as a physical education teacher

Beth-Anne stops skating at the Brindleton Bay Skating Club because seeing her friends and rivals continue to get ready for competitions while she just skates during community ice times is too painful and stress-inducing for her

Ginger competes in her first ISU event, in the Novice division

Brett Andrew Eriksson - 25 April 1996

1998

Evie & George Seong immigrate to Canada in January

Sadie Hae-Won Seong - 29 November 1998

1999

Competitive skier Stephen Fujikawa marries J-pop idol Sae (Sarah Ishida)

Nikolai’s family leaves Ontario and moves to Nova Scotia (Brindleton Bay is a fictional bedroom community of Halifax NS)

Ginger comes to Canada from the UK specifically to train with Stan

Stan also becomes Nikolai’s coach

Nikolai meets Ginger, Anya, Hunter, Juliet and Christian

2000

Nikolai adopts Tangerine the cat

Eden Yeon-Jin Seong & Charles Ki-Yeon (Charlie) Seong - 23 May 2000

Sakuharu (Haru) Abe - 11 June 2000

Stan convinces Beth-Anne to come back to the Brindleton Bay Skating Club

Beth-Anne meets Nikolai for the first time and she becomes his coach

Sebastian Fujikawa - 9 September 2000

2001

Haru’s mother passes away from a drug overdose. Haru is raised by his maternal grandparents

Nikolai wins gold at Skate Canada when he wasn't even expected to place in the top ten, much less the top three. Stan shoots the iconic "forever" photo of Nikolai and Beth-Anne. Nikolai gives Beth-Anne his medal

Stan and Milena’s grandson Marek is born in November (future figure skater)

2002

Stephen wins an Olympic gold medal in giant slalom

Sarah goes on tour and there's a scandal when someone starts a rumour about her and her bodyguard. It gets massive publicity and Stephen doesn't know what to think.

Peace immigrates from Nigeria to Canada with her children Mercy (3) and Praise (1).

2004

Nikolai wins his first World Figure Skating Championship medal (silver)

2006

Nikolai wins his first World Championship gold medal

Stephen and Sarah divorce, and it’s messy. It's also highly publicized due to their respective statuses in sports and entertainment

Stephen is granted full custody of his son Sebastian

Mishka gets drafted into the NHL and begins his pro hockey career with an American team

Beth-Anne becomes Brett's coach

2007

Stephen retires from his athletic career and joins his father and aunt in the family's sports equipment company

Stephen adopts Sofia. She is seven, the same age as Sebastian

2008

Nikolai and Anya get married

Natascha marries local construction worker, Alex MacDonald

2010

Nikolai wins his second World Championship gold medal in a row and his third Worlds gold overall

Ginger also wins gold at Worlds

Ginger becomes a Canadian citizen

2011 (The Art Of Redemption)

Nikolai seriously injures his knee while competing at the four Continents Championship in January

Beth-Anne lets Nikolai stay at her place while he's recovering from his injury and dealing with his marital issues

Beth-Anne and Peace meet

Eden and Nikolai meet

Nikolai decides he wants to be a coach

Brett wins a medal in his last competition at Junior level

Beth-Anne decides she wants to find out what really happened to her sister Abby. Stan, Milena and Nikolai support her in her quest.

Anya retires from competition and goes to work with her grandfather in his photography studio

Brett and Nikolai have a one-on-one competition

Nikolai and Anya get divorced

Eden and Sebastian both compete in their first ISU events at Novice level

Haru discovers that despite his learning disability, he's exceptional at writing poetry

2012

Beth-Anne and Peace are in a casual relationship

2013

Ginger retires from competition

Nikolai officially becomes Eden's coach

Ginger has a whirlwind romance with British businessman Liam Harris

Mishka gets traded to the Mariners in a mid-season trade

Mishka and Nikolai meet by chance on Nikolai’s birthday

Ginger and Liam elope at Christmas

2014

Nikolai and Mishka have moved past simple friendship quickly and are in a relationship

Natascha and Alex get divorced. Natascha moves back in with her parents and grandfather

Anya continues to be an unwanted presence in Nikolai's life

Liam convinces Ginger to return to the UK with him

Ginger meets Sebastian and Sofia, who are attending a UK boarding school, and she becomes Sebastian’s coach

Ginger meets Stephen Fujikawa

2015

Eden wins gold at the World Junior Figure Skating Championship

2016

Eden has his debut at Senior level. It doesn't go as well as he expects

Ginger and Liam divorce

Ginger goes to Japan with Sebastian and Sofia at the end of the school year

Stephen offers to let Ginger live in a cottage on his property and Sebastian is thrilled because he gets to live so close to his “bonus mom”

Haru gets recruited as a J-pop trainee while performing at his school's music festival.

