#i felt so bad for kazuya on her ending ;-;

[yuzuna123]

Azula 🤝 Reina Mishima

being favorited by their father and having a complicated relationship with brother(s)

[itjazzbicch]

A Sun is Born

Pairing: Claudio Serafino x Mishima!Devil!Reader 

My first time writing for Claudio, so I hope I did well!

Summary: Their entire life being nothing but pain and fighting to awaken their devil and please their father, the reader finally has enough when the opportunity for their own freedom presents itself, hoping to find purification in Italy from the exorcist, Claudio, who learns that the reader is no devil...

Warnings: The reader is mentioned to have faced death and has a messed up past (but that's about it!)

Word Count: 1.3k 

My father and grandfather had been fighting one another for far too long, but at this point, I didn't care anymore. For the first time in my life, I was disobeying my father and doing what I wanted, doing what I felt was right even though I was scared.

Tonight, my life was going to change forever. I wasn't sure if Father would hunt me down once he noticed I was gone. It was too late to try and theorize every consequence of the actions I was about to perform.

Italy was a beautiful place, finding the Arches of Sirius Exorcists and their leader:

"You're Claudio Serafino, correct?"

"I am..." Looking in the corner of his eye, he could see my figure in the shadows of the cathedral, stepping out and pulling my hood down as I introduced myself:

"I'm Y/N. Y/N Mishima...."

His eyes widened with shock. At first, he was speechless, his mind racing with thoughts and questions, but he asked in a severe but soft tone:

"A Mishima? Are you another one of Heihachi's children?"

"No," I answered, trying to keep my emotions back as I hated to say, "Kazuya Mishima is my father."

"I thought Jin was his only child." Claudio grew more perplexed, looking towards the moonlight shining through the glass and onto my face. Staring intensely into my eyes, his intuition told him I was being truthful, swallowing a breath as he asked one last question, "What brings you here?"

My life with my father was brutal. For as long as I can remember, it was all about fighting, training, and gaining power. Nothing else. I couldn't even dare to mess up, or there would be consequences.

All those thoughts made me tear up, crying to this man who was still but a stranger to me, shaking as my body pulsated, my eyes piercing into his as they turned bright red against the moonlight, begging in my cry:

"Help me. Please, Claudio."

--------

That was six months ago, and almost every day, I wondered about my father. Did he know where I was and didn't care? Either way, this war and the madness he was causing needed to be put to an end.

I was fortunate to create a bond with Claudio. I wanted to purge this devil from within me, and he offered me hope and a future along with it. Although we had so much to learn and needed to communicate as, the brother I had never met, Jin Kazama, had faced off with our father. Then a new King of The Iron Fist Tournament?

As much as I hated it, I may need this devil's power to help achieve our shared goal.

We were getting closer and closer as Claudio and I met Zafina, who had excellent knowledge of the devil gene and its origin.

"So, you have Azazel's power in your arm..." Claudio was fixed on her arm, to see a form of the devil itself was quite the sight for a sorcerer and I could only watch in shock.

I had hoped every day that maybe this was all a bad dream, but it was right before me. Watching Zafina's hand glow, she pulled out a dark orb, placing it in her hand, showing this red star being consumed by a dark force.

"Jin's light is diminishing..." She began to explain. It seemed to be that Jin was the key to finishing off Father, which I had no complaints about, but as I stared into that orb, my eyes gazing on her purple claw, my body pulsated hard, a pound in my head, which made me shut my eyes quickly.

"Y/N..." Claudio immediately sensed my discomfort, so caring as he took my hand softly, stepping closer to whisper, "Are you okay, dear?"

"Yeah," I lied, taking a deep breath and barely opening my eyes to seek his confirmation, beginning to pant softly, "May I be excused?"

"No need to ask," He whispered, concerned as I turned away from him, going to a balcony nearby, hoping the fresh air would help.

It must've been Azazel's power. It was the origin of the power within me, and my devil was responding to Azazel within Zafina.

Groaning out, I began to hold my head, remembering how my father made my entire life hell and pushed me to the brink of death, all to make me 'stronger.' My teeth started to sharpen the more I groaned, feeling the tips of my horns trying to escape my temple.

"No," I gritted out, my body tensing up as I hunched over a little, the memories continuing to flood my mind, but my heart telling me, "I'm not like him!"

Gasping for air, I was able to keep my devil suppressed. Stabilizing with deep breaths, I cleared my head as intense, dark emotions always led to something like this happening. After a few moments, I opened my eyes, looking at the pretty blue sky and clouds, trying to smile and be proud that I was able to handle myself, but I jumped slightly as I heard a soft, caring voice behind me:

"You're so strong, my dear..."

I had a feeling Claudio would come to check on me, a tiny smile on my face as he had seen the little fight I had within myself. His compliment made my cheeks warm. Looking away from him as I tried not to look so flustered, whispering:

"I guess I am."

"Believe in yourself, Y/N," Stepping closer and taking my hand, it was the first time in my life that I had someone's pure and genuine encouragement, "It takes great strength in one's mind and heart to overcome the things that you have."

"T-Thank you, Claudio," Looking at my hand in his, a tear fell from my eyes, a bit embarrassed that I didn't know what care was like, but I was grateful, a few more tears leaking out as he caressed my cheek next, wiping away those tears, a smile growing on his face as our gazes met.

He could easily read the emotions I felt through my eyes, stroking my cheek once more before wrapping his arm around my neck, pulling me to his chest, his other arm wrapping around my waist as he kept me warmly embraced.

Burying my face in his chest, I couldn't help but quiver from fighting off cries. I had never hugged anyone. All my memories were horrible ones, and to know that I could look back on this and be happy made my heart overflow with passionate emotions.

Squeezing me some as he felt my quivers, he placed his head alongside mine, whispering to me softly:

"And as you said, you are not like him. Deep in your heart, I know that you are pure, amor."

His care and sweetness were going to make my heart explode; growing some courage, I picked my head up a little to look at him with a single eye.

The way the sun shined into his heavenly blue eyes only made my heart thump harder, but it felt so good, and it was such a divine sight that I couldn't look away.

With a fingertip, he gently pushed my chin up, showing my face, his little smile against the sunlight making him look even more handsome; my eyes shut when I felt his nose brush past mine, feeling a slight shock when our lips pecked each other softly, then pressing into a deeper, tender kiss, my handful of his jacket and never wanting to let this go.

I pressed my lips for as long as I could before my head fell a little, gasping a little, giggling as his hand rubbed up and down my back, cooing to me:

"Breathe, amor."

"I'm sorry," I giggled, growing quiet as I found his eyes and immediately got lost again, "I just couldn't get enough..."

"Don't apologize or worry," In my dark world, I had finally found a sun that was so bright that there were no shadows. He was my sun, believing his every word as he was now my new and sure hope, his smile so precious and handsome as he put his nose against mine, "You'll get plenty more." 

2024 © itjazzbicch — do not repost or translate my work. Likes, reblogs, and comments are always welcome 

[ehhh2000]

Tekken 8 - Anti Reina Mishima Stamp(Rant) Huge Tekken 8 Spoilers!

This is gonna piss off Reina fans, but just a friendly reminder..... this is my opinion. If you love her, go on a page that praises her. You won't get it here. Alright here goes.

I was playing Tekken 8 at my friend's house. It was a fun time, and the story has improved from Tekken 7 (with the bland, monotone narrator gone, thank god) and..... Tekken 6 (ugh!) but has a few flaws.

The biggest flaw which almost ruined Tekken 8 for me, was this character, called Reina Mishima.

This is without a doubt, one of the most poorly written female characters I have ever seen in my entire life.

You mean to tell me that Lucky Chloe gets shit from Tekken fans, but Reina Mishima gets a free pass? WTF? I mean I am not a fan of Lucky Chloe (ok her character design is cute, but she is abusive AF to Eddie T.T) but at least she wasn't a forced and contrived, plot device character like Reina, and is just a dumb troll character from the creator, as a middle finger to their haters that really hated her guts.

