#because it's pretty much the best genre in terms of storytelling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thekingofwinterblog · 10 months

Text

Why Maka and Crona works so well together

Probably my favorite part about any series is relationships between characters, what dynamics they have, how shared history drastically affects how they act together, and one of the reasons i love shonen so much, is how great the genre is at taking a relationship of mutual enemies, and flipping it on its head through two very disconnected souls suddenly developing a shared understanding, and a new and powerful bond blossoming from that.

Naruto and Gaara, Luffy and... Everyone, Izuku and Todoroki, heck series like Hajime no Ippo pretty much runs on this kinda dynamic. Even Fairy Tail, which didnt exactly start off great, and only got worse, managed to squeeze out one absolutely excellent character using this dynamic in the form of Gajeel and his relationship with the rest of the fairy tail crew.

In Soul Eater, this method of storytelling is used, speciffically to create the single best relationship between characters that the franchise ever made, in the form of Maka and her rival turned bestie Crona.

I'll leave a full analysis of why the actual fight that formed this relationhip was the series highlight for another day, as what i wanna focus on here is analysing what it is that makes this relationship so great post Crona's heelturn.

What makes Maka and Crona's relationship such a special thing, both in universe and from a storytelling perspective, is that both of them compliment the other perfectly, and helps them to grow... But it's not really spelled out the way that a less talented series might do.

Now with Crona, the way Maka helps in development and growth for the demon swordmaster is pretty obvious.

Timid, shy, afraid, and would much rather stay inside a dark safe, dark shell. That is how Crona starts the series, and doesnt exactly lose these qualities once Medusa's direct influence is lifted.

But that is not what Crona actually wants.

What Crona wants is to connect with people, but is way too terrified to try, as well as risking failing while doing so.

Crona needs someone who is willing to prod and poke, but also to show gentleness while doing so.

What makes their relationship hit so hard from day 1 is how Maka understands Crona completely, and is willing, and wants to give Crona the help and support to break the hold of Medusa. But not only that, Maka WANTS to be around Crona, valuing their relationahip enough that she is willing to stand up to Shinigami to defend Crona if necessary.

Maka thusly serves as Crona's anchorpoint, the center of all character growth and developments. She brings out all the best qualities out of Crona.

But the thing is that this goes both ways, because while the way Maka brings Crona out of the dark shell and into the Light, Crona does the exact same, just in a more subtle manner.

Maka at the start of the series, is a girl that is absolutely defined by her flaws, and all of those flaws are rooted in, not too dissimilar from Crona, fear.

"I wish all of you would just die!"

The total breakdown of her parents relationship, personally witnessing her father's many affairs, and not at all having come to terms with her mother abandoning her, has left Maka with a fear of many, many things.

At the start of the series, that fear manifests itself as being terrified at Soul abandoning her, her being completely unable to find it in herself to try to make up with her father, and her inability to confront the fact her mother abandoned her.

All of it comes together and it brings out all of her worst qualities.

Her hyper agressiveness, her short temper, her complete and total inability of giving her partner and friend soul the benefit of the doubt, and so on.

It also manifests itself in several moments where Maka's fear of danger hamstrings her, like when the sheer power of Stein's soul brings her to her knees, or when her hesitation to using Soul as a weapon(out of fear that he would get hurt) during her first fight with Crona ended up with him having to block an attack in human form, which drastically inreased the actual damage he would have taken as opposed to if she had just blocked the standard way.

Even when Soul was gravely injured, this fear also manifested itself as her being completely unable to really show how devastated she was over how badly he was hurt on her behalf before she was alone with the unconcious Soul.

She was afraid of her father, of stein, of anyone else seeing just how hard things could hit her.

This is not to say that Soul and Maka had an absolute trainwreck of a relationship at the beginning of the series, quite on the contrary.

They have a relatively functioning relationship, where they act as nagging siblings, or a bickering old married couple, but there is always that ugly side of their relationship hiding just under the surface, all fueled by Maka's flaws and fears.

But there is also the opposite, moments where the two strengthen each other, or take the bullet for the other if need be.

But what their relationship does not have, is Soul helping Maka truly grow past her flaws.

Maka at the start of the series and the person she was when she faced Crona a second time was a braver soul than she was in episode 1, but she had not grown past her flaws, merely become hardened, strengthened by expiriences.

Her truly changing from the girl dealing with the aftermath of her parents divorce, into the young woman that would defeat Asura, began in that basement surrounded by pillars.

After their shared experience of connecting to the other's souls, and understanding who Crona was deep down, Maka does something she hasn't truly been able to do since her parents divorce.

She shows genuine, honest compassion and kindness withouth the fear of rejection.

Compassion, understanding, and giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

It all begins here.

This is the point where Maka really begins healing from her parents divorce, where she is finally able to truly bare her heart to another person again withouth the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she is setting herself up for failure, that was always the big problem with her and Soul's relationship.

Crona is not the only source of Maka's development in the latter half of the series, but it all began here, and Crona keeps bringing out all of Maka's best qualities just by being close to her.

Maka brings out Crona's kidness, bravery, and a deep, deep wish to connect with everyone else, while Crona in turn brings out Maka's compassionate side, her kidness, her understanding side, all of which she had very deliberately buried at the beginning of the series.

And it all culminates in the sand pit, where Maka discovers that her faith in Crona ultimately was misplaced, and she got backstabbed, just as she always feared... And rather than fly off the handle, she reacts with a display of tough love... That is rooted in understanding, and compassion.

She forgives Crona, because she understands. She knows Crona, and she knows just how deep down the scars Medusa gave bites, and so she reacts with understanding, she gives Crona the benefit of the doubt, and her support, a far, far cry from the impulsive and angry girl who screamed that All men should just die in epsiode 1 after feeling hurt by Soul's seeming betrayal.

And when she thinks Crona is about to die, the girl who was once absolutely terrified of showing anyone around her how she felt when she tought Soul might be about to die in a similar situation, and kept it all in, no longer does so, because such display of stoicism to keep face, rather than show the people you care abouy you actually love them, wasn't really worth much to begin with.

Maka Grows a lot over the course of Soul Eater, but the development that really, truly matters, is all rooted in her relationship to Crona.

Understanding, forgiveness, the bravery to take the moral high ground, to show how you truly feel rather than keep up a facade that isnt really you... To happily take the risk of being hurt by opening your heart because you know the warmth and joy that only comes by opening yourself to another person... It's a side of her that only Crona was able to bring out, the same way that only Maka was able to bring out the best aspects of Crona.

And that, is why they have the best relationship in Soul Eater.

#soul eater #maka albarn #crona gorgon #meta #croma #cromaka #soul eater evans #relationships #character development

174 notes · View notes

absolutebl · 6 months

Text

Began Beginning - Myanmar's first BL

Not So Quick Pitch (or is it a pitch?)

Cause I got a lot of thoughts

8 eps 25 min ea YouTube

Began Beginning feels very much like a first timers BL. Which it pretty much is. There’s a lot of explaining and info dumping and information that we really don’t need about the characters (or the family) especially in the first couple of episodes.

Here's your hlepful breakdown:

Mani = main boy workaholic, probably gay, acts ace

Hlyan = cute flirty bestie, smoker, closeted gay (for good reason) in love with Mani (becomes main character about 3/4 way through)

Walar = openly gay visitor recovering from a breakup who enters their codependent dynamic and things happen as a result

Thae = Mani & Hlyan’s other bestie, trans

I was tempted to say this reminded me of early Vietnamese BL, but in actuality what it reminded me of most was the stuff we got from way back in the early 2000's out of Hong Kong, or more recently from the Philippines (I'm thinking about something like The Boy Foretold by the Stars).

There is a grungy sticky authenticity to these works, of which Began Beginning is now a part. They have their own tarnished charm. For all their hiccups in storytelling and absurdities, there is an almost documentary feel to them, partly as a result of the inferior quality of production and filming (which is entirely economic). But that itself also somehow adds to the appeal.

This kind of BL is entirely the opposite of something out of Korea or GMMTV. And if you like that BL best, you aren't gonna like this product. But as much as KBL wins top ranks from me pretty consistently these days, sometimes I enjoy this kind of BL too.

The range itself keeps the genre vibrant and healthy.

So what is Began Beginning about?

