#her manga portrayal makes me sad

[my-rewrite-academia]

Class 1b doesnt get enough love- what random trivia do you have for 1b in your rewrite?

Hello!

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This made me happy to see, as I, too, love 1-B and do have some random bits of trivia. In no particular order:

Neitou is a big fan of the pre-quirk era, including music, games, fashion, and media in general

Shihai is very into K-Pop, but hides it to keep up his 'dark knight' portrayal

Itsuka has a collection of mittens. That's it, she has a collection of mittens

Tetsutetsu cries his eyes out whenever he watches anything even remotely sad

Pony once accidentally ate a spoonful of wasabi and has been traumatised ever since

Nirengeki doesn't fold any of his clothes. He shoves them in and irons them whenever he needs it. He thinks it saves time, (it does not)

Rin has a running gag where he'll say he was made in Korea, because that's where the 'Made in China' stickers originated from

Yui likes pottery. She's not that good at making them, but she'll enjoy the craftsmanship and collects some

Manga will sometimes jumpscare everyone with a particularly loud 'BANG!' just for the laughs

Shishida doesn't sleep on a bed. He sleeps on a bunch of blankets laid out on the floor. Might use a pillow

Sen is really into romance novels, but refuses to tell anyone

Kosei once blew a bubble with gum and accidentally used his quirk during it. The bubble was solidified over his mouth and blocked his nose. The doctors had to saw it off. He's never having bubblegum again

Kinoko has once tried to produce magic mushrooms and was only stopped when her parents caught her. She feigned innocence, but one day. One day she will have her own shrooms

Setsuna, when she was young, used to accidentally leave her hand at home and only realised when she took her shoes off at her school's entrance

Bondo has gotten high on his own glue. It's only happened once and he will never do it again after accidentally glueing his younger siblings to the sofa

Yosetsu tends to use his welding whenever he's excited, which has led to many phones being destroyed

Juuzou will sometimes swim in the ground, mostly because he can't be bothered to go to the pool

Togaru, during a bout of sleep deprivation, has once eaten cardboard and didn't realise it until he was nearly finished. He will never speak of this again

Ibara's hair has caught on fire many times. Once, she didn't realise it was on fire, due to a bbq taking place nearby, and all but ran into a nearby pond

Reikou will prank her friends by telling ghost stories and start levitating things nearby. She has attempted to levitate herself, and that ended with her face-first in the ground

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Just want to explain why my replies tend to be slow: I get most, if not all, of these asks around 2 am, probably due to time difference. I also tend to have work most days these asks come in, and I get distracted very easily.

Sorry if anyone feels as though I've been ignoring them! Life gets in the way, you know?

-

Thanks for the ask!

[yuseirra]

More about 159~

hahaha XD aw, GOSH this comic is CRAZY, I think it would be fun if I read it as books and in volumes, it's because it's incomplete, and scattered eps that things feel so tense and awkward, I'm sure. It'd have more sense of flow as a volume.

I wrote a lot of things based on my stream of consciousness this morning (because well I draw hikaai and I DO care a lot about character portrayals and analysis) and I want to share it with you all! I reread it after the heat of the moment and I find it really funny,

If you want to feel assured about Ai and Hikaru (and perhaps ONK as a whole) or like the ship hikaai, I feel this is another post that could help you. Like I said in my ch 159 review, if this ain't it, I have no idea where this is going to head and I might as well take a break off from this piece for a bit and get some air. P3R episode Aigis is coming out on the 10th (great timing!) but I think I'm on the right track. I got so many things right since I picked this up thus far :D So for now, here we go again:

This is just my intuition and a piece mostly based on gut feelings.

Ha;; This morning, I saw someone extremely worried about Kamiki and Ai and couldn’t leave them feeling uneasy... I’m not in a position to calm others down, though!! I'm the one who needs to be calmed!! give me time to brace myself!!! I get tense because I care about where the story's gonna go too!!! I analyze characters and make fan works. I HAVE to look into the source material and make sense of things in order to do that o<-< I’m really stuck with this manga, aren’t I? What a ride... Okay I know the character looks a bit out of it. But listen, even if we criticize the character, we should wait for the next chapter before doing so. Come on, what would Kamiki even LIE about in the first place? Let’s sit down and think calmly. Let’s go over the facts.

Honestly, it would have been better for Kamiki if Ai wasn’t an idol. If Ai hadn’t been an idol, Ai wouldn't have had to die for deciding to keep her very kids with him!! Ai was murdered because she was an idol who had a boyfriend and kids(it's an absurd reason but to Ryosuke, that was his reason to go through with it). If she hadn’t loved Kamiki, she wouldn’t have died. This isn’t Kamiki’s fault, of course!! To add, if Ai weren’t an idol, they might not have broken up in the first place. Even if they had broken up, Ryosuke wouldn’t have tracked Ai down and killed her!! Things would have been so much better for this character if Ai hadn’t been an idol. His situation on the matter, It's totally the opposite of Nino and Ryosuke’s!

To Kamiki, Ai was certainly one-of-a-kind and irreplacable, yeah. But from Kamiki’s perspective, Ai was never a perfect, flawless figure that he found the need to idolize. She was someone who learned acting from him, who was clumsy and scattered, who needed his guidance in the beginning. She shared the same pain, opened up to him, understood him, accepted him, and loved him. Even though she gave him a deep wound and they parted ways, even when he thought she didn’t love him anymore, she remained precious to him to the point where he was willing to give his life for her. She was the person he wanted to marry. Ryosuke and Nino would kill her for not being perfect enough, but that’s not who Kamiki is. He’s actually the biggest victim of that incident only after AI herself. If Ai had survived, he might have been able to meet their children, reunite with Ai, clear up misunderstandings, and more importantly, Ai would still be alive. That alone would have made life more bearable for Kamiki than living in a world without her. I keep saying this but I'm sure he wouldn't have leaked the address to Ryosuke on purpose. I wrote many theories about this and I came to a conclusion that it must have been a mistake on his end, after getting drunk from sadness after Ai dumped him in the phone call. What kind of mastermind could he even be regarding this case? He was 19 at the time. It's total nonsense. There is no reason for him to try and attack Ai who tells him she has their children growing smart and healthy. He's lying about it to Aqua to make him feel better about avenging him because he believed that's what him and Ai's wanted.

What kind of grand conspiracy could a character like this possibly be behind? At least when it comes to Ai’s death, I don’t think he’s responsible. Even if he grew mad, I feel like that would have taken place after it happened. So what is it that this character wants? I’ve been curious about that too-

When I heard anime S2's opening, I immediately realized!! He wants to see Ai again! Would Aqua say something like,

Aqua has Ruby, Kana, and Akane. He’s not going to live just to get closer to Ai or live solely for her love. Maybe to fulfill Ai’s wishes, but that’s different.

“Without you, I cannot live anymore

I would sacrifice anything for you

I can’t get enough of your love

What should I use to fill in what’s missing?”

