#I'll probably stick with Akira. ^^;

[a-forbidden-detective]

Curious add-ons: Foreshadowing and when subtext becomes text (Part 3)

Squeezing two chapters into one episode can be quite a challenge. One, the continuity is going to be broken. Second, the narrative is going to be rushed leaving some attributes of the characters out.

Where was that scene where Toto mentioned his grandmother bc it reminded him of Ron’s fave tv program or him (mis)stepping again on the cat?

But at the same time this is also a chance to edit out or fine-tune some panels that might not affect the whole story. Or probably make another story altogether.

Like this entire scene for example. It is amusing that the anime writers chose to make the shooting star invitation appear already in the beginning of the episode, which Toto forgot to tell Ron after seeing the latter’s pink grapefruit eyes. The bloodshot eyes deeply concerned him only to find out that the culprit was Ron’s discovery of the wonderful world of the TV.

Unlike in the manga, where Toto has no idea, who the sender was, In the anime he knows the sender but not well enough. So anime writers, what are you up to? It could be for logical reason. As a police officer Toto should not be trusting of any unverified letters sent to him, which the manga just set up bc Akira wrote it.

Or, hear me out, if you are reading the manga or have read this chapter, this is going to be another setup for Ron. Another angst-filled one at that.

Then the invitation appeared again during the last 10 minutes or so, without the disturbance of a TV crew who, in the manga showed up during the duo’s dreadful/anxious moments. Ron, immediately ceased the invite and decided from then on that they must go there. No time for verification.

Toto has the invitation all the time with him in the anime and is holding on to it till he finds the right moment.

At first glance, the premise is Toto visits Ron to ask if the forbidden detective wants to be his plus one. Isn’t that thoughtful of Toto? It sounds so romantic, isn’t it? But what if Toto has an agenda? Or someone has and is only using Toto to get to Ron?

I am curious of the next episode(s). There are five chapters in the manga alone for the succeeding arc.

Anyway, the dialogue in the last 15 minutes or so has changed.

From Chapter 8:

Ron: I... almost ended up killing you. If something like this happens again, and the person I’m solving a case with dies… Forget being a detective, Id be so overwhelmed with despair that I wouldn’t be able to go on living.

From the episode 6:

Ron: “Something like that”? I nearly killed you. If anything like it happened again, and you died I'd despair of myself and wouldn't be able to carry on.

The difference lies that the anime writer has edited out the flowery generalisation but immediately got on with the killer word “you” as in Toto Isshiki.

And this momentous addition:

Toto: Until you can believe in yourself, I'll stick with you! Okay?

So far, my RonToto heart is full. But hopefully, the writer will stick to it until the end.

PS: They might forget Toto’s mention of grandmother but they make sure that he is polite and has good manners saying his apologies again for Ron’s eccentric behaviour.

[humanjeff]

Scarlet Nexus

got gifted this 2021-era game randomly by a friend, and ... it's kinda great actually?

it calls itself "brainpunk", which is exactly like cyberpunk only with the word "brain" stuck in front of everything to denote that it's weird psychic technology. this doesn't quite work, but I freely admit that I would definitely 100% call psychic texts "brain messages".

"I AM SENDING YOU A BRAIN MESSAGE. FROM MY BRAIN." <- all my friends would get this Brain Message every single day, until they Brain Blocked me

anyway, first I should cover the bad: this is an anime-style game; some of the characters have semi-skimpy outfits (however there's zero fanservice). the main character in the male playthrough is of the Romantically Oblivious subtype that - naturally - all the girls incessantly flirt with. some of the jokes are ... dated, or poorly translated. at it's heart it's a JRPG, so there's a fair bit of grinding. etc.

now the parts I like: the game is all kinds of fucked up.

[I'll try to stick to non-plot spoilers (i.e. background info) but I probably won't 100% succeed.]

at the start of the game, you pick one of two different characters, which follow two radically different plotlines - I chose the male, Yuito. both characters are psychokinetic (though their weapons differ), both are new volunteers in the psychic branch of the military. after selecting your character you get to watch as the special brain equipment is attached to you and your fellow volunteers/conscripts and you all collapse screaming in agony. perfectly normal start to a game.

yeah so straight away it's revealed that most of the soldiers - not just the new guys - look like teenagers, and are being given grown blockers to slow their aging (to various degrees). if you pay attention to what one of the characters says about how she was forcibly conscripted a few years earlier, you start to realise that the occasional Actual Children you see walking about are extremely powerful psychics subjected to mandatory enlistment when they were very young; they invariably outrank you.

older-looking soldiers are either new adult conscripts (that everyone expects to die) or child soldiers that the growth blockers are ceasing to work on.

also hey there is government censorware in your eyes that prevents you from seeing certain things. don't worry about it!

so on to the game itself. first of all, you don't have skills as such - you modify your own brain. sometimes the map of your brain gets larger and more irregular. don't worry about it!

you are in a squad of guys with variable powers (different to your own) that you can briefly share. as you hang out in your Secret Teen Hideout and become closer and more compatible, this sharing will start to last longer, and you will begin to have visions of your friends that will help you out. sometimes you become them, just for a second. this is normal and fine. sometimes you forget little things, like who is supposed to be giving you orders, or which side you're on, or how you got here, but on the other hand nobody is stopping you from dressing as bad as you could ever want.

haha you can put a stuffed owl on your head! there's a hole in the sky that nobody talks about any more.

after a while, you unlock the Brain Field power, or as I prefer to think of it, AKIRA MODE, where you become psychically overpowered and get to smash everything. your character staggers around drunkenly, clutching their head and laughing and saying things like "I'll destroy EVERYTHING!", "WITNESS my POWER!" and so on. it's unbelievably fun, and will immediately kill you after a few seconds. none of your friends - who see all this - ever tell you to stop doing it.

none of this, though, prepares you for the moment when the media - having had all their computers trashed - releases a sketch of a suspected criminal (the other playable character). I'm putting it behind a break for reasons that I hope will be self-explanatory.

(the effect this picture has on your squad is devastating, by which I mean it immediately cures them of all some of their ailments.)