Childhood best friends must come to terms with their own identities and true feelings for each other when a new boy comes to town, putting them into conflict with their families and ultimately, each other.

For the first half of this show there’s a lot of sitting across from each other and talking about life choices over yummy food and then going to tourist spots (mildly boring and not particularly important to the plot).

It changed tone about 2/3 in to be way more of a coming out family drama about forced marriages and homophobia.

And then at the very end it changed again, becoming a full on soap opera with kidnapping, crazy characterization shifts, and rescue missions.

All in all? It was a wild raw creature to consume as a binge. No kisses since this is Myanmar, but a very romantic end, so I think maybe actually worth your time? I'm certainly glad I watched it.

Recommended with lots of reservations but great respect. I’m going with a 7/10.

There is a particularly important part at the end when Hlyan talks about asking Thae to dress him as a girl to see if he was third gender because he had these feels for another boy. And how unpleasant that made him feel. I thought it was hugely impactful as a window into the boxes same sex loves in modern society forces upon us. No matter what options our culture provides for us, if the boxes are limited we feel limited too. Also, drawing a distinction between gender identity and sexual identity. Lovely bit of storytelling.

(see comments, turns out this is not the first one)

(source)

#it's wild and grungy but I enjoyed it #no kisses tho #Burmese BL #there's a tag I never thought I'd use #BL from Myanmar #Began Beginning

80 notes · View notes

chaos0pikachu · 7 months

Note

I am here actually to appreciate your post. I saw a blogger’s post saying The sign would have been ‘successful’ had it got filled with fantasy and romance and limit action to 10%. I wondered why that person, who says BL is all about romance, watched a show whose genre is action. Then I saw your post about people watching many shows to stay in fandom and I agree. Also you are right about dramas with a complex story receiving heavy criticism. Everything (even lack of proper plot or conflict) is exempted in a romance drama. No wonder most BLs are confined to ‘2 boys and their jealous & crying moments, routine conflicts enhanced by Escola or leads explaining how important Nikon printer is for their relationship’

Well damn hit me in the feels with this appreciation I'ma get all shy and shit.

I always wonder if by "successful" people mean in terms of critical acclaim, story telling, or monetarily. When it comes to Thai shows - and some please correct me if I'm wrong - it's difficult to tell how "successful" they are terms of audience reach/monetarily because there's no easily verifiable information. Like, there's Youtube numbers sure, but The Sign as an example, aired on Channel 3 what were it's ratings total on that channel? Idk, does anyone know that? Sincerely asking lol

Personally the way I like to judge a piece of media is what I call the Roger Ebert method; he often judged films based not solely on whether they were "good" or "bad but by how successfully they accomplished their goals.

If you read his review of Space Jam while it's clear Ebert doesn't think the movie is high art, "You can watch the movie on the sports and cartoon levels, and also appreciate the corporate strategy that's involved. [...] It is difficult for an actor to work in movies that combine live action with animation, because much of the time he cannot see the other characters in a scene with him. But Jordan has a natural ease and humor, an unforced charisma, that makes a good fit with the cartoon universe."

Ebert praises that the film, while filled with obvious product placement and banking on both nostalgia for the toons & star power of Jordan, accomplishes it's goal of being a family for that can be enjoyed by adults and children, and also the ability to blend techniques of live action, animation and 3D rendering.

I bring this up specifically b/c when I see "reviews" of shows in BL - the most common form of meta I see in BL fandom as a whole and that's not a knock just an observation - it's usually always about the narrative. Nothing about the filmmaking. And if there is discussion about he filmmaking it's usually misinformed or worse misinforming - no that's not what aperture means, yaoi framing isn't really a thing in film, the t-shirt is really just a t-shirt, etc, etc.

And like I get why. Fandom is more about story, what the words on a page or what the characters on screen are doing and saying. It's easier to talk about the amazing communication two characters have b/c you don't really need a film knowledge to discuss that. Which is a factor in why I think shows with lower stakes, more streamlined and straightforward plots get praised at a higher, less diligent and harsh level, than shows that are a bit more daring. They're less challenging in structure, they take less risks, so there's less to critique, and there's less room for a show to disappoint.

There comfort food, rather than trying something new at the restaurant. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, again, this is just a general observation.

To me, The Sign is miles better than Cooking Crush on a simple technical level. I only watched one episode of Cooking Crush and I found it pretty mediocre at best from all technical points: acting, editing, cinematography, directing, storytelling.

This isn't to say Cooking Crush is "bad" or that even if Cooking Crush was "bad" people shouldn't like it. I don't give a fuck if people like it, good for you chase the things that spark joy! I like lots of "bad" media, have y'all ever watched Jason Takes Manhattan?

For me, The Sign, like Space Jam, accomplishes it's goals and those were ambitious goals. An action fantasy BL that actually lives up to that premise and looks good?? The fight choreography looks great considering the obviously budget??

Like one of my issues with Laws of Attraction - aside from how painfully disinterested those kisses looked - was the fight choreography was bad.

The characters very rarely land hits in a way that looks real, or even marginally real. I can only speculate they didn't hire a stunt coordinator and/or couldn't hire stunt doubles so there was a worry of injury on set (for both reasons).

This isn't a disparagement on the actor(s) either, like stunt work is difficult and it's important to have professionals on set who can walk an actor through the steps so both them and others don't get hurt. Jackie Chan is probably one of the best known actors alive for stunt work, but watch how many times he fumbles and potentially hurts himself to the point where other actors are actively worried for him:

youtube

So yeah I'm going to give The Sign it's fucking gold star stickers b/c aside from some missteps in the gun handling - to many one handed gun fights but even then it wasn't all the time and bullets ran out of ammo! Y'all don't know how exciting for me that was to see - the fight scenes look damn good.

I understand the work that went into them, I understand the pre-production time that it took for the crew and cast to learn that and filming them well is another beast too.

There's a couple scenes with shaky cam that I dislike, but god do I love that first long take in The Sign. I love how good the CGI looks overall again, considering what is probably less budget than Black Christmas (2019).

I'm admittedly, fucking picky about what I watch b/c I'm really lazy and prefer watching films in general. I don't really like TV all that much, but if I am watching a tv show I wanna be impressed with more than just the characters talking to each other. Especially if said show is 12 hours or more.

When I'm looking at a piece of media - a comic, a novel, a film, a tv show - I'm thinking about stuff like "what were it's goals, and did it accomplish them? How was the filmmaking? How was the narrative structure? What is the time/place/culture this was made in?"

I'm not sure if people are arguing if The Sign was "successful" in terms of narratively, monetarily, or critically.

In reality we can only really speculate on how successful a Thai BL is based on data that's not not entirely accurate - social media, youtube stats, awards, etc - and even then most of that is based off international audience.

I can glean that 2gether was successful for gmmtv b/c it got a second season and a film, pretty much skyrocketed Bright and Win's individual careers but again, and created a cross country alliance for activism. But even all that is still speculation not facts (except the alliance that's a real thing that happened lol).

[This is all regardless of my own feelings regarding the show which is not kind. But feelings have nothing to do with individual discussion about how monetarily successful or accomplished a show is or isn't.]

Like it might be valid speculation on both shows but it should always come with a disclaimer of - these are not facts. Also, what is "popular" or "successful" can and will be dependent on individual countries too.

Take Cutie Pie for example, I would argue that it wasn't super "successful" here with American fans, but given how overwhelmingly popular Zee and NuNew are in both Thailand and Korea, I would then argue that the show was a success in Thailand and Korea. So was Cutie Pie "successful" or not? I would say yes!

Because "success" isn't and shouldn't be measured only by how western fans receive a piece of media.

In regards to The Sign, I'd argue it appears to be very successful with only the partial data I have at hand - social media which includes places like twitter, facebook, tumblr, the success of their sold out showing for the finale, a special episode, etc. If people argue it was unsuccessful in terms of narrative, well that's debatable and I have no interest in debating why the show is good except in terms of technical filmmaking and storytelling.

And even then it's a pointless debate like or dislike whatever just don't lie or mislead people regarding film terminology and techniques or harass people because they did like A Thing or clog up the tags with annoying posts about how you didn't like said Thing.

