#at least Kazuya is likable

[littledancingphoenix]

Ugh. The more I read about Feng Wei, the more I have to wonder: why the HELL did they put him back on the roster for Tekken 8? There is nothing likable about this guy. Absolutely nothing.

Or did they just bring him back because they brought back Leroy?

Honestly, I hope Leroy kicks his ass.

[ashen-sky]

Who's your favourite blue lock character?

Bachira is for comfort, but Barou is my Goat 🐐

I love Bachira, he's great. Also, recent chapter? Totally his scene, so cute. As for Barou, I'm not a big fan but i also don't dislike him. He's very interesting, but i don't think I'd rank him among my favorites.

Out of the Blue Lockers it has to be Isagi, otherwise I'd have to say Sae. I've never really given much thought as to WHY I like them, but I'm gonna try:

He's a fairly standard sports protagonist, especially at the start, at least from the anime's I've seen. He isn't a genius, he's the under dog, and he believes in teamwork (something I'll come back to). But I saw someone else point out that unlike a lot of manga/anime, they put us in his head. It helps us relate, to follow his thought process, and it makes revelations like talented learners vs geniuses feel less like technobabble.

And circling back to the teamwork thing, part of what separates him from some of the other characters is his reliance on others. Even when he uses people like Barou does, there's still a reliance that's both holding him back and pushing him forward. Characters like Kaiser and Rin don't rely on anyone, characters like Barou use people, and characters like Reo and Nagi rely too heavily on others. Isagi has a pretty strong balance of reliance and going it alone/using people.

In the end, that's what's going to make him the best striker, in my opinion. For tricks like planet hotline he has to trust people, he trust Hiori, and he trusts Bachira and Chigiri too. When people won't work with him, he has to make them work for him like Barou and Kaiser. Then there are the goals that parallel the very first chapter where he can go it alone, or he could play it safe and pass, and he takes the shot.

Also! His biggest nerf is that he isn't a genius which is done really well! In an ask I answered on Heaven's Black box, I did a deep dive into the character of Miyuki Kazuya from Ace of the Diamond where I talked about his "nerf". In that vein, Isagi's "nerf" is relatively small but he's still really balanced. Normally a character who isn't a genius needs some other flaw, think Hinata (Haikyuu) being short or Yuri's (Yuri on Ice) self confidence issues, but because Isagi is surrounded by geniuses it balances out. He's in an environment where not being a genius really is the end of the world if he can't over come it. Otherwise he's perfectly likable, charismatic/ good communication, has a decent foundation, ect. Even his teamwork-ness isn't a flaw despite everything Blue Lock is.

As for Sae.

I made a post ages ago about how he and Rin remind me of the Kominato brothers, and I ADORE them. It basically comes down to the complexity of his relationship with Rin and how he's trying to protect him.

I can't wait to see more of him, a big part of why he's my favorite is because I'm invested in learning more about him. (Could say the same about Ego honestly) I'd also like to see him play with Rin and Isagi; Rin because the resolution of their relationship is going to be interesting, and Isagi because Sae acknowledged him.

Basically, I like Isagi as a main character and character in general and Sae for his relationships with others.

There's probably more I could say, but that's my general thoughts.

[robbyrobinson]

RENT-A-GIRLFRIEND (REVIEW)

This one, oh boy. It is about Kazuya Kinoshita who is about to enter college only to discover that his girlfriend Mami dumped him after dating him for about a month. Distraught over that, he discovers a rather shady app where he can rent a girlfriend. So, he ends up meeting the seemingly perfect Chizuru Mizuhara. After their first date, Kazuya, despite knowing that this was a job, grows suspicious of Chizuru and gives her a low rating. Which makes her angry.To make matters worse, Kazuya's grandmother collapses and she has the misfortune of meeting Chizuru, so they have to keep up the facade a little longer.

Characters. Kazuya himself isn't really likable. He's a pushover who everyone throws shade at. Everyone, including his own family. He can't stand up for himself; he's pretty much a loser. I get him wanting to have a real relationship, but as Chizuru pointed out to him, what she did was her job. That outburst in episode 1 was really unnecessary. He's borderline insufferable as a leading character. But a lot of that is intentional, so I can't really completely blame him for that.