If Kamiki has any goal, it’s this: He's never been seen to have a desire for Ai to be the ultimate, perfect idol. He’s not twisted that way. If he’s twisted, it’s more like, “I’ll give anything for Ai.”

Think about it. If someone you love died, what would you want most? You’d want them to live again, right? You wouldn’t go around committing serial murders saying, “No one can surpass them!” You’d just want to see them again if there was even the smallest chance. That’s the most important thing. Nino and Ryosuke are twisted. They liked Ai as an idol, not as a person. But this person has two cute kids with Ai... even though they never got to see them properly. He says he has paternal love, and I believe that because there’s no reason for him to hate the kids. He was prepared to take responsibility, after all. Wouldn’t he be happy about having kids with Ai? Wouldn’t he find them adorable, especially since they look so much like him and the one he loves? Seeing how much he still cares for Ai, he’d probably love their kids too. He refers to them as "Yours(Ai's) and mine". He’d probably want to bring Ai back for the sake of the kids, if not for himself. He even believes Ai died because of him, so that would only add to his desperation and longing. When someone dies, they can’t come back, so that possibility doesn’t usually cross the mind-

However, It seems that the songs are saying there is some kind of hope for that becoming a reality even if the chances are very slim. To think Kamiki would have wanted to preserve Ai’s image as an idol and that's what's been driving him? No way. That’s exactly what killed Ai. He’d probably be sick of that... He just wants Ai to live. That’s his motive. He’s been hanging onto that.

As for the Hikaai ship, I had been holding off on judgment until Ai’s feelings came out. I felt like I won’t know until I hear from Ai herself how she feels about him so I waited out for quite long till the entirety of the movie arc, until it got its closure-

And it really occurs to me, people don’t seem to realize how much thought and conviction it takes for Ai to feel that strongly about a person.

Ai is scared, has a sensitive soul, overthinks things, is defensive, and gets wary. She’s afraid to love and get close to people because she doesn't want to get hurt.

But Ai couldn't give up Kamiki’s child because they were what she had with him, even while she was afraid it would be a burden to him!! Do you know how much certainty, affection, and love that takes? It doesn’t seem to resonate with people as much as it does for me, it's such a deep and strong feeling. That's what really got me. She was scared, but she still wanted them because they were theirs...and she protected their children with all her heart that point onward.

This kind of love is something that you might encounter just once in your lifetime, you might never get to meet someone like that at all.

So I thought, “Good for Ai. She found someone she loved that much.” Kamiki must have been a really precious person to Ai to make her feel that way.

In my opinion, for someone to make Ai feel like that, they would have to be the kind of person who would give out their every part of their organ, even their heart to her if that's necessary, and still think it’s not enough. And when you listen to the songs, the speaker does really seems to express that kind of emotion. That's why I thought 'Oh, this is definitely Ai's lover. This is Kamiki that's saying these things.'

You have to trust Ai’s judgment. Ai is serious about love, and she found someone to give it to. He's the one person she decided on. She wanted to live her life with him, worried about him until the end, named her children after jewels because they looked like the one she loved. Had her son who takes after his dad so much have the characters "love" and "longing" in his name. That’s how much she adored him.

What does that tell you? And when you look at the backstory, it seems Kamiki thought he loved Ai even more than she loved him.

Then that must mean he must have treated her really well. So, it’s not about whether Kamiki loved Ai or not anymore. That's totally just a given!! What’s important now is what he has done since Ai's death.

In chapter 155, he said he was "going to do what he could for Ai" and left. Then Aqua showed up near him in this chapter saying, “I need to save you.”

When you listen to the songs, the narrator keeps saying they don’t mind dying. This is a character who has already said they could die for Ai. So what will they do? I think they’re planning to die “for Ai.” But is offering something for Ai or dying for her really what Ai would want? No. Ai would want Kamiki to live and be happy, and they know that, but they’re lying to themselves. That’s the lie this character tells. It’s a self-sacrificing but self-satisfying kind of thing. That's why Aqua says the lies "are for his own sake". This also explains why Ai left a message asking to help Kamiki. This character is someone who could go to extremes "for Ai", but Ai didn’t want that, which is why Aqua is trying to stop it.

If this isn’t the case, then I won’t be able to make sense of this manga... Haha, the Persona 3 DLC will be out soon, so I’ll just go play that...

This feels right to me, though. If it’s not, I don’t know what else it could be;;

Maybe Kamiki's been possessed by an evil god? But even if that’s the case, the motive he has would probably still be about "saving Ai".

On another note, Kamiki was so gentle and kind in his tone when speaking to Aqua. He spoke really softly, didn’t he?

If he had been able to raise the kids with Ai, he would have been the type to pamper and spoil them... He'd have been a sweet dad. I feel like Ai really did choose a good guy to father her kids.

The way he speaks to Aqua feels quite similar to the last lines and atmosphere of the lyrics of Mephisto.. something about it will be brought up soon, I mean Aqua's wearing that same clothes.

To Kamiki, Aqua must be his and Ai’s cute son, right? But does he know Aqua’s soul is originally that of a 30-something-year-old doctor? If he’s possessed by an evil god, maybe he is aware of these things. But if he doesn’t, it might be a bit awkward. His son is almost the same age as him inside...

Aqua is Aqua, though? But that thought still made me laugh a little. I could imagine Kamiki suddenly speaking very formally towards Aqua upon figuring out he's actually the doc who aided Ai with delivering his children safely. Kamiki seems like the type to speak with a lot of courtesy... the way he speaks has been very polite. It depends on the character, but I think that is part of how he is originally.

[ecargmura]

Cherry Magic Episode 4 Review - You're A Wizard, Tsuge

As the first half of the episode has shown, Tsuge has become a wizard now. Like Adachi, he has gained the power to listen to people’s hearts. How will Tsuge use this to find a love interest? Well, he found one already. That was darn freaking fast. Who does he fall in love with? The cute deliveryman Minato.

I think their ship name is called Tsugemina. Anyways, Tsugemina’s portrayal in the live action is a bit exaggerated compared to the manga and anime (which are pretty much identical). In the live action, Tsuge is very dramatic when he falls for Minato and when he realized he’s in love, he actually bashes his head against a bookshelf. When I watched the live action, I thought that Tsuge was a bit of a weirdo, but reading the manga and watching the anime made me realize that the way Tsuge is portrayed here is more faithful as he is a stoic man by nature. While the Tsugemina section seems short, that’s because the Tsuge chapters are pretty short in comparison to the main couple; there aren’t a lot too, so who knows when we’ll get another segment of them in future episodes.

