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#NHK “Morning TV novels”
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Pure Twinkling (Michiru Ooshima): Classic
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The theme song for one of Japan's NHK "Morning TV novels". Instrumental. It's a graceful song, but the female protagonist is hit by many misfortunes. She strives to be a jazz pianist without hesitation, but...
純情きらり(大島ミチル):クラシック
日本のNHK「朝の連続テレビ小説」の一作のテーマソング。インストラメンタル。優美な曲であるが、主人公の女性にはこれでもか、これでもか、と不運が襲ってくる。めげずにジャズ・ピアニストを目指して彼女は努力するが・・・
(2023.04.15)
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lebomboniere06 · 2 years
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Baila!Magazine,December 2022 Issue Akaso Eiji Interview
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I like spicy things. But not cat tongue, should it?
"I think I'm good at spicy food. When I want to eat spicy food, I eat something like today's Mapo Tofu. The spiciness of the pepper type is okay. There are also kimchi. I prefer spicy kimchi to the sour type Kimchi. I can also eat hot food,There is no problem with hot food, so I don't have cat tongue. Even so, there are occasional ulcers in the mouth due to burns (laughs). , Because at the moment I was so focused on the meal that I didn't notice it at all"
Foodie's Akasoness Drink only whisky!
I drink mostly whiskey, saying this it may sound like I'm strong against alcohol, but I'm weak when it comes to it. When I go to the store,there is soju, sake, and beer, and finally I choose whiskey,
There are various ways to drink it, whether straight or mixed with carbonated water as a highball…
"Make a list of delicious restaurants.
"I often search in the Internet to choose a restaurant to eat with my friends,but lately, I've been taking notes on my cell phone about the delicious restsurants I've heard from seniors. After I go to that restaurant, I will definitely send a message to thank you, " I went to eat at that restaurant! It was delicious!",to express gratitude. In today's world, geing out to eat with other people is precious, and I am realizing the importance of spending time with someone
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It was the shooting day when the heat had not yet gone. After shooting Foodie's at an Chinese restaurant near the studio, we walked to the studio Akaso with his jacket on. Some say it was right after eating hot mapo tofu, so when l asked if it was hot, Akaso-san smiled. The language and expression are very gentle, very calm.
Where does his gentle charm come from?
I usually like books, so l often read novels and essays. When there is no script to memorize, before going to bed, or when you need to memorize lines, go to a cafe and read a completely different(content) book. As I read the script, I wondered if this role would be like this, and there are many things to think about. It makes me want to shift my thinking to another book that I can interpret at my own pace.
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Akaso, who is currently filming Maiagare!",
Takashi is also a character who likes books & poetry. Confronting your own heart and exploring feelings and thoughts that have not been translated into words, It's very interesting. I don't have much in common with Takashi, but I like poetry and novels." The NHK morning drama "Miagare!", which has already started, is about the protagonist Mai performed by Haruka Fukuhara. is a story about becoming a "pilot who grew up with her dream. Also Akaso performs Umezu Takashi ; Mai's childhood friend. Having said that, he still reads books during the break after reading the script, so he is really a lover of words!" "How do you say it. When I was a child, I enjoyed reading novels similar to Harry Potter called , or children's literature that is often said. Since then, books have been a familiar existence. Even now, novels are read as paper books & I read mangas on my tablet.
Maiagare!,Depicts the time of teenage youth. You will also think that Takashi and Kurumi, who are fighting alone to pursue their dreams, are very dazzling?
"Mizuki Yamashita performs Mai's friend Kurumi, and the atmosphere between her and Fukuhara is like a real childhood friend. When I see them, I think of my friends from kindergarten in my hometown. Although it's hard to meet recently. When I was a teenager ,Although I was young, I was thinking about what I could do. In the end, I came to Tokyo with the simple idea of ​​"If you like movies, why not be someone who can appear on TV?", so it was painful at first. In a sense, it can be regarded as a dream, but it cannot be said that it is completely realized. In the end, at this age, I really feel that it is not what I want to be, but how I live there is the most important thing. Now my dream i think, It's about having a wealth of abilities & knowledge, and to become a person with more depth as I get older. Kasuki Kitamura, who I co-starred in the NETFLIX movie "Zom100~100 Things I Want to Do Before I Become a Zombie~" which will be released next year, is really good. Whether it is the people around him or his acting, he can be very objective, and he is a person who considers balance. Moreover, both humorous and entertaining, very loving. Ah, I think it's nice to be such an adult like this."
The eyes looking from the inside of 'Hoodie' are sincere and straightforward. Now and in the future, I can't take my eyes off from those eyes.
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rawsanma · 3 years
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In Memoriam of "Shin Evangelion: Curse"
*The following article contains a full spoiler for "Evangelion 3.0+1.0".*
I sat together with a person who was not in birth when EOE was released, and after watching the film we talked a bit and thought about the people who passed away without ever seeing this. I understand that fans from the old series and those who came from the new series may have very different perceptions of Shin-Eva. So I'd like to first correct a few things I said in my first impressions.
It may be somewhere between an honorable movie and a mediocre movie in general, but as Evangelion, it's garbage.
After about halfway through the two hours and thirty-five minutes, I started to look at my watch again and again. The double ending, which is both a personal novel and a product, was a fleeting fantasy, and the two songs "One Last Kiss" and "beautiful world (da capo ver.)" were not used effectively in relation to the story, only being played in the staff roll.
When I saw the first 10 minutes of the movie that was released last year, I thought that perhaps Paris was chosen as the setting for the story of "humanity fighting together in the face of destruction" or "the expansion of the Eva world (not G Gundam, but G Eva!)", but that was not the case at all. He just wanted to depict the battle using the Eiffel Tower as a FATALITY, I realized that he hadn't made a single millimeter of progress since when he asked Hayao Miyazaki if I could film only this action scene of Her Highness Kushana in the re-animation of Nausicaa, he was scolded, "That's why you're no good!"
At the beginning of the film, they try to carefully describe the things behind the scenes that were not told in Eva Q.  The third Ayanami like the TV version is the main character, and they go on and on about living in the countryside, copying "My Neighbor Totoro". The large family of our parent's home that we go back to during the summer vacation is presented as an image of happiness in life and a decent human being. It is also connected to Gendou's narrative during the Human Instrumentality Project but isn't it too Showa-era and too simple a solution? I am interested in how the young fans who are children of nuclear families who left their large families in the countryside and moved to the city saw the too sudden depiction of "life in the countryside". It was almost a gag to see Ayanami walking around in a plug suit which is a sexual orientation that has manifested itself after Space Battleship Yamato, in the images of pre and post-war farming villages depicted by recent NHK morning dramas. The director, influenced by his wife, must have been immersed in the LOHAS and vegan lifestyle as a fashion statement, which is only possible because he is an urbanite with too much stuff and too much money. As for this theme, it has already been presented in the watermelon field scene in the second film, and it is merely a re-presentation of the same theme in a diluted form.
I've pointed out before that Eva Q is "a crack in reality because of the loss of reality to rely on. "It's rude not to eat what you're served!", Shinji was scolded by Touji's father, who looked like a subversion of Hayao Miyazaki's work (Gedo Senki!). I have a simple question, how can the interior of a house become so old and wretched after only 14 years? How can a community of people of all ages be formed in just 14 years? There was a line that implied that Touji had killed someone for the village, and it is possible that the director had extremely beautified the "Showa era" as a sanctuary where people who are hurt and regret their committing murder during the war as a soldier live nearby, and when he opened the last drawer after using up all the materials, he found the image of the original landscape of his childhood.
