#Kazuya Kudo

[mahounomanga]

Mai (a.k.a. Mai, the Psychic Girl)

I am extremely grateful to live in a time where English translations of manga are as accessible as they are. There are plenty of titles I either plan to cover on this blog, or have covered already, that would not have been accessible to me just fifteen years ago. Even if we're only talking about official releases, we are in an era when I can walk into my local Barnes & Noble and buy volumes of semi-recent magical girl titles like Cosmo Familia, Machimaho, and Nirvana. Today I want to take a look back to the beginning of that legacy, and examine what was probably the first magical girl manga ever to get an official English release.

Mai is a 1985 manga written by Kazuya Kudo and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. The story revolves around Mai Kuju, a 14 year old girl with powerful psychic abilities, especially psychokinesis. At first she mostly uses her powers to amuse herself when bored; however, she catches the attention of the Wisdom Alliance, a shadowy organization tracking young psychics worldwide. Mai is one of five teens the Wisdom Alliance has taken an interest in, and once she realizes she's being followed, she has no choice but to go on the run. Encountering danger at every turn, Mai accepts help from those willing to offer it, but when the going gets tough, the tough get psychic.

The story is highly serialized, gradually building on itself and undergoing major status-quo changes along the way. Usually these changes have to do with who Mai's allies are at any given time. One of the things that stands out to me about this manga is the number of people who come to Mai's aid. Ordinarily this kind of character-trying-to-escape-from-a-myserious-group story carries a message of "trust no one", and I was honestly glad to see that subverted here. These supporting characters (usually) don't detract from Mai's story, but reinforce her as the emotional core of the narrative. Oftentimes, Mai's reaction to the events unfolding around her are given as much focus as the events themselves, especially early on. I found this series more compelling than I expected, and even with a chapter count higher than any other manga I've read for this blog yet, it was decently easy to get through. It helps that the chapters were short and well-paced. Lavishly detailed panel compositions draw out the action in some scenes and sell the more tender moments in others.

Not everything about this manga is great though. A content warning is in order for violent and erotic imagery. The violence is used sparingly, and it often conveys the emotional impact and stakes of the narrative, but still, the headsplosions felt unnecessary and caught me off guard. The horny stuff is generally pretty tame, but it does show up more frequently near the end. There's some occasional nudity and inevitable panty shots during the flying scenes, which, whatever, but Mai sustaining outfit damage during the final battle felt completely uncalled for. The political implications of this story are a bit messy as well. Not just in the sense of dated gender relations and gender stereotyping (though there is plenty of that too). The Wisdom Alliance alludes to real-world political systems and historical events in ways that can be hard to parse what the author was implying. They even go so far as to draw comparisons to the Third Reich in terms of the amount of power the Wisdom Alliance holds, which feels questionable. Not to mention, there's some racial stereotyping going on with the psychic kids from other countries. Japanese and white characters in this manga are almost always drawn attractively and/or with realistic proportions, while the Mongolian and Vietnamese boys are... visually distinct let's say. Almost everything about the way they act and talk feels like it's designed to other them, and it's really uncomfortable to read honestly.

The series was co-created by Kazuya Kudo and Ryoichi Ikegami, with Kudo on writing duty and Ikegami drawing the manga. Both worked with Kazuo Koike early in their careers; Ikegami providing illustrations for Koike's 1973 manga I Ueo Boy, and Kudo being one of the first students of Koike's renowned story writing course, Gekiga Sonjuku, in 1977. Both men also worked predominantly in adult-oriented manga with dark and mature themes. From what I can tell, Kazuya Kudo never illustrated any manga, all his stories I know of were drawn by other artists, but he continued writing manga well into the 2000s. Mai is perhaps his best known work, though he is also remembered for Pineapple Army and Nobunaga, the latter of which was also illustrated by Ikegami. Ryoichi Ikegami has been making manga since age 17, and he is still active in the industry as of this writing. Like Kudo, he usually collaborates with other mangaka, drawing rather than writing. One of his earliest works was the 1970 Spider-Man manga co-written by Kousei Ono and Kazumasa Hirai. Three of the manga he drew for have been adapted into OVAs: Kizuoibito in 1986, Crying Freeman in 1988, and Sanctuary in 1996.

Mai was originally published in Weekly Shounen Sunday, a Shogakukan publication, from March 20, 1985 to April 2, 1986, for a total of 53 chapters. The series was reprinted by Shogakukan in six tankobon volumes between July 1, 1985 and July 18, 1986. Media Factory reprinted the series twice in the 2000s, first as three volumes between 2002 and 2003, then as two volumes in 2006. Most recently, Shogakukan published a digital version of the original 6 volumes on April 28, 2020.

But of course, that's only the manga's Japanese run. This series was also translated into Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, and most famously, Mai was among the first manga to be officially published in English. Viz Media collaborated with Eclipse Comics to release the series as Mai, the Psychic Girl from May 19, 1987 to July 12, 1988. Mai (, the Psychic Girl) would prove popular enough with western audiences to warrant multiple reprints, which Viz continued to handle after Eclipse went defunct in 1994. The chapters were compiled into four volumes in 1989 (this time by Titan Books), and a three volume Perfect Collection was published by Viz from 1995 to 1996. Such a widescale release at the dawn of the North American anime and manga boom means that this series is decently well-remembered, seemingly moreso in America than in Japan. (Though that could also have to do with the Japanese title being so nondescript it's difficult to search.)

