#but if drawing it as a full manga is too exhausting for her health then i'd be happy with a light novel

[wildwood-reader]

Just went through the tragedy that is NANA Vol. 20+21 again, I thought this couldn't destroy me anymore but guess I was wrong. 🥲🥲🥲

[mrsmarymorstan]

Do you have any headcanons for all the Fruits Basket couples?

OKAY so I’ve been thinking about this one, so that’s why it’s kind of late. 

I have headcanons for ALL the couples, and if I don’t have any existing well then I sure do now! I’m gonna stick with one headcanon per canon couple though, because otherwise we’d be here till the END OF TIME! There WILL be Manga Spoilers here too FYI! So back away if you care about such tings. Anyway, without further ado:

1) Kyo X Tohru 

Kyo tries so desperately to do the chores for Tohru but she’s just too stubborn about things and it’s programmed into her now! He gets sick and tired of being forced to sit down as she cleans the floors and cooks dinner, that he starts to enforce a STRICT rota where in they split duties each day. So one night Kyo will cook and Tohru will wash up, and the next Kyo will clean the bathroom whilst Tohru does the kitchen and so on. People go to their house and side eye the fact that they need a PHYSICAL ROTA to decide these things, aren’t they MARRIED? And Kyo just shakes his head because “it’s the only way she’ll let me do anything. The rota MUST be enforced at all costs.” 

When Tohru becomes pregnant the rota gets replaced with things like “Relax and put your feet up because you are eight months pregnant STOP TRYING TO CLEAN THE FLOOR!” 

2) Machi X Yuki 

One of their first PROPER dates together was to a Summer Festival! It wasn’t intended as a double date but once Komaki and Kakeru found out they were going they INSISTED on going as a group! Komaki dressed Machi up in a Yukata, and Yuki did the whole =O moment when she arrived looking so beautiful. Kakeru has photos of it on his phone. 

However the moment Yuki treasures the most is when Machi pushed her purse into his hands so she could take on the air-gun game stand because they had an exclusive piece of Mogeta merchendise. He will forever remember the determined look on her face as she won toy after toy until eventually she got the correct number of bulls eyes. Yuki offered to try to win it for her, but she just shouted him down because NO! She has to do this FOR HERSELF! 

And if Yuki weren’t already in love.... 

3) Haru X Rin 

Haru and Rin attend the same Art and Design school together after graduation. Rin had to defer for a couple of years because of her health and of course the need to study for the entrance exams/portfolio review (I don’t know how Japanese Art & Design courses work....) They’re get a bit of a reputation on campus as a power couple. She studies Fine Art and he studies Fashion. Haru often features in her paintings and drawings, and she is his Go To model for all his designs. This continues when they graduate and Haru becomes a full time fashion designer (occasionally doing leather work for Ayame) and Rin starts selling her paintings and takes commissions. The reason Sora & Riku have so many matching outfits is just that they’re from Haru’s fashion line! 

4) Mitsuru X Ritsu

Clothes Swapping!!!! So much clothes swapping. Ritsu teachers her how to wear Furisode (until of course she’s no longer an unmarried woman wa-haaay!) and Mitsuru helps him find suits that actually suit him! And yes, that does include skirts. Their shared wardrobe is just that, a shared wardrobe. There’s a few things that need to be taken into consideration like height and so on, but on the whole their clothes are very much interchangeable. Ritsu does work in a bit more colour into Mitchan’s wardrobe though! So she’s not stuck looking too dower all the time. 

For their wedding, Ritsu wore a dress and Mitsuru wore a suit and were BOTH all the more comfortable for it. 

5) Hatori X Mayuko 

I’ve mentioned this before, I think, but I recon Mayu was already pregnant when they got married. It wasn’t the DECIDING factor on things, but when they found out she was pregnant for CERTAIN Hatori began to make plans to sort out the paperwork for their marriage. Mayuko denied him at first, just because it felt so sudden but came back the next day because yes, you’re right I do love you and I already know I want to keep this baby so yeah. Let’s do this thing! 

