#but it would have shown up in every other big fandom like naruto one piece harry potter star trek detective Conan my hero academia...

[akikos-tribble-army]

Looking at the Sexy times with Wangxian drama that ao3 went through (and that somehow completely missed me???? like...??? how?????? I was actively using that site and I only had heard of it, but never seen it personally????), STWW actually saved you all from me uploading the State Onigiri Multicrossover fanfic in one piece.

Tagging that monster would have single handily slayed whatever STWW had going on.

[tifacatsblog]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Naruto Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Temari Characters: Nara Shikamaru, Temari (Naruto), Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Emotional Whump, Whumptober 2021, Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Suna and Konoha at war, you know the rest, Major character death - Freeform, but in a soft way, offscreen major character death Summary:

Two kilometers or so east of the camp lay a border. Just outside of the line of trees that define the changing of climate. A long line of barbed wire on sand, more of a formality than a defense; any genin could easily jump over them. But Suna’s real defense lay on the desert, waiting for fresh meat who can’t differentiate dunes from seal traps. 

This border was a warning, a finish and a start line simultaneously.

Glancing above the barbed wire, Temari found what she came here for.

What kind of soldier hates war?

Temari is a shinobi, in her job description there’s lying, kidnapping, maiming, torturing, spying, fighting, and even killing.

Well, perhaps mainly killing.

Point still stands; she is a shinobi and her job is not the kind of job you can be at peace about. Every training is a war against death, as you will be dead if you’re not good at what you do. Every killing is a war against morality, should you hesitate even for a second you risk yourself losing the courage to do it. Every mission she takes, every movement she makes, every breath she takes as a shinobi is a form of war, one way or another.

Her objective in said wars was, mostly, to survive.

(To survive a childhood without friends, to survive an assassin sent to kill her in the night of her tenth birthday, to survive an enemy nin’s kunai aimed at her throat, to survive the threat of being killed accidentally by her little bro-)

This war is no different.

Suna, after that disastrous chunin exam’s failed invasion had begun to make amends with Konoha. It was a process that Temari herself pioneered and supervised, young as she was, to make sure that none of that shit with the Fourth Kazekage and Orochimaru ever happened again, a notion that her brothers (and surprisingly a good chunk of Suna’s forces) agreed to. Suna went on rescue and aid missions assigned by the Fifth Hokage, built a better trade with Konoha, and signed a new peace and alliance treaty with said village.

All of which was done by either Temari’s or her sibling’s hand.

And all of which was for naught.

It started with the debate on who should be the next Kazekage. As Suna’s governance is less of Konoha’s meritocracy and more straight up a hereditary monarchy, the candidates were three teenagers with anger issues and too many killing counts to be comfortably discussed over meal, even for shinobi. Temari was the oldest, with a sharp strategic mind and more diplomacy experience on her hand. Kankurou has more solo mission experience on his hand, and let's face it, the one who actually has a better reputation (compared with The Cruelest Kunoichi and The Shuukaku Monster). Gaara of course, is the powerhouse and the true ‘weapon’ of Sunagakure, and If Temari was allowed to voice her assessment, a stubborn idiot who’s trying to change ways and is now perhaps, more human than Temari ever was. He’s trying to be kind, to be hopeful, to be soft in a way they never know how.

After all the shit Suna went through because Rasa decided to put being shinobi above being human, being Kazekage over being a father, Temari thinks it should be clear who should be the next Kazekage.

Apparently it wasn’t clear for some people.

Civil war broke out, a thing that every hidden village dread, as shown from Konoha’s Madara Uchiha to the situation in Kiri right now. Many things could be the spark that lead to a civil war; a disagreement, a void of power, and especially a disagreement on who should fill the void of power. There were two factions, the one who supported Gaara as Kazekage, and the one who wanted their head on the stake.

Well, perhaps that’s oversimplifying, they deemed The Kazekage clan as it is now has failed to protect Suna and they are demanding power to the people so that Suna may see a brighter future.

…and their head on the stake.

…and another military family on the Kazekage seat.

…said family is known to be power hungry in elite circles.

(Hungry for power in a way that could very well end their world, as is common for shinobi, such greed for power that made them, who came from a family that choose to seal a demon in a child with unstable seal for power, genuinely concerned)

So, war for her and her family’s survival, no big deal right? Right, no big deal. They’ve won, Gaara is on his seat on the Kazekage tower. Temari and Kankurou are his advisor slash right hand slash ambassador slash anything he needed them to be.

Except that when there’s rotten flesh there’s a pack of vultures, ready to feast.

Power over trust, land over alliance, money over peace.

Konoha has a new Daimyo, and this one is ambitious.

Thus the fourth shinobi war broke out.

This time, Suna is the prize.

(Turns out, Gaara needed them to be war generals.

When one shark bite, the blood will draw the other in.

Iwagakure joined the war a few months ago.

The other will be close behind.)

“How are things on the northern border?” Temari asked, finishing her morning ration and standing from the commander table. The tent they were in was worse to wear, but Temari was glad she could sleep in the command tent alone, and not having to share her space with five other jounin.

“Earth’s forces are admirable, but our defense still holds strong,” Her second in command, a kunoichi in her early thirties named Chisaki, said, “Kankurou-sama’s report arrived yesterday, after you went to bed. It states that we should not worry about any breaches on his side of the border,” she finished.

“And?”

“…And I quote ‘Worry about your own damn job Temari, you’re not my mom.’”

That earned a smirk from her, “Son of a bitch,” she glanced at the other shinobi, “And for the record I was calling my father a bitch, not my mom.”

Chisaki, in a show of true professionalism, doesn’t even bat an eye on Temari’s blatant disrespect of the late Kazekage.

(Or maybe, she was too used to Temari’s rant of how The Fourth was a loser who could totally do better and he was a jerk, and he was such a controlling, egoistical piece of sh-)

Temari goes out of the tent, the sun has yet to rise, everything is still and dark.

Chisaki doesn’t follow.

Temari is so glad her second in command doesn’t ask questions and trusts her so completely.

In an hour she has to make morning rounds, she has to make sure their defense is at their best, the soldiers (Are we soldiers? We weren’t supposed to be soldiers. Were we?) fed and ready, their weapons polished and deadly.

In an hour she has to be a general of war again, but for now-

Two kilometers or so east of the camp lay a border. Just outside of the line of trees that define the changing of climate. A long line of barbed wire on sand, more of a formality than a defense; any genin could easily jump over them. But Suna’s real defense lay on the desert, waiting for fresh meat who can’t differentiate dunes from seal traps. 

This border was a warning, a finish and a start line simultaneously.

Glancing above the barbed wire, Temari found what she came here for.

Dark eyes watching her sharply from the top of a branch. Green flak jacket, black shirt and trouser, staple of Konoha's basic gear. Long hair tied in a ponytail.

She used to make fun of that ponytail.

(She used to card her hand through it, when he's agreeable and not shy enough to try to evade. She used to say that she uses his hair as training exercises for braiding, lest a mission requires a kunoichi to be able to braid a really troublesome and lazy chunin's hair. She used to marvel at how soft it was, and how such an act filled her with a warm, bubbly feeling.)

She used to nag him to wear proper attire,

("You don't even look like a chunin, and what's this mesh shirt going to protect? Not you, that's the answer." 

"Says the woman who wears kimonos to battle."

"Excuse you-")

She used to-

They used to.

(There was a they once upon a time. 

Temari used to think that given time they could be something more. Maybe he would finally find the courage to ask her for dinner instead of working so ineffectively she was forced to pull an all nighter with him to meet deadlines, maybe she will finally snap and grab his hand to lead him instead of his shirt and then keep holding it even if it would be inconvenient, maybe on one of their diplomatic meeting they will finally meet each other's eyes instead of stealing glances-

Maybe given enough time, she could lov-)

They used to banter, snipping remarks over snarky ones, having fun with harmless verbal battles.

Now they mostly stand in silence, five hundreds meters apart, barely able to discern the other in such dim light.

Neither of them is going to talk, neither of them is going to even move or make some kind of microexpression. One knows the other too well. Being any other than stone might as well be a traitorous act for their own homeland; it would mean divulging information to the enemy.

Neither of them is going to stop coming here either.

This is a breach in their defense, both Konoha and Suna can make use of this and strike the other.

(Neither of them is going to say anything either.)

These days Temari usually fills their dialogue in her head. Like an actress reading from a script, practicing in front of the mirror. Desperately trying to imagine the other actor's voice so that her own act might seem real.

