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#i have so many tsukkomi for all of these
banqanas · 11 months
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Sato Taiki Daily Q&A #3
Taiki has started doing a daily Q&A session in his blog, where he will try to answer 20 questions everyday. I will be sharing some that I find interesting.
Q: If you are a FANTARO, which song would you recommend to a friend who doesn’t know FANTASTICS yet? Taiki: If I can show them the MV, it’s “High Fever”. If I want to recommend them something to listen to, “It’s all good”
youtube
It's all good translations
Q: If you were to compare Fanta members with animals, what would they be? I’ll be elated if you can answer! Taiki:
Yuu -> Lion Sota -> Panda Keto -> Squirrel Nacchan -> Goat Leiya -> Monkey Sawa -> Sloth Sekai-san -> Camel Shota -> Hippo
Q: What were some of your favourite games to play as a toddler, Taiki-kun? I will be using it as a reference in my work 🙇 Taiki: While everyone was outside playing together, I was inside the class flirting with my first love, My kindergarten teacher.
Q: If you were to be reborn as one of the characters you’ve played so far, whose life would you most like to live in? Taiki: Ooh! This is a good question! The only one I’d choose is Chiharu’s. My life would always be full of thrills!
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Check out the rest here!
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bonyato · 1 year
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Is this anything.
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kageyama-ritsu · 2 years
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idk theres something about makotos overarching character arc being that he basically decided to devote his whole self into doing something he loves (being an idol and being part of trickstar) and sticking with it even when it consistently drags him outside of his comfort zone
parallels with his modelling career where he was also repeatedly pulled outside of his comfort zone, but in ways where he was being taken advantage of, where it was done to the detriment of his own self, something he wished he could escape from but circumstances prevented him from doing so until he reached a breaking point and physically could not continue anymore.
now he's constantly being pushed to do things like take charge, assert himself, and gain self-confidence, even when he doesn't quite feel comfortable in doing so. he fights back when he doesn't think he's being valued as a human being with his own desires and wants. every time he's pushed out of his comfort zone, it's for his own benefit - and even if it isn't, he finds a way to put a positive spin on it. and most importantly (to me anyways), he does this all while pursuing his dream of becoming an idol, something that doesn't come as naturally to him as modelling did, something he still feels inadequate about and is unsure he even has the talent for. but he works his ass off to be an idol despite the fact that he can quit anytime BECAUSE he loves the new path he's chosen so much
#ensemble stars#makoto yuuki#after the trauma his modelling career left him with he could have tried his best to just live a normal life#or stayed a hikkikomori forever. i dont think many people wouldhave blamed him#but instead he decided to risk it all and place himself back in the spotlight again#originally just as a way to create a completely brand new and fresh start to his life#but eventually gaining the courage and confidence to literally face his past (cameras) and make something good of it#i think many makoto enjoyers would describe him as 'ruthless' or 'pragmatic' which is admittedly a rather confusing descriptor#for those who havent pored over his stories#but its a very different sort of pragmatism from the usual that someone like. say ibara or eichi would embody in some ways#because it's more... hmm... reactionary? defensive?#the goal of his pragmatism is not to brutally force his opponents out of the way#but as a way to push himself and those he cares about forwards no matter what stands in their way#an example of this is the fact that he uses a sort of easygoing and klutzy persona on the stage#to smooth over the mistakes and relative lack of talent he had compared to the other three#and basically incorpoate his mistakes into his appeal#he does it so well that i think a lot of enstars fans legitimately have the misconception that makoto is just a silly little guy#yes hes part of the idiot combi but he's the tsukkomi. yes hes a silly guy but he can be as serious as they come when the chips are down#this is the guy who literally had to be locked in a room for a week tostop him from going back to trickstar#this is the guy who was willing to sacrifice what he thought of back then as his only redeeming quality (his looks)#in order to be an idol in the unit he loves!!!#when im out of catching up on work hell and can writemy 10k+ word makoto dissertation its fucking over for you all
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mirai-e-jump · 1 year
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TV Guide & TV Station Magazine (Kansai Editions) ft. King-Ohger Cast Interviews for Adventure Heaven (translation below, spoilers)
TV Guide: Half movie talk (beginning), half fun free talk (second half)
TV Station: All movie talk . . . _
TV Guide (page 38-39)
Sakai: The film has wonderful guests such as Shido Nakamura-san and voice actress Ayane Sakura-san. The interaction with them left a deep impression on me.
Watanabe: There's a scene where Gira (Sakai) fights with Reiniol, who is played by Shido-san.
Sakai: There's also a scene where it looked like they were performing tsubazeriai (crossing swords and getting in each others faces).
🕷️Ikeda: Was it really intense when you faced each other?
Sakai: It was too intense! The atmosphere created the moment the cameras started rolling was beyond overwhelming, and it almost felt like I was being "swallowed up." I thought I was going all out, but I guess I wasn't. When we decided to do one more take, Shido-san said, "Come on!" He was very enthusiastic.
All: Whoa~!
Sakai: It feels like I'm only half joking, but he created an atmosphere that said, "Come at me again," I was able to give it everything I had.
Murakami: During the filming of Gira's coronation, I had an opportunity to talk with Sakura-san, who played Devonica. We all had the chance to talk with her and noticed she has a really nice voice.
Hirakawa: It almost resonates.
Murakami: We learned a lot about voices. She performed various voice patterns in front of me, such as low, high, resonant, straight, and a voice with an emotional range. It's an experience that only you can only see in this film.
🐝Kaku: Like the TV series, the CG in this film is amazing. We were surprised to see such original backgrounds, which are even more beautiful and fantastic than those in the TV series. As we watched it on the monitor we were amazed while going, "Oooh." I hope everyone can experience the scale of this film at the theater.
Hirakawa: I think the story is enjoyable, and contains a strong message.
🕷️Ikeda: I would like to encourage you all to see it on the big screen, as I'm sure you'll be impressed by how it evolves from the TV series in so many ways.
Sakai: It's been about half a year since the TV series started filming, and everyone in the cast is naturally getting closer to each other.
🐝Kaku: (to Murakami) You've been making alot of funny faces recently, right?
Murakami: Eeeh? you noticed?!
🕷️Ikeda: When you're tired right? (laughs).
Murakami: Mainly when I start my "engine," or when I'm sleepwalking. Sometimes it seems as if I'm not listening to what others are saying. The other day, Aoto-kun was holding a bottle of water and saying something weird like, "If you want this water, you have to pay 1,000 yen."