2017

After four years together, Nikolai and Mishka part ways, due to a number of issues. They promise to keep in touch, and to try and get back together some day, if and when their lives stabliize

Haru begins his adventure as a trainee and meets future bandmates Ryu, Keigo, Senjiro and Taiji

2018

TheJ-pop group Sugar Valentine debuts. Eden and Charlie are instantly huge fans

2020

Charlie goes to college to study cosmetology and aesthetics and starts taking Japanese classes. His dream is to become a professional stylist in the entertainment industry

Sugar Valentine goes on tour for the first time

2022 (We Are Sugar Valentine)

Charlie is ready to head to Japan to begin his adventure. He and Eden have never been apart, and Eden decides to go to Japan with him. Nikolai is heartbroken at this development, as he and Eden have been together as coach and student for years.

Despite not wanting to be separated from Eden, Nikolai hesitates to go to Japan because he's an extreme homebody and doesn't want to uproot himself from everything familiar in his life

Eden finds a new coach in Japan. It goes absolutely terribly.

Charlie lands his dream job, as part of the stylist team for Sugar Valentine

Haru sees pictures of Eden in Charlie's portfolio and begs to be introduced

Charlie introduces Eden and Haru. They quickly become an item

Nikolai eventually joins Eden in Japan, after learning how badly things are going for Eden. It's a difficult adjustment for Nikolai

Nikolai is delighted to discover that Ginger is coaching Sebastian at the exact rink where Eden is training. They've kept in touch over the years, but the physical distance between them has made things challenging. They waste no time in catching up

Mishka decides he's going to retire after the 2022-23 hockey season. He needs knee surgery that he's put off for too long

Sugar Valentine goes on tour again

Mishka contacts Nikolai and tells him that he's coming to see him for his birthday in December

Mishka gives Nikolai a kitten for his birthday. They name him Boris

Nikolai is juggling Anya's continued presence in his life and his feeling that maybe he and Ginger could be more than friends

Nikolai asks for time, and Mishka vows to wait for him

2023

Ginger and Nikolai experiment with having a relationship beyond friendship. It doesn't work out because as much as they love each other, they realize they'll never get past thinking of each other as siblings.

Eden wins his first World Championship gold medal

Mishka contacts Nikolai and tells him his surgery is scheduled for the first week of June. He asks Nikolai to come home for the summer, to help take care of him while he recovers, and Nikolai agrees.

Mishka moves into Nikolai's house during his recovery

Even though they haven't been together as a couple for several years, both Nikolai and Mishka realize their feelings for each other are just as strong as ever. They pick up right where they left off

Eden comes home around the same time as Nikolai. They mutually decide not to return to Japan.

Haru buys Eden a house in Brindleton Bay

Mishka does not move out of Nikolai's house in August, like they originally planned.

Mishka proposes to Nikolai at Christmas. They plan their wedding for the following summer

2024

Sugar Valentine undertakes their third tour

Haru gives Eden a horse for his birthday. He also gives himself one for his own birthday, which is only 19 days after Eden's

Mishka rescues a horse. He helps Eden and Haru with theirs.

Natascha finally decides it's time to move out of her parents' house and get her own place again

Mishka's sister Vika comes to visit him and Nikolai for the summer

Nikolai's grandfather decides to move into a seniors' community.

Grandpa Nikolai meets someone from his past, and has big feelings about it

Nikolai and Mishka get married in July

[thewebcomicsreview]

I sometimes wonder if any of the people who supported Sinfest during its feminist phase are now ashamed of it after it became anti-trans.

Well, yeah, lots, the comic got way less popular after that turn, though it's less "I can't believe I liked that guy" and more "I can't believe Tatsuya Ishida suddenly became a crazy person one day".

Though Z6IIAB, who prefers to be called Celina, might be the oddest. She was on board with Tats' anti-trans turn, often fighting with members of the old board over it. Tats eventually took her side so hard he banned his entire forum and made a new one, with blackjack and hookers. Well, not hookers. Probably not blackjack anymore either, actually, given his RETVRN to Evangelical Christianity. At one point, the new forum had 70 posts and 41 of them were from two users, one of which was her

To a large extent, the yellow forums were made just for her. She posted there 842 times, 29% of all posts on this forum to this day. The forum was literally made just for her.