I will kill you, Temari, brash as ever, would say.

Wow, not even a hello? He would answer, snarky.

I know your weakness, She would insist,  I have fought you in the chunin exam once, I have fought you in sparring sessions countless times. I know your strength, your strategy, I know how you think, I know you and your weakness.

It would be Illogical for anyone else but me to kill you.

Counterpoint, he would say, as you have fought me, I have fought you. Everything you have said might be true but so does the other way around; I know you too.

Do you? She would ask, her lips would be set in a line and her eyebrow would be lifted, If you truly know me then you know why I am willing and capable of killing you.

He would be quiet for a minute, and then; I can assure you I can kill you too.

Perhaps, She would cast her gaze away, pretending to mulling it over, and then she would shift her gaze, sharp as a cheetah zoning on a gazelle in the savanna, and she would ask, But would you?

And, as said question would trigger the same reaction he has when confronted with his emotions ever, he would stay silent. And she would fill in for him; No, you wouldn't.

How would you know, I haven't exactly tried. He would half-heartedly rebuke.

And, because this is a totally hypothetical situation in which she is allowed to do anything, she would walk towards said barbed wire, closing in on the no man's land, and she would say, There, you didn't kill me.

A single person, not even crossing the border line is not a threat. He would say, I am not obligated to kill you.

Do not invalidate my strength just to cover your own weakness! She would snarl, she would grab the wires out of emotions and her hands would bleed. You know damn well I can level this forest in a second if I wanted to. I could kill you and all of your friends and your parents and your teacher and everyone else behind this blasted wire if needed. I could, I would, I will. 

There's a reason I'm named The Cruelest Kunoichi. You haven't met her yet.

He would stay silent throughout her rant, and even after that. She would continue, out of spite.

Konoha's propaganda, she would spat, has always been reliant on a bond to the people inside of the village. Will of fire, empathy, solidarity, whatever you want to say.

I'll tell you why you wouldn't kill me. She would whisper with a concealed rage.

Because I am your weakness.

And then she would turn around and leave him to stand there alone, stewing on her words.

Except of course that didn't happen.

In reality it was forty five minutes of silence with both of them just standing there, watching each other. Forty five minutes of not talking and filling the silence with an imaginary fight in her head. Forty five minutes of the sun slowly rising up and warming everything around them except themselves. 

(How could anything warm the heart of a killer? Especially if you're the one supposed to kill the one you lo-)

Forty five minutes before Shikamaru's face suddenly crumpled in grief and he all but ran away from his spot, to the darkness and safety of the forest.

Forty five and one minute later realization and dread filled Temari's chest.

(One knows the other too well. Being any other than stone might as well be a traitorous act for their own homeland; it would mean divulging information to the enemy-)

Konoha will attack soon.

(I could, I would, I will. )

.

“What kind of soldier hates war Shikamaru?” She would ask, four to five minutes from blacking out from blood loss, or perhaps something more permanent; severed femoral artery and ruptured spleen would do that. Fair, he has always said that she needs to cover her left side.

“The good kind.” He would answer, crying.

What a crybaby.

[xfadingstarx]

A Bleach Retrospective: In defense of Bleach

These are opinions, please respect that.

_______________________________

My Journey with Bleach (please skip if you want to go straight to the analysis):

On September the 8th, 2006 YTV’s weekend evening anime programming block (Bionix) aired the first episode of Bleach. I, unfortunately, did not catch this episode, instead, I caught the second episode on September 15th the following week. I was ten and from then on, Bleach fascinated me. It had an interesting concept, tight pacing, catchy music, a good story, and unique character designs. I also really enjoyed how Bleach lacked the same kind of emotional labour that Naruto demanded (as child who survived off of constantly seeking validation from others because of absentee parents, Naruto is way too much work).

My fascination with Bleach got me started in the fandom communities of yesteryear, for I was a child with zero internet supervision. My introduction to fanfiction was because I loved Hitsugaya Toshiro.

Bleach was my entry into poetry (poem at the start of every volume).

But alas, all good things were not meant to last and by the summer of 2009, I was officially done with Bleach. It had felt stilted for some time before then. Over the years, I would gradually revisit bits and pieces of Bleach, but I would not read it in its entirety until months after its finish, about a decade after I had first saw Bleach on my TV. Between the time I stopped reading and the series ended, I became friends with people who didn’t think highly of Bleach and I also started seeing criticism I had made about Bleach in 2011 being repeated by fans on the internet, I started to think that maybe Bleach was bad, but I knew what bad writing looked like —I started reading fanfiction through Bleach fanfiction AMVs on YouTube — and somehow Bleach didn’t sit right with me in the “bad writing category”. 

I sit back now, a decade and ahalf later from when I first started and ask, “was Bleach really that bad, and if so, why do I keep coming back to it?”

-----------------------------------------------

What Made Bleach So Good?

Unique story and aesthetics: When Bleach first started in 2001, it was one of the first manga series to talk about souls and death in a poetic way and with such coherence. Bleach clearly knew what it wanted to say about life and death. It also had a very unique aesthetic, very similar to that of “The World Ends With You” or “Persona 5″ — an urban Japanese take on R&B kind of vibe. Also, Bleach had the most “realistic” and minimalist art style amongst the Big 3.

Cool Music: Bleach had cool music, from very solid rock’n’roll and R&B style songs in its OPs and EDs to very funky OST music with lots of pizzazz. Many singers feature by Bleach ended up successful (to varying degrees) outside of anime, eg: Orange Range, UVERworld, YUI, sid, etc.

Versatile tone: Bleach was edgy, there’s no doubt about that. It was willing to show a lot of blood and bodily violence, especially in the manga (eg half of people blowing up and bits of bone still attached). Despite this though, it was not pretentious about its edginess — it didn’t revel in it. To contrast the edginess, there is a lot of humour in Bleach with character interactions. It was able to be laid back enough with its strong characters that it would rely on the characters’ relationships for comedic relief. The post-credit skits and the fillers really helped to add to this overall feel as well.

Maturity of the Story: Bleach was very willing to handle topics that made people think. For example, the Ulquiorra - Orihime subarc was treated with a sense of carefulness about it, as if to reflect Ulquiorra’s own cautious curiosity about the heart. A less emotionally mature story would’ve gone for the cheap rape/torture porn, but instead we are treated to determined strong Orihime, who has found strength through the heart after the death of her brother, clashing with the nihilistic hollow who wants to know if there is happiness outside of emptiness. It’s a very loaded question and one that requires both perspective and life experience to fully understand both parties. As well, Bleach always knew what it wanted to say about life and death as the final conflict of Bleach is between Ichigo, who has accepted his transient life and Yhwach, who is scared of death. And ultimately, underneath all that action, Bleach produced takes on its themes that were hard to relate to unless the reader themselves had a certain level of emotional maturity (eg: 12 year old me got nothing out of the Ulqui-Ori arc, but 20 year old me spent a good 10 mins crying after)

Strong characters: Contrary to popular belief, Bleach does have quite solid characterization. In fact, Bleach is the journey of Ichigo as a character, from grappling with his weakness and pain to finally accepting all the parts of himself and his history in order to defeat Yhwach and protect those he cares about. Even the secondary characters of Bleach receive a sizable amount of backstory and/or development. Bleach also managed to have more proactive female characters. Even the damsel in distress Orihime stands up to Ulquiorra and slaps him. As a result of these strong characters, Bleach was able to rely on them and their relationships to drive aspects of the story (eg Ichigo crying in the Fullbringer arc).

Willingness to Deal with Emotion: Given that Ichigo is an internally motivated character, it was obvious Bleach would deal with emotion at some point in time. Making Ichigo just a normal high school boy also relives the previous edginess. Bleach also clearly too the time to make its readers feel in its early years. We are treated to beautiful panelling and very real displays of strong negative emotions. Bleach is also very good at giving its characters room to breathe and be sad. Eg: moping Orihime, moping Ichigo, etc. As well, Kubo went to extraordinary lengths to break Ichigo down during the Fullbringers Arc.

Interesting Character Designs: Every character in Bleach feels vibrant and unique with their personality showing through in their designs. For example: Shunshi’s sloppily tied up hair, visible stubble, and overcoat-hidden-haori show that he is both easy going and not looking for a fight; meanwhile Byakuya’s neatly pulled back hair and neck covered by scarf show that he is both someone who likes structure and is conservative.

