#KAZUKI WAS ABOUT TO CRY DUDE. NO. STOP. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

[cptnghoulowl]

Me watching episode 10 of Buddy Daddies:

I did this to myself. I should've known. Ofc this shit happens in a show with a name as stupid as BUDDY DADDIES. GOD FUCKING DAMMIT PA WORKS WHY WOULD YOU TAKE MY HEART AND SOUL AWAY PIECE BY PIECE DO YOU WANT ME TO LOSE IT FINALLY DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT FUCKKKKKKKK

GIVE US BACK MIRIIIIII

[3w-writer-with-wings]

1, 5, 6, 10, 17, 19, 22, 23, and 34 for the yugioh meme?

1)  Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! series

This is like asking me which out of my six children should survive while the other five die XD. I love all the series since they all have both pros and cons, and they all have interesting characters and stories, but I guess ARC V will always have a special place in my heart since it got me back in Yugioh fandom (I stopped after 5Ds for a while several years ago). VRAINS is currently my favourite series plotwise since it continues to surprise me and keeps me hyped every single week.

5)  Favourite opening/ending

For the opening, it’s a tie between second and fifth ARC V opening. “Burn” has an incredibly upbeat melody that makes me smile every time I listen to it. “Light of Hope” on the other hand tells a story of how there is despair but smiles will be there to make it go away. I’m rather torn between choosing either of them since they are both really nice endings. As for ending - “Close to You”, 4th ending from 5Ds. I first started watching 5Ds in English dub but once I caught up with it, I was too curious what is going to happen next so I started watching Japanese dub from that point on and that was probably the smartest decision ever. I got to see “Close to You” not only as the first Yugioh Japanese ending but the very first anime ending ever. I loved every single moment of it, of all the characters just chilling around the city, then meeting up, watching the sunrise and then riding D-Wheels with their dragons! It is an ending that is beyond perfect and really emphasises the bonds and friendship between all Signers. 

6)  Favourite character

If you had asked me this question before Takeru showed up, I would’ve probably blurted out the names of several characters and say how I love them all, but Takeru is a special case. You see, he is a character that I loved before he even officially appeared XD. I’m following the news, cast lists and summaries, so when Takeru showed up for the first time in an anime magazine (like a month before his official anime appearance), I fell in love with everything about him. Both his human self and avatar had all the right colours and designs that fit his personality well, his backstory was intriguing, I was already looking forward to seeing another Lost Child and out of all possible voices, he got to be voiced by one and only Kaji Yuuki (who is among my Top 3 anime voice actors!). Then he showed up in the new opening and ending and him being friendly and cosy with Yusaku was just plain adorable! I had no idea what his role was going to be but from that point it was clear - Yusaku is getting a new friend! And was his entrance perfect - lightning, fire tornado and then him! 10/10 Burner of Souls! Not only was he righteously hyped up, but he also continues to be amazing and I have a feeling his character will get even more development!    

10)  Favourite Duel Monster

It’s hard to pick a single monster, but I love every single card in Johan’s deck aka. Crystal/Gem Beast archetype. The designs are simple but so well executed and out of all of them, it’s hard to pick just one. I love their story, the legend and just the fact how much they all care about Johan, trying to reach out to him when Yubel possessed him. A big plus is also the fact how much personality they all have and they are always there to help up Johan.

17)  Have you ever cried over YGO and why?

You should’ve rather ask me when I didn’t lol. But yeah in every spinoff there was a moment that I actually cried. In original series there were two moments, when Yugi duelled Atem in the fourth season, letting him defeat him and then fading away in his arms and the Ceremonial duel when Yugi stumbled on his knees and cried, I cried with him cuz I also didn’t want Atem to go. Then in GX, it was basically whenever Judai would show vulnerability, cuz really, I hated his guts and his goofy overpowered persona. But then when he lost Johan, when he was afraid of Yubel, when he succumbed to the power of Supreme King and the entire season 4 when he was battling with depression - to see someone so cheerful becoming a mere shell of himself was so darn sad. 5Ds started darker but nothing could prepare me for two scenes, Yusei nearly dying, being afraid to duel and then watching his friend die in his arms and then losing another friend for real (Bruno! :’( ). Zexal made me cry a weird mixture of happy and sad tears whenever Yuma and Astral did something. When Astral sacrificed himself for Yuma I don’t know when I cried more - when Yuma watched Astral die or Yuma suffering from major depression for the next few episodes. But that scene when he got reunited with Astral was that more powerful because of it and their relationship is truly the purest of them all. ARC V, spinoff all about smiles was probably one of the saddest series, not just because of many sad moments throughout the whole thing aka. Yuto dying in Yuya’s arms for real, Yugo losing Rin, Yuya losing Yuzu, the fate of other Bracelet Girls and Yu-Boys and the overall ending, but also how inconclusive the ending felt. I kinda get the point was to show the realism of war, how not everyone can get a happy ending but it could still be executed better. Then there’s VRAINS…. *sighs* where do I even start with this….

