#anyway only 3 out of like 15 senseis or something is not bad. most people hate way more of their main course uni teachers i think.

[foxcassius]

just thought abt furuya sensei for a little too long. god she was infuriating.

[starglow-xx]

owning a bakery and being discovered by the ada and the port mafia (part 3)

platonic! yosano akiko x f! reader

type of writing: head canons !!

this is part of my head canon series, flour & fluff !!

tag list is open !! go to this google form and fill it out to sign up!

series synopsis: owning a bakery at 20 is tough; even more so when you have to handle members of two opposing organizations! this is your journey to meeting those fools and creating an unlikely bond with each of them. but only at the cost of your peace and sanity.

fandom: bungou stray dogs

content: fluff & platonic stuff but trigger warning!! there may be a sensitive topic for others

*getting grabbed and pulled to an alleyway! alcohol mentioned!*

please remember that yokohama isn’t the friendliest place, especially at night.

previous: part 2 : their beloved president

author’s note: same ages as last time!! (so that means everyone is one year younger than canon; that makes yosano 24)

this one is actually pretty long :0

i got info abt her likes on her wiki page (careful! there’s spoilers!)

and yosano is a queen and no one can tell me otherwise

the doctor is in the house (quite literally)

going grocery shopping was an okay chore in your opinion

it honestly depended on your mood or whatever kind of shit happens when you go shopping

cause like something always, always happens whenever you go do groceries

sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and sometimes it’s just plain weird

one time some weirdo proposed to you in the middle of the store asking for a double suicide

he was good looking you’d admit but it’s not like you’d ever see him again

or so you thought

a n y w a y s

every so often, you’d run out of real person food in your apartment

you mostly survive off all of the leftover bakery treats and ingredients—which works out pretty well actually—but bakery supplies unfortunately also run out quite often

and also unfortunately, one time when both fukuzawa & ranpo took a visit to Sakura’s, fukuzawa argued that “no you can’t live off sweets for the rest of your life”

ranpo was scandalized and scrambled to cover your ears

you guys were at it for a while

in the end you sided with fukuzawa causing ranpo to go off about “betrayal from the people he cared most abt” or smth like that

you guys were okay again after bribing him with sweets :)

for bakery supplies you usually have them delivered bc you order them in large quantities bc ahaha no way were you gonna carry like 15-20 50 pound bags of flour no way

when days like those happen, you close up the bakery early so you aren’t walking home when it’s too dark

you scheduled it to happen every first saturday of the month

on those saturdays, you close at 5 instead of at 8

currently, you were at the grocery store looking for basic cooking ingredients such as proteins, vegetables, fruits, and most importantly, snacks

ranpo’s been rubbing off on you

the sun was starting to set and you were walking home with your two bags of groceries when shit went down

tbh you were kinda expecting it cause your grocery run was peaceful for once

but what you weren’t expecting was a wack-a-do to appear out of goddamn nowhere right when you were opening the side door to get to the staircase up to your apartment

like honestly

let a woman do her own thing

the man who grabbed you tried to covered your mouth so you couldn’t scream but you didn’t exactly make it easy for him

you kicked and thrashed around even using the grocery bags—that were somehow still in your hand—as a weapon and the man struggled but he was still bigger than you and was able to bring you to a nearby alley

he reeked of alcohol and you spotted a wedding band on his left hand

not that you cared about the detail in the moment

you kicked him in the groin and in response he let you go only to fall on broken glass that was in the alley way

using the wall to help yourself up, you grabbed a nearby wooden stick and struck him right on his back

your attacker fell and you immediately turned on your heels to escape only to fall back down on the hard cold ground once again

you lift your face up and look back to see the man holding onto your ankle

grabbing a shard of glass—cutting yourself in the process— you begin to swing it at him only for him to easily grip your wrist and stop you

you get ready try and kick him in the groin again but you’re interrupted as your attacker gets sucker punched and flies to wall

you look up to see your savior and you’re blessed to see a beautiful woman, probably not that much older than you are—she’s probably around ranpo’s age— donning a white long sleeve button up, a matching black necktie, knee length skirt, and gloves, along with tights, red heels, and a pretty butterfly clip in her short black hair

but what you really notice is her eyes

ranpo’s eyes were pretty but you like hers just a bit more

you’ve always liked the color magenta

the pretty lady holds out her hand and you take it graciously and thank her as she helps you up

as that’s happening, your attacker gets himself onto his feet and his groan catches both of your attention

he struggles to stand and the pretty lady simples saunters over to him and delivers an uppercut knocking him out cold

you’re stunned and you breathe out a “thank you” making her turn towards you

she notices the condition you’re in

bleeding scrapes on your hands, arms and legs, small rips in your clothes like your tights, blouse, and skirt, and the ruffled state of your hair and clothing

she asks if you live nearby and you tell her that you own the bakery that’s one or two buildings away

when you tell her that, it clicks in her mind that you must be the bakery girl ranpo’s been talking about and the friend fukuzawa was cat sitting for

it’s been abt two weeks since ranpo and fukuzawa first met you and since then, they’ve seen lucky in the office plenty and the boxes of your signature sweets even more

if those two trust you, she has no reason not to

she smiles at you, holds out her hand for you to shake, and introduces herself as the doctor of the armed detective agency

your eyes widen and you smile back at her shaking her hand

“ah! you must be yosano-sensei then! ranpo-san and fukuzawa-san have talked about you! it’s so nice to meet you! im (l/n) (y/n)!”

“they’ve talked about you too, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you (y/n)”

after that exchange she insisted on bringing you home to treat you wounds which you told her it wasn’t necessary

she gave you a pointed look and that was when you realized what state you were in

you sighed and weakly gave in to which she only grinned at

before leaving the alley she walks over to the unconscious man and pulls out his wallet for some sort of identification and home address as you try to see if there’s any groceries still salvageable

after texting the details to kunikida, yosano turns to you poking around the now ruined grocery bags

she simply rubs your back and tells you that the both of you could go buy more groceries together as she was meaning to get some anyways; she even said she’ll pay for you

you refused obviously but she, unknowingly, used the same tactic fukuzawa used with you

“so you’re saying you don’t need groceries?”

“...”

*cue an eyebrow raise from our resident queen*

“...you agency members don’t like making things easy for me huh.”

you gave in reluctantly and at this point you don’t even know why you try negotiating with them

and that’s only three of them

apparently, she was on the other side of the street on the way to buy groceries for the agency when she noticed different produce items on the other sidewalk leading to the alley and she went to check out what happened

ironically, the way to the grocery store from the agency makes you go past Sakura’s but she didn’t realize it until after the two of you had met

before you know it, the two of you are in your apartment kitchen as she cleans and patches up all of your wounds

as she does so the two of you have a little girl talk

you find it quite comforting bc since you opened up Sakura’s you haven’t really had the chance to connect to many people much less other women

you definitely see yosano as your cool, loving, badass older sister

she thinks you’re adorable and agrees with ranpo’s opinion

yup 

that’s right

the opinion that you’re like a little kid </3

you called it a betrayal and all she did was laugh at you <//3

“awhh that’s really cool yosano-sensei!—MFPH?!?”

*squishing your cheeks the same way ranpo did* “ranpo-san was right (n/n)-chan, your cheeks are squishy!”

“?!”

after that small fiasco, the two of you talked some more and bonded over your love for flowers, japanese sweets, and much more!!

you even made a date to have a girls day to go shopping and eat out!

you’re internally squealing a bit bc it’s been a while since you’ve gone shopping

yosano notices and she giggles behind her hand not saying anything bc she knows you’ll only throw a fit

the two of you came around the topic of ranpo when lucky passed by

lucky quickly warmed up to the doctor and cozied up in her lap

“i wish ranpo-san was able to meet lucky when he came by the first time, but then again, he’d probably throw a tantrum if i don’t pay attention to him for 5 seconds”

she snorted at that and like fukuzawa, she shared stories abt the slightly older male

“ranpo-san doesn’t know how to ride a train?”

“unbelievable right?”

“for someone so intelligent i expected more from him”

“i’ll be telling that to ranpo-san, (n/n)-chan”

“wha—?! yosano-sensei please don’t!”

like ranpo, she’s also a tease </3

but you love her anyway <3

eventually, she finished patching you up and promised to treat you to a new set of clothes when the two of you go out

“you don’t need to lose a good set of clothes just because of a sleazy man (n/n)-chan! you deserve better!”

you were going to argue that the rips in your clothes were fairly small and could easily be fixed—except the tights—but you stopped in your tracks when you remembered that it was practically useless to argue against an ada member

the two of you walked to the grocery store and bought both of your needed supplies—along with some extra goodies—and then she walked you back to your place bc it was already a bit dark out

but even if it wasn’t, she would walk you anyways

besides, if anything happened to you, she’s 1000% positive that ranpo and fukuzawa are gonna flip the fuck out not that she wont cause she most definitely will

speaking of which

you were drinking a bottle of water as the two of made your way back to Sakura’s when all of a sudden

“(y/n) you do realize that i have to tell shachou and ranpo-san about what happened today right?”

you choked on your water

“yosano-sensei you can’t! if you do they’ll freak! they won’t leave me alone for at least two weeks! one if im lucky!”

“exactly the point”

you just accepted your defeat already knowing that you’d lose

but maybe you can simmer down their anger towards the bastard with sweets and lucky

you arrived at Sakura’s shortly after and after bringing groceries in, you packaged a bunch of pastries leftover from today—bc you closed early—and bc you’re well aware that ranpo doesn’t share any of the sweets you send him with

you even gave yosano her own special box filled with goodies she loves, and a thermos of fukuzawa’s favorite, your special hot honey lemon tea

other than the sweets, you prepared lucky to spend the night at fukuzawa’s

you really really hoped that doing these things would make them calm down

you shivered at the thought of what their responses would be

you felt really bad for giving yosano all these things to carry and that you were keeping her very late

she assured you that she was fine and that if someone tried to mess with her she’d kick their ass

and after exchanging numbers, the magenta eyed queen bid you a good night and walked back to the agency with lucky walking by her heels

arriving back at the agency, yosano was greeted with some concerns asking if she was alright bc she came back from her grocery run pretty late

(she usually goes in the mornings but today was pretty busy so she left in the late afternoon but now it was already dark)

she waved off the concerns and plopped a couple boxes of your signature bakery boxes at ranpo’s desk, the one for her at her own, the last few boxes in the kitchen for any other agent or clerk to grab, placed the thermos on the desk fukuzawa was by, and picked up lucky and handed him to the president

the two males were pleased with what yosano had brought them, and pleased that another agency member had the chance to meet you

fukuzawa was rubbing lucky and ranpo already snacking on treats as yosano expected

but here comes the hard part

or maybe it’s gonna amusing who knows

“i met (y/n) today.”

“we could tell.”

in goes another treat in the green eyed man’s mouth

“would you like to know how?”

“you bumped into each other, had girl talk, made plans to go out, went grocery shopping, and you brought me and shachou presents.”

“great job ranpo-san, you’re almost completely correct.”

this caught the attention of basically everyone bc they knew ranpo was never “almost completely correct”

“we ended up meeting bc she got attacked on her way home from grocery shopping, i treated her wounds, then we had girl talk and did all the other stuff”

ranpo and fukuzawa froze right in their tracks

“i sent all the info of the bastard to kunikida”

“kunikida.”

“yes shachou”

“find out everything about that man and bring it to me and ranpo”

“...yes shachou”

“and yosano”

“yes?”

“text (y/n) and tell her that her cat, tea, and pastries aren’t going to work as a bribe”

just as you finished taking a shower you sneezed

<<previous // next >>

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taglist: @hanniejji​ @timeless-tales46​ @realitycanbeajerk (i didn’t know if you wanted to be in the tag list or not but i tried anyway :)

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[otakween]

07-Ghost - The World (Part. 2)

Episodes 11-20 of the 07-Ghost radio show. I’m really enjoying listening to this. It makes me want to investigate which other anime have radio shows. The only other one I know of is Zetsubou Sensei. Pretty funny that the lesser known shows would be popular enough to be on the radio. Links below for anyone who wants to listen (raw Japanese only). 

Episode 11

This episode kind of feels like the beginning of a new season because they got a new opening and ending theme. They’re nice to listen to but not something I would want to download or anything. They have a cheesy mid-2000s vibe to them (gee, I wonder why?) This episode was cute because they had Hakuren’s VA as a guest. It’s fun to imagine Teito, Hakuren, and Mikage all hanging out together since that never happened in the series. 

This time around they discussed “what would you do if X happened to your best friend” scenarios and read a lot of fan mail. As usual Mikage’s VA lost every game lol. I think Jun (Hakuren’s VA) said at one point that he thinks of Mitsuki (Teito’s VA) as an “ikemen” looool. I just googled her name and she does look really androgynous. 

Episode 12

More of the same, more teasing of Namikawa (one of the fanmails was just asking if he got bad grades in school lol). This time around the beginning conversation was about “who would make a good brother, sister, mom, etc. in the 07 Ghost universe?” It kinda bugs me how surface-level and basic their answers are. They never really mention side characters or manga-only characters so they really only have a tiny amount of people to shuffle through again and again. On the other hand, Namikawa never read the manga so...

They played two games: “which thing is smaller?” and what’s in “Pandora’s box?” Saiga flat out said she didn’t want to do the second game lol. She’s getting bored with the formula. I do think the show is stronger when they’re just chit-chatting or bouncing ideas off listener mail, but the games are easier to understand language-wise so it’s good to have a mix of the two. 

Episode 13 

This episode had Kuroyuri’s VA on as a guest which was a nice change of pace. They discussed grades again (you can tell a lot of the listeners are very young based on the listener mail) and played shiritori using dialogue from 07 Ghost. I feel like they’re getting pretty creative with the games they come up with. 

This episode and the previous one had a lot of ads at the end for 07 Ghost content (DVDs, drama CDs, manga, etc.) They mention the “upcoming live event” which I’m guessing is the same one that was released on DVD. Are live anime events still a common thing? I know the Tales of series has an annual festival so I guess they must be. -sigh- why can’t I live in Japan :( 

Episode 14

This episode was fun to listen to, Namikawa and Saiga crack each other up a lot and have great chemistry. I feel like I’m enjoying this radio show more than I enjoyed the entire series? Loool 

Anyway, in this episode they spent a long time talking about and giving each other nicknames (they settled on “Wada” for Namikawa and “Ouji” for Saiga). Namikawa got roasted by the listeners a bunch, as usual, and they had a “dad joke” competition. Two listeners wrote in about their worries, one was worried about his sore neck and the other’s husband was mad at her for spending too much on anime (lol). I guess this episode came out around the mid-point of the anime’s broadcast because they referenced the Frau dolls and the weird noises they make, which was funny. 

I think I need to listen to more Japanese podcasts cuz this is fun and great practice. If anyone has any reccs, please let me know! 

Episode 15

Sho Hayami (Ayanami’s VA) returns!! His voice is sooo dreeeammy. One of the listener mail’s mentioned his fan club and I totally get it lol. I would join if I could. Anyway, this episode was cute. They talked about their first crushes (Hayami’s was a boy!) and played a game where they had to read some exposition from 07 Ghost and pick out what was wrong about it. Honestly, I struggled to understand that part because fantasy world vocabulary is tricky. Namikawa lost as he always does and his punishment was that he had to talk like a baby for the rest of the episode. He did a really good job lol. 

They did a “last supper” segment again where they ate pudding (flan) with soy sauce, which apparently is supposed to taste like sea urchin...ew. 

Episode 16

This episode was decent, a little meandering lol. They had Hyuuga’s VA on as a guest and he seemed surprisingly shy compared to the character he plays. He was very quiet and didn’t contribute much to the conversation. I was a little nervous when he lost one of the games they played and had to speak “rabbit language” (basically adding “pyon” or “usa” to the end of every sentence) for the rest of the episode, but that actually was exactly what was needed to spice up his debut lol. His awkwardness plus the vocal tic was pretty hilarious. 

This episode took place after the live event because they had some fan mail about it. One girl went with her mom which is so cute (I can imagine dragging my parents to something like that lol). They discussed what it would like to be a twin and played a game where they had to read a bunch of tricky words (mostly katakana) really fast. It sounded really hard! I kinda wish I had the script so I could try for myself. I really like reading katakana 

Episode 17

This episode felt really short, the nico nico video is only 38 minutes long! Castor’s VA guest starred this time and was way more energetic than Hyuuga’s VA in the last episode. He was hamming it up a lot. They discussed sleeping positions and played a game where they got a list of 3 07 Ghost characters and had to figure out what they all had in common. I had fun playing along (although I didn’t do very well lol). Namikawa lost and had to use “zamasu” language? I’m not really sure what that is. 

At the end of the episode they read some listener mail and gave love confession advice lol. Almost made it a third of a way through the show! 

Episode 18

A nice, simple no-guest episode. This time around they discussed what pets would suit them and played family feud basically (and failed miserably). Saiga and Namikawa both got “punished” for failing the game and had to speak like the opposite gender. They both really struggled to do so lol. Masculine/feminine speech is so weird to me. I’m sure English has some, subtle version of this, but if someone told me to “talk like a guy” I wouldn’t know what to do. (Lower my voice? Say “bro” a lot?) It’s always interesting when other languages have a quirk that there’s no real English equivalent for.

This episode felt kind of lazy. They spent most of it just chit-chatting and didn’t seem like they wanted to do the regular corner. They ended up running out of time for the final fan letter reading. I’m not complaining really, it was just noticeably less professional than some other episodes. 

Episode 19

Not gonna lie, the Japanese was a little tricky for me in this one. Haruse’s VA made his show debut and I didn’t recognize his voice at all lol. Haruse barely talks in the show so I was like “???” They asked him what kind of character Haruse is and he was like “...nice?” Lol poor Haruse. Not much to say about him anime-wise. 

This definitely felt like a “we’re running out of ideas” episode. The game they played was really weird. Basically it was “what do you do when X natural disaster occurs?” with 07 ghost characters illustrating what to do vs. what not to do. Haruse’s VA lost and his punishment was to speak in broken Japanese (like annoying foreigner characters do in anime). It was really obnoxious lol. The episode ended with a “Last supper” segment but I had trouble following what they were eating :/ Almost to episode 20!

Episode 20

Another Hyuuga episode, although I felt like he didn’t talk as much this time. These episodes are really starting to blend together. This one was recorded in October so they discussed autumn and things they like/dislike about it. Practically every fan letter was about Namikawa (either bullying or praising him). I finally understand the “Wada” joke (namikaWA DAisuke), it took me a few episodes.

Unfortunately I didn’t really understand much of this episode, especially the game they played. It sounded like they had to pick a symbol to represent a character from 07 Ghost, but I’m not sure if that’s the gist of it. Namikawa lost as usual and his punishment was to speak like an old man. I thought he did a great job! Sometimes I forget I’m listening to voice actors instead of regular radio hosts. It makes sense that all of their punishments would be impressions related. 

[floofiestboy]

Haruhara Question Corners #11-20

Translations of past question corners:

- Question Corners #1-10

Haruhara used to answer questions on his channel - these are translations of the questions and answers.

Question Corner #11

Q. From Samemaru-san:

I’ve been spending too much money lately, which has been rather problematic for me. Do you know of any solutions?

A. 

Buy all volumes of Senyuu again and again. Then you’ll no longer have any money to spend, and you’ll stop spending too much money! Your money will be neatly stored in the form of Senyuu volumes.

Q. From Mt. Hakkai-san:

When you do your streams, you always have some music playing in the background, but do you have any big bands you like? If you have any bands you don’t really know much about but still like a particular song from them, please tell us about those as well!

A.

The music playing during my streams is all music that Niconico has been licensed to use. Among those, I’ve liked the pillows since my high school years.

Though I only really started listening to music during high school - I was listening to artists like Yuzu, 19, BUMP OF CHICKEN, and Porno Graffiti. 

Lately, I’m not really into any particular artist - I just buy any songs I think are nice. I’ve been listening to Human Video by the dresscodes the most lately. Yesterday I bought Peace Sign by Kenshi Yonezu.

Question Corner #12

Q. From Kotokono-san:

It looks like Shushu’s dad worked at the Monster King’s castle when he was still working, but is he the type that’s actually pretty skilled when he puts his mind to it? Or did he get his job through connections?

A.

He was great at making himself look skilled at first glance (for example, by loitering about behind an actually skilled monster.) He did things like that to be assigned to the Monster King’s castle. He wanted to work there because the salary was good.

Q. From Kuniki-san:

What do you think would be a job that suits Alba, aside from being a hero?

A.

A part-time job as a shift leader at some café.

Question Corner #13

Q. From I Stubbed My Toe Into the Drawers-san:

Are there demons that age according to their age, or don’t?

A.

It’s just like how there’s humans that don’t look their age (like there’s teenagers who look like they’re thirty, and I get told I don’t look like I’m 31 a lot.) Because demons have such long lifespans, the difference is just more staggering.

Q. From: Reeruto-san:

What happened to the pottery plate from Crea that Creasion hung around his neck?

A.

During the battle a thousand years ago where Creasion sealed away Rchimedes, it shattered. 

