#He has very good combat skills overall and learns the opponent by sight

[enjomo-arch]

I love how the novel really nicely references Ace's leadership. It's not only charisma or his heroism that pulls people closer to him but something above it. He very easily manages to catch people following his steps and finding a strange interest in him. Instant fondness or even respect -

[dlamp-dictator]

Let me tell you all about Rinne Berlinetta (Vivid Strike)

Rinne Berlinetta is the adopted daughter of Dan and Lori Berlinetta, owners of the Berlinetta Enterprise, a fashion and jewelry company. Before this adoption went though Rinne was originally an orphan, and a rather shy and naive one at that. She avoided conflict, easily frightened, and her biggest worry was filling her stomach with snacks. Her life wasn’t too hard, but it was a lonely one. At least until got close to another child at the orphanage, Fuka, who protected her from bullies and gave Rinne a sturdy shoulder to cry on. Overall, Rinne’s life was peaceful.

However, one day she met an older gentleman while playing with the other orphans, Roy Berlinetta. On a whim the man decided to buy the orphans drinks, but noting Rinne, a girl that very much looked like his own daughter with her white hair and purple eyes, decided to later convinced his daughter, Rinne future foster mother, to adopt Rinne. 

From that day one, Rinne went from living in a poor church orphanage to a luxurious mansion with a loving family. It seemed like a fairy tale. Being adopted by a loving and wealthy family, going to school with people that enjoyed her company, and soon learning she had a very high aptitude for sports and athletics, becoming the desired star of every sports and martial arts club in school. Her foster grandfather’s health was slowly taking a turn for the worst, but he was slowly recovering. All in all, her life was truly going well. 

However... that wasn’t to be the end of Rinne’s story.

No, reality is sadly a lot crueler than that. Being the adopted daughter of a wealthy family, Rinne was almost immediately the victim of intense bullying from the Combat Club of her school.They saw her as an arrogant brat that had gotten a swelled head just for having rich parents and a strong body. And so she was targeted. Her desk scratched up, her shoes shredded and tattered, and she was even stalked and tormented in even the bathroom. Never having a moment’s peace.

But Rinne never fought back. Only when a gift from her beloved grandfather, a diamond tiepin, was threatened did she speak up and struggle. However, that reaction only made them target her further. In the end she stopped wearing it, wanting to keep the one gift of her ailing grandfather safe from harm, taking the bullying without ever speaking up about it, not wanting to burden her parents with something that felt like trivial complaining. This went one for months. 

Until the bullies finally apologized and said they went too far. It seemed the months of torture without seeing Rinne fight back left them feeling guilty. They apologized, saying they regretted being jealous of Rinne’s status and going so far. And Rinne, being the kind girl she is, happily decided to let it all be water under the bridge. She even felt confident enough to wear her tiepin again soon after. And to make thing better, her grandfather said his health was getting better, soon being able to go out on walks and finally see travel the town with his beloved granddaughter. Things were looking up. 

But... well...

It was a tricked. A cruel trick of faking an apology so Rinne would bring the one thing that she’d react to if taken. A low blow, but the last straw for Rinne was being held against her will, even knocked out during a critical moment for her grandfather’s health taking a turn for the worst. 

She was forced to miss her Grandfather’s last moments. This left Rinne absolutely heartbroken. The day before her grandfather had said he'd be able to go out on walks in a bit, would be able to enjoy the outside air with his granddaughter just like on the day they first met. But... it wasn’t to be. Rinne was left to believe that she was the cause of her grandfather’s death, that in his last moments in this world he was desperately fighting to see her face one last time, only for Rinne to fail him, to not use the strength she had to stand up for herself and stop what hindered her.

And then, Rinne broke.

She ended the antics of her bullies the day after, being forced to transfer schools as a result of her violence. Everything was settled out of court, but the families of the bullies, the brothers specifically, weren’t please with their sisters suffering while this rich girl with seemingly supernatural strength went free.

So they could matters into their own hands. However...

Enter Jill Stola, a former MMA fighter and trainer of the Frontier Gym. She happened to see Rinne’s kidnapping and decided to save her. 

Only for Rinne to save herself soon after. But after hearing Jill’s profession Rinne asks to be trained. Not for self-defense, as she had demonstrated she was physically strong enough to keep herself safe, but to never feel weak again. To never feel she’ll lose something precious to her due to hesitating. To never have people look down her ever again. To feel like she’s strong for once in her life. 

Now, Jill is an interesting character herself in terms of her philosophies as a coach and her beliefs in combat sports, but for now I’ll just say Jill had an inkling of what Rinne was feeling and figured she could use Rinne’s sadness and pain. That she could mold it into something pure and bright like a diamond. So she trained Rinne. She trained Rinne until she threw up and made get up and train some more, wanting to make her into a champion. To let her feel strong by standing on top of the fighting circuit as a World Champion.

