#because while I am not japanese seeing all this was making me uncomfortable

[girlyteeth]

Japanese Fetishization in Landmine-Kei Communities

As landmine culture is a hot topic for discourse in the j-fashion community, I can't help but put out this criticism about it's popularity among western audiences.

Larping as an East Asian person isn't a new concept, and it ties into things like anime and/or kpop becoming popular. however I can't help but notice that it is very prevalent in the Western landmine community. I'll often see people in this community completely going out of their way to look, act, and even Google Translate their sentences to make them seem more Japanese. It's not just white people too, I see many East Asian people trying to appear in this manner as well. And I can't help but question...what is this obsession with trying to look like a different ethnicity than the one you are born with? This seems to stem from the belief that "Any information on j*rai-kei coming from Japanese ppl are always correct no matter what, therefore if I look like one then people will listen to what I have to say about it." I also see this argument where it's like "Oh actually, I LIVE in Japan so anything I say about this specific thing is correct, and I speak on behalf of the people living there." One person doesn't speak for the entire community, and many people have different opinions on the landmine-kei stereotype in Japan. Searching up the term in its Japanese writing can either give you girly makeup/dress up challenge videos, psychiatrist articles, or really offensive videos about girly fashion and the landmine stereotype.

I've always had this strong feeling that if landmine culture were to originate from any other country, no one would be interested in it at all. Some people may even feel repulsed, and worried by the thought of it. But since most "landmines" are young women in Japan who likes wearing cute frilly fashion, all of a sudden it's super trendy, cool, and "kawaii" to be a "landmine" in a self-destructive community.

It's not wrong to self-identify as a landmine if it's helpful for your personal coping. However, if you larp as Japanese and genuinely romanticize the harmful aspects of the culture as something cute, please reflect as to why you think these things. Japanese people struggling with these issues shouldn't be seen as a monolith, but as individuals of their own.

[stargloom]

hey. i dont like doing this. and i dont want to be a tumblr bitch who's wrote a callout before. but i cannot in good faith continue posting in the same community as this guy and allow him to pretend to not be genuinely a sicko. but @/bloomingduskk (who im sure will change urls after i post this is. a prosh.ipper radq.eer trans.d alongside a plethora of unfavorable unethical things. most of which being too personal to share, but enough left for me to be uncomfortable with my own silence. tw for like fucking everything lol

I never wanted to be in this position, or ever have to be the author of something like this. I am not a confrontational person or someone who enjoys drama, i’m entirely someone who goes out of his way not to get involved in such things, but due to my past public friendships with this person, and his tendencies of covering his tracks and lying about me and my friends, i feel as if it would be cowardly of me not to at least issue a warning about this user, and hope my message is conveyed well. If this was solely a personal gripe, I would not come out with a doc publically, I have no intentions of being petty, and am purposely leaving out a lot of petty issues and things that have been done to harm me personally. I only intend to talk about the actual dangers he promotes, and provide counterclaims to the narratives he tends to enjoy putting out. 

Before going further, i will be addressing him by his url, or nothing at all, as i will not be calling him by the japanese name he chooses to go by as a white person. It is against my morals. I hope that my decision doesn’t make this document more confusing than it needs to be. 

--- bloomingduskk uses Japanese names as a white person, and has done so for a while. He currently uses the name “maki” , and for the last half of 2023, went by Kaede, despite the fact that i firmly told him not to due to it being cultural appropriation multiple times, and each time he gave me an excuse, before continuing to do it. This is not a targeted attack against him, as he has said before in regard to being told not to use a japanese name, but something that i would condemn no matter who the person was. He identify(s)d as transracial. No matter the mental health issues you may have, the entire concept of “transitioning” into an ethnic minority is racist and entirely unacceptable. Here was his response to that.

And here is him self describing as transracial, and his pinned post on his old radqueer blog

^^ his discord at the time, which i and many others have personal dms with, matched exactly with his radq.ueer blogs. he cannot fucking say this isnt him i will go insane if he tries to deny this shit. He has spoken about me under the guise that I am stalking him, despite never having me blocked on anything but an old art account, and also the fact that I have gone out of my way, due to having severe morality ocd, not to scroll through or look at his content. All screenshots were provided to me secondhand, and not from my own devices, due to how severe this situation was for me, a person with ocd who he knew has ocd. At the time of these screenshots, i specifically requested my friends to block out his usernames so i didn't obsessively compulsively make myself feel sick scrolling through his blogs. (the screenshots in question here are not mine, i own a samsung galaxy, this ui does not match. I added my own annotations to the second image though.) VV his self identification as a proshipper + some stuff he had on his propara blogs (heavy tw)

^^ the first image here is in repsonse to an extremely long and thought out message my friend sent him during this period to this specific blog of his when it still existed.

his response to this was full of lies and empty promises and excuses, and plenty of vapid words he has taken back. i dont see a point in including what he had to say about this purely because he was lying through his teeth.

his twt account was probably the worst thing of his that was shown to me. i do not want to include screenshots of the things he would retweet as they were all sexually explicit imagery and posting of pedophilia, rape, beastiality, severe abuse, loli/shota content, and general dangerous and exploitative philias. i do not want to make that content more reachable to anyone than it already is . this account has been deleted. but i have been given screenshots of him posting his art there. along with the most tame thing i think he posted there. yeah

a lot of the harm he has done to my friends and i is extremely personal, far more personal than i feel comfortable airing out on a public blog that i've worked hard to distance a public personality from. so, i am not willing to spend time slowly outlining every single lie and harmful action he has done. that would make this post impossibly long, and i dont have the stomach to retrigger myself in this way. this has taken me two months to write, as i am deeply bothered by it and this entire event with him made me the sickest i'd been in a long while. do not fucking harass him. block him. im certain he's going to send himself anon asks pretending to be stargloom rabid fans or pretend to be my friends or whatever but all i want is for him to stay the fuck away from me and my friends and spaces where he pretends he isn't into vile shit. block him. dont interact. dont send him anything. just be careful of this cunt . i refuse to let him walk around as if he hasn't happily and enthusiastically promoted the most vile content one can enjoy.

im sure he's gonna scramble after this and probably start spewing revolting shit abt me which hes done at every single turn after me being upset. but he cannot pretend like nothing happened forever. thanks.

[hwaseonghwasworld]

Arranged marriage chapter 5: “Honeymoon”

Summary: being a popular model isn't enough for Y/n’s parents so they decided to get her married with a 6’1”, protective male who is also a mafia, all the secrets and lies everyone kept from her will soon come into the light, what happens once the truth comes out?

Yunho x Reader

Word Count: 850

Genre: series Mafia au!, Smut, Fluff, Angst, Media au!

Warnings: murder, graphic violence, kidnapping, cursing

Updates: Probably Thursday at 7pm BST

I asked Yunho sarcastically, "I thought married couples go somewhere alone for honeymoons," and he responded, "It's just for today doll, our honeymoon is tomorrow." I rolled my eyes at him for calling me doll, but since he's now my husband, I nodded. I didn't want to go on a honeymoon with this man, I barely know him. He helped while we were driving to my house to get my clothes for the honeymoon.

"Your dad told your manager about our honeymoon, so you don’t need to model today" Yunho stated, "but I have to model." "Wait, my dad spoke to Harin, and he didn't call me?" I ask him, perplexed. I glanced at him and realised he was lying about my dad talking to Harin. "Harin. Do you mean the person who witnessed me swap with his wife?” His glance at me confirmed my concerns that it was a lie.

"Ok let me call him right now" Yunho grabbed my arm in which I was holding my phone, our gazes locked, and he snatched my phone and performed something with it, asking, "What are you doing?" "Call me whenever you feel unsafe or if you need anything" "why would I feel unsafe?" I looked at him, still holding my phone, as he said, "It's just to keep you safe." I nodded, and as soon as we arrived at Yunho's house, Yunho's guys placed my things in a room.

"Where are you gonna sleep?" "And where am I going to sleep?" he asked, pointing to this bed. He pointed to the bed and said, "right here" I laughed a little, believing he was joking, but I could see the sincerity in his face "were married doll, we're not gonna sleep in separate rooms"

“Yunho I barely know you” “come on go get your pajamas on” Yunho took his shirt off making me cover my face and turned around “what are you doing!!” “I’m getting changed” “yeah, in front of me” “you’re my wife” he grabbed my shoulders and turned me around he took my hand away from my eyes so I could see him “keep your eyes on me doll” he kissed me and I look at him in complete shock. “WHY DID YOU KISS ME!!” He looks at me smiling “can’t I kiss my wife?” I push him off me and went into the bathroom and got changed.

As soon as I walked back out Yunho was sat on the bed looking at me “Y/n what happened on your birthday” my mood changed “did Hyunjin tell you” he nodded telling me how he just said that I forgot stuff. “Can you tell me what happened?” He beckoned me to come sit with him so I did hut I kept a distance, “when I was 19 I got hit by a car and hit my head on the concrete, they thought I was gonna die since I lost a lot of blood but I just lost my memory and tried to get as much of it back.” I didn’t want to talk about it anymore so I decided to just fall asleep, Yunho sighed and lied down aswell.

The next day we woke up and we were on our way to Japan, it was just gonna be me and him, we went to Osaka and it was beautiful, I knew some Japanese so I was the one who told the register about the booking. We got into the hotel room and i look at the scenery since it’s so pretty.

“Are you ok?” I nodded, walking towards the door and looking back at Yunho “are you coming or no” Yunho walked out with me and we went on a date, we went to a restaurant and I felt uncomfortable because right behind me and Yunho was 3 buff body guards, “what’s up doll, are you ready to order?” “Yunho why are there body guards here!?” “It’s just for protection doll, there’s no need to worry.”