Question Corner #14

Q. From I Like Rice-san:

Since Marl-chan has black hair, does Foyfoy just dye his hair? Is he naturally black-haired?

A.

Blond is his natural hair colour. He just doesn’t treat it well so it’s very dried out and rough. From Season 3 onwards it’s not very dried out and rough.

Q. From Zipper-san:

How did you come up with your pen name?

A.

It just came to me. When I needed to input a name when I was registering for NicoNico, I just put in a random name like “s” at first, but then I figured I should put in an actual name, so I randomly put in this pen name.

Question Corner #15

Q. From Mt. Hakkai-san:

It’s been quite hot lately so I haven’t had much appetite. Sensei, what do you eat when you have no appetite due to the heat? I think there’s a lot of options out there - spicy food like curry, light and cold food like somen, food like eel that would give you stamina... 

If you don’t like eating anything when you have no appetite, please tell me what you had for dinner last night.

A.

In the past, I’ve never not had any appetite - I’ve eaten an entire pork cutlet rice bowl while having a fever of over 39°C. 

But now that I’m over thirty, I’ve started to lose my appetite when I have a fever that bad. I realized that ah- so this is what “not having an appetite” is. During times like that, I eat okayu. Since my lack of appetite must be because my stomach is weakened due to the fever, I eat food that seems good on the stomach.

However, I never experience lack of appetite apart from times like that. I scarf food down even in the middle of summer. I scarf food down even when I feel listless. Since I feel like not eating because I feel listless will just make me feel more listless, I go out of my way to scarf things down.

This is unrelated to the topic of “lacking appetite”, but when I feel like I’m about to catch a cold, I fry up eggs, chives, pork, and garlic together to eat. It’s a little spell to help me win against a cold.

[T/N: This is okayu - it’s basically rice soup.]

Question Corner #16

Q. From The Person Standing at the Very Back-san:

I’d like to hear about music you often listen to while drawing manga. Also, do you have any songs you feel fit your characters well? If you tell me, I’ll work my hardest on my exams!

A.

When I draw, I watch movies, like on Amazon Prime.

When I draft up storyboards, I listen to music I’ve listened to so many times I’ve gotten bored of it, or background noise like the sound of rain, or movies I’ve watched so many times I’ve gotten bored of them. Sounds that won’t make me distracted.

I don’t really have any songs that I’d match up with my characters. I bought a CD for the first time when I was in high school, and until then, I had absolutely no interest in music. So maybe it’s because of that, but I can’t really think of anything that fits perfectly.

If anyone knows of any songs they think would fit with my characters well, please tell me. Email the question corner email with the subject line “Songs that Fit.”

Q. From Straw-Thatched Roof-san:

Did Dezember have six personalities from birth? Or did he gradually split apart from the one-eye?

A. 

They were originally born as six different demons, but since they had an instinct inside of them that told them that they were one person as six (since they were born from dice), they did their best to combine into one being.

I don’t think I succeeded in explaining properly, but if I think of a better explanation, I’ll draw a manga for it. I haven’t managed to think of anything so I’ve been just letting it be for years.

Q. From At Sign-san:

I’d like to write for a living in the future, but I’d like to know what you watched out for most back when you wrote novels. Is there anything that differs from drawing manga?

A.

I… I didn’t watch out for a thing… 

Well I did make sure I didn’t repeat connecting words like “therefore” too much. But I think that’s the kind of thing even people who don’t write for a living watch out for. Yeah, there wasn’t really anything I watched out for particular just because I worked as a writer.

But I think the most important thing for a creator to have is the courage to say that you can do it. I wrote novels for a living, but the very first novel I ever wrote was my living, after all. It’s important to have the courage! To say you can do it! Even though you’ve never written a novel before in your life!

If you want to know what to do when you can’t do it, I also worked as an anime production manager so I know exactly what to do. It’s the job of production managers and editors to make you finish your job.

So, if you can’t do it, all you need to do is say- “It’s your fault for giving me work that I obviously couldn’t do!” and- “It’s your fault for not getting the job done just because I couldn’t finish it!”

It’s the job of a production manager to take back your work the moment they think you can’t do it, and to prepare two or three backup helpers just in case.

But obviously your reputation will go down when you can’t do something, so when it happens, do your best moving forwards, or just change jobs.

Question Corner #17

Q. From Good-for-Nothing-kun-san:

I thought of this while watching the anime the other day, but what’s that blue round thing that Rchimedes the First was using as a mattress while he was sealed? It looked very bouncy and comfortable.

A.

You see, that’s a reference to Houshin Engi by Fujisaki Ryuu. A character called Daijourou in that series slept on a sphere like that, and since I liked that scene, I drew Rchimedes on that sphere as a homage.

Though well, that was my intention - but when I re-read Houshin Engi, I discovered that Daijourou-kun never actually slept on a sphere like that. I made a homage to my own memories.

I was making a homage to memories of something that didn’t exist…

Maybe I mixed it up with the pearl that Fugenshinjin had?

If you don’t know what Houshin Engi is, please read it!

Question Corner #18

Q. From Tatami-san:

Foyfoy-san says, “This is why soldiers from countries that don’t know war…” once, but does Foyfoy himself have war experience?

A.

Foyfoy was born in a country that was quite unstable, and was separated from his parents. He was employed as a soldier, and deserted for his sister - I thought up a whole bunch of backstory for him.

But that would make the story too heavy. And plus I’m not too familiar with desertion anyways. So I’ve never used this concept and I’ve just been leaving it be.

Question Corner #19

Q. From I Stubbed My Toe Into the Drawers-san:

In Season 2, Zwei says “I’ll live like a true man!” then disappears off somewhere, but what was she doing while she was gone?

A.

Until the effect of the manly beam wore off, she was doing things like working out and saving people for about two weeks.

Question Corner #19

[T/N: Yes, there’s two Question Corner #19s. I don’t know why.]

Q. From Pocket-san:

When that dagger stabbed Rchi’s head, Alba looked around for someone who could use magic, but how common was magic in Season 1?

A.

When I wrote that, I was thinking that there should be a few people who could use magic among every hundred soldiers.

But now that I think back, magic shouldn’t have spread among the masses at all at that point. Please just pretend that Alba was super shaken up.

Q. From À La Carte-san:

You mentioned in a previous question corner that you often watch movies while working, but what genres do you like?

A.

I can’t really watch the screen while working, so I prefer human dramas with a lot of conversion over action movies. For example, Trumbo.

When I watch movies normally, I like ones with nice music and pretty visuals. For example, Kikujiro.

Question Corner #20

Q. From Tokugawa-san:

How did Cecily-san and Rchimedes first fall in love? Was it love at first sight?

A.

They were childhood friends.

Q. From I Like Rice-san:

Is Marl-chan stuck asleep in SQ as well?

A.

She’s healthy in SQ. 

I thought up the following just now:

She’s working in the fashion industry. Her hobbies are reading and watching plays. She doesn’t hang out with her coworkers much on her break days, so everyone thinks she has a boyfriend, but she doesn’t have one.

[tsukishima44]

Blooming Birthday Candle

Izuku just know this was a bad idea. Almost everything Class 2-A planned was a bad idea, but so far this could place in the first place. If their last prank to Aizawa Sensei they could be forgiven with a 10-page essay, he didn't know whether they could escape again today.

The date has come. 8th November, marking another year has passed by and solid proof that he was still alive, healthy, and happy with his husband, cats, and so many children (official and non-official). 

Shouta looked at the table calendar beside his king size bed, the perk of having a celebrity for a husband. 

It has been years since someone else other than his family, and Hizashi and Nemuri, celebrated his birthday. Last year, the bond between him and his students deepen more than his previous students. He finally found people who weren’t scared at him, not that his students weren’t but it was lesser. Last year they made a surprise party for him. Confetti, cokes, cakes mixed into one big of a mess. Aizawa let them partied until midnight, resulting in a bunch of sleepy kids in his morning class. 

He kinda worried about this year. The kids have been great. They passed their final tests, gaining their own provisional license, and clearly LoV didn’t waste more than two weeks before ambushing them even when they were studying. Their relationship between students and teacher were based on layers of trust and respect, which was a fundamental point in pro-heroes relationship. However, despite being on a highway to be a wonderful pro-hero, having a tight connection meant getting bolder and much more mischievous. Their last prank included him inside and that was a no no in his book. Shouta released them with a 10-page paper on describing the purpose of a prank and its use in making an ambush plan. 

This year Shouta’s marriage status has been revealed to his students. Most of them were shocked, as expected, but excited nonetheless. Shouta was 100% sure they would rope Hizashi in tomorrow’s surprise. 

A late night sound of keys jingling made him walked outside his bedroom to the living room. When the door opened, his three official kids bound inside full of happiness and tiredness. Eri quickly disentangled her hand from Shouto and ran up to his sweat pants. 

“Daddy! We are back!”

Shouta took her into his arms the way she loved it. She gave him a chuckle and a peck to his cheek. 

“Sorry it’s so late, dad”

Hitoshi said. Shouto beside him nodded. In their hands were several plastic bags from a super market in the area. They had offered him to buy their monthly supplies and Shouta gave them the money and told them to be safe, as most parents would. 

“No worries. Place the bags on the counter. I will put the groceries while you guys rest”

Both boys nodded. They retreated to the plushy sofa while he placed each content into cabinets and refrigerator. Eri became his little helper. When they finished, Eri guided his hand to come into the living room to watch some movies with Shouto and Hitoshi. The cats slipped in the crooks between their bodies. When the clock strucked 11.30, the door was opened once again to reveal his blonde husband. 

"HEYAAA!! I'M HOME"

Shouto and Hitoshi were startled awake. They had fallen asleep on the couch and was in the middle of dreaming when Hizashi came back. Eri, who also had followed to the dreamland had awoken with a start, but she quickly came to her sense. She looked to her left and right, trying to figure out where she was before she climbed down Shouta's lap and done the same thing to Hizashi, running to her dad's leg. 

"Papa!!"

"Hey there, little listener!!"

Eri loved it when her papa called her little listener because she was the only who was named so by Hizashi. As usual, Hizashi took Eri in his arms and walked to the couch. The DJ walked to Shouta's side, leaned down to peck him on the lips before taking a place beside the awaken boys. 

"Watcha' watching?"

"Detyective Conaaaa--"

Hitoshi replied while yawning and rubbing his eyes. He stood up and bounded to the kitchen to make a mug of tea. Since he had slept for an hour, he probably wouldn't be asleep for another 3 hours, a disadvantage of having insomnia as a part of your sleeping life. 

Shouto meanwhile stretched on the couch, hands upward and upper body curved to the right and left. Beside him, Mocha was also stretching her body. It was so eventful that Hizashi had took a picture to commemorate said event. 

"Shouto, want some tea?"

Hitoshi asked from the kitchen.

"Sure"

He said loud enough, then he snuggled back into the leather comfort of the sofa and melt there. Mocha turned into a puddle on his left side. Macha strolled to him to join the only female cat. He purred loud enough beside Mocha. Another 35 minutes later, he heard a series of knocks. 

Shouta looked up from the wide tv screen to his families around. None of them made a move to be aware of the sound of someone thumping their door. So Shouta prepared himself to relax once again. Probably he was just hearing things. The knock had sound so soft, he reasoned. 

Not a second before he tried to focus back on the actor, the knock had sound even more viscious than before, like someone was trying to knock down his door with a hammer. Funnily, it also accompanied with muffle angry comments behind the wooden door. 

Shouta stared back at his family with a single brow raised. How in the damn hell they were all looked like they hear nothing when Shouta was getting more and more annoyed by their impromptu guest? He was still staring confused at them, afraid that something will happen like a villain popped out from behind the television, when he answered "I'm coming!" and walked to the door. His husband rigid back was on his peripheral sight. Shouta didn't bother to check the fish eye hole on the door, he just hoped that the guy would walk away or something so he could interrogate his fishy families attitude or probably making them go to the ENT specialist.

"What c-"

"DAMMIT SENSEI CAN YOU WALK ANY SLOWER!?"

Rather than surprised, he was not at all pleased to encounter an angry Bakugou in the middle of the night. The blonde was in the middle of the pack, the leader of his school mates who were standing behind him. He looked well dressed with moss green jacket and broken white sweater. The blonde waste no time to explain before marching inside his apartment yelling 'idiots' and 'Half and half' all the way. Shouta's eyes trailing on Bakugou before he smelled smoke and a call of 'sensei' before he was drenched. 

-chapter break-

In 15 more minutes, the clock would signal the change of date into 8th November. Class 2-A had red marked tomorrow as Aizawa-Sensei's birthday and of course being a diligent students who respect and adore their homeroom teacher, they planned a birthday suprise just like last year. This year they have many help. Todoroki Shouto and Shinsou Hitoshi as Aizawa-Sensei's official sons helped as much as they could with afternoon preparation. Present Mic, their english teacher and homeroom teacher's spouse helped in making his husband stayed in the apartment. 

Class 2-A had made a cake, courtesy of their classmate slash chef Rikido Satou. The cake was quite big in size, has so many cats decorations and every cat things. For gifts Ashido had prepared something, probably another prank for their poor homeroom teacher. In the last minute preparation, Sero had changed the expensive candles with magic candles, the one which wouldn't die easily, and a flower candle, flower shape that bloomed and sing 'happy birthday' when lightened. Rikido placed the flower-shaped candle in the middle and the magic candles in one corner near the flower because they couldn't put it anywhere else with the amount of cat decoration there was. Anyway, they had came to the apartment, standing in the lobby while waiting for the others to arrive. Present Mic had told the staff to give them access to their penthouse apartment in the top floor. Tsuyu and Jirou came the last and they went up. 

When they saw the digital watch in Kirishima's wrist turned to 23.59, they lit the candles. It went nicely. One candle was enough to lit the others since it was huddled in the corner together. Unfortunately the fire also light up the flower and it started to sing the birthday song when it supposed to be lightened by their teacher. 

So they quickly knock the only door in the floor in panic. It was probably their mistake because Kouda was the once in charge for knocking. The knocks were too soft and could easily be misheard. Then it became even worse when Kaminari shouted.

"GUYS!"

17 pairs of eyes watched in horror as the magic candles were lit and created a big fire. Apparently, being jammed together made the fire accumulate and smoke starting to came out of it. The mechanical sound of birthday song was a nice touch in the horror situation they were in. Bakugou finally strode forward and thumped the door loudly. Their Sensei was out in one minute but it was too late. The smoke from the fire was too much that the fire alarm went off and the sprinkler turned on, drenching them all in the middle of the night. 

-chapter break-

Shouta thanked the heaven for turning off the fire that was turning his birthday cake into overcooked one. The water from the sprinkler had diminished the big fire and sadly drenched the cake, even the part which was still edible. The glazed Rikido had worked so hard had melted. Said chef looked disheartened at his now soggy and burnt masterpiece. 

Now Shouta stared at 17 kids in his living room, drenched with water and looking dejected as hell. Hizashi was still working on the hellish flower candle that wouldn't stop singing. He had tried to sink it into a bucket of water, crushing it, and yelling at it with his quirk and the flower still wouldn't stop singing. In the last effort, he put it into the trash bin and covered it with plastics and old newspapers. Then he simply placed it in a corner of the living room. Mocha, Macha, and Mango sat on their hind legs while staring at the mysterious black bag resembling a dark cult. 

Aizawa turned his attention to Shouto and Hitoshi who had distributed towels to their friends. 

"Explain"

"Uhh....happy birthday"

Hitoshi said, but it sounded more like a question. 

In front of him were his students kneeling, a ruined birthday cake, and the sound of Hizashi cursing at the bag in the corner. When Eri poked the burnt cake with her finger and licked it and made this particular face, he couldn't handle it. At first it was just a soft chuckle, then it escalated into a maniacal laughter that filled the room. 

His students were staring at him, shocked, when he wiped away a stray tear from the corner of his eye. 

"You kids really done it"

Shining eyes full of hope looked up to him and Shouta really couldn't blame them. It was really a surprise, not a very pleasant surprise but surprising indeed.

"Thank you for the cake"

Then they had stood and really tried to towel themselves dry for real. Hitoshi and Shouto gave their clothes for the boys to change and Hizashi bought new ones for the girls. Shouta himself went to change into another soft cotton shirt. When he came out, confetti were popped and the students, kids, and husband was there.

"Happy birthday!!!"

Shouta gave a sigh before giving them a small smile.

"Thank you"

The kids cheered happily. He padded into the living room to find it full of foods and snacks. The part-soggy-part-burnt cake was still there in the table. Beside it was another cake, definitely freshly bought from the bakery downstairs. Hizashi really worked fast in picking up necessary things. 

His husband wandered to his side and brought their lips into a soft, short, kiss. Shouta couldn't help smiling fondly and ignoring the catcalls from his students. Hizashi gently pulled their faces near. His green orbs staring lovingly at him.

"Happy birthday, Sho"

"Thank you, Zashi"

...and he was euphoric. 

"Sensei! We have a gift for you!"

It was Hagakure's voice. He leaned quick for another peck before padding to the dining room where the bakusquad were, minus Bakugou. Hagakure handed him a small black rectangle box topped with a beautiful golden yellow ribbon. Shouta murmured his thanks before unboxing it in front of them. His eyes widen in surprise when he saw a pen, the branded one, lying neatly inside the box. Beneath it was a card from his students wishing him happy birthday. He nearly cry. 

But then Ashido, eyes glinting mischievously, handed him another thing- 

"You see, Sensei, that pen actually has a purpose"

-a folder after he inspected it. Just a plain cheap plastic folder actually, with several papers inside. He took one of them out and read it. He scanned it quick and found that it literally said :

The one who signed below has agreed to adopt Ashido Mina, Class 2-A student, to be his unofficial adopted kid. (Aizawa Shouta)

Shouta turned to the next piece of paper and yeah. It said the same thing except the student name was changed to Ojiro. He was sure there would be 17 of it. He couldn't believe it. After he turned down their first prank, his students prepared his gift in purpose. He gave a small snort before placing the folder on the dining table and sat. he signed on the appropriate blank space above his name and put it aside. 

"Ashido"

"Yes sir!"

She spoke beside him, startled from happiness of seeing her homeroom teacher actually played along. 

"Make your unofficial father a coffee. There is still so many to sign and I need to be awaken for it"

Her eyes were full of sparkles. She gave him a salute before sauntering into the kitchen and brought him back a mug of fresh coffee. The whole night was spent partying and lounging in his livid living room, feeling beyond happy with his new unofficial kids. Hitoshi and Shouto actually pouted when Hizashi also signed the papers beside his signature. Only Eri getting confused over the definition of unofficial. Hizashi and he laid down soft blankets and pillows on the floor to cover the cold wooden tile for the kids to sleep. There was no way he would let any of them came home in 3.09 a.m. When the last awaken student, Tokoyami had asleep, he turned the light off. Eri had been placed on her bed before both boys went back to their friends pile of sleeping bodies and slept in the empty spaces. Hizashi came up beside him and smiled at them. Then he gently lead Shouta to their bedroom where he handed a big box. Shouta didn't hesitate to open it and gasped in surprise when he found a yellow hygger, a sleeping bag with arms and legs. Shouta hugged his husband of 7 years, murmuring a soft thank you in his ear. Hizashi replied with an equally soft 'welcome'. Then they both arranged themselves to cuddle together and slept soundly.

  In the morning they found the flower candle was still singing in broken tunes, probably because the battery was almost drained. Shouta let Shouto burnt it into crisp.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Summer 2019

Hey, look who finished the season perfectly on time, even if he did so by dropping a bunch of stuff last minute! (Technically, as of writing, I haven’t finished Re:Stage Dream Days, but you can rest assured that it’s bad.)

I thought I was going to do a first impressions rundown video for the entire season at once, since my impression posts don’t tend to get a lot of engagement anyway, but since I didn’t end up going through with it, I’ll summarize my point - summer started strong, and even here at the end, I can easily say it’s the best season thus far in what’s largely been a letdown year for seasonal anime (and a god damn renaissance for long shows, thanks to My Hero Academia, so if I seem down on a season that had Dororo, or Vinland Saga, or Fruits Basket, remember that I exclude those shows from my considerations until the end of the year).

This season saw several high-profile continuations like A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon II, and Symphogear XV, but also new works by creators like Mari Okada, and anticipated adaptations of Astra: Lost in Space and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and in the end, well...a lot of those were mixed bags at best, but the biggest drawback I will remember Summer 2019 for is that it was drowning in bad isekai shows. The aforementioned Arifureta, the basically-counts Danmachi, and also Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, The Lost Ones, Demon Lord Retry!...it just never ended, and that’s not even counting If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. 

Speaking of all that stuff, let’s get right into it, yeah?

28 shows were simulcast this season, and of those, I…

Skipped 4:

Yami Shibai 7, Starmyu Season 3, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note were all skipped because I have not watched the previous series.

Dropped 15:

Worst of the Season: If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord!