The other characters are hard to really "like." Chizuru herself at the least is shown to at least see that while Kauzya can be foolish and an idiot at times, there are at least some good qualities about him. It is also good on her part that, while she is overly critical with Kazuya being the doormat he is, she does assist him with upcoming the visage of a relationship. She even stands up for him when Mami was talking smack about Kazuya. Which perfectly segues to...

Mami. Oy vey, Mami. What can I say about her? Out of all the shows I am watching this year, she is hands down the worst character in the show. On the outside, she looks bubbly and friendly almost like an angel. But on the inside, she is an utterly petty borderline sociopath.

For starters, she finds herself insanely jealous of Kazuya and Chizuru's "relationship" despite the fact that she herself dumped him in the first place under the claim that she met someone else she loved. It's her actions that led to him finding the rental app and yet she wants to destroy the (fake, but she doesn't know) relationship between the two because she cannot stand that Kazuya appeared to move on after her. She is a manipulative, verbally abusive young lady who tears Kazuya down with her words. While the show treats him as a punching bag, nothing about what she says is funny as not even the other characters humor her for it. Worse, she even forces Kazuya to apologize for her when she gets called out for her actions.

The worst part of her plot had to be when she was trying to tempt Kazuya when Chizuru was in a position where she likely would have died had it not have been for Kazuya's quick intervention. This just goes to show how much of a ruthless sociopath she is where she does not give a crap about whether someone lost their life because of her. Unlike with Chizuru where she has her own softer side, Mami doesn't have anything remotely redeeming about her. It's really because of her presence that the show feels especially cruel and I'd think that it would be better if she was written out. Maybe die in a car accident or some freakish scenario. She is trash plain and simple.

The friends of Kazuya are mostly one-note except for his childhood friend who does acknowledge that there are some good parts to Kazuya's behavior such as his determination. Kazuya's family...don't like them. His grandmother to me comes off as especially bad partially because of her trying to dip her hand between Kazuya and Chizuru. She has that snooty attitude as well which also makes her hateable in my eyes. Otherwise, characters are hit or miss.

Voice work is also fine as is the animation. It isn't amazing by any means, but it services the show well. Comedy is hit or miss because it revolves around the misgivings of the MC and if you don't care for that kind of humor, it can come off as painful.

6/10

[pitchtocontact]

fortress

more misawa thoughts. all aboard the sad bullshit train.

Miyuki is self conscious and nervous about himself and his actions. He’s scared of letting people down, of being abandoned and left behind. So he tries extra hard, puts up this really over-confident front and creates the person he thinks he needs to be for other people. He has a lot of slip-ups though. When he’s not playing baseball, not around his team, he’s pretty shy. He doesn’t know how to deal with people outside of this very specific bubble he’s made for himself. He has no idea how to start talking to people, so he comes off as stand-offish. People avoid him, and he takes it personally. He thinks he’s probably not very likable, in general. It hurts, but he’s used to it. It’s been his standard since he was a little kid. People like him when he plays baseball, or they’re intimidated by him, or they want to be him. He likes all of these better than not being liked at all. So he plays baseball like his life depends on it, and brushes it off as though the skills just come naturally to him.

He thinks kuramochi is probably lonely too, but not like himself. A different, self-imposed kind of loneliness. Kuramochi surrounds himself only with people he trusts, but it takes a lot for him to trust people to begin with. Miyuki just doesn’t bother with trust. Trust never gained him anything. If people were to start trusting him, he’d probably let them down, and vice versa. Kuramochi decides to trust Miyuki, though, despite it all. He doesn’t trust Kuramochi back, wouldn’t make himself vulnerable like that, but he thinks Kuramochi is a likable person, and he’s okay being lonely together for however long it takes before Kuramochi realizes he’s not worth anything close to another person’s trust. It’s fun to make him laugh, at least.

miyuki’s not afraid of many things. he’s scared of failure, when it comes to baseball. He knows it’s never his fault alone, but he bears the full weight of the failure as though it were. sometimes he’s afraid of going home, because it feels like walking into a memory he’d rather forget. mostly though, he’s just afraid of people finding out how much of a lie he is. once that happens, everyone will leave. once people see who he truly is, they’ll hate him. hate him and leave. he’s nothing special at all, he’s just a guy pretending to be interesting so people stay around. not very likable. it hurts to lie, but it hurts being left behind more. even if he has to say mean things, even if he has to push and push until he’s given the silent treatment. it’s worth it, to be accepted, in some form or another.