In fact, Mai, the Psychic Girl was so beloved that there were talks of adapting the manga into a live-action film. This project languished in development hell for decades and ultimately wouldn't see the light of day, despite a script being written and a soundtrack being completed but never released. Over the course of the film's troubled and inconclusive production, it was worked on at different points by Sony, Columbia Pictures, Tim Burton, and Francis Ford Coppola, with Burton expressing interest in the project as recently as 2010. It's unlikely a Mai, the Psychic Girl film will ever happen now, but still, it's kind of a cool side note.

Anyway, back to the manga's English release. I had my concerns going into this, given some of the xenophobic attitudes of the time, and especially because of the tagline on the cover that reads "She is pretty. She is psychic. She is japanese." (Lowercase j? Really?) Thankfully the translation job doesn't seem to lean too heavily into that kind of orientalism. I don't have a secondary translation to compare it to, or a copy of the raw Japanese text, but at the very least the character names are unchanged and the localization team didn't try to hide that the story is mostly set in Japan, in contrast to later and more infamous localizations. There are some nods to American pop culture, such as Mai singing Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles in the first chapter, and cameos from recognizable cartoon characters like Snoopy, Garfield, and Mickey Mouse throughout, but from what I can tell, these were in the original. As far as I'm aware, there were only two visual edits made. One was a nude scene being removed from the initial run, which was restored in later printings. The other, and more substantial edit, is that the whole manga is "flopped", a term that refers to the mirroring of pages and panels. Flopping was a common practice in early manga localization given that Japanese books read right to left whereas English books read left to right. Weirdly enough, the flopping here seems a little inconsistent. There were a couple of times I caught details switching sides from one panel to the next. It's not egregious but it is noticeable.

No magical girl manga was officially localized in English before Mai. But I did specify at the beginning that this is probably the first magical girl manga ever to get an official English release. Which raises the question: is Mai even a magical girl manga in the first place? That's... debatable. I talked a little bit about psychic magical girls before in my post on Sennome-sensei, and I stand by the assessment I made in my initial post defining the boundaries of this project that the magic in a magical girl series doesn't have to be literal. It can instead derive from sci-fi or supernatural elements such as E.S.P., so long as the story otherwise meets the criteria of the genre, namely that the story is female led and driven by her using her powers. Therein lies the disconnect with this series. The number of supporting characters in Mai, the Psychic Girl is staggering. That's not a problem in and of itself, after all, many of these characters are pretty fun. Hands down my favorite is Intetsu, a university student with a big heart who might not be a full-on himbo but is at least himbo adjacent. But the sheer number of other characters means there are some chapters, particularly in the middle section, where Mai doesn't appear much. She's still the main character mind you, (no other character gets more focus, and the story manages to continue being about her even in her absence), but it's still a noticeable difference from other titles we've covered. It doesn't help that even when she does show up, there are a couple of stretches of time during which she refuses to use her psychic power to avoid inadvertently hurting anyone. All of this is without even taking into consideration authorial intent: i.e. I doubt the creators intended to make a magical girl manga. Mai, the Psychic Girl draws influence from a lot of different genres. It's an absolute kitchen sink of tropes ranging from martial arts and sword fights to international espionage and government conspiracies. If Kudo and Ikegami wanted to throw in a power trinket or a transformation, it would not have felt too out of place. And yet, this series does not contain any recognizable magical girl signifiers of the time, nor does it draw any influence I can identify from magical girl works that came before it. That's just not the kind of story they were trying to tell.

But despite everything I just said, there are plenty of moments in this manga that feel magical girl-esque somehow. There are certain narrative and visual cues that are not exclusive to the magical girl genre, but are still very prominent within it, which do show up in Mai in some capacity. For one thing, Mai has a puppy named Ron which spends so much time with her, he ends up developing latent psychic abilities of his own. This manifests as extrasensory perception of danger, which he uses to warn Mai of incoming threats, much like some mascot characters do in certain later magical girl works. Mai also has two best friends (named Yumiko and Rie) who are average schoolgirls from whom she has to keep her double life a secret. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how often they reappear in the story, as they and Mai genuinely care for one another, and their friendship very effectively establishes that despite her abilities and the danger she consistently finds herself in, Mai is an ordinary girl. Speaking of how Mai relates to others, the Wisdom Alliance eventually calls in one of the other teen psychics, a German girl named Turm Garten, to help eliminate Mai. A major story arch revolves around the one-sided rivalry between Turm and Mai, the latter of whom just wants to be friends, and it's very much evocative of the dark magical girl archetype. I also feel the need to point out that the series starts with Mai having a prophetic dream, something that jump starts the plot of a few high profile magical girl works. And lastly, we find out early on that in the Kuju family, psychic powers are passed down matrilineally. Mai comes from a long line of female protectors, and this revelation influences the way she thinks about her destiny.