The kids were all very freaked out when they did the maths and realised that Kinu-chan was the result of unprotected sex... they literally had to sit through talks with them BOTH about How Not To Get Pregnant!!! Could they not take THEIR OWN ADVICE??? 

They are very much in love though, and are excellent parents to Kinu. 

BONUS: Upon getting married, Mayu realised that based on Hatori’s standing she now “outranked” all those Shitty Zodiac Parents and was just like “Oh I am going to WRECK these people for the things they did to my Kids!” 

Because yes, Mayu IS the greatest Teacher, her pupils all mean the WORLD to her, and the only thing holding her back before from kicking their arses was the fear of getting fired... but they’ve all graduated now SO COME HERE YOU FUCKERS TIME TO END YOU! 

6) Ayame X Mine 

They were the first couple to get married after the curse broke. The wedding was an incredibly gay affair. Ayame wore a wedding dress and MIne wore a suit (this is what inspird Ritsu and Mitchan a few years later) and they all looked AMAZING. There were several costume changes throughout the whole affair, so Mine DID get to wear cute dresses and Ayame looked dapper in some suits... but it was honestly a competition as to what sort of gender-presentation they were going to have each time they went to get changed. 

They had so many costume and venue changes that by their ACTUAL wedding night they were too exhausted to do anything more than cuddle up close together. But in all honesty? That was a better moment then any sex could ever hope to be! They finally got to be public about their love and PROPERLY hold one another in PUBLIC?! The love on their faces was so pure that not even Kyo could feel weird about it. 

7) Kakeru/Komaki 

When Kakeru eventually proposed to Komaki he planned to be really cool and suave but actually just cried the whole way through to the point where Komaki had to ask the question for him. Their wedding was a simple affair, because they wanted to save money to move in together properly. Kakeru’s dad was actively NOT invited. He literally got an invite saying “This is the date and the time and we would like to make sure that you are not within 1KM of the event you fucker.” 

8) Akito X Shigure 

They actually understood the amount of unhealthy elements linked with their relationship and took things really slowly. They even attended couples therapy so they could work everything out maturely, and so when they eventually decided to try for a child it was once they were in a really secure and solid relationship. They did NOT want to repeat the mistakes of their parents in ANY way! 

[julystorms]

SnK Season Two Commentary

Episode 26: “Beast Titan”

I will cover everything in order; if I miss anything you’d like my opinion on, please feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be happy to write more. These are my generalized thoughts on Ep26 (including my theory about why dinosaurs are in the new opener); they are under a cut due to length and to help prevent people from seeing spoilers.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this season. I didn’t even watch the previously released bit with Hange and Pastor Nick (though I’m pretty sure I reblogged a video of it a long time ago), so I felt like I was going in blind.

Scene One: The Wall Titan

The series picks up right where it left off: with the Survey Corps staring up at the titan in the wall (referred to from hereon out as the Wall Titan). Overall, this intro scene was really well-done; I enjoyed seeing Nick’s panic, but Hange was by far the star. The general tonal atmosphere of the scene was amazing, IMO. The soldiers were scared and Hange was no exception. I don’t really have much to say about this scene except that...I was a little perturbed to notice that the only soldiers present were with the Survey Corps. While this bothers me (how...convenient...considering we know the entire district is crawling with both the MP and the Garrison), it wasn’t enough to draw me out of the story entirely.

Opening Song

It wasn’t amazing but it was pretty good. The artwork and animation is, of course, as lovely as it was in S1, perhaps moreso. Some of the angles they used for the opening were pretty nifty.