Misato and Kaji's child, which is only described for a few minutes, is also abrupt, and I don't feel that it is more than a plot device for the purpose of staging the reconciliation with Shinji later on. Some people seem to be moved by the fact that "behind Misato's cold attitude towards Shinji in Q, there was such a conflict in her mind," but it's the opposite. All the answers are just excuses after wasting nine years of work. Even if the wounds healed and treated with a gentle "I'm sorry," after being beaten severely by a raging DV husband, the fact of the beating would not disappear, and the wife would feel nothing but fear at the sudden change in her husband. To a situation that he had set to minus 100, he spent 2 hours and 35 minutes gradually pouring water drawn from other places and past works to bring it back to zero...I've never seen such a horrible match pump. Well, now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking that I've seen this before.
The relationship between Eva Q and Shin Eva is very similar to the relationship between "The Last Jedi" and "The rise of Skywalker" in Star Wars. In a self-absorbed rampage of conjecture that did not listen to the opinions of others, the historical stage of the series that had been built up was turned into a mess, and then the destroyed story was carefully built up again from the ground using unnecessary length, and only the shape of the story was created to end it without being disgraceful, and every scene that tries to make things more exciting is a copy of past work. As for Star Wars, since 8 and 9 were directed by different directors, I was able to settle my feelings of resentment towards Ryan and gratitude towards Abrams, respectively, but as for Evangelion, the director looks like a child who has been proud to clean up his own mess and have his female cronies praise and pat him on the head. Moreover, what kind of sympathy do you expect when you are told to "I'll make amends" for the mere act of wiping your ass after defecating, in a cool, Showa-era chivalrous tone?
In this film, as a recovery from Q and a summary of new Eva, there are elements throughout the story that critics can easily relate to the old Eva. “Oh, I can talk about this in connection with that!” This is what gives them a good impression and it has nothing to do with how the old fans perceive it. The director seems to have a dedicated person in charge of communicating and negotiating with the outside, but now he wants the critics to communicate with the fans about Shin-Eva. As long as he doesn't speak for himself, he can correct their interpretations later based on the "misunderstandings" of the people in between himself and his fans. This is a very Japanese-style system of surmising feelings, a system of authority that is formed when only a limited number of cronies are informed of the true intentions of the president. If I talk about it in too much detail, right-winged Yakuza will show up very soon, so to make it short, it is an indigenous control structure unique to Japan that originated from the "Mikado behind the bamboo blind". This time the director was very conscious of that, and I was able to see that Eva, who was a challenger, has become an authority that does not tolerate any criticism.
And what fan from the past could enjoy watching the endless battle scenes after Shinji returns to Wunder in the middle of the film? One after another, the sister ships of Wunder appear--there's almost no difference in appearance, but Ritsuko is able to guess their names the moment they appear. Right after the line "I'm pretty sure there's a fourth ship," the fourth ship comes crashing upon them from underneath, with no intention other than to make us laugh, right? As well as the repeated tenseless bombardment fight with no description of damage no matter how many artillery shells are hit, and it's quite painful being poured Asuka and Mari's Me-Strong Battles which are already enough by the time of Q, continuously down my throat like a goose with a funnel in its mouth. There's no way to synchronize my feelings with the screen, and it just creates an atmosphere as if the story is going on with the unattractive super-robot action that I pointed out in Q. It's no use pointing out, but the repair and supply problems of Wille side in a world where the industry has been destroyed were shown in the farming village part, though it was inadequate. But those of NERV side, an organization of only a man and an old man, was completely thrown away.
The last part of the story about the Human Instrumentality Project is like a fanzine where Gendou, Asuka, Kaworu, and Rei are lined up in a row and complemented in turn and then dismissed, whereas EOE was a total complement through Shinji. The director has tried to upgrade his framework by borrowing them from EOE and has failed miserably. Someone who has created works by putting his emotion and flair into a copy has dabbled in copying his own work. As a result, he had to confront his own sensibilities from when he was young and had to compare the old and the new by his old audience. Frankly speaking, only the techniques have been traced, the sound and the screen have become gorgeous, but the emotion and the sense have deteriorated. The face of the giant Ayanami that was replaced with a live-action one -- probably based on the face acting of Shinji's voice actor, and the "untested ordeal" of her tweet means this -- appears in the background like a gold folding screen in the high sand at a Japanese wedding reception. You're getting tired of all this, and you're not making it seriously, are you? The battle between Eva Unit01 and Eva Unit13 in Tokyo-III, which I expressed my anxiety about before the film's release, is a scene where the company's CG team can't produce what the director expects and he is so frustrated that he has the same mindset as in the final two episodes of the TV version, "I'd rather get a minus than a red", and after that, it became like a gag scene, including Eva fights in Misato's apartment and Shinji's school classroom, as if he was staged them in desperation. The side-shooting screenshot of the little Wunder charging at the head of the giant Ayanami is a picture of ”Cho Aniki (Japanese STG)” itself, and it's also meant to be funny, right? It's a series of loose, sloppy, and tenseless scenes that can't be compared to EOE.
What the hell have the CG team been doing for the past nine years, getting paid with no progress and making Eva look like an outdated piece of crap? Didn't anyone have the chivalrous spirit of the Showa era like "Don't embarrass our boss!"? Don't be so relieved when you get the green light! The director has just given up on you! There were a few scenes where the person at the top of the editing and collage, who has been making the coolest pictures, was not given as much good material as he used to be and seemed to make desperate staging in a way that he would never have given the green light in the past. It's been more than 10 years since Xapa was established, but I guess they don't have enough talent to meet the director's vision. Perhaps because of this, the conclusion of the film is exactly the same as the old one, that the director has no choice but to use his personal feelings to finish Eva, but the film ends up being a self-imitation of "Sincerely Yours". It is sad to see a person who "surpasses the original by putting his heart and soul into the copy" start to copy his own past works on the big screen of the theater, because he has become a big name in the animation world after reaching the age of 60, and there are no others left to be copied. However, right after "Komm, süsser Tod" started playing in the old movie, the scene where the titles of each episode and the reverse side of Cels were played in succession was projected on the wall of the studio using a projector -- the title of the new movie was added.  It made me mad and thought, "Don't touch my EOE with the dirty hands of the merchant.  I'll kill you."
The last things that the man who "transfers his own life onto films" presented in his costly self-published private novel were a naked confession of his own mental history up to the point where he met his wife, which he temporarily entrusted to Gendou, and the words "I think I loved you" and "I loved you" exchanged between himself and the former lover who could not be together and themselves who had separate spouses, just a reckoning of the muddled love affair that existed behind the scenes of EOE. I half-jokingly said that the distance between the director and Asuka's voice actor was important for the end of Eva, but it turned out to be true in a different way. During the recording session, Asuka's voice actor was told by the director, "I'm glad Miyamura is Asuka," which sent chills down my spine as it conveyed the horror of a creator who doesn't hide everything about his life and relationships and uses them to create his works.
In the scene where Shinji says "I liked you too" to the adult Asuka, who is wearing a tight latex suit and drawn in a more realistic character design (making us aware of the cosplay by Asuka's voice actor), while she is lying on the EOE beach, I thought "You guys should do this in a coffee shop or something between recording sessions! Don't make us watch middle-aged man and woman having unpleasant conversations on the big screen of the theater!", I almost screamed out. I think that's the scary part, the director's one-sided love for Asuka's voice actor is falsified by having the character say that she liked him, as if it was a mutual love. The director's statement at the beginning of the pamphlet says that he started working on the sequel right after Evangelion 2.0 without hesitation, using the worldview of "Q". I'm not trying to quote the line "You can change the reality you don't like by getting on Eva.", but it's not as if he's trying to cover up the fact, but he really believes that using his strong imagery, and it made me feel a bit chilly that there was no one around to correct his misconceptions.
