#as we all know i do not watch anime or read manga or consume any romance (het/gay/lesb/any i just dont consume romance) period but honestly

[natsmagi]

thinking about yuri is my job(the manga) as natsumugi i think im going crazy....... hime as tsumugi and natsume as yano and sora can be the little girl that breaks her arm i forgot her name

had never heard of it before but

i think ur onto something

[tinyperson00]

ok.. I have a theory

spoilers ahead‼️

So we all know how Nezuko and Tanjiro are immune to sunlight right? But why is that.. why havnt any of the demons before been able to do this..? Have they just been too scared to test it? Well I dunno if this has already been put out there before by someone else, but this is my theory.

So later on in the manga its revealed that Kie (the Kamado's mother) knew the location of the blue spider lilies. The blue spider lilies were the sole thing Muzan was looking for throughout his entire life as a demon. This was because they held the ability to let the demons walk in the sunlight. So Kie Kamada knew the location to these flowers, which ended up leading to her death by Muzan. My theory is that what if when Tanjiro and Nezuko were little, Kie would harvest the flowers and use them in recipes to eat? This would explain why they are able to withstand the sunlight since they have the blue spider lilies inside their blood now. When the Kamado house was attacked it was later revealed that Muzan's reasoning for this was not actually to just find food and have a quick kill, but rather to find the location of the blue spider lilies from Kie and turn the rest of the family into demons. Most of them died from being injected with too much of Muzan's blood, however Nezuko managed to survive. Muzan didn't realize she was alive until he found out she was living in the sun, so he never took any interest in the Kamado's until finding Tanjiro. Back to the spider lilies, in Nezuko's memory of her lullaby with her mother they were shown walking a path most likely on the mountain they live on. In her lullaby she talked about having strange features from eating different berries and plants. What if this was also a hint at the fact that they were walking to the place where the spider lilies grew in order to harvest and eat them? This theory may be a stretch, but if you think about it its not too far off. In the sunlight countdown arc when Muzan is near defeat, he says to Tanjiro -

Maybe Muzan didn't explicitly mention the spider lilies, but its still probable that he realized the connection between them and the Kamado's. Its very possible that they could have been consuming the blue spider lilies for a long time, even though a few generations.

This theory may be a bit of a stretch in assumptions, but Im sticking with it. Kie knew the location of the blue spider lilies, and both Nezuko and Tanjiro were able to withstand the sunlight. They lived high in the mountains in a secluded area, and they were often shown walking down paths when they were younger. Think about this theory when you read the manga again, it may seem strange but theres a lot of connections to it.

after reading the manga 5x and watching the anime at least 3x.. your brain starts to wonder and think of strange theories like these. What do you guys think? Is it really that far off..?

[misc-obeyme]

my dear loyal cohorts and author of many good scripts

the illness consumes me once again and i must beg for your ideas on how these scandalous deamons would comfort a particularly ill MC

i blame going to UC to get my fainting problem checked out for the illness ive received. why are masks not required in the hospital.

🐈‍⬛

Hello there, dear 🐈‍⬛ anon!

Ahh, I hope you get well soon! Being sick is the worst. And truly, I wish I knew why masks are no longer required in hospitals because they should be.

As for the boys, I can't help imagining them having some kind of group meeting about it.

Asmo: MC is sick! We have to do everything we can to make them feel better soon!

Lucifer: Perhaps if you all leave them alone for once...

Beel: We should give them soup.

Belphie: We should make sure they sleep enough.

Satan: Did you know that a cat's purr has healing properties?

Levi: So does the Ruri Hana theme song!

Mammon: Nah, I'm actually with Lucifer on this one... nobody but me is allowed near MC's room!

Aaaand then it devolves into arguing. But once they get their act together, I think they'd overcome their differences of opinion in order to take care of you, each in their own way. I also like to think the side characters might step in to help, too.

Lucifer would check in on you when he's sure you'll be asleep. He doesn't want to disturb you, but he wants to make sure you're resting and not being bothered by his brothers. He'll glare down any of them that get too noisy near your room. Leaves random things by your bedside that he thinks you'll need (such as a box of tissues or a glass of water).

Mammon gets clingy as usual. He's the one who's always sitting by your bed. Almost every time you wake up, you find him there. Sometimes he's scrolling on his phone, sometimes he's just watching you, and sometimes he's straight up fallen asleep. Always asks you if you need anything. If you do suggest something, he goes out long enough to get one of his brothers to fetch it.

Levi brings you things to do while you're in bed. Piles of manga, all with your favorite kind of story. Video games, anime, anything to help keep your mind off the fact that you're bedridden. If you let him, he'll sit by your bed and give you summaries of the animes he's been watching lately.

Satan reads to you. If you request something specific, he'll read whatever you like, but he also knows your preferences so you can let him choose if you want. He might also try to sneak a cat in for the express purpose of using its healing purrs, but if he can't manage it, he'll have you watch cat videos instead.

Asmo obviously pampers you. Does your nails, your hair, probably gives you healing facials and the like. If he's there while Mammon is, the two of them banter back and forth, partly because it's them and that's their natural state, but partly on purpose to entertain you. Asmo will also bring you all the softest of pajamas.

Beel actually does bring you soup. He got help from Barbatos to make it - straight up brings you the most human world healthy soup he can, which varies depending on where you're from. If you're from the US for instance, he's gonna bring you chicken noodle soup. He ate half of it on the way to your room, but it's the thought that counts.

Belphie helps you sleep. When you're finding it difficult to rest because you feel like crap, he will snuggle up with you and ease your body enough that you find yourself drifting off into peaceful slumber. He will stay to keep any bad dreams at bay, too.

Diavolo will stop by the House of Lamentation to check on you. When he does, everyone leaves the two of you alone. He's quick to tell you not to worry about your responsibilities. It's more important that you focus on getting better.

Barbatos regularly portals himself to your side just to bring you healing teas and decent food. He doesn't trust the brothers to feed you correctly while you're ill, so he takes it upon himself to bring you what he knows you need. He will sit on the edge of the bed by your side and chat with you about what's going on at RAD and various other places, to keep your mind off of your sickness and help you feel like you aren't missing out. He also brings you fresh flowers to keep your spirits up.

Simeon also comes by regularly to tell you stories. Some of them he makes up on the spot, which are always fascinating and leave you hanging on every word. But sometimes he tells you stories about the Celestial Realm. If you ask him about the brothers, he'll tell you all kinds of anecdotes from when they were angels.

Luke sometimes comes with Simeon, too, and always with boxes of some kind of treat he's made for you. Another one who will likely bring you flowers or sometimes just things he's found that remind him of you or that he thinks you'll like. He's worried that you're stuck in bed and wants to bring some of the outside world to you while you're sick.

Solomon probably brings you some potions to help speed your recovery. He's not sure about how well any of them work, so you get to decide if you test them out or not. Either way, he's going to entertain you with some spells, especially if there happens to be a brother in your room when he visits. (For instance, he would probably curse Mammon to meow for a few hours just to make you laugh.)

Oops that turned into a mini headcanon thing, huh? Well it's not my usual format, but I just think they'd all have cute little unique things that they would do in order to take care of you.

Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery, 🐈‍⬛ anon! And I hope whatever issues brought you to the hospital to begin with are resolved as well!

