#I mean literally all you need to achieve that is to allude to something vaguely appealing with great fervour and I Will Be On It 😅

[soft-serve-soymilk]

local gremlin child discovers su for the first time

[nitw]

Can you explain what you mean with misinterpreting Chara? I've always been confused about that character and you seem to have a pretty solid read you alluded to in that post about Snowgrave.

of course!!! as your local chara defender since the ripe age of 13 i hope you don't mind me doing a small essay on this. please bear with me tho because i sometimes can't articulate my thoughts well on stories that deal with philosophical themes ;;

UHHH SPOILERS FOR UNDERTALE AND DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 BELOW

first let me make a few things clear so i don't have to repeat myself a bunch:

only tobias radiation fox himself has The Word of God privilege when it comes to things that haven't been explicitly confirmed in the games yet, EVEN if they're strongly hinted at. don't take anything i say about the plot as more than firm personal interpretation based on the info we have right now!

i cannot stress this one enough: undertale is a game that was never meant to be experienced from a singular perspective/mindset. the genocide route doesn't JUST exist for the sake of "enjoy your personalized edgy fuck-you run for being a serial killer in a video game", every one of the total 93 endings (look it up) in this game exists to reflect the player who achieved it in one way or another. the genocide route is really no different from any of the others, because in the end, no matter what, the player who decided to go through with the things they did will ALWAYS be rewarded for it. the question the player will have to ask THEMSELF afterwards is "is this what i wanted?"

OK MOVING ON-

let's think back to the little but vital amount of info we have on who chara actually was, like, as a person. we know pretty much all of this due to 1) the tapes in the royal lab 2) asriel's additional dialogue at the end of true pacifist.

while we'll never really know why frisk fell into the underground, asriel tells us explicitly about chara's hatred for humanity, and how they jumped from mt. ebott for "not a very happy reason"; supposedly a suicide attempt. chara "never talked about why", it's left intentionally vague because their reasoning isn't really what matters. what DOES matter is how this is relevant to the genocide run, ESPECIALLY with the new obvious parallels in deltarune's snowgrave route. i'll get to that.

when you finish the genocide route, chara will talk directly to the player in person. they talk about your (you AND chara's) success, despite "their plan (having) failed". this "plan" is one they secretly made with asriel when they were both still alive, as revealed from the tapes. chara got terminally poisoned from eating buttercups (whether this was fully intentional or not is still kiiinda up for debate), and while on their deathbed, asriel says that he doesn't like the plan anymore. yet despite his fear, he still fused his soul to chara's when they died.

the actual plan here was to become a monster powerful enough to slaughter humanity, specifically chara's home village by their own dying request - this all ties into their mysterious spite and hatred mentioned before. but due to asriel's resistance against chara, their fused body was killed by the humans - which eventually led to the creation of flowey, and asriel's inner demons after death.

but back to the genocide route. during chara's monologue to the player, they give us a LOT of important exposition. basically:

at the very start of the game, frisk's own determination is literally what brought chara's soul 'back to life'. we know how human and monster souls are different and how "determination" in this universe is something only humans possess, so it makes sense why it awakened them. i won't get into the whole narrator theory because i feel like it's not that relevant to my point (it's fun tho), but chara is always present from the moment frisk falls down, and stays regardless of the player's actions.

if you managed to finish undertale at all you'll already kinda know this (thanks sans), but the EXP and LV you (can) gain throughout your journey aren't just numbers on your screen - they're genuine in-universe manifestations of power that increase when you kill someone. and in genocide, chara explains how they were directly affected every time your stats rose. they could FEEL their spirit growing stronger for every life you decided to take (REMINDER THAT THE GENOCIDE ROUTE CAN BE PERMANENTLY STOPPED AT ANY POINT BEFORE SANS. YOU DID THIS.), so is it really that strange that they felt the desire to grow even stronger?

and once you do reach this point, there's no return. all that excessive time and effort you put into killing off a civilization OBVIOUSLY has some consequences. the consequences HERE being - if you paid attention to chara's life story - you took advantage of a traumatized child who was already at the breaking point and making irrational choices on their own, and you led them to believe that this was what they needed!

this is VERY MUCH SUPPORTED by the snowgrave/weird/pipis/whatever route of deltarune chapter 2 that was discovered about 2 days ago as i'm writing this. i'm gonna go ahead and assume you know what happens in it and i don't care to go into details if you don't, since this post is about chara, but surprise: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO NOELLE, TOO! even in a completely normal run, noelle makes it clear multiple times that she wouldn't mind staying in the dark world; that in spite of how scary and dangerous it seems at times (something something horror movies), she started to feel at home. POSSIBLY even more so than her ACTUAL HOME, with her dying dad and negligent mom. like chara, noelle is a young person with low self esteem and her fair share of trauma, even if it's not as apparent. and like in the genocide run, the player's desire to ruthlessly kill in order to grow stronger affected her already-poor mental state.