Watanabe: If you cut that just that part out, it sounds like a totally unfunny joke! (laughs)
Hirakawa: I'll start from the very beginning (laughs). Aoto-kun walked along a muddy road in the heat to get water for the film site.
🐝Kaku: It took about 20 minuets.
Hirakawa: That's why he jokingly said, "1 bottle is 1,000 yen."
Murakami: But I had just woken up from sleeping and was still feeling abit fuzzy, so I accepted what he said with as normal with a, "Thank you," while making no comments (laughs). If I were my normal self, I would've been more careful and said something. But in this worksite, you can be relaxed without worrying about anything.
Sakai: Lately, you've even started to make yourself laugh (laughs).
Murakami: I was able to train myself, since everyone is so good at boke-tsukkomi (double act)
🐝Kaku: My arms, are up (banzai) (laughs).
Hirakawa: It's about relationship trust. You can go big, because I think everyone will pick up on it.
Sakai: That's right. If you say something, someone will surely pick up on it.
Murakami: Thank you.
Sakai: Finally, which of the 5 countries in the story would you rather live in?
Murakami: I'd want to live in the country of Toufu, where Kaguragi (Kaku) is a Lord. I think it'd be really fun being one of the his citizens, because it's full of hospitality and delicious foods.
🐝Kaku: If there's filming in Toufu, rice is always served.
Hirakawa: Their rice is very tasty. I'd like to live in the country of N'Kosopa, where Yanma (Watanabe) is King, and I'd enjoy my life relying on technology. I want to leave everything to the machines and say, "Take care of me."
Watanabe: Although it's not depicted, I've always thought that there's a sauna in the country of Gokkan, where Rita (Hirakawa) is the King. That's why I want to go to Gokkan, for the sauna.
Hirakawa: If I ordered it, they might make one, but it's too cold to bathe in the open air of Gokkan (laughs).
Watanabe: I see (laughs).
🐝Kaku: For me it's Queen Hymeno's (Murakami) country of Ishabana. If I have an injury on my knee or shoulder and I want it to be healed, it'd be easy to do so.
Sakai: I think I could become macho.
🐝Kaku: Yes, yes. I'm sure you're doing a lot of health research on that.
Sakai: I'm not…
🐝Kaku: Say Toufu.
Sakai: Maybe Ishabana…
🐝Kaku: Why not?! (laughs)
Sakai: Maybe it is Toufu. I like the country side feel of the place! It's like there's nothing there…
🐝Kaku: "Nothing." That's a bit harsh, isn't it? (laughs)
Sakai: I'm joking, I'm joking (laughs)
🕷️Ikeda: For me it's N'Kosopa. I want to play games with Yanma and win.
Watanabe: Oooh~ sounds good!
Hirakawa: Well, It's a tie (laughs).
🕷️Ikeda: Shugoddam isn't popular, huh…(laughs).
Murakami: Shugoddam is a country full of small happiness, but many forms of it.
Watanabe: But, if I were to bring my camera, I would take it to Shugoddam. The architecture there is beautiful.
🕷️Ikeda: It's a European-styled town…and what do you mean "if you bring a camera?" (laughs)
Sakai: The question was "if you want to live there." (laughs)
_
TV Station Magazine (page 96-97)
"Bonds of the Young Kings"
Sakai: The first film for Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger will be released, and when I first read its script, I was very excited to see how the coronation of Gira would turn out, and thought alot about how I would act out his responsibility as king.
Watanabe: When I read the script for the confrontation scene in the film's climax between Gira and Reiniol (Shido Nakamura), the first King of the Kingdom of Death, It made me remember my audition. At that time, I was asked to watch a confrontation scene between Gira and Racules (Masato Yano), and Gira truly looked as though he was shining. As for myself, between the two of them, I was more influenced by Reiniol's way of thinking this time, but even still, I want the children to see Gira succeed.
Murakami: There were multiple scenes in the film where I thought I saw a new side out of all six of us. I wasn't sure how the scene where Hymeno meets her parents in the Kingdom of Death would be executed, so I prepared myself alittle for that part before we started filming.
Hirakawa: I was curious how we would film Gira's coronation and, on a personal level, how we would express a side of Rita that they had not shown before in the TV series. I was looking forward to it, but was also a little worried about possibly ruining what I had established so far.
🐝Kaku: I was very excited about the whole story, including the development of Gira's determination to become king despite hesitating. There are scenes where Kaguragi touches on his past mistakes, and It makes me understand what kind of mindset he had when he became king, so I can't wait to see how it plays out in the film.
🕷️Ikeda: I was honestly impressed by Gira's words. Going to the Kingdom of Death made me think a lot about the meaning of my life and, "what does happiness mean?" I think you'll be able to realize it, that even the smallest of happiness is such a wonderful thing.
Murakami: Between takes, I had a chance to talk with Ayane Sakura-san (Devonica), and she showed me how she does her voice in various patterns while right in front of me. It was a unique experience that can only be seen in this film.
🐝Kaku: The whole film was shot with green screen, but the backgrounds of the world were more magical than those found in the TV series. I was truly impressed by how beautiful the CG was.
Sakai: I think it was the scene where Shido-san and I are fighting. I wanted to go all out, but I guess I was alittle nervous, and the scene lacked some impact. When they decided to shoot the scene one more time, Shido-san said, "Come on!" he was very encouraging and created an atmosphere of excitement. Thanks to him, I was able to give it my all.
🕷️Ikeda: The cost of Gira's coronation has become a hot topic for some time. It's really cool, isn't it? It seems to be one of the main points this time.
Sakai: I also thought it was cool.
🐝Kaku: Also, the fight scene at the end is cool. Saying famous quotes before battle.
🕷️Ikeda: I think the film shows off everyone's good sides, such as how a king is supposed to act.
Watanabe: The part where each king confronts their past, Hymeno's scene had additional dialogue at the end, didn't it?
Murakami: I added the lines.
Watanabe: That part was really well done. I personally thought it was cool.
Murakami: I didn't know how it was going to turn out, and I was also worried about it, so…thank you (laughs).
Hirakawa: Gira, Yamma, and Rita perform actions in their pre-transformation stage. We worked hard on it, and I think it came out looking cool.
Murakami: I also really like the way in which Kaguragi confronts the past Queen.
