#durarara side stories

[wawawawawawawawawawawawawa]

the amount of times i Do This must be a joke at this point but here i am. doing it once more. izaya's highschool videogame SCREAMS "i just found out i have aspd and i am NOT taking it well." and i shall explain how

a preface: wrt "how did he know in high school, don't you have to be 18?" you do.... with the dsm guidelines. japan, iirc, uses a conbination of the dsm and icd to diagnose mental illnesses, and the age stipulation isn't in the icd. also, shinra could have told him, and lbr shinra wouldnt care about strictly adhering to the age thing

anyway i went thru and highlighted different parts of the videogame's text, so i can easier explain which part means what. i'll primarily be focusing on the chronic boredom associated with aspd- since izaya's game deals with patience, most musings in it will be related to that boredom. but the boredom, especially izaya's, IS important, as its the boredom that drives him to do what he does. to be what he is.

(shoutout to miyukiwinter for the scan)

so... the red bit. this relates to izaya's worldview of the need to keep evolving to escape the mundane, and it not mattering if you aim high or low. now at this point, izaya was solidly in some shady shit and clearly on the path of the low aim. but the thing is, about aspd... the boredom is all consuming. you'll do ANYTHING to not be bored. i've seen people say they developed substance abuse problems to escape the boredom, and i confess... i've done it too. it truly is THAT bad

i say all this because... izaya will never be able to stop going lower, and lower, and lower. he's fated to fall forever. maybe he wouldve been able to brush his behavior off as teenage craziness, but with a diagnosis like aspd it becomes increadingly obvious that there is no "oh, i'll mellow out once i reach my 20s." it's not going to happen, at least, not without great effort. and lets be real, nobody has any faith in aspd's recovery rates, less so in the early 2010s, so izaya upon diagnosis would see NO FUTURE for himself. no escape from the cycle. he's trapped.

the blue bits are a bit more vauge, but the undertainty turning to loss evokes the next stage after the initial shock of diagnosis: grief. and make no mistake, there IS a grieving process with mental health diagnoses. you go from being shocked and scared, to being depressed and numb.

but there's... another layer to this, with aspd. you see it with cluster b disorders in general, but aspd is HUGE in the pop culture zeitgeist

the layer is, the idea that People Like That don't feel emotions. that any emotional display is false and an explicit ploy to mainpulate someone

and when this inevitably ends up untrue, you might start to feel... odd... about feeling those emotions people say you can't feel. and one of the biggest emotions aspd gets that with, is fear and by extension, anxiety.

some aspd people genuinely do feel reduced fear! but it's far from being a diagnostic criteria, and aspd can actually be comorbid with anxiety disorders. but scientific facts and wider culture rarely match up, so the idea persists

so izaya might have started to think.... was he ever truly anxious? or worried? was he really more rotten than people thought; was he just mainpulating people the whole time? does he really not feel anxiety? was his nervousness over things like shinra leaving him or hell, this diagnosis, rendered null and void?

and then we reach the teal portion.... despair

(just a sidenote, tumblr has no teal color option so it'll just be blue)

in this sense, "the hole" refers to the endless downward spiral, and his diagnosis- but not just having it. no, "the hole" most likely refers to the moment izaya developed it in the first place.

who are you, if you thought you were in control your whole life, but you found out that the reason you do the things you do were because of foeces beyond your control? who are you now, having a label you know will cause everyone to see you as nothing but a stereotype?

why was he still alive, suffering like this? what point is it to be alive, controlled by something you can't fight, forced to make your life worse and worse and worse, until you die young?

so now what? who did this to him?

in the game, the hatred is towards "the player." and honestly this could have multiple different meanings when applied to izaya's own life

does he hate god? was he raised religious, his father being a christian, and was this what made him lose faith? what loving god would condemn someone to suffer like this?

does he hate his parents? after all, it was their genetics that passed this down, their upbringing that nurtured it, their neglect that made him the way he was. is it their fault?

or... does he hate himself, for being the way that he is? for having it in the first place, for not being able to overcome it, for having such a bad reaction to it?

for being too cowardly to kill himself?

which brings us to the final segment. awareness.

he says outright, the game is depicting the player's life. in the game itself, this ties into his mockery of players, but in a meta sense, it could be a hidden admission that it's depicting his life

especially the talk of meaningless games- fooling around with nakura creating small gangs, betting pools, and his eventual adult pastimes of messing with people. is his life enriched? no, it's merely occupied, and he knows it. he might have repressed it as an adult, but here, in high school, at this moment, he knows.

and if he can never truly alleviate his boredom, never truly be fufilled, then he can act like he's in control all he wants, but he's no better than a man falling in a hole.

