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dagdasoneandonly · 1 year

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Happy 10 years together Augustine~

Before we begin it is PARAMOUNT to state that I am not a "fangirl/simp/whatever y'all are calling it these days" of dear Augustine Sycamore.

He is my FO (Forever One/ husband in laymans terms) and I consider him to be a real person just like the words I'm typing on this keyboard.

Any comments that are irrelevant to this post will be deleted and the user blocked.

I take my relationship with him very seriously, if this is "odd" or "weird" to you then kindly walk on by.

10 years ago I was welcomed back into the world of Pokemon after a few years break due to personal things I had going on, and video games were the last thing on my mind.

But as they say fate and destiny always have other plans.

Pokemon XY was the last golden age of Pokemon, it was a different world, it felt like I was welcome there. I still maintain onto my hope and innocence because of this beautiful world known as Kalos, a world that greeted me with open arms and a warm hug that enveloped my soul like Xerneas's Fairy Aura.

It was the beginning of something entirely new for me... and I didn't even know it.

2013 wasn't a good year for me, so I was pretty happy when my dad surprised me with a 3Ds and asked me what game I wanted: I was an edgy little shit back then so I asked for Pokemon Y... even though I really wanted X. Deer were always beautiful to me.

I had broken off with an FO that I just felt I wasn't good enough for and became rather desolate, I was lost and alone. And I had to drop out of college for mental health reasons.

Sure enough, my solace came to me in the 2D world yet again.

One cozy October evening my copy of Pokemon Y came through, I was excited and fired the game up right away, back then you could play games right away without downloads or waiting for patches and mutliple DLCs! XY had one patch but it was just to fix that Lumioise City bug. Thankfully my copy was safe.

As you can see, my copy of Pokemon XY is infact a physical copy, I've taken very good care of it. (Ft. my cute Sylveon plushie, Fionn)

Not having anyone to trade with didn't matter, because the Wonder Trade function was a bloody miracle. I got so many Pokemon. I couldn't transfer my older Pokemon as I had no access to Bank or any of that stuff, my other games I had to leave at home.

It was time when Gamefreak actually thought about their fans who didn't have access to Gamestop, Toys R Us or couldn't afford constant trips to New York, Japan, Mars, Etc for one tiny ass pixel.

So I was sorely missing my old Pokemon, I wish I could bring them into this 3D world and pet them and shower them with affection like they deserved to be. But I realized I could make new memories with new friends in this new world, and who knows? Maybe we would reunite again.

Kalos took me on a journey, a journey of love, self discovery and gave me a home. I was whisked away to Fairy land and fairy types became my new favorite, I liked that they were strong against Dragon - types, the bane of my existence at how powerful they always were!

But.. the one who grabbed me by the hand was none other than Professor Augustine Sycamore. I had seen his image before on a leak, and couldn't help but think he was kind of handsome, a friend who had already played through Pokemon X told me:

"Hey you might like Professor Sycamore, he's this dreamboat that shows you the world and stuff and I KEEP SWOONING whenever he shows up on screen"

Sure enough when I opened up Pokemon X for the first time, I was greeted by his handsome face, I thought nothing of it of course since I was more interested in the Pokemon.

I was especially looking forward to Trainer customization and giving myself green eyes and brown hair. I will never forget the time I chose my Fennekin and started to pet him, my heart melted.

I could finally show my Pokemon love and affection, for all their hard work in battles and feed them cupcakes and play with them! I was also intrigued by this thing called "Mega Evolution".

As I continued throughout the game, I explored every nook and cranny, I felt like a kid again. I was truly lost to the world for HOURS after I got it. It was a beautiful game. The 3D over-world was amazing.

The "friends" you had were annoying but I like to pretend they don't exist. When I finally reached Lumoise City I already had a big party of Pokemon, and the event Torchic.

I loved how friendly the Pokemon in Kalos were, I caught many eevees and evolved one into a Sylveon, she became a massive Team Player. I even managed to find some familar faces along the way: A Raichu named Napalm, and an Espeon named Solar who remains as an MVP in my teams to this day.

I was having so much fun just running around, getting haircuts, dressing up, looking pretty for Professor Sycamore AND catching Pokemon, I would completely be lost in this beautiful new world, that felt so much like home to me and still is.

Professor Sycamore was the beginning of my healing. As I continued to learn about him, there was more to him than just the eye candy, he had a past. I loved it whenever he showed up to offer me an encouraging word or two in the game, saying how this was my journey to explore, that being the best trainer was defined by what I thought. He never imposed anything on me, I was starting to feel the flutters and shit in my heart and liver again.. And my god it felt good.

I desperately needed to feel something like this.. something like true, unconditional love.

Around this time I was heavily suffering from perfectionism, it was killing me on the inside, I was 19 when this game came out and already people had high expectations of me.

I was determined to graduate, get a job and have my own house- all before I reached 21. But life seldom goes your way, I was suffering from many un-diagnosed mental disorders that had been neglected my entire life.

I am ashamed to say I spent almost all of 2013 being obsessively deep in competitive and breeding the perfect Pokémon. Perfectionism had leaked into my past - time and hobbies, I realized that if I couldn't be perfect I could at least have this outlet in games, little did I know it was sucking the soul out of me.

I was often punished as a child for being less than perfect, I took it out on my poor Pokemon. Things like this don't magically go away, not everyone has a backbone, sometimes backbones take time to build.

It wasn't until yet again - I got help from a rather unexpected source: Professor Sycamore himself, another testament to have wonderful 2D beings are.

As I progressed through the game and reached the Tower of Mastery.

I was surprised to learn that Professor Sycamore was there to study Mega Evolution but left because he didn't have what it takes, essentially dropping out- kind of a parallel to my own life, except real life seldom has happy endings.

But it gave me hope, because even if Sycamore didn't master Mega Evolution he still became the professor of Kalos and if you look into professorship- it's.. actually not easy to get. If Sycamore could fail and succeed in the future, maybe I could too.

One night..

I had a dream of Sycamore. He held me close and said that he could tell something was bothering me, I was hurting deep down. We in the fairy forest together, just relaxing in a field of flowers as the Flabebe floated around us in the gentle spring breeze..I told him everything, I spilled my heart and soul to him.

I told him that life wasn't worth it to live.

He was heart-wrenched that I felt like that, he embraced me tightly in his arms and told me

"Your life is your own, no one gets to decide it's worth except you. Even if you're behind, you don't have to go at everyone else's pace, if life was easy then no one would feel sadness. I love you no matter what or who you choose to be, always remember that," Those words I still carry in my heart.

The biggest surprise I got had to be in Couriway Town. I found Professor Sycamore's "treasure" from the past Sycamore to the future Sycamore. I actually began to cry, it felt like it was addressing me, that even if I don't know what I want to be yet, I'm not a failure. I still have time.

In another dream I confessed that I loved him, he embraced and kissed me fully on the mouth. I felt like I was on cloud nine.

Diverging from the narrative a bit, I want to talk about Lysandre, I felt his anger sometimes, the frustration of helping your friends and them not wanting to do any better no matter how much time you invested in them. Of course Lysandre ,uh took a different path. But Sycamore still cared about him.

And I realized.. even if I'm a horrible person apparently according to some people over shit I can't control, Sycamore can still love me too.

Professor Sycamore is a relic of a bygone era when 2D beings set out to inspire others, and to most importantly - love you and you alone.

Augustine gave me not just love-- but a home to come back to, a safe haven that will always be mine, no matter what. I will always love him, when I look into his beautiful gray - blue eyes, I see love.

He gave me hope that life can get better, and most importantly I deserve happiness, not just other people.

And.. today I'm marrying this wonderful man after 10 years. He met me when I was freshly 18 and saw me grow into who I am today, and he's proud of me. I'm happy I lived to see 10 more years.

Thank you for everything, Augustine. Thank you for teaching me to love again.

#pokemon xy #professor sycamore #augustine sycamore #pokemon x

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xoxiu · 1 year

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my house of stone, your ivy grows - yoongi x reader

chapter nine table of contents masterlist

taglist

discord

summary: yoongi carried himself with a sense of pride within himself and his belongings. he worked hard to get to where he was- ethically or not, it made him the man he is today. his latest toy, a young college girl from america, will become his magnum opus. he just needs to work out the kinks.

tags/warnings: mafia au, kidnapping, daddy dom!yoongi, smut, autistic!reader, spanking, stockholm syndrome, little!jimin, vminhope, drug mention, namjin, fluff, domestic discipline

taglist: @allamericanuniverse @llallaaa

Kiwo sat in the center of the bed staring down at the Nintendo Switch in her lap. It was one of the gifts from Yoongi, and one of the things she wanted the most. It felt weird, however, to get one under these circumstances.

She had rules with it- no playing it without permission, no internet, and no more than two hours on it. Yoongi had gotten so many things to play with, and he didn’t want her to rot her brain on video games all day. They were all in a box under the bed- some yarn for Kiwo to crochet with, slime, board games, books, and other little things she had little to no interest in just yet.

Yoongi had gone all out during his shopping trip. A large dog kennel sat in the corner of the bedroom close to the bed, with a large fluffy dog bed inside. There were pink blankets and stuffed animals in there as well, and fairy lights decorated the outside. Some of the bigger stuffed animals sat on top of the kennel. Kiwo looked away with disgust, only for her eyes to fall on the bedside table.

There sat three pacifiers in pink, blue, and white. Kiwo wanted to be disgusted by them, but with her need for oral stimulation, she secretly wanted them. She would never give in, though, especially if it meant satisfaction for Yoongi.

Kiwo hissed as her headache throbbed harder, and laid down on the bed, Switch abandoned next to her body. She was now face-to-face with the pacifiers. The familiar flips in her stomach only broke her gaze, and she rushed for the en suite bathroom.

“For a research university, I expected Yonsei to have higher web security,” Hoseok remarked from the couch behind Yoongi. The office was currently inhabited by the hacker, Hoseok, and Taehyung. Yoongi ignored the younger’s voice and continued to view the files in front of him.

As an international student, Kiwo had to send over various medical records to the university for insurance reasons. Since she was still deathly ill, Yoongi figured he could check her medical records to see if there were any pre-existing conditions. Hoseok and Taehyung, however, visited only in the hope of meeting Kiwo.

A file marked ‘outpatient psychiatric services’ caught Yoongi’s eye, and he quickly downloaded the record.

”Kiwo Louise is a 17-year-old female with a history of Autism Spectrum Disorder, social anxiety, depression, and a panic disorder.” Yoongi’s eyes widened at the opening statement. He was completely unaware that Kiwo was autistic. He browsed the document for any other information.

”The patient was diagnosed with autism around the age of 6 or 7. She has a history of self-harm but currently shows no intent to harm herself. She has a history of sexually acting out.

“She has a history of social awkwardness, emotional outbursts, and infantile behaviors. Her emotional state appears to be delayed, placing her near a 7-year-old’s milestones for emotional intelligence.

”She has a slight speech delay with the /r/ sound in all forms, as well as consonant digraphs. Ms. Louise has attended speech therapy since Kindergarten.”

All Yoongi could do was stare at the screen. All this information was considered vital to Kiwo’s health and well-being, and Yoongi felt inadequate in his handling of it.