Mai, the Psychic Girl is a mixed bag in just about every way. Some aspects of it are deeply artful, other aspects are atrociously tacky. There are things about it that have aged like milk, and yet it does boast some historical significance. I like it for what it is, even if it's not my usual cup of tea. It's not what one might expect from a magical girl manga, but if you enjoy magical girl stories, you might enjoy this.

[beyondthespheres]

two consecutive pages from Mai, The Psychic Girl by Kudo & Ikegami

[iluxurycruisedthatship]

The Kazama & Mishima’s naming traditions and the Next Gens of Kazama’s children!

Alright so I've been cooking this for a while since they dropped Jun's parents name on T8. Bear in mind, I'm in no way fluent in Japanese nor I'm a native, but I have google on my side to educate me better about Japanese naming systems and the kanji they used for naming the child (jinmeiyo and joyo).

I just want to named XiaoJin’s future babies so bad, kay?! Lol. Even though I know Jin is opposed to any plan of continuing the lineage (which is heartbreaking 😭💔) but the XiaoJin's shipper in me cannot be extinguished!! 🔥🔥🔥 I still want to named them! Lol.

Anyway! Feel free to correct me with your information! I'm open to any kind of knowledge 💖

Psst! If you don't want to read these longass founds and explanation, you can jump right away to the bottom of this post, there’s a pic that summarise these texts, lol.

Alrightt! Without further ado, let's deep dive into Kazama/Mishima lore!!

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So...

Tekken 8 has finally dropped some lore about Kazama family, and it's about Jun to be exact. There, we can get a glimpse of Jun's parent name:

Soon after, a Japanese KazuJun's fan dropped this tweet :

Assuming a native Japanese able to decipher those characters correctly, now we finally have Jun's parents name kanji:

純一 the father, and 恵 the mother.

As we all know, kanji has several way of reading. Cited from pon-navi, there are two typical ways of reading kanji, kun-yomi and on-yomi. In addition, there is a reading system called "jinmei kun" which is used only for names.

"Soo?? What's their name?! How do we know the correct reading?!"

Here's the thing!!

Tekken has giving us hints that Mishima family has a tradition to give their children with their kanji name, following a common practice in Japan. Let's take a look at their kanji.

仁八, Jinpachi

平八, Heihachi & 一美, Kazumi

一八, Kazuya

Notice the similarities? You’re right! The Mishima child inherited their parents' kanji! The sons inherit '八' kanji, with Heihachi inherited '八' from Jinpachi and Kazuya inherited both kanji from Heihachi (八) and Kazumi (一).

As it is a common practice, the same can be said with the Kazama family! Although in their case, they might not be inheriting the kanji but instead with the reading of the said character. Or maybe phonetically similar would be correct here.

For example, this is Jun's kanji: 準

This character '準' can be read several ways, some of them are : Jun, shun, setsu, taira, toshi, narau, nori, hitoshi.

And one of her father kanji is: 純

'純' can be read as : kito, Jun, atsu, atsushi, aya, itaru, ito, kiyoshi, sunao, sumi, tsuna, to, makoto, yoshi.

Have you noticed it? That's right! '純' and '準' can be both read as Jun! It means that Jun's kanji has the same reading as her father's kanji, although they have different kanji characters.

From here, we can assume that Jun's father can be called Jun____ as well.

As for the other kanji, '一' can be read as: hito, hitotsu, hajime, ichi, itsu, i, osamu, kuni, susumu, tada, chi, nobu, hajimu, hajime, hi, hiji, hide, hitoshi, makoto, masashi, moto, ka, kazu, kata, atsu.

Looking from the lists, together his name could be read most plausibly as : Junichi, Junitsu, or Juni. Imo, Junichi sounds the best, so yeah, I completely agree with the KazuJun's fan.

Now we all know that Kazama has similar sounding name with different kanji.

On the other hand, the mother has '恵' that can be read as: megumu, megumi, kei, e, aya, sato, satoshi, shige, toshi, yasu, yoshi.

While it could be anything, I think it's either Megumi or Megumu. Why? Because I found out that '恵' has the same reading as one of Jin's kanji reading! lol. Let's take a look at Jin's kanji!

This is Jin's kanji: 仁

It can be read as: Jin, ni, nin, kimi, kimu, sato, sane, shinobu, tadashi, to, toyo, nobu, nori, hisashi, hito, hitoshi, hiroshi, masa, masashi, mi, megumi, megumu, yasushi, yoshi.

Do you find it? Both '恵' and '仁' can be read as Megumi/Megumu! lol.

One of the speculation is that Jun named her son Jin as a sign of respect to her father in law, Jinpachi (仁八). Even though Jin is a Mishima by blood, he doesn't inherit the '八' character as he was raised in Kazama family. So he inherited just the '仁' character. Besides, it also sounds almost the same. Jun.. Jin.. It's phonetically similar, right? And if Jin were born a girl, I bet he would be called Megumi/Megumu instead just like his grandmother, lol.

Thus, we can safely conclude that the Mishima has the habit to inherit their kanji characters while the Kazama inherit the reading of their kanji's name.

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AND NOW! HERE COMES THE MAIN DISH!!!! 💖💖💖

What about the future Kazama kids?! Let’s move on to that and do the real cooking here for the XiaoJin's babies name! :D

We have seen Jin's kanji, but what about Xiayou?? Xiaoyu is Chinese by birth, and her hanzi (Chinese characters) are 凌曉雨 and リン・シャオユウ is how it's written in Japanese katakana.