At the end of Human Instrumentality Project, I wondered if the fact that a senior member of the movie industry had praised the shooting of EOE by flipping Cels over as a "tremendous deconstruction" was still fresh in his mind. This time, too, it was postponed after postponement, and even though the makings have been done in time, he showed the other side of the production with line drawings and roughs. The reason it was so innovative was that it was the first time anyone had tried it then, and now, 25 years later, it's just a rut. It's disgusting that everyone is praising the master's strange drawing habit and saying, "Oh yeah, that's it, that's it." As I've said before, it's like "defecating in a sixty-nine," which was successful because the first partner happened to be a scatologist. The expression of EOE was sharp and ”Rock’n’‐roll”, but Shin-Eva's "fun of anime images" has gone into the realm of traditional art, like slow "Gagaku".
The director hadn't decided who Mari Makinami was for a long time -- he was so indifferent to her that he threw the actor's acting plan to a sub-director -- but with Shin-Eva, he's changed her into an equal to Moyoco Anno, his wife. In other words, the flashy battle in the middle of the film, which is unimportant to many viewers, is revealed to have been a very pleasant pretend play for the director, in which he has his former love and his current wife fight on his favorite robots. Once again, we are shown the director's so-what-attitude, which has not progressed even a millimeter since "I'm an asshole," and which he can complete his work only by masturbation. So it's no wonder that they couldn't depict the extremely simple catharsis of Shinji's great success with Eva Unit01, which is what most of the old fans want. Because a robot with a pathetic old man on board can't get an erection due to impotence, let alone masturbation! Oops, excuse me, sir.
And as I said before, it's time to realize that the English language has become so popular in Japan that it's become lame. You use Infinity, Another, Additional, Advanced, Commodity, and Imaginary, just because it sounds cool to you, right? Everyone criticized the naming "Final Impact", but I never thought I'd see the time when I'd faint from the lack of taste and coolness in Evangelion, such as Another Impact, Additional Impact.
And the ending, with the wedding report in a live-action aerial shot of the director's hometown, newbie fans are screaming that it is like, "They're doing a very positive version of the old "Return to Reality!". But I felt it was too empty and cynical because it was intended to be read that way by the director. It depicts only the elation of marriage, and the pain of getting along with a partner and his or her family with different values is cut off (well, maybe Q was expressing the hardship of married life......). But isn't the emotional weight of a marriage report much higher when you meet your partner's parents? The fact that he ended the movie by showing his own hometown instead of his wife's hometown leaves me with the impression that he's definitively an egotistical geek through and through. "You may have graduated from a good university and are making good money in the city, but if you're not married and don't have children, aren't you somehow humanly flawed?" After 25 years, Evangelion, which was such a forward-thinking Sci-Fi, is now completely in sync with the earthly ethics of Showa-era's farmers and farm horses. "I got married and it saved my life. I don't know about you, but why don't you try?" You can think what you want, but if you want to convey it as a message of salvation, you have to express it in the content of your work, not in your own talk.
I've been married for 20 years, I have two children, both of whom are about to reach the age of adulthood, I've paid off the mortgage on my home, and I'm finally at the end of raising my children, but all of that is just an outer shell of a social skin that has nothing to do with my true nature or where my soul is! There's no connection between what kind of life an individual lives in the real world and the Sci-Fi sense of wonder, in fact, there shouldn't be any connection! If you're a science fiction fan, take a page from the great Arthur C. Clarke! I was a nerd with a negative value of 100, but when I got married, I gradually poured the "common-sense values" of the Showa era into myself, and now I'm a true man with no negative value? Don't write such pathetic fiction proudly! Listen, what you presented to the audience at the end was the same thing that someone would say to you, "You seedless stallion!" It's the same kind of unethical and vulgar message that you shouldn't be giving! The old Eva became a classic of Japanimation, and no one was able to properly scold you, or you keep away those who tried, and the result of this is directly reflected in the ending of Shin Eva! You've reached your 60th birthday and you only have such poor social common sense, damn it!
I'm sorry, I was so excited that I lost my control a little bit, just a little bit. I think the director is relying a little too much on his wife, who is ultimately a stranger on, to be his laison d'etre (lol). If they were to break up in the future, it would certainly be the soil for the next Eva, the content and development of which is completely predictable, but that is no longer my concern. I wonder if his wife doesn't like the fact that he's mentally dependent on her like this, and that it's being shown on screens all over the country. If it were me, I'd be furious, but since she's a creator, I guess she understands how he feels. Ignoring the other person's feelings and continuing to force what he believes to be love on her, thinking that it will make her happy, seems to me that there has been no progress at all since the way he treated his girlfriend 25 years ago. The person I want to hear from the most right now is not the self-proclaimed Eva fans who are looking at each other from the side and giving positive feedback in celebration of the final episode, but his wife. If the director had a child, he would not have been able to distinguish between his own ego and that of the child, and would have doted on his child, making a documentary film about his or her growth, but would most likely have turned into a controlling and poisonous parent in his or her adolescence. And he animated his feelings for his child who was rebelling against him, without the child's permission, considering it as a one-sided redemption for the child, and the child who was exposed to the whole country about their home life would have distanced from his father more and more.
In the end, Evangelion did not become a product like Gundam, but rather a robot animation that was the director's weird personal novel. The repeated use of the word "job" in the film has stuck in my mind, but in order for the studio to survive, it had to make Evangelion a product in this new series, and I'm sure that was the initial motivation behind the production of these new films. Your real "job" was to make Evangelion the same as Gundam, to protect the people who came to you because they loved Evangelion. Years from now, I can see a future where Xapa will be like Ghibli, behead the staff and continue as a copyright management company. The director, who didn't want to be embarrassed as a creator by a new challenge adopted the safe way -- I can't believe that I have to use the word "safe" for Evangelion -- to end the new series that relied on EOE only for himself, not for the future of the people who came to admire him. That's what Shin Evangelion is all about.
The good part? The fact that he didn't bring Shin Ultraman trailer at the end of the film makes me think he has grown up a bit. If you're declaring "Farewell, All Evangelions" with the intention of hurting, disappointing, and disinterested old fans like me, then your malice is unfathomable, and that's quite a feat. Brilliantly, your intentions have permanently killed a part of me that used to be an Eva fan.
As horrifying as it is to imagine, it must have crossed the director's mind to reschedule the film and set a new release date for March 11. The only reason he didn't do so is not that he has grown up to be a sensible adult, but rather because the idea of linking Evangelion 3.0 with the Great East Japan Earthquake was a fact that is too painful for him to make it public.
Ten years ago today, many lives were lost and Evangelion was destroyed.
This fact will never disappear, no matter how much the director denies and covers up with the "true" history. If there is any mission left for me as a fan, it is to continue to pass on this fact to future generations as a storyteller. It is a huge loss for Japanese fiction that the end of the great Evangelion has become a self-recovery work of the great failure of the reboot affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and that the potential of the great Evangelion has been consumed by the self-defense of someone who cannot admit his own mistakes, and I sincerely regret it. Shin Evangelion will be forever cursed by the dead, who yearn to see the sequel of Evangelion 2.0, and the living, who yearn to see the sequel of Evangelion 2.0.
This curse will be completed when it spreads, arrives, and is burned by the powers that be as a false history. I pray that my thoughts will reach him!
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Why you’ve made my winter!
- by Judith Dombrowski
My personal Team Champéry season review
This is dedicated to figure skater Deniss Vasiljevs, coach and figure skater Stéphane Lambiel and their manager Christopher Trevisan!
My very special thanks to my mother Beate. Without you nothing of this would have been possible. I can say with my whole heart that you are the best mother I ever could have imagined.
Also special thanks to:
Anastasia, Charlie, Estephanía, Jelena, Laia, Maria R., Maria T., Marina, P., Susanne, Szilvia
You all have become amazing and true friends. I love you with my whole heart!