Poetry and Symbolism: Kubo manages to weave poetry into Bleach in the beginning of each volume. The poem was said by the character on the volume. It gave the reader insight to this character and it gave Kubo a chance to flex his poetic chops. Further proof of this is the fact that many people don’t realize that the name “Bleach” refers to the bleaching of soul that is key to the story. Kubo loves to use rain to set sad scenes. It rains when Ichigo fights Grand Fisher, Zangetsu tells Ichigo that he hates the rain, etc. Kubo also specifies that he wishes for the reader to read certain volumes on stormy, rainy nights.

Panelling: Many people like to criticize Kubo for the lack of effort with the Bleach manga, but Kubo has stated that he uses negative space (i.e., foregoing backgrounds) to focus more on his character’s expressions. This not only further proves that Bleach cares a lot about its characters, but it’s done well enough that the average reader likely doesn’t notice the lack of background on the first read through. As well, Bleach has very cinematic panelling. Kubo uses the format of manga well, utilizing the human mind’s ability to fill blanks in with clever panelling to create tone and build tension and the feeling of movement through a scene.

In fact, in finding pages for this analysis, I found myself noticing that Bleach panels very similarly to slice-of-life shoujo but with a boy MC manga like "Horimiya": focus on expression through intimate angles and use of panels and breaks to create mood and the feeling of cinema; whereas something like DBZ panels like a shounen action manga with many hard lines and action shots, instead of a focus on subtle details and emotions.

Some Examples:

Notice now in Chapter 197: The approaching danger, Kubo uses a gradual zoom to build tension and the black background to add intensity and signal to the reader that Hitsugaya is relaying important information.

Here in Chapter 234: Not Negotiation, the immediate close up to Ulquiorra’s eye from the full body shots creates a sense of intimidation and unease with its sudden intimacy. As well, the immediate zoom in from Ulquiorra’s side full body shot to his facial profile creates tension and the change from the dark background to the white face with Orihime releases this tension (very fitting with considering the line for this panel is “but not you”). (This scene also ties into Ulquiorra’s central dogma of “that which is not reflected in my eyes does not exist’.)

Again in the same chapter, this gradual zoom in on the two creates tension that is then release in the next panel and summarily cements Ulquiorra as a terrifying BAMF.

In Chapter 262: Unblendable, Kubo uses the negative space to create a feeling of isolation, similar to how Orihime is supposed to be feeling.

In the same chapter, notice how Kubo creates a sense of intimacy (not in the romance sense) with the relationship of Ulquiorra and Orihime. He creates tension gradually with the zooming into Orihime’s eye and releases it with the zoom out to Ulquiorra. Through this scene, Kubo has shown us that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a tense relationship and with the implication of eye contact through the shots and panel breaks creating both the intimacy and showing Orihime’s defiance.

(Interestingly, I’ve noticed that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a lot of these intimate zoom shot-reverse-shot eye panels)

___________________

What are the Bad Parts of Bleach?

Okay, so by now, you’re probably thinking that I’m ignoring the massive amounts of critique that Bleach gets and don’t get me wrong, while Bleach does have a very special place in my heart, I’m also not maudlin enough to pretend that Bleach was all good.

Pacing:

Pacing in the First Half of Bleach (Karakura Town - Arrancar)

When Bleach first started out the pacing was excellent. Kubo showed great mastery of pace to control the tone and highlight the emotions throughout the first two arcs. Mid-way through the Arrancar arc, the fatigue sets in and it was hard to keep up with, especially since Kubo would interrupt one exciting fight set up to go set up more plot elsewhere (eg Fake Karakura town right as Ichigo and Ulquiorra were about to battle). Whilst looking back and reading it all at once does help with the pacing, it was frustrating if you were reading/watching on a weekly basis.

Pacing in the Anime:

I don’t ascribe to a simplistic belief of “fillers bad” simply because I think that sometimes fillers can be a good thing, for example, since every chapter is ~15-20pp, some character interactions have to be cut for the sake for space, so filler is a great opportunity to add those moments back into your story. For example, a lot of early Bleach fillers are just the people of Karakura town just hanging out. That being said, Bleach does have an unfortunate amount of fillers, with some of them even interrupting tense fights (eg the Beast Sword Arc interrupts Ichigo’s battle with Ulquiorra). However, the padding that the fillers provided did wonders for the transition between Soul Society to Arrancar Arc in the anime. Ultimately, the Bleach anime adaption was a long-running anime made for syndication and that’s okay.

******* Brief Aside: many people like(d?) to point out that Bleach has a very cyclical plot structure. I used to think this way too; however, this is not the case. There are many other long running stories that repeat similar goals. The problem lies not in the idea, but the execution. The main complaint about the Orihime rescue was not that it was uninteresting, but instead that it felt a rehash of the plot of the previous arc. This is largely because the story was not given enough time to breath between similar character arcs. For example, in One Piece, Luffy and Co have to save Nami and by extension, her home village so she can join them; however, the next time a Straw Hat needs to be saved is 227 chapters (2 whole story arcs) later. In between saving Rukia and Orihime, there is only a really an arrancar encounter, a bit of training, cheering up Ichigo, and a Grimmjow encounter before Orihime goes with Ulquiorra, thus making the goal of this arc “save Orihime” in only ~59 chapters vs 227. These two similar arc goals so close to each other does indeed create the sense of repetition.

Pacing from Fullbringer to End:

This is where Bleach really lost a lot of people. If you weren’t gone after the Ulquiorra fight, you probably were by this arc.This arc went at breakneck speed, and ngl, during my first full read through I almost gave up here too. I mention earlier that Ichigo had been broken down in this arc, but it was hard to feel his despair and the weight on his shoulders because there wasn’t enough for the reader to take a beat and breathe. The Thousand Year Blood War, similarly suffered from sloppy pacing, with many readers feeling like story lines of Squad 0 and the Soul King were anti-climactic. As well, this arc started with a massacre and feature the deaths of many fan-favourite characters, and unfortunately due to the pacing, their deaths were not given a sense of gravity.

Missed Opportunities and Forgotten Story lines: Many people felt that Kubo forgot about a lot of his characters after the Aizen arc. Many thought the Fullbringer Arc was going to be a Chad/Orihime Arc. Whatever happened to Uryuu lolol? We all just collectively forgot about him for a large portion of the last half of Bleach. At one point in time, there was a rumour going around that Kubo had written out the story for Bleach and lost it. Idk if there is any credibility to it. However, in a 2017 interview, Kubo did say that he did end the series exactly the way he wanted to.

(If anyone wants to see me write an entire ass text post about Orihime and her treatment in Bleach, please let me know because I will do it)

Too mature:Even though above, I praised Bleach's mature handle on its themes, an unfortunate side effect of this is forgetting that the characters are only 15 at the beginning and for the first half of Bleach. This unfortunately, leads to some readers feeling disconnected from Bleach.

Epilogue: THE DESTROYER OF SHIPS!!! A lot of people hated this ending. Many people felt like the romance was shoe-horned in, others didn’t like the pairings, and there were some people who actually liked it. Personally, I didn’t like it too much, but it was a cute conclusion nonetheless. Since it didn't add anything to the story except for a "where are they now" look and because of that, I low-key felt like it was unnecessary, but w/e.

------------------------

Perspective

Making a long-running weekly serialized story is hard and doing it for 15 years is gruelling (obligatory “fuck capitalism” here). Like many artists of long-running manga, Kubo destroyed his health for the sake of publishing Bleach weekly. Kubo on his health after Bleach (photo from AshitanoGin on Twitter):

Given this insight, I think it’s only fair to be respectful and grateful for Kubo’s contribution to the anime-sphere. Also, through his work, Kubo seems to be a very understanding person and artist. I’m sure he knows better than anyone where Bleach went wrong, but there’s nothing that can be done now. Despite him having a twitter, he is not Joanne and doesn’t feel the need to constantly hemorrhage out word of god info about Bleach (and thank god for that).

------------------

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to forget my happy memories when I think about Bleach. It had my first adolescent crush and first OTP. As a result, I think the best way to enjoy Bleach is to take what you want out of it. People always think that something has to be 100% without flaw for it to be good, but that is not true at all. It is totally okay to just like the parts that you like without engaging with anything else. It’s special to you for a reason, you know? 

There’s no use in fretting over what Bleach could’ve been, besides, very rarely is the reality better than the fantasy in your head.

I do think though that a lot of Kubo’s issues could’ve been fixed if he planned the story better but not all of us can be “I've been planning One Piece since elementary school” Oda Eiichiro.