🐝Kaku: Thank you. The scene with Yanma and Shiokara (Chiwata Yuhei) is also interesting.
Watanabe: Gira is both very straightforward and cool, so I hope that children will think, "I want to be like Gira too." With that, I hope you'll come to the movie theater with your family to see it.
Murakami: Each line has its own message, and feels like it has weight to it, so I would be happy if you could feel them as well.
Hirakawa: I think the message is very strong as the kings face their past. The story is also connected to the TV series, so I hope that you;ll enjoy.
🐝Kaku: The production of the film is different from that of TV series, so I'm sure that when people see the film, they'll think, "King-Ohger looks very interesting."
🕷️Ikeda: The world view of King-Ohger will evolve further and will definitely impress you when you see it on the big screen, so please come and see it.
Sakai: I would like you to see the determination of each king on the big screen. I'd be very happy if you could come to the theater to see this film, which we put alot of effort into. We look forward to seeing you!
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keicordelle · 4 months
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Yuki and Performativity: the autistic mask
(aka the analysis I've been trying to figure out how to format for like 3 weeks)
Okay, so now that Yuki's autism has been ~established~ (here, but I'm just going to pretend everyone was following along), I'm really really interested in the subtle ways that that presents itself in his characterization.
Because Re:member does a really great job of making it obvious, because it's written in Yuki's perspective (at least in vol 2) and so heavily flavored with his own though process. But It's equally present in his characterization in the anime (and I assume the game, but I'm not caught up so we're just going based on the anime here). And a lot of that time, that characterization is so delightfully subtle that I didn't even pick up on it the first time through. But now I'm obsessed and I'm Noticing Things and y'all must suffer with me. so.
I think it's fair to say that Yuki's blunt and cold nature are features of his autism. Also probably the fact that he is extremely awkward when it comes to emotions and, notably for this discussion, expressing them. (oh to be a fire extinguisher)
But he's also really good at acting. And I'm making some assumptions here based on my own experiences, but I figure this comes in large part from the amount of effort he puts into trying to read others. He picks apart other people's interactions to figure out why they're reacting certain ways because he doesn't Get It.
And so he uses that in his every day life. Like, you wouldn't really figure someone so extremely autistic and introverted would make for a very good idol, what with the whole "having to interact with people all day every day" thing -- and he didn't want to be an idol! He just wanted to make his music and have people appreciate it! In fact, he looked down on idols at first, which probably had more to do with him undervaluing their artistic integrity (or at least I imagine that's how he would frame it), but he is very explicit about how he doesn't like how people fawn over him (read: idols) because of their looks rather than on the merits of the music.
Anyway. One of the key features of his characterization is that he's always acting. Always. There are a handful of moments we see him in the anime where he's not playing a role, even and particularly when he's off stage.
I've talked before (here) about Re:vale's introduction and how from the very first moment we see them, they're On. Not just in their initial prank on i7 where they pretend to be serious and scary, but also in the bubbly happy personas they present afterwards. They drop one mask for another, and at no point are they ever not wearing their idol stage personas. This is relevant to i7 for reasons but for this discussion rant it's relevant because this is how Yuki engages with the world. There are only a handful of times where we ever see him truly drop his guard -- usually only when he's alone with Momo, and occasionally around Yamato, which will be relevant in a bit. (And one other very notable time towards the end of season 3, but we'll get there.)
Anyway. He's only ever comfortable when he's playing a role. Which is never explicitly established, and I love it all the more for that, because they're totally content to just let you pick up on that without shoving it in your face. But they introduce it in ways that are subtler than I even thought at first. Because at first I was like, "okay, well he's got his stage ikemen persona, and he's got his sillier tsukkomi routine, and he's got his darker prankster who genuinely seems to be enjoying your discomfort persona (which is probably the one among them that's closest to his reality, because he really does seem to enjoy teasing and making people uncomfortable even when he's not On)
But literally any time he has to engage with someone, he falls back on a performance. A myriad of them, in as many different faces as he needs. And even when he tries to be genuine, he'll fall back on that performative role as soon as someone offers him an out. He will become whatever other people need or want him to be, so long as it doesn't involve being himself.
We see this particularly clearly while Yamato's struggling with his role in Mission and Yuki comes to him in a genuine effort to help
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You can see the transformation in Yuki's face : Yamato has offered him a role, and he is now going to take that and run with it.
He steps into that role as easily as that, and from there on out, everything he says, while still true to his own beliefs, is very heavily shaded by his new performance as a criminal psychologist. It makes it easier for him to express himself, because he's no longer Yukito Orikasa, fumbling his way through emotions that he's been told time and again that he doesn't express properly, he's Yuki, criminal psychologist, and that's something he can figure out how to be.
You can even see it in his gestures; from then on, they get extremely dramatic, very much what you'd expect in a stage play (moreso even than in a movie). Which works well considering this is an anime and dramatic gestures suit the medium, and that's probably part of why I didn't really notice that at first. Even his tone becomes more dramatic. You can hear it flowing up and down the scale of emotion, rather than his usual low, teasing edge. Really great direction all around tbh
We see this same sort of transformation in the next episode, while Yamato's staying with him, and honestly this scene makes it a whole lot clearer. Yuki does actually start off more himself in this episode because he's in his own home. He doesn't really want to go out of his way for Yamato, he's mostly helping him out of obligation, so the mask slips a bit.
He flits in and out of a couple different personas fairly rapidly at the start of their interaction. Even Yamato remarks on this, which I actually didn't realize until just now when I was skimming through to find the shot I wanted to reference. He's never fully seen Yuki with his metaphorical hair down before, and the change is remarkable
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He offers Yamato some advice, rather against his own will. His countdown here is his "speak now if you want me to listen to your problems or else I'm leaving" ultimatum, and he fully intended to when he gets to zero. But he doesn't (which I think surprises them both), and when Yamato calls out to him, he stops and actually offers genuine advice, no persona there to filter it. And it's harsh, like he usually is when he's unfiltered, because he's Autistic As Fuck and doesn't really know how to be anything else no matter how hard he tries (as is very explicitly laid out in Re:member : he has tried, hard, and he just can't figure it out)
And then he immediately falls into another role, when it's clear he's going to be trapped in this conversation that he doesn't really want to be having. Which is equal parts to soothe himself and to piss of Yamato, I think. Maybe heavier on the piss-off-Yamato side of things, because for all that he's helping him, they really really don't like each other, and Yuki's really kind of an asshole at heart
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And from here on out he fully embraces the mocking asshole persona he's chosen to adopt. The same thing happens: he becomes more expressive both in voice and gesture, and it both softens the blow of the harsh things he says and makes it worse.