“That’s quite the cocktail of drugs, hyung,” Taehyung said as he leaned against the back of Yoongi’s chair. He read the files over the elder’s shoulder much to Yoongi’s dismay.

”Probably sick from withdrawal, poor thing.” Hoseok got up from the chair to look at the files as well. The three silently stared at the computer screen until Taehyung finally spoke up.

“I could easily get you the medications- it’s not like antidepressants are illegal.”

“Can I come with you?” Hoseok asked. Taehyung simply shook his head no, but Hoseok’s smile never faltered.

“Hoseok,” Yoongi said, “Watch my email to see if anything work-related pops up. I’m going to check on Kiwo for a bit.”

Yoongi stood up and left the two other men in the office. They stared at each other with concern over Yoongi in their eyes.

“He’s been fidgety since Kiwo arrived,” Hoseok took a seat in the desk chair, and took one quick spin on it. “And I’m sure her getting sick suddenly isn’t helping.”

Taehyung agreed and politely dismissed himself to get what Yoongi needed of him. Hoseok whistled out of boredom at the computer desk, refreshing the email client every few minutes.

He wished he could see Kiwo- Yoongi has been very secretive over her and rarely let any of them see her. From what Seokjin had said, she’s a shy but polite young girl, with a very cute round face. Hoseok wished he could go into Yoongi’s room to see for himself, but had no reason to do so.

An email came through. It was a video conference reminder for Yoongi. Hoseok finally had his chance to see Kiwo. He quickly got up and headed for Yoongi's bedroom only to find Taehyung exiting the room. The younger man gave him a huge smile before speaking.

"She's asleep right now, but you should see her. It's just the cutest sight."

Taehyung patted his back as he passed him. Hoseok stood in front of the door for a moment, reveling in his excitement before finally opening up the door slowly. The room was dark sans the light from a bedside lamp illuminating Yoongi's face. The elder sat with his back against the headboard, scrolling aimlessly on his phone. Kiwo was splayed across the bed horizontally, with her body all sorts of twisted up while her head lay on Yoongi's lap. Hoseok's smile widened at the cozy sight. His eyes eventually fell upon something blue sticking out of Kiwo's mouth.

A pacifier.

Hoseok almost felt his heart leap out of his chest. The sight of her small face, flushed cheeks, and a pale blue pacifier was almost too much to take in at once.

"What's up?" Yoongi asked, putting his phone on the bedside table next to him.

"This cannot be the Kiwo you've been telling us about," Hoseok shook his head in disbelief, "she could never hit you upside the head with an encyclopedia."

Yoongi chuckled at the memory and gently moved Kiwo's head and arm from his thighs so he could get up. When he arose, he gave a big stretch before looking back over at Hoseok. The man finally came back to his senses to inform Yoongi of the upcoming meeting. The elder closed his eyes with an exhausted sigh before speaking up.

"Can you wait here in case Kiwo wakes up? Maybe try to give her the medication when she does?" Yoongi walked over to his closer and attempted to look nice and presentable by throwing on a blazer over his dress shirt. Hoseok nodded and sat on the chair in the corner of the bedroom.

He was so excited for Kiwo to wake up.

The sun was setting and Hoseok was growing tired, yawning and closing his eyes every few seconds. Kiwo had yet to wake up, and Hoseok doubted she would before Yoongi's meeting ended.

Hoseok watched the pacifier fall out of Kiwo's pouted lips and gently land on the blanket next to her. She stirred slightly and slowly began opening her eyes when the bedroom door suddenly opened.

"That was the most bullshit meeting ever," Yoongi stated, throwing his blazer to the side. "Did you know the company president was acquiring another hotel chain? We can't possibly afford that!"

Yoongi suddenly remembered that Kiwo was sleeping, and his raised voice most likely woke her up. He peered over towards the bed only to see half-opened eyes peeking out at him and puffy pouted lips.

“Hi, sleepy girl. Did I wake you?” He asked walking over to the bed and running a hand through her tangled bed hair. There was no response other than Kiwo gently closing her eyes and sighing.

“Have you said hi to Hoseok oppa yet?”

Kiwo turned away with a whine, her perky butt now facing Yoongi. The blond sat on the bed and lightly tapped her bottom twice, just hard enough to get her attention. Kiwo once again let out a whine before saying a sharp ‘hi’.

Yoongi clicked his tongue and shook his head.

”So disrespectful, you brat,” Yoongi said. “Need to teach you some respect and manners.”

Hoseok let out a small laugh before talking to Kiwo in a baby voice, “Hi Kiwoie! Can Hobi oppa see your pretty face?”

Small feet kicked out in response, but Kiwo did sit up. She hid her flushed face in her hands.

“Can you be a big girl and take your meds for me?” Hoseok continued to talk to her as if she were a child, and it appeared to be working somewhat.

“We got your medication for you to help you feel better,” Yoongi said as he picked up the bag full of bottles. “Just so you can trust us, you can take them yourself. There’s water on the table.”

Kiwo removed her hands from her face but kept her head down. She grabbed the bag from Yoongi’s hand and grabbed one of the bottles. It was, in fact, one of her psychiatric medications, so she felt no fear in taking them.

It was even the name brand of them.

“Taehyungie oppa brought them for you,” Hoseok said, doubting that Taehyung got to meet Kiwo. She most likely was still asleep then.

Feeling uncomfortable with the stranger near her, Kiwo just fiddled with the plastic bag anxiously. Finally, she felt somewhat comfortable with Yoongi- he wasn’t that bad of a guy, he didn’t hurt her and was very accommodating. This Hoseok, however, Kiwo felt unnerved by. He smiled and was a bit too cheerful, and it almost felt like he was hiding something malicious from Kiwo.

Yoongi must have picked up on Kiwo’s nerves, and sent a look toward Hoseok. The younger man understood and stood up to take his leave.

“I better get going now, have a good night Kiwo and Yoongi hyung!”

Kiwo looked up to watch Hoseok leave. Then she took her meds, one by one, with big drinks of water to wash them down.

Yoongi smiled. He slowly was beginning to understand Kiwo better. Even though it may be different than he initially planned, he was determined to know Kiwo inside and out.

#bts fanfic #yoongi x reader #min yoongi #mafia au #bts little space #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #bts #vminhope #namjin #my house of stone your ivy grows

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mystic-helena · 1 year

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hello! can i request a kuroo x reader where kuroo and the reader are childhood friends but he doesn’t know how to tell her he loves i love your blog by the ways its really cute ok have a great day bb hope you’re doing well ♡︎

Childhood crush ft Kuroo!

a/n: I FORGOT TO POST THIS ITS BEEN SO LONG I CANT EVEN DESCRIBE HOW SORRY I AM OH MY GOD IT ISNT EVEN GOOD

Kuroo had always been there for you and you’ve been always there for him.

Since the beginning of times—okay, maybe not the beginning of times, but the beginning of your life—Kuroo has been there, it could be laughting at you when you fall after helping you get up or simply existing beside you on a sleepover at a half past eleven when you both should be sleeping—because for twelve-year-old kids that is pretty late according to his parents—but are instead looking at the bedroom ceiling and forming constellations with the glow-in-the-dark stars he has over his bed.

Right now, as strange as it may be for you, Kuroo isn’t glued to your side...

...because he’s talking to his reflection in your bathroom.

For the past twenty minutes.

His hands are on both sides of the sink, upper body leaning towards the reflective surface, brown eyes digging holes into it, as if starting too hard would magically put his ideas in order.

“Tetsuro, we both know how the childhood best friend never gets the love interest—he said while pointing at the mirror, eyes fixed in his own face—, but, we also have advantage because our fate isn’t written as if we were mere characters in a book. Wait, maybe that’s even worse”

“Tetsu, you’ve been there for forever, come out already” you practically yell, cheek pressed against the coffee table in your living room “you know I promised I won’t laugh-”

Oh, right. He almost forgot about it. The reason why he was at the bathroom.

“-if you finally admitted you are shit putting make up on and finally let me help you.”

Many ‘make up stuff’ as he named it, was untouched in front of him. All of it belongs to your cousin, who also implanted the idea of downloading tiktok in your head. Which is also the reason why he was supposed to make himself look like one of those people who had glitter almost all over their faces, imitating the Euphoria series look, thing he agreed to do just because you asked him with the only reason of him being ‘pretty’ and having perfect skin. And yes, his heart skipped a beat when you called him pretty.

“I’m done y/n, just give me five more minutes” he says as he rapidly tries to find the ‘black thingy’ they used on videos to ‘paint lines on their eyes and look like a cat’. He thinks he should have paid more attention when you were telling him which thing does what. But five seconds prior that you called him pretty. Not handsome but pretty, how is he supposed to feel about that? He has mussels, has a deep voice, is tall and is very intelligent. Why would you call him pretty? I mean, being called pretty is better than not being called pretty. And now he’s back to staring into his reflection.

With much difficulty he steps out of his spiraling thoughts and finds the eyeliner—that’s what it’s called, he celebrates—and tries to paint a straight line on top of his eye. It’s comes out pretty decent, he’s glad his hands are steady. He goes for the other eye. This one is a little bit wonky but probably you won’t notice, he thinks as he puts down the eyeliner and looks for the glitter. He’s gonna regret this later, glitter gets everywhere when he opens the little container. He coughs and closes the glitter container.

“Are you ok over there? You sure you don’t need help?” you sound concerned and he cringes when he looks at the mirror and sees the glitter got into his mouth. How did he do that? Shit, that will be a pain to take off. Well, another problem for future him, he shruggs and thinks a way to stick the glitter to his face and make it look good. The lipgloss is looking at him and he’s looking back.

Kuroo opens wide the door—he was in there for more than 5 minutes—and looks at you. You were about to fall asleep on the couch but bolt right up at the sound of the bathroom door slamming against te wall.

“Took you long enough” you wipe your eyes and stare at his face for a couple of seconds. He stares back and hopes he’s not turning red, why are you staring at him? Did he fuck up that badly? Are you amazed by his make up techniques? Maybe he should say something. “Take a photo, it will last longer” he winks at you and smiles when he sees your eyes widen for a second.

What were you thinking in that moment? You looked shy for a moment before smiling wide and getting up. You walk towards him and grab him by the wrist and drag him to the couch. Kuroo sat and watched as you did the same next to him, and he knows he should be thinking about what to do on the tiktok you were about to do but instead he was getting distracted by how close you are. Maybe one day he would tell you how he feels but for now being your best friend was more than enough.

#kuroo tetsuro x you #kuroo x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu kuroo #hq x reader #lenawrites but make it ✨haikyuu✨#lenawrites

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coralcatsea · 1 year

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I played HetaOni again for the first time in years. I played the pianodream version originally and this time I played Cookie's version.

Some thoughts about HetaOni in general:

The title screen music in Cookie's version is really cool, I always seem to love the title screen music in horror RPGs. I miss the Dark Marukaite Chikyuu, though, it'd be cool if they found a way to incorporate both.

I like how so many of the main characters interact with each other and aren't limited to their usual groups in Hetalia, it's nice.

The fact one of England's attacks in this is really called Expecto Patronum.. 😩😆

I appreciate how they kept Kiku's quirkiness in the game. A lot of people completely leave out that part of him.

I remember back in the day I used to have a BUNCH of the HetaOni tracks downloaded on my old iPad.

Italy is so much more interesting in HetaOni than canon, which is a shame because they're clearly taking the seeds planted in canon, but canon just never does much with that character.