[morkofday]

Nine people you'd like to get to know better

thank you for tagging me bea @23point5degree ♥

tagging in return: @jimmysea @chinzhilla @spicyvampire @thasorns @icouldhyperfixatehim @stormyoceans @mooninagust @celestial-sapphicss @khaotunqs ♥

and now revealing my darkest secrets heh

-

3 ships

based on the fics i've been consuming lately (explains truly where my head is at rn):

the chocobros ot4 (ignis, prompto, gladiolus, and noctis) from final fantasy xv (you cannot convince me anyone would go to such lengths just for their "bro" even when said bro is royalty and the chosen king to save the world)

yuu kanda and allen walker from d.gray-man (used to watch this anime around 10 years ago and decided to do it again on a whim. it was as good as i remembered and i had to continue to the manga after finishing it. now am experiencing major brainrot bc like i saw someone comment, for a manga that doesn't aim to be a bl, it surely does make it hard to believe otherwise. i also adore the tragedy of it all)

chris redfield and leon s. kennedy from resident evil (maybe the most important thing were the ppl we met and could count on during the zombie apocalypse ♥ also damn, these bitches)

First ship

my first ever ship i read fanfics for was dominic x brian from fast & furious. otherwise, my first ever ship came from anime as i was consuming that before i ever touched any bl dramas.

my true first ship would so be soubi and ritsuka from the 2005 anime adaptation of the manga loveless. a bit questionable choice i admit, but i still collect the manga bc i find the story fascinating and delightfully painful. also, i love the concept of named pairs (soulmatism with a knife) and their ability to fight against each other

my first ever (thai) bl ship would probably be korn and knock from together with me. there was just something about them back then that made me feel slightly deranged. (with bonus yihwa bc i still think she's one of the best female characters in a bl)

Last song

ดาวหางฮัลเลย์ (halley's comet) by fellow fellow. (sea sung this during his solo stage in last twilight new dawn: live on stage and i've been addicted ever since. i usually listen to this on loop for hours, it's just so nice and vibe-y)

Currently reading

still stuck with midnight sun, for my thesis. otherwise, consuming only fanfics and hoping to get to the little prince soon.

Last movie

the newest resident evil animated movie resident evil: death island (2023). tells you about the depths of that particular brainrot :'D the latest acted movie would probably be the korean movie silenced (2011).

Currently craving

something more solid to eat, especially the pile of snacks i have stored away until i can eat them. got my wisdom tooth removed a couple of days ago and have been mostly eating soup, yogurt, porridge, ice cream, smoothies... anything liquid-y. starting to feel a bit bored but am gonna be free soon

[thequeenofsarcaasm]

Do you have a certain moot that love a media (anime/manga) that you also love but have a very different view than you? But somehow both of you still friends for years.... I have a moot like that.

I'm a multishipper at heart, so I love shipping from any media that I consume (especially shounen anime/manga). And all my ships are non canon m/m & f/f....My moot also love non canon ships, but only for m/f...

Now, after we spend 6 months to binge read all Naruto manga (because both of us did not follow the anime when we were little), do you know what happened?

I said to them, "Wow, now I get it why people ship Naruto/Sasuke, they 're totally gay for each other. And their bond is special..." And they said, "I wish Naruto end up with Sakura and Sasuke just end up alone as the last uchiha.." And I was, 😳😮...They said : "What? Naruto and Sasuke are platonic soulmate. They're like brothers...."

Like from any shounen, they can came up with het ship, I cannot get it...

When we started JJK, they said to me, "I ship Yuuji with Nobara, their dynamic is great..." And I was, "Dude, how about Maki? Nobara/Maki and Yuuji/Megumi are way more sense and better.."

They said, "I ship Maki and Yuta, sorry let's just agree to disagree on these ships..."

I answered, "Fine, let me guess, you ship Gojo with Utahime, right?"

They said, "Damn it...! I want to. I do when I first start the series. But then, JJK 0 and Hidden Inventory arc happen...And when Gojo got unsealed, the first thing he did was to got Geto's body to mourn him. And airport scene, the first face he saw was Geto...? I have to be blind to not saw the subtext. For this you won. I can't help but ship Gojo with Geto...."

What do you think 🤭?

Shipping Sasuke with Sakura should be punishable by death.

As a self proclaimed queen, I only surround myself with people who have exactly the same opinions as me (or convince them that I’m right) so it rarely happens that we have such divergent opinions/j

Tell them to watch/Naruto again. I feel like StSg might have freed them from the curse of compulsory heterosexuality so they need to revisit the story and form a new opinion.

[chrimsonfoxdon]

Ooh question, you mentioned rewatching as an adult, and I'm curious, what kinds of things do you view differently now? I'm rereading the manga after a long time too, and the big thing I'm noticing is that I have more compassion now, especially towards characters who I didn't realize reminded me of myself and not in the best ways 😂 And especially during part 1 I found myself wondering why we don't see their parents more often (for those who still have them) and who took care of them growing up (for the others).

I have felt similar!! Ok I’m gonna maybe list stuff out on what I’ve noticed I view differently.

Very long post under the cut of me rambling (again)!

1. My Opinion on What I Consider Good Media Has Changed

Starting with this one as I feel it’s a big overarching thing that’ll dictate all my other opinions and thoughts. I’ve watched, read, and listened to A LOT of other series and media since I first started watching Naruto (also you know life experience and such), so I have a better idea of what is “good” media and what is “bad.” When I was younger, I considered Naruto to be the best of the best, but I don’t think that now (as far as anime that title now goes to FMA:B it’s very good please watch it if you haven’t oh my god). It has a lot of flaws, some endearing and others… not so much. Granted that’s any piece of media. Nothing is perfect (not even FMA:B). But despite that, I’ve also learned that it’s ok to still enjoy it!! Imo it’s not all bad, I mean, we’re still here discussing it yea?

I guess the TLDR of this part is: it’s cringe but that’s ok cuz life is short and we should enjoy the stuff we like.

2. Female Characters/Feminism

I feel like, while these are different topics, they’re very linked together in how I watch Naruto now so I’m putting them together. When I was younger, I didn’t like really any of the female cast (except Tenten). I found them “annoying,” to put it simply. Sakura always chasing after Sasuke?? Lame. Ino being obsessed with her looks?? Shallow. Hinata losing to Neji? Weak. I began to think that I didn’t like those characters because I didn’t like female characters mostly as a whole (which is kinda hilarious cuz I did start making Chihiro back then who does in fact identify as a woman LOL!!). But this negative attitude towards female characters not only leaked into how I consumed other media, but how I saw myself and other women irl. Like I distinctly remember believing that a woman could never beat a guy in anything. Which is uh… not true!! And kinda fucked up!!!

Now that I’m older I just realize that kishimoto doesn’t know how to write women all that well. Imo, it’s not the girls’ faults, it’s their creator. Which is disappointing but also freeing almost?? Plus, I can now appreciate what good they do have to offer!! (I talked a little about the konoha 12 girls and what I like about them in this ask in case you’d like details on individual characters)

I think also being exposed to other fans with differing opinions and views has helped me with this as well. When I first started watching I didn’t really go online (wasn’t a thing in Cuba plus I wasn’t really interested), so I didn’t really have other perspectives to bounce off of.

Also wanted to add that there are definitely parts of the show I laughed off before but you know, just are not acceptable nowadays. Mainly thinking of Shikamaru talking down on girls/women, Neji made a rude comment about girls too (that Tenten corrected him on tho thank you queen), and some bits that could be perceived as a little transphobic (I’m not trans tho so I don’t wanna speak for them on that bit). Its viewpoints that I feel are a product of the time, but does not make the overall series bad per se.

3. Seeing Other Children as a Child VS as an Adult

Ngl since I grew up with Naruto, I feel as if I will always see them as my peers in a sense. If anything, almost like the “older kids” in school. Like I don’t know if this is a common perception, but I remember when I was like in 2nd grade I saw 6th graders as like tiny adults, but then when I was in 6th grade I saw 2nd graders as like babies. Does that make sense?? Anyway, it’s interesting rewatching Naruto as an adult and seeing my “peers” when they were younger. I remember thinking that 12 & 13 year olds were badass and cool and practically ready for the real world (I was like 8 or 9 when I first started watching leave me alone), and being amazed at stuff like the chunin exams. Nowadays my brain just kinda goes “why are we letting these CHILDREN go to war???” It’s a similar story with like the sensei. Thinking they’re so experienced and old and… now I’m the same age as them and I’m still young!!

