#even if it kinda sucks......girl a while ago i read a manga called like the moon is beautiful tonight but first die

[bmpmp3]

one of my favourite genres in the world is like, edgy horror superhero-y seinen and shonen manga about normal dudes getting supernatural powers from like an alien or a demon or whatever and those powers include: super strength, heightened intuition, having a fashion sense

[smashboxgirl26]

fucking valentine's day

katsuki bakugou x gn! reader (oneshot) summary: (forcibly) getting closer over shared interests contains: FLUFFFFFFF word count: 1.8k masterlist author's note: i haven't written a proper oneshot in a while,, so here we are.. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE

“That was a dumb fucking story,” Bakugou shoved the manga into your hands. “He was way too easy, and the girl was way too annoying and insecure. I have no idea why you liked it so much.”

“Oh shut up, it was cute,” you rolled your eyes.

Of course he thought the cutest, most wholesome manga you had was dumb. Well, it wasn't like he really appreciated much of your other suggestions either, the only one he seemingly remotely liked was Wotakoi - and that’s only because it was “realistic”.

It made you think about how he desired the simple kind of mundane love - something that was quite the opposite of what was expected out of heroes in the spotlight. Obviously you wanted to ask him about it, but it wasn’t like he’d answer you.

“Too cheesy,” he clicked his tongue. “Your taste in romance sucks. It’s so childish.”

“Oh yeah? Give me a rec then.”

“I don’t have anything to prove to you,” he shoved his hands in his pockets as he leaned forward. “Gimme something else to read. There has to be at least one good series out of the fucking library you’ve got hidden in there.”

“Says you,” you challenged, watching as he just walked into your dorm room with no warning. “You have like, five whole boxes under your bed.”

“And you have a whole bookshelf, but I’m not comparin’” he chided with a grin.

“Well, I think I already made you read all my favorites,” you shrugged. “Most of the others are shounen or they’re not the best. I do have anime recs though if you’re into that.”

“Damn, I went through all your favorites in like, a month. You must be a slow ass reader.”

“I’m not! I just follow a bunch of series that I’m still keeping up with.”

He huffed after perusing the bookshelf situated at the side of your room, seemingly through annoying you after he thumbed a couple of the titles that caught his eye. He’d liked barging into your room to complain about random shoujos ever since you caught him at a bookstore with an armful of manga not too long ago. And even though the so-called “friendship” had started as a way for you to not expose him, he’d flipped the tables to make it about bullying you instead - because of course he would.

“What’s the anime?”

“It’s literally my favorite romance anime of all time,” you gushed. “It’s called Fruits Basket. It was actually an older one that they recently rebooted to be more accurate to the manga and update the art style, and it’s so good. I cried like, five times while watching it. It was totally worth it. I don’t have the manga though, so you’d have to find it yourself.”

Bakugou raised an eyebrow, “Is it a harem?”

Of course that’s his first question (he didn’t like harems either - reverse or otherwise).

“It’s kind of like a reverse harem?” you tried to reason with him. “But it’s kind of not since they make it kinda clear from the beginning who she’ll end up with. It’s really good though, I promise.”

Bakugou didn’t look the most impressed by your explanation, but he clicked his tongue and nodded as he walked towards your door “I’ll try it, I guess. If it’s shit I’m blaming you.”

“Okay,” you raised your hands up. “I promise it’s not though.”

He seemingly paused in front of your door before reaching out to twist the handle, like there was something else he’d come to do, or say. But nothing else came out before he mumbled out a “Night” and closed the door behind him.

You didn’t question (or notice, really) his odd behavior, just heading to your bookshelf to put the manga he’d borrowed back into its rightful place - unaware of the way he was still standing outside your door, with the words he’d finished that manga in a day for, still sitting on the tip of his tongue at the forefront of his mind.

“Happy stupid Valentine's day.. idiot.”

…

You’d actually forgotten it was Valentines the next day until you’d opened your locker to find it stuffed with letters and chocolates. It wasn’t exactly the newest occurrence, since you'd received an ample amount of love letters since your first year when you fought in the sports festival and almost made it into the top three.

Your friends teased you about it at lunch of course, gushing over the sickly sweet poems and the letters you’d received while munching on your chocolate (under the name of poison testing) - but you still never thought to consider the holiday as important or something to pay a lot of attention to. After all, you still had to do your classes, excel in your hero work, finish your homework, and go to your internship;there weren’t breaks available to aspiring heroes to go on dates or hang out with their significant others. Not as second years, at least.

It’d been a long ass day (one that you were ready to end) by the time you finally got back to the dorms from the agency around 8 o’ clock, wearing a rumpled uniform with messy tied up hair. Damn, had Ryukyu been kicking your ass recently.

All you wanted to do was change out of your clothes, grab some leftovers from that night’s dinner in the fridge, and hop in bed to fall asleep to some show.

You made your way over to the kitchen first, hoping and praying as you opened the fridge that there were some good leftovers or that someone had been nice enough to save a plate for you, only to find it practically empty.

You frowned as you remembered that it’d been Bakugou’s turn to cook that night, which meant that all of it was gone because no one would ever leave his cooking to waste no matter how much it inflated his ego.

You let out a sigh as you decided to just eat cereal for dinner. You didn’t have the energy or the ingredients to make yourself something “proper” at the moment. You just needed something so you could go to sleep. But first, you were changing into some sweats.

You were back downstairs in about ten minutes, only to be greeted by Bakugou standing at the stove making something.

You’d opened your mouth, ready to ask him what he was doing, but he didn’t let you get a word in.

“Sit,” he ordered.

You didn’t argue, just sitting on one of the stools seated at the kitchen counter. You were too tired to think about why he was doing what he was doing, or how he even knew you hadn’t eaten in the first place. The only thing that'd invaded your mind was the smell of his cooking that’d wafted through the kitchen. And it was amazing.

“Eat,” he placed a plate in front of you with no warning, handing you a pair of chopsticks before he headed back towards the stove.

You didn’t even look to see what it was, just deciding to stuff it in your mouth with no hesitation. And damn was it amazing.

“Mmm, that’s really good.”

“Of course it is,” he grunted. “I made it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you chuckled. “Don’t let your head get too big.”

“Too late.”

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do this for me, though,” you stuffed another bite in your mouth. “I would’ve been okay with a bowl of cereal.”

“Don’t be stupid, it’s not for you,” he shook his head. “I’m still hungry. Didn’t get to eat enough at dinner since everyone was fighting over the food like animals,” he raised his own plate of food as he came to sit down beside you.

The both of you sat in silence for a few moments - a quiet, comfortable silence, filled with chopsticks against plates and chewing.

“I started that Fruits Basket show,” Bakugou said after taking a sip of water. “S’not that shitty.”

“I knew you’d like it.”

“But why does that Tohru chick have to be so fucking good about everything?”

“Because that’s her character!” you turned to him, annoyed. “I love that about her.”

“It’s boring though,” he shoved another bite into his mouth. “Such an overused trope. She just lets everyone walk all over her and it’s annoying.”

“Shut up,” you rolled your eyes. “You still said you liked it so I’m taking it as a win.”

“I never said I liked it, I said it wasn’t shitty.”

“It means the same thing coming from you, Bakugou,” you stared at him pointedly. “I’m pretty sure I’d know how to speak your language fluently by now, after being stuck with you for two years already.”

He only rolled his eyes before taking another sip of water, “You’re so fucking annoying.”

You retaliated by flicking a piece of rice at him, and then laughing at the glare he gave when it landed on his plate.

You’d finished pretty quickly out of the desire to run up to your room and curl up in bed, and Bakugou watched as you pushed yourself up to put your dishes away and grab a glass water before going upstairs, but as you turned to thank him for sharing his “snack” with you, he’d shoved something into your hand.

“I found the manga,” he grumbled. “S’for you.”

You stared down at it, jaw almost to the floor when you noticed the title and the familiar animal characters on the front.

“Where’d you find this?” you looked up to him, amazed - as he simply put his dishes away. “This has been sold out everywhere I checked since the last part of the show came out. And it’s the limited edition cover too.”

“S’not important,” he shrugged.

“Thank you,” you smiled. “And thank you for the dinner and stuff too.”

“S’not a big deal,” he walked past you. “Now go to sleep, it’s late.”

“You’re such an old man,” you teased as you followed him. “It’s not even nine yet.”

“Yeah, exactly. It’s late.”

You gave him a weirded out look as you passed him towards your room, just shaking it off because, well, it was Bakugou.

“So you admit you’re an old man?” you called out behind you.

“Shut the fuck up.”

You chuckled as you closed your door behind you, hearing Iida scold Bakugou for being too loud in the hallway, and turned back to the manga that Bakugou had shoved into your hands.

The cover was beautiful, and as tired as you were, you wanted to thumb through it just to see the artwork. You already knew the story, of course, but you couldn’t help yourself as you plopped down onto your bed and turned to the first page - noticing the little note scribbled down on the inside of the cover, its’ words causing a fluttering feeling in your stomach as you thumbed the messy handwriting.

Chocolates are stupid, so I got you this instead. Happy fucking Valentine’s Day. -B.K.

[fiore-rosewood9]

♫FrUk :D

Thank you for the ask, I will send a few songs that remind me of fruk, a whole playlist if you may, not only one song. I also touch a few of triggering topics as I explain the nations's personalities and relationships with one another so I apologize in advance if I upset/trigger someone and will put my trigger here - Warning - mentions of abuse, alcoholism, s*exual trauma. Under the explanation there is a playlist of songs that make me think of Ukfr/Fruk, so if anyone gets upset you can feel free to skip my general headcanons about fruk/ukfr relationship dynamics. There are too many songs that make me think of different characters or ships but I collected the ones that make me think the most of them.

I know the original song is by Lady gaga but this version is too sweet and cheesy for me so I chose the rock cover by the group Halestorm since I prefer it, it sounds more genuine and rough and kinda makes me think of the dynamic that ukfr/fruk has, that some people present is as just the enemies to lovers trope or them just fighting which is.....simply unhealthy????? Fruk is much more than that and I wish people would stop seeing it as a two dimensional thing, yeah they do argue on a lot of things and it is not the healthiest dynamic however it does work in my mind because they stick through thin and thick and that requires effort and true love since a lot of people nowdays do not take time to know the other person, they just jump into marriage and have a few divorces and just argue over everything and then separate, fruk is an off and on thing where they break and make. This kind of dedication is hard to find in today's couples. I know they're fictional characters and no one really cares but I practice my psychology skills and my knowledge of people around me, and I sometimes see people with similar or almost the same characters as fictional characters, they may not have all of their hobbies but they do act the same way. And certain pairs, no offence, just make me want to gag my self due to history with bad and toxic fans but if I look at it subjectivly and never encountered mean fans from a certain ship, I would say that they ship simply doesn't work. No ship bashing but as far as I know, people with this kind of personality from this ship that I dislike, and get upset when seeing fan art of, simply just do not get along and had a hard time divorcing, it is not only unhealthy and unbalanced, it is downright abusive because both partners seek control and to have the upper hand and this is not...what romance is about???? It is about two people taking care of each other, understanding personal space and boundaries, lifting each other up and yeah, they will argue a lot, sometimes for small things, sometimes for bigger things, but generally the point of romantic relationships is not someone using you, or abusing you financially and generally being better or bigger than you. This breeds insecurity and jealousy in the other partner and makes them feel inadequate. Usually such problems are not talked over and one of the partners acts passive agressive which is what ultimaltly leads to said divorce. So yeah, people can go away with their (BUT IT IS CUTE, IT IS SO FUCKING CUTE) pairing because real life pairings and how humans communicate and develop friendships and relationships isn't based on what your mind conciders and doesn't concider cute and there are lots of factors on whether relationship will ever happen like common interests, type personality, etc and just block me so I will never hear from them and their childish mindset ever again, which is why I blocked certain tumbrl fan art hetalia accounts who produce art of a pairing I (dislike) lowkey hate, for historical reasons, for manga reasons, for toxic fans who bullied me and made me go on 3 hiatuses reason and ultimatly in real life experience and psychology and how humans and the human mind works and what is healthy and unhealthy reason. Why should I support something where certain people have been hateful towards me and these same people that act like these characters and I know in my life are on bad terms in real life? Why shouldn't I just move on to something more realistic and more healthy, that I have seen that works with humans I know first hand? I am not a clinical psychologist and I have no power or saying in this but I had to write thesis and read books by psycholgists and analyze them in high school and my first year of Uni, in order to pass the year and I have also read reccomended books by a psychologist I went to because I wanted an advice on how to deal with my anxiety and talking to people, because my condition is extremely severe but I honestly feel stuck and try to improve but also feel confused, I sometimes feel like I am not doing enough to

self improve as a human. I sometimes come off as too cold or overly bitter and angry without intending to, and it sucks.

Francis is a really manipulative person and Matthew picked up that from him while part of Alfred's agression doesn't only come from confidence in his own abilities but the fact that England him self is an overly agressive person and is very dominant or at least used to be for a very long time, now he is more mild to keep his gentleman persona but he does suffer from severe anger issues which he hides while Alfred is prone to breaking things and screaming, Arthur is more prone to being rude, sarcastic and generally mean before he loses it. Matthew and Francis do not engage in fight if they can avoid it which is why sometimes people call them cowardly I think? And Matthew is a bit prone to being a codependent people pleaser as far as I see and he seems to have severe anxiety issues. Francis albeit charismatic and beautiful, is deep down in his core lonely.

I think that part of his pervertedness, shocking people with his s*xual humour and all of this sex obsession comes from trauma in his childhood and dressing like a girl. I wouldn't explain what the trauma in question was since it is not canon but I do headcanon that he had s*xual trauma and it is partly why Hungary dressed like a guy. I don't know if this is legit, it is bias from reading too much japanese fan comics relating to hetalia or just general history of humans and how they treated consent and what is moral today, wasn't amoral or against the law a few centuries ago, but I have seen artists touch on it. I think both Arthur and Francis suffer from neglect and they weren't particularly good fathers, in fact no country is, the whole FACE family is dysfunctional and while I love all of them, I kinda pity them. I think Rome was a bit discriminatory mostly towards France and never towards his other children while Arthur had to constantly prove him self and was bullied by his brothers. While other nations have suffered from trauma too (I headcanon that Prussia was burnt on stake and people threw rocks at him due to his albinism and being left handed) something similar happened to Arthur, who I headcanon that he was burnt for being a witch and Francis went a few times through the guillotine, or Arthur still having a bullet scar on his arm from the American revolution or Francis having nightmares from that day where Jeanne was burnt and waking up in his own sweat. Arthur also must suffer from workholism and alcoholism, judging by how much he works and goes to pubs to drink. Everyone chooses their own poison and how to cope with life and many use unhealthy coping mechanisms, hell, even I used unhealthy coping mechanisms a lot in the past and I am not proud of them, in fact, I try to improve.