I do like the Tsuge and Adachi scene. As Tsuge is a novice wizard, he’s unsure how to make use of the power, but for Adachi, the power has brought good things into his life; Tsuge even notices this too as Adachi has become a bit more talkative, especially when the topic revolves around Kurosawa. In the manga, this scene actually takes some time after the second Tsugemina scene as Adachi had mentioned that he read Tsuge’s new book and noticed the change in his usual heroine types as he added in a heroine with the exact same description as Minato, showcasing how down bad he is for this guy he barely knows (heck, he doesn’t even know his name until later on). Despite the changes, I do like the scene but I dislike the fact that Tsuge gets blocked from the chances he gets to talk to Adachi about the magic.

After Tsuge and Adachi meet up, the episode then shifts to Adachi being the focus character, which I think is a rather good way to transition. Adachi gets jealous for the first time when he sees a pretty lady talking with Kurosawa and starts getting insecure about himself. Despite his jealousy, he does realize that if he did get jealous of that woman, that means he does like Kurosawa in that way. I do like how he was fast to process that and accepted it right away. It sort of shows that even if he doesn’t have romantic experiences, he’s still mature enough to understand what love is.

It’s kind of sad to see why Adachi’s so hesitant towards romance. I sort of get it. If I heard someone say that it’s impossible to date me because of the lack of experience, I’d get insecure too. I’m glad that Kurosawa exists to show that Adachi can be loved no matter how much he adverses romance. The part where Kurosawa comes over to his house was sweet; however, how the heck did he know his address? The way Kurosawa thought about how he’d cherish all of Adachi’s first was heartwarming. I legit stomped my feet in a giddy mood. Why is this anime so cute? Why are they so cute?

No worries, though. The pretty lady happens to be Kurosawa’s sister, Mari. She’s hilarious as she feels like a typical older sibling trying to pester her brother to get what she wants: to stay at Kurosawa’s place until her boyfriend apologizes to her. She even followed him to Adachi’s house via GPS. I do like how Kurosawa feels like a bullied little brother here. She is also good with words as she managed to convince Kurosawa to stay at Adachi’s house, to which his simp self accepts after fantasizing a domestic AU he conjured up in his mind. Haha, he’s such a simp.

Oh and uh, the voice actor trivia of the week is that Gen Sato, Minato’s VA, only has done BL recently. Like out of the four main cast, he has the least amount of experience in BL media but I’m sure that’ll change. In the drama CD, he was voiced by Kouhei Amasaki.

What are your thoughts on the birth of the side couple? How about Mari as a character? What about the whole Kurodachi segment? What did you think about the episode as a whole?

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Trigun Book Club Masterpost

With the book club having finished up this week, I thought I'd compile all my posts here, separated by category, in chronological order. @versaphile is doing amazing work compiling all the posts made during the book club - I hope this makes everything easier to find!

I will likely be making a few more posts on a couple observations I made and update accordingly, but for now, here's the complete list!

Stream of consciousness thoughts:

Trigun Volume 2

Trimax Volume 1

Trimax Volume 2

Trimax Volume 3

Trimax Volume 4

Trimax Volume 5

Trimax Volume 6

Trimax Volume 7

Trimax Volume 8

Trimax Volume 9

Trimax Volume 10

Trimax Volume 11

Trimax Volume 12 Pt. 1

Trimax Volume 12 Pt. 2

Trimax Volume 13 Pt. 1

Trimax Volume 13 Pt. 2

Trimax Volume 14 Pt. 1

Trimax Volume 14 Pt. 2

Analyses and other thoughts:

Vash's Wanted Poster

The Chapter 11 cover

Vash and Avoidant Behaviours

Vash, Meryl, Milly, and Personal Responsibility

Vash Hyping Himself Up (this was a joke post initially but there's actual thoughts in the tags)

Vash's Grief and its Portrayal

Eriks and Lina over the Two Year Gap

Wolfwood is a Terrible Liar (aka that huge Wolfwood analysis I did)

Wolfwood Keeps Asking Questions

Analysis of Wolfwood's Mixed Expression

Wolfwood Probably Lugged Vash Like a Sack of Potatoes to get away from Keele (yes this is a full analysis yes there's something wrong with me)

Every single volume of this godforsaken manga...

Early Knives and Legato Thoughts

Vash, Anger, and Suicidality

Poor Meryl (that foreshadowing...)

Knives Treats Vash Like an Extension of Himself

Vash's No Good, Very Bad Mental Health

Vash, Hunger, and Wanting

The Bird and Tombi's Bridge

I Hate It Here (extra thoughts in the tags)

Death by Heart Failure over Injuries (nothing coherent)

Names - Vash and Knives' Difficulties in Letting People In

Meryl and Luida Similarities

Milly Character Analysis and Appreciation (coming soon!)

Knives, Vash, and the Importance of Lived Experience - A Dive into Knives' Trauma (coming soon!)

Why Vash and Wolfwood Gave Terrible Advice to Lina and Maylene (coming soon!)

Why Wolfwood Actually Died (coming soon!)

Why we Never See Elendira's Story

Legato, Meryl, and True Devotion

The Power Struggle between Vash and Knives (coming soon!)

Rem's Last Words

Meryl and Her Profession (Insurance Agent vs Reporter) (coming soon!)

What It Is to "See" in Trigun

Sillies:

Introductory Book Club Vash doodle!

Little guy :)

Unfazed Meryl

Nightow Background and Action Scene Appreciation!

Vash gets a Normal Day Chapter

Bro, Personal Space?

Give him Money

He's Super-Niceys...

(￣▽￣)

Vash Doesn't Know What an Insurance Agent Is...

Milly is Going to Get You

Another Small Vash Doodle Because He Was Suffering and It Made Me Sad

Wolfwood Noodle Saga

Baby Knives Meme (I'm so sorry little buddy)

Found the Tri-guns

The Volume 10 Mood

Another Silly Vash Doodle to Lighten the Mood

Once again, thank you @revenantghost for organizing the book club in the first place. This really was a lot of fun. :)

[connoisseursdecomfort]

On chapter 76. Will attempt to make it spoiler free.

I think this is a hint that the manga would be more subtle than Western fans will ever anticipate. I’m not joking. I know Endo reads comments. But I also knows that Endo isn’t that good at English. That means the comments he read approved of his portrayal of Loid in the last chapter. And I’ve said it about the last chapter. Despite the disappointment Western readers had, Asian readers seem to be satisfied. I said Asian, when realistically it’s really Japanese readers.

I don’t know how to feel about this chapter. But there is that - I feel like this is the first chapter that directly tackles Anya’s issue. We just assume Anya knows what a family is, especially when both Twilight and Yor didn't expect to get a family from this whole thing from the start. 

But when you think about it, Anya is really the one who knows nothing about family. She was way too young when her family was taken away from her, if we assume that she ever had one. Twilight forgot, but he had one. Yor has always worked on keeping a family, maybe two now, intact. Anya is the only one who doesn’t know what having a family means. That probably means having someone who is willing to take care of her, but could leave anytime. Because that’s the way it is for her. And if that is the case, she wants cake. She wants to have fun now. 

Don’t get me wrong. She is willing to do anything to keep the family together. But she also doesn’t really know what it is like to be a family. Because she simply doesn’t remember having one. 