凌, Líng: surpass / リン (Rin)

曉, Xiao: dawn / シャオ (Shao)

雨, Yu: rain / ユウ (Yu)

Now, I'd like to think that they would combine or use either their character or its reading for their baby! Also! They might use some of Jin's family name's characters :D

Here are some of my ideas for the babies name :

For boy:

晨一, Shinichi, a portmanteau of Jin and Xiaoyu's nickname and kanji inherited from Junichi/Kazuya.

Explanation: the first kanji '晨' means Dawn, which has the same meaning as Xiaoyu hanzi '曉'. The kanji reading is also the combination of Xiaoyu's nickname and Jin. Shao+Jin=Shin. It also sounds similar. Jin, Shin, it's rhyming, right? Just like Jun and Jin!

For the second kanji '一' I'd like to think the story behind it was that Xiaoyu wanted to preserve Kazama/Mishima naming practice but Jin was reluctant to do it. In the end, they decided to take the kanji '一' which was present in both Kazama and Mishima, that's in Junichi (純一) and Kazuya (一八).

For girl :

凌, Shino, a portmanteau of Xiaoyu's nickname and Jin, same character as Xiao’s hanzi that could also be the feminine ver. of Shin.

Explanation: it’s rather simple, I use the same character in Xiaoyu’s hanzi that has different reading while also the combination of Jin and Xiaoyu’s name. In Chinese ‘凌’ read as Ling but in Japanese, ‘凌’ has several reading. One of them is Shino. Shino could be the sister or the twin sister of Shinichi, in case XiaoJin have two child or twins in the future :)

琳, Rin, a kanji that has the same reading as Xiaoyu’s name and phonetically similar with Jin.

Explanation: I think this one is easy to understand! Rin and Jin, phonetically similar like what Kazama would've named their children. It’s also Xiaoyu’s surname in Japanese. The kanji ‘琳’ itself means ‘beautiful jewel’ and in Chinese the hanzi means 'beautiful jade’, and it reminds them of the greens in Yakushima forest, Jin's home.

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Alright, now that I’ve spilled out all of the stuff inside my chest and calmed down, I’ll give you a simple name chart for those who don’t want to read wall of texts, lol. Hope this helps!

I guess that’s all for now, lol. I’ll add my thoughts if I had any later on. Thank you for coming to my TED talk! 😂🙏

[lazuliquetzal]

Fic Stats Game

Ohoho thank you @tavina-writes for the tag!! Pretty sure this is gonna be the same 3 fics over and over but we'll see :)

rules: give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.

1) Most Hits

It's AA Batteries (Daiya no Ace). I know this without even looking, it's AAB 100% and by... not a significant, but a decent lead. That thing breached containment. I'm glad that it did, because I had fun writing it, but it always surprises me because sports anime twin OC fic? Really?

But I'm glad it's my most popular fic, even if I don't consider it my best, because even if it's a canon rewrite, I finished a 100K+ fic and I am proud. I'm literally never over it, I could talk about it all day.

Like, I usually don't ship things very strongly, but Misawa is insane to me. Also, do you know how embarrassing it is to relate to Miyuki Kazuya? And not even in a 'generic repressed character' way, I'm talking in a Hey I Literally Was In His Shoes And Made The Same Exact Fucking Mistakes And Decisions way. Nobody gets Miyuki Kazuya like I do. I'm fucking Miyuki kin. I didn't ask for this. I didn't--

2) Second Most Kudos

This one is also AAB, so I'll go with first place: Reflection (The Magnus Archives). A classic. A nice and simple time travel fix-it comedy.

I remember the writing of this one because I had been utterly obsessed with TMA. It would not let me go. I drafted the early chapters on my phone while walking across my college campus. I almost got ran over by a bike when I was writing the "Martin witnesses Jon have a mild breakdown in the break room" scene.

3) Third Most Comments

Dawn of the Fourth (Linked Universe). The LU fandom is super giving with their comments! Probably the most comment-friendly fandom I've been in.

I think it also helped that DotF is one of those stories where every chapter is a punch to the throat lol. If you didn't comment after ch7, it's probably because you zoomed through haha.

4) Fourth Most Bookmarks

It's DotF again, so I'll go with third place: ain't no rest for the wicked (Naruto).

Ah, this one... I'm fond of it, in the way I'm fond of all my writing, but also I was in high school. There's a lot about it that I would do differently now. But I learned a lot from writing it, and actually Chie, Issei, and Riku are still my children and I love them all. I'm proud of the color test. :)

5) Fewest Words

If you ignore the Zelda comic and the CSS formatting test and the anonymous April Fool's fic that I will not be claiming ownership of publicly, my shortest fic is Blackout Blues (Daiya no Ace) at 1101 words. If you subscribe to the belief that a picture is worth a thousand words, then that bumps the word count up to 4101 words.

I should draw more art for my fanfic. I have the power. It's fun.

tagging (if you want!): @yellowocaballero @xxsolar-writesxx @ellie-tarts @zarvasace @dottie-wan-kenobi and anyone else who wants to!

