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junko-enoshima-in-dark-souls · 2 years

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around a year ago, this guy told me a sentence i hated: 'junko enoshima is the most hopeful character'

and even though he proceeded to go off on the stupidest reasonings about it, how 'zetsubou' doesn't even mean despair but, uh. 'socially unacceptable behavior' and apparently homosexuality falls under 'zetsubou', and also how 'hope' in its 'PURE, UNCORRUPTED' meaning should just mean 'the thing driving determination'

so really, it was nonsense. but i think there's a kernel of truth to the last bit. she has a lot of determination. and in a way, a strong self-preservation instinct

she's gone through so much bullshit. her entire childhood, which can be easily inferred from ultra despair girls and dr0. being abandoned by the one person that stuck with her through all of that, escaping, being licorne, going through all that shit, putting her own self through the fashion industry to stand on the fucking top of it

she's gone through so much bullshit. she's pushed on, and on, and on, working to better her life, survive, exist

and it still. all. sucks.

she hates every bit of it. she hates how she'll wake up tomorrow, and be fine. be alive. because she'll continue existing in this world of hope that constantly drives her to the brink of self-destruction through insisting on values like forgiveness and love and kindness and hope

and no one has ever forgiven her, she will never forgive her countless abusers, she has been abandoned by love over and over, she has never received kindness, she has never once been helped by hope

and it's all dull. dull. boring. she'll wake up tomorrow and be fine. she'll wake up tomorrow and continue suffering this dull, boring feeling of nothing, not even permitted to resent the world around her

and you have two paths here. you have a path where you fight, fight even more, for a world where you can exist like you want to, or a path towards self-destruction

and filled with determination, she chooses the latter

she could end it all there and then, of course, but she doesn't

because there won't be either even a moment of catharsis, and in all likelihood, really, she won't be able to push the knife into her heart at the last moment

and most importantly, the whole world will continue being this disgustingly boring shade of hope

'boring' isn't even the right word. something much stronger. like 'despise' compared to 'hate' compared to 'dislike'

but that's the thing! no matter what, she still hangs onto it. and it hurts her that she does. she sees her sister, back with her, doing her best to do everything to make up for the hurt she caused her, and she hates it, because it feels like just another reminder that she's never going to just exist as a normal human, but something to be fixed, made better, and it frustrates, because she wanted her sister, her one person in the world, to maybe be someone who understands her, but she doesn't, not in the way junko wants

but she still clings to her. she still spends the entirety of chapter 5 essentially crytyping her way through the trial because she's so damn full of despair at killing her. because she wants to feel like caring, loving, is not going to hurt her, but it does, maybe as a self-fulfilling prophecy to a degree, and so she does everything to get rid of it, killing her own most beloved sister

and that's the thing! look at what she does to get to the end of chapter 6, the end of her

she kills every person she cares for, or makes them hate her. to remove every little bit of hope she could possibly have

she kills mukuro, she kills ryoko, she kills y*suke (piece of shit, bye, will never be missed, bye), she kills chiaki, she removes herself from her adoptive children (out of all the things she's terrible for, she's a good mom. fight me.), from the world, and makes every one of her friends either feel nothing but hatred for her, or drives them to the same love of despair she has

and she only finally ends it all when they all have condemned her to death. even makoto can only muster the weakest opposition to her going through with it

where am i going with this?

my point is, hope will never save junko. it's the thing that drives her to despair, in the first place

but she still cares. she still really cares. just look at how she interacts with kyoko. these are childhood friends (licorne). she cares so deeply. mukuro, ryoko - even though she doesn't even realise that's what it is, in this case, mikan, her entire class

she projects so hard onto izuru because she hopes against hope itself that maybe, finally, she'll have someone to call community, because fundamentally, even though she cares for so many people, she feels completely outcast from them all, because ultimately, unlike her, they're all saved by hope. not big H Hope from kibougamine, strictly, because that fucking sucks and i could make a whole other rant about it, but hope, in some form

and she's not. in a way, the apocalypse is her rebellion against life

so how do you get junko out of this endless spiral of destruction?

you jump right in there with her, if you ask me. show her she does have community. that the deep, indescribable boredom and dissatisfaction she has with the existence of a tomorrow is not something she's alone in. and then, maybe, you'll instead build a better today together

i feel like i didn't exactly get what i wanted across but there that's a junko rant while i continue to ignore the existence of my python notebook

#sasha.txt #dr #junko enoshima my beloved forever

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xcherry-popx · 4 years

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since clearly just working at my own pace isnt working, i have made a schedule

please, please hold me to it

i’ll keep posting the results as proof if i dont make this i just know my self esteem will plummet

basically my plan is force myself to stay offline until i complete the day’s work, post proof i finished it, and then i am free to internet

so now that ive finished writing this im going to stick to it and dissapear until ive finished today

schedule below

total sprite sets: 15 (a-o)

sprite sets completed: 0/15

monday, may 4, 5/4/2020 - complete a set, sketch all sprite sets

tuesday, may 5, 5/5/2020 - all lineart and fin skin colors layer for set b

wednesday, may 6, 5/6/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set c

thursday, may 7, 5/7/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set d

friday, may 8, 5/8/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set e

saturday, may 9, 5/9/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set f+g