Other voices on this issue: here

----------------------------

Wow. I can’t believe you made it this far down. Congratulations! Thanks for reading my 2:30am non-sober take on Bleach (it only took me 7 hours to write). Here's a cookie <3

[solena2]

Hey y’all so I watched a YouTube video that I think was wrong, and as you know it’s illegal to be wrong on the internet, so I wrote a response!

Video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8LF_KkrCJs

Spoilers for BNHA, in both the video and my response (which I wanted to put in the comments on the video, but apparently YouTube gets pissy about copypasting? Anyway)

Also, probably watch the video before reading this, since a lot of this is a direct response to the points they brought up.

—

I’d like to preface this by saying that you’ve made some valid comments, and that I understand where you’re coming from here.

My Hero Academia is, overall, a story about amazing people with amazing powers doing amazing things, and it’s difficult to see where someone with no power at all might fit in to this, which is the main emotional conflict Izuku faces throughout his childhood, that fundamental dichotomy between his wanting to save people, and his (assumed) inability to do so without a quirk.

But My Hero Academia is also a story that likes to repeatedly assert that anyone can be a hero. From Aizawa with his non-physical quirk, who primarily uses support gear to defeat enemies many times stronger than him, to Shinsou, whose quirk is seen as villainous, who would likely have to fight against other heroes as often as he would villains thanks to the prejudice that’s positively dripping from BNHA’s world.

So I’d like to explain why I disagree.

First, you begin the video by talking about the people who claim that Izuku’s getting a quirk ruins the story. I would like to make it clear, right off the bat, that I don’t hold this view. I believe that while Izuku having a quirk weakens the impact of the story and cheapens a lot of its messages, there is still undoubtedly a story there to be told, and one that is worth telling.

The reason I believe that Izuku receiving One For All weakens the story is because BNHA is all about the consequences of the kind of society wide prejudice that exists within its world. Every villain the characters face and every problem they overcome is one spawned by the very status quo they’ve spent their childhoods dreaming of upholding- the hero system.

Stain exists because heroes are held in awe by the general population without truly being worthy of it, treated as saviors despite being little more than glorified cops, which spawns anger and resentment from people intelligent enough to see past their facades.

Dabi exists because pro heroes are allowed to get away with just about anything so long as they’re covert about it, and in fact might have grown up to be a hero himself if Endeavor had been held to a higher moral standard by those around him, or had been appropriately punished for his behavior.

All For One exists because “strong” quirks are revered, and those who hold them are taught early to take what they want by force.

Shigaraki exists because those with “unpleasant” quirks are reviled and held in disgust by the general population, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation by outside forces due to their lacking support systems.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.

In my opinion, BNHA has always been centered around the society quirks have created and the consequences therein. I dare you to find a major character arc that doesn’t intersect with the universe’s social issues in some way.

Thus, I believe the message that BNHA attempts to convey would be significantly stronger I’d Izuku had remained quirkless, demonstrating once and for all that quirks and heroism aren’t so intertwined as it might seem.

Instead, it shoots itself in the foot, saying repeatedly that it’s not a quirk that makes a hero, but rather their spirit, while at the same time leaving it implied that the most important character of all would never have been able to help people if not for being given All Might’s power. (Again, it doesn’t ruin the story, but it does hamstring the core message somewhat.)

You say here that Izuku getting saved by All Might is the only reason he became a hero at all, being “saved from his fate of irrelevance”.

This is… Not something I agree with, to state it politely.

Izuku was planning to attend UA’s entrance exam long before he met All Might. Given that he is, you know, Izuku, I don’t think any amount of shittiness from Katsuki would have deterred him from trying. In fact, trying despite the odds against him making it seem idiotic to do so is one the largest parts of his character.

The way you speak of needing to give him a “resilient streak” for him to keep trying despite All Might’s discouragement implies that he doesn’t already have one wide enough to suffer through 14 years of being told he’d never make it as a hero. With how much he’s already pushed through by the time the story even starts, I really doubt All Might would succeed again breaking his will any more than anyone else has.

You say that Izuku’s arc is all about facing the guilt of having reached his goals purely through chance while so many others remain downtrodden.

That’s valid, and I agree.

You also say that this is not a character arc he could have had without One For All, which is not.

Merely being the first quirkless person to make it into UA would likely start this, as he would definitely still have to get through the exam on rescue points, which could feel unearned to him, what with his massive case of imposter syndrome.

Thus, it would still be entirely possible to give him the same overall character arc he has in canon, and it might in fact end up even more pronounced, due to all the discrimination he’d face from the general public.

You say that for this Izuku to continue, even despite All Might’s rejection, he would already have to have the sense of self worth such a character arc eventually gives him.

This is not the case. There are many instances in real life of people pushing past impossible odds and still not feeling as if they deserve to have made it to the other side. In fact, what would likely happen is that he’d try to be a hero anyway and then feel guilty for attempting it even after being discouraged by his hero.

So no, he’s not Naruto, because the personality changes you propose wouldn’t actually be necessary to give him a fighting chance as a hero without a quirk.

The next big point you make is that it would be difficult to give Izuku the standard shounen power crawl without a cool quirk.

You’re correct that technology would have a difficult time stacking up to One For All without feeling like an asspull, making him a Mary Sue, or needing to give him a seemingly infinite array of gadgets, a la Batman.

Notice I said difficult, NOT impossible. While it can be much harder to turn technology into a realistic way to fight superpowered villains, it CAN be done.

Not to mention, there is already a character in BNHA who does it and does it well.

Aizawa doesn’t have a combat oriented quirk, instead fighting almost exclusively with the use of his capture scarf, using which he is shown to be able to take out upwards of ten villains, depending on where you want to pull from. I really don’t think it would be so unrealistic to give a quirkless Izuku something along these lines.

Not that we even need to. We can have Izuku beating villains without the use of any technology he couldn’t buy for himself. (At least in a place with lax safety laws, which I imagine his world likely is due to how pointless it would be to heavily restrict the purchase of things like guns when there are people running around who can shoot glaciers from their hands)

Ninety percent of villains are as vulnerable to getting shot as a normal human. If that’s too violent and bloody for the tone of the show, there are dozens of ways to beat the villains with things like hairspray flamethrowers, slingshots, and traditional weapons (just look at Stain). While quirks certainly are powerful, they aren’t perfect and every ability has a counter, even if it’s not always immediately obvious.

This eliminates the problem of him needing to get his tech from somewhere entirely. (Which is almost a con, because Mei needs more screentime, man)

Actually your point of possibly making Izuku a “super genius” reminds me of something else. Izuku has an almost supernatural ability to identify and counter quirks. Gee, I wonder how that could be useful in a possible plot line where he’s unable to rely on being able to smash his way through problems…

You say that if Izuku getting a quirk is an issue for BNHA, giving him overpowered tech would be a problem as well. Though I already solved this problem by proposing less tech heavy solutions, I’ve decided not to skip over this point because it seems like the right place for me to bring up a piece of context you may be missing for why some people are so against Izuku being given a quirk.

Let’s talk about the disability angle.

Now, as someone with mental disabilities myself, I’m not exactly unbiased here. I’m not going to deny that I have a knee jerk reaction to any story that gives a character a disability (or something analogous within the setting to a disability, like quirklessness) and then “cures” it while implying that they never would have gotten anywhere if their disability had persisted. This is actually why I took so long to get into the BNHA fandom, since I saw a loose outline of the plot and immediately went “oh hell no”.

I did end up joining the fandom in the end, simply because I’m almost certain that this parallel was unintentional.

Anyway, the reason why giving him an overpowered quirk and giving him overpowered tech are so different from a lot of people’s perspectives is that giving him tech doesn’t erase his “disability”. If you give a quirkless Izuku powerful tech, he’ll still be quirkless, with all the hurdles and challenges that implies. (Especially the discrimination related ones) Meanwhile, giving Izuku a quirk removes the disability entirely, as well as most associated difficulties.

I’m sure you can see why one seems so ableist, from a disabled perspective.

You say that you would likely run out of ways to meaningfully progress his tech, in a series as long as BNHA likely will be by its conclusion, but I’d like to point out that this is just as much of a problem with superpowered media. It’s very common in shounen for power progression to feel like more and more of an asspull as the story progresses. Thus, you solve the problem in the same way, by relying more on clever use of what the hero already possesses than you do on creating a new application or ability in every fight.