[anitrendz]

Top 10 Anime Best Boy Summer Week 10

Want your best boy to be on the top? Go get your friends to vote! anitrendz.com/polls!

Kudo has forced Rudeus out of number 1, raising back to 1st place. He shares the highest movement with Gojo, who rises back to 3rd place this week, and Kazuya, who rises to 7th. Meanwhile, Ichigo reenters Top 10 at 8th.

[kristailine]

KAZUJUN FANFIC MASTERLIST

Hello, I'm Krista 🐱 I write kazujun fanfics for fun and post it on AO3. I decided to start writing my own kazujun fanfics since there's not a lot of it on the net and I decided to take the matter in my own hands so other kazujun enjoyers would get to have two or more fics to enjoy.

This is a masterlist of all the fics I've written so far for easier navigation if some of you guys would like to check it out or revisit. This would also be constantly edited every time I publish something new.

I only post my fics on Archive of Our Own. If you see any duplicates on any other website besides it, please report to me

Archive of Our Own Account: kristalline

1. Think of Me in Between the Words of a Sweet Melody

✨ A collection of kazujun one-shots that unravel their relationship through a descriptive narrative inspired by songs.

STATUS: ongoing / constantly updated

Chapters include:

✨✨ This Love - a narrative that delves on Kazuya's and Jun's loneliness and longing for one another during the all the years they have been separated since Kazuya's assumed death.

✨✨ If I Could Fly - Kazuya struggles with his past traumas while Jun comforts him. Set in Tekken 2 timeline.

✨✨ Little Freak - a very brief moment of Kazuya, during his time away from civilization, thinking about Jun in the middle of a lonely night.

✨✨ Afterglow (Part 1) - a heated argument with Jun and three days of no contact would make Kazuya realize just how lonely his days had become. He would also find himself hurt because of the pain he had caused Jun. Set in Tekken 2 timeline.

2. When I Lost You

✨ One-shot fic. Jun and Anna Williams sit down to have a talk about the death of a lover. Kazuya walks in on the conversation and Jun narrates to him the pain she has been through when she lost him. Set in Tekken 8 timeline

STATUS: Complete

3. Our Worlds Eclipse

✨ One-shot fic. Kazuya and Jun explore the mystery of the sanctum after having detected frequencies coming from the area. They are soon greeted by an alleged ambush of Kazuya's enemies. Kazuya realizes there are things he considers much more valuable than winning a fight, and that is to ensure that Jun is safe and unharmed. Set in Tekken 8 timeline.

STATUS: Complete

I write during my free time and when I am inspired. I'm still a student attending university while juggling with a sideline. I do this for the fun of writing and because of how much I adore this ship, and I'm always very enthusiastic about sharing my works with the rest of you who adore kazujun as well. Comments and kudos on my works are very much appreciated, but what matters to me is the fact that you also enjoyed reading my works the same way I enjoyed making them :>>

I hope this masterlist finds you well and may all the works be a meaningful read for you all 🫶

[ojamajodoremi-polls]

Welcome to the Favorite Classmate Tournament!

This is gonna be a big one. Due to the number of classmates and the fact i couldn't evenly distribute it in a number of pairs and sides that made sense for the brackets (maybe there's a way and I'm just bad at math), every side initially includes 3 pairs and 1 trio each, and finals will be a poll between 3 contenders and y'all will have to live with that, I did my best.

As always, pairs/trios and their order in the bracket were randomly generated.

Complete list of polls under the cut, they'll be linked as soon as they're posted. Polls will be open for a week. May your fave win!

Side A

Yuji Sagawa vs Masato Rinno

Natsumi Sato vs Jun Sato

Minto Wada vs Naomi Okuyama

Kazuya Yoshida vs Hajime Kikuchi vs Michiaki Watabe

Side B

Mutsumi Kudo vs Itoko Hamada

Manabu Takagi vs Kota Amano

Hiroko Kine vs Miho Maruyama

Ichiro Hirano vs Kenta Iizuka vs Marina Koizumi

Side C

Koji Ito vs Kotaro Okajima

Tamaki Reika vs Yuko Koyama

Yoko Manda vs Kayoko Nagato

Shino Hanada vs Nobuaki Yamauchi vs Keiko Yamamoto

Side D

Yukari Umeno vs Masayoshi Nakajima

Takeshi Hasebe vs Maki Higuchi

Noriko Kano vs Nanako Okada

Junji Manda vs Sachiko Ijuuin vs Goji Nakata

Side E

Sora Miyamae vs Masaharu Miyamoto

Masaru Yada vs Takuro Hagiwara

Yutaka Ota vs Dai Morikawa

Kotake Tetsutya vs Kanae Iida vs Ryota Hayashi

Side F

Susumu Yanagida vs Aya Matsushita

Nobuko Yokokawa vs Kenji Ogura

Shiori Nakayama vs Kaori Shimakura

Takao Kimura vs Toyokazu Sugiyama vs Shouta Taniyama

[prfm-multiverse]

New work for Perfume! Please enjoy this trick as often as you like. We are looking forward to working with you from January onwards!