And to everyone else whom I met because of Team Champéry this winter, either personally or via the internet. We are the best fan community I can imagine.
On March 2nd 2019, after I had been able to take THAT picture, that picture thousands of skating fans dream of, that picture I would never ever had imagined to happen, I turned around and thanked both of you: “Thank you so much for everything!“, I said. Then I looked at you, Deniss, and said: “You’ve really made my winter! Thanks!“ You looked flattered and surprised but didn’t respond anything. But you, Stéph, said something like: “Wow, you are really so positive!“ It was the second time you said that that afternoon and I do understand why you said it in this situation: For the two of you it definitely hadn’t been the winter you’ve dreamed of. It must have been a hard winter full of worries, concerns and disappointments. It seemed to surprise you, Stéph, why you’ve made somebody’s winter even though so much seemed to have gone wrong for you.
So I am writing this blog post / article / review to explain to the two of you and to everyone interested, why this sentence was incredibly true. Why I actually couldn’t have thanked you in a more accurate way. Beware, this might gonna be long. I usually fail saying things short and there has been really a lot going on this winter relating to the two of you. I will also miss out some moments because it has just been too much.
When to start? Should it be the moment when we decided to go to Grenoble? The moment I started to be your fan, Deniss? Should I go back to Worlds 2005 when I had my first big crush on that handsome Swiss figure skater? This would turn into a novel so lets start right at the beginning… of… this winter:
October
“Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I am free earlier than expected today. So if you’d like we can meet earlier?“
“I am sorry I fear I won’t be able to come over before 18.30? Hope that’s still alright?“, I replied to a good friend of mine on WhatsApp.
“Haha, yea, sure, thought you have holidays…“
“Well, yea“, … she was a really good friend so I could be honest, “but my Mom doesn’t. She’s only free from 3pm and we’ll have to watch a movie together this afternoon. This is like the only possibility before next weekend. Will explain you later!“
“Okayyyy…!“
It was a Wednesday afternoon in early October during my autumn holidays and I spent the week in South Germany with my mother and tried to meet up with as many old friends as possible. It was also the week before Japan Open, the first time you, Deniss, were supposed to skate your new free program. And it finally had leaked that you would be skating to the soundtrack of the movie “Last Samurai“. So to totally understand the program my mother and I watched the movie together, listened to the music very precisely, discussed about the plot, read and learned about the history of the samurai on Wikipedia.
We liked and appreciated the theme and that music choice right away. As we did with the whole program when it had finally been uploaded. Despite technical difficulties we saw the efforts and the great thoughts behind the choreography of this program right away and were really looking forward to see this program grow and bloom over the season.
It was different with the Short Program. When “Papa was a rolling stone“ was posted first, I listened to the song in the car and it left me quite puzzled… How was that supposed to be the song of a skating program? And those lyrics? Well… I liked the beat and the rhythm of the song from the beginning and I put all my trust in your good taste and I wasn’t going to be disappointed.
The figure skating season was speeding up: The first Grand Prix was coming along together with a small competition called “Minsk Ice Star“ - the warm up contest for you, Deniss. I spent that weekend in the Netherlands where a friend celebrated her birthday. The moment I remember best of these days is myself walking up and down at the beach streaming the free program in bad quality on my phone screaming and jumping up and down at every landed jump. This weekend brought the first fully rotated and landed Quad in competition for you, Deniss, and the first gold medal of the season. For me this weekend made me like and appreciate the short program and I “met“ my “soulmate“ because of this competition:
Until then I hadn’t been too active about figure skating on social media, because most of my followers on Instagram were my real life friends who didn’t care about this sport at all. There was no official livestream of Minsk Ice Star. But I found some Russian girls via Instagram who were in the arena and were so kind to stream the practices and the competition. That’s how I met my today very very good and close friend Maria. We started texting since then, we went through this winter together, kept each other updated all the time and finally went to Innsbruck together. But that happened many moments and stories later.
November
NHK Trophy was after all the only competition this entire season I didn’t manage to follow live. Despite all efforts I didn’t make it home from work in time for the SP, and I also missed the LP the next day because of my tennis practice. I did come home when Shoma Uno was about to start his Free Skate performance but of course he skated deep in the second group. I clicked on “pause“ and scrolled back to start watching the competition from the beginning. There had been a number though in the left upper corner of my screen I couldn’t have avoided seeing: The leading skater at the moment Shoma started to skate had the technical score of 70 points. 70 Points! DAMN! That was…. low. Very low for that moment in the competition. And 70… that was a number you, Deniss, were likely to score. My heart started racing. Could it be possible? If you were the leader at that moment you were… about to win a medal.
“It was hard to see how excited you still were!“, my Mom told me on the phone an hour later when I was full of disappointment. She had been able to watch everything live and knew that it unfortunately hadn’t been you, Deniss, who had scored those 70 points, it had been Matteo Rizzo. I felt really sorry for you, missing that opportunity. “Keep your head up, keep your heart strong…“, I kept listening on repeat during that weekend and I wished you could also hear that motivating song by Ben Howard. The next competition was going to be better. I was sure! And the next competition was: IdF in Grenoble. THE competition. Our competition. Where my mother and I would go to see and support you live. The weekend I had been waiting for since the end of June when the assignments came out. And now it was not even two weeks away…The Sunday after NHK I spent in the kitchen baking my gifts for the two of you: The lion and the ladybug as German gingerbread. I am not the most artistically talented person, and I didn’t honestly expect this project to be successful, especially drawing a lion with chocolate and sugar icing on a piece of cookie seemed like a far too motivated project for me. But I did it, every millimeter drawn with concentration and passion. And succeeded: I had baked a lion and a ladybug gingerbread. The presents were ready, the flags had arrived and got inked, all tickets were printed, we were ready to go.
You probably all remember a weekend or an event you once desperately had been waiting for. And then the moment when it is really happening. So you can probably imagine how I felt: I see myself as if it was yesterday walking from the parking lot in Mainz to the station where I had to take the train to Frankfurt airport, feeling like I was flying: It was real, yes, it was. I was on my way to Grenoble, I had everything prepared, I had gotten the extra day off at school, I had the gifts and the banners in my bag, I had your program music in my ears, I was so so ready for it!
I had high expectations for this weekend just as you probably had as well, Deniss. Unfortunately yours weren’t totally fulfilled again especially in the long program. Mine instead were outreached by far:
That moment, when I saw the two of you live right ahead of me in practice. The moment you really nailed your SP, how I was screaming and celebrating of relief. The moment I was able to give you the gifts after the second practice. The moment when you walked around proudly showing my baked lion to other fans. All those moments of wonderful and magical performances by your fellow skaters, all those people I had been admiring in front of the TV screen for years: Evgenia Medvedeva, Rika Kihira, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Nathan Chen, Jason Brown and Dimitri Aliev just to name a few…
And that moment, Saturday 24th of November, 6 pm during the Ice Dance medal ceremony when I checked on my emails and my heart skipped for sure more than one beat: Email by Christopher Trevisan: “Sorry for the short notice, if you are still interested you can have a fan meeting with Deniss tomorrow morning either at 10 or 11 o’clock. Let me know if you are still interested.“ If I was interested? Hell, YES. But: Our bus to the airport was booked tomorrow at 10 o’clock from the main station in Grenoble. Our flight home was leaving Lyon at 2 pm. I was in shock, excited and concerned at the same time. It was hard to think straight.
I will never forget the night from November 24th to November 25th in my entire life. So many insecurities: When exactly? Where? Who will come? How will we get home? Take the train instead of flying? Take a taxi to the airport? Skip the whole fan meeting myself?