[kotoneshiomiofficial]

hello :D js wanted to ask why kotone is such an important character to you, why did she stick out amongst so many others? (Aka I miss her and wanna read stuff about her and you are The Kotone Girl in my eyes)/nf

not sure what /nf means but i will always indulge someone who wants me to yap about kotone! to answer the first half, she's really important to me because back in high school when i first played p3p and i was a closeted non-binary kid, for some reason she's what made me realize that i wanted to be a Girl. im not sure why, it just clicked when i was playing her route.

and to answer the second half, she sticks out to me among the newsona protags because i think she has the most depth to read in to. dont get me wrong, minato is a very well written character but he is straightforward. hes not complicated, you understand pretty much immediately why he does and acts the ways he does. same story with yu and akira, they're open books. but with kotone, its very different.

kotone is, for like 95% of p3p's runtime, masking her emotions, and only rarely do we get to see an emotional outburst or her revealing something about how she really feels (because she never actually talks about how she's feeling, only ever implies it) and i think that makes her a really interesting character to analyze. like for example, when we do see her mask slip, like 3 times out of 5, its because she's pissed off. when saori gets slapped during her slink, when yukari's getting harassed when she runs off alone to get her wallet, and at the top of tartarus when she has the option to "finish off" takaya (minato gets a dialogue option that implies the same thing, like "you'll get what coming to you" and steps towards him, but not explicitly I'll Fucking Kill You like kotone)

The other two are when she's talking with ryoji in kyoto and she can say something fairly depressing (i cant recall it off the top of my head) and sometime in august talking to yukari and junpei she says "i wish i was dead..." in respone to something they said. its not taken seriously given the context and she was just being dramatic but. its still a passively suicidal comment. there's probably something else im missing but given how kind and patient kotone usually is, i think its interesting to ask "what happened to her to make her like this? what core belief is driving her to behave in this specific way?" because those are easy to answer in the other protags' cases, but much more up to interpretation with kotone since she's such a black box.

(also i love thinking about either a protag survives au or my star arcana au for her, honestly she deserves the time to be supported and loved like the other protags get)

[slaingelo]

@indigoartistqueen i will not STAND for these allegations XD

but seriously, I'll put a detailed explanation below on how I draw so fast because it is a genuine thing that can be explained... like, I mean, beyond the autism and monster drinks

FIRST OF ALL I DON'T RECOMMEND DRAWING AT THE SAME PACE AS I DO AT LEAST NOT WITHOUT TAKING MORE BREAKS. do as I preach not as I do I am constantly straining myself and I tend to draw through the pain anyways because I love art and drawing so much and I'm probably going to get carpal tunnel before my brother despite drawing being his full time job. <- if you were ever curious on what got me into art, that would be it lol, I'm from a family of artists. that same brother is also the one who bought me the four swords manga when I was a wee lass along with the other akira himekawa manga that were out at the time. he's so epic.

ANYWAYS;

simplify your art style.

the art style i mostly use on this blog isn't my full effort or most detailed one, by any means. here's my detailed style vs the one i tend to use vvv

there's a lot more detail in the hair, and especially in the clothes. it's also actually rendered, while most of the other art I post isn't. on top of that if I do any shading for my simple style, it's always cell shading.

if you have a detailed style and you want to stick with it, you're not going to be putting out finished pieces every hour.

quick touchups for extra prettiness

so you got the lineart and flat colours of your simplified art. but you want more oomph

I went over my process before of how I colour lines and go about shading, and stuff like this is important in the sense of; YOU WANT TO FIND QUICK AND SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE. here's another effect I do often;

THIS ^ can add to soften the colours a lot. I usually do all my flat colours on the same layer in my simple style EXCEPT for the hair and eyes. this is why I do the hair separate!

of course I cut both the lineart/shading and the hair thingie out of the comic because it would take me a while lol.

HAVE FUN

if there's something you don't like drawing find out why and change it. otherwise you're going to get burnt out or take a lot longer to draw than you'd like because you're struggling with that one thing. or both.

it's the reason my lineart is thick. I dislike doing thin lineart, so it takes me a very long time to do it. solution is to simply do thick lineart.

PEN DOODLE !!!!!!!

the way I found my simple style to begin with was through pen doodling. by not being able to erase your mistakes, and continuously drawing like that anyways, your sketching process will be sped up significantly. it will help you cut out steps that aren't necessary and let you find new ways to styalise things quickly and simply.

here's actually a pen doodle I did of force gem!shadow a few days ago with no pencil sketch in I think about 10 minutes if not less. I think that out of all of these pieces of advice, this is the BIGGEST one to help you learn how to draw fast.

being able to do this translates to very fast sketches that you don't need to touch up much to do lineart over. here's my sketches for the art I had at the start of this, for big example

generally though I do a sketch like this one here for the pose in a similar way to how I pen doodle with minimum erasing, and then a second one over top of it to adjust the pose and add clothes/hair/ect

I HOPE THIS IS INTERESTING AND HELPFUL MAYBE ?! THANKS FOR READING AND THE SUPPORT

[supranaturaldisaster]

Let's talk a little about my characterization for the Akiren of my fanfic real quick.

In chapter 17, his professor calls him 'Ren Kurusu', which is a lil weird. You may be asking yourself 'why did you combine them like that wh-'

Well here's the fun answer: My Akiren's real name is in fact.. Akira. However, after he got sent to Shibuya at what would be the very start of p5, he decided to use a different name when he could. I personally don't see him having a very good connection with his parents- or there would at least be a disconnect between what happened with Shido and his relationship with them. Ultimately, it boils down to 'I want to seperate myself.' What's an easy way to do this? Going by a different name completely.

So, he chose Ren. When asked what his name was by the thieves, he said Ren. It stuck to the point of a first name change later down the line, after he moved back to Shibuya when finished with highschool. (Not really recommended in Japan to change last name).

You gotta imagine it being a big thing. Approached by someone of the legal forces that call him Akira in front of his friends? They still stick to and call him Ren. Sae calling him Akira until after the interrogation where she, too, starts calling him Ren instead. I'm not sure how this itself can be translated into how Japan usually uses surname first, but I'll worry about that one later. Probably..

[k00297230]

Hello you dandy dinosaurs!

Today we went out again to do some live drawing. Before that Paul showed us some AMVs he made of animated backgrounds as its' focus. Notably the backgrounds of Akira were imposing with their limitless tall buildings as well as their influenced BladeRunner 2049. I should probably watch both of them.

We walked around town for a few hours and it was actually a nice day so no rain to worry about. I found these exercises to be much easier and quicker to work with and Yvonne let me borrow her prop up chair thankfully.

They're very quick sketches, working portrait so I could elongate or focus on the height of buildings and my composition as a whole. Yvonne also suggested I cut out a page and use it as a viewfinder.

I also took some photos to colour references.

After this activity we went back to the college and started drawing these out on big pages on the wall.

My first instinct was to work with charcoal because I'm more comfortable with it and started sketching out my live drawings and playing with texture.

Paul told me to try and add colour and referenced some of the shots from BladeRunner that primarily focus on colour and light. I then moved to brown paper with some coloured chalks and went to town!

I hadn't previously worked with straight chalk so I tried different movements and mark makings to test the medium. I'm not really impressed with the final product, so if I did this again I might try a different medium. I think I'll still stick with my watercolour People's Park background however.