I can talk about their history and how it relates to their mental health and what scars they have for hours but I would bore you. You came for a song and I am probably boring you so I apologize for writting a lot of words, in advance. I basically think that fruk/ukfr is the ultimate ship for many reasons because they click, I do ship spuk/engita/asakiku and many other things but fruk/ukfr is kinda like butter and bread, it is a great combination. I never said it is 100 percent healthy, however their relationship makes psychological sense and their personalities click. I know people like to present arthur as this dumb tsundere man that blushes and says baka, or he is this garbage rat dad that no one likes or francis is presented or at least used to be this perverted sex machine that touched other countries inappropriatly or at least the 2012-2015 fans saw him this way and while he still has the reputation of a pervert, what many young people in the fandom see as disgusting, I just see as an overly lonely man that just happens to have high libido and copes with it by having casual sex and just has a sex humour, the same way some people have fart jokes humour or darker, more cursed humour, I am really glad that fans mostly left off this whole - Francis is a r**ist and will grope you, in the past, because honestly r**e is not joke and as a character he clearly understands consent and boundaries and I don't think someone like him would do such a thing. Also Greece and Turkey have even higher libido than him and sleep around more, yet he is the ''pervert'', I don't get it??????????? but fruk is just so much more than opposites attract, they have a lot in common so I can't say they're full opposites, no one is truly. I have heard people ask why does anyone ship fruk when it is just opposites attract/enemies to lovers trope and I am honestly confused, because that is extremely rough generalization to say the least, it is like saying - All men/women are the same, it is simply wrong/uncorrect. I think they ''married'' five times - The Treaty of Paris (1657) formed an alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French Alliance (1716–31) formed another alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata (1845-1850). The Anglo-French joint invasion of Qing Dynasty (1856–1860). And the last one which is their official marriage The Entente Cordiale (1904) fought together in both World Wars. As far as I remember Francis tried to marry Arthur but he refused and why he refused is up for subjective opinion but I must write a whole thesis on why Fruk/ukfr works so well and people are not here for that, they're here for the music and I will provide. I also always saw Francis as the more gentle and more submissive partner, I just love to see him drawn in frilly beautiful dresses with bows and stuff and Arthur as the more dominant, I mean as a country he was a powerhouse during the 1600s-1800s and used to be a punkrocker, usually rockers are mentally tough and that man is extremely cunning and witty so...people drawing him as this useless baka uwu overly feminine anorexic boy that looks more like a tween rather than a 23 year old guy just assasinated his character in my opinion and it disturbs me but I am just some awkward human on the internet and no one values my opinion anyway because this is the internet and many people nowdays love to have hot takes and try to gain followers through clickbait stuff which sometimes goes out of control and everything just seems more fake and shallow to me, the more old I get.Okay that was my silly rant no one asked about but I feel really passionate about hetalia and Fruk/Ukfr. Anyway, I apologize again for my long rant and going all over the place, please enjoy this playlist

PLAYLIST WITH SONGS THAT REMIND ME OF FRUK/UKFR

1 - Halestorm - Bad romance - rock cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll4NJs3NBIU

2 - Queen - Somebody to love - lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj69iA_goIk

3 - ABBA - Voulez vous - (I know everyone chooses Waterloo and while waterloo is a fruk theme, I think Voulez vous works too) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcgMVXuBJc

4 - London beat - I've been thinking about you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixBryyQSrD8

5 - Santana - Smooth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc

6 - George Michael - Careless whisper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

7 - Robbie Williams - Feel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy4mXZN1Zzk

8 - Michael Buble - Feeling good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edwsf-8F3sI

9 - Edith Piaf - La vie en rose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzViYkZAz4

10 - Chopin - Marriage d'amour (Spring waltz) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJ7kDva7JE

11 - Vanessa Carlton - A thousand miles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERw2LuU6Jj8

[untapanimedraw]

Ok, lets talk the Winter 2021 anime season

Dear god, there are so many shows airing. A ton of sequels, and a decent amount of new shows. I think I’ll actually break down what I’m interested in watching into two parts, sequels and new. Lets get started. 

Watching:

Sequels 

Jujutsu Kaisen - This is technically a continuation rather than a sequel, but the spirit is the same. This was my choice for favorite anime of the season fall 2020 so this continuation has me pretty hyped. 

Black Clover - Still continuing. The manga had a 6 month time skip and the anime did some anime only stories with the author’s direction to cover that time period and now it’s caught up to that time skip. Shit is about to go down and I am stoked. 

Attack On Titan: Final Season - So this started airing in December which makes for a strange airing schedule, but it’s technically continuing from the fall season into the winter season. Anyway, it is fucking fantastic and this week’s episode left us on a major cliff-hanger for 2 weeks. 

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S2P1 - Ok, so first... HOLY FUCK I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS SEASON, IT’S GOING TO BE AMAZING. Second, yes this is part 1. Thanks to covid there are some longer running seasons that are being split up to accommodate the production schedule. So this part 1 is airing in winter, then in the spring the 4-koma comedy re-telling is airing, and then in summer part 2 of this season 2 will air. it’s annoying, but 3 continuous season of slime is a welcome thing. 

Re:Zero S2P2 - Alright, so this is the second half of summer 2020′s season 2 part 1. I have high expectations considering what we’ve already been given. 

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars (S2) - HOLY FUCK I’M SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THIS SHOW, I LOVED THE FIRST SEASON AND AM READING THE MANGA AND OMG I CANNOT WAIT FOR MORE.

The Promised Neverland S2 - More of the promised neverland. I’ve heard that this season will go even harder than the first season and Emma will prove even more why she’s best girl, so bring it on. 

The Quintessential Quintuplets S2 - A second season of a decent harem show? Bring it on. 

Log Horizon S3 - So I didn’t watch this when the first 2 seasons aired years ago, 6 I think actually. That said it’s always been on my PTW list and when I heard season 3 was going to air I decided that now was the time to catch up; and wow am I glad I did. I binged the first 2 seasons over the last 3 weeks and I am so fucking invested now. I cannot wait for this next season. 

Higurashi GOU - this is continuing from last season and I’ll keep watching it, though I’m still not quite sure how to evaluate it. 

Yuru Camp S2 - WOOHOO!!!!! This was the chillest of chill shows that aired winter 2018 and I absolutely loved it. I’m so excited for this next season for more camping and adorable girls being chill. 

World Trigger S2 - So I was under the impression that there were already 2 seasons of this show, I watched most of it I think but it’s been so long I don’t really remember much. But this is being called season 2... so either this is retconning the previous season 2 or that was really just 1 big season despite the notation on some websites. Also a S3 has already been announced so I need to hurry up and rewatch this before the new season airs. But with 73 episodes that might take a bit of time. 

Armor Shop for Ladies and Gentlemen S2 - This is a sequel to the short anime of the same name. If you like it, you like it. 

New

Cells at Work S2 - Ok, technically this is a sequel, but I’m including it here because of something cool that’s happening with the next title. 

Cells at Work: Black - Why yes, this is a different Cells at Work title. This is based on the spin-off manga of the same title that gender swaps the cells from the main series and covers their work inside an extremely unhealthy body. This is going to be a grittier, bloodier, and bleaker show than the main one and in a fun airing scheduling event, they will be airing back to back. I’m quite excited for the both of these. 

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - OMG I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS GETTING AN ADAPTATION! SADLY IT’S A SPLIT COUR SO THIS IS THE FIRST HALF OF SEASON 1 AND THE SECOND HALF WILL AIR LATER PROBABLY IN THE SUMMER. BUT THAT’S OK BECAUSE EVERYTHING I HAVE SEEN ABOUT THIS SO FAR TELLS ME THIS WILL BE A PRETTY DAMN FAITHFUL ADAPTATION AND IT IS GOING TO BE FANTASTIC. 

Horimiya - I’ve heard many good things about this romance show and am looking forward to it. 

Redo of Healer - Ok, here we go. This is going to be the outrage anime of the season. That is, if it is actually watched by people. It’s also getting 3 different levels of censoring so uh, I’ll have to check for the proper versions when it airs. 

So I’m a Spider, So What? - Ok, so funny story. I’d been hearing about this manga for a while so I decided to dive into it a few months back. As I read it, I thought it was pretty funny but I wondered if the anime adaptation would be great for a comedy manga about a reincarnated girl into a spider’s body. Then about 3 weeks ago, I realized I was reading the comedy spin-off instead of the main story. That said I’m still quite excited to see this adapted and I’ll get the manga after then anime is done. 

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter - Hella ecchi, actually pretty fun manga. I’m looking forward to this adaptation. 

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a started town - Hopefully this will be as fun as the manga was. Here’s a better synopsis than the Livechart one - Lloyd is the weakest person in his remote village but his dream is to become a soldier in the big city. So he moves to the city and strives to make his dream come true. However in a twist, it turns out that the remote village Lloyd came from is the retirement town for all the world’s strongest heroes and they are all massively overpowered, so when he gets to the city he’s stupidly OP but it doesn’t quite click for him. Shenanigans ensue. It’s fun and I’m looking forward to this adaptation. 

Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki - This is supposed to be not quite as good a romance as Horimiya this season, but still decent. If that is the comedy romance this is the drama romance show and hopefully it’ll be good. 

Kemono Jihen - Mystery, supernatural, Yokai. I’m intrigued in this show and hope it’s decent. 

Otherside Picnic - Shoujo Ai, Sci-Fi, I’m sold. 

Hortensia SAGA - This is based on a game, but I’ve heard that the story and scope are actually quite good and the PV actually looks quite good so I’m definitely gonna check this one out. 

SK8 the Infinity - Ok, so my first impression of this was nah, I’ll pass. But then I saw the PV and saw it was being animated by BONES and my impression changed to Ok I have to at least give it a couple episodes. 

2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team - So this is supposed to be Haikyuu except lots more drama and less gameplay. It will really have to pull me in in order to get me to not think boring Haikyuu when I watch it. I’ll give it a couple episodes. 

Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- - Doctor heals people from Yokai or something like that. The tags look interesting as do the character designs. I’ll check it out.

Back Arrow - Fantasy setting but BOOM... Mecha! That premise at least demands a couple episodes of my attention. 

Heaven’s Design Team - Here’s my chill comedy SOL show of the season. The premise is Heaven has a design team that creates/created all the animals. I’m very excited to see the shenanigans. 

Gekidol - Idols and stage acting. After watching the new Love Live last season I’m in the mood for some idol stuff. But most interesting to me is the next show on this list. 

Alice in Deadly School - It’s not currently known whether this will be a full series or an OVA or some other thing, but this is an anime of the stage play that is being put on in Gekidol. The same VAs in Gekidol that play the characters in this play are voicing the characters for this anime production. And I just think this whole setup is neat and am very interested to see it play out (pun fully intended). 

Idoly Pride - This seems to be a more straight-forward idol show which I’m going to check out. 

Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san - Girl doesn’t quite cut it to do the thing she and her friend came to do, but she found that she can cook so uses her cooking for support her friends. SOL, lets go. 

Wave!! Surfing Yappe!! - Surfing show, the animation will make or break this show so we will see how it turns out. 

Wow, that is a lot of shows, lets add them up. 

13 sequels and continuations

22 new shows

35 total. I kinda hope some of these suck cause HOT DAMN, that’s a lot of shows. 

[kaoarika]

I rarely do written posts in Tumblr anymore because I am still figuring out how this new UI works in general (and there might be still be some bugs about writing posts + leaving them on drafts + publishing them accidentally as well), and tbh, between the past two months have been sorta chaotic and very mentally draining (besides some work I have been doing) and me attempting to think around some of my few active fandoms... well, haven’t had an eureka moment where I sit and write what I think about stuff.

So, let’s talk about some “stuff”.

Some days ago, I accidentally noticed by PURE CHANCE that some of the completed webtoons I was going to “eventually read” in LINE were going to get “locked”/converted  for Daily Pass. I mean, tbf, I knew that they were going to stick to this plan since past October, but it seems they really went full force this month (they only “locked” like a couple of series back then). And it’s exactly how I thought they would do so - popular series that have been already completed, old and recent.

I’m not going to complain about “Daily Pass” because I do have some thoughts about that and the fact they could use another model than just readers farming/buying coins, but, what do you do, especially since lots of these series are PRETTY long (140+ chapters long)?

My complaint does come from that, as a web user, I found this by pure chance, despite them saying they would announce what series would be locked in a 30-day advance notice. Because there’s no apparent indicator in the main page about THIS (The only Notice/News detail you see down below the page is about Canvas creators). Heck, I don’t think they even tell you about it in their mail newsletter, which kinda suck :))).

So, anyway.

I checked and, yes, a couple of VERY old series I was interested in reading were/are going to get locked. Problem, like I mentioned? THEY are pretty long! I know I can binge read as much as I want, but I cannot make miracles like reading over 100 chapters (if one series, try thinking about 2 or 3 -  I WAS NOT GOING TO DO THIS) in less than 12 hours! ESPECIALLY if those series were going to get locked THIS WEEK.

FML.

...anyway crisis was averted when I had to let go some interesting series that I may would get my way to read them (if there is a new buying/rental model they would apply) in the future... BUT I did read stuff I was curious or wanted to read... and mainly old stuff that I was willing to eventually finish one day.

Opinions on those series?

Okay, as brief and spoiler free as possible:

Untouchable: A story about modern-day vampires that instead of drinking blood, they have evolved to absorb the energy of their preys. This one is a romantic series about Sia, a vampire model and this human guy who has a very deep microphobia, and she puts her eyes on him when she realizes that his energy is like none she has tasted before. But, again, dude has microphobia (that is more or less controlled as time goes on).

I stopped reading this one for a while because  I was sorta smelling love triangle from a jealous friend of hers that OBVIOUSLY didn’t want to be looked as “just a friend”, lol. Like “how would this get solved”, kind of thing in your typical romance stuff. But then, last week I retook it... and it wasn’t as bad... but it leaks typical shoujo stuff/problems that become a newer obstacle as time goes on and on (misscomunication, lack of trust, overprotective family ANNOYINGLY hurting their own offspring, sudden deux ex machina...?). So, I think it finished fine... But man, I was so pissed off in how some stuff was managed at the end, lmao. Especially the way a “villain” was redeemed? I know that they say “karma is a b*tch”, but, DUDE KILLED PEOPLE BEFORE!? and you redeem him in a “lol, you will find out how love will make you feel” LIKe, DUDE, WHAT THE HELL. DON’T REDEEM HIM LIKE THAT.

Ghost Wife: I started reading this series in an unofficial manner a long while ago, but I supposed that the first chapters are pretty slow and it didn’t catch me on in the first place. It’s about a girl that starts seeing ghosts/spirits, and there’s this one that becomes WAY too attached to her, that offers her two options: either been eaten/killed or agreeing to be his wife. Given the title of thise series, you might wonder she accepted the second one

My lesson? Should have kept reading. The story picks up when other ghostly creatures are introduced and they start interacting with the main female character and her “ghost husband”, especially since this ghost cannot really imitate human interaction and his solution is “hypnotizing” everyone so he can “normally” fit. And the interaction between those two becomes more gracious and natural. You can feel that she likes being with him, despite the dangers of attracting ghosts that might kill her and all that. Heh.

Other lesson I had is that: the artist isn’t EXACTLY well into action scenes and some other details (but their ghostly creatures’ designs are TERRIFYING), so, I thought “well, I know there are other artists like this in the webcomic/webtoon environment, I shouldnt be too worried about my art once I get done with mine, right?

Also, some details started to make sense later on. And I cried like a baby in some moments, as well. Don’t have too many complaints, though. Perhaps more obvious “falling in love” moments... but then I realized that some actions speak lots better than words.

