#hope this show stays great 10/10 first ep

[niaoniaos]

WATASHI NO OYOME-KUN (2023)

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Currently Watching - April

aka The Masterlist

Because I love a good little list - in alphabetical order! 😊

Regularly updated during the month, latest update 30.04.2024

A little link to my favorite bl-tropes-collection 💙

I am happy about gif-requests 🌼

Here you can find all of my gifs.

Tracking: #josistag

At the end you can have a look at what we can expect in April with a MDL link and a link for a trailer (if avaible).

This is guaranteed to contain spoilers!

1. 25 Ju, Akasaka de 🇯🇵 (2/10)

They were fellow students and now they have to play in a BL together. One of them is two years older and popular. For the other one, this is his first big role and he needs it, so he is determined to to anything he needs to do, to be a good actor. Even when this means to find a partner and fall in love to be able to play the role perfectly. Why not try to be lovers with your co-star. All for the sake of the series of course.

2. Blue Boys 🇰🇷 (2/4)

This short series is quite good. I saw the first episode by chance and I was hooked, but lost it again, because I couldn't track it on MDL. Now it is up there. I hope these two can resolve their missunderstanding, with talking! But they are too hungry for each other...

3. Boys Be Brave! 🇰🇷 (2/8)

Enemies to lovers, but different. Jinwoo likes Kisub and Kisub knows this. But while Kisub gives his heart away to every person who hits on him and can't really say No to anyone, Jinwoo loves to build up his wall and hide behind a strong No. Their worlds collide, when Kisub moves in with Jinwoo, if he likes it or not. Great first episodes!

4. Cityboy_Log 🇰🇷 (12/?)

They are back and unhinged like before! Jihan and Jaejun met after a while because they were busy and it seems they had some catching up to do the night before. We get some daily vlogging, some cuteness and some jealousy, which wasn't that cute. But they are finally back and I am happy. The acting is still very good. There is no deeper story behind, just some idols, models and actors falling in love with each other and theit daily lifes.

5. Deep Night 🇹🇭 (3/8)

his is everything I was expecting, so it didn't disappoint, I guess. To be honest, I watch this for First. I guess he would have chemistry with a stick, soooo this is nice. And I hope the story, at least stays like this and won't get worse... Update: This show is a mess 😂 there is so much going on all at once and at the same time nothing really happens? It is so confusing, yet very entertaining. But Wela, my dear, it is totally okay to be pissed if one fucks with you, while you are so drunk you can't remember shit the next day... Just a thought.

6. Kare no Iru Seikatsu 🇯🇵 (3/8)

Kazuhito has no girlfriend and the ones he had, broke up with him, because they felt he likes someone else... Who might that be?... The story is simple, I guess? (But perhaps not that simple... The preview for ep 3 looks interesting.) Childhood friends are forced to move in together after spending time apart. One is a little bit naive and is trying to find out why girls breaking up with the most charming and handsome guy he knows and the latter is in love with the naive one and in the end they have their happy ending. I like it. I want to see their growth.

7. Love Is Like A Cat 🇰🇷 (10/12)

Who thought this was a good idea? Who wrote this? Who said cut at the end of scenes? Who thought this is be the way Mew should act? I cringe so hard and not in a funny way. This series is just bad. I keep watching because of this little bean. But I had to skip so many scenes in today's episodes, because it was just so bad! And I can't figure out if Mew just didn't want to be there and act or if that is the way the director wanted him to act... But the acting is bad. Bad choices everywhere. And the dialogues? Cringe... Why would a bean like Dae Byeol fall for Uno? Nope...

8. My Stand-In 🇹🇭 (1/12)

Okay, hear me out. I watch this for Poom and for Poom only. But the story lookes interesting, it was quite intriguing. I don't know why, but I cringed a bit too much at some scenes. But Poom is beautiful and that is all I care about. Yes, I can be this shallow!

9. Only Boo 🇹🇭 (4/12)

The cringe was so strong with this one this week! I had to pause multiple times, but at the same time I enjoyed it so much! Moo is so unhinged and I love him! But please! Don't let Moo's cousin become a possible love interest for Kang. I know we got this dream sequence this week, but there is something in the air between Shone and him... and I don't like it. The second couple... I felt really sad for them this week. Beeing in love with your best friend is never easy...

10. Unknown 🇹🇼 (12/12)

The story about found family, childhood trauma and struggling topped with a lovestory between "brothers". They aren't really brothers so I really don't care and just enjoy this forbidden and hurtful lovestory to the fullest. This is exactly what I hoped for! The longing, tension and hurting is so good! It is the aftermath of the shooting and Qian is still dealing with his emotions and his feelings for Yuan. The love between them is real and strong, but Qian is afraid and can't just let his heart decide over the head, yet. He loves Yuan, but is afraid what that means for them and especially for Yuan's future. And yet he held him back. He was the one reaching out in the end! I have said enough about them and this first part of ep 11 in my post. I love them. My heart belongs to them. I wish we had more developement between these two as a couple, but I still love them and I forgive this show the rush in the end, because I love it so much.

11. Word of Honor 🇨🇳 (20/36)

Those two flirt a lot and are a married couple. Everyone knows that. And I love and enjoy that! Overall this is such a fun watch and the different sects and intrigues are sometimes a little bit confusing, but interesting. I love this world of martial arts and I love how protective Wen Kexing is over Zhou Zishu.

Finished in April

Series

My Strawberry Film 🇯🇵

This is what I call a love triangle. And the fact that the screenwriters worked for Eien No Kinou or Jack o'Frost promised some heartbreak and teenage angst. And they delivered. I really like this series. And I felt so many emotions, especially for Ryo. And I really loved the ending. No fake relationship and no unrealistic confessions, just some teenagers in love and being friends. And I think Hiraku was such a sweet friend in this last episode. He apologized and he finally recognized Ryo's feelings for him. And I believe they stay friends in the future. It might be difficult, but a good friendship is worth fighting for. It has so much to do with respect and love for each other. It is a solid 8 out of 10 for me.

Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto 🇯🇵

The story about highschool sweethearts, who didn't have the chance to enjoy their young love, because of horrible family backgrounds. Their story is devastating and I am happy they found their way back to each other. The story was good, the acting was good, I am in love with Furuya Robin, which is nice, and the side characters were special (shoutout to Yuto!). I wish there was more "passion" from Miyata, but I guess it is due to his character. Overall it was a good watch and I enjoyed it! A good 8 out of 10 for me.

Jazz For Two 🇰🇷

I love bls about music and about traumatic pasts. The second couple has my heart. I just love them coming together. Usually I hate this bully-trope, but with them, I kinda enjoyed it. Perhaps because Jooha always looked like a hurting puppy. Overall the homophobia in this one is strong and I think it is interesting to see them deal with their own feelings. Internal and external homophobia is such a big thing in all their stories and I wish they had more time to show the developement from hating themselves to loving the other person and themselves. But in my opinion they made a good story and a good show. I like it very much. And what was that kiss in the end? Wow! A good 9 out of 10 for.

To Be Continued 🇹🇭

I really like this one! I read some comments that the reason they never got together was just stupid, but from their perspective I can understand why they reacted how they reacted. They were young and unsure what to do and what all of this meant for them and their friendship. What I liked about the show was the present and past scenes. We learned so much about their past and the scenes fitted perfectly. It was a really good series and I am glad I waited to binge it. Guess I come back to this one from time to time. Rewatch value is there. And those two have really good chemistry! A good 9 out of 10 for me.

Movie

Short Film

Dropped in April

We are 🇹🇭

I dropped this after the first half of the first episode. There are a few reasons for that. First, I need some shows to binge on lonely sundays. And second, I just don't feel like watching this one. It was so quirky for me. Not my kinf od humor right now.

Looking forward to in April

Love is like a cat - Trailer (Apr 1st)

We are - Trailer (Apr 3rd)

Memory in a letter - Trailer (Apr 6th)

Grey Shelter (Apr 11th)

Kare no Iru Seikatsu - Trailer (Apr 12th)

The Spirealm (Apr 15th)

Boys be brave! (Apr 25th)

25 Ji, Akasaka de (Apr 19th)

Kimi to Yukite Saku: Shinsengumi Seishunroku (Apr 25th)

My Stand-In - Trailer (Apr 26th)

Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko 2024

Knock Knock, Boys - Trailer

[goth-pod]

Goth-Pod Ep 10: Finale

Welcome to Goth-Pod's last episode of season one! Juda Boone is joined today by a very special guest! (ITS DICK GRAYSON-WAYNE. WE GOT DICK GRAYSON)

Thank you for joining us for our first season. Until next time, stay safe, Gotham.

[goth-pod is a fictional, in-universe podcast based on the DC comics universe. Juda Boone is an original fictional character, not based on any real person or known comic book character.]

Special thanks to my friend for voicing Dick! @anythingeverythingallofthetime

Transcript under the cut

Juda: Hello everyone and welcome back! This is Goth-Pod, your Gotham based podcast. I am your favorite host, Juda Boone. And I am not alone today! Care to say hi?

Dick: Hello listeners! 

Juda: Today’s episode is the last before our hiatus. So of course, we are doing what any competent media does when they want to be successful: Completely change up the formula at the very last minute. 

Dick: And that's where I come in!

Juda: Yes, you are our very special guest star / co-host / interviewee for our finale. 

Dick: And I am happy to be here. I totally binge-listened to all your episodes after you reached out to me. It was too good to pass up! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a podcast before? I like it, I get to wear big headphones and talk. 

Juda: Why don’t you start out by just introducing yourself, for our non-local listeners. 

Dick: Sure thing! I am Dick Grayson-Wayne, I am an Aries, I think. And I am single. If you happen to know someone. 

Juda: [laughing] Okay, very helpful. And since we are an audio-based medium, it is my duty as a host to explain that Mr. Grayson just gave me a very tasteful wink. 

Dick: We’re friends here, Juda. You can call me Dick.

Juda: With all the respect in the world I will not be calling you that.  Juda: Mr. Grayson, we actually have something of an important topic to discuss today. As you are now a Bludhaven resident, you have some insight on their vigilante, Nightwing. I was hoping you could tell the Gotham listeners a bit about the up-and-coming hero.

Dick: To be fair, I don’t know any more than the next guy. I’ve seen him around town, of course, especially on patrol. But I’ve never had the chance to actually talk to him. Guess that means I’m staying on the right side of trouble. 

Juda: From what you have seen, what are some differences between Gotham's Bat and Bludhaven’s Nightwing?

Dick: The fashion sense, for sure! Dick: He actually seems like a person rather than a- what was it you called Batman? In Episode 1, I thought it was great! Like a- an Earthbound spirit, right? And from what I hear the guy has a good sense of humor, unlike Batman. Probably a winning smile to go along with it. 

Juda: hah! Mr. Grayson, we are not a gossip podcast, but to me it almost sounds like you have a crush. 

Dick: woah, woah, hey now Juda, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I mean, give me a chance to get rescued by the guy. We’ll see if sparks fly then. 

Juda: And if that happens, will you be back on the show? 

Dick: You will be the first person I call, I can promise you that.  Dick: Juda if we are to be friends, I’m going to have to come clean on something.

Juda: Oh no. 

Dick: It’s nothing bad! I just may have started us off on a lie, and I apologize for that. 

Juda: I repeat: Oh no. 

Dick: I said that I only listened to Goth-Pod after you reached out to me. In truth, I heard every episode at their release. [whispering] I’m the one who showed Bruce your Bruce Wayne episode. 