I dropped this after one episode because I found the aesthetic and tone to be aggressively boring and I found even the cute daugheroo character to be utterly generic in execution...and then later found out oh boy was I right to drop it, based on how many people compared it to the Bunny Drop manga that we don’t talk about. *shudders*

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest

Wins the “biggest tryhard” award for being just the most straightforward an SAO award gets, right up to being grimdark for dumb reasons. The first episode alone had inconsistent animation, and that just did not bode well for the future...and the plot instantly reminded me of Slime, which soured on me over time. I let this one go sour after one shot.

Demon Lord, Retry!

The blandest of beige this season, Demon Lord had neither the story nor the production values to reel me in or convince me it was anything but the Overlord wannabe it so clearly was.

Isekai Cheat Magician

This show was a pretty transparent attempt to have an isekai story with a childhood friend romance plot, and while I’m fine with one and a half of those things, it couldn’t execute them in any decent way by the end of the first episode, and just wound up being largely boring.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Speaking of boring, what if Nichijou wasn’t funny? You’d get something like this.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

So the tone this one ultimately ended up having was pretty much exactly what I expected after the premiere - it leaned too hard on jokes that weren’t as funny as it thought they were, and too hard on the dumb hentai mom trope, and neither of those things interested me in the slightest. Pretty okay with having left this off the watchlist.

The Ones Within

I have stated multiple times in the last few weeks that Symphogear is great because it can convince you that it’s a work of genius. The Ones Within has, unfortunately, convinced itself that it’s deep social commentary of some kind, rather than a bargain-bin Danganronpa with no real thought put into it.

Are You Lost?

I’m amazed that we got another Eromanga Sensei this season and it flew entirely under the radar. For God’s sake, the first episode featured a young teenage girl eating a bug and drinking her own urine. I just didn’t see myself being particularly entertained by the shock value longer than the premiere.

Ensemble Stars (4/10)

I can’t tell if this one is actually over, but Funimation’s site doesn’t list any new episode premieres coming up, so I’m gonna assume it is? I gave this one a shot and hung onto it because it took UtaPri’s premise and gave it the slightly more serious tone I was looking for, but dropped it after the second episode started to drown us in side characters with no hint that the floodgates were closing, rather than giving ample screentime to a select cast so they could actually become at least two-dimensional before throwing in more people we’re supposed to care about.

BEM

BEM suffered from an unfortunate lack of distinct personality, which sucks when it seems to have had a decent story to tell. Nothing else about the show wound up sticking out to me, though, which has me fully convinced that Production I.G.’s name is only on this to boost recognition, and the second-billed LandQ studios did the majority of the work. And their best-known other show is Swordgai. So...

To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts (5/10)

I have gotten absolutely no pushback so far for my decision to tear into this show because it should have been a different show, so I’m gonna take that as a general agreement of my earlier statement. What a waste of a concept.

Cop Craft (5/10)

This one I still think I was not crazy to pick up after the first episode, because it wasn’t until the third that the animation tanked hard and the pacing went absolutely nuts, and apparently stayed that way. Did they write a thirty-nine-episode story that had to be condensed into twelve or something?

Magical Sempai

This one I probably would have kept watching if the majority of its humor wasn’t just the title character embarrassing herself in lewd ways. It was funny, but I didn’t see myself enjoying anything more than one episode of it.

GRANBELM (6/10)

This one I got halfway through before realizing that, during my end-of-season catchup, I had absolutely no desire to return to. The plot didn’t really start moving until the fifth episode, and in that time I had not gotten particularly invested in the characters, especially since the show makes fun of the viewer for thinking that the big mecha dream battles actually had stakes beyond “you don’t get to be The Thing”. At least it looked nice and the mecha designs were very original.

Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

There were four shows this season with questions for titles. Just saying! This one actually had me hooked right up until the end, revealing that not only is it a fanservice show, but a fetish pandering one. That being said, if I were attracted to women, I could have seen myself getting something out of it, what with the decently moody tone and good production values.

I put 2 On Hold:

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

I’ll probably come back to this when the third series comes around, just to give it one more chance to pull me back in, but ditching my favorite character for harem antics and character shilling just did not endear me to this long-awaited sequel.

Re:Stage Dream Days!!

This one’s not actually on hold, but I don’t have any other good place to mention it. This one I’m gonna make it through just on willpower, not because it’s good, but because it starts out as the most shameless rip-off I’ve ever seen in anime, specifically of Love Live!.

And I Finished 7:

Kochoki (5/10)

I thought I was gonna give this one a 7 at least, for nearly the whole season, for being a decently-told and somewhat new telling of Nobunaga’s early life with great production values for Studio Deen...right up until the structure fell completely apart at the end, almost completely out of nowhere. I’m still in awe of the gall this show had to literally skip over the final battle.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (8/10)

This one came right the fuck out of nowhere and totally blew my expectations out of the way from the very first episode. Looking at the summary, I was convinced I was gonna drop this after the premiere...and found myself totally hooked by its cheery visual presentation and excellent sense of meta-comedy, not to mention its genuine educational value.

Astra: Lost In Space (8/10)

One of two adaptations I was really looking forward to this season (along with Fire Force), Astra was pretty much what I expected - a very good translation of a very good manga that ran for the perfect amount of time to be divided into twelve-ish episodes. A fantastic and memorable cast of characters enhanced a surprisingly twisty story, and Lerche made it all look just as good as I’d hoped.

The Demon Girl Next Door (8/10)

Speaking of defying my expectations, another show I was expecting pretty much nothing from, maybe one I could compare to Gabriel Dropout or something, that was instead an incredibly charming story of a girl trying to save her family by defeating a magical girl...with a very, very loose definition of the word “defeat” in play. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this one, aside from maybe a sequel?

Given (9/10)

Speaking of “Lerche” and “gorgeous”, this profoundly gripping story of a spacecase and a loner hesitantly making music together blossomed further and further as it went on, and became my new go-to reference point for explicit gay relationships in anime. It went where even Yuri On Ice!!! couldn’t, and left me desperate for a Part Two.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season (9/10)

My write up for this show was one of my longest in recent memory, and I stand by it - even if Okada had to write a few plot contrivances in to get where she’s going, at least she presented her cast in an incredibly thoughtful way and gave them a satisfying payoff, with the knowledge that they’re teenagers and all of their problems can’t be solved in one semester. The high water mark for discussions of sexuality in this medium.

BEST OF THE SEASON: Symphogear XV (9/10)

Anime is wonderful, and so am I.

So that wraps up summer! We’ve got a lot to look forward to in fall, even if My Hero Academia and Food Wars’ fourth series will both ultimately end up on a list in the distant future next year. Will Psycho-Pass 3 redeem the series? Will Azur Lane be better than Kantai Collection? Will Beastars beat Aggretsuko as the biggest furry panderer of the year? Only time will tell. And then I’ll tell you all what I think it said.

[ua-miruko]

[8/6]

ua-miruko 2:30 PM

@ua-todoroki @ua-kaibara @ua-mar SUP LITTLE BITCHES you're mine now 🔥 🤪 🔥

ua-todoroki 2:30 PM

Oh.

ua-miruko 2:30 PM

YEP! OH!!

You're rollin' with TEAM MIRUKO NOW

Now we got a few objectives I wanna explain, but the most important one? KICK EVERYONE'S ASS

And when I say everyone, I MEAN

EVERYONE

... But especially Hawks' team

ALSO Endeavor's. I wanna run him into the groooound

ua-todoroki 2:33 PM

I can do that...

ua-miruko 2:36 PM

yeah, you better 😈

ua-todoroki 2:37 PM

:/...

ua-miruko 2:39 PM

oh, c'mon... you don't got more to say than that???

ua-todoroki 2:40 PM

Idk what to say.

It's good to be working with you.

ua-miruko 2:40 PM

good to be workin with you too! you were on of my requests so i'm glad the good ol gov was lookin out for once!! 😤😤

yer rly strong so i'mma be expecting a lot from you 👀

ua-todoroki 2:41 PM

Was I? Huh.

I'll do my best.

ua-miruko 2:43 PM

yeahyeah... didn't want anyone who'd hold me back and you almost won your festival way back when, yeah?

ua-todoroki 2:44 PM

Yeah.

ua-miruko 2:46 PM

yeah...

ua-kaibara 2:46 PM

Right..

ua-miruko 2:46 PM

aha! another one 👀 sup kid

you i don't know shit about lol

ua-kaibara 2:48 PM

Not surprising

ua-miruko 2:50 PM

tell me bout yerself?

what's ya quirk like

ua-kaibara 2:51 PM

I'm Kaibara Sen, one of UA's students but that's.. mostly obvious I think most of this program is UA students. My Quirk is Gyrate. I can basically just.. rotate my body parts like a drill. It's mostly useful for hand-to-hand but I wear metal gloves so I can use my hands as legitimate drills also..

ua-miruko 2:53 PM

🤔 interesting.....so yer a close combat kinda guy, yeah?

ua-kaibara 2:53 PM

Primarily, yeah

ua-miruko 2:53 PM

....you ever get flung through the air?

ua-kaibara 2:53 PM

Yes

ua-miruko 2:53 PM

EXCELLENT

ua-kaibara 2:53 PM

I am kind of scared to ask why

ua-miruko 2:54 PM

cuz im gonna fuckin fling you like a dart, that's why!!

ua-todoroki 2:54 PM

She'll probably do that to you.

Yeah.

ua-miruko 2:54 PM

listen, whatever ya gotta do to add more POWER to yer attacks, i expect ya to do

so, thermo?? you gon be doing a lot of flinging too

ua-todoroki 2:55 PM

I can help transport people with my ice, but it takes a bit of getting used to.

ua-miruko 2:55 PM

expect yall to practice that on your own, then!

ua-todoroki 2:55 PM

Yeah.

ua-miruko 2:56 PM

i do a lot of fighting and we'll be doin a lot of training together but i ain't gonna hold your hands the whole way

ua-kaibara 2:56 PM

I thought we were learning about heroics, not flying

ua-todoroki 2:56 PM

We'll need to be careful about how our quirks interact.

ua-kaibara 2:56 PM

...that's a joke

It didn't come off as one I don't think

ua-miruko 2:56 PM

....work on your humor, kid

ua-kaibara 2:56 PM

It'll be dry as ever by the end of this

ua-miruko 2:57 PM

you got a pretty huge shot, thermo, so our job will be makin sure to dodge yer shit....

nice nice

ua-todoroki 2:57 PM

Yeah.

You could also mess with my ice if you stomped the ground, I think. Shatter it.

ua-miruko 2:58 PM

oh fuck yeah.... 👀

ua-todoroki 2:58 PM

So we'll have to be careful about that.

ua-miruko 2:58 PM

nah i WANT that

that's a fuckin great combo

ua-todoroki 2:58 PM

Oh. Really?

ua-miruko 2:58 PM

stomp on your ice, send a whole STORM of ice shards out to kill EVERYONE

ua-todoroki 2:58 PM

I guess ice is sharp.

Huh.

ua-miruko 2:58 PM

we can call it SHATTER STORM

or somethin

HELL YEAH COMBOS

ua-todoroki 2:59 PM

I've never used it like that...

ua-miruko 2:59 PM

yeah!! you got a pretty basic way of using your quirk, i wanna force ya to do it in new fun ways

ua-todoroki 3:00 PM

Still. If I'm trying to capture a villain and you shatter all of it, we could lose them...

It'll be interesting.

ua-miruko 3:00 PM

yeahyeahyeah, we'll see what happens

ANYWAY

yall, we got a few days before we officially start but if ya got time, i wanna test you out a bit

spar with me 👀

ua-todoroki 3:01 PM

Sure.

When?

ua-miruko 3:01 PM

and everyone else too! expecting to fight you all before the week is done

whenever you're free! my schedules clear the next few days

ua-todoroki 3:01 PM

So is mine.

ua-miruko 3:02 PM

👀 awesome

ua-mar 3:09 PM

Wow! A high ranking hero! To think I finally see you in the flesh! I’m Alta Valentine of 2-B and it’s a pleasure and absolute honor to be here! 😸

Ahaaa, this is the first time a hero has called me such a name.......... BUT I PROMISE I WONT LET YOU DOWN 😤😤💪

ua-miruko 3:12 PM

damn, that's a name....yer a second year! interesting!

tell me yer quirk? ua-mar 3:15 PM

My quirk is called Marble! I can amplify the strength, endurance, and speed on anyone I leave contact on for 5 minutes! I can’t amplify their quirks however. But it’s great for long distances if we’re separated!

ua-miruko 3:16 PM

... No shit???

Holy fuck

ua-mar 3:16 PM

......but once I use it.....I get slower 😅

ua-miruko 3:16 PM

🤔 i see

imma need one of those baby backpacks for you then...

what's it like with multiple peeps?

ua-mar 3:16 PM

......baby backpacks😳?

ua-miruko 3:17 PM

yeah! i can just carry ya quick if ya get too slow!

ua-mar 3:18 PM

Oh.....if you say so 😅 

My limit is about 4 people

ua-miruko 3:19 PM

niceeeeee.....

ua-mar 3:20 PM

I hope I can be a great assistance to you all! 💪

ua-miruko 3:22 PM

im thinkin ya will!!!

hold up yall, suddenly we got a newcomer....

@s-inasa GET IN HERE

s-inasa 3:23 PM

IM SORRY MA'AM

IM TERRIBLY SORRY FOR MY TARDINESS

WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN

ua-miruko 3:23 PM

BETTER NOT OR I'LL KICK YA ASS

s-inasa 3:24 PM

YES MA'AM!

ua-miruko 3:25 PM

AWESOME

ua-todoroki 3:25 PM

Oh...

ua-miruko 3:29 PM

not rly familiar with you either so!! tell me bout yourself when yer ready!

we were talkin some preliminary quirk combo techniques and also discussing how we're gonna do some sparring before the week is through!

s-inasa 3:34 PM

IM YOARASHI INASA, MA'AM, FROM SHIKETSU HIGH!

MY QUIRK IS BEING ABLE TO CONTROL THE WIND! 

ID LOVE TO SPar..

Todoroki...!

ua-miruko 3:35 PM

THE WIND, HUH 👀

... yall know each other?

s-inasa 3:38 PM

We...do.

ua-todoroki 3:38 PM

Yeah.

Hi.

ua-miruko 3:38 PM

....uh? why yall so awkward all of a sudden lol

ua-todoroki 3:38 PM

:/...

ua-miruko 3:38 PM

yall got bad blood or something?

ua-todoroki 3:39 PM

It's kind of complicated.

s-inasa 3:39 PM

...very complicated.

ua-todoroki 3:39 PM

It's ok.

Hopefully this will help.

ua-miruko 3:39 PM

...right

listen, yall can talk it out if you want or leave it at the door but i'm telling yall now, i dont care for anything getting in the way of this lol

s-inasa 3:40 PM

It..wont interfere, ma'am!

ua-miruko 3:40 PM

better not 😌

cuz if it does yall are cleaning toilets instead

s-inasa 3:41 PM

NOTHING WILL GET IN THE WAY MA'AM!!

ua-miruko 3:43 PM

good to hear!!

OH SHIT so if you're a windy boy, that means... you can do a lot of flinging, huh 👀

s-inasa 3:44 PM

I can make anyone fly ma'am! And make tornadoes!

I control currents too!

ua-miruko 3:44 PM

PERFECT

aiight so torpedo, yer gonna be makin powerdrill fly a LOT

you'll be helping me get some air too, i bet 😤 NICE

s-inasa 3:46 PM

Anything you say ma'am!

ua-miruko 3:47 PM

nice........with enough air we can use that shit to break through  into any building, heh...

oh FUCK YEAH we gon do some DAMAGE

ua-todoroki 3:49 PM

We can also combine our quirks well.

ua-miruko 3:50 PM

yeah!!!

want as many combos as we can get in here!

make sure each of ya practice with the power up princess too, s'gonna feel weird

suddenly doin your thang with a big ol boost all of a sudden

ua-mar 3:51 PM

Wow! Everyone is so impressive! 😯

ILL TRY MY HARDEST MIRUKO 😤👍

ua-miruko 3:52 PM

💪 😤

ua-mar 4:07 PM

Oh! Miruko Sensei! Forgive me for asking this late, but what kind of training will you put us through?

ua-miruko 4:08 PM

eh...we'll see as we go along but it'll be the general shit... weight training, quirk training... might be a surprise but i do a lot of covert shit

so yall will get a nice lil crash course on that as well

get familiar with all the protocol of doin more public patrols versus shit like stake-outs

....LOTS of beating people up tho

arrests and shit!! it'll be exciting!

if you can keep up, heh

ua-mar 4:13 PM

Oh! I see! I was asking to see the difference in Japanese internships and American internships!! So we’ll cover the whole lot? That is exciting!

ua-miruko 4:13 PM

pretty much lol

ua-mar 4:13 PM

And I may be slow ,  but it’s too soon to be underestimating 😏

ua-miruko 4:14 PM

😤 good!

ua-miruko 9:16 PM

... OI nearly forgot

when yall stop by, go get yourselves situated with the staff, they'll get you all set up at the agency

give you ID cards and all the shits

those cards will give ya access to my agency whenever ya want!! you'll love it, i got a gym set up and EVERYTHING

so feel free to hang out whenever ya want 👀

ua-todoroki 9:22 PM

Oh... That's cool.

ua-miruko 9:22 PM

yeah!! got a fun lounge too, super fuckin tricked out

s-inasa 9:23 PM

A gym?? Great!

ua-mar 9:24 PM

Tricked out , huh? 😯🤔

ua-miruko 9:24 PM

i expect yall in there a bunch 👀

MHM.....got a TV and a bar and the works!!

.....yall cant go into the bar 😡😡😡

ua-mar 9:28 PM

Ack! Miruko Sensei! You can trust us that we won’t trespass into certain areas and focus on our main objective! 😅

ua-miruko 9:29 PM

yeah you better 😡 😤 listen i like a good party too, but we save partying for AFTER we beat the bad guy

s-inasa 9:29 PM

DOES THE BAR HAVE PROTEIN SHAKES

ua-miruko 9:31 PM

BITCH WHO DO YOU THINK I AM

OF COURSE

ua-mar 9:35 PM

So we can go near the bar, but only for protein drinks?

ua-miruko 9:35 PM

... YEAH!!!

s-inasa 9:35 PM

YEAH!

ua-mar 9:44 PM

Understood then! Protein drink are the only exception! If you don’t mind me asking, is there anything you recommend we work on specifically? Any skills that can be learned from you 🤔 ?

ua-miruko 9:46 PM

good question!! you're real perceptive, i like that 👀 

my style is more close-to-middle range... mostly like to brawl but my PUNCH is PACKIN and my KICK can send fuckers 'cross the country!!!!

so if there's ANYTHING SPECIFIC yall are learnin from me, it's how to kick the shit outta someone LOL

imma make the two of yall who are more used to long range attacks focus more on your bodies while the rest of you work on your OWN power... finding ways to make yourself larger, faster, STRONGER!

🤔  what's also important to me tho... is the environment and the advantages or disadvantages you'll be facing

withstanding the heat, the cold.... dealin with heights and the underground... it's all shit i deal with regularly

yall are probably gonna end up everywhere but underwater lol

ua-mar 9:55 PM

Hmmm. Intriguing. You are certainly strong and intense when it comes to an all out brawl. And I’m guessing you’re just as swift and agile making you quite the one not to provoke at all. With you’re ranking, your skills and experience must be incredibly well rounded and fluid 🤔 

I trust that you will indeed make us more stronger ☺️!

I only ask that you absolutely don’t hold back and don’t underestimate us! 💪

ua-miruko 10:06 PM

hold back? nahhhhhh...

the goal here is to have yall beggin for mercy... 😈

ua-mar 10:12 PM

Oh goodie!~ Well we hope to learn and apply the same 😇! Only from the best! Once again, it’s an honor that to intern with you Miruko Sensei ☺️!

ua-miruko 10:14 PM

you too, kid!

ua-todoroki 10:18 PM

Good luck with that.

[tsukiprotranslations]

[Translation] SOARA Drama CD Vol. 4 - Track 2 - Part 1

Here’s track 2 of SOARA’s 4th drama CD~! The actual track is 23+ minutes long so it’s cut into two parts again ^^ This track runs from minutes 0:00 to 15:04. Still quite long but, it was kinda difficult to actually cut it into parts XD

A special thank you to @ryuukia for sharing with me~!

※ Please don’t re-post the English translations without permission. Please like and re-blog instead of re-posting ^^

Under the cut, enjoy~!

Track 2: [～現在～今日も元気にレッスンです!] “~Present~ We’ll face our lessons excitedly today, too!”

[0:00]

  DANCE INSTRUCTOR (JUNYA): Alright! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…

JUNYA: Sora-kun, you’re a bit too fast.

JUNYA: Ren-kun, don’t look down. Look in front.

REN/SORA: Yes!

JUNYA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… (laughs) Nozomu-kun, that’s a great smile! Can you still do more?

NOZOMU: Yes! I can still do more~!

SORA: (tired) Nozomu-kun’s really lively, huh?

NOZOMU: Leave it to me! Being lively is my specialty!

NOZOMU: Spin here and then a killer pose!

NOZOMU: Yay~!

SOSHI: Sensei, looks like it’s okay to make Nozomu do 10 more of these.

NOZOMU: Are you a demon?! I might be lively but 10 times is too much!

