#especially when the first one took 5 years to make and was released in 2009.

[swagging-back-to]

really, in this day in age if you refuse to release your movie for streaming youre actual shit and it tells me that your movie is ALSO shit.

[timextoxhajima]

what's the right word?

my first kpop group was snsd when they first released gee back in 2009/2010 and i was 9/10.

i've been stuck in this hole of 'kpop' since. i turn 24 in april. thats more than half my life.

growing up in a conservative asian family and the elder daughter of two teachers, it's not easy to explain the grievances and troubles i feel like i've experienced. some might not even consider it a terrible thing. yes, i've had a good standard of education and had parents who took care of me but sometimes the challenge was truly connecting with people and finding an emotional support.

nobody else can replicate and/or understand the true depth of the love, admiration, inspiration and reliance a fan has on her favourite idols/groups. throughout the years, i've gone through the eras. going from the snsd/shinee/suju era, and then into the bts/exo/vixx/bap era, and then blackpink/red velvet/wanna one/nct and then i feel like my life had a significant trajectory in the 2019-2020 period because i started dancing.

after having spent a decade being so invested in the idol culture of perfecting every single performance, pushing past boundaries and the idea of 'not being enough' being the exact source of motivation, perhaps picking up cover-dancing wasn't the best idea. especially when i come in a package with a bunch of baggage, anxiety, stress, and other perfectionist ideals.

throughout the years before 2019/2020, my reliance on my kpop idols was emotional. i wrote letters to them like they were my best friends, wished them the best of health and that they were always enough, while wishing i was as good as they were (ironic?). to my past loves: sooyoung, donghae, minho, jonghyun, jungkook, baekhyun, kang daniel, irene, jaehyun and the other members who have helped me through alot - i owe my life to them. quite literally.

tbz and enhypen have a special place in my heart. because not only did they become the usual emotional support pillars i had all the while, they became my mentors. an actual source to learn and be better. enhypen even more, because i've covered at least 5-6 of their items.

this growth in myself and the growth i see in them was so quiet but so sudden last night as i filmed their performances. 'oh my god, i danced to this song back in 2022 and now i get to see it live?'

as a fan, i feel more emotional because not only am i a fan who enjoys their music, i feel like i had connected to them on the 'stage performer' level and though i'm still lacking in many, many ways, i owe my progress and improvement to enhypen. they push me both mentally and physically during practises and their want to surpass themselves always reminds me that love knows no boundaries. the love for the stage and the love to be the best version of yourself.

i'm quite sure there's some psychological term for it, when you rely on someone who doesn't know you exist, and that you gain energy just from this person's existence.

the story is much, much longer but i could write a whole fic about it if i wanted to.

to my strength, my (probably last) love, heeseung.

i could write a billion words about you, and it would still not be enough to share how much of my life, my success, my motivation, my strength i owe to you. the love between a fan and an idol can only go so far, but i promise it will be forever.

i have a knack for choosing the members who seem to be the 'ace' of the group, but you are so unapologetically open about being a perfectionist. that's just my opinion. you know you want to be at your best, and you strive so hard to get there, sometimes i almost feel sad that you think you're not yet perfect. but then again, that's the very thing that makes me look up to you.

saw you for the first time and probably the last time last night. thank you for reigniting this want to surpass myself in every way possible. thank you for reminding me that lacking is the only way up.

[likeadevils]

In preparation for ttpd release, I started to listen to your playlist of Taylor's songs in writing order and I love it so far! It really gives me an entirely new way of looking at the songs and the connections between them, so big thank you for your work on it!

I just have a few questions that I'd like to know as I'm listening (I'm on early fearless rn):

how did you order tracks that don't have a clear order? (iirc, a lot of the late albums we don't really know besides some earlier/later tracks). Is it based on vibes, or just completely arbitrary?

Also, how did you deal with songs that some time to write (like Innocent taking a few months, or her coming back to finish change after winning her first big award)? Is it the beginning date, or finishing it, or maybe somewhere in the middle?

Thanks a lot in advance <3

songs that took a while to write: i’ll put the all dates i know she worked on it— like, begin again is in there twice, because i’m fairly confident in both dates, but change is only when she finished it, because i have no idea when she started it. i also don’t put the same song over and over again, like all too well is only in there once even though we know of at least three drafts, because it would just be listening to the same song over and over. with innocent specifically, i took the six months quote as it taking her six months to get in the headspace to write it, not like she was picking it up and putting it down, so i only put it in once.

songs that i don’t know the order of: short answer, i put my best guess. it’s normally easier to figure out when she recorded a song, or at least what songs she recorded around the same time, so like, a lot of lover is just broken up by producer/studio credits (though i am fairly confident about the back half).

and then with folklore and evermore, it’s much easier to figure out the order than the dates— every artist has a different way they answer “tell me what it was like making this song” and aaron’s go to is “it was right before this song and right after this other song” which is so helpful— so like, folklore especially, i’m pretty confident that that’s the general order of stuff, even though i only really know cardigans date.

but, here are the stretches i’m not super confident about

* a lot of the first half of speak now is speculative, but not really in long stretches? but haunted, foolish one, superman, last kiss, timeless, and never grow up can all easily jump around the year (though, i’d put money on never grow up being written in early september 2009. not a lot of money, but like, still money. like $5). and then like, the speak now vault tracks in general are speculative, she did like no promo for it so who knows)

* wildest dreams-wonderland: all of these songs were recorded in october/november 2013, but we don’t know the exact order (wildest dreams is first because selena gomez said she was there when it was written and her schedule just doesn’t align with taylor’s that fall, blank space was likely written in late october based on candids matching studio stuff, the last three are just alphabetical order)

* look what you made me do-this is why we can’t have nice things: this is mostly just based on how long her hair was in the making of a songs

* cruel summer-soon you’ll get better: cruel summer is early cause she said she was just jamming with jack and annie and the song kinda fell into their laps so that sounds like she wasn’t intensely writing so i put it early, she teased daylight lyrics somewhere in the summer i believe so i put that pretty early, but aside from that like. these probably weren’t even recorded in a block they could literally be wherever

* i forgot that you existed-all of the girls: same proudcers, she said she started working intensely on the album right after tour ended and idk what else she was recording in november, so like. all recorded at the same time, guessing that it’s pretty early in the recording process, but that exact order of the tracks can change, and where they fall in the album too

* august-mirrorball: most of the jack stuff was done before aaron came in, but idk the exact order of these specific ones

* invisible string-betty: mostly circumstancial— like, epiphany is the first track taylor brought to aaron instead of the other way around, so i put it towards the end, stuff like that

* gold rush-no body no crime: all recorded in late september, but written beforehand, no idea in what order

* maroon-dear reader(/question-you’re losing me): again, all recorded within like a month of each other, no idea in what order besides question probably being in late november and youre losing me on december 5

* lavander haze-karma: pretty sure they were all written in early 2022, not totally sure in what order, beyond bigger than the whole sky being in march, snow on the beach probably being in april, and karma probably being last

[jordankondrup54]

Custom Made Promotional Stress Balls - The Android Os Stress Toy

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[lesbianakaashi]

The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

[kyotakumrau]

2021.02.16 1st talk session of Meguro Rock-May-KanGIG at Zepp Yokohama

Zepp Yokohama is a such a nice venue, I really hope we will get to see dir play there live properly!

The concert recorded at Meguro RockMayKan was great! The setlist surprised me quite a lot (especially encore!!!)! And I think that was the smallest stage I ever saw dir on!😆 the footage definitely deserves a separate entry and I don't want to spoil anyone if they go to next events.

After the concert film screening staff quickly prepared the stage, bringing two long tables and four chairs, they also placed a water bottle at each seat.

Punctually (thank you for not repeating Nagoya's situation😆), at 3:30 Fujieda came on stage and started with greeting everyone, and asking us to greet the band members with applause.

After a moment of uncertainty (even as my heart was almost set it will be Kyo) Die came on stage with Kyo after him.٩( ˆoˆ  )۶

They both looked super classy. Die had a dark grey suit with a long jacket, his usual award winning hair and wore sunglasses.

Kyo had a black jacket (with a round Chanel pin) and shirt, green hair, he wore glasses (not sunglasses).

When they sat (Kyo stood in front of the chair first until Fujieda gestured them to sit) F asked them to introduce themselves.

D: ども、Dieです

K: 京です

...and then F announced 'today is Kyo's birthday!' and a birthday song melody began to play😆

Kyo turned on his murder face glaring at Fujieda who happily observed 'oh what's this song?'😂

The soft Happy Birthday melody got then a guitar joining in and Takabayashi came on the stage carrying a small strawberry shortcake (with a chocolate message おめでとう京さん) which of course he placed in front of Kyo.

We couldn't sing but we clapped.

Kyo snatched a strawberry and popped it in his mouth. He gestured 'throat slashing' looking at Fujieda😂

And then ate another strawberry🍓😂

F: the song was made by Die.

K: (only interested in the cake) Could I get a fork?

(staff went to get him one)

F: how do you feel? (about your own birthday)

K: I don't care.

The fork arrived and Kyo literally dug in right in the middle, scooping a huge piece he put whole in his mouth.

Fujieda wisely left Kyo to his cake then and started talking about RMK footage. Die said they had hard time deciding on a tour or events like this in COVID situation. They also mentioned the secret show in 2009 was held in RMK.

Next Die talked about how nice it was to rehearse and play together with the band, first time since March, he was happy about the show, creating sound together as 5 people.

F: did you finish eating K?

K: yup

(there was last 🍓 left (out of 4 big ones), he ate about 25~35%?)

F: then tell us about recording the RockMayKan show!

K: the place was very narrow.

F: anything else?

K: Not really.

But then he added more, that as it has been a while it felt like the first day of the tour.

F: was there anything that was difficult? Was a struggle?

K: when recording I can do it at my own pace, I can do one song when I want, but that day it was back to performing over 10 songs all at once, it was tough, hard on my throat, energy/stamina wise.

But at the same time it was exciting, meet with other members, play music together, that was nice.

F: 2019 was filled with shows, it was busy, then things changed. So after a break to see an audience again got me nervous, in a good way.

Next F said had would like to talk about the release of Oboro.

D: what do you want to know?

F: so the song is not out yet, any hints?

D: it's gonna stay a secret for a bit more.

F: the 2nd track is TDFF？

D: (interesting letters ???didn't catch exactly) it's a powerful song.

F: how is Oboro for you Kyo?

K: quite fresh/refreshing

F: really?!

D: especially the video

...but then Kyo just burst with a whole speech how Fujieda always ask something and when he gets an aswer he didn't expect he doesn't react well, just says what he wants, is not listening to what Kyo says and... it went for a while😆

Next F moved to the topic of the merchandise and asked the band members which items they like.

K: the big badge, before the big pick was huge, shouldn't the badge be like this size (showing about 20cm with his hands). It bothered me from when I saw it. Isn't it just normal?

in the end they agreed it's just 'a bit big' 😂

F: how about for you, D?

D: the rubber key chains?

F: they got sold out very quickly, sorry to fans about that.

D: they are cute. And I like the wristbands too. The color combinations are nice.

T: the badge has the old band's logo, it brings me back

D talked about old times when artists made stickers like that, with logos, to put on their equipment, they worked a bit like business cards, he said he still have some at home.

T picked the rechargeable heat pack.

K: so it's to be used instead of heat packs? (ホッカイロ)

F: uh, it's already warm.

D: huh? Show me? (F passed it to him) it's like a phone that gets hot when charging.

Next they moved on to fans questions. ("~~" is a question from fans they read)

K (unusually picks the first question super fast): "what's your favourite cake?"

K: Well, the strawberry shortcake is good, but this one doesn't have strawberries inside, just some jam, it should have strawberries inside too.