I nodded knowing that he could protect me anyway, I just didn’t want my first date to look like this “Y/n I’m a huge fan can, I get your signature?” The body guards pulled him away “yeah sure” I put my arms out to get the photocard from him we were speaking Japanese so Yunho couldn’t understand what I was saying, I sign the photo card and smiled at the fan as he said thank you “is he your husband?” “Yes” I smile and nodded as Yunho looked jealous and ignored the fan, the fan walked away after thanking me one last time.

“You didn’t have to be so rude to my fan” “I didn’t even do anything” “exactly” I pointed out as he was just ignoring the nice fan. “Be nice next time” Yunho just kept a straight face and looked at the menu “what do you what to get doll?” “Can you even speak Japanese?” Yunho fries and I nodded knowing the answer. “How do you know to speak Japanese?” “Setsuna” “she taught us all Japanese” we ordered our food and we were just talking.

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[suffarustuffaru]

Hey, how are you doing? Firstly, i'll understand if you choose not to answer this ask since the subject is controversial and kinda heavy

We currently have at least two pedos in the story, like, actual pedos (the guy obsessed with Liliana and the creepy butler that i forgot the name) and then tappei's writing in some things is just... weird?

I get that subaru and beatrice are supposed to have a sibling relationship, but it just weirds me out

And he keeps adding loli characters with questionable designs too

What is your opinion on this? Its something i manage to ignore, but it still weird me out a little

hi anon!! :o thanks for asking how im doing pfft im doing pretty well - though i am a college student and its This Time of Year (end of semester) so im hanging in here lmao 👍

also ok as for the topic at hand!! yeah no i 100% hate it. ive been thinking about rezeros flaws lately because the further you get into watching/reading rezero the Clearer it gets. its mostly fine at say, arc 1, but by the time you get to arc 5 or arc 8 its like. What the hell. This again?? so yeah its 100% understandable to be weirded out and uncomfortable by it because tappeis writing is frankly Gross sometimes.

(okay also yes this ask has minor or major arc 5+ spoilers yes and also. You know. detailed discussion regarding rezero sexualizing children.)

yeah so tappei writes problematic things into rezero regarding both women and children especially, and while theres exceptions its like. very Prevalent in rezero. i talked about it a bit in my last ask if youd like to check that out!! but yeah like. i hate how children are treated in rezero. its very Problematic a lot of the time.

tappeis writing follows very similar patterns regarding treatment of children and women that you see in a Lot of other anime/manga/japanese media - and media in general, really, but im sure most anime watchers / manga readers will know what im talking about because its unfortunately That common. we're all seen this. like fan service shots, lolis and shotas, etc etc. but rezero is a little more insidious i think, just because tappei is capable of writing good characters regardless of age or gender. and theres Less of stuff like fan service - or at least rezero is a little less obvious about it or its just seen less in rezero, but thats also because media in general is so in your face about it and Unfortunately Common so rezero looks like a tiny bit of paradise in the middle of a barren desert.

i mean look at the amount of people who've thought rezero was a harem anime until they watched rezero - rezero seems like an outlier but thats only because its just a tiny bit less gratuitous and it still has a lot of good writing. and also because i am pretty sure the bar for media like this - especially media in rezeros genre (isekai) is Extremely Low. like depressingly low. and despite rezero being a deconstruction of isekai, rezero also contradicts its own damn messages sometimes about treating others like the People they are, respecting others Personhood, treating women well, etc. and its easy to see that the moment you look at some of otsuka's artwork and designs for rezero or if you look at all the rezero merch mainly based around the girls and Sexualizing the girls and its like. my god this is a little depressing to look at. rezero is just a tiny step in the right direction away from say, misogynist shounen/seinen media thats also weird about kids or something, but then rezero trips and falls on its own face after taking several right moves.

the problem is that these problematic aspects are still there, theyre still clear to see if youre paying attention, and often character arcs start well but then fall flat despite the good foundation. and then the problematic aspects hammer the already Poor/Inconsistent Writing into the ground which it makes it Even Worse.

like louis is a great character. shes fascinating, really. and then you hit arc 7 and she regresses immediately into the mind of a toddler so we only get to see her amnesiabaru/Suffering From Rbd arc in arc 6, her confrontation with subaru, and then BAM its arc 7 time and now she is an entirely different person????? i remember raging the further i got into arc 7/8 and realizing she hasnt gotten any development, she just changed instantly. it just feels lazy to me!! unless tappei proves me wrong and writes her developing but right now louis has spent two goddamn arcs being subaru and rems loli prop/daughter prop/a plot device to use in battle, basically. okay sorry i got passionate there but i SWEAR it gets on my nerves a bit. the louis/spica conflict now would feel so much more thrilling if she didnt have her weird half assed arc 7 development.

like if i was really in the fantasy world, of course i wouldnt vote to kill spica, shes innocent now. she doesnt know shit about her crimes, shes a whole other person now. she didnt do those things. she is an innocent child. i did a poll on this a while back actually haah and yeah a lot of rz tumblr, including myself, voted to let her live for this reason!! but also like. narratively speaking. i do not care about spica at all. shes a blank slate, shes just there to move the plot, she is taking up space in the plot right now and she does not need to be here forever. i 1000% want her dead hah. yeah shes this cute little kid now, but again, she got zero development. why should i care about her?? all the interesting things about her in arc 6, all the potential that couldve happened out of her gradually going from her arc 6 self to someone who genuinely cares about rem and subaru is gone. If we actually saw this change, personally id care more about spica and be invested in her character but as it stands im really Not. and i think if we saw her actually Develop a lot of us readers would be more invested to see this conflict out - not only because our Favs are fighting over it, but also because we’d actually care about spica. Like. im not sure how many people actually care about louis past arc 6, but yeah thats just my personal thoughts on it.

And also the Other big flaw with louis’s character is tappei once again being creepy regarding kids and. Okay im gonna show an excerpt from the arc 6 WN (iirc ch60 to be exact?) and yeah fair warning because it is once again sexualizing a child (louis). But also im putting it here in case anyone wants to see some vivid proof of rezero being weird about kids. Im not sure if this was cut from the LN version or not but the fact that it exists At All makes me want to put tappei on a watchlist.

And okay i know you might be thinking about how louis represents the sin of gluttony anyway and gluttony includes sexual or romantic desire too and how having louis, who looks like a child, say this makes it even more Offputting - like. Yeah. but is it Necessary? because making louis, WHO LOOKS LIKE A CHILD, say all this and then use descriptors like “expressed a bewitching smile unsuited to her age” - is this Actually necessary? You have to be careful writing this sort of thing, because a child/character who looks like a child saying things like this due to being, you know, Mentally Unwell, is different from Emphasizing What Theyre Saying By Sexualizing Them via the narration and descriptions. And why is the sexologist line there?? its just frankly uncomfortable, to an unnecessary extent, i think. I just dont think we need all this emphasis on louis’s body, louis’s apparent “arousal”, or how her smile is “unsuited to her age” (this is the narrative once again sexualizing a child), and plot-related sex/sexual content in rezero is kept to a minimum anyway so you could also literally just have louis be weird about “loving subaru” without the sexual aspect. Because she literally just said that she was aroused by him. she looks like shes twelve at most and then in the arc immediately after this one she regresses back to having the mentality of a toddler!!! and then shes subaru’s daughter there.

And again, i know that the whole point of this scene is to be off-putting and disturbing and wrong in all sorts of ways (and also subaru tries to kill louis a page later so like.) but i think if youre going to keep the appetite=sexual desire detail (which IS a good point about gluttonys nature, on its own), then this scene absolutely needed to be handled better than what we got when the character saying this is a child. you can write a child sexualizing herself because shes frankly Unwell or Doesnt Know Better, because this is fiction and you can write sensitive topics like this with proper care, but if you, the author, are sexualizing this child, then that is a Whole Other Thing.

or you can entirely dodge this whole debate over whether or not this is actually okay to write by making louis look older. but tappei went with this route once again in a sea of rezeros various child characters despite the fact that tappei then decides to link sexual desire to the sin of gluttony, which is a sin occupied in rezero by three children. I know ley has a very traumatic backstory, and the specific details are escaping me but iirc he was likely a slave or something along those lines, with implications that hes been abused by adults, so you could delicately handle what kind of abuse he Couldve unfortunately had to go through, and also of course roy and louis are clearly not okay in the head either, but. Once again. Children in rezero Not Being Sexualized in some way is a rarity. Unfortunately.

you see this pop up again and again and again. petra? Yeah iirc theres a side story where shes weird about subarus underwear. Correct me if im wrong on that but also i would not be surprised if that was a real side story. Unfortunately. Also theres Uncomfortable lines regarding petras chest.

according to rezero wiki, schult is… well iirc al makes creepy comments about schult being a shota (and of course this isnt really called out in canon), and theres also these two details about schult:

also regarding sin archbishops who look very young, capella represents lust and yet she also looks like a child. i know the point of her design is to make her a bit grotesque, but you can get that point across without making her look fifteen years old at most. this is the sin of lust too. and shes already called “Mama” in canon—she doesnt need to look that young!!**

also side note about pandora. she also looks like a child, which—its okay with her, except for the frankly lazy outfit design imo?? why is she wearing a bedsheet??**

** another edit: its easy to see capella and pandora as women also, but again, tappei and otsuka In General keep mixing up short/young women and Children and it should be easy to tell if pandora and capella are children or young women or not. but i dont feel that its clear enough given tappei and otsuka’s Track Record.

and typhons design with the see through skirt is so creepy and disturbing that im Really glad the anime fixes it most of the time. heres the fixed version:

but also the anime Really doesnt fix it as much as it probably should, because her dress is Still see-through in some shots. you can even see a bit in this shot—we dont need to see her lower body area like That!! this skirt doesnt need to be see-through!! and the bar was already in hell anyway because otsuka makes typhon’s skirt Really see-through.