4. Might Gai is Cringe and I Love Him For That

The way I didn’t appreciate this man when I was a kid is a CRIME. Teaching his students (and friends) that it’s important to find joy in life is SO IMPORTANT and Gai just does an EXCELLENT job with that!! He strives to be a source of light for the people in his life, and to show others it’s important to smile and laugh from time to time. It warms my cold dead grownup heart what can I say. There’s a line in OG Naruto after Lee beats Sasuke in their fight before the chunin exams, where Naruto turns to Sasuke and Sakura as their cringing at Lee and Gai and says, “actually, it’s kinda sweet how they’re all hugging and stuff!” And that kinda summarizes my thoughts on them.

TLDR Might Gai is cringe but he is free and I love him so much for that.

5. Seeing Myself in Characters I Didn’t Before

Off the top of my head, the three characters I see myself in more so now than when I was younger is definitely Choji, Lee, and Tenten.

I was never popular growing up, especially when I moved back to the US after living in Cuba. Kids just didn’t wanna play with me or have me on their sports teams, so I was purposefully left out oftentimes, kinda like how choji was when he was younger. Rewatching that part made me cry honestly HAHA I saw myself so clearly. I’m also plus size so the beauty standards he has to deal with really speak to me. I remember Shikamaru telling him one time that girls don’t have to be skinny to be pretty and I would be lying if that didn’t give me a huge amount of confidence in myself.

Rock Lee’s story has always been top notch, but as someone who chose to specialize in a path that I didn’t really have natural talent for myself it REALLY speaks to me now. I’ll be 100% honest, I was never really one of those “been drawing since I could hold a pencil” kind of kids. I liked it, but I didn’t really consider myself any good until like 8th grade or so. Anyway, there’s this scene where Lee is crying at the training grounds cuz he’s scared that, no matter how hard he works, it’ll all be for nothing and that he’ll always be a loser, and uh… had to turn the show off cuz that struck WAAAAAAAY too close to home for me as an artist with a… let’s be real, a failing art business. Anyway, he inspires me though to keep going cuz this is what brings me joy. I may take longer than most, but that doesn’t mean I’m less of a person for it.

Tenten I’ve honestly seen a lot of myself in even when I was younger! But there’s this filler episode that goes into detail on how she tried really hard to be just like Tsunade, since that was her dream since she was little. Turns out she doesn’t have the capacity to do that (not being able to do medical ninjutsu well, etc), but she finds her own strengths along the way. What really spoke to me was letting go of your childhood dreams. It’s hard. It feels like you’re failing in a way. But Tenten was able to persevere and find a new and even better path forward for herself. And that’s just amazing. I love seeing that, and it helps me feel as if I too and maybe find my path.

6. Final Thoughts and Random Little Things

I think it’s also safe to say that I can pick up on story flaws (I’m looking at you 4th great ninja war arc) and inconsistencies (how the heck does the hyuga clan work wtf). It’s a long series and nowadays you can binge the whole thing in one sitting (I don’t recommend that please take care of yourself). Back in my day I had to wait a whole week to watch the next 26 minute episode with commercials in between. Also I was a kid. AHAHA!! But again, long series, so I’m sure Kishi forgot about certain details while he was being pushed to continue the series.

Also my views on certain things that happened in the series changed based on what I know what happens later, which I find to be quite fun!

Overall I still enjoy the series, both for similar reasons as I did back in the day (Neji) and for new reasons!! Flaws and all. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[madam-o]

An open question to the OP community (for writing purposes)

So I know One Piece pretty well for a casual fan. I haven't read or watched a ton of it, but enough to generally know what's going on (basically, the longer the series goes, the more confusing and fucking weird it gets). My main interest in the series has always been about Shanks and now, to a greater degree, Buggy. I know a bit about how the Devil Fruit work, but unless I'm mistaken, there's a lot we don't explicitly know for sure about the powers they grant.

Buggy's Chop-Chop Fruit (Bara Bara no mi) powers are kind of confusing, for instance. He can separate himself into pieces (more specifically slices, in the anime and manga) but what those pieces can do while separated is very interesting. We know he can talk, eat, and apparently even get drunk as just a head. Where what he consumes goes is a complete mystery, but he's clearly processing it in some way. He doesn't need lungs to push air through his vocal chords, or even to stay alive. While separated into pieces he seems to be, for want of a better term, magically indestructible.

We know he can be bruised and bleed as just a head, but I kinda get the feeling that he can't die. I partly believe this because he's been hurled far distances and blown up before (many, many times, presumably) but it doesn't kill him. My theory is that when in mortal danger, he instinctively goes to pieces, and those pieces can be physically restrained or hurt, but not destroyed.

His pieces are all covered in skin, or at least not showing exposed internal parts, and include his clothes. They can float and move individually. Buggy can feel what happens to them, but maybe only when they're close. Buggy's head needs to be near his pieces to control them, and I'm not sure if they can move independently when his head isn't in the vicinity, but probably not. His feet need to stay on the ground for him to control his parts in the anime/manga, but not in the live action version.

Basically, Buggy's body works by cartoon character rules, a lot like Luffy.

So my question is, how invulnerable is Buggy, really? We know he ages and can get sick, but unless he's in a whole state, can he be drowned or otherwise killed? Because right now all signs point to no. If you put just his head in seawater, what would happen? I think he'd be weak, but still not able to drown. When in a whole state, is he more vulnerable? I assume when he's in mortal danger he automatically separates, but how small can his pieces get? Could they get down to an atomic level?

If anybody (especially with more OP knowledge) has any input, I'd appreciate it.

[infriga]

I watched the live action One Piece because of you and your excitement over it and I really loved it, so thank you! Wondering if you have suggestions of where to go next? Read the manga or watch the anime? It honestly seems a bit overwhelming, so not sure where to start.

That's awesome! I love inspiring people to try One Piece, it's a really fun ride! It's always great seeing new fans coming in to enjoy the series! 🤗

I wanted to be as informative and thorough as I could for anyone wondering about this, so this might be long, but I'll provide a summarized version to start then include the long version under a readmore if you want more info in order to decide. Sorry if it gets a bit rambling lol.

So the answer to the "anime or manga" question is not necessarily complicated, but it is a little more nuanced than some fans will lead you to believe (a lot of manga-only elitists have a hate boner for the anime to a degree that imo isn't warranted) . There are a few major factors.

Summarized version:

1) this one's obvious, but bears saying; if you prefer manga, go with the manga, if you prefer anime, go with the anime. If you like both, go with both, unless you only want to consume one. Some people tend to gravitate towards one over another, and that's fine.

2) if you're interested in consuming both, I recommend starting with the anime, then going to the manga after, to avoid tainting your experience with the anime by comparing it to the manga all the time. If you only want to consume one, stick to the manga, because it is the better version. If you're on the fence or haven't decided yet, start with the manga then decide if you want to also try the anime later.

3) if you want to consume the anime, then determine how much of the original experience you want to be retained. There's not many filler episodes, but they do exist, and there are watch lists that explain which episodes to skip if you don't want to watch them. Otherwise obviously the manga is the true original and is the best version of the story. The anime isn't terrible, I still enjoy it, but it does have its flaws compared to the manga. That said, it does also have some benefits you can't get from the manga such as the top notch voice acting (at least in Japanese) and incredible soundtrack. Also the animation in Wano has been sending One Piece fans to the emergency room with priapism lately so do with that what you will.