MORI: Soshi, too… The fact that you can speak normally after this… You have a lot of energy, huh? (sighs)

SORA: (panting) Well, Mori’s more fit than I am…

REN: A-a-are you okay, Sora-senpai?

SORA: Ren-kun, the pretty boy at first glance is actually a kendo boy so obviously, you have a lot of stamina.

REN: Obviously, you say…

SORA: This is bad! At this rate, I’ll…! I feel like I’ll be the only one who’s super weak…!

JUNYA: Ah, no~ To me, Sora-kun seems super energetic!

JUNYA: Alright~! Let’s do one from the top again!

SOARA: EH?!!

JUNYA: Okay, that’s a great response~! I’ll be dancing with you in the next one so try to keep up.

JUNYA: Here we go! Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…

[02:00]

  SORA: (sighs) It’s over.

SORA: I overcame… a lot of things.

SOSHI: I think you mean that you did your best but I feel like that sounds like something else.

SOSHI: Hey Sora, don’t sleep on the floor.

SORA: But the floor’s cold and feels good!

MORI: I understand that but, you’ll get dirty, Sora.

MORI: Here, a towel. If you wash your face you’ll feel refreshed.

NOZOMU: Yep, yep~! Nozomu-kun will also wash his face, be sparkling clean, and be dripping with water~!

SOSHI: What a good puppy. (Soshi starts petting Nozomu) There, there, did you get all clean~?

NOZOMU: Woof, woof, woof—Hey, Soshi-paisen! When I said ‘dripping with water’ I meant like, the way hot guys do, not like dogs do!

(Nozomu spills water)

SORA: A-a-ah…! That’s cold! The water’s splashing!

REN: Ah, geez, Nozomu. Your hair’s dripping wet. (Ren wipes Nozomu’s hair with a towel)

NOZOMU: Ah, sorry, Sora, Ren.

REN: I wonder why even though you dried your face, you didn’t dry your hair.

NOZOMU: I wonder why, too~!

REN: You don’t know either? Ah, come on. You’re getting wet here, too.

NOZOMU: Eh, which? Where, where?

REN: Your nape. Give me the towel. If you don’t dry off properly, you’ll catch a cold.

NOZOMU: (laughs) That tickles!

REN: I’m not playing with you! Stay still!

NOZOMU: Y-yes…!

SOSHI: He really is a dog. I’m sure he is.

SOSHI: A big dog that’s a lot to deal with.

SORA: Yeah, I can tell. Nozomu’s a dog. A puppy.

MORI: Come now, you guys. Don’t treat your cute kohai like a dog.

MORI: Come on Sora, go wash your face, too.

SOSHI: Guess we have to take care of the clingy toy dog, too.

SORA: Who ya callin’ a clingy toy dog, hey!

SORA: I am a man who is a wolf at heart!

SOSHI: (with a sarcastic tone) Yeah, yeah, sure. A wolf. Got it. So cool~ (he pats Sora’s head) There, there, good boy~

SORA: Awoo~! Hey! Don’t come at me just ‘cause you’re tall!

MORI: That’s becoming common for Soshi now, huh?

[04:15]

  (water splashing)

SORA: (sighs) I feel so refreshed~ My body will be super sore tomorrow for sure. Ah, is it time to head back?

SORA: Ah, I was right on the mark. 6 PM.

SORA: Time to review “LIFE IS AMAZING”.

SORA: (breathes in) Finally, huh? (sighs)

SORA: It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m not alone this time.

SORA: It’s what everyone decided.

SORA: It’s a song that everyone agreed to and supported me with.

SORA: (sighs)

(Sora’s phone vibrates)

SORA: Hm? It’s from Wakatsuki-san. What’s it say?

SORA: “Everything’s all in place~!” (laughs) What’s with this sticker?

SORA: Wakatsuki-san’s really good at finding appropriate stickers. That calmed me down a little.

SORA: Let’s see… (Sora starts typing on his phone) Thank you for going out of your way to report to us…

NOZOMU: What? What are you looking at, Sora?

REN: Sora-senpai?

SORA: Uwah! You startled me… Nozomu and Ren?

REN: Sou-nii told me to go wring Nozomu’s hair.

SORA: His hair’s that wet? Geez, what were you doing?

NOZOMU: (laughs) It was wetter than I thought~

REN: You were checking your phone, Sora-senpai? Did something come from the agency?

SORA: Ah, yeah. Wakatsuki-san contacted me about our preview video.

SORA: The PV was supposed to be released at 6, right? SOARA’s RE:START Series. A song with all five of us after a while. For “LIFE IS AMAZING”

NOZOMU: Ah, I see! That was today, wasn’t it?

REN: Nozomu… It’s important so you should remember it…

NOZOMU: I knew the day but I couldn’t remember the exact time.

NOZOMU: Alright~! I’ll go retweet it to help advertise, too~! Ah…! I left my phone there.

SORA: I already did it~ Advertising’s important, right~?

REN: Yes. I’ll do it later, too. So, uh, senpai…

REN: How was the reaction…?

SORA: It looks like they’re saying “it’s amazing!” or “it’s cool!” That’s great, huh~

SORA: Well, there are also some so-so reactions.

REN: Ah… Is it a reaction that says something about how it’s different from usual?

SORA: Well, that’s right. I understand anyway~ They’re people who have been listening to our music since the beginning after all.

SORA: Compared to a solo or a duet, it’s easier to tell a unit song’s atmosphere.

REN/ NOZOMU: …

NOZOMU: You know, Sora? I really love our new song.

NOZOMU: All our songs before were good but this one is exceptionally good!

NOZOMU: Singing and performing it is super fun and it makes you excited! I wanna hurry and perform it live.

SORA: Nozomu…

REN: Me, too…! I love it too, senpai. “Life is Amazing” is a song that we can sing because of who we are now.

REN: The past me wouldn’t have been able to sing such a grand song. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to follow with all the challenging and powerful lyrics.

REN: No… Even more than that, I couldn’t imagine myself even singing back then.

REN: If I did sing, I’m sure that it would have been with a small voice.

REN: It’s not only because I lacked skill then but my feelings about it weren’t strong as well.

REN: This song is important to me because it’s proof of how much I’ve grown by being able to follow with such a strong song.

SORA: Ren…

SORA: Ah, um… Am I being comforted by you two? I wasn’t really…

SORA: I guess I was…

SORA: Yes, I’ll admit it. I was honestly curious about it. Also, a little bit scared. Like, a lot of things might happen again…

NOZOMU: Sora…

SORA: But, I know now.

SORA: Just like when I told everyone that I’ll be sharing my burdens, I challenged it while knowing the consequences.

SORA: I have to receive those results properly, too.

REN: Senpai…

[08:41]

  SORA: Hm, Sensei? You’re still dancing?

JUNYA: Ah, I just thought of starting the choreography for my next work.

JUNYA: Your lessons are already over so, rest assured.

JUNYA: Review the parts you had trouble with and try to work on it, okay?

SORA: Yessir~!

MORI: It’s already this late but you’re still working. Sensei, you had another lesson before ours, didn’t you?

JUNYA: Yeah, I did. Oh, by the way, those boys are from TsukiPro, too.

JUNYA: They were going to start filming a PV next month. They’ve started practicing the choreography for that.

JUNYA: It’s got a lot of steps so we had to start earlier.

SOSHI: From the same agency, huh… So that’s why I thought there was someone who looked familiar when we were arriving…

MORI: Eh? You greeted them when you weren’t aware?

MORI: I knew who they were.

MORI: You need to remember the faces of the people who work at the agency. It’s an important part of this job, too.

SOSHI: Ah, damn. I got lectured.

SORA: Yeah~ Sou got scolded~ I knew who they were, too~!

SOSHI: Shut it.

SOSHI: I entered the studio last so I really only got a glimpse of them.

MORI: Sou, that’s not an excuse.

SOSHI: Yes, I’m so sorry.

SORA: (laughs) He got scolded again.

SOSHI: You better remember this later.

JUNYA: I’ve been having lessons since this morning with a lot of TsukiPro artists.

JUNYA: TsukiPro is such a good agency to actually secure rehearsal times early, huh?

JUNYA: That kind of method is the best in the long run so I’m not regretting doing a lot.

MORI: You’re right. I think so, too.

MORI: Normally, we perform as a band and don’t really dance. But, during the joint live, we all had to do a dance.

MORI: That time, I thought that it was good that we did lessons beforehand.

NOZOMU: Ah~! You mean for “Dear Dreamer.”? When the song run was done, they sudden;y said, “okay, let’s start counting!” and they started adding choreography! That totally surprised me!

REN: Exactly. The other units followed easily as if it was a given.

REN: They do dances normally and they could remember the choreography easily. I was really panicking then.

SORA: Like SolidS’ Tsubasa-san and those three from Growth, right?!

SORA: I really panicked a lot then! The dance was only showed once and they could already dance most of it!

SORA: It made me think, “What are these people?!” y’know?

SOSHI: And then, the one who’s panicking and dancing desperately behind them was our Ohara Sora.

SORA: Shut up! Even I… knew that much!

REN: So you knew?

JUNYA: Well, remembering choreography is a talent but it’s also something that takes getting used to.

JUNYA: Dance is a fixed form to a point. But it can also be freestyle so I understand the feeling of not knowing what comes next.

NOZOMU: Oh~! Is that so?

JUNYA: It’s pretty simple but there’s really not much steps that are very showy, you know?

JUNYA: Plus, dance should be something that anyone can dance regardless of the costume they’re wearing, and skill level, when the music plays, right?

JUNYA: Today’s should’ve been adjusted to your level, though.

NOZOMU: Oh ye~ah! The choreography lesson today didn’t scare me so it must’ve been that.

SOSHI: Oh yeah. Whenever we go to rehearsals or to a venue, the production staff were dancing along at the end, too.

REN: The chorus is pretty lively after all.

JUNYA: I think it’s important for idols to have dances that are easy to remember even for normal people, rather for your fans.

JUNYA: If that happens, the song will be a big hit, too.

NOZOMU: And then we can go wild together during the live!

JUNYA: Exactly. That’s important, right?

NOZOMU: It totally is!  

JUNYA: That’s exactly why we choreographers do our best to make dances easy to copy but unique at the same time.

MORI: I knew it was obvious but, making choreography requires a lot of thinking too, huh?

MORI: We don’t really know much about dance so that was very useful to know.

JUNYA: I tend to talk a lot when it comes to dance, y’know~?

JUNYA: Like, for example. Even though they’re all idols, there’s a lot of difference between the choreography of idols from Japan and those that are K-Pop idols. There’s a lot of instances where they go all out with their dances that they’re pretty hard to copy.

JUNYA: A lot of those steps are kinda cool so I try to incorporate them sometimes, too.

MORI: I’ve seen those in videos, too. They all look like they’re professional dancers.

JUNYA: Yeah! Over there it seems like dancing is a must-have skill so if you try to debut as an idol there, the hurdles are definitely higher.

JUNYA: That sounds troublesome, doesn’t it?

MORI: Now I feel so glad that we’re a band in Japan.

JUNYA: You guys do a lot of work that are similar to idols but under the agency label, you’re “artists” aren’t you?

MORI: Yes. There’s never really been a division between those who do idol work and those who don’t.

MORI: But, the work we do receive is somewhat different.

MORI: There’s a possibility for us to actually do work like acting in dramas or stage plays but our main focus is music.

MORI: Though I think there would be opportunities and things that we want to do that would play to our strengths, too.

JUNYA: It’s wonderful that you want to do and your visions for the future won’t be imposed on you by the agency but rather something that you’ll be discussing together.

JUNYA: But I’m sure that there a lot that might not be easy to do.

MORI: It looks like it, yes.

MORI: It makes me so glad to have joined an agency where we could learn a lot about things like that.

JUNYA: (chuckles) I guess you could say that. TsukiPro is quite a large agency so I guess it’s flexible and kinda stable, too.

JUNYA: And so, everyone in SOARA, please relax and just make good music. I’ll be supporting you as a fan, too.

To be continued~

※ Please don’t re-post the English translations without permission. Please like and re-blog instead of re-posting ^^

If you like this, please consider buying me a ko-fi here to support my work. (o^▽^o)Thank you!!

[davidmann95]

What's your Marvel Starter Pack?

My Marvel knowledge isn’t nearly as extensive as what I have for DC, so this’ll be scaled back to 12 books from the 15 I had there (nevermind Superman and Batman’s own personal lists). Additionally, since Marvel’s even more about Right Now than DC, nothing here is earlier than the turn of the century; a lot of my older recommended reading is by my dad’s suggestion since he had plenty of firsthand experience with the Silver and Bronze ages. Also worth noting that my Marvel tastes don’t exactly fall in line with the general sensibilities of Tumblr or fandom at large - I’m not a big X-Men guy, for instance - so your results may vary. But anyway, again, if you’re following me but new to actually collecting comics and wondering what to look into to gauge your interests, I’ve got plenty for you.

1. Daredevil by Mark Waid

What it’s about: Blinded as a child pushing an old man out of the path of an oncoming truck transporting radioactive waste, Matt Murdock grew up to become a lawyer, encouraged by his pugilist father Battlin’ Jack Murdock not to rely on his fists as he had throughout life. But when Jack was murdered for refusing to throw a fight, Matt was forced to rely on the talents he had developed in secret under his sensei Stick - the same isotopes that took away his sight boosted his remaining four to superhuman levels, as well as granting him a 360° awareness of his surroundings he termed his ‘radar sense’ - to find justice for his father and those like him, becoming the vigilante Daredevil. Now, after a crimefighting career marked by agony, loss, and an increasingly deteriorating psyche, his identity has been unofficially exposed by the tabloid press…but attempting to turn around both his life and his mental health, Matt’s chosen to try and re-embrace the good in both his daytime career and in the thrill of his adventures as the Man Without Fear.

Why you should read it: Aside from being in my opinion the most influential superhero comic of the decade, Mark Waid’s tenure on Daredevil is the complete package of superhero comics. Energizing, gorgeous, accessible, character-driven, innovative, and bold, it’s a platonic ideal of Good Superhero Comics, and most especially Good Marvel Superhero Comics, and as such there’s little better place to start.

Further recommendations if you liked it: Shockingly, few modern Marvel titles seem to operate on a similar frequency to this run, even among those that clearly wouldn’t have existed without it; of those I don’t mention in one capacity or another below, the only modern books that leap out to me as being of a similar breed are Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee’s (the latter ending up the primary artist on Waid’s Daredevil) tragically cut short Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Dan Slott and Mike Allred’s Silver Surfer, and Al Ewing’s Contest of Champions. Given the classic mood it evokes, you might also be interested in some of Marvel’s older stuff in general - as probably most conveniently packaged in the Essential volumes - as well as the more recent Marvel Adventures line of all-ages titles. For hornhead himself, most of his classic work tends to operate in a pitch-black noir mood that much of Waid’s run is meant to contrast; if you want to delve into it, go to Frank Miller’s run (primarily Born Again), then Brian Bendis’s followed by Ed Brubaker’s and, following Waid, Chip Zdarsky’s (the Charles Soule run in the middle seems largely forgettable).

2. Marvels

What: Following the career of photojournalist Phil Sheldon - beginning in World War II with the rise of the likes of the Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America, and forward into the reemergence of superheroes with the Fantastic Four - Marvels shows what the battles that define a world look like to the helpless spectators, from the controversy surrounding mysterious vigilantes such as Spider-Man, the fear of the “mutant menace” represented by the X-Men, and the terror when the planet is first truly threatened at the hands of Galactus.

Why: As well as being one of Marvel’s best and most defining works period - this is Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’s coming out party as two of the most significant names in the genre, and it articulates Marvel’s avowed “it’s the world outside your window!” philosophy better than perhaps any other title - Marvel is ruled by history and continuity in a way DC isn’t. The latter may have reboots to contend with, but Marvel has a much more upfront and consistently significant timeline of what happened when and what’s important, and if you’re going to have to immerse yourself in that ridiculous lore, there’s no more fulfilling way of getting an injection of pure backstory than this.

Recommendations: There’s a follow-up by Busiek, Roger Stern and Jay Anacleto titled Marvels: Eye of the Camera; I haven’t read it yet myself, but given the pedigree involved I can’t imagine it’s anything less than entirely solid. For other Major Marvel Events, the defining one of the 21st century is Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Civil War, which set a tone that still reverberates through the line; also worth checking out the recent Marvel Legacy oneshot, which seems to be laying the groundwork for things to come. Speaking of setting a tone, while it’s not directly ‘relevant’ continuity-wise, Millar also worked with Bryan Hitch on Ultimates 1 & 2, which proved to be the aesthetic model for the current wave of Marvel movies and added plenty of ideas that have been extensively mined since. History of the Marvel Universe by Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez fits its title and is absolutely worth a library checkout, but is mainly a rote checklist elevated by all-timer artwork.

3. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Young Avengers

What: The heroes of the group once known as the ‘Young Avengers’ have gone their separate ways, each trying to figure things out on the cusp of adulthood. But when Wiccan’s attempt at helping his boyfriend goes horribly wrong - mixed in with a pint-sized god of mischief’s machinations, an interdimensional bruiser’s attempts at routing him, and non-Hawkguy Hawkeye’s extraterrestrial hookup - the gang’s forced back together again and on the run before old age literally swallows them whole.

Why: Here’s the bummer truth, daddy-o: I am not, in the common parlance, down with the hep cats, at least as far as gateway young-readers Marvel books go. I flipped through Runaways and wasn’t compelled to pick it up; I kept on with Ms. Marvel for a couple years but always on the edge of falling out of my monthly pile. Unless it’s truly next-level spectacular or heart-pouring-out sincere, gimme superfolks routing fiendish plots and going on trippy adventures any day over a bunch of sad kids in tights figuring out adolescence all over again: Spidey already did it first and better, and when emotionally-down-to-Earth superhero comics do get me fired up it’s usually set a little later on in life (even when I was the target audience for this sort of thing). But fire it through Gillen/McKelvie laser neon sexytime pop, and suddenly you’re in business. Slick, smart, raw, and wild, this was the best comic of 2013, and’ll certainly go down as one of the best superhero titles of this decade, Marvel as the Cool Kids of superherodom dialed up to 11.

Recommendations: Nothing else quite like this out there - the closest in feeling is Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones’ excellent original Marvel Boy miniseries, though that’s more about becoming a 20-something out in the world in the sense of wanting to burn it all down to the ground - but as I said, Runaways and Ms. Marvel do generally appeal to the same audience (and to be clear, I did like the latter just fine), as do the original Young Avengers run and Avengers Academy. Personally, I checked out and liked Avengers Arena, where all the fun teen heroes got forced into Hunger Gamsing each other on a murder island run by Arcade, followed up by them breaking bad in Avengers Undercover - please note that I’m like one of the three people on Earth who liked this book as opposed to ravenously despising it, which probably has in part do to with my lack of prior attachment to the characters involved. Also, important to note that this book is in the middle of a thematic Loki trilogy, preceded by Gillen’s Journey Into Mystery (which I haven’t read but don’t for a second doubt the quality of), and completed by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett’s truly magnificent Loki: Agent of Asgard; also worth noting that these books, and really modern Loki as a whole, are deeply rooted in Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic’s Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers. And for perfect entry books, I don’t think there’s much of anything better out there, especially for young readers, than Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, one of Marvel’s most consistently high-quality ongoings of the last several years.

4. Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon

What: Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, aka Hawkguy, is the Avenger who’s Just A Dude. No super-steroids and vita-rays, no magic hammer or Pym particles, a distinct lack of multi-billion dollar armor or immortality serum. Dude has a bow and arrow, and while he is very, very good with that bow and arrow, he still gets his ass kicked a frankly disproportionate amount relative to his teammates. Between meeting a dog, buying a car, and hanging out with friends - even if each incident goes significantly more wrong that they would for anyone other than Clint Barton, with non-Hawkguy Hawkeye Kate Bishop typically along for the ride - this is what he gets up to when he’s not helping save the world.

Why: Gonna show my heresy again: I’m not actually over the moon about Fraction/Aja’s Hawkeye past the first arc. But that first arc? Man oh man oh man, are they about as good as Marvel gets. This is absolute next-level storytelling on every front, with Aja and Pulido pulling out all the stops and Fraction - who by all accounts thinks more about the process of how comics work than anyone else in the field - just pouring heart and style all over the thing. It’s as tight and energetic as comics get, and the perfect introduction to Marvel’s street-level corner.

Recommendations: Aside from the rest of this run, there’s the recent Hawkeye (starring the non-Hawkguy Hawkeye Kate Bishop) by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero, and there’s a generous helping of Hawkguy in Ales Kot and Michael Walsh’s Secret Avengers, a book as tight and out-of-the-box and oddly joyous in its own way as this. If you’re looking for other Marvel material that gets this explicitly experimental and afield of the house style, go for Jim Steranko’s much-loved work with Nick Fury. And for the other, considerably grimmer side of the street, aside from the Daredevil stuff I mentioned above, check out anything and everything you can get your hands on from Garth Ennis’s work with the Punisher, along with Greg Rucka’s and Jason Aaron’s.