Moon MV Crew

Director : TAKCOM（CONNECTION） Assistant Director：倉光哲司 Tetsushi Kuramitsu Cinematographer：田嶌誠 Makoto Tajima (館岡事務所) 1st Assistant Cameraman：尾崎圭市 Keiichi Ozaki 2nd Assistant Cameraman：森田曜 Akira Morita 3rd Assistant Cameraman：宮崎新大 Arata Miyazaki

Key Grip：大江史也 Fumiya Oe,石井努 Tsutomu Ishii,岡田雅成 Masanari Okada,室山聖 Kiyoshi Muroyama

DIT：タキユウスケ Yusuke Taki(Kotetsu Inc.)

Lighting Director：前川賀世子 Kayoko Maekawa Lighting Chief Assistant：井上真宏 Masahiro Inoue Lighting Assistant：大谷力 Chikara Otani,工藤こずえ Kozue Kudo,樋口学 Satoru Higuchi,福田和宏 Kazuhiro Fukuda,藤井裕介 Yusuke Fujii,新田泰之 Yasuyuki Nitta,山崎達也 Tatsuya Yamazaki Production Designer：三ツ泉貴幸 Takayuki Mitsuizumi（STARBOY）

Transportaion：牧尾智史 Satoshi Makio Studio：角川大映スタジオ Studio Coordinator：山田隆久 Takashisa Yamada

Choreographer : MIKIKO (ELEVENPLAY) Choreography Assistant : SAYA, SHOKO, MAI (ELEVENPLAY)

Stylist：タケダトシオ Toshio Takeda（MILD inc.） Stylist Assistant：岡崎くるみ Kurumi Okazaki,藤田和哉 Kazuya Fujita Dressmaker：内藤智恵 Chie Naito,斎藤利保 Riho Saito Make-up : 大須賀昌子 Masako Osuga Hair : 福間友香 Tomoka Fukuma (VANITES)

Offline Editor : 前田径成 Michinari Maeda（CONNECTION） Colorist：芳賀修 Osamu Haga（Artone Film）

CG Production：Citro CG Director：竹山寛史 Hiroshi Takeyama,平川侑樹 Yuki Hirakawa

Post-Production：Khaki Compositor：水野 正毅 Masaki Mizuzo,川崎琴美 Kotomi Kawasaki,藤田智子 Tomoko Fujita Roto & paint : Taupe / Roudiez / Elephants Gate

Producer：松竹奈央 Nao Matsutake Production Manager：南水朋子 Tomko Nansui Production Assistant：橋本和佳奈 Wakana Hashimoto,足立芳洋 Yoshihiro Adachi,川久保開 Kai Kawakubo,日尾野穂乃香 Honoka Hibino,伊堂寺夏鈴 Karin Idouji,加賀美椋 Ryo Kagami Production : P.I.C.S.

[vrysrsimportanttokushipbracket]

Total Vote Count!

Some final data for a true Eurovision style ending; counting up the votes themselves to see what the final placement is!

So, Who has the most dedicated fanbase?

Junichi Chouno/Tsubaki Shuuichi - 6 Kazuki Komon/Jun Himeya, Matoi Tatsumi/Yuji Kudo, Kouta Fukuda/Makoto Shidou - 14 Kiriya Kujou/Graphite - 19 Daimon Tatsumi/Eiji Nagase - 20 Shinji Kido/Shiro Kanzaki, Hayato Ichimonji/Amazon - 21 Parad/Kuroto Dan, Sougo Tokiwa/Woz - 22 Chihiro/Hiroki Nagase, Yuka Osada/Keitaro Kikuchi, Kuroto Dan/Emu Hojo - 25 Hikari Nonomura/Haru Tokashiki - 26 Right Suzuki/Z, Jun Maehara/Ryuusuke Ootaki - 27 Long/Rio - 29 Sosuke Esumi/Renn Kousaka, Kaoru Kino/Koji Majima - 34 Mirai Hibino/Ryu Aihara - 37 Belial/Kei Fukuide, Miyuki Tezuka/Jun Shibaura - 39 Tatsuya Asami/Ayase - 43 Lucky/Stinger - 49 Shou Tatsumi/Big Douser - 50 Kiriya Kujou/Emu Hojo - 55 Gunpei Ishihara/Hant Jou - 56 Matsuri Tatsumi/Denus, Basco ta Jolokia/Captain Marvelous - 57 Miyuki Tezuka/Ren Akiyama - 59 Haruka Mizusawa/Mamoru - 61 Homare Soya/Hiroyuki Kudo - 62 Sou Yaguruma/Shun Kageyama - 63 Urataros/Kintaros - 64 Sougo Tokiwa/Heure, Domon/Honami Moriyama - 65 Alain/Makoto Fukami - 72 Jin Takayama/Izumi Nanaha - 78 Kagura Izumi/Mio Natsumi - 81 Hayato Ichimonji/Kazuya Taki - 84 Hideyuki Kagawa/Satoru Tojo - 91 Sid Bamick/Joe Gibken - 93 Ryouga Hakua/Mikoto Nakadai - 96 Asahi Minato/Saki Mitsurugi - 97 Enter/Hiromu Sakurada - 106 Momotaros/Ryoutarou Nogami - 110 Joji Yuki/Shiro Kazami - 137 Balance/Naga Ray - 145 Ikkou Kasumi/Yousuke Shiina - 152 Yuji Kiba/Takumi Inui - 156 Ren Akiyama/Shinji Kido - 170 Miu Sutou/Saki Rouyama - 183 Shoutarou Hidari/Philip - 187 Hanaya Taiga/Hiiro Kagami - 192 Ruriko Midorikawa/Hiromi - 197 King OOO/Ankh - 202 Tsukasa Kadoya/Daiki Kaito - 203 Teddy/Kotaro Nogami - 232 Takeshi Kuroki/Masato Jin - 256 Jugglus Juggler/Gai Kurenai - 273 Shuichi Kitaoka/Goro Yura - 369 Akira Date/Shintaro Goto - 469 Yusuke Godai/Kaoru Ichijou - 485 Momoi Tarou/Sonoi - 534