the alarm bells in his head ring louder and louder for every day he spends with Sawamura Eijun. from the day he met him, they were ringing. miyuki had spent years building a fortress around himself, the foundation digging deep into the ground, and the towers reaching up so high you couldn’t see the top. every inch of it covered in spikes, in traps, in signs that say “turn back now”. a chasm separates himself and his fortress from the outside world, and inside is fire. Yet, on the day he met Sawamura Eijun, the second he caught his first pitch, the first faint alarm started ringing. 

on the day he ran into him behind the shed, that alarm got a little louder. when he realized how much sawamura wanted him to catch for him, another alarm joined the chorus. it was weird to be wanted, sought out. all the other pitchers he’d worked with would shake their head at his signs, felt resigned to work with him. sawamura was the total opposite. he wanted the signs. he recognized his weaknesses and looked to miyuki to help him.

more alarms sounded, blaring, when he slammed sawamura against the wall, full of anger at his attitude toward chris, the one person he truly respected. he was revealing too much, he knew, but for some reason this kid was hard to continuously lie to. he gathered his composure quickly, and left, shaking his head to get the alarms to quiet down.

it takes a long time. a long, agonizing, painful time. sawamura had been chipping away at this hellish fortress for months and months. miyuki doesn’t get it. how much more hurt does this kid want to inflict on himself before he realizes there’s no prize at the end of this journey. just emptiness. disappointment.

despite all that, he persists. on an average evening identical to many of the average evenings preceding it, he decides to go and wrangle his pitcher from the field where he knows he’s running until he drops. the gravel crunching under his feet as he makes his way over sounds eerily similar to a sound he’s been hearing for weeks, the chipping away at his fortress walls, bits crumbling and falling as the days go on. he sees sawamura running mindlessly, as always. as he turns a corner, he spots miyuki and shouts, raggedly, “miyuki *huff* kazuya!!” He gives miyuki this dumb grin, and the second he feels his lips twitch upwards to mirror that grin, he hears a loud, thundering knock.

sawamura is still pretty far off, running towards him. miyuki laughs under his breath, feeling lightheaded and nauseous. of course, he thinks, of course he would still ask permission to enter after months of fighting just to get to the door.

miyuki has no idea what to do as sawamura trots up to him, grinning. his worst fear taking physical form, beaming at him like some poetic nonsense that miyuki refuses to acknowledge. his head hurts, his chest hurts, his eyes are unfocused even though his glasses are on. 

“hey!” sawamura says, finally close. miyuki can feel heat radiating off of him from his workout. “your glasses look weird in this light! they look blue,” he says, and reaches up, plucking them gently from his face. he turns the glasses up and down, trying to get them to reflect correctly. “see?” he says, once he gets the angle he’d been working at.

“No,” miyuki says plainly. “I don’t have my glasses on.”

sawamura does this big ugly cackle that miyuki has heard so many times. he says “oh yeah!” and slips the glasses back behind miyuki’s ears and up his nose. he feels engulfed, suffocated all of a sudden, and takes a half step back.

“well trust me, they’re definitely blue,” sawamura assures him. he feels, horrifyingly, the door to his fortress start to creak slowly open.

“i’ll never be sure, though, since I’m either wearing them, or blind, idiot,” he says, and starts walking back toward the cafeteria so he can look somewhere, anywhere besides sawamura’s face. he can’t talk about trust right now. his heart is beating out of his chest, he’s sweating, he thinks maybe he should run to the bathroom to vomit.

he’s stopped by a tugging from the back of his shirt. he doesn’t turn around, he doesn’t think he can.

“something’s up with you. are you...did you hurt yourself again?” sawamura stomps around until he’s standing in front of miyuki, hands on his hips. he points a finger right at miyuki’s nose, an inch, a centimeter away from touching. miyuki goes a little cross-eyes and flinches as he does it.

“I’m...no? I’m not injured, sawamura. You think i’d be able to get away with that again?” he steps back again, toward the field. he feels overwhelmingly trapped. he feels annoyingly close to crying, eyes stinging. he sniffs, hiding his emotions by rolling his eyes.