Overall, I don't give "reviews" on things I watch either positive or negative cause, well, I'm lazy lol, I don't believe putting how much I hate a show in it's tags and a thorough rating system would be to much work. I actually like how My Drama List rating system works, I just find most reviews on it to be Annoying lmao. Like giving Kinnporsche a 5 or below is absolutely bonkers to me but whatever es lo que es. But I also don't think my thoughts and opinions on shows are that valuable in terms of discussion.

These are mostly my general thoughts on fandom at large and it's not directly at any particular people its just observations at large across various social media platforms.

I think if you like more squeecore shows that's totally gucci, I just wish didn't proposite that 1) those are the only valid shows in terms of BL/queer media and 2) didn't overhype them to such sky high levels

#the sign the series #chaos pikachu speaks

35 notes · View notes

hadesoftheladies · 4 months

Text

FEMALE MOVIE/TV RECS (PART 3 / SCI-FI)

got inspired from a recommendation post so decided to make a list of movies and shows with female-centric stories/female protagonists. since i can't post all of the genres in one post, i'll split it into multiple posts and y'all can save or add to the list as you wish. (disclaimer: i have watched most of these, but i only know about the existence of others. not every movie/show on these lists will be my recommendation. my recommendations will be beneath the list with reasons. also some of these are way better than others in terms of storytelling/performance--which is why i'll list my faves separately):

Common Themes in the Media Listed:

-Women and girls fighting against oppressive regimes

-Unholy discoveries about the secrets of the universe

-Protagonists fighting an enemy they don't understand

-Dystopias, sickness and disaster literally everywhere

-Survivalism, action and (occasionally) comedy

-Father/daughter and older daughter/younger kid protective relationships

-How does humanity die--aliens, robots, zombies or hubris?

WHAT I HAVEN'T WATCHED:

Silo (although my sister highly recommends it)

Vesper

Invasion

Fallout

Arrival

Prometheus

Aliens

Alita: Battle Angel

The Girl With All the Gifts

The Last of Us

I Am Mother

Colossal

Rebel Moon

What Happened to Monday

Ashoka

Prey

Moonhaven

Bumblebee

The 100

Ghost in the Shell

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

Foundation (10/10) (I cannot sing its praises enough)

Annihilation (8.5/10)

The Hunger Games (10/10)

Rogue One (7/10)

PERSONAL NOTES

Colossal is actually a sci-fi comedy, but ultimately a comedy first. So it's tonally different from most of these.

While I found Mortal Engines and The 5th Wave entertaining, I can also say that they are objectively not that good. You can only enjoy Mortal Engines if you enjoy spectacle, don't mind cliches, and don't know anything about physics (or care).

I don't remember much of The Rise of Skywalker because by the time I was watching it, I had only watched Star Wars 3 out of the whole series so I was pretty lost. But I remember enjoying the fight scenes.

Please watch Foundation! Like, if you claim to love sci-fi you have to do it. Two of the three main characters are women, Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin. Gaal is a mathematical genius and Salvor is just . . . chef's KISS! Also, both are women of color! Like! If you wish there was some kind of grand-scale sci-fi like Dune with a female lead, Foundation is it! It's based on the books by Isaac Asimov (who was a rancid misogynist), and it is unfaithful to his work in the best ways! (Gaal and Salvor were not women in the books.) The only "issue" is it focuses more on American type-heroism rather than the sociological focus of the book (the point of the books was literally about how individualism does about fuckall in determining the future and it's easier to predict human behaviour on a large scale but much harder the smaller your data size). But it still makes for fantastic storytelling.

Alita: Battle Angel may be said to have the born-sexy-yesterday trope, but I'm not sure she's overtly sexualized in the movie. I looked at her designs and they look tasteful. Might be some stories issues.

If you haven't watched The Hunger Games, idk what to tell you except you should be doing that right now. If you claim to like movies in general. It's so good, I cannot begin to break down precisely why it's so good. Suzanne Collins is a genius!

#radblr #feminism #sci fi #female focused science fiction #science fiction #hadesoftheladies rec list

13 notes · View notes

ms-all-sunday · 8 months

Text

wano is so wild, because (spoilers for wano if you havent seen it yet)

wano is like the breaking point i think of everybodys tolerance with how much sanjis jokes had been flanderized at that point that the bathing scene is like the most singularly awful thing you could do to sanji fans after whole cake island, which has the strongest writing for him all of post timeskip. wci felt like an acknowledgement of everything wrong with sanji as a character, in general, for the entirety of one piece. and in theory, if oda had gone the route of other characters who similarly have internalized conflict like usopp or robin, then it would've been fixed for the entirety of one piece forever and sanji wouldve tried to adjust. this however didn't happen, for whatever reason.

Toei did the adaptational change of having sanji say "sexual harassment is never allowed" during a scene in the manga that was a pervert joke I think? although i have only read the manga for that bit and haven't seen a side by side comparison. and i think in general that people don't know that that was an adaptational change by toei, because in general toeis adaptational changes (besides the big ones) go pretty unnoticed. and in egghead none of his jokes have been bad to my memory, so uh. maybe toei bribed oda because they had enough or something. go toei!

i think what oda misunderstands post ts is that despite wanting his post timeskip time to be plot focused and not as character focused as before is that when you reduce characters down to jokes whether invalid or valid to the core of their character, it means that the time you do dedicate to that characterization needs to be more efficient and impactful. it wasn't inherently a choice that meant "less characterization = the characterization degrades". which is a commonality in how he treats all of the strawhats post ts, not just sanji.

for example zoro is another character ive seen the complaint of getting flanderized and while i wouldn't use that term for him the way i would for sanji because i do think the serious nature of his characterization post TS is the way he'd react to the given situation I also think that its a choice to make to have him not react any other way to other things. there is a part of his character that is missing, you're right.

but theres also another factor which i think oda doesnt misunderstand but hes kind of trapped himself between a rock and a hard place in regards to and that is so the group dynamic in OP is the most important thing characterization wise and oda has given himself so many characters that the group dynamic has become unmanageable on his own.

like theres fundamentally a reason wci while sporting the best sanji characterization also sported the best nami characterization and arguably the best luffy characterization, and also you get my point. wci was i think odas full on attempt to do what he did pre ts while also remaining in the "more actiony" genre of shonen he's found himself in recently and it's just. wci is a mess. but it does easily have the best characterization for every strawhat in it post ts but it also would've definitely been way stronger if it had every east blue member at least.

but it's also like- ugh. shonen is such a weird genre. i think pre ts was able to straddle the line in regards to one pieces insane relationship to the genre at large but post TS is fairing way less amicably because of the type of shonen it aims to be (fundamentally different than pre TS' shonen) and I don't know entirely why post TS has the issues it does, i enjoy post TS, but i admit that unless something drastically changes in how odas attitude towards characterization goes, post TS will forever be in pre TS' shadow in regards to characterization and also storytelling more broadly. oda continues to be a character focused storyteller, no matter how much he wants that not to be the case. post TS does have better action for the most part the action part of shonen has now blended in completely, but people don't watch one piece for action. i think the reason people like the post TS side characters as much as people do, is that oda allows himself to be fully character focused when dealing with them, despite that being at the sacrifice the mcs characterization.

#modposts #op #one piece #meta #wano kuni #wano country #whole cake island #post timeskip #pre timeskip #black leg sanji

13 notes · View notes

300iqprower · 1 year

Note

thanks for the tl;dr. While I don't agree with all your opinions, I get where you're coming from. Highkey, if you don't mind, what do think of Urobuchi as a writer? I frankly can't stand the man's writings, not only in regards to his "DeCoNsTrUcTiOn" of the magical girl genre with Madoka, but also Fate/Zero and his work on Kamen Rider Gaim.

It's......really hard for me to not blame Urobutcher himself for how Madoka basically killed the entire magical girl genre by causing it to be flooded with edgy tryhard tortureporn.

Like from an objective and analytical standpoint, Madoka is an incredible and meticulously crafted story. ...but subjectively, i fucking hate it, and then on top of that also hate it for what it (again, indirectly) did the genre and really just mainstreem anime in general to a certain, albeit obviously much lesser, degree. I feel like that's an entirely different discussion though, and really it just boils down to a case of "it's good" and "I don't like it" are not mutually exclusive. That's my read anyways.