But all this did was turn Rinne’s sadness into bloodlust. She didn’t so much fight as she took her anger out on her opponents. Channeled all her hatred into her fists and looked down those who lost to her. She hated weakness, and she hated those who were weaker than her. People that didn’t have anything to lose, people that didn’t fight for anything but fun and competition. To her, they were ignorant to how cruel the world could be needed to be brought down to earth and reality. And for all her training and accolades, Rinne hated martial arts. She hated them with a fierce passion. She only felt she used them to prove she was better than those she defeated, and she was on a downward spiral as she looked down on those that lacked skill and ability as weaklings that needed to leave the sport and leave her sight.

Enter Fuka Reventon, a childhood friend of Rinne from orphanage and street fighter turned martial artist. Seeing Rinne’s descent into depression and cruelty, she had enough of Rinne’s condescending behavior. Seeing the kind and gentle Rinne turn into a violent and cruel monster for seeming no reason, and seeing her have this almost self-loathing toward weakness, she decided to join a local gym, train herself to be competitively fit for combat, and face Rinne in the ring. If Rinne wouldn’t snap out of it with words, then Fuka’s fists would have to do.

Now, to not spoil things too far, I’ll just say they both had that big fight, and both come out the better for it. Rinne finally lets go of her past, gains an appreciation for martial arts, and goes back to her coach to train with earnest ambitions to become a champion.

So... Why Talk about This?

Well, I decided to rewatch the show again. Honestly, this month’s be a bit of a downer and I needed a quick action fix to perk me up. Vivid Strike is one of my go-to anime for that sort of thing, so I watched it for what’s probably the fourth time since its airing. I... came out appreciating this series a lot more than I thought I would. I talked about it three years ago here. 

In that opinion piece I said that this was a fine sports anime, but had a bad story, focusing too much on the antagonist than the protagonist. I... take that back as of now. Looking back I was harsher on this show than I should had been in general. I still stand by that this show focused more on Rinne than Fuka, but I’ll also say that’s probably the point. 

This is a spin-off the Nanoha series, and while I'm not familiar with that series I’ve done a bit of research and learned that Nanoha always focuses more on their antagonist than their protagonist, as the theme of the series is that evil tends to be misunderstood and can come to the light side if an open hand is waiting to accept them. Power of Friendship and all that. 

And in my older and (hopefully) wiser age of 26, I feel like I should try and update my opinions and stances on things, especially the things I love. Vivid Strike is on the list of anime I watch for my action fixes, along with Absolute Duo, Armed Girl’s Machiavellism, and History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi. But when I rewatch these series I usually find something more than just a lot of punching, like with Rinne here. I felt I should talk about it for a bit, talk about Rinne. So... here we are. 

And really, just reading back on my original thoughts made me scowl a little at my past self for not grasping the main theme of this show, something I’m more acute to nowadays. I wanted to correct myself here with this little... character study of sorts. If you want to get into this series then it’s on Amazon Prime. It’s good show, and especially so if you aren’t familiar with Nanoha mythos, as Vivid Strike only has a handful of nods and references too it that you won’t need to know.

Actually, I did have a small draft of a Nanoha Vivid opinion piece in the works, so I’ll get to work on that next.

Anyway, I’ll see you folks later.

[ohnohetaliasues]

AOT OC | here is my oc, thanks for saying you'll have a look at it

Name: Clara Stirling

Meaning: Clara-It is the feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant ‘clear, bright, famous’

Nickname(s): Lucy,

Alias (if any): Humanities Insane Girl, The Stirling Twins (will explain),

Age: 33s (850)

Gender: Female

Species (If a Titan Shifter fill out that section; if not get rid of it or leave it blank): Human

Birthday: 10th November

Birthplace (Which Wall, What town, etc.): Wall Maria, the district opposite the Shiganshina District

Current Residence (Which Wall, What town, etc.): Wall Rose

Sexuality: Bisexual

Relationship Status: Single

Language(s) spoken: English, Russian

Life-Long Dream: to avenge her sister, to become a chef,

Goal(s): help humanity, to learn different languages, to help those in need

Like(s): drawing, food, dancing, her friends and family, cleaning

Dislike(s): titans, avocado, spicy food, spring

Bad Habit(s): biting finger nails, skips meals (she is not depressed, trying to starve herself or trying to get thin; she just sometimes forgets to eat), tapping things; if it be her foot or drumming her fingers on her desk

Hobbies: Drawing, Dancing, Cooking

Fear(s): Dying for no cause, wasting her life away, dying, big spider, has claustrophobia

Personality: cheerful, reckless, energetic, observant, caring, imaginative, sarcastic, bright, a little bit sadistic, funny, reliable, trustworthy,