Charlie, my mother and I were sitting together until far after midnight without having any solutions. The three of us mainly discussed the question: Where? There was no nice café that had opened Sunday morning just around the corner…
We noticed that the only space we had available on this short notice were our own hotel rooms. Probably our entire hotel woke up by us laughing loudly about the joke: “Imagine, when I come home, I will be able to say: There was Stéphane Lambiel… in my hotel room!“ We weren’t sure back then if you’d accompany Deniss, Stéph.
Sometime during the night after sleeping for a few hours I was able to calm down and think more straight again. I checked the Lufthansa App and found out that it was actually possible to change our booking to a flight that flew to Frankfurt four hours later than our original one. I got the idea to ask in our hotel if there was a possibility to hold the meeting in a free conference room or another silent place. It was all coming together. We got a space in our hotel, we had people who messaged they would come to the meeting, we had the time to sit down and think about some questions that I wanted to ask you, Deniss. You came, you had quite some time, you were incredibly nice and the two of us got more and more relaxed while the interview / meeting went on and I had the feeling that I could continue talking with you forever. You are such an interesting, intelligent, nice, humble and funny person. Before Grenoble I had liked you mostly because of your beautiful and amazing skating, after Grenoble I knew where this was coming from. Before Grenoble I had been amazed by you, after Grenoble I was totally enchanted.
December
I was on endorphins for the next weeks straight. That weekend had been far better and beyond all my expectations.
But at the same time I was afraid: Was it ever going to be that perfect again? Should I maybe keep this one perfect weekend as one magic memory and not let it get destroyed maybe by disappointments coming in the near future? Would I maybe expect too much from future events? I told around: “That weekend was perfect. I will not go again this season. Next season again!“
What a luck I hadn’t been able to resist. Because my heart, longing to see the two of you again, won over my anxious head.
Christmas time came, I followed the Grand Prix Final together with my Mom, we got up in the middle of the night to cheer for Koshiro, we were worried when you, Deniss, withdrew from a competition in Zagreb, were relieved when it was announced that it wasn’t an injury. And we decided that it was finally about time to see you skate live as well, Stéph! So we ordered our tickets for Art on Ice in Davos in February. And with booking those tickets my plan not to go anymore this season had already faded away. I spent hours on the internet searching for possibilities to make it to Minsk for the European Championships. Meanwhile I knew many fans via social media and almost all of them were about to be in Minsk to support you, Deniss. I wanted to be part of it really  badly. As a teacher though it is hard to get days off apart from the public holidays. Flights for the weekend only costed a fortune. It seemed impossible. My frustration grew. I am a person who fights really hard if she really wants something and usually tries everything to make it happen.
January
New years eve came along, together with a very nice and enthusiastic video of the two of you: “We hope to see you in Bellinzona for Music on Ice!“, you said, Stéph. And after countless times watching this lovely video and a sleepless and crazy night from the 1st to the 2nd of January my decision was made: Instead of the impossible mission going to Minsk, I would to go to Music on Ice in Bellinzona. I was going to take a train from my hometown Osnabrück in the Northwest of Germany on Friday afternoon to Stuttgart in the South of Germany. The next morning I was going to take the earliest train to continue traveling all the way to Switzerland where I would arrive in Bellinzona on January 12th at 11 am. I would go to the show on Saturday night and early Sunday morning I was going to take the train back, 10 hours all the way up to Osnabrück where I would arrive at 6 pm, ready to go back to school on Monday morning. But going to the show wasn’t the only plan I had. With help of the amazing Jelena from Daugavpils who runs the official Fan Club on Facebook we activated fans from all over the world to send me pictures with good luck wishes for you for Europeans. I was overwhelmed by the positive responses on the project. I received exactly 50 pictures, most of them amazingly creative.
When I entered the train on Friday afternoon, January 11th 2019, I felt the company of all those 50 people. I was nervous because I hadn’t heard of Chris yet, whom I had messaged with the idea of the project and had asked for an opportunity to give you the album personally.
But the sun was shining, I had motivating music in my ears, the train was riding further and further South and I felt the support of all of my friends and of my mom, who unfortunately couldn’t accompany me this weekend, so the nervousness turned into major excitement.
In Bellinzona I also wasn’t alone at all: I teamed up with two friends that I had both met in Grenoble. After our arrival we checked out the ice rink and sat down on a bench nearby the arena. The girls went through your album, Deniss, when suddenly my phone vibrated and I saw the message: Christopher Trevisan had written: “Hey Judith, can you be at the rink at 15.00?”
Have you ever been waiting for a message to come in for five consecutive days? Do you know that feeling that whenever you get a message you have that slight hope inside you that it could be the one you are waiting for and you get disappointed over and over again? And then the releasing moment comes? And you know my temper, right? Then you can maybe imagine how I screamed and jumped up and down when seeing that message. Did you maybe even hear that scream from somewhere far away that afternoon? Quite possible since Bellinzona isn’t that big and my joy was… LOUD! My two friends shared my joy and enthusiasm but not as loud. We had an “appointment”! I messaged all of my good friends right away: “Appointment at 3 pm!” I was so happy and excited. I carried the hopes and wishes of 50 people in my bag and now I knew I wouldn’t disappoint them.
That moment on the bench had only been the beginning of a day that again turned out so much better than all my expectations:
Hearing you say: “So nice to see you again!”, and being really thankful for the book. Being able to watch all three hours of show rehearsal, including the two of you practicing throw jumps.  Recording an successfully landed throw jump for all my friends and many other fans. Seeing you, Stéph, skate live for the first time in my life. You, that man that had carried me through my teenage years with all your wonderful programs. Finally seeing you perform in person was magical. Seeing that wonderful and touching duet of the two of you. I had tears of joy in my eyes. And that moment after the show when you, Deniss, were walking beneath us and you turned around and came back thanking me for the album: “Thanks for the book. It’s fantastic!” These six words meant so much to me and to all those who had participated. My heart was full of joy and my body full of dancing endorphins again. It didn’t matter at all that the train ride the next day didn’t last ten but twelve hours. I was the happiest and luckiest girl on the planet.
Thanks to my amazing two girls who were my company during these crazy 21 hours I have spent in Bellinzona. Wouldn’t have been the same without those two and we do have an appointment at our “Appointment Bench” next year.
Still… after the Bellinzona - Fun it was getting serious! Europeans were on their way and it felt like the most important competition for you this season, Deniss. The season hadn’t gone as planed yet for sure… plus: Skating really well there would give you the chance to medal. Even though I had been in Bellinzona it was really hard for me to follow the action in Minsk from home. But that week showed me what great friends I had got to know because of you, Deniss. Those girls, who kept me updated the entire week, and never forgot about me were my personal heros. Some special mentions: Jelena, who waved at me through the TV stream during the Ladies Short program. That was so hilarious and made my day. Szilvia, whom I would have loved to share that horrible hostel with. Maybe with the two of us that place would have been less spooky? And thanks to her for sending birthday wishes to my mom during the live stream of your fan meeting, Stéph. Marina, for telling me the “they-only-want-me”- story right after it had happened and for asking Brian Joubert about his inspiration for the tiger jacket. And my amazing girl Maria. Thanks for just everything. I felt with her and like her at every moment during the entire week. I shared her excitement, her fears, worries, tears and joy. And I am proud and thankful to all of the girls who organized both fan meetings and streamed it for us at home. You’ve got the most amazing fans, I really hope you know that both.
Deniss? We all know you gave your best! You wanted it so much and we know you actually are able to do everything you had planed. That makes the outcome of this competition so sad. Thanks for keeping your smile for us fans, thanks for still performing amazingly. Thanks for that intense gala-program. “Iron“ is now one of my personal top 5 programs of all times.