And no, I can think of several ways to beat both Dabi and Shigaraki without “science magic”. Obviously, neither of them are immune to bullets, though again, that’s probably a bit too quick for this show. You could take down Shigaraki if you could numb his hands somehow, or if you protected yourself with something made of many interlocking parts, like chain mail. You could beat Dabi if you used something like a taser, if you could get close enough to use it. You could also just find a way to outlast him, since he’s not immune to his own fire. Maybe bring some gasoline?

I’m going to skip over the points you make while talking about setting, since I don’t believe you’d have to alter the setting to make a quirkless Izuku feasible.

I will talk acknowledge one point you make while discussing setting simply so I can say: inequality and societal imbalance do not require much, or even any, actual disparity in ability to both exist and be prevalent enough to disenfranchise huge chunks of a population. Just look at how autistic and ADHD people are treated for that. (Or gay people, or women, or the Poors(™)...)

In conclusion, your opinion is valid but I think you lack knowledge of where most of this criticism is actually coming from, which isn’t something you should be ashamed of.

I think the reason mine and your opinions are so fundamentally different here is that we’re coming from very different places, and our thoughts on a piece of media like this are always going to be shaped by our environment.

Thank you for reading.

[weirdbananasblog]

MOST POPULAR ANIME CHARACTERS

Firstly, An anime’s popularity highly depends upon its characters. Here are some anime characters which is popular over time. Secondly, Almost every time anime series comes with new characters like a cool guy, shy girl, badass villain, expressionless character. And other Anime girl characters.

1. LELOUCH LAMPEROUGE

Code Geass is maybe one of the most liked anime of all time. War tactics, intelligence, action-packed episodes, and intense story plot have helped it reach its global fame and fandom. And obviously the main protagonist Lelouch is one of the most beloved characters and popular anime characters you would find.

He is extremely wicked and his intellect helped him overcome every situation. In the series, Lelouch is a former prince from the superpower Britannia who is given the power of the “Geass” by a witch known as C.C. Using the Geass and his genius-level intellect, Lelouch becomes the leader of the resistance movement known as The Black Knights under his alter ego zero to destroy the Holy Britannian Empire, an imperial monarchy that has been conquering various countries under control from his father.

Anime: Code Geass

Character: Lelouch Lamperouge

Power: Geass, hypnosis, and brainwashing

Creator: Ichirō Ōkouchi

2. MONKEY D LUFFY

As we know, Luffy is the most beloved Popular Anime Character. One piece has become the longest-running anime series of all time. And Monkey D Luffy has become the most loved character. Firstly, Luffy is the captain of Straw Hat Pirate. He is the Grandson of infamous Vice-Admiral Monkey D Garp and Son of revolutionary army leader Monkey D Dragon.

In addition, He has a jolly and fun character. When the time comes Luffy will go against everyone to protect his loved one. However, Luffy went against numerous global powers. Starting with fighting the most powerful pirates in the East Blue and moving to clashes against the Marines, and moreover, Seven Warlords of the Sea, World Nobles, and addition, even the Four Emperors in the Grand Line.

Anime : One Piece

Character : Monkey D Luffy

Devil Fruit : Gomu Gomu no Mi

Abilities : Gear 2nd, Gear 3rd, Gear 4th, Gattling, Haki, and so on.

Pirate Group Name : Straw Hat Pirate

First Crewmate : Roronoa Zoro

Ship name : The Thousand Sunny

Creator : Eiichiro Oda

3. L LAWLIET

Death note is 37-episode anime television series, which is written by  Tsugumi Ohba. And, the core concept is the “Death Note” itself, a black notebook with instructions (known as “Rules of the Death Note”) written on the inside. Moreover, It allows anyone to commit a murder, knowing only the victim’s name and face. In short, The storied director said that it is inspired by ancient Japanese concepts.

Meanwhile, Yagami Light found the notebook (death note) and started to provide justice to the world by using Death Note. Above all, he was killing people which he shouldn’t and, using the notebook in the wrong way. In conclusion, To spot that kind of violence L came into action and contradict Yagami Light.

Anime : Death Note

Character : L

Work : Detective

Creater : Tsugumi Ohba

4. LEVI ACKERMAN

Attack on Titan has recently become popular anime throughout the year. In other words, It is popular for various reasons like animation, direction, cinematography, character development, story. Levi is the captain of the squad lit ‘leader of the soldier he has shown his true potential after defeating the Beast titan in season 3. However, he is quite short. But, his physique is well-developed in musculature from extensive vertical maneuvering equipment usage.

He usually doesn’t show his expression so, he is expressionless. In short, he is the cool guy character of the anime attack on titan.

Anime : Attack on titan

Character : Levi Ackerman

Post : Survey Corps Captain

Abilities : 3D Maneuver Gear, strategies making and keen judgment, and so on.

Squad : Special Operations Squad

Creator : Hajime Isayama

5. NARUTO

Naruto is one of the most diverse anime with lots of different characters. So, Hand down it is one of my favorite anime. Firstly, Naruto Uzumaki is a shinobi of Konohagakure’s Uzumaki clan. Secondly, He has a carefree, energetic, and hopeful personality. Due to, having the power of nine tail fox other villagers didn’t want to get close to him. So, he wanted to do something big in his life. In short, His only dream is to be Hokage of the leaf village.

Meanwhile, At his early age, Naruto is assigned to Team 7, in which he meets his rival Sasuke Uchiha, a taciturn and highly skilled “genius” of the Uchiha clan; Sakura Haruno, who is infatuated with Sasuke and has Naruto’s attention and Kakashi Hatake, the quiet and mysterious leader of the team. In short, Their team name is team 7.

Anime : Naruto

Character : Naruto Uzumaki

Abilities : Nine tail fox, Rasenshuriken, Shadow Clones Jutsu, Sage Mode, Summoning Giant Toads, and so on.

Team mate : Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno

Leader : Kakashi Hatake

Creator : Masashi Kishimoto

6. SAITAMA

In this paragraph, I am going to talk about Saitama(One punch man). Saitama can literally defeat the enemy with only one punch. As mention in the series, he didn’t have hair and he is just ordinary looking blad guy. However, he faces a self-imposed existential crisis similar to depression and anxiety. As a result, he work out very hard. In short, his workout includes 100 Pushups, 100 Sit-Ups, 100 Squats, and a 10KM Run every day. After all, he loses all his hair by hard training. But, he is actually a funny and dedicated character.

Anime : Saitama

Character : Caped Baldy

Ability : Punch

Creator : artist ONE

7. GOKU

Son Goku is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Dragon Ball manga series. As an early 2000s kid, I clearly remember Goku is the main character of the series Dragon Ball. It was the most popular anime series back in the days. So, his character is based on Sun Wukong (Monkey King), the main character in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. In short, Many experts say that he is considered to be one of the greatest manga and anime characters of all time.

Anime : Dragon Ball

Character : Son Goku

Abilities : Kamehameha, Super Saiyan, Spirit Bomb, Dragon Fist, and so on.

Creator : Akira Toriyama

8. RINTAROU OKABE

Steins;Gate is an anime series about time travel. In addition, Okabe is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who often goes by the pseudonym Kyouma Hououin. He spent most of his time in a lab and has dubbed himself Lab Member No. 001. So, by spending more time in the lab he learns that he is the only one who possesses the ability to determine changes between different timelines, which he dubs “Reading Steiner”.In short, Steins;Gate is anime series of a variety of characters and my favorite character is Mayuri Shiina.

Anime : Steins;Gate

Character : Rintarou Okabe

Ability : Scientist , to determine changes between different timelines, and so on.

Creator : 5pb. and Nitroplus

9. EDWARD ELRIC

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is the story of two brothers. Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric search for the Philosopher’s Stone hoping to restore their body from Philosopher Stone. When they attempted to use their alchemy skills to resurrect their deceased mother. Edward, who lost only limbs, joins the State Military, which gives him the freedom to continue the search of the stone. In short, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood has been popular for its strong variety of character and strong flow of the story. Actually, a strong villain can make anime 10 times better.

Anime : Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Character : Edward Elric

Ability : master of alchemy, can manipulate the environment and form weapons to fight, and so on.

Creator : Hiromu Arakawa

10. YAGAMI LIGHT

Death note is crime drama anime series. A high school student Yagami Light finds a notebook outside his highschool. Later on, he found out that he can kill people just by writing names of people and remembering his/her face.So, He tries to take action on his own and started to feel like a god. However, His main agenda is to kill criminals. He is brilliant, calculating, and manipulative.