(F so dead😂😂😂)

F: "what's your best or bad memory connected to birthdays?"

K: at a concert somewhere, it was quite long time ago, I got a present all wrapped and in a bag from a silver accessories brand I liked, so nicely wrapped, I opened it and it was empty, isn't that really strange? I looked at the attached letter and it said the person is keeping the item for themselves. It annoyed me so much, the worst bd memory ever.

☹️

F: how about you D?

D: it's not exactly bad memory, but many band members have birthdays in February, in the past when we were still giving each other presents Toshiya and I had to think what to get for 3 people, it was always tough. We stopped that at some point.

T: "any memory/story about China Town?"

D: I like China Town

T: do you go often?

D: sometimes. But only to my favorite restaurants. (?? Talked more about the stadium?)

T: do you usually order the same thing?

D: Mabodofu, the spicy version

(then I think he said something like there's no point in overdoing spicyness, it's not healthy??)

K: I don't know which restaurants are good so I get annoyed. I don't know what decides it's a good one or not.

F: I don't go, but I'd like to.

then they talked about the types of Chinese food and food they tried when in other Asian countries.

K: when we were touring in the US I ordered Chinese abd it was terrible, it was all bad. The egg soup was all clumpy, so bad.

D: "any stories about RockMayKan?"

D: honestly I don't have good memories with this venue, when with a previous band we played together with more senior bands and they took over the dressing room, we couldn't use it, and we also had to greet all senpai musicians.

K: remember when Shinya sat on the lockers? Like on top of the 170cm lockers?

D: was it in Nagoya?

K: he's done his make up there, like a cat or something

D: Shinya climbed a locker and made a space for himself there

K: He's not exactly human. Normally you would not even consider climbing a locker...

D: we usually did our make up on the stairs, didn't use changing room. When we played at RMK as dir for the first time I saw 'this is the changing room!'

He also talked about how the hair spray used by all the bandomen would stink up the whole place 😂

F: "what do you usually wear to sleep?"

K: just underwear. Doesn't matter if it's summer or winter I want to feel the towel like fabric, I use towel cloth for my bedding, I want my whole body to feel it so there's no point in wearing pajamas.

D: at home...wait you mean my home or my family house? At my parents' I always wear the pajama my mum got me, currently the Mickey Mouse one. I only have that one there.

K( with sudden interest): can you draw it?

D: it's about this big, quite big print. The one I wear at home, it wasn't sent by my mum.

K: not Mickey one??

D:  that's Nightmare Before Christmas.

K: Disney theme?

D: this one has a face in the front.

K: do you change characters (for pajamas) every year?

D: this year it's Nightmare.

Next was something they wanted to say to F. K chose to comment on his haircut, because it's asymmetric K is bothered that it will end as an uzumaki in the back. They talked more about F's style.

F: "I'd like you to tell us about your costumes you wore for RMK show".

D: I wanted something motovating so red colour.

K: I had no special reasoning, just what I wanted to wear then.

D: "have you gotten any food delivery?"

He said he only got it once or not much, I think he said he's not fond of shops that don't do it properly, but when recording it's good???

F: Shinya said he orders Uber almost everyday.

K: I only got Uber once.

F: what did you get?

K: Burger King. I quit McDonalds. After eating Burger King I can't go back to McDonalds.

They talked about sizes of burger here?? Whooper versus Junior Whooper?

F: So McD is not good?

K: the meat taste is different. McDonald now tastes like trash.

F: what about the Mc fries, when they get a bit soft.

K: not only a bit. Gross.

D: in the US we usually also have some American staff, when we had some time and we went to eat out, it was funny, American staff went for sushi, Shinya went for McDonalds.

F: was it last time?

D: no, quite some time ago.

F: when did you eat McDonalds the last time?

D: I also don't eat it, it's been some time already.

They talked more about the food, some restaurants D liked in the US (didn't catch the name🙃 but in Sacramento?), then F talked more about event schedule and the time was over.

Last comments from the band members:

Die: From today the new series of film screening starts, thank you for coming to the first day. So well... the band is working on the new album while coming to the events at the same time, we're working on creating a great album. Please come amd enjoy the events.

Kyo: I don't have a special thing to say. Many of you will be coming to few or many events and will end up with many t-shirts, you can do whatever with them, even use them as a doormat, there are many ways to use them, no problem for the whole year.

[mercuryonparklane]

I seriously debated keeping this one in the drafts...

Okay, I felt compelled to analyze the timeline of all of Taylor’s rumored/alleged boyfriends (barring any that she supposedly dated pre-fame) and why I believe they could have been fake/pr setups...

Disclaimer: this is all speculative and is just my opinion. No one has to agree... we don’t all have to agree because really the only people who know the truth are Taylor and those she has shared it with. I do have a very skeptical view of the entertainment industry and pr, so that is a bias I will own up to. I especially think Taylor, for a very long time, was willing to play along with the pr side of things, but eventually reached a breaking point (as any normal human under that amount of pressure and scrutiny likely would). Whether that means she has faked all of her public relationships or some of them or just aspects of them... I can’t really, truly know that. So, just keep in mind that this is one little, insignificant person’s view of Taylor’s public relationships and that I do not personally know any of the people involved...

Don’t take this too seriously, peeps... I’ll even tag it as crack theory...

Joe J.: June/July-September/October 2008

If nothing else this feels like a typical pr setup of two young stars. He had Camp Rock, a Jonas Bros’ album and a tour and concert film to promote. Camp Rock came out on 6/20/2008. The Jonas Bros’ third album, A Little Bit Longer, was released on 8/12/2008. In August, Taylor joined the band on stage during the filming for a concert movie that would be released in February 2009. 

Taylor had an album that was released just weeks after their alleged breakup. An album which contained a few songs that would be attributed to Joe J. due to the publicity surrounding their relationship. Hmm... what a great way to drum up interest in an album that includes quite a few heartbreak songs. Not saying I know that is the case, but they both had a lot to promote between June and November 2008.

Lucas T.: March-April/May 2009

He was in the Hannah Montana movie, which was released 4/10/2009. Taylor had a cameo in that movie and also wrote a song for the soundtrack. Lucas also played Taylor’s love interest in the mv for YBWM, which premiered 5/2/2009 on CMT. He was in one of her Myspace vlogs in April 2009. IMO, this was a setup to promote the Hannah Montana movie and the YBWM mv, but it didn’t really take off. Lucas later said they dated briefly, but he realized that he just saw her as a friend...

Taylor L.: August-December 2009

 They played a couple in Valentine’s Day. In September, just days after the VMAs where KW interrupted Taylor on stage as Taylor L. stood a few feet away, Taylor went to an Owl City concert at the Bowery Ballroom where she met the man who would supposedly inspire “Enchanted”. Umm... “please don’t be in love with someone else”... even though I am currently dating Taylor L. and he is my forever crush, but like, I am totally crushing on you actually. I have no clue if any Swifties have ever picked up on that discrepancy.  

Oh, and Taylor L. also “dated” Selena in early 2009 and I doubt Taylor would go there, even if they ended on good terms. I mean, it’s possible, but idk it seems unlikely to me. 

John M.: December 2009-February 2010

I think Taylor admired him as a musician (this seems to have been mutual with John praising her talent multiple times) and she may have seen him as a mentor at first. I do not believe that anything happened between them beyond that. I think he was so thrown off by “Dear John” because of that. He was already tweeting in the spring of 2009, hinting at wanting to collaborate with Taylor. The album their duet was on came out in November 2009, right before they started “dating”. Although it wasn’t released as a single until June 2010.

Besides, Liz (friend or otherwise) has remained a fan of John and even went to his concert a few years back. So, either she didn’t care that he screwed one of her supposed good friends over or it didn’t go down how people were led to believe it did.

Jake G.: October 2010-December/January 2011

Unless this relationship started much earlier than everyone has been led to believe, it is very unlikely that ATW is about him. It certainly seems to have been written prior to the maple latte/scarf/sister’s house articles that were abundant after that pap walk. Either Taylor used him as a scapegoat for a song that wasn’t about him or he was a willing participant in a pr scheme to make sure people thought the song was about him. 

He couldn’t have been setup with his costar, Anne H., because she was already in a long term, committed relationship. At the time Taylor was still good pr since she was still known as a kind of girl next door, all American type with genuine talent. 

I’m not saying I know for a fact it was fake. I’m saying there are plenty of reasons why I think it was. Everyone has different perspectives... mine is that this was purely a pr setup.

Will A.: sometime in 2010 and/or mid or fall 2011-January 2012 or May (?) 2012

They were likely just friends, but people did think they were dating back then. The songs that people think he wrote about Taylor (”White Dress” and “Kiss Me Slowly”) were recorded in 2010. So, if she started dating him in September 2011, which people think because the dress she wore to his May 2012 birthday party was the one she is wearing on the “Begin Again” cover art, then those songs aren’t about her. About the party dress...  Sarah B., who took the picture, was also friends with the Parchute guys, so maybe the photoshoot that the picture on that cover art came from happened earlier that day. 

He was friends with Liz’s ex Jason and one of his best friends is still to this day very close friends with Liz, so that’s probably how he met Taylor. I think Taylor hung out with that crew a bit back then. AND those times Will and Taylor were seen hanging out in late fall/early winter 2011, Jason and/or the other friend were there. Yes, I am saying that Taylor was hanging out with Jason in November/December 2011, just a few months after he and Liz supposedly broke up. She was also still hanging out with Liz a lot at that time and after, though, so I think it was all good.

Conor K.: July 2012-September/October 2012

This was Taylor’s worst pr. If it was a real relationship... it is borderline predatory. If it is fake... still a big yikes... I don’t have much to say about this one. I think it was fake and an attempt at making him the muse for “Starlight” (how cute, this song she wrote about his grandparents sort of became about them), “Begin Again” (nevermind that the copyright record say the song was written in 2011), and EHC (nevermind that the song was written in May 2012). It would have been great pr, though, if he was a couple years older. Taylor should have fired Paula after this one... (because the public should have never known about it, real or fake).

Harry S.: November 2012-January 2013

Similar to all the others before (and after), there were “random” sightings, including a birthday trip to “the lakes” and blatant pr (go on and wear that fox sweater and paper airplane necklace, Taylor...). That NYE kiss, though...

Calvin: February 2015-May/June 2016

Taylor finally dropped her old publicist and brought on Tree. First step, was to erase the “boy crazy”/“man eater” label (and possibly the “professional beard” label) and become an independent woman who just wants to have fun with her gal pals. It got a bit gayer than expected (whether Kaylor was really a thing to some degree or not is irrelevant to the point). The gay rumors were actually catching on even faster and people were like “oh, that’s why she couldn’t keep a man” (sexist/homophobic as all of this is/was, ofc). 

Enter Calvin... a playboy DJ who some might deem “tall and handsome as hell” (peeps, I am not really the best judge of a man’s attractiveness, so this is just how I think people see him). He seems sooo straight. I don’t know how else to say it. All of her other supposed boyfriends had gay rumors, whether or not those rumors were just people gossiping or had some basis in reality... I think he is the only one that doesn’t have them, that I know of anyway. 

I know a lot of people think they were really together, but I think this was an attempt to have her in a more serious, long term relationship to counteract both the gay rumors (not necessarily as a cover for a woman because I don’t think all of the guys have been or need to have been covers for a secret relationship with a woman, it’s about appearing straight) and the “can’t keep a man” narrative that had followed her around. Even if they were in some sort of situationship (not what I think, just theorizing here), it wouldn’t have been a steady thing and they seemed to not like each other very much when all was said and done.

I still laugh that he said Taylor was the opposite of his type (and specified that he likes brunettes) in November 2014 and then he allegedly dated her for almost a year and a half, starting literally a few months after he made that comment. If that was a real relationship, he was either playing it cool when he said that or he misjudged her or Taylor was determined to date him because it was a challenge.