And Stéph? Your week must have been nerve-wracking and cruel. Thanks for being there for your students, giving them strength and confidence. Thanks for trying everything you could to support Deniss and Emmi and still staying that nice and friendly to us fans. The pressure must have been immense. Maria summed it up so perfectly as an Instagram caption, so I will quote her here: “Thanks for being in the world!”
February
During Euros you were so nice to confirm that Team Champéry would keep its tradition and would come to the Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck, Stéph. The planing for us attending and supporting you at that event started the moment Europeans were over. That Sunday still after watching the Gala my mother and I booked the last available cheap apartment in the city centre of Innsbruck. All February long we were busy planing that trip but hadn’t there been another appointment in February? My second 10 hour long train ride was scheduled from February 15th to February 17th. Osnabrück - Davos and back. Art on Ice was about to happen. I imagined that trip to maybe be a little less exciting. I expected to watch the show, see you perform two wonderful programs and was also looking forward to see James Blunt live again after more than 10 years. Back in 2006 James Blunts concert had been the first concert I had ever visited, so it was going to be a bit nostalgic… But… probably no surprise anymore: Also this trip turned out to be so much better than expected.
The afternoon in Davos was beautiful already, the sun was shining brightly and we had an amazing walk through the snowy landscape. We managed to sneak in to watch the practice again and: I  got the opportunity to talk to you, Stéph. It was short and since totally unexpected I also didn’t really know what to say but it was extremely special for me. And I could take a selfie with you. A picture I had wanted to have ever since my teenage years. I am not the type of person who collects pictures with celebrities. I think asking for a picture is such an unreal and awkward situation. But I really longed for that picture with you, Stéph. With the guy I used to tell all of my friends about, who all didn’t know you, because figure skating is not too popular in Germany. With the guy I had admired ever since my teenage years. With the guy that is in my opinion the most passionate and elegant skater ever. With the guy that touched me to tears and overwhelmed my emotions when skating to the song Goodbye my Lover some hours later. With the guy who gave his second last performance at Art on Ice ever that night.
I read your post about quitting Art on Ice when my train had almost reached Osnabrück again. I felt incredibly sad and incredibly blessed at the same time: I had still been able to see your magic. Art on Ice will miss you incredibly, Stéph. But you surely made the right decision for yourself and we as fans will support you and keep loving you no matter what projects will come for you in the future.
I had two more weeks until the crazy road trip to Innsbruck was about to happen but well… there was one weekend in between. And I found the perfect place to go for that weekend: Barcelona, Spain.
You have already heard some names of great people I got to know because of you two, but I haven’t told you about Laia yet what is a shame because, Deniss, you would certainly like Laia as much as I like her: She’s an artist, she draws amazingly. She’s a baker and an excellent cook. She’s a bit of a philosopher. She is a big Star Wars fan. She’s incredibly funny and sarcastic but at the same time a bit shy and introverted. And she is a big fan of the two of you. Even though you know the story how Laia and I met already, Deniss, I think it’s worth telling it here again: Laia was also at the Grand Prix in Grenoble. I didn’t know her back then. And we also didn’t meet at the event itself. But she was the girl who took the picture of you holding my baked gingerbread lion. I discovered that picture on Instagram some weeks later. We started to chat, and we chatted even more. I talked with her for hours because, Deniss, in many ways she seems like a female version of you.
So at that last weekend in February I took a plane to Barcelona to finally meet her in person. She showed me some skating tricks on the ice and I showed her that the mediterranean sea is not too cold to swim in in February. She introduced me to traditional Catalan food and I brought her some Swiss Chocolate I had bought in Davos.
And she gave me the most precious gift I ever received from anyone: An amazing drawing of you, Deniss, skating to “Iron“. You have seen it in Innsbruck yourself and I am quite sure you will remember it.
So that weekend was another amazing experience thanks to the two of you.
March
“Good morning everyone”, I told my Instagram followers totally excited at the morning of February 28th, “my last big journey of the figure skating season is about to start. I will drive to work first and then I will drive from my school via Frankfurt airport and Munich airport all the way to Innsbruck. It will be a really long journey but I will pick up some amazing girls on the way. And I actually can’t wait to see Deniss and Stéph tomorrow.”
The Cup of Tyrol in Innsbruck was the smallest event I visited this season but it highlighted up everything that had happened before. At the beginning of the season my mom and I had been alone. The trip to Innsbruck ended with seven good friends from five different countries sitting together in a small apartment, laughing and celebrating you, ourselves and life.
Marina had flown to Frankfurt from Kyiv and Szilvia from Budapest. Maria had come from Chelyabinsk, Russia, to Munich. I met both, Marina and Maria for the first time in real life and that alone was really special. Suddenly sitting with those three girls together in my small car, singing along to Britney Spears songs was unreal and amazing enough. But of course we were here to support you, Deniss.
All three of you, Chris included, seemed quite surprised to see us around. Cup of Tyrol was such a small competition. Why should anyone go there? Well, we were and we weren’t the only ones, even though probably the loudest ones. Here are again some very special moments picked from many special moments:
Imitating your car karaoke to Britney’s Toxic on our way to Innsbruck with Marina and Szilvia.
Stepping out of our apartment early Friday morning in Innsbruck and seeing this city in all of its beauty: The river, the colorful houses and the mountains in the beautiful morning sun.
Watching you skate a nice and clean short program after some struggles during practice.
Chris laughing loudly about our designed shirt for you, Deniss: “I am not coaching Stéph!” Do you wear it from time to time? If you don’t I am sure Chris would…
Giving you my self knitted hat in Latvia colors.
Showing you Laias drawing and you complimenting her amazing “shade work”.
You, Stéph, telling us that we were just about to hang up our “Team Champéry banner” mirror converted. Oh dear…
Suffering with every quad attempt. Cheering for every jump that seemed “okay” somehow- especially for underrotated quads…sorry Stéph, but that’s what fans are there for.
Crying with Matilda after her Free Program. It was hard to see this but those moments belong to the sport just as tears of joy at another time. Please, Stéph, tell Matilda, that she is a very beautiful skater. She is very graceful and a joy to watch on the ice and we all hope to see her shining on the ice sometime again.
Calling ourselves to be the “Crazy Rabbit Crew” after constantly eating carrots and joking about what to throw on the ice. Carrots, maybe?
Watching your little extra show on the ice after you won the title, Deniss.
Joking with you, Stéph about our petition to bring Britney Spears to Art on Ice.
And for me, personally, receiving the compliment from you, Stéph, of being such a positive person. I am aware that you, the first time you said it, thought that my positivity was even a bit too much when we discussed the success of your Quad attempts, Deniss, but when we all said goodbye I had the honest feeling that you liked me, Stéph. And that means more than a lot to me!
And of course THAT picture. Yes, again a celebrity picture. But what a special one. Standing in the middle of both of you. In the middle of the two people who made my winter. You didn’t understand it back then, right?
I am sure you understand it now!
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Of course Innsbruck hadn’t been the end of the season yet: Worlds were yet to come. Far away in Japan. The competition where you wanted to show everyone what you actually could do. In the country that you love so much and where your season had started. The country on which history your free program was built. The Last Samurai. The last dance of the season. It was a hard week for us as fans because it was obviously a hard week for your whole team. I watched the Short Program locked into the music room of my school during our break. Afterwards I had to teach a Music lesson, singing cheerful and happy songs with eight year olds. It was tough. But I can hardly imagine how tough it was for you.
The free program was a huge fight. After everything you had gone through that week, it was even an incredible fight. The score still wasn’t probably what you had dreamed of neither the placement in the end.
But you can be incredibly proud of that fight, Deniss. This whole season was surely a hard learning process. It was a season without a single competition you were completely happy with. After all the hard work you put in every single day it must be horribly frustrating. I got to know you though as a person who is thinking thoroughly about everything. And I got to know you as a person who is able to see this season as a learning process for the future. You never stopped performing no matter what happened to the jumps. All three programs this year were incredibly well choreographed and performed even better. And during that hard and rocky road you made so many people incredibly happy.