Fate/Zero i love when watched bit by bit but dont like as a coherent story for much the same subjective reasons I'm personally not a fan of Madoka. For all my negativity I don't actually like nihilistic or cruel stories. Fate/Zero is actually what made me realize that, being the first time I had to as aforementioned go "it's good....but I don't like it." I love pretty much everything that doesn't involve Kerry, which is an issue when the whole story revolves around Kerry.

It's by no means without some serious issues though. Urobutcher wrote Artoria as a completely different character and it causes some serious inconsistencies that had harmful long-term repercussions, the banquet scene is a great setup that as I've discussed before falls completely flat in retrospect because nothing talked about was delivered on, and characters like Abs Hassan and Kariya got beyond wasted, just to name some of my issues with Zero.

But unlike with a LOT of Nasu's writing, actually just FGO writing in general frankly, those flaws don't contradict the ethos of the story. They come across less as contradictions that the writer couldnt be asked to rectify, as much as they do human error and an inability to make everything perfectly coherent and loop back around to the an overarching point. None of the things i've mentioned really detract from the message Fate Zero wants to give. They detract from the quality and consistency of the storytelling, absolutely, but not from the intended purpose of that storytelling. That sort of thing is HUGELY different than something like FGO just making up alternate history to suit it's narrative despite said narrative supposedly being about unity through our shared real world history.

I suppose what it really comes down to is that I don't feel malice or narrow mindedness from Urobutcher's works the way I do from Nasu. Kirei is the best example of this - i'd go so far as to argue Kirei's character didn't have ANY of the depth people now attribute to it before Urobutcher got involved. That's not even a dig at Nasu, that's just how much Urobutcher clearly GETS the kind of character Kirei is [now] meant to be. Same goes for Gilles and Kerry, those are characters that were perfect for someone like Urobutcher to execute (in multiple senses).

Again, Urobutcher is not a flawless writer by any stretch, no one is, and his style is by no means for everyone, because no style SHOULD be universally appealing...but I feel like he very much gives a shit. I feel like whether its all the way back with Fate Zero or his relatively more recent return for Lostbelt 3, Urobutcher gave a shit and did everything with as much purpose as he could. On that ground alone, I'm willing to be a lot more sympathetic to the parts of his writing i don't like, since I can at least convince myself those things (be it intentional choices or simple mistakes) were done in good faith.

#never thought i'd get an ask #writing analysis #gen urobuchi #fgo #fate grand order #fate zero #nasu is a hack #dont play gachas kids

19 notes · View notes

mrsfezziwig · 19 days

Text

Confessions of a K-pop Fanfic Reader (part one)

So you are right there, you've heard the first few chords, vocals, rap and beat of a song and after capturing it with Shazam, you read the name of the song except... you can't.... because it's in Hangul; that's K-pop right? And disbelief with disappointment burrows and worms into your psyche. You only listen to English language music as there's no point in hearing something you don't understand, if you wanted something that had lyrics you didn't understand you'd listen to Gregorian chant songs. Still, you feel the need to find the rest of the track but something inside you lurches because K-pop is innocent, childish, nothing but ridiculous Crayon Pop bright colours and T-ARA's "bo-peep, bo-peep, bo-peep, bo..." or the unexpectedly self aware and satirical Gangnam Style (although you haven't necessarily read the translated lyrics yet).

You can't possibly be considering taking the 'genre' seriously? But, those infectious few English lines are stuck in your damn brain and you can't stand the not knowing anymore, so you sneak away to the toilet or claim to be doing some extra work so your discomfort at the possibility of someone seeing and mocking you for it is minimised as much as you can. Hell, you watch porn more openly than this but you still open the Shazam you made a few days or weeks before, knowing you are one click or finger tap away from being completely ridiculed by your friends or family or both for being even willing to consider taking actual time out of your life for K-pop.... But with a deep breath you plunge in, probably with a Stray Kids, BTS or Ateez song and suddenly you are breathless because although you don't understand everything being said, you are completely blown away at the MV quality, which is better than some Western movies in terms of storytelling and editing. Unbeknownst to you the artworks that this small Asian country creates come ready made with the captions in English, plus a few other languages yet it's probably for the best you don't know that because the simple quality of the video takes your breath away.

Wait up though... these people can't possibly be human! How do they all look so fucking good? And how old are they? They look like fresh-faced mid-teens only they can all sing and dance? Oh, but HOLY SHIT CAN THEY RAP-RAP! [Looking at you Rapracha]. It is just impossible that these humans not only exist but most of them dance hardcore choreo whilst singing live too. Nah, nah, nah... it's all bullshit. AI is so fucking good now that these people aren't real.

That's pretty much how discovering K-pop didn't happen for me, an adult old enough to have student debt until I die, who will never own a home because fuck you baby boomers, and finds children to be more like crotch goblins designed to test every last one of the few nerves in my battered self that aren't fucked up by my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

My introduction was truly bizarre; I was married for 20 years - before my husband decided my disability meant he had free reign to fuck anyone who wanted him as I couldn't do it anymore - and my now ex-husband's co-worker had a daughter who wrote fanfics. Now, I was horribly, horribly naïve and rather dumb when I agreed to be a reader, editor and kind of coach for this girl. Not once in my entire life had 'fan fiction' come up in my bubble, I went into the whole endeavour genuinely believing that Seokjin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Namjoon, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook were Wattpad characters, not real people.

I thought they were like how Reddit has it's 'marriage counselling' and 'divorce' thing that everyone knows is said on that social media platform, or that Facebook has it's passive aggressive posts bitching about something, the baby daddy/mama drama fueled by said posts, the vague sympathy grabbing status updates and fake news, or X's hate trains. Having never heard of BTS (and by having done no googling beforehand) I went into it as if these weren't real people. To say the writing was atrocious from this teen was an understatement, and I was honest about it, figuring you don't ask someone for feedback if you don't want criticism. If all you wanted was read counts, votes and comments, I could have done that multiple times a day to boost you, which it turns out was pretty much exactly what she was really wanting.

Soon though, I was reading other books from the ones recommended at the end of my current read and it staggered me just how fucking good these books were. Some of them desperately deserve to be published in the conventional way with their highly detailed and provoking writing that I still return to time and time again. However, one glaring detail eventually stood out to me as I lay in a hospital bed with IV antibiotics in one arm and opioid IV in the other, having very, very little of importance to ponder, and one thing that stood out all of a sudden, and I couldn't avoid anymore, was how no one described the characters in terms of look and age; it was as if the writer assumed everyone reading knew what they looked like already...

Now my fucking dumbass was still thinking these were 'Wattpad characters', thus there would be a master document on the app with these details, right? Please bear in mind it had been a year or more that I had been living in the misconception fog thinking these weren't real people at that point, so a master list of characters to choose from simply made sense to me.

Yep, I am kind of stupid for assuming, and yep, I trawled the Wattpad help pages for far too many hours looking for this document or link to one, which admittedly gave me something to focus on as the cocktail of pharmaceuticals made me feel nauseous and also rather high. Am I just too trusting and gullible or can anyone else see my flawed logic here?

As it began to niggle more, seeing the references to South Korea (with the incredibly amusing American way of behaving ascribed to the country that was worlds different to the USA), with Seoul, Busan and Daegu all mentioned my singular lonely brain cell bounced around my skull sparking something off in there. That's when it dawned on me this could be a kpop thing and I finally googled the most common name from the stories, Jungkook, and felt like a bucket of ice water was tipped over my head as I realised that these people were real. Yeah, yikes 😬💀

It distressed me that I had been so blasé as to read these pieces without questioning the similarities. I was even considering becoming a co-writer for the first girl until that moment. Some of this can be explained by my condition during 2018 to 2019, with multiple hospital admissions due to infections or injuries from the Ehler-Danlos Syndrome. One of the infections almost killed me because it was missed for too long and had moved into early stage sepsis. There was no way I could focus on my normal book fare of Charles Dickens and thick, detailed history books and, being truly, truly frank, Wattpad saved my fucking sanity over those two daunting and harrowing years, never demanding more than my mind could handle with all the drugs being pushed into my system.