Juda: Mr. Grayson, you didn’t. 

Dick: AND your Bruceman Episode. 

Juda: Dick.

Dick: [laughing] Hey, that's my name!

Juda: To save myself from the mortification of that reality, I’m going to say that this is all the time we have today. Thank you so much for joining us, everyone. This time and everytime. A special thank you to my co-host, Dick Grayson-Wayne. I am Juda, this is Goth-Pod. Anything you’d like to say, Mr. Grayson?

Dick: Uuhh. Be gay, don’t do crime. And Stay Safe, Gotham!

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - It’s My Birthday!

April 2023 Wk 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Step By Step (Thai Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 2 of 10 (MDL says 12, but Gaga says 10) - Baby made a friend! Yay. I hope they stay friends. Up looks so good. Also, drama with exes! Excellent. This is awful grown up for a BL, esp a pulp. I think it may be more just a gay office romance than BL, but I love it no matter what. 

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 1 of 10 - I love it. Strange premise to get at the fated mates trope but it stars one of my top picks to get his own BL. Been waiting since TT2 for this boy to feature. Tai is cute. It’s good. Except the singing. But we can’t have it all. 

Our Skyy 2 (Star in My Mind) eps 3-4 - Dao is THE MOST SPOILED. But clearly Kluen prefers it that way. This was cute, but frankly a little bit boring. Kluen is clearly Thai for whipped. 8/10 

Future (Thai Sun YouTube & Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - they added an additional ep because, why not? It’s a soap not a story, it doesn’t matter. MOAR softness for usssss! Drama llama boys continue to be overdramatic to the point of melodramatic to the point of ludicrous-dramatic. 

Pastsenger (Thai Weds Gaga) ep 8 of 12 eps - This is not as good as My Engineer but Marc makes for a much better pair with Cooper. It’s still not great but hey… and then HE PICKED UP A GUITAR. NOOOOOO!!!!!

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 9 of 12 - Is that a character in a GMMTV show actually trying to communicate? Say it isn’t so! Did you notice in order to calm Cher down Gun dropped to pom to put them on a more equal footing? Sweet. Cher is a tiny idiot for taking the blame for some random other coworker. Why? Omg this show. 

The Promise (Thai Weds YT & WeTV) ep 6 of 10 - So it was a real serious total kiss kiss with both very drunk. And that’s why he ran? Sigh. This show sucks. How can we root for this couple especially when the faen fatal (Boss) is THAT HOT and so sweet. (To be fair I can’t decide if I want Boss or his outfits more). Phu should just not come back, who needs him? So they really are going to just keep drawing this one premise out the whole show? 

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - yawn 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - They are cutest EVER - charming and awkward and sweet. I love the way the state of the food is used as an illustration for the state of the emotions of the characters. The loneliness of heating up a solitary meal bought from a convenience store in the microwave. The joy of memory of shared meals. What a lovely show.  

The Eighth Sense (Korea Weds Viki) eps 9-10fin - To be honest, I was dreading this one. JH is such a first-time love bebe. I liked how realistic everybody’s behavior was to the university age bracket. We even got some proper boyfriends phase which is too damn cute for words. I do not think that JW should have made up with his evil friend. I love the way JW’s shoulders relax the moment he sees JH. This was really good show... 

One of the longest BLs Korea has given us and (like Blueming) it feels more atmospheric gay coming of age romance than strictly BL. It’s got a bit of an age gap, country boy/city boy, stellar acting, complex characters, and leads with good chemistry and tension. It’s a bit chewy and sticky and less perfect than most KBLs (do I detect a touch of Taiwan?). This one deployed BL tropes (messy eater, shoulder sleep, protective seme, there’s even some hyung-slinging) but front loaded them, with tons angst driving the 2nd half. This isn’t in the KBL bubble, there’s sharp edges and lots of triggers. For a BL the darkness of the content left me feeling unsettled but it did have a glorious ending and that counts for a lot. 9/10 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Happy Merry Ending (Korea Thurs Gaga) eps 1-2 of 8 - No shade (ha!) but I do think Leo would have been better in the role of the singer (SJ) but I’m okay with Dongwon. JH is a nice flirty bit of sunshine. SJ is clearly the most anxiety-riddled socially awkward broken baby evers. I’m not sure about this kinda angst, it’s not really my thing especially on the back of The Eighth Sense. Look, I’ve never been one for a fixer-upper. We shall see, I guess? This is the beauty of KBL, so short most of the time that it’s low commitment no matter my reservations. 

My Story (Pinoy Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 10 - it’s fine I guess? 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 3 of 12 - I guess the fetish matches are finding each other? How v Japan. Of course I like the conversation about names and protocols. 

It’s Airing But ...

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) stopped at ep 2 of 12 - I’m just not into any aspect of it (except Lee Long Shi and I can watch him in Tin Tem Jai) - saving to binge if the end is solid.

Venus in the Sky (Sat YouTube) pilot/tester?) 0 of 10 - not entirely sure what’s up with this one distribution-wise, but the pilot was classic university-set pulp. I hope it happens because the leads are cute with good chemsitry and I thought it was fun. However, this pilot holds together as its own little short too.

Make a Wish (Thai Weds ?) stars Fluke Natouch (OhmFluke UWMA etc...) & Judo (The Miracle Of Teddy Bear) in a medical-fantasy. About a doctor who sees ghosts and a deity who resides in a Bodhi tree that earns merits whenever he fulfills a wish, based on a y-novel by Sammon (Manner of Death, Triage). Same as above.

Stormy Honeymoon (Vietnam) - I’m tired of these characters 

In Case You Missed It

Star Hunter dropped all their trailers for 2023 on their YT channel. Bit late in the year IMHO. Nothing really stuck out.

Big Dragon the movie = more of the same

True Moon = yet another loosely disguised attempt at the 2 Moons franchise?

Flirt Milk = standard pulp fodder, but they are cute

Acadex = The Eclipse + Destiny Seeker + Harry Potter 4 + The CW, as a movie that may not be BL 

Sunset Vibes = Big Dragon pair as a one night stand but “uh-oh he’s my boss!” I’m game. Maybe it’ll have a better story? Maybe it will have a plot? Maybe... oh who am I kidding. It’ll be high heat and that’s about all we can hope for. 

City of Stars AKA Fueangnakorn = An actor falls in love with a programmer and the narrative intends to “explore the ramifications of being public figure in the social network era who must endure critics, bullying, and defamation.” Looks like another Lovely Writer/Call It What You Want sort of thing.

The biggest shocker is how few they fielded of their original BL stable.

ALSO:

Love Senior = SOTUS but make it GL (I’m not mad about this one, it’s about flipping time. But it’s GL so I won’t track it, although I will watch it.)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Coming in May 2023:

5/1 House of Stars (Thai iQIYI) - An LGBTQ actor in love with an actor from another company, plus other wanna be stars all trapped in a doom house together. 

5/4 Love Mate (Korea Viki) 8 eps- Office romance between a team leader and a new employee who agree to date for 3 months to find true love, from the makers of Our Dating Sim.

5/18 - Starstruck (Korea ????) - A boy has had a crush on his childhood friend for a long time. Stars Zuho (Kpop SF9 - noted Good Egg) opposite rookie actor Kim In Sung (as the one with the crush). 

5/27 The Luminous Solution (Thai ????) 10 eps - Thana is having trouble at work and in his relationship. He can't seem to catch a break. So he makes a wish to change everything. But every wish has a price.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I do like a tie (or nametag) grab kiss. (Boss & Babe) 

Our Skyy 2 SIMM ep summing it all up and reviewing itself.

Future the series, I like this reverse claiming thing. So cute. 

The boyfriends eps are the BEST eps. The Eighth Sense. 

I WANT BOSS’S OUTFITS. 

My favorite, “there is only one bed but we slept together on the floor anyway.” (The Promise) 

Now that is a claim that MUST be proved. 

Loves the little babies with their killer communication style. 

What do I always say about a BL that reviews itself? All from Destiny Seeker. (I’m getting caught up, I’ll post a review of the series when I’m done.)

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? UO’s Restart 

[originallypoki]

Our Flag Means Death S2 Spoilers!

Something people doesn't seem to realize, is that pacing has a key impact to a story. Yes, the tale you want to tell can be the best someone has ever come up with, but if your pacing of it is awful, it pulls the whole story down with it. To rushed pacing? It loses meaning and impact, because there's no time to become attached. To slow paced? It becomes boring and uninteresting, finishing the book, show or movie feels more like a task than actual fun.

The first 4 episodes of season 2 of OFMD were awesome. The pacing was perfect, we had enough time to register what was happening and to sort out our emotions. I was a bit thrown off by ep 5. Because, while still good paced, you can start the see the problems because of the missing 2 eps ( for example the skipped fight, instead choosing to tell, not show. )-

Then episode 6 and 7 happened. And oh boi, I wanted to drop the show, only my love for it keeping me going.

I know that it isn't David Jenkins and the production team's fault, since the 2 episodes got cut, giving us the total of 8. But I can't excuse the decision to cram the plot of 10 eps into 8. If you have so little time left, why don't just cut some 'unimportant' storypoints?

Like Ned Lowe, he was introduced and died in the same episode. His purpose was to give GentleBeard development I know, that still doesn't give him enough importance to let him stay in the shortened version. Just like the second break-up from GentleBeard we got in ep 7.

Instead we got very out-of-character characters, Stede for example. I can see why he acts the way he does in ep 7. It would make sense, had he more time to have proper character development! Instead he feels weird, plus the very very uncomfortable second-hand embarrassment scenes (like the fight with Zheng). And sadly after ep 3, I couldn't feel the same chemistry GentleBeard had in S1. While there were cute scenes, like the end of ep5, I felt like something was missing to make me actually care. It's just my feelings, so not very important, but it was a bit disappointing.

The end of ep 7 gave me hope. Because it was a perfect way to introduce a villain, who's a genuine threat to our heros. And I maybe like Prince Ricky a bit to much. Then ep 8 came crushing down while drowing my love for OFMD, that made me ignore everything wrong with the second half of S2.

I like ep 8, well the first few minutes. It felt like I finally had time to see what's happening and David Jenkins didn't leave us completely clueless. ( Let's ignore the logic holes since it was is a comedy show and they were always there. ) And I was way to busy squieking like a pig of happiness to think critical.

I have many criticism points, but will only focus on one;

Izzy's death. And by god, I. Am. Pissed. Killing a character that is beloved by the fandom isn't the problem. While I love him, he's my favorite, I also love a good ol' angst. But he was in the middle of his redemption arc, and ending this with death is just such weak writing. I have nothing against killing a character off for development. Iron man for example, his whole story is about becoming a better person and jumping over his ego. And it ends just like Izzy in death. But Tony was through his arc, his death was the final, showing he has changed, showing he would do everything to save the universe and more important, the people he loves.

If Izzy died at the start of or before S2 I wouldn't complain, because it would've been perfect for him. Maybe if he died a more impactful death I wouldn't write this. But you can't make a character finally change and then destroy the meaning of it by killing him off in the fucking middle of the change. It would've had so much more impact seeing how he becomes a part of the crew he loathed not even a few weeks ago. Episode 5 did that great, while a bit fast. I like how he and Stede get along. Growing closer. It was a bit too fast paced, and I hoped for them to finally communicate, not talk. The same with Ed, I wanted him and Izzy to finally talk to eachother and not through eachother. However, giving us acutally communication while Izzy's fucking dying is not how you give impact. (And credit where credit's due; I really like that dialog, it was beautiful and the right words choosen to explain how Izzy feels)

Not to forget what a meaning it conveys. Izzy always did what he thought was right, even when it was completely wrong. But when he finally grows and begins to do actually what is right and let's go of Ed, he dies?