“Yes! You’re really good at that kind of thing! Hiding stuff from people, not showing your emotions to anyone,” he says, following Miyuki with his finger still pointed right at his face. “You lie to make everyone feel better, but you just hurt yourself more!”

Miyuki, at this point, is visibly shaking, which Sawamura sees. He huffs, reaches his hand out and grabs one of his shaking wrists, lifting it up between them. “See? Something’s wrong, and you’re not telling me what it is! Don’t lie to me, Miyuki Kazuya!” Sawamura wiggles his wrist a little, but not too much. Miyuki thinks maybe he’s being careful incase his wrist is the part of him that’s hurt. That thought makes him shake more, and he feels Sawamura let go quickly. “Sorry!” he yelps, “Did that hurt?”

Alarms, alarms, alarms. He can barely hear Sawamura. He looks up, down, to his sides, anywhere else. He steps back and back and back but Sawamura isn’t getting farther away. His back hits a fence, the chainlink rattling, and he thinks Sawamura probably jumped a lot of these fences to get to that fortress door, barbed wires at the top and electric currents running through them. But he’s right here, standing on the same side of the fence as him.

“You look really scared right now, Miyuki,” Sawamura says, confused. “You’re acting really weird. I mean, you’re always weird and mean and stuff, but you’re being really weird.”

Miyuki huffs, looking to the side and hoping desperately for some sarcasm to claw it’s way out of his mouth. “Your face is pretty scary, you know. And I’m not the only one acting weird,” he says, “Your--” 

The foundation suddenly shifts under him, a fault in the ground rips open and the high towers quiver back and forth for a moment before suddenly snapping like toothpicks and tumbling heavily to the ground, dust and debris rising rapidly into the air, which quickly becomes unbreathable. His eyes meet Sawamura’s, and the genuine worry he’s greeted with is the final blow, the wrecking ball blowing through his emotional barrier. He can’t finish his sentence, can’t even breathe. He just stands there stupidly staring back at eyes that suddenly have a look of realization in them, and then shock. Miyuki wonders why, for a moment, before he feels hot streaks drip down both sides of his face, meeting each other at his chin and falling down between them into the dirt. For a moment, he wishes it were blood. Wishes he was physically injured so that Sawamura could focus on that, instead of the emotional chaos he’s wreaking inside Miyuki’s mind. But as much as he’d like to think Sawamura is simple-minded, he can tell just by looking that he sees right through Miyuki, to the very center of him. Past the captain, past the catcher, past the liar. He sees Miyuki, lonely, afraid, and drained. Defeated and embarrassed.

“Don’t cry,” he says in a voice that reminds him so much of his mother that more tears start spilling. He turns his eyes away finally, so flushed with embarrassment.

“Yeah,” he says, even though there wasn’t anything to agree with. They both stand there, Miyuki staring blankly at the back wall of the dorms, and Sawamura staring at him, for minute and minutes. He can’t hear any alarms anymore, and he finds himself feeling awkward for the first time in a long time. What is he supposed to do, after crying helplessly in front of Sawamura? How does he get himself out of this? What words does he have?

They stand there. It’s awkward.

“This is weird,” Miyuki says, finally. His voice sounds gross because his nose is all clogged up. He looks back at Sawamura, but his glasses are foggy and wet from his tears. He feels Sawamura grab at his glasses again, and sees him blurrily rub them against his dirty shirt before sliding them back onto Miyuki’s face. “Gross,” he says, and weirdly he feels like crying again, but not because he’s sad. He just kind of wants to cry.

“Hey, go to your dorm. I’m gonna go get a whole bunch of rice balls and we’re gonna see who can eat the most, okay?” Sawamura asks, but Miyuki can tell he’s asking something else. Still asking for permission, even after the fortress has waved it’s white flag.

“Yeah, alright,” he says. Sawamura gets behind him and pushes him like a snow plow up to his dorm room, before turning around and running full speed to the cafeteria. He stops at the bottom of the stairs to yell, “What kind do you like!”

Miyuki sits dumbly for a moment before getting up and popping his head out the door. “Whatever’s fine with me! You can choose!”

“Kay!” and he’s run off again.