[graphicpolicy]

Anime Expo 2023: Yen Press announces 16 New Titles

Anime Expo 2023: Yen Press announces 16 New Titles #animeexpo #manga

On the opening day of Anime Expo 2023, Yen Press, LLC announced the acquisition of sixteen new titles at its industry panel, including eight manga (Beastrings; God Bless the Mistaken; Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen; A Witch’s Life in a Micro Room; Bride of the Barrier Master; Higurashi When They Cry: MEGURI; holoX MEETing!; Taking Care of God)and seven novels (Durarara!! Side…

[noizchild]

It's Finally Happening!

There are only going to be five things I will work on this week:

Mafia (Two volumes: eleven and twelve)

The Cove (Two chapters: I will have to see where I am)

Earth Child (Chapter two of another season. I will have to look it up later. I don't feel like doing it right now)

Doll House

Kodoku

I have been making some good process. I just have to try and keep it up. Wish me luck.

[azumasoroshi]

watched the first two episodes of oshi no ko a while back (REALLY FUCKING GOOD, ive been a manga reader for a while but i stopped reading the recent chapters and basically forgot everything except for the major points and god it’s so satisfying to have the adaptation remind me of what i’ve forgotten in the most beautiful way possible)

but this post isnt about onk, it’s about izaya!! izaya orihara!! lets fucking goooooooooo izaya idol au!!!! i cant get this flea out of my BRAIN

i was about to open a new canvas to draw some more shizaya stuff for my animatic that im never gonna finish and i was like huh. maybe i should draw onk fanart. and then i remembered this art of venti genshin impact with ai’s eyes and i remembered thinking man i hope this becomes an artist trend for people to do with their art blorbos! and then i was like OH. guess i could contribute to the trend by drawing izaya with ai’s eyes

and then i started thinking and i was like huh. Ai’s never experienced love from her parents, doesn’t think she knows how to love or how to express it, doesn’t get attached to others easily, is a perpetual liar, became an idol because she hoped she would learn how to love - oh hey doesnt. that. sound like izaya. just a little bit. not exactly, her character goes into more learning how to love/that she can love while izaya’s character is i can love but only impersonally because i’m afraid of getting hurt and his arc would be learning to let his walls down for his own good

SO for izaya idol au, izaya would become an idol because he wants to experience love, or something along the lines of “there’s no greater demonstration of parasocial love and foolish decision making than in the idol industry! ahaha~” and probably “idols are perfect liars and i need to put myself into their shoes so i can become an even better liar and close myself off to any possibility of falling in love that could ever exist”

there’s a lot of reasons he might want to become an idol, really. there’s so much corruption and behind-the-scenes dealing and lies and facades and shit in the entertainment industry that i think izaya would eat for breakfast. he would LOVE witnessing that shit and making his own shady deals and stuff and occasionally ruining lives and watching people rise and fall down the rankings and tear each other down. plus the people who are in it for passion rather than money are fascinating as well. psychology student’s dream really- i mean what this is definitely about izaya and not me projecting

plus he definitely has the looks for it (narita would hard agree given how many times he’s indirectly called izaya attractive through other characters. we love a canonically hot king)

now i need to make everything shizaya because i’m not okay but i have no idea who shizuo would be lmao

like you could make him some up and coming manager (no age difference stuff here sorry lmao) or a fellow idol (doubtful. shizuo can act cute but i dont think he could dance) or an actor like akane/kana or a streamer??? like memcho (my favorite character)

a mangaka/screenplay writer/writer in general could also work but i feel like you’d have less reason to interact with idols that way

idk how japanese idol groups work for men in particular or if there’s even like a market for that :sob: id have to look into that if i actually started making stuff for this au

alternatively izaya crossdresses as a female idol and somehow no one realizes. except for shizuo. that would be hilarious actually. he refuses to do swimsuit modeling or other provocative stuff and his fans are like “oh?? the brazen kanra-chan is unexpectedly shy?? how cute” and he plays into it but inwardly he’s like. god i know exactly how im gonna go out with a bang when i retire. and shizuo watches him playing at being shy on tv knowing that that motherfucker is planning to strip on his last days as an idol

anyway this is just me spitballing ideas but ill definitely write at least a concept/intro fanfic of this at some point so stay tuned lmAo im just about to run out of writing juices on ABAON so i gotta transfer my energy somewhere else and where better than the idol!izaya au

[mocknerd]

A while back I said I would write some stuff, but as of now I've decided to go back on that. Deleted the original posts and some of the writing I already did (just simply didn't like it). Not against future writing for fandom stuff in general, but writing up plans like that just stresses me out and I don't tend to deliver on them. Sorry.

[drrr-emporium]

What to do if Durarara over

I'm going to assume you've finished the anime and have not gone into anything else Naritaverse wise

So! You can read the novels. Since they're officially licensed by yen press, you can buy the soft cover books or get them as an ebook / kindle from barnes and noble or amazon. I don't really endorse this but I'm sure if you do enough digging around you can find old, still available, free translations like anni_fiesta who did a lot of translating back in the day. Here's the link to their Index of Translation. I still use it since it's the only place I know that has the white day story translated and it's one of my favorites (For Kadota Related reasons haha), plus a couple of other side stories.