[space-spring]

14, 15, 16, and 23 for the Triangle Strategy Ask Game!

14. Favorite Soundtrack?

I was SO hoping someone would ask this because the soundtrack for tri strat goes so hard hahaha. I think my overall favorite has gotta be "Combat -Destiny-" because DANG that opening and the moment the guitar comes in is so so so good!!!! It's also the song that plays during the level you fight in the gardens against Avlora, which is one of my favorites. But I do also really enjoy just the plain battle prep song, "Arise, Warriors." It's the first song I think of when I think of Tri Strat's ost, and it's just got such a fun oomph to it.

Also side note but the composer for Triangle Strategy is Akira Senju, the same guy who did Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood! "Crimson Might" in particular is one I listen to and always go ":D :D :D FMA music!!!!"

15. Favorite character dynamic and relationship (and why)?

Avlora and Cordelia probably have my favorite dynamic! I have so many thoughts and feelings about their relationship and how they think of each other. Watching as Avlora went on the journey of "hmph. a spoiled princess from a corrupt royal family" > "if she wants to ask questions I suppose I'll answer" > "hey. hold on. she's really struggling. am I supposed to just sit back and watch?" > "I'm going to die for you actually" was so fun and cool, and similarly I love seeing Cordelia reach out to her more and more for advice and help. I go a little insane every time I think about how much Cordelia comes to emulate Avlora in a lot of ways (standing up for herself, dedicating herself to her duty, even her whole Self-sacrifice spell is really similar to Avlora's Reckless Maneuver).

They're just so so so cool both as individuals and as a team. I mentioned in the other ask that I think about their relationship as platonic/familial, and it really gets to me when I think about the fact that neither of them have really had a ton of familial support during their lives (Avlora due to the whole being an orphan thing, and Cordelia just for being the youngest of three children who kind of got underestimated and ignored). I think both of them really genuinely want the other to be happy and to provide that support that neither of them ever had and. it just makes me feel real normal about it all.

16. Any headcanons you enjoy?

I mentioned the Maxwell thing on a different ask, but I also have a ton of worldbuilding-type headcanons that I'm really fond of!! One of my favorites is the idea that, since salt is pretty rare, Norzelia probably turned to other methods of preserving food. One common way to do this is through sticking low-water-content fruits/vegetables in honey, THUS I propose that Glenbrook in particular (no Source and no snowy mountains to keep food frozen) has a prolific beekeeping industry we just happen to never hear about. (I also think a lot about the fact that people in Aesfrost for instance have probably never eaten a tomato before but probably have had ice cream at least once)

23. Any unpopular opinions?

Hmmm okay not sure if this is an unpopular opinion so much as an uncommon experience but I didn't actually feel that bad when Dragan died the first time around. I saw other people posting about how crushed they were that he died and I kinda went "........... the guy who got wasted at a party, attempted to threaten his own home country into giving him power, and then lied directly to Frederica, Roland, and Serenoa's faces about it? I'm always down for a little treason but c'mon he wasn't even GOOD at it"

He's definitely grown on me since then though, especially since we later on get to see more of just how much Svarog loved him + how much helping his dad must have been a part of Dragan's decision to do what he did. And on subsequent playthroughs I was able to pay more attention to how much he cared about Frederica and Serenoa by extension. I still think he's not good at the whole treason thing but that's part of his charm and I love him for it <3

[lazysailor]

TW: emetophobia and violence

This is a short intro like story to my two Jujutsu Kaisen ocs I've been obsessed with lately and there's a good 50/50 chance I'll use these ocs more in the future. So enjoy :D

Word count: 1,760

-------------------------------------------------------

How did this even happen?

This was a common question Akira asked herself lately. She was just an ordinary highschool girl, she had normal friends, she had a family. But all that changed for her when he came into her life.

..

Akira was hanging out after school with her friends, her friends weren't exactly rule followers but they weren't rebels either, just people getting through life. They were sitting at what they would call “The Hill” which was a place located over behind their school a ways away. Akira was watching her friends mess around and poke fun at each other while she was working on some late assignments since the semester was nearly ending.

Akira decided to take a break and lay in the grass for a bit, unbeknownst to her something had found her and crawled its way up her sleeve. The thing then found a cozy place on the back of her neck and bit into it.

“Ow!” Akira yells as she sits up in the grass.

“What happened?” One of her friends asks.

“Something bit me!” She yells.

“It was probably just nothing.” One of her other friends comments.

“Lemme see if something actually did bite you.” The friend who asked her says as they walk up to her.

“Where is it.?” They ask.

“On the back of my neck.” She says.

The caring friend then moves her hair away from the back of her neck and inspects it..But there was nothing there.

“Yeah I’d say it was just in your head.” The friend says as they move her hair back to where it was before.

“Told ya.” The other friend says.

Her friends then go back to messing with each other as she touches the back of her neck. She swears she can feel some kind of pain or bump there..

..

Later that night Akira wakes up in a cold sweat and she suddenly feels nauseous. She bolts out of her bed and storms into the bathroom, she then throws up into the toilet and the color of the sick is a shade of black.

“W-What the fuck.” She says as her voice quivers, she then throws up again but it's a normal color.

The sound of her throwing up surprisingly doesn't wake up her parents..Well they've both been out of the house lately..

“Wow, I didn't expect you to throw up so soon.” A voice suddenly says out of nowhere with a chuckle following it.

Akira looked around the bathroom in a panic trying to see who was talking to her, but it was only her in there.

“I’m in your head! Humans always look so funny when this happens.” The voice comments.

“Who the fuck are you!” Akira asks as she stands up.

“Ohoho I have a feisty human this time!” The voice says.

“Answer!” She yells.

She looks at herself in the mirror and sees a small insect-like creature sitting on her shoulder.

“You said you were in my-” She tries to say but she gets cut off.

“I’m making you hallucinate, my child, but my name is Parohs.” The insect-like creature introduces himself.

“That's a stupid name.” She tells it.

“Shut up.” He says.

“What are you.?” She asks Parohs.

“Wow I have a feisty and curious human, I’ll probably stick to you for a while!” The curse says.

“I'm a cursed spirit, a spirit made from negative emotions from humans. And I chose to live within you for now..” Parohs explains to her.

“What..Why me.?” Akira asks him.

“I won't tell you why..But let's say you're in for a ride now.” The curse ominously says to her as it begins to laugh.

..

After a few days from the throwing up incident she's walking home from school and she see’s someone from her school leaning against a building. She decides to ignore him and continues walking home..But the person had other ideas.

She suddenly felt a pocket knife against her neck.

“Give me all of your money or I swear I’ll slit your throat!” The classmate yells, his eyes were red so he was probably on some kind of illegal drug.