And you can then see the exact moment Yuki realizes that he's Fucked Up this conversation and pushed things much much further than he expected or intended to
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(a shot which is on the screen for like less than half a second and that I had to clip and go frame by frame through to get because my own autism is now Activated)
The next scene is, I think, rather intentionally ambiguous (at least at the start) as to how genuine Yuki's responses are. It's fairly well established that, despite his aichmophobia, Yuki doesn't really have a ton of self-preservation instinct when it comes to fights, so it's seems entirely reasonable that his continued efforts to poke at the already enraged bear are just, what he'd do and not a persona he's putting on
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However, it becomes clearer further into the scene that this is indeed another performance for him. First here, somewhat subtly, where in the actual line of dialogue, he calls Yamato "Yamato-bocchan", which, while appropriately mocking, also places him very firmly in a role other than his natural disposition.
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From here on out, it becomes fairly clear to me that he's reverted back to his role from Mission. Yukito Orikasa is shed once more (if he was ever truly present here), and Yuki the Criminal Psychologist has taken his place. Yamato's breakdown follows a similar script to his character's here, though his is genuine -- but Yuki reads the similarities and falls back into his psychologist role.
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He then offers Yamato some advice that actually references Shizuo's own words, which is... a huge Dick Move in this moment but that is actually a super neat and subtle reference, especially because he genuinely thinks he's helping.
he's not.
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And this part is fun because it then becomes a lot less clear if Yamato's clued in to the role he's playing and is now playing along with his part in the movie, or if he's really just genuinely doing this (it's the latter, but it teases the possibility for most of the scene)
But anyway, the point kind of got away from me. You see Yuki fall back on this acting any time he's in a situation he doesn't know how to handle -- or, well. Not just then, actually. Pretty much in any situation. He's more comfortable pretending to be someone else than he is being himself, and he'll default to that whenever he can get away with it. He maintains it even when he's alone with Momo a lot of the time (I have an headcanon about Momo knowing what it is he's doing and allowing him it, as a sort of kindness)
Of course, his dealings with Yamato are hardly the only time we see this so clearly presented. He draws any number of roles over him like a mask, and falls into whichever suits his needs -- perhaps most notably at the very end of season 3, where he dons the caricature persona of a thug in order to try to protect Momo. Which is, uh. Maybe not the best idea he's ever had but hey, it works, kind of, so more power to you, Yuki.
He (arguably) adopts this same sort of thuggy image earlier in the season, for much the same reasons, when he waits outside Ryo's apartment with a baseball bat (that he definitely does not know how to use).
However! Of particular interest is the scene where he confronts Touma, where he's actually not assuming some sort of role. This scene is pure, unadulterated Yuki, and that frightens Touma and Torao exactly the same way as it puzzled Yamato above.
This scene itself is more a commentary on his relationship with Momo than it is Yuki's performative nature, really, because it highlights very well the fact that he's willing to do anything for the sake of his partner. It's pretty clear to me that when he walks into the dressing room and when he first confronts Touma, he's not Yuki the Badass, he's Yukito Orikasa, desperately trying to track down his partner.
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Like, this is very much Yuki's real personality, not one of his endless roles
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And that is precisely what gives him the edge here. Touma and Torao are really not expecting him to be so cruel and careless. They're used to Idol Yuki, handsome and flippant and appeasing. Not Yukito, entirely willing to stomp all over the law if it means saving Momo from danger
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This is one of the only times that Yuki lets his true colors shine so obviously true. Usually Momo or Rinto is there to remind him to be aware of his station and to keep himself in check, but Momo is in danger and Yuki Does Not Care about the consequences, because at the end of the day, he's cold and calculating and absolutely nothing like the friendly persona he puts on, and he's only really doing this because he's passionate about music, not because he loves being an idol
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Anyway. I guess all that sums up into: Yuki, first among the Autists, hides behind different masks so often that everyone around him is startled when he drops them, including himself a lot of the time. And that the show (and presumably the game) does a really incredible job of presenting this incredibly subtly
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cartoonsinthemorning · 4 months
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How many episodes are you into Dungeon Meshi? Do you have a favorite so far? c:
I watched all anime episodes out so far, and about one or two volumes short of finishing reading the manga as well.
I'll be extra and answer with my first 4 fave, in order! It's also the main 4, incidentally lol
My number one is Laios, easily. I have a lot in common with him, and even beyond that, he's such a compelling, multifaceted, entertaining character to read.
Close second is Chilchuck. My strong attraction to kuso jijis never fades. The amount of shady stuff about him that is left implied but never shown in canon makes me obsessed.
Third place: Marcille! And to think I disliked her, at first. I thought she was gonna be your cutesy tsukkomi anime girl number 53927238, and nothing more. But then, I've learned she's traumatized and obsessive, so I embraced her fully.
Fourth place, Senshi: a kind, nurturing bear!! He's perfect! Ideal friend. I don't feel much attraction to him because he's too young, but he's gorgeous.
Thank you for asking, dear anon!
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nanjokei · 1 year
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same anon here, incredibly interested in the history from someone who lived through it
ok!
here's my own rundown on why the vocaloid bubble burst in the mid 2010s!
almost irreversibly! (don't worry— this story has a happy ending)
if anyone is wondering, yes, you can reblog this! i only say this because this took a lot of work to write so if anyone feels compelled, yes, stroke my ego a bit, i allow such a thing. now, i might get snippy here and there, but i'm not serious at all. my sense of humor is pretty tsukkomi-ish and it shows up in how i describe things. <-disclaimer for if this post breaks containment because i know fandom types don't like my sense of humor if they're not given the context that i LOVE what i'm talking about and rib on it out of utmost adoration
as a disclaimer, i do lightly look things up to check on stuff timeline wise and its validity, but this is from my own point of view and memory and a personal retelling, so if you have a different take on it then i'm sure our viewpoints can co-exist. also, i speak about utaite from the point of view of someone who respects their existence but does not participate. so if a few facts are off... i am speaking only from the aspect of what relates to what i'm talking about. also if there are any typos i stopped being thorough with my checking and editing like 4k words in since i am not being paid to write this, it is just for fun. anyways~
so where we wanna start here is before the big bubble era. i think most people would agree that it was in full swing around mid 2012, but i'll set the date at september 23, 2011. the posting of the song kagerou daze (by the way, as a testament to how much of a boomer i am, despite being an kagepro fan from the start i find myself still using the "kagerou days" romanization by accident every time). by the way, senbonzakura, one of the biggest vocaloid songs ever for the longest time, was posted only a few days earlier. just to paint a picture. but that's not the only thing... i think what we want to look at especially is the end of the vocaloid2 era and what was going on during and before. the final vocaloid2 product, vy2, was released on april 25th, 2011. in this timeline, there are a few angles i wanna focus on. the state of the culture, its spread, utaite and producers. by the way, if i had to date when i met vocaloid, it was around 2008. right before gakupo came out, maybe.