Either way, it seems like her team controlled the public narrative and maybe Calvin was okay with that at first, but over time it seemed like he wasn’t a big fan of that. Maybe that visit to the strip mall massage parlor was a bit of a rebellion... 

At least they both got some royalties out of it...

Joe A.: September 2016-Present

Taylor’s team absolutely has control of the public narrative and he seems okay with that. He is a literal mirrorball. He is whatever Taylor supposedly says he is in her songs/whatever Swifties want him to be.

He likes to drop fun facts like how his family jumps into a freezing pond at Christmas or that he worked at a yogurt shop as a teenager. Whether they are real or not... he seems to be playing into the pr. Dropping little bits of information that will tie him to her songs... it is very “maple latte”/“paper airplane necklace”/dark jeans and Nikes... OR Taylor is just taking the few facts people know about him and using it to pin songs on him.

If he is a beard (which imo he likely is), I think he gets along with Taylor and doesn’t mind the minimal pr of it all.

I don’t think he is WB, either way...

Again this is just my view of things. This has no bearing on which women Taylor may have dated. I could do a separate post on what I think that timeline might look like.

One point I will reiterate is that I do not think that a beard would always be a cover for a secret relationship with a woman. I think it sometimes is, but it can be more of a general cover for someone who is gay. So many people think Taylor is the straightest person who has ever lived simply because of her public dating record. I mean, heteronormativity and homophobia also play a big part in that...

Edit: I completely skipped Tom lol. I just don’t buy that one either. Maybe he thought it would be good publicity or maybe he was led on to think it was more real than it was or maybe he was just having fun. Idk. All kinds of articles written about them at the time included some caveat about how they seemed fake or were maybe filming something...

[96thdayofrage]

It was 2009 when PINAC News first broke the story of a mother named Tasha Ford who was arrested on felony “eavesdropping” charges for recording police detaining her teenage son in the parking lot of a South Florida movie theater after accusing him of trying to sneak inside without a ticket.

Ford’s arrest by Boynton Beach police was one of several high-profile arrests at the time on charges of eavesdropping or “wiretapping”; an unconstitutional trend in which cops across the country were using outdated felony laws to keep citizens from recording them in public.

Several landmark court cases since then have affirmed that citizens have a First Amendment right to record police in public which is one reason why we have been seeing so many police abuse videos in recent years. Turns out, they had a lot to hide during those early years.

But on May 5, the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Florida ruled the Boynton Beach cops who arrested Ford had a reasonable expectation of privacy and therefore had probable cause to arrest her, once again denying her the right to sue for damages. Ford first filed the lawsuit in 2010 but has since faced a string of judges who claim that cops have an expectation of privacy in public despite existing case law stating otherwise.

Ford’s video from that night should have ended the expectation of privacy debate because it shows the cops were standing in front of a bustling movie theater on a Saturday night as dozens of people stood or walked by. Some of the bystanders exchanged comments with the officers. One man even walked up and introduced his date to an officer while the cop tried to obtain Ford’s home address. The officer shook both their hands before resuming the conversation with Ford as if it were just another meet-and-greet community event.

But it does not appear as if Judges Edward L. Artau and Melanie G. May even watched the video, much less researched case law because they did not elaborate on their decision other than recite what was already stated in summary judgment from the lower court judge.

In his summary judgment under the heading “Undisputed Material Facts,”, Judge G. Joseph Curley described Ford as “confrontational” because she would not stop recording when ordered to do so. He also stated that she had “admitted” to recording the cops without consent as if confessing to a crime when the whole point of the lawsuit was that she was not committing a crime and had nothing to admit to because she never made it a secret that she was recording.

The summary judgment also claims that the cop’s friend who walked up and introduced his female companion also had an expectation of privacy, never mind the fact he was the one intruding into a conversation that had nothing to do with him.

The 2-1 ruling is already being challenged in an amicus brief filed Thursday by the ACLU, the National Press Photographers Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and several other First Amendment groups who predict cops in Florida will begin using the ruling to arrest anybody recording them in public as they’ve done in the past.

Below is an excerpt from the amicus brief which you can read here:

If allowed to stand, the panel majority’s opinion will license law enforcement officers to order citizens to stop recording the officers’ public discharge of their duties and to arrest all who refuse to comply for obstruction without violence. Like Ms. Ford, those individuals can hope and expect that sensible prosecutors will decline to charge, and sensible judges and juries will decline to convict, but they will nevertheless suffer the considerable consequences of an unlawful arrest, ranging from humiliation, degrading confinement, the cost of bail and defense counsel to the potential loss of employment and disruption to familial bonds, all captured by the popular culture saying, “you can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.”

This Court should put an end to the practice by:

1. Granting rehearing or rehearing en banc;

2. Ruling that defendants lacked probable cause to arrest Ms. Ford;

3. Holding that recording police officers in the public discharge of their duties cannot create probable cause to arrest for wiretapping or for resisting without violence irrespective of whether ordered to stop recording; and

4. Holding that arguably rude speech unaccompanied by threats, incitement, or physical interference cannot give rise to probable cause to arrest for resisting or obstructing without violence.

The dissenting judge

It appears that the only judge who watched the video was dissenting Judge Martha Warner who has been on the bench since 1989 when she was appointed by then-Governor Bob Martinez. Artau was appointed to the bench last year by Governor Ron Desantis and May was appointed to the bench by Governor Jeb Bush in 2002.

Judge Warner not only watched the video and did her research, she explained her dissent in detail, citing a couple of the landmark cases that were made since Ford’s arrest. She also highlighted the viral George Floyd video from last year and the importance of being able to record police in public as you can read in the excerpt below.

I would hold that a law enforcement officer has no reasonable subjective expectation of privacy in conversations he has with the public or the arrestee in the performance of the officer’s duties in public places. They are performing a public duty at the time, and the public has a right to hear their words. This is as true today as it was in 2009.

A rule otherwise would mean that everyone who pulls out a cell phone to record an interaction with police, whether as a bystander, a witness, or a suspect, is committing a crime. Given how important cell phone videos have been for police accountability across the nation, I do not believe that society is ready to recognize that the recording of those interactions, which include audio recordings, are somehow subject to the officer’s right of privacy. If that were the case, then had the individual who recorded George Floyd saying to the officers “I can’t breathe” been in Florida, he would have been guilty of a crime.

The facts of this case seem to be only too similar to so many police encounters caught on video or cell phones. The officers had no reasonable expectation of privacy in their conversations while performing their public duties, particularly in public spaces. Given the prevalence of small video cameras and cell phones in public spaces, society has definitively come down on the side of approving the videoing of officers in the performance of their duties as a method of accountability. Because I conclude that the court erred in finding that the officers had probable cause to arrest the appellant for violation of the wiretap statute or for obstruction of the justice statute, I would reverse the final summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.

The Arrest

The arrest took place on February 28, 2009, a time when most people did not have video cameras on their phones. Not even the iPhone had a video camera at the time.

Ford, who had recently moved to South Florida from Washington DC, was at her mother’s house when she received a call from Boynton Beach police telling her to come pick up her son whom they said tried to sneak into a movie theater without purchasing a ticket.

Ford drove to the theater and began recording with her Canon Powershot as soon as she stepped out of the car. The cops immediately accused her of being “aggressive.” She responded by saying she was “passionate” about her son, especially after learning one of the cops slammed him against the car when he would not remove his headphones.

At no point did the cops whose names are Robert Kellman, Ricky Lauture and Russell Faine  ever make an attempt to keep people from walking through the area where they had the teen detained while talking to his mother, which is a routine step when they want to keep their conversations private.

They just did not appreciate Ford questioning their authority as she recorded them which was not as common back then as it is today where there are now dozens of YouTube channels dedicated to doing just that. That is what made her aggressive in their eyes.

And that is what made her “confrontational” in the eyes of Judge Curley, a word that was also by the attorney of the cops in describing the incident to the judge, according to court documents.

Curley decided to weigh the evidence in summary judgment rather than let the undisputed facts speak for themselves as he is supposed to do.

Clueless judges

Judge Curley’s misunderstanding of the eavesdropping law probably comes from federal judge William Zloch who dismissed Ford’s federal lawsuit in May 2011 by claiming the cops had probable cause to arrest her because she had recorded them without consent.

Judge Zloch was probably in for a shock when less than three months later in August 2011, the landmark Glik vs. Cunniffe decision from the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts affirmed that citizens had the right to record cops in public, contradicting his opinion on the issue.

The following year, ACLU vs. Alvarez out of the Seventh Circuit in Illinois was what finally put a stop to Chicago police arresting people on felony wiretapping charges for recording them in public.

But even before those landmark cases, the right to record police in public was already established in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Florida, with the case, Smith vs the City of Cummnig in 2000 which states citizens have a “First Amendment right, subject to reasonable time, manner and place restrictions, to photograph or videotape police conduct,” including a “right to record matters of public interest.”

The following is an excerpt from our original article on the arrest published on March 6, 2009 after we interviewed Ford by phone, less than a week after she was released from jail. It was a time when the mainstream media would ignore such arrests until they became impossible to ignore which is what happened here.

After pulling into the parking lot, she started filming as soon as she stepped out of her car.

“I saw my son surrounded by five officers and I started filming them, then I filmed the officer walking up to me,” she said.

Rather than stop to talk to the officer, she walked up to her son and asked him what happened. He told her that he had been tackled from behind by an officer and handcuffed after having been thrown out of the theater by a security guard.

“I kept asking the officers, ‘Was he aggressive? Did he pose a threat? I cannot perceive why you would want to put a child in handcuffs’,” she said.

But the officers seemed mainly concerned about the camera.

“They said ‘you can’t record people without letting them know’,” she said.

“So I said, ‘Ok, Tasha Ford is recording you’ and I continued filming them.

“I was filming them for my own protection,” said the mother of two who recently moved to South Florida from Washington DC. “I’ve seen the way cops interact with civilians down here.”

She said one of the officers, Robert Kellman, was extremely antagonistic towards her and told her son, “since your mother is such a fucking asshole, I’m going to arrest you for trespassing’.”

And then a supervisor arrived and when he noticed that she had a Maryland driver license, he allegedly told her, “you fucking northerners think you can come down here and mess with cops. You are about to get a lesson 101 on how to deal with Florida cops.”

The supervisor ordered her arrested under Florida’s electronic surveillance law, which is mostly applied to recording phone conversations without the other party’s consent.

In other words, it doesn’t apply to people who do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

But here we are 11 years later and the judges still don’t understand basic Constitutional law. Or perhaps they just don’t care.

After dismissing the federal claims over the eavesdropping charges, Judge Zlock kicked the case back down to the lower court to resolve the claim over the obstructing justice/resisting arrest charge which is really nothing more than a contempt-of-cop charge.

After her arrest, prosecutors wasted little time in dismissing both charges against Ford which should have bolstered her chances of suing police for damages but she had the misfortune of going before clueless or corrupt judges who ignore actual case law.

The amicus brief filed last week is requesting an en banc review which would bring the case up before the entire bench of 12 judges in the Fourth District Court of Appeals rather than just a panel of three. And the next step after that would be the Florida supreme court.

The case has never gone before a jury who would likely have a much different interpretation of the eavesdropping law than the bulk of judges mentioned in this article.

Ford vowed more than a decade ago that she would continue fighting this until she obtains justice so it is unlikely she is about to give up. Especially now that she has found an honest judge.

[neostar-entertainment]

title: starry night

pairing: taehui-centric

summary: a journey through taehui’s mind from the start of his career in the music industry, while trying to discover himself: from a clueless kid to a man who could have it all.

notes: warning for discussions of mental health!