someone else already pointed this out specifically, so don't credit me for it, but the main difference between chara and noelle is that noelle managed to break free in the end.

if you're like Most People Who Played The Genocide Route Back In Like 2016 and you played the genocide route with no further knowledge about it than "i have to follow these specific steps to get a harder fucked up version of the game", i don't blame you. you didn't actually know what you were doing in the end, did you? but did the outcome disappoint you, make sense to you, or did it just leave you with an empty/confused feeling? i love undertale because it WILL force you to think about things like that. i mean, if the result wasn't gonna affect you in SOME way, why would you go through all of that trouble in the first place? you had your reasons, as the player of any video game where you know your choices matter. would you have carried out the entire thing if you knew what was coming? the answer to that is only relevant to yourself.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Asobi Asobase 1 | Planet With 1 | Hanebado! 2 | Holmes of Kyoto 1 | Phantom in the Twilight 1

Asobi Asobase 1

These girls…have no noses? Gwah?!

…They really went in on the “purity” themes, with the OP and the flowers, didn’t they? It gives off a “sugar, spice and everything nice” vibe.

I’ve had my eyebrow furrowed in disinterest here. The artstyle not only very nearly lacks noses, but Olivia (I think that was the girl’s name from promo material) has such a disgustingly smug face that I can’t laugh at it. It seems mean-spirited and not fun at all.

My gosh, bob girl has such a sadistic streak…

These faces are clearly trying to make me laugh, but all I get for them is a “You tried” feeling. Sorry, must be the yuri vibes. Plus the extra boob jiggle which you really could’ve done without.

You can tell that Olivia wasn’t speaking a lick of sense there. The subbers must’ve had fun trying to convert it to English. *sigh* If only I were part of that team, I’d be having more fun with it than I am just watching it…I’m clearly not having fun here, obviously.

The pigtailed girl stealing the ham made me laugh, but only in a very weak way.

This pen thing? C’mon, they have that in Western-type societies like mine too, y’know.

The artstyle is like Nichijou a few times. Lemme guess, Nichijou isn’t for me…

Asobihito (asobibito…?) =/= Pleasure Seekers. The former translates literally to “playing people”, i.e. “people who play”. “Pleasure seeker” is that in a more general sense…then again, English doesn’t have an equivalent term that doesn’t vaguely sound like someone’s taking advantage of other people.

The sensei finally got me to laugh properly! But hey, it’s just because she’s so dang perky when she shouldn’t be…

The bob girl says “eigo kenkyuu kai” (English study club), but then Honda (pigtails) goes “Eiken?”, which from the translation I’d presume is short for “eigo (no) shiken” (English test).

Ohmygosh, they unabashedly put a Louis Vuitton suitcase into this show! How did they get away with that??? *stifles laughter*

I feel like these girls are trying to just be mean to each other more often than not. Catfights aren’t fun, yo.

The SFX and the visuals make this very clear this is a show for boys. Boys who like to fantasise about girls having fun like this.

Oh dear…did they just…they did! (flat tone) What. *face furrowed in worry, shakes head* A Detective Conan parody…

This comedy is probably a tad too…Western…for my liking…

Uh…I don’t know what to think about that ED…I feel like most of the budget went into the ED, for some reason.

Nihon no Asobi wo Asobase means “Let’s Play Japanese Games!”. It has no “please” involved whatsoever. Also…is that a poop emoji with hands and feet in the corner? (LOL)

Okay, you got me show. You made me laugh a grand total of…twice. That’s a terrible track record, y’know! Also, the real daruma otoshi is like this.

Well, that last segment made me feel like I was watching Potter Puppet Pals. Only it was for an anime I didn’t really care about and it wasn’t particularly funny after the novelty and creativity of it all wore off (and that wore off very fast!). That’s a drop. Also, can we not with the boob jokes???

Planet With 1

Hmm…a low ranker due to Ume potentially being pulled…I wonder how this’ll go.

Thank you for that, show!!! Such a cool, flashy opening!

I keep reading that the boy’s name is Ginko in first episode impressions, but Ginko, according to the ANN spotlight I read, was the maid girl. This boy is Souya. Okay, got it.