Sawamura brings back a big plate full of rice balls, and they all have his favorite fillings. He thinks maybe Sawamura thinks he’s a likable person. Maybe he trusts Miyuki. MIyuki doesn’t know much about that kind of thing. He does know that he cries more as he eats the rice balls, and that Sawamura takes his glasses off this time so they don’t get foggy, and because maybe he knows Miyuki doesn’t want to see what Sawamura’s face looks like as he cries. He knows he falls asleep sitting up with rice all over his mouth, and when he wakes up a few hours later, Sawamura is still there, looking through Miyuki’s books and things like a little snoop. He knows he’s lost this long game he’s been playing when all he does is laugh as Sawamura looks at him like a deer caught in headlights. He feels light, like he could float right through the ceiling, but before he can even manage to lift a foot off the ground, Sawamura slams down in front of him and throws playbooks in his lap.

“Teach me!” He shouts.

“It’s 3 in the morning,” Miyuki replies. “And what do you even mean, ‘teach you’?”

“I dunno,” he mumbles. “You’re always looking at these playbooks all night and day. I figure I could help, sometimes, so you don’t have to do all the work yourself. Or something.” He flips one of the books open half-heartedly, looking down.

“Um,” Miyuki says. He pauses for a long time, a war going on in his head. Sawamura probably doesn’t even understand what he’s asking of him. He swims and swims through his thoughts. He thinks about Kuramochi, and how he decides who he wants to trust, even if it’s only a few people. He thinks about his dad, and growing up alone and hurt. He thinks about how Sawamura is sitting in front of him, and what that means. His mind wars on and on, but after the battle is over and relief spreads across the survivors, the victor announces their win with a battle cry. “Okay.”

[redscullyrevival]

Kristie’s Favorite Anime of 2018

Here are the (overall) transcripts of my end of the year audio posts covering my favorite anime experiences of 2018. All audio can be located on podbean but tumblr is typically more receptive to the written word and I’m still learning how to do audio levels and editing; it makes sense if people rather read my goofy thoughts! 

As usual this is not an objective list, this is not a recommendation list, this is very much so my final thoughts and feelings on my favorite first time airing anime of the year. I tend to just go ahead and talk about series with the assumption anyone bothering to listen probably at least knows of them in passing (although I do give small synopsis), but the bulk of this is me talking in more abstract terms than if I were doing a strict review or treating this exercise as a recommendation list. This is and has always been more of a rhetorical self discussion, but hopefully a somewhat entertaining one. 

So starting from the bottom and working our way up to number one, here is my 5th favorite anime of 2018:

Run with the Wind Directed by Kazuya Nomura From Production I.G.

I really like this series and I think if the show were to end before 2018 it would very likely be higher in the ranking here, but because the second half of the series hasn't even started yet and in the name of self imposed "fairness" Run with the Wind get's the 5th spot. Because I haven't actually seen it all!

Run with the Wind is based on the Shion Miura novel of the same name and a few years back, in 2016, Miura's immensely popular novel The Great Passage or Fune o Amu, was adapted into an anime by studio Zexcs and it was amazing. So when Run with the Wind was picked up by Crunchyroll my expectations were really high - I expected really grounded, understandable, likable and believable characters and a emotional pull between the story's plot and it's, you know, metaphorical connotations and BOY was I on the MONEY!

Run with the Wind is beautiful. Run with the Wind is human - and I mean that as the greatest accomplishment I know how to give any story be it animated or live action or a film or tv show or comic or book or play or whatever - that's the top for me: and Run With the Wind is beautifully human. Frankly that's all you really need to know but yeah lets get into it I suppose.

This series is about an elite runner named Kakeru who ends up living with another student named Haiji in a bording house which is actually one of Kansai University's housings for the track team. Haiji persuades not just the reluctant but talented Kakeru to live in the old building but ALL the other occupants to join him in making a running team in an attempt to enter the Hakone Ekiden, which is one of the most exclusive marathons in Japan. Kakeru quickly learns that everyone other than himself and Haiji are complete and absolute running novices. Everyone thus starts their forward steps into a time of great growth, healing, and acceptance.

Run with the Wind is so good it's actually kind of irritating. It's irritating that I have to wait for more episodes; it's irritating how much I care and love these vastly different individual characters; it's irritating how much I understand them and desperately want them to understand each other; it's irritating how clear and effective each episode is in expressing several themes and character arcs at once; and I say "irritating" because the only thing chafing between me the viewer and the show is that I don't think enough people like it! Which is silly, I know, but true! More people need to watch this. More people need to cry every week over these self motivated self improving college boys, goddamn-it.