2006.

It felt like everything Taehui had been working towards was finally coming alive. SM Entertainment, after years of Taehui training, had informed the sixteen year old he would be debuting in a few months, in the first quarter of the new year.

Packing up his things, and throwing his backpack on, Taehui left the practice room with the proudest smile he had ever worn. Shit hadn’t always been easy, and that wasn’t a shocker. Being a trainee isn’t a walk in the park, nor is it close to being something that Taehui found himself genuinely enjoying taking a part of. Yes, he was determined to work hard to get where he wanted, and he was sure all his effort would be worth it. But, certain days it felt harder to bring himself to go practices, go to lessons, and do everything that was expected of him.

He couldn’t tell if it was something he could blame on the part of his mind that loved playing with the concept of making things worse than it seems to be. 

Taehui shook his head, trying to dispel any thoughts like that at the moment-although a part of him was sure they’d be back sooner than later. His right hand holding onto the straps of his backpack as tightly as it could, he bolted out of the building, writing a small text to his father to deliver the news. 

He let his mind wonder how his father, Taehyung, would react. Taehui wasn’t expecting anything less than supportive, because truth be told if it wasn’t for his father he wasn’t sure he’d be exactly where he was at. It was awkward at the start of their relationship, especially due to the fact that Taehui was educated that his dad did not want custody over him originally. The uncomfortable glances, the hesitated questions, the stubborn silence that refused to leave. 

But as time progressed, so did their relationship. His father became his best friend, albeit a bit too awkward at times, Taehui was happy to have someone after losing his mother. The moment the text delivered, his phone began vibrating with a call. A small immediately painted across Taehui’s phone as he raised the phone to answer. 

“You’re finally debuting?!”

“Yes!” Taehui’s smile was as bright as the stars that were beginning to illuminate the sky, “They said it’s only a few months away!”

“Fuck yeah! I-No, Ms. Jung it’s okay, it’s about Taehui.” Taehui laughed to himself as his father told his secretary the news. “How about I pick you up and we can go for a celebratory dinner?”

“That’d be-wait, don’t you have work to do? You don’t even come home anymore until really late.” Taehui’s didn’t mean to sound accusatory at all and before he could spit out an apology his father’s laughter filled his ears. 

“It’s fine. I can take off early one day for you, Hui. I’ll pick you up outside of the normal spot?”

“Yup!” Taehui didn’t mean to sound like a childhood who was asked if they wanted desert, letting out a cough, he repeated the same word with a more deeper tone, “Yup.”

“Dork. I’ll be there in about 20 minutes, if traffic isn’t too bad. Please stay indoors.”

“Understood, boss.” Taehui had to hold himself back from giving a salute when they were talking over the fucking phone. His face flushed as he hurried back inside, his mind and heart racing with excitement like never before. 

2009. 

Debuting under SM was a dream come true for Taehui...for a solid few months. When his debut didn’t pull as much attention as SM had hoped, worries were already up in the air. However, Taehui was determined to prove his worth by putting his best foot forward. 

Yet, it felt like every time Taehui attempted to step up to the plate, it was met with him running into a brick wall. When he suggested producing and creating his own music to show his musicality to the public, he was told that they didn’t want to risk anything with an amateur behind the music. When he tried to get on variety shows to get the public’s interest in him to rise, management told him he didn’t have the personality to do any shows by himself. 

When his first comeback didn’t do any better than his debut, it felt like Taehui was thrown onto the backburner. No news came out any type of promotion or comeback, a year after his comeback. Whenever he asked about anything he was told that something was being planned. 

Around the time it was getting close to two years without any news or any type of promotion, Taehui went to his dad and both of them managed to get Taehui’s contract nullified. 

That’s how Taehui ended up in the balcony of his penthouse, sitting right on the glass rail with one of his legs hanging off the edge. 

“Mind getting down from there, before you give your old man a heart attack?” his dad's voice was gentle, causing Taehui to snap his head towards him as we came onto the balcony as well. 

Taehui hurriedly brought his other leg off the rail, hopping off and walking towards his dad and taking the cup of hot tea in his hands. “Thanks.”

“Of course, kid.” Hui’s father gestured to the two chairs for them to sit together. 

“What’s up?”

“So I’ve been thinking…” Taehyung grinned as he let the silence build up just to see Taehui pout, “What if, you created your own company?”

“I-uh...what?”

“You’re an adult this year, so that’s not an issue-”

“I know, but...a whole company?”

“I mean,” Taehyung brought the cup to his lips as he took a sip as he put a hand on-top of Taehui’s trying to reassure the kid who looked like his mind was running crazy. “Don’t think I’m trying to make you or anything. It’s all up to you, Hui. I’ve thought about it recently, and it’s definitely a possibility, especially if you still want to pursue music.”

Taehui remained silent, looking down at the tea in his cup, his mind wandering all over the place. 

“I’m just…”

“Scared?”

Taehui weakly nodded, as his cheeks flushed with a soft pink tint showcasing his slight embarrassment regarding his feelings. 

“You won’t be alone. You’ll have me with, Hui, always.” the reassurance in his father’s voice made Taehui look up, seeing the sincerity in his eyes felt overwhelming in a sense. His eyes swelled up with tears, rashly lowering his head again. 

“Hey, buddy…” he felt his father get up from his seat and crouch down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “I didn’t mean for it to be so pressuring-”

“No. I-I’m not...That’s not why.” Taehui quickly rubbed his eyes, wanting any tears that were threatening to fall to disappear. “I’m just...fuck-”

“Hey, no cursing, kid.” The teasing tone in his dad’s voice made him smile while he chuckled, pulling his hands away from covering his eyes. 

“Give me time to think about it?”

“Of course!” Taehyung pulled him into a side-hug, “Just breathe, right now. Take as much time as you need, I’ll do some more research about it in the meantime. It’ll sound pretty nice for both son and father being CEOs of their own companies, huh?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Taehui rolled his eyes sarcastically, his mind trailing into the thought of the possibility of having his own company. 

2015. 

If you had told Taehui that he’d be leaving SM Entertainment, only to shortly create his own company to pursue his music career at the age of 20, he’d tell you you’re full of shit. If you had decided to throw in the fact that he’d be reaching the status of one of the better-known soloists in the industry, taking awards during some of the biggest award shows in South Korea’s music industry, he’d laugh his ass off. 

However, after he had decided to establish his own company, under the guide of his father, that’s exactly what happened. Taehui already had netizen’s attention with him re-debuting after leaving, and he used it to his advantage with the numerous releases he threw out during his debut in 2013. Each one had managed to garner more and more attention than the previous, showing the interest the general public had in him, and Taehui decided to use that to his advantage. 

Winning MNet’s award for best new artist helped solidify Taehui’s new status in the industry, and his ever-growing music show wins proved his power amongst the competition. 

As Taehui laid in the backyard of his house, his eyes focused on stars that were scattered along the night sky, a smile spread across his face. It had been 5 official years of him trying to make it in the industry, and Taehui felt like he was exactly where he wanted to be. 

He felt like he had everything he possibly wanted and even more.

Taehui simply felt something that had been chasing for a few years: happiness. 

2016. 

“I’m shocked you’ve decided to create your own groups,” Taehui’s father spoke as they both sat down in the restaurant for dinner, “Didn’t feel like that long ago you were crying over re-debuting yourself.”

“Dad.” Taehui’s cheeks heated up almost instantly, causing his father to let out a laugh. “I’m 26 now, I was a kid back-”

“Didn’t you just become an adult then?”

“You’re pure evil.” Taehui squinted his eyes, pointing at his chopsticks at his father’s direction, snorting as his father gasped dramatically. 

“The same evil that’s helped you get where you are, huh?”

“That exact type of evil.”

Both of the men laughed softly to themselves as they read over the menu, even though Taehui had already memorized all the entrees from coming here so many times with his dad. 

“So why the sudden interest in helping others debut under you?”

“Uh,” Taehui looked up through his eyelashes. “Not really sudden. I just...I’ve been thinking and I’ve been really grateful for everything that’s happened-”

“That you’ve worked tremendously hard for.”

“Yeah, of course, but still. If there’s a chance I can do the same for other people, why not? I’m sure not if I’m gonna fall flat on my face with this idea, but there’s always a possibility it’ll end well. Can you imagine that? Just creating a safe space for others too?”

A comfortable silence faded across the atmosphere, Taehyung nodding along to what his son had said. It was the truth. Taehui knew the stress he’s endured, and the scares he’s dealt with whilst being under a company that wasn’t his own. He knows how taxing it can be at first hand, how much it can weigh on someone to the point where giving up on a dream seems simpler. If Taehui can eliminate that for anyone looking to make it in the industry, he’d at least be willing to try. 

“Just...don’t forget about yourself. It’ll be great if you can pull this off successfully, however, living just to make others happy isn’t ideal. Make sure you stay happy too.”

“Yeah, of course-”

“Are you still going to therapy?”

Taehui grunted a response, his eyes faltering from the direction of his head. 

“Taehui.”

“Yes. I’m going.”

“It’s not something-”

“To be ashamed about, I know. It’s just...annoying sometimes.”

“It helps though, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“You haven’t thought about…”

“No, God no. I can’t even remember the last time I thought about that.”

“Good, good.” Taehui’s dad nodded, leaning forwards to take a sip out of his drink. His bluntness was always something Taehui wanted from him, just to say whatever was on his mind without hesitating. “Also...you got enough money to fund all these idols?”

“Yeah, of course! I have enough money planned and I’ve been talking to some of the people you’ve told me to, and I’ve been contacting some investors to see if they’d be willing to do anything in regards to that as well.”

“Great,” the teasing smile of his father’s face caused Taehui to roll his eyes dramatically, “just don’t come to me if everything fails.”

“Oh, please. You’d run over to help.”

“I’m not a billionaire-”

“Close to it.” 

“If you fail with this, I’ll have a job ready as my assistant.”

“The evil is back again!”

[professorsaber]

@knickynoo’s Back to the Future Challenge!

So, a few weeks ago @knickynoo posted these questions here.  It’s taken me a while, but here are answers to all of them!

1. Which film is your favorite in the trilogy and why?

Well, when I first saw the movies when I was a little kid (in 1997, I think), my favorite was Part II, because of the future portion. I would sometimes just watch until they left to return to 1985, rewind the tape, and watch that part again.

By the time I was in college, Part III was definitely my favorite. I think the romance aspect resonated with me at that age.

By the time the real 2015 came around, it became Part I. I’m not entirely sure why, though?  Maybe because of how well it stands on its own.

2. A favorite memory attached to the films

In 2000, my parents and I took a vacation to Los Angeles, and we stopped at Universal Studios. I got my picture taken with “Doc,” and I rode the ride at least three times. But I was kinda more interested in the props and memorabilia in the waiting rooms for the ride than the ride itself, as well as the names on the doors of the “offices” in the Institute of Future Technology. (Like Benjamin Franklin.)

Also, after having moved to Los Angeles late in 2014, I was actually in Courthouse Square on October 21, 2015. It was quite something. Though the buildings were different (The Courthouse facade is different, for one), it was still like actually being in Hill Valley.

Finally, I saw the 25th anniversary rerelease in 2010. It was amazing! I saw and heard things I never had before, like all the past due bills in Doc's garage, and the leaves rustling at the clocktower.

3. A scene that makes you smile/laugh/cheer and why

I always want to cheer at the scene in Part II when Marty burns the almanac and sees that his dad is alive again. Also works as an answer to the next question.

4. A scene that makes you emotional (sad, edge of your seat, etc.)

I get so emotional at the scene where Doc tells Clara he’s leaving her that I usually have to mute it because I can’t take it!