5. Moon Knight: From The Dead

EDIT: This list was written prior to allegations made against Warren Ellis. It’s your money, but while I’d still recommend checking the book out of the library - the quality of the work isn’t going to change now that it’s out there in the universe - if you’re looking to pad your bookshelf I might recommend skipping to some of the books suggested below in its place.

What: Marc Spector was a mercenary until the day he died, betrayed in the desert before an Egyptian temple by his comrades…and then he kept going. No one knows for sure whether the truth is what his doctors have to say - that sharing his head with the likes of Steven Grant and Jake Lockley is a manifestation of DID, and he’s a profoundly sick man - or his own interpretation - that his fragile human personality buckled and shattered before the immensity when dying by its temple, he bowed his head at death’s door to the moon god Khonshu and let it seize his soul. Whatever the truth, he now knows his purpose: to defend travelers by night from whatever horrors would cross their path.

Why: There’s no story as such to be told here; Ellis and Shalvey simply show six adventures over six issues that establish Moon Knight and the scope of what he’s capable of when handled properly, ranging from straightforward detective work to psychedelic journeys through a rotting dream to a jaw-dropping issue-long fight scene. Marvel has a proud history of material skewing slightly to the left of the rest of their output, tonally and conceptually, and this is your ideal gateway to Weird Marvel.

Recommendations: For the further adventures of Moon Knight, by recommendation would be Max Bemis and Jacen Burrows’ current volume, which is following up on the seeds Ellis and Shalvey laid down quite satisfactorily, with a few twists of their own on top. Ellis himself used Moon Knight before this in his run on Secret Avengers with a number of different artists, which was very much a precursor to his work above in its high-concept done-in-one style; also check out his book Nextwave with Stuart Immonen, which is as out there as it gets for Marvel and also the best comic ever. Delving into Marvel’s spooky side, if this did anything at all for you absolutely get all of Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s massively and rightfully acclaimed The Immortal Hulk (and if you’re looking for more something more traditional with the Green Goliath, Mark Waid’s The Indestructible Hulk is a hoot). If you really want to go to ground zero of Weird Marvel, you’re in the market for Steve Gerber’s work, primarily Defenders and his own creation Howard the Duck (who had another very entertaining via Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones recently worth checking out). Another notably out-there character worth checking out is She-Hulk, particularly in Dan Slott’s run and Charles Soule/Javier Pulido’s. Two more figures existing on Marvel’s weirder end are Doctor Strange - whose ‘classic’ work would as I understand it be Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner’s run, and who’s worth checking out more recently in Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin’s miniseries The Oath, Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo’s run, and Donny Cates and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s - and the Inhumans - while contemporary attempts to push them have been a failure, there have been excellent individual successes in Ellis, Gerardo Zaffino, and Roland Boschi’s Karnak, Al Ewing and company’s Royals, and Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward’s Black Bolt. And I’d be remiss in the extreme not to bring up Gabriel Walta and Tom King’s Vision, which I don’t want to give anything away of, but has a serious claim to being the best thing Marvel’s ever published.

6. Ultimate Spider-Man by Bendis & Bagley

What: When bitten by a genetically mutated spider Peter Parker thought he could use his newfound powers to make a quick buck, and come on, you already know this.

Why: This is the foundational modern Spider-Man. The first arc’s aged a little wonky in bits as Bendis was trying to make late-90s/early-00s Teen Slang work, but by and large, Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley’s original 111-issue tenure on Ultimate Spider-Man reimagining his early years was pound-for-pound one of Marvel’s all-time most engaging, exciting, dramatic, and authentic long-term runs. This is the template for every movie (especially Homecoming) and TV show he’s had in the last decade, a sizable part of what got me into comics in the first place, and one of the company’s most reliable perennials. You want to get onboard with maybe the most popular superhero in the world, you do it here.

Recommendations: With the remainder of the list I’m getting into more character/concept-specific reccs, and for other great Spider-Man, your best bet truly is the classic early material by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita as collected in the Essential volumes, which has aged unbelievably well compared to its contemporaries; Bendis’s post-Bagley material just doesn’t hold up, even with the introduction of fan-favorite Miles Morales. For other ‘classics’, your best bests are Spider-Man: Blue, and by my understanding the runs of Roger Stern and J.M. DeMatteis, particularly the latters’ Kraven’s Last Hunt. For the modern stuff, Chip Zdarksy’s current Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man is just getting better and better, I’ve heard very good things about Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, I personally enjoyed Mark Millar and (at his peak) JMS’s runs, and while most agree Dan Slott’s soon-concluding decade-long tenure on the character has outstayed its welcome, he’s also turned in some stone-cold classics like No One Dies and Spider-Man/Human Torch, as well as other entertaining work such as the original Renew Your Vows and Superior Spider-Man. Most recently, Chip Zdarsky’s work with the character in The Spectacular Spider-Man and the high-concept out-of-continuity miniseries Spider-Man: Life Story are some of Mr. Parker’s all-time best, while Tom Taylor’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is a charming relatively small-scale superhero adventure book, and Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man is easily the best possible introduction to that guy.

7. Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 1

What: Though Thor, the god of thunder and mighty Avenger, has faced limitless threats to even divine life and limb over his many millennia, only one figure has ever truly frightened him. Now, as he discovers a serial killer of deities is loose in the cosmos, he must turn to his past and future alike in order to survive the coming of the God-Butcher.

Why: The pick on this list most directly relevant to those coming in from the movies right now, I’m afraid that while a bit of this was plucked for Ragnarok, this isn’t remotely on the same wavelength. This is black metal death opera screamed through the megaphone of wild space-spanning superheroics, and not only is it the best Thor comic, it’s the perfect introduction to Marvel’s cosmic side.

Recommendations: Along with the Loki books I namechecked above, the defining run on Thor (though the rest of his continuing work there is also very much worth checking out) is Walter Simonson, which laid down a lot of the fundamentals of the character as he exists today; along with that and the rest of Aaron’s run, my understanding is that Lee/Kirby’s original run holds up very well. For more satisfying fight comics, I’d also suggest World War Hulk, and I hear Marvel’s early Conan comics were standouts. On the cosmic end, I know the Guardians of the Galaxy are where it’s at these days; they sprang to life in their current incarnation in the much-loved Annihilation, and while I haven’t been reading their current Gerry Duggan/Aaron Kuder run, it’s well-liked and probably a good place to drop on, as would be the recent Chip Zdarsky/Kris Anka Starlord, and I’d personally recommend Al Ewing and Adam Gorhan’s Rocket. Beyond them, Jonathan Hickman’s comics are where it’s really at, from his Fantastic Four to S.H.I.E.L.D. to Ultimates to Avengers/New Avengers to the big finale to his overarching story in Secret Wars; it’s a complicated reading order to figure out, but oh-so-worth it.

8. Iron Man: Extremis

What: Faced with the horrors of his amoral past and the questions of a future coming quicker than he can manage, Tony Stark faces his most dangerous enemy yet when experimental post-human body modification tech is let loose into the world and lands in the hands of a white supremacist terrorist cell.

Why: More than anything other than Robert Downey Jr. smirking and quipping, this story is the definitive model for the modern Iron Man, taking a C-lister most notable for dealing with alcoholism decades earlier and hanging out on the B-list team in the Avengers (at least until 2012), and redefining his personality, aesthetic, and role in the 21st century as a man who might be smart enough to save the world if he can ever pull together enough to somehow save himself from his own compromises and weaknesses. The road to this guy becoming a household name is paved here.

Recommendations: Prior to this, his biggest stories were Demon in a Bottle, showing his first reckoning with his alcohol abuse, and Denny O’Neil’s 40-issue run introducing Obadiah Stane and showing Stark’s darkest hour as he sinks completely into his illness. Post-Ellis, the big run is Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, which seizes both on the ideas here and the momentum granted by his Hollywood debut to cement his status as an A-lister; after that check out Kieron Gillen’s, which is not only a fun big-idea series in its own right but paves the way for Al Ewing’s spinoff Fatal Frontier, easily one of Iron Man’s best and most overlooked titles. Finally, while it was derided in its own time (that it was a spinoff of an event that turned him evil but the comic never especially explained the circumstances didn’t help), Superior Iron Man is also worth a look as a horrifying contrast to the rest of these.

9. Captain America: Man Out Of Time

What: A sickly young man who volunteered to participate in an experimental super-soldier program to serve his country in World War II, Steve Rogers became Captain America and protected the world from the Nazis with unimaginable courage and distinction, until the day he died disarming a drone plane rigged to blow aimed at America’s shores. He was honored throughout history…until the day he was found alive by the Avengers, frozen in the Atlantic and ready to emerge into the lights of the 21st century when needed most. Most people know that story. This is the story of what happened next.

Why: The search for the definitive statement on Captain America is one that’s driven his character for decades: after all, handling him doesn’t just mean talking about one man’s character, but the character of a nation. Successes are typically qualified, but one of the more successful creators in the pool is Mark Waid, who’s up to his fourth time at bat with Steve right now on the main book. His own most notable effort however is here, showing Rogers’ earliest days post-iceberg as he adjusts to living in what is to him the far-flung future, seeing the ways the nation has both surpassed his wildest dreams and fallen short of his humblest expectations, leaving him in the end to make the choice of whether this is truly the world he wants to defend.

Recommendations: As I mentioned, Waid’s had a few times up at bat with Captain America, and while he initial 90s stints might not be ideal for new readers for a number of reasons, his current run with frequent partner Chris Samnee is a solid crowdpleaser and a perfect place to jump onboard. Prior to that, worth checking out are Jim Steranko’s bizarre and transformative 3-issue run, Steve Englehart’s legendary Secret Empire (not the recent contentious Marvel event comic, to be clear), Ed Brubaker’s turn of the character towards grounded espionage, and his co-creator Jack Kirby’s bombastic, passionate 1970s tenure on the Captain. Currently, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run is quite solid. Regarding related characters, for the Winter Soldier I’d suggest Ales Kot and Marco Rudy’s unconventional cosmic thriller Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier; Black Widow had her own recent and excellent Mark Waid/Chris Samnee run, and I’d also recommend the one-shot Avengers Assemble 14AU by Al Ewing and Butch Guice, and issue #20 from Warren Ellis’s previously mentioned time on Secret Avengers; for Black Panther, his definitive runs are under Don McGregor and Christopher Priest, and I’d also note Jason Aaron and Jefte Palo’s Secret Invasion arc as showing T’Challa at his best.

10. Fantastic Four By Waid & Wieringo

What: Bathed in cosmic radiation on an ill-fated journey to the stars, Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm were transformed, and became the Fantastic Four, first family of an age of heroes! Now, years into their careers and with Reed and Sue’s young children in tow, they continue to explore new frontiers, whether battling a sentient equation gone mad, contending with an extradimensional roach infestation, or perhaps most perilous of all, Johnny trying to deal with getting a real job.

Why: Plenty consider the Fantastic Four one of Marvel’s most difficult groups to get right, but Waid and Wieringo nail the formula here as well as anyone ever has, just the right mix of high adventure and family dynamics to draw just about anyone in; this is as crowdpleasing as comics get and the perfect introduction to the best superhero team out there.

Recommendations: The FF’s another group where it’s worth going back to their earliest days of Lee and Kirby; while much of the writing’s aged awkwardly at best, they’re the absolute foundational comics of the entire universe and lay down concepts that are still getting use today throughout that universe. Past that initial run, John Byrne and Walter Simonson’s are among the best by reputation, as well as Jonathan Hickman’s as I discussed before (Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s is worth tracking down as well, especially since concepts there end up feeding directly into Hickman). For more outside-the-box material, Joe Casey and Chris Weston’s First Family is worth a look, as is Grant Morrison and Jae Lee’s 1234. And for the all-time best showing of bashful Benjamin J. Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, find Marvel Two-In-One Annual #7 to see him defend the entire planet in a boxing match at Madison Square Garden. And while the team’s sadly off the table at the moment, Thing and the Torch are returning in Chip Zdarsky and Jim Cheung’s new volume of Marvel Two-In-One as they set out to find their missing family.

11. Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing

What: When Thanos takes to the skies as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are off-planet, it’s a day unlike any other, as those left standing are forced to band together as the Mighty Avengers. And as the danger passes, the team remains, looking to truly work alongside those they protect rather than above them to make things better, even as forces conspire in the background to enslave them all.

Why: This title is something of a limitus test, in that it’s one where you’ll have to deal with it being constantly, infuriatingly forced to deal with crossover nonsense. It’s one of the big prices to pay for engaging with a larger universe, but the trade-off is that this is where Al Ewing gets set loose on the Marvel universe, drawing on every weird corner to pull together a run of genuine moral intent, note-perfect character work, and all-out adventure. This may be the ‘secondary’ team, but it’s as perfect as the Avengers have ever gotten.

Recommendations: The title itself is relaunched as Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, and as that ends but Ewing continues his time at Marvel, the characters and concepts end up divided among a number of titles: Contest of Champions, where a number of heroes are plucked from the timestream to duel for the power and amusement of the Grandmaster, New Avengers (later turned U.S.Avengers), where former X-Man Sunspot assembles a new team to act as a James Bond-ified international strike force, and Ultimates (later turned Ultimates2), where some of Earth’s most powerful and brilliant heroes band together to proactively defend against unimaginable cosmic threats; also try his mini-event Ultron Forever with Alan Davis sometime. Based on your response to numerous aspects of those titles, there’s a good chance you might be in the market for David Walker’s Luke Cage titles, Matt Fraction’s Defenders, and Jim Starlin’s cosmic 70s books such as Captain Marvel and Warlock (and make sure to read Nextwave at some point, Ewing actually follows up on that gonzo delight in some surprising ways here). For the ‘main’ team, aside from Hickman’s previously mentioned run - which while spectacular is pretty far afield of the usual tone - some suggestions might be Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s much-loved run, Roger Stern’s Under Siege, I have to imagine given the pedigree of the creators Earth’s Mightiest Heroes by Joe Casey and Scott Kolins, Brian Bendis’s extended ownership of the Avengers books, and The Kree-Skrull War.

12. Wolverine & The X-Men by Jason Aaron

What: Dwindled down to a few in a world that hates and fears them as much as ever, mutantkind has been split in two, with by-the-books Cyclops taking a hardline approach against oppression and feeling that the youth in the X-Men’s charge must be made ready to fight, while Wolverine has grown tired of throwing children into battle and has left to find a new way. Founding the Jean Gray School For Higher Learning, Logan’s found himself in the most unexpected role of all as a professor, fighting just has hard to keep the unimaginable high-tech academy and the hormonal super-powered student body in check as to fend off the supervillains inevitably sent their way.

Why: The X-Men aren’t exactly my forte, with a wobbly batting average at best over the years as the books devote at least as much effort to trying to juggle the continuity and soap opera demands as the actual sci-fi premise. There have been successes though, and few so geared towards new reader engagement as Wolverine & The X-Men, where Aaron strips the franchise down to the base essentials of a team living in a school for super-kids. It’s poppy, it’s weird, it’s touching, and it’s accessible. It’s the X-Men at its best.

Recommendations: The most direct predecessor to this run (aside from its actual lead-in miniseries X-Men: Schism, which is actually worth checking out) is Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, which takes the sci-fi aspects of the concept to the very limit in what I’m inclined to consider the best X-Men run, though it’s proven controversial over the years among longtime fans. The base of the team as it exists today is in Chris Clarmemont’s work, which I’m not wild about myself but has a few hits such as God Loves, Man Kills; if you’re looking for a modern update on the formula developed there, Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday is probably your ticket (and the follow-up run by Warren Ellis is a great weird paramilitary sci-fi book for a bit). Jonathan Hickman’s relaunch is a radicaly and brilliant departure paving a new way forward; it’s perhaps best experienced after a bit of ‘traditional’ X-Men to understand the scale of the contrast, but check that out as soon as possible. For classic material, I understand the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run was an early success, and Jeff Parker’s X-Men: First Class is by all accounts a charming look at the team’s earliest days. Jason Aaron’s work elsewhere on the X-Men proper was limited to the first 6 issues of the short-lived Amazing X-Men, but he had a very extended and successful tenure on Wolverine which would be my go-to recommendation for him; past that, Death of Wolverine actually satisfies, and All-New Wolverine starring his successor Laura Kinney was the best X-Men book on the stands for some time (writer Tom Taylor is also had a short-lived ‘proper’ X-book in X-Men: Red). As for the group’s many spin-offs, I’d suggest Rick Remender’s X-Force, Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Factor/X-Statix, and Joe Kelly and Ed McGuiness’s Spider-Man/Deadpool, which should serve as a decent introduction to the latter dude’s own oddball territory in the franchise along with the truly mad and utterly delightful You Are Deadpool.

[nintendoduo]

34 Cool WiiWare Games That Are Going Away FOREVER*

 *Unless Nintendo decides to sell them again when the Switch U 4DS VR comes out in 2025.

As you might have heard, starting next Monday Nintendo is taking away the ability to add funds to the Wii Shop, which will close down for good in early 2019. That means a whole bunch of great games won’t be able to be purchased anymore. In order to raise awareness of this, the most important issue of our times (after all the other issues), we spent the winter playing as many WiiWare games as we could over on our YouTube channel. Here’s a summary of the gems we encountered:

1. 3D Pixel Racing

A pretty challenging motion control racing game with Minecraft-esque graphics. Pro tip: use a regular old Wiimote, not a Wiimote Plus. Trust us, the Plus is too sensitive for this game and you’ll end up falling off the track every two seconds. Despite the difficulty, this one gets a recommendation because of the cool look and for giving us an excuse to use the Mario Kart Wii wheel again.

2. And Yet It Moves

Using the Wiimote’s gyroscope, this game has you move the world around you (rather than vice versa) to navigate the levels.  One of those “easy to learn, difficult to master” type of games that defined many of the best on the platform.

3. Bit.Trip Runner

Originally a WiiWare exclusive, although you can now play it on 3DS, PC, Mac, Linux, and probably some Japanese toilets. You run from left to right and jump, slide, kick and... jump again to the music. A tribute to the platforming classics that deservedly became a classic itself (and the sequel, available on Wii U, is even better).

4. BurgerTime: World Tour

You know, BurgerTime! If you don’t know, this is a good excuse to get acquainted with this ‘80s arcade title. Like in the original, you attempt to assemble giant hamburgers on a series of platforms whilst dodging humanoid food monsters, only this time the graphics are in 3D and it’s all happening in space, for some reason. NOTE: Ironically, this fast-food themed game can’t be bought in North America right now, only Europe.

5. Chrono Twins DX

Originally designed for the DS, the gimmick is that the main character is fighting enemies in two different time periods at once.  For the DS this used each screen for the different time zones, but with WiiWare you get a simple split-screen.  It’s quite unique and challenging as you’re basically playing two sidescrollers at once.

6. Contra Rebirth

Remember when dudes with rippling muscles and mullets got to be badass gunfighters and nobody complained they were toxic?  Contra sure does.  Konami gave “Rebirth” to three of their classic franchises on WiiWare (CastleVania and Gradius were the other two) but this was probably the best of the bunch.

7. Dracula: Undead Awakening

If you never get tired of mowing down undead enemies then this will scratch that itch.  Basically you get a bunch of different cool weapons and use them against a bunch of different cool monsters for as long as you wish, or at least as long as you survive.  The challenge is so high that even lasting ten minutes on your first playthrough has the game calling you “noob.”

8. Eduardo the Samurai Toaster

A simple run n’ gun game (think Metal Slug) starring a sentient toaster facing off against flying onions, spear-toting carrots, and what appears to be an army of angry playing cards. It’s not clear what the plot of the game is, and there’s not a whole lot of depth to the gameplay, but it’s still a fun way to waste an hour (or more, depending on the difficulty). It’s supposed to be even more fun with 4 players, if you can find three other Wii-loving weirdos.

9. Excitebike World Rally

Motorcycle races.  Simplicity works sometimes, and just like the original Excitebike this one proves it once more.  Just like the original you get a cool level creator, only this time you can share it with anyone and not just whoever you give your cartridge to.

10. Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition

Lots of different modes that still capture the appeal of the original arcade classic.  The overall look is kinda coked-up, which captures the ‘80s arcade scene reasonably well.

11. Frogger Returns

Only the one mode this time, but it serves as a reminder of the timeless quality and endearing appeal of the core gameplay.

12. Gnomz

A chaotic 4-player party game starring sock-obsessed gnomes. You go around a single screen collecting socks and stomping other players to kill them; it’s like life itself. (Or, as many have pointed out, like the Super Mario War fan game, but less illegal.) There are three modes and a variety of scenarios. Like with Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, the more players the better, but the single player mode ain’t bad (and that way, you don’t ruin any friendships).

13. Gyrostarr

A pseudo-3D shoot ‘em up where the main difficulty is that you can actually shoot the power ups away, and you kinda need those to finish the stages -- if you don’t collect enough energy, the portal at the end of the level closes on your face. The difficulty ramps up slowly but surely across 50 levels. Another difficulty is not getting an LSD flashback on those trippy bonus stages.

