stop me if I'm just stating the obvious here but dumb pointless theory: clara and urara are twins
little toddler clara used to play by dressing up as a monster and "was defeated when her brothers were born," a statement accompanied by a photo of her playing with little konchie and keebow. urara, called the eldest son, must have been born before those two, but if he was born after clara then wouldn't he have been the one to "defeat" paper bag monster clargon? (unless he had his no-nonsense attitude even as a baby, I guess)
the valac siblings have matching names. konchie and keebow both have the leading K, sin sin and ran ran both have repetition, and then there's clara, or rather kurara, and urara. of course this assumes that konchie and keebow/sin sin and ran ran are also twins, but like, I don't think that's a wild statement. sin sin and ran ran are babies, so if they were different ages it would probably be at least somewhat apparent. same for konchie and keebow, who were both babies in that photograph
urara seems to be the only other one of the valac siblings who's attending school. considering clara had just started her first year when the story began and urara calls her his big sister (as he would if she's the older twin), if he was also enrolled in school at the same time as clara, would that not effectively mean that they're the same age? and visually they do appear to be very close in age, although we only get to see urara clearly once
not that this would really change anything even if it were true
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Compilation of Bad Kisses in BLs (Part 2)
BY POPULAR DEMAND (like 2 people and @gunsatthaphan) I WILL CONTINUE THIS PAINFUL JOURNEY TO DISSECT THE WORST OF WORST KISSES I’VE SEEN IN THESE SHOWS.
LET’S GET IT!
1. The Tasty Florida
it’s giving “i don’t know how to kiss” energy and at this point, i’m not even surprised. disappointed but not surprised. not only there was no real substance in this one, the tension was WASTED because how can you explain this horror? it makes no sense. the scene where eunkyu is helping haewon to put on the apron was scrumptious but they just gave me NOTHING with that kiss. next.
2. Given
the thing with japan is that it’s always gonna give you good plots, you can’t go wrong with them but if there’s a kiss, it’s always gonna be bad. that’s why i think they choose NOT to add one because look. what is that. can you even call that a kiss? and it’s just sad because the anime version was GOOD (according to a lot of people) but this one didn’t live up to the expectations.
3. My Sweet Dear
see because this one had the potential. hell, it it even had the chemistry (that scene when they first met with the apron and shit? GOOD FOOD) but you know how it is in korea: no money for workshops. the show was good, it really was but man, why can’t they deliver a good kiss? it’s like watching two walls kissing. it’s not fair.
4. Dear Doctor, I’m coming for soul (KheetaNathee)
this happened in ep 10 and the series has 12 episodes, so can you really call them a couple? their first kiss was a spur of the moment thing when one of them was drunk and the second kiss was censored, at this time and age. so this is it. the show in general was interesting, a little overdramatic but watchable. however, them? they really didn’t add much to the mix.
5. Tinted with you.
can you really ask that much from a show that has 8 episodes with a 10min run time, $5 and a dream? not really. however, this cemented the idea that we do like period dramas in bls and that we also like kpop idols starring in them. so, yeah, the kiss was shit and the plot could have been expanded but i loved junhee and i really fell in love with his acting, so a round of applause for him. hopefully you can kiss better in your next show, bestie.
6. Paint with love (NuengTharn)
i wanna tell yoon he’s such a bad kisser. that he has to give it up. not only that but he’s always paired with people that don’t help his cause either. either that or he doesn’t know how to choose his roles. it’s sad.
7. Star in my mind (KluenNuea)
i have several bones to pick from this show and the kiss(es) are one of those. not only this was directed by new and felt like a studio wabi sabi production, it felt more of the same stuff we’ve seen so far. there’s nothing remarkable about this show (if you girlies like it, you do you). what triggers me is that joong did excellent in the kissing department in 2 moons 2 and then here, that experience just disappeared. this is what happens when you pair a moderately experienced actor with a rookie.
8. Ocean likes me
i will open a gofundme that will be dedicated to find and hire acting coaches that are not afraid of success and will train these actors on their intimate scenes. this can’t keep going on, korea, we need to do better than this. good show tho.
9. Our days
this show was 12 episodes of absolutely nothing, the plot was all over the place. boring and slow, hella slow. one of the leads had more chemistry with another actor than with his on screen partner. that’s how bad it was. this was on the very last episode, 5min before it ended. yes, they had sex. out of nowhere. like this show. next.
10. Senpai this can’t be love
it’s like i said. japan always brings the most amazing plots out there, the comedy is out of this world and the quality is good enough to watch. they could have the number 1 spot for their bls. problem is, most of their shows have shitty kisses. like this one.
this silly little series was good, i liked it. there are never enough office romances. it had age gap and power imbalance that could have gone sideways. but now, it was handled good. but this kiss felt very underwhelming. that’s where it went kaput for me.
11. Fish upon the sky (both couples)
i’m gonna be real with you here. the dialogues in this show were smart in the sense that the show itself was calling out a lot of bullshit we have seen in previous bls (the shippers, for example). it had its issues ofc; i’m not gonna talk about them because that’s not the point of this post. the point is the godawful kisses we got, especially with neolouis. this is gonna haunt me forever (i would say they got better in the eclipse but i will talk about that later).
honestly, this show was a classic in the sense that had all the classic tropes some of us are starting to hate (the use of the character going to the bathroom and saying they are pooping is getting on my nerves and i’m glad the later shows stopped this madness). the story? 6.5/7. the kisses? -10/10.