VRAINS truly took the plotline seriously and doesn’t seem like it’s going to back down. It is like the writing staff put together a medley of the saddest moments in Yu-Gi-Oh! and were like, “Let’s make it sadder!”. From the fact that mere six-year-old children were tortured so badly, that Ryoken was so messed up by his father, that all Lost Children are still suffering in one way or another, that SOL practically killed a living being and all the drama that it’s going on between Yusaku and Kusanagi right now. Last week’s episode had me nearly tear up and for tomorrow I will most definitely cry. It’s just so painful to see someone so desperate to save their own family, to attack someone they were all set to protect just a few episodes ago… And VRAINS isn’t even over yet. I thought nothing could top Earth’s death scene, but from the looks of it, tomorrow will be getting a dose of the most painful feels.

19)  Least favourite series

It’s a tie between GX and the first series if I had to choose one. GX has a rather monotone first half when there is some stuff going on, but it’s really episodic and easily forgotten. While there were some interesting episodes, the rest was just one giant filler that tried to deliver too much nostalgia from the first series instead of developing on its own. And speaking of the first series - I know the card game wasn’t as developed at the time so tons of duels made absolutely no sense. Then it was only Yugi, Kaiba and Joey having the development and extremely long duels that were starting to feel off and annoying to watch. But overall - I know that was the very first series and the spinoff, so it was obvious it wouldn’t be perfect. What I truly love about Yu-Gi-Oh! is that it’s a franchise that continues to grow with every single spin-off, even if they’re becoming less relevant they are still getting stronger storywise.

22)  Least favourite character

This little brat is a perfect representation of how to create the most annoying character. Everything about him screams “annoying, useless and awful”. It would be completely fine if he was an episodic villain, but noooo for some reason writing staff was like, “hey let’s make this dude into Yuma’s friend”. I get it, Yuma can make friends easily, but for the love of God, why him?! Yuma has enough friends already, why bring this brat into his group? Tokunosuke has literally no purpose to be here but to cause trouble or be a plot device to bring Yuma trouble. Okay, I was fine with that one time that he got Yuma into trouble and Yuma still forgave him, but why the hell did they have a need to repeat that three more times? I feel the same way about Kotori - she has no basic purpose but to be moral support or act as a damsel in distress.ZEXAL had way too many characters and out of them all, they picked the most useless ones for major roles. 

23)  NOTP

Canon datastormshipping. I think I made it clear why I dislike it in two posts already, but I guess I could sum it up for the third time. In canon verse they are two unstable people who bring out the worst of each other. They rarely interact, their ideologies are vastly different and they are in a way obsessed with each other in a very unhealthy way. If the two of them dated it would most likely result in a very toxic relationship which would only worsen up their already broken mental states. Again, I greatly dislike this ship in canon verse (in anime up to episode 92) and my opinion could change by the end of VRAINS. I still like the fanfics and fanarts that depict “what if” scenarios where their relationship could work (I’m actually writing one at the moment and I have plans to write one where I focus on their relationship in detail), but canon shipping just feels off and dysfunctional.

34)  If you met Kazuki Takahashi, what would you say to him?