14. HoopWorld

A basketball/fighting game that makes surprisingly good use of the Wii’s motion controls. This definitely falls in the “easy to pick up, difficult to master” category, since there’s a pretty wide range of ball throws and kung-fu moves you can perform by shaking your Wiimote and nunchuck in different ways. Or you can just wave your arms randomly and hope you win. The game is currently unlisted in North America, which we’re hoping is a sign that they’re planning to re-release it in modern platforms (with online multiplayer, hopefully).

15. Horizon Riders

A futuristic on-rails shooting game that you play with the Wii balance board. If you have the Wii Zapper accessory, even better (and you’ll look even sillier), but it’s not necessary to play. You aim and shoot with your Wiimote while leaning on your balance board to move from side to side. Definitely a good reason to dig that thing out of your closet. Be warned, though, that the game crashed on us in the middle of a stage, as seen at the end of our gameplay video.

16. Jam City Rollergirls

Roller derby has never been as popular to watch as it is for people to randomly talk about every few years for the novelty, usually accompanied by a movie that flops at the box office.  The last time the mainstream tried to make this sport happen it resulted in this game, though, so there’s at least that.  You play as characters with hilarious names roller blading through others with random power-ups and combat moves.

17. Jett Rocket

It’s a lofty ambition to offer gamers something that will remind them of Super Mario Galaxy, and it might seem foolish to do so on an indie dev’s budget.  But Shin’en managed to deliver with an uncommon 3D platformer collectathon with good amounts of action sprinkled in.

18. LostWinds

When a developer approached a title with motion controls in mind, it always stood out more than other games that tried to crowbar motion controls into the scenery in the hopes of a shortcut to Wii success.  LostWinds is in the former camp, making you use the pointer to create gusts of wind to elevate the main character onto platforms and knock around enemies.  In fact it’d be more accurate to say you’re playing as the wind spirit rather than the story’s protagonist.  Fun game with a beautiful art style.

19. Maboshi's Arcade

Nintendo knows how to make simple games that present difficulty when you don’t expect it.  In the three modes of this puzzler you play as generic shapes but the controls are difficult to master.  It kind of has to be seen to be believed.

20. Magnetica Twist

A connect-three type of game where you fire marbles and stuff.  What ends up twisted the most are your wrists whilst trying to aim your shots with any sort of precision.

21. Max and the Magic Marker

There are plenty of side-scrolling platformers that use childhood visuals and hobbies to appeal to the player, and yet they never really get old do they?  In this one you use a marker via motion controls to create platforms and defeat enemies.  You also can go in and out of Max’s childhood drawings.

22. Monsteca Corral

This is a weird one.  A bunch of monsters vaguely shaped like Doshin the Giant are gathered together by an unseen god-ish alien to fight robots that said alien had created earlier, but they turned against him.  That’s the plot as we can best make out, anyways.  There’s also dinosaurs.  Recommended for those who like their fun to be completely unlike the other fun they’ve had with games.

23. Pearl Harbor Trilogy – 1941: Red Sun Rising

Old-school dogfighting in a new-school 3D game.  Well, it was new when it released.  Anyways you shoot down enemy planes, defend your base, attack naval fleets and get commendations you don’t deserve.  Sometimes you see the action from the POV of the bombs you drop, and it works much better here than in Michael Bay’s version of Pearl Harbor.

24. Pole's Big Adventure

Chindōchū!! Pole no Daibōken is bizarre Japan-only SEGA title made to parody the crappy platform games that came out during the 8-bit era. Despite being full of intentional design flaws, like power ups that kill you or background objects that suddenly cut your head off, the game is pretty easy -- until you unlock hard mode, where the boss fights are actually challenging. Still, you’ll be playing this one mostly to laugh at the dozens of Easter eggs.

25. PictureBook Games: Pop Up Pursuit

Not many board games made it to WiiWare, but this was easily the best.  It’s largely straightforward “run to the end of the board” contests, with plenty of opportunities to ruin friendships.  The art style is the main hook, looking like a pop-up book, like the title indicates.

26. Rage of the Gladiator

You fight for your life against larger-than-life mythological creatures, like ogres and minotaurs and senseis.  The game got compared frequently to Punch-Out!! and with good reason, but the combat is actually a more creative and the dialogue is more humorous.  A blast to play through the first time, and a blast to replay.

27. Snowpack Park

Unlike most of the games on this list, there’s no combat in this one and your blood pressure won’t ever raise.  There’s plenty to do but it’s fun stuff, mostly involving playing with penguins.  It works great as a sort of palette cleanser to the violent action-packed games primarily showcased in this list.

28. Sonic the Hedgehog 4

The 16-bit Sonic games still hold up today as all-time greats.  Sonic 4 didn’t live up to those expectations but it did get SEGA to think about their past a little more seriously, and helped lead to Sonic Mania.  Episode I is on WiiWare, but you’ll have to find Episode II elsewhere.

29. Space Invaders Get Even

Another sequel to another arcade classic, but with the novel twist of playing the game from the enemies’ point of view.  Word of warning: this is possibly the only WIiWare game that has DLC.  The initial purchase of 500 points will escalate up to 2′000 points if you’re enjoying yourself.

30. Star Soldier R

Top-down arcade-style shooter, and if you know the type you know the drill.  The amount of content is pretty bare-bones, as it’s basically just time attacks.  But the replayability is rewarding if you’re a fan of the genre.

31. Tetris Party

We hope you know Tetris.  This is a Tetris that has good multiplayer, interesting variants where you do things like create platforms for some guy to climb to the top of the screen or use the tetrinos to make exact shapes like that of an apple.  There’s also a balance board mode, and as stated earlier it’s good to have an excuse to pull out the balance board.

32. Vampire Crystals

Vampires used to live peacefully with zombies but now they don’t, and it becomes your problem.  Thankfully you get plenty of guns, some so powerful that you end up creating a bullet hell where you’re the one firing them rather than dodging them.  It looks simple but the game actually is quite tough.  It’s not Cuphead-level but you will fail many times over.  With plenty of content and being one of the last WiiWare releases, this title approached the platform’s fullest potential.

33. WarioWare DIY

What sets this apart from the 87 other WarioWare games? The fact that players could make their own minigames, leading to an avalanche of creative, insane, and even NSFW games. Unfortunately the servers are no longer online, but you can still find thousands of fan games online if you look hard enough. The included games are pretty fun too, and if you have the DS version, you can make your own and send them over to your Wii.

34. Zombie Panic in Wonderland

Shooting galleries are perfect for motion controls, but gamers don’t get as many as we deserve.  Thankfully this one helps rectify that, with an interesting story and cool comic-book art sequences that keep things moving between all the gunning down of zombies and various giant monsters.

[foureoreos]

Amending Fences

This is a short bruise fic I wrote that has to do with this post, my little bruise Headcanon ^^

I posted it on my FanFiction.Net account as well XD

I updated it a bit.

"Hi…" Jay said, standing in front of the lower steps to Sensei Yang's temple as he met eyes with someone he hadn't seen in a long long time.

His best friend was there before him, sitting on the third step.

His best friend that he hadn't seen in years.

What kept them apart?

"Hi," Cole said back, trying to avoid an uncomfortable silence.

It was Jay's idea to meet at the temple. He had called Cole up a couple days ago and asked him what he was up to. The former black ninja sounded bored and Jay suggested that they meet, Tuesday at 3:15 PM.

"Is this step taken?" Jay asked humorously, pointing at the empty space next to Cole. In response, Cole patted on the step, urging Jay to sit down.

Quite suddenly, Cole reached behind him and pulled out a blue object. As soon as Jay's eyes fell on it, he let out a gasp and hugged it close to his chest.

"Mr. Cuddlywumps? I've been looking for him for years!"

"You left it in your room the day I accidentally sliced him. I fixed him up and forgot to give him back, until now."

Jay bit the inside of his cheek before showing Cole a friendly smile, but it quickly fell into a crooked grin. He had meant for that to hide his awkwardness due to the silence falling between them once again. It just felt so… odd to be meeting someone again after years of not seeing one another - especially when that someone was someone you had a strong relationship with.

"Thanks. I owe you one."

"Don't mention it. What are friends for?"

At first, Jay's eyes just lit up when he heard those words leave Cole's mouth, but it was then he noticed the unease and doubt in Cole's voice.

"Yeah, what are friends for?" He rested Mr. Cuddlywumps on his lap and awed silently at how brand new he looked. Cole must've really taken the time to patch everything back together, Jay thought, examining every inch of the bear. Jay took in a deep breath and finally spoke, "So how's life been treating ya so far, huh?"

It had been dead silent for nearly five whole minutes, that Cole had forgotten where and what he was doing until Jay's voice snapped him back to reality. He swallowed and ran a hand through his hair, thinking.

"Boring and kinda lonely… Kai and I go downtown together sometimes, but that's basically it. No more bad guys, no more fighting."

Jay snickered at his friend's remark. "Well, technically there could still be the simple bad guys. Like thieves and speedsters - yeah, well, actually, I dunno if speedsters are considered bad people." He shrugged at his own words. "Doesn't matter anyways. What I mean is, there's always bad people in the world."

"Yeah, I gotcha," Cole said to him, chuckling a little.

He was glad that as Jay grew older, he was still as humorous as he remembered him to be. He missed the times like these, and he missed Jay. The blue comrade would always find a way to make his team laugh, and when Jay wasn't the one doing so, they would find a way to cheer him back up.

"How are things going with Nya?"

Jay cleared his throat and rewinded the question in his head. In all honesty, he had expected Cole to ask him that, and he thought through all the possible ways to answer, but now that it finally happened, he didn't know how to respond.

"Oh, Nya… right."

"Wait - that didn't sound… right. Did something happen?"

Jay looked to the ground, gathering his words. "Nya and I broke up."

Cole jerked up straighter and turned to him, a look of shock and confusion stricken on his face. "What? Why?"

"Fate just had other plans, I guess. It's not her fault, and it isn't mine either…"

"Oh, sorry bout that. It must've been tough. You two... Eh... You're relationship was a bit... Messy. Um, no offense." Cole bit his lip, regretting what he said.

Jay laughed and give a hearty shrug. "Yeah, no, I get it. It's true, but it was probably for the best. Besides, we control our own destinies, not those 'Cloud People' up in Cloud Kingdom. That made me a bit sad… knowing that my destiny was being written up there by someone else. But I mean, thank goodness that creep, Fenwick, is gone, right?" Jay laughed nervously and cleared his throat before continuing. "It's cool but it's weird." He leaned back and rested his elbows on the pavement, tilting his head at Cole.

"Hah, yeah, that was interesting. I think one of my most scariest memories was on the Day of the Departed."

"Which one? It's celebrated every year, Cole."

The dark haired rolled his eyes and nudged Jay ever so slightly. "You know which one."

"Is it the one where you told that story about escaping the rift? Oh wait, you tell that every year."

"Jay!"

"I'm just messing with ya! Of course I know which one you're talking about. Yeah, that was scary for me too."

Cole cocked his head. "How so?"

"After you disappeared into the rift, I thought I lost you." Jay's blue eyes flickered over the scar that ran along Cole's left side of the head. "Times have really changed, haven't they?" Jay muttered, this time hugging his legs.

"Yeah, they have."

"Why haven't - where were -" Cole noticed Jay's shoulders rise, and the former blue ninja bit his lip, trying to find his words. "We were so close and then we just… drifted away." He lifted a hand up and picked at his eye, quietly sniffling. "And now we're here - back at the place where you turned into a ghost, where you turned back into a human, and where we fought the Hands of Time."

He fixed himself in a position so that he was facing Cole. Jay drew in a shaky breath and finally said, "We've been apart for so long, I miss having you around as my friend… but Cole… have you ever seen me as more than a friend?"

"What do you mean?"

"You went away. Did you see me as something more… to you?"

Dark brown eyes met bright blue ones that demanded answers. Cole knew he couldn't hide anything from Jay. Not only would Jay know, but he probably already did guess that Cole had had feelings for him.

"Yes." And for a second, Cole thought he saw a smile flicker across Jay's face. "I did. But I didn't want my feelings to get in the way of what you had with Nya. You two were happy, and I couldn't take that away from you guys again. Especially you."

"And… that's why we slipped apart…" Jay put his hand to his head and shut his eyes. Cole sensed the pain and reached to put a hand on his shoulder in comfort. The former blue clad felt tears swelling up in his eyes and he quickly dragged his arm across his face, wiping the tears that were already falling.

Cole pulled Jay's arm away and lowered it on his lap, so that way, Cole could see his friend's face entirely. He lifted his hand beside Jay's reddened cheek and wiped a tear from under his right eye.

"Jay, you know I hate seeing you like this. Where's the smile from when we first met?" Cole wiped another tear, sadness overcoming him. "Show me, please?"

The ginger hiccuped and he opened his eyes, glancing back at Cole. There his best friend sat, with hope filled eyes, practically pleading for Jay to show at least one bright and friendly smile. Jay felt his lips tug up into a gentle smile and Cole returned the gaze.

"I should've known something was up once I saw how far apart we were becoming," Jay croaked, his voice heavy with regret.

"Jay, I wasn't expecting you to know all that. I just wanted you to be happy."

"But how can I be happy, if you weren't there?"

It was as if the world around Cole had stopped moving and everything had disappeared, because now, the only thing Cole could see, was Jay - looking as miserable as ever and the tears all gone and dried up.

"There's more to this whole meeting isn't there, Jay? What did you come here for?"

"I came here to do this-" Jay pulled Cole into an embrace as his arms snaked around Cole's back. The former black ninja's eyes grew large and he nearly melted into the hug right then. A smile crept up Jay's face when he felt Cole bring his hands up and lock themselves behind Jay's back.

Oh, how he could stay in this position forever, as long as it meant he got to be right here by his friend's side.

"I don't know if you still have feelings for me… but I know I do." Jay whispered into Cole's ear. "And I don't want you to leave again, ever." The hug tightened and Cole could feel Jay's heart beating faster.

Cole chuckled softly, pulling apart so that he could gaze into those electric blue eyes he always loved. "Well, lucky for you, I don't think they have gone away," He said to Jay. "Jay, can I ask you something?"

Jay nodded slowly.

"When did you start feeling this way about me?"

Jay's face reddened and he shrunk back, rubbing the back of his neck in uncertainty. "I'm, um, I'm not sure actually. After Nya and I broke up, I had some time to think for myself and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed was there before…"

"Well, it doesn't matter, anyways…" Cole took Jay's hands into his. "I'm glad you wanted to meet up again. It's been a while."

"Does that - does this mean you want to start something? Between us?"

"I'm willing to give it a chance, but first, do you want to start being friends again?"

Jay's eyes fell on their linked fingers and he smiled warmly, a light blush dusting his cheeks. "Yeah, I like that idea."

"How bout some ice cream when we get back to Ninjago City?" Cole asked, lightening the mod a bit.

"I'd love that."

[ansatsu-database]

E-26 Yoshida Taisei - Character Profile

Howdie folks. Yes, it's been ages since my last Profile, or post for that matter, but when work gets more and more hectic, especially if your project is a bottomless pit of dysfunction and staff leave the team you're on, it really drains enthusiasm away from some of one's hobbies. Anyway, like with Muramatsu, I liked how Matsui fleshed out Yoshida as the resident mechanic, and the way he synchronises with some of his other classmates too. Also, please note the different disclaimer from usual for the remaining 3 Profiles

The Baidu forumer from before hadn't posted any profiles beyond Yada's, so this time, main credits for scans of Yoshida's profile go to young-il-long-kiyoshi Screenshots of Yoshida's profile are in the following link:

Yoshida's profile

Furthermore, this time it's a direct Japanese -> English translation by me, but nonetheless, while I have endeavoured to keep things as accurate as possible, not everything may be successfully conveyed across

E-26 Yoshida Taisei (吉田 大成) – risking his life for his comrades, Class E’s shocktrooper

“You can blow away anything you don’t like with speed!!"

Description

A muscle head who likes to rush in, think later. As someone who is greatly considerate of his friends and comrades, he is willing to rely on students outside of the Terasaka Group as well.

A lover of bikes. While he’s certainly never rode on public roads, as a result of polishing his skills on premise (of his family shop), his riding technique can put professionals to shame.

He and Muramatsu are practically harmonised. No matter how difficult the situation gets, it is their creed to tackle it vigorously.

Code Name: Homebase (ホームベース), Sugino’s idea

This is probably a symptom of his occupation (as a baseball player), but every time he sees Yoshida he feels like he wants to step on him. Not out of anger or for any particular reason of course.

(TN: for those how hadn’t noticed it before, yours truly included, the contours of Yoshida’s face resemble a home plate from a baseball field)

Birthday: August 19th

Height: 173cm

Weight: 63kg

Blood Type: O

Favourite Subject: Technology

Worst Subject: English

Interests and special skills: Tinkering vehicles in general

Past Club: Railroad Research Society

Treasured Item(s): a Suzuki GSX 1300R Hayabusa (not yet taken onto public roads yet)

Favourite Food: Monster Energy (the drink)

Bento or Snacks: Snacks

Election Headline (from the 1st Popularity Poll): Kamikaze Striker Taisei

(TN: The phrase here, 特攻の大成, is a reference to Saki Hiroto’s work Legend of the Gale: Kamikaze Striker Taku, a Bosozoku/Yankee-themed manga that was serialised from 1991 to 1997 in Weekly Shonen Magazine, filled with lots of motorcycles too)

From Korosensei, Announcement of Results from the Periodic Exams (Main 5 subjects) (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

In a word, his art and technology grades are magnificent! The embodiment of "what one likes, one will do well". Maths is useful when tinkering with bikes as well, so let's do our best together!

1st Trimester Mid-Terms: 265 points (140th place)

1st Trimester End-of-Terms: 347 points (89th place)

2nd Trimester Mid-Terms: 325 points (111st place)

Score breakdown

Show

1st Trimester Mid-Terms English: 43 points (147th place) Japanese: 55 points (161st place) Maths: 49 points (153rd place) Science: 60 points (80th place) Social Studies: 58 points (117th place) Composite Score: 265 points (140th place)

1st Trimester End-of-Terms English: 62 points (99th place) Japanese: 72 points (100th place) Maths: 64 points (100th place) Science: 76 points (32nd place) Social Studies: 73 points (58th place) Composite Score: 347 points (89th place)

2nd Trimester Mid-Terms English: 62 points (100th place) Japanese: 70 points (124th place) Maths: 63 points (105th place) Science: 65 points (63rd place) Social Studies: 65 points (90th place) Composite Score: 325 points (111st place)

Karasuma’s Assassination Aptitude (graded on a scale of 6)

Karasuma is captivated by Yoshida’s close combat style, the way he leverages his blessed physique like a human bullet. It appears his training has helped him excel at being alert of his surroundings, to the point that he can perceive the moments right before he touches his back from behind and the likes. He looks forward to his progress.

- His tackles that make full use of his body’s strengths are effective even against sturdy foreign opponents - During the Cops and Robbers game, Yoshida was able to sense Karasuma’s presence, when many students failed to do the same until he touched them. Is he an esper!?

Strategy/Planning: 2

Commanding/Leadership: 2

Execution (Ability to carry out plans): 5

Technique (Traps, weapons, preparations, etc): 5

Scouting/Intelligence Gathering: 3

Politics/Negotiations: 2

B*tch-sensei’s Fashion Check (credits to young-il-long-kiyoshi)

Seriously, he gives the vibe of a no-good middle school brat. Still, the way his fashion sense matches up with his age and stature isn't bad at all, right? From here onwards, as he becomes more and more experienced with the world, I expect that his tastes will continue to refine themselves.

School Uniform

Yoshida also does without a necktie. At 15 years old, he's probably at an age where he's not going to steal bikes nor want to tie somebody up.

(TN: Matsui is probably just jesting here)

Street Clothes

The only one within the Terasaka Group to dress himself smartly. Like with bike customs, clothes are a source of worry for what to spend his money on.

Character Relationships

- Nakamura Rio (addressed as Nakamura) -

The former delinquent Nakamura displays an interest in bikes to Yoshida simply because it looks refreshing, no ill intentions whatsoever. When Terasaka wrecked the bike that Korosensei had poured his heart into, both Yoshida and Nakamura criticised him. Nakamura often badgers him to "give me a ride!", but in truth Yoshida is feeling embarrassed, possibly due to the thought of going for a ride with a girl sitting behind his back.

- Kanzaki Yukiko (addressed as Kanzaki) -

The Terasaka Group usually carry an arrogant air around them, but in Yoshida’s case, it’s only when he turns to the seat on his left (ie Kanzaki’s desk) that his expression softens up.

- Hazama Kirara (addressed as Hazama) -

Hazama notices that Yoshida softens around Kanzaki, wearing a broad grin as she watches him from behind (she’s seated to his bottom-left). She’s sensitive when it comes to people’s feelings, and is secretly amused at the framework of relationships within the classroom.

- Mimura Kouki (addressed as Mimura) -

At first he made fun of his air guitar, but after watching a performance in secret and seeing his overflowing fearlessness, as well as his immeasurable passion and energy, his gaze towards him has turned into one of respect.

- Takebayashi Koutarou (addressed as Takebayashi) -

From the case of the maid café, Yoshida thought Takebayashi was inadvertently amazing for creating such a weakness out of Terasaka, and frankly he feels he’s stronger than anyone else in the class.