12. I want to see only you.
like i said before. japan knows how to their plots right, they just don’t know how to deliver a kiss. which is kind of sad because it takes impact from the show. like i really want to enjoy all of it but if the kiss it’s ugly or looks like the actors are not even into it, it’s very disappointing. show itself was a 10/10 tho.
13. Once again
i’m once again asking korea to please PLEASE invest in some workshops because this is ridiculous. i get that the budget is low but come on. give me something more than this. like it had time travel ffs (and a very open ending). they got the materials but the execution was abysmal.
14. Takara-kun to Amagi-kun
like i said: japan knows how to do plot but on the kissing department they are lacking. idk, i mean, i guess that it was kind of the point of this show. two high schoolers that get together and everything is awkward around each other and so, it’s not a surprise that the kisses are weird too. but it’s not just this one, it’s the majority of the bls produced in japan. good plots but almost nothing in the intimacy department.
15. The Eclipse (both couples)
ofc i have to slander the biggest show right now. i have to be fair and like the truth is these kisses were fishy. one was supposed to be a sleeping kiss and the other idk because that was the moment where akk and aye finally agreed to be a couple so you would think their kiss would be slightly better (but akk was living in a constant state of panic up until this point, so yeah). still, they have to be here
they do get better after this tho (especially neolouis, i thought this was all that i was going to get).
in all seriousness, this doesn’t take away how AMAZING this series was. yes, there were some loose ends here and there, ep 11 was kind of weirdly edited and it did deserve at least two more episodes but overall, it was such a good show with amazing actors, a good script, the music was great, it had everything to be that bitch right now and the most important part is that no one died at the end like the trailer suggested. nothing but praises, honestly.
Compilation of Bad Kisses in BLs (Part 1)
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We (somewhat rightly) mock the 2000's era fansub translation notes for their otaku fixations and privileging of trivia over the media, but they should be understood as serving their purpose for a bit of a different era in the anime fandom. Take this classic:
Like, its so obvious, right? Just say "pervert", you don't need the note! Which is true, for like a 'normie' audience member who just wants to watch A TV Show - but no one watching, uh *quick google* "Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne" in 1999 is that person. The audience is weebs, and for them the fact that show is Japanese is a huge selling point. They want it to feel as 'anime' as possible; and in the west language was one of the core signifiers of anime-ness. 2004 con-goers calling their friends "-kun" and throwing in "nani?" into conversations was the way this was done, and alongside that a lexicon of western anime fandom terminology was born. Seeing "ecchi" on the screen is, to this person, a better viewing experience - it enhances their connection to otaku identity the show is providing, and reinforces their shared cultural lexicon (Ecchi is now a term one 'expects' anime fans to know - a truth that translator notes like this simultaneously created and reflected).
But of course your audiences have different levels of otaku-dom, and so you can't just say 'ecchi' and call it a day - so for those who are only Level 2 on their anime journey, you give them a translation note. Most of the translation notes of the era are like this - terms the fansubber thought the audience might know well enough that they would understand it and want that pure Japanese cultural experience, but that not all of them would know, so you have to hedge. The Lucky Star one I posted is a great example of that:
Its Lucky Star, the otaku-crown of anime! You desperately want the core text to preserve as much anime vocab as possible, to give off that feeling, but you can't assume everyone knows what a GALGE is - doing both is the only way to solve that dilemma.
This is often a good guideline when looking at old memetically bad fansubs by the way:
This isn't real, no fansub had this - it was a meme that was posted on a wiki forum in 2007. Which makes sense, right? "Plan" isn't a Japanese cultural or otaku term, so there is no reason not to translate it, it doesn't deepen the ~otaku connection~.
Which, I know, I'm explaining the joke right now, but over time I think many have grown to believe that this (and others like it) is a real fansub, and that these sort of arbitrary untranslations just peppered fansub works of the time? It happened, sure, but they would be equally mocked back then as missteps - or were jokes themselves. Some groups even had a reputation for inserting jokes into their works, imo Commie Subs was most notable for this; part of the competitive & casual environment of the time. But they weren't serious, they are not examples of "bad fansubs" in the same way.
This all faded for a bunch of reasons - primarily that the market for anime expanded dramatically. First, that lead to professionally released translations by centralized agencies that had universal standards for their subs and accountability to the original creators of the show. Second, the far larger audience is far less invested in anime-as-identity; they like it, but its not special the way its special when you are a bullied internet recluse in 2004. They just want to watch the show, and would find "caring" about translation nuances to be cringe. And since these centralized agencies release their product infinitely faster and more accessibly than fansubs ever did, their copies now dominate the space (including being the versions ripped to all illegal streaming sites), so fansubs died.
Though not totally - a lot of those fansub groups are still around! Commie Subs is still kicking for example. They either do the weird nuance stuff, or fansub unreleased-in-the-west old or niche anime, or even have pivoted to non-anime Japanese content that never gets international release. But they used to be the taste-makers of the community; now they are the fringe devotees in a culture that has moved beyond them. So fansubs remain something of a joke of the 90's and 2000's in the eyes of the anime culture of today, in a way that maybe they don't deserve.
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