But then Tats became anti-Vax, and that was the new Current Thing for him.

And Celina was not super fond of that, and would post "facts" and "statistics" in the forums. Anti-Trans she was okay with. Anti-vax she was not super comfortable with. But still. She was Tats' biggest fan, and she wasn't going to throw that away over a conspiracy theory arc.

And then Tats started doing right-wing memes, and that made her real uncomfortable.

This post is from January 2022, and if Celina was already starting to look around her and wonder if she was hanging out with a 4chan nazi...

Then perhaps she saw this February 10th strip about how (((devils))) secretly control the world by controlling the banking system and started seeing the same thing here that I do. She didn't make a post for that strip, and a week later, on February 17th 2002, she posted on the Sinfest forum for the last time.

She hasn't been seen since. And neither has ZozoCitizen, or CopperRose, or RikkiTikkiTavi, all once-prolific posters last seen in September 2022. Tanagra last posted on the 4th of July. The new Sinfest forum was never exactly hip and happening, but it had its regulars once upon a time.

In the last two months, just counting manually, the forum has looked like this:

MeowingInsanely has posted one time Fabbo has posted one time Quil has posted three times, all in one conversation with Russly Russly has posted twenty-three times

Only four people used the forums, and really it's a one-Russly show. For comparison, just looking at site comments for my own not successful comic and ignoring the discord completely, 11 people have posted on the actual site comments (12 if you count me). If you go to my discord, you might have seen the creator of Starhammer lament their low comment numbers lately, and while I have 12 commentors in the last two months, I count 13 on Starhammer in the last two weeks.

Tats has one fan left, and that's it, and that's the fan who replies to her own threads and argues with herself. He has no money. He has no friends. He's got no fight left to fight. He's just a sad, pathetic, lonely man, trying desperately to win approval from literal nazis because he thinks they're the only people desperate enough to still like him, and they're not. They're not! All the alt-right shit Tats has done and they don't respect him at all and they never will and one day I think he'll eventually realize it and flip a switch to a new political identity. Eco-fascism or NIMBYism or communism or juggling or whatever he sees on Facebook that day.

He's just TimeCube now, with less friends and more racism. It's not even upsetting any more. Why get mad about an angry old man shouting alone in the dark?

[linkspooky]

CHOUJIN X, CHAPTER 35 THOUGHTS.

Chapter 35 shows Tokio’s separation from his friends, and the themes of nihilism Ishida weaves into his manga. The central conflict between Tokio and his best friend Azama early on where one of them is referred to as the vulture and the other the lion is a reference to Nietzsche’s philosophy. The lion in particular is one of the three metamorphoses Nietzsche lists in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In this chapter, Tokio is embarking on his journey through those three metamorphoses which symbolize the three stages of life and development. 

1. The Wilderness

Thus spoke Zarathustra is a work in which Nietzsche expounds upon several of his key concepts, including the superman, self-overcoming, and nihilism. The main theme of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the portrayal of values as either creative and life-affirming, or ascetic and conformist. 

The basic idea Nietzsche puts forward in his work is that all ideology, rules and morality of any given society are created rather than inherent. Which means morals and laws and commandments don’t come from gods, they come from human beings. They are the inventions of human beings and enforced by human beings. 

Nietzsche’s idea that there’s no inherent morality isn’t suggesting that morality doesn’t exist, or that there are no rules therefore you can do whatever you want, but just that you should not blindly follow the rules. Nietzsche refers to Christianity as the “old morality”, which someone has to shed away in order to be someone who can create their own morality. 

Which is why Choujin X primarily being a superhero manga, where characters with super powers fight villains, follow the law and save people as heroes of justice is such a good place for a Nietzschean dissection of morality. 

From the start Tokio is identified as a character who basically has no ideals, he begins the manga making no decisions for himself, and just copying whatever Azama does. 

Azama is a believer of justice unlike Tokio, who puts a lot of work into studying and martial arts because he believes in his own personal justice. Azama’s introduction in the manga is even the classic saving a woman from a thug attacking her scenario that’s featured in many comic book superhero stories, but what’s important about that scene is TOkio is the one who stumbles upon the woman in trouble and even though he knows he should do something he just sits there and watches waiting for Azama to come help. That says a lot about Tokio’s character, he has no morality or ideals he fights for he’s just a shallow copy of Azama’s ideals.  