That’s one biiiiiiiiig cat, man…

Ohmygosh, I’m going to run out of air from how much I’m laughing! The cat’s eating this cabbage raw! What the heck??? (LOLOLOL)

Youhei Suzuki? Why does that name seem familiar…?

If you’ve been around anime long enough, you’ll get megane (glasses) =/= megami (goddess). Plus, what is it with men and eating lots of meat? Does eating meat affirm one’s masculinity or something?

Is it just me, or am I getting Star Driver vibes from this show? There was a guy in the OP who looked like Souya’s dad, y’know.

I think Souya was doing trigonometry (you can see cos theta on the board). I don’t envy him there.

It’s the kanji for “peace”, but it’s missing a stroke…that’s why it’s spelt “peas” and not “peace”.

There seems to be quite a bit of CGI in this show, huh?

Was that…Ume?! Yes!!!!!!!

Isn’t Sensei trying to peek up the skirt from the girl from Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer? That’s the second pervert today…ick.

Sensei doesn’t even move his mouth??!!!!!!!!!! (LOL)

Benika is the redhead. Beni = crimson, so that should be no trouble at all.

That guy’s book appears to be upside down…? Is it possible he could read a book like that, if he’s constantly holding it that way?

It’s amazing how much anime protagonists can do while pretending to be in the toilet…

Torai in a tiger mecha. I see, I see…

LOL, more ingestion business…just like Hisone and Masotan.

…Why is the protagonist’s motivation meat, of all the things?

Yay, it really was Ume! Thank you, Planet With! Now I’m definitely staying! Even if Ume gets dropped afterwards, there’s enough to keep me here otherwise such as how it feels pleasantly old-school while putting a new spin on a bunch of things, such as how Souya – who should be the bad guy in any other story – is the good guy here.

Who’s the man behind the old guy in the ED? That shadow thing is a dog, by the way - I saw it in the ANN spotlight.

Hanebado 2

It’s all an uphill climb…or a slip into the depths…for Hanebado right now.

There’s a box where the hyphen should’ve been…

To quote Google, a shutout is an N. American term: “a play, game, or inning in which the opposition is prevented from scoring.”

Nagisa’s strength appears to be the smash. It seems probably enough, considering her body type doesn’t seem to be made for speed. (…What? Why are you looking at me weirdly? Analysing these guys is just like analysing fighters in an RPG or something.)

Why are all these girls driven by only the sport or the guys??? People, girls need varied motivations.

The elder Isehara? There are two? Are they twins?

Comedic violence against an almost-pervert…it’s getting to the point where I’m getting a bit tired of that in anime…

Just because people have talent doesn’t necessarily mean that they like doing what they’re good at, Elena…

So Isehara (one of them) is in blue. Hopefully I remember that.

I didn’t really understand why Yu was with these girls…and then something came out of one of their mouths that made me realise these were quitters from the badminton team last episode.

There was something really silly about how Yu chucked the packet and didn’t get it in. She’s not really made for badminton smashes, is she?

Interesting use of a chalk style for a flashback.

Tachibana is clearly trash talking Nagisa to get on her nerves. It’ll mess up her judgement…hmm. Machiavellian tactics. I see.

Cross court drive. Just remember this is a link about squash, so substitute out “ball” for “shuttlecock”.

Just for reference, here’s a guide to a jump smash. It’s a difficult offensive move, so it’s perfect for Nagisa, who works hard to achieve her level of skill.

The picture of the embarrased guy (one of the ED photos) is pretty funny. He’s kind of cute, to boot, haha. Update: I’m not sure if that’s Nagisa or one of the boys...if it was Nagisa...oops.

The ED’s artstyle reminds me of Grimgar. That’s a compliment.

The feather imagery is because hane can mean “feather” or “wing”.

Holmes of Kyoto 1

This one could either be good…or bad like a bunch of other seasonals. Let’s find out…

They’re a bit heavy-handed with the “tell, don’t show”, but that flashback was integrated well.

The actual Holmes is known for occasionally trying to get Watson to try and do some deducing of his own (such as how there was a character early on who’d been overseas – I think he was in a war or something - and Watson was able to deduce that from looking at him, that was how he was able to introduce himself as a doctor IIRC), so having Yagashira (I think that was his name from the promo material) try to get Aoi to look at antiques is a good analogy. Detective Conan also had some of those moments, so this almost feels nostalgic…Update: The thing I was alluding to was how Holmes deduced Watson had been to “the Afghanistan” (sic) in A Study in Scarlet, but that doesn’t match what I’m thinking of.