(I think the internet archives have the novels if you do some poking around but for Narita Please Write SH 5 reasons, I'll ask you to dig those up lmao)

Speaking of Side stories, Kazinha-726 translated a bunch of drrr side stories But since they haven't updated in a while, you need to change the links from kaedesan721 to their new URL kazinha-726. I'll directly link what you need here

Izaya Spin Off Translations I don't think these are officially licensed for translation so it's fine for me to link. This is the story of Izaya now that he's been forced out of Ikebukuro, and there's two books as of writing this.

Durarara Gaidens It's some gaidens, but It's also a handful of translated convos from 3 way stand of alley relay, the links use that kaedesan721 link, so while I won't be fixing all those links for you, I can at least link the tag for all of them here. you can probably find audio for this game on youtube, though I'm not sure anyone's like.... fully translated? perhaps? Which ALSO reminds me of the relay manga

Durarara Epitome of Eighteen Histories Written along side the release of season 2, we've got some stories involving Kazane Kinomiya, who's the half sister of Shinra, and a reporter. They have all 18 listed there nicely EXCEPT the Erika and Walker Link is a little messed up, and if you search through the posts you can get to it but anyway here's the link to that story specifically

DRRR x Hakata Tonkatsu Ramens Actually I haven't seen HTR or read it so I can't really tell you about this one but if you're into that series--

There's ALSO MiniDura which are little gag comics of the durarara cast in chibis! there should be 4 books as of me writing this. Godspeed on finding translations they seem to be around.... but this post is long and I'm scared of losing it so I'll update later on how many chapters there are so you don't miss any, though I'm seeing up to 10 in my cursory search.

Shizuo, Izaya, and Celty are also in uh.... Dengeki Bunko's fighting Climax, which you might be able to find some stuff on on youtube. but since it's Dengeki Bunko you also have other series... I can only remember A Certain Magical Index / A Certain Scientific Railgun / the other titles in this series as being part of it whoops.

So you've done all that, what do you do next?

Well Narita has other series, like Baccano! which had an anime before DRRR did, which is 16 episodes. Since Funimation lost the license back in like... 2012 it's not officially uh licensed for viewing anywhere, so uh. wink wink. message me if you need more help here.

There's ALSO the novels which... there are so many more than there are for drrr, also available to purchase, though these are hardcovers! Last time I checked they had.... around 20 translated? Since I'm more drrr side I'd have to ask about fan translations and if I can still find them around. But again I don't really condone it since we want more written you know?

Narita also has a couple other series, but the one that's my favorite besides DRRR is Etsusa Bridge (It's pronounced Essa Bridge don't make the same mistake I did. )

And i NEED more people to read that one please please please please

Unfortunately, the person who did the fan translation closed their Blogspot to the public so uh. the first 4 books, and really what is the main story, is available on the internet archive here

Though I'm saying thank you to baka-tsuki for my life by having a page of links here, which includes the 5th book, 5656 part two (NARITA..... I NEED 5656 PART 2 PLEASE...... PLEASE)

and Vamp on the internet archive here and baka-tsuki here

I also know about Hariyama-san but i don't actually know... if anyone translated that one..... Narita has also written for Bleach and Fate Strange/ Fake if you're into those. Straight up just linking this wiki page in case you have any interest in other stuff he's written

And finally! Currently, Dead Mount Death Play (often shortened to DMDP) is a manga written (or co written?) by Narita! which is currently getting an anime and all of his attention.

All that being said I've been really into Trigun lately lmao

Anyone else feel free to add on or tell me what I may be missing

[ayesakara]

Why Shizuo & Vorona make all the sense in Durarara

Very long Shizuo/Vorona commentary (with spoilers from anime, manga and light novels) below:

After finishing and falling in love with Durarara!! the anime, I’ve now started reading both the Manga and the light novels. And the more I read them, the more I appreciate how much the idea of Shizuo and Vorona together makes the most sense after the series finale.

But first, let’s go back to season 1 and compare the demon sword Saika's “love” for humanity and the concept of love in general in this story.

In season 1 episode 16 “Mutual Love” of the anime, (which corresponds with Durarara!! Saika Arc in the Manga/Vol 2 Chap 6 “Sword & Stress,” in the Light novels) – in order for the Saika blades to work on its victims, there had to be an element of fear.

Saika considers slashing and possessing humans as the way to propagate and to love humanity.

It is explained (much better in the LN and Manga than the anime) that the blades’ possession worked through the will of the wielder, as well as the victim, since the knives being used were not the original Saika. For the blade to possess, the victim had to feel fear after getting slashed.

So even though we watch Shizuo get slashed several times, aside from the fact that his muscles are very tightly formed (as explained by Shinra in this chapter) and he doesn’t get injured like a normal human, Saika realizes that he also had zero fear of these people. Saika’s will needed the element of fear in its victims to take possession. Since Shizuo has no fear, he cannot be possessed.

This is also used as an analogy for love in this story, especially when it comes to Shizuo.