around this time, the culture of vocaloid-ke (vocaloid family) type secondary works were falling out of fashion. 2010 and before, i feel that vocaloid had a strong image of nico nico douga especially— not that it didn't during the bubble era. but i mean the people participating. when miku came out, people viewed her as a novelty while still thinking to themselves they had stumbled across something special. there was no subculture like that before, and the closest counterpart to this was idolmaster. now, many know this is the origin of the -P suffix came from. it's a tossed around factoid now but people should know that it was certainly a phenomena back then. and a LOT of early miku adopters (like 80% were either already in the doujin music scene, the DTM (desktop music) scene, trained musicians or even some industry pros. and a lot of these people were nerdy and geeky and loved anime and games and manga so of course their first point of reference for building vocaloid's identity was idolmaster. touhou, idolmaster's next door neighbor, also had a lot of influence given many of the music people in its scene dabbled in vocaloid early on. so naturally the fans that were attracted to vocaloid were also nerds. at first there were only cryptonloids, but gakupo quickly followed (and continuing in the trend of heavy nnd association— kentaro miura (RIP), a big fan of nnd and especially idolmaster— designed and drew his art 100% pro bono out of love for the site and its culture). luka came out... i think gumi was the first shift. gumi just felt, different. i personally owe it to her being modeled after ranka lee, the iconic role of her voice provider, megumi nakajima— ranka lee was the underdog character in her source macross frontier's love triangle. so i feel like that image somewhat imprinted itself on gumi. gumi was not popular at first at all. her release came and went with not much fanfare. ironically the aspect of rivalry would come back under stuff like the miku vs gumi debate. this is probably the first real demonstration of "it doesn't matter how good the voice is, it matters who uses it and how that propagates the voice".
and so i arrive at the producers of the time, maybe late 2008 early to mid 2009, the newcomers. the ones that weren't necessarily otaku through and through, but more on the "teenagers who like vocaloid and/or don't have a singer to sing for them, and want to make music". i will be specific and say it is people like wowaka (RIP), deco*27 and hachi/kenshi yonezu specifically. wowaka for example had a very fresh take— his pvs deemphasized the vocaloid, but it also inspired many fan pvs because of it. i will not go into how it became ironic that he quit due to the attribution to the voice. but his moody lyrics captured a lot of hearts and his style carried a youth to it. hachi did a lot of his own artsy pvs. deco*27 was very unpolished and amateur but his music was VERY of the times. the synths, the guitar, very youthful. aside from wowaka, whose comeup immediately led to him getting signed quickly (and the guy himself just walked and i don't blame him) i think what made these guys (deco and hachi) stand out from the rest in the end is one thing: they picked up gumi. and this set them apart from the old and dusted otaku who didn't pick gumi up, or those who picked her up thinking of her only as ranka lee. mozaik role (still deco's most viewed song on nnd btw, with no sign of stopping. and he is clearly PISSED about it). matryoshka. all that kibs of noise. by the way, matryoshka's stint in the vocaloid rankings went unchallenged until it was finally killed by senbonzakura. that's a good two years of dominance!! a lot of the breakout stars or people who got more popular during 2010 used gumi, i'm talking your 40mPs, your sasakure.UKs, your buzzGs. incidentally, a lot of these people got signed... most for their vocaloid stuff. 40mP, sasakure, deco, kous and others were signed under label split-offs like U/M/A/A. wowaka and hachi... were signed for themselves. specifically, wowaka and his band hitorie, and hachi as himself kenshi yonezu.
but producers were not the only ones being signed. utaite, who had been a thing before even vocaloid was a thing, found themselves growing rapidly due to them increasingly participating in the culture as both fans and beneficiaries. personally, i split off utaites eras as "before piko and akiakane" and "after piko and akiakane". the before era included people who either started very early on when vocaloid became a thing on nnd, or started before it (participating in chorus medleys or posting utattemita videos of anison for example, like gero). it was all amateur and everyone was doing it for fun... but the record companies doth lurk around the vocaloid scene at this rate. akiakane and piko i pick specifically because they were the first utaite who were very publically signed. piko was signed under sony's ki/oon records! akiakane had two or three big albums under the subsidary of VAP, toy's factory (if you wanna have fun take a look at the list of talent they rep). piko is especially important— as he had a vocaloid made of him. this marked first big interest of corporations and large record companies to actually enter the vocaloid space— in the most direct way possible. btw, the reason piko the vocaloid is dead is because piko the person is no longer signed under sony. it's not outright confirmed, but piko the guy stopped tweeting about utatane piko the second he transferred labels. he is stuck in a weird catch 22 he probably will never be free of, though yamaha is doing some insane moves lately, i wonder if they'd ever try to buy the character out and revive him as a stunt. (they are doing many funny stunts lately. but a subject for another time.)
finally, my last point in this preamble is the interest in telling stories through vocaloid had only continued to grow. i think the two biggest early examples were the prisoner series by shujinP and the ever so infamous evillious chronicles by mothy. their explosive popularity is wholeheartedly owed to rin and len— ok this is a tangent but this is the genius of the rin and len package, that to this day was never replicated, they come together as you know and since they are male and female with no set setting, they are an easy buy and you can make a story because you can do two points of view across several songs... like literally. its paperplane vs prisoner. daughter of evil vs servant of evil. and their fans were and continue to be super passionate. it's great, we would be missing a huge chunk of what makes vocaloid subculture what it is without them. of course, shujinP's series (plural because they had several) is less known these days but it was probably the first series to get plays and novels and all that. quickly followed by EC. later came series like sasakure's doomsday series, stuck in a limbo between old and new era (most of the songs released in the old era but the novelization and such came out during the new), and a few "outsider" series like numtack05/putinP's series (the reasons this never got popular is because it was absurdist and shitpost-y and involved too much political imagery, not only that but also because putinP used a lot of copyright samples (most famously ronald mcdonald and sazae-san clips)— the freely distributed album vers omit these samples entirely and i can confirm the songs are worse for it)
so to give a summary of the above section
the tastes of fans were maturing
there was a shift in how vocaloid was perceived
the growing influence of utaite
the growing interest of big corpos in the scene
the growing interest in storytelling using vocaloid as a medium
anyway, here comes the real deal. and... it's gonna be a mess. just like the era itself was. i hope you're ready, at least.