Congratulations to winner of most dedicated fanbase; Momoi Tarou/Sonoi!

[strooparfait]

i'm not sure how you promote fics but here you go, i finished writing it!!! (if you checked my twitter i said i was working on this wip)

it's lars/lee, so if you are not into this ship, it's okay! i plan to make kazuya/lee as well. it's 18+ smut so MINORS DNI. if you read it even though you're not 18, the consequences is on you, i guess.

hope you enjoy! writing's pretty rusty and shitty though but i do hope you still enjoy reading it regardless. leave a kudo and a comment <3

[kazuyakato]

2023.10.23 _ Kazumi Ikenaga “North meets East” Quartet Japan Tour Vol.5 Autumn 2023 広島公演 friendship appearance : Christian Vuust

"気合と根性とやる気”(笑)で企画しているこの広島公演、なんとなんと、ご予約特典に前回 2018年の広島公演でのライブから１曲が収録されたCD(といっても僕の手製ですが…笑)をプレゼントできることになりました！ 改めて少しだけ編集し直していますので、ご期待ください〜。

日本ではなかなか聞く機会のないノルディックジャズを広島で皆様と楽しめればと思っています。 皆様、是非是非！ご来場よろしくお願いいたします。

・・・

Kazumi Ikenaga “North meets East” Quartet Japan Tour Vol.5 Autumn 2023 広島公演 friendship appearance : Christian Vuust

“北欧には「ノルディック」と呼ばれるある種の音楽特性を示す表現がある。それは北欧の音楽に内在するノスタルジーやメランコリックな感性を表す。遠い昔にどこかで聴いたことがあるような郷愁の記憶....我々日本人の誰しもが、幼い頃耳にした童謡などのシンプルなメロディを愛でる感覚に近いのかも知れない。”

日時 　2023.10.23 (月) 　19:00 開演 (18:30 開場)

会場 　日本福音ルーテル広島教会 　広島市中区鶴見町2-12 ルーテル平和大通りビル３F

出演 　池長一美, drums 　牧知恵子, pf 　萬恭隆, bs 　クリスチャン ヴースト, t.sax.

入場料金 　前売　¥ 3500 　当日　¥ 4000 　学生・20歳以下　¥ 2000

主催 (総合) 　ヴルスホットミュージック

広島公演共催 　織色

広島公演共催 　ミュージックライフ TAO

総合問合せ先 　ヴルスホットミュージック 　080-5307-8866

広島公演ご予約・お問い合わせ 　織色 　　090-7546-6332 　　work.iro.musik@gmail.com

#Repost @christianvuust with @use.repost

・・・

JAPAN TOUR 18-26 October!

After a four year long break I will be visiting Japan again. I’ll be touring with excellent musicians - that also happen to be good friends of mine. I’m very excited about going to Japan again, and I can’t wait to meet old and new friends in this beautiful and fascinating country. Here is some info about the tour. I hope to see some of you there!

18 Oct. Yokohama - Dolphy 19 Oct. Kyoto - Le Club Jazz 20 Oct. Kobe - 100-ban Hall 21 Oct. Toyooka City Hall 22 Oct. Workshop in Toyooka 23 Oct. Hiroshima - Lutheran Hiroshima Church  26 Oct. Tokyo, Kichijoji - Sometime

Lineup: Christian Vuust (sax)  Kazumi Ikenaga (dr)  Motohiko Ichino (gui - in Tokyo and Yokohama) Takumi Seino (gui - in Toyooka) Sho Kudo (bs - in Tokyo and Yokohama) Chieko Maki (pno - in Kyoto, Kobe and Hiroshima) Yasutaka Yorozu (bs - not in Tokyo and Yokohama)

I highly appreciate Kazumi Ikenaga’s and Kazuya Kato’s help in organizing the tour - and Yasuo Naito’s help in providing equipment.

Thanks for kind support from JazzDanmark, the City of Aarhus and Danish Musicians’ Union.