Akira looked at the guy with a panicked look, but she felt heard the curse, Parohs, tell her something.

“Trying looking into his eyes directly, it’ll be useful to you.” The curse says as it Snickers under its breath.

She hesitates but follows the curse’s words, Akira looks directly into his eyes and visions something she didn't expect. The vision was of the guy being covered in spiders while they were wrapping him in their webs, but the vision shortly ends. 

Out of some kind of impulse she suddenly touches the guy's forehead, the guy gives her a confused look but he shortly moves the knife away from her neck and starts to scream. He falls onto the ground and panics while still screaming like there was something on him. That's when she realizes she caused this and it wasn't just something random. Akira runs away from the hysterical man and makes it all the way home.

Her house was empty and quiet as she slammed the door behind her and locked it.

“What the hell just happened..” She says while she breathed heavily.

“That was a display of our power little Akira..You should be thankful you didn't die back there.” Parohs says to her.

“But what will happen to him?” She asks him.

“It all depends on what's in his hallucination.” He answers.

“Hallucination.?” Akira says as she sounded confused.

“Yes hallucination, the moment you saw that vision and touched his forehead you were able to make him hallucinate his worst fear!” Parohs explains with excitement in his voice.

Akira takes this information in for a few moments.

“So this is your power?” She asks.

“Oh no, no, no! Our power Akira!” He tells her, if he had a mouth he definitely would've been smiling at that moment.

“We have the power to make people see their worst fears and go insane.” Parohs says.

“But I don't want this power.!” Akira says as she starts to get mad.

“Too bad you'll have to get used to it, Akira.” The bug-like curse says in a cold tone.

..

After a week Akira woke up in a panic, but nothing seemed off around her at first. She got out of bed and walked downstairs only to hear her parents arguing over something in the kitchen..

“What the fuck do you mean she's missing?!” Her father yells.

“I tried to wake her up this morning since it was late, but she was gone!” Her mother yells while she seemed to be crying.

“Ooh, someone's parents are arguing!” Parohs says.

“Shut up..What's even happening?” She asks him.

Parohs lets out a deep chuckle before answering her.

“Well curses tend to be invisible to people who don't have that much cursed energy. And since you have me now you basically disappeared from anyone who lacks cursed energy.” Parohs explains to her before chuckling some more.

“W-What?” She says but she gets cut off by her dad's yelling.

“How could she possibly just disappear over the night?!” Her dad yells.

“I don't know!” Her mother says as she starts to cry more.

Her dad then slapped her mom hard making her fall onto the ground..

There was silence between all three of them until it was broken by her dad once again.

“You know what! Since you're such a bad mom, I may as well just leave you!” Her father says leaving her mom shocked.

“What?! You can't just do that!” Her mother yells.

“Where do you even plan on going?!” Her mother asks.

Her dad seems to hesitate before answering her.

“Your best friend's house, I've actually been sleeping with her for a couple months now!” Her dad tells her.

Akira stands in the doorway to the kitchen in shock for a few moments. But some kind of feeling comes over her telling her that her dad can't just get away with it, she had to do something about it. She starts to walk over to her parents who were still arguing with each other. 

She stops in front of her dad and stares into his dad's eyes, the vision he saw was of him being attacked by a dog which like her past one ended quickly. Akira touches her dad's forehead and uses more cursed energy than last time against her dad in a fit of anger. Her dad almost immediately starts to freak out and starts yelling at her mom for her to get away, while her mom stands there confused.

The situation quickly starts to escalate as her dad puts his hands around her mom's neck, Akira looks away from the scene as Parohs seems to watch it unfold.

After who knows how long the house is dead silent and Parohs looks at Akira.

“Good job Akira! My past hosts have never been able to get this far with their power!” He congratulates her.

She didn't look at the scene In Front of her.

“I ended up killing both of them didn't I.?” She asks him while knowing she probably did.

“Yup!” Parohs says as he looks at the messed up scene In Front and goes into a small laughing fit.

She stays quiet for a few minutes before she walks away from the kitchen and back up to her room.

“What exactly are you?” Akira asks Parohs.

“Hehe you may as well know! I'm Parohs the curse of chaos, I was formed from you little humans fear of chaos!” He tells her.

…

Akira now sits in a subway train in Japan, it has been a few months since that whole incident and now she doesn't really question anymore. She has accepted the chaos within her life and chooses to even cause it every once in a while.

The train is quiet like normal but unusually empty, probably because it was the middle of the day and lots of people were either at school or working. As the train stops to pick up more people, a girl around Akira’s age steps onto the train. The girl makes her way over to her and stops in front of her, which wasn't normal for Akira since most people couldn't see her.

“Is it okay if I sit here.?” The girl asks with a shy tone.

Akira stays silent for a moment taking in her presence since she seemed different.

“Of course.” Akira says with a small grin.

[silenthillmutual]

3, 17, 18, & 38 for the ask game ✨

3. 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

oooooo tough one... akira is definitely the top no. 1 for me, then probably young frankenstein, and then... maybe... well something horror. toss up between re-animator and the thing...

17. name 3 things that make you happy

i feel like everyone says their pets & friends so while that's certainly true i'll try and stick to actual "things" as opposed to living, breathing beings... so! discovering new music (even if it's only new to me); watching horror films i've never seen before; and coffin-shaped trinkets!

18. do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

ghosts are sort of on the fence for me. i certainly believed in them when i was younger because you can't swing a dead cat on the east coast without hitting a ghost story. and i definitely had my moments as a kid when i thought that there were ghosts in my room, but that could have been my imagination or even something bipolar-related. i don't discount the possibility because i think it makes life more fun. to keep my mind open.

aliens i definitely believe in though. i don't know that i believe they've visited earth, and i don't know if they'd even exist in forms we can comprehend, but i think there's something else out there besides us. saddens me a little to think we may never meet!

38. fave song at the moment?

the ghost cover of missionary man has been playing constantly in my head.

ty for the questions!! :]

[encoeurs]

🌙  *  ―     𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐒

@lastgenesis asked: [ 𝐔𝐍𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 ] ― sender feeds receiver soup when they’ve fallen ill (fleur to akira ofc)

Being sick is a misery for which Akira is woefully unprepared.