Like you think Rey from Star Wars, Disney Remake Mulan, Bella Swan, or Captain Marvel were bad?

Well, that is nothing comparred to this DeviantArt OC, Mary-Sue reject.

So Reina is the daughter of Heihachi Mishima. (Oh, so we are doing the Lars Alexandersson plot-twist, from Tekken 6 again, in 2024... aka lazy, repetitive writing for Tekken 8 when it comes to introducing new characters... got it 👍) 

My issues with her that makes her a poorly written character is that:

-She is a flawless fighter, like Disney remake's Mulan bad. I know she is suppose to have flawless fighting moves like Heihachi, but good god, this is just embarrasing.

Edit: Ok, I understand that it is a fighting game, and the Mishima's are suppose to be powerful, badass fighters, so Reina should be no exception. Fair enough. I still think she is a self-insert character because she was just thrown into the story, with no buildup or references from previous games (Same issue I had with Lars in Tekken 6 btw, he just exists to replace Jin as a MC, and they made him a Mishima to make him more relavant, instead of him just standing out on his own as a character. I don't hate Lars btw, he has a cool character design, but the hair is riduclous, and I felt indifferent towards him at first, but now I kinda see him as a potential father figure to Jin in Tekken 8.)

-She is trying too hard to be a hardcore, edgy, tomboy, cool-looking version of Asuka, so I will call her the poor man's Asuka Kazama.

-Her character design and oufit is uninspired and too modern for my liking (Black boots, black short-shorts and A black and purple hoddie, huh.... how creative... -_-) oh and short black hair and purple streaks to add to the edgy, tomboy look. (Or the Karen look as I like to call it ^^)

-She is younger than Jin Kazama, YOUNGER! Despite being Jin's aunty. Yes, you heard correctly. I think the creators wanted a self-insert character to have some sort of sex appeal, which is why they made her look younger and prettier, and show off her legs (which gives me the ick.) And her calling Jin "Senpai" didn't help either.

(I also didn't like the fact the creators made Kazumi Mishima and Jun Kazama look younger than their own sons, like what is wrong with looking a bit older, mature and graceful? I actually want to see a badass, old lady in Tekken that can fight! Kazumi felt like a missed opportunity in that sense.)

-She manages to beat the shit out of Kazuya in her ending, despite her looking like a twig. Reminding me too much of something out Inuyasha, when that abusive, unbearable, bratty, girl Kagome would do the same thing to her love interest Inuyasha, for comedy! 🙄

I will admit that Kazuya is a shitty father (Sorry fans 😭 don't kill me) at least Kazuya has flaws, he is a damaged man, blinded by hatred, rage and has an obssession with power, like it's a drug to him. A wrathful devilman, but not completely heartless, otherwise he would just be another mini Heihachi.

Reina has no flaws, no personality, no interesting backstory and is just a pathetic Jerk-Sue Character (a Mary-Sue that is a Jerk, with no consequences for her actions.)

-She is also not a good plot-twist character either, again, she just ripped off Lars' backstory, so there is no originality from her.

-And to add to the cherry on top, when it comes to her being a poorly written, fanfic-styled Mary-Sue character, she is also....... a devil! 😈 Unless if it is revealed that she is Kazumi's daughter or something, then why the hell does she have to devil gene? And she wants to be the new Heihachi, huh? Wait till she finds out that Heihachi is the OG devil hater.

Terrible twist, terrible story, and a terrible first impression of Reina. 🤬 Fuck this character!

[demonsfate]

Whilst Asuka and Lili are yuri bait, tbf... Tekken as a series is just horrible with romantic relationships. I think Harada himself has confirmed that he sucks at love stories. It's not just the "gay" ships that suffer this, but even the straight ships.

Of course this was filled with comments like "wHaT wOUlD mAKE yOU thINK tHEY'RE aNymORE tHAN fRIENDS???" but like...

look at Jin & Xiaoyu. Most people can agree that Xiaoyu is indeed Jin's love interest. But... what have the two done that's any special from other type of relationships in the games? That Xiaoyu was willing to hunt down Jin no matter what? Hwoarang is literally the same way. Xiaoyu held Jin's hand? Jin held a lot of people's hands in the games, the only difference is that he held hers a little more "tenderly" and longer. The only ""confirmations"" we got that Jin & Xiao are supposed to romantically love each other is in 1) Xiaoyu said "you're the same Jin I've always loved," and 2) Xiaoyu's (noncanon lol) ending in TK8. Other than that, there's... nothing else. Yes, it's obvious since, at least 4 maybe, that Xiao has had a crush on Jin. But there hasn't been much of anything to show that Jin felt the same. Jin himself never even utters the word "love" to Xiao. Yes, people use that Jin flashbacks to Xiao when saying "I want to live" but again... that's also a blink & you'll miss thing because he also flashbacks to his other friends when fighting Kazuya. Jin & Xiao haven't even kissed each other - no, scratch that, Jin & Xiao haven't even HUGGED EACH OTHER. The only time we've EVER seen Xiao hug was in a noncanon daydream in TK6. Why couldn't they have at least hugged?

Jun & Kaz are such a wreck that, until TK8, fans HEAVVILY debated whether or not they were ever actually together. Some people argued it was a one night stand, some people argued Jun loved Kaz but Kaz didn't love Jun, some people had more unsavory theories. This is all because there wasn't a SINGLE OFFICIAL GAME where Kazuya mentioned how he felt about Jun. Even in TK6's recaps of the games, Kaz just mentioned that she was "mysterious" and nothing else. He never said that she was the only woman he's loved, or that he even misses her. It wasn't until TK8 that they made it more apparent (with his ending, and I guess Jun's ending) that Kazuya is genuinely in love with Jun.

Alisa & Lars, from what I remembered, are probs the "clearest" of these relationships, especially in 6. Fuck, at least we SEE Alisa hug Lars (in TK7, I believe she tackles him) "Jin" mocked Lars for "loving" Alisa in TK6, and both of their TK8 endings involve them being "lovey dovey" toward each other. But even then, they're NOT CANON since Alisa's bio for TK8 mentions she feels "weird" around Lars, which heavily implies she's in love with him... but it implies it as if she's confused, that they're not in a relationship yet. Hell, in the canon story, Alisa seemed more interested in Jin than Lars like lmao.

Eddy & Christie are also often debated if they're supposed to be a couple. But from everything in canon, it just seems like they're only good friends.

Kuma and Ganryu both have unrequited crushes that never go anywhere and...

Heihachi & Kazumi are the only ship where it's evident that they were married and loved each other.

Other than that, everything else is just so... vague! Even with the main character ships (Jin & Kazuya) - it's unclear, and we don't even get these characters hugging. Most of these "ships" are just a character having a crush on the other for 30 years and nothing really developing. I don't know why this is. I don't know if Tek really just doesn't care about relationships (if so, why add all these "crushes" and stuff?) or if they're just really that bad at writing relationships. But regardless, even if Bamco was relentlessly teasing Asuka & Lili, that's... literally what they do with all their ships.

[mochisdoll]

hello!!! can i request manager!reader being childhood bffs with miyuki? MUTUAL PINING!!! :D the game between seido and inashiro is still on going in the manga now BUTTT say seido wins against them. and miyuki rushes to the dugout and lifts reader and gives her a kiss on the cheek (or lips whatever u like hehe.) miyuki saying something he'll bring the reader to summer koshien because that's what he promised her after choosing to go to seido instead of inashiro with mei. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!

Just Like I Promised

so, I'm very vague about everything regarding the game, just to avoid spoiling anything for anime onlies. thank you so much for the request! i always enjoy them, hope you’re dreams are fulfilled <3

feat. Miyuki x Manager!reader

The relief washed over Miyuki all at once. It felt like someone had wound him up completely but finally let go. His teammates were surrounding him and screaming him. Kuramochi and Zono were practically on top of him, jerking him around like a ragdoll as they cheered, and he let them. Relishing in the moment, in the heat of the win.