Favorites(not necessary)-

Food(s): Garlic Bread

Color(s): Blue and Purple

Season(s): Winter

Activities: Drawing, training, dancing

Time of Day: dusk

Appearance-

Height: 164cm

Weight: 57kg

Hair style (Always Down, Always Up, etc.): always down for she has short hair

Hair Color: chestnut brown

Eye Color: Hazel

Skin Tone: pale

Body Shape/Build: skinny, tall, hourglass body shape, medium-small breasts,

Birth Marks: above armpit, several on back

Scar(s): scars on legs where she has nicked herself on her blades and hands where has grabbed sharp end of blades

Health-

Memory (any issues with this?): none

Sight (do you need glasses?): none

Mental (Any problems? Example: depression): none

Physical (Do you take care of your body or harm it? Also include injuries): takes care of her body but will put others health before her own

Sleep patterns (how you sleep and how much rest do you get?): doesn’t sleep that well, will sometimes sleep up to 3-4 hours but gets night terrors/mares so that affects her sleep a lot.

Allergies/Other: has hay fever and is allergic to dust mites (so basically dust), pollen

 Abilities/Statistics (1- lowly skilled, 10- highly skilled and tell why)-

3D Maneuvering Gear: 10; after several years training in the cadets and then having been in the survey corps for 18 years she has had lots of time to develop and improve her skills.

Intelligence: 7; she is smart but will often do things without thinking them through and will do things in the spur of the moment so she trusts her instinct more than her knowledge.

Martial Arts: 10; having both her sister to fight as a child and her father who was in the military to train them both when they were young gave her some tricks that have been passed down in the family to use in combat. Also training in the cadets and then several years in survey corps to train and practice.

Battle Skill: 10; she is reckless but that doesn’t bring down her battle skill; because of her recklessness and hard to predict decision it’s hard to tell what she is going to do proving her a tough opponent

Agility: 10; her small frame height and light weight makes it easier for her to move about, she was very active as a child so that increased her stamina from a young age

Strategy: 4; she is reckless and trust her instinct so she will make things up as she goes along and is not good at strategizing

Teamwork: 5; worked well in a team with her sister and works well with her squad members, sometimes works well with Hanji and Levi

Passion: 10; she is passionate about what she does and believes it is right but after her sister died she took it upon herself to avenge her for she felt as if it was her fault, there is also a lot of deaths of others around her when they didn’t feel they could trust her and that got them killed

 Affiliation: Survey Corps

Former Affiliation: Cadets,

Grad. Rank: 3rd

Status (Alive, Missing, etc.): Alive

Squad (Leader/etc): Suicide Squad leader, was second in command but when the leader died she took over

Relationships-

Parent(s): Sophie Stirling(Mother) Alive, Hamish Stirling(Father) Deceased,

Sibling(s): Lucy Stirling (Identical Twin) Deceased

Other Relative(s): none

Love Interest: None (maybe Levi if I make I write a fanfic with her in it)

Best Friend(s): Hanji, Petra, Mike, Lucy Stirling

Friend(s): Sasha, Connie, Mikasa, Eren, Armin, her squad

Acquaintance(s): Isabel, Farlan, Erwin, most other people in survey corps

Enemy(ies): none, unless you’re counting titans

Hero(es): Lucy Stirling, Hamish Stirling, Ilse,

Rival(s): Lucy Stirling (Sibling rivalry)

Quote(s): Practice like you’ve never won; Perform like you’ve never lost Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go write

History/Life:

Clara grew up with her mother, father and sister. She had a relationship with her sister like most siblings, they love each other but will fight from time to time. She loved her mother and helped cook meals for her family and that’s where her love for cooking started. Her father trained both her and her sister in hand to hand combat for he was in the military and knew that there would be a time where they would need that knowledge. Her father died from an illness when she and her sister where training in the Cadets which cause closer relationships between the remaining family, her sister and she became inseparable.

The twins then graduated; Clara placing 3rd and Lucy placing 4th, they then joined the Survey Corps. The twins where placed in a squad together where they were well known for the recklessness and twin’s attacks on titan (where they would do fancy moves to both take down the titan). They were put into the suicide squad which was a squad of people who often went out on their own or if there were only one or two squads going out on exhibitions.

A few years after they joined the suicide squad an exhibition went wrong where a lot of people died including Lucy, Clara felt as if it was her fault for Lucy had come and rescued her which caused her death. After her death Clara became close with Hanji and Mike.

(Several Years later is when Levi, Farlan and Isabel join)

Okay here are my overall thoughts:

This looks pretty good. It’s realistic in the AOT universe, and this character is a realistic age and she is well developed. The only thing I’d change is the potential romance with Levi, because that is sort of a cliché at this point. But keep up the good work. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions!

~Kat