even the very first echo of vocaloid3 felt kinda corpo-y. it wasn't, but.. looking back. it kind of felt like it. the first time we ever found out about v3 was through a leak of seeU's demo— but it was a work in progress leak, so it had the voice of her provider dahee kim singing along. people had no idea so they assumed this was the capability of the software. it was exciting! kpop was just starting to get popular, and we were getting a new vocaloid software, with korean capability!!!
anyway. we're not talking about the can of worms that was seeU.
not just because of dahee kim. but because it's not related beyond this. also the fact that korean fans were heavily and horribly mistreated by the majority japanese fandom for obvious reasons. i do not have the depths to speak on that stuff, but it says a lot that the software's first big swing ended up like that.
but i wanted to illustrate the mood of the fans going into this era. it was full of hopes and dreams. now, i don't want any wannabe know-it-alls wagging their fingers at me and checking the wikia going "b-but cullen, mew also came out!! at the same time!!" the seeU leak came out first. i remember there were fights over whether or not that demo was real. it was a cultural shift like no other. who the fuck cares about mew? literally her only legacy is one really amazing ezfg song. i will not debate anyone on this btw. i try to be objective but i'm allowed to inject a bit of my own opinion here too. you know who were also full of hopes and dreams? the companies. not your internetcos and your ahsofts, no, i'm talking publicly traded shits and record companies. look... i'm coming off harsh. i actually don't hold that much animosity, but you're gonna see why this was the first huge misstep of the era.
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nice picture, right? this was the kind of optimism we started off this era on. but, i'll break down the picture for you in a way that helps illustrate a point somewhat:
your girlies from V2 like gumi (who was this era's it girl), lily, galaco (even if her shitty V2 version is contest only)
your earnest newcomers mew (look, even yamaha girlies count), cul, aoki lapis, seeU (one could argue.), IA (one could argue...)
tone rion of dear stage (who represented dempagumi inc., the group her voice provider came from, though this was a myth for years until it was proven... also it was clear they wanted to make the rest of dempagumi into vocaloids but rion flopped at the time. there was even a picture of her friends floating around. astoundingly embarrassing confidence. one billion dead vocaloids.)
akikoloid-chan of lawsons (yes, the convenience store! she is a vocaloidification of their mascot and i would argue the poster child of the modern brand private vocaloid. she was retired in uh.. 2019 i wanna say? though she was dormant for a long time anyway)
ring suzune, the aborted failure of minna no vocalo keikaku (everyone's vocalo-project)... this one involves a lot of otona no jijou AKA adult circumstances (japanese corpo's favorite excuse. you will now notice this phrase every time you hear it oooo). just unfortunate all around
yuzuki yukari of vocalomakets, i put her in a separate category because she really is a girlie of her own. a vocal born from producers being dissatisfied that their wants weren't being answered and no company was taking them up, they just went "fuck it" and produced yukari on their own. a huge outlier in this era of vanity projects and companies using the scene for their own crap.
not pictured, but i have to mention her due to her complicated position in this era, but mayu of exit tunes. exit tunes is a record label that heavily supported vocaloid and utaite during this era, signing both producers and utaite, and making compilation cds of popular vocaloid hits. and probably saw to it that due to their dominance in the area of compilation cds (and they still dominate, even if their releases are sparse these days their cds still top oricon without effort), them sneaking mayu into the tracklists would work... my thoughts on this? my position has softened a lot over the years. and i've always thought "they gave up right before she organically caught on, they should have kept pushing. so what a shame".
now you may notice i bolded a few of these and made special mention of the companies behind them. you probably already figured it out, but this era had heavy investment from parties who had only to gain from a rapidly growing niche subculture. see, unlike the other two of nnd's big three idolmaster and touhou, who are IPs where you need some kind of cooperation to officially get in on, vocaloid... is incredibly free, so laissez faire in comparison. you buy a 9,000 dollar dev kit and get to work making your mascot. it was... so easy. so free. so sweet. but real life is not so easy, or free, or sweet. you actually had to be accepted by the fans, and like i said before... the voice does not matter. what matters is who uses it, and how that propagate the voice. this is true time and time again. it is the ultimate "how many times do i have to teach you this lesson, old man?!" of the scene from a commercial standpoint. no matter how many years pass. ergo, one billion dead vocaloids. corpo vocaloids were releasing and they flopped immediately. earnest products from newcomers were dropping and struggling, though def doing better than the corpo ones (like lapis, lapis did ok). existing "in crowd" companies were vomiting out new vocals and not even promoting them. it was a disgusting era of excess and death and bile and plague and war and and and. it's astounding that it is hard carried by the art that came out of it. because if you only look at the commercial side of things, it is fucking disgusting.
now, onto the fan aspect. remember when i said this era truly kicked off when kagerou daze came out? yup. here it comes. so, anyone lived through this era remembers the cambrian explosion of original projects that did not make use of vocaloid mascots— arguably the final death knell of vocaloid-ke secondary works being the mainstream.
now, i'm planting my flag in the ground here very firmly— i do not ride the bandwagon of the people who erroneously attribute the near death of the scene to kagepro. it's just not true. personally i have a very complicated (bordering on near sort of but not quite negative, depending on how nostalgic i feel that day) relationship with the series, but to blame it is incredibly narrowminded and ignorant of the actual reasons the bubble burst, and not to mention unfair. if you find it annoying, fine. but just say you don't like the series and move on. and really, for better or for worse, mekakucity days and mekakucity records are unironically god tier vocaloid albums that will be remembered for years to come. i just have to say this because i see a lot of people blame jin for very flimsy reasons... SHUT UP!!! anyway.