theres also this photo of typhons design and its Way better without that see-through skirt.

granted, there is some good child character designs—felt’s arc 1 design frankly sucks though purely because of the way her outfit is handled. like its Really bad. it takes only like one look to see that. but her arc 5 design is a Huge Improvement:

characters like meili, schult, child subaru, etc have good designs too, but you know, this doesnt change the Creepiness regarding children, because this also applies to subaru and Some Lines about him in arc 8 iirc. if i find them again ill talk about it another time (or if someone else finds it feel free to add on to this post?) but yeah just. urgh.

regarding felt again, theres a scene in a felt camp side story where she wakes up naked in bed, post arc 1, after reinhard kidnaps her to his mansion. and yeah, the whole point of the scene is to show reinhard is kind of dense and bad at reading social cues because hes still trying to talk to her very civilly while shes covering herself with the bedsheets and she Literally just got kidnapped by him, but, say it with me, she doesnt need to be naked. she couldve woken up in bed in her usual clothes and the point still wouldve come across!! WHY is she naked??? shes fourteen.

and also like capella, liliana looks like a child. and of course theres kiritaka, as anon said, whos obsessed with liliana, and then theres clind, the creepy butler. and of course tappei has “deniability” because lilianas not Really a child (she STILL looks like one), and clinds not Really a pedophile, he just likes youthful souls!! (this is literally disgusting.) and clind may have interesting lore or whatever about how hes kind of involved with the sin archbishop of melancholy but i just dont give a shit about him when hes a pedophile that tappei keeps excusing.

also mimi? mimi is a Special Case.

the thing with mimi and her brothers is that its implied in the kararagi girl and cats eye side stories that kittypersons (??) are fully grown by age 1. theyre rescued from dying on the streets but they insist theyre “fully grown” (at age 2-3). they havent changed physically at all. and they dont change physically at all later, because now in the Present Day they all look Exactly the same as they did when they were 1, 2, 3 years old. did they grow mentally???? theyre like 14-15 in the main route. and then you look at aganau route from the lost in memories mobile game which takes place around twenty (??) years after arc 3, and mimi is a grown woman and she looks exactly the same as she did when she was 14 or 2 years old. and then this makes her romance with garfiel a little weird because hes a normal fourteen year old??? but mimis been fully grown all this time??? what??

this is mimi. yeah, she and her brothers look EXACTLY this age their WHOLE LIVES.

and meili? yeah shes definitely one of the better child characters, though she does have an Extremely Traumatic backstory and has had a habit of copying elsa. this on its own is fine and understandable. elsa was her only support and shes a child, of course shes gonna copy elsa. though iirc she also copies elsa’s “flirtatious” aspects, which is honestly also understandable given elsa is a Questionable Influence, but this detail about meili’s character gets worse when you think about it in the context of all the other child characters—

why is it that all the children tappei (and otsuka) keep sexualizing are in the same age range? theyre about 9 or 10 to 14. louis stops being sexualized when she reverts to being a toddler and becomes subarus daughter. felt stops being sexualized when she turns 15 in arc 5. emilia is the main love interest to subaru and shes apparently “mentally 14”?? and shes tappeis favorite character too? but also mimis case is so weird because shes been “fully grown” since the tender age of ONE YEARS OLD?? well also i sure hope im wrong on this point but given the amount of child characters that fall in this age range and also how Often theyre all sexualized and also the majority of them are Young Girls—yeah its. its not a great look.

(and again a side note about meili again—tappei uses similar descriptors that he used for louis: that its “inappropriate for her age” and that she’ll “attract many men in the future”. tappei stfu. please.)

subaru’s lolimancer title is kind of funny. maybe. until you remember rezero being creepy about kids. and also like—i dont like the idea of tying a word like “loli” to the literal main character of the story anyway skdnd. theres just Connotations to it.**

**EDIT: i was told that “loli” is apparently a fan translation thing, while in japanese its “little girl user”, but in an inoffensive way (like Jojo’s “stand user”). make of that what you will!! (not great that the fan translation makes rezeros already poor treatment of kids Even Worse.)

and also—was subaru, al, medium, etc turning into children really necessary?

like in subarus case, its so he can have more ego, more confidence, more recklessness while being nerfed a bit and being mistaken as the emperor’s son—but at the same time, this just feels like a watered down version of the amnesiabaru arc to me where he has more ego, more confidence, more recklessness, and hes nerfed, but then he learns to love himself more. it just feels too similar to the amnesiabaru arc imo. him turning into a child feels very unnecessary imo and it doesnt look great when you remember tappei and otsuka’s fixation on children. literally arc 8 would be exactly or almost exactly the same if subaru was back to his usual 18/19-year old self. but he has to keep being a kid right now because Plot, apparently. then again if anyone disagrees with me on this feel free to explain your stance!! but yeah as of rn i just want subaru to be back to his usual age.

also tappeis weird about young priscilla/prisca and lamia but i havent read the ex novels about them yet so i cannot go in depth 👍 but just know you get nice lovely lines (sarcasm) like “flirty way she caresses her own thighs”. great!!! thanks tappei for fanservicing underage teenage girls once again!!

and again, treatment of child characters / characters who look younger than they are in rezero—this is so so creepy also as someone who does in fact look younger than my age. and im also Very Short (4’11) too. so like. thanks tappei and otsuka!! i feel very comfortable right now 👍

and women are often infantilized in rezero which you can. Easily connect to the pedophilia, yeah. theres also age gap romances in general, and i mentioned emilia already (yeah. emisuba is an age gap romance.), but theres also ram and roswaal, frederica and clind, anastasia iirc gets described Weirdly sometimes because shes a short flat-chested woman, and recently theres been madeline and balleroy having a small moment (that feels. Romance coded. iirc.) in an arc 8 chapter.

they look like this by the way:

thanks tappei and otsuka once again for the creepy writing and designs that actively work against all the good parts of the damn story 👍

on a lighter note, i think beatrice in general + beatrice and subarus relationship is one of the better parts of rezero—iirc theres nothing creepy about it, and beatrice and subaru are very easy to read as a sister and brother relationship. theyve helped each other out in many ways, and theyve grown Very close by the time we see them in arc 5!! you could. Technically see their relationship as a father-daughter one too, but i dislike that take—not for bad reasons, but just because i feel like it doesnt fit them.

the thing with beatrice though is that shes simultaneously A Child but shes also like. 400 years old. so i do wish the narrative balanced that more post-arc 4–not in a creepy way of course. god no. but in the sense that shes mature in a lot of ways!! shes familiar with death and suffering!! shes intimately known Isolation!! that sort of thing. shes the one whos closest to subaru because of how he helped her in arc 4 (“choose me”), and also because she knows about his self-harm and heals his injuries. shes someone who can deeply understand subaru in a lot of ways in this sense, at least. the way they support each other feels more like a sibling bond to me and not a Parent-Child one just because youre not Really supposed to be leaning this much on your child for support. theres a power dynamic to a Parent-Child relationship, and beatrice and subaru are Equals.

plus echidna gaslight gatekeep girlbossed both of them, so theyre also siblings in that sense hah…

but yeah correct me if im wrong on that though regarding beatrice and subaru and im missing something?? but yeah as far as i remember and as far as i can tell, i think theyre actually one of the least creepy parts of rezero hah :,)

and then because this sort of thing is Unfortunately so common in media like rezero, we’re kind of conditioned to try and ignore it so we can keep reading or watching because its Everywhere. i still enjoy some of rezero, but its hard to ignore All Of This. and i think its important not to turn your brain off to it and recognize whats Wrong here, yeah. (unless it makes you so uncomfortable that you have to stop looking at rezero, which is very understandable.)

but yep. thats rezero for you.

[bthump]

I’m not coming from a place of hate at all, I enjoy your takes on Berserk homoeroticism and appreciate your refreshing ability to make well informed, intellectual analysis so accessible for other fans. It is an important resource to have when dudebros try to make their homophobic bias sound like good arguments. However, when it comes to your analysis of Casca, I find myself disagreeing with almost everything you say. I’m usually only reading your blog quietly because I enjoy the discourse, but I feel like I need to add my two cents. I agree that Cascas writing falls flat to a degree, but I can’t help but think that you’re downplaying her character and arc because you don’t enjoy the parts of Berserk that aren’t about homoerotic tension between Guts and Griffith. Their homoerotic tension is also what is most interesting to me, but it’s not what Berserk is inherently about. We could dismiss Casca by saying ˋMiura can’t write women´, but then again characters like Farnese exist who have an entire complex thematic arc tied to religious extremism, authoritarian character and freeing herself from dogmatism and Berserk as a story is not punishing her or asking for redemption and is instead inherently ridding itself from moralizing judgements of characters. She’s allowed to evolve by herself. As a queer person, I see myself in her. Theres so much queerness and comphet in her story, I’m sad that there’s not many meta posts about her on here. Does Berserk have ideological streaks of conservatism and misunderstands women because Miura has a misogynistic bias? Yeah, unfortunately. But the story and many of the main characters are too complex and ambiguous for me to write them all off based on how some of their arcs are not feminist enough and could need improving. Imagine writing such a complicated and long story with so many characters as just one simple Japanese dude who never leaves his house and who was born in the 70s or whatever. Like, I get separating the story from the author and impact versus intent, but dismissing Casca because of her flaws in writing is dismissing all of Berserk because of some thematic flaws. It sounds like you’re expecting the perfect story for her to be a valid female character and that’s just not possible. I for once made peace with her flaws and am not rejecting her. I think Cascas story works for what it is and I empathize with her as someone who has experienced misogyny and SA. Farny and Schierke working through her trauma magically was a nice metaphor for solidarity between women and it’s rare to see that coming from a male author, I don’t think it’s less valid just because Miura has some gender bias. Casca still experiencing PTSD afterwards is also realistic and shows that Miura is willing to give Casca enough agency to work through that by herself without magic some time in the future of the story. Her story is uncomfortable and her character arc is long and flawed, but that’s what makes it impossible for me to dismiss her. I’m a bit disappointed that so many fans on the tumblr side are willing to basically rid Griffith from all his wrongdoings but then empathize the flaws in Casca and don’t understand that maybe they also have some internalized misogyny that doesn’t make them understand that bias. Especially with the argument that I often see with She Should Have Died. Why? Because she’s uncomfortable? Maybe explore that within yourself. Other than that I am happy to have this queer part of the fandom where we don’t judge each other for liking Griffith and enjoying GriffGuts as a ship. And I hope that you don’t think too harshly of my criticism, for it is only to improve our fandom discourse culture and not to throw stones. Thank you for existing!