sunday, may 10, 5/10/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set h+i

monday, may 11, 5/11/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set j

tuesday, may 12, 5/12/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set k

wednesday, may 13, 5/13/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set L

thursday, may 14, 5/14/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set m

friday, may 15, 5/15/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set n

saturday, may 16, 5/16/2020 - all lineart layers and fin skin colors layer for set o, color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for o

sunday, may 17, 5/17/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for n+m +L

monday, may 18, 5/18/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for k+j

tuesday, may 19, 5/19/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for i+h

wednesday, may 20, 5/20/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for g+f

thursday, may 21, 5/21/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for e+d

friday, may 22, 5/22/2020 - color and shade shirt, tie, hair layers for c+b

saturday, may 23, 5/23/2020 - complete all expressions for all sprite sets

sunday, may 24, 5/24/2020 - show off the new sprites with a mass promo. relax a bit.

monday, may 25, 5/25/2020 - create ryoko ai and mini matsu. start [blog event] [ryoko introduces herself and says matsuda isnt around, so you can ask ryoko and mini matsu questions. a conversation between gekkogahara and matsuda reveals matsuda has been pushing himself and is under pressure from higher ups.]

tuesday, may 26, 5/26/2020 - make 5 mini matsu sprites, sketch new ones as needed. [ryoko encourages mini matsu to branch out. matsu gets his own sprites and starts a couple threads. he is looking for a woman he saw in a dream. the sketch is of junko enoshima. matsuda talks with the higher ups about progress. they say if he doesn’t make progress soon, the neo world program will be shut down and all ultimate despairs will be killed.] [as you are relaxing, work on the quiz/puzzles for the next rp]

wednesday, may 27, 5/27/2020 - complete sketched mini matsu sprites. [ryoko is absent. matsu is alone. he seems to be remembering junko more and more. in his threads, he asks if someone will help him run a program to dig through his memories. matsuda has a talk with the ryoko ai, and it is discovered that she has found a way to possibly rehabilitate the ultimate despairs. however, it needs more time.]

thursday, may 28, 5/28/2020 - work on adding lab coat to sprites a-h. [ryoko cant find matsu. matsu runs the program. in the program, the other user controls matsu in a series of puzzles. if they complete it, their answer determines who they talk to. the options are hajime, izuru, junko, ryoko, and nagito. depending on how they respond, a memory will be unlocked. the program will end, and matsu will return, thanking the rper.]

friday, may 29, 5/29/2020 - work on lab coat sprites i-o. [ryoko finds matsu. he seems much less nervous, and more like future matsu. ryoko and matsuda talk, and matsuda decides to undergo the neo world program, or rather a experimental copy. while he is doing so, junko appears.]

saturday, may 30, 5/28/2020 - work on lineart for lab coat around waist on all sprites. finish event from yesterday [he must make the choice the neo world users made, and he chooses to move forward, if not for his sake but for the sake of his work. he wakes up and gekkogahara is there. he is no longer so vulnerable to despair.]. debut lab coat sprites.

#servant speaks #spriting schedule

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the-apocryphal-one · 6 years

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More than a Waifu: or, an analysis on Chiaki

This was typed up for a thing over on reddit, and I decided to share it here because I already put several hours into it, no sense letting it go to waste, right? Basically, it’s an analysis on Chiaki (both of them) and why she’s an interesting and relatable character, beyond mere “waifu bait”, as she is sometimes derogatorily called.

I’m aware DR3 doesn’t have the best reputation among the fanbase, but I still think covering the Chiaki there is important for understanding AI Chiaki, and I genuinely like her. So, let’s start:

Chiaki in DR3:

We’re introduced to Chiaki Nanami in the first episode when she literally bumps into Hajime while playing her game. After a couple seconds, she mumbles that she’s okay and is ready to move on with her life when he asks if she’s playing Gala Omega. Her blank demeanor changes and she becomes super excited, talking about how it’s such a classic and asking him how many times he’s played it as she gets up in his face. At this moment, Chisa arrives to pick her up, and before she leaves, Chiaki tells Hajime she thinks having a talent isn’t a big deal—“all I have are games”, while he can “go anywhere and become anything”.

An intro should establish some character traits, and this does a good job—she’s into games, she’s got some social awkwardness issues (not noticing she’s literally walked into someone or that he’s holding his hands up when she enters his personal space), she’s kind, and she doesn’t think much of herself or her talent. She’s also got some cute, romantically-lit moments with Hajime, establishing herself as #1 love interest candidate and a potential friend/emotional support.

Over the course of DR3, she has an arc where she grows from loner to class rep (and no she did not do this in less than a day, there’s mention of multiple lunches or classes, so it took her several to put everything together), becoming the heart of Class 77 and bringing them all together. She doesn’t do this on her own, however, because she feels that she can’t make friends with games—it takes Chisa’s encouragement to get her to try, and later Chisa’s pushing and nomination for her to actually accept the class rep position. She also, as expected, becomes Hajime’s friend at Hope’s Peak, reassuring him whenever he dwells on his lack of talent. Unfortunately, she’s not able to do enough to help him, and after he gets beaten down by Juzo Sakakura in Episode 3, he goes through with the Kamukura Project, disappearing for a whole year.