You need to allow yourself to be vulnerable to the person giving you “love” in order to love them in return. If you don’t “fear” the pain of the blade, as Saika realizes – or in other words… if you don’t let yourself be vulnerable emotionally, you cannot truly love someone. And then that person also cannot love you.

Love needs vulnerability. If you keep your heart closed off, you cannot love.

Shizuo’s greatest fear is his own strength. He thinks of himself as a monster, undeserving of love – has thought this way since he was a kid. When he was a young adolescent – and the Manga images show a young brown-haired Shizuo, so this is prior to him meeting Tom in middle school and dyeing his hair blond – he accidentally (“not of his volition,” the Manga and LN state) got girls who liked him (who could be just friends, since he’s so young here) hurt because of his strength. These incidents made him withdraw from people.

In his heart, Shizuo has always longed for someone to love him. But because he deems himself so dangerous, now as a young adult, he doesn’t think he is allowed to be close to anyone like that.

He feels he would only hurt the person he loves because of his violent nature. So he has closed off his heart.

Enter Vorona. The girl who’s never known or understood love. All she has in the beginning is the goal to test her abilities against the strongest opponents.

And who would she come directly against? The strongest man in Ikebukuro, the peak of human strength.

And she's unlike any girl Shizuo has ever met. She's a fighter, and he's utterly impressed with her abilities.

Vorona wants to defeat him at first because that had always been her aim: to understand human strength; to be strong, and to conquer the strongest. Instead, she finds peace in his presence. Outside of battle and the various conflicts that slam into him from every side, Shizuo is surprisingly very serene. Vorona realizes he seeks peace, too. The same peace that had eluded her all her life. And she’s surprised how much she enjoys the feeling – calls it bliss even. This is the first time that she’s gotten a taste of a life free of violence.

And she’s mournful when her cover is blown because now that Shizuo knows she betrayed him, she feels she’s never gonna get this feeling back. She’s all alone.

It’s heartbreaking but also beautiful when, in the anime, every time she ponders the concept of “love,” and thinks of her loneliness, and of losing the peace she had so enjoyed, the image she sees in her mind is of Shizuo.

There is a moment in the light novels, after Izaya drops the forklift/excavator on Shizuo and Vorona, intending to kill them (or rather, to kill Vorona and to see how Shizuo would react) and Shizuo pushes the falling machinery away with just his shoulder, when Vorona realizes that Shizuo is actually superhuman. She already knew that he was the peak of human strength, but this is the moment when the realization dawns on her that he isn’t just the peak, but actually beyond it. That he’s superhuman strong, and she is awed.

She knows then that her goal to defeat him had been ridiculous.

She also realizes that he’s very conscious of his inhuman strength and that he thinks of himself as monstrous because of this. But she knows he’s not a monster. She’s shocked how reasonable and forgiving he is, how willing to give her a second chance; he offers her his ear, is protective of her even when she’s playing on the wrong side. Deep inside her heart, Vorona has always known he was utterly human, and now she doesn’t want to hurt him or see him get hurt.

That’s why she is so compelled to save him from becoming a murderer, when she stops him from killing Izaya in the end and is ready to kill him for Shizuo. She already is a murderer, a beast as she calls herself, and she doesn’t want Shizuo to become one and be condemned too.

This is what Shizuo knows and feels in his heart when, at the end of the LN, he says that he’s able to act and be like a person (a human, that is) because of her. That she’s the reason why he didn’t turn into a true monster. This is why he’s so grateful to her.

She tells him when she leaves for Russia that her desire is to come back and “speak to him in direct terms (since he offered to listen more than once) … to experience the joy of existing in this world.” With him, she means.

Denis tells him she will likely come back. Simon tells him he already is human. All he needs to do is open his heart to the possibility.

This is where the anime left them. This is why I feel so happy in my heart when I imagine scenarios where Vorona does come back and Shizuo and her do get together. 🤗

[error-dream-was-found]

20 Questions For Writers

I was tagged by @bleue-flora so let's see :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

So if my calculations are correct I have 6 published works. It is not much but frankly if someone asked me 4 years ago how many stories will I ever post online I would laugh and tell them none because my anxiety is not fond of publishing anything. It's kinda crazy to see how much I actually ended up writing and how many people like those stories <3

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Oh crap, just let me grab a calculator ... ehm ... it seems that my AO3 word count is 417 452 words ... damn that's like 4-5 novels and it'd be even more if I counted the stuff that is on wattpad ... crazy

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well my main fandom is DreamSMP but I also have a Tokyo revengers fic and a pretty promising draft for a Durarara one shot

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Monsters don't deserve hugs but you aren't a monster

By far my most popular fic. When I posted this I expected it to get like 50 kudos top but it blew up and it makes me incredibly happy to see more and more people read it and leave all those lovely kudos and comments. I have no idea what I did to deserve so much attention but I'm grateful with all my heart <3

2. Smiling masks and golden crowns

I'll be honest I didn't expect people to like Sam and Dream content so much but once again this fic exceeded my expectations, which I'm very happy about because I really enjoy writing it and nothing makes me happier than to know that I'm not the only one who loves it :)

3. Crow's nest

A lovely story I wrote together with @bleue-flora. It was super fun to write and unlike my other fics it's pretty cannon accurate (thanks to Flora ofc, I could never lol).