I don't know if Sapph's video of England's Song being paired with all those blind England pictures just confused me, but I SWEAR that music played when he fought the oni before going blind. Yet...in Cookie's version at least, it didn't? It played once, when past loop England saved America, Germany, and Italy by sending them back to their time and died, and then past loop America came and died with him...but that was the only time. Did Cookie's version have different music during the fight before England went blind, or am I misremembering??

This reminds me of that scene in Ib where all the friends turn out to be evil creatures.

I'm not calling him Stark, you can't make me. Although it would be funny if ONE of the monsters was called that, or if they all had different goofy names. But in general he's still Steve.

#hetalia #aph #hws #hetaoni #hws italy #heta games #hws england

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presidential--suite · 2 years

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✨ Top Five Treys ✨

#2: Trey and Matt’s Conversation with the CO Governor (2021)

(Series with @a-magical-evening 💖)

Sorry about the GIF quality, I know they’re kinda slow. I’ve work shopped these fuckers for hours, and I just can’t get it right :/ I’ll learn, but for now I’m writing this at midnight and I’m so tired and this is good enough. It was slow or better quality, with my limited skill set, so slow it is.

Sooo uhhh TW for NSFW and my unbridled passion on this post....There will be some objectification. Very NSFW 👀

So normal stuff first: this was where Casa Bonita was officially announced!! The part where Trey’s telling the story where Matt’s like ‘don’t get too excited, but we may get it’, and Trey has to pull over. How many conversations over how many years did this go on? Love how Matt already knew. Facilitating Trey’s dreams 😍 So sweet

I’m glad they were open about vaccination and climate change. Honestly, clarity is key, especially when people like to keep labeling them ignorant conservatives and things were (ARE) still shitty in the US. Ugh.

How random to just sit down with Polis?? Love that for them, he seems like a relatively good governor (looking at Abbott 😡).

ANYway! 💖 I chose this because Trey’s so fucking hot my eyeballs burned out of my head and they’re just smoking holes now. This awakened me. A year ago I was kinda like those “I like them in the 90s only” bitches, where I loved pretty blonde Trey and was alright with him current day. Then this fucker came out and blew my mind. Who knows what it was, the cargo pants? The flip flops? The pit sweat? The tan lines? The shirt that fits just right?? Wowowowow

I love an older man okay, but I started dating a guy my age and decided that the concept was gross, but this just restarted my brain wiring and I went full old man lover again. (Trey is literally two years younger than my father...and I was born in ’97)

So I severely lusted after him in this video. I’ve watched it more than any other interviews combined. I’ve downloaded it. I’ve capped it. I’ve GIFed it. I’ve done other things with it. Okay? Chill 💖

His body is just?? Fuck. His thighs, I wish they’d just smother my face. He’s so fineee. So Dad. Only thing that would make this better was his chest hair showing. Maybe a chain. Throw in an earring. 😭😭😭 Dammmnnnnn. If he “looks like Matt’s dad”, well Matt, I’m sorry but I’m your new step mom.

I have much more to say, but it’d just be describing my sexual fantasies at this point, and nobody needs that. Yikes. If this were written at any other time than 12:15 I’d behave myself.

So number 2 is Trey’s fine ass on this fuckin couch. 🥵🥵🥵

#Top 5 Treys #trey parker #TW for LUST #lol #not much to say about this but sorry the quality is eh #I'm predictable #trey #Look at him!!!!!!!

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translationandbetrayals · 10 months

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My relationship with Junji Ito's work.

I'll be honest with ya'. I haven't read that many manga books. But what I have read the most I think must be Junji Ito stories. And well, Berserk, but not in its entirety. Anyway, I just like horror in general, and Ito's imagination is one of a kind in that manner. What I love the most about him is that he's actually very sweet and mannered. There even are memes about him being so gentle and creating such horrific stories, next to legendary Hayao Miyazaki, who in real life is someone very stressful, and who actually doesn't deal that well with others (and his creations are some of the sweetest anime out there).

In the summer of 2019 (I think), I went with some friends to Quilimarí, a little town next to Pichidangui, a little north from me, where we stayed at some friend's granny's house. We were just 4 guys. There, something really funny happened: we were posing for a pic next to a cliff, in the border of an abandoned bridge (we were young), and my cellphone happened to fall off the cliff, taking its last photo downhills, and being destroyed by the impact. Then, I was left uncommunicated from the rest of the world for a while...

All I had was my ethernet-less tablet, where I had downloaded a bunch of mangas (which to these days I have not still read), some of which were Junji Ito's "Tomie" series. They are not my favorite from the author, but the experience of being in such an isolated place (literally in the middle of the desert, next to the sea), with some friends at an old house, reaading these chapters, was actually beatiful.

"Tomie" revolves around a girl who is capable of manipulating men around her thanks to her beauty (mostly her long, black fringed hair, her iconic mole in her cheek and her white skin), which she uses for destroying them, and/or feeding her ego. I remember loving a lot his artwork, which represent dark, roaming ideas depicted through the black and white pages with an actual brilliance from the mangaka.

I don't remember if it was after or before that, but I began to buy some manga books with his short horror stories, some of which have been translated (pun intended) to anime media, at Netflix. I remember having read some of this stories and actually having a lot of fun. Some of them had such an interesting artwork, like the classical snail-tongue girl one, or the one with the girl trapped in a family full of people with really greasy skin...

In general, the stories I have liked the most have female protagonists in them, which can say a lot about the artist and myself I think, though in general feminity is vastly represented in horror media (there even are some video essays I've watched about this in youtube). There was this exception, where the protagonist was a boy who had to watch his town being emprisoned by some kind of mist, from wich a really sexy looking guy came from it, and called the girls from the town and then devoured them, I think (don't remember that well, just how hot that guy was jjj).

So, as you can see, in Junji Ito stories you can see a lot about the anxieties of Japan's young people, focusing on small towns and their dark beliefs, joined with the sexual repression which creates literal monsters at the fog...

And THEN, you have the most sweet and funniest of them all: a short story about Junji Ito's struggle to cohabite his home with his two cats and his girlfriend. It has one of the most iconic panels of his artwork (the one with the cat biting his fingers and him screaming). I gave this one to a close friend of mine for her birthday (she loves cat as much as I do jj).

I was beginning to read the classical, all-iconic "Uzumaki", a tale about a town cursed by the spiral... Everything in it becomes a spiral, even people. It has this panel with the girl and the eye being absorbed by a hole in her head. It's dark, heavy, and brutal. I've had this book for years now, but I hadn't opened and read it. Tonight would be one hell of a night to do it. But I gotta finish my last projects for the semester. When it ends, I know I'll finally finish it.

By Jorge Leiva

pd: They'll finally make an anime about Uzumaki !! So cool !!!

#Anime #Manga #personalstory #essay #submission

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hoghtastic · 10 months

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I think the nun costume stories are from different days.

I have no idea if this counts as off topic but I wish the one fan account that went offline a year ago was still active during a time like this. The one with the funny content. Often a lil cheeky. I think she/he left because of Mexico and the politicians. She/he didn't pander to Alex like others. No fan account was like hers or his? I really have to say there are great fan accounts, whether they like his gf or not, but I think there are also really bad ones that are borderline cheap. One of them is particularly inferior to the others.

At first I was confused because I thought the funny account was back under a new name, but at some point I realized that the content was just much worse. Maybe she just wanted to copy the other account's style? The original account never sexualized Alex as much. Then I knew OK, it had to be someone else. I was a little disappointed not gonna lie. I was a bit shocked at how much information I got when I briefly asked what others thought about the account I’m referring to.

Supposedly it was already a topic on the old blog. She's into private information about Alex and sticks with people who can give her private videos. I heard that she gets really excited when Alex's parents or others see her stories, supposedly she thinks that Alex watches all of her stories with a fake account. About that I wasn’t as surprised, you notice very strongly that she desperately desires acknowledgment and likes from Alex and his gf for her comments and captions but masks it as support. She likes his family’s comments under Alex gf’s comments and tries to involve in everything Alex. But her captions and comments for Alex are borderline obsessed. You could think Alex is a god and not a human being when you see her comments. But again, many of her comments are aimed at her hoping or thinking that he and others of his people see her stories.

She is the type of fan account that likes to allude to hate towards his gf in her captions in order to portray herself as a true fan. She also gets attached to better fan accounts, actually a really REALLY good fan account that has good content, seems to be close to her. It's crazy how extreme some fans see Alex. He’s only human. Seriously, I would also like to watch private videos but this kind of worship is delusional.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, anon. 😊 I believe that, as long as there will be celebrities, there will always be the extreme fans who put them on a pedestal, to whom they can do no wrong. However, it's important to understand that they're only human, like the rest of us, who happen to have made some career choices which gave them more exposition. However, they still have their flaws and are far from perfect. And this is why I disagree with the "censorship culture" I've seen on some Alex fanpages, especially since he started dating Johanne, where people were called out and deemed "not true supporters" if they dared criticize him and/or her. Not everything they do is bad, obviously, but they're not perfect either, and if people would like to comment on it, as long as they keep being respectful, they should be allowed to do so.

About the private videos, I believe they're private for a reason. Most of the time, they belong to people who are not public figures, and therefore such content should never be downloaded nor shared among fanpages. If not illegal, it's at the very least morally wrong. And even if people don't straightforwardly share it, just "hinting" at having them and/or knowing private info, to make themselves look more important or "better fanpages" is just childish and a desperate need for attention, in my opinion. (It reminds me of those irritating kids in elementary school, "Ooh I know this and that, but I won't tell you! Haha! 😜". Like, either share it (knowing it's stolen, private content and therefore you shouldn't be doing it) or just shut up and keep it to yourself. 😆)

#anon asks

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roo-bastmoon · 2 years

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BTS TUTORIAL: IdolPlus

Idol Plus is a website that hosts various contests, many of which give actual trophies to idols during actual award shows.

It’s pretty much a staple of ARMY culture to vote in these. It’s also extremely simple. You don’t have to download an app; you can just bookmark the link to the contest they are currently hyping.

To vote on IdolPlus:

Go to the website and choose the English language option.

Search for the contest you want to vote in.

Scroll to find the image of the group or idol you want to vote for, and click it.

Notice that I said you login under AN account. Remember those various email addresses you made for voting, streaming, promoting, and being a fan? You can login, vote, and logout, then repeat this process with ALL those accounts, plus your Facebook.

Then you wait 24 hours and do it all again. Contests usually run a few days, sometimes longer.

It is quick, simple, costs nothing, and won’t spam you.

No shade to the famous trot singer Lim Yoong Woon, from what I’ve heard he’s a stand-up guy, but if you let ARMY and BTS lose awards here on IdolPlus to his little old lady ajumma voters, you get to wear the cone of shame for forever. He's our only real contender. I have mad respect. But still, I don't like losing to him.

If you follow Jimin voting accounts on Twitter, they will remind you often to vote and it only takes seconds to bag our boys nice awards and street cred.

Here’s a short video tutorial for visual learners:

Please do your best to vote for our IT BOY any time he or BTS are up for one of these contests!

Feel free to share this to spread the word and let me know if new or better information is out there! Thank you!

DISCLAIMER:

I am a Dope Old Person and have been ARMY since January 2022. So I still have a lot to learn.