Episodes 4-7 don’t show us much of Chiaki, probably because they’re very focused on first Nagito, then Junko, Ryota, and Izuru. When we do see her, she’s usually looking sad, playing a game as she waits at their old haunts. I have my grips with this section because Episode 4 should have had more focus on Class 77’s reaction to Twilight Syndrome, to say nothing of how the six-month timeskip in Episode 5 should have been an episode of itself, because that would have been a great time to show more of her leadership growth. The qualities exist, but like almost everything else, they’re brushed over. Her waiting around does, however, indicate she’s very attached to Hajime and either very patient, clingy, or both, which makes sense—her various comments in Episode 1 indicate she had no friends before HPA, and he was the first one she made.

Anyway, after Episode 7 and the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak Academy, the Reserve Course starts parading, Mikan goes missing, and to top it off, it’s raining. Nagito makes his return from his year-long suspension, telling everyone he saw Mikan on the grounds, and they all split up to look for him—Chiaki going with Nagito. They stumble across the real Ryota Mitarai and Junko Enoshima, where Nagito reveals that he plans to kill her so she can be a stepping stone for hope. Chiaki protests at the idea of killing anyone, but its all moot as Nagito spends too long on speeches and Izuru comes in and shoots him. Chiaki recognizes Izuru as Hajime, but he doesn’t recognize her, and while they’re holding gazes, Chisa comes in to rescue them! But she stays behind to cover their escape. So Chiaki half-carries Nagito back to their class, where she rallies them together to go back and save their teacher and Hajime! And here is where everything goes downhill for her, because of her.

First, let’s just start with the fact that she didn’t tell anyone where they were going, or even leave this to the authorities. We know they have cell phones, we see her using hers as a light, and we know there are police. Hell, someone should have stayed behind with Nagito, who is half-conscious and just got shot in the chest—probably Mikan since she’s the nurse. Nobody in Class 77 thinks of this, but I hold Chiaki the most accountable since she’s their leader. She was warned several times—first by Chisa herself telling her to leave, then by Peko coming in injured from her fight with Mukuro, and then by Nagito Komaeda telling them to give up (and while he says he was testing her, she has no way of knowing that at the time)—and she still charged in, without a real plan and without a way out if things went wrong. She genuinely believed they could do this, that the power of their bonds as a class would triumph and save the day like in one of her video games. So no need for planning, right? Wrong.

Her attempted rescue goes exactly as well as you’d expect—Junko outplays them, separates Chiaki from the group, traps her in a dungeon, and then brutally tortures her to death while making Class 77 watch. It’s still really sad two years later and I’m not going to cover everything she goes through, but even here she still shows her grit and determination as she struggles on through a lot of wounds to make it to the end. Which is a trap, of course, and she’s impaled several times over. With that, Junko successfully brainwashes Class 77 into despair—which is a sticky issue among the franchise, and one I’m not gonna get into more than to point out that it was a combination of the brainwashing and the death that made them Ultimate Despair; Chiaki’s death on its own wouldn’t have worked.

Izuru comes in to talk to her, at which point she starts crying as she talks about how she regrets not being able to help anyone, how she doesn’t want to die, and how she just wanted to play games with him again. After she stops moving, he then picks up her hairpin and cries too, and is seen carrying it around with him after. It’s been established multiple times in Dangan Ronpa that people who lose their memories still carry feelings; Ryoko is still in love with Yasuke, Toko and Genocider both share their feelings for Byakuya and friendship for Komaru, and both the DR and SDR2 casts reform their bonds very quickly. So Izuru retaining Hajime’s feelings for Chiaki follows the series’ trend.

That’s pretty much the end of her story, except for two things—one, her struggle, speech, and death motivate Izuru to examine hope as something that could bring unpredictability into his life, which is why he masterminds the Killing School Trip. And two, in said Killing School Trip, there’s an AI who scans the patients’ memories so it can form their ideal person. As it happens, the entire class had an ideal person in mind, leading to…

AI Chiaki:

AI Chiaki stays in the background for most of the prologue—she doesn’t make herself a huge presence, like the Imposter or Nagito. Hajime’s introduction to her is similar to her DR3 counterpart, in that she’s gaming and there are some long pauses where she doesn’t respond, but it’s also relatively different. For one, she starts to nod off near the end of the conversation, and for another she stays relatively calm all throughout it. I mention this because while she’s based off human!Chiaki, she’s not the same person as her, and has her own differences—two of them being, she falls asleep a lot (theorized to be because she’s an AI and ‘loading’, but there’s no real proof of that), and she’s far calmer and more rational. The fact they aren’t the same person is something I think needs to be emphasized, because I know there are some people who consider them the same character.

In the first chapter, she’s relatively minor, keeping to herself. The moment she first starts to stand out is at the party, where she offers to stand guard with Monomi, and after the Imposter is murdered, where she uses her knowledge of video games to suggest keeping watch at the crime scene. She’s useful throughout the trial, but her big moment comes around the time Nagito reveals himself to not be your “ally character” like you’d thought, which I think is good timing. She makes the deduction that the ‘killer’ found their way to the table using the lamp cord, which stops everyone from giving up and moves the case forward.