4) determine how much time you're willing to invest. The manga is going to be the fastest way to consume the series, but there is a fan edited version of the anime that speeds up the pacing to match the manga, and thus takes a lot less time to catch up on. You can also read the manga then look up your favourite scenes in the anime as a supplement without investing into watching the whole anime, either shorter or longer version. The only thing to keep in mind is don't ever skip any canon arcs, you WILL regret it later. Oda never forgets.

Where to watch/read:

If you want help finding a good place to read or watch the series, for free or otherwise, let me know and I can provide some links! I can also provide recommendations for which movies to watch and when if anyone is interested in those, or even just OP fanfic recs if there's a market for that lol.

Now, for:

The long version (oh god I'm so sorry this got so long I am incapable of talking about this topic succinctly):

1) what type of media do you prefer and have an easier time consuming? Comic or animation?

I have an anime only friend who struggles with reading comics for some reason (he can read books just fine, but he struggles with comics and he doesn't know why), but he loves the anime, and is even currently rewatching it so we can catch up on watching Wano together since that arc is ending soon and we like to wait and binge entire arcs instead of watching weekly. If you prefer one over another, then whichever that is, is fine fine to go with. If you don't have a preference, then your next factor is:

2) do you want to only consume one, or are you open to consuming both?

I read the manga and watch the anime. I get a slightly different experience from both, I prefer the art and pacing of the manga, but I love the voice acting and music of the anime, and some moments just hit harder for me in the anime. I haven't cried very often reading the manga, but I have cried quite a bit more watching the anime when seeing the same scenes, like full on sobbing at some points ngl. It's not that I think the moments are done better in the anime or that they're not just as sad, but I have an easier time crying when seeing something in motion with sound for some reason. I rarely ever cry when reading books or comics. It happens, but not as easily or as often. Also while the animation throughout most of the series is middling (not bad but not amazing) for most of the series, aside from major fights, the most recent arcs have seen a huge upgrade in regards to the animation, WCI to some extent but especially Wano. The animators have just been going HAM on the animation during Wano. Like, it's all but impossible to find good examples without spoilers because of just, how many spoilers there are at that point in the story, but I'll at least show Luffy being pretty lol:

That said, the anime isn't without its flaws, but I'll get to that in a bit.

If you do want to consume both, then personally I recommend watching the anime first. I find people who read the manga first are more prone to comparing everything in the anime to the manga and wanting things to fit 1:1, which I think puts the anime at a disadvantage and makes people a bit more hypercritical of it. But ultimately this is up to you. Maybe you don't know yet if you'll try both, in which case the manga is probably better because it's the version that, by its nature, is the best version, and will give you the original experience, and you can decide later whether you want to supplement that with the anime as well.

If you only want to consume 1, at least mainly, then the next factor is:

3) How much of the original experience do you want to stick to?

The One Piece anime doesn't have nearly as many filler arcs/episodes as other long running shounens have had in the past, and past Enies Lobby there's almost no filler arcs whatsoever, aside from the rare 2-5 episode arcs, usually ones that advertise the movies that came out not long after they aired. But there are some full filler arcs earlier in the anime, and the general consensus is that most are pretty meh. Not horrid, but nothing special, and many of them ended up accidentally contradicting canon when new information about the world or certain in-world systems came out later. There are watch guides for skipping these widely available, and most OP fans do recommend watching the G8 filler arc because it's viewed as the only one that is on par with, or at least close to, canon content. I enjoy it myself as well personally.

That said, one of my biggest gripes about the anime, especially after sabaody up until Wano, is how it takes Odas more mild level of sexualization in comparison and dials it up to 1000. At its worst it has taken scenes where a female character is introduced with a full body shot and a name/title card in the manga, and turned it into a scene where the camera zooms in on her boobs, thighs, waist, butt, and then slowly pans up her body starting from the feet, including boi-oing noises or weird many sound effects with each zoom in shot. It also increased the boobs sizes and decreased the waist sizes constantly, put a lot more effort and attention into boobs jiggles than was necessary, and at least one point they even blatantly zoomed in on Nami's boobs bouncing isolated on the screen while she was running for absolutely NO reason. Oda doesn't do this in the manga. He doesn't introduce women in bits and pieces focusing on their body parts in an oggling manner, he doesn't put their boobs front and centre unless it's maybe by accident because of necessary framing. Even when he has sexy shots of women, they're usually full body shots that also even manage to serve as establishing shots most of the time. I also often get the feeling that a lot of it is also him being aware of his target audience in Japan, which is teenage boys. You can see a lot of how his approach adjusted when he has a different audience in mind in the Live action, not only regarding stuff like diversity (which WAS present in the original, their real life equivalent ethnicities have been said to be diverse for a long time, but Oda himself, as much as I love him, only has one skin tone marker in his whole house apparently and he uses it for every single character in colourspreads and covers, including the characters that are supposed to be black, and the anime isn't much better on that front, so it's nice to really see the proof of the diversity visually in the live action in a way that doesn't come across as clearly in the anime or manga), but also in regards to adjusting shounen tropes to better fit a live action setting. You can see in a lot of his SBS answers that he takes his target audience and what he wanted to see as a young boy into account a lot even if he might otherwise explore different tropes or depictions or structures in a different medium or genre.

BUT the anime does have its flaws. I won't pretend that Oda doesn't draw his female characters sexier as the series goes on, and while he also does with the men (Zoro canonically has the biggest bust size on the crew according to Oda lmao) it's not to the same degree as the women. This is especially concentrated around Nami, possibly because Oda's wife is a Nami cosplayer and iirc he met her while she was cosplaying Nami. It's the most overt in certain later arcs, but not too present in earlier arcs up to, say, Sabaody. But, while he does draw the women sexier, he's not... Idk the right terminology to use but he doesn't employ an oggling pov towards the women very often. Not never, but compared to the manga you relatively rarely get much particular purposeful focus on body parts like boobs or ass, there's also never any panty shots (seriously, not a single one in the entire series). That's not so say that the series is always perfect in this sense, but rather that's to compare it to the anime. And while there are some things One Piece doesn't do perfectly sometimes, there are also a lot of things it definitely gets right about how the women are written as complex multifaceted people with conflicts and motivations just as deep and diverse and complicated as the men. They mostly just look extra seggsy sometimes, at least the main ones do. And YMMV, but personally I'm okay with some sexiness, so long as it doesn't compromise the characters story and personality and doesn't go overboard to the point of being softcore porn, which Oda doesn't do in the manga. And I also don't like how often criticism of sexiness turns into shaming any clothing that shows more skin. There's a difference between disliking fanservice and going full conservative prude.

Now from what I've seen this has gotten significantly better in Wano in the anime, probably because Oda himself purposefully played down even his own horniness during Wano because of the focus on traditional Japanese aesthetics and dress. Idk if it will get bad again after Wano, but a lot has changed regarding the way the anime is animated and directed since the last time it was bad, so hopefully not. But this can be a significant barrier to the anime for some people. If that's the case, then I definitely recommend the manga. It's the original, and in comparison it is practically chaste. It's not prevalent throughout the entire anime, it's mostly bad for the stretch from Fishman Island to the end of WCI, which consists of 3 big arcs and 2 smaller in-between arcs, but improves significantly in Wano, and isn't too bad in arcs before Fishman Island. Still more egregious than the manga, but not to the same degree. So it's possible you can tolerate it for that stretch since there are still lots of good moments in the anime in these arcs too. Though I'll note that there's quite a bit of censorship in the anime compared to the manga, Zeff eating his own leg for example, while included in the live action, was not included in the anime. Instead he lost it when it got caught in some ship debris while he was rescuing Sanji from drowning. Stuff like gore and blood are also tones down a lot. The live action honestly isn't any more gory than the manga is, even at the beginning. There's even less blood in the live action, the wound Zoro got from Mihawk was nastayyyy in the manga. Bro nearly got bisected fr.