Sojiro has too much to do downstairs to take care of him, and he's for sure not asking Futaba to drop in. Not only is she probably not equipped to help, but having been shut in for so long, he has no clue how her immune system might handle something this nasty. It takes a lot to take him down, after all, and not even Morgana is venturing too close, curled up on one of the chairs at the table and occasionally popping up to stare at him pityingly. For his part, Akira is doing his best to keep the coughing to a minimum, curled up miserably beneath his blankets and wishing he'd scrounged up the yen for a kotatsu instead of a regular wooden table. Instead he contents himself with a hot water bottle Sojiro had been kind enough to fill for him just before the lunch rush, wishing that his overactive mind would at least shut down and let him sleep. He's no closer to dozing off when the sound of the lunchtime regulars dies down, and footsteps make their way up the stairs. Akira doesn't bother sitting up, expecting Sojiro, and so only rolls toward the staircase, reaching absently for his glasses. The lanky figure hesitating at the top of the steps, however, is definitely not Sojiro, and Akira sits up so fast the (now lukewarm) hot water bottle flops out of the blankets almost comically suddenly, rolling under the table. Fleur's mismatched eyes blink between him and it slowly, the small container in his hands being set atop the table as he bends down for it. Akira doesn't even manage to croak out that he doesn't have to do that before Fleur is testing the object in his hand carefully, turning to head back downstairs without a word. Akira is left staring after him, wondering if he's having some strange fever dream, until Fleur's touch is at his forehead, the back of his hand surprisingly soft for a mechanic. The now hot again water bottle is tucked against him a moment later, and Fleur turns to retrieve the container he'd brought along. Akira can just-barely recognize the smell of soup, and his brain finally connects to his mouth well enough for him to speak, his own hand rising to rub at his bleary eyes. Unfortunately, the connection isn't quite secure enough to keep him from calling the other brunet by the nickname he (usually) reserves for referring to him in his head.

"Hibana, you didn't have to come by," is the quiet mumble, the warmth of the refreshed water bottle making him feel a lot more lax. In tandem with the ease Fleur's company brings, he feels closer to sleep than he has all day. He'd mentioned being sick that morning during their usual morning texts, but he hadn't expected this. "You're gonna get sick too if you're not careful."

It doesn't stop him from leaning in when prompted by Fleur's pale, outstretched hand and warm smile, opening his mouth to allow himself to be fed.

"Seriously," he tries again, straightening and hating how tired the slight action makes him feel, "I can feed myself. I don't want..."

"Could you kick me out if you tried?" Fleur asks abruptly, making Akira's brain grind to a halt as he tries to process the question. At the eventual shake of his head, Fleur's own does the same, a soft breath leaving him- part sigh, part laugh. "Then I'll stick around at least until you eat. Then I'll leave if you really want."

He doesn't, is the problem, but he nods his agreement regardless, and Fleur, satisfied, resumes helping him eat, careful and patient. By the time the soup is gone, Akira's feeling pleasantly warm all over, and by the look on Fleur's face as he checks his temperature again, it's for good reason.

He doesn't remember beginning to doze off. He doesn't remember stubbornly refusing to let go of Fleur's hand, either. What he does remember is Fleur's hands in his hair at some point in the evening, and warmth more encompassing than he'd managed by himself all day settling around him throughout the night.

When he wakes up the next morning to Fleur's sneezing beside him, he only feels a little guilty when he says, a little smugly:

"Warned you."

Fleur smacks him with his spare pillow.

[asktransakirakurusu]

Remember, guys, he needs both the carrot and the stick if he's going to improve his behavior. We did issue a "you tell them or I will" ultimatum, but we also promised him free tickets for a Wilson Buffet date with Yusuke. Both were critical in getting him to spill the beans so feel free to use both when you see fit.

Makoto: We're just worried sick about him...

Akira: I don't want you guys to be worried about me.

Ann: Then stop giving us reasons to be worried! Just... Go tell Boss while we wait for Haru, okay? If for no other reason than to shut us up. She'll be here any minute, but you probably have time to just tell him you've been having trouble eating and need his help with food.

Yusuke: The Wilson Buffet... I've heard it's truly magnificent.

Ryuji: Dude, I don't think that's what's important right now!

Yusuke: I'll gladly go with you, so long as you tell Boss to keep you supplied with curry.

Akira: Okaybyeguys,I'llberightback-

[satoshi-mochida]

Persona 5 the Animation will air in April 2018 on Tokyo MX, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, MBS, and BS11, Atlus and animation studio A-1 Pictures announced.

Here is the key visual:

The Persona 5 protagonist’s official name will be Ren Amamiya. The same name will be used in the upcoming Persona 5: Dancing Star Night.

The staff and cast are as follows:

Staff

Original Work: Persona 5 (Atlus)

Story Draft: Katsura Hashino

Character Drafts: Shigenori Soejima

Demon Design Drafts: Kazuma Kaneko

Supervisor: Masashi Ishihama

Series Organizer: Shinichi Inotsume

Character Design: Tomomi Ishikawa

Music: Shoji Meguro

Production: A-1 Pictures

Cast

Ren Amamiya: Jun Fukuyama

Ryuji Sakamoto: Mamoru Miyano

Ann Takamaki: Nana Mizuki

Morgana: Ikue Otani

Yusuke Kitagawa: Tomokazu Sugita

Makoto Niijima: Rina Sato

Futaba Sakura: Aoi Yuuki

Haru Okumura: Haruka Tomatsu

Goro Akechi: Souichirou Hoshi

The announcement came via today’s “Persona 5 the Animation Super Secret Information Reveal! Broadcast Special” on AbemaTV. Starting in February 2018, AbemaTV will host one such broadcast per month.

Atlus also announced it will release a Persona O.A. “official support app” for iOS and Android. Further information will be announced at a later date.

Watch the debut trailer for Persona 5 the Animation below. Visit the official website here.

(MP4 Download, Region-blocked YouTube Version)

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

Surprise, surprise! A third timely post for pegoryu week! I'll definitely be passing the fuck out after this.

As per usual, bulk under the cut, link in the notes, and all my love to those who recommend it to their friends!

Ryuji was running, feet pounding against the concrete hard enough to rattle his teeth, cold air sharp against his face, lungs burning for a break as the shout echoed off the nearby buildings.

“GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE YOU DAMN BRAT!”

His old man was mad at him again, and maybe he had it coming this time, yelling at him the way he had when he overheard the grownups talking. But this was supposed to be a nice vacation for New Year’s with his grandparents in the country. His father said he’d taken the week off for family, and promised him he was gonna be better when the new year started. Turned out that was a load of crap; he didn’t take the time off, he’d been suspended for a week for turning up drunk on the job. Drunk and pissed off, just like he was now, not ten minutes after the first New Year’s countdown Ryuji had ever been allowed to stay up for. Bastard was never gonna change.