So she just goes on and asks the most heart-breaking question ever randomly. Because Twilight is Twilight, she doesn’t understand how sad her question is even if she reads his mind. And because Anya is Anya, she just asks for cake.

And that is really the saddest thing ever.

[shizuostrans]

Which artist do you think portrays Shizuo the closest to your vision of the character? Thank you and have a nice day!

ooooh this is a good question. there are a lot of amazing designs for him that call to me as shizuo on different levels and that’s the beauty of art! i could go on and on about each manga artist’s portrayals of him and fanartists’ unique art styles and how one captures the best warm smile or scowl or hair tufts or sad brown eyes to me. there’s just. so much to love.

but i'm too shy to tag my fave fanartists and the shizuo i see when i think about him has been yasuda for a long time.

i have beef with how he developed several of his other designs but to me he far and away does the best job at bringing narita’s description of shizuo to life. i've seen a lot argument over narita’s design choice (that i'm not sure how much is genuine?) but each passage written about his appearance is filled with intention and it shapes and means the world to me. :)

bc beyond his height everything about him screams and should scream Most Normal Guy Ever.

even how he presents himself is said to make him appear like he’s playing dress up as someone imposing than actually being imposing. and that’s the kicker. once he’s seen in action he goes from being an unassuming person that anyone with the slightest bit of fighting prowess believes they can take out to the most terrifying person in the room for the exact same reason.

suddenly those traits that make him no different than the next guy become the traits that place him Starkly Outside Normalcy. every part of his design is etched with purpose. he’s lanky without visible muscle bc his body and power and character brute force past logic, he wears sunglasses to hide how soft his eyes are remarked to be, his bleached hair and bartender getup come from those he respects and he uses them all to create an identity to warn others off bc nothing else about him does UNTIL he makes it known how out of the mold of conventionality a freak of nature like him is. then everything clicks into place.

unrelated but it’s not mentioned in the anime that shizuo’s anime-typical vein throbbing is an uncanny phenomenon remarked on by various characters with izaya even saying most would think it’s due to a medical condition which is such a hilarious creative choice that i love to bits.

narita put SO much thought into his character design to the point where every facet of it is tied into his narrative and even slight alterations can detract from that. it makes every one really resonate with me and you can feel that attention to detail that yasuda does with shizuo too. any artist that incorporates all those components into their design of him care for him and his character a great deal which has had the most impactful effect on me. and that amount of care is almost impossible to replicate beyond the artist who was first tasked with drawing him.

(satorigi akiyo is a very close second tho. yasuda is obviously more limited in the amount he draws but she gives shizuo a greater range of expressions even for the same emotion and honestly yasuda walked so she could run in every other capacity but i can not and will not forgive her for giving shizuo blue eyes.)

[loveotomization]

For the past 10 years of my life as a Mikan enjoyer, I've been daydreaming about writing a series of essays examining Mikan's fall scenes through a lens of both satire and in-universe character motivation. Finally got off my butt and did it.

Presenting:

Mikan vs. Fanservice

Part 1: A Doyalist look at satire of fanservice in SDR2

(warning: contains images of anime girls in skimpy clothes)

This is a part of my larger Mikan fansite, Sad Nurse.

Essay can also be read under the cut!

(Please don't go picking a fight with me over cartoon people. I'm old and tired. I probably won't respond.)

I’d like to start off by saying that analysis will deal almost exclusively with Mikan’s portrayal in the SDR2 game, rather than the DR3 anime or any manga adaptation. Being a different medium, and produced a few years after the game, I believe that the writing and art could at times have different intentions than the games.

I personally find the writing choices for Mikan’s character absolutely fascinating, to the point that it invites both Doyalist and Watsonian exploration of what makes her function.  (simply put, Kodaka’s writing and Mikan’s in-universe motivations work in concert, rather than at odds)

I’m writing this series of essays in response to the constant, not to mention surprising, confusion I’ve seen surrounding Mikan’s character over the past ten years. Mikan is a very unique character, and her motivations are difficult to find perfectly mirrored in another existing character (not to say that I have consumed every piece of media ever, but I have yet to run across another character like her). Either way, I’m hoping to challenge some incorrect views or at the very least have the chance to say my piece after so many years.

Now, of course, I am not Kodaka nor have I met him personally. I have, however, been in the fandom for longer than the average DR fan, not to mention being somewhat older, so I may have different experiences with media than some other fans.  

Now that I have all of that out of way, I’d like to begin with what I personally believe was Kodaka’s primary intention in creating the scenes where Mikan falls over-

Satire.

Dictionary.com defines satire as:

‘The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.’

So just what is the ‘stupidity or vice’ that Kodaka is satirizing?

Fanservice.

(and perhaps the dojikko archetype, but we’ll visit that in another article)

I feel as if the term fanservice has become skewed as of late, as terms often do with passing decades. Back in the early days of English-speaking online anime fandom, fanservice was most often used to mean a scene or piece of artwork that was literally intended to be sexually appealing to the (usually straight male) viewer. At the same time, these scenes would do nothing to further the plot or add to the characterization of the woman in the scene.

These are images of Faye from Cowboy Bebop. I choose her because she exists in a sci-fi action canon that contains a well-written story and characters, as opposed to a pure fanservice series that is only created to showcase women’s bodies for an assumed male gaze.

While it can be argued that the way Faye dresses can make a statement about her personality, it is also clear to the viewer that her outfit is intended to be sexy not just in-universe, but for the viewer as well.

Let’s consider these pictures.

Faye’s top leaves little to the imagination, showing much of her cleavage, which is of course something that many female-attracted people find to be a turn on. You’ll also notice that her booty shorts are unzipped in front, inches from her privates. While I am neutral on the topic of fanservice, characterization and story-wise, there is no reason for the creators to dress her this revealing other than for viewers' pleasure. The adjustments to her costume in the live action prove that she can still be a strong and attractive woman without letting it all hang out.

The same goes for her cocktail dress. There is no vital in-universe need for jiggle physics.

(Disclaimer: This is not a critique of Cowboy Bebop. I think it’s a brilliant show. These images are here solely to juxtapose true fanservice with Mikan’s suggestive pose scenes)

Now, let’s take a look at some characters you’re more familiar with. These are from a collab with a mobile game called Sengoku… something. I’ve never heard of it, and I’m not sure what the actual characters from it look like. That said, let’s look at Mikan and Chiaki in these images.

These images are stand-alone, rather than being scenes from DR canon. In that case, they say nothing about the personality of characters in question, or the story they are from. These images serve no other purpose than to titillate the viewer. The outfits are clearly drawn in ways specifically to highlight their chests and other areas.

So what does this have to do with Mikan’s scenes in SDR2?