Welp, this certainly ain’t a show where you’re meant to deduce it along with the detective. They didn’t even have the man mention to the audience he’d come from Osaka…

Chalcanthite.

“[G]ot my goat”? They sure are making some slang out of the Kyoto dialect, huh? Update: I don’t recognise the line that Kiyotaka uses, meaning it might really be Kyoto dialect. (Just for your confirmation.)

Salt…? What is this, an exorcism?

The Japanese word for “boiled egg seasoning” seems to have the word for “salt” in it, which explains what’s going on.

Okay, lemme try and guess how Holmes got those deductions: “You’re a student at Ohki High School.” – the uniform…?/”You originally came from east Japan.” – dialect/”It’s been about 6 months since you moved to Kyoto.” - the time of acclimatisation between getting used to Kyoto or not, or maybe her clothes…?/”You came to this shop because there’s something you want appraised, but it’s not something that belongs to you.” – how she’s holding that bag and has been too hesitant to approach Holmes – if she owned it, she would be less careful with it. Either that, or he can see into the bag. Update: I originally guessed “time of acclimatisation” for the 6 months section, but switched it out before learning that was the correct answer, so I’ve got it in bold there. I did get that thing about hesitance right though, so it’s in italics.

Wait…”when you think of ‘Aoi’”…? Aoi is a type of flower, right? Update: I was right. Aoi is the Japanese name of hollyhock, and turns out there’s a festival named for it celebrated by the shrine Holmes mentions! I’m completely useless against Detective Conan cases, but I can actually guess some of this stuff! Yay me!

H-How old is Holmes…? Stab in the dark says “24”, but lessee…Okay, he’s 22. Close enough.

“Holmes doesn’t speak with an accent. I wonder where he’s from?” – Dangit, I was wondering that too. They got Kaito Ishikawa to voice him, and that guy doesn’t have a Kyoto accent (I know from listening to him when I was trying to guess the clues earlier). Lessee…he has parents who come from Tokyo?

Hakuin Ekaku…is a real dude. Update: Zenga.

Are train tickets really that expensive…?

Oh dear…have I ever seen a grandpa lust after girls of 16??? Don’t think so.

“Us Kyoto boys…are awful nasty.” – *clutches chest in mock pain* Ahhhh! My poor kokoro!

I know I’ll probably regret just watching for the bishie and the guessing game I can make out of this, but…okay, that’s another potential keeper. If it gets any worse on the guessing game front though, it might have to go into the drop pile though.

Phantom in the Twilight 1

This is the last debut before “Dude of Red: Red Guy” (or whatever Moe Sucks called Lord of Vermilion)…hopefully it’ll be good!

Is it just me or are these guys’ eyes creepy...? Also, this is not Rokuhoudou. It’s blatantly trying to be Rokuhoudou…I miss Tokitaka already…*sigh*

Peperoncino.

I like how the girl’s wearing shorts. Unfortunately, they’re those booty shorts that seem to be all the rage these days instead of something more modest, but hey, what can you do? *shrug* Shorts are comfy and easy to wear, as they say.

Okay, if blind guy isn’t a jiangshi I’m going to love this show a lot more. But seriously, if this is going to be the second coming of Anime Twilight, then I’m out of here…

There’s one dude in the OP that looks like he walked out of Joker Game…but with altered eyebrows! What the heck?!

Is it just me, or did they not sub the titlecard?

Is it just me, or is the yuri being hammered on too strongly here?

The Chinese restaurant’s sign says something…about a small lobster?

Sha Rijan…Shinyao…Oh no, don’t tell me! I’m watching a Chinese coproduction?! Well, at least the girl is mighty relatable. She only seems part Chinese.

Luke reminds me of Impey from Code:Realise. Not that it bothers me, it’s just that Van Helsing was my favourite from that.

Huh? Didn’t Shinyao say all their money was inside the luggage? Ton probably had some money on her for that taxi, but still…Update: Could be Uber or just paying by credit/debit card but they never say.

Why are these three dudes like a military squad, anyway? It’s a tad unsettling…

Two of the characters Ton’s written on the board in the ED are jiayou, which is pretty much Chinese’s equivalent to ganbaru.

Shinyao and Ton go back a long way, huh?

What’s up with the chibis? They remind me of the Winx Club or Bratz or something…or even worse, the puppet show from Asobi Asobase! Actually, no, they remind me of one of those online dress-up games more…I’m cringing, man.

Well, that seemed a little misfired but otherwise up my alley! The boys may not be as hot as I’d hoped, but still, the show is otherwise quite fabulous.

Update: Music Girls is performing pretty terribly against these other shows, so that’s on hold.