“I HATE YOU, YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!” Ryuji screamed back as tears blurred his vision. “GET AWAY FROM ME!” He had no idea which way he was going, half blind from crying and unfamiliar with his surroundings. Ignoring the string of profanity being bellowed behind him, he turned off the path and into the darker, wilder area behind the shrine. Why weren’t any of the adults nearby stopping his father? Why wasn’t anyone helping? Crunching footsteps were drawing closer with each step and he could feel another sob trying to bubble up out of his throat. The old bastard was too close and he could already feel the bruises he was gonna have when a hand caught him by the back of the shirt and hauled him back--

--into a nearby shrub. Panic was still too loud in his brain and he thrashed in his assailant’s grip before realizing that the hands holding him were too small, too soft, too gentle--

“Shhh,” A small voice soothed in his ear, soft enough he almost didn’t hear it over his father stomping through the undergrowth nearby. Part of Ryuji was too wound up, wanted to bite the hand over his mouth and keep running, but the rest of him recognized that’d just give away his hiding spot and get both of them caught. Instead he wrapped a hand around their wrist and felt them pull him closer. In spite of his old man being within arm’s reach and out for blood worse than he’d seen in a long time, Ryuji relaxed. Just a little.

After a few moments, his father muttered darkly under his breath and started kicking at some of the bushes around him. Ryuji gripped the wrist in his hand a little tighter as his father’s foot brushed their hiding spot. His mystery rescuer let go of his jacket to hold his free hand and squeeze it reassuringly. Seconds stretched on for ages as his old man got closer and closer, and Ryuji’s heart hammered in his chest like it was trying to break out and escape. Finally, another voice called out, pulling his old man’s attention away from them. One of his aunts had appeared long enough to drag her drunken brother away before he could embarrass the family any further.

A few seconds after they disappeared from view, Ryuji untangled himself and lurched out of his hiding spot. He dusted himself off after sprawling out clumsily in the dirt, then checked himself over; kinda dusty, a few scratches on his face from the whippy little branches he’d run though, and… Crap.

“Aww man, I lost one of my mittens. I only just got those for Christmas,” he grumbled.

“We can look for it on the way back to the shrine.” His mystery rescuer had apparently just clambered out of their hiding spot too. Ryuji was ready to wave them off and tell them to not worry about it, but when he finally got a good look at them it was like every word he’d ever learned went on their own vacation.

“Whoa… Are you an angel or somethin’?” He blurted instead. This kid definitely looked like an angel, with a pretty round face almost as soft as the wild black curls around it and grey eyes that looked like nighttime--stars and all under the moonlight--that were almost too big for their face. Way too pretty to be a boy, especially with eyelashes like flower petals and a voice as soft and sweet as a music box. Yeah, probably an angel, definitely a girl. Only seven years old and Ryuji had already found his soulmate. Hiding in a shrub. Wearing a Buchimaru hat.

Mystery girl blushed and giggled behind a matching Buchimaru glove. “No, I’m just Akira. Akira Kurusu, first grade. What does your mitten look like?” Huh, never met a girl named Akira.

“Uh, like this? It’s a yellow Featherman one.” He held up the hand that still had a mitten on, then awkwardly thrust it out for a handshake. “A-and I’m Ryuji Sakamoto, also in first grade! Nice to meetcha, Kicchan!” Akira took the handshake with a small, shy smile, blushing bright enough that she almost matched the red jacket she was wrapped up in.

“Um. Nice to meet you too, Ryuji.” She thought for a moment, then moved around to his side and took his other hand in both of hers, warm even through the gloves. It was his turn to blush. “Here, so your hand doesn’t get cold while we look for your mitten.” Akira pulled him along and he needed a minute to remember how to walk so he didn’t fall over. She seemed to have things handled guiding them back out.

“You came from this way, right?” She looked back and tipped her head towards a hole through the undergrowth where his father had crashed through. Ryuji nodded and she pulled him along a little more insistently, scanning the path for any flash of yellow.

“Thanks for savin’ me, by the way. Kinda thought I was doomed back there.” Ryuji scratched the back of his neck. Kicchan shrugged but didn’t pause their trek or her search for his mitten.

“You needed help. I had a hiding spot. Figured I could share,” she explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Like every adult he’d run past hadn’t ignored him.

Ryuji nodded anyways. It was them who got it wrong, not Akira. “Right. Why were you hidin’ anyways?” Something in his stomach twisted at the thought of her running away from a dad as shitty as his. His fingers tightened around her hand just a little; he was gonna protect her twice as hard if that was the case.

Kicchan picked up a flash of yellow sticking out from under a pile of dead leaves, then frowned when it turned out to be a hamburger wrapper. “Don’t lemme forget to throw this away,” she crumpled it up and stuck it in her pocket. “I was back here ‘cause the shrine was too loud. I come back here sometimes when I need quiet. Then I heard someone yelling and stomping around, so I hid. And then you ran by.” She turned back and smiled at him and wow. People talked about getting butterflies in your stomach around someone you liked, but he was pretty sure he had Mothra rampaging around in his gut. “Oh!”

“Huh?” Ryuji was dragged along as Akira jogged up to a tree that he’d whipped around hoping to shake the old man off. Then she reached up for-- “Oh! My mitten!” It had gotten stuck to the bark somehow when he’d pushed off of it. Akira pulled it down and presented it to Ryuji with a flourish and a grin.

He took it and quickly crammed his hand back into it, then wiggled and flexed his fingers until it sat right again. After several minutes of not having a hand in it, the mitten had gone cold. And his fingers felt even colder not wrapped up with Akira’s.

“Hey, uh Kicchan? C-could we still hold hands?” He asked. “Um! J-just so I don’t lose you and get lost! That’s all!”

Kicchan giggled again, just as red as her coat again as she held her hand out for him. “Sure thing, Ryuji.” One reassuring squeeze later and they were walking again. “But we aren’t very far now, you can hear all the people from here.”

Ryuji strained his ears listening, then chuckled nervously because she was right. “Oh. You can, huh? W-well, still. Better safe than sorry.” They swung their hands between them for a few steps. “Hey, is it okay that I’m callin’ you Kicchan? You’re just callin’ me Ryuji, I ain’t bein’ rude am I?”

“Hm? No, it’s fine. I, um. Like it,” she mumbled and tucked her face into her coat. “Your name’s just nice to say is all. Ry~u~ji~♪!” Akira enunciated his name in a singsong that probably would’ve sounded mocking from anyone else. But from her it just sounded like music. He couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in his chest and the grin that broke out across his face.

“Yeah, well. Yours is nicer!” Ryuji declared loudly as they walked out of the trees and through the crowd of adults still celebrating. “A~ki~ra~♪!” He sang back, although not nearly as nice. Kicchan still seemed happy with it, if that smile was anything to go by. Like the sun breaking through the clouds and wow. Wow. He was gonna marry her when he grew up. Ryuji didn’t even care about all the people staring at them as they walked by, as long as he got to keep that smile.

“Ry~u~ji~♪!”

“A~ki~ra~♪!”

“Ry~u~ji~♪!”

“A~ki~ra~♪!”