As far as the animals and dinosaurs go, my theory is that we’re meant to see them as secrets of the world that the Beast Titan has access to that the Walled People do not. Remember in S1 how excited Armin was talking about the ocean? About how Eren countered his excitement with a line about how “if the ocean is full of salt, there wouldn’t be an ocean because the merchants would have snapped it all up already!”...? The concept of the vastness of the ocean is difficult for the walled people to wrap their heads around--just the concept. They don’t know much of anything; they barely understand their own humanity. My opinion on this aspect of the worldbuilding aside, I think the point they are making with that opening bit (which you can see in tiny badly done gifs here) is about humanity’s history--that the Beast Titan (and others, as we now know) have access to information like this; they know about elephants, that dinosaurs once roamed the earth, about whales in the ocean and hippos: creatures you can’t even really begin to describe to people who have never seen one. The vastness of their size, their shape, their mannerisms and behaviors...seem overwhelming and impossible. But they’re not. They exist. And I think in showing this stuff we are meant to think about the fact that there is more to the world than what the walled people know of it...and that the Beast Titan is a part of that world--one not their own.

Scene Two: Erwin’s Discussion with His Underlings

I thought this was a pretty interesting scene; rather bland but it’s clear the Annie debacle is “Taken Care Of” by this point, and that what we are meant to notice is that the Survey Corps is...questioning things. Erwin’s underlings ask how they should feel about this new information, and the implication seems to be a little iffy here but I think these people are just shocked that titans could be in the walls and none of them had any inkling of it even being a possibility.

Erwin’s reply, of course, is odd: “There were only people who knew, and people who didn’t.” 

But it isn’t as ominous as it sounds. He means that nobody had any reason to suspect it, so either you knew it was a thing or you didn’t know; there is no middle ground. 

Scene Three: Cleanup of Stohess

I...did not expect to get a scene with Hitch and Marlowe in it, at least...not this early in the season. I suspected they might give us something because they added an extra bit into S1, knowing Marlowe will be important later, but I think showing us what the cleanup effort looks like now will save them some effort in the future: 

Marlowe: Why are they keeping us in the dark? Hitch: Business as usual. But what’s scummiest of all...is that there’s no ‘official’ reason why all these people died.

We know that in 59 this cleanup scene is the primary reason for Hitch’s upset with the Survey Corps but here we get to see more of it, enough to really believe in Hitch’s side of things later. Her anger feels more justified when we get to see what she’s had to see. And now we know, too, that it’s been hours since the incident happened and still people are uninformed. Nobody’s releasing anything. That means there is something to hide. Yikes. This was a nice addition that I’m sure will be worth the screentime it took up.

Scene Four: Hange and Nick on the Wall Ft. Moblit

I didn’t watch this in advance so I was excited to see it, and...it didn’t entirely let me down, but... I don’t know. I really loved Hange: she didn’t sound crazy at all. Her anger was rooted in fear and in loss. So many people have given their lives for humanity and all the time there were people like Nick...keeping secrets like this. Big secrets. She’s already made assumptions, too: “Are there titans in all the walls?” I mean, goodness. Nick, too, is awesome in this. He’s scared out of his mind but his determination is 11/10 “Deliver me, O Lord!” I loved that. But Hange is equally as determined in her own way, saying she’ll just kill him and find other people to ask until someone fesses up. But of course Nick’s gumption gets to her and she respects it enough to let him go. And then laughs. Says she was kidding. I thought they did a good job of showing her as a fairly reasonable person...angry and frustrated as hell, but not WHOA KUH-RAZY MONEY like they did in S1, carefree and silly. Fuck that portrayal: this is the real Hange my dudes, and it was good to see it.

That said, Moblit just sort of stood there and yelled “SQUAD LEADER!” and “HANGE-SAN!” and didn’t do jack shit. I wish he’d have gotten into the fray a bit, grabbed her sleeve, pleaded in the background even if she ignored the hell out of him. The way all those people just stand around like dopes is annoying. Like yeah she’s in charge but...I wanted a little more protest to her dangling a guy who knows the secrets of the world over the edge of the wall. :|

Scene Five: TITANS ARE INSIDE WALL ROSE!!!! Ft. Tomas

Or Thomas, I guess. How many guys named Tom exist in this world? Apparently three...of them are soldiers. Anyway...

He got hot.