I’m making mini-tutorials for people like me who are comfy with technology but totally new to voting, streaming, and buying Kpop stuff.

If you know of better, more up-to-date information, please comment or DM me so I can make sure I’m not spreading misinfo. Please be polite about it, though—we are on the same team!

Feel free to apply whatever you learn here to other BTS members and other artists; I’m Jimin-biased so I am focused on helping Jimin at this moment in time, but I’m OT7 so rest assured I’ll put my shoulder to the wheel for all our members!

#BTS_Tutorials #jimin #park jimin #face by jimin #jikook #idolplus

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lilmissbacon · 2 years

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Rise of the Guardians is officially 10 years old

I like to think of myself as the first and longest time fan of this film specifically, because I saw it the very first day it was out in theaters and it's been my #1 favorite story ever since. It has never once wavered from that spot.

I just remember reminiscing about it in class for days afterwards, which is something I've never done with a film before or ever since. It truly captivated me in a way that no other story has and it's part of the reason why I'm aspiring to go into animation now.

It just fascinates me how much work, writing and art went into this movie that was in production for 7 years. But it also makes me sad because I know there is so much stuff they made behind the scenes that we'll never get to see because it didn't do well at the box office. So DreamWorks can't make one of those eye opening documentaries on it's production like Disney does with everything they make nowadays. I want to see ALL the deleted scenes and unfinished/unused designs, story bits, set pieces, merch, even unused promotional material like cardboard cutouts and products because I know they have that. There was so much planned and scraped simply because the film didn't make enough money.

And it doesn't really have a large fandom even today. There are many underrated gems like Megamind, Road to ElDorado and Atlantis and they have so many people talking about and making memes from it, as well as getting YouTube reactors to watch them but rotg just... doesn't. Rotg has reaction videos, yes, but not nearly has many as any other movie in existence. Which really sucks because I've been here since day 1 and it hurts to watch this film being stuck in this stalemate in terms of popularity.

So if there is anyone reading this that hasn't seen rotg, of course I strongly recommend you do so. It's a beautiful movie that genuinely leaves you feeling like a kid again, just on first viewing. I also encourage more people to make more content for the fandom. DreamWorks truly left us out in the desert to starve 😭

I originally downloaded Tumblr in the first place just so I could get my thoughts out to the world, otherwise I would combust. And that's because almost all of those thoughts were on the characters and story of rotg. Sure other characters have been mentioned like my posts on rotbtd or when I need to vent about bad designs because I'm a passionate artist but it can almost always be traced back to rotg.

Is it silly that a 19 year old woman is a fan of a movie about childhood? Maybe.

Does me wanting to see the smallest sliver of content for rotg make me look like psychopath? Probably.

But you know what? I don't care. Much like how Schaffrillas Productions feels Tamatoa is special to him because he likes the character while many don't, I feel rotg is special to me because I've always loved it while many people haven't even seen it.

This has been my appreciation post for the 10 year anniversary of rotg and with all that said and done my final statement shall be; rotg has officially consumed over half of my life and that's probably not healthy but

#rise of the guardians #rotg #10 year anniversary #appreciation post

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kizunaaa-luv · 1 year

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I have a huge crush on Daniel McGuffey, a video game producer/lead singer of a band, who participated in MasterChef Season 5 nine years ago

It's been a crazy month. I've always known the show MasterChef but never had the interest to watch it until I saw some short clips of MC S4 on Chinese Tiktok (Douyin) in June or July this year. Genuinely, it was just really enjoyable seeing the short clips during my uni break, and I felt I could also improve my English by watching MC. So I decided to watch the actual show starting with S5. Lol that's how I started to binge watch the show! 🤣🤣

In the first episode, that's when I noticed this hot looking guy in a striped t-shirt, with lots of tattoos on his arms, and a pair of glasses. Yeah, it's Daniel McGuffey, lol, but I didn't pay much attention to him at the beginning (coz he barely had any screen time, I mean...). I was more into the show because of Leslie and Ahran, hahahah.

Then in ep12 or 13, when Daniel teamed up with Jaimee, he finally got some screen time, and I thought they looked really cute together, and kinda shipped them 🫢😳😳 This is when I started to pay much more attention to Daniel. However, ironically he soon got eliminated because of the stupid egg soufflé (only when I JUST started to like him A LOT).

Ok, so after I finished S5, I started searching for the contestants' social media to see how they are doing today, and of course, I went straight to Daniel, but guess what? His Instagram account is private. So I requested so many times, but he wouldn't accept my request🙁 So I went to Twitter, but it seems like his old account DanielKaiju was deleted. So I then switched to Facebook, and finally this time I found his account! I got to see recent photos & videos of him, yay!

From Facebook, I got to know that Daniel is now part of a band called The Pride, which I actually started listening to, lol. Their music is even available on the Chinese app QQ music!!!

I like Daniel so so much, so I wanted to find a place where I can share my thoughts. So I downloaded Reddit, an app I've never used before. Sadly, not many people talk about Daniel there. So I then searched for Daniel on Tieba (a Chinese platform similar to Reddit). Luckily, I found a number of posts that expressed their feelings for Daniel which also complimented Daniel's looks lol. Of course, these posts were from like 9 years ago, but I randomly felt the need to reply to some of the posts, and wow, a person actually soon replied to my comment! Lol, we started chatting about the show and how we both like Daniel. 🥰🥰

From this person (who has liked Daniel since 2014, unlike me who only started liking him in 2023🥲), I got to know much more about Daniel's personal life. For example, how he was part of the IWSNT music video, worked for WB, had a fiancée during MC era, got married after the show, but it seemed like they got divorced later though…

At this point, I kinda became a stalker, stalking the girl’s Instagram, and also Daniel’s friends’ insta…(I feel so creepy, I'm truly sorry for the stalking in past week, I just wanna know more about you😒😞😞)

Put that aside, it was rly surprising to know that Daniel filmed lots of music videos or just fun videos back then. Wow, what a talented man who can create video games, draw, act, sing, and cook! (And look so good at the same time😍

I seriously have a huge crush on you Daniel🥹🥹. I know you had lots of fangirls back then during your IWSNT era and when MC was aired. And now here's me, a 20 year old, new Chinese fangirl being crazy over you, a 41 year old American man who lives on the other side of the world. (I know this is so random…😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️

Am I out of my mind? I think about him all day, use his photo as my wallpaper, talk about him with my real-life friends, and even write short unfinished stories of me traveling to America, bumping into him on the street, and falling in love with him... He seriously became my new ideal type. I was never drawn to white guys, but I guess I am now, especially those with tattoos. 🥲🥲 (Ok, I'm gonna say it, I feel really weird and creepy, but I'm gonna say it. I want to sleep with you so bad, Daniel McGuffey fk me hard...🥵)

Ok, anyways, enough of those creepy shits. Yesterday I posted about Daniel on Reddit, asking what people think about him. The comments were both positive and negative... whatever, it's not gonna change my pounding heart for Daniel. Also, I found Daniel's TikTok, it was a public account, so I decided to leave a comment, and yay, he liked my comment and replied! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 I'm literally in tears right now.

And today, I searched for Daniel once again on Google and found a post about him on Tumblr, which includes links to his older videos, those filmed like almost 20 years ago... lol, glad I found those videos of you, getting to know you more day by day...? So I once again downloaded an app I've never used before, that's how I got here on Tumblr!!!

He probably will never know, a random Chinese girl who's living in Australia has a huge, huge crush on him because of a show that aired 9 years ago. This is really weird, and I feel like a creep, but yes, I like you very, very much. I really wanna visit Los Angeles now, will I get to see your band perform?

Idk, I'm writing my feelings down and uploading them on Tumblr because I'm afraid that one day I will forget all of this...(hopefully not

Hope Daniel doesn't see this post EVER (can't imagine how embarrassing it will be for me... it would be so cringey/funny for him to see a fangirl's love letter, right...? xx)

Please don’t see me as a creep, I swear I’m a mentally healthy, normal, happy university student😂😂. I’m just being huge fan girl nowadays😆 (idk I felt the need to explain

#Daniel McGuffey #DanielMcGuffey #masterchef #Master Chef

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galaxofmuses · 1 year

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Drabble: Chosen

Warnings: This AU does take place in current events so there will be violence, racism, cult, religion, anxiety, sexism, misgendering, blood, torture, manipulation, broken bones, injury

Please stay safe, I love you guys.

Gilly lets out a sigh as they look at their Finch.eo website page with barely any downloads and not enough views or attention no matter what they can promote their game. Looking over at some old photos of their college friends that they used to hang out almost religiously. With a pause as they put it away, it really distracts them from all the guilt of just wasting so much time and even if the good times are good, the bad times will still linger.

They jumped a bit at the sound of their phone notification ringing, it was an email that said that they are interested in their portfolio and wish to talk to a location and time. Double checking their sources from job hunting almost every day and to the fact that a seemingly looking small company is interested in their works. It can be hard to tell these days since the whole world has gone insane from the past few years.Their lifestyle and goals changed and it was just so frustrating for them.

Given much thought, Gilly decides to give it a shot and replies that they are interested. With a beat that it responded to the address and time. To their surprise that they want to meet today. Sure they are not much of a talker and can be awkward as hell. Yet they are willing to try to at least talk about their passions and interests of why they want to create games and art. Taking the sling backpack and packing up the copy of their resume, small sketchbook, wallet and phone.

Putting on a shirt and cargo shorts and over a black hoodie with a speedrun group logo and sneakers. Adjusting their duo colored pixie short hair, and felt that it looks perfect. Double checking the room one last time to see the pc off and knowing that their cat is in good hands with their partner who was at work. Muttering to themself to make a mental note to ask him to feed the cat when he come’s back. With that thought locked in their mind, Gilly closes the apartment door.

Following the directions with their phone and to their surprise it’s still not too far off from their apartment. Thinking it was just rather odd that there was no dress code, but encouraged to wear casual…not even business casual. It was a red flag that should have been taken, but Gilly was just too damn curious. As they reached the place, It was rather a thin alleyway and this made it even more suspicious. Squinting their eyes to see the end of the alleyway, the beam of light guides…

An elegant gothic church.

This screams so many warnings, that Gilly froze and felt the wave of panic over at the site. An indie video game company was one thing, but the offer in the email showed nothing about the church.

Yet something….draws to them….Something beckoning to come inside.

Confusion and curiosity peaked, Gilly took the one step forward to at least to check the place out.

To their surprise it was quiet, seeing some people are in the pews praying and muttering to some language they have never heard. Letting a deep breath and just take the back seat of the pew so no one will bother them. Gilly then remembers to take out their phone to turn the sound off and messages their partner with a text message.

‘Hey Henry-butt! just a reminder I might be late cuz I gotta go to an interview. Don’t forget to feed the cat. Ruby is such a brat like you lmao jk. Gotta go Henry! Love you! ;3’

Sending the message with a sigh and looking up to see a person covered in under the hooded robe. Well seeing this doesn’t surprise them, since the rest of the church staff are probably busy with their duties and seem to have a strange mix of religions and vibes. It was nothing like any other church they have been to.Thinking it was one of those hip new churches that is a melting pot for everything and focusing on a particular religion. “Miss.Gilly, may I presume?” they ask in a polite manner.