Though I will say that I think one thing that helps make the more sexualized aspects of the series feel more balanced and a lot less center stage is that Luffy himself, the main character, is completely and totally 1000% gender blind. He's not blind to stuff like masculinity or femininity, but he's blind to whether masculinity or femininity is something that is only applicable to men or women. He likes plenty of manly things, there's a gag about him not wanting frills on his shirt because he doesn't think they're manly and he doesn't like that, but he doesn't think that it makes a man less of a man if he wears a frilly shirt, and he's not opposed to wearing other clothes that might be more feminine coded like his fuckin cute li'l dress thing in Egghead, or the literal dress he wears proudly for all of 3 seconds in Film Gold lmao. There are plenty of men in the series who wear frilly shirts. There are also men who wear makeup, wear pink, crossdress, etc. Luffy could not give less of a shit what men, or women, wear. He does not discriminate between women and men in how he treats them in any way shape or form, his awareness of gender expression is limited entirely in how he personally expresses *his* idea of *his* gender. If a woman pisses him off he'll beat them up just as easily as he will a dude. If a trans man says they identify as a man, he'll refer to them as a man, even if they have a more feminine appearance, and vice versa. He does not blink an eye at non-binary/genderfluid/queer characters, etc. That's one of my favourite things about his character, in part because I'm aroace and identify with him and his gender blindness a lot (among other things, he is an aroace icon for a reason lmao), but also because it's nice to have a 100% gender blind character as the main pov throughout the series.

Then there's the final factor, which is

4) How much time are you willing to spend?

The anime is undoubtedly the longer time investment. Which can be good or bad depending on your view. I know when I caught up sometime after episode 505, I was devastated at not having any more episodes to watch. I started out thinking "this will take me forever and I probably won't finish it", then shifted to "damn those 100 episodes went by fast, but that's okay, I still have 400 episodes left" to "200 episodes already? Well I'm not even halfway yet, that's fine" to "300... Oh God I'm already more than halfway" to "400!? Where are they all going?? Why aren't there more?!?" to "well I HAVE to read the manga now because I can't stand to wait for the episodes to come out weekly" then I banged out the rest of the series in the manga in a few days like I was a drug addict trying to hide my stash from the police by snorting it all at once. So to some, the length can be a blessing rather than a curse lmao. But if you are worried about length, the manga is a lot easier to go through without taking months and months to catch up, unless you take your time reading it. There is a fan edited version of the anime called One Pace, which takes out all the filler and adjusts the pacing to be closer to the manga, which might also be an option if you want to watch the anime but still want a less exhaustive itinerary to watch. They. Might even edit out a bunch of the excess sexual shots and editing in the anime though I haven't watched it myself to determine that. The main issue is that One Pace hasn't completed every single arc, but it is an option for watching the arcs it does have. I know Dressrosa is one of the longest arcs and might benefit from some trimming. I also recommend, if you choose the anime, to watch episodes in batches rather than weekly. While the pacing of the manga is quite a bit faster, so it lends itself to weekly updates better, the anime does suffer from being watched weekly. I've always binged arcs all together and I find that improves the experience a lot.

Aside from that, you can also always just read the manga then only look up and watch particular scenes you wanna see in the anime to get the experience with the voice acting and music and animation, without having to invest as much extra time into it. I may not be a dedicated anime hater, but I do agree that the manga is undoubtedly superior to it as a whole, so while I don't think there's anything wrong with being anime only, if you are open to both, but only want to choose one to consume, it's the manga all the way. You only have to start at chapter 1 and go from there. Or episode 1 for the anime.

I hope this helped, and wasn't too confusing or overwhelming. I know how daunting the series can be to get into so I wanted to try and be comprehensive and objective, and provide some approachable options for people new to the series by explaining some pros and cons of each approach.

[gemini-care-barr]

For Barry and Hal-

What fandoms or franchises do you think they are in or follow? Could be podcast related, Reddit forums they are a part of, movie sequels or trilogies or novels!

Definitely something that should be mentioned more in canon comics so let’s use this as a manifesting moment by detailing it out 🤭

Right off the bat, I have to make it clear to absolutely everyone that Barry is 100% a Trekkie and Hal is most likely a Star Wars fan. And while we’re on the most heated sci-fi debate, I’ll add that once Hal and Barry became friends and Barry learned more about the Green Lantern Corps he undoubtedly introduced Hal to Star Trek and successfully convinced him that it was the superior sci-fi franchise, we stan two Trekkies 😜

Now then, I don’t think Hal would be very into book series or fantasy in general but he’d definitely have a particular interest in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy and I think he’d try Game of Thrones and The Witcher because of everyone’s recommendations but would probably not like it very much. He’s the noble-type though and would be pretty easily convinced to read the Lord of the Rings books (including the Hobbit and Silmarillion) because of the nobility of the characters and story. Same reasoning goes for Donita K. Paul’s DragonSpell series. He’d also probably be into the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway, and Raymond Carver, not hugely into them necessarily but if he was super bored and he had access to their stuff he’d dig it haha. His favorite poem would also probably be Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.. I don’t see him being too into podcasts, but he’d definitely like rock bands like Foreigner and AC/DC. He’s also definitely into movies more so than tv shows and would love movies like The Right Stuff, Top Gun, Braveheart, The Patriot, John Wick, most blockbusters classics really, and probably anything with Bruce Lee haha. He’d probably think anime/manga was for nerds until someone pointed out that Dragon Ball Z was, in fact, an anime then he’d realize they can be pretty cool hahaha. And with video games, I’d say he absolutely doesn’t have the patience for long form RPGs but can probably be convinced to play some FPSs with friends like Call of Duty and Halo lol. Basically, this was a long way of saying that Hal is probably more sporty, not in an obsessive fan of sports way, mind you, just that he participated in mostly sports growing up and even as an adult probably prefers hanging out playing baseball with kids (Adams’ GL run has an adorable scene of just that) rather than watching/reading/listening to anything so essentially he’s just not very media-obsessed; he’s a doer! He also probably wouldn’t participate in the fandoms of any of the media he does consume because he cares more about engaging with the media itself rather than about others’ thoughts and feelings on it haha.