After this, she becomes more important during the chapters—she’s Hajime’s primary investigation partner in Chapter 2, she helps him investigate the hospital in Chapter 3, she puts together what she thinks is a map of the Funhouse in Chapter 4, she stops Hajime from going into the Final Dead Room in that same chapter, and she’s a trial-point-getter up until her death. Before I cover that, I’m going to cover something else—her personality, or why calling her a Mary Sue is just using a stupid blanket term that doesn’t even make sense—*deep breath*

AI Chiaki is strange. If you’ve heard the term ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’, she’s like that, except instead of drawing the protagonist in with her strangeness, she irritates him. She’s either falling asleep when they investigate a new area, or she’s got her head in the clouds. And when she wants people to go somewhere, like to or from the ruins in Chapter 2, she gets a little forceful about making sure they go to that place. In the first two chapters, Hajime makes several inward comments about how annoying or pushy she is. Even after he’s warmed to her, he still gets baffled by her train of thought, sometimes wondering, “what even is this conversation?” She’s also kind of childish, which makes sense since she hasn’t been alive very long—during the Chapter 3 investigation, she tries to pull a prank on Hajime by pretending she wants him to gouge his eyes out before turning on the light in a room, because it’d be embarrassing if he “saw”. It’s like something in a bad anime, and it falls flat on its face. The writing and drawings in her diary are sloppy and crude, more akin to what you’d see from a pre-schooler than a teenage girl. This quirkiness is endearing on the surface, but in-universe, it’s not.

Her Free-Time Events also show that she lacks a lot of basic knowledge about the world, like what Girls’ Day is or where milk comes from, and mentions the flaw tied back to that strangeness—she doesn’t get dating sims. Or, to be more serious, she doesn’t get people. In her words, she’s not good at games where she has to maintain relationships and guess what characters are feeling. She can be good at the latter (which I’ll mention below), but she also makes her share of misses (as mentioned above) and isn’t the greatest at knowing when to share her guesses. She’s nervous about how people will react when she does something, and feels she’s best standing on the sidelines. This is why she doesn’t take a leadership role except in trials—the Imposter tries first, so she doesn’t feel it necessary, and after he dies the group just…splinters. You’ve got Kazuichi and Nekomaru tying up Nagito, Akane running off to fight Monokuma, Fuyuhiko sulking on his own, Hiyoko bullying Mikan, they’re a mess. She’s good at games dealing with calculations, so she can handle the trials, but she doesn’t feel like she can handle her classmates, so she doesn’t try—and this ties back to her human counterpart well. Yes, human!Chiaki became class rep, but only after being pushed to by Chisa. Without that push, she would have stayed on her own, like AI Chiaki does. It’s a nice little character trait that got strengthened by the anime, in my opinion.

So she’s kind of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, except her strangeness isn’t what makes Hajime like and rely on her more—it’s the moments where she’s kind and sensible. Like her human counterpart, she has a strong moral compass, and whenever she displays it, that’s when Hajime’s impressed. She’s usually compassionate towards the murderers and even jerks like Hiyoko or pre-development Fuyuhiko. She’s insightful, if a bit insensitive, like when she suggests the reason Fuyuhiko lived isn’t because of luck, but because Peko deliberately sacrificed herself for him, while Fuyuhiko is in the room and feeling depressed that is Peko is dead. Surprise, surprise, being reminded that Peko died for him makes his mood take a dive and he just wants to be left alone. She also has a very firm stance on killing: it’s wrong.

Throughout the game, AI Chiaki makes declarations that she hates the murders and won’t allow it to happen, but she frequently fails to accomplish this. In Chapter 1, she stands guard, but she’s at the completely wrong area to stop a murder (and even if she were in the cabin, she probably couldn’t have stopped it anyway). In Chapter 2, she plays the game, but doesn’t get the special prize before Fuyuhiko. In Chapter 3, she tries to find a cure for the despair disease with everyone else, but a murder happens first. In Chapter 4, there’s nothing to be done except starve to death. Her efforts are either wasted or not good enough.

Chapter 5 is the first time where she really could have made a difference—the conflict of that chapter is that Nagito is seeking the Future Foundation ‘traitor’, which is her, and takes increasingly drastic measures to do so. First by blowing up the hotel, then by threatening to blow up an island, and finally by masterminding his own death to get everyone but the traitor executed. As Chiaki herself muses in the final trial, if the traitor had revealed themselves, maybe Nagito wouldn’t have gone so far…except she literally couldn’t, because it was against her programming. When she was able to earlier help, her actions weren’t enough to prevent a killing; now that her actions could have prevented it, she is unable to do them. All she can do is drop a butt-ton of hints that she’s the traitor, forcing Hajime to oust her in order to save everyone else.

And there’s the crux. For all her declarations, all her tries, she’s powerless. Her programming, her very nature, makes her powerless. She could break it enough to think that she wanted to save everyone, and that’s incredible, but she needed the others’ help to complete her sacrifice. If Hajime hadn’t gone along with her, or if her diary hadn’t been found to prove she was the traitor, would she have been able to convince them anyway? We don’t know. What we do know is that her thinking freely is a miracle, yet she was still bound by her coding.

Her execution probably highlights the differences between her and her human counterpart the best—while human!Chiaki is crying, gasping in pain, and screaming, AI Chiaki keeps a relatively blank face all throughout. She doesn’t panic or flinch when the huge tank is bearing down on her, nor when Tetris blocks are falling all around her. She tries to escape, but when she has nowhere to run, she accepts it. She goes to her death willingly and with a smile, whereas human!Chiaki had a more, well, human reaction of not wanting to die.