Still, I wouldn't say that they shouldn't have done a season 2 at all. It has great potential and I can see what they were going for. So, while it has it's problem's, it's nothing what a good fanfic can't fix. So I look forward to the amazing works that will build up on this hot mess and / or 'correct' it.

So bye, I'll go cry and give the last three episodes of S2 of OFMD, the last 20 minutes of S2 Go treatment T^T (except that GO S2 was fucking fantastic through the whole season)

[animesavior]

"The Earth just draw the attention of some of the most despicable beings the universe has to offer. If something isn't done soon, we could find ourselves in a lot of trouble. what can we do? We could try to wish our enemies away, but even the great Shenron might be powerless against their tremendous strength. Goku is the greatest Warrior the Earth has ever known. Yet to these Saiyans, he's nothing more than an inconvenience. I wonder if King Kai's instruction will even help? Until Goku returns, it seems Gohan is our best hope. He's young though, and there's so little time." -          Kami, Dragon Ball Z Kai (Ep. 04)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for March 2-4, 9-10, and 16-17, 2024. The 27th anniversary of the better cartoon came on a somber note, as it was reported on March 8th that Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise, had passed away on March 1st at the age of 68 due to acute subdural hematoma. Dragon Ball is considered to be Toonami’s greatest success story, as since DBZ first aired in the lineup back in 1999, the show led the charge to bring about the 90’s-2000’s anime boom and the overall popularity of anime in the west today.

And as the anime world paid their respects to a legend, Toonami fans celebrated the life and legacy of Toriyama the best way they knew how, by enjoying Dragon Ball Z on Toonami.

Toonami made a quick tribute to Toriyama during the night of March 9 as the news came on short notice for the Toonami staff. But for the following week on the night of March 16-17, following the regular schedule (save for One Piece and Naruto which took the night off), Toonami aired a marathon of the first eight episodes of DBZ Kai.

In regards to social media buzz, For the night of March 2-3, #Toonami trended in the United States on Twitter alongside Ninja Kamui, Demon Slayer, and Lycoris Recoil. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr alongside Naruto Shippuden. Later, on the night of March 9-10, #Toonami also trended alongside Ninja Kamui, Demon Slayer, and Lycoris Recoil; with #Toonami and Demon Slayer trending alongside the late Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Z, and DBZ. And on the night of March 16-17, #Toonami trended on Twitter alongside Ninja Kamui, Lycoris Recoil and DBZ Kai. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr.

As a bonus, this rundown includes a list of trends that occurred when we got the news of Toriyama’s passing to showcase his impact to the world. Besides Akira Toriyama, #Toonami and other Dragon Ball related content trended as fans made their tributes to Toriyama.

On a more positive note, on March 8, Viz Media and Toonami announced that Zom 100, the hit new anime series by Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata, will be airing on Toonami beginning this March 30, 2024 at 12:30 a.m. Zom 100 will be replacing Demon Slayer on the lineup, which will be going on hiatus from the block after completing the Entertainment District Arc the week before on March 23. There is no word when Toonami and Aniplex plan on airing the show’s next season, the Swordsmith Village Arc, at this time.

In an interview with Variety released on March 22, James Gibbons, President of Warner Bros Discovery’s Asia-Pacific division, revealed that WBD plans on increasing its anime output for 2024 and beyond, saying “We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years. [...] We’ve approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year.” How many of those titles Toonami itself will get to broadcast is yet to be seen, but it's a good sign that WBD remains committed to anime overall.

Tune in tonight for the finale of Demon Slayer’s Entertainment District Arc, among other great moments. Do note that as the season finale of Demon Slayer is 45 minutes long, every show after will air 15 minutes later than usual tonight. Stay gold as always, and Toriyama-san, may you rest in peace in the Other World and thank you for everything. Until we meet again.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

March 2-3, 2024 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#6]

#NinjaKamui [#3]

#DemonSlayer [#11]

#LycorisRecoil [#10]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [3,490 tweets]

#DemonSlayer [3,256 tweets]

#LycorisRecoil [1,812 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#toonami [#4]

#naruto shippuden [Trended with #toonami]

March 9-10, 2024 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#9]

#NinjaKamui [#10]

#DemonSlayer [Trended with #NinjaKamui]

#LycorisRecoil [#9]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [4,435 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#toonami [#1]

#DemonSlayer [#6]

#akira toriyama [#7]

#dragon ball z [Trended with #akira toriyama]

#dbz [Trended with #akira toriyama]

March 16-17, 2024 Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#5]

#NinjaKamui [#8]

#LycorisRecoil [#Toonami]

#DBZKai [#Toonami]

Tumblr Trends:

#toonami [#2]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to PayPal.Me/DanielLimjoco.

Until we meet again…Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[jenyifer]

Dangerous romance 7/10 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Lists I’d Put It In: So much potential, Sports, Slice of Life

Review: There is a lot of things I like about dangerous romance but the cons makes it so that I’d likely not watch it again.

Pros the actors main and side were fan fucking tastic. Perth can be so intimidating bratty sexy and on the other hand just a sweet little puppy. I love how funny he made Kang just adding flare. Chimon baby of OffGun of course I watched this show mainly for him. Sailom is basically a hop skip and jump away from Wave from the gifted Sassy Smart Secertly extremely caring and gushy. I’m hoping Chimon’s roles always involve sass it’s his signature. GIVE PAPANG AND PEPPER A BIGGER BL ROLE AND VIEWJUNE ALL OF MY MONEY. MarcPawin really surprised me as well I wasn’t expecting much because I just watched my gear your gown. The grandma was precious. Euro and JJ were great comic relief I wish there had been more of them. I wish there was more I made a post before this 12th ep saying how I’d fix the series in detail. So I’m gonna boil it down here. The ships should have been more interlocked with eachother. The editing made the show boring. Why did we have so many flashbacks and lingering shots. I love a pretty scene but they took so long and we needed extra interlocking scenes for all the ships. Ugh I can see how this show would have been great with just a few changes which makes it so frustrating. Anyways more about the ships after the break

First Perth and Chimon are not at fault for this I’m talking about editing and story. I adore KangSailom they had good potential but it felt like it got every trope imaginable enemies to lovers, poor boy rich boy, long standing unexplainable secret crush from childhood, tutor student, redemption arc, misunderstanding. AND YET IT FELT WEAK BECAUSE OF THE EDITING AND LACK OF OTHER CHARACTERS INTERACTION UNTIL THE VERY END.

Meanwhile audiences kept getting tiny precious glimpses of WONDERFUL side ships.

GuyNawa Idiot Sport boy for Idiot Sport boy with injury, enemies to lovers (really fully enemies), long standing crush was so incredibly beautiful and effective. I probably won’t have liked their plot too if it had been drawn out because I would have been missing the other side characters but what we got for them was perfect I’d rewatch their scenes again. I was much more impressed by MarcPawin this time I hope they get another series their kiss was thru the roof. They give me strong Sports Anime vibes made me miss Haikyuu.

Saifah and Name had the most potential to be a 10/10 ship. Papang and Pepper definitely need their flowers because the show didn’t give them a lot to work with. Their characters and storylines should have been worked in from the beginning. I wanted to want to cry for Saifah when he was taken away. I wanted to want Name to stay safe as he tried to protect Sailom and Saifah. But I felt like it was so rushed. We barely got to see what these characters had. But everything we did was leaning towards greatness a big brother who has done wrong in the past to get by trying to do ANYTHING for his brother even tho he’s in over his head and a bit of an idiot and mafia guy who sees his highschool friend again falls in love but is offered shit choices all around to his enviable conclusion and redemption. If only we had gotten them sooner and worked into Sailom’s plot more. I’m telling you it would have been stunning. I can see the vision.

I really love Pimfah. She is… a great female character. I talked about it already but great lesbian energy. I wish I had more. I wish Pimfah could have been worked more smoothly into Kang’s storyline after he decided to go after Sailom. The student teacher was precious. She is going to make a great teacher. I wish we got a spin off of what happens in London. But sadly the ship just didn’t have enough screen time.

I might rewatch the GuyNawa scenes again but the rest is probably a skip.

Bonus: Strangest kiss in the bathroom award goes to….

[canonicallysoulmates]

As I'm sure many of you know, Scott Patterson who played Luke on Gilmore Girls has a Gilmore Girls-themed podcast and Jared made an appearance in one of the recent episodes.

Before we hop into it from henceforth Scott Patterson is gonna appear as SP and Gilmore Girls as GG.

So this interview was uploaded on Oct 6th, but it was done after Kansas con weekend (23rd to the 25th Sept) we know this because near the end of the panel Jared mentions he had been with Jensen the past weekend in Kansas City.

SP asks Jared how things are going and how the family is doing, Jared says they're great and he gives the kid's names, ages, and school grades. Says O is 5 but thinks she’s 35, and rules the roost, and that it's his day off and he was an hour outside of Austin that he and G snuck out there to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I believe he got away from the hustle and bustle of the city, not sure about his supposed company.

Then SP says he’s in Nova Scotia right now filming a project. That it’s beautiful there, and one of his co-stars is Chad Michael Murray. He doesn't mention what it is he's filming but I was curious so I looked up it's a new show called Sullivan's Crossing.

Jumping right into the questions, was GG Jared's first acting gig that he got hired for? Not technically. Between junior and senior high, he won a contest to be a presenter at the first teen choice awards. At the afterparty, he met Dan Spilo who is his manager to this day, and Spilo asked if he did acting to which Jared replied that he acted in school, and did speech-and-debate, that he loved acting so Spilo gave him his card and told him to keep in touch.

Jared went back to San Antonio to finish his senior year of high school, and Spilo would send him scripts. He would memorize his lines in the script and his mom would film him while she was reading the other character's lines, and Spilo told him he thought he had talent and he could work.

Says his plans were to go to UT Austin and do engineering and premed like his brother had done. And that while his parents were supportive of his acting they thought it sounded like a pipe dream and wanted him to have a backup plan which he was okay with, he was excited to go to Austin and build a life there but then during spring break of his senior year, which fell on Pilot season, he flew out and got a Pilot for a series called Silent Witness which did not get picked up, and that at first his parents were like "okay, you gave it a shot" then the check came in for the Pilot and they were like "follow your dreams son!" 😆He put some of that money away for school then used the rest to drive to Cali with his papaw, his grandfather from his mother’s side. He stayed over at Spilos' house, and did some auditions, and he says back in the 2000s if you were a teenage white dude there was a role for you in every project being made so he got tons of auditions, he booked a guest spot on ER, a movie called A Little Inside, and a four ep guest stint on GG which hadn't aired yet.

At the same time that he got offered those 4 eps on GG he was also offered an independent movie that paid 10 times the money and another that paid 6 times the money. GG hadn’t even aired yet he was this kid who grew up in a small house he was thinking about the money but his agent and manager told him that they thought the show had legs, was intelligent, charming, and heartwarming, and convinced him to grab the GG role instead of the movies.