About Death: And speaking of “crying like a baby”, this one. This is a very old work, and it’s a gem, and it’s short, to top! And HECK, the art was AMAZING. Very touchy, and it makes you think. There’s quite a lot of South Korean webtoons that have made me cry because... they really make you think a LOT about stuff... especially about life and death.

Oh! Holy: Story about a shy and lonely loveable dork that is in love of his childhood friend, and that they eventually find each other in high school. Said childhood friend is idolized in school (but she is... hmmm... a dork as, well). Oh, he sees ghosts. OH, and she dies within the first three chapters accidentally :3. Shenanigans happen.

I HAD A LOT OF FUN WITH THIS ONE. SURE, it’s another shoujo but WAY less dramatic than Untouchable, because this was comedy (so, a rom-com!). And this one made me want more and more to read it. The characters all had an amazing personality, chemistry and their interactions were FUN AS HELL. The author seems to have my my sense of (dumb) humor, and the art was too attractive and knew where it should bright.

I don’t think I have too many complaints about this one. I may have felt unsatisfied in some minor stuff, but everything else felt “okay” to me, in general. 

A couple of things, though: localization and some quality stuff relating to translation in this series. I cannot judge the translation, but I do think it could have handled more quality checking on this one or proofreading, I’m not sure. I know that these (licensed and translated) series come in a weekly basis, but they REALLY need to pay more $$$ to their own staff to not let this stuff happen THAT frequent.

Localization is a bit of an issue I do HAVE though, and it is the same as in “Ghost Wife” and some other recent Korean series they have licensed in the recent past: Why using English-localized names, though? SURE, they retain their original last Korean names... but... why don’t keep their FULL NAMES, I wonder? I mean, weren’t we supposed to be over that kind of stuff already (videogames, JPN anime, manga other foregin stuff)? Is it because marketability? And/or because some names are “puns” that couldn’t easily be translateable in other languages? 

If it’s the latter, I think the same is applied in other regional language localization, like, in Spanish, original English language “Axed” is called “Natacha la del Hacha” and you cannot wonder how it crawls over my skin. I know this series is BUILT ON and is full of puns (as I am following it)... but... “Axelia” is a much more cooler name than “Natacha”... :I or so I THINK? Don’t take me too seriously...

In “Ghost Wife” I get it, you have spiritual creatures... their “human” names are puns of what they really are, and these words MAYBE don’t have too much meaning in English or Spanish or whatever... but... its a bit... glaring... when the main cast has English first names... and then you have a side character called... I dunno, “Soyeon” :I. or Haetae (a creature that didn’t have a human character name...) or, heck, characters that never appear again like... there was this “Damien” dude that for some reason, his name is slipped a couple of times as “Suho” (I wonder, his original name). But, then, you have people named “Liz”, “Drake”, “Sarah”, “Nathan” ????

I suppose that in “Oh! Holy” that might be the case, too. The original Korean name of the series is “오!주예수여” that is translated as “Oh! Lord Jesus”, because Holy in Korean is named “Yesu”. And, *sigh* I think that says enough. The pun STILL works... but :’))

But at the same time, I think my thing with the English localized names in “Oh! Holy” is that they are... blatantly boring and I don’t think they fit their faces. At all. But, maybe that’s me? (I mean, the “ultimate” reaper is called Norman. NORMAN.) Like I said, they still keep their original Korean last names... but... ugh.

(this is coming from someone who gave two of her characters very not obvious Spanish names given that they are Mexican, but I do have some valid cultural and VERY obvious explanations about those...)

Also - I don’t get LINE Webtoon’s selectiveness in this localization decision. Some of the South Korean series they bring, they do KEEP their original full names (see “A Good Day to be a Dog”, “Ghost Teller”, heck, the afforementioned “Untouchable”), but then you have stuff like “Oh! Holy”, “Ghost Wife”, “Scorching Romance”, “Mom, I’m Sorry!” or “Lookism”... ?????

And, this is very blatant annoying because a) K-Pop is HUGELY global mainstream nowadays and you can hear/read fans screaming their NAMES?! And 2) K-dramas are also pretty popular these days??? 

?????? 

*LONG SIGH*

There’s a few series that I want to check out, but I still have some more days for that to happen (heck, even a bit of more than a week). But, it SURE DOES suck that most of the interesting series I had my eyes on all were going to get locked this WEEK. :))))

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

BnHA 84 - 86 | Uchitama 9 - 12 (FINAL) | Eizouken 10 - 12 (FINAL) | Magia Record 8 - 13 (FINAL) | ID: INVADED 12 - 13 (FINAL) | ACCA OVA

BnHA 84

Ey? So Gentle is basically Luffy, only he can do stuff with air too.

“Tokoyami, it’s in lesson 3.”

Eizouken 10

LOL, you can see a name similar to “Rachel Enyoung Choi” in one of the credit lists. Update: Euyoung Choi is credited on one of the other folders.

“Kanamoney” is catching on, I see.

“Well, dough.” - Sarasoju, where soju is some alcoholic Korean beverage.

The back of the clock reminds me of that Skipper and Skeeto game I used to play.

Did Kanamori get a fringe cut…?

You can see the symbol for Eizouken on the (imaginary…?) warehouse.

Uchitama 9

The video got encoded funny again…

I‘ve heard of AIBOs before. They’re robotic dogs, although with newfangled drones, Google Nests and stuff, they went out of fashion years ago.

Aibou (with kanji) means “partner”, come to think of it...

While everyone else is talking in the foreground, I’m staring at Beh in the background…

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen Kuro and Nora interact all that much.

Natsuki Hanae as Leo, huh?

Uchitama 10

Second-last episode!

Neko (cat) -> Koma -> ari (ant)…isu (chair) -> suika (watermelon) -> tamago (egg, or sometimes it sounds like tabako/tabacco to me) -> ??? -> koi (carp) -> ???? “Kooten” seems to be a nonsense word.

The video got encoded funny again…

…and that’s twice now…

LOL, this is based on Millionaire.

…thrice…

The original quote is (something like), “It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man.” (Yukichi Fukuzawa)

The answer was C, obviously.

…4 times.

Bull does his best Thinker impression.

Oh my gosh, they’re bringing that joke back…? (LOL) Update: The portal joke.

“chunk of meat” – Uh…what?

Holy s***! It’s Bull’s dad! Bull time travelled!

Magia Record 8

I like how the anime introduced Gomakashi, then had the proper OP.

Chuo Ward (Chuoku)? In Hypnosis Mic, that’s a sign Ayappe is definitely a girl…but this ain’t HypMic, so no worries!

The greeting is “Kamihama” because it sounds kind of like konbanwa and the host is Mr Hammer because that sounds like the back half of Kamihama, I guess.

Magia Record seems more overt about its lesbian undertones, I see.

I noticed a piano on a poster in the back. Wonder what that means…?

Just reading translations of radio transcripts like this makes me think of the HypMic radio show. I’ve been using that (and all of HypMic, to be honest) to cope in these tough (COVID-19) times, which is why I’m mentioning it a lot.

Mami!

Eizouken 11

So this is how they met, huh? I never knew Kanamori could have such little faith in people, considering how she is now.

ID:INVADED 12

What I don’t get is Hayaseura’s motive…

Uraido…”from behind”? I need kanji to figure this one out…

Whose well is this Bliss background, ayway…?

Momoki and Matsuoka pass a sign saying 大井南 (Minamioi), which is in Shinagawa.

Why does Momoki need drugs…? To subdue Asukai…?

Oh no. Inami is going to have a vendetta after her man was killed!

According to Ramuda, the optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole…I think’s that’s important for that moment.

…Welp, when a hole in the brain doesn’t kill you, a shot to the stomach does.

In this time of COVID-19, I think talking about people coming back to life is inappropriate…

Post-credits segment!

Uchitama 11 (FINAL)

According to Ramuda, the optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole…

“Tullip” (sic).

Oh, so instead of “Tama” it said “tanu___”, so the kids assumed it said “tanuki”.

Ooh, cat meeting. This should match the dog meeting from earlir in the season. Plus Nora’s face on the title card.

The video got encoded funny again…

“I’m busy right now.” – Nora, sleeping – Yup, that’s my mood. In fact, I was woken up by a call this morning…

I still think the Momo x Bull ship is stupid…

Nora can talk to crows…?

BnHA 85

…huh? What’s up with Bibimi?

Oh, in La Brava’s room there’s a graduation album. No one translated that.

Seriously, Deku’s gotten kinda creepy these days…

Tobita = essentially “to fly” + “field”. Makes sense when the Quirk is elasticity.

“It’s dangerous to go alone!” – I want to reply with “Take this!”…LOL.

This bouncing around thing was basically done by Sonic in OPM.

Update:  Turns out the kanji for elasticity is read dansei, which is th same rading for the characters for a man (but with characters meaning “male gender” instead and the last kanji being shared betwe the two). That’s why Danjuro is Gentle Criminal.    

BnHA 85

I noticed some of the decorations around the school look like heroes we’ve seen – there’s a Midnight one and a Thirteen balloon.

Why is the crowd chanting for YaoMomo…?

It’s in English, huh?

End of credits segment! Keep watching!

“Guys like you who say there are no do-overs in life…”

Hawks! This is the first time I see him outside spoilers!

ID:INVADED 13 (FINAL)

Was gonna finish this the day I got it, but I got access (limited to 1 week)…to Akira, which is a movie I’ve never seen before.

The sharks are a nice touch…(LOL…?)

Welp, John Walker has his hat back now.

Uraido…Hayaseura. Of course, how the heck did I not make the connection?!

The video got encoded funny again…

…wow, after learning a thing or two about CPR, this part actually makes sense to me now…Amazing. (Also, I learnt about comminuted fractures from Double Decker.)

COVID-19 is entering these notes too…because if you cut yourself off from society, you won’t know about pandemics…

Why do I get the feeling Kiki’s gonna kill herself…?

She…almost did it. (Wow, I should try predict things more often.)

That pool…is basically the one from Minority Report!

Wow, that just did an Eva…

Why did they choose such a lively ending song…? Anyways, that wrapped up really well (no pun intended!). See you next time!  

Magia Record 9

The tower appars to be modelled more after Tsutenkaku rather than Tokyo Tower.

For some reason, the subbers like to capitalise “Magical Girl”.

One of the speech bubbles in the back says koneko no gorogoro, or “the cat’s laziness”.

“Stand alone!” This is probably some kind of wordplay on the Solitude (Hitoribocchi no Saihate), since “alone” is hitori de.

Interestingly, the word for “delete” here is keshite (literal meaning: “to erase”).

The sign that passes Sana by while she’s on the boat says “Futaba” on it.

The blue letterboxing is an interesting effect.

“Sorpredente” = surprising.

Eizouken 12 (FINAL)

“They have their own business to run.”

I’ll miss this OP song when it’s gone…*sigh*

LOL, the contrast between Asakusa’s imagination and reality is huge and that’s what makes Eizouken so fun.

“I’m here to deliver the promised data,” Kanamori says (which I think is a more literal translation, ut works better).

It’s unfortunate Comiket 98 was cancelled…

Hey, why didn’t Anime vs. Real Life cover Eizouken?! That would’ve been so good!

I noticed one of the viewers had a “No Disc” pop-up of some sort. Also, the moving logo exists now, too (LOL).

I like how 1 of the UFOs hits the windshield.

The arrows really bring your attention to what’s the same in the split screens.

Magia Record 10

The Mifuyu in the previous episodes was either a flashback or a fantasy, right?

Mami is wearing a Wings of Magius badge…!

On the titlecard, there’s what seems to be a radio tower with a small lightning bolt above it.

BnHA 86

Hey, Tsu has a sister..?

Ah,so this is Mirko! I’ve heard of her too!

Is it just me, or does Endeavour hav CGI on him…?

Hawks reminds me of Fubuki from OPM…

Wow, even Endeavour’s trying to be funny…the world really is different now. (This humour has a terrible success rate with me, though.)

There seem to be holes in Hawks’ jackt for his wings.

So basically, Hawks is being the Iori to Endeavour’s Riku (but without too much of the homoerotic overtones that come from being close in age, since Endeavour is 46 – 7 and Hawks is 22), so to speak.

Oh! That punch is based on All Might’s! Same framing and everything!

Hajimari no doesn’t suggest a pronoun, so they must have chosen that based on the manga or the production company or something.

Magia Record 11

Shaft headtilt!

This Witch…apparently it appears early on in the OG series according to This Week in Anime. It does give off that vibe.

…wow, that fight was fast.

The video got encoded funny again…

Why are all the magical girls Naruto running???  

Hachibey = Kyubey (where kyu = 9), but for 8.

ACCA OVA

Who’s this-oh, never mind.

I don’t remember the OST being so…cool.

Jumo, where ju = tree I guss.

Nino! Who’s the blonde though? I forget…

Jumo for Jumoku…right. I forgot.

Shinro, literally “path of advancement”. I’ve grown a lot since I last watched ACCA, but I only feel I’ve gotten dumber since then…to be honest.

I like how the flashback is saturated in blue…actually, that reminds me of Given, now that I think of it.

Where’s Grossular? I liked him the best because he’s basically older!Kyosuke Kuga. Update: Spoke too soon.

Now that I’ve learnt keigo between the OG and now, I can understand more of what Mauve says.

Magia Record 12

(no notes, sorry!)

Magia Record 13 (FINAL)

Is it just me, or can I see a feather-like object floating down the screen…? (Or is that static?)

You can see one of the hooded Wings (on Touka’s left) has dark blue hair – roughly Sayaka’s shade.

Ooh, Mami and Sayaka fight! (I’ve never been one for catfights, but this is certainly a match-up I want to see!)

Mami’s fate really sucks, huh? Her head came off in the OG and now she’s a tool for the Magius…

Yachiyo does look a lot like Togo from Yuki Yuna, doesn’t she…?

Anyways, this is all for now. There’s an s2 on the horizon, but COVID-19 means it could be years down the line…see you when s2 arrives.

[drink-n-watch]

Hello boys and girls. I hope you are having a great day. Healthy, happy and well rested. For my part, I’m still struggling to get that last one under control after that wonderful horrible thing that happened at the convention. What thing you ask? Well I’m so very glad you did ask! It would have been a really short post otherwise. Sit back, relax: let me paint you a mind picture.

do I have your attention now?

A little while ago, I dragged Mel out of Anime land where she’s been… Well… You’ve read the fanfics… To attend Otakuthon with me. It worked. Yay! I’m generally ambivalent about conventions but I’m glad I went. It was fun. And exhausting. Funny how those two things so often go together. Like most conventions, Otakuthon has a large amount of artists from all over coming together to sell goods. The special part is that unlike in US cons, you can hear them talk in French which is entertaining… I’m not a very nice person. I must say though, most did a wonderful job no matter what they may think!

Mel and I decided to do a tour in the artists’ alley (that’s how it’s called but it’s more like an artists’ gymnasium), on Friday evening after work. No big thing, I had been up since 5 and I really just wanted to scout out the place before going back the next day. I was successful! In one of the back rows, a pleasant and clearly very talented young lady was displaying her prints for sale (side note: there were so so many prints guys, it made me consider putting in more walls….) which caught our eye and we went in for a closer look.