First of all, I would thank him for coming up with those amazing characters and plotlines. I still love the original manga and season 0 the most since it had so much creativity with different games, but I can see it keep getting included more with new summoning methods and unique stories. Then I would most likely present him my idea for the 7th series and its protagonist. From the start of the series, there wasn’t much about card game production or who designs them. We got some info on how Pegasus discovered Millenium Items and the tablet with Egyptian Gods and in GX it showed Hayato working as a card game designer. I would love to see a protagonist who loves games just like Yugi and wishes to create more, so he strives to become the best card game designer. He is not that keen on playing the game since he prefers to make the cards more, but when he creates a particular card(kinda like how Takato created Guilmon in Digimon Tamers) he is pulled into an adventure where he must find other cards that contain powerful Duel Monsters spirits and he has to lock them back into their cards. I would also love to have a protagonist that can talk with spirits again since while Judai had adorable interactions with Winged Kuriboh and Neo Spacians, it was still largely brushed aside and not that much explored. So yeah please make the next protagonist into a card game designer, it will be unique and open to so many interesting plotlines and potentials. 

[krys-does-otome]

Bad End Roundup: Collar x Malice

Bad End Roundups is where I give reactions to the bad ends and Normal Ends of an otome, usually because I tend to leave all the bad or normal ends until I've completed all of the Good Ends I can. This isn't the case with every game, as some I'll get a bad end the first time through, especially with blind playthroughs. In general, however, this is my rule of thumb when I play otomes.

And, as you can probably figure, these are going to be riddled with spoilers, for the entire game.

Just a fair warning.

Out of all of the bad ends I've played so far, this game takes the more serious path. There aren't any gag endings, where the ending is so ridiculous that you can't take it seriously. There aren't really any normal endings either, just the Tragic Love Ends, where it varies on how much this ending hurts your soul.

Now, into the Bad End Roundup, starting with… the common route!

Final spoiler warning here, folks!

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

Common Route 

‘Report it’ Ending Ichika goes against the strict warnings from the collar and tell Mochida about what happened to her, show him the collar and everything.

This results in the collar injecting the poison into her system, and, thus, kills her. Whoops.

‘Rather Do It Myself’ Ending This end is when Ichika doesn't choose a specific route and are basically trying to solve the X Day crimes alone without input from the others. But there is too much for her to analyze on her own, overwhelming her, and X Day comes as a result, and she’s too late to stop it.

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

Mineo Enomoto Bad Ends

Enomoto has six Bad Ends, one of them being his Tragic Love End.

Bad End 1 This one involves taking a more dangerous shortcut home. This forced Ichika to run into Manabu, the gamer dude, where he shoots her. Whoops.

Bad End 2 This one involves Ichika getting information from Satake, Enomoto’s old superior and mentor. Unfortunately, she are too cautious in her approach and he doesn't give the information. This leads indirectly to Ichika’s death, because she wasn't proactive enough.

Bad End 3 Like Bad End 2, this one involves getting information from Satake. Ichika is still too cautious, but she does apologize for hiding the complete truth from him. This results in Enomoto getting taken and killed this time.

Bad End 4 This is where Ichika misses the shot to disable Hanako, the girl in the bunny jacket. This results in her shooting Kazuki, her little brother.

She doesn't take this very well, as she then proceed to shoot her multiple times in a blind rage.

Bad End 5 This involves going to the wrong place to find Enomoto and Ogata, resulting in Enomoto shooting Ogata, on streaming video, right on the big screen in Shinjuku Station, with no context as to why Enomoto opened fire on him.

Bad End 6, His Tragic Love End Enomoto tries to make his peace with Ogata in a live press conference. Ogata however, does not share the same sentiment and tries to stab him with a concealed knife. Ichika is quicker to react and shoot him, straight in the heart.

However, because it was a compromise of her ideals, shooting a person first instead trying to understand him and his point of view, Ichika resigns from the police force and goes home. Before she can completely leave, however, Enomoto finds her on the train and tries to convince her to stay, but the damage is already done and she leaves him behind.

----------

Takeru Sasazuka Bad Ends

Sasazuka has six Bad Ends, one of them being his Tragic Love End

Bad End 1 Ichika goes into the park to find Suzune, one of the twins, there. Suzune goes off on her for showing basic human concern and proceeds to choke her. Suzune’s brother, Shion, comes along to his sister choking poor Ichika. He stops her, briefly, until it's revealed that Ichika’s a cop. He then proceeds to shoot her dead. Whoops.

Bad End 2 Because Ichika stumbled upon Rika Sugawara’s dead body accidentally, she is killed for seeing too much.