Okay look, while I do appreciate the appreciation for my non-casca blog content, I can't look past this coming hand in hand with a lot of pretty insulting, and frankly baseless assumptions about my motives. I'm glad you're not coming from a place of hate, but from the sounds of it you're coming from a place of presumptive judgement, and I want to address that.

I've always been very direct and clear about how I don't think someone's tastes or opinions about a story reflect on them personally. I don't judge someone's character by their fictional interests, I judge it by their words and actions.

If you're going to be interacting with my blog, I'd appreciate being extended the same benefit of the doubt.

You seem to see someone who doesn't enjoy Casca's storyline and make assumptions about why, rather than taking the reasons I provide at face value. I have explained why, very thoroughly, quite often, and quite recently, while constantly referring back to the text and to Miura's comments to justify my conclusions. I literally don't know how I can possibly be more direct about how I am discussing the narrative of a story on its own terms without going full dry academic language lol, come on.

I like to think I'm also very clear about when I'm expressing my subjective opinion (eg i dislike het romance; I'm super into romantic betrayal as a trope, etc) vs when I'm analysing the story based on direct textual evidence (eg casca has no active involvement in the narrative post-eclipse; casca's sexual abuse is eroticized; etc). I certainly try to be. And frankly it is genuinely pretty insulting that you think I'm incapable of judging Casca's story on its own merits or lackthereof, and must be over-emphasizing the flaws of her narrative because I only care about griffguts.

The truth is I genuinely believe that Griffith and Guts' relationship is the thematic core of Berserk, based on the text of the story, and I also genuinely believe Casca's storyline sucks ass in most ways. And it's okay to disagree with one or both of those takes, but yeah I'm gonna take a little bit of offense at the insinuation that I'm too biased by shipping or misogyny or both to analyse the story.

If you love Casca's story despite its flaws, good for you. I'm happy for you. I have no desire to argue with you to make you change your mind. And I don't think it makes you misogynist or ableist or racist, even though I think Casca's storyline contains all of the above to some degree - but if I was going to respond to you in the same vein that you've responded to me, that would be fair game as an assumption. It would also be fair game to assume that you only like Casca and are dismissive of or blind to many of the story's faults because you're projecting or you ship gtsca or you think good feminism is all about stanning certain designated fictional characters regardless of their actual depiction. And I think that is something wrong with fandom culture. I think those are all shitty assumptions to make about someone based on which fictional characters they enjoy reading about most. So like, straight up, you're the only one throwing stones here.

So I want to ask you: why is it that someone discussing offensive fictional tropes makes you assume they are the real misogynist? Why are you equating criticism of writing with criticism of real women, as though media trends and narrative framing don't exist? Why do you think it even matters if I "reject" a fictional character because I don't like how she's written lol?

This strikes me as the same line of thinking that leads to shutting down all criticism of misogyny in media - how dare you say this outfit is unrealistic for a martial artist, some women like to wear high heels! How dare you criticize the average husband/model-esque wife trope, some beautiful women love their average husbands! How dare you criticize comics for fridging the girlfriends of superheroes, women sometimes suffer horrible fates in real life! How dare you criticize the born sexy yesterday trope, some women are naive! etc etc etc.

And this is why it's important to have at least some understanding of narrative framing and greater media trends when discussing media on any level beyond headcanon and projection. Casca isn't real, and as a construct she is not a sensitive or realistic depiction of a traumatized woman, regardless of whether someone identifies with her. She's not a sensitive or realistic depiction of a disabled women either. There are literally "funny" cartoonish background gags involving her shoving random things into her mouth. She gets sexy fanservice while regressed to the mentality of a toddler. She is sexually assaulted by and then shipteased with the protagonist. I could go on all day lol, lbr here. I should not be obligated to brush all that aside and pretend it doesn't irritate me and sometimes offend me in order to valorize a woman who doesn't like, yk, exist.

You and anyone else are free to project on her and relate to her and sympathize with her and love her, and I think that's great and what fandom is all about, but that still doesn't make her writing strong. And I think it's worth discussing how and why her writing fails, the same way it's worth discussing any other flaw of Berserk, like Guts' character flattening with the Eclipse, or Farnese's sudden personality 180, or the awkward pacing, or the prominent scary black man trope, etc, all of which I've also discussed plenty. If you feel like I've disproportionately focused on Casca criticism, then there are 2 reasons for that: 1. I respond to asks 99% of the time, so it's what the people are asking about. 2. Casca's storyline is the most prominent bad and offensive writing in the story, like it's the number one thing that's likely to drive new potential fans away, so of course people are going to want to talk about it.

Also I've written like, a lot of meta and speculation and headcanons etc about Casca beyond criticism of her narrative lol, so if you're sad about the lack of discussion and meta about her it's ironic that you're coming to me with that complaint. Be the change you want to see in the world, start your own Casca centric blog if you want more meta about her to exist, or read more of what already exists. I'd say I'm doing my part as far as I'm concerned lol, but I don't like the way that phrasing implies that anyone has an obligation to focus their interest on any particular fictional character.

I'm glad you enjoy other aspects of my blog, and if you stick around after this admittedly irritable response I hope you continue enjoying them. But if you feel the need to engage with me to defend a fictional character from my criticism again in the future, I'd appreciate it if you engaged with that criticism directly and analytically, rather than speculating about my character and motives.

[docholligay]

I didn't cap the entire conversation because I am assuming if you are reading this, you have watched Madoka, and if you are reading this and you haven't watched Madoka, absolutely stop reading this and go watch it before I spoil you for absolutely everything.

I AM PREPARED TO GET HATEMAIL

I know how many people hate this and hate Kyubbey and all that. I am very much well aware of that. I know people get SO HOT about this.

I just think it's...interesting. My thoughts, upon watching this, is that, if we believe him, and I would argue the narrative does not give us a reason to disbelieve him--the show is focused on the inevitability of suffering, not on a specific villain--than I can't very well eat meat and own a smart phone while calling this too cruel.

BOY DO PEOPLE HATE WHEN I SAY THAT.

But the entire universe is in balance. Kyubbey goes over how the most efficient way to gather energy is from teenage girls, so they have to use less of them. Also, love that I think this is the only show I've seen where we are given a solid reason for the magical girls to be teenagers. Anyway, so they are doing as much as possible to minimize the sacrifice that must be made to save the universe, but sacrifice is required to save the universe.

It is cruel on an individual level, but mourning for Madoka is like mourning for an individual cow in the meat supply chain. Actually, less justified--you can live without eating meat, or having a cell phone mined chock full of cobalt mined by children in the DRC, but you cannot live without A UNIVERSE. I think what this is really doing is backing the theme about the inevitability of suffering, but an argument could be made that all this is talking about is the deals we make every day with our own moralities, and people and creatures we do not hate--Kyubbey specifically says they do not hate humanity--but that we don't regard as equal enough to change our lives for. I am totally guilty of this. I will not walk away from Omelas, and neither will you. That's the point of the story.

People get SO HOT at me about this, because I'm pointing out things they do not fucking like. "But Kyubbey misdirected some teenage Japanese girls!" okay and the snickers you buy with glee was harvested by 7 year olds. I'm not even trying to tell people they are inherently evil or whatever horseshit I'm about to be accused of, I'm saying we are meant to feel desperately uncomfortable with what is done because we are, in the context of this show, meant to see a human face to attach to this level of despair, and the choices around it.

IT IS SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD. IT IS DOING ITS JOB.

[alarajrogers]

This is long. I've been percolating on it a while.

As usual, when I see a discussion going on that has no nuance, where two sides have been staked out and any suggestion that one side has a point is taken as full support for the other side and everything they do... I feel compelled to try to point out the nuances. This is likely to get me a lot of nastygrams in response, possibly from both sides, but I can't take the lack of nuance any longer.

First, let's begin with this. The government of Israel is committing atrocities. Full stop. There is no way to minimize this. Nothing the civilian population of Palestine has done or could ever do would justify the Israeli government's response here. Israel, as a state, are unmitigated bad guys in this situation. Just like my country, the USA, were unmitigated bad guys for invading Iraq on flimsy pretenses and committing atrocities in the process. A nation doing terrible things doesn't mean the people of that nation are terrible. I pointed this out when the government of Russia chose to invade Ukraine. In democracies, like the US and Israel, the people bear more responsibility than in dictatorships, but as a person who protested the Iraq War and tried to vote out the president responsible for it, I am deeply, deeply uncomfortable with the idea that all the citizens of a democracy are responsible for the actions of its government.