He made weird slobbery faces in the manga but he’s one good-looking dude in S2. But more seriously I dig the rewind bit for the “12 hours earlier” part. But that just goes to say this determined bro rode hard for 12 hours to deliver this news. Like...these kids were a 12 hour hard gallop from Wall Sina? O...okay...? (I’ll get back to this, I promise.)

Scene Six: 12 Hours Earlier...

This scene isn’t spectacular and it seems...smaller, somehow, than the manga, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think I felt like the manga had more 104th kids there, but as we can see, there are a handful of 104th recruits from the north/east/west(?)south who are being held here also...I always liked that about the manga and I’m glad they kept it in.

The biggest criticism I’ve seen so far of the series is anger toward Reiner and Bertholt for “being so fake” in this scene, but I think their reactions here are perfectly genuine.

I don’t really have anything to say about Connie and Sasha’s conversation but when Reiner offers to help Connie sneak out to his village I think he has a legit reason for saying it; I’m pretty sure his commentary on their situation (no gear, no information, et cetera) right after fighting Annie (the Female Titan) isn’t accidental or meant to be misleading. Pretty sure he’s afraid the Survey Corps is onto them and he’s thinking of getting the hell outta Dodge why he still can. More on this in a bit, though.

It seems they tried to downplay the accuracy of Mike’s nose, so it’s possible that we could be considering Mike’s sense of smell a retconned or dropped plot thread. In the manga he couldn’t even see the titans and knew how many there were, but in the anime they’re making it kind of obvious that he can’t just smell them but can see them, too.

(By the way, Thomas/Tomas takes 3 couriers with him, which probably means he rode straight for Stohess while the other three went to other locations to spread the word. He could push one horse that hard. The distance between Rose and Sina is ~81 miles. A racehorse could cover 113 miles in a day (and in a famous race from the late 1800s this did happen) if they were trained for it, but it would probably destroy their longterm health...and carry immense risk of leaving the rider stranded if the horse, you know, dropped dead from exhaustion or tripped or stumbled. Anyway, my issue with this is that we don’t know how far south of Wall Sina these kids are and it feels odd that it took this guy 12 whole hours to get to Stohess from this location at a gallop when somehow all the 104th were packed up and brought there without galloping but like, fast enough that it was less than a day... Anyway...consistency lmao.)

My favorite bit is where Reiner turns to Bertholt and says: “Has the wall been breached?!” because this implies a hell of a lot, knowing what we now know about them. This makes me think their fear is 100% real. Think about it: if they didn’t break the wall down, there is...really only one other immediate option. It’s possible there are more, too: I mean, we know of Jaws and Cartman as two other shifters, so in Reiner and Bert’s minds, it’s possible the cavalry has arrived and they have no idea what’s going on but it’s putting them in one very awkward and terrible situation, especially without any gear.

Scene Seven: Humanity Will Only Lose When We Stop Fighting

I take some issue with this scene, but my biggest issue with it is that to save time they shortened it and didn’t really let it be...meaningful. I always felt that scene was one of only a few scenes we ever get of veteran characters feeling doubtful or scared, and it’s also the only one we get where one vet inspires and bolsters another’s spirit.

It was a hugely important scene in the manga, IMO, but was not treated that way in the anime. Probably to save time considering how the episode ends, but...meh. I’m happy to talk about this more in another post if anyone actually wants my thoughts on this scene.

Scene Eight: Splitting Up

I noticed that when Reiner asks Bert to come with him and Connie, Bert agrees much more quickly than he does in the manga. I feel like this might be a smart change but I also liked Bert’s hesitation from the manga... It made him come across as more afraid...of the titans, of course, but we now know it was probably the situation in general that was freaking him out. (We’re not doing our jobs well/fast enough now someone else is interfering. This is our fault because we didn’t do our job properly.)

Also... my son:

And I wonder if this is supposed to be Henning and Lynne...? (Squad Hook Nose + Nanaba lmao.)