I firmly believe that Kodaka is doing three things with the following scenes: satirizing fanservice, satirizing the dojikko character type, and showing quite a bit of Mikan’s character at the same time. I find this pretty clever writing, and the reason I felt compelled to write this series of essays. We know that Kodaka likes satire and parody. Please just take a look at the entire DR series. Even the major themes underlying the games as a whole, such as reality TV culture and the pressures placed on Japanese youth, are largely satire. So why wouldn't smaller moments of satire be present in these same games as well?

These are the scenes in which Mikan falls over on purpose in order to diffuse tense moments, and shift the focus back onto herself by using her sexuality (I’ll go into this topic in depth at another time). As I said, these scenes show us a great deal about the personality of the character, making them immediately more valuable than simple fanservice scenes.

Take a look at her pose, and how she is dressed. Compare it to the ninja costumes above. They show quite a bit of skin, and the poses highlight their breasts and thighs.

In SDR2, Mikan is fully clothed in a reasonably well covering outfit (I once saw someone on Tumblr say that her skirt was drawn too short, and sometimes I feel like we’re one step away from visible ankles becoming scandalous again lol). Her chest is covered. There is the tiniest little peep of plain white panties in one of these images, but that’s about it. I can assure you that these scenes are not very sexy to the average female-attracted person. They are over the top, and clearly present a parody of the sort of scene truly meant to be sexy. Now, of course, literally anything can be a turn on to someone out there, but I’m talking about on average, of course.

Does this mean that Kodaka is against fanservice? I’m sure that’s not the case. However, it is possible to satirize things that you enjoy as well. In fact, I encourage creatives to critique tropes that they personally enjoy. I personally think that it’s a good way to challenge your own point of view and to not take yourself too seriously.

Satire can be shocking, or bring on feelings of discomfort. It is not always intended to be funny. Spending ten years of my life in the DR fandom, it’s always been strange to me that depictions of sexuality--even when they show very little or are used to further characterization--are more shocking to the general viewer base than the actual murders themselves, but that is likely a larger discussion for another day. Back to my point however, is that even if you do feel disgust or discomfort at Mikan’s scenes, they do elicit an emotion in the viewer, which is a large part of the point of art in the first place. In short, you have every right to feel discomfort at these scenes, but I do think that understanding the meaning and value behind them can help deepen enjoyment of the game, or at the very least of Mikan’s character.

Upcoming- A look at the dojikko archetype, followed by a Watsonian look into Mikan’s own motivations in the conscious use of her sexuality.

[aihoshiino]

who are your favorite OnK characters (apart from Ai)?

i love that you clarified 'apart from Ai' because my blorbo brainrot derangement so thoroughly speaks for itself <3

From the main cast, I'd say my faves are Kana, Aqua and Ruby in that order. Up to Tokyo Blade I'd say I like all of them about equally, but from TB onwards, it's more like Kana --> Aqua ----> Ruby. Not that I dislike Ruby or anything…? There's just some weird bumps in how she's characterized post Tokyo Blade and I especially just really don't like Black Hoshigan Ruby as presented in the manga so she's kind of a miss for me in that regard lol. I looooove her in the first 30-40 chapters of the manga though and especially the anime… Yurie Igoma's portrayal of her is so cute and sweet and earnest. It's fucking insane to me that Ruby is her first main role in a show?? I rly can't wait to see where her career goes from here because I really think she's gonna blow up.

ANYWAY… From the side cast… Melt my beloved <3 His arc in Tokyo Blade is so fucking good and tbh his interlude chapter was easily my favourite of his. Sooooo excited to see his glowup moments in season 2. I'm also really fond of Miyako for similar reasons! The anime especially does a ton to make her and Ai's relationship a lot warmer and closer and that combined with her relationship with the twins has me so fond of her. I like Ichigo a lot as well, though that's kind of mostly just in the context of his and Ai's relationship and the Strawberry Productions family dynamic in general and I'm not necessarily crazy invested in him as a character on his own.

I also ADORE Kyun and Nino. Viewpoint B is my favourite OnK sidestory and Kyun and her relationship with Ai are a big part of that. I'm also SOOOOOOO excited to see more of Nino in the main story… I was always so fascinated by the 45510 narrator and the mess of emotions that story lays out re: her relationship with Ai so it's been such a surprise and a delight to see her getting additional development and seeing her relationship with Ai being fleshed out even more. Huge w for gay people and evil women enjoyers everywhere.

This also might sound bonkers but uh, Ayumi Hoshino is also one of my favourite side characters?? Yeah, Ai's shitty mom! I am just so endlessly fascinated by her and am really sincerely in awe of how incredibly well realized and well characterized she is across the literal four pages of on-screen panel time she gets in the entire manga. Her abuse is so, so foundational to literally everything about Ai and her presence was this horrible black smear across Ai's past that we could never get a proper look at, so the absolute gutpunch that was the anticlimax of seeing her in person for the first time and realizing how sad and pathetic and normal she was……………. bro…………………. I may have a lot of issues with how Akasaka writes certain things in OnK but he writes toxic moms in such a raw and real way, I can't get enough of it

[getosugurusbangs]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks....

thank you for the ask! and no, i haven’t answered this question before, i rarely get asks so it’s never come up lol

a couple disclaimers before actually getting into the list 1. these aren’t in any particular order, more just in the order i thought of the characters. 2. from most of these, there are other characters that i love just as much if not more than the character listed, i just put a certain character on this list for more specific reasons, or because i have a better understanding of them. 3. i tried to refrain from adding too much jjk, but it still happened so… i apologize 😔 i can’t help myself (and also, all characters listed are from anime/manga)

list under the cut!

satoru gojo from jujutsu kaisen. what hasn’t been said about him at this point? he’s a very lovable and endearing character in general (obviously) but one thing that’s very cool to me about him, is that a lot of his character is left up to the viewer’s imagination. he’s definitely a character where you can project a lot, and make really whatever you want of him. it can be a double edged sword sometimes, but i still think it’s something cool about him.

suguru geto from jujutsu kaisen. can’t have gojo on the list without his soulmate. there’s so much to me that’s interesting about him that it’s hard to narrow it down enough for this list. as sad as it is to watch, i do really like his spiral at the end of hidden inventory arc. i think it’s very neat how his mental decline really shows more of the true nature of the jujutsu society they’re part of, and how cruel it is to it’s own people. on a similar note to that, it’s very interesting seeing the way geto truly is (his mentalities, his personality, etc. not his morals) get continuously revealed during his defection and post jujutsu high.