Plus there were hundreds of thousands of stories to pick from that weren't even Fanfic, about real people or other author's characters. Although I was careful as I was passionately determined to avoid anything that I would consider debauched and invasive, the mature content option was firmly turned off, and the first sign of smut had me gone! A few kisses or implied sexual conduct squeezed through but not full smut. Hello repressed religious trauma!. The amount of stories that were not flagged as Mature Content pissed me off then and pisses me off still.

Once the shock of finding out the truth was easing a little, I decided I needed to actually watch some BTS music videos to try and understand the craziness of it all. What I never expected was just how deep the songs were and are, nor how intellectual the entire industry is because who the fuck else is making music videos based around novels like Demian in the West?

I didn't realise in addition that not only Korean would sneak its way into my brain but that the whole idol industry is interwoven with its own language. This answered many questions I had about the common jargon such as comeback, lore, promotions, era, main, lead, sub, bias, bias wrecker/s, OT#, Big4, ult, PC (photo card), fan meets, Naver, Weverse, V-Live (rip to the GOAT), Chan's Room [*sniff* Baby, you aren't in any trouble, okay? Please just come home, we all miss you and love you, please, please come back!], 1/2/3/4th Gen, and more my messed up brain can't recall so late at night and after the various narcotics that I take to function.

And those narcotics are saying no more today!

So I shall see you in part two!

6 notes · View notes

aihoshiino · 11 months

Note

hello! I really enjoy your way of looking at oshi no ko so I wanted to know your pov on something that's been bugging me throughout the manga! do you think Miyako remembers the twins being 'gods' early in their lives?? I feel that as much as her character has evolved past the whole 'i'll sell Ai's secret for money and fame as revenge' it's still weird that she, as someone who clearly was witness to something supernatural for AT LEAST a year doesn't like... bring it up at all? or seems to actually remember even...

like I can see it being explained away as 'oh maybe as they grow up they forget, so it makes no sense to bring it up now' but also I'm just curious as to when the twins stopped using that as a way to get whatever they wanted lol.

like idk I know that bringing up that bit of silly lore from volume one into the world of the movie arc is out of place at best but also! I just feel like Miyako either gaslighted herself into thinking she was delusional for a year or she's too afraid to bring it up because then she'll sound insane.

this piece of silly lore will chase me to the grave if it isn't brought up again and I need someone else's thoughts cause sometimes I feel like it was quietly retconned.... I'm rambling. anyway! I love your Tumblr!

THANK U FOR THE LOVELY MESSAGE, ANON!! I feel like i say this every single time but it really does make me so wibbly to know so many people vibe with my OnK takes to this degree lol

tragically... I do not have a clever answer for this one, unfortunately!!! Funnily enough though, I did have a bit of a chat about it recently with my friend Silvie (@relares) who has been watching the anime for the first time with me, and it kind of rattled some of my thoughts about the scene loose.

I think a lot of volume 1, while it works really well in isolation, has a lot of what me and Silvie ended up calling 'clunk' in hindsight where it's clear that Akasaka was just... not quite writing the Oshi no Ko that the story ended up becoming, if that makes sense. This is understandable given that at that point, he and Mengo were literally not working on the Oshi no Ko we ended up getting! The decision to kill Ai and re-adjust the series trajectory is one that was made during serialization and it meant the two of them had to course correct a lot of stuff extremely quickly. For the most part, I think they did a shockingly good job of handling that genre shift to the point where a lot of the more jarring elements actually just help in making that shift feel more effective - it makes the horror of Ai's death feel just as sudden and shocking and life-altering to the reader on a storytelling level as it does on a very literal one to Aqua and Ruby.

Unfortunately, it also means there's a lot of choices made in terms of like... punchlines and characterization decisions that I don't think Akasaka would necessarily have made if he had the benefit of foresight and I think Miyako is definitely a victim – or I guess more of a prime example of that.

Miyako as she ends up functioning in volume one is both shockingly different in terms of characterization compared to the Miyako we get from volume two onwards and also pretty transparently kind of just a vehicle/plot device to give the twins an adult ally without revealing themselves to Ai prematurely. The twins manipulating Miyako in such an overtly silly way is also exactly the kind of absurdist problem solving that works fine in a comedy, where your suspension of disbelief is a lot different. I think Akasaka was still very much in Kaguya-sama mode while writing those early chapters and that kind of comedy beat as problem solving bit would feel really at home in an Oshi no Ko that was more tonally in line with Kaguya-sama... but that ultimately isn't the Oshi no Ko it became, so it feels weird.

In a lot of ways, the timeskip between volume 1 and 2 is sort of a soft reset for the series in terms of tone and genre and it allows the manga to sort of smooth out a bit of that clunk going onwards. This is why I think the Sweet Today arc is the best post-timeskip arc in the manga because it's the one that best balances the comedy, drama and industry commentary in a way it never quite managed again - not that all the other arcs are bad, but they generally tip pretty far in one of those three directions in a way that leaves the others high and dry.

TO UH, ACTUALLY ADDRESS YOUR QUESTION THOUGH... I honestly think this aspect of the story has been retconned! Or at least, that Akasaka is purposely not addressing it because he realizes it was a misstep and so he's just quietly pretending it didn't happen lol. It isn't addressed even in places we would expect it to be and Miyako herself never even once mentions it even when we get peeks directly into her head, so I honestly think Akasaka kind of wrote himself into a corner with it and decided to just ignore it.

That's nowhere near as fun as an in-character explanation though so I like to think Miyako thinks it was just a tripped out dream she had once and since Ruby and Aqua don't remember it, it's just never come up again. If she got drunk enough around them, though, she'd ramble about it to them while Ruby and Aqua lock eyes with each other and just have a moment of silent sibling communication like. oh my god. did we really do that????

For as serious as it is a lot of the time, Oshi no Ko is a pretty silly manga when you get down to it, eh....

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #miyako saitou #saitou miyako

15 notes · View notes

aprilszn · 9 months

Text

AOT characters as TXT songs because I'm procrastinating and bored

Eren - Frost

There are a lot of txt songs that I think would fit Eren like with the lyrics and message but I was sold on 'Really lost my mind. Really really really really lost it'. Also love how insane this song sounds plus the uncertainty the song conveys. It fits him so well

Mikasa - Eternally

Don't go breaking my heart :(( a world in pieces :((( the gap between you and me grows :((((((( it's so Mikasa. Also the tempo switch is crazy, I think it aligns with mikasa's 'the world is a cruel place but it's also beautiful' line. The feeling of losing something and not remembering what it is just hits hard after the cabin scene in finale.

Armin - Skipping Stones

I'm heading towards the sea. The water that swallowed up our wounds will someday calm down. This song is about the rainbow after the rain, hope after a lot of suffering. I think that hope embodies Armin well. It's so good please listen to it. It's my favorite song from the album and on my top txt songs overall. I cried to this song a lot 😢

Jean - Thursday's Child has Far to Go

This is actually a breakup song but the message is applicable to any moving on from grief. I had a hard time matching Jean to txt songs but I think this fits him the best. Also one of my top fave.

Connie - Happy Fools

The vibes of this song fits Connie so much. It's just a happy song, being stupid and being unproductive but happy. Not saying that's Connie's character but the vibe of being happy first I think suits him well.

Sasha - Happily Ever After

It's about loving life even if the ending will not be good. Being happy while living is the main point of this song that fits our girl so much. Also love how it matches with Connie's

Erwin - Dreamer

Erwin is a dreamer. This song is sexy. Erwin is sexy. That's the only explanation you'll get. Listen to the song plus lyrics and you'll know what I mean 😭

Levi - Growing Pain

This song is pretty self explanatory. It's literally about growing pain and facing all the hardships life will give you and powering though it. It's a powerful song fit for Humanity's strongest soldier. One of my faves as well.

Hange - Chasing that Feeling

It's about coming to terms with fate and missing the sweet and beautiful things you had in the past. This suits my Hange very much. The lyrics with falling and shooting star also fits well I think with their last moments. Crying while typing this.

-------

Will reblog with the continuation of titan trio and yumihisu if I got motivated enough. I have a few songs listed already but it's a bit hard to connect them to the character.

Stan TXT! If you're not into kpop you'll probably like them cause they sound different. They got good discography and very diverse genre. If you're into storytelling in music, give them a listen. Their whole discography is about life and growing up so everyone can relate. You will never be disappointed.