5. Who is your favorite secondary character?

I have to go with Jennifer Parker. I feel like there’s much more to her than we get to see. (Enough that in a fanfic that I’ve been working on [for like seven years now, so don’t get your hopes up] she sorta took over as the main character from Marty!) Also, what little we see of her and Marty in the first movie—like, it’s obvious that they’d still be together thirty years later, IMO.

6. A favorite quote/bit of dialogue

I have to go with “EAT LEAD, SLACKERS!” I crack up just thinking about it. Marty’s little “Augh!” as he runs away adds to it.

7. Things you would have liked explored or explained

This one was holding me up for a while, but I think that, after seeing so much of the McFlys and the Tannens, we need more of the Browns, Baineses, and Claytons. Especially the Baines family--even the extensions (see below) have no information on their background, AFAIK.

8. Any thoughts or opinions on the extensions of the film? (TellTale game/comics, etc.)

I’m not a video game player—the most recent system I have is an N64 I was given when it was new, in 1996—but I tried the Telltale game. I didn’t finish it, but I read the articles about it on the BTTF wiki and fell in love with the story anyway! I actually started incorporating bits into my fanfics.

The comics I liked enough, though I should note I never got around to Hard Time, Tales From The Time Train, or Biff to the Future. 3.5 of 5 stars, perhaps—though mostly because they conflict with my post-Part III headcanons and such! Still, I wish they were making new ones. (Also, I did a fic in 2009 called “The Other Time Traveler” about someone else who comes up with the flux capacitor, and it was interesting to see the same idea in the comics with Professor Irving.)

The animated series—I’ve never seen it. I’ve heard bad things, but all I’m going to say is that, from seeing screen grabs, I don’t like the art style. But, when I learned about the series as a kid, it had already gone off the air, so I scoured every video rental store in town to find a copy of any episode (there were some VHS releases). I couldn’t find them anywhere, and writing this almost makes me relive the disappointment!

Finally, though I’ve never read the whole thing, a copy of the Part III novelization is in my possession. I got it at a thrift store/antique store the first day I transferred to my university, and the lady there said she hoped it would be good luck, since it was my favorite of the three at the time.

I’m going to tag anyone who’s interested, assuming everyone hasn’t done this already!

[odanurr87]

My thoughts on... Mirror’s Edge

Released by EA in 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360, and 2009 for PC, Mirror's Edge tells the story of Faith, a Runner who relies on her honed parkour skills to run errands for her clients, people who'd rather keep their deals hidden from the preying eyes of the ruling elite of this totalitarian world. The City Protection Force (CPF), the city’s equivalent to a police force, tends to ignore these Runners as the two parties have an unspoken agreement to stay out of each other's way, but everything changes when Faith's sister and one of CPF’s own, Kate, is framed for the murder of Robert Pope, a friend of their father's and running candidate against the current Mayor Callaghan. So starts an adrenaline-packed ride to find out who framed Kate and why, with CPF and other private security firms hot on Faith's tail.

While a fairly standard setup, so much so you’ve probably already figured out all the twists and turns of the plot from my short description, it could’ve been executed better, or tighter, than it was. By the time you finish playing and look back on it, the plot's many inconsistencies become apparent, in particular its single-minded obsession with framing Kate, going so far as to keep her alive throughout the entire game. I get it, Faith needs a motivation, you need a motivation, and a dead sister is probably not a very good one, but it makes little sense that the bad guys wouldn't have gotten rid of her as soon as she served her purpose. The first thing that occurred to me the moment Faith met up with her sister at the beginning was, "This is an ideal situation to set up Faith as the fall gal and accuse Kate of trying to help Faith through her connections in the CPF." Indeed, given the "evil master plan" revealed later in the game, it would've been the better plan. Alas, the bad guys are not as good as Faith at improvising, nor are the writers apparently. The introduction of the Pursuit Cops later in the game also doesn't add up plot-wise, to my mind, for unless they trained in the field, and by field I mean on the city's rooftops, like Faith and the other Runners (and if they had I'm certain the Runner community would've known about it), there's no way in hell they'd be nearly as good as Faith, yet they are, what leads me to gameplay.

This is what Mirror’s Edge is really all about.

You could easily make the case that I suck at melee combat, in this game anyway, because Faith was made out of glass (ironically) every time I encountered an enemy. I remember having an easier time of it in Catalyst; Faith was certainly not a tank but she could pull more moves to neutralize her opponents and far more smoothly. Maybe it helped that you didn't have people wearing full body armor firing machine guns at you. I never used a gun in Catalyst, but I practically turned this game into Battlefield: Faith, what's not easy seeing as shooting, while functional, is as bare-bones as can be. This at least makes sense from a narrative standpoint, as Faith is a Runner, not a soldier, but what a fine soldier did I turn her into! Perhaps combat's worst sin for me was how it interrupted the flow.

As in Catalyst, the sensation you get from running and jumping and parkouring is the franchise's strongest selling point, especially when you nail every jump, roll smoothly every time, and find the fastest route to your destination. The usual appearance of enemies coupled with the linearity of the levels hindered the flow more often than not. Catalyst fixed this, in my opinion, by making the world larger and Faith a better fighter. However, its open-world nature ironically amplified the "beautiful emptiness" of the original, highlighting the absence of people, both Runners and others, in their day to day life. While I noticed this during my playthrough, the levels are usually short enough that you don't give it a lot of thought. Indeed, it took me around 8 hours to complete, though I'm missing around half the Runners’ bags.

Another strength of the franchise that I have failed to mention is how damned gorgeous the game looks, and it's more than a decade old! You could argue it looks as good or even better than Catalyst at times, and Catalyst looks fantastic! Everything from the architecture, through the colours and textures, to the lighting, feels real, hyper-real perhaps, according to the above video that explains how and why Mirror's Edge is able to retain its good looks, comparing it to similar games released in that year, as well as Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. I thoroughly recommend you give it a watch. Some character models, like Faith and Kate, could've been better, while others, like Celeste, actually look pretty great. In this context, the choice to complement the game's hyper-realistic visuals with animated cutscenes may seem odd or even wrong for some, but I think it was the right one given the limitations at the time and I enjoyed the animation style. It’s a shame they didn't follow it up with a short animated movie.

If I didn't mention at this point the franchise's great soundtrack by Solar Fields, I'd be doing them a disservice, as it complements the game's aesthetic to great effect, and these guys doubled down with Catalyst, releasing a soundtrack that's over 5 hours long! "Still Alive," the game's main theme, sang by Lisa Miskovsky, is just perfect, and it's still number one in my heart above CHVRCHES' "Warning Call." I mean, just listen to the bloody thing...

I tend to favour story over gameplay in most of my games, meaning I can get through some bad or just plain gameplay loop if the story's captivating enough. However, Mirror's Edge is one of those rare games where I appreciated the core gameplay loop in spite of a rather lackluster story. When you're running and jumping through the city's rooftops, pushing the boundaries of your freedom, becoming one with the flow and the music, that's when Mirror's Edge truly shines. But those moments exist, as Faith puts it, "on the edge between the gloss and the reality - The Mirror's Edge." Maybe that's the way it should be.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 14: Battle of Gods

“Battle of Gods” premiered on March 30, 2013, seventeen years after “The Path to Power.”   Apparently Toei changed up their logo a bit during that time.

Anyway, this movie, wait, what?    Are we watching Star Wars now?  

Yes, we know Toei made this, why are they credited again?

And what’s this thing for?   I mean, they could have put this at the start of any of these movies, but why do it now?  

The way I heard it, this movie got made because 20th Century Fox had the rights to make a Dragon Ball movie in the U.S., and then they made Dragon Ball Evolution in 2009, and it... did not impress anyone.   At all.    I remember thinking it was okay, but that’s about as much enthusiasm as I could muster for it.    Anyway, the story goes that Toriyama decided that he didn’t care much for DBE, and decided to come out of retirement to make his own Dragon Ball movie and show all the big shots at Fox how it’s done.   Well, maybe I just assumed this.   It makes a good story, doesn’t it?  

The theatrical release was 85 minutes long, but the home video version got an extra twenty-minutes of footage, which includes this rather lengthy introduction to the story, recapping Goku’s past adventures.   I don’t think the movie particularly needed this, although I am grateful that they found a way to cram Cell into it.

Then we get to the actual start, where the Kaioshin have observed that Beerus the Destroyer has awakened from his slumber.

Kibitoshin contacts King Kai to keep an eye on the situation, and to keep Goku out of it at all costs.   

But Goku is on King Kai’s planet, and he overhears their discussion, and King Kai can’t keep a secret, apparently, so he just tells Goku the whole thing.   So far, all the gods we’ve seen in Dragon Ball are responsible for creating and preserving life, like the Kais and Kaioshin.   Beerus, on the other hand, is a Hakaioshin, or God of Destruction, and it’s his role to destroy stuff from time to time, in order to maintain balance in the universe.   And unlike all the Kais, Beerus actually has immense power worthy of his authority.

And naturally Goku wants to see how strong he is, even though King Kai keeps insisting that he’s not someone Goku needs to mess with.  

And there’s the title of this here picture.

We then go to Beerus’, uh... planet?  Whatever this thing would be called.    It reminds me of Tokimi’s domain in Tenchi Muyo!

And here’s Beerus.   He’s a big purple cat dude, and he’s pretty awesome.   I’m not sure how long he normally sleeps, but he set his alarm to wake him up after 39 years, and everyone comments that this is a very short nap by his standards.   Also, Beerus’ alarm clock is made of bombs, because Dragon Ball Z.   

This is regarded as one of the best, if not the best Dragon Ball film, and it’s tough to argue the point.   In 2013-2014, it was a big heckin’ deal because it was the big return of Dragon Ball after the end of Dragon Ball GT in 1997.   From 2015 onwards, it became known as the ground floor of a whole new Dragon Ball franchise, Dragon Ball Super.   But even without the hype and nostalgia, what puts it ahead of the other movies is the simple fact that it works within the canon of the original manga.   It’s set during the ten year gap in the Kid Buu Saga, and it actually adds to the lore of the main story.     Movies 5 and 8 introduced characters with connections to the main story in Cooler and Broly, but they barely tried to explain what those characters had been doing while all the stuff with Frieza was going on.  

By contrast, Movie 14 introduces a new deity, and he claims at least partial responsibility for destroying Planet Vegeta.   That’s a huge deal, and it’s not something that Turles or Bojack could ever do.   According to Beerus, he believed the Saiyans were beyond redemption, so he planned to destroy their planet, but it was too far away for him to bother with, so he told Frieza to do it for him.   At the same time, Beerus found Frieza to be quite insufferable as well, so he considers destroying him as well, but then his attendant Whis tells him that someone named Goku already beat him to it.   

When Whis explains that Goku beat Frieza by becoming a Super Saiyan, it reminds Beerus of a dream he had about something he calls a “Super Saiyan God”.    See, before he took his 39-year nap, Beerus was told that he would meet an arch-rival.   That’s why he set his alarm bombs for this year, because this is supposed to be when it happens.   Apparently during his nap, he had a dream of his own, that he would fight a Super Saiyan God.

Whis doesn’t put much stock in any of this, especially since the Oracle Fish who made the prophecy doesn’t seem to recall saying it, but Beerus insists on investigating, so Whis locates the remaining Saiyans on Earth.   He then notices Goku is on King Kai’s planet, so they decide to head there first.

Meanwhile, on Earth, it’s Bulma’s birthday.   She won’t say how old she is, but this movie is set in Age 778, four years after the fight with Majin Buu, and she was born in Age 733, so she’s 45 in this movie.   

There’s a bit where Mr. Satan apparently meets Bulma’s father for the first time and mistakes him for a waiter.   Ox King has to explain who Dr. Brief is, and Mr. Satan is mortified to learn that he just asked the world’s richest man to fetch him a drink.    Dr. Brief doesn’t seem to mind much.