If the central theme of Choujin X is what Choujin do with their superhuman powers, then Tokio despite suddenly being given power and more power than Azama. Yet, Tokio stays the same old pathetic and indecisive person. 

Which is why Tokio needs to go through these stages of metamorphoses, because up until this point in the manga he still had not developed any ideals of his own and instead borrowed from both Ely and Azama at the same time. He was still following the old values. Which makes sense why his separation from Ely and Azama is necessary for his growth into his own individual. 

Nietzsche’s three metamorphsoes parallel in Thus Spoke Zarathustra follows three stages. The camel, the lion, and the child. The first stage begins with the camel is suddenly burdened. Nietzsche gives several examples of what those burdens are, but it all boils down to self-examination.

“Why is it heavy? So asketh the load-baering-spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden. What is the heaviest thing, ye heroes? asketh the load-bearing spirit, that I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength.” (Thus spake Zarathusra). 

 It’s hard to think for yourself, and it’s easy to follow others. This is the state Tokio was in just before he was told of his potential destiny as the one to stop the destruction of Yamato.

He’s still chained to another person’s belief system. Which is why while Tokio disappearing from Azama and Ely’s life is a little bit selfish and hurtful, it’s also something that was probably necessary for Tokio’s development as an individual. 

Nietzsche states the thing that camel does to move onto its next development is to separate itself from others and retreat into the wilderness. 

“All these the heaviest things the load-bearing sprit taketh upon itself; and like the camel, which when laden, haseneth into its wilderness.”

(Thus Spake Zarathustra)

Which mirrors the necessary journey that Tokio akes this chapter, to venture into the wilderness and separate himself from others so he can become strong and independent enough to carry his own burdens. In response to Tokio suddenly realizing that he has great power and potentially a great destinty to save Yamato as a choujin and because of that he needs to become someone responsible enough to carry those things.The next phase is the lion. 

Which is most likely the stage Azama is at right now. At the stage of the lion , you begin to create your own morality. 

All values have already been created, and all created values - do I represent. Verily, there shall be no “I willl” any more. Thus speaketh the dragon, My brethren, wherefore is there need of the lion in the spirit? Why sufficeth not the beast of burden, which is renounceth and is reverent? To create new values - that even the lion cannot yet accomplish: but to create for itself the freedom for new creating - that can the might of the lion do. To create itself freedom, and give a holy Nay ecen unto duty;for that, my brethren there is need of the lion. 

(Thus Spake Zarathustra)

Therefore, Azama who already has his own convictions and idea of justice was already at this stage, whereas until this point Tokio was only ever playing catch up to him. 

We see the chapter end with Tokio’s journey into the wilderness, because he needs the might of the lion to begin to create his own values and think for himself. The third stage would be child, where Tokio is essentially reborn as a new person, his own person rather than a shallow copy of other people. 

Which is why the ultimate goal in this manga is to become a “Choujin” (the direct translation of this word in Japanese is superman), which relates to the nietzschian idea of the ubermensch. 

Nietzsche puts forward we follows these stages of metamorphosis i order to create the ubermensch or superman. Having gone through an old morality, creative spirits can shed the influence of others and ultimately create a new way of being in the world. Such a new being would involve not only a new perspective, but a new set of values with their own rationale. 

“There was it also where I picked up from the path the word “Superman” and that man is something to be surpassed. THat man is a bridge and not a goal - rejoiciing over his noontiedes and evenings, as advances to new rosy dawns.”  Thus Spake Zarathsutra

Tokio’s journey into becoming the superman has nothing to do with becoming the smartest or the strongest, but learning to be his own person and think for himself without following others. 

[shinsengumi-archives]

The Hijikata family in the Ishida village census

I continue to read the book The demon lieutenant of Shinsengumi. This is in fact a collection of articles by different authors, each with their own way of retelling some moments from Hijikata's life. And one of the authors - my favorite Kikuchi Akira - really dug up something new!

Kikuchi Akira is a Bakumatsu researcher who is always getting into the thick of things: comparing the Okita's kaimyo (posthumous Buddhist name) and the kaimyo of his supposed girlfriend, or parsing Hijikata's letters. And now he has found the census books of Ishida village from 1817 to 1869, which refute the official opinion that Toshizo was fired from one job at 11 and another at 17. According to the new records, he was listed "in the people section" at a completely different age and for quite a long time! In addition, these records reveal some peculiarities of the Japanese population of the century before the last century.