This sounds like a casual venture but you need to fight your way through hordes of fans, occasionally in pointy and dangerous looking cosplay, to get anywhere near the booths, let alone buy something. Moreover with my vertically challenged state I really need to have a front row view. As I try to avoid touching strangers, this closer look involved a series of acrobatics, getting on my tippytoes and trying to figure out how to stretch my neck like a rokurokubi while working hard on giving off an intimidating aura to make people part before me. I’d like to think it’s the aura that did the trick.

there’s no way this can go wrong

When we finally reached the booth, victorious, Mel bought some stuff and I admired the images on display. Off to one side there were a few BL and Yuri prints that caught my eye. The images were lighthearted and loving. I didn’t recognize any characters but the BL one’s were labelled 19 days while the ladies sported a neat little tag with the words “their story”. I made a mental note, hoping it wasn’t original art work and moved on.

Friday evenings are busy for me. No no, not with social outings and tons of friends, you silly! Friday evenings are when I finish up the Given collabs with Karandi and put the gallery post together to go out on Saturdays. It’s also when I watch DanMachi, Dr. Stone, Granbelm and Fire Force and review them all (or as many as I can before passing out). Coming home late means it was around 11 when I was done watching and had to start on writing. Keeping in mind that I had been up since 5 and had a full Saturday planned. I got through 2 reviews before giving up and calling it a night.

That’s when I got the bright idea to read a little something before bed. I remembered the prints and got to googling! 19 days is indeed a rather popular Chinese you series. It’s artistic and a lot of it has no dialogue. It’s in my to read pile. Their story is also a Chinese webtoon (alternate or original title: Tamen De Gushi) about two girls finding each other and it devoured me.

I had to force myself to close my computer early Saturday morning when I got to chapter 130. I finished up the remaining 63 chapters when I got up a few hours later. It’s an ongoing series and believe you me that I will be keeping up with it!

anytime, anywhere

I read a lot of webtoons, doujin and even more traditional manga but I rarely talk about them on my blog. I also rarely give up my sleep on the one weekend I actually have to stick to a schedule in order to read something I could finish anytime. So why is Their Story different?

That’s an impossible question to answer. The short and most accurate response is : I like it. I really like it. The longer one is that it has great pacing and a good sense of humour. The narrative respects the characters which are all well crafted and complex while remaining realistic and consistent. They are recognizable as people you may be friends with but just a bit more fun since you only hear about the adventures. The discovery of sexuality and social pressure is modernizes, told from a contemporary setting where a lot has changed and the stigmas aren’t the same but some things are still painfully old fashioned. Their Story is a coming of age from the point of view of modern young women and we don’t get enough of those. And it is also absolutely heartwarming. Not everything needs to be tragic and sometimes we can manage to cut ourselves on the softest things.

I didn’t do a good job. I’m still trying to get back those lost sleep hours. Ok, let me just give you this one random chapter as an example:

This chapter isn’t directly related to the story so there are no spoilers here, but the general theme has a connection with an earlier arc. It’s obviously feminist and if that annoys you…well you probably have given up on my blog a long time ago cause I am way more annoying than Their Story. I don’t see that many webtoons trying to make these points. Their story is fairly innocent and could easily be targeted at a younger audience. An audience that might not have completely acknowledged these realities. It made me so happy to think that somewhere a 13 year old saw this and thought, I never thought about it nut that’s sort of true…it kinda sucks. I also don’t think this story is particularly targeted to girls, as such the more personal perspective is even more interesting.

And a chapter like this works only because the author spend 180 chapters before it making us laugh and worry and fall in love with the characters. It’s not a message manga it’s a story that occasionally has something to say beyond it’s own fiction. Have I mentioned it’s adorable. Ok. Let me try again, here is one of the early chapters…..

I hope this has wetted (yes, this one time the error is on purpose) your appetite enough. It really is a great webtoon. Unless you are opposed to Yuri for some reason, I recommend you give it a try.

For my part, I scrapped myself together best I could, trying to make myself look somewhat presentable for the con and went right back to spend an entire day walking in heels on a few hours sleep. When I got back to that booth I told this entire tale of woe to the poor confused artist and openly blamed her for my sleep deprivation. Then I bought the Their Story print. here it is. I love it. Thank you..

I Ruin My Sleep Schedule Again, This Time With Yuri! Hello boys and girls. I hope you are having a great day. Healthy, happy and well rested.

[chi-is-bored]

A rant abt RenAi

I was missing Zero that I wanted to re-read his scenes and saw vkm has alot more chapters since I last visited (I dunno why I was surprised it was like a year ago) but anyway, I chose random chapter to check out and BAM well hello there RenAi *sigh

My first response was 'of fucking couse you do' but I'm not surprised.

My second response was 'shes a girl??'

So then I checked out vkm tags I'm surprised that there are people who were in denial... Like I get it, YuMe isnt direct incest like RenAi and VK and even vkm kinda sunk that ship but like why are you surprised? Were y'all thinking that with YuMe sunk, sensei is implying that incest sucks in her universe? Cause YuMe didnt sunk in canon because it was incest but because kaname was too depresed and fucked up that he crossed the line and hurting yuuki, thats why he decided to 'stop' their relationship.

While checking tags, I read some from both sides... Aaaand....

1. I agree that people who cant enjoy vkm anymore should just stop reading. And like just delve into fanfics and fanart cuz like thats what they are for. But some people like to rant cuz thats what blogs are for. We just need to tag and block tags, man.

2. Saying ALL the ones who dislike or even disappointed abt RenAi is lesbianphobes... Nah hun, its the incest thats they have problem with, I dunno why this is hard, like alot of fans dont like YuMe for the very same reason even tho they're like ancestors apart lol.

3. While some are preetty clear that the reason they dont like it is because incest isnt their cup of tea, but Im seeing some post that is one slip away to purity culture and nuh uh, no just no. Look whatever, some people ship incest, some people dont, when you dont you just press that back button (and I know alot have done, which is fine and good). But for the love of God, I better not see 'incest is wrong' regarding renai's discourse. This is fucking fictional abt vampires! Dark vampires not fucking vegetarian vamps (tho I hesitate to call VK a dark manga.... Its more like a dark rose-colored one)

4. The stalking, creepy way of Ai's bla bla bla.... Like please, none of the vampires in vk are fucking saint. All of our charas are fucking disfungsional. They are not bad or evil, but none of them are good. Zeki even said it, Kaname did the same. And I know, VK has kaname abusive in the end, but *sigh Sensei story is of that tragic backstory caused this guy to fucked up his mind and vampire has instincts that cause these abuse. For the lack of better words Sensei in the story kinda excuse the abuse. I disagree but I didnt write the story so. And sensei has written a parallel of yume with zero ai, but resolved or handled in better way so really, I dont think they're going to go the same mistake as kaname made.

And full disclosure, I dont like RenAi, its not that they're girls, or incest. I have some incest... uh not ship I guess since I'm not invested in their relationship canon but I do enjoy incest fanfic or stories, from the dark toxic one to the pure but 'wrong' love. One example is Okumura Yukio/Rin, they are twins and are demons so really.. I'm not new to these dark themes... But honestly I'm just disappointed.

At first I thought is it because I hate YuMe? But then I remembered my problem with the last chapters of VK was Yuuki's lack of development not Yume, cause I did root for them until the after rido arc. And its mainly because Yuuki devolution that to me are in effect of putting kaname in focus. So in a way I hated YuMe for de-evolving my girl and just ended there without the rise of her character or something.

Honestly I dont think I'm the only one who think that vkm was a fix for that.I think thats why a lot of people are mad that the trio 'dissapear'.

If it isnt clear, its because some fans wanted to see some closures and the development for the charas that were rushed in vk. Until RenAi appeared, it hasnt finished yet, so these fans were miffed or pissed that sensei suddenly focused in RenAi when some charas havent even shown their faces. Dont get me wrong, the way vkm has been written has made me think that all development and closures are going to be written in pieces and disjointed from the start, so I personally dont have a problem but I can understand these fans.

Wait, I think I went on tangent.

Damn this ia long.... Sorry.

I think, bottomline RenAi ticked me off cause its like the de-evolution of yuuki all over again and the way RenAi plot is handled canonwise is not my cup of tea. Tho really VK has always been weak in plot, so we should man up and admit it, VK n VKm are character study stories.

The fanfics on the other hand....

[silvana-fangirls]

Target [Dabi x ua!Reader] Chapter 3

Hey guys! So here it is... It took longer than I expected because college life is freaking unstable.

Anyways PLEASE READ THIS!!!

I'm kinda nervous about this chapter since Dabi is a bit difficult to guess since he doesn't get enough storyline in the manga/anime. So I was worried i wouldn't get him right (one of the other reasons why this took longer) This was the best I could do!

Also, there might not be much interaction with the reader insert and Dabi in this chapter BUT I kinda needed everything here.

Also, please read notes below.

ENJOY!

Links to:

[Chapter 1]

[Chapter 2]

Read it in [AO3]

or below the cut

Dabi would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised by the sudden turn of events their mission had.

Their goal was pretty simple: get the angry kid and the girl and if you can get rid of everyone who was on the kill list Shigaraki gave them.

Other than the location and the goal Shigaraki didn’t give them much more, not even basic instructions, so basically all the planning was Dabi’s work in the end.

Not that he minded, the USJ incident was a complete and utter disaster so it was probably better that the planning was left to him this time.

He refused to fail, so his plan was simple and clear yet efficient.

He was going to stay on one side of the forest and set it on fire and Mustard would use his quirk in the other side so they could corner everyone up and hide an evacuation point for them to escape. Toga was ordered to get at least 3 samples of blood, Twice was going to create copies of him so they could distract the Pros as long as necessary, Moonfish and Muscular were off to go wherever the hell they wanted and they were also allowed to kill everyone as long as they were on the list, Compress was in charge of the explosive kid since only a fool would actually fight him in order to take him and it was just way safer to keep him in a tiny marble.

Spinner and Magne were in charge of the girl since Shigaraki said –repetitively- that she was probably forced to enroll the U.A. by the Pros to prevent her from becoming a villain just like her parents. “Only a little chat should be enough to convince her” He said, so since Spinner was better with words, emotional speeches and stuff than the rest of them he sent him to get her with Magne as backup in case they where Pros around.

Then Dabi would just settle to make sure everything was running smoothly until they completed their mission.

It was almost funny that one of their two targets literally crashed on him out of pretty much nowhere.

She looked at him horrified, like she was looking up to her worst nightmare. She looked even more ridiculous with that shit tied up around her face but he figured it was because of the smoke.

He remembered what Shigaraki said, so he tried do some small talk even if he sucked at it… but the moment she got up on her feet and made movements with her hands he knew that Shigaraki was completely wrong.

He allowed himself to snort at it now.

‘“Just a little chat will do’ my ass” He thought as he looked at her unconscious body huddled up in his arms.

He had to pick her up bridal style to carry her to the evacuation point. Not everyone had such practical abduction quirks as Compress after all.

The girl wanted nothing to do with villains, their little fight and short exchange of words made that crystal clear.

He almost wanted to laugh again thinking about the ‘fight’.

He could’ve ended it a lot sooner than he did but he couldn’t deny that the whole encounter has actually been a bit fun.

It’s been a while since he used his quirk so freely, plus in a fight. He almost forgot how good it felt after all those years of laying low.

He was telling the truth when he told her he couldn’t bring her all burnt up. First of all because Shigaraki wouldn’t appreciate that very much (not that he cared anyways) but second of all, he didn’t think anyone would join anything if they got hurt in the process of ‘getting convinced’. If she got hurt in the process of it there would’ve been even a bigger chance of her saying no.

He probably used like 10% of his power accompanied with half-assed moves. Still, he had to admit she put up a decent fight even if it would’ve never been near enough to keep up with him. It kinda wasn’t her fault that she was useless when paired up with a quirk like his.

He looked down to her again as he kept carrying her to the evacuation point.

“What a shame, having such a shitty drawback as headaches” he thought.

Her quirk was pretty powerful and versatile, one of the several reasons why they were recruiting her in the first place but he was pretty sure that Shigaraki didn’t know about the headaches, he surely would use it to his advantage now that it was clear that the girl was not so willing to cooperate.

“Dabi! You captured Target Two, good job!” Twice said in his deeper voice “It was the least you can do since you got so easily defeated again” he added with his other one.

He just ignored him even if he knew what he was talking about. His other ‘clone’ got turned into mud as quick as the last one... but that was really besides the point. He didn’t ask Twice to make it to defeat anyone but just to buy more time.

Even if everything was turning even better than he had hoped for, he was still a bit surprised at how poorly were the pros acting in this whole situation. The Vanguard Action Squad hardly did anything to stop them after all, it was almost like the pros were tripping on their own feet.

“Also, pretty exciting that Mr. Compress got the job done quickly as well, huh?” He said “You took your sweet time though! I’m getting sleepy over here” Dabi sighed at this.

“Don’t be a pain, Twice. We got them, didn't we?” He carelessly said as he took a quick glance at the unconscious girl he was carrying.

“You’re the pain! Forgive me”

Dabi took a look at his surroundings then. He narrowed his eyes slightly.

“This spot was supposed to be concealed by a wall of fire and gas, but...” he said, scanning the area. “... The gas seems to have cleared” he pointed out.

‘Has something gone wrong with Mustard?’

“Now we can’t go with the original plan!” Twice complained at first “Damn right! Just as planned” he said then.

Dabi continued to simply ignore him as he scanned the scene for any clues of what might have happened.

A flash of blonde between the bushes caught his eye.

He was about to make his way toward them but...

“Hey, Dabi! This is totally unimportant but...” Twice called out again. “Sure you don’t gotta call that Nomu back? They say he only reacts to your voice, right? Seems pretty freaking important to me!!” He said and that made Dabi turn his attention back to him again.

“Ah, that’s right” He said, only now remembering about the beast he let loose not long ago. “You’re the one who reminded me to let him loose on the students earlier” He added, as he started to make his way back to the evacuation point, the girl still in a secure hold in his arms.

“No problem! Bow before me!”

“Shigaraki did design the monster specifically for me” He said as he pressed her earpiece while being careful not to drop the girl. “He’s probably kill someone by now” He shrugged off as he called him.

They only took a few more steps and they finally arrived to their destination.

Toga was the only one there, which didn’t please him at all. They needed to get out of here as soon as they could.

‘What part of ‘five minutes after this transmission’ they didn’t get?’

“You, whack-job” He called out to her. “Did you get the blood? From how many people?” He asked.

“One person” She chirply said, and Dabi swore that if it wasn't for the girl occupying both of his arms right now he would face-palm himself.

“Just one? Hey, what gives!? Weren't you supposed to get at least 3?” Twice said.

“That’s just the way it went down” She shrugged off with her typical crazy smile on her face. “I thought those brats were gonna kill me”

“Tch, whatever. You’re looking a little too happy right now… Strange. Shouldn’t you be full of shame?” Twice asked and Toga just squealed.

“Yeah but I made some new friends! And I found a cute boy I'm interested in!” She said dreamily.

“Is it me? No, thanks, babe. I love you too!” Twice said making a heart with his hands.

‘Could these two get any more stupid?’

“Both of you, shut it. You’re too loud” Dabi said. It seemed that he was the only one that acknowledged the fact that thy were still in a forest surrounded by Pros and hero’s in training.

“OH!” Toga exclaimed when she finally turned his attention to him. “You got one! Can I see?” She said and rushed to him, golden eyes glued to the girl in his arms.

She reached for her as soon as she was close enough, but he quickly dodged her before she could lay a finger on her.