Onto Barry, honestly, Barry is kind of tougher for me to figure out purely because I feel like he and I are very similar so I’m inclined to list basically all my favorite things and my thought processes haha, but I’ll try to avoid doing that 😝. So, like I said, Barry is definitely a Trekkie, the Federation’s belief in preserving alien lives and lifestyles plus its dedication to exploration and science all appeals to his inner nerd. He probably loves the shows For All Mankind, The X-Files, and Bones because of their science-y natures (he definitely introduced Hal to For All Mankind and it’s one of the shows they watch together haha). We all know he’s a huge comic book fan (shout-out to Pre-Crisis that had him reading Golden Age Flash comics 😜), but I’ll also add that I think this love of Golden Age Flash, thanks to his mom, would have led to his own love of Greek and Roman mythology once he realized where the idea for Jay Garrick’s helmet and shoes came from! A love of mythology would eventually lead to a love of ancient western philosophy and writings then to Medieval romances like the Arthurian legends and the works of Chaucer. Old English stuff would’ve crept in there too starting with Beowulf. He was an old soul from a young age so all these things would’ve caught his eye on trips to the library and the old-fashioned romantic notions and chivalry has definitely stayed with him. All this appreciation for much older works would then slingshot back around to him loving and appreciating more modern works that took heavy inspiration from all this older literature like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, the Percy Jackson series, the Harry Potter series, the Codex Alera, and the Dresden Files, oh and all the detective novels, just all, from Doyle, Christie, Poe, Hammett, etc. then when he found foreign detective fiction he’d go mental and just read them all haha. He’d also probably read the Remo Williams and Jack Reacher book series and convince Hal to do the same! I’d say he’s also into old movies and classic tv shows because they all make him feel good with their sweet morals and happy endings. He’s probably not much of a gamer except for the ones with good stories, he’s too interested in learning new things to just watch someone else play though, if a game’s story interests him then he’s definitely playing it himself. Mass Effect is probably one of his secret favorites. He’s super into podcasts, anything informational and/or scientific, probably conspiratorial and/or true crime stuff, too, if for nothing else than to help him get inspiration on how to approach his own cases, he may even try and solve some cold cases that he hears about (he’d probably stumble across Black Box Down then convince Hal to listen with him haha). He definitely grew up with both the Pokémon TCG and show and was actually aware that it was an anime so is likewise somewhat into other very popular anime/manga like Naruto. Music would be jazz (he’d try and fail to get Hal into it, too, see: New 52 Flash’s Annual #2), 60s rock like the Beatles and the Monkees, and probably 80s pop like the Culture Club, oh and Air Supply (which is also Hal’s guilty pleasure band hehe). He likes sports a lot, both playing and watching, but was still more likely to be found reading/watching/listening to something rather than playing; still, the same way Hal can be convinced to play a video game in order to hangout with friends, Barry can be easily convinced to join in some sporty endeavors if it’ll mean bonding with a friend or loved one. Finally, like Hal, I don’t see him engaging too much with fandoms, he’d probably try when he was younger but wouldn’t find too many people who were into the same things then when he did find people things would devolve into arguments instead of just joy for whatever the thing was so he eventually would resign himself to just enjoying the thing itself, our Barry is a soft boy 🥹. He likes discussion though so once he found people who were his safe space they wouldn’t be able to get him to shut up hahaha.

…I …I can’t believe I wrote this much ahahah 😅. I swear I wasn’t going to get this involved! I was just going to name a few popular franchises that each would be into, but then I started thinking about mediums and how they’d appreciate different ones and then… all this came out lmao 😅😂. I apologize for the long walls of text! Just remember: this is your fault 😜

(Note: forgot to say, Barry would 100% be into Jurassic Park (books and movies) and would convince Hal to read the books (he definitely already watched and loved the movies)!

[localplaguenurse]

So uh idk how to present this

But blood is a substitute for eggs in baking so the substitution ratio is like 65g of blood for one egg (approx. 58g), or 43g of blood for one egg white (approx. 33g)

So that means if you want to make a vegan baked good, you can just stab yourself. I mean you consented to it right, so doesn’t that make it vegan?

Also this is totally my agenda for why vampires can eat normal food because I’m starting to get sick of “vampires can’t eat normal food” bs

Also doesn’t that mean that technically speaking. Wifey can just eat eggs as a blood substitute

Oh I knew that lmao. I wanted to be a horror author when I was younger, so I know a lot of weird facts.

Vampires can’t eat normal foods reminds me of when I watched Tokyo Ghoul when I was 14 and when they were like “we can only eat meat and coffee” my brain went down a rabbit hole of “what could a ghoul theoretically eat?” I’m not up to date with the series at all btw and again I was in middle school but hear me out regardless and assume my thought process applies to vampires.

So they primarily eat human meat but Touga (?) was fine eating Kaneki in a pinch (granted he was human before) so surely they can eat the flesh of other animals, like pigs and chickens and cows. They don’t even eat that often, so surely you can just save up money, buy a few high quality steaks every now and then, eat them raw, and be good for a while. Also, they drink coffee. Do they add milk to coffee? If they add milk, does it have to be cow’s milk, or could it be any animal milk? If they can drink milk, then does that mean they can eat cheese? And if we’re going down the road of milk, there’s no reason they can’t eat eggs, both because of the blood substitute thing and also if milk is safe to consume as an animal byproduct while not being flesh, SURELY eggs count too.

This is legitimately a thought process I had during my rather brief Tokyo Ghoul phase, and have continued to have because I haven’t read the manga to actually see why the ghouls can only eat humans or watched anything past season 1.

So my rough headcanon/worldbuilding is that vampires don’t really need to eat, but they can, it just won’t give them the nutrients needed for their new metabolism or satiate the bloodlust. Like if you wanna eat cake to keep your vampirism a secret, or because cake is delicious, then go for it. There are alternatives to drinking blood, namely consuming a high protein/iron diet through predominantly eating meat/animal products and perhaps taking like iron supplements. This will not deter bloodlust though. The only way to combat bloodlust is to either indulge in a feeding, or to lock yourself away and try to wait out the symptoms. The symptoms do fade after some time, but they will come back stronger next time if you don’t drink some actual blood in the meantime. If you have a willing participent, you can feed off of them a bit and then take iron supplements after a feeding so you don’t totally drain them. Human blood is preferable but animal blood also works.

Assume my thought process applies to wifey, but wifey also doesn’t have to do all that because Morax is kind of an infinite blood glitch because Archon and adeptus powers.

[epickiya722]

Do you have a certain moot that love a media (anime/manga) that you also love but have a very different view than you? But both of you still friends for years..... I have a moot like that.

I'm a multishipper at heart, so I love shipping from any media that I consume (especially shounen anime/manga). And all my ships are non canon m/m & f/f....My moot also love non canon ships, but only for m/f...

See, after we spend 6 months to binge read all Naruto manga (because both of us did not follow the anime when we were little), do you know what happened?

I said to them, "Wow, now I get it why people ship Naruto/Sasuke, they 're totally gay for each other. And their bond is special..." And they said, "I wish Naruto end up with Sakura and Sasuke just end up alone as the last uchiha.." And I was, 😳😮...They said : " What? Naruto and Sasuke are like brothers (platonic soulmate)...."

Like from any shounen, they can came up with het ship, I cannot get it...

When we started JJK, they said to me, "I ship Yuuji with Nobara, their dynamic is great..." And I was, "Dude, how about Maki? Nobara/Maki and Yuuji/Megumi are way more sense and better.."

They said, "I ship Maki and Yuta, sorry let's just agree to disagree on these ships...."

I answered, "Fine, let me guess, you ship Gojo with Utahime, right?"

They said, "Damn it...! I want to. I do when I first start the series. But then, JJK 0 and Hidden Inventory arc happen...And when Gojo got unsealed, the first thing he did was to got Geto's body to mourn him. And airport scene, the first face he saw was Geto...? I have to be blind to not saw the subtext. For this you won. I can't help but ship Gojo with Geto...."

What do you think 🤭?

P.s Do you understand Yuji/Nobara ship? I can still see Yuta/Maki but Yuji/Nobara.....?

I actually don't think I have a moot like that, well, in terms of shipping. My moots usually have the same ships than I do. Really the things we have different views on would be probably theories and fandoms.

Now, I'll agree on that "let's agree to disagree" thing because hey, we all do have different tastes and opinions.

Okay, fact about me! I actually haven't seen all of Naruto. Hell, I'm just finding out about movies I didn't know existed. (I only knew about... two.) But I seen enough of it to see why people ship Sasuke and Naruto. Like... there's just a lot going there with them. I actually don't get people who only view as platonic and label them as siblings. Just stop at "platonic". I have siblings and we do not treat each other the way some ships be treating each other. Some people aren't even friends with their siblings and have close bonds with them.

I feel like some people who throw the "sibling" label on ships just do it to dig at shippers like "You're the gross one" but... if you're the one who sees them as siblings despite all that subtext then wouldn't that make you the gross one?

Like, you don't have to ship it! But damn, not every ship you see you have to go "Oh my gosh, they're like siblings"!

That's just me!

Moving onto JJK!