But then he turns to you who remained in the dugout. You were there, beaming with pride, a closed lipped grin completely splitting your face, eyes a little watery, and you were staring directly at him. Your stare rested singularly on him. When your eyes met his your lips parted and your grin only became bigger.

He instinctively began to walk off the field, towards you. He had done it, fulfilled the promise he made to you, and to himself.

---

"So, you really turned down Narumiya?" You asked as Miyuki joined your side on a bench that you had slumped into as you waited for his meeting with Narumiya to end.

"I already planned to go to Seidou." He replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah but, you want to go to Koshien, that team will most definitely go to Koshien." You told him. It's not that you thought it was a bad thing to turn down Narumiya, you just wanted to make sure he'd thought it through.

"I'll still be going to Koshien, without the help of any of them. Seidou is where I'm going."

You nodded. "Guess I'm going to Seidou too."

Miyuki's headed whipped around to look at you. "What?"

"What?" You turned your head to the side to avoid his gaze, face becoming hot.

"You know you'd have to live in the dorms."

"So what..." You tried hard to keep your composure. It honestly felt like you were confessing. "It just wouldn't feel right to go where you aren't."

Miyuki did his best to mask his elation at your words. "So I guess that means you'll be my manager again?"

You had to stop yourself from saying some noncommittal response. There was no point, he was your lifelong best friend, you had no reason to act as if you didn't care. "Yeah, of course."

Miyuki smile slightly and looked away. "Well, then. I promise, I'll be taking you to Koshien with me. Summer Koshien, specifically."

He looked back at you, to see you staring at him with a warm gaze and red cheeks. "I'll look forward to it."

---

Miyuki moved past all the rest of his team as they came out of the dugout to join the players on the field, he had one goal in mind, and that was getting to you.

As he stepped down into the dugout you began to speak. "Kazuya, you-"

Miyuki doesn't wait to hear you out, instead scooping you up in his arms. You squeak as he squeezes you tightly. Having you by his side for his win only made it all the more sweeter. "You did it, Kazuya!"

"Just like you promised me." You added as he set you down.

His heart swelled over the fact that you remembered what he told you years ago, a memory that he held onto, one that motivated him.

Overcome with euphoria, he swept you to the side, blocking you from the view of the team who were still celebrating on the field. You weren't given time to think anything of it before Miyuki was kissing you.

When he pulled away, the weight of his own actions seemed to dawn on him as his expression went blank, but you didn't leave him much time for contemplation since you kissed him again a second later. Pulling him in by the front of his jersey and pressing your lips firmly to his.

Miyuki heard a wolf whistle which he would bet all of his money on was Kuramochi. He barely spared his team a quick flip of the bird as he grinned down at you.

"Just like I promised."

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Somebody wanna tell me real quick what the fuck Nina's doing working for Kazuya???

You wanna tell me Nina is so beyond personal bias and feelings and that she has become so cold that she will accept jobs from literally anyone? Even if it is the person who had her captures, forced her into cryosleep and indirectly caused her pregnancy and amnesia (I think the super soldier program that resulted in the birth of Steve was initiated after Heihachi took over but Nina was put into cryosleep under Kazuya's orders)?

That makes absolutely no sense both in regards to who she is as a person and her character development. Yes she is ruthless and cold but, so far, her goals mostly aligned with the "good" side of things.

In Tekken 1, she was hired to kill Heihachi, who was an asshole. In Tekken 2 she was hired to kill Kazuya, who is an even bigger asshole. In Tekken 6 she worked for Jin, who seemed like the ultimate asshole but in the end we learned that he had concocted the most fucked up way ever to save humanity from the devil and its influence on individuals like him who possessed the devil Jin. Furthermore, she was shown to back out of assignments if they crossed too far into the morally wrong side. In Tekken 4 she hesitated to kill Steve and ultimately refused to do so after learning that she was, in fact, his mother. She says she felt nothing in 5 but the matter of fact is that she ultimately did not kill him. She reiterates this sentiment in Tekken 7, that although he is biologically her son she feels no connection to him whatsoever, but I feel like this was mostly her playing it cool to prevent Steve from getting too attached to her, a literal assassin. That last one is my own assumption so disregard it if you will but my point still remains; she was tasked to kill her own son but didn't.

During Tekken 6 and 7 we see a clear bond between Nina and Jin. Not necessarily a romantic one (although I shipped them as a teenager, but realistically none of them would allow themselves to fall for anyone, for various reasons) but you could tell they were close. Jin trusted Nina enough to actually reveal his plan to her as it was Nina who revealed Jin's ultimate goal to Lars and the players. She was the de facto leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu and actively searched for Jin. You mean to tell me that all of that was "just business" and that she would just as easily switch sides just for a paycheck?

I pray Namco has an ulterior motive written for her that they will reveal once the game launches, in a similar fashion to how Jin was seemingly portrayed as "just another Mishima" as soon as he wielded the Zaibatsu's power in his hands but ultimately redeemed / will redeem himself, otherwise this is a disservice to Nina, her fans and comically bad writing; the assassin who double crosses everyone, works for everyone, is loyal to none and feels nothing, ever? Fuck that. We know that's the facade she's trying to sell to everyone to look as professional and capable as possible but she has shown her true emotions time and time again.

Furthermore, her, essentially, taking Anna's job (and look, with the bob cut and dress) diminishes the latter's chances of making an appearance even further... She kinda took Bruce's job too lol

[outoftoucherlocksholmes]

i think it’s ridiculous to expect people to make stuff for certain fandoms really consistently or to ask why they stopped making stuff for something because that’s just like, not a realistic approach to how liking things works, but since i haven’t posted any ace attorney since winter when i was playing apollo justice and i still love ace attorney, i do just kind of want to give my reasoning. there is of course the simple fact that there were other things i wanted to draw, of course, and draw them i did. but the reason there was a huge lull in ace attorney art?

i was trying to play dual destinies.

no joke. i tried to play all the games in chronological narrative order (trilogy -> aai/aai2 -> aa4 -> dd -> soj) and like. i adore the trilogy so so much, and aai was like... it had a lot of likeable elements but also a lot of problems and it dragged so hard. and then i got to aa4 and it was such a breath of fresh air returning to the good shu-takumi-directed proper ace attorney and finally meeting apollo and klavier and trucy and everyone else and i loved it.

and then i tried to play dual destinies.

guys, it’s so bad. people on here truly undersell how bad it is just because they like some of the characters (but in my opinion, i couldn’t even like, get attached to athena. i’m sorry. she’s somehow both severely overwritten and underwritten at the same time. you’d have to rework her so much to make her compelling and even then she and her story still wouldn’t fit into a sequel to aa4) but it is literally not at all worth it. i ended up dropping it a few months ago halfway through turnabout academy because i couldn’t take it anymore. and like, soj is apparently worse. the moment i made the decision to abandon it i felt better and started wanting to engage with aa again. like. god, dd is so bad.

anyway i’m now like halfway through professor layton v. phoenix wright: ace attorney and i recommend it SO SO MUCH. it’s such a blast it’s got a really strong story and excellent phoenix & maya characterisation and as always kazuya nuri’s art direction rocks and brings a really lovely cohesive and warm palette to the game (and like. the 3d models are SO much better than the ones in the yamazaki games it’s unreal. phoenix and maya look like themselves and are actually expressive and not disproportionate and not whitewashed either) and the puzzles are super fun (as are the layton characters but. i’m selling this to aa fans rn). it also introduces game mechanics that work really well but also serve as like protypes/the groundwork for mechanics for tgaac. it’s definitely longer than your standard aa game but in the good way, not in the “takeshi yamazaki can’t pace his narratives for shit and nobody in the dev team calls him out on it” way like is the case with aai2 and dd and that god forsaken final case of aai at the embassy.

be kind to yourselves and pick up plvpw and never ever touch dd or soj <3333 peace and love

[abysmal-eve]

honestly made the mistake of playing reina's character episode and watched in pure horror as kazuya got fucking washed and tag teamed by kuma's lame ass and reina. reina calling him a dog, kicking kazuya in the face, and also glazing the ever living shit out of heihachi who ruined kazuya's life - i know it's just reina's fantasy but all of it is still horrible to watch for me. hell even jin and victor look miserable and pissed off in her ending (not gonna lie i don't blame them).