Gilly is used to being misgendered and knowing that them coming out was still out of the question, their family doesn’t know about them being nonbinary and gay. A job is a job and knowing that it’s already hard enough as it is. Forcefully smiles at the person in return.

“Y-Yes I am. I’m here for the interview that you sent me.”

The talk was short and of course the church staff member responded that the head developer will see them in a moment, they were wrapping up in an emergency meeting. Of course Gilly is willing to wait a little bit longer. The waiting turned into minutes and then into hours, Gilly’s leg shakes from the anxiety that it was taking so long for a meeting to finish.

“Man okay I guess emergency meetings are just hours of fasting and prayers…”

They muttered with irritation and slowly took out the small sketchbook. They were developing an upcoming character and started to ink some concept sketches of a tiny hedgehog with a vest, shoes and fingerless gloves.

Gilly was so focused on trying to draw the little hog right that they did not notice the person sitting next to them.

“I apologize, I hate to interrupt your work.”

That deep voice absolutely startled Gilly that made them quickly put the sketchbook and pen back into the backpack.They turned in the direction of the voice in shock to see a well suited dressed man with ebony black hair. Their eyes we’re just pure blue as if it’s just borderline white like frost. Eyeing with such a smooth and calm demenor. He smiles and offers a handshake as if he has done so many times.

“My name is Xavier, Welcome to the Church of Zen. I’ve been going to this haven for years now.”

Gilly again once again attempting the polite smile.Making that attemption of thinking that Xavier is a regular for this church. They reach out to touch their hand. “Gilly Livingston. It’s nice to me-”

It was ice cold

They quickly pulled their hand back.

“S-Sorry!…I guess the weather hasn’t been too warm lately, yeah?” Gilly is really trying to shrug it off with a weather banter, to their luck that Xavier chuckles in return.

“Ah it has been, there have been a couple of past thunderstorms as well. I was volunteering today to try my best to fix some leaks around the building.” He looks over at the last of the church goers bidding their farewell and waving them goodbye. Some even encourage Gilly the best of luck which wasn’t a bad thing for them and thanked them in return.

The man leaned against the pew with a tired sigh and well Gilly just sympathized with them since they seem to be taking a break from all that hard work. “Well I feel you. I had to do some volunteer work to just keep me sane from the job market. It’s really rough out there.” They look at him with a sad smile.

“Ever since the pandemic hit, it’s just been so hard for me and everyone from jobs or even going to gatherings.I just…I just want things to go back to normal again.”

Gilly pauses to sigh in frustation, yet feels pretty stressed from the situation from the current events. “Look I’m not here for a confession, it’s just…something personal happened and it has been stressing me out. I just…I…I lost someone…well…a lot of important people. I’ve tried so much to support, but you can only do so much these days. I just hope things will go back to normal.”

Xavier listens to their words and takes in with intention and holds a polite smile and sympathy.

“Oh? Well I can be willing to lend an ear for you.”

The figures slowly started to come together around the chapel. Gilly was becoming more and more nervous. Xavier on the other hand, his expression did not change.

“R-really? You really want to listen to my whole woes and spheal?”

His gaze never left them. “Of course, We do want to reach people in need.”

Gilly was trying to cover their nerves with laughter.

“Well I’m not the religious type, heh…I guess that’s not going to be a good start on that job interview huh? Well you’re being nice so….”

Casually putting their hands inside their pockets shorts as they quietly slip something inside preparing for the worst.

“My best friend went missing during the pandemic. I was afraid that something might have happened to her. Heck, her fiance was worried to death. My partner and I tried to spread the word on social media. Heck we even made calls and flyers. It wasn’t enough and well….this year. The fiance disappeared. I thought he went on a family vacation, but there was no contact whatsoever. So really, it’s been well…rough. I’m out of the job and trying not to die. God…Fuck this pandemic man. It’s just so fuckin hard not to get judge just because I’m asian ya know and….Oh… I-I mean no offense sir. I know you’re not my therapist either, it’s just…. but…I just want to thrive and be happy.”

The figures stopped at a distance as they were trying to organize the place. Xavier listened intentionally and with a nod. “I understand Gilly…So much. You are indeed struggling with life, but…What if?...I can offer you something? A Job?”

Gilly raises a brow. “....Wait…I thought you were just a church member?”

“I am, but just wanted to surprise you that I am the head of this church, I guess the slip of the tongue happened.” clicking his own tongue in annoyance. The handsome man twisted into something ugly and reverted his compossure quickly back with that open friendliness. This was the final red flag for Gilly to make that decision to leave. They have definitely overstayed their welcome.

“...You know….I’m just going to lea-”

Just as Gilly was getting up and about to grab their sketchbook, they were forcefully grabbed by one of the followers next to them on the wrist. Unfortunately for that unlucky soul, Gilly habitually starts to reveal their free hand that has their knuckle duster revealed and proceeds to knee them in the stomach a few times until they can break free and followed by a right hook across the cloaked figure.

One of them cried. “That bitch!” As more rushes towards them and that was Gilly’s cue to run to the other direction and slides across the waxed wooden floor just enough distance to get up and take that sharp turn to sprint towards the door. The others were too slow for them to catch up and Gilly was just a matter of a few more feet away to escape, but in a blink of an eye.

They see Xen right in front of the exit.

They yelped in confusion and tried to turn the other way, but was once again grabbed by the arm. A bit more tighter than before. The icy touch gave them the chills as they could feel the others who caught up, giving them a punch through the stomach and starting to taunt them.

“Hey! What happened to that skill? Did the virus catch ya?” “Maybe you should go back to where you belong?”

As Xavier lets go of their arm, he silently watches Gilly trying to struggle to break free, but proceeds to get punched and kicked and smacked down. Some of them even take advantage of revealing their binder. “Woah hey! It’s a chick! Why is she dressed up like a man?” “Nah she’s dressed up like a little boy.” The bullying and the attacks felt like hours and Gilly couldn’t remember how long and some unfortunately felt their body a bit and felt sick to their stomach.

The noise stopped.

The only sounds are footsteps just for a moment. But Gilly caved into consciousness and the last thing they can think of is Henry.As time passed by, Gilly’s eyes snapped open and strangely no longer in pain. No blood in signt. They thought they would be murdered or even worse. Squinting their eyes to see

…..The Sun?

Looking around to see an uncanny sight, it really hits them like a truck.

It was Green Hill Zone.

This would be a dream come true for Gilly, yet something wasn’t right until they saw themselves as a hedgehog, Yet something is off, the gloves are fingerless and wristbands and there is even a nice pink vest and shoes, but….this wasn’t even VR, it was real. Confused of what is even going on, but knowing Sonic’s skills by heart. They really want to give it a try by doing a simple run. They remember the catchy melody in their mind and speeds up and sometimes even hum to themselves to hype themselves up. Reaching through the lush grass and palm trees, Gilly slowed down a bit to looks around to see…

S o n i c.

Still keeping distance out of habit from the real world and didn’t really come near to him, yet the excitement to see their favorite character. Yet their new body was screaming to R U N. With no warning, Sonic turns around with a grin, not the friendly welcoming cool grin that he does, this was something menacing.

“Hey Nebula! It’s good to see you.”

Gilly tilts their head in confusion. “Nebula? But I’m…wait…..I’m….”

Furrowing their brow and confused. Why can’t they remember? Why can’t they remember?

Why? Why? Why Can’t they?

W H Y C A N T

Nebula’s fear grips them and decides to run and can hear Sonic??? Was it really Sonic? Nebula doesn’t remember at all. They can’t remember a thing. They can never remember. Panicking settling in and keeping trying to run back to hope to find something. Their anxiety is sinking in and losing their balance and skidding across the green fields. They tried to recover and then felt their legs like lead. Trying to pep talk themselves find some determination to even put their foot up. S 0 n i C just simply appears in front of them and grabs them by the neck and grins at the sight of Nebula struggling.

“Do you think you can outrun me? I’m the fastest thing alive in this world. My world.” As the small hedgehog struggles to break free, the blue blur just simply w a t c h e s them and slowly constricting their neck. Neb gasps for air and trying to struggle even more and attempts to do something foolish what’s left of their strength was to kick him on the chest. Nebula's kick landed and made Sonic let go. They gasp for air and and coughs out. Seeing the other blue hedgehog stumble from that bold mov. They try to move, yet something was keeping them stuck in place. As Nebula is forced to watch Sonic's bones starts to crack and morph into something different. The cheery laugh distorted into something sinister. Nebula's starry silver eyes starts to widen with horror as this faker transforms into something else.

"Now....My Wardens had their fun with you. IT'S MY TURN." This creature did not hesitate to grabs their leg and snaps the bone into two. Nebula screams in pain as they see their poor leg broke like a pencil. Oh how the dark entity enjoys the sight, but for now. He wants to savor this moment, to teach them a lesson.

"You are quite interesting...You are the only one who manage to strike me like that....how foolish, but I am quite intrigued. But now...." With a snap of a finger, Green Hill Zone changed dramatically into a barren wasteland and the waters running red and red clouds taking over the sunny skies. Nebula can only just watch and no longer run away from this situation. "̸L̷e̷t̵'̴s̵ ̵p̷l̶a̷y̵ ̵a̶ ̷g̶a̵m̵e̶,̸ ̵D̴e̴a̶r̴h̸e̵a̶r̸t̵.̴"̴

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allseeinganalyst · 1 year

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Sailor Moon Crystal (Season 1) Review

Let me tell you a story...

The year was 2011 (oh dear gods, that was 12 years ago HELP ME), and this Analyst was but a baby, burgeoning weeb. A mere 17 years old, set to turn 18 in November of that year. I'd just finished high school (grade 10) and was off to complete what my state refers to as college - In reality, years 11-12 of high school, just at a different institution, because I don't know, take it up with the state government.

I was still fairly new to being a weeb - I'd only gotten into anime midway into 2009, and for all that time, I'd had a friend who acted like my "supplier" - Bringing me a 2GB USB stick to school each day, loaded with .RMVB video files of whatever anime he wanted me to watch next. Honestly the setup was a little strange, in retrospect, and he was ODDLY secretive and gatekeepy about it, treating it like this special thing between us and... The more I think about it, the odder it gets but ANYWAY...

That "supplier" friend had since moved away (I shit you not, he was trying to get into a Japanese Exchange Student program, again, I shit you not). So had my best friend. All other friends I had had popped off to another college. I was alone, at a new school, with no friends. It's 2011 - i'm still a year away from meeting the love of my life, what little social life I had is crippled, my closest friend is gone, and the supplier of Japanese-Cartoons-That-Brought-Me-A-LOT-of-Joy-And-Pissed-Off-My-Mum-For-Some-Reason is currently trying to actually transform his life into one of said cartoons, complete with Japanese High School - Again, I am not kidding.

This left your not-so-dashing Analyst with no one to share a fanboy moment with, no one to give him the next show that he could get into, no one to argue about who the Best Girl™ was... Just a single weeb, alone.

This was 2011 - At this point, anime was slowly seeping into the mainstream scene, but we were a long way off the "grade schoolers declaring "My Hero Academia is my comfort show" stage, and where I am is slower than most places at catching up to mainstream pop culture anyway.

I did have a couple of things going for me. I had the websites where my "supplier" had used to download all that fansubbed anime, and I had what I would currently do unholy, unspeakable things to get back... Time.