What does he remember about the audition? He remembers going in, and to the best of his recollection, his first audition was with Lauren and Jaime. They seemed to love him, and he felt like they dug him but he doesn’t know how much of it was them being lovely and professional so he didn’t want to get his hopes up in case they were just nice because he was a kid. Then they brought him back in to audition for Amy and Gavin and they also seemed to dig him, and it was a classic audition room some people were acting really calm and cool while others were acting like they didn't know what they were doing; he went into the room and he said his lines two or three times, had a good feeling from Amy, he felt like she could tell that he was an actor. That he didn’t want to be famous he understood that if he became a successful actor fame might be a part of the equation but he was there to try and tell a story, not for the fame. He had lived 17yrs in Texas, gone to school, and lived a normal life and he thinks that in Amy's mind at least that was refreshing for Dean cause he was a small-town-minded kind of guy even though he grew up in Chicago. He felt at home in Stars Hollow cause he was kind of a low-key guy and Jared was a low-key kid.

SP says the thing that struck all of them was how good of an actor Jared was at such a young age that he was blowing them away, and that his character had one of the greatest character introductions he has ever seen on TV when he meets Rory and they do the book exchange that he was the coolest guy and Jared really knew how to play it and how to handle it. So as critical as he can be with other people’s work he was stunned at how good Jared was and still is that every performance he gave was flawless, and they gush about Jared's performances on the podcast. It was above and beyond what everybody expected and SP didn’t realize until he watched the show how good Jared was.

What was it like meeting Alexis and working with her? She too was a kid from Texas who didn’t know she was going to be on tv, he doesn't know her exact story although he says he would love to know it. But she too was also kind of a fish out of water so that was helpful.

Jared says his comfort zone is acting and focusing on the story. When he got GG it was just 4 eps that's all he had signed a contract for and he thought it was cool that he got to explore a character in more than one ep cause a lot of auditions at the time were for one episode guest slots but with GG he was like "oh 4 episodes how neat".

That in the best way possible he always felt like a guest on the set, even in the seasons where he had more episodes or was more heavily involved in the eps he was in, and that he was famous for how many cookies he would eat every day. He didn't have a lot of money at the time, he had rent to pay so he would go at the end of the day and see if there was any leftover food and there was a big platter of Hollywood company cookies. He shares that one time, maybe during s2 or 3, he was getting more into fitness and aware of calories and it was the early 2000s lots of messages about avoiding saturated fat and getting more fiber, and he randomly called the cookie company one day cause he would eat 8 or 9 of the things and they were not small cookies they were like pancakes. He calls them up and asked for the nutrition like the fats, and calories and stuff so he knew how much to work out to burn it off and the response was "do you like the cookies?" and Jared goes "I love them!" and they tell him"let’s just say this. As much as you love them that’s how many calories they have" they made it clear those cookies were made with love and butter. Says he misses them, they were white chocolate macadamia cookies.

Honestly, fuck the early 2000s view on food, and the damage it has caused in all of us. I hope he has grown a healthier relationship with food, one that doesn't involve worrying about how many calories the cookies he enjoys has and how he's gonna work them off.

Anyways he says through school he had done plays, and debate, and speech and he just loved storytelling. He’s always been a fan of those people who tell a story and everyone is captivated and can make you laugh or cry or both. And at the time while he was filming he still had his housing assignment and secondhand books and thought he’d make as much money as possible and then go back to school. So he was like 'enjoy it while you can'; it wasn’t his career yet, he was thinking the money he could make filming those eps were gonna be helpful to pay for his loans. So he worked really hard on his scenes, and he remembers the exact amount of the paycheck for his first ep of GG. It was 1,234 and he when he got paid he thought he was loaded.

SP says Jared came at it with gratitude and no expectations and Jared comments that even now he comes at it with gratitude. For him, he just really enjoys the work that goes into it and the filming of the scene is the least exciting part what he loves is the rehearsal process whether that's with or without somebody else. His fav part is going through a tv show over and over again and then getting to set to see what sticks and what the rest of the cast and crew wanna do.

Is he similar to Dean? Was he similar to him in high school? In high school, no. He didn't have the confidence Dean had; Dean had a quiet confidence from the get that Jared learned from. He was still 17 he was a kid in every way he'd never left the country, only left the state like twice in his life and it was with his family. San Antonio isn’t a small town but he was kind of a small-town kid, his life was the 3-mile radius around his house which was made up of the grocery store, his school, and his friend's house so maybe similar to Dean because he grew up in Chicago but felt at home in a smaller microcosm. He thinks that was similar, and that he certainly had similarities- he feels like he learned a lot from Dean, that Amy and the gang wrote a character that was really lovable, he had some hiccups across the seasons, but he started out just a good kid.

He mentions there was a scene he was talking about with one of the crew members on Walker and she told him her fam and she were always team Dean and he was like "really?" and she said yeah that the scene where he and Lorelai are eating pizza and talking about his motorcycle seemed sweet, it was wholesome.

SP says one of the ballsiest things he's ever seen a character do on the show is when Dean was over for a movie night and Rory excused herself leaving him and Lorelai alone, and she gave him the speech (the don't hurt my daughter or I'll hurt you speech) and after Lorelie is done he doesn't miss a beat and goes my turn.

That it was very impressive, does Jared remember filming that? He does. He remembers they were all on stage and he remembers the set and he thinks they were on stage 14 or 16.

He also remembers that behind the camera early on in the first season he doesn't remember what he was doing but he was being a little shit and SP walked him into the school set and gave him a talking to because at the time Jared was just playing he was doing the things he would do in school when rehearsing for a play, and the message he remembers from that talk was "hey, we’re working here" and he remembers going "I needed to hear that, right here right now" cause if he wanted to make a career out of it he needed to remember they weren't there to play, it's a job the studio or network was spending millions of dollars. So he thanks SP for that.

The things SP remembers most about Jared on set were their discussions about training and Jared wanting to gain weight. Jared remembers there was a time when he got to set and shook SP's hand not knowing SP had been kickboxing and had like a fracture.

What does he remember about having to film the high school party fight scene with Milo? And how log did it take with that choreography? It was shot at the WB ranch and he feels like they shot it in a night.

GG was known for being a long day he remembers driving off the lot on other occasions at like 6am and driving past the guards and them being like "GG?". They shot in November or December from 6pm to 6 am and Milo was super fit that when you're doing a stunt sequence with somebody who is not super physically capable it’s worrisome cause you don’t know if he's coordinated and you think you're gonna get hurt but he didn’t feel that way with Milo. Milo is fit and seemingly always has been and still is and so he remembers thinking it was gonna be fun, it was a good time. And they’ve always gotten along extremely well, so it helps a lot when you trust and respect those you're working with especially in a physical sequence.

He also says Milo helped show him the ropes cause even a season into GG he was still a white belt, and shares the lunch story about how Milo is the one who let him know they were allowed to leave set.

Does he know or have any guesses as to who Rory's baby daddy is? He doesn’t know for sure, his understanding is that it has changed a couple of times. He has some guesses but he wouldn’t put it past the Palladino's to change it.

Says that when they did the GG reunion he was supposed to be in more of it but at the time he was shooting SPN in Van so they had to whittle it down and grab him on a free day.

Can he talk about his work when it comes to mental health advocacy? He doesn’t like to say that he has mental health struggles, he prefers to say relationship. Shares the quote about pain and suffering, and says he takes his relationship with his mental health very seriously that he sees a doc every week and has for years. It occurred to him that especially in the early GG years, he thinks he’s always had underlying anxiety mostly but also depression, at times he got pretty bad. He felt like there he was playing pretend for a living, buying a house with money he made, in magazines, making new friends but he would go home and cry sometimes, or sit and not do anything.

There was nothing on paper he could write down that he was unhappy about so he didn't know why he was anxious or sad, and he adds the note that you can feel sad and not be depressed. So he would wonder what was wrong with him, then one day with a lot of friends and family and the fandom it was a leap of faith to open up about this, and he was worried and anticipating judgement but instead, he was met with nothing but love and support. His main message is if you feel like you’re alone, you’re not. Humans are human, we all have highs and lows, and someone can be happy on the outside and sad on the inside and that’s okay no feeling is final; keep your head up and be honest about it. The biggest deal for him was to say he was dealing with something while on the outside he looks like he has everything someone could wish for but that doesn’t mean the brain won't do what it does.

Then there's a little bit of talk about spn, what can he say about that experience of being on a single network and dspn for more than two decades? Says spn was CW before the CW, that season 1 was on WB so for many years spn was the only show on tv that was older than the network that aired it. They had a lot of scares and moments they thought they were done for but they were this little show that could and much like GG, it had a very dedicated audience.

That spn was a really magical show and experience it’s where he met his wife who was on s4 (🙄) and where he got to meet people that have become close friends and family, and it's where he feels he earned his black belt. Anything that could be done on screen he did it on spn, it was a huge blessing and the fandom is outstanding that at the cons he'll see faces he's seen over the decades that it doesn’t feel like star-fan it’s like long-time friends. A shared passion. 

SP asks about Jensen. Jared says he just calls him Ackles that he doesn’t think he’s called him Jensen in 12 years.

Is he excited to see how the prequel unfolds? He says yes. This is where he mentions that he had been with Jensen recently in Kansas for the con. Says their kids go to the same school, and that they're dear friends. That he was texting him the day previous because Jensen was talking about some app that you can use to stream tv because sometimes Jared is in his trailer and wants to "watch Walker or whatever"....I love the domesticity but my boy, do you not know Netflix? Hulu? Disney+?

Continuing, he says they talk about all sorts of stuff, that Jensen's a fellow Texan, he grew up in North Dallas, has a wife and three kids and he's (Jared) is a Texan with a wife and three kids, both are country music fans they have lots to talk about; that he's got 3 young kids, and a wife, and a couple of jobs so he doesn't really see anybody unless their last name is Padalecki and live in the same house or they work on Walker (that's a load of bull) but Jensen has directed Walker and they're hoping to get him on board but he's filming in NM right now.

I imagine Jared's internal monologue when talking about Jensen during this podcast was "don't be suspicious" because if you listen to this part of the podcast it's clear, imo, that Jared is being cautious with what he says the most noticeable moment being when he has to pause to figure out how to describe who Jensen is to him after saying that their kids go to the same school, or how he mentions casually texting Jensen and then feels the need to mention they both have wives and that he doesn't really see anybody unless it's his wife and kids or somebody from the set.

SP says that Jensen is a heck of a musician isn’t he? Jared answers that he’s great, he has a great voice, great guitar- that always when they had late nights on spn he’d take his guitar over to Jensen's trailer or vice versa and they’d sit together and strum and play a little bit. Since the day he met him back in 2005, Jensen has been noodling on a guitar and singing his beautiful voice. Even when being cautious the husband jumps out.

Final questions how did Walker come about? During s14 of spn Jensen and he had a conversation and made the decision that it was time to hang up the flannel because their wives and kids lived in Austin and they were working in Van and they felt it was time for them to meet their wives and kids. So they approached the studio network and told them if they did another year it would be their last one. Then talking with Mark Pedowitz who was president of CW at the time he told Jared that if he was ever interested in getting back on camera or developing or something he hoped he would be Jared's first phone call. And Jared sort of tried to talk his way out of it saying it would have to be in Austin and he would want to be a producer to help develop it but Pedowitz was in total agreement.

Jared talked to his manager, and he once again for some reason added the detail that this is the same manager he has had since high school, but anyways he doesn't remember who it was that brought up Walker who is a Texas ranger and the HQ for the rangers is in the Capital of Texas which is Austin so basically it fit and from their initial conversations the idea was always about Walker being a family man who happens to be a ranger, a guy trying the best he can; that he’s been fortunate to have a lot of friends in law enforcement and military and they have difficult jobs but they’re just people. People are people they are human beings with emotions and feelings and highs and lows. He also mentions the oped that he read in the Times about the officer working the border who gave up the badge because they couldn't do what was being asked of them of separating a child from their family.