These are the family registration books:

There are 20 volumes of them, and they were kept until recently by a certain Hijikata Satoshi, who only deigned to share them with the public about five years ago (how many more of these things are still stashed away in private archives!).

So, in Japan, throughout the Edo period, monks conducted a census of the population. They sent the data to the shogunate and kept a copy for themselves. The original purpose of this census was to prevent the spread of Christianity, so special books listed all members of each family, along with their servants, their ages, and their religion.

It is difficult to say how often this information was collected, because in Ishida village the census was conducted either once every five years, or every year. But it was always in March.

Hijikata Toshizo was born in May 1835, and the first record of him in the registration book did not appear until March 1840:

parishioner of the Kongoji Shrine of Takahata Village - Toshizo, age 6 [4.5 years old according to our age system]

His name was then written as 歳蔵 throughout the census.

The author provides only one entry entirely about the Hijikata family, in 1848. This is roughly what it looked like:

Income 20 koku, 1 to 1 sho 4 go 7 yu 一 Shingon Sect, Takahata Village, Kongoji Temple Parishioner - Hayato, 28 years old Parishioner of the same temple - Wife Naka, 23 years old. Parishioner of the same temple - Elder brother Tamejiro, 33 years old. Parishioner of the same temple - Daughter Nui, 7 years old. Parishioner of the same temple - Son Sakusuke, 4 years old. Parishioner of the same temple - Servant Hachigoro, 19 years old 一 Zen sect, Yaho village, Nanyoji temple Parishioner - Maid Hatsu, 21 years old 一 Shingon sect, Shitada village, Anyoji temple Parishioner - Maid Fude, 12 years old A total of 8 people, of which 4 are male, 4 are female. Two more males are in service in other houses: 一 Shingon sect, Takahata village, Kongoji temple Parishioner - Younger brother Daisaku, 20 years old Parishioner of the same temple - Younger brother Toshizo, 14 years old

By our age system, everyone here is a year younger. Daisaku was probably about to be adopted by the Kasuya doctor family at that time. As for where Toshi was, it's unknown. Though maybe at his sister's...

The official biography says that in 1845 he was employed in the fabric store Matsuzakaya in Ueno, where the owner was a certain Ito. There Toshi quarreled with the clerk and fled home. And this article even says where this information comes from: it turns out that in 1935, the grandson of Sato Hikogoro and Hijikata Nobu talked about it on the radio.

This same Matsuzakaya still exists today. Here's its website. It's even in English.

The census book for 1845 also exists, but in it, the page about the Hijikata family was "deliberately defaced by someone," as Kikuchi Akira writes. But it's easy to reconstruct the rest from the surviving pieces:

一 Zen sect, Yaho village, Nanyoji temple Parishioner - Servant Tsunakichi (or Tsunayoshi), 21 years old 一 Shingon Sect, Ochikawa Village, Shinshoji Temple Parishioner - Maid Kuni, 17 years old A total of 8 people, of which 5 are male, 3 are female. Another 1 female is in the service of another house: 一 Shingon Sect, Takahata Village, Kongoji Temple Parishioner - Younger sister Ran, 15 years old

Ran was Nobu's childhood name. In theory, she married Sato Hikogoro a year ago, and should have been listed in his household by now. But since she's recorded still in it, Kikuchi-san explains, that means her marriage was nominal at first. It was called asiirekon (足入れ婚 ), when one sort of got married, but the wife continued to live in her parent's house. Or maybe "in the service" meant she was living with Sato anyway.

On the defaced page there should be four more "males" and two females: Hayato, Tamejiro, Daisaku, Toshizo; wife Naka, daughter Nui. Sakusuke was born in 1845, the same year (i.e. not yet born in March), and there is no one "in the service" besides Ran.

So Kikuchi-san, based on the study of some other "private documents", concluded that Hijikata worked for this very Ito from about 12-13 and up to 16 years old (according to our age system), and the story of "quarrel with the clerk" and "dismissal because of a girl" took place at the same location.

But in Hijikata's family another version was passed down from generation to generation: that Toshizo first worked in Ueno, and then in Tenmacho, also in a fabric store, and that's where the story with the girl happened. Hijikata has a haiku about Tenmacho, so he was definitely there :) It's just unknown exactly when.