Finally, AI Chiaki makes an appearance to Hajime in the last trial, when he’s spiraling into despair and doubt over all the pressure being placed on him. She delivers a speech about how he’s not part of the game and can make his own future, while reassuring him that she knows he’s scared and that she will never disappear so long as they keep moving forward. She also acts more like her human counterpart here, reciting words human Chiaki told Izuru (“If you just do it, things will work out okay!”) and referencing that she knew him in the past. The scene is pretty ambiguous about whether she’s really there or just Hajime’s hallucination/memories, and I think it’s the better for it, honestly. However, some small part of her is able to help him defeat AI Junko, as shown by her declaring “no, that’s wrong!” in time with him, and she answers his thanks (after he’s gone, of course) with a declaration that she’ll always be watching them…from somewhere. It’s a poignant moment made more poignant when you compare it to last chapter; then, who and what she was—a traitor and an AI—stopped her from preventing a disaster, and it was only with Hajime’s help that she was able to successfully sacrifice herself. Here, who and what she is—Chiaki Nanami, Hajime’s emotional support/love interest/friend/potential ghost or hallucination—is what enables her to successfully prevent a disaster, and she’s able to lift Hajime up on her own.

She doesn’t show up in Side:Hope for more than a brief moment, and fun fact, it’s still ambiguous if she’s really there and if Hajime can see her or not—his dialogue is written in a way that could be construed as him talking to himself. Her brief screentime has her explaining what I explained at the beginning—that she’s an AI who took on Chiaki’s form from their memories—and that this is the future she gave her life for. She then fades away with a smile as Hajime rejoins the rest of the class.

Conclusion:

Frankly, I think there’s a lot to love about Chiaki. She’s a socially-awkward gamer, which is something a lot of us either like (being gamers) or can relate to. She has an arc about growing from that loner to someone who can be counted on. She’s a sweetheart who does her best to help her friends succeed; sometimes that isn’t enough, like DR3 Chiaki, and sometimes she needs help herself, like AI Chiaki, but she doesn’t let it stop her from still trying. There are stumbles in DR3 Chiaki’s writing, but I still believe she’s a good character, and that both she and her AI counterpart have nice relationships with Hajime and Class 77. They’re great girls, and I hope this analysis helped fans remember what we love about Chiaki beyond “she’s my waifu”.

#chiaki nanami #sdr2 #dangan ronpa 3 #meta #my meta #analysis #my eyes really hurt

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written-mem-of-my-heart · 3 years

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//Ryoko's notebook buzzes. It is a notification from a "mission control" app.//

"Agent Otonashi. Your first mission is to look through this video and determine whenever or not there are secret or sublimal messages targeted towards malicious purposes"

Attached video file:

Junko_Enoshima_executed.avi

Play now?

She looked curious. She decided to play this video. Executed? Did Junko die?

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Bookshelf Briefs 7/24/19

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 15 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | VIZ Media – It’s hard to believe I’ve read fifteen volumes of Anonymous Noise already but even harder to believe that there are only three more until it’s over! Rock Horizon is here again, and due to another band’s cancellation, In No Hurry is playing on a bigger stage than ever before and their exuberant performance is the highlight of the volume. Meanwhile, Kuro makes progress toward pursuing a new love after losing out with his first one, Nino searches for a foundation for her singing that does not revolve around Momo, and Yuzu is composing up a storm, though he worries that this will stop if Nino ever actually falls for him. In other words, it’s just as angsty and dramatic as usual, yet surprisingly hopeful, too. Good stuff. – Michelle Smith

Beastars, Vol. 1 | By Paru Itagaki | Viz Media – At a high school in which carnivores and herbivores attend classes and live alongside one another in relative peace, there is a natural tension among the student body. But the delicate balance between the two groups is shattered when an alpaca named Tem is found murdered on campus. The herbivores’ mistrust and hostility towards their carnivorous classmates become more blatant and even Tem’s friend Legoshi comes under suspicion. As a large gray wolf, Legoshi is used to being feared and hated, but that doesn’t make things any easier for him. More than anything else, the reason that I’m so eager to read more of Beastars is Legoshi. Yes, there’s interesting worldbuilding. Yes, there’s engaging drama and mystery. Yes, there’s appealing illustration work. There’s even other fascinating characters. But ultimately it’s lone wolf Legoshi, the behind-the-scenes theater kid, in all of his sensitive awkwardness that steals the show for me. – Ash Brown

A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy, Vol. 2 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Yasuhito Nogi |Seven Seas – I have to admit, I’m calling “no way” on the sheer power behind Junko, who seems to suddenly be far more actively involved in every aspect of the plot and can hold her own with villains who are hospitalizing Judgment. This is a lot to accept for someone whose sole character trait before this had been “Misaki’s chew toy.” The plot involves, no surprise, the fact that kids in Academy City are subject to unethical scientific experiments, not exactly big news to regular readers of Railgun and Index. But the fights are nice, and Junko is a sweet and determined girl. It’s just hard for the reader to accept that this is the spinoff we’re getting rather than, say, Itsuwa or Kanzaki. – Sean Gaffney