At the time of this being filmed, he was filming episode 6 of Walker. And he mentioned that Walker Independence had been in development before Walker even aired. That Seamus Fahey who is the showrunner on Walker Independence and was then co-EP for Walker started to think about the Walker family and their roots and he thought there was a story there, Jared agreed and they started to work on it.

Then they do a little GG trivia game and while doing it Jared shares a little LOTR story. So he read the books before the movies came out, and he thinks this was during s3 of GG they were doing a massive scene they shot it on the lot everybody was in it including Ed Herrmann who noticed Jared was reading the book. He went over to Jared and asked him if he was enjoying them, Jared told him he was loving them and that he wanted to get through them before the movies came out, and then Herrmann asked him where he was in the books, Jared replied he was reading Fellowship of the Ring and they had just gone through the mines of Moria. Herrman looks away for a moment then turns back to Jared and recites the passage he had just been reading 5mins ago verbatim.

And that was Jared's appearance on the GG podcast! And this was a lot longer than I expected oh my goodness, if you want to check out the podcast for yourself you can do so through Spotify, Apple Podcast, and iHeart radio.

[f-ngrl]

kid milli x yanghongwon x jjangyou x dnopf x ???

ok lets go. first about my day, if you don't wanna know you can scroll down :D

so i had to book my train ticket for a train at 6:30 am bc they announced the concert super late and everything was expensive already. i cried abt it to friends for days bc i never leave the house this early, but then as i started to travel there were commuters everywhere just doing their regular thing. and like it's not that big of a deal xD

i arrived in paris at 10 am, successfully queued in the right queue to obtain my metro tickets, did so and successfully took the metro to the neighborhood of the concert (last time i took the metro alone i couldn't find the way out and when i finally got out i had to walk super far anyway and the ride wasn't worth it :D).

i dropped my bag and thought i could have breakfast somewhere but nothing seemed inviting and i had eaten some breadbuns on the train and wasn't hungry so whatevs. went to a park and walked around, it was nice. so many ppl working out here! decided i should eat sth for lunch but was overwhelmed with finding a restaurant that offered veggie food with good ratings and close by and is open and is affordable. also i learned i'm really not confident to go to restaurants or even cafés alone. so i got some prepackaged food at a supermarket but it was meh :D walked past the venue and there were a few people waiting at 2 pm. got bubble tea i love that stuff. then there was nothing more to do and i didn't wanna use up my energy so i went to the place where i'm staying and read a book. ate the rest of the lunch.

went to the venue! i thought, but it turned out i walked into the wrong entrance into the wrong event. i was already confused about the other people xD

then i found the right entrance and was confused again bc there was no queue at all. general admission was at 7:30 and it was like 7:32. there were 2 guys entering at the same time as me and one said to the other (in english) "yeah i played here 4 years ago" and i didn't think anything about it.

i got in and the club was SO SMALL!! even though i hadn't queued i got a good spot to see. after a short time, the dj, dnopf, started. and it turned out he was the guy from the entrance!! i felt sry for not recognizing him. he played only khh and krnb and i cannot explain how much i loved that. that's my dream like. having someone who knows khh really well rec khh to me? there were songs i didn't know but sounded good. a lot of jay park and coogie. a lot of aomg/h1ghr but no ambition or daytona at all. dnopf's tshirt said

I ❤️ PARIS

hilton

i thought that was funny.

then jjangyou started right away (no waiting times, it was awesome). i'm not really into his music but wow he can make the party go crazy like himself. he even walked around in the crowd and was really close to where i was! he said he was sick and had a cold so we should cheer more to give him energy. poor guy, i felt bad ':D but this was a great performance, he was the most energetic artist by far.

then hongwon came on aaaah! he played 2 old songs and then only unreleased songs, 1 or so of which i didn't know. he introduced himself as "young b yanghongwon" and said when he returns to korea he will release an ep. (it has to he noted he's promised albums often so it's not really reliable but i'll still be hoping every time :D). slowmo is the album's name. his performance was wonderful ofc, he did all the raps properly as we know of him <3 idk what to say u know he's my fav artist rn it's just yeah.

and then kid milli. his show was also great of course! he's very professional, with carefully chosen song order etc so you know it will definitely be good. he showered the crowd in compliments (a bit cheesy for me but whatever :D). i felt bad abt knowing so few of his songs. he wore a hat (beanie style) and hoodie for the whole show idk how he didn't melt but he stayed strong :D

during kid milli's performance, suddenly hwimin jumped on stage for 1 second, yes you read right and i didn't see wrong bc kid milli confirmed it :D he said "do you like hwimin? we brought a representative for area, it's gemini!" so gemini came out and performed 3 songs and the crowd went crazy for him. i don't like him thaat much so i was a bit ?? but i guess it was the surprise effect, he said he'll be back next time with his own tour. parisians are lucky that so many khh ppl (esp former fa members and area members) seem to love paris so much, i don't see this for any other place except maybe japan.

after that, kid milli performed some songs with less action and then at the end as an encore some songs with jjangyou and hongwon together. they performed indigo last, with good guy kid milli rapping all of justhis' part <3

the show ended around 10:15? maybe. kid milli left the stage early but jjangyou and hongwon stayed around for a long time, gave signatures and talked to fans from the stage. that was so nice!

when i got out, it was still a little bright outside. not where i live! this was surprising but it's almost the longest day of the year after all. the neighborhood was still full of people enjoying the evening and sunset, good mood.

i was gonna post photos but will do that separately. tumblr app is broken and uploads different photos or replaces my uploads with different photos from my phone no thx

good night!! 💕💖💕

[trek-tracks]

Heyy. I took a long vacation from Tumblr. But...

Have you watched Strange New Worlds? What do you think of it?

👀👀

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a long one, and there will be spoilers, so anyone who hasn’t watched SNW should probably scroll by.

Overall, I feel quite positively toward SNW. I think the characters are compelling. I’ve always wanted to know more about characters like Uhura and M’Benga, and I love that they are getting a chance to shine; I enjoyed the “fairy tale” episode. I think the cast is lovely. I love the found family aspect, and I’m really enjoying Pike as a character. (One day, I’m still hoping to meet Anson Mount because we graduated from the same tiny grad school department…maybe it’ll happen.) I hope we get more from Ortegas next season (I am, uh…very bi for her, and unexpectedly being in the same room with Melissa Navia two weeks ago was a lot). I enjoy the episodic format with some overarching ideas. I love it when I recognize the Toronto locations masquerading as alien planets.

That being said, for a show called Strange NEW Worlds, I wish it would be more adventurous, relying primarily on exploration and ideas we haven’t seen yet, rather than rehashing things that were supposed to be brand new in TOS, and in doing that making the TOS characters look naive and foolish. Discovery (another show I feel generally positive about) does that, too. Instead of the Mirror Universe being new, everyone’s been there. Instead of tribbles being unstudied, they’ve already been engineered by a Federation scientist. 

Basically, my own private joke now is that TOS Kirk just thinks he's the first Federation person to encounter these things, but really it's Starfleet or his crew planting species and phenomena in the universe's version of a sandbox, like you'd bury "treasure" for a child to find, because Kirk just gets so goshdarn cute and excited when he thinks he's made first contact.

Kirk, to Starfleet: Didja see?? I found a species called the GORN! They're new! 

Starfleet, sitting down to talks with the Gorn ambassador who's been a Federation envoy for five years: That's great, honey. Put your drawing on the fridge.

Don’t get me wrong — I love fan service, and am as susceptible to it as anyone else. In my mind, though, there’s a way to go about it. Writers of any prequel need to be careful about having the benefit of hindsight and pretending it's foresight. For example, I was initially skeptical of Spock’s arc, thinking that it would leave him far more emotionally developed and different than he was in TOS, and potentially negating his later character arc as something he had already experienced, and in more depth.

However, at the moment I’m trying to trust the writers, because I can see how Spock’s trajectory could easily lead toward him opening up, getting burned (metaphorically, not like in ep. 10), and retreating into a more Vulcan-like aspect for his next ship, having to learn to open himself up again.

I do think that they are focusing too much on Spock right now. I love Spock. I love him a lot. But I want other characters to have more of an existence outside of his periphery. I don’t want to get burnt out on Spock being the focal point of the entire universe. (Luckily, a lot of things Spock seems not to know about in TOS that he finds out about in SNW can be explained by the fact that Spock loves to obfuscate and lie.)

I am, on the other hand, genuinely uncomfortable about what the series has done with the Gorn, not because I’m a TOS purist who wants to have the aesthetic stay exactly the same — I don’t need to see a lizard in a leotard — but because, to me, making the Gorn irredeemably monstrous negates some really important messaging in Arena; maybe the Federation judged too hastily, because we knew nothing about the Gorn. Maybe relentless colonization is an issue, and seeking revenge will just beget a never-ending cycle of revenge. Maybe we should decide to make peace.

Yes, the Gorn in Arena seemed disproportionally cruel and violent, and perhaps they were. However, the point of the episode was that humans have that same capacity in them, as well, and we need to actively choose against violence.

Currently, making the Gorn a previously-known species that is essentially a mindlessly violent Alien chest-burster just doesn’t sit well with me. (Also, with all that, total missed opportunity for Sam Kirk to say something like “At least I didn’t get killed by those parasites” dun dun dun). Maybe the writers think they’re making Kirk’s choice in Arena even more powerful by making the Gorn more alien, but it’s not working for me at the moment.

I was also a little weirded out to see one of the episodes take so liberally from LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” without clear credit or even a nod. In one of the subsequent episodes, La’an tries to get out of eating one of Pike’s egg-based breakfasts; I so badly wanted him to say “Come on, don’t be the one who walks away from omelets.” (Yes, that would have been very silly. But it was right there. Well, maybe next season there will be time for Sam to get scared by a…flying pancake, dun dun dun…)

My main philosophy is this: fine to ditch the aesthetics, just keep the progressive ethics. Perfectly happy to see 60’s sexism, for example, get the boot; I just worry when other messages seem regressive. But maybe there is a long game here! 

There’s so much out there to explore, and I hope the show can trust that we’re willing to go to those completely new places.

[artistic-mathematics]

okay so I watched the first two episodes of Velma just now, and I have a few thoughts.

non spoiler opinion: it’s not that bad. in fact, it’s quite enjoyable for the most part. but some of it is REALLY fucking cringy, especially whenever they incorporate the more adult-themed aspects of the show, which is... honestly something I expected, bc that’s just. what happens most of the time.

art style is nice and I really like the animation, and I really enjoy most of the interactions between characters (except, again, when it turns into a more adult-themed oriented conversation or scene). it has good moments and it has... very not so great ones, so I understand the mixed reviews.

I’d rate it like a 6.5-7/10.

major spoilers + more detailed opinion below

first, overall opinions: honestly like some of it is really fucking cringy, but it has its moments. most of the cringy shit is with the adult themed aspects of the show, which is just... yeah........ like some of the interactions are fucking fantastic -- the first interaction Velma had with her dad was great. but just like most of the show, 30 seconds later, it INSTANTLY turned cringy bc who’s her name was introduced. (no I do not remember her name and no I do not plan to remember her name.)