And I am flat out appalled by the notion that non-citizens with no vote should be held responsible; treating Jews as synonymous with the current Israeli government and its awful decisions is like the US rounding up Japanese-Americans and putting them in camps because the Japanese government attacked the US. It was wrong then, it's wrong now, and if you come from an English-speaking country and you're white, 90% chance you come from a country that committed similar atrocities in the course of expanding an empire or colonizing land that didn't belong to it. (I think the Irish, Scottish and Welsh are exceptions; I do not know of any others.)

If you blame Jews worldwide for the actions of Israel, you are a shithead, and if you come from the US, England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, you are also a hypocritical shithead. France and Germany and Spain, yes, still a hypocritical shithead. Was your nation ever a colonial power? Then if you blame Jews worldwide for Israel's actions, you are a hypocritical shithead.

More to say, possibly more inflammatory, under the cut.

I have seen people I follow saying things like "We should treat Zionists in leftist spaces the way we treat TERFs, they should have no place with us." A lot of "denounce Zionism." A lot of "Zionism is evil."

I have also seen, on the flip side, the disgusting behavior of governments and institutions punishing people for making the argument that Israel should not be murdering Palestinian civilians. This is awful, and inhumane. The people of Palestine have done nothing to deserve this; the existence of terrorists committing atrocities in their name does not justify a civilian population being murdered. As an American, I feel very strongly that I would like to not be murdered for what the CIA did in South America, okay? And frankly, all Americans and anyone from any kind of colonial power should feel the same way, so this behavior where our governments and institutions give Israel free reign to murder civilians is despicable.

But Zionism does not mean "supporting every horrible thing Israel ever did." It means the belief that Jews need and deserve a homeland of their own, that the best place for that homeland is Israel, and as a result Israel has the right to self defense. (Self defense, y'all, is not a euphemism for "murder civilians." In fact murdering civilians usually is antithetical to self defense, because it radicalizes the civilian population against you. You don't fight terrorists with bombs unless your goal is to make more terrorists. Which I actually think Netanyahu's goal is, because he is a right wing war hawk who wants an excuse to commit atrocities against Palestine. That's not good for Israel, but it's good for a right wing war hawk who wants to stay in power.)

I've seen a lot of arguments that Israel are colonizers. Technically it's true but that word has certain baggage due to the motives and behavior of 90% of the world's colonizers. Specifically, when white imperialists marched in to territories occupied by other people, took them over, and killed, enslaved, drove off or ruled over the people who were already there:

The motive was greed, folks. Want, take, have. We're allowed to have everything because we're white. Nothing about "we need this or people will keep killing us."

It wasn't territory they had ever held. Territory associated with them in the lore of the world's biggest religions? Nope. It wasn't territory they'd ever had at all.

They did the colonizing themselves. A third party didn't colonize and then hand it over to them.

Israel's situation is different for multiple reasons.

For 2000 years, Jews have not been treated as full and equal citizens of anywhere they tried to live; those 2000 years have contained so many instances of Jews being murdered en masse, or driven out and all their stuff stolen, I don't think we have an accurate count of how many times it happened.

Anywhere that Jews were treated as full and equal citizens for any period of time, a change in government or in the circumstances of their neighbors could reverse this. Most Jewish citizens of Germany thought of themselves as Germans first, and thrived in Germany, until Hitler stirred up the currents of anti-semitism that apparantly always are present under the surface of a European or European-based society.

It is very easy to argue that the reason for this is that Jews were driven out of their own homeland, and their efforts to keep their own culture during the diaspora made them mistrusted strangers everywhere. Therefore, it's also very easy to argue that the solution is for them to have a homeland again.

This was why Zionists in the 40's were successfully able to get Britain to cede them Palestine. There are very good arguments from the evidence of history that Jews do in fact need a homeland of their own, because anywhere else they live may spontaneously decide to murder them for no reason, because it has been happening for 2000 years and has no evidence of stopping.

Of course, there's a huge problem. Britain didn't hand over part of Britain. Nobody handed over Rome, which forced the Jews out of their homeland originally, or Germany, which had just committed the Holocaust. (These would not have gone well either.) They handed over a territory full of people who had done nothing to the Jews, had nothing to do with the Holocaust, and were not consulted or asked for permission.

Jews sought an ethno-state where Jewish people would be treated as more equal than non-Jews because they're an extreme minority worldwide, and anywhere where they allowed non-Jewish people to become full citizens anytime they wanted, would eventually fill up with enough gentiles that it would again become dangerous to be Jews there. Palestinians were, rightfully, pissed off that they were being forced off their land. So they fought back, and Israel retaliated, and that is how this whole poisonous dynamic began.

Does Israel have a right to the land they were ceded? That is unfortunately the wrong question. After Europe and other places randomly murdered Jews for being Jewish for 2000 years, it becomes really hard to argue against the necessity of a Jewish homeland, somewhere, if you have any empathy for Jewish people at all. Where should that be? Well, there is no uninhabited land on Earth that's suitable for habitation; anywhere would have required throwing people off their land.

This may be colonizing, but it's different colonizing than what white people did. It was done for survival, in the face of 2000 years of threats, and it was done by giving them back land they'd lost 2000 years ago.

There are very few cultures that still exist after being thrown off their land that long ago. Romani still exist, but we really aren't sure exactly where they came from... last I heard the best theory was somewhere in India. Native Americans and other indigenous people displaced by colonization were forced off between 100-500 years ago and a lot of their culture has been lost. This makes it kind of difficult to compare the Jewish situation to anything else. But if there was a movement to give the Native Americans back Montana, and fuck all the white people currently living in Montana, they can move or they can live in the new Native American nation... honestly I do not think the left would object to this. (The right would, they'd screech about it, but a lot of leftists would either be "good for them! fuck those white Montanans!" or "well, I dont think it's right to force people out of their homes, but Native Americans were forced off that land in the first place, so...") The Native Americans lost that territory like 150 years ago or so, not 2000. It's not the same thing. But it is, unfortunately, the closest analogy we have, because no one else managed to hang onto their culture and their memory of having a homeland and the world's memory of it too, for 2000 years.

So. Can you criticize Israel? How can you not? You have to criticize Israel to be a good person because they are murdering civilians. They received a horrible provocation from professional provocateurs who knew that they would react harshly, and that that reaction would fuel their movement, and they did exactly what Hamas knew they would, which is incredibly stupid from the perspective of protecting Israel (but Netanyahu wants to protect his own power, not Israeli citizens) and also morally bankrupt on every level. Arguing that Hamas didn't actually do anything all that terrible is simultaneously untrue and besides the point, because Palestinian civilians aren't Hamas and you can't fight a terrorist group with bombs.

But can you argue, with a straight face, that a homeland for Jewish people shouldn't exist? When Israel's behavior has just caused worldwide antisemitism to spike, and once again, random Jews are being subjected to violence for nothing they did? When we have 2000 years of history of the world attacking Jewish people for no good reason? (I do have some theories as to the reasons, but none of them were good ones.) How do you think Jewish people should protect themselves from antisemitic violence, then? What other options are on the table?

And if you're blaming random Jewish people on the Internet who are not Israeli for the actions of Israel, you are doing the same thing the state of Israel is doing when they blame all Palestinians for the actions of Hamas. Justifying their behavior. Plus, if you come from a colonial power, and if you're on the Internet odds are you do, you're being a sickening hypocrite, because I bet you don't want to be murdered for the atrocities your country has committed. I sure don't! I don't want people blaming me for the Iraq War! I was against it. I don't want people blaming me for Trump! I voted against him. I'm American and my country has done horrible, horrible things that I don't want people to treat me badly for because I also think they're horrible and never supported them... but that doesn't mean I'd be okay with America ceasing to exist.

Jews who support Israel's existence, whether they are Israeli or not, are still not personally responsible for Binyamin Netanyahu being a monster. Israelis aren't entirely responsible for the fucker, given that it is human nature to vote conservative when you live in fear, which is why conservatives fearmonger so hard. Their press probably makes it fairly hard to learn about the atrocities they are committing, just like the American press makes it hard to know what evil things America has done lately. But especially, Jews who aren't Israeli citizens can still support Israel's existence while believing that Israel's current behavior is an atrocity, because Israel was founded to protect Jews from worldwide antisemitism, which if you are blaming Jews for Israel's behavior, you're participating in.

I'm not Jewish. But I find the behavior of gentiles who are demanding that Jews not only reject what Israel is doing (that's fair, it's monstrous) but reject Israel having a right to exist, in a world where America, which took over a continent because we felt like it and slaughtered most of the people who lived here, is never told it doesn't have a right to exist... I mean if you're so out there that yes, you believe America and Canada and Australia have no right to exist, I suppose you're being consistent, but if that is not your position, you don't get to argue against Israel existing. Israel displaced people who didn't deserve it and has treated them like shit ever since, just like every other colonizing power, but Israel, at least, is doing it because Jewish people keep getting murdered for no reason and this has been happening for two millennia. The US has no such justification for existence.

This entire situation is more complicated and nuanced than you think. Not the part where Israel's committing atrocities, that's beyond question. That's horrifying and the world really needs to force them to stop. But everything else -- Zionism, the existence of Israel and its right to self defense, blaming Jews for Israel, yadda yadda -- all that. That is more complicated than you think it is.

[whatsyourcolor]

I hate to info dump but here we go:

1.Kougami picked Akane up ALL ON HIS OWN..Not because someone ordered him to.Remember Garcia told him how he can’t imagine Kougami being responsible for another person?Coming to pick her up was Kougami’s way of mending things.Apologising to the only person he thinks deserves his apology and taking responsibility for his past behaviour by saying sorry.It’s a massive step for him.This is why Akane brushed off his apology.They caught up on the car as well.