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 7 | By Ukami |Yen Press – There were no laugh-out-loud moments here like the previous volume, but it continues to keep a smile on your face. I enjoyed the idea of asking Vignette, the demon who’s sweet and nice, if she’d rather be an angel, and her negative response. “Angel” and “demon” are not meant to be good or bad in this manga, despite what you’d expect, and I like Vignette sticking to what she’s already lived with. I also liked the chapter with Taplis challenging Satania to card duels, if only as it’s nice to see Satania actually succeed for once. Gabriel Dropout is unlikely to pick up new readers who aren’t already fans of it, but those fans should enjoy this. It even makes Raphiel briefly sympathetic, which is highly unusual. – Sean Gaffney

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 10 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – I like that Golden Kamuy, no matter how bonkers it gets, never quite forgets its roots as a foodie manga. There’s lots of discussion of gross-yet-tasty foods this time around, in among various attempts to rescue Shiraishi, who has gotten captured and is having trouble escaping for once. It doesn’t help that there’s so many different factions going around that the reader has long since lost track of which is which. “The guy with the plate in his head!” “The small plate guy or the large-plate guy?” There’s also a bittersweet implication towards the end of the book that this does have an end in sight, and that it may wrap up by returning Sugimoto to what he lost—though regaining it is another issue. Breathtaking. – Sean Gaffney

Mythical Beast Investigator, Vol. 1 | By Keishi Ayasato and Koichiro Hoshino | Seven Seas – This is another in a long string of “supernatural people investigate supernatural things” titles we’ve seen, mostly from this publisher. It’s not terrible and there’s nothing wrong with it, but I have to admit that the well may be running dry, and this does not really attract a new reader the way that The Ancient Magus’ Bride—or even How to Treat Magical Beasts—does. Ferry investigates issues with beasts, which are usually the fault of humans, with the help of the black rabbit of inlé… erm, Kushuna, who is her cynical bodyguard. Together, they fight crime! Some of this is heartwarming, some of it is tragic, it’s very readable, and you’ll forget about it the next day. – Sean Gaffney

The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 10 | By Rei Toma | Viz Media – The start of the volume is well written but not all that surprising, as it hits all the beats I was expecting to resolve that arc. The meat of the volume, though, is in the second half, as the Water Dragon God is starting to lose his powers, and may soon disappear. There’s a solution, but he’s not going to take it—and Subaru will never let him do it either. So what’s the solution here? There’s only one volume after this, so it had better come quick. In the meantime, the evocative art and storytelling and led to The Water Dragon’s Bride being my favorite Rei Toma series to date. I can’t wait to see how it ends. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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aparticularbandit · 26 days

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(Am I) More Than You Bargained For (Yet) (VIII)

Chapter Summary: Mukuro hates the Brigade. She hates this so-called club that her sister found herself in, hates that she made joining this stupid club her sole requirement for staying with her, hates all of this. She doesn't want to be here, keeping an eye on everything while these idiots—

Junko glances up at her and winks, as if she knows exactly what she's thinking.

(She probably does.)

Brought to you by a discussion @tobiasdrake and I had about what it would look like if Junko and Haruhi ever met.

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: M for Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault.

AO3

previous chapter

Mukuro hates the Brigade. She hates this so-called club that her sister found herself in, hates that her sister doesn’t see how corrupt and horrible their leader is (or if she does, she certainly doesn’t acknowledge it, which is somehow even worse), hates that she made joining this stupid club her sole requirement for staying with her, hates that their leader grinned at her and called her their only sane man (she knows everyone here, including her sister, is a little off, but she doesn’t need to be called that, like she’s something other), hates how her sister bristled when she was called that, hates all of this. She doesn’t want to be here, keeping an eye on everything while these idiots parrot out a movie with no—

Junko glances up at her and winks, as if she knows exactly what she’s thinking.

(She probably does.)

Mukuro sighs, and her gaze lifts to Asahina in a magical girl outfit that she would also call stupid if it wasn’t so clearly her sister’s handiwork. Still, it’s as stupid as the movie itself is, no matter how beautifully it’s crafted (or how beautifully Asahina looks in it – so much better than a costume that could be bought from an average costume store). She steps forward as the scene ends, meets Nagato’s eyes with a nod, and then walks over to Asahina. “You’re having trouble with the fight sequence.”

Asahina nods but doesn’t look up at her.

“Do you want me to simplify it?”

Asahina shakes her head. “I’ll get it next time.”

Mukuro looks her over and reads her crestfallen face as much as she can. “You don’t want to do the fight scene.”

“I—!” Asahina’s head pops up, and her golden honey eyes sparkle with determination. “I’ll get it next time!”

“Good,” Mukuro says, resisting the urge to reach over and tousle her hair. It’s too familiar, and anyway, Asahina seems like she hates her (even an accidental brush causes her to jump, which made practicing the fight scene’s choreography frustratingly hard), and even if she didn’t, Suzumiya would snap at her for messing up Asahina’s hair, no matter how gentle or kind the gesture might have been. Something something ruining her movie. All that barking and no actual biting.

Still.

When she steps back, Mukuro meets Asahina’s eyes. “Don’t disappoint me.”

Asahina’s face flushes bright red. Her gaze drops. She nods.