“Hey!” She whined.

“Hands off, I don’t want to get her back to the base all cut into pieces” He said.

“I just wanna see!” She said and tried to launch to him once again.

“I said back off, nut job. I fucking mean it” He warned watching as she pouted.

‘Fucking crazy’ He thought, but then he picked up a weird noise.

Turning back to the sky, he saw how Mr. Compress was helplessly falling towards the ground with three kids on his back.

The crashing sound could've been mistaken by a meteor hitting the Earth.

“Woah, woah, woah! What’s this?” Twice exclaimed as the three of them were looking at how they were crashing Compress to the ground. “Oh, hey, wait! I know these kids. Who are they?”

Dabi’s eyes instantly narrowed as he looked at each of them.

“GET KACCHAN AND TOKOYAMI BACK TO US!” Midoriya screamed.

As carefully as he could, Dabi let one of his arms free while still keeping the girl on a secure hold.

“Out of the way, Compress” He said as he pointed towards them.

“Copy that” He said and Dabi fired.

The screams came out instantly.

“My arms are burning!” Shouji screamed.

“Midoriya! Shouji!” Todoroki screamed as he dodged the fire.

“The beat up little boy and you! You’re on Shigaraki’s kill list!” Twice said as he lunged at Todoroki. “No they weren’t!”

Todoroki out of instant reflex made a barrier of ice to stop him.

“Too hot!” Twice whined.

At the exact same moment, Toga shoot her needled canisters at Midoriya.

“Hi Izuku, my name’s Toga!” She said as she rushed to him, making him trip as he tried to step back and sitting on him once he was on the floor. “I’ve been thinking since I saw you… That you’ll be so much cuter if you bled a little more!” She exclaimed.

Midoriya looked horrified at first when he saw her take out a knife, but something in the corner of his eye made him almost forget about it.

“W-WHAT’S THAT!?” He exclaimed in despair as his eyes were trained on Dabi and an unconscious girl up in his arms. “They got someone else!” He screamed to his classmates.

Toga turned to follow his line of sight, and frowned instantly when she realized that he was looking at that other girl.

“Why are you focusing on her and not on me!?” She screamed and lunged her knife at him, being pushed off of him right on time by Shouji.

“It’s (Y/LN) from class 1-B!” Todoroki exclaimed while he was still directing ice attacks towards Twice.

“Oh-ho! This is easy! Give me all you got!” Twice said as he dodged over his ice. “Hey man, cut me some slack!” He said right after while cutting through his ice.

“What the hell is with this guy?” Todoroki growled.

It was then when Mr. Compress finally turned back to normal.

“Ouch, I cant believe they’ve wrecked my exit! Unrehearsed amateurs” He said.

Dabi decided it was best to say nothing regarding that.

“You got Bakugou?” He asked, side-eyeing all the fights while keeping the girl on his grip.

“Of course!” He said, and started to search in his pockets… finding nothing.

‘You gotta be fucking kidding me’

“Midoriya! Todoroki! I’ve got them” Shouji said, making Dabi narrow his eyes at him. “He gave away his best trick” He added.

‘Great’

“I’m not sure what your quirk is” He continued “But it had to do with those little marbles, right? The ones you stashed in your pockets” He added, and showed off two aquamarine marbles between his fingers “So I’m guessing this are Tokoyami and Bakugou”

“You rescued them!” Midoriya exclaimed.

Mr. Compress laughed at this

“Well, color me impressed! Just as I’d expect from someone with so many hands” He joked

‘Is he fucking joking right now?’

“We need to get (Y/LN) now!” Midoriya said

“Right!” Todoroki said from the corner of Dabi’s eye, making him groan in annoyance. “Nice job Shouji!” he added and he started to charge towards him, eyes on the girl.

“Moron” He said, as he again lifted up his arm while balancing the girl out, ready to teach him a lesson.

But as soon as he got close enough, a large black whole appeared right in front of him, making Todoroki stop abruptly.

The three of them stood horrified looking at the familiar glowy eyes.

“This guy!” Shouji exclaimed.

“He was at the USJ!” Todoroki added.

“It’s been five minutes since the signal” Kurogiri said. “Let’s go, Dabi”

He refused to fail.

“Take her, Twice” He said, and carefully placed the girl in Twice’s arms.

“Sure thing! I’m not your maid!” He said before jumping in a blackhole that was near him.

“NO!” Midoriya screamed, watching helplessly as the girl was taken away.

“Don’t worry about her Izuku” Toga said with a murderous glare that instantly turned into a dreamy one. “I’ll see you later okay?” She said and disappeared as well.

Compress started to walk towards the blackhole that was right behind them.

“Hold on, we’re not leaving without the kid” He said, eyes trained on the three helpless students.

“Don’t worry” Mr. Compress said, making him turn. “They were so proud of themselves for running through my pockets that I thought I’d let them gloat” He added. “But allow me to explain a basic tenet of magic… If I’m flaunting something shiny…” He said as he took off his mask. “It’s because there’s something else I don’t want you to see” He said, showing off the marbles in his mouth.

With a snap of his fingers the two marbles Shouji had turned back to large pieces of ice.

“Is that my ice!?” Todoroki asked.

“That’s right… during the freezing attack I prepared dummies and slipped them into my right pocket” he exclaimed.

“DAMNIT!” Midoriya screamed as they all charged towards them.

“A little bit of misdirection, forgive me” Compress said as he was starting to get sucked by the blackhole. “I do adore a twist ending”

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” Midoriya exclaimed.

“One last bow and then the curtain fa-“ Compress was instantly interrupted by a sudden blast that hit him straight in the face. Cracking his mask to pieces and making the marbles fall off.

‘This happens to him because he talks too fucking much’

Just as the marbles got up in the air, Dabi saw how the three of them jump out to reach them. Midoriya instantly fell and rolled in the ground. Shouji managed to snatch one of the marbles with his hand but just as Todoroki was about to grab the other one, Dabi did.

It almost made him burst out of laughter for a moment.

He would always win when it came to this.

He kinda did pity him.

“Aw, how sad…” He said, looking straight has his shocked eyes. “Poor little Shouto Todoroki” He added, listening as he crashed to the ground. “Confirm him now. Release them” He ordered Compress.

“That laser ruined my finale!” Compress said as he snapped his fingers.

Both marbles instantly transformed into Tokoyami and Bakugou. Tokoyami appeared up in the air and Bakugou with Dabi holding him by the back of his neck.

Dabi couldn't help but smirk.

“Check mate” He said, and disappeared into the darkness.

-

They spent a lot less than he was expecting to in tying up the explosive kid.

Once they got to the base the little vixen was already tied up in a chair. There were restrains tying up her back to the chair and keeping her straight and a metal box was trapping both of her hands. She appeared to still be out cold by the looks of it.

Shigaraki was sitting up in a booth, and the only thing that Dabi said to him was that headaches were a drawback for her so he might wanna do something about that because he didn't believe all her ‘chains’ were gonna be enough if she woke up.

Shigaraki ordered Magne to bring a small leader belt from wherever he could find and once he got it Shigaraki tied it up tightly around her head on forehead level keeping up unbearable pressure to ensure a headache.

For some reason Shigaraki reassured him that they would take it off as soon as she agrees to talk with them.

That entire time, Bakugou was being tied up. He was uncharacteristically quiet (Not that he knew the kid at all, but from what he saw in the Sports Festival he guessed that he was definitely not the quiet type) but Dabi could see how his eyes almost never left the unconscious girl that was a few meters from him. The only time they did it was just so he could send murder glares to each of them, particularly to him.

He was definitely not happy about anything.

Still, he sat quietly on his place while keeping the girl on guard. As if she would disappear if he didn't stare at her the entire time.

After quickly acknowledging that they lost 3 on the field, Shigaraki turned to Bakugou.

“Since your other pretty friend seems to be unavailable at the moment” Shigaraki said, briefly gesturing the uncurious girl “Let’s get down to business, wannabe hero Bakugou Katsuki… Won’t you join me?” He asked.

“You can shove your offer up your ass and go to hell” He said with a wicked smile.

‘This kid is nuts’

Shigaraki just hummed in response and quietly turned to turn on the T.V. an interview with the U.A. Principal and the Pro Heros Eraserhead and Vlad King regarding the kidnapping incident was on and if Dabi could use a word to describe what the press was doing to them it would definitely be ‘slamming’.

“Isn’t that strange?” Shigaraki said after a while. “The heroes are becoming the bad guys!” he exclaimed. “Seems like they’re not dealing with this very well… So much criticism… But everyone makes a mistake or two, right?” He asked, but Bakugou was still not giving anything. Eyes just traveling from Shigaraki to the girl and so on. “It’s not like they’re supposed to be perfect… Modern day heroes sure have it rough. Don’t you think, Bakugou?”

He said nothing.

“The minute that protecting people came with a paycheck heroes stopped being heroes. This is what Stain thought us!” Spinner said.

“A hero in this current system only cares about money and glory and since society buys into those idiotic rules, anyone deemed to lose is shoved aside” Shigaraki explained again. “Our war is based on simple questions: ‘What is a Hero?’, ’What is justice?’, ‘Is the society truly fair?’… Soon, everyone will be asking. That’s when we’ll know we’ve won… And you like winning, don't you?”

Bakugou just glared at him.

“Dabi, let him go” Shigaraki said.

“Huh?”

‘Is he out of his fucking mind?’

“He’ll go fucking crazy” Dabi said.

“It’s fine! We’re recruiting him! So we should treat him as an equal” Shigaraki said carelessly.

‘He is out of his fucking mind. No way I’m doing it’

Dabi glanced at the boy for a moment, catching how he glanced once again at the girl.

“Twice, you do it” Dabi said.

“Sure thing! No way!” Twice said.

“Do it” Dabi said, glaring at him.

“Oh, man!” Twice whined, but proceed to untie him anyways.

“I do apologize for such forceful methods” Mr. Compress said. “But please understand that we’re not some kind of mere thugs working in the name of aimless evil. We didn’t kidnap you two by accident”

Dabi did hear a faint growl coming from him after that last sentence.

“Even though our backgrounds are different everyone here has suffered” Shigaraki said as he got up from his booth. “Because of people, rules and heroes who try to hold us back” He added as he started to walk towards Bakugou while he was rubbing his wrists. “I’m sure you’re the same-“

And in the matter of an instant Twice was thrown up in the air by a fierce punch in the face before crashing into the ground, Bakugou pushed his way through and made Shigaraki’s face explode soundly.

It was actually so sudden that even Dabi jumped back at all of it.

Everyone was in utter shock as Shigaraki stumbled back and the hand holding his face flew from him to the ground.

“Shigaraki!” Twice exclaimed even though everyone was to frighten to move.

“I’m done with you and your endless talking” Bakugou said as he got up from the floor. “Fucking idiots can never get to the dammed point” He added. “Basically what you’re saying is: “We wanna harass people. Please be our pal!”” He said and looked up to Shigaraki. “What a fucking joke”

He looked up to them and Dabi was actually surprised to find a wicked smile on his face.

“I like to win” He gave him that. “I like to win just like All Might” He said. “And no matter what any of you jerks say that’s never going to change. Do you understand!?”

Shigaraki just stood still in the exact same position, looking at the fallen hand in the floor.

After a moment, his red eyes turned to Bakugou once again.

“Now” Bakugou said and his eyes turned to the girl. “Let her fucking go or I swear to god I’ll kill y’all”

Dabi wouldn't let that happen.

Notes:

I just want to add a few things:

First off: we won't get any romantic interactions with any other character other than Dabi (in future chapters lol) just in case you might be misreading things, everything I wrote it's to add to the major plot I'm cooking up, but i decided to let love triangles aside.

Second (and I suppose you already know this but still) this is a slow burn! but no THE slowburn either, don't panic.

Third: I'm currently following the anime and I'm writing weekly so I don't 'spoil' much for anyone... Still, even if this story will be linked with the main BNHA plots and I will have to follow up the manga at some point since the thrid season is already nearing to its end the story will have it's own major plot as well. I don't think you REALLY need to read the manga for it the only know the characters.

Fourth: English is not my main language so sorry for any typos!

Anyways, next up we have MORE Dabi P.O.V. anddddd BACKSTORY!!! Stay tuned and tell me your thoughts! :)

One more thing: my tag for this fic is #silvana writes : target 

Let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list

tag list: @buckybear97 @this-lost-child @aebeessun @ye-rinn @ihatemyselftoinfinityandbeyond @cindxalex @luvley-shadow @taeniix @roadtripsonspaceships @iana-therese @darkagedoctor

Should I continue this??

[murasaki-murasame]

Wasn’t really expecting chapter 18 to be up this early. I feel like the last few chapters’ translations have come out a bit earlier than usual. Not that I’m complaining.

I think I remember hearing mixed things about this chapter around when it came out in Japan, but I liked it. Then again, I like Futaba a lot as a character.

Anyway, more detailed thoughts under the cut.

Seeing Touma with a Vita at the start of the chapter was kinda amusing, since I actually got myself one a week or two ago. I feel kinda jealous that he has a Slim model, even though I know his friend just lent him it. I wanted to get one of them, but I could only get an original model. I wonder if Touma’s kinda bad/inexperienced with technology, given that he seemed kinda confused by what seemed to be the Vita going into sleep mode. I guess it makes sense that he’d be less into gaming and whatnot than Taichi.

It’s really cute that Touma feels kinda guilty about wanting Taichi to visit him every day. Thankfully Taichi’s fine with it, and wants to come anyway. I like that they’re getting a chance to hang out, even if the circumstances are kinda awkward.

I wonder how long Touma’s been in the hospital for, by this point. Apparently we’re near the end of July in-story, but I forget when the accident happened. I doubt it’s been THAT long, otherwise the fact that Futaba and Masumi apparently never visited after the first time would be a bit weird.

Mami still bugs me a bit, but at least she’s being way less rude to Taichi than I was fearing. She does kinda need to learn to back off a little, though. I still can’t tell if anything important is being set up with her character. It feels like her whole thing with Touma is going to lead to something dramatic, but I dunno.

I know that Touma probably genuinely likes his other friends, but man I can only imagine how awkward it must be for him to constantly be around Those Kinds of straight dudes. I think this is the second time that one dude’s visited Touma and immediately implied that he must be looking at some kind of porn. I wonder if Touma ever has moments of being like ‘haha yeah c: totally c: I sure do love those big, beautiful, incredibly female women c:’. It reminds me of when I was at school like five years ago and a random dude I was sitting next to turned toward me and was like ‘so which girls in this class do you think are hot?’. Like . . . dude . . . . please. Stop. I’m glad that his other friends seem to be regularly visiting him, though.

Are we . . . meant to know who that other group of girls are, and why they seem to have some kind of an issue with Mami and co? I feel like we are, but I can’t remember them.

On the one hand I can’t really blame them for complaining about Mami behind her back because she kinda deserves it, but on the other hand, they were way out of line with insulting Futaba like that. Thankfully one of them [who I guess is a friend of Futaba’s??? maybe???] defended her.