That Toshizo returned home at the age of 16 (in 1851) is a confirmed fact. This is written about in Kojima Shikanosuke's book "両雄士伝" - "The Lives of Two Great Warriors" written in 1873. About Kondo and Hijikata, yep. The very fact that this book exists is a big surprise to me - it's strange that no mention of it has ever been found anywhere! You can understand why though: it's written in kanbun, a hellish mixture of Chinese and Japanese. So, this book says that Toshizo returned to his hometown at the age of 17 (i.e. 16) and began practicing martial arts, in which he soon became very successful. Anyway, he started selling Ishida Sanyaku and going to different dojos.

However, the monastic registration books for 1854 and 1856 still show "two more males are in the service of other houses". It was not until 1858 that the record that Toshi was finally home appeared for the first time.

Income 39 koku, 7 to 8 go 一 Shingon Sect, Takahata Village, Kongoji Temple Parishioner - Hayato, 38 years old. … wife Naka, 33 …older brother Tamejiro, 43 years old. …younger brother Toshizo, 24. (then there are 6 children, 1 servant and 1 maid) Total 12 people, 9 male, 3 female.

On March 9, 1859, Hijikata was officially enrolled as a student at the Kondo dojo. There is an entry about it in the "Registration book of the Tennen Rishin-ryu" (天然理心流神文帳 ), and then in the diaries of relatives, friends and neighbors there are many entries such as "Toshizo came with Okita Soji, both stayed at our place for the night" (Hashimoto's diary, 09-03-1860), or "Toshizo and Kondo Isami went to Itsukaichi" (Sato's diary, 09-05-1860).

In August 1860, another official registration book was published called "Bujutsu eimei roku" (武術英名録 ) - something like "Names of Glorious Swordsmen". It included the names of 600 swordsmen from all over the Kanto region, including Hijikata. Only those who had a rank no lower than mokuroku were enrolled there, and Hijikata would not have been able to get mokuroku in such a short time if he had not studied the sword before, writes Kikuchi Akira. So he did study, but where - that's the question. That is, what kind of "service" he was in from 1853-4 to 1857-8 is unknown. Maybe he just lived at Sato's house and walked around, selling medicine, but Sato has no mention of it. So this is "another mystery" for Japanese historians.

[sasorikigai]

Ever since Game of Thrones came to an end back in 2019, I've been itching for some expansive medieval political intrigue. FX's adaptation of Shōgun, James Clavell's 1975 novel, provides exactly what I've been craving. It widens its view of the original story, which follows a fictionalized version of the adventures of the first Englishman to reach Japan, to put a greater emphasis on the dangerous political world that man finds himself trapped in. This new adaptation of Shōgun is all about the machinations of feudal lords, their vassals and retainers, and their spies and confidants, as Japan careens toward civil war in 1600.

The wider scope that creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks give the story makes room for a wide array of characters, all of whom are trying to square the requirements of loyalty and duty with their own searches for power or even just survival. That almost makes Shōgun a political thriller, and every scene carries the undercurrent that, despite the polite strictures of the society they find themselves in, everyone is fighting a death that's inexorably sweeping toward them.

At the center of the story is Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada, John Wick: Chapter 4), who is trying to navigate the dangerous politics of a degrading peace. A year after the death of the Taikō, the leader of a unified Japan, Toranaga sits on a council of five regents who share power until the rightful heir comes of age. His main rival on the council, Ishida (Takehiro Hira, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), is already maneuvering against him when things pick up, aligning the other regents to vote to impeach Toranaga, which will mean his death.

Into that situation comes John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), a Protestant English navigator on a Dutch ship hoping to discover a route to Japan. Up to this point, only the Portuguese and their Catholic church have known the nation's location and thus dominate trade. When Blackthorne's ship is blown ashore, he's taken prisoner with his men, but his hope is to disrupt the Portuguese and establish diplomatic connections of his own as part of a larger battle between the European nations. Where the novel sticks mostly with Blackthrone's viewpoint as he experiences and learns about Japanese culture amidst the rising political tensions, the series shows just how much he's another piece in Toranaga's grander game.

Linking Toranaga and Blackthorne is Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, F9: The Fast Saga), a Christian convert who speaks Portuguese and serves as interpreter for Blackthorne. Mariko is also torn between loyalties, stuck spending time with Blackthorne, who is considered a barbarian, and bound by competing duties to Toranaga, her religion, and her family line.