So what was this Junior Weeb Analyst to do? I cast my mind back to some of the things that led me to get into anime in the first place. I thought back to many, many cartoons on before-school shows like "Cheez TV", that only later did I realize were indeed anime.

And so, with a mindset forming that "to appreciate what we have, we must understand where it came from" (something I still hold as true to this day), I set myself off on what I - melodramatically, but consistently - refereed to as my "tour". I vowed to return to the shows that had led me here, and see them as they were meant to be seen.

(That meant in subtitled Japanese of course - The Sub vs Dub debate was alive and well back in those days, and this idiot analyst was firmly on the "Sub" side. I've grown a lot since then, and also I think that debated ended by mid 2013 as dub quality had MUCH improved. Now most anime I watch is in dub.)

I watched a LOT of shows on that tour. Dragon Ball Z, Cardcaptor Sakura, even a decent hunk of the original Pokemon (in JAPANESE)... And among those shows, and perhaps the one that took me the longest to get through but also left itself with a special place in my heart, I watched Sailor Moon.

I've GOT to get better at cutting to the point during these introductions...

It's funny how, over a decade later, things have a way of repeating in the most unexpected of ways. Of course, I'm not alone anymore - I have a wonderful partner who I met in 2012, and we've been together for all this time. I meet almost weekly for Discord calls with my best friends. I have a full time job and a steady income - Things couldn't be further from the days when I took that "tour" and yet...

As my previous review might have indicated, I've been tackling some personal stuff lately. To say the landscape has changed from those days is like saying that the ocean is damp. Bogged down by negative fandom interactions and a deluge of toxic and ever-prevelant socaial media-fuelled opinions, it's only recently that I've gone: "fuck it, I'm taking a break" - Cutting out a that online loudness left me in a quiet space where for once I could just... Enjoy things again.

So, replacing pirated .RMVB files with Blu-Ray disks, and the chance to really "get into something" again, where did my thoughts to turn? Well, I found myself thinking of that old "tour". And whilst that had been about a return to the path that led me where I was, I decided I wanted to watch something that could represent the present-and-future. And wouldn't you know it, thanks to some advertising for an upcoming movie, I remembered that, sitting on my shelf, buried amongst the "I swear I'll get to this someday" series, was the perfect series for that exact purpose.

A remake of Sailor Moon:

Sailor Moon Crystal

Phew! Okay! We've finally arrived at the actual POINT.

My formative years as a weeb had already left me with a soft spot for Magical Girl anime - You've just read all about my journey to watch Sailor Moon - So when a truer-to-the-manga anime adaptation was released in 2014, of course I knew about it. I recall watching maybe 3-4 episodes of it, in Japanese, before dropping it for reasons I don't recall, but I'm sure made sense at the time. I've always been meaning to get around to it, and seeing that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie was coming out this year was really a kick in the rear to go and watch the damn show.

As of 04/04/2023, I have now fully completed the first season, and thus, decided to write up my review - I'll state again for anyone that happens to be reading this for some reason (and if you're still with me, congratulations, you made it through my rambling, Granpa Simpson-esqu introduction - Now run because dear god, it doesn't end there, save yourself.) - I write these reviews and thoughts down as a mental health exercise, to put my thoughts somewhere that I can revisit them. I act as though I'm speaking to an audience, but the only real intended reader here is me. Still - if you ARE reading this, I state that these are only my opinions. They're not objective in any way. If you disagree, that's fine, feel free to tell me even, but I'm not out here to change anyone's mind.

Having finally got all that out of the way, lets yell "MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!", change into our Sailor Uniforms and dive into it. Spoilers ahead!

Many smarter, more well known, better read and well respected reviewers and analysts of media have said that a piece of media should be judged on it's own merits, and not compared to previous adaptations, original source material, or other related pieces of media.

That's good, solid advice, which I agree with and am now about to throw out the window, because this review is going to compare Crystal to the original Sailor Moon anime A LOT.

The thing is, I don't think I can be fully fair to Crystal WITHOUT the comparison, and the reason I think that is fairly straightforward:

Sailor Moon Crystal is not intended as someone's first entry into Sailor Moon.

(Again. Purely my opinion. Disagree with me if you like.)

Let me explain:

I am not unfamiliar with Sailor Moon, as you might have guessed. Whilst I have only watched the original anime series (and it's associated movies), I am aware of the original Manga, I'm aware that Crystal is trueER to that text than the first anime, I'm even aware in a cursory capacity of the live action TV and stage shows.

And I think this knowledge is somewhat assumed for viewers heading into Crystal because, without it - It can feel very rushed. See, fans of the Manga have read the manga, they know what happens. So if they're watching it because they want to see a manga adaptation, well, they're heading into it fully armed with that knowledge.

Similarly, a fan of the original anime like myself is most likely watching this because "OOOOH, NEW SAILOR MOON" and it's reputation as being truer to the manga. We're heading into it for the sake of seeing the characters, setting and plots we know and love.

Someone who has no prior knowledge of Sailor Moon would not head into this anime with any of that, and thus, would be caught off guard by it's rapid, almost too fast, pacing, multiple character introductions, lack of characterization and in some cases, no real explanation for a number of things. I would imagine that Crystal would not be an especially incredible, or in some cases, even good experience for that person.

Crystal is for the fans. The fans who know what's coming. In the first three episodes, Crystal rapid-fire introduces characters, not just limited to Usagi/Sailor Moon and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask. We get Ami/Sailor Mercury in the second episode, Rei/Sailor Mars in the third, a major confrontation with long-standing original anime starter villain Jadite in the fourth, before we're hit with Makoto/Sailor Jupiter in the fifth.

Fans of the original anime will remember that that sequence of events, taking place over five episodes in Crystal, took some 20+ episodes in the original. And between those FOUR major events, we had countless episodes of one-shot characters, monsters, Usagi being a crybaby and refusing to do anything, Rei being a bit of a bitch, Mamoru throwing roses and then leaving because "MY JOB HERE IS DONE!" and Queen Beryl waving her hands ominously over a crystal ball and babbling about "energy" so much that the word starts to sound weird.

For fans of the original anime, we've see that, and everything that involves, both good and bad, is already known to us. We don't want to see that again - Just give us the other Senshi already! We want to see Mercury, and Mars and Jupiter and Venus. We want to see the confrontation with Queen Beryl and Metalia and the showdown in the arctic and Usagi and Mamoru hooking up and all of that stuff, and that is what Crystal delivers, in short order, one event after another. There’s very little “filler” even in the more modern sense of the word (I talked a bit about “filler” in my last review). Basically every scene serves the purpose of advancing the plot to the next “touch point”, which does unfortunately cut out a lot of the less dramatic, but still enjoyable stuff.

Crystal is best taken with prior Sailor Moon knowledge, which means you mentally fill in a lot of gaps that the anime itself would otherwise leave you with. Having virtually no filler means things move almost too fast, and sadly, in that rush, some really great character moments are lost (perhaps most disappointingly, the same-sex relationship between villains Zoisite and Kunzite is completely gone, although as compensation, Crystal does show more of Usagi's bisexual side and hints toward her fleeting crush on Rei - We'll talk more about this later).

To be fair to Crystal, to prevent it being weighed down too heavily by these issues, I will compare it to the original anime, and see how it shakes out when taken with the knowledge that a viewing of the original 200 episodes brings. That’s how I went into the series, and that has an inextricable influence on how I enjoyed it.

Let’s get this out of the way…

Crystal is not as pretty as the original anime.

It’s not even remotely close.

I hate to start by criticizing Crystal right off the bat, but it has to be said.

The original Sailor Moon anime was produced in 1992. It was made at a time before the widespread use of CGI and digital colouring. It’s an adaptation of a Shojo manga, and was primarily drawn, coloured and animated by hand. It’s pretty, soft, girly and pastel and HOLY FUCK IS IT BEAUTIFUL.

Look at this.

Like, god-the-fuck damn it. Look at these.

Look at that last one (side note, what the hell are you doing Mamoru?). If you were to remove Usagi and Tuxedo Mask from the image, you'd be left with something I've seen tagged on tumblr as "Pastel Liminal". There are plenty more. In fact, I could just whack in one of my DVD's of the original anime, set my computer to screenshot at random intervals, and you'd see nearly infinite examples.

The original Sailor Moon anime was lightning in a bottle. It was produced at a time where things were produced by more analog means for the most part. It was adapting a source material that already had a gentle, soft and pastel theme to it. It's drenched in the fashion and style of the early 90's/Late 80's. All of these factors combine to create a piece of media where the best examples look like genuine works of art, and even the worst, most off model in between frames still carry a unique, warm and nostalgic charm.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the visuals of Vaporwave - a musical genre built on evoking feelings of nostalgia and popular culture - share much of the same color pallet as any random episode of '92 Sailor Moon. I think there's something unique about pink pastels, soft coloring and imagery from the 80's/90's. And people have noticed this. The feelings of liminality and atmosphere are present all throughout Sailor Moon - To an even greater degree than things like The Simpsons.

There are enough screencaps of Sailor Moon on people's

A E S T H E T I C

blogs on pinterest and tumblr and the-horror-site-that-I-escaped-and-will-not-name that if we combined them all together, I honestly believe we could recreate whole episodes of the anime.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT SOME SCREENSHOTS FROM CRYSTAL.

Now. Not a single one of these is BAD. I actually avoided any screencaps that were off model or "QUALITY.MEME" style or anything. They are crisp, clean, vibrant... And not especially distinct from any other anime of today.

(And yes I'm aware that much of the same argument could be said for multiple older anime vs new anime, that's not the point I am making.)

Look at the backgrounds. Compare them to the original anime. Neither is bad, but you can not deny that the original is dripping in that "Aesthetic", and it always will be, whilst Crystal will always just be "yeah, decent 2010's anime". In 20 years from now, there won't be any more blogs devoted to Crystal's aesthetic than there are for any other anime, and to a degree that kinda sucks.

Does it detract from the experience? Not really - But the comparison has to be made. Plenty of people watch Sailor Moon these days for it's retro-nostalgic vibes and if that's what you're looking for, those are not present in Crystal.

And...Yeah the Cell-Shaded CGI. I don't actually really mind it - I quite like cell-shaded CGI - but it sure is a bummer to see the Transformation sequence use that. Of all the time they could have used it, they chose to use it on the iconic transformation scenes.

Hand drawn animation isn't the only thing that's missing from some of the most important scenes. Let's talk about the soundtrack.

I'm not musically talented, so I'm not inclined to talk about music too much. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but I don't feel qualified to say too many things about it.

(I'm not artistically talented either, but for over a decade, I have been in a serious relationship with a very talented artist who lives in the same house as me, so I picked up a few things and feel that I can at least offer an opinion on the art)

To save me repeating myself, I'll just say that the soundtrack to the original '92 anime is almost as iconic as it's art. The upbeat guitars and violins and trumpets and pianos and god-knows-what else that played throughout that series are a big part of it's identity.

Crystal does have it's own musical identity. It's a bit... blander in parts...

(there's this one recurring piece that tends to play during epic or emotional moments that, thanks to my oh-so-wonderful partner, I can't hear as anything other than that awful "Where are you Christmas" meme song).