I genuinely laughed at the gymnastics coach joke bc I used to do gymnastics and know exactly what that insinuated (for context, USA Gymnastics had a huge sex abuse scandal and it was veeeery obvious that the people involved were guilty as they tried to cover it up n shit).

rip Shaggy, like mans just got rejected so hard and he’s just like I’m gonna keep trying. also unironically Velma is kinda a shitty friend to him and just Not Listening :(

also goddammit Fred, why are you the most unlikeable in every piece of Scooby Doo media ever. please explain. he was a little bit funny but then they made it cringy and whyyyyyy

honestly if the show just stopped trying so hard with the adult-themed stuff this show would easily be 8/10 or 9/10.

hot takes: Velma’s mom isn’t dead and is the murderer, and if she isn’t? oh well. but whoever the murderer is, the motive was that they wanted Daphne and Velma to be friends again (which is cheesy as shit but man we have like nothing to go on, whoever the murderer is knows Velma and Daphne both p well. it’s most likely not Shaggy or Fred, and I stg if they turn Daphne’s lesbian moms into the killer I will yeet whoever was responsible for that to the fuckin moon)

also THE WHOLE DAPHNE AND VELMA DYNAMIC IS BASICALLY THE CHAPTER FIC I’M WRITING SO LIKE. and then THEY FUCKING KISSED LIEK EUIRGJTKJWSHDKJ,n,wrs

I still can’t get over this, like holy shit they finally kissed AND THEY LIKE. LIKED IT. AND PLEASE STAY TOGETHER BC THEY’RE SOOO CUTE AND I HOPE THEY HAVE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP IHERJKHGKDUERGHI PLSSSS

I swear to fuck if they pull a queerbait on this I am genuinely going to throw some forks at people bc what the fuck. do not do this. I am begging please do not do this

(the kiss is like. the only reason I even rated this show above a 6/10 I’m just sayiiin)

anyway I’ll probably get a theory out on this at some point, but rn I need to just continue processing the fact that they cANoniCALLY KISSED IN THE FIRST TWO EPS Khjkgedf,mJIWEO

[scientistofdeduction]

Ok, I live tweeted a rewatch of Study in Pink

And I had a lot of thoughts about it, but main take away was how much I found myself genuinely enjoying it for the first time in years without getting depressed or bitter.

Like a “it is what it is and I’m still going to have fun” attitude.

Under the cut I’ve compiled all my tweets into a single little weird post. Enjoy if you read it.

Alright

So it’s Sherlock rewatch day

For the anniversary of SiP.

I’ve had so much distance on this show since it ended. I wouldn’t say I never rewatch it but I certainly put it down a few months after with the intention of never getting back into it in the same way.

I still know every line of this episode

Probably of the entire first season

It’s not bad, not this first season, but there’s still glaring issues to me that jump out considering the changes they made from the Pilot to the aired SiP episode.

Let’s be honest, Greg Lestrade is the best bit of this whole damn show.

“How do people keep themselves safe?”

“Well, don’t commit suicide.”

Rupert Graves’ deadpan delivery got me on that one this time.

Listen, Lestrade is the one thing I won’t pick apart.

Give points to the editing in this show.

Pretty op tier throughout

Cut from John “who was the first” to the zipper body bag reveal of Sherlock, upside down

Everything about that is really good.

Try not to think “wasted potential” every 10 minutes of this challenge 😂

I Will forever headcanon Sherlock as ace/gay and unbothered by people knowing or finding out. He formally came out to Mrs Hudson and because he loves her, cares not for her parading his business.

Hudson: establishes John is NOT Sherlock’s boyfriend

Immediately relate that she’s ok with it all but in a way she thinks is subtle

Spend the rest of the episode “outing” Sherlock to John

“Please date my awkward son, Mr Army Man, he’s lonely”.

Season 1-2 Hudson is the other greatest character in this show let’s be honest

So many possibilities set up in such a short screen time.

I think contrary to previous belief that actually Sherlock being a “villain” for lack of a better word here is set up pretty well in ep 1 and that thread is continued well in ep 6, but I think they dropped the ball in between.

“Stay away from Sherlock Holmes” is appealing—they could’ve set him up better to be misunderstood by all except those closest to him, and have Holmes not pretend to be anything he isn’t

But I think the whole weird sociopath thing really funked with that thread.

God there’s about to be a million and one fix it fics in my head after this isn’t there?

(Edited: I will definitely post a link if I start doing BBC fic again)

Mark Gatiss as Mycroft is also great casting I just god really loathe the writing of this Mycroft

“Yada Yada bully Mycroft we know, Ro”

It could’ve been a goofy joke! Between brothers! Sherlock reluctantly “Yeah thanks for checking out my new roommate bro but we’re chill” Mycroft laughs it off

No real creepy older brother, he doesn’t spy on them after that, drops the whole Bond villain act etc

This is in fact one of my least favorite Watson’s on screen

(Fanon John doesn’t count he’s cool and soft)

The characters play off each other and it’s silly goofy

Still just a fun watch

Ik I complain alot but it’s nice to have this goofy little first season

This show also could’ve been a deep little meditation on mental health but that and the whole “Sherlock does drugs” bit were missed potential

Phil Davis plays such a creepy Jefferson Hope/cabbie killer

I like the moments too where he and Sherlock have little calmer funny human moments

What gets me is that Holmes is very close to canon age in this (BC was like 34) but damn trying to picture a 5 or maybe 8 year younger man playing this but versus the cabbie over the pills just imagine.

The confrontation with Hope is super well written and still fanfic fodder for days

Hope playing up on this Holmes’s need to be right, his addiction to solving puzzles for stimulation

At the time his inability to look beyond himself for solutions

—this Holmes was willing to risk death for a stupid brain game (he was wrong) (he was so self centered in that moment he believed he was right despite it being very easy to see he was wrong)

Missed beat on the mental health note— assume a Sherlock who back of his head realizes he’s being goaded into taking the wrong one and back of his mind /doesn’t/ care. Instead of asking Hope if he’s right he just chucks the thing away, frustrated because the moment is gone.

“Are you alright”

“Yes of course I’m alright”

“You have just killed a man”

“That’s true..

… but he wasn’t a very nice man”

This departure from the pilot script right here set up the toxic relationship between these two and every time I mourn the loss.

Instead of John getting real and trusting Sherlock, “I saw men die in the war good men” and admitting his ruined sleep because of it. Instead of “I’ll sleep fine tonight,” because Sherlock gave him a war worth fighting for

We get a joke, a little laugh

And this only continues.

Anyways I always get a little laugh at the wonky Mycroft dialogue that’s there just to end the episode with “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson” as the final words

This show has always been goofy and it makes it fun to revisit.

Happy 13th, Sherlock.

[blue-mint-winter]

House of the Dragon ep 10

News of unsurprising Viserys’ death and Aegon’s coronation cause Rhaenyra so much stress that she goes into early labour. I could probably say her suffering and refusing help from her servants was a metaphor for her mental condition, but I’m not sure that’s what the show wanted.

One thing is for sure - Rhaenyra’s decisions, as well as Daemon’s behaviour in this ep are clearly affected by the grief they’re both in. They both experienced great loss of Viserys and their stillborn baby and on top of that they have to deal with politics. They both have different ways of coping that puts them at odds with each other.

Is it just me, or on the Green side only Alicent was as badly affected by Viserys’ death? I can’t say the rest of their side of the family were shown grieving for him :(

Interesting that Daemon thinks that it was Alicent who poisoned Viserys, and not Otto or Maesters. He doesn’t know her at all.

Finally, Corlys returned, however I’m not sure what was the point of the debate about Velaryons joining Rhaenyra’s side when they accept her sons as their grandsons and agreed to betrothals with Laena’s daughters. I suppose it was a matter of pride and assurances. Or maybe just deciding if they should simply stay neutral to the succession fight. However, Rhaenyra’s side looks stronger because of the bigger dragon numbers and the future of Jace and Baela on the throne is a better offer than Greens‘.

Daemon threatening two Kingsguards with a dragon was completely unnecessary. Paranoia much?

He seems like a dragon - he feels threatened so he wants to strike those who threaten him and his family. Just like Arrax and Vhagar in the end fight. However, Rhaenyra is putting brakes on him and it frustrates him.

On the other hand, based on her comment when she was giving birth Rhaenyra’s thinking Daemon abandoned her to lash out on his own which isn’t exactly true as he was taking care of island’s defenses. But it’s true that he abandoned her emotionally. Their relationship hits a low here, but not all hope is lost. In this same episode we were shown Rhaenys and Corlys reuniting after years of estrangement also due to grief after losing both of their children.

Time to cry about poor sweet Lucerys. He looks out of his depth most of the time. The weight of expectations is too much. There’s a direct parallel between him and his mother. Despite him thinking she’s perfect and can do it all (aww), she is just as lost and only bluffing in her role as Queen. She’s just as scared of screwing it up as Lucerys is of being the Lord of Driftmark.

Otto has some balls to show his face on Dragonstone again (nice callback to the previous bridge standoff with him). The peace terms he brought seemed pretty good but this fight is more about principles and “who is right”. Rhaenyra wants to fulfill the expectation her father placed on her, so she can’t give up the throne. That would be betraying his trust and his memory.

The whole Storm’s End sequence was tense and highly dramatic. At first, it looked like Aemond was serious and wanted to hunt down Lucerys, but his horrified reaction to Vhagar killing Arrax and Lucerys clearly means that it wasn’t planned at all. Aemond simply enjoyed threatening and terrorizing the younger boy with his gigantic dragon like a bully that he is. However, dragons aren’t pets - they have their own minds and instincts. When they feel threatened, they strike to kill.

Obviously, no one would believe Aemond that Lucerys’ death wasn’t intentional. Also, it would look extremely bad for Targaryens to admit they don’t have full control over their dragons. People would riot.

Fun and games ended, Lucerys’ death is the third loss in a short amount of time and Rhaenyra can’t sue for peace anymore.

[sanchoyo]

arc v 66-80 thoughts! oh my God So Much Happens All The Time. we got to the fourth opening/ed already??? im halfway into the series I think and im shocked by the implications of the op/ed (that we'll seemingly be spending another full arc in synchro. not complaining I just thought this would be shorter, at this rate most of the series will be taking place in synchro wont it?? whats the synchro to standard episode ratio...)