I can kinda see how an outsider might assume the worst about Futaba’s motives and actions in terms of her obviously having a crush on Touma while also being friends with Taichi, but it’s still kinda uncalled-for.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first, but I like how the story is handling this whole theme of Futaba’s confusion and frustration about all of the drama and baggage behind how society treats interactions and relationships between men and women. It really is awful that people, including Taichi herself, are giving her such a hard time because she just has multiple guys she knows who she likes and enjoys being around. It’s definitely kinda made wonky by the fact that she obviously DOES have romantic feelings for Taichi, but it sucks that the characters are basically all framing her desire to befriend and support Taichi as something manipulative and self-serving. It’s one of the reasons why I kinda hope that she doesn’t have an actual crush on Taichi, since it’d do a better job of hammering in the whole idea of ‘you don’t have to have a crush on someone to want to be around them and be nice to them’.

Usually I don’t care much for stories that are like ‘but what, like, IS love???’, but I kinda liked how it was discussed here. Probably because it also intersected with what I said above, of how Futaba is also grappling with the illogical and misogynistic ways that people view male-female interactions. It’s understandable why she feels so confused about it. Especially since she has pretty valid and clear reasons for why she’d feel strongly about wanting to support Taichi right now even if you ignore her probable crush on him. Like, she’s already witnessed how badly he’s taking this whole thing and how much he’s beating himself up and isolating himself over it. It makes perfect sense why she’d be hurting for him, and why she’d want to help him through it. You get what I mean.

I guess this explains why Futaba, at least, hasn’t really been visiting Touma. I hope she can come to understand that she doesn’t have to only choose to be around one of them, though.

I can really feel for how awkward Futaba must feel, being made to basically pit her feelings for Touma and her feelings for Taichi against each other, to justify why one of them is more important to her than the other one. Which, of course, also means having to label one of them as being the ‘less important’ one, which she obviously doesn’t want to do. Especially since, in this whole context, the idea of someone being ‘less important’ comes with the baggage of ‘you should just avoid them, then, and only stay with the person who’s more important to you’. It actually makes a good amount of sense that Masumi would kinda see things this way as well, with what she said earlier about not having any interest in caring about people outside of her immediate circle. It makes sense why she’d be more open to the idea of basically ranking people’s importance to her than Futaba is.

I can see where Masumi was coming from, in trying to dig deeper into Futaba’s feelings by seeing how she felt about the hypothetical idea of either of the boys already being in a relationship with someone else, but hoo boy do I not want to sit through that incredibly uncomfortable panel of Futaba imagining Touma and Masumi dating ever again. Yikes. It kinda hurt to see her gripping her arm like that when she talked about the hypothetical scenario of herself dating Taichi. I guess other people can read it differently, but she seems clearly uncomfortable about the idea of it because she’s, you know, not attracted to him like that. But on some level she might still feel almost guilty about not being able to experience those feelings.

[Also I really like the panel of Futaba thinking about Taichi after that. He looked really pretty in it. It also makes me even more envious of how Kaito draws hair. It’s a lot harder than it sounds to draw hair in a way that looks nice and actually ‘feels right’ when you look at it.]

And yeah this part makes it pretty clear that Futaba genuinely has a crush on Taichi. Which I have mixed feelings about. Like, at least in a vacuum, I really like her dynamic with Taichi, and I would probably ship them if they were in any other manga, but in the overall context of this series, it feels a little . . . too easy, I guess, that Taichi’s feelings might be requited. Since from day one the story has been all about unrequited love, it’s sorta disappointing to think that the protagonist’s crush would end up being requited, especially since it’s probably the one one that’ll go that way. I still think it’d just kinda suck if this ends with Taichi and Futaba hooking up, while Touma and Masumi just have to deal with their unrequited feelings. Especially since, even in that case, I doubt we’d get to actually see them properly move on and find other partners before the story ends.

I like the current conflict and tension between Taichi and Futaba, and I’m excited to see them overcome that, but it does leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth to think that it’s probably going to end in a romantic way. We’ll see how it goes.

I know that, with the whole unrequited love theme, it’d kinda go against that if anyone’s crushes worked out, but it’s pretty undeniable that it’s just predictable and conventional to have the straight people get what they want in the end. At least if we got a Taichi/Touma ending, if not also a Futaba/Masumi ending, that would be genuinely surprising, unconventional, and against the norm for the genre. It’d be hard to call that a ‘betrayal of the central theme’ or whatever when basically nothing else like this actually ends that way.

Also, it must be bittersweet for Masumi to be increasingly aware of Futaba’s crush on Taichi, since it just makes it even clearer for her how her own feelings are doomed to stay one-sided.

I see why Futaba feels that way, but it’s sad seeing her feel like it’d be better if she stayed away from both Taichi and Touma now, in case she makes things worse for them.

I wonder how the next chapter will go. Given how long v2 was, I think the next chapter should be the end of v3, so if it’s anything like the last two volumes it’ll probably be something dramatic.

I can see why a lot of people probably disliked this chapter, but even though I have my aforementioned reservations about the idea of her having a crush on Taichi, I really do love Futaba as a character, so these sorts of chapters are nice.

[skittymon]

Okay I made this post before but I’m doing it again.

Why do people keep saying that the Arc-V manga is better than the anime?

Rant below the undercut

First off how can the manga be better when it’s on chapter 20 and being compared to a 148 episode series. And for the love of god even when I wasn’t in the fandom I saw people saying this a year ago. Like how???? 

Maybe the ending will be better than the anime’s but it seems like the end goal is going to be Yuya working at Yu-Show or whatever its fucking called in the manga, and as of right now it seems like the other Yuu boys are going to disappear too so its on the same boat as the anime (but with longer farewells from the Yuu boys probably).

And it might be me but like how is the manga even better???

I do like the manga, it’s fine (about 6/10 for me but this last chapter makes me want to say 4/10) and I LOVE its art style, but like…..its so generic, if it wasn’t Yugioh (or even Arc-V because I stopped reading 5ds’ manga after the first volume and skipped over Zexals) I wouldn’t have read it.

I mean I can see why people like it, you got dimensionshipping up the ass, and ‘badass’ Yuya. But like everything else pisses me off.

First the plot. I can’t say much because obviously it’s still on going and there’s some stuff needed to be discovered like how the Yuu boys became one, what G.O.D is, how Yugo and Yuto recognize Yuzu, and chapter 20 did seem like we’ll be getting more info next chapter. But like Yuya comes back from the future with amnesia to save the world because everything is destroyed because of card games. WOW YOSHIDA WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE???? AND IT DOESN’T HELP THAT FRICKIN REN, EVE, AND OTHER GUY LOOK A LOT LIKE  THE YLIASTER GUYS. 

The characters, OH GOD EVERYONE BUT THE YUU BOYS (and kinda Sawatari and Sora) GOT FUCKED OVER. 

First Reiji. Reiji is okay, and I adored his flashbacks with Leo but like wow way to staple him as the bad guy. In the anime Reiji subverted tropes because while he was Yuya’s rival he never antagonized him, and in fact Yuya was often in the wrong and Reiji would have to set him straight. Here nope. Instead it’s Reiji who’s the idiot/in the wrong despite doing what he think’s is right and Yuya is almighty and right and fucking pities Reiji for not coming around. Like….ugh wtf.

Shun is a weird case. His masochists personality turned me the fuck off and is creepy as hell. I mean I guess Yoshida had to give him a new personality since he doesn’t have his best friend or younger sister or tragic backstory anymore (which sucks for me because seeing Shun overcome his losses was one of my favorite things about his character), but why the fuck did you pick that. Shun is so far is literally the only character, in my opinion, so in the manga to get decent character development so that saves him a bit and he seems to have lost his creepiness a bit (which is still weird for me because you can’t fundamentally change your personality after one fucking duel).

Sora….I’m confused on. It maybe because some of the recent chapter I skimmed but he’s working for Ren and people right??? Why?? Is he from the future too??? His character confuses me because apparently he forgot that he was working with Ren and Eve?? And p sure Sora admitted to using the sister thing as a trick to Yuya but its not?? Like you’re not even same side as Yuya or have any nice feelings about him and are suppose to be chasing after him why are you being nice to him??? I mean I guess he’s acting as a double agent/undercover like in the anime but idk I feel like its sloppy and confusing.

Sawatari is fine, he hasn’t done much and is kinda the butt of stuff like in the anime sorry man you can’t escape that fate lol

I know I said the Yuu boys are fine (Yuto and Yuri I feel like they kinda improved on so good on ya manga) but Yuya and Yugo man. I thought Yugo was fine until this recent chapter where he just shitted on Yuzu like wow I know for a fact the anime Yugo might have done that but it would have went over his head and no way in hell would he be allowed to get away with that. I guess Rin really is a fundamental part of his character….

Then Yuya, who literally might be fucking god because Yoshida was a savior boner / Jesus complex. First off, 20 chapters in and no character development (he might get some in the next chapter finally). I mean he has character but he’s still the same as he was in chapter one: being cocky, 100% with his convictions that he dad is right, doesn’t question why the Yuu boys shaft him sometimes or has regain a single memory. Then I feel like he’s too high on a pedestal. He’s apparently a genius hacker who can get into Leo Corporation without being traced and his narrative portrays him as almighty in duels and in life general. Fine, people like badass superior cocky characters but like they eventually need to be taken off their high horses and knowing Yoshida’s writing….that’s probably not going to happen (see Yusei in 5ds part 2 or Yuma with his convictions that always get stomped on but come back two minutes later no questioned and changes the bad guys heart).

Finally Yuzu…..my daughter I’m so sorry what Yoshida did to you. You’re basically Kotori now but worse because we know you have potential. First, her dad owns a duel school why can’t she duel??? Like fine maybe Konami doesn’t have any Medious cards to see but you can still show she can duel but have Yuya duel instead because ‘its his fight’ or whatever. Second, why is she the butt of all the jokes even more than Sawatari? Again chapter 20 just made her a joke (Yugo: We’ll start when the girl crouches down in fear) and she’s always in the wrong as has to corrected by any other guy in the series. Then her character traits are the she’s smart (but not as smart as the guys of course shown with Shun beating her in a math tournament and yet he never uses those skills and seem like something he wouldn’t even compete in) and she likes money….that’s it. I almost hate manga!Yuzu and I feel like Yoshida was forced to write Yuzu because she’s suppose be a huge force to Yuya but is like….’but is she really compared to the guys tho.’ At this point the only thing I’m hoping for with her is that Yugo and Yuto recognize her because she’s some important figure in the future (probably a scientist and most like Leo or Yusho’s assistant because she can’t be as smart as them) and I get to see older Yuzu who hopefully looks a lot like Ray. ALSO WHY ISN’T SHE THE EVE FACTOR SHE AND YUYA ARE SUPPOSE TO BE SOULMATES KINDA.

And why did you only include the ‘pretty’ characters Yoshida? Reira I understand because Reiji is from the future. But like where are my quirky characters of Gonzengaka, Tsukikage, and Dennis? Why don’t I get Yoko is Yuya’s memories? Where are the three kiddies attending Shunzo’s school? I know that Arc-V has a big cast but so does GX and its manga included nearly fucking everyone at least once.

So basically I have all these problems with the manga, so no to me it’s not better than the anime. But it’s only 20 chapters in, that could change probably not because Yoshida’s writing is meh to me lol but I think the argument of ‘the manga is better than the anime’ is flawed and pointless at this point because the manga has a lot of problems and unanswered questions that needs to be resolved and then once its over we can use the aftermath to compare with the finished anime. 

Basically: can people stop saying that, it pisses me off.

[starrcadesnow]

4:17 AM EST, Feb 18th, 2018

Hello again. It’s been a few days since I written anything to you. Sorry. It’s been eventful as of late. Especially the past few days, so let’s get too it. Let me tell you about my life once more my friend. Let’s also go back a few days

The Day before Valentine’s Day, Tuesday the 13th. I don’t remember much from that day except with how happy I was and a little bummed. I woke up with texts from H and we were talking for a bit. Valentine’s Day was coming up and I wanted to do something special for her. I wasn’t doing this because I have romantic feelings for her but feelings as a friend and that I appreciate how much she means to me and how spectacular she is. She told me she was supposed to have plans with her best friend, G, that day but G forgot and made plans with somebody else. H was pretty distraught over it but she invited me out to meet her for coffee at Starbucks. This day was Tuesday and she was leaving on Thursday to go back to Tennessee for the week. Visiting her friends, her ex and picking up the rest of her stuff. As of today I honestly miss her and hanging out with her and stuff. I hope she has fun and stays safe. 

I arrive at the Starbucks before her, so I grabbed a table and placed her gift on the seat next to me and covered it with my hoodie. A gift in a amazon box with a paper taped to it. Eventually she arrived and my smile got nervous and my body was shaking. I told her “don’t be mad but I did something stupid”. I take out the box with the paper and she looks at me with a smile. “Happy Valentine’s Day” I anxiously tell her. She takes the folded paper on the box and reads this as follows:  “Happy Valentine’s Day! 

 Hey, I know you said Valentine’s Day wasn’t your thing but I was thinking about getting you a surprise gift, so I decided to be stupid and get something anyways. (Sorry in advanced) As a friend I got ya something I think you’d like. Think of it as a Friends Valentine’s Gift. You’ve been an amazing, awesome, kind, sweet, funny and dorky friend that I enjoy spending time with and talking about random goofy stuff with you. From opening up to you about secrets and fears, going to dinners, getting coffee or just hanging out, you’ve been a spectacular friend. I’m not good at crafting and making things from the heart like you with the Star Wars blanket you made me but I feel like this letter will do enough with the thought I put into the gift I got you. 

I know you’ve been feeling depressed lately. Feeling like your in a rut about life in stuff. But I want to tell you what you tell me. Life isn’t easy, it sucks. Things may not always go the way you want them to go but you gotta remind yourself you have your own path. Sometimes the path may not be clear or you’ll lose the way but you’ll always find your way back onto the pass or create a new. We all have to live and grow our own ways and sometimes it may never feel like enough. Even if you’re just comparing. But I’m sure you having things in your life that you hold special and dear to your heart and you have that from the road you traveled. You’ll find your groove. You just gotta take it day by day. And some days, you just feel like the outside world can Fuck Off. You just wanna be by yourself but in this box is a friend who I hope helps out even in the slightest and keeps you company. 

Well actually. He’s more than a friend. He’s a “neighbor”. “

With each line she reads I notice her blush and smile, wider and wider. I was still shaking with fear honestly. She puts the note down, looks at me and thanks me. She then opens the box and her eyes glow brighter than anything I ever seen. Inside the box was a plush of Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro. She was so happy. She immediately cuddled it to her face and just stared in awe at it. She loved it. She lets me know that she is in love with her gift. I was happy that she was happy. 

After coffee we grabbed lunch at another location of the wing restaurant I worked at. Our conversations turned into talks about our kinks and tumblr. I don’t remember if I told you in the last post but I have a Foot Fetish and Tickling Fetish that I’m embarrassed about. Yes, like licking and kissing feet, sucking toes, footjobs, rubbing feet and whatnot. Sorry, NSFW. I mean I’m into other things. Dom/sub BDSM, spanking, a bit of ddlg, and what not. I think that all qualifies under BDSM actually. I’m not quite sure. Bit off the rails from mine and hers conversation but I’m actually a virgin. 21 years old and no sex. I’ve came close a few times actually to be honest but decided against it. 1st time, I meet a woman over Craigslist so I could play with her feet. She gave me a footjob and I massaged her feet, sucked her toes, licked her soles and kissed her feet. She played a “Dom” forcing me at her feet but no penetration sex.  The 2nd time was with a girl I knew from when we went to high school. She came over and I massaged her feet. Eventually I sucked her toes and she would moan and turn side to side in Ecstasy. She claimed she has never been touched like that before. As I played with her feet she told me to take off my shirt as she unbuttoned hers. I asked politely if I could take off my pants. She said Yes Eventually I asked if I could take off my underwear too. She said “Yes you geek!” I didn’t want to cross any lines in case and asked politely. Eventually we laid naked on my bed as we made out and she gave me a handjob. She wanted to take my virginity but I decided against it. What we were doing was a FWB kinda thing I guess, just letting me play with her feet. She did let me tie her up and tickle her feet which was fun. That was over a year ago. I’ve been dying to touch another woman’s feet, massage them, lick them, play with them. Sorry if this is getting too uncomfortable. I just need to let these feelings out. 