“Ryuji!” The two of them jumped at the voice that rang out behind them. “Ryuji, there you are!”

“Mom!”

His mother skidded to a stop in front of them and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight. “Oh, I was so worried, sunshine, I’m so sorry. Are you alright? Did he--?”

Ryuji wiggled free of her grip long enough to loop his free arm around her and return the hug. He brushed a hand lightly over a bruise above her eyebrow that hadn’t been there earlier, and she shook her hair over her eyes to try and cover it back up. That bastard. No need to worry her, then. “I’m fine, mom. I’m fast as lightnin’ remember? Plus my new friend saved me! We hid until Aunt Manaka got him.” Hana’s eyes flicked back to the kid holding onto her son’s hand, now trying to hide behind him. “‘S okay, Kicchan, it’s just my mom. She’s nice.”

Akira had tucked herself down into her shoulders and her voice was muffled through the collar of her coat. “H’lo. I’m Akira.”

Hana smiled warmly at Akira and held out a hand for her to shake. “Hello, Akira-chan, my name’s Hana Sakamoto. Thank you for taking care of my boy.” Kicchan took it cautiously, but stayed tucked behind a Ryuji who was awkwardly pretzeled from still trying to hold onto both of them.

“Y’r welcome. He’s nice, I like him,” Akira mumbled and took her hand back to cling to Ryuji’s arm with both. Ryuji blushed again and his mom grinned at him.

She straightened up and ruffled her son’s hair affectionately. “I like him, too. He’s a good kid. And so are you, Akira-chan. How ‘bout I treat you two to some cocoa and taiyaki to warm back up, and then we can find your folks too, kiddo.” Akira nodded and pointed to a nearby storefront that was still lit up. “Perfect! So I know red bean is Ryuji’s favorite, how about you?”

Akira was being quiet enough that even Ryuji, already at her level, still had to listen hard to hear her. “Chocolate, please.” There was no way his mom could hear her.

“Chocolate for Kicchan, please!” Ryuji relayed for them.

Hana nodded approvingly. “Chocolate and hot cocoa, I like your style.” She took Ryuji’s other hand and led them through the crowd to the convenience store taking full advantage of the New Year’s revelers. Ryuji and Akira stayed outside, still holding hands and leaned up against the wall while she went in. Better that than drag the kids through a bunch of unsteady adults bickering over snacks. She returned with a hot cocoa and a taiyaki for each of them after a few minutes and Ryuji and Akira finally, hesitantly let go of each other long enough to eat.

“Th’nk you,” Akira mumbled.

“Kicchan says thanks!”

“Just Kicchan, huh?” His mom teased.

“Wh- I do too!”

Hana laughed, then craned her neck to look through the thinning crowd. “So where are your parents--”

“Akira! Akira, there you are!” A woman with dark curls and grey eyes called out, striding through the crowd like a fish moving through water.

Kicchan straightened up and waved with her half-eaten taiyaki. “Hi mama!” She called louder than Ryuji thought she was capable of. “Where’s papa? I wanted him to meet my new friend.”

The woman, apparently Mrs. Kurusu, frowned that Adults Having Adult Problems frown. “He got called into work, apparently the man who was supposed to be on shift is indisposed,” she explained in the kind of tone that folks tended to use about his old man. “So we need to get going soon.”

“Awww.”

“I know, dear.” Akira’s mom turned to Ryuji’s mom. “Thank you for watching my son. Can I at least pay you back for the snacks?” She gestured to the three of them--wait, hold up, what?

“Your son?!” Ryuji yelped. Akira tilted her--his head at Ryuji in confusion.

“Yeah? What, did you think I was a girl or something?” He giggled, and it didn’t sound any different than before. But it was. But it wasn’t.

“Uh, yeah! Boys ain’t allowed to be that pretty! It’s illegal! You gotta like, go to Pretty Jail or somethin’!” Ryuji shouted and pointed an accusing mitten at him. Akira was still laughing at him, still smiling that smile that was still making his stomach all flippy. Their moms were laughing at him too; Ryuji’s loud and shameless in a way he hadn’t heard in a while, Akira’s in a soft way that just made Akira make more sense.

“That’s okay. I’ll just break out,” Akira shrugged, then looked up at his mother. “Can my friend stay the night? He’s really nice. And so is Sakamoto-san.”

Ryuji bounced on his toes a few times. “Oh! Can I?” Okay, so Akira was a boy. That just meant they could hang out more instead. Maybe he hadn’t met his soulmate in a shrub, maybe he wasn’t gonna marry Akira someday, but he could definitely go for a sleepover.

“I don’t think…” Kurusu-san started, but her eyes caught on Hana’s forehead and she hesitated. Their moms seemed to have one of those ‘Grownups Having A Whole Conversation Without Talking’ looks before she started talking again. “Actually, that sounds like a lovely idea, honey. You boys look to be about the same size. You can share one of your extra sets of pajamas,” she said more to Akira than anyone else. “And Sakamoto-san can come over for tea while your father’s at work. I could use the company.” The last bit was aimed at Ryuji’s mom with a smile, but the tone felt like when he was being told to do his chores. Don’t argue with me, it’s for your own good.

Hana smiled tiredly, then nodded and sighed. “Alright, alright, I know when I’m outvoted. I’ll follow you,” she said to Kurusu-san.

“Woohoo!” Ryuji pumped his fist and grabbed at Akira’s shoulder. “We’re gonna stay up all night watching Featherman!”

The other boy nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I got the whole box set for Christmas!”

“Sweet!”

Hana interjected with a hand on Ryuji’s shoulder to slow his bouncing, “boys, it is well past midnight, I’d be surprised if you didn’t fall asleep as soon as you’re in pajamas.”

Ryuji pouted up at her. “I ain’t ti--” he paused as he was overwhelmed by a yawn that almost popped his jaw, “--ired, I’ll be fine.”

Akira fell into step with his mother, then froze and whipped around to Ryuji. “Wait! I didn’t make my wish yet! We gotta make a wish at the shrine!”

His hand was ridiculously warm as it wrapped around Ryuji’s, probably from holding the cocoa that he’d hastily dropped in the trash. Before Ryuji could react, Kicchan had grabbed him and was dragging him back in the direction they’d come from.

“Akira!” Kurusu-san called sharply.

“BerightbackIpromise!” He called back to his mom as Ryuji stumbled along with him. They came to a clumsy stop in front of the offertory box and Akira started rifling through his pockets. He frowned at the crumpled burger wrapper he’d meant to throw away, crammed it back into a different pocket, then pulled out two five-hundred yen coins. “One for me and one for you,” he announced proudly and pressed one of them into the palm of Ryuji’s mitten. Rather than argue that he could pay for his own, because honestly he had no idea if he could, he nodded and closed his hand around the gift.