Looking at the manga it was kind of hard to tell who said the lines this woman said, but she had a ponytail like Lynne does. This character seems to have pigtails...? (Though the eye shape does match Lynne’s in the manga; Henning is confusing because he hardly shows up in the manga but I can’t imagine they’d draw these characters just to have randos...since we know all the teams converge together again at Utgard later.)

Scene Nine: Eren’s Dream

I didn’t expect to see Carla so soon but waH it got me a little bit in the feelings. That said, Mikasa kind of dozing off and dropping her scarf was sweet. I liked how this scene was soft and quiet and then Armin busted in to ruin their day.

Scene Ten: Erwin’s Office

The guy who says putting Mike in charge was a good idea is...well, I liked Erwin’s hesitation with that, and the kind of stalemate with Levi in this scene. There was a distinct “we’re doomed” vibe to this scene, but I like how we know that none of these characters are sitting around on their hands just waiting for happy funtimes.

Scene Eleven: The Beast Titan

Now we know why the trailer had so much of Mike’s death in it! Because it happens in the first episode of the second season! 

I didn’t like this scene and it wasn’t because Mike died. I admit to being unhappy that he died so quickly; I think I was hoping for a little more emotional push and pull, a little more humanity. And we didn’t really get it.

The Beast Titan was appropriately terrifying. How did he get Mike’s gear free so easily? A question for the ages. 

One thing I was impressed with in this scene was Mike’s fear. He had it together until the BT threw his horse at him. Watching his courage crumble was something else. It makes sense. He was probably hurt badly just from the fall, tearing off all those shingles, not to mention that his legs were broken after that titan got hold of him. Palpable fear was in that scene. And the part that got me was Mike ducking to cover his head like he thought it could protect him--or like he was afraid to watch his death coming for him.

There were a lot of things that could have been inserted into this scene to really drive home Mike’s humanity. What I wouldn’t have given to see a flashback of him younger giving his heart for humanity, or him with his squad.

But all we got was the flashback to him telling Nanaba that they can’t stop fighting. And I admit...I was looking forward to this. I wanted some sad music, some slower motion, maybe a close-up, I wanted this to feel impactful and important, to feel like a declaration. But it felt soulless and weak.

Half of this can be blamed on the rooftop scene, IMO. The other half, though...

I blame on Mike’s actual death. It was unnecessarily brutal. I understand the name of the game in this series is that people die horribly but they went out of their way to kill him as horribly as possible just to make a point, I think. “LOOK WE HAVEN’T KILLED ANYONE LATELY WE HAVEN’T LOST OUR TOUCH HAHA SEE??? LOOK!!! WE STILL GOT IT!!”

My problem with this is that I think it really took away from Mike’s character. He dies with more dignity in the manga, and if they wanted to kill him brutally in the anime...at least let him fight back for a couple of seconds? Let him hit a titan with his sword? I don’t know. It just seemed over-the-top to me. Brutality for no real reason except that they had to prove they could still do it. He doesn’t even get half a second to fight. 

To be fair, I think this is my Mike bias speaking. I always liked Mike and I was hoping his death would be a little altered from the manga--just enough that he could fight back, or that he’d die fighting for his life.

And they did alter his death scene, but mostly so that he’d cry the entire time and scream aloud like 37 times to smash the audience over the head with how afraid he was. No thanks. Bye.

Ending Song

Meh, I didn’t care for it. The art is creepy. But I did check the cast list to see if Gelgar or Nanaba had last names, and they do not. :P (Neither do Hitch and Marlowe, though, so...perhaps later?)

Overall Thoughts!

Some stuff about this episode I really liked and...there was some I really didn’t like. I feel slightly blindsided by how fast everything is happening already, but I guess it drives home the fact that after Levi’s Special Ops squad dies this whole debacle is taking place like 36 hours later I MEAN REALLY. A lot happens very quickly.

That said, my hope that we’ll get some more of Mike’s Squad is...lower now than it was. I’m still hoping they don’t take away from Gelgar and Lynne in Connie’s village, but that should be the third episode. I’m looking forward to seeing Sasha kick some ass in the next one, though, that’s for sure!