Back to the restaurant. Me and H talked about our kinks and our kink tumblr blogs and she asked me if I wanted to see hers, I told her “Honestly, I want to say yes but I would feel bad” She said thats okay and she handed me her phone. I scrolled through it noticing we were into some of the same things. Just minus the foot/tickle fetish. She thought she made me feel uncomfortable being shown her tumblr. I wasn’t it. In return I showed her mine if she wanted and she looked at it too. I’m just happy I can talk to someone I can be open about how I feel sexually with and she can in return. I think. I overthink things.  Afterwards we went to Barnes and Noble and walked around in there for a while. talking about books, some manga and comics and a bit of the Fifty Shades books and films. She was still carrying around her purse with Totoro inside and the letter I wrote to her. It made me happy still.

Eventually I dropped her off back to her car at the starbucks. Hugged and I drove away. Unfortunately (but also fortunately) she has a Valentine’s Card to give me but she didn’t write anything in it yet. So the next day, on Wednesday we went out for a last dinner before she would leave for Tenessee. We went to a Chinese buffet place. I met here there at about 8pm and she gave me gifts she got me for Valentine’s Day. A heart shaped box of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, a 15 Dollar Gift Card for the movie theater and a Valentine’s Day Card with a letter she wrote on the inside. I’m not gonna share the letter but reading it made me so happy. I keep it on my shelf in my bedroom and I smile every time I pass it. She’s still just my friend but I appreciate her so god damn much. She’s one of my best friends. She’s amazing. A hugged her and I almost wanted to cry to be honest. She was my first Valentine. I’ve never had a Valentine’s Day with anyone or anything like that except for her. After dinner we sat outside as she smoked and we just talked the rest of the night away, and by rest of the night I meant 15 minutes. She walked me back to her car and we hugged one final time before she vacations for a week. As she walked away, I opened my car door and turned around to look at her. I can comfortable call her one of my best friends and she makes me happy. Even though the letter say otherwise, I hope I make her happy too. I hope I’ve made her happy alot in the past. Again, I’m over thinking things like the letter or what she has told me before has never said that...

Thursday goes by like a snap. I saw Black Panther, worked out and got a Text at 7pm from H, telling me she made it safely to Tennesee. Friday passes, and now it’s Sunday morning. 

Let me tell you how Saturday the 17th started. I woke up at 9 am. Went downstairs to get a glass of milk and my parents were fighting. They usually don’t ever fight. I don’t want to go into details but my Mother is very emotionally and depressed and my Dad, he’s a nice guy but without realizing it at times can be an instigator. My Mom threw the cordless phone into a large glass framed photo and shattered it. I tried to stop my Mom but she was not having it and was screaming at my Dad. I knew if I stayed any longer I would of broke down. sorry my friend but if you have’t noticed I am very emotional. I was angry and sad at the same time. I went upstairs, got changed, came down, put my shoes on and grabbed my coat. My Dad asked if I had to work and I just said “No I’m leaving”. He asked me to “stay, don’t leave, please”. He tried to grab my arm and I pushed him away and told him “I don’t want to fucking deal with this bullshit! I’m leaving. I don’t know where I’m going but I’m leaving” 

I got in my car and drove off towards the 24/7 Gym and worked out a bit until my Mom called, asking me to come home. Telling me that her and Dad worked it out, there’s no more screaming, they apologized to each other. I came home and regardless I was still angry and sad. I wanted to breakdown and cry with all these emotions and feelings running through my head. I wanted to punch the wall. I wanted to just lay down and cry. I wanted to do alot of things but just stood there and listened to their story. 

I got re-ready for the day and left to go to a historic building I help out with on occasion. My friend’s “A” and “B” have a child and it’s their 6th Birthday today and we were having it at the historic building. I went there, hung out with friends for a bit. Went to a late night movie, late night dinner at my work and came home. As of right now it’s 4:57 am, Sunday Morning. I put out an ad on Craigslist again because I really really want to indulge more in my Foot Fetish. I know it’s dangerous but I really really want this. God, do I want this. I feel like a bad person for doing this too. Nobody but bots has responded yet. All I can do is just masturbate and the need goes away temporarily. Doesn’t help that the late night movie we saw was Fifty Shades Freed. 

I’m sorry friend if this letter go out of control in the sexual department. I hope you understand. If you do, thank you and thank you for taking your time to read this again.

Love Always, Austin 

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Shield Hero 11 - 13 | Price of Smiles 12 (FINAL) | Morose Mononokean II 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Spec Ops Asuka 11 - 12 (FINAL) | My Roommate is a Cat 12 (FINAL) | Mob Psycho 100 II 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Yu-No 1 | Fruits Basket (2019) 1 | We Never Learn 1 | Kimetsu no Yaiba 1 | Kono Oto Tomare! 1 | Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin 1 | Fairy Gone 1 | Rendai Utena 1

Notably, Sarazanmai’s first ep isn’t here, but it’s a huge contender for making my spring watchlist.

Shield Hero 11

Okay, someone’s trying to remind me of Goblin Slayer, aren’t they…? *grumble grumble grumble*

I wonder if Naofumi has a Thunder move like those guys…?

Why isn’t Raphtalia, who was cursed by Rage Shield, affected, but Filo, who was eaten by the zombie dragon, is???

Price of Smiles 12 (FINAL)

Is Huey…not an a$$? Is he just really tsundere…?

Fingers don’t move that way, Layla…

Post-credits segment. Keep watching…

I feel like making Stella and Yuki meet off the back of Layla’s death was a bit much and pushing the button together was a bit…much-er, if that’s a concept. Anyways, see you next time!

Morose Mononokean II 12

The Cobweb = Above the Spider (by literally translating that ep title, that is).

I’m finally listening to Koura’s voice. Koura sounds like she’s always teasing Itsuki…

Jinja = Shinto shrine. That nuance is missing from the translation.

Why did that one track (when Itsuki was escaping) sound like Mission Impossible…?

What’s an analeptic? I can’t seem to pause the video…Update: Apparently my ad blocker was stuffing with the pause button. Also, an analeptic appars to be a restorative drug, or describing a drug as restorative.

Rippou sounds so enthusiastic (sarcastic) when Shizuku offers to make him tea.

Spec Ops Asuka 11

Wat. A girl in Thailand going “nya”? Update: Uhh…apparently the girl in Thailand…was Peipei??? Wuh???

Hmm…I never actually put 2 and 2 together regarding karate and the whip. It makes sense in retrospect, though.

“…sever the…” – Sever the…what, exactly?

I thought human!Giess didn’t exist anymore under that armour…so seeing him surprised me.

Sometimes I feel like I sympathise with Chisato more than Asuka or Kurumi…that’s how developed Chisato is.

Mob Psycho 100 II 12

Serizawa is playing Bomberman.

I like the symbolism of the umbrella as a “light”.

My Roommate is a Cat 12 (FINAL)

The ep title is “Kimi to Boku to” (You and I and…). Presumably it should end with “everyone else”…or something.

Wait, wasn’t Subaru’s umbrella handle round before??? It’s straight now!

What a waste of a perfectly good umbrella!

Somehow I knew Subaru would go to Nana once he needed cat knowledge.

*Subaru rescues Haru* - *cue Lion King song* Ahhhhhhh ze ban yaaaaaaaaaaa…or something like that.

Why is it that I want a dub for this so…darn…badly???!!! Wait…*record scratch* it already has one. Scratch that.

Shield Hero 12

“I can’t stop trembling,” Raphtalia says as she stands there, still as a statue…geesh.

I’d assume there’s a Meteor Shield in there for Naofumi as well…?

Come to think of it, we never learnt that weapon merchant guy’s name until now, huh? Elhart. I’ll try my best to remember it.

Spec-Ops Asuka 12 (FINAL)

Twin-headed Dragon Peipei, huh?

Morose Mononokean II 13 (FINAL)

*Fuzzy gets punched away* - Fuzzy, noooooooo!

In the same way Mob became a so-called “bishonen” for s2 ep 5 of his show, Hanae became kind of hot – but also kind of weird – for the finale.

Notably, the “Ashiya” Abeno is referring to is only Hanae…not Sakae at all. Hmm.

Mob Psycho 100 II 13 (FINAL)

“Bishonen” Mob returns!

I keep getting the feeling that Mob will sacrifice himself this episode. It’s a very Mob thing to do, but…I worry about him, because without him we have no show.

*explosion* - I wanna yell “KANEDAAAAAAAAAA!” Is that appropriate for this scene?

I LOLled at Dimple wearing Serizawa’s chunk of hair, haha.

Anyways, that was way too fun (and way too worrying at the end). See you next time!

Yu-No 1

Okay, first episode of this particularly meager season…coming right up!

I’ve never had to watch an ep on phone for subs before…I much prefer a bigger screen.

Okay…as soon as I heard Potato-kun say “Panties?” I knew I was in for a bad time. I’m watching based on the title and the series image, not the fact it’s based on an adult VN.

I can’t believe we have to be told about these ladies from the guys first…I feel sorry for Yuki.

I-Is Arima-mama the kind of person one would call a “MILF”…? I dunno since I don’t swing that way.

Seriously, how long ago did Potato-kun’s father die??? (I know his name is Arima Takuya, but…he’s “Potato-kun” to me, even as a joke.)

Potato-kun is so obviously following his…pen island, so to speak.

Ah, Potato-kun. The only time you make me laugh is when you humiliate yourself on public news. Thank goodness this show isn’t particularly lewd…yet.

It’s like Grand Blue…only with less drinking.

Seriously, why does Yuki call Potato-kun “boss”???

The one time I hear the name “Neumann”, it’s this time travel show, of all things…*remembers von Neumann architecture* Yup, that’s where I remember his name from. By the by, Googling “Neumann space” yields this site on travelling to the…stars? Wrong frontier, folks.

Okay, that was probably the least exciting way to pull off a big reveal like that. Drop.

Shield Hero 13

To be honest…I like Rise better…

“You’re are surrounded.” – I know you’re in a hurry to sub your content, CR subbers, but seriously?????

It’s always funny to see Motoyasu get a good socking from Filo, LOL.

Fruits Basket 1

I have zero experience with OG Fruits Basket outside 1 episode I didn’t really finish (but finishd the entire manga and may have caught a tiny bit of it - not enough to mark on anyone’s anime list as “complete” - while it was on TV), so…this’ll be interesting.

This is exactly as I remember it! Beautifulllllllllllll…so beautiful I wanna cry…(Keep in mind I binged most of the manga years ago, so it’s getting harder and harder to remember the exact story every day.)

Holeeeeeeeeeeee…sugar. I just realised how old Fruits Basket is! Also, rumour has it Motoko has differently coloured hair in the OG version, but I didn’t watch (or didn’t remember) that part, so…I don’t have a standard to hold her up to, really. Plussssss…I love how Motoko and her Prince Yuki fanclub are like Mean Girls. The reason I had to check up how old Fruits Basket is is because of that comparison. Mean Girls is from 2004, thereby being 5 or 6 years younger than Fruits Basket.

The angelic “ahhhhh” in the background really sold how good Tohru’s food was (for Hanajima).

This CGI fan is going to haunt me until the end of my days, isn’t it…?

Ouch…I think I just realised why Fruits Basket is so powerful (at the part where Tohru is working hard at her job). It resonates strongly with those who are lost in life. I found I couldn’t really relate when I first read it though, which may have been attributed to the fact I was…what, 13?...at the time.

Shigure, you a$$!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna kick you for laughing at poor Tohru!!!!!!!!!!!

Photorealistic clouds…no. I think that Indian festival with the dye (I don’t remember which one it is off the top of my head) happened to my eyes…(i.e. my eyes…my poor eyes…)

I didn’t think Vickeblanka was capable of doing slower songs. This song’s kinda nice…but only because I heard the last few seconds of the ending (the rest was obscured by background noise and I don’t have time to play it again).

Between the comment about Shigure and the comment about the clouds, I was internally bawling about how stupid and spoilt I’d become. This is the power of Fruits Basket!

We Never Learn 1

Hmm…I thought the manga of this (or what I saw of it, at least) was kinda vanilla, so…this’ll be an experience, one way or another.

Yuiga’s face game is spot-on, LOL.

Aw, this show encourages the growth mindset…how cute. *does Kaguya-sama face*

The eyecatch is about what classes the main trio are in, but Furuhashi is taking it as related to boob size…*sigh*

The sign just says “library”. There’s no need to contextualise it more than that…

Yup, this is vanilla like ice cream…

Come to think of it, why did I pick this series up? I’ve read the manga parts that correspond to this episode…Well, I remember when this series was still new. I think it was that it was refreshing to see these guys so gung-ho about uni, because recently I’ve been in doubt about my own future (and to tell the truth, I’ve been thinking different things about what I want to do at different stages of my life anyway). I’ve literally only settled on the things I’m doing because I suck at everything else, but I can do whatever I put my mind to…for most things I try. Much like Fruits Basket is for those who are lost in life, We Never Learn is an affirmation that you can change your future…or something like that, anyway.

…The disembodied mouths creep me out…anyways, this show isn’t bad, it isn’t 100% a keeper either (unless I get co-opted into a collab for it). It’s just squarely in the middle.

Boob grope…eesh. That brought down the keeping factor down a little.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 1

[big chunk of information redacted because it’s me stressing over what has to be done before I go overseas...and also it reveals I had a collab for this lined up, which I’m trying to keep a surprise at the time this post went out]

To be honest, I don’t like 1st person cam.

Hmm…there’s more CGI than I’d like to admit is in here…

I remember reading a while ago that the “Tan” in Tanjiro is the word for “charcoal”.

Take = bamboo, and he’s a woodcutter kid. LOL.

This is exactly as I remember it! It’s kinda cool, since the smelling thing is obviously foreshadowing.

I remember I didn’t quite get the idea that Nezuko was growing in size in the manga…well, now I just did.

Oh-hoh-hoh-hohhhhhhh! Giyu Tomioka, me boy! There he is!

I didn’t know Giyu Tomioka was basically a ninja, LOL.

This is definitely one of the better series out there this season. It might not be the best due to its sheer amount of shonen trappings, but it’s still dang good! (I like Giyu Tomioka already, but now that I think of it, I’d like to see Lightning Boy in action within the show and not just the OP…hmm.)

[Sarazanmai 1 is not here because I saw it at the anime club first. I do intend to cover subsequent episodes here though…]

Kono Oto Tomare! 1

I find Funi’s video player unwieldy, to be honest. Maybe it’s because I’m too used to CR’s…

Oh! It seems like the Defence Club has a legacy now!