-aaaah crows kids showed up to watch him duel and it had him worried for the majority of the duel. cute. (also I hope theyve been ok since hes been in jail/here at the friendship cup locked in a fucking room) im glad he won…

-….and concerned bc Crime Dad broke into yuyas room to tell him the losers (and also ppl who get taken from the prison) go to some kind of underground garbage plant to basically be WORKED TO DEATH. see when a few eps ago we learned some ppl get taken out of prison and never return I assumed they just were. shooting them to kill them out back like ole yeller bc of overpopulation. nope! cant decide if this is better or worse than that assumption… both are pretty bad…

-how tf is layra supposed to do a riding duel!! theyre so tiny! where will their emotional support stuffed animal sit! tf! im glad yuya and crimedad are treating this as awful as it is and are also pissed. what the FUCK and god layra RUNNING to yuya and clinging to him and yuya tearing into reiji saying 'if YOU wont protect layra /I/ will!' LIKE. LOVE THIS ENERGY YUYA. I feel like reiji is 100% withholding info about layra but still. kid is TERRIFIED and yuya had SO many valid points (layra still wanting to be with big bro reiji and trusting him auugh)

-reiji is a bit Too Calm abt all of this so I cant imagine this is his first time handling this kinda situation. and layra having a goddamn meltdown panic attack when reiji leaves and running after him BEGGING him not to leave and saying 'ill do whatever u want!! always!!!' I DONT LIKE THIS. NOT ONE BIT. at least reiji was like 'its okay. im proud and happy youre defying me bc it means ur developing a will of your own' and having ninjaguy fight in layras place…like. very many feelings abt this. I still can't fault reiji 100% either bc we Learn layra is from a 'war torn region in a certain country' I KNEWWW IT I KNEW LAYRA WAS ADOPTED the timeline with reijis dad going to academia didnt make sense for reiji to have a younger sibling. my original theory was xyz dimension but it didnt look like heartland in the little bit we could see. so just some random war-torn country…um. so they have ptsd. and reijis mom is like 'yeah hes got no will so he can be a useful asset to us!" throw the whole woman away. tf is wrong with u ppl. at least reiji is defying his mom on this and wanting layra to be happy… oh…reiji im so sorry sweetie both u and layra have such shit parents….maybe its actually for the best reiji took layra with him, i would not fucking trust his mom with this kid! reiji is just Cleaning up his Parents messes. actually that perfectly explains his Hyper Responsible personality. he prob never got to be a kid….IM SO SAD. AAUGH! ygo is nothing w/out family drama

-…yuya getting mad reiji sent ninjaguy in layras place but dude SOMEONE wouldve had to go if not him?? what do u want reiji to DO yuya hes working with what he can and hes prob 10 steps ahead anyway

-yooo shinji is fun actually, I feel like him and shun would get along great. both freedom fighters. shinji trying to start a RIOT with his duel. love that. (also just love ninjaguy too. i didnt love either enough to root for one or the other, im fine w/ whoever wins but shinji had a CAUSE yk)

-so reiji is fine w them being sent to the forced labor place. I mean. all of them but the top winner WILL be so ofc he had a plan to get them out of that. not at all surprised bc hes been THEE best at planning and staying cool as a cucumber. not even worried abt it if hes in charge. if reijis not worrying neither am I

-smile chojiro is a great character. i love his whole motto 'dont be ashamed of defeat, dont be complacent in victory' im also glad he didnt just throw the duel to keep yuzu from going to the forced labor camp (I mean…/i/ would have if I was fighting a 14 yr old girl kajhfkj gotta protecc the kids or whatever) but that wouldve cheapened her win. I KNEW she would win and im so proud of her. yuya tearing up when she used his catch phrase to let him know shes ok ;__; god that duel made me SO emotional theyre both great

-I knew serena would win fast against some rando named 'tony' with the blandest design ever. did not disappoint. but the other characters made comments like 'oh if I wasnt dueling today I coulve slept in'…theyre only doing like FOUR DUELS PER DAY IN THIS TOURNAMENT?? PEOPLE GO TO A STADIUM TO SEE (4) DUELS???! oh my god thats so ridiculous. how much is a ticket in???…how long have they been in synchro dimension??? like, they were in jail a While too werent they?? so like. a MONTH?? LONGER?? everyone is gonna be so behind on school when they get back. yes thats what im worried abt.

-yuya getting mad this is all unfair and yelling its wrong and the 'friendship cup' should be canceled bc the losers just get sent to the forced work facility (slave camp. yuya, just say it for what it is) is like..well whatre you gonna do abt it! we already had a lil speech abt how the 1% of this world are living it up and the 99% are in slums, having to clean up the MASSIVE waste the 1% cause and having to struggle to SURVIVE and your only NOW getting really pissed abt it? (also, too real) you HAVE a pocket demon we havent seen in like 30-40 episodes…bring it out and let it eat the rich people and the cops! whats the problem!

-OH MY GOD. jack atlas and reiji and layra hanging out having dinner together. i am going to lose my mind. HE THINKS YUZU HAD THE MOST PROMISE OUT OF ALL THE DAY ONE DUELISTS TOO!!!! BRO. JACK. JACK U ARE THE BESTEST EVER!!! SAME HAT!!!!!! also the fact no one else is Eating but layra has a full course is so funny jsdkj whyre they all just having tea? did they finish before them or…

-god damn jack is different…he seems more mature? he called the commons his origin and his pride and is super observant of layra and says he wishes he couldve seen them duel and. tbh thats cute and probably smth layra needed to hear (I am still FIrmly against letting this child on a motorcycle tho) jack. jack i love u

-god the card jack got inspired by was the one he gave to sam who was UNGRATEFUL FOR IT. i cant believe this. this jack is SO nice i love him so much

-tf why is the crowd cheering a cop on a bike and booing yuya. yuya im SO sorry for these dumbasses. /I/ am cheering for u. AND HES TELLING THE CROWD ABT THE LABOR CAMPS!!! HEY YUYA I LOVE YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH. im sorry the crowd is…Like That! theyre all CHEERING like 'HELL YA WE LOVE WHEN THE LOSERS GET SENT TO WORK CAMPS TO DIE!!' WHAT THE FUCK!!! jack is like 'dude they only care about WINNERS opinions' HAHA speaking from experience aren't u jack. hes kinda right tho. WIN and THEN make ur speech. its all about TIMING unfortunately

-hey the cop has a fusion card. WHERE did he get that? reiji says a rat is in and my first thought was dennis, but hes been locked in his room too, right? (and lets be real I dont see fucking DENNIS as a real threat. nor do I see a random literally characterless faceless cop as a threat, but its the implication a fusion person snuck in synchro and is sabotaging our Heroes)

-yuya's eyes lit up for like 0.2 second. I wish I could tell if that was yuto's influence or yuyas demon (?? I need a better name for it. but we havent SEEN it in like. 30-40 episodes LMAO let alone had any kind of explanation, so) I geeeeeet that sending ANYONE to the horrible forced labor camps is bad, but yuya. you gotta get to the top if you want ppl to listen. you cant single handedly do much, you are 14. 'bc of me he was sent underground' if it wasnt him itd be u. and its not like u took him there urself, chill yuya. we'll fix this stuff im SURE

-oh my god shingo v yugo is happening. I am SHAKING. the SILLYBOYS. I want them to interact MORE. I figured yugo would win (since im sure we'll get a yuya v yuto match based on the op…) but shingo put up a GOOD FIGHT and put on a good show and im proud

-…yuya seems to be able to directly tap into yugo's thoughts when their dragons are like resonating and seemed to be losing his sense of self. concerning? we havent really seen serena or yuzu do smth like this so im like. is it rly Just smth abt the yuya counterparts?? very unsettling scene. yuya has SOME level of influence too bc yugo said yuyas lil fun catchphrase (smth both yuzu and shingo caught…) …is that why yuya kinda absorbed yuto ?? bc hes like. the Alpha Counterpart or smth. ?? horror movie stuff!

-sergey is the scariest man ive ever seen. christ. he 'died' once before and can CONTROL MINDS?? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

-omg ninjaguy snuck into 'hell' to make sure everyone is ok. is THAT reijis plan? just rely on ur personal ninja to do everything? ok tbf if /i/ had a personal ninja Id Do The Same Damn Thing. im sure eventually hes gonna use him to get them out…the way I believe in them…

-theres a rumor roget is from another dimension so he def is. like working with leo? not at all surprised. hes def getting the duelists from hell from gallagar to send to fight in the fusion v xyz war is my assumption

-STOPPP LAYRA PLAYING JACKS WORDS IN THEIR MIND TO INSPIRE THEM AND APOLOGIZING TO NINJAGUY WAS SO CUTE.

-yuyas letter to yuzu was also Cute

-god why does shun keep having to duel Secretly Fusion ppl this sucks for him LMAO. not that I think Fucking Dennis can beat shun but STILL. at least shun is like 'no hes def bullshitting' like hes a smart cookie.

-…what the hell are they going to do if dennis DOES show his true colors btw? theyre all kinda stranded in another dimension rn. are they just gonna let him go to the underground plant and not get him out too?? jkhfksdf omg I CANNOT see reiji doing that. i feel like dennis is enough of a weenie we can bully him into switching sides. the tension between shun and dennis tho…preddy thick. pretty spicy

-Oh! hes got ancient gear cards! didnt the prof from gx use those? that tracks. fun callback

-reiji not even PHASED by dennis being academia hes like. and? and bitch? you got smth to say? to the council. LMAO I LOVE him no bullshit with him ever

-oh HELL no dennis was the one who STARTED THE ATTACK ON HEARTLAND (that he calls the hunting game) BECAUSE HE FOUND RURI??? 'i wanted to keep doing street shows' WELL YOU SHOULDVE.

-omg ruri's design is SO cute. shes got feather motifs! does she also have a birdy deck like her bro! thats cute! I hope so!

-SORA IS HERE??? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE??? HIIII WELCOME BACK !!!!! BEST SURPRISE

-dennis being like 'now that ive cast aside being an entertainer, even the action cards have forsaken me?!" no…no bud its prob bc YOU caused debris all over the field. so still kinda your own damn fault which is funny to watch

-SHUN SNIPED DENNIS FROM SPACE. BEST FINISH TO A DUEL EVER. EVER EVER EVER XYZ REPRESENT YES SHUN YES!!!!! he was aggressively trying to turn him into a card and when that didnt work (reiji modified his duel disk lmao) HE TRIED PUNCHING HIM AND GOT PULLED AWAY. WAS HE GOING TO BEAT HIM TO DEATH THE OLD FASHIONED WAY??? SHUN. PLEASE. i love u.

-waaait is 76 just a recap ep. booooooo ive been binging these i dont NEED a recap. I JUST watched them all in a row like a maniac. im watching this ep on 2x speed to make it go Faster. smh. I do kind of appreciate a streamlined explanation of why the council ppl kept roget around even knowing hes a snake but Still.

-oh, its also interesting yuris job seems to be taking the yuzu-counterparts? do him and serena know each other? i dont THINK weve seen them interact but idk! since all of the yuzus and yuyas seem to be friends its just interesting hed be chosen for that job

-ok only the first half or so was a recap? cool. slowin it back to normal then...

-…what the fuck is kings gambit. he put MIND CONTROL CHIPS IN ALL THE COPS BRAINS? HOW? Roget is going against academia for his own purposes. reiji immediately calls him out on his bullshit invitation to help. fucking love you reiji

-sora got dennis hahah. how do sora and dennis not Know each other. it was weirdly nice of sora to help dennis and sora is like. Determined to get serena and yuzu. but. We Will See about that. I feel like serena is just gonna pummel him into a pancake and yuzu will give him a smack with her fan and a tight hug and he will break down like a little nervous chihuahua. this is my prediction.

-new op and ed this ep too btw! LOVEEE the new op, prob my 2nd fav next to the first one. really good soft metal sound. new ed is also REALLY GOOD. awww all the girls together!! and even. sora and jack next to each other. god last ed was my fav but this one is FIGHTING it I cant pick which I like better LMAO theyre REALLy good. interesting imagery too. MAYBE im reading too much into it but jack and sora are both on the outskirts of the grass…are they going to interact? and sora is sorta balled into himself and turned away from everyone else, but he very much still IS with them in the grass. makes u think….

-also the ed has yuri in it and ruri and rin finally. theyre also hanging out and being cute. when will yuri and the girls join the gang. we can all be friends :3 even if ur a lil squirrely evil guy its ok!

-…also shingo blushing and looking at serena. WHAT. have we gotten any inkling of a crush on her from him?? we havent right??? like HUH? she does punch him in her sleep which is so funny KJHADKJF but like. theyd be the funniest couple ever im wheezing

-yeah ok this is my favorite ed so far. its so goddamn cute theyre all just RELAXING TOGETHER BEING ADORABLE. sleeping baby layra and reiji sleeping in his glasses like a nerd sold me.