There’s a bingo tournament at the party, and the prizes include stuff like an entire castle.   Bulma offers to liquidate prizes into cash if the winners prefer that.   I dig how 18 really, really wants some sweet castle money. 

On King Kai’s planet, Beerus and Whis arrive and have a somewhat awkward conversation with Goku, who knows nothing about “Super Saiyan God.”  Beerus decides to head for Earth to ask the other Saiyans there, but before he goes, Goku asks him to demonstrate some of his awesome power with a quick sparring match.    Beerus is intrigued by the request, so he agrees.

So Goku powers up to Super Saiyan 3, but he can’t even touch Beerus, or make him take the battle seriously.  

Really, this is my favorite part of the movie, because I dig me some Super Saiyan 3, and this movie just demolishes the whole concept of SSJ3 with the way Beerus humiliates Goku in this form.    It’s incredibly strong, as seen when Goku misses a punch and blasts a hole through King Kai’s planet, but against Beerus, SSJ3 is meaningless.   

Beerus only uses two blows to beat Goku.   The first is a playful flick of the finger in Goku’s face, and the second is a light chop to the neck.   Goku goes down like a ton of bricks, and Beerus proceeds on his merry way to Earth.

Now, you might be wondering how King Kai even has a planet, since Cell destroyed it way back in Episode 188.   Beerus and Whis briefly mention that it was restored, but they don’t say how it happened.    Neither does anyone mention that King Kai and Bubbles are still dead.   This is a running gag through Dragon Ball Super, where Goku keeps promising to wish King Kai back to life but never gets around to it.    I could have sworn King Kai was alive in Movie 14, but I must have been mistaken, unless Toei edited all these halos in after the fact.

By the way, Whis also mentions that King Kai’s planet is so small because Beerus got angry once and did something to make it this size.    I don’t know if he destroyed most of the planet’s mass, or some other thing.    At some point, it got established that Beerus was the one who trapped the Elder Kai in the Z-Sword, but that seems out of character as well.     Beerus destroys stuff.    Shrinking planets and sealing people in swords really isn’t his style.   

As for King Kai, he telepathically contacts Vegeta to warn him of Beerus’ impending arrival.   He makes it clear that Goku was no match for Beerus, and if anyone upsets Beerus, he might decide to destroy the Earth in his anger.  

Meanwhile, Goku struggles to make sense of what just happened.    He’s thrilled to have encountered someone so powerful, but he has no idea whether Super Saiyan God is a new form, or a person named “God” who happens to be an unknown Saiyan.   He also briefly considers fusing with Vegeta to beat Beerus, but then decides that not even Gogeta could close the gap in their powers.   

Luckily, Goku had some senzu beans in his belt, and Bubbles fishes one out and feeds it to him.   But that only restores Goku’s health.    He still doesn’t have an answer to the problem of Beerus.

So it’s up to Vegeta, who finally puts in an appearance at Bulma’s party.   She teases him, but he’s in no mood for jokes, because he feels like he remembers Beerus from somewhere, and he doesn’t know where.

So Bulma’s like, whatever, imma get my drink on.   

Then Beerus calls out to Vegeta, and Vegeta doesn’t know where he is.    One of the conceits of this movie is that Beerus’ power doesn’t operate on the ki used by most of the main characters.    So Goku and Vegeta can’t sense Beerus and Whis’ presence the way they can sense one another.   Supposedly, all deities are like this, except Kami and Dende had ordinary ki, and so did King Kai, because Goku was always able to find him for instant transmission.    The Supreme Kai is a different story, I guess, but Goku threatened to teleport to him at the beginning of this movie, implying that he could sense his presence and use Instant Transmission to reach him.    

Anyway, Vegeta searches a trash can for Beerus, since yeah, I guess he could be in there.

Oh, Krillin, you have no idea.    One of the major qualities that makes this movie a fan favorite is all the dumb stuff Vegeta does in this one.   

At last, Vegeta finds Beerus, and he remembers the time they visited Planet Vegeta when he was a child.    His father, King Vegeta, prepared a banquet for him, and spent the whole meal as a footstool.  

Personally, I never liked this scene much.   I think they just needed a way for Vegeta to have already met Beerus in the past, and this works well enough, except having Beerus humiliate King Vegeta seems rather redundant.    King Vegeta was already a vassal to Frieza, so having a second character treat him this way just feels hollow.  

Beerus asks Vegeta about the Super Saiyan God, but he doesn’t know anything about it either.   That might have been enough to get them to leave, except Bulma’s party attracts his attention, and he loves the smell of the food, and then Bulma herself walks over and invites Beerus and Whis to join them, much to Vegeta’s chagrin.

For what it’s worth, Beerus conducts himself with grace and manners at the party.    He puts up with Piccolo’s karaoke...

...enjoys the cuisine and the view of Yamcha’s handsome face...

...and he shows everyone his awesome dance moves.

Vegeta gets nervous when Mr. Satan drunkenly challenges him to a fight, but then he passes out and Beerus has a laugh over it, so he clearly didn’t take it seriously.

Meanwhile, Emperor Pilaf is sneaking around inside Bulma’s house.   So here’s the deal: these three never stopped trying to get the Dragon Balls to achieve world domination, and apparently at some point they succeeded, only for Pilaf to wish for restored youth instead.     Mai complains that they were made too young, but Pilaf’s reasoning is that it wouldn’t do for them to wish for world domination and then die of old age immediately after.  

I feel like this is some sort of shot at Dragon Ball GT, where the Pilaf Gang appears in the first episode and they’re very elderly.    But maybe I’m reading too much into that.    At any rate, Pilaf is young, but he’s also poor, so he plans to use their next Dragon Ball wish to get some cash, and then they can wish to rule the world.   Does he know that the Dragon grants more than one wish at a time now?    I feel like Toriyama might have forgotten that in 2013, honestly.

Somehow, Pilaf has a Dragon Radar, and that’s how he knows all seven Dragon Balls are in Bulma’s house.   Turns out they’re the grand prize of the bingo tournament, and so they’re located in the prize room.   How did Bulma fit an entire castle inside one room of her house?  

Overcome with envy, Pilaf spray paints graffitti on the prizes.    Yeah, DX Rulz!

They find the Balls, but can’t risk summoning Shenron indoors.   Then Trunks walks in on them, and then Goten shows up, and they panic, because they mistake Goten for Goku, their old nemesis.  

This screencap should be in the Smithsonian or something.   

Mai was trying to steal one of the other prizes, a valuable diamond, but she hands it back to Trunks before running away.  

Goten asks who those guys were, Trunks says Mai is his girlfriend, which impresses Goten to no end.    “So awesome!”   I like that there’s at least some effort to try to age up the boys.    Goten doesn’t look too different, but his dad was pretty short at twelve, and he’s only eleven here.    Meanwhile, Trunks should be almost the same age as Future Trunks was when he found Future Gohan’s dead body.  

Anyway, Mai only gave Trunks the diamond to cover her theft of one of the Dragon Balls.    Her plan is to hold it for ransom, say one million dollars.    But the diamond was probably worth a lot more than that.  

But before they can make their escape, Trunks invites them to join the party because Bulma wants to meet his new girlfriend.   Pilaf thinks it’s him.  Mai isn’t too keen on pretending to be Trunks’ date, but at least they get free food out of this.   

Back on King Kai’s planet, Goku films more segments for Jackass.   He always forgets to bring a camera, but it’s the thought that counts.

Then Bulma tries to start the bingo tournament, but Yamcha points out that one of the Dragon Balls is missing, which screws up her grand prize.   

Pilaf gets caught sneaking the seventh ball, so Mai tries to use Trunks as a hostage.    Except everyone thinks it’s a skit, either because Trunks is impervious to bullets, or because no one thinks Mai would have a real gun.

Then Gohan decides to join in, so he switches to his Great Saiyaman outfit and dares Mai to shoot him in the face.    What the fuck?

So she does it, and Gohan deflects the bullets.    He’s irked that Mai’s gun is real, and even more irked when he realizes he deflected one of the bullets into his wife’s leg.     Imagine going to a party like this and getting shot.   I guess this is why they stopped inviting Launch to these things. 

Oh, and then Master Roshi wants to feel Videl up.    She got shot, you asshole!   Master Roshi belongs in jail.    Seriously, imagine you’re Mr. Satan, and you just watched your daughter get shot, and some sex pest shows up and he’s all “Lemme give her mouth-to-mouth eh-heh-heh-heh-heh!”     This whole part of the movie hasn’t aged well, at least for me.  

I guess it didn’t bother me so much the first time I saw it because I knew Dende could just heal her, but that doesn’t make this okay.    Someone informs Mr. Satan that Dende is Kami, and he’s all like “What?  Really?”    I guess he just forgot that day they hung out together stalking Super Buu on the deserted planet Earth.  

Anyway, Dende somehow detects that Videl is pregnant while he heals her leg.   He seems kind of concerned about this, like he doesn’t know what that means.   “Ma’am, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think you have a parasite.”   “No, that’s a baby, it’s cool, I put it there.”   “Look, I didn’t come here to listen to you brag about your sex life.”

Oh, also one of the bullets hit Beerus, which irritates him enough that he decides to blow up the world...

Until Vegeta jumps on stage and performs his epic Bingo song and dance number.   How did he get the music cued up? 

Watching Vegeta make an ass of himself is enough to calm Beerus down, so Vegeta thinks he might be safe for a little longer.

Meanwhile, Piccolo loses at Bingo and Bee eats his card.    What a good boy.   Well, without any pesky litter to annoy Beerus, it looks like Vegeta is home free.   Wait, why is “Roundabout” by Yes playing?   

Ohhhhhhhhhh.

Oh no...

Oh, he won’t share his pudding because he doesn’t know this guy can kill everybody that’s bad.

So this leads to Buu throwing down with Beerus, and Beerus can kick his ass easily, but the point is that he’s mad enough to destroy the world, and this time no amount of singing and dancing is going to calm him down.

Everyone tries to stop Beerus, but he just schools them all with chopsticks.  

Gohan gets Beerus in a full nelson for like 0.2 seconds, but it doesn’t get him very far.   Why did Gohan change clothes again for this?   

So Vegeta figures we’re all screwed now anyway, so he jumps into the fray.  

It goes about as well as you’d expect.    To be fair, he lasts longer than Goku did.   

Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, who tries to shame Beerus over his motives.   He’s going to destroy the whole world over pudding?   I’ve probably said this before, but when Gotenks thinks you’re being immature, it’s probably time to take a step back and think about your choices.

Beerus replies that he’s upset about pudding because he’s never had it before, and now he can never taste it because some pink asshole ate it all.   Gotenks doesn’t understand his frustration because he probably eats pudding all the time.    This scene is dumb, but it actually captures the core point of this conflict.    Beerus savors all these new experiences because he’s like a kajillion years old, and it’s hard for him to find something truly novel in life.   So when he’s denied the taste of pudding, it’s a huge deal to him, while the other characters take it for granted.

Then he spanks Gotenks and tosses him to the ground.

You know, the funny thing about it is that I really have no idea what kind of pudding we’re talking about here.    The term covers so many different types of food.   I assume this is about Jello instant pudding, specifically French Vanilla flavor.   So yeah, of course Beerus should be angry about that.   French Vanilla Jello pudding rules, and he doesn’t even know it.   But for all I know, Buu was eating a bunch of flan, Panna cotta, or haggis.   In which case, yeah, Beerus probably shouldn’t be this worked up about it.  

Anyway, nobody can stop this dude, and Vegeta’s amazed by just how much stronger Beerus is.    He at least takes some solace in the honor of being killed by no less than the God of Destruction.   