[doronjosama]

Today's eBay spotlight (Seller ID: RadioIndy)! Pineapple Army #1 from 1988! Classic translated manga by Kazuya Kudo & Naoki Urasawa from Viz Media! #comics #manga #pineapplearmy #naokiurasawa #kazuyakudo #1988 #vizmedia #VintageManga #TranslatedManga #ComicCollector #comicdealer #auctions #ebay #RadioIndy #DownsizingMyCollection #EverythingMustGo #BuyMyStuff #PandemicHustle

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A post shared by Elin Winkler (@doronjosama)

[beyondthespheres]

Mai, the Psychic Girl by Kazuya Kudo & Ryoichi Ikegami 

[yatengarasu]

Was talking about ships with a friend which made me want to try posting my main otps from various fandoms. There's a general trend among them...

Daria/Trent

Spuffy (Spike/Buffy Summers)

Harrymort (Harry Potter/Voldemort)

Unknowingly the one who opened me to my main shipping dynamic... after I read the fic Prince of the Dark Kingdom. It's a purely platonic mentor/mentee relationship, but subconsciously it imprinted on me I guess.

Katniss/Haymitch

Frans (Frisk/Sans)

Alex/Jonas

For the brief, but intense time I was hyperfixating on Oxenfree.

Sumrick (Summer Smith/Rick Sanchez)

Kaishin (Kuroba Kaito/Kudo Shinichi | Edogawa Conan)

Lawlu (Trafalgar Law/Monkey D. Luffy)

R27 (Reborn/Sawada Tsuna)

Soushino (Yukihira Souma/Shinomiya Kojirou)

Royed (Roy Mustang/Edward Elric)

Kakanaru (Hatake Kakashi/Uzumaki Naruto)

Uraichi (Urahara Kisuke/Kurosaki Ichigo)

Misawa (Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun)

Keisara (Shinogi Keiji/Chidouin Sara)

Goyuu (Gojo Satoru/Itadori Yuuji)

Yutamaki (Okkotsu Yuuta/Zen'in Maki)

[magicalmonsterhero]

RePower: Season 2 trailer

The trailer for Season 2 of RePower.

Special thanks to xeternalflamebryx of DeviantArt (eternalflamebry on Twitter), whose Super Smash Heroes series helped inspired this piece.

Kudos to anyone who can figure out why it's being posted on this specific date (hint: it's related to DC).

(Open on a view of a myriad of several planets, some resembling Earth.)

? (v/o): It’s not unusual for multiverses to leave marks on one another.

(Cut to the streets of Mute City, through which a blur of red rapidly zigzags.)

? (v/o): Sometimes, this means worlds where certain residents...

(The blur comes to a stop outside F-Zero HQ, revealing itself to be Captain Falcon in a sleek red costume with yellow accents and a thunderbolt emblem.)

? (v/o): ...have powers from another set of worlds entirely.

(Cut to a heated battle somewhere in the Lylat system.)

? (v/o): Often, their destinies are altered too...

(Two streaks of green light hurtle into view. Zoom in on the streaks to reveal they are Fox and Falco in green and black versions of their usual attire. Smirking confidently, Falco conjures an Arwing of green light, which begins blasting at Andross’s forces. Meanwhile, Fox uses a green energy bubble to pull Slippy out of his Arwing just before it blows up. Slippy shoots Fox a grateful look, prompting the Star Fox leader to salute him.)

? (v/o): ...as are those of the people around them.

(Cut to Lucina, dressed in a red, blue, and gold outfit, sparring with Sumia, Anna, Tharja, and Nowi, with a few other Fire Emblem Awakening girls watching nearby.)

? (v/o): The number of worlds is infinite.

(Cut to Lucas [in a black shirt with a red Superman symbol and jeans], Sonic [in a yellow and red outfit with a lightning bolt motif], Bayonetta [in a long blue hooded robe], and Pyra [in a purple two-piece bodysuit], battling an enormous red-skinned version of Balder with antler-like protrusions and three glowing eyes.)

? (v/o): Meaning anything is possible.

(Shot of Yoshi in a red one piece costume and sunglass-goggles, stretching out his neck and tongue to grab a fleeing Koopa bank robber. Shot of the Ice Climbers in purple versions of their parkas [Popo's is accented in blue and Nana's in pink]. Popo transforms into a storm cloud while Nana becomes a bird, and the two fly after the condor. Shot of Pichu in a blue, white, and yellow outfit with goggles, riding on a metal disc. Shot of Roy in a red and yellow suit, hair and sword ablaze as he soars into battle. Shot of Toon Link with red metallic skin, calling forth gale force winds to lift civilians out of the path of a flood. Shot of Shulk in blue and gold attire, wielding magic as he engages Metal Face in battle. Shot of Cloud covered by a silvery liquid metal, battling members of Shinra's Special Ops team. Shot of Kazuya, dressed in a black bodysuit with a yellow belt, yellow gloves and yellow lightning bolt across his chest, facing off against a similarly-dressed Heihachi.)

? (v/o): Allow me to show you.

(Cut to title card.)

RePower

SEASON TWO

[anitrendz]

Top 10 Anime Best Couple-Ship Summer Anime Week 9

Need your ship to sail higher? Vote at anitrendz.com/polls!

Kazuya and Chizuru, and Horimiya reenter at 5th and 6th place respectively, which forced Challe x Anne and Lawrence x Cecilia down a whopping four spots, leaving them hanging on the edge of Top 10. Meanwhile, Kudo x Miyo is at their lowest rank since the start of the season - 4th place.