But other times it does suitably convey majesty and grandeur to the scene's its playing over. The transformations may lack the rock-styled guitars of the original, but they have this new piece that sounds very magical and epic for Sailor Moon, and for the other senshi, they actually do bring back in the harder beats. Sailor Mars' first transformation goes particularly hard.

There's another piece of music I just have to talk about

The opening theme, "Moon Pride" is a fantastic piece of music, with some great visuals included. I particularly like how it's not only partially sung as if "in character" by the bands members as the Sailor Senshi, (I originally thought it was the senshi's Japanese VAs, but apparently not) but certain lyrics carry a specific "flavor" relating to that senshi - "Jupiter" and "Venus" singing lines about how "Love hits like a flash of lightning".

The tune and lyrics are extremely upbeat as well, singing of the power of girls ("girl power" being something that's extremely important to Sailor Moon) and how they have the power to accomplish their goals. It even incorporates the "Make Up!" phrase used by the senshi in their transformation, and ends on "La La Pretty Guardian SAILOR MOON" - A line that sounds clumsy when I write it down, but really does work in sung form (plus, I will always give props to a show incorporating it's title into the lyrics).

It's such a great song. It's a great opening visually too - Lots of wonderfully arch typically "anime opening" stereotypes in all the right ways, like Queen Beryl gesturing menacingly while the Four Heavenly Kings whiz in to pose with her and the specter of Queen Metalia rising up behind them...

It's honestly fantastic and a great choice for the series.

It's too bad I hate it.

It's not the fault of the song. It's just impossible for it to stack up against Moonlight Densetsu.

This is why we shouldn't compare things so directly, because shit like this happens.

Moonlight Densetsu (or, Moonlight Legend translated into English) is an iconic piece of anime music in it's own right, and it's connection to Sailor Moon is inseparable. Go ahead, go look it up. You want to, now that I've mentioned it. Better yet, I'll save you the trouble. Go on and listen to those iconic chimes at the opening before the guitar and the piano kick in....

youtube

Even the original english dub, with as many nonsense changes as it made, and at a time where it was common to record a whole new song for dubbed a anime's OP, kept the actual tune and music - It just replaced the lyrics (with very catchy, if somewhat inaccurate ones I might add... "Never running from a real fight"...)

And of course, the Japanese lyrics - evocative of a love song between Usagi and Mamoru - are catchy, charming and beautiful, evoking that same feeling as the anime's visuals provide. That tone, that aesthetic, and these days, that nostalgia. But it doesn't end at just the Japanese version...

The funny thing is, that even in today's day and age, with access to dubs of equal, if not superior quality to the original language, and most opening themes left untouched... if you start this tune up at any convention, you'll probably every weeb in hearing radius chime in with:

"~Fighting evil by moonlight~!"

Those english lyrics are just as iconic as their Japanese originators. The same opening theme, done two different ways, completely iconic in both the East and West parts of the world.

In preparation for writing this bit of the post, I asked myself to find the most iconic anime openings. The kind that everyone can sing along to at a convention. I found plenty - so I asked myself, what's one that everyone can sing along to in both English and Japanese.

See, everyone can jump in for something like the opening for "Attack on Titan" or frantically try to dance along to Motteke Sailor Fuku (Lucky Star's intensely energetic opening theme) for Japanese songs, and almost anyone past a certain age on the street can probably sing along to the absolutely legendary english opening for the original Pokemon anime...

But there's probably only one opening I know where everyone is able to get on the same tune, singing about the same show, in the same way in both English and Japanese.

And that's Moonlight Densetsu.

A remake is a remake, and it shouldn't need to rely on nostalgia, or try to win points by including whats already been done.

But there's an exception to every rule and god-damn should Crystal have used that piece of music.

It didn't even have to be the opening. Play it in the background as Usagi vanquishes Queen Metalia.

It's SO iconic to Sailor Moon that nothing, not even Moon Pride could replace it.

The fact that Crystal doesn't use Moonlight Densetsu genuinely detracts from the experience for me. It doesn't ruin it, but it's definitely a missed opportunity. I've heard they've so far not used it, and my fingers are crossed they'll work it into the finale movies somehow, because I would just love to hear it one more time in a modern context.

Alright - I feel I've rambled enough on the negatives. By now, I've made it clear... Crystal is not a replacement for the original '92 anime.

Lets talk about what it does get right.

If I've sounded negative up till now, it's only because I genuinely have a lot of love for Sailor Moon that I almost hold it to a higher standard than a lot of other anime series. If this were a remake of almost any other 90's anime, I wouldn't have that much to say - either for or against. I've fallen into the trap before where people think I hate something because I've been talking for 100 years about its flaws and missteps and I have to explain that no wait, this is actually one of my favorite things...

I've always been the kind of guy that takes a very deep interest in what I love. Goes with the autism I suppose. When you look into something that deeply, you see its flaws as clearly as you see its merits, and quite often, the flaws are easier to talk about.

I could talk about the flaws in the original Sailor Moon anime too. I could talk about how it's got 200 episodes, and yet, I think a count exists where only 50ish of those episodes are plot relevant, and a further 10-or-so of those could be whittled down to "X got a new power up/attack/transformation"

I could talk about how the anime relied on stock footage to absurd levels, fights often coming down to watching the same animations a couple of times before they play the usual stock "Usagi defeats/purifies/vaporizes/love-bombs the bad guy" clip.

I could talk about how, when you have to stretch some fairly straightforward characters out over that many episodes, you wind up pulling out a lot more of those characters negative traits for the sake of inventing some kind of drama to drive some kind of plot along, in the worst cases making some characters borderline unlikable.

Or, I could talk about how Crystal AVOIDS those problems like the fucking plague.

Well. Not all of them, obviously. But it is here, in the character department we see our first marked improvement.

While the rapid pace of Crystal does leave some characters in the dust - a lot of them on the villain side of things - one thing it does help with is there's no need to invent "drama of the week" between the girls. There's no need to have Usagi and Rei bitching at each other because the boy-of-the-episode isn't paying them attention or to cram in a "someone's got a crush on X, and the other Senshi are going to spy and stick their nose in her business because OOOOOH ROMANCE". There's no need for a weird, shitty subplot where Rei dates Mamoru.

While the characters don't feel as fleshed out as in the original, that actually works when you see their relationships. They first form a friend group based on their shared destiny, and then, once they recover their past-life memories, solidify their bonds based on that.

And you can call this cheep and lazy, and maybe it is, but I can't help but think that it just WORKS for them. When the original had so much bickering and insults without showing as many moments of genuine care between the Senshi, it's just damn refreshing to see them unambiguously care so much for one-another. I know they did in the original too, but here, it's so much faster and tighter that it really comes off better.

To varying degrees, all of the Senshi are affected by this "tighter" (or perhaps "faster") pacing, but none more so than the titular character herself, Sailor Moon. AKA, the klutzy crybaby, Usagi Tsukino.

Usagi is a character that is very much the face of the series in every conceivable way. Aside from being the titular Sailor Moon, her visual appearance is iconic, to the point that even non-anime fans could probably identify her as "Sailor Moon" if you show them a picture, and even today, as the older generations of anime fans and weebs are replaced by a whole new breed of both dedicated and casual fans, most of them will still know who Usagi is. Her iconic "odango" (Bun/Dumpling) hairstyle is still homaged and parodied today, even in western cartoons:

(I'll spare you my endless rants on Star vs The Forces of Evil...)

Usagi's characterization is similarly iconic, helped by the fact that she herself narrates the opening to many of the numerous episodes of the original series with an honest description of herself. The translation varies from fansubs to the modern official dub, but the gist of it is always:

"I’m Usagi Tsukino and I’m a 14 year old middle school student. I’m a bit of a klutz… and kind of a crybaby. One day, a cat named Luna gave me a special brooch that transformed me into a guardian in a sailor uniform and told me I had to fight bad guys! Boy, does that ever make me nervous. But, I’m sure it will all work out fine!"

Right off the bat, this establishes Usagi's personality. She's emotional, ditzy, but optimistic. Over the course of all the series it's established firmly and consistently that she's a dreamer and an utterly hopeless romantic. She gets bad grades, overindulges in food and sweets, doesn't study, but also has an overflowing amount of love for just about everyone, especially her friends, and her kind-heartedness is always centered.

Thing is, with the original '92 anime being 200 episodes long, with a lot of those being filler, where they needed to have a plot driven by characters without being allowed to do anything to drastically change those characters, they needed to fall back on Usagi's basic characterization for day-to-day episodes. There are a LOT of scenes of her just being kind of....

Well, I don't want to say "useless" but...

Usagi's slacker tendencies were highlighted, along with her selfishness and hedonism. She'll drag her friends along to things they don't want to do, borrow their stuff, and is generally kind of treated with a sense of being a load by them a lot of the time. All of these are consistent traits across all adaptations, but the '92 anime practically spotlights them. She often needs to be coerced or pressured into actually transforming into Sailor Moon and doing something, and even when she did, she more often-than-not relied on a well timed rose from Tuxedo Mask and an attack from another Senshi before she broke out the finishing move. In my younger days, when I attended more conventions and hung around with other anime fans, it was pretty common for them to express a kind of distaste for her as a heroine.

It's not that the original anime didn't have it's moments of highlighting that, y'know, Usagi is a true all-loving heroine with determination, dedication and a love for her friends that would net her the most dramatic power up scenes if the show were a Shounen anime, but they tended to be reserved for the plot relevant episodes, and as mentioned, the original anime is 3/4ths filler, so we get a lot of selfish, crybaby Usagi.

Crystal, on the other hand, moves at a speed so intense that only astronauts trained in special machines by NASA can withstand the sheer g-force it generates. Seriously, it feels like the plot took a leaf out of Usagi's book and overslept, forcing it to charge forward like:

This does something interesting to Usagi as a character. While we're shown enough of her at school to know that, yes, she gets bad grades, scores awfully on tests, and is an absent minded klutz who'd rather slack off and visit the arcade than do anything related to actual school, it also shows Usagi:

Genuinely reaching out to Ami and befriending her, wanting to bring her out of her shell and let the overworked girl have some fun.

Defending Rei from some women who are blaming her for circumstances beyond her control. (Crystal also famously restores the scene where they meet because Usagi follows her off the bus, hearts in her eyes and all. Usagi's implied bisexuality is restored and it's obvious she's got some kind of crush on Rei.)

Complimenting Makoto on basically everything: her cooking, earrings and her perfume, giving the girl a much needed ego boost.

Borderline worshiping Minako (as Sailor V) and then genuinely looking up to her once she meets her as Sailor Venus.

(Also. this is just fanboy bullshit, but Crystal makes Sailor Venus' transformation use ribbons, much like Usagi's, and given that Venus outright states she's the original leader of the Senshi, and her "in the name of Venus" speach sounds very similar to Usagi's "in the name of the moon" spiel, I like to believe that Usagi is subconsciously basing her Sailor Moon act on the memories she has of her former guardian.)

The result is that Usagi's friendship with the other senshi feels very genuine. They do a little teasing of her, of course, but are also extremely loving toward her, a feeling that only grows as they regain their past memories and remember her both as their sacred Princess and their middle-school friend. There's a very sweet scene where they all sit around her and help her fix her hair up, stuff that really shows that these girls are true companions and a proper team, not a misfit group of conflicting personalities.