ALSO! SOLO LEVELING IS OUT NOW. TXT SANG THE OPENING SONG (LEveL) FOR THE ANIME ADAPTATION SO GO AHEAD AND CHECK IT OUT!

2 notes · View notes

bobbyinthegarden · 2 years

Text

February Reading Wrap-Up

Doing my own little review of all of my February reads in the style of one of @isfjmel-phleg‘s posts (in no particular order)

Alec by William di Canzio

I did a whole review for this one, so I don’t feel the need to add much in terms of commentary.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

I’ve actually got a whole review in-coming for this one, which I’m in the process of writing, as I read this book as part of my 2023 Reading Challenge for the Vampires category. I gravitated towards this book because I am a big fan of genre bending, and this has that in spades: it’s historical fiction, it’s queer romance, it’s eco-feminist fiction, it’s sci-fi, it’s everything. No regrets, I had fun, more thoughts in-coming.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin

This is the second book in the Earthsea series. I absolutely adored A Wizard of Earthsea when I read it in January, and bought the second book immediately after finishing the first and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not going to write a whole review for this book, so I’ll just lay my thoughts down here. I love Tenar so much, she’s such a great character to spend 250 pages with, the story is mature and timeless, the world building is great and the prose is beautiful, plus it was great to see Ged again, and see what’s he’s up to. No notes, highly recommend to everybody. I’ve still got four other books in the series to read and I can’t wait.

Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb

I understand that I’m not the target audience for this book (the audience in question being like 7-13 year old girls), but man, this book was a slog to get through. I mentioned above when I was talking about The Tombs of Atuan that Tenar is such a great character to spend 250 pages with, and I cannot say the same about Emmie (the protagonist of this story). I have a whole review in the works for this one, but the long and short of it is that this book is basically just less interesting rehash of the original book, and I did not enjoy it.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The whiplash of reading Return to the Secret Garden and then immediately following it up with All Creatures Great and Small was quite astounding, in the best way possible. James Herriot (the pename of Alf Wright) is an incredibly compelling writer and relays his experiences of veterinary practice in Yorkshire in the 1930s with wit and charm. I feel like I learnt a lot from this book, as he is able to balance storytelling with technical language about complex medical procedures very well, but the book is also really funny at times, I was genuinely laughing out loud at the parts with Ticki Woo. I’ll probably read the other books in the series too, once I can get around to them.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

This isn’t a book as such, but a serialised comic book which has since been released together as a graphic novel. I was very into the Terry Zwigoff film adaptation when I was a teenager, and I did read the comics before, but many years ago. They’re extremely edgy. I’m quite difficult to shock, but there was some jokes that really made my mouth drop at times. Others have drawn similarities to The Catcher in the Rye and I completely see why, teen angst and alienation are major themes in both works. It’s pretty depressing and (like I said) edgy, so definitely not for everybody, but I do think it’s good.

The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Pedilla

Got a whole review coming for this one too. I definitely liked this one more than Return to the Secret Garden. The art style isn’t really my aesthetic, but it’s cute. There are things to like here, though I have very mixed feelings about Colin’s portrayal, and the book really feels like a PSA about mental health sometimes. Like I say, I’m going to write a whole review soon, and I’ll explore my thoughts in more detail then.

I also bought some self-published comic books from some other tumblr users this month, which I thoroughly enjoyed, they were:

Tender is the Night by @thequeenofbithynia

Really wonderful 1920s inspired short comic about butches in love. Was a nice palate cleanser after reading Alec (I highkey actually enjoyed it more than Alec though) with absolutely gorgeous art and illustrations, Andreas’ art style is beautiful and 100% my aesthetic. Here’s a link to where you can buy it is you’re interested.

Signals by @wuntrum

Really cool semi-relgious horror story about a girl who becomes obsessed with and begins to worship a radio tower after she becomes convinced that she can feel the word of god through electrical currents. Really cool, plus the art is also amazing. It kind of reminded me a bit of Serial Experiments Lain (which is an anime from the 90s that I really like). And here’s a link to where you can buy that one too.

#Bobby speaks #books #bookblr

12 notes · View notes

onewomancitadel · 1 year

Text

Kind of weird to wade through dark fiction vs. 'cosy' fiction discourse mostly because I think the discourse is rooted in the wrong idea (whether you find comfort in darkness or brightness). If your only metric is how much an individual piece of art caters to your own fantasies, of course you're going to end up in a squeeze over whether people find comfort in the 'right' things or if there are too many stories of 'one kind' (dark, cosy, whatever).

I know the much more scary thing is thinking about the artistic merit of art, so the retreat into personal escapism makes sense (especially when the emotional value of art is often celebrated on the basis of 'escapism'). I just think that it's natural that the debate becomes narrow; in my opinion, if something is worthy insofar as it's personally soothing, anything has the potential to be personally soothing. I find mind-bendingly harrowing cyberpunk soothing and comforting but I really don't like 'dark' unhappy romance (I can do tragic) because it thematically services different ideas, which make me feel different. But I doubt cyberpunk or horror is termed that way usually (maybe it's thought of as 'cool').

This is why I am not the sort that says 'we need more happy endings'. I need more coherent and justified endings. I need more understanding of the value of the happy ending and the transformation storytelling offers, and the vindication. My approach towards something like narrative cynicism is not 'hmm, I don't like sad things?' and I've said this over and over; tragedy should be structurally and cathartically intelligible, and where it so often goes wrong in cynical renderings is when it is neither (but desperately wants the substance of the genre).

My prevailing issues with the romance genre, say, are almost never solely rooted in the ubiquity of Happily Ever After or Happy For Now; I can understand why those vindicate the progression of the romance when it's not intentionally a dark or tragic romance. My issue is much more front-loaded on the basis of character, plot, and actual thematic substance. Lol. The average person who mocks women for reading romance novels, or romance being looked down on literarily, has very little in common with me.

Of course it's a much harder thing to think about the artistic merit of what essentially, often, amounts to escapist fantasy for a lot of people (and I'm not condemning the idea). I just think that it can end up in critical trouble pretty quickly. I'm much more interested in an author is trying to convey an idea and whether they are doing that well than I am as to how it affects the cosmic balance of dark vs. cosy literature/media. But it's a very basic thing to recognise that comfort is resonant in many different ways, and maybe isn't the best metric for whether something is like... justified in existing (and even then I think the whole mindset of scarcity in storytelling is a little weird. There are so many stories that need to be, and can be told. That's literally the point).

It's one of those topics where I think the argument goes around in circles because it's missing the bigger picture.

#stirring the pot #this is also why I don't like the 'we need more happy endings' kind of discourse #my issue is not that they wrote an unhappy ending for xyz media my issue is often that it's incoherent

1 note · View note

machinesuper · 2 years

Text

The black mirror batman

And now Wayne is back but doing something else. Also, apparently Wayne’s son from Son of the Demon (which I did read back when it was released) is Robin now - or maybe was Robin because he doesn’t appear in The Black Mirror. I believe Identity Crisis was about to begin when I last entered a comic book store on a Wednesday, but since then I’ve been tangentially aware that somewhere along the line Bruce Wayne “died” (comic book scare quotes in full effect) and Dick Grayson took over in his place. As well, though I’m not a regular reader, I am familiar with some of the changes to the title over the last several years. I’m familiar with Batman and his mythos but I don’t read his books save for special occasions - books or stories that come highly recommended or hyped. It’s not the salvation of the genre and it does stumble awkwardly in places, but simultaneously, it does get some things right and those things are worth the time of the superhero enthusiast.Īt this point, I should mention that the caveats from Batwoman apply here as well. And in some ways, The Black Mirror vindicates his sentiment. He’s proven himself to have great taste in the past and it was on his recommendation that I gave Big Questions a shot against a warehouse of reservations and came out quite pleased.