Bad End 3 Ichika pushes Sasazuka out of the way of being shot by Manabu, and gets shot in the process. Sasazuka doesn’t take this well.

Bad End 4 Ichika tries to reason with Manabu, against her and Sasazuka’s better judgement. This results in Ichika getting ‘BOOM. HEADSHOT.’ Sasazuka screams worse in this ending.

Bad End 5 Sasazuka keeps his focus on finding his mother’s killer instead of the larger problem of the X Day crimes. He does take off Ichika's collar in a very sweet scene (where he drugs her though, unfortunately) and disappears into the night.

Bad End 6, His Tragic Love End This ends with Sasazuka not fighting to keeping them together, so he and Ichika have to separate because of their jobs. He does give her a pretty necklace in parting though.

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

Kageyuki Shiraishi Bad Ends

Shiraishi has five Bad Ends, including his Tragic Love End

Bad End 1 Ichika is killed by Rika Sugawara, just for running into her. Whoops.

Bad End 2 Shiraishi confronts Zero on his own, resulting in him getting killed.

Bad End 3 Ichika fails in negotiating with the twins, which results in her getting shot.

Bad End 4, His Tragic Love End Ichika becomes a part of Adonis, becoming a killer numb to any emotion, or pretty much anything. Shiraishi is 'given’ to her as a pet, with his vocal chords taken out, eternally crying in his failure to protect Ichika.

Bad End 5 Ichika succeeded in killing Zero, but he activates the poison in her collar, like in Shiraishi’s good ending. And Shiraishi administers the antidote, same as his good ending. The only difference between this and his ‘Good End’ is that he is straight up honest with, telling her they are lovers, and they stay in the underground forever, because she needs to recover, and… well, he is a wanted criminal.

I feel bad to say this a lot less fucked up than his actual ‘Good End’  :/

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

Kei Okazaki Bad Ends

Okazaki has five Bad Ends, including his Tragic Love End

Bad End 1 Ichika follows Yasahiro Isshiki, and then is killed by Hanako. Again.

This is becoming a trend.

Bad End 2 Okazaki confronts Ichika when he sees the collar. However, since it sounded like she was conspiring with Rika Sugawara, Okazaki gives her the cold shoulder instead of learning the whole truth. Because of his threat to tell his superiors about the collar, Ichika dies via the poison in her collar.

Bad End 3 Ichika doesn't accept the idea of her dying very well, which results in her being afraid of Okazaki, especially after he had pulled his gun on her before. Because of her cowardly unwillingness, Okazaki tried to distance himself, hating her cowardice. One final confrontation results in the line: “You weren't the one I was meant to protect.”

He is then taken out by Adonis, a death without meaning, his worst fear.

Bad End 4 Where Ichika and Okazaki have to get out of explosive-riddled park, but Ichika chooses to pursue Sanjou, on her own, and almost gets killed, had it not been for Okazaki, who dies in her stead. At least he dies happy :/

Bad End 5, His Tragic Love End Where Ichika missed the shot and is actually killed this time. Okazaki is distraught and considers killing himself. He only just barely manages to stop himself from pulling the trigger on himself before Zero finds them and kills Okazaki himself.

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

Aiji Yanagi Bad Ends

Yanagi has seven Bad Ends, including his Common Route Bad End and his Tragic Love End

Bad End 1, His Common Route Bad End This is achieved by too many wrong answers and don’t pick a specific route, which leads to Adonis thinking Ichika truly hasn't pursued the X Day crimes seriously, so Zero kills her via the poison in her collar.

Bad End 2 Ichika follows Kazuki on her own, without Yanagi, which means she meets Yasahiro Isshiki on her own. He finds out she's a cop and pushed her out, where she meets Hanako.

You can guess where it goes from here.

Bad End 3 We miss the shot on the hostage situation, hitting the hostage by accident, inciting the perp, Yanagi isn't fast enough to stop the perp and Ichika is shot. He is distraught by the turn of events, and same for the reader if you've finished his route before doing the Bad Ends, like me.

Bad End 4 Ichika confronts Saeki, and raises her gun on him. He then knocks her out and kidnaps her to his hideout. When Ichika wakes up, she's surrounded by the bodies of Yanagi, Okazaki, Enomoto, and Shiraishi, all killed by the automatic defense system. Saeki comes to her, offering his hand, asking if she wants to help him rid the world of malice and sorrow.