She’s cute when she’s flustered.

Mukuro turns away and stalks back over to her sister, to stand in the place where she always should have been, the one she never should have left. (Maybe if she’d done her job, they wouldn’t be in this situation.) Her gaze rests on Asahina, and she gives her a single nod.

“Enjoying your job, Mukie?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Like looking at the merchandise?”

“Don’t call her that.”

Junko giggles, but she might as well be baring her canines, ready to pounce, to rip, to tear. She leans back in her not director’s chair and taps her fingers on its arm. “You’re such a good guard dog—”

Mukuro ignores her. Pretends to ignore her, even though she can’t entirely. (Ryoko’s voice will always rip through her, even twisted as it is now. Her words will always dig sharp daggers beneath her skin. And she will never be able to stop listening for her, even if the girl sitting next to her is someone else now.) Instead, she fixates on the scene unfolding in front of her, on the singular good thing in this entire shitty situation.

Asahina only glances at her once, but that’s enough.

Haruhi’s movie premieres to moderate applause from the other students. It’s higher quality than anyone expected, in part due to Junko’s costumes and in part due to Mukuro’s choreography for the fight scenes. The kiss scene gets discarded in its entirety, since they never returned to attempt filming it again and Mukuro never got an initial shot. As in all movies, there’s an addendum at the end of the credits – an assurance of the fabrication of the story and its characters, that there is absolutely no way any of its hijinks even remotely resemble real people or real events. Junko adds it at no one’s request; it supposedly gives the movie a more professional air.

All that said, the fashion show does significantly better, despite Junko’s aching fingers, and it can be said that the moderate success of the movie comes almost entirely from the way Junko and Haruhi funnel the viewers from one over to the other. The idea of seeing internationally acclaimed fashion model Junko Enoshima act draws more people to the movie than anyone other than Haruhi would say it’s worth, but its resounding disappointment when she’s only in a few scenes—

(Junko didn’t plan for such a sweet bouquet of despair, but Haruhi gift wraps it for her. She knows it isn’t intentional; she can nearly convince herself that it is.)

The fashion show does better because the fashion show draws more people because Junko Enoshima put on a fashion show. It might as well be all about her and nothing to do with the class at all. Sure, most of the outfits are just retooled from her normal stuff, but the new outfits that she and Haruhi wear are something special.

Something she will never sell at Junk Co.

“I want to be a model,” Haruhi says later, stripping out of the outfit and carefully hanging it on the rack in the clubroom, next to all of the other costumes.

Junko rolls her eyes. “No, you don’t. It’s boring.” She unwinds the ribbon about her waist. “The absolute worst.”

Haruhi pauses just long enough to glance over to her. “You do it.”

“And I’m good at it.” Junko flashes her a charming grin. “Some might say the best.” Then the grin drops, and she pushes a hand through her hair. “Here, will you unzip me? I think something’s caught.”

“Sure.” Haruhi walks over, half-dressed in her skirt, as Junko pulls her long hair out of the way. Her fingers brush the nape of Junko’s neck as she fiddles with the zipper. It catches again, and her brow furrows. “It’s stuck.”

Junko heaves an exaggerated sigh. “Bad luck. Guess I’ll just need to rip it off. Hold on—”

“No, no, I got it!” Haruhi pulls a little too hard on the zipper, and some of the fabric rips. Then her breath catches – Junko can hear it, can feel the break in the hot exhale tickling her skin – before she stalks off. “Make a better dress next time!”

Junko just smiles to herself. “Mm.”

(Next time, she won’t even be here. But she doesn’t need to make Haruhi think about that right now.)

Mukuro waits outside the clubroom, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed – an unnecessary guard while her sister changes. She closes her eyes. It’s been days – weeks – maybe even months since she’s slept. She keeps track of that a little better than how long it’s been since she last ate; she still does that on occasion, when she’s sitting with everyone else at lunchtime, even though something else tells her that, strictly speaking, it isn’t necessary. If she doesn’t need sleep, then why would she need to eat? (She needs to set an example for Junko, who eats little and less these days. It doesn’t seem to be helping.)

Of course, Mukuro hears the clicking of small heels as someone walks down the hallway, and she knows from the sweet, subtle scent of strawberries that it can be none other than Asahina who walks towards her. She doesn’t open her eyes. “Need to change?”

“No. I did that earlier.”

“Oh.” Mukuro opens her eyes. “Are you looking for someone?”

Asahina fidgets and runs her hair through her fingers. “I…I heard you were…um.” Her eyes flick away and then back again as she looks up at her. “Junko said you needed a place to stay?”

Mukuro stares at her, dumbfounded. “Yes.” She meets her eyes. “Why?”

For a moment, Asahina seems tempted to look away, but she doesn’t. “I…I have an extra room.” It’s then that her gaze drops. She sucks her lower lip between her teeth. “You can…you can stay with me, if you want.” Her gaze flicks up again, her eyes wide and terrified (Mukuro is so good at reading terror but not always good at knowing why it’s there), and then drops. “Or if you don’t want to stay with me, I think Yuki has an extra room—”

“No, I’d….” Mukuro’s voice cuts off as Asahina looks up at her, that terror gone, replaced with something like hope. “I’d be honored to stay with you.”