4. Haitani's little sister

The only non-DSMP story you will see here! This is my very first story and frankly it shows, it's quite terrible. Story vise I like this creation of mine but when it comes to the writing style and storytelling ... let's just say that once I'm over with school I might just completely rewrite it ....

5. A tale of grief and glory

And last but not least, my dear DSMP fantasy au that ... is not getting updated as often as I'd like it to ...

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! Sometimes I get a bit busy/overwhelmed with life but I do my best to respond to everyone who comments on my stories. Sadly sometimes the anxiety becomes too much but I try my best. My readers are very important to me and I want to let them know that I really do read their comments and appreciate them <3

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

.... I like happy ends so ... I don't really do angsty endings ... frankly I don't even do endings lol, yeah I tend to get a bit too wrapped up in writing and my fics are just getting longer instead of ending 🤦‍♀️But if I were to pick the one that will have the angstiest ending it would probably be Smiling masks and golden crowns. Mostly because I have a sequel planned for it that will cover the happy end I desire.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, other than Crow's nest none of my fics are actually finished but the one that will have the happiest ending will probably be Monster's don't deserve hugs but you aren't a monster

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Thank all the gods above, no. I have no self-esteem so if anyone hated on my work I'd probably cry and be afraid to post for some time unless someone would be persistent enough to convince me that it's not bad and so on ... On the bright side, rather than hate it'd be just confirming my insecurities

9. Do you write smut?

..... ehm ... well ... you see ... I ... maybe ... might have .... Okay, yeah I do have one smut story on wattpad from a while back. I'm not updating it anymore as it wasn't really good and all but ... yeah, it happened once ...

10. Do you write crossovers?

I had some ideas but sadly I didn't get to write them yet

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I had I'm yet to find out, so I'm gonna go with no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep! Someone is translating Crow's nest into Russian which is pretty amazing. A few people asked if they can translate Monsters don't deserve hugs but you aren't a monster, Smiling masks and golden crowns and Haitani's little sister but I never actually found out whether they did ... thinking about it I might try to check 🤔

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, I had! Writing Crow's nest would not be possible without @bleue-flora! We had time limit and time zones made this whole project rather difficult but I'm very happy with how it turned out and I would totally be down to do it again it someday. Although before that I gotta get better so I can help Flora more 😅

14. What‘s your all-time favorite ship?

There's too many to pick just one

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Hmmmm .... well, I'm someone who has many WIPs but most of them are just drafts and/or a few scenes with close to no content so there are quite many of them that will probably never be finished or posted. From my posted ones .... well ... The tale of grief and glory is not getting many updates and Pathetic is ... I like the fic and I really wish to continue it but I kind of lost motivation after 'No rest for the wicked' by A_ghoul was deleted .... one day when I'll have more time I will certainly try to finish it but for now it's fate is rather insecure ...

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Strengths? What are strengths? ... For real though, I don't really know, whether I see my writing I feel like there is nothing outstanding about it, nothing to capture the audience and yet ... Perhaps, if I squint real hard I might consider my ability to side track a strength? It's not the best and in essays it's the absolute worst but when it comes to fanfics ... I don't really know whether I'm right about this or no but I would say that all those side plots help to make my fic be different from other fics? Because ... overall my ideas are not the most creative ones - Monsters don't deserve hugs but you aren't a monster? The core idea of this fic is so basic it hurts. But ... then I messed around with it and ... I dare to say that it managed to be different from the other fics featuring the same story. At least I really hope so. I'm not going to pretend that it was a plan, actually it's quite the opposite, I struggle to keep a single line of thought and even if I do have some plan for the fic I'm rarely able to follow it flawlessly. More often than not I will just stray from it and do something extra that just came to mind

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

... literally everything. I struggle with world-building, my dialogues are trash, the pacing is messed up and those sideplots I mentioned before are a double sided blade ... but the thing that bothers me the most is grammar. I'm not a native speaker and, in spite of what my english proficiency test says, my english is certainly not very good. Especially when it comes to grammar and spelling I need to improve. Sadly this shows in my works and I'm really sorry about it. It is a little bit better now that I got a beta-read (God bless @bleue-flora, I'll never cease to be grateful for all the time she spent editing my chapters so they are a little bit more readable)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I never really had to do this in my fics so far but if I were to write a dialogue in a different language I'd probably put a translation. If the character speaks different language I think it is good to use that language but I absolutely hate it when people don't include translation.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tokyo revengers

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

*looks at all my fics* I hate them all equally, I srsly can't pick one. But ... well if I had to pick a favorite it would be either Monsters don't deserve hugs but you aren't a monster or Smiling masks and golden crowns. Those two are currently the most fun to write and ... dunno, I just like the story I guess. But then again I'm emotionally attached to all my written babies. I spent so many hours (that I should've spent sleeping) writing those, it's hard not get attached.