⚠️ TEKKEN 8 SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

Oh, dear. Where do I even begin with this....

It was so painful to watch and I gagged when I saw that Kazuya has apparently died with his eyes open and that expression. I felt to bad for everyone who was forced to be under her servitude, even if it was purely her fantasy of an "ideal ending". It just shows how nasty and selfish she is in pursuing her plans and doesn't care what she has to do in order to achieve them, all of that perfectly masked under the cheerful moe persona she sets up initially.

And of course, Kuma is... Kuma. What else can I say there.

If they ever set her up as the main villain for the next game, I just know there will be some hardcore Heihachi apologism in the form of her trying to get revenge and Kazuya (and maybe even Jin).

Either way, it was so fucked up.

[nono-bunny]

I tried watching the 2009 K-drama of Boys Over Flowers, but unfortunately by the fourth episode I decided to drop it because it just felt like a bad attempt at recreating the 2005 J-drama while also attempting and failing to create a new backstory for Tsukushi. I tried to write a post about why exactly I didn't like it, actually, but I shelved it because honestly, it was difficult to put into words why everything about it felt so wrong, but like. It did, and I dropped it

Anyway, I went on to try the other HYD adaptation on Netflix, which is the 2018 Chinese Meteor Garden. Going into it, I mostly just knew it was gonna kinda write out the bullying thing, and also that apparently Yoko Kamio really likes that version in particular anyway? So like, I didn't really know what to expect... But ngl, I was not expecting to like and respect it as much as I do

First of all!!! It is undoubtedly the adaptation with the most true-to-manga version of events, which. While I actually really enjoy the weird timeline mashup of the J-drama, after reading the manga I definitely really did wish to see a version that didn't cut out Kazuya and Kinsan, among other things, but yeah honestly I just really wanted to see these two lmao

It also??? Does a fantastic job at creating new things (they might have been in the OG Meteor Garden but I didn't watch that so,,) and adapting to the weird censorship around the instigating events of the story in a way that's genuinely so fun, while also managing to find ways to keep the characterizations of the characters that very easily could've been lost when taking out the whole malicious and violent nature of the F4. It does GREAT character work in general!! Li Zhen being a Makiko-turned-Sakurako as opposed to just erasing Makiko (which I still find hilarious considering the manga literally acknowledges that) by introducing Sakurako in her place is such a unique and fantastic solution to get around the bullying again while giving her a new, sympathetic motivation that feels much more in tune with this less extravagant (as in, making it just slightly less about the class disparity lol) version of the story, and!! As much as I love Sakurako, I feel like I appreciate Li Zhen just as much for like,, losing herself over her jealousy, and coming out of the whole ordeal as a much more confident person who's able to be a better, more proactive friend. Their motives and backgrounds are different, but the results end up roughly the same, and! I'm fine with, heck, I actually rather like Li Zhen not being the cackling narcissistic love rival (as much as that's probably like, my favorite trope), it works well for the story and she's portrayed really well by her actress!

Also, as expected, I love Qinghe, he's my boy!!! God fr I simply do not understand why Kazuya is only a part of the Meteor Garden adaptations of the story, he's so fucking great and it's heartbreaking that he got taken out of most of the adaptations when you can see how much he adds to the dynamic. Like, fr, Kazuya and Tsukasa competing over fishing is so iconic, it's such a dumb, joyous thing they do, like, peak of what "boys will be boys" should be, and!!! As expected it's SUCH a fun thing to see adapted

Kazuya being the loveable loser comic relief added so fucking much to the manga, because like, fr, both of the versions that I've seen that cut him are infinitely more depressing to watch!! He's so important to preserving the emotional balance of the story, not to mention how much better the story feels when Tsukushi DOES have an actual, genuine friend that goes to Eitoku with her. J-drama Tsukushi hangs out with Yuki and Okami A LOT to make up for the lack of any supportive people in her school life outside of F4, and without Kazuya around, ultimately, Tsukushi is definitely less close to the F4 than she is in the manga where his hijinks allow them to genuinely become friends, and the K-drama just didn't have any fun(ny) characters to replace him and it made it so difficult to watch!!! But Qinghe is such a bro, he's just as fun as I expected him to be if not *more*, and! Him being included makes such a huge positive difference

So far, the K-drama is obviously my least favorite adaptation, but I'm genuinely having trouble deciding whether I like the Japanese or Chinese one better, because both offer very different things and I actually love both!! The Japanese version is definitely like,,, the easier version for me to connect to, just because I already know the character names, and the jokes and most of the plot is consistent with the tone of the manga because it's the same setting (my very basic knowledge of Japanese definitely helps too lmao), but. The Chinese version is more fun to watch by virtue of being less depressing (fr, Kazuya makes ALL the difference), which also in a way makes it easy to get invested in it

Overall I'm actually very happy with what I've seen from Meteor Garden so far (I'm about halfway through it rn), and it's great to have another version of the story to cycle through because HYD has very quickly become one of my comfort media

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (11/06/23)

as usual the * means I don't talk about it under the cut EDIT: ST☆R was late, but to not have to reedit this pic just pretend it has a * too

Anime

Megumin Ep10

we're getting closer and closer now to when megumin joins the party in konosuba, there was a scene in the last episode that coincided with the start of the show and there were a buncha cameos from kazuma, aqua and even darkness in this one. but anyway, the closer it gets the less I care about this show since it's stopping to be a spin off, like I said before it coulda've ended on like ep 5 or 6 and it would've been better than with all these additional eps after that but I'll save most of my bitching for the final ep. only 2 more so not dropping it now obviously

Imas CG: U149 Ep9

another great ep as usual, from the meeting with producer at the start of the ep I figured that they would get a live or something, and that was confirmed, in the form of an original song, at the end. considering we have 3 episodes left but the only girl without and episode is arisu my prediction is that next episode is gonna start with producer telling them about the song, and center on the process of making it and stuff, at the end of the ep they'll learn they'll finally get to do a live concert like they've been wanting too and arisu is gonna get another bout of self doubt. then on episode 11 it'll be her episode and she'll overcome it, for ep12 to be the big finale with the concert

Mashle Ep9

a nice episode, I said next week I had some hope for sakuga in the mash vs razor fight but guess I expected too much.. same old bare minimum animation sadly. was discussing with mega what the next eps are gonna cover and what'd be a good stopping point and things aren't lining up as expected to reach a good stopping point. prob gonna be a split cour announced at the end but we'll see

Pokemon Horizons Ep10

IT'S THE NEMONA EP BABY LET'S GOOOOO good ep anyway, but nemona made it all the better, kitamura eri did a really good job, tho let's not discount nakai kazuya's (zoro) performance tho, he was really good. anyway, this episode felt the most like the old anime, the cast got to a new town, found the gym leader, resolved whatever problem was stopping them from fighting them and fought them. not a bad thing necessarily but I just hope it doesn't become the norm with roy being ash 2

Jigokuraku Ep10

just like I said last week this episode was where they explain tao, not fully yet (with the elements and all that), that'll prob come on the last episode. good ep even if it was mostly exposition I already knew, I was really settling into it when the cliffhanger hit so I guess that means it was very well paced. the way they changed the perspective to between the various groups while they were all explaining the same thing but in different ways was good and helped make the exposition feel more fluid and less like a lecture would feel, ofc it was like that in the manga too but still