Anime : Death Note

Character : Yagami Light

Ability : Notebook

Creator : Tsugumi Ohba

[scrawnydutchman]

O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes! Series Review

Now HERE’S a show I’ve wanted to get a chance to sit down and watch forever. O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes! is the rare show that comes along every once in a while that immediately sparks my interest upon seeing some previews. The show is just everything I love as a person. It’s back to good ol’ hand drawn frame by frame, it’s got both fun physical AND well written humor, and it features some of my favorite people in the industry around like members of the animation team behind the also fantastic Steven Universe and the guys behind some of the most phenomenal animation on the web, Studio Yotta, which fans may know created most of the music videos for the band Starbomb.  As if the show was literally made for me it also premiered on my birthday no less. It’s centered around one of the coolest concepts ever . . . FIGHTING. Yeah, I know that recently we’ve been getting pretty tired of violence in the real world and for good reason. The controversial shit is really getting to a lot of people. But there’s two types of fighting: that which is propelled by maliciousness and hatred, and that which is for sportsmanship, adrenaline and honest to God fun. This show is the latter type of fighting through and through, and it is AWESOME. Naturally this show did not disappoint me. I binge watched a whole bunch of it to get caught up and had a big ass grin on my face the whole time.

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

 K.O is a spunky, ambitious and good hearted little kid (Think Steven Universe and Goku from DBZ mashed together, and a bit of Ryu from Street Fighter) who wants to become a hero like the people around who inspire him, such as the towering musclebound badass of a plaza boss Mr. Gar. To do this, he ends up getting employed at Lakewood Plaza Turbo and works alongside Radicles, the pompous macho alien man with the levitation beam who’s secretly hiding a sensitive side (think Lars from Steven Universe but more endearing and less of a pain in the ass), and Enid, the snarky, sarcastic ninja who gives no fucks. They go on some misadventures, learn some lessons about themselves, occasionally Lord Boxman and his goons cause some trouble but they’re never threatening, and once in a while we get some clues into Mr. Gar’s past and how it’s tied to K.O’s mom Carol.

STORYTELLING:

I’ve gone on record before in saying that the best show premises are the ones just broad enough to go in all sorts of different directions with creative storytelling, and this show is thankfully no different. It’s got a great memorable setting with an expansive likable cast, great recurring jokes and a refreshingly fun tone about it. You can definitely tell the Steven Universe team worked on it because that and O.K.K.O have very distinct similarities, especially early season one of SU. The main difference to me though is the level of drama and the quality of humour. It’s a relatively new show that promises to introduce some drama down the line so comparing that to SU doesn’t feel fair at this point in time, but I’m very confident in saying O.K.K.O is funnier. SU has decent jokes, don’t get me wrong, but something about O.K.K.O just got me to laugh more consistently at it’s ultra bizarre humor. My favorite jokes tend to be the ones about Enid hating having to deal with entitled customers, but my favorite joke in the whole show thus far involves a certain coffee pun making mughead named Joe Cuppa. It’s a reveal that is so surreal and so bewildering that I can’t spoil the surprise, but damn if it isn’t funny.

In terms of both storytelling and animation, despite being an action show first and foremost, O.K.K.O’s greatest attribute is it’s humor. The wild faces, the great comedic timing in the cuts, the bizarre movement of the characters at times, plus the combination of both surreal and poignant lines make for a consistently clever ride. There’s one particular episode that I think really captures the harsh reality of fandoms that’s relevant to an eerie extent, and it can all be summed up by this one line by Radicles.

“Who knew people could be so dumb about art they love so much?”

ANIMATION:

Now, being an animator myself, one of the biggest attractions to this show for me was the fact that it was a return to classic Hand Drawn 2D animation. In a time where the vast majority of television programming is either passable but uninteresting character rigging or bland, texture lacking 3d animation, a return to what is in my opinion the most organic, spontaneous and therefore the most consistently interesting animation style is always welcome. The show even references it’s animation style at 24 FPS in one of the lyrics sung by Rebecca Sugar in the credits, which I adore.

“Every second that you see is 24 connected pieces. Thank you for coming. Thank you for staying. Thank you for watching the show.” - Rebecca Sugar.

Really, that lyric should be a pretty good indication about the kind of passion put into this show. When this show gets going, it’s got some of the most consistently satisfying and creative animation I’ve seen in a long time. The characters feel unbound by typical design conventions which allows for more flexibility in their expressions and their poses, and it makes for both very effective comedy and some of the most dynamic and well choreographed action scenes you can find on TV right now. A large contribution to the studio being able to pull this off is the simplistic art style. Every character is often times sketched pretty roughly with some proportions being askew at times, hands turning into little spheres, backgrounds lacking big details and so on. But what the art lacks in consistency it more then makes up for in fluidity and spontaneity. I’m actually glad they don’t care as much about the little details because it gives them the freedom to put more time into creating the kind of epic grand scale fighting we like to see. It really does feel like they put a lot of heart and soul into how this show looks. The intro and outro alone are hype as hell to watch.

Now that said, the animation isn’t without it’s problems. Sometimes it’s really obvious where they put in minimal effort to save time, especially in large cheering crowd scenes, and I’ve noticed more then a few awkward cuts and transitions unfortunately when I could easily think of something that would have looked better and could be done in the same amount of time. But you can’t win everything I guess. All in all, I dig the way this show works and it has it’s priorities in check.

Acting

This show has a great cast that really fits each character. K.O. has a voice that’s kiddish and endearing, but it never gets annoying or grading, which is a flaw a lot of child characters have the unfortunate tendency of having. Chalk this up as another way in which K.O. is better then Steven Universe btw. Enid has a great voice for articulating a snarky give-no-fucks attitude but it’s also always great whenever she needs to be genuine. Radicles is the macho alien man so naturally he has a great voice that’s a combination of every surfer dude and college fratboy you ever heard of. He’s a pompous egotistical jerk certainly but he’s several times more endearing then characters of his archetype because he’s shown to not be completely heartless or needlessly cruel to people close to him. Mr. Gar is great and more often then not gets the funniest lines in the show. Carol is the sweetest most charismatic badass mom in all of cartoon history and I gush whenever she and K.O interact. All the supporting characters do great, there isn’t a single voice in the show I find unbearable. Also this show consistently gets awesome celebrity voices like Keith David, and, more notably, the dude who says “INCONCEIVABLE!” in The Princess Bride.

Sound Design

Not a whole lot to say here other then it’s definitely serviceable. They sneak in some appropriate cartoon sound effects in there. The sound effects for the fight scenes like the crashing and exploding are pretty good. The intro song is fucking amazing. Like literally, I can watch the intro to this show over and over and be consistently entertained, it’s great. That’s the true sign of a promising show; when you can always sit through the intro and not get tired of it.

Art Design

I’ve already touched upon this point in the animation section, but as I mentioned before the art style is very minimal at times. But that’s totally fine. It acts in the shows favor more often then not because it gives the animators freedom to put their best work in the places that matter. Plus the character designs are great and memorable, they cover the bases for character design 101. You can tell who each character is in silhouette. Their inspirations are pretty plain to see like K.O. is so obviously modeled after headband clad fighting dudes like Street Fighter or Double Dragon. Enid is so obviously a Naruto inspired character. Radicles is probably some alien marvel character, idk. Point being, everyone is distinct and they communicate their personalities through how they look. You know everything you need to know about K.O. through a single picture of him.

*fun fact: K.O’s character design was the inspiration for the design of Ruby in Steven Universe.

Conclusion:

O.K.K.O: Let’s Be Heroes is everything I hoped it would be. It’s got a lot of heart, great surreal humor, intense and well choreographed action, great memorable characters and overall just leaves me with a simultaneously light/pumped up heart and a smile. The only thing I can really think of that’s wrong with it is it’s weird editing choices and select moments where cutting corners in animation was obvious, but that’s pretty small fry issues. I can’t wait to watch more.

STORYTELLING: 2/2

ANIMATION: 1.5/2

ACTING: 2/2

SOUND DESIGN: 1.5/2

ART DESIGN: 1.5/2

OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10

[kitsunesbooks]

How to Fix Shonen's Biggest Problem

So not too long ago there have been a couple of videos regarding a certain issue within anime, more specifically shonen anime. It is a problem that has been around since Dragonball Z started, and has persisted to this very day through anime and manga like Bleach and Naruto. This issue is none other than the escalation problem. For many extremely popular shonen anime and manga, there is a constantly increasing scale throughout their plot. From Dragonball, to Naruto, to One Piece, each of these stories continues to build and build and build until the audience can barely stand it anymore. Hell, I'm pretty sure this is why Fairy Tail has become so despised in the community as of late. A video by Reality Punch Studios introduced me to this problem, and then Gigguk decided make video of his own on the subject. Both of them had great points and examples, while also providing some intriguing solutions, which I will cover briefly. But I felt they were ignoring the simplest solution to the problem.