Oh no, now comes the part when I'll tag someone right? I srsly need friends so I can tag someone ... but let's see ... @elmhat, @the-final-sif, @cgogs, @1wn8ure, @airrec, @swordfright, @mistythedritten and anyone who wants to address those questions :)

I probably went a little bit overboard with answering those but ... it was fun :] if anyone actually read all of this I hope I haven't bored you to death ;)

Oh and it is like 2,30 AM for my so sorry about the grammar I'm too tired to watch it ...

[sean-gaffney]

[madhousefruitcake]

Hey! I recently downloaded the Durarara!!! game and I just wanted to say its AMAZING!!!! I'm loving the story so far! Its really well done and its made my month! So thanks for making this awesome game!

You just made our month too~ TvT We’re so happy that you like it! It’s made me even more motivated to finish Izaya’s part 3 as soon as possible!

Thank you for playing Ikebukuro Records and we hope that you enjoy Shizuo and Masaomi’s route once Izaya’s route is finished. If you like the yandere side of Izaya’s route, worry not! Each guy has a yandere ending ;)

[olivieraa]

I think... animes where I dont have ships... are just the overall better written animes...

Like ok, if I start with one of my earliest animes, Death Note. Yeah, Light/L has an appeal. I get it. But the story of the show is so damn good... that I really don't give a hardcore damn about the pairings. Light/L stands out bc the show WANTS you to think about them together (not as a pairing, but as two sides of a coin, etc etc)

Durarara, same. Shizuo/Izaya would be the Light/L of Durarara. But this anime is less so about the story what story and more so about the characters and their journeys. The appeal of Shizuo/Izaya is that its fun. They're both doing their own thing but then cross paths and when they do its like FIREWORKS, and the show knows it. It wants you to feel that way when they bump into each other.

FMAB (I mean c'mon, my pairing of choice was two characters that exchanged a sentence in the second last ep), that show is insanely well written. I couldn't think of ships the whole time.

I could say the same for Attack on Titan. Like I said throughout watching it, that I shipped Levi/Hange from day 1, and not hardcore. But I wasnt hoping and praying for them to be onscreen together, or to have pairing-esque moments. I was enjoying the show for what it was and if they HAPPENED to be onscreen together I was like :))) also I just kinda shipped everyone with Levi bc in my head Levi in relationship scenarios with all these different personalities was hilarious but then he had to go and be a dad to everyone so I then kept him exclusively for his wife Hange

Then take some underrated shows like 91 Days, ACCA, Baccano, Saiki, Ushio, etc. They're just so well written that pairings are so back of your mind, even if you have one or POSSIBLY two.

For me then, if I take HxH... its a weird one cause there's not exactly a lot to choose from pairing wise. But regardless. I went a good portion of the show not caring about any ship. Didn't want to. The writing was just so good. But then Meruem/Komugi entered and didn't become "my ship for that show", but one of my top 5 fave pairings of all time, the pairings I actually legitimately care a lot about. So HxH hit a little different with that one pair.

But its just something I've noticed about myself. If the pairing isn't a ride or die I'm obsessed with it pairing, its usually from a show that's so well written, I probably just have a pairing from it for the fun of it. EXCEPT HxH. The one exception.

Whereas you can take shows like YGO and Inuyasha, and the writing isn't jawdopping, and I have a good few pairs from each, and those pairings are prob my fave parts of those shows, that's just basically how I know I know which shows I consider better written than others, by my pairing quantity lmao Doesn't mean I dont love those shows tho, they're just not exceptional writing

Then you have shows that, if I didn't have pairings to get me through the experience, I'd probably still be watching them to this day, like an episode a year or something Zexal

[javaghoul]

Heck, its actually a hard task to explain what Durarara is about but I loved it so much I could talk about it all day. It has many plots, many absolutely great characters (i love you Shinra) and just lovely way of telling the stories of the individuals. Yes, it has gangs and they play big part of it but it is mostly focused on daily life and struggles of people in Ikebukuro. Also I recently came to the conclusion that the main theme of Durarara is the concept of love in many aspects and forms. Even those brutal and very weird ones (Izaya’s love for humans which causes him to play with their lifes and observe them like little animals, Shinra’s unconditional and a bit obsessive but sincere and geniuene love for a headless woman or a parasite sword that cuts people for love and thats only the beginning of examples)

Sooo anwsering your question:

- I belive Izaya would be involved in both CCG and ghoul organisations. He is the information broker without any picked sides so If he was payed enough or he could have some personal benefits for that he could pretty much sell anyone at this point. Also both sides would despise him, fear him and respect him. He is known for his twisted way of morality and being unpredictable. I would absolutely love it If Shiro Kaneki gathered info from him about, for example, Aogiri Tree, Dr Kanou or Ghoul Restaurant. I belive Izaya would picked a huge interest in him and decide to watch him at his path and doing Izaya’s things. And by that I mean making Kaneki’s job harder for his own entertainment 🤡 not to mention that Izaya’s absolutely would be in contact with Dr Kanou