Manga

Blooming Love Ch6

cute chap, I figured she'd get to the date in time with grandpa taking over the work but it also went worse than I thought, well "worse" I just expected it to be more on the cute side than comedic. anyway now that we've had the week break I can say that I'm not sure about this series being published every other week. while it's certainly moving at light speed compared to the average romance I'm not sure if the pacing is gonna work with this schedule but we'll see

Dandadan Ch109

well I certainly didn't expect mr shrimp to get a chapter just for himself but it wasn't bad. I know it's basically just buying time to make okarun show up but it did it a lot better than mashle since shrimp has been here since the start of the fight and actively participating in it

Kaiju 8 Ch87

very cool chap, I was hoping to see narumi fight a bit more but it was still good, the final page and the big panel with #1 looked really good and I was surprised by the colour page outta nowhere at the start. I'm assuming the next fight is gonna be hoshina, it's the one that makes the most sense to me but I also just wanna see him fight again

Tokyo Underworld Ch43

??? what? they literally showed the doctor being the impostor before so them trying to make it seem like he isn't now is very weird. I guess they could be like "oh the real impostor is an executioner that can take the appearance of others and they took the dr's" and that's what they're fighting in the basement but...would be still be very weird since there was no hint whatsoever that that could a possibility

Fabricant 100 Ch25

I'm sorry to tell you brother but you ain't got time for that you're gonna get axed. also I was under the impression #100 had left with #1 at the end of the next chap but she was still here in this one, went to check and sure enough she didn't leave in the last chap either, guess it's just bad paneling since it gave both me and mega that impression. but anyway, what's the point of her betraying the good guys by leatting #1 leave when she's gonna stay and fight him again in the future anyway??? very bad writing

Nue's Exorcist Ch5

terrible chap, I don't get what the author is trying to do honestly. it felt really random and disjointed, they just aren't cut out for a weekly serialization at the moment I'm afraid

Kill Blue Ch8

not a bad chap, fujimaki coming up with a way to mix action with the fake dating plot by making it so people will be challenging ogami for duels to try to "win" noren. I thought them showing the pen so much at the start had to have some relevancy later but it happened right away on this chap. anyway, even if it's a bit weird I do like this development, maybe becoming a bit more actiony will help the series

Do Retry Ch6

another good chap, this panel under here was especially impressive, it'd look even better in the magazine because of where the spine division would be, making the effect of the arm suddenly popping out like that even better. the series is doing alright in ratings too (middle of the pack) so prob safe to assume it's gonna escape the U19 club

Witch Watch Ch112

after what happened with them kinda failing to make moi act on his feeling I thought we wouldn't be getting something like this soon but I guess I was wrong. next chap (or most likely the one after) we should be getting nico ACTUALLY confessing to moi. tho considering how recent the moi stuff was there's no way something isn't gonna make it go wrong

Blue Box Ch104

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IT WAS EVEN BETTER THAN I EXPECTED LET'S GOOOOOOO god what an incredibly good chapter, makes one worried it might end soon since IT has finally happen but I really hope not, there's a lot more things on the magazine that could and should end before bb

Spy x Family Ch82

good chap, for once things aren't going swimmingly for twilight. I also really like the final panel since it works either for the yor panel that preceded it or the gunshot in the page before that. I'm gonna assume that yuri did manage to land the shot but he's gonna escape but be wounded, leading yuri to have even more suspicions about him

Cipher Academy Ch27

another good chap as usual, really liked all the jojo references too. also that one page with the girl talking with her text flipped vertically was VERY nisio, reminiscent of the maniwa speaking backwards in katanagatari

Tenmaku Cinema Ch9

you know I actually never expected himeki to take hajime to one of her shoots but it makes total sense, it's kinda like a training arc. another good chap with a p good cliffhanger

Undead Unluck Ch162

when everyone jumped in to fight shen I was worried we were gonna skip the whole tournament and just have the final fight now but seems that's not the case. very good cause I'm a whore for good tournaments so I'm p pogged up for this

Mashle Ch159

good chap, poor I0 is suffering the same fate as diavolo but self inflicted instead. mash interrupting his tragic backstory was very funny too. supposedly next chap is gonna have a colour page for the end of the final fight, leaving a couple more chaps til the finale as predicted.

Sakamoto Days Ch122

p chill chap just setting up the next arc, teasing the future baddies and having the crew travel, a necessary type of chap sometimes. the scene at the end was funny tho

The Elusive Samurai Ch113

what the hell I expected this chap to be kusunoki getting crushed quickly but it was really cool, really showing off just how powerful he actually was before he gets killed off. very good chap

Akane-banashi Ch65

very good chap, considering kaichi got a 91 score I'm expecting hikaru to get like around a 96. like I said before I don't think akane is gonna win this competition so she's either gonna get a 93 just so she can beat kaichi too or around like 87 and have her lose to kaichi too. we'll see tho, I'd love to see her win obviously, especially since she's doing her dad's story of all things but my gut is just telling me that isn't gonna happen

[stingslikeabee]

Daigo didn't have nightmares often ( not anymore, not since he married the love of his life ) ; perhaps, that was why he woke up so violently from this. The former Chairman untangled himself from the blankets and his wife almost desperately, sat up, and inhaled deeply. His head spun for a few moments more. It felt clouded, and the sudden shift made him dizzy. Daigo puffed out another few breaths.

After his shock had begun to subside, the ex - yakuza leaned over Melissa. A coarse hand landed on her hip, and he kissed the curve of her shoulder. "I'm sorry," came those first slurred words, a half - apology whispered into her soft skin.

"That was the strangest . . . " Daigo paused, gaze flicking to her beautiful eyes. His silver hair practically glowed in the dimly lit room. "I was younger, I think, but I was . . . a fisherman. Somewhere cold. My body ached, and all I could smell was the sea. I thought I saw my uncles briefly, but that was it. No you, no kids."

Daigo's brow furrowed. "Damn, that was lonely," he murmured. A little sigh followed. "It was like I went from Chairman to fisherman, with no life in between. Like you didn't exist. I think I hated it."

The ex - yakuza chuckled and patted Melissa's hip affectionately. "Don't tell our pesky teenagers. If they found out their father woke up in terror over missing them, I would never hear the end of it." Another kiss, followed by another, and these Daigo took his time with. Losing his precious family, even in a dream, seemed to have disturbed him greatly.

unscripted asks . always accepting

It was the sudden, unexpected movement that woke Melissa up - during the first few years together, the ex-hostess was introduced to the difficulties he had while sleeping, which got worse during certain times of the year (Mine's death was always a complicated period, and it pained the brunette that there was just so much she could do to soothe his guilt).

But time healed most spiritual wounds - or at least made them ache less; Daigo had improved, and lately the pain or discomfort from old physical scars was worse than the mental ones. Melissa, however, recognized the signs - and waited until he had recovered enough to talk or to explain, knowing that not pressuring the ex-chairman was always the best way out of these unpleasant experiences.

The kiss and the hold did wonders to subdue her own anxiety that something too dire had happened; but as Daigo started to talk and Melissa shifted in bed to better look at him, her own eyes mirrored some bewilderment at the tale he was narrating. Oh well - that was unexpected. No shootings from the tower she had hated the most in all of Kamurocho, no dear friends jumping to their deaths or even the loss of a father figure of sorts.

Just a fisherman's life, somewhere cold and miserable from the looks of it. Furrowing her brows, Melissa eventually eased into playful humor when Daigo kissed his wife, making the commentary about their children probably thinking it was not even enough of the title 'nightmare'. But still - the former hostess suppressed a miniature shiver at the idea of the life he described. If she didn't exist in the ex-yakuza's life, then surely her own fate would have been different... And much worse.

She had experienced it briefly while Daigo was in hiding; but an entire lifetime without him, sans their beautiful children and shared dreams was indeed terrifying, as much as Hikari would roll her eyes and Kazuya would just watch the entire thing with silent amusement. Melissa was quick to file these ideas away, however - it was just a bad dream. They were fine, healthy and happy.