2.The reason Akane wasn’t expecting him is most certainly because he works for foreign affairs.Akane was still an MWPSB employee so she probably thought it’d be Mika or the new inspectors.Also that should tell you something that despite being from a competing ministry he’s able to pick her up.He had to have pulled a lot of strings,request and beg tons of people.

3.Kougami made MULTIPLE requests to visit Akane.They were denied except that one time when he managed to get an approval.He didn’t back out of visiting her because it would be a waste of time.Again that’s a big deal because only Mika who’s the chief inspector had online access to Akane.

4.During the visit he put his back on the door because stooping down to her level would be awkward which makes sense?She’s 5’4” and he’s 6” so it would be uncomfortable to stare through a small window in that height for him so idk what’s wrong with that.He said Frederica/Ginoza thought it would be better for him not to visit her also he didn’t bring any souvenirs because he didn’t know what she liked.There wasn’t a lot of time I am sure.Solitary confinement is solitary for a reason.

5.I am not sure if Frederica is keeping in contact with Tenzing.I should hope so.She better make Kougami call her as well.I am not sure why Kougami would be thinking about Akane while he’s fighting MWPSB enforcers either.

Here’s the thing I think a few people are disappointed that their headcanon doesn’t match the Kougami in canon anymore (which I am sure is sad).But spreading misinformation to make people see Kougami the negative way is turning other people off.My advise is take everything people say with a grain of salt.Some people are helbent on spreading negativity because things didn’t go the way they wanted.

if you are up for it buy the books and run them through a translation or pay a translator to translate.Make up your own mind.

Hi,

Since I haven't read the novels about S3 because I don't speak Japanese, I can't answer to any of those points. Not since @cleverwolfpoetry used to translate the novels, do I know anything of the novels. The only think I know is that the writers said shinkane is platonic and what I got from Providence and Sinners of the System. Other people have read the novels and give their opinion about them. Maybe they're spreading misinformation; I have no idea. But you're right, a grain of salt doesn't hurt.

I don't know if there's a current hate campaign against Kogami (there's always been, though. I remember people crapping on him when he told Akane to kill Makishima), but people are going to hate who they're going to hate. One thing I'll never do is ship Homura and Akane. Or Kogami and Frederica. For me it'll always be Akane and Kogami and I don't care what the writers say. Cleverwolf's translations gave me enough material to deduce that this attempt to bring down shinkane (or to take it out of its ambiguity) is part of the "remodeling" of Psycho-Pass from a philosophical and psychological anime to a more action and plot driven franchise for a different target audience.

Heck, it's all in Makishima's last monologue: "Everyone is alone. Everyone is empty. People no longer have need of others. You can always find a spare for any replacement. Any relationship can be replaced."

Psycho-Pass is about the most human of things: relationships. (And yes, human nature, violence, free will, rationality vs animality, etc). So the writers can say whatever the hell they want, but Akane is not replaceable for Kogami and neither is Kogami for her (remember the All Star novel where holos of all the dead people are tormenting Akane and telling her Ko is dead and she's like "No, that person can't be dead"? I love how Sibyl, Kamui and Togane know Akane is deeply in love with Kogami and they try to use that against her all the time.

At the end of the day, despite the castes the system creates, the human bond will break those chains. The purest-hued young woman falling for a heartbroken criminal is just too delicious a dynamic to ignore.

Also, where the heck are all of you reading the novels? Is anyone sharing the translations somewhere?

[purgemarchlockdown]

Doing more trans autistic Amane Momose posting because im not doing that well at the moment and this headcanon makes me happy

- I tend to distingiush my Agender Amane thoughts and my Transfem Amane thoughts for many reasons but also cause one reacts to the knowledge that they can never be a good girl with utter relief since it cant be it’s fault that it’s like this now, is it? And the other reacts with the deepest fear and resignation because she can never be what she really wants to be can she?

-I think Amane used to talk a lot when she was Much Much Younger but then stopped cause it always led her to get hurt.

- Transfem Amane is very careful about passing in the prison and gets very happy when people in the prison call her a girl. It means shes getting a good grade in gender :)

-Both Amane’s see Es and their non-binary failswag and feel a bit relieved (but they arent sure why)

-Religion hyperfixation real, this is for me, I was a kid with a religion hyperfixation. Glad to have this rep-

-Agender Amane: Since I am repersenting my faith I should not be reffered to as a human, please refer to me as an “it.”

Amane, internally: (Finally, a good excuse to get people to call me that…)

-Amane really really Really likes her Japanese class, and Will Tell you about grammer structure if you let her…and also unlock her social link because she’s been bitten before and won’t be bitten again.

-She also likes performing and art a lot and tends to daydream and think about how places would look if she drew them and sometimes acts out characters when shes alone but she hasnt done any art in a while…

-She likes all animals but Im not sure if she would read much about them scentifically, I think sometimes it feels like they understand her more than any person ever could.

-(this applies to all my Amanes) I think Amane feels too cramped in her own skin. It just feels uncomfortable in it.

[theanimetedworld]

Genishken Part 2

I don't really know how I feel about Genishken Part 2. I am leaning toward not really liking it, as the concept is not really up my alley. I was honestly uncomfortable with the discussion of one of the main discussion topics of the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, explicit doujinshi. This topic in general in an anime is by far enough to make me uncomfortable, but it rapidly escalated when they started drawing underage girls. Obviously, these drawings are exactly that: drawings. However, I just cannot get the thought of them drawing these images and enjoying it out of my head as that is just not something I would choose to watch an anime about. In Beautiful Fighting Girl by Saito, he talks about how Otaku sexualize women in anime, becoming obsessed or in love with them. However, he states that this is not because of their real world attraction tendencies but because of the opposite, the fact that these girls are fictional. Within this anime, the concept of fandom is very obviously shown as the main characters are all otakus and are obsessed with manga and anime culture. Also, the inclusion of an actual comic convention in Part 2 gave viewers the opportunity to see how involved manga and anime are in Japanese culture. While I knew that otaku culture in Japan is absolutely huge, it is hard to put into actual thought considering I have always lived in Florida, which is obviously way less interested in Otaku culture. Overall, this anime was very good at the beginning, but I think Part 2 brought it down a lot in my opinion. I could see how some people might really enjoy it but I felt like I was walking on eggshells throughout the entire watch as I was just really uncomfortable.

[aknunek0writer]

can i request a headcanon about the butlers react to aruji-sama that has a blue diamond eyes? with berrien,lato,flure,and Boschi. Thank you (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤

Of course <3 (๑^ ^๑)

(Why did I start singing we like diamond in the sky- and I am trying out a new style of write!)

-*~aruji-sama with blue diamond eyes~*-

ʚïɞ.•*¨*•.¸¸♬•*¨*•.¸¸♪ʚïɞ.•*¨*•.¸¸♬•*¨*•.¸¸♪

- ♡ characters: Berrian Lato Flure Boschi

- ⚠ warning: very fluffy and some angst in flure part!

- ☆ gn reader

- ✎ Please do not Reupload on anything other than Tumblr!

- ◇ enjoy <3

ʚïɞ.•*¨*•.¸¸♬•*¨*•.¸¸♪ʚïɞ.•*¨*•.¸¸♬•*¨*•.¸¸♪

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- 旦 Berrien Cliane,,ベリアン・クライアン 旦 -

He was amazed at your eye color blue like the sky or the sea.

He will Compliment you (he always will brown eyes etc he will!) After all his aruji-sama it's the most beautiful person in this world ♡.

He usually does your hair for you and you choose your clothes so he tries colors he finds would work with your sea eye (I feel like blue eyes are like the sea they could be so open and free or dark and mysterious like the sky sea ♡) he always happy when you like that clothes he sure the flure will be happy to hear!

If you hate your eye color he will comfort you since his aruji-sama should not hate their eye color diamond blue eyes he could get lost in them for his life he wouldn't even be mad.

"Aruji-sama is the clothing making you feel uncomfortable if so please tell me..it's not. Will That's good after all your well-being it's my first Responsibility and the color really bring out you eyes aruji-sama. ♡"

- ◇ lato Bacca,,ラト・バッカ ◆ -

He felt like he was staring at the lake while staring at your eyes (both of you and him have diamond eye color ♡ or not-)

He will ask flure to teach him how to sew so he can make for you clothes that will compliment you amazing diamond color eyes.

Takes you to the forest a lot or usually to the lake so he can see the sun shine on you and make your eyes look beautiful and he will place flowers roses etc into you hair to make you look even more beautiful with thoses amazing eyes ♡.

Will be confused if you hate your eye color and try to comfort you to the best of his Ability.

"Fufu you Got me staring at you your eyes are pretty Aruji-sama when I see them I feel this sense of comfort...fufu ♡"

- ✄ Flure Garcia,,フルーレ​・ガルシア ✄ -

Blushing mess his aruji-sama was so pretty but now even more beautiful than anything else in this world. ♡

Will spend days making clothes for you to match your beautiful diamond eyes and sometimes lose sleep because of it and also forgetting to eat.

Always compliment you and get very 2x happy when you like the clothes he made for you

If you hate your eyes will he scold you for it you have amazing eyes he really does mean it.

"Aruji-sama you look beautiful as always ah! Do you like that Outfit or does it need some fixing?..you like it! Fufu. That's good I try to make it. match your beautiful eyes.♡"

○ - Boschi Arenas,,ボスキ・アリーナス - ●

He was amazed by the sight of you eyes blue as the sky..how beautiful.

compliments on daily basis like it has become a daily routine for him sometimes he does it to make haures jealous or the other butlers

Places Blue orchids behind your ear or in your hair since the color reminded him of your beautiful eyes. and will ask Ammon about every single blue flower etc poor Ammon.

If you hate your eyes he will pin you to the wall and compliment the living devil out of you or he will take you to the forest and comfort you there ♡.