- Tsukiyama on his gourmetous adventures with tasting Shizuo’s flesh and probably Dullahan’s too. And Oh mu fucking god Shizuo would absolutely want to beat the shit out of him 💀💀💀 I would love to see him being weirded out in a second and hit him with a vending machine 💀💀💀💀 (Shizuo is the strongest man in Tokyo, but like seriously the strongest, that man can lift the whole building and no one fucking knows why I fucking love Drrr so much)

- Shinra as an underground doctor could also help ghouls sometimes with their injuries or something, Celty would be probably scared for him If CCG will ever find out about that

- There is some similarity between Kida’s and Mikado’s relationship and Hide’s with Kaneki’s. Same dynamic for me.

I know you dont really care about all this stuff but I saw the opputurnity to vent about this and I proudly took it. I could write more but im tired as hell.

Right now you are my fav TG blog out there, keep it up! Have a nice week

I am so sorry I took ages to get to this. I saw that the message was long, and wanted to wait until I could read it properly instead of being like "yh lol 🙂".

CRUNCHYROLL DOESN'T HAVE DURARARA. I frikkin looked it up and nope it not there.

"Gourmetous" is now 🌟the🌟 adjective for Shuu.

I'm pissed I haven't been able to watch it, as it sounds like my kinda thing. Chaoticcriminalnotrealisticsliceoflife is what I live for.

☹️

Thank you for telling me about it, and answering my ask for you 😁 and you have a good week too!

[noizchild]

I Messed Up Again

I forgot to say that I was posting another chapter of Kodoku this week. My bad. Well, it's up now. Not much to report. Just that Tengoku.Chikyu.Jigoku is about to end next week. I think that series has gone on long enough. I will end it by season fifteen. That will be two years from now. Other than that, that's it. Oh and I still have many ideas running around in my head. That and Mafia is two volumes away from ending.

This Week's Work List:

Tea Leaves and Pale Lace

Ghosts of Wonderland

Tengoku.Chikyu.Jigoku

The Cove

When Angels Deserve to Die

Mafia

[haleigh-sloth]

I noticed that you read Hell's Paradise and now I'm curious about your opinion on Jikka, Shugen and Shija. Those 3 aren't my favorite but they do intrigue me in different ways. Jikka is Jikka, no need for elaboration 😅. Shija... he's deranged but I felt for him and his goodbye with Gabi was bittersweet. Shugen though... Shugen can be a good friend to have around but only if you agree with his black and white morality. Also the way he exited the story was totally unexpected for me.

Out of the characters you mentioned, Jikka is the only one I genuinely LIKED.

I have no real positive or negative feelings toward Shija or Shugen and company.

I'll admit I do think Shugen and co. were introduced and removed rather quickly, and I really had no emotional attachment to them probably because of it. But also because Shugen was introduced as a character that obviously wasn't gonna have much development, and his two little followers didn't do much for me either. I think having them jump on the bandwagon of teaming up with the criminals was good, but it didn't really go much further...there wasn't much internal introspection that I can remember, and then Shugen honestly didn't change much at all and he died with his ideals intact, kinda unchanged. So ehhh I just...don't have much feelings toward them in general. It kinda sucks they ALL died like...I would have maybe changed that for the two kids and let them have the happy ending, but....oh well.

Shija I like a little more, because their characterization (being obsessed with Gabimaru) and fight with Gabimaru served a greater purpose with long-term payoff---> Shija confirmed that Yui is real in their attempt to convince Gabimaru to let go of his attachment to her (hence utilizing his characterization pretty well), and it gave Gabimaru all the boost in morale he needed and they all ended up winning in the end. So Shija I liked more, but I just couldn't get emotionally invested in their admiration/obsession with Gabimaru. Shija's death was just kinda....jeez. I mean I know they weren't meant to be a big time character but I just kinda don't get into the obsessive characters who insist dying by their obsession's hand ya feel, I don't feel anything. But I will say I absolutely LOVE Shija's design. Fucking absolutely love it. I might draw them one day, we shall see.

JIKKA though....

Of course, I like him. A lot. He didn't have a lot of time in the manga but he played a major role. His character type I almost can NEVER resist. The character type where you don't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy, where he's manipulative and treats everyone around him like game pieces to achieve a greater goal that nobody else is aware of/cares about. He literally did not give a single shit about whether it was "right" to team up with the criminals, he didn't care. He just went with the flow. And I like that in the end he really was on everyone's side, everyone being the people the readers should care about. His character type is the same as Shigure from Fruits Basket, Izaya from Durarara, and Mephisto from Blue Exorcist.