maki zenin and mai zenin from jujutsu kaisen. if i was already putting multiple jjk characters on this list, they had to be here too. i looooove their arc together, and everything they’ve (whether on purpose or not) done to each other. i honestly do just think the concept of two cursed twin girls coming from a horrible, at the top of the food chain clan, and attempting to thrive outside of it despite everything, is super cool. i love them separately as characters, but them together makes me even more deranged…

nicholas d. wolfwood from trigun/trigun maximum. apparently i have a thing for dudes who have big tits, are doomed by the narrative, and are associated with a religion 💀 also whenever i talk about trigun, unless specified otherwise, i’m specifically talking about the manga or og anime, not the reboot. anyways, i really like his development as a person over the course of the series. and how in the end, he ended up adopting more of vash’s ways than he may have anticipated. vash and wolfwood’s relationship, considering who they are as people and what they have going on, is crazy to me ngl

anna/nina liebert from monster. i love naoki urusawa’s portrayal of women, and just people in general in his work, and how realistic it is. if you haven’t read or watched monster, GO DO IT!!! it’s one of the best manga i’ve read so far. i haven’t seen any of his other works yet, but i’ve heard good things. i love how she’s an overall badass, kind and compassionate person, while still working towards her goals and simultaneously working through her trauma. she’s just a very neat character to me!

shinji ikari from neon genesis evangelion. i may sound insane saying this depending on how you feel about him but hear me out 😭 he gets a lot of hate, which i do understand, but i do like him, okay? (i’m not going to acknowledge the end of evangelion movie. i will NOT watch it) i think with him, and other teenage characters going through very traumatic situations like him, people forget that they’re literally children going through that? and treat them like they’re adults going through it when they’re absolutely not, and that really bothers me!! despite how he can come off as pathetic sometimes, i do appreciate the way he’s portrayed. he’s overall a very relatable character, and is (at least to me) pretty endearing at times. i like how in the endings of both the anime and the manga, it’s pretty open-ended for him. most of what i say about his character could be applied to asuka, too.

hitori gotou/bocchi from bocchi the rock. she’s just a teenage girl who loves music and has social anxiety and she’s so real for that!!! it’s been a while since i watched bocchi the rock, and i also just don’t have a lot to say here, i just really like her and the way her social anxiety is portrayed, as someone who goes through it myself.

reki kyan from sk8 the infinity. again, i don’t have a ton to say here honestly. he’s very personally relatable to me, especially in his relationship with langa and such. as a queer person who skateboards, sk8 the infinity is the shit!!

yatora yaguchi from blue period. i love his character development in the beginning of the series, but in general too. i just love how he goes from a (slightly boring) respectable highschooler, on his way to a normal job and life, to then suddenly having a passion for art ignited within him, and changing his entire life’s path. i love how his art’s progression is shown, and various other conversations about art. blue period is one of the reasons i never want to go to art school lol

reigen arataka from mob psycho 100. what can i say, he’s just a goofy con man!! i love the additional comedy he adds to the series, despite his character being a little… sad and pathetic all things considered. he’s a wet cat of a man, but i love him for it, yknow? i also love the voice acting for him in the japanese dub of the show. (sakurai takahiro kinda sucks as a person, but he’s still a talented voice actor) there are also certain things about him that are kinda hilarious ngl..

i hope this is what you were asking for, or at least that you enjoyed this because this took a while to actually write out LMAO

[connan-l]

There was this theory going around when Higurashi Reiwa was first announced about how Sakiko could actually be Shion and Satoshi’s daughter, but because they died/disappeared for X reason Satoko then adopted her, and I admit that even now I’m still very attached to it.

Because the thing is that, like a lot of people Satoko’s portrayal and situation in Reiwa really bothers me. Technically speaking, I don’t think there’s something inherently wrong with the perspective of her marrying some random person in adulthood or even for it to be a man (like, personally I definitely see Satoko as a lesbian since GouSotsu, but canonically it’s never been confirmed so Bi Satoko is still an option), but it still feel very... off to make an entire sequel series like Gou/Sotsu/Meguri that very much focuses on her explicit romantic feelings for her female friend with taking a lot of codes from yuri/queer stories, and then ending this with her having a very Normal Nuclear Family; even if it is in some parallel fragment it can’t help but leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Satoko in Reiwa just manages to makes me sad because the manga so far only portrayed her as being A Mom or A Wife, doing a job that genuinely don’t feel like her at all, and being married to a man where I don’t see what she would like about him. I’ve seen people argue that it does makes sense for Satoko to try to find this kind of stability post-canon; get married into a 'safe' family like the Kimiyoshis, who are obviously well-established and important within the village (so that it guarantees her acceptance and place in Hinamizawa), and have a kid before the others to solidify this, which, yeah, I agree --- in a way it could be a pretty interesting concept to explore. But that’s still in the perspective of if this takes place in a depressing future where Satoko never got over and confront her issues/trauma, and I very much doubt that this is something Ryukishi ever intended to explore in Reiwa at all --- or, even something that he actually intended period, I think he just wanted a next generation of kids and that’s how it ended up. (Reiwa isn’t finished, so it could still surprises me, but given the story has been very much focused on the kids so far I really doubt we’ll get this kind of insight about the adults.)

But anyway, to comes back to what I wanted to say, all of this asides I never really saw Satoko as someone who would become a mother or really want to be one. I don’t think she’d be opposed to it; and I can see an argument made for it because she’s someone who does love nurturing and taking care of her loved ones, and there could be something very meaningful about her becoming a parent and navigating this with her own past family trauma and let her heal that way. But, in an ideal world where she gets to adulthood as a more balanced, happy person, I don’t think she’d go out of her way to become a parent because she’d feel fine and safer with the family she already has with her (Satoshi, Shion, Rika and the others).

That’s why I think the only way I could see Satoko becoming a mother would be if that happens because of something out of her control where she ends up with an Accidental Child Acquisition; hence having to adopt her niece because Satoshi and Shion aren’t available. That would makes the whole situation sooo angsty but also so heartwarming, for Satoko to experience motherhood specifically in this situation, and how it’d specifically parallel her own circumstances as a child where she had to go live with her aunt and uncle after her parents’ death; and there could be so much to explore and potential to make her relationship with Sakiko both very compelling and complicated as a result of this? (Admittedly, there also could be a discussion about whether or not Satoshi would like being a father as well; it’s interesting that apparently in Reiwa, Satoshi and Shion are together but they’re the only couple without kids. I do think he’d have lots of hangups about parenthood as well because of his own trauma and how he essentially got a big part of his childhood robbed because of parentification; but that’s another topic.)

With this version, I also really love the idea that Satoshi and Shion actually named Sakiko after their baby sister...

I could totally see that when Shion announced her pregnancy, Satoko would’ve felt very happy for them but at the same time the perspective of them having a baby would suddenly make her abandonment issues kick in; because obviously that’d means she wouldn’t be Satoshi and Shion’s priority anymore and wouldn’t get to have her nii-nii and nee-nee’s undivided attention and love like she used to. And of course she’d hate herself for feeling that way and try to makes herself out to be the best aunt for the future baby...

But then Satoshi and Shion actually notices this, and then tells they’re going to name the baby after her because she’s the most important and bravest person they know and they want their daughter to takes after her the most in that :’)

Anyway it just got me thinking that it’s sad that Reiwa decided to go with every club members except Rika (and Rena kind of, given she’s a divorcee single mom) having very traditional families because I think them having more extended, patchwork families fits the original club members and their dynamic more.