Surprisingly, this is very funny…!

Hmm…this seems like a show where you should ship people, but there doesn’t seem to be enough of a connection between anyone that I can see anyone shipping. I guess that’s why this thing is basically a shoujo in appearance, huh…?

By the way, who’s “Nadeshiko”? Takezo…?

Do you guys even know what a koto is? If you do, that’s great, but if you don’t, you’re going to have to infer…that’s a bit nasty for an ancient instrument the West doesn’t know about. Then again, this clearly isn’t something made for the West.

I’m wondering why the culprits confessed so easily…

Well, that was…alright. I went “aw” more than I expected and laughed more than expected. It’s not going to top the other shows I’ve got though.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin 1

For some reason, I’m just not used to calling this show “Midnight Occult Civil Servants”…that sounds clunky. That’s why I’m calling it “Mayonaka” for short…oh yeah, right now Funi is undergoing maintenance which is why I had to shuffle Mayonaka forward. I was meant to be doing Fairy Gone in this slot, to be honest with you.

Hmm…*thinks about time talking with Plyasm* *thinks about how Seo trid to kick this Reiji Kyoichi person* I see a resemblance here…with the kicking and all…Update: There is a guy called “Reiji” in this show, I just read “Kyoichi” wrong because I was trying to type up comments here.

Somehow it never actually occurred to me that Seo was a gender-neutral name. I’m normally quite good with these things…or maybe it was Ply keeping me up late that’s making me not notice…or even the fact I’m not listening to Seo’s voice, since that’s sometimes a hint to a person’s gender in particularly ambiguous cases (I’m currently not listening to the audio). Update: Okay, that’s definitely a man’s voice coming from the effeminate-looking Seo.

Oh yes…I forgot to mention, this show does an awful lot of telling and not showing.

I keep noting this episode is set on April Fool’s Day…what a day for pranking, huh?

I’ve seen a Cait Sith in anime before…so there’s a dog version too (Cu Sith), huh?

Tape? That’s so mundane…then again, I guess this is what happens when you have boring jobs in interesting places, huh? Reminds me a lot of my own stabs at this kind of story.

This is…angel-tengu Romeo and Juliet…

Now this is the real Reiji…I think?

Ohhhhhhh crab balls…these CGI angels look terrible.

I never thought cherry blossoms could look so terrible…urgh.

I’m of two minds when it comes to this show – on the one hand, I like its plot (it’s better than Charlotte in this field, at least). It’s a bit cliched, but it might lose against competition like Sarazanmai or even Kono Oto Tomare. On the other hand, its visuals are kinda…ugly.

Fairy Gone 1

Fa-Fanatica…? What sort of name is that??? (That’s not a good sign if I question the first name on the screen now, is it?)

Lay Dawn, would you please…lay down? (Okay, that joke only works with a particular pronunciation of “down”, but you get the bad pun…right? Right?)

So this is Spec-Ops Asuka without the huge boobs, I expect? That would make Fairy Gone at least 10 points (on my anime list) better than the thing I’m comparing it with.

I think the tiny symbols under most of the credits are stylised English, although I was looking at a credit for a guy with the surname Yamamoto and it wasn’t quite working.

The CGI is one of the better efforts I’ve seen, but still slightly obvious.

Veronica’s run reminds me of Akira from Devilman Crybaby. You know the one GIF of him running while leaning forward at an impossible angle? That one.

Post-credits scene…keep watching.

This is another anime Jesus…(the first one was Kagura’s dad in Ga Rei Zero.)

Rendai Utena 1

(Update: This was an anime I had to watch via VPN. Notably, the last time I resorted to one was B Project...however, no one remembers that but me, so the last big time I had to use a VPN was for Sakamoto Desu Ga?.)

Uh…yeah. This is the one Buddha anime this season. But before you run off, screaming about how blasphemous I must be to Buddhists, I’ll have you know I was originally not intending to watch this…if you know me well enough, you’ll know I like bishies. Only after I compiled my to-watch list for this season did one of the star bishies show up and convince me to watch…yeah, now you can run away screaming. (Oh and if you’re interested as to what image caught my attention enough to make me watch a show…it’s the top image on this CR page – not the thumbnail, the other top image.)

Okayyyyyyy…for a show about bishies, you sure aren’t capturing me right now with this plight of a salaryman.

Aw, dangit. I actually liked the few moments this was a zombie anime! Give me High School of the Dead, but with bishies instead of jiggly-boob girls! *shakes fist at cloud*

Oh, great…I can’t even tell who’s who around here. They even had little name cards and everything! So much for my great memory…*grumble grumble* But hey, at least I recognise some names…not from being Buddhist, but from other anime. I mean, Miroku is the guy from Inuyasha and Fudo Myouou is the guy who inspired Okurikara in Touken Ranbu, yeah?

Uh, hey. Isn’t sloth meant to be a vice? Isn’t “lounging around” a vice???

Another thing. I get the feeling that putting these guys in tracksuits is just trying to coast on the success of Touken Ranbu. Touken Ranbu is nice, but only because I was familiar with the source game and a bit about the fandom. This? I have no such basis.

Lotus Head – Bonten – his nagging is starting to get on my nerves already. I came for Taishakuten, not you!

Yeah…even in Touken Ranbu, they have washing machines. Convenience, but also…vice in terms of that old-timey Buddha stuff, I guess…? Update: Actually, I thought about it and I don’t think they’ve ever shown a washing machine in Hanamaru, but I think they might’ve had a fridge.

Wait, wait, wait…the bird was a bishie tooooooooo?????????????? I think that’s the biggest bending my brain’s going to get all premiere season (for this season)! Even more so than the entire debut of Sarazanmai!

Wait, wait, wait…Bonten likes porridge?! D’ya mean “congee” or “oatmeal” kinda porridge? I can’t tell because I’ve got the volume off, but if it’s the latter then Bonten wouldn’t have known about it. Update: It appears to be the latter. How Bonten would’ve ever known about porridge…I don’t know.

New aesthetic – Taishakuten’s hair. I like me a man with a ponytail (which is why I fell hook, line and sinker for him in the first place), but his hair done up like it is in the bath…*swoons, then goes back to normal* That is all.

What’s up with Paomi anyway…? And…this is kinda petty if the central conflict is just getting Shaka to get off cooking duties. That’s too low a conflict for even Hanamaru, methinks.

So…you introduce all these Buddha guys and then expect me to care about some human who doesn’t even have a name? Wuh…?

Okayyyyyyy…I’ve never seen an earthquake that was that fast before.

Wait, wait, huh???????? The guy who voices Taishakuten is…Choreo (Brave Beats)??????????? Oh no, I should’ve listened to it! Anyways, I’ve decided I’m dropping it, simply because if I want Taishakuten only for his looks, I can just find a wallpaper of him.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Osomatsu-san 17 – 25 | ReLIFE 1

The idea for ReLIFE from now on: Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

(ep 17)

Apparently Jyushimatsu was pretty popular in Japan, so they went with an entire episode on him…

Cup Noooooooooooodle, LOL.

I didn’t get the Comiket one…both times I saw it.

Oh yeah. This “my little Jyushimatsu” was hella popular after the guitar scene. I think.

Philosophical Jyushimatsu…but it doesn’t work without the volume.

Is Jyushimatsu Pan Jyushimatsu Bread or an actual Jyushimatsu…okay, I know what it is now.

Baseball references galore, so I’ll let this page explain it.

Omohide IIRC is an old fashioned term for omoide (memories).

(ep 18)

Well, it was true that Iyami was the protagonist of the anime in one series, alongside Chibita.

I really don’t want to explain references you probably know, okay?

If you stop at just the right moment (NSFW), it reminds you that “this anime is at your own risk”. There also seem to be comments from most of the other characters, including “fight dayo!”.

Hujistu (sic), LOL.

Three way explosion shot!

Crab shell, LOL. Plus, you’re not, Jyushimatsu.

The phomosis is apparently a piece of skin on the…erhem. Check it up yourself.

Chargin’ my lazor!!! (Once you notice they animated Todo during that lasering, you have to appreciate how much they upped the budget on this…)

Second lazoring!!!

I went back a few times through the ep, only to find Osomatsu’s sign says “Prank successful”.

(ep 19)

If I remember right, the episode was called “Shonosuke Hijirisawa-san” by CR standards, but…there’s no name to this episode for AnimeLab. Update: It’s called “Untitled” by both. My mistake.

Matsuo Basho was a poet who made haikus, hence the “dayon” making it have too many syllables.

Suiton-no-jutsu unfortunately has no Naruto-related resources that are on it, so I had to use the Naruto thing to find something on it…the one about duckweed (on the link) is the one you’re looking for, apparently.

The ghost one…haven’t you heard about the ghost who counts plates, Okiku?

The “Jyushi” in Jyushimatsu means 14, hence the motif.

There sems to be a sad undertone to the Joshimatsu segment this time. Like Showa Genroku or something.

Michiko Yokote was on staff this time. No wonder the Choromatsu Rising  part actually made me laugh both times I saw it.

(ep 20)

There was a flag on the title.

It’s a taco, not a kebab.

There is such a thing as horumonyaki, hence the yakisoba having “hormone” on the sign.

The pigeon is at least well animated.

The school segment is one of the more notable ones…in that it got even more boring the second time around. I know it’s meant to be funny by how spontaneous it is, but it really is a waste of timeto watch twice…part of the joke here is that they’re meant to be yankees (delinquents…Japanese delinquent have a very specific style that takes off after American schools).

Ichimatsu speaks in arrows for the CR subs, but he speaks in mashed keyboard keys in the AnimeLab subs. Doesn’t matter anyway because it’s gibberish, but nice to know.

“Funny” is subjective,so really, Iyami, just do what can garner you the most laughs.

Dekapana and Dayon are treating the sextuplets like novice rakugoka.

Why are Iyami’s audience all girls?...Oh, I answered this question myself on the TV Tropes fridge page.

(ep 21)

There’s something long behind the title (two of them, actually), but I don’t know what they are. Update: They appear to be hachimaki (headbands normally used to psyche a mahjong player – or person doing any sort of other activity – up) or mahjong sticks.

I know nothing about (physical) mahjong…so sorry, I can’t explain anything here. There is a Detective Conan OVA that explains this stuff though (though I can’t remember anything I learnt from it since I watched it a while ago…). Basically, I’m just watching for the sake of (second) completion right now.

ESP Kitty! Hello again!

Is this an Akagi parody?

Karamatsu dabbed!

Okay, now I’m sure it’s an Akagi parody.

I’d like that life too, except with bishonen, Choromatsu. Unfortunately, you speak the truth…

Shehkai Teio appears to be a pun on something that I don’t know…The crowd at the races looks hilarious, though.

(ep 22)

Apparently the name “Totty” was meant to be a one-off.

Where’d the skirt come from? Don’t tell me Totty raided his mother’s closet! Now that’s the lowest of the low!

“…they were thrown off their pace?”

What’s the song for? At least it made me laugh, which in this second runthrough seems to be a lot rarer than the first time.

The mixer is at a place called “Maruya”.

Latematsu can be read “Osomatsu”, if you didn’t get it.

How does Osomatsu fit in a pot?

“Shiei” meaning “Death Shadow”…at least with those kanji. Likewise, “Shiya” means “Death Arrow” and “Shiyu” means “Death Oil”.

Well, these guys have absolutely no geography skillls either…because the globe showed Iyami and co. were in India when they were hauling around Chinese stereotypes.

(ep 23)

Sibling sabotage. Also known as the “bystander effect”.

I wonder whether Choro was barfing at the Dayon girl, too.

I think the Dayon lady on the very left of the chase scene is probably the creepiest one yet…

I never liked vomit humour, by the way.

I still don’t get any of Jyushimatsu’s jokes…

Fear and Drunkenness in Las Vegas…kinda sorta.

There’s a flag on the back wall in the Dayon girl’s house which says “effort”. At least, by the Chinese standard of the word.

You can see the younger three brothers trying to fit in by stretching their mouths, LOL.

Did you ever notice the chalk Matsus are drawn by a person wearing a Matsu suit?

There was a post-ep scene, but it was just a reshowing of Osomatsu sticking a piece of tissue up Ichimatsu’s nose…what.

(ep 24)

Ongaku meaning “music”, so...

First I’ve heard of this song…welp, here you go.

“Bottom feeder” takes on a whole new meaning for the fish idol.

The…the feels…I know all your feels, Choromatsu…

Everyone! Are we all on the feels train right now?

Leaving that half…is surprisingly considerate of Ichimatsu.

Hey! It’s the couple from the Christmas episode.

(ep 25) [Trigger warning: Brief mention of seppuku…but you knew that already, didn’t you?]

Welp. Last ep. I may have complained about how the humour in this is pretty much sucked out by watching (most of) it a second time, but…every anime is an adventure. Remember that.

Wait, what’s an invitational?

Ichimatsu apparently got caught in the flow of “Nice!”s, only to get caught up in Karamatsu’s one. LOL.

The Koushien is a high school baseball tournament. For some reason, baseball is crazily popular in the Japanese world.

Owch, Osomatsu…

Karamatsu! He dabs!

A bean ball?...Oh, a bean ball. Okay. (I don’t quite get baseball, but I understand this, at least.)

French people don’t even play baseball…well, most of them.

Iyami’s shirt has 183 on it…or in goroawase, i-ya-mi.

Apparently Totoko did the male version of seppuku…which suits her character very well.

What in great Dante’s inferno, Karamatsu…?

Welp, that’s the end of that. The JRA special was excluded because I got bored of the series before even getting this far, as well as it not having anything I can talk about.

(ReLIFE ep 1)

Ah…the nostalgia only an anime can bring…It’s always extremely satisfying to see an anime of a manga you’ve known since it was an unknown. 

Did you spot the cat on the TV a few seconds into the episode? It’s Hishiron’s LINE cat!

Haha, I know your feels too well, Arata.

The humour in this is quite quick, but it hits when it needs to.

Yoake was my Dazai (Bungou Stray Dogs) before I knew about Dazai. Why? Gadfly traits.

“Yoake” means “daybreak” and is apparently the name of a train station in Japan.

Interesting how they leave Arata in shadow until the reveal. The reason why I decided to start this series was because it was somewhat like Detective Conan.

I’ve always though the showing of a phone is integral to a show set in modern times, but in order for a show to be timeless, you can’t show too much of its or what model it is…That’s why “White Parasite” is the only one to feature a phone out of 3 Honeyfeed stories.

The iconic thing about ReLIFE is the clean, minimalistic designs, so the OP really suits this show.

A-hah. I thought they were organised according to hiragana character (roll number), which is fairly usual in anime…hence the thing I left on the ReLIFE Fridge page.

Formal speech is too formal if you’re using it with classmates (regardless of language)…so yeah.

Note Kariu and Oga are close in physical proximity to Kaizaki.

The Going Straight Home club, as I’ve mentioned in earlier times, is…no club at all.

Scanlations called Oga “Flashy Oga”, but “Showga” seems to work better than that.

Notice the word used in the CR subs is “pencil box”. Pencil case in Japanese is fudebako, the bako bit meaning “box”.

CR subs are acting up sometimes (they change font at the end of sentences)…what in Dante’s inferno…

Rules of Japanese: never use a first name unless given permission. For girls, it’s much more likely you can get permission. Of course, if you’re good friends, you can get permission easily too.