But then Bulma confronts him and tells him to cut out all this shit, because he’s ruining her 38th birthday party.    Krillin’s pleased to hear how old Bulma is, but that’s dumb, because he ought to know Bulma’s older than he is.

Anyway, she slaps Beerus, who slaps her back and knocks her down, and Vegeta loses his shit.   This is the famous “MY BULMAAAAAA” scene.    It’s weird to me, but I remember what a big deal this was at the time, and yet now it feels sort of mundane.    Like, I first watched this movie in late 2013, on some kind of bootleg fansub, and I think the scene had gotten around in the U.S.   But even by the time it came to theaters in 2014, the audience went apeshit when this happened.    Vegeta loves his wife!   Now it’s like, of course he loves his wife.   Movie 14 said so.    But at the time, when Movie 14 was brand new, this was the sort of thing Vegebul shippers could only appreciate in theory.    

Don’t get me wrong, this part fucking rules.   Everyone’s been tiptoeing around Beerus this whole time, but Vegeta’s been pushed too far, and he’s got nothing to lose, and for a brief moment, it looks like Beerus is getting a taste of his own medicine.   

Then we see this lady, for no apparent reason.  This is Kaori Mutsumoto, who won the 2012 Olympics Gold Medal for judo.    I guess that’s why they gave her a cameo in this movie, but that’s about all I know.  

Anyway, none of Vegeta’s furious offense hurts Beerus at all, even though Master Roshi observes that he surpassed Goku in power.   Beerus boops him on the forehead and knocks him out.  

In the theatrical cut, this is when Goku would show himself, but in the extended version, Beerus decides to give the Earth one more chance by challenging Oolon to a game of rock-paper-scissors.    I really don’t know what the point of this was.   I mean, it’s kind of funny, I guess, but why Oolong specifically?    I guess Toriyama wanted to give Oolong a moment in the film, but why?   He was in most of the Buu Saga, holed up on Kami’s Lookout with the others until Super Buu ate him, but he barely said or did anything the entire time.    Why should anyone care about him now?    Why should Beerus single him out, of all people?  

Anyway, the gag here is that Yamcha thinks Beerus picked Oolong because he’s a pig, and pigs can only do scissors because of their cloven hooves.   But Oolong’s a pig-man, with man hands, so he can do paper and rock too.    So Yamcha tells him that Beerus will certainly go with rock, so Oolong should use paper to counter.   

Except Beerus overhears the entire conversation, because his ears are bigger than his entire head, so he does scissors and wins.    Dragon Ball Super turned this bit into half of an entire episode.    The Beerus Saga in Dragon Ball Super is fucking vile.    They took a great movie like this and just turned it into crap.

All right, so now Goku makes his big entrance.   At first he looks all cool, like when he walked up to Frieza back on Namek, but the truth is he still has no idea how to beat Beerus.     Then he gets an idea on how to get a Super Saiyan God, and asks Beerus for time to try it out.   

Said idea is the Dragon Balls.   Is that Farmer with Shotgun?  He’d settle Beerus’ hash.

Basically, Goku asks Shenron about the Super Saiyan God, and this throws him off, because Shenron grants wishes, and answering questions is kind of a grey area for him.  Fortunately, he’s so frightened to see Beerus that he’s very accomodating and just explains the whole Super Saiyan God concept in detail.  

So real quick, because this post is taking forever: The Super Saiyan God isn’t an individual deity, but a transformation once used by righteous Saiyans to rebel against their evil brethren.     The figure seen while Shenron tells this story was later identified by Akira Toriyama as Yamoshi, the first Super Saiyan.   He and his five Saiyan allies fought against the evil Saiyans, and I guess they turned him into this God form, which let him whoop-ass until he ran out of power.   

With that settled, Shenron excuses himself, mostly out of fear of Beerus.   I’d say that Shenron owes Goku a second and third wish, but I’m not sure answering his question counted as a first wish, so who knows?

So this leads to the gang arguing over whether they have five righteous Saiyans, since Vegeta used to be a real dick, and Goku’s not always dependable either, and Goten once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.    But they figure they might as well give it a shot, and they all hold hands and lend their power to Goku.   Only it doesn’t work.   Goku gets stronger, but nowhere near strong enough to beat Beerus, and there’s nothing divine about his power-up.

But Whis points out that they actually need six Saiyans, since Shenron’s story states that it took five righteous Saiyans to help a sixth one achieve the form.    Bulma remembers Vegeta’s brother, Tarble, from the “Yo!  Son Goku and His Friends Return” special, which aired in 2007 and was set about two years before this movie.    Only Vegeta doesn’t even know where Tarble lives or how to contact him.   Couldn’t Whis track him down?    I mean, he found all of these guys easily enough.

Then Videl suggests that they have a sixth Saiyan right here, because Gohan got her pregnant.  

Everyone flips out, but this is hardly the time to celebrate, because Beerus is about to blow up the world.   So they do the hand-holdin’ thing again, but with Videl.

And it works.    Like Beerus and Whis, no one can sense Goku’s ki anymore, and he’s got maroon hair and his body is lankier than before.

So Beerus and Goku fight.   Honestly the Super Saiyan God form doesn’t seem like such a big deal, since this part of the fight is just the warm up.    It takes Goku a while to get used to using it, and they spend most of that time discussing how Goku is dissatisfied with how he got to this level.    He doesn’t like that he needed the others to help him achieve this form.   Beerus scolds his stubborn pride, and says that most Saiyans wouldn’t care about such details, because all they crave is power, by any means.   

But Goku points out that Vegeta is even prouder than he is, and yet Vegeta forsook his pride to protect the others, back when he did the bingo song and all of that stuff.   This tells us two things.   First, Goku was there to witness all of that.   Second, Beerus was fully aware of Vegeta’s efforts to keep him from becoming angry.    I’d suggest that Beerus isn’t quite as irritable and volatile as he seems.  Maybe he purposely goaded Vegeta to test him, just like how he hit Bulma just to see if it might provoke Vegeta into reaching a higher power level.  

The point, though, is that for all of Vegeta’s pride, he could set it aside for the bigger picture.   He can compromise for the sake of protecting his loved ones and the Earth.    Goku’s the same way, which is why he accepted the other’s help in becoming a Super Saiyan God.   He doesn’t like how he got here, but he couldn’t afford to try to go it alone.  

And really, this is a lesson Goku’s learned time and again.     He had to accept teachers before in his life: Grandpa Gohan, Master Roshi, Korin, Mr. Popo, King Kai, and now this.   But it’s been a long time since he had to take lessons from anyone, and maybe that’s the problem.   Goku’s been on top for so long that he lost sight of something he understood better as a child.   A student has to swallow their pride to learn and grow.    And Goku will always be a student, because he’s constantly trying to improve himself and push past his limits.     Like it or not, he had to accept this path to the God form.

Meanwhile, the rest of the characters get in an aircraft to observe the battle, and Whis asks 18 what ice cream is.    He remarks that her response is as cold as his dessert, which he thinks is a clever bon mot.   Look, your boss is going to blow up the world.    How friendly can you expect her to be here?

Also, Vegeta admits to Krillin that he doesn’t envy Goku like he ususally does in these situations.    I like this, because it shows that Vegeta is willing to drop his usual bravado in this situation.    This isn’t a fun situation, and he knows it.  

Anyway, Goku and Beerus keep fighting, but somehow Goku loses his Nacho Cheese Dorito appearance.  He looks like he’s changed back to normal, and yet he’s still fighting Beerus as if nothing’s happened.    He can even use Instant Transmission, which would have been nearly useless against Beerus before, because Goku couldn’t sense him.    I assume that Super Saiyan God Goku could sense godly ki, so the fact that he can still sense it must mean that he’s still tapping into the SSG power, even if he doesn’t look like it.

Then he turns vanilla Super Saiyan, and now the fight gets really good, because the insert song plays.  It’s “Hero” by FLOW.   The weird thing is that they recorded an English version of the song for the dub, but when I watched the Japanese version on the DVD, the song is still in English.    Weird.    Fortunately, I have the Japanese version of “Hero” on my phone, so I can listen to that all the time.   

Anyway, yeeeeahhhhh.    Fuck Yamoshi, Goku’s gonna do this Luffa-style and fight Beerus as a Super Saiyan 1.   

Then they fight IN SPACE because anime.    Earlier, Beerus used hand energy on Goku, so Goku figures he’ll respond in kind, using the best hand energy.

WARP KAMEHAMEHA!    Cell may not get to be in this movie, but Goku uses the move that blew his face off!    Yee-haw!

But it doesn’t work, and Beerus chucks one of those big energy balls at Goku, like all the other bad guys use.   He also points out to Goku that his God power expired several minutes ago.

Then Goku sees Chi-Chi in his thoughts, and that gives him the intestinal fortitude to somehow change back into a Super Saiyan God and nullify Beerus’ energy ball.    Chi-Chi’s that good in bed, folks.

So Beerus is truly impressed by Goku’s performance.   Somehow, his body learned the Super Saiyan God form, and allowed Goku to tap into that power without doing the hand-holding ceremony with five other Saiyans.   Beerus calls him a fighting genius for this, although maybe Yamoshi and any other SSG’s had the same talent, and they just got killed before they could demonstrate it.  

In any case, it’s still not enough to win Goku this fight.    Beerus wants to hear him surrender, and Goku admits defeat.    Beerus had offered to spare the Earth if Goku won, but Goku just can’t beat him, even with the God power.   And Beerus refuses to back out of that stipulation, because once he makes up his mind, he sticks to it.  

Instead, Beerus gives Goku a different consolation prize by revealing that Whis is actually Beerus’ teacher, and he’s even stronger than Beerus is.   So it just goes to show that even Gods of Destruction have to swallow their pride and accept help to grow.  

He also informs Goku that their universe is merely the seventh of twelve, which means that Whis isn’t even the strongest being out there.   This fascinates Goku to no end, because he always longs to meet stronger folks.  

Then they head back to the surface, and Beerus destroys Earth just as he said, only he just destroys a small piece of it, which I guess counts for something.   I don’t know if this is a play on “Earth the planet” versus “earth the dirt”, or something else.    Beerus says he’s too worn out from the fight to destroy the whole thing, so maybe that’s all it is.

Anyway, Beerus apologizes to Bulma for making a scene at her party, and for hitting her.    She agrees to invite them to her next party, and promises to have a swimming pool full of pudding for him.    That sounds kind of gross, actually.   

On the Supreme Kai Planet, the Kaioshin observe Beerus’ peaceful departure, and are amazed that Goku was able to defuse that situation without Beerus destroying them all.   Kibitoshin suggests that maybe it’s not just Goku’s character, but the entire Dragon Team as well.    Not Roshi, though, he’s a sex pest who belongs in jail.    If Beerus had boobs we’d all be dead right now.  

Back on his own turf, Beerus is pleased with how things turned out.   Goku and Vegeta weren’t really strong enough to be true arch-rivals, but Beerus is certain that they could eventually become arch-rivals in time, which is good enough for him.

Beerus plans to take a three-year nap, but Whis offers him some sushi that he got in a to-go box before they left.   Beerus takes an interest in the glob of wasabi in the box, and he just eats the whole thing.

That makes him bounce around the place like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, and Whis has to hit him to stop him from damaging any nearby planets.    So we get at least a glimpse into Whis’ true strength, which is as far beyond Beerus as Beerus is beyond Goku.

Back on Earth, the party just keeps on going.    I like the idea of Bulma just throwing a marathon party, but I can’t really say I’d enjoy that personally.   I’d probably get bored after 15 minutes.

During this quiet moment, Goku praises Vegeta for turning into “an awesome Super Saiyan” after Bulma got hit.   