i think one of the issues with the whole project culture that flourished during this era was simply the fact that since they were multimedia projects (whether by accident like kagepro or intentionally from the get), fans were coming from all angles, and even those who got into it through vocaloid eventually became super mega invested in them as separate IPs. which is... unfortunately an issue. so when these properties eventually spun off into manga, light novels, covers with real seiyuu, merch and ultimately some even netting anime projects... once those projects either abruptly ended (lol, lmao, this will come back later) or reached their natural conclusion, inevitably a lot of those fans either leave with it or found themselves burned out on vocaloid itself, or perhaps even think they've outgrown it.
next, utaite. now i mentioned a bit earlier about how the first batch of utaite were amateurs who didn't expect anything out of it and did it just cause, and how exit tunes signed a lot of them in this era. now, comes the time i speak about utaite "after piko and akiakane". i believe due to a generational gap and subconsciously perhaps due to the signing of a few utaite from the old guard at this point, the nu utaite of the 2010s had a sort of individuality to them... this isn't an insult, and a large part of their popularity actually came from them always collaborating and a lot of them ending up befriending each other. again, i'm an outsider, but i understand this much. but this era for utaite was the beginning of the idea that an utaite can become a superstar. in the end, very few of them did become superstars.
a lot of them naturally returned to a normal level of popularity after the bubble. there aren't a lot of your AtRs or your amatsukis and such. the smart ones became vtubers before being a vtuber was cool. to give an example: un:c and hashiyan who are arguably oldheads more than nu era became anjo and kosaka of monsterz mate. this isn't a doxx btw, this is publically available information, and un:c often credits himself as a mixer under projects he does as anjo. also, a certain duo of female utaite whose names i will not mention went on to form the super popular vtuber duo himehima. there are other early adopters like kano and god knows who else that i don't feel like mentioning. anyway, if your utaite did it after 2018 and under their own identity it is a desperate plea for attention. sorry but it's just the objective truth. tangent over... did you think i wasn't gonna shoehorn vtubers into this somehow?! anyway.
even sutopuri who got mega popular, only really formed after the vocaloid bubble burst, perhaps even as a result of it. utaite had a positive effect on the vocaloid scene and still do. but at the time, i think it was at its strongest. utaite NEEDED vocaloid, and vocaloid benefitted greatly from their continued patronage and love for it. i for one will not be caught slandering utaite and their relationship with vocaloid even if i will always prefer the vocaloid versions. the issue here comes from the fact that way too many were signed without much star factor (i'm not disparaging them, i'm just saying they did not hold their audience across the mediums), and even at that their fans splintered off into many tribes and many weren't really into vocaloid in the first place and were more into the livestreams and twitter banter. that's just how things shook out. you even have your reols and such, as reol was the face but in a sense her, gigaP and okiku were a set and gigaP left the scene to focus on commercial work with those two. too many of them got signed and splintered off into their own little fandoms before THOSE fandoms kind of died out. so this is another part where fans disappear and lose interest. you're starting to see the pattern here, right?
there's so much stuff i thought i would touch on, like how gumi was the undisputed it girl of the scene at this time, and how kagepro rose IA to prominence (all because jin wanted to buy gumi but didn't find her in the store) and how IA's people 1st place locked certain producers in their basement (like jin, yasuhiro, ishifuro etc) and... now this is a conspiracy on my part but prevented them from working on anything else, so that drew more talent away from the scene... but i realized it's tangential and belongs to other parts in this conversation. i want to reiterate here though before we go on to the biggest elephant in the room of all which would be the point of no return... there is more to the vocaloid bubble era of 2012-2015 than projects, than corpo and record company bullshit, than utaite fans. and there is more to the era before that than the top brass producers i mentioned earlier. i really... really lament how so much of early vocaloid reuploads are gone from youtube. there's a whole world just gone. so, anyway, are you ready?
the final block in this weird jenga of a story.
the producer, suzumu, and his unfortunate associates.
i will cut to the chase because it's easier to explain who was involved once i say what happened. to put it shortly... suzumu "stole" his songs. this is weird and vague and i always hated the way people used polite euphemisms to explain it because it made the situation way more confusing than it had to be— he used his producer friends as ghostwriters to compose songs for him, basically. and was very not nice about it according to one of the people involved. now i will probably adopt a somewhat sympathetic angle that people who have previously heard of this case may have not encountered before. not because i feel bad for that fuck, but because it seems like at least one of the people impacted has forgiven him, and others have moved on in less obvious ways. he's also professionally making music in the industry now. as much as i want to keep up the act of disliking him, i don't care anymore. i still dislike what he did immensely because it impacts producers i love to this day. but the man came forth about it himself and those involved forgave him. it's been almost a decade now... man!
suzumu, before getting into posting songs (who knows how many were actually his and which were ghostwritten), was a prolific lyric writer who worked with some of the trendiest vocaloid producers around. i'll cross gigaP out, since he was not involved in the incident, but almost every single person involved in this had worked with him in a lyric or story writing capacity (for 150P and komine specifically). here are the involved parties as i recall, bolded are people who he "stole" from
mafumafu, the person who spoke the most about it post suzumu's confession and the most vocal, and likely the person who was used as a ghostwriter the most (i don't recall if he actually alludes to this or not but people commonly think this). mafumafu had a series of vocaloid songs that told a story, but stopped using vocaloid after the incident for a while and songs that were going to get pvs from his first vocaloid album were not posted. he contributed a song called machigai sagashi for the vocaloid flavored moba #compass in 2015, but it seems like that song was probably in the works since before the incident for reasons i will highlight in a moment. suzumu wrote the lyrics for only one of the songs. iirc, mafumafu's song berserk is about suzumu. don't remember if this is confirmed or not. btw, the album of those songs, meikyou shisui, is really underrated and you should check it out. im not a mafu guy but that album is great
kemu, the person who is arguably closest to suzumu and the one who most publicly supported suzumu (albeit wordlessly) in later years by working with him professionally. when i mention someone forgiving suzumu, i mean him. suzumu wrote the lyrics for most of his kemu voxx songs, a famous multimedia project kemu was on the helm of along with hatsuko as the main illustrator. since kemu no longer had a lyricist, the project stalled for years until he posted a song suddenly in 2017 (with self written lyrics). it seems like the series is continuing still, but with a different direction
150P, who worked with suzumu heavily for his shuuen no shiori (bookmark of demise) project, a project that was conceived from the start to be a story. this part makes me really mad, guys!! i'll try to keep calm about it. 150P wrote over 50 songs (idk if this is an actual number but he wrote a lot. at least 40.) for the series, with suzumu writing the story and lyrics. the character designs were done by saine (who dodged a bullet all things considered.) and the art was done by komine. 150P was already doing crazy things before shuuenpro, his most popular song is still his insane 12-len classical metal chorus song lost destination. now shuuenpro caught on slower than its peers and was an underdog. i LOVE shuuenpro to this day. you know what? right when it was finally getting its first W, when the album that had seiyuu covers at come out on oricon in third place, suzumu dropped his confession. what a slap to the fucking face!! the manga of the series hastily wrapped up after that. 150P and komine disappeared and no longer did stuff ever. 150P recently appeared for a mafumafu anniversary thing so i'm glad he's still alive. but, komine...