In her grief, Ichika takes his hand, only mentally vowing to get rid of the root of the problem, him, with her own hands.

Bad End 5 What I like to call the ‘Ichika Goes Yandere’ Ending.

X Day happens as planned, meaning everyone is living in fear of the terrorist organization, including Ichika.

She locks herself and Kazuki in the apartment, Yanagi comes by and is taken in himself, Ichika so scared and paranoid, she literally threatens him bodily harm if he goes back out, where it was clearly not safe. Yanagi is regretful that he couldn’t save her from her fear and paranoia.

Bad End 6 Saeki dies from the open fire of the SWAT team, probably because we didn’t report it to Morioka and Minegishi about us wanting a word with him. When Saeki shot Yanagi, it sent off the warning to the team and they open fire.

With his dying breath, he sets off a bomb. Yanagi dies protecting Ichika, and she goes off to rid the world of sorrow, because of her loss of Yanagi and Saeki.

Bad End 7, His Tragic Love End Saeki is the faster shot and he gets Yanagi, multiple times, but doesn’t kill him. Ichika gets a good shot in and kills Saeku, right through the heart. 

Because of the trauma of killing him (basically proving his point, that she can kill to protect, even if it was someone she previously cared about), Ichika was sent home because of the shock, and hasn't been seen since. Yanagi leaves us by looking for her as hard as he can.

----------

The closest thing that could be considered a Normal Ending would be Sasazuka’s Tragic Love End, where they have separate because of their jobs with minimal drama, just a quiet parting of ways.

My first official Bad End was in Okazaki’s route, right around the time I got the title postholder image. It was my first time attempting fate in the game (not the last time either) and I was heart-broken as a result. Still didn’t teach me to not tempt fate though.

My favorite Bad End has to be, surprisingly, Okazaki's Tragic Love End, where Ichika actually dies in this end. It actually had me on my edge of my seat, especially once the cg popped up. Okazaki is mentally anguished, seriously considering taking his own life because Ichika needlessly lost hers. Only in the last few moments does he pull the gun from his head, giving you some bit of hope, that he could move on.

Unfortunately, Zero finds him, twists some words, and shoots Okazaki himself, snuffing out any shred of hope.

I love the high emotions in this one, how there is still just a bit of hope for a bittersweet ending, that Okazaki could be okay after Ichika’s death, that he could be okay and move on.

But no, that hope was snuffed out by Zero’s trigger and everything was lost.

Probably my most what the fuck moment was with Shiraishi’s last ending, which plays close to his Good End, but is thankfully shorter.

Like I mentioned in the insert, I find this ending less fucked up than his Good End, and that is a tad frightening.

Compared to his ‘Good’ Ending, he doesn't lie to her, he straight up calls them lovers. She still has amnesia, but at least he doesn't lie to her. Sure, they're still in the underground, but at least he doesn't try to distance himself from her by caring for her as her ‘doctor’, only to distance himself further when she's well enough to rejoin society, dumping her on Yanagi, and turns himself in to the authorities.

I'm still broke from Shiraishi’s Good Ending, okay? Okay.

Up next, my final thoughts on Collar x Malice, an analysis of the entire game, a discussion of my favorite moments, good or bad, and a ranking of the routes against each other and various other things.

For the individual baes in Review for Collar x Malice, here’s the link to Baes in Summary, which has links to individual route thoughts and ratings.

If anyone has any special requests for baes or games for me to review, here’s the most up-to-date list of games and routes I’ve completed thus far: Butts Touched Master List

Have a good day, lovelies, and remember to touch all the butts.

[lady-byleth]

Fafner On Social Media

I’ve been watching vine compilations for days and now you guys have to see what it’s done to my brain.

Sakura: An endless list of her shoulder throwing men twice her size and incredibly short tutorials on how to do it. Girls love her, men fear her. She’s very popular on YouTube and Tumblr for self-defence lessons. Everyone knows she and Kenji have a thing for each other and despair over them not noticing. Once they start dating the fanbases merge into one happy mess. They cry a lot over how cute they are. Sakura is very offended (or pretends to be anyway). 