Vegeta’s embarassed by this, but Goku admits that he definitely surpassed him in that moment.   Then he jokes that the next time they have to fight a guy, Goku will just get the enemy to hit Bulma, and that’ll get Vegeta good and fired up.

Then everyone’s mad at Goku, because he must have been watching them get beat up during the middle of the movie and didn’t step in until later.   It ain’t easy being Goku.

Then the credits roll, and they show all the highlights from the manga, including this shot of Cell, which is the best one.   

And yeah, that’s it.   

I mean, it’s definitely one of the best movies of the lot.    It’s a lot longer than most of the other films, and it feels more like an actual, stand-alone film.    The Cooler movies really depend on you being familiar with a lot of DBZ lore, like Bardock, Frieza, the destruction of Planet Vegeta, and so on.     This movie takes care to actually introduce most of the concepts it uses.    The Kai’s introduce Beerus, Beerus and Whis introduce Saiyans and Super Saiyans, and Shenron explains what a Super Saiyan God is.    It’s not entirely airtight-- no one really bothers to explain the Kais, or why Bulma invited bit players like Ox King and Mr. Satan to her party, but you can at least muddle through.   

My main critique is that it’s a little too devoted to fanservice.   Not the pervy kind, but the kind where they felt like they had to have Gotenks and Great Saiyaman in the movie, just for the sake of having them put in an appearance.    Most of the characters just didn’t need to be there, and I think the movie drags in places when it tries to give Oolong or Mr. Satan something to contribute.    There’s something to be said for the minimalist approach used in the DBS: Broly movie, where the only Dragon Team guys are Goku, Vegeta, and Bulma.    Yeah, it kind of sucks that Gohan doesn’t get to be in that one, but if they didn’t have anything for him to do, then I’d rather leave him out entirely than have him just stand around like he did for most of this movie.   

I remember being kind of bewildered by the way they went to all the trouble of introducing a new form for Goku, only to have him get stronger when he stopped using it, but now that we’ve learned more about the godly ki stuff from Movie 15 and the back half of Dragon Ball Super, it makes a little more sense.   Nacho Cheese Dorito Goku was just the door, and this movie was about Goku stepping through it.  

Rewatching “Battle of Gods”, I don’t feel quite as hyped as I did when it first came out.    I remember being pretty excited about Goku fighting this purple cat dude, and I never dreamed that he’d lose so badly, or that Beerus would turn out to be an okay dude in the end.    It was a big deal that they brought all of this stuff back after so many years.   

Now, though, it’s just become part of the DBZ mythos, which kind of diminishes it somehow.    It’s definitely not as good as Fusion Reborn, at least for me.   I was looking forward to watching Movie 12 again way back in July, and when I did get to that one, I ended up rewatching large sections of it a few times.   I just love that movie.    Same thing with Movie 13.   I only watched that one the one time, but the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking “Man, this is so good.”    BoG is a great movie, but it’s just not on the same level as those others.    Just my opinion, of course.   

Nevertheless, you’ve got a really awesome trilogy of movies here, which serves as a nice make-good for the crap trilogy of Bojack and the Broly sequels.    And after that, you’ve got Movie 15, and well... 

[deuterium51614]

I put more effort into this than some essays I’ve done for school/college

There are two confirmed dates we know in the Boueibu timeline.

In LOVE LOVE, March 13th is on a Friday. (Shown on Kinshirou’s omen calendar.)

In Happy Kiss, August 31st is on a Friday 10 years later. (Shown on Rashio’s calendar and a wall calendar in the Kurotama.)

In Robihachi, we know the moon landing happened on July 18, 1969 (in real life it was July 20th), which was marked as Galaxy Century 0001. The current timeline is happening in GC 0051, so sometime after July 18, 2019 (unless the GC is added to on New Year’s, but I’ll get to that).

Let’s start off with when Boueibu can’t take place. (The main timeline, at least. Flashbacks are possible.)

The 70s. The only March 13th that’s on a Friday is in 1970. This would put all of LOVE in 1969, and Happy Kiss in 1979. We know the beginning of LOVE takes place pre-July, so this wouldn’t work because it’s before the first contact. There’s also the case of all the flashbacks – Goura being a hero, the Beppu’s father’s job… Aliens had definitely made contact, so none of that could’ve taken place in the 60s.

The 00s. While March 13, 2009 is on a Friday, it would mean Happy Kiss takes place in 2018. The technology in Robihachi seems too advanced for it to take place the year after Happy Kiss, unless Binan went untouched by the technological advances shown in Neo-Tokyo. Plus, Boueibu LOVE and LOVE LOVE merch and posters were shown on a planet that loves mainly retro anime. It was most likely CIDER rebranded as Boueibu. The 00s is too recent to be retro.

So, there are three possibilities for where Boueibu fits in:

LOVE – 1980-81, HK – 1990

LOVE – 1991-92, HK – 2001

LOVE – 1997-98, HK – 2007

As of now, we can only speculate which option is correct. Under the cut, I’ll explain which of the options I think it is, and why.

We may be able to narrow it down further based on the events that Atsushi asks En if he’s thinking about:

The tax increase – L

The Olympics – L, LL, and LLL

The constitution – LL

Chikuwabu – LL

Toyosu – LLL

Trump - LLL

Chikuwabu being brought up in the second season is a reference to the first season, but it’s also a hint – none of the subjects Atsushi brings up is random. Everything he mentions is something En has talked about in the past in a similar train of thought conversation, though off-screen. So it doesn’t necessarily need to be a current event for Atsushi to bring it up – after all, En ranted about chikuwabu in what was probably April or May, only for Atsushi to guess it in November.

Something to keep in mind for Atsushi’s comments is they were probably meant to be references to current events from when the seasons/OVA came out. However, I still was able to find things relating to them in the 80s and 90s. Their timeline is also split off our own – changes started happening July 18, 1969. So, these could be references to things that never happened in our timeline, or things that could have happened but didn’t. So these points are really in a gray area.

The one constant through LOVE, LOVE LOVE, and LOVE LOVE LOVE is the Olympics, so let’s start with that. I looked up Olympic years to see what the overlap was with the timeline estimates.

1980 – winter was in the US, summer was in the Soviet Union

1992 – winter was in France, summer was in Spain

1996 – summer, in the US

1998 – winter, in Japan

The tax increase – According to Wikipedia, there was a tax increase to 5% in April 1997. For tax-related things in general, “Japan introduced the national consumption tax of three percent in 1989” (Wikipedia).

The constitution – According to Wikipedia, “From the 1960s to the 1980s, Constitutional revision was rarely debated.” There were some suggestions for revisions in the 1990s.

Toyosu –Urban Dock LaLaPort opened in the 1980s – it’s a huge shopping mall with a cinema, restaurants, and cafes.

Trump – It could be referring to anything for these three estimates – financial losses in the 1980s, the Grand Hyatt Hotel was opened in 1980, and in the 90s he was dropped from the Forbes List, had some bankruptcies, got a divorce, and met his current wife. There’s probably more, but that’s really what I could find on Wikipedia.

Now, you may be thinking, “This was supposed to narrow it all down! There’s too many options!” Like I said, these are events that were current for when the anime was airing, but I wanted to prove that they could apply to all three options.

To narrow things down for real, there are a few things we have to look at.

When the twins are watching Maximum Gorar, they have an old TV and a strange looking remote control. Takamatsu tweeted about it back in 2016, and the remote is based on one that actually existed – the Zubacon. He said it came out in the early 1970s, and I found it came out in 1971, to be exact.

The second flashback is in Happy Kiss. In the treasure hunt/time capsule episode, there’s a flashback with a poster of a GameCube-style system with the kanji 新発売 – which translates to “new product/model.” In reality, it came out in 2001, but there were some updated models that were released until it was discontinued in 2007.

According to Yang, Binan Shonen Love-Love was an anime from when he was in grade school – specifically he says 小​学​生 which is elementary school, so first to sixth grade. He would have been anywhere from six to twelve. The art style doesn’t look like Hizakuriger, so we know it’s not a retro-retro anime, but we don’t have Yang’s official age. We also don’t know if Binan Shonen Love-Love was based off of Boueibu or if Binan was chosen in CIDER due to the anime’s popularity.

Until we get an official age, let’s say Yang’s 30 at the youngest, and 45 at the oldest. If he’s 45, he would have entered first grade in 1980 and left sixth grade in 1986. If he’s 30, he would have entered first grade in 1995 and left sixth grade in 2001. So Binan Shonen aired sometime between 1980 and 2001.

Finally, there’s references to other anime.

In LOVE’s beach episode, Atsushi references Detective Conan. That started in Shonen Jump in 1994.

On the stats screen for the idol battle in LOVE LOVE, Ryuu is making a Sailor Moon pose. Sailor Moon started in 1991.

In Happy Kiss’s beach/vacation episode, Karurusu references the Sazae-san anime, which began airing in 1969 and is the longest running animated television series. (While Sazae-san won’t help us on the timeline, I just want to point out it’s interesting that it started the same year as the moon landing – GC 0001.)

Putting all of this together, from what we know I think it’s safe to say Boueibu took place during the third option – 1997-98, with Happy Kiss in 2007.

Why?

It’s mainly because of the last point – the anime references. However, this shouldn’t be the driving factor of the timeline theory. After all, because of the contact with aliens, these series could have all started sooner. However, let me back up and explain with the other points.

It places the third years’ births in 1979, the second years in 1980, and Yumoto in 1981. With the twins being born in 1980, this would make them start elementary school in 1986. While their remote is from the early 70s, it’s plausible they would still be using it in the 80s to watch Maximum Gorar. Because really, how often do you change your remote?

Now, the GameCube lookalike. Kingo is a first year, so if Happy Kiss takes place in 2007, the flashback could have taken place around 2001, possibly a few years earlier if alien technology sped up the process in which the GameCube was released.

From the glimpse we saw, Binan Shonen Love-Love doesn’t look like an 80s anime. It could have aired in the gap between the OVA and Happy Kiss, based off the popularity of CIDER – sometime between 1998 and 2001, when Yang was still in elementary school. However, if CIDER chose Binan because of the anime, it could have taken place as early as 1980.

Having LOVE take place in 1997-98 makes sense for their current technology – their phones appear to be the model Sony Xperia S, which was released in 2012, but due to alien technology could have been released sooner – especially since the first touchscreen phone was released in 1992.

In the New Year’s episode, the remote control doesn’t look modern – it could pass as one from our 90s or 00s. Plus, Atsushi has a DVD boxed set, not Blu-rays. The first DVDs came out in the late 90s.

In Happy Kiss, the Kurotama now has a flat screen TV that looks like an older model (for us). Yumoto uses an older looking instant Polaroid camera in Ata’s flashback in Happy Kiss. They’re still used today, but they were popular in the 90s.

In conclusion, LOVE takes place in 1997-98, and Happy Kiss takes place in 2007.

Now, to find out what Galaxy Centuries they take place. 1969 is counted as 0001 – which makes the math slightly confusing. It’s not like birthdays, where you count the anniversaries and not the actual birth. This makes 2019 GC 0051.

Assuming that Galaxy Centuries start in July and years are counted separately (because of the New Year episode), LOVE takes place in GC 28-29, and Happy Kiss takes place in GC 38-39.

If the next GC starts on New Year’s, then LOVE takes place in GC 29-30, and Happy Kiss takes place in GC 39.

Anyway, onto how old the LOVE and Happy Kiss boys would be if they appear in Robihachi!

LOVE:

Third years – 40

Second years – 39

Yumoto – 38

Happy Kiss:

Third years – 30

Second years – 29

First years – 28

(Also, if Hatchi really is 18 like his bio says (instead of being older and hiding his age to keep his identity as the moon prince secret) his birth year would be 2001, three years after the OVA, making it possible that Kinshirou could be his father if he had him at 22.)