Even if you do think you’re a time traveler.

Asahina smiles – maybe the first time Mukuro’s ever seen a real smile from her, and it warms her heart – and says, “If you’re free over the weekend, then maybe—”

“Maybe what?” Junko interrupts as she walks through the door. “You two going on a date?”

Asahina jumps and steps quickly away from Mukuro. “N-n-no!”

“Oh, so you do know the word—”

“Asahina offered me a place to stay,” Mukuro interrupts, calmly meeting her sister’s eyes. “I’ll finally be getting out of your hair.” She waits to see if her sister’s expression will shift, if there will be a flicker of anything she can read, even if she doesn’t entirely understand it or what might cause it.

There isn’t.

Junko merely smiles. “Good riddance. Can’t wait to have your stinky ass living somewhere else.” She shuts the door behind her and looks down on Asahina. “Maybe she’ll teach you how to use that new word you just learned. It would be super nice if you didn’t need to use my sister to stand up for you.”

Asahina doesn’t say anything in reply; she just nods meekly, glances up at Mukuro briefly, and then walks off. She doesn’t need to hand over a slip of paper with her address, since Mukuro knows it already, and as far as setting up a specific time for moving, Mukuro’s certain that she can just steal Asahina’s phone number from her sister. That shouldn’t be too hard.

But Mukuro feels the weight of her sister’s eyes on her. She turns in time to see her sister walk down the hallway, away from her. Her sister just gestures with one hand, not even deigning to speak with her again.

And without another word, Mukuro follows.

#bandit fic #that faint green light with junko and haruhi #danganronpa #the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #junko enoshima #haruhi suzumiya #mukuro ikusaba #mikuru asahina #enoshimiya

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aparticularbandit · 7 months

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Danganronpa really does feel like it has themes with its red-eyed characters. I've mentioned it before; there are two groups: one with Taka, Peko, and Gonta, and another with Izuru and Ryoko/Junko (and, to an extent, the Remnants in DR3).

I'm focusing on that second group right now and may or may not go back to the first group later.

That second group - with one glaring exception - gain red eyes as the result of something done to them.

For the Remnants, it's indicative of their fall to Despair; they don't have it before the brainwashing (ugh), and they get their normal eye color back post-NWP. (With the exception of Peko, who belongs to the first group, and thus always has red eyes.)

For Izuru, it's the result of his becoming Izuru. Hajime doesn't have red eyes, and post-NWP (in DR3), he has split eyes. He's still Hajime, but he hasn't lost what made him Izuru either. It's indicative of his becoming a dispenser for Talent (and, I would argue, the boredom and etc. that Izuru feels when he's purely Izuru).

Ryoko/Junko is the glaring exception to this. In fact, you can almost make the inverse statement: Ryoko has red eyes but loses them when she becomes Despair, when she becomes Junko (because blue contacts).

However.

This leaves two arguments based on the groups we see above:

Ryoko shoukd belong to the former group (Taka, Peko, Gonta) based on having natural red eyes.

Ryoko's eyes became red as a result of falling to Despair and becoming Junko.

The second feels wibbly-wobbly, because her eyes are still red when she's Ryoko in DR0 and don't change back (the way Hajime's does in NWP), but consider that Hajime in NWP is an avatar pre-Izuru and so wouldn't have the eye change (since it isn't actually his physical body but an approximation of how he should have looked at that point in time) and in DR3, Hajime still has one red eye - he isn't able to escape Izuru completely. Ryoko still having her red eyes in DR0 could be just as indicative of her being unable to escape Junko and who she will become as it is possible that is her natural/original eye color.

If the second is true, building on the theory that Junko chose her eye color to be closer to Mukuro, it may be that she actually chose that color to return to her natural eye color.

I guess the determining factor really hinges on whether Ryoko fits in with the Taka/Peko/Gonta group.

#musings #danganronpa #dr2 #dr3 #drv3 #junko enoshima #izuru kamukura #hajime hinata #i really should go through gonta's ftes and finish drv3 so i can like #firm up my ideas on that first group #but also like #it's a thought

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aparticularbandit · 6 months

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yeah, i don't think i can maintain the ryoko is refusing to use junko's name in the narrative for very much longer because when it's just junko and mikan in memories, it is very hard to determine which person the she/her refers to.

and as nice as the theme is, if it breaks in trying to tell the story to the reader, then it doesn't matter. a cool trick is only as good as it is serviceable, and this isn't really serviceable. it's obfuscating and frustrating - even as the person writing it, which means it will likely be more frustrating for the person reading it.

the switch between she/her and you/yours i think is a little easier to follow (it can be complicated, but i think it's okay), but this is.

like. use this as an example. you can mostly follow it, but there's a couple of lines in there that are hard to follow, and one of those two is really bad and hard to try and rearrange to be clear.

so either i gotta git gud or like. this is just a trick that maybe i shouldn't be pushing myself to use.

#musings #bandit writes fic #dr1 end rewrite fic

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xcherry-popx · 4 years

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finally finished the A sprite sets!! 3 poses, 11 expressions done! this is one of the bigger sprite sets so quite some progress!!!

total sprite sets: 15 (a-o)

sprite sets completed: 1/15

monday, may 4, 5/4/2020 - complete a set, sketch all remaining sprite sets