Sanada stalwartly anchors the drama, and his ability to keep everything behind his eyes leaves the audience guessing at the mystery of Toranaga's plans as much as the characters. Jarvis plays foil to the more subdued characters, particularly Sawai's Mariko, and his emotional swings bring an intensity to goings-on that often have the feel of a current carrying everyone out to sea. But it's Sawai who provides Shōgun's empathetic heart more often than not, especially in scenes when her duty and her place in patriarchal society force her to sit stony against the abuse--mostly verbal but sometimes physical--of others. When she turns that purposely emotionless gaze against other people at a few key moments, it has a devastating effect.

Shōgun also features a large cast of great supporting characters, as well. Tadanobu Asano (Mortal Kombat) is the most fun to watch as Yabushige, Toranaga's scheming vassal who is by turns sadistic, boisterous, courageous, and sometimes a bit incompetent. He often brings a much-needed frankness to the other, stodgier characters. It's worth noting also that most of Shōgun is subtitled; the Japanese characters speak Japanese to one another, and English only comes up among the foreigners and when Mariko speaks to Blackthorne.

There's a lot less mustache-twirling or open plotting than you might expect here, though, often because so much of the intrigue is bound up in the honor code of the samurai culture in which the show takes place. But in similar fashion to Game of Thrones, you'll likely spend a lot of time internalizing how everyone is related, who they're bound to, and what their goals are. If there's a drawback, it's that much of Shōgun is subdued conversations between characters sitting in quiet rooms. Across the first eight episodes FX provided for this review (with 10 in total), there are a few flashes of action as war draws near, but they tend to be quick and explosive. This isn't a series that's going from battle to battle, but instead builds a consistent tension that the very world puts the characters in danger--not necessarily because of unseen schemes, but because of the rules hemming them all in.

It also just often looks great. Japan is presented with a foggy beauty running through the show's cinematography and presentation, and there's a persistent desaturated understatement to the images. Like everything else, it amplifies the ever-present feeling of death just out of view.

Shōgun provides the same thrill as some of the best moments of Game of Thrones, when the careful plots of powerful people collide in unforeseen ways. It's a gripping story of intrigue, thanks to an excellent cast and stakes the show is always finding new ways to raise.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

https:// www.tumblr.com /aspiringwarriorlibrarian/730307691272175616

Think what strikes me about that Tatsuya Ishida comic that was part in that reblog chain is how much, at least based on observation, his descent into madness was born of him basically having no real ideological foundation in the first place.

Even in the early Sinfest comics, there was always this weird tension of him trying to reconcile his outward desire to be seen as the good guy, vs his darker behaviors and impulses that he simultaneously indulged in and seemed to outright be repulsed by.

Whether it was his love of sexy women with his budding radical feminism, or his initial liberalism for Obama to hardcore rightwing assholism for Trump, his work and his behavior just seems to reflect someone who wanted some kind of "correct" ideology that would ensure he was always in the right and a good person, and when that ideology turned out to be more flawed or required more nuance and work than he realized or wanted to deal with, it seems to have led to a brutal disillusionment and subsequent shift into increasingly radical and contrarian attitudes that eventually led him down the path of a being an open bigot.

Essentially, Sinfest comes off to me as "Christian Guilt: the Ideological Pendulum" comic.

Oh no, I have a friend who's very involved in the r/sinfest community which used to enjoy this but has now turned into a mix of watching the garbage burn and making funny edits out of it. It's pretty clear that he's one of those guys who did something shitty and instead doubled down into hell.

[fangcyclonelunaheat]

Trying to write ishida as Christian feels so off and like a sin.

It's like I entered my room and noticed something is missing but I know what is missing but i don't where to look for it or to find it and it feels so weird and unnerving

Ishida isn't ishida if he doesn't have his flamboyant exaggerated unchecked bisexuality-in-denial italian-ness (the also unchecked daddy issues stay) but I got to do it for this fanfic I'm doing if I don't it feels wrong

[hamliet]

It seems like Choujin X is entering theological territory, you might be interested in that.

Oooh, definitely. I remember really liking Ishida's dealing with toxic Christian theology in TG during its best chapters, and as someone who was also raised... in that sort of environment, albeit probably more intensely (fundamentalist), the themes really resonated with me. I'd like to see where he's taking this in Choujin X.