"Aruji-sama you look even pretty today could be that you- ouch! Fufu seems you notice I was trying to make lono jealous..but I do mean it you look beautiful today Aruji-sama or should I call you Aina ♡."

If anyone is confused Aina means in Japanese beautiful eyed woman! I really like this writing style but if you guys like my old one I'll use it! ^v^..

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I ♡ u

[riko0youth]

plz no hate also,don't justify,you could hardly change my opinion even if its wrong

Since i started shipping Kaishin i always restored to translated DJs and Fanart to feed it, whenever i thought of reading fanfic i simply felt repulsive, that it won't taste good, and boy was i right, i understood the reasons very clearly, but yesterday, due to accumulation of a few reasons , i caved and tried it , and now i need heaps of DJs and Fanart mouthwash to forget this taste.

no offense intended, the writing style of authors is actually super good, the plot is very entertaining, overall a good well written fic, but it just not my thing, simply because the western eyes(and i don't mean ppl living in the west, im talking abt the ideology itself, wherever they're from) and mine don't match, they don't see or understand the characters as i do, and same for me, i fail to see and understand most stuff they way they do, so simply, me and the anime fics, we can't mix, i can have some tolerance for stuff like bkdk , but a classic literally older than me DCMK is out of question, how they portray the characters and take them out of context, while its good and fun...its just not them so its pointless for me to read fics abt absolute strangers, i would rather go through my kaishin pins twice than read smth while i enjoy it, gives me a foul taste (i guess that's what alcohol drinking is like for people, yeah, its good that i don't and won't drink ever in my life)

also, if you don't know, i merely write for the sake of journaling, this post is not meant to criticize anyone, especially not the hard working authors, simply my pov that most won't agree on.

I am not trying to defend myself saying this, but i am merely stating how my mindset came to be, first, my childhood, pre-teen years, and the first quarter of my teens were spent watching Anime, and the rest of my teens was spent reading manga/hua/hwa and Danmeis , that's it, no friends, no social media, no way to understand how my peers from any part of the world thing, only how the Japanese, Chinese and sometimes Korean ''Characters" live, like and think, so ya, very very low tolerance, when i unfortunately started opening up to the "world" it was merely to look for more resources for a good read, my mindset was already set by then and i felt like an alien (still do, but meh that's me) among everyone else, and more often than not i feel super uncomfortable from a comment with a mindset that's just so foreign to me it feels sickening (im not exaggerating)

so ya, lgptq+ , most of the relationship 'cues', ideas of (in my weak pov seems extreme) individuality in romance ,etc etc, they are all things i am not very fond of, cuz my mind is attached to a more simple process, watching ppl be in love ,period.

oh ya and the concept of incent, which i find hilarious but that's just horrible of me, incent is wrong for two reasons, ethically, you can't marry your sibling because they're your sibling sharing the same blood of at least one of your parents and that is sooo wrong (im not too far gone to think on even such a thing) but speaking ethically , for me a sibling is diffrent from a COUSIN they don't share your blood, their blood is just closer to yours from a stranger, they are not the children of your own parents, so, i just find it pointless to be so hung up on it, i could marry a cousin and only discover they're my cousin after we've had kids and lives happy stable lives, should i just destroy all that and make my children live in agony cuz someone somewhere sometime decided that marrying the cousin is same as marrying an SIBLING and even giving it the same label? of course , another point ,which is actually, speaking abt cousins, more serious , is Genetically speaking you can't mix DNAs too similar because it increase the risk of genetic mutations and disabilities in offspring, but the risk is always there, so its *unadvised* at most to marry a cousin if you are planning to have kids, but that's it, and everyone is free to choose between marrying the one they want and increasing their chance of healthy children, so its absolutely *hilarious* for me to be so hung up on "incent" between 2 MALE COUSINS , like really, *where are you even coming from?* (and yes im talking abt what you have in mind , as i said, i started kaishin fanfics just yesterday which is apparently the worst possible timing since the whole M24 trailer fiasco or whatever it is that's bothering them and got swarmed with confusing tags that just made me lose my appetite and feel vaguely uncomfortable, and "what's the big deal?" confused)

ofc as a person opening up to the world the first thing i did was to try to fit in, it wasn't wholly unpleasant ofc, i got some of the dearest ships to my heart that sometimes support me post-breakdown, but i tried to think like others, only to discover its futile, i can guess how others would think , but im mostly unconvinced by it or don't feel like agreeing to it, and that just works to make it easy for me to gain enemies and unpleasant impressions, so i mostly lay off commenting my opinions since its as foreign to them as theirs are to me , and im not so free or sinister to make others feel unpleasant on purpose, ofc no one is perfect so i slip from time to time when my battery (i call it LXC battery of patience cuz that's what i think of portraying when im controlling myself from commenting and arguing, using LXC as a role model to extend the Battery's life) and as expected those slips catch fire , i also mostly use the method of burning letters, except i don't burn them , i have a very short memory span on most thing, so i write it, say i will post it later, and the when i see the draft i don't remember if i did post it or not , and it would be very stupid to post the same thing twice, also im not so attentive to open a site or an app specifically to check, i would rather spend that time reading

Most of the time i didn't understand why the "western" ppl make a big deal out of everything and are so hung up on realism , i still don't but i could get one thing, and ironically im the living proof of that one thing, that is, most people's mindset is affected by what they are exposed to, aka, what they read, see, or hear, so if something say like intentional harm like pushing people off the stairs and people always survive, if crazy troupe like that spiral into normality smh, and someone ALWAYS read it and always seeing it, them it won't be that hard to apply in real life, so the westerns are just looking out for others, or less selflessly, like every human, are trying to convince others of their opinion.

ofc in my case, which i don't know if its an exception or there are many others like me (again, i don't socialize) that help is absolutely unnecessary, since everything i read see or hear are for me strictly fictional, I won't fall in love with a minor as much as i won't fly off on a dragon, for me they're all fiction, love, itself , is something fictional i don't expect to see in the real world, that's why i love reading it the most, for me what i read is what can't be found in my reality like dragons, travelling to other worlds, falling in love at first sight, forbidden love etc, so its no surprise i feel unpleasant when some person out there try to stain my "world" with realism after i always painstakingly separated them anyways bye.

[limeade-l3sbian]

i have...conflicting feelings on the female sumo painting. i will say i am enticed by seeing strong women with relatively natural-looking physiques. however, i am off-put by the fact that i was instantly aware that this was produced by men for fetishistic purposes, even without looking at the original post or the notes (which make it clear the source of this is a vintage bdsm magazine). bear with me, because i know you probably only reblogged it because it is pleasing to see strong women (i don't fault you for this at all, i wholeheartedly agree).

if i put aside my own sexuality and love of strong women, the conflicting feelings remain, however. this is because the content of the painting is coincidentally feminist, but the intent of it is fundamentally antifeminist. this may take a moment to explain.

for starters, sumo is a "male-only" sport. there are no professional leagues for women in sumo, at least not in japan. as far as i'm aware, all women's leagues across the world are considered "amateur," and women being sumo wrestlers at all, even if they're only "amateur," is still considered controversial anyways. sumo is deeply tied to shintoism, which is highly influenced by buddhism--both view women as "polluted" by menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth. as a result, women are not seen as "pure" enough to participate in a sport that includes religious aspects like sumo.

secondly, sumo wrestlers are heavily benefitted by having large builds. despite popular belief, sumo wrestlers aren't obese--the fat that they have is different from that of someone who is obese (obese people have a lot of visceral fat, sumo wrestlers have very little). but, by all visual definitions, they are fat. this is because having greater mass is hugely beneficial in sumo.

a brief digression on the art style, before i continue. it appears to be, or at least be inspired by, ukiyo-e. in this art style, women are almost always depicted as the japanese standard of the "ideal woman": demure and slender, with any curves of her body hidden away by her clothing so that she would have a sort of "rectangle" or fully obfuscated silhouette while standing.

continuing on, combining the last two paragraphs into a single point: these women are blatantly not as heavyset as a good deal of sumo wrestlers (look up "female sumo wrestler" to get an idea of how they look, in terms of build), and that could easily be considered sexist. the idea that these women (who, by all means, look to be an average, healthy weight and build for women) are heavyset enough to be sumo wrestlers is quite disturbing and misogynistic, indeed. however, these women are also worlds away from the demure and slender women of ukiyo-e, making the image feminist, in that regard.

i feel this happens somewhat often around the world-- men producing fetishistic art that could be reinterpreted as feminist, but certainly isn't. or, perhaps, men fetishizing the very idea of female liberation. i believe this is because there is a way of thinking some men have, where they feel more comfortable having the ability to reframe things such as female power, dominance, strength, nonconformity to restrictive roles put upon women by patriarchy, and liberation as "sexy," or otherwise to their (male) tastes, because it means that even female liberation is in service to men. to heterosexual male "masochists," this "service" is explicitly sexual. in this way, these men are among the most vile of misogynists. they are men who do not wish to, or genuinely cannot, conceptualize the idea of women as something other than "something that exists only to benefit and please men."

there is something deeply uncomfortable about this concept, and yet i have seen it in action. men fetishizing female strength, men fetishizing lesbians (not just "two feminine women being sexually involved," but actual lesbians and lesbianism), studying lesbian culture and behavior, men fetishizing gnc or outright butch women, and so on. some women may be fooled into thinking these men are "allies" because they appear to value female strength and liberation, but the truth is that these men only value these things as much as the breasts of a woman a catcaller has shouted "nice tits" towards. the idea that even female liberation is fetishized (by men) is a truly repugnant one, showing just how thoroughly men view us as objects that exist only for their needs and pleasures.

i apologize that this was so heavy, when i assume you just wanted to reblog a picture that fascinated you. there is no particular intent in this message aside from perhaps discussing the topic at hand. i want to make it absolutely clear that i find there is no shame in you being interested in the image (as i was, as well), and i am not trying to convince you that it is evil or should be removed from your blog. despite its origins and intent, it is still a nice image that depicts women in an interesting way that i value, both as a feminist and as a lesbian. to be honest, i'm not quite sure how i expect you, or anyone else for that matter, to respond to all this. i'm not certain how i feel when taking all of this into account, either.