In order to really grasp the problem and my solution to it, I have to introduce you to a very basic literary concept. That concept is the dramatic structure, or Freytag's pyramid. The dramatic structure is the most basic template for any and all storytelling. It was originally utilized to analyze old plays, such as the works of Shakespeare. But due to the fact that Shakespeare’s writing was so influential and has practically become an entire lexicon of tropes, the pyramid can be utilized to analyze almost any story you come across. The dramatic structure includes five parts that categorize the different phases of a story. Those parts are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution or conclusion. Now, in order to really understand the escalation problem, you only need to really look at the first three parts of the pyramid. This is because, those three parts make up the problem.

If you look way back at the Frieza Saga from Drgaonball Z, and compare it to the earlier Saiyan Saga, you could argue that from a dramatic standpoint, the Saiyan Saga is superior. This is purely off of the fact that the Saiyan Saga itself is more or less a self contained story, albeit with a few loose ends. Not only that, the Saiyan Saga had far more personal stakes and conflicts. Goku having to battle his brother after discovering his origins is incredibly moving, especially to the hardcore fans who watched (and or read) all of the original Dragonball beforehand. That and the introduction of Vegeta and Nappa raises the power ceiling of the series to new heights, and even though character death had already been more or less numbed in the original Dragonball, seeing countless long term characters getting obliterated is still extremely hard to watch for long term fans. Compare that to the Frieza Saga where the stakes only really grew because the villain had a higher power level than the heroes. That and the overall conflict was far more “classic comic book” in style. The entire plot of the Frieza Saga is very, very cheesy. There is far less personal conflicts in the Frieza Saga, until the very end when Goku finally achieves his Super Saiyan transformation. That being said, these issues are more or less remedied in the Cell Saga as there is a far greater focus on character building within that arc. The thing is, that between the Cell Saga and the Buu Saga, character development is more or less isolated to single moments than the entirety of the arc.

Using DBZ as an example, the escalation problem can be narrowed down to the writer, Akira Toriyama in this case, wanting to constantly one up his earlier work in the series. That and also pressure from editors as the Cell Saga was an influenced nightmare on part of Toriyama’s editors being fickle. The big difference however, lies in the transition from the Saiyan Saga to the Frieza Saga. The whole purpose of the Frieza Saga was to find the Namekian Dragon Balls and resurrect everyone Vegeta and Nappa killed. That goal is lost once Frieza and his army enters the fray, sure they are still looking for the Dragon Balls, but the arc becomes more focused on stopping Frieza than saving the fallen heroes. There is a lack of personal investment with the stakes of the Frieza Saga and that is the biggest issue here as a result of escalation.

Bringing it back to the dramatic structure, we can pinpoint why this problem exists and where it emerges. You see, most shonen manga and anime seem to only utilize the first three parts of the dramatic structure. Exposition is used to set up the concepts and ideas of the entire series and then for the remainder of the series the plot is stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of rising action and climax. There is no falling action or resolution in these stories because it seems like they are rushing to get to the next arc. They lose the benefits the falling action and resolution can provide because those parts of the dramatic structure are never utilized. However, there are some stories that do utilize the full extent of the dramatic structure, and two of them couldn’t be further apart.

The first example I want to mention is Boku no Hero Academia. Aren’t you surprised? Of course not, I have been gushing about this show non-stop. Fandom aside, Boku no Hero has shown a great understanding of the dramatic structure. Horikoshi definitely knows what he is doing when it comes to writing a complete story. The most recent season of the anime featured a tournament arc that used all five parts of the dramatic structure. There was exposition to explain each stage in the Sports Festival, rising action in the actual events themselves, a climax that culminated in the epic final battles of the Sports Festival, and then a falling action into a resolution where we see the winners awarded for their efforts. The arc even has further exposition leading into the rising action of the Stain arc, which picks up shortly after the resolution of the Sports Festival. The point I am making here is that an arc should have a definite conclusion to it. Falling action and resolution help to bring the audience back to reality. This can especially help for stories involving a lot of high powered battles, like Dragonball Z, Naruto, or Bleach even. The problem with introducing such ridiculously powered battles is that while the spectacle is great, we as the audience can forget that the characters we are seeing are still people with emotions and attachments. Though the much easier way to fix this is to maintain consistency, but that is a topic for later. However, the second example of dramatic structure I want to talk about is a far more impressive one, and it is one of the oldest and longest running manga of all time. I’m of course talking about the legendary, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

I’ve been meaning to get around to discussing Jojo on here, because it is one of my favorite anime and manga of all time, even though it isn’t in my top four. Jojo has been running for a very long time, and it has several ways that keep the story from getting stale at all. For one, the dramatic structure is present in the entirety of it. This is especially true since Jojo is a story told across multiple parts, each of which are self contained stories. This allows for new exposition to be introduced without the plot getting too confusing. Stands would not have been nearly as loved as they are if the third part of Jojo continued directly from its predecessors. Despite each part having a relation to the others, there is a very large gap of time in between them, thus keeping them separate for the most part and only ever mentioned through core mechanics, references, or minor character interactions like Joseph Joestar, the main character of part two, appearing in parts three and four. Because every part of Jojo is a new story it allows for a whole new style of storytelling to be utilized. Hirohiko Araki has created a formula that allows him to have complete and total creative freedom with his work and it shows. His art and storytelling are both extremely detailed and exemplify the best parts of the dramatic structure. There are so many things in Jojo that utilize the structure as well. Not only do the individual parts use the pyramid, but the individual fights as well. Not only that, there are sagas that carry across multiple parts that utilize the structure completely. To be honest, if I were to map out all of Jojo, we’d be here all day. There is so much material to work with and all of it shows what a good shonen can be, even if Jojo is moreso a seinen series.

The dramatic structure is one of the most common and useful strategies when it comes to writing any story. A lot of long form stories in anime and manga could seriously benefit from the use of this structure and we are starting to see that within stories like Boku no Hero. With the fall season coming soon, it seems we have a ton of other battle anime coming out including Black Clover. Let’s hope these anime understand what makes shows like Boku no Hero and Jojo so great and utilize it in their own story. Hope you enjoyed the article.

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Tropes in manga and anime that I wish would stop, occur more, or be altered

I recently rediscovered my passion for manga/anime and because of that I rediscovered anime tropes so as the title says this is a list about personal tropes I wish would either happen more in the manga/anime community, stopped or not used so often, or altered a bit.

More what if episodes/ alternate universes- Some shows make arcs and even movies based on characters being in an alternate universe. I like this as not only do we get to see something mostly used for comics in something where continuity is key, but we get to see what could have been if something different had happened in that series. I think this should be used more, at least as either a filler arc or manga omake(s)

More interesting one shot episodes/adventures in filler arcs- Though some hate them, filler seasons/arcs can be interesting as not only do we get to see something new and original, but since the things in it aren’t going to be referenced later on, it gives the writers the chance to do whatever they want, though I hate it when the filler time is used to focus on one specific arc that is similar to what usually happens in the canon arcs instead of something different.

Personally I think instead of getting the same old, there should be more one shot episodes that explore something different, like what the characters do when there’s nothing big is going on or put them in a unusual situation like going to a dance in order to do a mission, or have the main cast go on multiple adventures in one arc instead of just one big one, kinda like in season 3 and 4 of Naruto though maybe not as many as that.

Other characters using skill main character uses- I find it kinda odd that in some action manga/anime series we never see many characters use abilities commonly found in there series, like how no one in Naruto uses the shadow clone jutsu as much as Naruto even though its a common jutsu, I know his version is different then others but still. I know everyone in these kind of series is suppose to have a specific skill set but I don’t see the harm of some people having some abilities as the main characters, though at the same time they shouldn’t do what One Piece is doing with Haki or make that character be a copycat. Maybe doing more of this could also make the show’s world a bit more realistic.

Stop 2-3 minute recaps at beginning of episode- I personally don’t see the purpose of anime episodes recapping what happened in the last episode in this day an age by replaying scenes from a previous episode following a intro, which can be pretty long in some. Sure it had its uses in the past when you couldn’t watch your favorites shows whenever but now that you can with ease its just seems like a waste of time, time that could be used to show more of the current story. Writers should either stop doing this or make recaps shorter, like Avatar the Last Airbender short.