[sonohtigris]

well I re read all of bleach

1. soul reapers super cool have friends respect and carefor each other and swords are cool visored get sick masks and swords

2. arrancar hollows are kinda sad like sharks their (for the most part) only malicious due to nature and fear sick drip also swords +masks most of them seem to care about other so thats nice

3. fullbring kinda lame needs more unification and the two strongest were dicks but get points for friendship and caring

4. Quincy other than Ishida the rest are too Christian but not weird about it so lame only one of the wandericht have any like I like that one and it's cus she's trans and into murder cannibalism don't care about each other so loose major points

in final Soul reapers/shinigami totally fuckable

arrancar beyond fuckable

full bring I mean eh

and quincy except like 2 of them totally unfuckable

[supersonicart]

SUPERSONIC: VISIONS

Opening this Friday, January 6th, 2023 at 1PM PST on Supersonic Art Shop is the group exhibition, “SUPERSONIC: VISIONS.”

The group exhibition, curated by Supersonic Art, features stunning works of futuristic and otherworldly visions.

Featuring work by Cam Floyd, Brian Mashburn, Tom Bagshaw, Ken Garduno, Andie Taylor, Alex Garant, Paulette Jo, Kazuhiro Hori, Shoko Ishida, Shoichi Okumura, Armani Howard, Robert Bowen, Adam Caldwell, Andrew Degraff, Manuel Zamudio, Nika Mtwana, Rain Szeto, Mikko Heino, Michael Dandley, Wiley Wallace, Kevin Peterson, Christian Orrillo Tejada, Gerhard Human, Chris Leib, Paul Barnes, Nicolas Craig, Danzhu Hu, Paul White, Michael Camarra and Jarvis Brookfield.

To request a collector’s preview or purchase work, be sure to email shop@supersonicart.com or visit Supersonic Art Shop.

[perfettamentechic]

Lucifer for Halloween

Halloween Outfit by Paola Moretti #halloween #maze #lucifer #ootd #wwt #hugoboss #manokhi #taroishida #johnrichmond #philippplein #anastasiabeverlyhills #christianlouboutin #janissavitt #efcollection #ferragamo #iho #paolamoretti #perfettamentechic

Pantalone: Hugo Boss Top: Manokhi Stivaletti: Taro Ishida Giacca: John Richmond Borsa: Philipp Plein Lipstick: Anastasia Beverly Hills Nail: Christian Louboutin Orecchini: Janis Savitt Anello: EF Collection Bracciale: Salvatore Ferragamo Fashion Blogger: Paola Moretti Instagram: paolamorettiiho

[knightinsourarmor]

BLOG ROLL / MUSES ( last update: Sep. 17, 2023 )

Primary Blogs: ( these blogs are hosted on different accounts )

@deibreak : Todoroki Shoto. Primary.

@naitfall: Levi Ackerman. Primary.

@daysterre : Oshi No Ko Multimuse featuring Arima Kana

ARCANE.

Mel Medarda. Primary.

Silco. Secondary.

Vi (Violet). Tertiary.

& more . . .

BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA.

@deibreak : Todoroki Shoto. Primary.

Todoroki Toya ( Pro-Hero). Primary.

Bakugo Katsuki. Secondary.

Amajiki Tamaki ( Under Request )

& more . . .

BUNGO STRAY DOGS.

Oda Sakunosuke ( Private )

& more . . .

FUGOU KEIJI - BALANCE: UNLIMITED.

Kambe Daisuke ( Under Request )

JIBAKU SHOUNEN HANAKO-KUN.

Tsuchigomori Ryuujirou. Primary.

KIMETSU NO YAIBA.

more . . .

LYCORIS RECOIL.

Nishikigi Chisato. Secondary.

MIRACULOUS LADYBUG.

Adrien Agreste (ft. Felix Agreste - Archetype) ( Under Request )

NIP / TUCK.

Christian Troy. Test.

NORAGAMI.

more . . .

OSHI NO KO.

@daysterre : Oshi No Ko Multimuse featuring Arima Kana, Hoshino Ruby & more . . .

OWARI NO SERAPH.

Mikaela Hyakuya. Tertiary.

SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN.

@naitfall : Levi Ackerman. Primary.

Kuchel Ackerman. Primary.

Reiner Braun. Secondary.

Mikasa Ackerman. Tertiary.

Eren Yeager. Test. ( Exclusively Pre Timeskip )

& more . . .

SPY X FAMILY.

Melinda Desmond. Secondary.

Damian Desmond. Test.

Yor Forger. Test.

& more . . .

SUPERNATURAL.

Castiel. Primary.

Cain. Secondary. (Test)

& more . . .

VIOLET EVERGARDEN.

Violet Evergarden ( Private )

MOVIES & OTHERS.

Hunger Games. more . . .

Koe No Katachi. Ishida Shouya ( Private )