- Sugaya Sousuke (addressed as Sugaya) -

Every day Yoshida solicits Sugaya, asking him that when he inherits his bike shop someday, whether he can count on him to handle the painting for his customs.

- Horibe Itona (addressed as Itona) -

They’re the Class E technology squad. Yoshida handles the structure side of things, and with Itona being in charge of the circuitry, in most cases the results are compatible. Their teamwork are also superb.

Matsui-sensei’s Exclusive Behind the Scenes Data

Yoshida got to know his partners in crime Terasaka and Muramatsu in their first and second years of middle school respectively. Together with Muramatsu, their roles are often to rush in straight ahead but get hurt in the process. However, their courage to do such things comes from their understanding of each other's toughness and from sizing up their opponents' strength. The suicidal operations that they conducted under this courage never fails to earn the class' gratitude.

The three of them have an inseparable relationship that can't be broken even if they tried. The teamwork between the Terasaka Group is something that everyone acknowledges.

He's been making plans with Muramatsu on a ramen shop where you can see bikes, possibly even serving food on them. (TN: I'm really unsure about this last part)

Yoshida firmly focuses on his future with a sense of excitement. His fellowship with Muramatsu is probably going to be something that'll last a lifetime.

[akagamiproject]

Translator: Asahina 

Proofreader: Yuki-chan

Read along with Japanese raw scans here, and/or Chinese cleaned scans here.

A single slash ( / ) symbol means that the dialogue is from another bubble that is still visibly associated to the previous one. Double slashes ( // ) mean that some dialogue is from bubbles completely detached from the previous one, but are still being spoken by the same character. The asterisk ( * ) symbol are for non-auditory or auditory onomatopoeia. Brackets (  [ ]  ) are for the small text that floats around the characters or bubbles. The italicized text is for a character's thoughts. “SFX” basically refers to an action that any character(s) demonstrate. “T/N” are the translator's/proofreader's translation notes so you can understand it better. Any words within parentheses ( ) are mostly any side comments that the proofreader has in addition to the translations.

Page 1

Text: Chapter 1

Page 2

Raji: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, // Who is the girl with the beauty that can captivate everyone’s eyes in this country? / Who is the most appropriate to be my new concubine?

(Way to bring out the creepy vibe on someone no one knows, Akiduki Sorata-sensei.)

Informant: I am not a mirror, Prince Raji. I’m an informer. the informer of the town.

Raji: Shut up!! / You tell me what you see, so “Mirror” suits you well!

[You really can’t read my mood!]

Informant: Okay...well, then. / There is a young girl that I think might suit your taste. // She was born with extremely rare... and beautiful / apple-red hair. her name is Shirayuki*.

T/N: *Literally means “Snow White” in Japanese.

Page 3

Big Text: Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

Text in lower right-hand corner: Chapter 2

Page 4

Shirayuki: What a joke. // No way... A street girl like me being picked as the Prince's concubine because of my hair colour. // I will shame the prince.

Guard: The prince has taken a liking for you, so nothing else matters. / Anyway, you will be formally received at the castle in three days, so dress yourself up. // I will excuse myself for today, then, Shirayuki-dono.

[Nothing else matters, huh...?]

Shirayuki: ...Can’t go against him, huh? / Even though he’s well-known for being stupid, he’s still a prince...

*stand up*

Shirayuki: —There’s no helping it.

[That path that I walk on]

*snip*

[is, so to speak, my own story.]

Page 5

*plop*

Shirayuki: I will leave this country.

Box: I cannot draw with someone else’s brush.

Shirayuki: Ah—... / I should have rested before I entered the forest after all.

[Rustle]

SFX: much / much

Shirayuki: ! // There’s no light. // Excuse me! Is someone in there—?! // ...A vacant house?

[I guess I can’t... just enter.]

Shirayuki: I’ll call it a day...

[Zzz-]

Page 6

[Chirp / Chirp]

Zen: It would be great if this house was a stable, huh? // If something happens, we can run immediately if we have horses.

Mitsuhide: Why don’t you make one as you like? / No one would enter this forest beside the highway, though. / All right,

[You are so cold, jeez-]

*rustle*

SFX: Stuck

Zen: ?!

SFX: Thud

Mitsuhide: ?! / ZEN?!

Akiduki Sorata's Corner:

Box: Introduction

Hello. I’m Akiduki Sorata. Nice to meet you.

You are now reading the first volume of “Akagami no Shirayuki-hime.”

This is my first work. Thanks for reading it!

--BELOW BORDER--

Akiduki Sorata (pen name)

Grew up in Aichi Prefecture reading manga.

Born in March, with blood type AB.

Has made it a rule not to turn on the air-conditioning while watching high school baseball in the summer.

Sometimes.

Page 7

Zen: …!

*shake / shake*

*appears*

Mitsuhide: Aah! Are you okay, Zen?! Did you twist your wrist?! You didn’t hit your head, did you?! // What’s one plus one?!

Zen: Two. / Oh, who are you again?

Mitsuhide: !! / I’m Mitsuhide!

Kiki: Aah! So that’s your name!

(LOL, way to add insult to the injury, Kiki!)

Mitsuhide: What? Even you, too, Kiki?! Don’t tease me like that—

Zen: —So,

*gulp*

Zen: who are you really? // Just what are you doing in this deep part of the forest?

Shirayuki: No, I... Um, I just left home. / I just wanted to go through the path that not many people walked—

*Cha*

Shirayuki: !

*Woosh*

Page 8

*Rustle*

Everyone: !!

Shirayuki: Ah.

Zen: ...You have a strange hair colour, huh?

(You take off a girl's hood with the hilt of your sword and that's all you have to say afterwards? An apology would be nice!)

Shirayuki: That’s right. I’m often told that. // Crap...

Shirayuki: A-Anyway, you hurt your right arm when you fell down just now, right? Zen: ...What is that?

(Common manners. Care to learn about them?)

Shirayuki: I’m a pharmacist, / so I have compress medicine and stuff like that. / [Just go ahead.]

*rustle*

Zen: Medicine? // Hmm. // I don't need those.

Page 9

Zen: As if I can use something that is suddenly offered to me, which I’m not yet sure if it’s poison or not! // I’m not a stupid kid in the forest. / I can’t trust strangers so easily. // In other words, we have no need for you here. // If you understand that, go away.

Shirayuki: … // Well... he’s right. / But... // There are so many people ordering me around. // I’m fed up with this...

*clang*

[Oh?]

Zen: You want to fight me?

*AHWCK*

Zen: ?!

Shirayuki: …!

[Hurts more than she thought it would.]

Page 10

*spread / spread*

Zen: …

*plop*

Shirayuki: —I’m sorry, but // it’s not my hobby to carry poisons around with me.

*drop*

Mitsuhide: A Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! // She got you, Zen!

[Eh?}

[Ku...]

[Kuku*...]

T/N: *Kukuku literally translates to “Hehehe.” It’s meant to be a snicker.

Page 11

Zen: Ha—... / Sorry, then. // I'm counting on you. // It was half your fault to begin with that I screwed up when I landed. // Take responsibility. // You’ll take care of me until my pain goes away, right?

SFX: grabs

Zen: This is just a vacant house where we hang around. / You can stay here however long you want. // Right, Kiki? Mitsuhide?

Mitsuhide: That’s right, but... don’t decide things on your own.

Zen: Okay?

Page 12

[Responsibility...]

Kiki: For now, let's go inside.

Box: After the palace / is the forest...

Shirayuki: Like I said! / Even if I tell you the reason I left home, you wouldn’t find it interesting, Zen.

Zen: Like I said—it’s not interesting if you don’t tell me, Shirayuki. // Don’t be so cold like that. / see, our bandages are also friends.

[Haha, they match, see?]

Zen: … // Come on, smile.

Page 13

Shirayuki: Kiki-san, Mitsuhide-san! / I’m going for a small walk.

*Smile*

[Okay, okay...]

Zen: You only like those two...

(Maybe it's because they didn't tell her she wasn't needed or expose her hair with a sword? Just a thought.)

Shirayuki: —So why did you follow me, Zen?

Zen: It would be a disgrace for a gentleman, like me, to let a girl, who is hurt, wander around the forest alone, / Even though you are so unkind to me.

[Ha—...]

Shirayuki: I study medicinal plants, so I’m already used to mountains and forests. I’m fine.

*tighten*

Zen: Hmm.

Shirayuki: The forest is different from the town. Time and space have their own flow. / It’s also comfortable here.

Zen: Yeah. / I know that.

Page 14

Shirayuki: You were honest just now, huh?

Zen: !

Shirayuki: OUCH?!

Zen: Ah— / Your hair got stuck in the tree... somehow, there’s only one bundle of long hair?

Shirayuki: Eh?

[Ouch, ouch.]

Shirayuki: Ah, I cut my hair when I left home, so that must be why... / Sorry, Zen, but can you cut it for me? / [I can’t untangle it...]

Zen: What? // …!

*grin*

Page 15

Zen: No, no! By no means would I cut a girl’s hair! // What does cutting off your long hair have to do with leaving home? / If you don’t tell me the reason, I cannot help you...

Shirayuki: ...You are so...

(There's a new barbershop open for business; Zen's Hair Salon! He'll cut your hair if you tell him a secret. What a deal!)

Zen: A rich guy told you to be his concubine?!!

Shirayuki: He’s a famous guy who knows the ins and outs of the Red light district* by heart. People saw that he grew up eating gold coins**.

T/N: *Area where prostitutes (can we use that word?) and other questionable characters reside.

**Grew up in privilege and wealth; basically, very spoiled.

Shirayuki: He said that he thinks red hair is rare, / so he wants to have me.

*speechless*

Shirayuki: If I let him do that, // I would be like an apple that he buys from a fruit store.

Zen: Shira...

Shirayuki: —That’s why

Page 16

Shirayuki: I thought he’d get tired of looking at a piece of it, / so I bunched my hair and left it behind.

Zen: [Pu!] / That’s great! / HaHAhahaHAHAHAHAha!

(Zen can laugh for a long time, can't he?)

Shirayuki:  Ahahaha, it’s not a laughing matter, though.

Zen: No, no. / You made the right decision.  // Let him experience being cut off by a low-ranked girl.

Shirayuki: ?

Zen: People say that red / is the colour of fate, right?

Page 17

Zen: Now you may think it's only troublesome, // but it might connect you with something unexpectedly good.

Shirayuki: Th--... / That’s an awesome way of thinking...

Zen: Oh, yeah? Respect me now?

Mitsuhide: ...Looks like Shirayuki is not a bad person after all, huh, Kiki?

Kiki: On the contrary, it seems like Zen is quite taken with her.

Mitsuhide: It would be a disaster for Shirayuki / if she’s caught.

Page 18

Messenger: This is a present from Tanbarun!

Zen: Tanbarun~~~? // What? something from the neighbouring country to this deep in the forest...

*thud*

Shirayuki: EH?!

Zen: Shirayuki?

Shirayuki: …! // That’s... / the ribbon that I used to tie the hair that I cut...

Zen: What?!

[?]

Page 19

Zen: Can I... look inside the basket?

Shirayuki: What? / Ah, sure... // Apples—...

Zen: In short, / the sender of this was worried about you having to leave home to travel so far away, // so he will come to pick you up at your town at the border of Tanbarun... // ...A pretty spiteful gentleman, huh?

Shirayuki: He’s good with words.

Zen: What are you laughing about?! // Is he so high-ranked that you had to cross the country border to run away?!

Page 20

Shirayuki: … / the person who wants me as his concubine...

Zen: …

Shirayuki: —... / is Tanbarun's... // First Prince.

Zen: !

*bam*

Zen: That stupid prince called Raji?!

Shirayuki: Wow... even people from the neighbouring country know him... // ...That’s who I’m dealing with. / Well, // I might have been followed after I crossed the country border.

Page 21

Zen: He thinks that anything he wants / belongs to him.

[I expect no less from him.]

Shirayuki: … // He wouldn’t think that he can put me in a basket, would he....?

Zen: Eh...

Page 22

Top of the page says “Akagami No Shirayuki-hime [1].”

Shirayuki: Just kidding...

*gets up*

*slowly*

Shirayuki: Zen?

Page 23

**bites*

Shirayuki: Ze—...

Mitsuhide: What bad manners—you shouldn’t do that, Zen.

[You’ve got to hold the apple yourself.]

SFX: Cough // Cough

Zen: Wh—.... / What are you looking at...? / I didn’t call you. Mind your own business!!

Mitsuhide: Uwah! / Don't hurt my feelings!

Zen: — —

Mitsuhide: Uwah—

Shirayuki: … // Zen.

*gets up*

Zen: What?

Page 24

Shirayuki: … / I said something stupid. // Sorry.

(Haha, the look on Zen's face in panel two! I bet he didn't expect her to apologise to him like that!)

*stagger*

Zen: …?! // ...Shirayuki, / Don’t... eat that apple.

Shirayuki: Eh?

Zen: Kiki, Mitsuhide... / sorry... // Don't get / mad...

Mitsuhide: Zen?

*stagger*

Zen: …!

SFX: Thud

Everyone: ZEN!!

Page 25

Mitsuhide: What’s wrong, Zen? / Hey!! // Zen!!

[“Don't / eat that apple.”]

[Eh...?]

*creak*

Mitsuhide: ! // Who's that?!

Guard: —I’m a messenger. // ...Good grief. / So it wasn’t Shirayuki-dono* who ate the apples?

T/N: *“Dono” is a term of great respect and reverence. It’s often translated as “Lord” or “Lady” in English translations.

Page 26

[Hmm.]

Guard; Oh well...?

Shirayuki: ..You... / came to my house before...

Mitsuhide: What’s the meaning of this...?

Guard: —Shirayuki-dono, // Those are poisoned apples. // Please do not worry. / there is someone who has the antidote. // ...You will go / with me, won’t you?

Page 27

Guard: Prince Raji, / I have brought her here.

Raji: So she’s come! All right, you can get out.

*turns around*

Raji: Oh, so this is you! // I see... this is amazing. / Your red hair is real. // Come this way, Shirayuki-dono.

*close*

Shirayuki: ...Can I have the antidote for my friend, Prince Raji?

Raji: That’s for later! because of a sneaky thief, I don’t have much time for you.

Shirayuki: Wha—...

*Katan*

Raji: This is such a dreadful thing... / It seems that I have become a laughing stock for everyone in the suburbs as well as in the palace for letting you run away from my courtship, Shirayuki-dono.

[Puu*..]

T/N: *”Puu” is the SFX for “puff” in Japanese. He's basically puffing out his cheeks in annoyance.

Raji: Really... thanks to this, my reputation might drop very low!

Page 28

Shirayuki: Your reputation is already too low to drop down anymore to begin with. // ...And?

Raji: If I admit your crime, it would mean admitting that the rumour is true. / —Therefore, to redeem my reputation, // say that you want to become my concubine. // Even though you’re only a street girl, I don’t want to embarrass you. / so I, who have been emotionally wounded, will accept you.

Shirayuki: ...Auditory Hallucination?! // Don't joke.

Raji: Aah! / It was a coincidence, // ...but I was truly lucky to have all the ingredients for the poison.

Page 29

Raji: Do you want to / go visit your friend once, Shirayuki-dono?

*drop*

Raji: —But // It would be a pity to let the girl who can entertain my eyes so much // go somewhere far away.

*roll*

[“They say red / is the colour of fate.”]

Page 30

[“It might connect you / to something unexpectedly good.”]

[He // said those words / to me.]

SFX: smack

Raji: ?! / What are you...?

Shirayuki: Oh my,, that's impolite. / Prince Raji, // ...Please // take me with you as you please.

Page 31

Zen: I OPPOSE!!

*wham*

Everyone: ?!

[Eek!]

Zen: Will you please // stop spouting nonsense that will dirty her ears?

Shirayuki: Zen...

Raji: W-Who are you? / What are the guards...?

Page 32

Mitsuhide: It’s okay, it’s okay. // We're guarding.

Raji: !!

Shirayuki: Zen...!!

Zen: Hey, Shirayuki. / Tie this for me.

[It was unfastened.]

Shirayuki: Eh? / B-But before that, your body...

(That look that Zen gives her just gives me the wrong idea. xD)

Raji: !

[Ah!]

Raji: That’s right. / So you’re the guy who ate the poison! // Oh no, what misfortune! / I planned to make Shirayuki-dono unable to move so that I could take her here.

Zen: ...So you’re the one who sent the apples.

[Hmph.]

Raji: Show more respect to me. / Our social statuses are different, you know.

Zen: ...That’s impolite, / Raji-dono.

Page 33

Zen: All right, this is troublesome, but let me introduce myself. / This is the first time you’ve met me.

*Clang*

Zen: I’m Zen, the Second Prince of the Clarines Kingdom.

Shirayuki: … / Second... Prince?! // Ze-... Zen... Get a hold of yourself!

[Do you know me?!]

Zen: I’m still sober, Shirayuki. // Just in case, / I got myself a little bit accustomed to poisons...

Page 34

[He looks pale...]

Zen: ...But I never thought / that I would be poisoned by a prince of a neighbouring kingdom, / Raji-dono.

*approaches*

Raji: …

*turns around*

Mitsuhide: He’s the real thing. / Right, buddy?

Guard: H-... / He’s telling the truth! he has the crest on his belongings...

Raji: ...Fu*. / Is there any evidence that I... that I** poisoned the apples?!

*flustered*

Zen: There should still be some around, right? / For example, something left in your residence? // You wouldn’t mind an official search, right?

Raji: Th-...!! / That's …

Zen: Then should I deal with you myself, stupid prince?

T/N: *”Fu” can translate into a variety of sounds, but in this context, it’s a sarcastic chuckle, since Raji doesn’t really believe Zen.

**At first, he used a slightly more informal way of addressing himself. Raji kinda meant to imtimidate Zen with his royal title.

Page 35

Zen: If you don’t want me to reveal your foolish behaviour this time to the public—swear  // never to involve yourself with Shirayuki again, // and never to call her name again.

Raji: ..Why even her name...?

Zen: Shall I make you swear with my sword?

Raji: I GOT IT! I SWEAR! I JUST SWORE!

Zen: —Shirayuki! / You have tons of things you want to tell him, right?

[Eh!]

Zen: If you want to tell him off, now’s the time.

[Go ahead.]

Shirayuki: —...Okay.

*bends down*

*Picks up*

Page 36

Shirayuki: Here you go, Prince Raji.

SFX: Shove

Shirayuki: This is my gift for visiting you.

[It fell.]

[2 cm]

Shirayuki: —Also, // hurry up / and give Zen the antidote! // —Thank you.

Page 37

Zen: What’s that, Shirayuki? //

[Why are you sitting up straight?]

Shirayuki: You helped me... // but I'm sorry. // I... / was only poison to you.

[Ha / ha / ha]

Zen: Am I... supposed to laugh there? / Is it because the poisoned apple I ate and you are both red?

Shirayuki: ...It’s kind of different.

Page 38

Kiki: It’s okay, Shirayuki. It’s not something that you have to apologise about. / Zen ate the apple himself.

[Kiki-san...]

Kiki: But you really had us worried, Zen! / Mitsuhide even said that if you died, he would die as well, and he got all teary.

Zen: I got it, I got it! / Sorry about that. // Next time, I will have him peel fruits for me before I eat them...

Mitsuhide: That’s not the point!!

Zen: —...Shirayuki,

*kneels down*

Zen: Do you still remember / what I said in the forest? // To me, / being with you now / is fate, and I’m happy about it, okay?

Page 39

Zen: You met us in the forest that you entered. / We got involved, / and we protected each other. // Will it all end now, // or will it / continue to connect us? // It is up to you to decide.

Shirayuki: ...No... / that.... / is that something that I can decide?

Zen: Of course! / I also decide my fate // Decide / and whether you walk on that road or not totally depends on you.

Page 40

Mitsuhide: …. / Zen, you....

[He sounds so grand.]

[Yeah.]

Zen: What?

Shirayuki: That's really a great way of thinking.

*clang*

Zen: It’s not a way of thinking. / It’s a way of living. // —What’s your answer, // Shirayuki?

[That is, / so to speak, my own story.]

Page 41

Shirayuki: I will—

[If I had a wish, I would wish / that the sound of the turning pages of my story after this encounter / would resound like the sound of footsteps.]

Mitsuhide: He’s just showing off, though. / His immediate fate would be returning to the castle and getting people mad at him, Shirayuki.

[Hoh—]

[He snuck out of the castle for a few days again...]

Kiki: And we will suffer the same fate. / Wonderful, wonderful.

~Akagami no Shirayuki-hime Chapter 1 // END~

[shad0wpuppetz]

Iron Fist Rant

Alright, so, the more distant I get from having watched this trash fire, the less I liked it, and even though only maybe 3 people will read this, I’d really like to rant about it at length. 

WARNING: This rant is long as hell and full of spoilers. 