Book critic Dan Goodman, knowing my reluctance to heartily endorse the superhero genre, gave the book a pretty nice recommendation and said he thought it was one of the best examples of the genre in years (I’m paraphrasing from memory here, but I think I’m doing him justice). I mean, think how many enemies I’ve made by saying that Batwoman: Elegy was mostly awful and that All-Star Superman fell flat to me partly because Frank Quitely’s people drive me crazy.) So my general rule for this sort of thing is that I won’t review a superhero book unless 1) I really found something special in it (and I really need to do more of this) or 2) the book was recommended to me. On average, even the better books will only be able to rate an OK rating by the measures I use. And that’s why, for the most part, I don’t really review a lot of superhero books. Sometimes we just want to turn our brains off and take in an unbelievable story. I read and loved The Hunger Games, even though it wasn’t anything particularly special. We don’t expect romance novels or westerns or Elizabeth George mysteries to be Remains of the Day or Cloud Atlas. There are Good books that find themselves nestled in the genre that has been Marvel and DC’s bread and butter since the ‘60s, but they’re rare and all the more special for it.Īnd that’s fine.

Rather, the problem is that so much of superhero fiction doesn’t actually succeed. It’s not that a superhero story can’t succeed and rank among the best of the medium that would be like saying The Long Goodbye isn’t great American literature. Because there are standards of good storytelling that sort of just exist over and above genre concerns, I’m not often kind (or perhaps better: generous) to superhero fiction. The same awkwardness exists here on Good Ok Bad. But we shouldn’t expect a neck-and-neck race. Certainly, a critic might make note of Twilight's purpose and express some evaluation of how well it succeeds on its own terms. On a site that reviewed both books side-by-side, we’d expect reviewers to use at least most of the inches on the same yardstick to measure out their respective values. While it may seem unfair to compare the two books, one is entertaining trash and the other is awestriking and thoughtfully composed (at least according to most everyone who’s read it and isn’t thirteen). See? They’re both great because they both succeed within their unique contexts! After all, how far could you trust someone who rated Twilight and Brothers Karamazov as being Great Books because Twilight succeeds at its goal of being a mindless-but-amusing supernatural romance/thriller and Brothers Karamazov succeeds at its goal of being kick-ass, world-class literature that people will be talking about for hundreds of years or more. I try to extend some graces to the contexts in which these books operate, but completely divorcing genres from the general expectations of the medium would perpetrate some pretty wild discrepancies. One of the weird things about this site is that I rate genre books alongside, quote-unquote, more serious fare.

#The black mirror batman

1 note · View note

b-else-writes · 6 months

Text

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 4: Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders

Let's go a bit backwards in time to their fourth work, Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders. It ran from 1991 to 1993, concurrent with all series mentioned in my past review, and in the same world as Tokyo Babylon/ X. It feels like the real start of CLAMP's interest with shared universes, meta-textuality, and self-reference, because so much of this series is tied to your knowledge of their other work. Proto-Tsubasa? Maybe that's a bit too much credit.

Like Man of Many Faces, I had never known this existed. It had no anime adaptation (but 1 drama CD). It's out of print and was released in English by Tokyopop in the early 2000s, in two volumes comprised of 13 chapters. I read this entirely online and like with Man of Many Faces, am not likely to ever get a physical copy unless I feel like completing my collection. "Spoilers", in the loosest sense of the word.

Synopsis: Higashikunimaru Kentarou and Shukaido Takeshi are freshmen students who lead double lives as masked sentai superheroes Duklyon, protecting CLAMP School from evil! Aided by the General and the fiery Eri Chusonji, they've got to fight the fiendish Imonoyama Shopping District from world domination (and also keep being main characters in their own story!).

The Story: Listen, this is a gag manga in the purest sense of the word. It starts off mocking the repetitive nature of tokatsu and kaiju shows, which made the first volume a slog. Satirizing repetition by being repetitive is not actually funny. Volume 2 improved by introducing a wacky alien love triangle and more CLAMP self-referential humour, which did land. The manga overall feels random and aimless, and while the latter chapters do manage to pull things together, the earlier chapters really struggle. The satire isn't particularly striking or witty, it's meant to ~cRaZy and poking fun for long-term fans. I'd rate this below average. When it leans into breaking the fourth wall and mocking themselves, it lands. When it parodies Super Sentai by just...being Super Sentai, it's a poor copy.

The Themes: There are no themes here. This is light and playful and silly and a way for CLAMP to poke fun at all the genres they like. I have learnt nothing from this and I think Takeshi and Kentarou would be proud of me.

The Characters: One thing I'm realising in these CLAMP re-reads is 1) the strength of CLAMP's character writing elevates their weaker material, and 2) they copy earlier character templates into newer characters. Takeshi and Kentarou are prototype Watanuki and Doumeki "stop saying we're close but actually they're in love". And it is charming to experience the second (first?) time, especially the flash-forward at the end where they're married (almost). I prefer the put-upon, fourth wall breaking Takeshi between the two, but their dynamic really holds things together. Sukiyabashi is pretty good as a fail villain with even more fail hair. There's nothing deep about the characters, but they're entertaining and carry the paper-thin plot.

The Art: It's competently drawn, comprehensible visual storytelling, and the detailing on the Sentai suits are pretty well-done (though something about how the codpiece connects to the legs bothers me anatomically). I do love the tokatsu villain costuming, but otherwise the character designs are quite plain. It was actually a little difficult to distinguish Takeshi and Kentarou at first. Like Man of Many Faces, it's fine, it gets the job done, but its lacking compared to CLAMP at their best. The colour spreads aren't even that fun!

Questionable Elements: I do think it's funny this is the ONE CLAMP series where an adult person-teenager relationship is treated as gross, and it's (so far) the only one where the adult is a woman and the teenager is a boy. Something something ageism misogyny. But otherwise there's really nothing to talk about here. Eri is portrayed as a lovesick harpy but it's mild, as sexism in shojo goes.

Overall: I can see why Duklyon is an obscure CLAMP work. Where Man of Many Faces had sweet charm to carry it, Duklyon treads the more fickle ground of comedy, and it just doesn't always work. There's some genuinely funny moments here, and I do like Takeshi and Kentarou, but I don't think it's a necessary read for anyone but the most dedicated of CLAMP fans. CLAMP can write a really dumb funny bit when they want to, but that's about it.

#dukylon clamp school defenders #clamp

1 note · View note

absolutebl · 3 years

Photo

Top 10 BL Narratives

BLs With The Best Stories

Until We Meet Again (Thailand) - will probably always top this list. It’s a perfectly executed story, fantastic well seeded plot twists, and the only BL I would love to see adapted by other countries or read professionally translated. Adapted from a y-novel.

Seven Days (Japan) - this is a pitch perfect elegant little YA romance that stays completely true to its yaoi roots but neatly avoids all the flaws of the genre. The story is deceptively simple but allows for angst and miscommunication to develop with VERY good reason, and is almost worth studying because of that. As a romance story it is elegant. Adapted from a yaoi manga.

Color Rush (Korea) - you all know how much I love this show, I lost my mind over the allegory and the perfection of the story to the point of forgiving it certain other sins in stiffness and low heat. The world-building is too simple for it to play well to a SF/F genre only audience but it’s absolutely groundbreaking for BL. Adapted from a manhwa. (Color Rush 2 continues the story and while I don’t like it as a BL, and the plot is somewhat typical, it’s still better than most.)

Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan) - this is a deceptively simple office romance that actually has a lot to say about life, love, maturity, and pancakes. It’s charming but also deeply moving and loving in its exploration of what it means to give up, and how connection can bring with it second chances. It’s also beautifully filmed and acted. Adapted from a manga.

1000 Stars (Thailand) - all BL is romantic, but not all BL is a modern romance in the literary sense of the term, but 1k* is just that, an absolutely glorious slow burn romance that nods at BL but isn’t behooven to it. It’s just a really well executed linear story. Adapted from a novel.

Cherry Magic (Japan) - a great fluffy concept that is given gravity by some stellar performances. It’s a self worth narrative arc but played with believable charm. Adapted from a manga.

He's Coming to Me (Thailand) - such a clever take on both paranormal romance and the cohabitation trope, what I love about this is how closely the story and the supernatural conceits are married to each other. Basically boy and ghost move in together, fall in love while they investigate murder. Adapted from a novel.

HIStory 3: Trapped (Taiwan) - Taiwan often struggles with story because their BLs aren’t long enough to really get stuck in (and they don’t adapt). Trapped is different. It has a baby murder investigation that promotes conflict between the leads, so the romantic tension is between plot and character, it’s so smart. The main couple has an amorphous ending, tho. Original screenplay (I think).

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) - this has a 12th Night meet Cinderfella feel to it, plus some great story tricks like a plot that requires a historical setting (I love it when narrative elements are codependent). Original screenplay (I think).