Its that type of Good, it's that type of show, which is why I use the term "beautifully human": I think people would benefit from this show, I want others to feel how this show has made me feel, and that's an odd mark for media. It's easy and common to want to shove things you like into other peoples faces and hands because you want to share it or you think they'd like it (I know because I do it all the time, I'm a part of a podcast where that's all I do!) but it's rare to find something you believe in as a universal gift.

Aspects of running, of the sport, of the literal function and action and then the abstract concept and the purpose of RUNNING are manipulated and tooled by this series with expertise and grace; running is everything, it can be used to tell any kind of story with any of these characters and the accomplishments of that and the layers it lends to in it's visuals down to the dialogue, the characters as a team and then as individuals, and all the way into moments of silence - it's phenomenal!

And if you can't tell it's kinda hard to explain... Its something that's experienced as a whole. 

With an amazingly talented voice cast, wonderful direction, solid animation, and touching storytelling Run with the Wind is a special series that has caused me to consider and appreciate my own acts of self improvement, you know, my own history of overcoming personal and even physical obstacles within my life and it reminds me that I'm not done. I have plenty more to face and organize and get better at. 

[idolizerp]

[ LOADING INFORMATION ON 99 TRAINEE SHIZUKU…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 21 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 18 SKILL POINTS: 02 VOCAL | 08 DANCE | 00 RAP | 05 PERFORMANCE

INTERVIEW

Shizuku has a philosophy for everything, one of her favorites is one that she made up herself. “Society is often driven by vanity, and it’s love for stereotypes”. Dramatic, but true nevertheless. History has a way of repeating itself and following the same patterns. In the end, society praises and loves the innocent and naive girl. The girl who would have cute mannerisms and smiles prettily at everyone she meets. On the other hand, girls who are too opinionated and ambitious are simply misunderstood. All of the sudden words like opinionated and ambitious are synonyms with rude and bossy. To Shizuku, who she must be and who she truly is are two different things. Shizuku grew up with unrealistic expectations. Some of these expectations she had placed on herself, but most of them were created by the people around her. However, instead of fighting against it, Shizuku has made it her mission to excel and outdo any other girl on the same path to success. Therefore when she became a trainee, Shizuku had little to no complaints and had fulfilled the company’s demands with a maturity and self-awareness that surprised everyone. Of course, she hated the fact that needed put up a facade and pretend. But Shizuku was desperate to fit into the entertainment industry, to be something other than a failure.

Shizuku quickly lost the innocent and naive image within the first year of training for two reasons. One, it wasn’t working out for her, and quite honestly her acting just seemed a little off. Compared to all the other girls, her “innocence” had little weight and depth. Shizuku didn’t have the same sparkle and bubbliness as the other girls, which made it extremely hard to pretend when one actually has to compete with real innocent and naive girls. The second reason was that there were dozens of cute bubbly girls in the industry, and Shizuku knew that she was the least impressionable one. In order to debut, Shizuku needs to stand out, be more personable, be more marketable. Like a snake shedding their skin, Shizuku gradually shifts hers. With carefully crafted words and graceful demeanor, Shizuku suddenly becomes the company’s sweet little girl crush. Armed with witty but courteous comebacks or candid remarks, she desperately improves on her natural ability to read the mood of other and in turn change the atmosphere within a setting. She is more engaging now, drawing people in with her purposeful movements and mature but distant nature. They say her “openness” will be welcoming in a sea of perfectly manufactured personalities. Despite this, Shizuku genuinely tries her best to be likable. She tries her best to gain friends and earn their confidence and trust, tries to open her heart and mind as she struggles to see the world differently. The public isn’t infallible after all, they still prefer the cute girl groups. Even the groups that have a bad girl image or a girl crush image has to be sweet and adorable in interviews and variety shows.