Kenji: Shenanigans with his mum. Just funny little home videos that always escalate into Ayano throwing stuff at him. They have a saga of him learning to dodge her attacks and her scaring the shit out of him. Ayano is crowned Best Vine Mom twice in a row. She’s incredibly smug about it too. Kenji starts a new series called “Living with the Beast”. It’s ten videos of him leaving the room screaming whenever Ayano walks in. Once he starts dating Sakura they make “Living with the Beats Part 2″ which is Kenji running away screaming from his mom only for Sakura to drag him right back into the room.

Mamoru: MEMES AND ANIME EVERYWHERE! He has videos of randomly walking up to people a la Thomas Sanders Story Time and doing the Goubain chant. Results vary. It’s hilarious. He also does anime reviews, reactions and recommendations as well as Let’s Plays with Soushi from time to time. He’s pretty good but Soushi kicks his ass anyway. You can buy a replica of the Goubain helmet in his online store. They’re all handmade and personalized for his fans. 

Toomi: Lots of aesthetics on Tumblr. Takes tons of photos while rock climbing or when at the beach. Actually knows her camera stuff. Makes adorable little videos taking Shouko places to make her smile. People ship them, they think it's funny. Every time Toomi gets a genuine smile out of Shouko the fanbase dies a little. Her muscles have reached meme status. “I would let Toomi Maya choke me.” “Embrace me with your muscles!”

Akira and Rina: Basically living shit post generators. Scaring the shit out of people with air horns, throwing confetti at unsuspecting friends, drawing on each other’s faces when one is taking a nap, lots of makeup and wigs for completely random videos no one understands but are still somehow fucking gut busting. They’ve invented a new kind of art. Their grandmother tends to do random shit in the background that has nothing to do with the actual video but fans always try to find every instance of her changing positions or clothes. Meme Grandma. 

Hiroto, Seri, Tsubaki: Hiroto on YouTube does his usual singing and acting stuff that is so horribly bad that it’s hilarious while Seri stands to the side, looking very offended at everything. Lots of Manzai routines that Hiroto doesn’t even realise are happening. On the other side of the account it’s Seri and Tsubaki exploring the forest and talking about local legends. They have a knack for running into really scary shit and after a while they began ghost hunting. It’s half terrifying and half adorable. Tsubaki also joins Kazuki’s efforts of annoying her brother from time to time. 

Canon: Ranting about the Japanese language with Sakura laughing in the background and funny dog videos with Chocolat and Koyo. Misao tends to join in and that's when shit gets really crazy. Chocolat chased Misao into a pool once. Kouyo just sipped his drink, shades down. Canon died laughing. The camera work sucks. The video has over a million clicks on YouTube.

Michio: The dude on Facebook who will not stop posting pictures of his daughter. Or his wife. Or his daughter AND his wife. Sometimes even his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. He’s just very proud of his family, okay!

Kazuki: The Vine King. Pranks everywhere. He sprayed Soushi with a water bottle seven times just for kicks until Soushi blocked with a tray and got him right back. Followers exploded. They have a shared YouTube account. Advice on life (dealing with anxiety and social awkwardness, getting through panic attacks, lots of gender, LGBT+ and race awareness, how to properly adult etc) and cooking tutorials with Soushi! Kazuki’s most popular vine is of Soushi napping, Kazuki booping his nose and Soushi curling up like a cat. Kazuki has a screenshot of that as his phone’s lock screen.

Soushi: Doesn’t have any accounts to his name but guest stars in his friends’ stuff all the time. His hair is very famous. Kazuki’s co-star in 90% of his vines and videos. Unwilling prank victim. He’s starting to adapt. Kazuki once threw breakable stuff at him every few days for months. He can sense bullshit now. Is called Kitty Soushi by the fanbase. Subject of memes. “What we expected: [picture of grumpy Soushi] - What we got: [varying pictures of him doing something silly]” is very popular. Everyone ships him and Kazuki. They milk it for vines. 

Fumihiko and Mizoguchi: Don’t know how to properly work a computer. Would very much like to know why Kazuki takes shots of them less than a second long. Don’t know how to check. It bugs them very much. 

Akane, Youko, Chizuru, Saya: Have seen every single video their children and their friends have ever made. Like all of them. Are very proud parents.