[yumeirochaser]

finally read my lesbian experience with loneliness

god this one is as good and harrowing as everyone says it is. nagata kabi's portrayal of her struggles with loneliness, depression, gender and sexuality is really frank and sincere, like it's not...a dramatic book? it's all played very matter of factly and casually, more than i expected! i...really appreciate that actually. it's just someone telling her life story and trying to deal with the hole in her heart through transmitting that tale to others. it's very honest. a bunch of the stuff she talks about is so relatable too, like the inability to feel content with oneself and the need to make one's parents proud....or even the stuff about being ambivalent about being gendered at all bc of how women are seen as Women first and people second like it's a depressing tale but it's not....something that made me sad to read? mostly bc of the casual tone ms kabi takes when talking about these things. it's done in a way that really makes you have empathy for her situation, with the art and writing being very charming. like the whole thing about being seen as immature and trying to be a Good Adult hit really hard too. just pure honesty. i hope ms kabi finds fullfillment someday.... but yeah it's just a really good manga. def recommend

[the-marcos-family-sucks-ass]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

of course 👍👍 i have not answered this question before . here u are :

1. Mob Psycho 100 - i genuinely think this anime has completely changed the way i view life, other people and also myself forever, and also has made me feel more comfortable in confronting and talking more with people. its also really cute uniquely-animated show with silly funny characters. #reigen4life

2. Mystery To Iunakare (Don't Call It Mystery) - while i think this jdrama/manga is fairly unknown internationally, in japan its quite popular. Even with the lack of international love, i am obssessed with it, because i like how its homoerotic as hell, the little mysteries, how it portrays did (dissociative identity disorder; this disorder is extremely stigmatized so its nice to have a character that is a somewhat realistic portrayal of it), sympathy for abuse victims and that they're completely justified in killing their abusers, silly guys befriending random criminals on ths street, etc. It's a fun show that has an aura of tragedy surrounding it, and i love comedy and tragedy!!!!!!

3. Move To Heaven (kdrama) - every episode, i cried, straight up bawling my eyes out at how this show chooses to portray the dead through their belongings. the cinematography is so breathtakingly beautiful and makes me feel so calm and peaceful even though ik im gonna be crying in the next few minutes.

my favorite episode is episode 9, where i relate to kang seong-min/matthew green, being treated as a foreigner in your own home country hit hard. the loneliness and the frustration of people treating you differently because they see you as an alien that doesn't know where it is and doesn't understand anything. it hits even harder the more times i rewatch it.

it also has my 3 faves things in a show: autism, queerness and tragedy!!

4. D.P (deserter pursuit; kdrama) - this show is such a good critique of the military and toxic masculinity. i haven't finished season 2, but it's still at the top of my list because of how much emotions it made me feel, anger sadness disgust etc. like !!!!!!! i hold so deeply in my heart the nuances of trauma. queerness. tragedy. the way mandatory rotc brings so many people to their lowest point in life while the military does nothing to help them. victims of abuse never being able to get their voices heard or make an impact despite sacrificing their own life in order to make a change.

idk, its just a really cute and silly show ^-^

5. I Told Sunset About You (tv series) - in every episode i cried as well, sobbing screaming running around the walls WAILING. i like how it portrays the struggle of being a poor bisexual asian person who has just recently found out they're queer.

i love the whole "self hatred and unwillingness to accept your identity, causing you to hurt others in the process" thing, because it makes teh a more nuanced character to me, that he's not perfect or flawless and that he's a person that does not know how to react to finding out he's queer, having to constantly feel pressured to be better than his older brother, feeling pressured to repress his identity, etc. etc.

(i don't know if i can say the same for the second addition, "i promised you the moon", though, that one was mostly just fine, not as good as the original, but fine.)

6. The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi (cdrama vers.) - i feel like you already know the answer as to why i like this one alot. its tragic, its queer, its convuluted, it has so many dead characters, etc. everything i love to see in media all put together!! wen ning my son 🫶🫶🫶

7. Everything Everywhere All At Once (movie) - this movie made me kind of understand me and my foster grandmother's relationship more, and has really influenced me to work on communicating with her better, and that i can do silly shit that makes me happy all i want. Forever. seriously made me want to continue living on despite my own country not being able to accept my queer existence.

8. Call Me Chihiro/Chihiro-san (movie) - one thing i love about call me chihiro is its calm chaoticness, how the protag just seems to go with the flow of life. i think the relationships chihiro forms with the people in the town are so beautiful and personal ,, it feels so peaceful and happy despite all the bad things that happen in it, like there's this hopefulness and composed even under pressure type of vibe to it that made me tie it close to my heart

9. Saving Face (movie) - this movie is pretty much SUPER ICONIC in like, the world of asian lesbian films, and for a pretty good reason too,, i feel like it emulates so much of the average lesbian experience with having an Asian family. the casual racism from the mother, the lesbophobia, the matchmaking, the constant peer pressuring into getting a boyfriend, etc etc. i cannot think of one scene in this movie where it didn't directly remind me of lesbian tomfoolery that happened in my life.

it's also just a really cute movie about acceptance and has a good ending (which is rare for lesbian films)

10. Marry My Dead Body (movie) - the concept of this movie is unusual but the execution is so good i can't even. like it made me cry 3 seperate times. while not obssessed with this movie that much, so i can't talk too much of it but its cute!!!!! i thought i was going to get the ick bc of the homophobic main character but he started to grow on me the more he changed his views when he got accidentally ghost married to a guy. and also how they got each others backs all the time and won't hesitate to sacrifice themselves to protect the other is so real. #lintzuchingfan4life

[siriuslysatorusimping]

Omg Kiko I am in TEARSSSS!! I spent the last few days frantically reading the manga from the Shibuya arc to present and reading your instalments alongside it so I could properly enjoy and understand what's going on in the story and now that I've reached 'All that I am is yours' I am atively cryingggg. I think I've cried at pretty uch everu instalment since Shibuya started, tears of sadness for Rinko and tears of joy.

Its been very emotionally draining but the very GOOD kind. And the fact that its a happy ending after sooo much tragedy really made it feel more special.

I started out as 🍬 anon, then accidentally outed myself😅 and gave up on that. And I just want to say how PROUD I am of you Kiko! I've been following you since 'Let me know you' and have become so attached to Rinko I cried with her when she was breaking and lonely as people she loved were dying, and when she realised she was loved and she managed to save some of those people and she was not actually alone. She just feels so human, the way you can truly see her growth over the course of the story and empathise with her. Even with the mistakes she made, her thought process and the factors that shaped it (like her mother) you truly managed to bring her to life and that is an amazing thing to do.