I respond the way I always do. Kicking my feet as I read through your message on my stomach and saying, "She's so smart. ☺️"

[sailor-strawberry-moon]

Hello!

I'm so glad you could find me here on Tumblr!

INTRODUCTIONS

Name: Kitsune Aliases: Kit, Kitsu, KitKat, Aimer, Sailor Birthday: 9/25/09 Gender: Female Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Personality Type: INFP-T Region: United States of America (Type EUROPEAN, Half-Irish) Languages: English (Native), Spanish, Japanese, Latin, French, Korean, and a little bit of German and Russian Other Social Media (Crossed out text means: not as active on the social media): Character.ai, Wattpad, Online Sequencer, Music Box Maniacs

INTERESTS (Biggest interests/hyperfixations are in bold)

The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants Friday Night Funkin' (Especially Mid-Fight Masses) Countryhumans/Countryballs Gumby VeggieTales (Especially LarryBoy) Sailor Moon My Little Pony (MLP) SEGA (yes, all of it) Star Wars Anything starring Bruce Lee (especially Fist of Fury, from 1972) The Terrible Two (a book by Mac Barnett and Jory John) Minecraft Dumb Ways to Die Unikitty Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd) Vocal Synths (Vocaloid, Utau, SynthV, etc.) Spy vs. Spy Dog Man Futurama Kelton (a series by a user named "inkspecco") Interland (a game made by Google) FNAF: Security Breach Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) Bibleman "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" by Art Spiegelman The Owl House Teen Titans (2003) Thomas & Friends

DNI (DO NOT INTERACT) IF YOU...

Basic dni (racist, sexist, ableist, MAP/lolicon/shotacon/pedophile/child fiddler, zoophile, lgbtphobe, nsfw accounts, all that jazz) Proshipper (this includes, but is not limited to, minor-adult shipping, incest, and/or sexualization of minors regardless of if they're fictional or not) Support the Westboro Baptist Church, PragerU, Autism Speaks and/or PETA Neo-Nazi/Anti-Semitic Use disorders/disabilities/mental conditions as an aesthetic MCYT/DreamSMP stan (the kind that made up fake sexualities and races based on Dream and/or ship DreamNotFound) Call the UN and/or other do-gooder organizations "the antichrist" and harass supporters of said organizations for it only slander me for my toxic past (mostly dumb shit i did when i was too young to be using the internet) Use the "fatherless" term as a way to describe people who are cringe Wish to spread negativity about my interests (especially TETOCU and VeggieTales)

THINGS I'M IFFY ON

K-Pop stans Go!Animators/Vyonders People who used to be friends with people i don't like but got away from said people People who were my friend for a while but left because i didn't make them comfortable anymore People who use "Jesus" as a slang word (I am, or at least am considered, half-Christian-half-Buddhist for context, and I was always told to not use Jesus's name as a slang word) People who preach religion too much to the point that it sounds like they're forcing the religion on others

OTHER STUFF

If I tell you my past at any point in time, it means I have a certain amount of trust in you

If you're gonna be my friend then please tell me what it is that makes me uncomfortable to be around before asking me if we should end the friendship

sometimes i dont know the best way to respond to things and sometimes when you talk to me i'll need you to include a tone tag since i cant immediately figure out your tone

I don't take art requests because one, I want to feel independent, and two, I don't want to accidentally butcher anyone's ideas in my own artstyle

I use curse words and I'm used to hearing curse words, so if you berate me for using curse words yet don't berate others for the same reason, consider yourself blocked

I'm a very curious girl so expect to see me reblog things that interest me

Before you send me an ask, I would like you to read this post about why I don't allow anonymous asks ===========================

Have fun on my profile and remember, A smile makes every day worthwhile!

[wondersofspite]

I just realized that most of Helluva’s main cast are POC (Alastor is mixed race, Vaggie is Salvadoran, Nifty is half Japanese) + Nearly all the center characters are heavily implied to have had bad past/current life condition, and that Charlie, a rich white person, is painted as the ones to help them/”redeem” them. (Not exactly biologically “white” per se, but look at me in the eyes and tell me she isn’t an walking talking white chick both in appearance and personality).

While that bit thought, popped up a possibly of “White Savior” sort of situation that was pretty darn uncomfortable, but at the same time, interesting. Like, if the writers fully twists the knife and actually delve into that concept. Charlie, a very privileged aristocrat who’s the least equipped to understand, deal or even have experienced any hardship, thinking her very simplistic, ignorant ideas of rehabilitation would be clue to all sinner’s problem. Like:

“Homeless? Here’s a hotel! Just ignore the horrors trauma you seen living on the street and be expected to completely obey every one of my orders! I am very friendly! Why would you paranoid of me? I in fact do no see the trouble with how folks like me (rich/upper class demons) who is the reason you got kicked out in the first place shall be untrustworthy and unreliable!”

And with that sort of attitude, let’s say, the hotel absolutely fails miserably. Because it’s both funny and slapstick and kinda reasonable. Patronization can only go so far till it turns off people. So, with that, let’s hop down to when the narrative hits it’s absolute lowest point. Thematically an era of the story where every character/narrative/protagonist are at their lowest point. Of addictions becoming worse due to the minimum supervision, grudges igniting out of bitter entitlement and poor communication, and people like Angel and Vaggie who are in possibility of begin attacked by outsiders/dragged back by abusive figures -

Except Charlie. She, at best, is stressed. There is no permanent physical or mental harm threatening her.

Now, say, the only redemy for this is for the hotel is to release all the occupants, for them to gain distant, to rinse itself and try again with other set of people. But, despite the character’s suffering, ironically, perhaps the hotel is in it’s peak popularity. People actually keep coming due to the lax law, for the free place, perhaps something even the main cast did attracts traffic. But the original occupants: The people most important and central to Charlie’s pitch is begin seriously hurt under her terrible management.

But Charlie, the old girl here, cannot truly comprehend the gravity of it cause she never faced those type of issues. Never ever had to.

So she keeps it going on, promising and swearing that things will get better, speaking of everything in rose-tinted glasses instead of facing the harsh truth. That what matters is the hotel is becoming mainstream, more people are coming: Unintentionally, prioritzing her hotel over her friends.

In an odd way, it would actually suit her premise as the child of Lucifer.

> Promising better future, only to actively benefit from other’s suffering.

> Constantly lying, lightening the gravity of situation, making “tempting” offers and promises

> Feeding into other people’s bad habits and keeping them in harmful environments.

[larathia]

There's a bizarre kind of sweetness to Girls und Panzer that makes me think someone started the project on a whim and then went "nonono I'm SERIOUS" only to find the concept wasn't lending itself to seriousness without a LOT of mental gymnastics.

Like. You can tell, up front, that basically this anime was written by somebody that just really, really loved tanks. All the tanks. Big tanks, little tanks. All the tanks. And they had the not-too-weird thought of "well, girls and guns is hot. And girls and motorbikes is hot. So, if I put cute teenage girls in tanks, that's gotta be hot too, right?"

And as far as that goes, he wasn't wrong. But then, poor ideas-guy, they started trying to make that make sense. So there's whole bits about how the WHOLE COUNTRY loves tankery. There's tankery shops, and tankery cafes, and whole naval cruisers set aside for tankery battles. And the advertisements are all about how tankery is a 'feminine art' and will make women more beautiful and desirable and so on.

At which point I started thinking "You're overthinking this, writer person. You prooobably should've just stuck with 'girls in tanks = hot'."

And then...the Traditional Japanese Girl mindset met 'tank' and you can just see the worldbuilding collapsing. The tanks are too loud! The seats are uncomfortable! The paint scheme is drab! Cleaning tanks gets you sweaty and dirty! ...All of which kinda flies in the face of Tankery being seen as a 'feminine art', because if this world as set up REALLY THOUGHT THAT, the girls wouldn't be having those reactions.

They certainly wouldn't be having the reactions of 'let's paint our tank red and reflective gold and cover it with flags', or 'paint it pink', or 'decorate it with delicate lacy curtains and soft cushions and cute stickers'.

Please note that I am not saying tanks can't be (or aren't) feminine. Or that 'driving a tank' is somehow not feminine. I am saying that the worldbuilding of the anime is trying to have it both ways, by saying tanks as we know them are inherently feminine while at the same time having every girl in the setting who isn't raised in the art finding it unpleasant and uncomfortable and in need of ...well, what Japanese culture tends to think of as 'feminine touches'. If Tankery in this setting really IS a 'feminine art', then the tanks would either ALREADY LOOK LIKE THAT, or the girls would be just fine with them as they are.

(Much like we don't bat an eye at 'horse girls', who are just fine with mucking out stalls and other 'heavy/unpleasant work' related to horses, yet they aren't seen as less 'girl' for this - on the contrary it's often seen as a perfectly normal thing.)

....I do love that they're making a distinction between 'tankery' and 'warfare'. It feels kind of like the distinction between 'fencing' and 'actually trying to kill an opponent with a sword' at times, but it's intriguing.

That said, I may have to rewatch this series a few times because the pieces don't mesh together quite right and that tends to make me want to write fanfic. (I mean Our Heroine STARTED THE SERIES WITH IDENTIFIABLE PTSD WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT IT.)