Stéph, this winter was surely also a hard one for you. One of the reasons why I like you that much is that you, just as I do myself, put your whole heart and passion into everything you do. I could feel your pain when things didn’t turn out as you wanted them to go for your skaters. It must be so hard to just watch and not being able to actually do something in those moments. I do imagine those intense emotions you had during your last Art on Ice shows. Thanks so much for sharing some of these moments with us.
And equally I want to thank you, Chris: Thank you so much for being there for the whole team whenever you are needed. Thanks for staying calm, positive and objective throughout the season. Thanks for sometimes probably being the connection between the two artists. I am sure it hasn’t always been easy. Thanks for the great cooperation with us fans. You are doing an amazing job in every way.
You as a team managed to go through this season together and I hope with my whole heart that it brought you even closer together. Success, failure, joy and sorrow are so close together in this sport. The future seasons will bring all of that again. And I am looking forward to laugh, cry and celebrate with you again next winter and hopefully many more winters. Until then I will spend time with some of the amazing people I met on the road. Next weekend Szilvia and I will visit Marina in Kyiv. It will be another amazing trip. You are about to make my spring, too!
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russiansunflower3 · 8 years
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Hanaoi with 12 (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“waIT DON’T RUN AT ME I’LL FALL”
If anyone asked Oikawa, it was a delight to finally be in a relationship where he was the shorter. Years of dating girls that were much shorter than him had led to an uncomfortable crick in his neck and back from where he always had to bend down for kisses or resting his chin on their head, or even hugs.
Turned out the reason they never worked out was because he already liked someone else. Being bisexual hadn’t smacked him out of the blue, it was more like it had crept up on him until he realised there was a label for it.
Soon after, he’d dated Iwaizumi for a while, but things hadn’t worked out. Turned out Oikawa had always had his heart set somewhere else, and Iwaizumi had figured out he was aromantic. When Hanamaki had started spending more time around Oikawa, that was when realisations smacked him in the face and left him staring at his ceiling for 8 hours straight.
Hanamaki. He liked Hanamaki. Heck, he loved Hanamaki!
And blurting this out in the middle of practice just before getting a spike to the face had landed him a boyfriend. A nosebleed too, but that was off-topic.
Hanamaki had annoyingly grown an extra two centimetres throughout college, and now, at 24, Oikawa had to go on tiptoes to get kisses. The extra effort was worth it for the reward, of course. For the time being, kisses were sparse. Hanamaki was working on writing a sequel for his novel - which had surprised him by being quite popular - and Oikawa was working overtime at the konbini to cover finances in times of struggle.
Hanamaki sighed, pushing his fringe back stressfully as he inked out another illustration for a prospective character, wanting to design them on paper before writing them into his story. Sometimes, their entire personality changed based on how he drew them, and Hanamaki firmly believed in just letting his mind take over his drawing rather than intently focusing on how he wanted them to look.
That didn’t help much when it was 4 in the morning and he was craving Oikawa’s presence. All his drawings, in one way or another, looked like Oikawa. Dropping his head onto the desk, he groaned and dug his nails into his head. Maybe it was time for a break.
He sluggishly dragged himself to the kitchen, flicking on the kettle as he pulled a plastic cup out the cupboard. They didn’t have mugs anymore, not after The Great Party™ of 2015. Yeah, cleaning up hadn’t been fun at all. Hanamaki found the chocolate powder, and instead of using a spoon, just steadily poured it in to fill a third of the cup.
Boiled water was poured in to make a sludgy mix, and he topped the cup up with milk, stirring until the powder had either dissolved or sat on top of bubbles from where he’d stirred it so intensely. Sipping it, he could feel tension melting away and drowsiness taking over. He shuffled to the armchair by the window and sank into the soft cushions.
Oikawa was due home in half an hour, and Hanamaki was usually fast asleep by now. At the very least, if he was still awake, he could wait for Oikawa and get his craving fix. A book kept him company until he heard the click of the lock in the front door and he perked up, putting his mostly-drunk hot chocolate on the side and the book on his seat as he stood.
“I’m home…” The exhausted whisper into the house really wasn’t expecting a reply. Hanamaki slunk around the shadows and as Oikawa locked the door behind him again, Hanamaki circled his arms around his waist.
“Welcome home, Tooru~.”
“Hiro! You scared me!” A deep chuckle escaped Hanamaki as he nuzzled into Oikawa’s hair, pressing a kiss to the back of his ear.
“I missed you.” Oikawa leans back into him, craning his neck upwards to steal a kiss on the lips, sighing with relief as if he needed Hanamaki’s love as much as Hanamaki needed him.
“I missed you too.” A large yawn interrupts whatever Hanamaki is going to say next and Oikawa laughs softly, turning around and cupping Hanamaki’s jaws in gentle, calloused hands.
“Sleep?”
“Definitely.”
“Spoon me?”
“Obviously. Unless you want to jetpack.” Oikawa gains one last burst of energy and he nods frantically, a peaceful smile on his face. Hanamaki’s eyes soften and he can’t stop himself stealing another kiss. Interlocking their fingers, they walk through to the bedroom and change slowly and languidly, before slipping into bed. Hanamaki wriggles to get comfortable and then Oikawa slides in behind him, hugging tightly and pressing his cold feet to Hanamaki’s calves.
“Ack-! Tooru, your feet are freezing!”
“And you’re very warm, my personal radiator. Now shh before I shove my ice-feet up your ass to warm them up quicker.” Hanamaki shudders again, not from the cold, and quietly lets Oikawa press butterfly soft kisses against the back of his neck and shoulders as he drifts off.
Oikawa feels rather than hears when Hanamaki drops off, his breathing evening out and his muscles going slack. He presses one last lingering kiss to the nape of Hanamaki’s neck before closing his eyes and giving into fatigue.
When Oikawa wakes, he is no longer the jetpack to Hanamaki’s string bean body. He’s alone in bed, the space next to him cold. He stretches out like a cat, toes curling and fingers brushing the headboard. His back clicks and he winces, but that’s only a reflex to the sound. The warm fragrance of coffee floats through the house and Oikawa knows if he hurries; the kettle will still be warm enough to use without reheating.
He shuffles across the floor with the duvet wrapped around him like a robe and enters the kitchen, grabbing his own plastic cup - covered with rainbow alien faces, a birthday gift from Iwaizumi - and whipping up a milky, sweet coffee. Honestly, he hates coffee, but something has to fill the hole left by his lack of enthusiasm for life.
Coffee downed, he readjusts his duvet robe to cover his arms and waddles into Hanamaki’s study. Hanamaki is hunched over his desk, scritching away with a pencil. The stack of papers next to him looks ready to fall over, so Oikawa approaches quietly and corrects it.
“You’re already hard at work.” Hanamaki smiles over his shoulder, pausing in drawing to extend one hand towards Oikawa and pull him into his lap, pressing a swift good morning kiss to his cheek.
“Mhm. The transcript is due at the end of the week and I still have three chapters to write.” Oikawa hums in contemplation as he leans against Hanamaki.
“So you’ll be shut up here for a few days?”
“Yup. I still have to finish the design for the new character too. Once I’ve finished, I’ll bring them through to the living room so you can pick your favourite~.” Oikawa beams. He loves helping out in Hanamaki’s creative progress, and selecting the design for a character is the greatest compliment he could ever receive. It shows utmost trust.
“I’ll leave you to it for now.” Hanamaki nods and allows Oikawa to slip off his lap, getting an affectionate kiss on his forehead before Oikawa dutifully shuffles out. He doesn’t have work until evening today, so he can spend the morning curled up watching TV. He switches between NHK news for their half hourly informative programmes and Animax. TwellV catches his attention at times, but nothing to really hold it.