I'm so grateful I stumbled on your story and have stayed to reach this point and I just want to thank you for sharing this story with us and letting us be a part of the jounrey🥰🥰

Honestly I could go on and on about how you've managed to make all the characters feels so much more human and 3d and their relationships so much more deeper and the way Rinko has become so deeply ingrained into everyone's lives and the jjk universe I genuinely cannot imagine canon without her anymore. But I would be here all day

(But I will be posting a separate ask about the game because I didn't want this to get too long and I'm will go into more detail about my love of your writing and portrayal of the characters there🥰)

THANK YOU SO MUCH I APPRECIATE THIS MESSAGE MORE THAN I CAN EVEN SAY! 💕🥹

At risk of being repetitive, Rinko is my favorite character I've ever written. My goal with her has always been to be as emotionally realistic as possible. And I'm so happy with the result of that!

Another Level has been such a wild ride, but it's been an incredible one and we're still not quite done!

Thank you so much for reading!!! And for this message and for being part of our lil corner!!!!

There's more that I know I could say but my brain isn't working well enough to type it right now so I'm just gonna go with it 😂

[indoorbae]

So serious talk, 277 and 278 were like fever dream. While I like the plot point of basicly regression to the starting line it diminishes all and any character development exept for the people that time traveled.

It is fun in theory but the execution in the key to making ir all stick together. I am not talking about logical inconsistencies, while there are many I would lake to focus on the tragedy of ending that we got.

The TakeHina marriage and overall relationship. From start it was a little janky. Are we supposed to belive that Takemichi as his 26 year old self in in love with his 14 y/o gf from middle school? It is not the problem of sus age difference it is the real connection between them. I have no doubts that in original timeline (not the Shinichiro original but the start of manga original) and any timeline before 277 Hina realy loved Takemichi, she had basic plot relavent reason for it. He saved her despite his crybaby self Hina admired his courage and later liked him as a person. But as for Takemichy? He likes her because she encourages, hepls him, is kind and preety???? From start she was a plot device to get this story going. Than due to Kissaki it evolved it Takemichy's quest to save every bich he stumbles upon. TakeHina lost it's significance a little but at that plint it was fine. Wakui had to just leave this as it it and it would have been ok I guess.

But than enter Sano Manjiro and his goofy ass. I sm not even sure where Wakui went with him. Was it the arc of acceptance? Friendship? Lost family? Found family? Revenge on yourself? Cycle of violence? The weight of one's actions? What was the point of Mikey's actions after Tenjuku arc? Just naratively speaking? In any of the above examples story failed to portray to show them.

But more on Takemichy|Mikey relationship. This is just straight up weird decision on weird decision. I will not get into detail here if you are interested read my side note on bnha and Shonen stories ""interesting"" relationship portrayal.

In anyway I am going to be directly and short as possible, after 276 and into 277 the TakeHina for me is just gone. We know nothing that happend in those 20+ years, especially that "saving" plot point. What did Michy and Mikey exactly change? All those characters and their lifes are now just a sentence and a few frames in manga. For story that had such a heavy weight on characters their life and connections it is a real let down.

I like Tokyo revengers and it will stay one of my faves despite weird decision along the way and the last arcs. I am just a little sad. I saw potential for it to be an amazing story but now people will mostly remember TR as mid.

[aesthetic-bastard]

Media Interaction 2023

May

My Solo Exchange Diary - I was really surprised at the progression this autobiography took vs this author's previous autobiography (My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness). It's tough to read at times given that it's very depressing but satisfying to see the author eventually seek help in the final chapters.

No Longer Human - the art in this manga is gorgeous, but this modernized adaptation left me conflicted. I'm unsure of its faithfulness to the original novel, it feels more inspired by the book than based on it but despite its miserable nature, the development was oddly captivating to me.

Danzi - this is probably the first thing I have read that is classified as manhwa as opposed to manga. Even though this Korean webcomic was really heartbreaking this was an excellent autobiography making light of issues such as domestic abuse and sexism while also having a strong message about solidarity through pain.

My Alcoholic Escape From Reality - I had a very neutral reaction to a lot of the sensitive topics discussed in this autobiography sense it is nothing I can deeply relate to but can understand how addictions can affect people struggling with mental illnesses. Upon reading, I found no significant insights except for the author's realization at the age of 31. They discovered that their art and career have always been centered on their longing for love and the feeling of loneliness. They consider themselves adept at conveying these emotions through their art which I found to be extremely significant to me.

Straying Warrior Kabi Nagata: Go Gourmet - I think this memoir was dropped by the author and never continued to publish since 2021 so I don't have very many thoughts to elaborate on after reading only 4 chapters but I guess this is something I should include in this blog post.

My Wandering Warrior Existence - this hit me very hard and I think it's the author's second most relatable work, next to her debut memoir. Her raw exploration of gender and sexuality cut very deep and gave further context to a lot of the experiences she has suffered in her life. I felt like this memoir gave so much insight into the events discussed in the first 3 autobiographies this author has published which further makes them more relatable to me.

Devilman - this is another one of those franchises where I could just tell it would make me experience levels of autism not humanly possible. This series surprised me by how short it was but I really loved the art with its extremely graphic depictions of violence and cartoony character designs. I found myself very sad with how it ended but it surpassed my expectations for how homoerotic it truly was. I did not expect this manga to have a very nuanced approach to sexuality and violence which made it deeply impactful for me to read.

Devilman: The Birth - I thought this was a pretty adequate adaption for the origin of Devilman and doesn't alter too much from the original manga so it's very pleasing to see the characters and the first arc of the story adapted into animation. I made the mistake of watching the English dub of this OVA instead of the original Japanese audio with subtitles on my first watch-through. Granted the English dub is hilariously awful I was really taken aback by how much the dub butchers the original dialog and portrayal of the original characters. The sub of course is on par with the original manga, I have just never encountered a dub that was so awful it made me reflect on the tremendous issue with localized English dubs of anime.

Devilman: The Demon Bird - this OVA had a lot more action in comparison to the first one but felt like 3 arcs shoved into one feature-length film. Regardless I still really enjoyed the animation as well as the original soundtrack.

Shin Devilman - this side story was so wildly out of pocket it left me flabbergasted. The historical revisionism in this series is so horrible I don't know whether to laugh or to cry but at least we get that one scene where Ryo admits that he's gay.

Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman - this OVA is completely divorced from the first two Devilman OVAs so I thought it was the weakest out of the three. I didn't care for the confusing overly dramatic edgy storytelling nor did I care for the updated art style. I got 10 minutes into this OVA and I just really wanted it to be over.

Inside The Mind Of A Cat - this is a documentary my dad randomly put on the tv one night and since I watched it from start to finish it belongs on the list. I thought it was pretty ok definitely entertaining enough to receive my full attention. I liked the brief history of domesticated cats the most out of the whole documentary. I really enjoyed learning about how cats were spread across every continent and the first discovery of cats being buried along with human remains to indicate the first instance of felines being kept as cherished pets.

Divina Commedia in Devilman - this is one of those doujins by CLAMP and I did not expect there to be one for Devilman. Most of this doujin was just gag comics that didn't get very much of a reaction out of me but the last chapter is was more fleshed out and it hit me like a truck.

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