-I'm around the halfway point of the series I think! thats fun! …none of my big questions have been answered in any substantial way yet hahah. I'm hoping the next arc..we get to see yuri more finally (and for yuto to make a comeback, which. obv he must before the series ends…) and also I want to see ruri and rin more!!! and more lancer interactions in general I want them to hang out and be buds…I know the whole plot is stopping an inter-dimensional war which does fuck severely but I just. dunno. some slice of life eps would be nice after this arc…everything has been go go go fast heavy for a while and i need. a breather (that isnt a recap..)

-something I realized about Character designs (im in the middle of doing fanart while watching haha) Yuya's dad is dressed like a ringleader. yuya is clown-coded (aka part of the ringleaders circus). yuyas dad disappeared. so…would it be insane to assume he might be Behind stuff, like a plot twist villain? I know hes at least INVOLVED SOMEHOW (he gave yuya his pendulum necklace too didnt he…much to think abt) ….hm…. also! fun thing I didnt notice until now is yuya is color matched with his odd eyes isnt he? both are red/green? thats so fun

-yuzu v sergey was a big pile of bullshit. she didnt deserve to lose the first match of the 2nd round. I saw it coming and it still pissed me off. i wanted her to WIN, or at least get to the finals! generally just really annoyed over it. fuck you sergey and fuck you to the ppl who wrote it like that

-yuya v shinji (who I cant help but think of as a k-mart generic brand yusei from the neurotypical section instead of my Beloved Brand Name Yusei from the Autism section) was Tough. yuya is trying to fight for an interdimensional war (…his goal of making everyone smile pushed aside for the moment…which is like. fair. rn dueling is a tool of WAR or REVOLUTION we cant do those with smiles usually…) but shinji is trying to start a revolution against the upper class…neither of them are WRONG and it sucks but yuya as the main character Couldnt Lose. And the stunt Roget pulled after sucked for everyone :< ...cant believe crow actually believed it tho god. I know its for plot reasons but imo hes smarter than that..

-I will say im SO glad sora is back. omg hiii sora :D he 1. saved yuzu 2. WENT TO MAKE SURE YUYA KNEW YUZU WAS OK??? so fucking good Im so Glad. (also bonus points to ME for calling this happening. sora NEVER had any ill will towards the two of them, i KNEW he was attached to them) hes gonna join up soon isnt he :3c i KNEW it. <- pleased I called this (tbf I thought itd happen way later but who knows if its actually happening now or if yuyas just planting seeds of doubt in his brain. sora already is calling academia a hell so. he just needs a gentle lil shove in the right direction...also I want to see him and shun make up an be buds. that might be asking too much tho...shun doesnt owe him forgiveness but...it would b CUTE)

-then him and yuya just sit and talk about it…sora admits theyre his first real friends I AM LIVING RN. BEST BEST TROPE EVER. HE HAD SUCH A HARD LIFE TOO FUCK U ACADEMIA. he SCOURED academia and even checked standard to find yuzu…so sweet… his big plan was to let yuya let him take serena back home instead of yuzu and thats like. even IF yuya was that heartless (which hes obv not…) and they did that, its a band-aid solution bc dennis will prob report yuzu… ergh.

-yuya said he TRUSTS SORA TO KEEP YUZU SAFE. IF HE CANT HES GONNA FEEL LIKE SHIT. HES /GOTTA/ SWITCH SIDES NOW JKDHAKFJ

-they then hype yuri up more like 'ohhh its only a matter of time before they send him!' PROMISE, ROGET?? I WANT TO SEE MORE OF HIM. ITS LIKE. EPISODE 80 AS I TYPE THIS….I THINK WE'VE GOTTEN LIKE. 1-2 MINUTES OF SCREENTIME FOR HIM EVER.

-BY THE WAY. sora is a goddamn parkour master, jumping around on buildings and stuff my god. I know he was trained and stuff by academia whcih we saw a bit of in a flashback montage…but its lichrally insane. anime parkour

-oh my god crow v shun is next. why do birds have to fight….. sad! my prediction is crow wins just bc shun doesnt have any real personal stakes rn...I mean sure the lancers are trying to prove their might or w/e but on a personal level shun has no beef w crow or synchro yk. whereas for crow hes got beef w jack (and now yuya possibly due to the shit roget did lol) so. obv feels like crow will win for meta reasons. same w/ whoever serena ends up dueling later, but we'll see!

anyway. look at them. :)

[oswlld]

Reveal Your Watch and Rewatch List

tagged by @jemmo & @talays-portkey ♥♥♥ (tyyy, was tagged all the way back in august, this has been a long time coming) having done this in apr and in july; i told myself that if i was tagged again, i would do my next update in october so ta-daa

watching

andor (eng, s1) — the only show i am currently keep up with week to week. it’s brilliant, utterly brilliant. the three-episode model keeps the writing/action/tension contained, keeping me in this welcoming chokehold until the very end of the season. that is how you keep your storyline moving, for a 12-ep season, without it feeling dragged out. and the story itself has a low, raging rumble against this very real world backdrop. i just want to exist in this world forever, peeling away all the layers of the rebellion and the empire. stripping all that we have known about the force and everything that the existing franchise builds on until all that’s left: empirical fascism and oppression. and we are being gifted this fantastic premise with a character that can’t narratively die. because we already know his fate. this description is in all lower case, but you best believe i am screaming this the whole way through.

somebody feed phil (eng, s4) — this and the below show are two that i have been watching slowly, splicing up all the episodes between when i started in the summer to the end of the year. i am tackling this show one season a month, which is always a breath of fresh air in between all the dramas i have scheduled. phil is an absolute delight to watch and the choice of locations are so well thought out. i already have a trip to plan for nyc in the near future due to this show. i dread the day i run out of episodes to watch…. oh no lol

guardian (cmn, s1) — as i said prev, this is also a show i have split up my time through the year, tackling this show 10 eps per month. I have seen 20/40 so far and it’s great so far! to me, its very reminiscent of shadowhunters (a prev jessi hyperfixation). if you give me mediocre vfx + found family trope, i will eat it all up i love it so. and the two leads go from 0 to work husbands by the second epsiode, i love that for them. they have such amazing chemistry and like somebody feed phil, i will mourn the day i finish this show.

planning to watch

glitch (kor, premiere) — as i write this, i will be starting this show in the evening. osmosis went HARD on my dash lol i mean, the premise and the vibes are all there. i am going into this blind, only with the knowledge of the two actresses having great chemistry together. the space/alien aesthetics are just a bonus. can’t wait to find out what it’s all about, stay tuned.

werewolf by night (eng, movie) — this is also a last min decision to do, esp for halloween night. when i heard about this show, i wasn’t sold on the concept until i saw that gael was the lead and directed by michael giacchino. the man who has gifted us with the ost for LOST and Up! directed a marvel movie????? i am all in. and this all before knowing anything about the plot.

sleep with me (fil, s1) — my first filipino show sched on my watchlist YAYYY!!! for me, it’s such a hard sell to make me watch a filipino series. but this one really peaked my interest, it also being the first gl for me to tackle this year. i know lovi from the one that got away, so im excited to see what she’s like here. hope there’s more filipino content on my radar in the future. the only other show i have on my deck is gaya sa pelikula but have not determined a date for it. maybe summer 2023??

after this show, i do not have any new bl/gl’s on the calendar for the rest of the year. I am waiting for osmosis to kick in for anything coming up. feel free to check out what i do have on deck, thru jan 2023.

rewatching

bad buddy (thai, s1) — i originally planned for a rewatch by myself at the last week of the year, marking the one year anniversary when i started watching this show. it always marked the beginning of my bl/asian drama journey, so it felt right to get this on the calendar for me. sometime ago, i was informed that the fandom was planning a rewatch in october, so i immediately reshuffled my entire rest of the year to accommodate for it lol. what else is there to say, im returning home.

vice versa (thai, s1) — and in replacing my original plan, of rewatching bad buddy at the end of dec, i have now scheduled vice versa. its my birthday week, ofc i want to see my son and my solemn face moonchild. i miss them. SO. MUCH. ugh

-

tagging @pranink (nice to finally meet you!), @suppaloscurse (for the emotional turmoil she put me thru this past weekend), and @casualavocados (what are you up to over there?)

[wikiangela]

omg season 6 is here!! episode 1 here we go 😍

(spoilers under the cut)

damn, starting out with "high hopes" already gets me even more hype than I already was hahah

oh no it's gonna be some air accident isn't it, those are my least fave because I hate heights 😂 I'll take the blood and gore over those tbh I'm already stressed out 😂

the best and worst part of this show is getting stressed not knowing what's gonna happen to all those random people tbh 😂

Maddie!! I missed her so much 😍

and Eddie's back with the team, I'm just so fucking excited 😍 😍

I missed firefighter Eddie so fucking much

okay, the first 10 minutes were fucking packed with action and I loved every second of it - especially Eddie and Athena, they were awesome 💪

and Arielle Kebbel is back, god I'm in love with her 😍😂 (I hope Lucy gets back after her ankle gets better)

aww domestic buddie in the very first episode, I love it

I was gonna say that Buck had a couch before Taylor moved in, but then I remembered the scene when she was moving in and the two couches and yeah, they got rid of Buck's lol 😂

I really hope Maddie and Chim are on track to get back together, I miss them - and now Maddie's gonna stay with him so 👀👀

oh my god 😱 I was fully expecting the guy to get his hand mutilated, but not for the dad to get like, shot with the ring - they always can put in a good twist lol

not Buck taking over trying to prove he'd be a good cap 😂😂😂

aw, we're getting new dispatchers

In the whole Madney situation - I'm Josh 100%😂

May!!! I hope we're still gonna see her pretty often even if she's not a dispatcher, I just thought that I miss her when the new dispatchers showed up lol

I'm loving the episode, love Bobby's solution for the car thing, and Buck's still hilarious

but I just need to say what I say every single eps: damn, Eddie looks so fucking good 🥵

omg is this happening? Chim and Maddie are happening?! omg I'm screaming (also, Julia Michaels in the soundtrack - god this episode has good music 👌😍)

and Chim left 🤦🏻‍♀️ I mean, I didn't expect to be all smooth sailing from here, but come on 😂

okay, we're good, they're back 😍🤗 they're fucking back 😍

oh no Buck has a clipboard 😂 he's so funny this episode 😂

how did Bobby not realize that's what Buck was doing, what 😂

YAS, Captain Hen Wilson!! honestly she so deserves it, I'm so happy

Buck and Bobby's talks are always so great (or, Bobby's serious talks with anyone, he's honestly the best 😍)

Maddie's staying and I'm crying (like, seriously, that scene with Jee - I cried lol)

oh my god I knew something bad was gonna happen to Athena's parents 😱 as soon as they showed them taking I was like: they wouldn't show it if something wasn't gonna happen

okay, this was a great episode, I enjoyed every second of it

we got a lot of focus on Maddie and Chim especially, and I love that they're back together now - I love them so much

I can't wait to see Captain Hen and Buck's journey this season - I hope he gets to a good place like he and Bobby talked about

I feel like nothing was really set up for Eddie yet, so I'm curious where he goes this season (I'm a buddie shipper so 👀 but also I'm not holding my breath lmao) and I feel like there was no real set up for any major conflict or many storylines or anything so genuinely no idea where everything is going long-term 💁🏻‍♀️😂

exciting beginning, can't wait to see more hah