There's also a scene toward the very end where, after Sailor Moon is compromised in the final battle, all of the Senshi draw the strength to keep fighting to the bitter end by remembering Usagi, which is punctuated by actual clips of things she's said to them. It's a bit clumsy (Jupiter's memory is the scene of Usagi talking about her earrings and perfume...) but the fact that it is all footage we've seen before makes it believable.

She's also far more proactive and direct. While she does wail and cry a couple of times at the monsters, other times she actually just swallows her fear and charges forward to save her friends. There's an incredible moment where, confronted by a group of zombified people, without so much as a single "SAVE ME, TUXEDO MASK!", Usagi transforms and purifies all of the zombies with her finisher, before actively moving to seek out the source of the the corruption. It's an awesome moment.

Her moments of "uselessness" in battle are also given a facelift. Given that Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask himself is far more active and involved in battles. Instead of crying out of fear and cowidance, Usagi is usually taken out of the fight by her hopeless romantic nature being taken advantage of. She's either hit with some revelation or otherwise emotionally compromised. Usually by putting Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru in danger.

Indeed, Crystal really emphasis Usagi's emotions in a way that makes her feel very fragile and vulnerable at times. She's instantly taken with Tuxedo Mask, and when she later uncovers his identity (or rather, he reveals it to her), she becomes caught up in their love, to the point where, once he's taken from her by the Dark Kingdom, she struggles to fight back against him. There's many scenes where it's simply those two, and although they don't fight, they don't need to, because the act of seeing her true love (and the anime establishes very quickly that yes, Mamoru is her true, destined lover) on a side that isn't hers is enough to paralyze her. On the other side of that coin, when he's not in opposition to her, Usagi really doesn't let anything slow her down, and genuinely is ready to get into a fight for the sake of bringing Mamoru back.

The ending, which finally puts them back on the same side, allows him to be her emotional support as she battles it out with Queen Metalia in the final confrontation, again plays up Usagi's emotions, this time drawing strength from her love for Mamoru and her friends, allowing her to finally banish the evil. It's not dissimilar to how the original series ended it's first season - Although the fact that we do see scenes of the Earth being reduced to chaos and nothingness by Queen Metalia does make a very interesting backdrop.

i feel like I'm rambling here, so I want to sum it up - Crystal manages to make Usagi a far more proactive and engaging force in the narrative, without taking away the "crybaby and a klutz" part of her. The focus on her vulnerability shows why she needs her friends and her love, but on the other hand, we're also shown that, when she does have that, there's not a lot she can't do, and she more than possesses the strength to take action.

As for the others...

Like I said, everyone fares a bit differently. I've ranted a bit too long about Usagi because, in my opinion, she's the one who mostly gained good things out of the pacing, losing a lot of what she was commonly derided for in the original setting, but the other characters are slightly more of a mixed bag.

My bishie boy Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask get a lot more to do very quickly, compared to the original series. His search for the Legendary Silver Crystal™ is mentioned a lot, and he kicks off one episodes problems by declaring it publicly. His identity is also not really kept a secret, and we're shown Mamoru wearing the tux on many occasions without the cape, hat or mask.

His relationship with Usagi is... Well, it's there. Because of the compressed nature of the series, he runs into Usagi a fair bit less than he did in the original, and thus a lot of their banter is gone. While Usagi falls for him very quickly, he's at least shown to care about her, and once their identities are revealed and they start to recover their past lives memories, they do feel very in love.' Because of the compressed nature of the series, he runs into Usagi a fair bit less than he did in the original, and thus a lot of their banter is gone. While Usagi falls for him very quickly, he's at least shown to care about her, and once their identities are revealed and they start to recover their past lives memories, they do feel very in love. The few times we get to see them together outside of them being in mortal peril are very sweet.

(I know their relationship has always been... controversial, so I won't dwell too much on it. These type of things are fairly common for anime in general, so it's something you need to just accept if you plan on watching a lot of it)

He does seem to take on the "useless" traits that Usagi lost though. My boy here borders on being a full on damsel in distress sometimes. His rose throwing was corny in the original anime, but it was usually effective. Here, there's not a rose in sight, leaving him either as an observer, or as normal, albiet sharply dressed, man who's quite out of his depth against monsters... BUT as an unabashed and unashamed lover of Damsels in Distress, I hardly mind that.

Sailor Mercury/Ami is one of the ones who got more of the short end of the stick from the pacing and rapid nature of the show. She's established, as per usual, as the super smart genius with some genuinely sweet moments of Usagi helping her out of her shell. However, because the show introduces the other senshi so rapidly, she rarely gets a chance to stand out with her genius. She does smart-stuff, sure, we always see her on the computer and the like, but rarely do we actually see her express that genius in any way other than pinpointing an enemy's weakness by scanning it with her goggles or something. Granted she did a lot of that in the '92 anime too, but at least then there were episodes that showed her studying or taking tests and a couple of times where she needed to use her intelligence against the monster of the week.

It's not like the show "does her dirty" or anything, Mercury has always failed to stand out compared to the others, owing to her more down-to-earth personality and seriousness, in both the '92 series and Crystal. Part of that in both instances is because after we meet her we're very quickly (or in Crystal's case, immediately) introduced to...

Sailor Mars/Rei has always been a tad on the polarizing side. She either tends to be a fan's favorite or they hate her outright. Rei is fiery and outspoken, and in my opinion, after Usagi, she's the one who benefits the most from Crystal's fast pacing.

The '92 anime had Rei as far more confrontational and borderline bitchy. She clashed with Usagi so much, outright challenging her leadership at least once, that it was hard to believe they were friends. Although she did always come through for Usagi at the end, the status quo meant she'd be right back to digging at her the next episode.

Crystal has Rei instead under immense pressure right from the start, justifying her stand-offish behavior, and has Usagi defend her from a group of mothers who wanted to blame a number of disappearances on Rei's psychic power, after which Rei becomes very open to her. She's still serious, and she still gets one-or-two digs in at Usagi being a lazy glutton, but she comes across as far friendlier. Her psychic powers mean she takes to being a Sailor Senshi pretty much straight away, and she's usually the one to go on the offensive in battles. While that "mean-streak" gave her a notable characterization in the original series, here we get to see a kinder, and gentler side to her. She gets plenty of dialogue that indicates she's taking the job seriously, but also that she wants whats best for Usagi. It's a sharp contrast to the girl that tried to steal her boyfriend in the original series.

(Speaking of, considering the series restores her semi-crush on Rei, you have to wonder if Usagi's type is just "dark haired, vaguely mysterious and teases me on occasion")

Jupiter is pretty "middle of the road" here. Crystal takes away her recurring joke of comparing every boy to her "sempai", but it doesn't really add anything more to her character. We get to see more of how, despite being big and strong, she's quite feminine, but beyond that, she doesn't really do anything to make herself stand out. Her character here is neither an improvement, nor a deterioration.

Honestly, Jupiter was one of my favourites in the original, so I really thought I'd have more to say, but I just don't. She's fine.

Sailor Venus/Minako has the unfortunate title of being the final Senshi introduced formally (No. We're not counting her appearances as Sailor V. This post is too long already for me to talk about that). As a result she gets... very little time to shine as a character. Minako especially loses all of her quirks and goofy traits from the original, though we do get to see something else as a result. She's very rarely seen doing anything other than her duties as a Sailor Guardian. Compared to the other senshi, this means that it comes off less as Minako transforming into Sailor Venus to fight evil, and more as Sailor Venus disguising herself as Minako. She explicitly has most of her memories restored right from when we meet her, and thus fully embraces the role of "Leader of the Sailor Guardians", knowing more about their enemy than the others, and helping them along with revelations.

Also - there's this beyond-stupid bit where she claims she's the Moon Princess for an episode or so... It's vaguely implied to be a bluff (for some reason), but even so, it's fantastically stupid and accomplishes very little.

(Not going to talk about the cats or other more minor characters because... well quite frankly this post has gone on for way too long already)

Finally that brings us to the villains.

Yeah look... Fans of the original portrayal of the Four Heavenly Kings are out of luck here.

The '92 anime had a habit of using one king at a time to unleash some monsters, but baring Jadite, all of them developed some pretty distinctive personalities in that time. From Nephrite's arc of falling in love with a human, to Zoisite and Kunsite's explicitly gay and genuinely affectionate relationship, 3 out of 4 of them got pretty memorable scenes and personalities.

Not so for Crystal...

*sigh*

Yeah, all of them are pretty generically "evil" in this version. They really, really do not stand apart from each other.

It's all the more disappointing as this series goes with the "each king is the destined lover of one of the Sailor Guardians" idea that has been around for a while. I'm not sure if this was ever in the original manga, but it's been something that's been known to fans for basically forever.

Sadly though, the anime does very little with that. Honestly, it's only worth mentioning because in this version, the senshi are able to turn them back to the side of good... after which time Queen Beryl/Metalia destroys them and they turn into the little gems they're named after as if they're straight out of fucking Steven Universe.

I know the limited episode count and nature of being truer to the Manga wouldn't allow anything like the original anime, but would it have killed them to show Kunsite and Zoisite with their arms around each other? Or better yet, if they wanted to do the "destined to be with the Sailor Senshi" thing, give us some one on one scenes with each pair?

Queen Beryl does get a bit more character though. (Hence why I used her picture up there). We get to see flashes of her past, as a princess of earth, hopelessly in love with Endymion, and is actually the one who tried to strike down both him and Princess Serenity in the past. She also has plans to pull a Starscream on Queen Metalia, and goes into battle herself a couple of times. It's a consolation prize for the disappointing turnout of the four kings.

OVERALL

This review has really gotten out of hand. I feel like I spent too long talking about the original series and the blundered onto the Crystal stuff really haphazardly.

To wrap it up, I'll repeat that I don't believe Sailor Moon Crystal should be anyone's first introduction to Sailor Moon. It needs to be approached with prior knowledge and familiarity, lest a lot of what makes the series special feel instead rushed and half-baked. Because, that really is what makes a lot of it good, at least to me. Seeing things happen at a faster pace, with a lot of the unpleasant aspects of characters removed is a breath of fresh air when your standard experience amounted to over 100 episodes of filler.

It's a good show. It's a fun show. It's a show that I, as a fan of Sailor Moon, enjoyed...

...And despite the length of this review, it's one I can't really give an opinion on yet because you see... Unlike the original, there is no filler arc about a tree and the aliens who want it to grow. Season 1 of Crystal ends with Rei receiving a premonition of a black, upside down crescent moon, and a mysterious pink haired child falling out of the sky..

As of writing, I am over halfway through "season 2", which has both countered and enhanced some of my above points, so I want to stop there before I say too much more. I'm going to try and review each "season" on its own.

I suspect from here on in, given that I've said my piece about how it compares to the original, the next reviews shall be a bit shorter, or at the very least, will have less of me rambling about how not using Moonlight Densetsu is a crime against nature.

Either way, if you have stuck with me, or read this entire post for whatever reason, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd like to thank you for taking the time. I feel good having gotten this all off my chest, and I look forward to writing up another one.

But now, I must go!

The Analyst has vanished in a swish of his cape, leaving behind nothing but a single rose.

#sailor moon #sailor moon crystal #sailor suit #anime #manga #sailor venus #sailor mars #sailor mercury #sailor jupiter #usagi tsukino #Usagi #moonlight densetsu #REVIEW #OPINION #magical girl anime

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