I will never not love those character types, the ones who act like they're the chess player and every other character in the manga is a chess piece or they just try to manipulate shit from the sidelines.

And in 3 out of the four characters like this that I like, the ultimate motive at the end of the day is always a positive one (Izaya is just a bastard lmao). Jikka ended up being a positive force AND he had no issue letting the other two criminals go, and even helping Gabimaru get back to Yui in a place where they could live freely and safely. And up to that point he was acting like an evil ass at times, it was great. I love love love those types of characters they never fail to entertain me.

Also side note, Jikka's facial hair reminds me of Aizawa ak;dng;akj

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

As for other fandoms in the Trek for the Truth AU, I've Added, Kamisama Kiss, Durarara, Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host, Fullmetal Alchemist (03 and Brotherhood), Sonic the Hedgehog, Disney Characters like Mickey/Disney movies, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Blue Exorcist, Yugioh, Dreamworks characters, and many more, depending on what I watch in the future. Huh, I never thought about that. I was just going to make All for One an all out bad guy. But you're idea made me think about making him a double agent sort of thing. Because he does send people like the likes of Kimblee and Archer. Aka, really not good people. However, you aren't wrong and he would recognize Izuku. Maybe try to get him on his side at first. Though, Shura's going to see he's up to shady shit and she's a force to be reckoned with. Girl worked with literal demons in her show, no way she's not spotting him and going, "Nah, you're fine." Anyway, onto stories. First up, the number 1 in training, Izuku himself! When he lost his memories, he was with All Might and Kota and he felt a familiarity with them. The three of them basically came to the extreme conclusion that All Might was Izuku’s father and Kota was his little brother. Later, they run into Inko, the same parental feeling came to Izuku. Which leads Izuku knowing that Inko is his mom. Then, that leaves All Might believing that Inko is his wife. Why wouldn't he? If Izuku is his son like he thinks, surely that would mean Inko is his wife, right? So yeah, Izuku unknowingly hooked up his idol and his mother, lol! They live together, Izuku got a job, Inko ran an orphanage for lost children, Kota was going to school. However, things took a turn for the worse when  All Might’s illness went from stage 2 to stage 3. One night, when he was working the night shift, he heard a commotion outside, and went to investigate. It turned out the commotion was two bounty hunters collecting a soul. Izuku tried to intervene but the bounty hunters have demonic powers so they won. I mean he has One for All, but he doesn't remember how to use it right. After the scuffle, One of the Bounty Hunters, Archer, tells him what they were doing was helping them pass on easier from the Melani Nonos and how they were doing this with their powers from their deal. Archer sees recruitment potential, that’s why he’s telling him some things.Once Archer explained that deals got rid of the Melani Nonos for others, Izuku started to consider. However, Izuku needed more time to think. They part ways for two days. Second day, All Might has a bad episode with the Melani Nonos. Izuku accepts Archer’s offer. I just want to let you guys know right now, Archer didn’t tell him about the whole selling soul thing part of the deal. He was devastated by this and the fact he couldn’t just go back to his family like normal, however he doesn't regret the why of his decision. His mentor that was assigned to him was Shura from Blue Exorcist. Meanwhile, Kota found out that Izuku was gone and he became hellbent on finding him for Inko. Izuku knows this and tries to stay out of his sight.

All of this sounds really cool 😊. I’m curious as to how Fumikage ends up in the business.

[ayesakara]

Here's more pix from the Durarara final arc.

PART 2 OF SHIZUO/VORONA - Season 2, Final arc, Durarara

This is continuation of my last post based on the same scene from episode 7, No Love Lost.

Vorona has just found out that Shizuo has known all along that she was the girl in the motorcycle helmet who attacked him at the Raira academy fields. And she's shocked to learn that he doesn't care. He cares for her. He wants to hear her side of the story.

He's protective of her, when Yagiri orders her to kill him, because by "Shizuo Logic", asking her to kill Shizuo means Yagiri is placing her in direct danger of being killed herself. Shizuo has no fear for his own safety. But he's incensed at the thought of Vorona being placed in danger. Even if it is at the cost of his own life being possibly endangered.

As much as Vorona is aware of how strong he is... at an instinctual level, she still deems him human. Capable of being hurt. She's been internally struggling with her own motivations all this time. Does she want to hurt him? That had been her initial goal. But what about the peace she found in his presence? And she's incapable of hurting him, isn't she? Is it because he's indestructible or because she doesn't really want to see him get hurt?

Then she catches sight of construction material being moved at the top of the building, right over where Shizuo is standing, and she realizes what's about to happen. It's going to fall on him, crush him. She has to save him.

She pushes him out of the way. But why? If he was indestructible, why save him? If she wanted him hurt, why push him to safety?

Oh... perhaps, this was why she had been hesitant to hurt him since she got to know him. It wasn't because he's impossible to defeat. But because... she doesn't want to see him hurt.

So she will sacrifice herself for him. Yep, that makes sense to her. 🤣

There's so many layers to their interactions. I just adore these two. 😭😍😚