Triage (Thailand) - a “correct the past” Groundhog Day story, that has narrative baggage I normally do not like but is so clever about time loops, I have to forgive it my hang-ups. About a doctor who must save a boy to fix reality, but not in the usual way.

(List is in ranked order of my personal preference.)

Honorable Mention

I have to mention Light On Me. The way it handled love triangles alone is narrative genius but over all it’s also had a particularly good script. The story, however, is pretty standard it was just very very well done. Same with Semantic Error.

I waffled about including Utsukushii Kare on this list too. But it’s too complicated in the end for me to pull jsut it’s narrative out as its primary plaudit. So in the end I have to just say, read this and decide for yourself.

Neither of these are strictly BL, but...

3 Will Be Free (Thailand) - such clever storytelling that builds tension with both plot and the balance of suspense and flashbacks and the developing love between both sets of characters (both the 3 being chased and the 2 doing the chasing). Original screenplay (I think).

Great Men Academy (Thailand) - body-swap means this isn’t technically BL but like 3 Will Be Free I have to talk about it because it just such a great story. For body-swap it’s particularly clever. Original screenplay (I think).

A quick word on the nature of story & narrative.

Story Encompasses

Story is not the same thing as plot, lots of people make this mistake. Plot is one element of story. Here’s a simple way of looking at narrative:

Who is in it - the characters, their interactions & development how does that drive the story

What happens - plot, how the characters move through space & time, what actions they take, who they encounter

When does it occur - and in film this tends to mean time frame (over the course of a week, a year?) but also how the narrative handles foreshadow & backstory

Where is it located - setting in time & space, includes associated culture and culture conflict, is setting intimately tied to the narrative, if location were removed, could the story still occur?

Why we care - core concept, theme & messaging

How it unfolds - motivation, tension, conflict, & consistency (AKA pace)

All BL, at its heart, is about two characters falling in love and/or fighting to maintain that love. One of the reasons to study cinematic narrative is to understand how tropes (situations) and archetypes (characterizations) can be used to formulate story under a romantic framework.

For me, good storytelling allows me to cleanly comprehend all 6 elements above, as well as the general point of view (lens & scope). I also like it when elements are married to (or dependent on) each other (for example, a plot point that could only occur in a historical setting). I like it when visuals (directing style, wardrobe, etc) as well as tropes and archetypes are used to serve the story (Korea does this) and not be the story (Thai BL pulps do this).

Some of my favorite BLs of all time are not on the above list. E.g To My Star and We Best Love because while I adore them for many reasons story structure is definitely not one of them. This is where visual pop culture can win over literary conceits - in cinema a weak story can be elevated by killer acting, directing, chemistry, visual elements, production etc... (Of course a strong author voice can carry a written work too. Terry Pratchett, for example, is weak on story but hella strong on voice.)

The purpose of BL is entertainment, I happen to be entertained by strong story, so I will often rate BLs higher because of it.

Asian Film Industries & Story Content Mechanics

Original screenplays are more common in BL over all, but my list actually leans towards adaptations. That’s because i think Thailand, the biggest BL producer, tends to do better with adaptations, so far as story is concerned.

Thailand has more y-novels than mangas, which is what they tend to adapt from.

Japan has more yaoi mangas than gay novels, so that’s what they turn into BL (AKA live action yaoi). Yaoi, historically, it pretty weak on story structure.

Korea does not have a robust original written content machine (read: v. small publishing industry that’s not queer friendly). Korea doesn’t want to spend money to acquire/option adaptation rights from Japan (for good reasons, mostly cultural, political, economic, and historical). Their stuff is equally divided between original screenplays or adapted manwhas. Their adaptations are weaker on story structure because of conflicting lengths - manwhas are long (and often unfinished at time of adaptation) but Korean BLs are short.

Taiwan has Korea’s problem of a small publishing industry, but without Korea’s money to spend on production, so they also can’t really afford to buy rights to adapt. What they have is killer talent, chemistry, and plucky enthusiasm, so boy do I wish they could get better stories.

Not Talked About

Vietnamese and Pinoy BL are both very young industries still finding their legs, much of their stuff is pretty experimental narratively (read... it waffles). Which is the main reason I don’t follow those two as closely as I do other BL producing countries. I think that it’s just a matter of them coming to terms with the 6 narrative elements in a way that translates more tight and clear on the screen. It’s gonna take some time.

(List is compiled end of Sept 2022. New BLs may change matters.)

2023 Update... Some thoughts on Pacing

Now in the above post I wasn't thinking specifically about pace. So I’m gonna add soem stuff from a recent ask I got.

Thai stuff is always gonna be slower paced than Korean stuff. Also something like 4, or 6 act structure will often FEEL slow to western viewers.

I think the pace of a show is partly a judgement call on behalf of the viewer but also heavily cultural, so let me try to explain.

Structure, Pace, Plot

Structure, or the writing of a narrative script, can be divided into plot vs pace as follows:

Plot: movement of characters through time (scene by scene) and space (setting) and the people they meet along the way (dialogue).

Pace: how the plot is executed in terms of which scenes follow which, presence or absence of flashbacks, cuts, voice over work, but also literal words on the page - staging instructions, dialogue sentence structures, monologuing and so forth.

Plot = what is written in the script

Pace = how it's written in that script

This is going to get further complicated once an entire film crew gets ahold of that script.

Plot is characters moving through time, space, and interactions in the show AKA WHAT the characters are doing.

Pace is how that script and story now in the hands of the performers is relayed to the viewers using camera angles, dialogue delivery, staging AKA HOW those characters are filmed.

Plot is the responsibility of the actors and script writers

Pace is the responsibility of the directorial and editing teams.

Thus a part of the world that has good talent but poor production values, like Thailand, Philippines, or Vietnam, will always be weaker on pacing. But they can churn out something raw and brilliant IF they have a good script.

On the other hand, a place that has great everything but just really likes to mess with story structure and style, like Japan, might ALSO have weak pacing because that isn't their focus or interest.

In the first case they lack the editing talent, money, and technology. In the second they lack the will, and just like the play with structure A LOT.

But this means each country that produces BL ends up needing to be judged on its own merits and choices (or lack of choice) IMHO.

So, I stand by my list above. I think of it as representing all round story execution to the capacity of the country of origin. They are still the best story, although by western standards that story structure may feel a little off - depending on how you feel about that country's style of BL.

I might add a few to the above list (from late 2022-2023)

Semantic Error - of course. This show is perfect, after all.

The Eighth Sense - Korea went gritty and tense, outside their comfort zone, and executed it sublimely well

Love Tractor - Korea frmly and entirely in their comfort zone but the pace never lets up

Jun & Jun - a master class in pure sappy fluffy romance but still knuckle biting tension, I was upset at the end of every episode that i couldn't watch the next one INSTANTLY, in TV that = pitch perfect pacing

Tokyo in April is... - this is paced beautifully for Japan, very tense but with Japan's signature artsy atmosphere, it's not it's fault I didn't like the story

Laws of Attraction - this is a plot-based pacing story, like UWMA, and these tend to be the ones Thailand paces best using plot to amp up tension, unfortunately that best can still feel a little weak on actual story strcture and basic plotting, e.g. they can go off the rails easily like Manner of Death or KinnPorsche, but at least this kind of Thai show keep us intrigued for the next episode.

I'm gonna mention Bed Friend here at the end, as a lesson in pacing.

If this show had stuck to its guns and stayed 8 episodes, rather than stretching to fill 10 at the last minute, it would have been a near perfect high heat show out of Thailand. But it didn't have the confidence, and it likely wanted the money from those two added episodes. It's a real shame.

I gotta say I think this is the fans’ fault.

People always want more of a good thing, or more of the same thing, it's why we get shitty 2nd seasons. Sometimes what we need for truly better cinema is LESS of the good thing - better editing, tighter scripts - because that way the pace will be superior. Especially in genres that aren’t action forward (those fuckers can just explode shit, have people running around and punching. I don’t know, some viewers like that.)

Of course Thailand (i’m looking at you mame) thinks adding in lost of sex does the same thing... action is action, after all. It’s not. Action is plot, not pace.

But that’s a whole other rant.

(source)

371 notes · View notes