Ryuji watched Akira carefully, then did his best to copy his movements. He hadn’t really done this before without his mom to remind him how, but he knew exactly what he was gonna wish for. Marrying him was definitely probably off the table, but...

I wanna see Kicchan again after we leave.

A few minutes later, they were jogging back to where their moms were waiting for them.

“So, what’d you two wish for?” Hana asked and waggled her eyebrows at Ryuji.

Both boys blushed, looked at each other, and then quickly looked away before falling into step to leave. Their mumbled answers tangled together as they spoke at the same time.

“S-same as always, I guess.”

“‘S a secret.”

Ryuji hoped they wished for the same thing.

---

Three years later his mother divorced that deadbeat asshole, after advice from a stranger to save up behind the drunken bastard’s back, and the help of a lawyer named Kurusu. They had never had time before or a reason after to go back to that little town in the country.

---

Ryuji was running, feet pounding against the concrete hard enough to rattle his teeth, cold air sharp against his face, knee aching for a break as the shout echoed off the nearby buildings.

“Dammit! Screw that pervy teacher!”

“...pervy teacher?”

Ryuji whipped around to the voice behind him, already on the defensive. “What do you want? You plannin’ on rattin’ me out to Kamo… shi… da?”

He couldn’t help but trail off because he knew that face, nerd glasses or no; wild curls like storm clouds, grey eyes almost too big for the face they were set in, voice a hell of a lot deeper after nearly a decade but just as soft, and built in a lanky way that probably hadn’t been mistaken for a girl in years.

“Kicchan? The hell are you doing here?” Ryuji blinked a few times and watched Akira’s posture melt from tense apprehension to open surprise. Then he smiled like sunlight breaking through the clouds and wow. After all those years, there was Mothra in his stomach again. He had been putting off that particular revelation for a while, hadn’t he?

“Ryuji!”

[poorlydrawnmoriocs]

tired, panting mess of a delinquent coming up the hill. "Hikari! *huff* Hikari I'm so *huff* sorry... *huff* I'm sorry I didn't stay with you during all this... *huff..* I promise, I'll stick with you with whatever you wanna do in this situation." (moriohs-little-demon)

“I’m sorry too, for doing so many things without telling anybody... I’m sorry for making you worry... And I’m sorry that I’m probably about to make you worry more... But it’s the only thing I can think of... I... I think I want to talk to Akira. I don’t want to fight him, I’ve already done enough to him, and I’m also a coward, so... Taking...”

@moriohs-little-demon

[geoffreytoday]

I know I said that I was finished with my subtitle project for the Macross movie, but I guess I'm not :p

I've been having a really good time, and I'm pretty proud of the final result. The only sticking point for me is the songs. I'm very happy with the lyrics that I ended up rewriting, but they do stand out contrast to the clunky lyrics of the other songs with their literal translations.

So, I guess I'm going to take a crack at rewriting all of the songs. I expect it'll be a lengthy process. I imagine it will probably take me longer than it did to rework the subtitles for the entire movie. Songs are just a much different endeavor than spoken dialogue. There's a lot more to consider.

Who knows, maybe I'll find the whole thing too time consuming and give up. I hope not though. I'd really like to have a final product where everything feels cohesive, including the songs.

Maybe I'll even make it publicly available when it's all done. Originally this project was just for my own personal enjoyment, but I would kinda like to share it. I think the work I've done is a significant improvement over what was previously available, and makes the film much more enjoyable.

I was always kind of conflicted about the movie. I wanted to love it, but it just never quite reached it's potential for me. The animation was gorgeous, the high water mark for Japanese feature animation before Akira came out in '88. As a condensed retelling of SDF Macross, it was pretty decent, and I liked a number of the changes it made, but the translation we had access to here always let the film down.

It's hard to say if the problem was being too devoted to a literal and technically correct translation, losing nuance, subtext, and the conversational flavour of dialogue in the process, or if the writing for the movie was just not terribly good. To me, there were a number of scenes where the dialogue came across as very juvenile and blunt.

Sexism is one of the themes of the piece, with the alien forces being divided along gender lines, a literal battle of the sexes. The problem I had was that the dialogue seemed to take a "we have to be completely explicit about the sexism or people won't get it" approach.

As such, dialogue reads like a skit about sexism written by 8th graders. "I'm not taking orders from a woman!" says a military pilot who is supposed to understand the chain of command. It feels like they're saying "look! a sexism!".

One of the main characters of the original series, Roy Focker, ends up being extremely unlikable because of dialogue choices like this. He was always depicted as a bit of a letch in the series, being the type to always check out attractive women, but that was really the extent of it. He wasn't an outright sex offender.

In the movie he has dialogue where he basically talks about how sometimes ya gotta force yourself on a woman, and it's super gross. In the series he was charming and likable, in the movie he needs to be slapped with a restraining order.

The point is, it felt like they were trying to discuss serious adult issues in a very juvenile, school-yard way, and it does the whole piece a disservice. In rewriting the subtitles, I've endeavored to fix those issues. The chauvinism is now part of the subtext rather than stated outright.

Our lead now disobeys orders because he thinks he knows better. Whether that's because he thinks his judgement is better than a woman's is left up to the audience to interpret. Roy no longer advocates sex crimes. His romantic advice is still a bit on the blunt and clumsy side, but no longer anything that would get someone thrown in jail. For me, that change really saves his character in the movie.

Personally, I'm willing to take a few liberties with the translation if it improves the final product.

For my birthday yesterday, my buddy Foley came over and we watched the movie with my subtitles. He'd seen it before, though a long ass time ago, and had also felt kinda indifferent towards the movie. Happily, he really enjoyed my new subtitles, and felt the movie was much stronger for them.

So maybe when I'm all done, I'll make my new subtitles available for whoever wants to check them out. If that might be you, feel free to let me know.

[ryostrenchcoat]

I'll be honest with you, friend. Your interpretation of canon is probably the closest thing that I consider to canon as well. At one point, I didn't think that the original Ryo could have known Akira-- but that was based off of my assumption because Go Nagai drew the original Ryo in a similar appearance to a young adult. But the more that you explained how the scenario holds up, I'm 100% on board with Akira having known the original Ryo and his memories being changed to fit with the current Ryo.

i’ve devoted my time and energy to beating the original devilman manga with a stick until a logical and compelling story falls out of it 

honestly, i kind of throw how nagai draws things in general out the window as well. i don’t even necessarily think that akira’s memories were changed to recognize satan!ryo as human!ryo. i think the fusion obviously did make ryo look different, but not so different that akira couldn’t figure out who he was. they hadn’t seen each other for a month and akira is more than a wee bit dumb so i don’t think he would have asked too many questions about his friend being slightly prettier than he was before.