BIOGRAPHY

⤷ TRACK ONE - Inspiration is needed

Shizuku believed that it was her destiny to dance. After all, dancing has always been the one constant thing in her life, and she hasn’t lived a single day where dancing was not a part of her thoughts, actions, and routine. Shizuku had first started dancing when she was three and had been introduced to it by her mother. One day, she was too sick and too contagious to go to daycare. Although her mother had been reluctant to bring her along to work, there was no one else who could watch at home. Shizuku has always been vaguely knowledgeable about her mother’s work. She knew that her mother worked as a ballroom dancing coach when she had given up the competitive scene and decided to open up her own dance school with one of her closest friends, but aside from those small bits of information, Shizuku knew nothing. It wasn’t until she had accompanied her mother to work, and had watched the performance of one of the “couples” through the glass walls of her mother’s office that Shizuku finally understood why her mother was always so eager to go to work in the morning. The way the couple had moved together had left her breath taken. How fluid they moved together as they balanced each other’s weight, the various positions their muscles had formed, and the quick pace of their feet had Shizuku sneaking her way into one of the beginner’s classes. Needless to say, Shizuku had infected that particular group of children that day.

⤷ TRACK TWO - Challenging Partner

Shizuku had known Kazuya all her life. Their mothers were the closest of friends, dance rivals and eventually business partners. Like herself, Kazuya had grown up in the school their mothers had built. They had learned the correct posture and the first steps of the waltz together. The studio was his second home as much as it was hers, which is why Shizuku didn’t put up a fight when their mothers’ decided to pair them up together. However, that didn’t mean that he was Shizuku’s first choice of a leader.

They argued a lot, even the sound of their heels against the wooden floor could spark the tiniest argument between them. They were too alike, silent by nature and they approached dance with the same intensity and passion. But at the same time, their sense of unity, beauty, and perspectives are too different. They’ve eventually learned to work together as time went on. Learned to compromise, listen to their other’s concerns and advise, and most importantly, forgive the each other’s mistakes and shortcomings. They had grown to respect and depend on one another, that is why it had hurt when Kazuya had hidden his injury from her.

⤷ TRACK THREE - The End of an Era

Often times the dancesport community like to make several references to marriage. They say the most difficult and dramatic part of “marriage” is divorce. In Shizuku and Kazuya’s case, it had been anticlimactic. They were seventeen, at the height of their careers when Kazuya stopped dancing. His injury kept recurring until it finally took a turn for the worst. The doctors kept saying there was little to no hope of ever recovering full movement and so Kazuya forced to stop competing. It was an adjustment for both of them; in Shizuku’s case, she needed to find a new lead. Despite that there were more girls than boys in the community, it sounded easy at the start as Shizuku received many offers for new partnerships. However, with every new leader, Shizuku was losing hope.

⤷ TRACK FOUR - Begin Again

When she was younger, Shizuku always wondered why her mother had stopped competing at an early age. It was obvious in her old competition videos that she had enjoyed competing. It was also obvious that she enjoyed the competitive atmosphere whenever she would watch her students compete. It had been baffling to a younger Shizuku to see her mother give up something she truly loved. It wasn’t until she was much older than she finally understood that life and circumstances had a way of standing in your way. It had been her mother who had sent in her audition video. She had been angry at first, but she had also understood. When she had stopped going to the studio, she knew that something drastic had to happen. She couldn’t stand the unbearable looks the other dancers, and coaches had given her. It had been maddening, therefore after the initial shock and frustration had worn off, Shizuku had agreed to go to South Korea.

In order to survive — in order to move forward, Shizuku tells herself repeatedly that she is used to being far away from home, she is used to rigorous training. The change of style throws her off balance, the things she learns in dance practice are heavily influenced by modern dance and hip-hop. Objectively, Shizuku has always been a versatile dancer; she had to be in order to dance the ten dances. She takes pride in her fluidity and ability to make the small and large moves look effortless but modern dance and hip-hop had a distinctive kind of power and sharpness that Shizuku had never thought even applying to any of her techniques. It doesn’t help nor improve her confidence that everyone around her is so over-obsessed with freestyle and musicality and if there was one area Shizuku struggled in, it was letting go, bringing her wall down, and conveying her emotions. Regardless, Shizuku throws herself into training, into learning the Korean language and culture as a means of escaping her problems. Shizuku had never thought of becoming an idol, had never thought of having concerts and fame. She most definitely had never thought she would ever sing in front of an audience. Despite this, she finds it particularly amusing how her life has turned out. The places life likes to take you, it’s certainly funny.