The warmth of the kiss spread to her body, and the brunette allowed her hands to travel over his muscular frame for a moment, eventually settling on moonlight-kissed hair due to his age. Stroking his tresses gently, Melissa had at least some humor in terms of a comeback, knowing that Daigo just needed to relax again to fall asleep once more.

"I'm pretty sure I would have found you, one way or another," the woman murmured, pressing their noses together and nuzzling him affectionately, "Maybe in a world where you turned into a fisherman, I could have been a mermaid. I would roam the seas to find you again, Dojima Daigo - I promise you."

[yuzuna123]

also poor kazuya getting washed by both reina and kuma in reina's ending and being called a damn dog wtf i hate her.

I felt so bad for Kazuya in that ending he didn't deserve it 😭😭

[flclarchives]

Amusing Himself to Death, an Akadot.com interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of FLCL and assistant director of Evangelion) from around December 2001. In the article, Tsurumaki explains a few things about Evangelion, his mentality behind FLCL as a whole, and the meaning of the name ‘FLCL’.

Full article text is under the cut, or read the article in its original form [here].

Kazuya Tsurumaki was a relatively little-known animator when Hideki Anno selected him to work as the assistant director on Neon Genesis Evangelion. For the TV series, which became a smash hit in Japan and one of the touchstones of the current surge of interest in anime in the US, Tsuramaki served as the main storyboard artist as well as assistant director, and when Studio Gainax began production on a trio of Evangelion films Tsurumaki got his first directorial assignment.

As he tells the story, Anno came to him after Eva and announced that he was out of ideas and that it was up to Tsurumaki to dream up the next project because, "you are next." Tsurumaki let his imagination run wild, but by the time he had written a script, Anno - despite his declaration that he had no stories left to tell - was already several steps ahead of Tsurumaki and in pre-production for his next series, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, leaving Tsurumaki a chance to have complete and unsupervised creative control of his own series FLCL.

FLCL, referred to as "Fooly Cooly" (or "Furikuri" by its American fans), is unlike any anime series to come before it. Wild, maniacally fast-paced physical comedy; exaggerated, exuberant animation alternately pushing towards surrealist- as when mecha exuviate from a bump on young Naota's head - and deconstructionist - as when the animation literally stops and the story is told by a camera bouncing across a page of black and white manga art panels; and obsessively, often irrelevantly, referential to obscure Tokyo-pop bands and anime insider trivia; FLCL was hyperkinetic and disorienting, yet mesmerizing, almost transgressive, and undeniably original. It inspired enthusiastic admiration for Tsurumaki as a creator, even amongst the perhaps 90% of the series' fans who were absolutely baffled by much of it. One is tempted to refer to it as announcing the arrival of full blown post-modernism in animation, or perhaps as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable of the anime industry.

When Tsurumaki visited Baltimore to speak to American fans at the recent Otokon Convention, predictably, many of the questions were along the lines of, "Hi, I really loved FLCL [or Evangelion], but could you please explain this part of it to me?"

Tsurumaki answered all questions genially with a self-deprecating and often mischievous sense of humor. For example:

Why does Haruko hit Naota over the head with her guitar?

Kazuya Tsurumaki: Naota is trying to be a normal adult and she belts him to make him rethink his decision.

Why does Evangelion end violently, and somewhat unhappily?

KT: People are accustomed to sweet, contrived, happy endings. We wanted to broaden the genre, and show people an ugly, unhappy ending.

Why is the character of Shinji portrayed as he is?

KT: Shinji was modeled on director Hideki Anno. Shinji was summoned by his father to ride a robot, Anno was summoned by Gainax to direct an animation. Working on Nadia [Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, one of Anno and Tsurumaki's earlier projects] he wondered if he still wanted to work like this. He thought that working on Eva could help him to change.

Is there any particular reason why so many Gainax series feature very anxious, unhappy young male protagonists with no parents?

KT: Yes, the directors at Gainax are all basically weak, insecure, bitter, young men. So are many anime fans. Many Japanese families, including my own, have workaholic fathers whose kids never get to see them. That may influence the shows I create.

Could you explain the mecha bursting from Naota's head in FLCL?

KT: I use a giant robot being created from the brain to represent FLCL coming from my brain. The robot ravages the town around him, and the more intensely I worked on FLCL the more I destroyed the peaceful atmosphere of Gainax.

Why doesn't FLCL follow one story?

KT: In the third episode Ninamori was almost a main character, a kid who, like Naota, has to act like an adult.  After episode three her problem was solved so we wrote her out.  She has many fans in Japan and we got plenty of letters about that decision.  For FLCL I wanted to portray the entire history of Gainax, and each episode has symbols of what happened behind the scenes on each of Gainax's shows.   Episode one has many elements of Karekano; episode two, a lot of Evangelion references, etc.

Where does the title FLCL come from?

KT: I got the idea from a CD in a music magazine with the title Fooly-Cooly.  I like the idea of titles that are shortened long English words. Pokémon for "Pocket-Monsters" for instance, and an old J-pop band called Brilliant Green that was known as "Brilly-Grilly."

Is there any reason why the extra scenes added to Eva for the video release were cut in the first place?  Did you think the story would mean something different with them intact?

KT: The scenes that were added to Eva for its video release aren't that important.  We added them as an apology for taking so long to get the video out.  Maybe they'll help people understand things, because the episodes were done under tough deadlines the first time around.

Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?

KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us.   Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious.  None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians.  There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool.  If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.

After the panel, Mr. Tsurumaki sat down to speak with Akadot.

Do you enjoy confusing people?

KT: I have a twisted sense of humor.  I'm an Omanu Jacku, a contrarian.  [Writer's note- Omanu Jacku is a folk character a bit like Puck, a mischief maker]

What do you see differently now that you're working as a director rather than only as a visual artist?

KT: As an animator I have only the art; as a director story is really big.  I still feel as an animator and I often have trouble putting the needs of the story first.

Did you intend from the start for FLCL to be as bizarre as it wound up?

KT: From the very start I wanted a different flavor.  To achieve this I had to re-train the animators to be as stylized as I wanted them to be because I wasn't drawing it.  I knew that not everyone would get it.  I deliberately selected very obscure J-pop culture and anime sub-culture jokes and references.  Because Eva was so somber I always intended to make FLCL outrageous and wacky.

Why the choice to break out of conventional animation and use manga pages? Was it at all a response to how many anime are using computers to achieve smoother and more realistic visuals?  Were you trying to go the opposite direction?

KT: I like manga, not only to read, but the visuals.  The pen drawings, the frame breakdowns and layouts . . . This is the first time I have used digital animation, and those bouncing manga shots wouldn't have been possible with cel animation.   Personally I'm not interested at all in using computers for realistic animation.  I'm impressed by it sometimes, but I'm interested in using computers to do what was once impossible, not to do smoother versions of what has already been done.  I want to be less realistic.

Has using digital animation techniques changed the way you work, or the way you feel about your work when you see it?  Does it still feel like it's yours if a computer did much of it?

KT: Before I got into digital animation I saw other shows that were using it and I felt that there was no feeling, it was empty.   As an animator, there's a sense of release when you draw a cel.  There's something there.  Working on FLCL, though, I learned that computers can do more, and, most of all, that they allow room for trial and error and revising, more freedom to experiment.  That is why I now feel that cel art cannot win against computers.  For actual animation everything is still drawn on paper.  That work hasn't changed.  It's the other stuff, the touchups, and coloring.  If we didn't use paper, maybe the feeling would change.

Earlier today you said that you were trying to broaden the genre by giving Eva a sad ending.  Does the sameness of much of today's anime bore you?

KT: First of all we didn't use a sad ending to annoy fans.  When they're upset, that really bothers us.  Personally, I think a happy ending is fine, but not if it is achieved too easily.  That's no good.