More decisive fights between main/side characters- In a series when fights are common it’s a bummer that we never see certain fights happen, like instead of Naruto fighting a one time villain, he should fight with Rock Lee, or instead of another fight between Natsu and Gray, why not Natsu vs. Juvia or another water wizard. Of course it is hard to get every fight combination while also advancing the story but still, maybe for the future writers could try and make more decisive choices for fights.

Side effect to the protagonist newly discovered power/ability- You’ve probably seen this before, bad guy is about to win but after something happens, the protagonist gets a new power (or something like that) and uses it to defeat the bad guy with ease, even though its there first time using it.

Though tired and predictable, this could be fixed if instead just of the good guy just winning after using it, there were scenes where there are negative effects to the new power the protagonist has obtained. Some examples I can think of are the protagonist loses there other abilities for a period of time, they severely hurt themselves or an ally (maybe even kill someone) because they don’t have full control over the power or scenes where though they win due to him he almost didn’t due to lack of experience, causing them to train in order to use it properly. I have seen theses examples used in shows before, like in Avatar the last Airbender and My Hero Academia, and if played right can make the series more intriguing.

Stop making it seem that the protagonist are going to lose/die- There’s only a certain number of times this can be pulled before it gets really fucking annoying. Either writers need to stop doing this every time a fight happens or make the protagonist actually lose/die.  Stuff like this could be GREAT for the story. If they lose from time to time it shows that they need training as well as get development and if losing involves getting knocked out by the opponent in a series about fighting, it could also mean a side character can jump in and save the day which causes that character to get some development. Same for if a protagonist dies as it means other characters can get screen time and character development, plus you can always bring back that character after a while. 

Protagonists with more then one dream/goal in life, either make it happen before the series finale, or change it/ find a new one later on- Its good for characters to have goals and dreams but how come they always just have one that always come true at the very end of the series, isn’t there anything else they want to do ? If characters in a series showed that they wanted to do more with their lives and achieve them along the way, the series as well as characters would be a bit more interesting and more relatable. No one complained about Usopp getting more dreams in One Piece or Sanji achieving his dream so why not do that more often ?

While there at it maybe in future stories we can get characters who at some point change there life long goals, one example is about a story where after half of the series is over the main character finds outs the organization he always wanted to join are working for the series antagonist, so he decides to change his dream to starting his own organization that follows what he believes is right. I also think having more goals would be good, cause if we see them finish the goals it at least shows progression in the series story.

Making characters who are romantically involved get together before the end of the series- When 2 characters show clear signs that they love each other they usually get together at the end of the series. I am FUCKING TIRED of this as it’s not only predictable as fuck but the outcome of the characters getting together is really small compared to how LOOOONG it took for them to get together, as again when the characters do get together (if the writers want them to) they usually just admit there feelings and/or finally kiss and that’s it, course some series show more of what happens afterwards like the characters getting married, having a child, or a picture of them in the future living happily ever after, but its usually just the former.

Again we often never get to see what happens after they get together like see them try and be more then friends after being so for so long, how other characters in the series react to there relationship, or see if they even stay together. Course this is for drama but showing more of the relationship might be good for the story. For romance series it can lead to seeing the characters grow as a couple instead of just being friends as well as break the cycle usually used in it, I mean the manga My Love Story was praised for doing this.

This would also be good in action adventure series as well, which though has the same problem, gets a small pass as they focus more then just romance. I bet we’d get some good fights and drama if characters that liked each other were in a relationship. I’m not saying they should make all the couples get together before the series ends but maybe they should just do couples that either wouldn’t change the story that much or the 3rd or 4th most popular character couple/ship. Star Vs. The Forces did this for both examples, making there main ship canon twice and made a minor ship canon for over a season, both (with the exception of the breaking the main ship up the first time) were liked by the fandom so why not do that more ?

   The following are tropes from romance and harem series.

Make harem protagonist get with someone in series- This genre has a similar problem as the previous trope, but its much worse as pretty much all shows (with SOME exceptions) end with the male protagonist, even at the end of the series, still having no idea which girl he loves more/would want to date/marry, even if its clearly shown he likes one girl more others, even mature manga/anime do this. Again this is for story but it wouldn’t kill the writers to make the protagonist end up with someone, heck maybe if a series did do this (or one where a guy marries all the main girls unless its illegal to publish fictional polygamy, even in fictional mature manga) it would be praised.

More relatable male protagonist in harem/romance series- Most male protagonist in theses all seem to have one trait that describes there personality and usually its one of a small list of traits used in harem/romance series like the dumb guy, shy guy, or stoic guy sometimes they have 2 traits but there also the same like “the nice guy who gets afraid when the slightest sexual advance” or “the dumb/oblivious character with a heart of gold”. I just think it would be more interesting if the male protagonist had more personality. I mean I know there are some that aren’t like this but those are outnumbered by protagonist with traits that I just described.

Give the male protagonist in harem series a true male friend- Another thing that bugs me a bit about male harem protagonist is how he never has any guy friends and when he does there also predictable, whether it be ones he only hangs out with at school (not during weekends/adventures), the jealous/perverted one who either hangs out with the protagonist to get to a girl(s) he likes or complain about how lucky he is, or someone who is related to one of the girls in his harem in someway.

I’d like to see a series where the main character has a true friend that not only appears often, but also can help the protagonist out, or for humor willing get him into trouble from time to time. A benefit of the main character having a friend is that he could become a possible love interesting for one of the girls in the harem, thus adding more drama to series.

Mix up the tsundere trope a bit- There are two types of Tsunderes but I’m talking about the one where the girl always fights with the guy they like, even hurting them physically depending on the character. This has been used a lot in romance and harem series and I know it will continue to be used in the future, but I wish someone would at least try to change this trope a bit somehow.

I have 3 personal ideas to how to change this trope. One is instead of a tsundere we get a character similar to Centorea from Monster Musume who though loves the main character puts her duties/responsibilities before that, though she still does things to show that she like him like get jealous when other girls are near him, happy when he says or do something nice/romantic or mad when he does something inappropriate. Another is to make it so that the tsundere’s anger is actually out of her hand, as in she has either some medical/psychological condition, or was cursed with magic at a young age that makes her hate people that are close to her (like friends, family and boys she like). That would not only be interesting as seeing the tsundere have more trouble control her anger then usual, but would add more drama to the series. And the 3rd is that the girl isn’t always a tsundere. Maybe in one scenario she just hates the boy in question for a good part of the series but after something big, she turns into a tsundere or in another scenario she’s the opposite as that she is a tsundere at the beginning of the series but later on accepts her feeling and does whatever it can to date the boy. Either of these ideas would make this trope a little bit likeable to me. 

That or make it so that there are consequences to there actions, as even in the most realistic anime series the tsundere can get away with a lot of things that would result in consequences. Make her pay for her actions like have her get grounded, detention or get a bad reputation for it. I’d like to see that happen as this could result in her trying to be nicer, be a good change of pace for the show, or to make things more dramatic as another consequence could be that her attitude drives the boy she likes away to a point where he doesn’t want anything to do with her or date a girl the tsundere hates, thus breaking her heart.

Episode where guy or girls are mysteriously gone/don’t act like themselves- I always wondered what would happen if the routine of the male protagonist or the girls in a harem series just stopped for an episode.

What I mean is what if we got an episode where after the male protagonist had a bad day caused by the girls in his harem, he gives a rant to them eventually saying he wished they would stop bothering him (or disappear) and the next day it comes true and this lasts for a few days. It would be interesting to see how the male character would react to this this and see him try to get use to his life after dealing with the girls for so long. This could also work for the girls as well, which I think would be more interesting because we would see what the girls would do if the guy they liked wasn’t in there lives anymore.

Episode where other people cause harem to stay apart- Similar to my previous idea but this time a known outside force is causing the characters to be apart as I also wondered if there were people in harem shows that got tired or angry at the shenanigans the main characters in a harem always got into, especially characters like the parents, the students, or teachers. So what if they did something about it, like make a rule or get restraining orders prevent the characters from hanging out. It’d be interesting to say the least.

Girl in harem falling out of love with protagonist- Again what would happen if a girl in a harem fell out of love with the protagonist, what would happen ? Would she just try and stay friends with the boy or try and avoid him at all cost ? Plus would she rejoin the harem later on or fall for another character ? Would it be as good as any other couple where one falls out of love for a bit or not ? I say a show should test this to see what happens.

Which of these tropes would you like to see change ? Are there any tropes not on this list that should change ?