At 9am, he finds it highly amusing that there’s an anime called “The Files Of Young Kindaichi” and laughs even harder when he learns his first name is Hajime. This, he has to send to his best friend and former teammate. In fact… He snaps a few shots on his phone to send to the group chat they’ve had active since school years.
“Tooru!” He looks up to see Hanamaki walking through with a stack of papers high enough that his chin is perched on top and a devious idea pops into existence. Hanamaki must read the smirk that grows on Oikawa’s face because his eyes widen and the blood drains from his face.
“Oh no. No no. Tooru, no.”
“Tooru yes.” He stands up dramatically and drops the duvet to the floor, jutting his chin up like he’s about to salsa his way over. Instead, he gets into position to sprint and gives Hanamaki a split second to figure out what’s going on. Hanamaki’s gaze darts from Oikawa to the papers in his hands and back to Oikawa.
“waIT DON’T RUN AT ME I’LL FALL!” The warning does nothing to stop Oikawa, who leaps at Hanamaki with amazing height. Hanamaki, on the other hand, can do nothing but drop all his papers and attempt to catch Oikawa.
“Oof!” They land on the floor with Hanamaki’s head just inches from the leg of the coffee table.
“… Why, Tooru, why?” Oikawa snuggles into Hanamaki from his position atop him, sapping the warmth from him as he nuzzles into Hanamaki’s collarbone.
“Because I could and I wanted to.” Hanamaki huffs a laugh, bringing one hand up to rest in Oikawa’s hair and play with the loose curls there, his other hand on Oikawa’s hip and circling his thumb comfortably.
“Well, I love you because I can and want to.” Oikawa shifts to prop his arms up on Hanamaki’s chest and smiles with a hint of a smirk.
“Oh really? I think I love you more, because I can and I said so~.”
“Prove it, dork.” With that, Oikawa leans down and presses their lips together. Kissing on the floor in pyjamas with papers all around really is the perfect way to start the morning.
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global-news-station · 5 years
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TOKYO: Police are investigating a suspected arson attack at an animation production firm in the Japanese city of Kyoto that killed 34 people and injured dozens more.
One suspect is in custody but the motive for the apparent attack remains unclear. Here is what we know:
How did the fire break out?
Local fire stations began receiving emergency calls around 10:30 am (0230 GMT) Thursday, with people describing the sound of explosions at a building belonging to the Kyoto Animation production firm.
Police said a man was believed to have doused the building with a flammable substance that he set alight.
The blaze quickly engulfed the three-storey building, trapping dozens of people inside.
Eyewitnesses said the blaze was so fierce that they were unable to even approach the building as desperate people jumped from the windows to escape.
It took firefighters hours to bring the blaze under control.
The flames gutted the building, which fire department officials said was up to date with fire safety rules.
Who are the victims?
Most of the 34 people killed are believed to be employees of Kyoto Animation, a studio based in Uji city.
Kyoto police said victims included 12 men and 20 women.
Many of the company’s employees were believed to be young, among them 21-year-old Megumi Ono, whose status was unclear on Friday morning.
Her grandfather Kazuo Okada told public broadcaster NHK he was still searching for her.
“It turns out that (she) was on the second floor… her name was not on the list of people sent to hospitals,” he said.
“I want to see her face,” he said as he broke down with emotion.
Who is the suspect?
Police have detained a man described by local media as a 41-year-old resident of Saitama, an area north of Tokyo.
He is reported to have said “drop dead” before setting alight flammable liquid he poured around the building.
His motive for the apparent attack remains unclear, though he reportedly confessed to the arson after his detention.
He suffered serious burns in the fire and was taken to hospital after being detained. He was reportedly unconscious on Friday.
The man appears to have no links to Kyoto Animation, but there were reports he had accused the firm of plagiarism.
The Kyoto Shimbun newspaper reported he told police “I set the fire because they stole novels.”
Public broadcaster NHK said the man suffers from a mental illness and served 3.5 years in a prison after stealing cash from a convenience store.
What is Kyoto Animation?
Kyoto Animation is a firm well-known among anime fans for its role in producing popular TV anime series including “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” and “K-ON!”
Founded in 1981, it had 154 employees and some of its dozens of animations became popular enough to have feature film versions released.
While many animation studios are based in Tokyo, the firm — known by fans as KyoAni — reportedly felt strongly about remaining in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto.
Its work often featured elaborate screen shots described as “KyoAni quality” by enthusiastic fans.
Anime fans at home and abroad tweeted their support with the hashtag #KyoAniStrong and #PrayForKyoAni.
“These are people who carry the Japanese animation industry on their shoulders,” Kyoto Animation’s president Hideaki Hatta told reporters.
“It’s heartbreaking. Japanese jewels were lost,” he said.
Have there been similar attacks?
Violent crime and particularly mass casualty incidents are vanishingly rare in Japan, which has strict gun control laws.
But there have been past instances of arson, including a 2008 attack on a video shop in Osaka that killed 16 people.
Arson is considered a particularly serious offence in Japan, where many buildings are made of wood and extremely fire-prone. The Osaka attacker is on death row.
In 2001, a devastating fire in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people. Police investigated the blaze as an arson attack but never charged anyone for deliberately starting the fire.
More recently, there have been mass stabbing attacks, including a 2016 rampage by a knife-wielding man at a care centre for the disabled in suburban Tokyo that killed 19 people.
The post Deadly Kyoto fire: What we know appeared first on ARYNEWS.
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recentanimenews · 6 years
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Spirits Gather in Tsukumogami Kashimasu TV Anime Key Visual
  A new key visual, new cast members, the OP / ED theme performers, and the Japanese TV schedule have been revealed for Tsukumogami Kashimasu, an upcoming TV anime based on the novel series written by Megumi Hatakenaka about a brother and sister who manage a cheerfully haunted equipment rental shop in Edo era Japan.
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    The new cast members include:
    Tōru Nara as Notetsu.
    Yutaka Nakano as Tsukuyomi.
    Daisuke Hirakwa as Goi.
    Satomi Akesaka as Ohime.
    And Yuka Iguchi as Usagi.
  Additionally, the opening theme for the series will be performed by MYAVI vs. Shishido Kavka, while the ending theme will be performed by Mai Kuraki.
    The story of Tsukumogami Kashimasu follows Oaka and Kiyoji, a pair of siblings who run a rental shop called "Izumoya". For a fee, they lend out all manner of household goods, such as cooking pots and futons, but among their inventory are many mischievous tsukumogami - ordinary items that have turned into yokai after being used for 100 years.
    The Tsukumogami Kashimasu TV anime is directed by Masahiko Murata and features animation by Telecom Animation Film. The series will broadcast on NHK General TV on Sundays during the 24:10 time slot (actually 12:10 AM on Monday morning) beginning on July 22, 2018. The series will broadcast in the Kansai region during the 24:50 time slot.
  Sources:
Ota-suke
Official Tsukumogami Kashimasu TV anime home page
  ---
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.
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高畑充希 新CM 出演  🍨 Mitsuki Takahata New CM Appearance 📺 高畑充希さんはNHK朝の連続テレビ小説ドラマに 出演しました。 彼女は同時にテレビCMにも出演していました。 ドラマでもCMでも可愛い女優さんだと思いました。 4月28日からアイスのCMにも出演します。 撮影現場では、スタッフを和ませました。 彼女の表情はとても愛くるしいです。 彼女はアイスが大好きです。 彼女はたくさんアイスを試食しました。 彼女は本当に幸せそうでした。 Miss. Mitsuki Takahata,continuous TV novel drama in NHK morning…
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