For all the fans that are confused at all, if you had to define in one sentence what FLCL is about, what would you say?

KT: FLCL is the story of boy meets girl.  For me it is also about how it's ok to feel stupid.  With Evangelion there was this feeling that you had better be smart to understand it, or even just to work on it. With FLCL I want to say that it's okay to feel stupid.

Even though it may be strange to us, do you have in your head a logic behind it?  Are you trying to portray a story that follows the logic of dreams, or is it supposed to make sense symbolically?

KT: I'd like you to think of FLCL as imagination being made physical and tangible, just as it is for me when I take whatever is in my head and draw it.

So what are you working on next?

KT: Right now Gainax has told me that they'll support anything I choose to create, but I'm having trouble coming up with any ideas.

Why is that?

KT: Releasing titles for market, I know I have to make something to please fans, but I'm not a mature enough person to accept that fact.  If I'm not amusing myself I can't do it.  I feel bad that fans have to put up with such behavior from me.  I apologize. 

[robinofinashiro]

- request from anonymous: “i’ve seen scenarios about miyuki leaving the reader but could i have a req for maybe narumiya making the reader leave and she somehow ends up at seidou and with miyuki and narumiya finds out?” 

- request status: open

- pairing: ex narumiya mei, miyuki kazuya x fem! reader

your eyes widened, not believing what you were seeing. 

you and Narumiya hadn’t seen each other in what felt like weeks. you both had been so busy with your individual schedules that it felt hard to make time for each other. 

you wondered how many ‘practices’ Narumiya had made up seeing as though he had his arm around another girl at a cafe. he was flirting up a storm as the girl sat with a deep crimson blush spread across her face. 

you couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief as you walked into the cafe. you had a plan conjured up in your head that you knew would make a scene in front of the cafe but frankly, you were feeling too upset to even care on how that made you look. it was the only thing that ran through your mind at the moment. 

you walked into the cafe and made sure that Narumiya didn’t see your face. you quietly asked for a iced americano and waited patiently until you got your drink. as you waited for your drink, you made conversation with one of the barista’s, apologizing to her advance. 

she handed you the iced coffee as you thanked her and walked up to the table where the girl and Narumiya were sitting at. his eyes instantly widened as the girl looked up at your mortified. 

“Mei, I thought you had practice today with Carlos and Shirakawa?” you asked him, your tone hinting at sarcasm. you could tell Narumiya was struggling for words as you felt the other patrons looking at the scene unfolding, “or did you make that up so you could go on a date?” you asked again, this time clutching your coffee with a iron grip. 

the girl tried to get up from the chair as you shook your finger no, “oh no, you both have me several different types of fucked up if you think either of you are getting out of this,” with that, you uncapped the coffee before pouring it over the two of them. 

the entire cafe looked at the three of you, eyes widened and mouths almost on the floor. you gave them a look as they both couldn’t believe what was happening. 

you bent to Narumiya’s level before staring at him in the eyes, “the next time you want to go out on dates with another girl, make sure to have enough respect to actually break up with me instead of cheating,” you spoke before looking to the girl, “and if you plan on continuing to see him, remember this lesson when he starts getting ‘random’ practices everyday.” 

standing up, you dusted yourself off before giving one last apology to the baristas before leaving. you could sense that Narumiya was planning on chasing you down but you decided on taking a turn into a random crowded alley to lose him. 

+

word had gotten around Inashiro about the dramatic break up between Inashiro’s ace and his girlfriend. you had walked into Inashiro the following day with your head held high as your friends immediately crowded around you to hear the full story. 

“wait so you went up to them, dumped iced coffee all over them, and left?” you nodded, not bothering to play into the drama by continuing to make the situation worse, “yeah. that’s what the ace of Inashiro gets when he decides it’s okay to cheat on his girlfriend of two years.”

they could tell that you were getting more and more annoyed by the constant questions they kept asking. you eventually left them by walking to your homeroom which you immediately got stopped by teacher and a few faculty members. 

“we’d like to speak with you regarding the events of your last rally performance,” your teacher said. you gave her a confused nod before following the few teachers and faculty into conference room, “so our school is doing an exchange program with Seidou and their rally team,” they started off. 

you were beyond confused on what they meant by exchange program but continued to listen, “for the next few months, we want you to attend Seidou for their rally team. you wouldn’t be doing a complete transfer as you would still be graduating with Inashiro at the end of your third year, however; you would be attending school there until the end of the year,” they explained. 

“wait so you want me to compete against Inashiro by attending Seidou but still belonging to Inashiro?” you asked in complete confusion. they chuckled as they hesitantly agreed, “well when you put it in those terms, yes, that’s what we want you to do. you don’t have too but however it would look good on transcripts if you plan on attending university,” they mentioned. 

your fingers tapped on the table as you thought for a moment. the idea did not sound bad as you figured this could have been a way to get you away from the drama that was infested Inashiro. 

“what about my parents? have they been notified?” you asked them. they nodded, “they said it was ultimately your decision. the distance between Seidou and Inashiro is relatively the same so it would be a matter of you just saying yes and no to the decision.” 

you sat on the offer for a few moments before looking to the Seidou faculty and smiling, “call me an honorary Seidou student,” you told them with a laugh at the end of your response. 

they smiled as they gave you a firm handshake, “we’ll be expecting you at Seidou soon,” they said before handing you a few things. once the Seidou faculty left, you remained speaking to the Inashiro faculty as they informed you on a few more things. 

the rest of the day consisted of you going around to your other teachers and explaining the situation before going to your rally team and saying how they were going to get an impromptu captain for the next several months while you stayed at Seidou. 

while you still had another day at Inashiro, you managed to convince your mom to let you stay home so you could ‘mentally’ prepare yourself. while you were planning on doing that, in reality, you just wanted to sleep in for a day. 

-

the following morning, you took out the Seidou uniform and put it on slowly. it felt odd not wearing Inashiro’s colors for the first time but you had to give it to Seidou, they made really cute uniforms. 

you applied very light makeup before going downstairs to make yourself coffee and heading to the bus. you were taking another bus that went to the other end of the town and a part of you felt flutters in your stomach. 

once the bus stopped for all Seidou students to get dropped off, you took the map out of your bag as you tried to find your way to the main office. a few students were surprised at the new face but you couldn’t bask in the new attention as you had made it to the principals office. 

“ good morning ( your name ),” he said with a warm smile, “welcome to your new home for the next six months,” he continued as he showed you out the door to show you the school. 

a few students waved at you as you finally got to the baseball field. you could see the team practicing and you couldn’t help but laugh. you knew them way too well. being Narumiya’s girlfriend for 24 months had you hearing about the infamous Seidou High School Baseball team and because Narumiya and Miyuki had a history, you knew more than most people did about him.

they didn’t pay attention to you but you couldn’t help and stare at their catcher. while you were dating Narumiya, you had never given the others a good look but not looking back on it, you couldn’t lie, some of them were very attractive, their catcher included. 

you made your way back to your homeroom class and sat at your desk, making small talk with your desk partners. you hadn’t bothered to see you kept walking in and out of the class until you realized Seidou’s cute catcher happened to be in your class. 

he sat in front of you and while you would have never done this while you attended Inashiro, you tapped the brown haired boys shoulder and smiled. 

“hi, i’m ( your name ), i’m a transfer from Seidou,” you said. he laughed as he shook your hand, “transfer from Inashiro? interesting,” he said as he turned himself around to face you. 

+

a few months had passed as you got more and more comfortable with being at Seidou and getting unintentionally closer with Miyuki. 

the two of you had been discreetly hanging out with each other after both of your practices and had ‘study’ dates whenever the two of you were struggling in a particular class. 

you had Miyuki about your past with Narumiya a few weeks into informally dating him. you knew that because they used to be so close with each other, you would have felt weird not telling him your past with the blond. 