Many of my problems with the show revolve around the characters. This is an especially heinous grievance since the other Marvel Netflix series have such strong, well-written characters (more often than not). In this case, there is only one character who is entirely consistent throughout the entire series, and it’s Joy Meachum. Joy’s decisions are the only decisions that make any real sense. Everything she does has a reason, even when she’s willing to betray Danny for the sake of her father. She has, after all, just found out that her father has been dead after she saw him die of cancer when she was 13 years old. Oh, and there’s Claire Temple, who has her own issues, but everyone else is a shitty character who is not consistent in any way at all.

We can start with the man himself, Danny Rand. So in the first couple of episodes, Danny is super interesting. Like, yes, there’s this problem with a white dude being raised by monks and using Eastern Mysticism to save the world in his own white way. Honestly, whatever, they give story reasons for him to be a white guy raised in a monastery. When he starts out as a barefoot, fish out of water monk in New York City who is often mistaken for a homeless guy, he was way more interesting. Honestly, this is probably a very Buddhist thing for him to do (forgive me, I don’t know as much about Buddhism as I should to make this claim, but I feel that his philosophy carries over somewhat with him in these beginning few episodes). I do know enough about Buddhism to know that his temper tantrum over not getting his half of Rand Enterprises isn’t in line with the philosophy he was supposed to have over the last 15 years or so. I know that his very sudden transformation from bare-foot, innocent, wide-eyes martial artist in the city into wealthy business man who buys an Aston Martin and lives in a penthouse apartment is extremely unrealistic. Sure, we see him making business decisions based on what is “right” and “good” and “just” or whatever, but there’s no fish out of water transition here. He has been gone from the world for 15 years in an inter-dimensional monastery. Granted, I don’t know what kind of technology was available to him there, but in his flashbacks we don’t see any of it. Yet he has no trouble adjusting to any recent technology, he has no trouble having to wear shoes, he has no trouble at all transitioning to CEO and majority shareholder of probably a Fortune 500 company. We see him shirk his duties often to go fight for justice, but there are no real consequences for this. Sure, the Meachum siblings get a bit salty, and he’s fired for like 3 episodes, but nothing lasts and he doesn’t really seem to care beyond his own white privilege birthright or whatever. 

Then there’s Colleen. Boy do I have a problem with Colleen. As one of (arguably 3?) poc cast members, she seemed really shoehorned in. So we see this salty Chinese(?) lady putting up flyers in Central Park (or wherever) and Danny Rand immediately does the most racist thing he possibly can and starts speaking to her in Mandarin. Like?????? Fucking really???? And she was like “It’s been a really long time since I’ve spoken that, I speak Japanese these days!” Or... something. Honestly I didn’t go back and watch it, the show seemed really confused about her ethnicity. It’s as if the show writers were a bunch of white people who were like “She’s Chinese, or Japanese. Whatever, they’re the same thing, right?” and just went with that. So Danny asks her for a job, and she says no, and then she leaves. Then he goes and SEEK HER OUT like some creepy stalker weirdo, but we as the viewer are supposed to think this is okay because he’s our barefooted white hero. She, admittedly, is not okay with this at first. Colleen is this amazing martial artist who tries to give kids from bad neighborhoods structure and discipline. She, at this point, is extremely protective of them and loves what she does and is worried about losing her dojo because she can’t make rent. She tells Danny off, she is a good enough actress to make it clear that she wants nothing to do with him. I was convinced, we were all convinced, but he KEEPS. COMING. BACK. This is NOT OKAY. Listen, boys who might be reading this, if a woman wants you to go away, just fucking go away. I promise most women aren’t going to be the subject of weak writing and eventually decide they’re in love with you have have sex with you because you keep coming back to them. We kept seeing Colleen after this, there wasn’t any point until one time he returns and she just gives up ever getting rid of this asshole white guy. We find out she’s training Claire Temple to defend herself. Colleen decides she’s in love with Danny for some reason and they have sex-- even though he tells her all about his vow of chastity (another thing he just fucking stops having because what does philosophy matter for a fucking monk anyway, right?). I don’t have a problem with romantic subplots in shows. I like them if they’re well done (many these days are not, but still). This one was not well done. It really seemed like the original intention was for Danny and Joy to get together, they had a lot more chemistry and history. Colleen’s interest in Danny comes with a complete and random change of heart. She goes from being this badass, protective martial arts mom to the damsel love interest who didn’t know she organization (spoilers, it’s the Hand) she’s been apart of forever had a goddamn murder dungeon on the complex.

Let’s talk about that, shall we?

So, we meet Colleen’s sensei, a Latinx dude named Bakuto who is coded as villainous from the very beginning. To no one’s surprise, he is the leader of a splinter faction of The Hand who opposes Madam Gao’s way of doing things, it’s not important to this rant. What is important to this rant is that Colleen has been a part of this organization for an indeterminate amount of years and she INSISTS that this faction of The Hand is Different. She swears that they don’t like Madam Gao, that they don’t do stuff quite as shady as she does, that they all have normal jobs and they help people! To no one’s surprise (again), we find out about the murder dungeon: we find out about it through Colleen’s former students. There is nothing that could have convinced me that Colleen is the only member of this faction of The Hand who didn’t know about the shady shit that was going on in that house that NO ONE was allowed to go to. Really? You’re trying to sell me this badass, intelligent martial arts lady and she doesn’t know about the bad shit even her Different faction of The Hand is doing? She needs white goddamn privilege Danny Rand to show her? Give me a break.

Then there’s the huge plot hole in the form of Claire Temple. Now, I like Claire a lot. She’s cool, she’s capable, she is fairly well developed, I see why she has the following she does. However, Colleen and Danny decide that they’re going to go to China and take on The Hand at its source. Whatever, I don’t have an issue with that. What I do have an issue with is that Claire has Matt Murdock, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, on speed dial. Matt Murdock HATES The Hand. He is the reason that Claire even knows who they are. What I’m wondering is why she didn’t go “Hey, I know DareDevil, let me call him up and he’ll come with us. We probably need all the help we can get to take down this giant international organization.” And you know what would have happened? Matt would have picked up the phone, and he would have been like “The Hand? I’m already here outside of their compound, what’s taking you so long?” Like, I get that Marvel wants to give each Defender their own introduction, but it causes a lot of confusion as to why the one link between them, Claire Temple, seems to refuse to call one or a few of them up for help. Hell, even if she TRIED to get Matt on the line and it kept going to voicemail it would at least acknowledge that she tried and that we are, in fact, in a continuity here.

As far as Harold Meachum is concerned, the writers seemed like they were going for depth and complexity and just ended up with a clumsily written pseudo-villain. You start out thinking he’s on the side of the angels, because he wants Danny’s help to oust the Hand from Rand enterprises. He made a deal with the devil and he wants to try to trick the devil out of it. Fine. But then he mistreats his assistant and his son to a degree that we aren’t sympathetic with him. We probably shouldn’t be sympathetic with him, we think he’s working for the good of everyone, but then he’s this selfish person who wants what’s best for himself. Which, fine, but it really wasn’t played that way at all. His motivations came off as confusing, he was erratic and strange and not in any really convincing way. He waffles back and forth and many of his choices don’t seem to be consistent with... anything. Ward, his son, is the only person besides members of The Hand and, later, Danny, who knows that Harold is still alive from the majority of the series. We are supposed to believe that Harold has gaslighted his son into obeying his every command. Ward weakly tries to rebel against him to no effect. Ward is also erratic and strange, with many of his choices not being internally consistent with who I think he was supposed to be as a character.

Granted, some of the strongest scenes in the series are between Ward and Joy, but it isn’t enough to save it from all of the confusing random bullshit that happens as filler in the middle. Not only are the characters not all that well done, but man does this series get BORING in its middle episodes. Even season 2 of DareDevil kept me mostly interested throughout, and no one liked season 2 of DareDevil. I powered through to the unsatisfying ending, though, and after a few weeks of thinking about it, decided that I fucking hated the Iron Fist. It was bad. Don’t watch it.

[papas-con-aceite-y-mucha-sal]

abri-chan ha respondido a tu publicación: abri-chan: The only problem with Shinji x Kaworu...

It would be very shallow to ascribe his personality faults to his depression. There are depressed people that are not “shits”. The rest about bitches and sluts is just biases against females. Doing what she wants, doesn’t make Asuka a bitch. Sleeping with who she wants, doesn’t make Misato a slut. You can argue there is no such thing as a “slut”, just people wanting to control your freedom. Anyways, those are both great characters. Cannot say the same for Shinji.

Misato doesn't even sleep with other people apart from Kaji as shown in the Ep #19 when Kaji sees her smoking after having sex, and she comments how she only does that after sex so he's the only one who knows this. There's a certain incident with Shinji in Ep#23 and later with EoE but even that (an act which would have had terrible connotations and consequences had been consumated; the only proposition is enough of an issue, I am not trying to excuse it) went nowhere. She could have had sex with Makoto and took advantage of him thanks to his crush on her, as it was something she knew, yet she never did something like that. (Makoto’s very cool dude too.)

And sure, even if she had slept with every adult around Nerv she'd be in her right of doing so. That’s not the point. The point is that she still doesn't adhere to a 'slut' definition if we define that as 'sleeping with many men'. I’m not saying that’s neither good nor bad. What I’m saying is that label is wrong.

Asuka being a 'bitch' (taking the definition as bitch as ‘an annoying/whining woman just for the sake of’) is not a good definition either. When Asuka is ‘yelling’ at others it’s mainly because she’s in a stage she’s either a child nor an adult and then acts like such (and some of those times people know better and don’t feel personally attacked, see for example Shinji and Misato reactions at the beginning of Ep #16), she’s resorting to her main defense mechanism because she feels threatened, or a combination of both (there are also others reason and this is summarizing a lot, of course, but this isn’t an Asuka analysis). And she feels threatened by Shinji, very. Or to be more exact it’s her vision of Shinji what’s threatening her, what’s threatening her position as the best pilot, something she has been working for her entire life. With Rei is the same with the addition Asuka’s projecting herself onto Rei. Asuka as well has been dragged and used by other people her entire life and didn’t mind dying when she was a child as long as it was an order from her mother, just like Rei is a tool for others and didn’t mind dying as long as it was an order from the commander. Misato takes Kaji away from Asuka, and that’s one of the reasons once Misato and Kaji are back together Asuka and Misato’s relationship goes to shit (from Asuka’s part, she either ignores her or gets mad at her without listening to anything). You could go on and on but as I said, this isn’t an Asuka analysis. She still has many good points and her good moments such as when she complimented Shinji in Ep#15 for playing cello, or took both the Children and Misato to a cheap enough place for Misato’s poor wallet, and to a place where Rei could eat with them knowing she’s vegetarian (in Ep#12). Her slash towards characters like Shinji or Rei is more of a defense mechanism than an act purposely done to hurt them. She’s living as she’s learnt. Is her attitude excusable, or even healthy for her? No, it isn’t. But it’s understandable. Calling her 'a bitch' is unnecessary. Kinda misses the point. 

Rei being a 'doll', being 'cold' or 'emotionless' isn't true. She's someone who has been one with the HIP since her very birth. It's her reason to exist because it’s for what she was created. People never gave her anything else so she only does what she can, the few she has learnt. Did you see the kind of place was she living in? Yet I don't see you replying to that part, you've blatantly ignored her. Rei’s a very important, strong and good character. Should I assume you are implying Rei is like certain people love to paint her then? A submissive, emotionless robot? A non-character? Even when she ended up getting out of the hands of the person who made her out to be like that in EoE and did her own thing? Even when she refused orders of retreating in Ep#23?

I feel the same with Shinji. That's my point.

For Anno, Misato/Shinji parallels were a very important point of the show. So let’s see.

Misato went mute for two years after 2I, a traumatic event where she lost her father and watched everything being destroyed behold her eyes.

Shinji not only had to suffer the events of the first episodes: getting in a huge machine where he felt all its pain shortly after arriving into a new city, fighting Angels (from what he got flashbacks and other typical symptomatology of PTSD), the change of the environment, reopening old wounds with her father, etc. He later lost first his friends, then Rei, then Asuka broke down, then Misato broke down too, then had probably one of the best times of his life (’Before with my sensei, everyday was a calm day, I did nothing, I just lived’) once he met someone who said he could be loved, that he was worthy... and had to kill that same someone just shortly after. Shinji had to kill a human that felt exactly like him (’he was like me and like Ayanami’). A human dying was something he had tried to avoid since Ep#3 with Toji and Kensuke, in Ep#6 with Rei (he went running to her once he had the opportunity and nearly burned his hands to get her out alive asap), in Ep#10 with Asuka (jumping into the magma with no special protection when even Asuka was having troubles being equipped with it to save her life), in Ep#18 with Toji again (where he claimed he preferred his own death over the risk of harming/killing him), yet he finally killed another person. That was when he finally lost all touch with reality. 

He later watched the 3I unfold behold his eyes and entered in the entire world population’s conscience.

I don’t think I need to add much more.

>It would be very shallow to ascribe his personality faults to his depression

But many of them, for not saying the majority of them, ARE a cause of his poor mental health. Again, this is not an excuse, this is an explanation. This is a kid who grow up with depression since he was four, five at most. And then you have PTSD added in the top of the cake. He even has actual phobia towards people according to Schizo/Parano, it’s what’s written in his profile. I’m not good enough at Japanese but it more or less says ‘from the shock of both the death of Yui and the abandonement of his father, Shinji grow extremely introverted and developed an interpersonal phobia/anthrophobia’. You can see this in how Shinji is always seen alone by himself feeling an incredible and bottomless loneliness, in all of those times he's seen with people and yet he prefers to maintain a certain physical distance from them, mentally complains about the noise they make or how alienated he feels (Ep#12), rejects them, or runs away from them (the entire Ep#4, all the times he hides he’s awake to not establish conversations, etc).

>There are depressed people that are not “shits”

First, there are many types of depression, and secondly, everyone gets affected differently because everyone has an entire world inside of them, so they have different internal variables. It IS a mental illness, and because it affects your mind, it makes you do shitty stuff (or do you think Misato making advances towards Shinji in Ep#23 is something she would have done had her been mentally fine at that point?). That much is truth. Any psychologist you ask, or any psychology book you consult, will tell you this.

Were those people living in a both post-apocaliptic world while fearing a new apocalypse, experienced death of a mother at three, abandonement of a father at four, grow up with a distant tutor, were commanded by their father to pilot giant robots, and went through all I’ve already mentioned during the Misato-Shinji parallelism?

And, if Shinji is 'shit', then how 'shit' are the people who have shaped him as the person he is (as Rei points out in the last two episodes, you’re shaped by your bonds with others)? Even the person at charge of him for a decade didn’t seem like he cared enough about him. We only see he made him play cello, but Shinji doesn’t even know things normal kids do at his age: simple things as swimming (Ep#16), how good it is to have a family (he is envious of Asuka, believing she had it, Ep#22) or how the warmth of another human feels (Ep#26). As it was pointed out long ago, everyone around Shinji had their own problems: they all 'carry a wound in the heart and a sickness in the soul’. But many of them knew how messed he was and can be accused of negligence because of how blatantly obvious is the only thing they needed was the pilot, not the person, and thus acted as such. They can be accused of the same when it comes to Rei and Asuka, of course. 

Do you see now how tricky all of this can get? Things in Eva are not black or white, and I don’t think the show is written for people to think it is. It’s too complicated to simplify it like that.

I'm not trying to excuse his actions nor I excuse the actions of the others. As I’ve said many times in this post, it’s an explanation. Does Shinji have bad traits? Yes. Is Shinji a good character? Yes. He shows both bad and good traits, and he's well written; he has a solid character arc. He goes under character development (both regression and progression) and under character analysis in a couple of chapters, and in the end reaches a conclusion, a very positive one actually. If there's something the last two episodes teaches you is that you can always get better, and that things can get better as well. Of course, you have to work for it.

To end with, I think there's definitely something worthy in the awful mess that Shinji is when Adam decided after meeting him humanity was worth saving and, few time later, Lilith decided that he was worth enough to become a God (again, EoE).

[rieshon]

Spring 2017 Preview

This season is hype. Lots of adaptations I've been waiting for.

1 Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukuttemoratte Iidesuka?: Surprisingly, out of all the LNs I read in preparation for this season this was far and away my favorite. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's a goddamn mastapeece. I just don't know how they're going to squeeze the whole story into one cours.

2 Sakura Quest: If this show is even half as good as Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako it's an AOTS candidate. P.A. Works' working women series is one of the best things out there and I hope this show carries the tradition on.

3 Hinako Note: Another early favorite for anime of the season and one glance at the key art should make it obvious why. It's not a Kirara anime but it's definitely got the atmosphere and the cute girls. Plus, it looks like it's going to be lewd, which really puts it over the top.

4 Shingeki no Bahamut VIRGIN SOUL: The first series was one of the best shows of 2014, and Cygames only has more money now. Hopefully it maintains that same fun, Hollywood action-adventure feel of the first series with the new protagonists.

5 Eromanga-Sensei: A good series where I'm not sure who best girl is, but it's definitely not the imouto, which is funny considering this is the new series from the creator of Oreimo. Muramasa is probably my favorite through three volumes of the LN, but Elf-sensei is good too, plus there's some Kido-hyan in here...

6 Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho: Another one I've read the original of. It's pretty good 王道 fantasy, and the second arc is pretty feels inducing. It's a little darker than your average anime fantasy, I think. The main thing, though, is Zero is angel, but I'm still upset she's not being voiced by Ayaneru.

7 Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Gekijou: I quit playing Deresute late last year, but this should still be pretty great. I hope Rinapoyo is in it... SINCE SHE SURE ISN'T IN THE GACHA AS AN SSR

8 Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata♭: I keep forgetting this is airing this season but holy shit am I ready for Kasumigaoka Utaha (and her kuro pansuto) to come back.

9 Busou Shoujo Machiavellism: One of the top candidates for Blade Dance anime, this one with some really good looking character art and animation and an amazing blondenblu voiced by Hidaka Rina.

10 Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Record: Ahh, a good ol' kettou anime. Last couple seasons have kind of lacked a traditional Blade Dance anime but this one definitely checks all the boxes.

11 sin Nanatsu no Taizai: The figures were pretty, uh, nice. I expect there will be too many titties for a lot of people but I've watched all of High School DxD so I'm inoculated against them already. Bring on the big American tts.

12 Ren'ai Boukun: Looks like a solid romantic comedy with some over-the-top characters. Guri is adorable and Hara Yumi plays a chijo.

13 Sword Oratoria: This is a spinoff of Danmachi, the problem is that Aiz Valentine or whatever the fuck her name is (I never did learn how to spell it) was always the most boring character in that show anyway. Forget the spinoff, I want more of Hestia and cute boy Bel.

14 Clockwork Planet: This was the one LN that I wanted to read before the anime aired but didn't have time for. Clockpunk with lolis I guess. The cast is good, including Nanjolno as the male protagonist, so I'm looking forward to it.

15 Granblue Fantasy The Animation: I just started playing Granblue last month so this should be interesting. Cygames has all the money so hopefully they're pumping some of it into A-1 for this show. I just hope Cagliostro shows up.

16 Alice to Zouroku: Loli and curmudgeonly old man is a time-tested formula for HNNNGs, even in 3D, and with the power of 2D it could be even better.

17 Sakurada Reset: Honestly, it seems kind of boring, but Takayama Katsuhiko knows how to write good, feels-driven adaptations so it might be good. From what I understand, the LN it's based on is immensely popular.

18 ID-0: I have no idea what to expect out of this after the most recent trailer. Hopefully it's a cute as one is led to believe.

19 Tsugumomo: Not gonna lie, the only reason I'm even aware of this series is because for years now the artist of the original has posted nude drawings of all the characters on his Pixiv account (they're pretty good). Hopefully that means the actual series is pretty lewd too.

20 Gin no Guardian: Hadn't heard about this until the other day. The trailer makes it look pretty cute, but it's a "trapped in a video game" story and I'm pretty sure the goofy cartoon stuff is only going to be right at the outset. Not a lot of high hopes.

21 Re:CREATORS: They won't let me watch the trailer for this, but it has girls. I guess it's another VRMMORPG anime or something. The staff is pretty high quality, with Aoki Ei both directing and writing, so it could be interesting... But the last thing Aoki Ei and TROYCA worked on was the detestable Aldnoah Zero.

22 Seikai suru Kado: I actually missed this when I was going over next season's anime yesterday, but it sounds like a high concept SF show about a Japanese diplomat slipping into a fantasy world. The premise gives me GATE flashbacks, but surely nothing can be that bad...

23 Frame Arms Girl: I hate the CG, but I'll at least give the first episode a try only because the human protagonist is a girl. Really not sure why they went the Busou Shinki route with this instead of just doing a sci-fi military action show.

24 Tsuki ga Kirei: No idea what this is. The "story" icon on the official website is greyed out which is pretty rare. Art style is kinda weird.

25 Makeruna!! Aku no Gundan!: You really did it Soramaru.

26 Twin Angel Break: I never saw the original Twin Angel shows but it's got Kayanon so count me in. Funnily enough the key visual just reminds me of Flip Flappers now.

27 Idol Time PriPara: Why you do this Takara Tomy. If you fuck this up Amamiya will lay a 10,000 year curse on your families.