When I watch a series, I don't watch it for ships unless it's a romance, but other than that I needs my plot. I'll have my ships along the way, but I'm here for the story and its characters.

It's the case for JJK. When I watched the first season and got into reading the manga, I did get my ships. Gojo and Geto? Yeah, that's a ship that even if you don't ship it, you have to admit that there's definitely something going on there.

Like, you can't resist it!!

This is also Utahime and Shoko for me. I couldn't resist shipping them when finding out they hang out a lot. And I'm going to be honest... and this is going to sound wild... but I don't need more in canon for them, I don't. It seems when you're not shown in canon a lot, you're safe and I need those two safe.

I'm rambling, let's more on.

Okay, about Yuji and Nobara. Hm... I can see why your friend ships them because they do have their moments in the story that is cute and all. I'm a ItaFushi shipper, but I will acknowledge that Nobara and Yuji do have a bond, too and people will ship them because of that. But do I ship them? I don't, not really. They're more like chaotic besties for me. Their vibes are different from the vibes I get with Nobara and Maki.

Those two? Had me like this 👀 during that one scene after the confrontation with Mai. Maki came to save Nobara like her knight and Nobara did not waste time calling Maki pretty.

Overall, I don't fault either of you for having the ships you have. Both of you just have different tastes, is all. And I know with Shonen, "chemistry" tends to be more between characters of the same gender, especially with M/M pairings and there's little to M/F ones and if there is, sometimes it just feels "forced", I guess. But I don't blame M/F shippers for seeing something in their ships. It's just what any shippers do.

Hell, I like rarepairs sometimes even when the characters never had an onscreen interaction.

For me, what makes me like a ship is the characters and their interactions. And depending on the vibes I feel, I either ship it or I'm more indifferent to it.

My grievances when it comes to any ship, no matter the genders, be the shippers themselves. Sometimes, folks can be too much and jerks for no reason. I separate ships from the shippers because sometimes, what if said ship is something I do enjoy or come around to? I don't want to muddle my view on a ship because of the people who aren't even responsible for the characters and the ship itself isn't bad. And not every shipper of that ship is a terrible human being.

Even if me and another person have the same taste in ships, I will block them if their behavior rubs me the wrong way.

With you and your moot! You may have different ships, but do you get along well enough?

I'm rambling again, I'll stop here. That's really all I have to say. (ノ＞▽＜)ノ

[seonghwasblr-moved]

aw cute you only post anons that agree with you. guess i couldn't have expected better.

anyway sometimes we have to be adults and face down things that may gross us out or be morally reprehensible to form real, grounded opinions on them. i didn't want to watch it based on what i heard but i did because i couldn't form an opinion based on other people's out of context screenshots and not once did it cross any lines into pedophilic content. people were blowing it out if proportion.

the point is the world doesn't revolve around twitter discourse and it's highly unlikely they knew anything about the author's behaviour before turning on the show. also "the way they talk about it"??? only woozi praised it. soobin said he watched it and wouldn't recommend it. mingi just said he watched it recently without giving his opinion. calling yourself a fan and then jumping at the chance to attack him over something that's been exposed as a bunch of lies is so shitty. please learn some critical thinking skills and stop hurling "pedophile" at people as if it isn't an actual legal accusation that has WORLDS of trauma bound up in it. actual victims deserve better than your wilful ignorance

Please tell me where I called the idols pedofiles. I only called the author of anime/manga a pedofile. I would NEVER call someone a pedofile for watching/reading an anime. All I said was I find it problematic that you would talk about a show like this to your fans, when you know a big part of them are probably underage. I also never said any of them praised the show. I said, Soobin said it was disturbing and didn't recommend it, and that from that, I understand that he understood how problematic the show is. I don't know where you understood that I attacked anyone, but okay. I can be a fan of someone and still criticize them, when I don't agree with their behavior or similar. I also explicitly said, that I didn't know the context of the Mingi mention, and therefore I didn't want to explicitly state any opinion on that.

I don't think "being an adult and facing things that may gross us out" includes watching a show with weird undertones, but okay. To me it is enough to read about the show, understand the criticism and then form an opinion. Each to their own I guess.

I'm not sure why my opinion matters so much to you, but I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Again, I don't believe that what you consume of media always equals your morals. I do however believe, that when you talk about the media you consume, you also open up for other people to critize it and you for watching it.

Also to make it clear, once again, I would never call an idol a pedofile for this. I'm not sure where you got that idea, but please let me know, so I can change the wording of it. I wouldn't want others to get the same misunderstanding.

[brainrotlesbian]

Cannibalism in Tokyo Ghoul

Now. I don’t regularly watch anime but I have seen a few and there’s one (Tokyo Ghoul) that I think about regularly, and it’s not even just that it’s pretty fucking whumpy (cause holy hell it is), but mostly cause of Hide, and the potential he had both as a character and with his relationship with Kaneki. I wanna talk about the cannibalism aspect. Yes, sometimes cannibalism has this romantic undertone, and that is something I think was sorely missed out on.

There are a few moments where cannibalism is an incredibly intimate thing. There’s one guy (forgot his name, I’m terrible with names) who is injured and requires human meat in order to heal, and he has a human girlfriend who offers herself as that meal, and so he takes a bite out of her shoulder and it brings them closer together. Hell, a ghoul wedding involves the two biting each other so deep the marks remain (which is kinky as all hell but besides the point).

But with Hide and Kaneki, things are a bit different cause Kaneki was born human and only became a ghoul after unethical experimentation following an attack by the most vicious ghoul in the city, so there’s the “I can’t let him know I’m a monster now” aspect in the series. A lot of season 1 involves Kaneki both trying to protect Hide from any attackers, now that he’s a prime target, and trying to keep Hide from figuring out he’s a ghoul now. Of course with season 2, the anime is different than the manga and for the life of me I can’t read manga, so all info about what happens then is secondhand (shoutout to my cousin for infodumping about it).

Kaneki goes nuts from cannibalizing other ghouls, transforming into this horrible centipede monster a lá Metamorphosis, and the only way to placate the effects of this transformation is to eat human meat, but Kaneki still has a bunch of angst regarding that (understandable), so while there is a veritable war between ghouls and humans, he’s hiding in the sewers. During that time, he’s approached by Hide, who informs him that he’s known Kaneki was a ghoul almost the whole time, and that he knows what needs to be done to help his friend.

Hide offers up his body, literally, and almost his life in order to help Kaneki regain his sanity. He comes to his friend, who’s lost his mind, and tells him that he’s always accepted him for who he is and that he doesn’t judge him, and allows Kaneki to take what he must. And the next time we see Hide, or, rather, when we see his face, we see his lips, lower jaw, and neck were consumed. Which is an odd area to be missing. Why would Kaneki go for that area? There certainly wouldn’t be as much meat in that area as there would be in other areas, like the forearm or the calf (not to mention the complications Hide suffered from the loss of his lower jaw and vocal cords), and the lips and neck area are typically a very intimate area to be putting your mouth, especially if it’s just a friend. And then there’s… nothing. It goes no where.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Touka (I’m not gonna be misogynistic about her) but I feel her relationship with Kaneki was better if she was kept as a sisterly figure to him, rather than a lover. Yes, she obviously cares about Kaneki, but their romance felt forced on my opinion (also the smut was a little unnecessary)

I do not have the words to properly express my feelings about this and I believe that the symbolism of cannibalism within Tokyo Ghoul shows some really intimate moments and a deep connection between those involved. There’s no other moments in the show, that I’ve seen, where a character consensually cannibalizes another and it’s a platonic or casual thing (no, I don’t think Kaneki cannibalizing Yamori was supposed to be romantic. That was revenge and to show that he snapped). Why was it romance for the m/f pairings but purely platonic between Hide and Kaneki?