Miyuki had laughed off your revenge but a part of him wanted to god honestly strangle Narumiya for doing that to you. friendship aside, Miyuki he had to make sure that you knew you weren’t going to be pushed aside like Narumiya did to you. 

he knew his relationship skills lacked severely but you weren’t too upset on the idea of teaching him the ropes. Miyuki knew that he would eventually get the hang of it but until then, he liked holding your hand and receiving small pecks in private. 

Seidou and Inashiro were going to have a scrimmage game right before the start of the season and you knew you were going to end up seeing Narumiya at some point during the same. 

you had told a few of Miyuki’s teammates about your situation and Kuramochi more than anyone was willing to devise a plan to make Narumiya get into a soured mood. you wanted to deny but eventually, Sawamura found out and unintentionally dragged Furuya and Haruichi into the plan. 

you were wearing the Seidou girls rally uniform which consisted of a white athletic long sleeve and a uniform that looked eerily similar to the Seidou cheer team. 

Kuramochi and Sawamura met up with you as they both wrapped their arms around your shoulder, “what are the two of you planning?” you groaned into your hands as Kuramochi gave you his infamous laugh, “don’t worry about it, now lets go find your boyfriend.” 

you nodded as you met up with Miyuki in the teams dugout. you knew the opposing team walked out of the same dugout to get to theirs but the hallway seemed relatively quiet. 

“hey,” you said giving Miyuki a smile as he returned it. you looked up at the clock realizing you didn’t have much time left before you had to go to the front row section that was reserved for the rally team, “I have to go soon before my club kills me,” you informed the boys. 

they laughed as all of you walked out of the hallway and they said they were going to walk you to the section. just as you turned the corner, you nearly ran into Narumiya and a few of the boys. 

you felt your heart race as Miyuki stared at his old friend, “Narumiya,” he stated, grabbing your hand immediately. Narumiya looked at you and Miyuki as his eyes widened at the gesture. 

“are the two of you?” he asked pointing at your hands. Kuramochi laughed manically, “dating? yeah! thanks to us!” he boasted as Sawamura agreed. Narumiya couldn’t help but feel his words get stuck in his throat. 

“Kazuya, I have to get going before I’m late!” you whined as he nodded. the two boys exchanged a few competitive words before Miyuki waved his friend off. Narumiya on the other hand reached out to you but Miyuki caught his hand, “don’t even think about it. don’t want to injure yourself before the start of the game or the season, right?” he said in his evil tone of voice. 

you couldn’t help but laugh as Miyuki pulled you into his side and pushed you in front of the team as Narumiya’s mouth dropped in surprise. he had no idea the two of you were dating and had never seen such a possessive side to Miyuki before. 

[demonsfate]

the tek fandom FEELS small... but i think it’s actually cited as the third best selling fighting game franchise...

even beating SF (albeit just by a little) but i think the issue is, despite the how the fanbase feels, all the tekken adaptations are... bad. like i can understand tekken fans loving them because they love the series (altho even myself as one - i can still see the adaptations are bad, i still didn’t enjoy the anime.) but people who aren’t tekken fans will not enjoy these and i will explain why as quickly as i can. and imo, adaptations shouldn’t just be made for the fans only, but to also reel in new, potential fans.

anyway why the adaptations fail imo:

bloodline: it’s an awfully paced anime - with them taking their sweet time with jin’s backstory for two episodes, making it feel like it’s dragging - then for the remaining 4 episodes, they don’t have much time to focus on the TOURNAMENT ITSELF, meaning the tournament feels extremely rushed and there’s fights and fighters that don’t even get to be seen on screen. also characterization weren’t completely faithful to the original which isn’t always a bad thing but in this case, it did make some characters feel more generic than their game counterparts. also a lot of things felt exposition-y, had a lot of telling when they could’ve been showing - thus many mysteries were given away right at the start, when it could’ve been fleshed out to keep the viewer’s attention. most non tekken fans will get bored with it after the first episode or two, and just move on to a better, more original action anime.

blood vengeance: has the same issue of pacing with bloodline, except even worse. like it drags on unbearably slow - just two cute anime girls doing... stuff, but not even in an interesting or quirky way as slice of life animes can do. it feels like the movie forgets it’s based off a fighting game as, throughout most of it, there’s barely any fighting except for the very end which features an over the top fighting sequence that just makes you roll your eyes by how ridiculous it is. and the problem is with the final fight is that - throughout the entire movie, you barely get to see jin, kazuya, and heihachi - therefore, when the movie suddenly focuses on them in final arc, and you do see them fight, you... don’t care because you didn’t get to know their characters and motives in the movie, therefore why should you care about these three fighting? who are you even supposed to root for, or care who wins? also shin, the OC character for it, was very confusing and felt very unnecessary.

the motion picture/OVA is one of the better adaptations imo, based on the first and technically second game, so barely any jin. but like, while it still had very bizarre dialogue, and plot points (literally jun tells kazuya that he can kill her if it means he doesn’t go to the bad side by killing his father even though killing jun means he takes a life and then gives into his anger/devil gene anyway??? like WUT???) but unlike bloodline, it’s just 40 mins - so you don’t have to waste too much time with it, it also does better explain backstories unlike bloodline claimed to do but never did (such as why kazuya and jun actually love each other - as they were childhood friends.) and unlike blood vengeance, it has a lot of mindless action - so at least it doesn’t bore you as much.

the 2010 movie has to be the most enjoyable - but not even as a tekken adaptation because as a tekken adaptation, it’s fucking awful. but in terms of movie, at least it does have a consistent plot, and the pacing is decent. i never recall it putting me to sleep like bloodline and blood vengeance did. and plus it had lots of action, too - which again, can keep your interest without feeling incredibly boring. but the thing is - it’s a bit,,, disconnected from the games, they basically had their own takes on the characters and story that fans of tekken are displeased by it. meanwhile, most non tekken fans would probably just rather watch another, better action movie over it. because while i said it’s a decent watch, there are certainly better action movies you can waste your time with. i thought the original first mortal kombat was better.

the problem is as you can see; despite the fact i think tekken can make for a very interesting story given it’s long history of lore, and how complex it can be. i also really enjoy the characters a lot, i think tekken has one of the best cast of characters for a fighting game. but for some reason, all the writers they get for adaptations are just... incompetent. they don’t know how to pace a story, they don’t know how to do characterization right, hell - they often don’t understand the characters they’re writing. or they make the fatal mistake of just assuming only fans are watching it - and thus gloss over actual important plot details, or know how to make these plot details actually interesting. if they could get an actual good writer for a tekken adaptation, i feel it could be a success.

[butwhatifidothis]

Want parallels, there's Namco with Ace Combat and Tekken. AC had a princess declare war believing her country was wronged. She was manipulated however, but she still felt guilty for stoking the fires of war and spent the last act of the game putting herself in danger to help others for atonement. Tekken had Jin (Kazuya's son, Smash fans) DECLARE war as an end to justify means, to awaken an ancient evil and kill it. It was for nothing and added more self-loathing to himself. Notice how they react

They did a bad thing regardless of reasons or excuses. And they themselves acknowledge the actions and results. Which I can't say the same to Edelgard von turn myself into a monster to win (and Jin HATES the Devil Gene unlike his father. He not only tries to reject it, which comes as a corruption, but he unlearned the Mishima fighting style to DISTANCES himself from the, well Mishima family)

And like!! Edelgard’s a villain who has no want to redeem herself! She doesn’t feel as though she has to! And that’s fine!! A villain doesn’t need redemption! But you just see so many people try to write as this regretful character who wants to make up for all the death she’s caused when she herself literally says she doesn’t regret anything she’s done, and she just doesn’t really care for all the death she’s caused because, in her mind, they bring her closer to want she wants. Edelgard doesn’t need redemption, she needs to be written as the character she is (unless you go out of your write to justify her wanting redemption in a fanfiction AU, which is a heavy task).