[29daffodils]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

Augghh I love these games! thank you for tagging me Mickey 🥺🌸(@thisautistic)

3 Ships You Like :

1. Yohan/Moogyeong from The Shape of Your Love (manhwa by Park Nodeok)

this is my ultimate OTP. i never had OTPs before them. they'll be my rise and fall. but yeah, anyway. they. my boys.

2. Vegas/Pete from KinnPorsche The Series

they had me by the throat even before i knew kpts existed and just, well. then i watched kpts and found them and they were everything i hoped for and more. a lot of it is also because vegas and i are very much alike without the mass murder aspect 😂

3. Alan/Gaipa from Moonlight Chicken

listen, MLC is like, the best thing i've watched in a while and alangaipa gave me what i had been craving since yohan/moogyeong c. 2019 : a small rare/ghost ship with barely any screentime but that hooked people in worldwide. firstkhao's acting was just bonus. alangaipa represent everything that i want from my own life. i couldn't not love them.

First Ship Ever :

Kanata/Miyu from Da!Da!Da!

oh, these two. i was head over heels in love with them. i shipped them even when i didn't know that shipping existed or what it meant, when we didn't even have anime on TV besides the broadcast on SONY at 5pm sometimes. i just wanted them in love and happy and raising a kid together. ugh i miss them.

Last Song You Heard :

The Moon Represents My Heart, by the Moonlight Chicken cast! God do I love this song so much! It fits all the ships so well! The lyrics are gold! (I also recently found that this is a cover of the OG by Teresa Teng and that's even more beautiful??)

(also, this has been helping me visualize and write a lot of sand/ray, surprisingly enough.)

Favorite Childhood Book :

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

ahhh, well, this is embarassing. i didn't have a favourite book until adulthood actually. and it's my only favourite (as in something i've read time and again). i don't think i'll ever find another book like this one. this is it for me. nothing can ever top this. (yes, I'm very picky about my favourites lmao)

Currently Reading :

i found out this fic exists because of twitter discourse lmao, and I'm not even a dramione fan, i'll probably never read another work, but goddamn, the writing was stellar. lived up to all that hype. good stuff. (I'm almost at the end so wish me luck!)

Currently Watching :

Our Dining Table

no offence to those who love this, i loved the manga when i read it years ago, but lord was i bored to death even on the second trial at watching this lol. I'm soldiering on though, i'll get through this!

Currently Consuming :

Thai BLs

uhh... not sure what answer this demands actually, so, uhhh... lots of thai BL i guess? that's really what i've been consuming lately. i had never watched thai BLs before KPTS in 2023 so it's eye opening, they've gotten better ( i tried once before , quite a while back when a friend recommended, and i found it ridiculous so i never thought i'd actually ever watch any again lol, mostly because i never was a fan of live action BL dramas in general)

Currently Craving :

💵💵💵💵

well, i'll be honest here, money is vital and that's what I'm craving lol, i gotta feed myself and my cats and pay a 50k laptop repair bill that my company thrust on me even though it's not my fault it's damaged. anyway, essentially I'm experiencing financial doom among other unfortunate events, so here's your chance to commission a fic or donate at my KOFI so...... haha.

alright, this was super fun! I'm tagging @skyfish7 @semantics-error @justfionn @boyslovecorner @peachym00 @lilitblaukatz @ae-azile

(please feel free to ignore if you're feeling up to it!)

[yanderemeganekko]

Tag game thing because why not

Oh man, I think this is like, my whopping third or fourth original post made this year. I sometimes forget my presence here is noted by anyone because of how little I post haha- so thanks for @houkagokappa for tagging me :)

Tag 9 an amount of people you'd like to get to know better

3 ships: Gosh, the only thing I've properly shipped in the last good while has been OCs I've been making in a friend group with my boyfriend, so I have to dig pretty hard for this one. The latest one that pops to mind would probably be KazuScara. Maybe also Neuvillette/Wriothesley? I don't even know their ship names yet but it's been growing on me. And for good measure I gotta throw in KilluGon as a good oldie, that one is always gonna own my heart.

First ship ever: Sora/Riku, no joke. If I had any ships from before then I have no idea, since KH was one of the first things I got into when I got online as a wee 9(?)-year-old... would you believe me if I told you I never finished the game LOL (I promise I will someday).

Last song: Animal by Deco*27. I was working on a project earlier and wanted something lighthearted to listen to.

Last movie: I'm so terrible about watching movies, this one might actually be the first Spiderverse movie from last year. I meant to go watch a bunch of movies this summer, but then life happened, so...

Currently reading: Manga-wise, Hikaru ga shinda natsu, which I've been enjoying a ton. I've also tried to get into reading books again (with pretty middling results), so I got myself a collection of Holmes stories, and a Lovecraft collection, both which I've started.

Currently watching: Finally watching Ancient Magus Bride with some friends! I just haven't felt an itch for seasonal anime, or anime in general lately, although we did recently finish Psycho Pass with my boyfriend (I've already seen it, I just needed to show him because I knew he would enjoy it).

Currently consuming: Media, or food? If it's food, currently nothing, although I did make a (pretty wet) blueberry pie and gingerbread cookies for independence day.

Currently craving: Time with family, and a home-cooked meal made by someone else. Due to some pretty grim circumstance I'm not spending today with my family, and it's unlikely that will be the case for end-of-the-year holidays either. I've been really jealous of seeing everyone my age and even older get to be with their parents, especially since mine are all I have, family-wise... but I can't blame my misfortune on others, so I just try to make do and enjoy my time with friends.

I can't think of terribly many mutuals of mine (sorry if I forgot about you, I promise it's not you it's me) but off the top of my head, I'll just tag @spoofenshmirtz, @komaeeda and @lonery-w.

[lost-technology]

Sandworms...

So, having watched Trigun Stampede, which spared more about the sandworms / insect collective than either the original anime or the manga (the manga had stuff about it, but I don’t remember it being as detailed out), I found myself wondering about their...entire ecosystem.   The other iterations of Trigun implied other aspects Planet Gunsmoke’s ecosystem, like... toma / thomas - we are never made clear whether they are native animals or if they were genetically-engineered creatures that humans made (although some signs would point to the latter).  In Stampede it seems more clear that they came from Earth because they’re just big blue emus. (I don’t even see it being necessary for them to have fine-point genetic manipulation, looking like that, they could have been bred down in conventional animal husbandry style from emus).  There are the weird insect-birds.  We know that Kuroneko-sama is an Earth creature (the cats... ) or might possibly be God...  Peak character-design is what she is...  But in Trigun Stampede - it’s made clear that the planet is just worms all the way down.  Sandworms. Grand Worms.  The flying bugs are “worms” - apparently a larval stage.  There seems to be a gnat or other worm-type stage that hangs out in the sky.   So, I keep wondering, what is the BASE of this ecosystem?  What is the START of their food-chain?  I figure that the worms likely eat each other - big worms eating little worms eating loads of larvae.  I was reading / watching something about the sandworms in the Dune franchise some time ago (even though I have never read or watched any iteration of Dune just yet) that told me they operated with a “worms eat worms eat worms” food chain with larger worms consuming smaller worms and small worms consuming various larval stages, yet, because Life is not a perpetual motion machine, one of the larval stages started the base of the chain by suffusing minerals from the sand or something (I forget what it was).  So, I’m here contemplating the Noman’s Land and wondering if, at some stage of their development, if the sandworms / insectoids / larvae photosynthesize or do some kind of mineral suffusion to gain their base-energy.  I even wondered if their luminescence might be the result of some kind of fungus or lichen that lives inside them in symbiosis and does photosynthesis, similar to what happens with some real Earth animals.   I suppose we’ll never know unless it is brought up.