komine, the only non-producer, an artist with the worst luck. she was slowly rising to prominence doing pv art for a lot of popular producers, and was the main artist of shuuenpro most prominently. during the initial release of the first few shuuenpro songs, she was accused of tracing, and the art of the pv of sarumane isutori game had to be done by someone else. komine stopped using social media at that point, but continued to make art for the project quietly and quite prolifically. so she was already on some kind of fraught standing even though the tracing allegations were disproven. fast forward to the suzumu blowup, komine packed up her bags and disappeared forever. if she had become disillusioned, i do not blame her. her final public contribution was the design of jeanne d'arc from #compass, the character who was paired with the mafumafu song. all subsequent artworks of jeanne were done by different artists. i suspect the reason the vocaloid version of machigai sagashi did not have a proper pv was due to komine quitting. i can only imagine what that pv looked like! if you're wondering why i mention a pv, it's cuz compass fans got mad at mafu for having a fancy pv for his self cover but not for the original. but otona no jijou, you know? and where is that energy for eve who still hasn't released a pv for mistletoe publicly and only put it on his kuso app and with 0 compass association? who let that wishy washy fuck do an anniversary song? ...im not gonna go on a compass tangent. anyway.
so... why does this matter?
it matters because people became disillusioned due to this drama. it matters because suzumu took out some very popular and prolific people from the scene during what one could argue was a transitional phase. the fans of all those people, including suzumu's... gone. if you weren't there, you may not understand the cult of personality suzumu had. he had his name on everything and was friends with all the right people. when i heard about this incident... i just closed my eyes and sighed lol. it hurt and it hit when the scene was at its weakest. and was the final blow, almost. and it impacted the way people saw and talked about vocaloid for years. miku became "owakon" for a time. people thought kizuna ai was gonna replace her as a cultural touchstone (lol, lmao, it is proven time and time again that the big three cannot die). kenshi yonezu, in all his detached glory, came down from his jeweled encrusted throne to compose a song for miku's 10th birthday that he smugly thought was the death knell of nico nico douga.... which even at the time of its release was contested by even people who were on the same miku anniversary project and, whether you wanna acknowledge it or not, is still mocked to this day by several producers. magical mirai's theme this year even does it. there is no respect for sand planet or anything kenshi yonezu stood for in that song. what an asshole move no matter how you see it. argue with the wall if you don't agree, i don't want to hear it. the scene survived because there were producers and artists and fans who still loved it. not because of some sardonic fuckoff song by a guy so detached he'd write a funeral march for a birthday.
these days, i feel like the community is incredibly conscious of what happened. there are wanton community led events that encourage not only the creation of songs, covers, art and secondary creations but also the discovery of new producers— the biggest of which being vocaloid collection, which happens three times a year and has many categories, but most importantly the top ranking (producers active for 3+ years) and the rookie ranking. i once read a japanese article that said proseka brought new fans hungry for something beyond the music presented in the game, and vocacolle and other community led events and song posting festivals supplied the works. the average age of the new vocaloid producer is— and this is my own estimate based on how many heart attacks i've been given the past 3 or 4 years— 17~19 years old. they say things like "i know of kagepro but i wasn't there"!! should i get my cane out!! who's driving me to the retirement home?!
even companies involved in the product end are more savvy these days.... (holding my tongue about a certain company of a popular synth software and its ceo because i have nothing nice to say). i think they realized that you can't clap with one hand and that appealing to the end user and fans is a necessity. honestly, i can only be excited for what comes next. we're never going back to that dark age, i can say this with utmost confidence. do i miss the past of the times before the bubble, back when vocaloid was a smidge more geeky? sure. but we can only really move forward, so why not enjoy it
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forgloryforhonor · 3 months
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may i ask if gintae can be considered as parallel characters? since they share a lot of similarities in values and all. what do you think? i love parallel characters as much as narrative foils
I always thought they were parallels as well as foils to each other
GinTae as Parallels
Roles in community and family
Both are in wish-granting or dream-fulfilling kind of business (otae in hospitality/hostess sector and Gintoki as an Odd Jobs guy)
Considered as bosses/leaders and top class in their specific areas of specialty
Aniki (boss man, big brother) / Anego (boss lady, big sister) persona
Gintoki is kind of the Joui Vanguard (in the Joui war he is the first to rush in, and in action scense he always works alone and is the first to deploy himself)
Otae is also first line of attack/offensive defense (Silver Soul Arc-Siege of Kabukichou)
both had strong mentors that defined their way of life and philosophy. Gintoki knew Shoyo best while Otae understood their father best.
Gintoki canonically sees himself as surrogate father to Kagura sometimes
Otae raised her brother on her own after their father died
Otae also wholeheartedly accepts the Anego title Kagura bestowed on him
Gintoki is considered by Shinpachi as his Aniki too
Speak and curse in the same kabukichou accent
Personality
both act as Boke (stupid man) to the other straight man characters (tsukkomi)
both tend to hurt the people they love in order to protect/save them
Both can be incredibly self-sacrificial and suicidal for others and for their core beliefs
Both can be truly cruel at insulting others and each other (fatphobia, ageism, classism, misogyny, etc)
both are very very good at finding each other's weakness and exploiting them to cause most damage (or get them to do what the other wants)
both are very good at finding/recognizing each other no matter where or when
both have been positive and negative change to each other in many ways
Friends and Admirers
Both of them have similar group of friends. They operate in the same circles.
both of them are well loved in their community for their strong leadership and cunning bastard personas
both of them have admirers that are mirrors of each other: Kondou-Sarutobi, Kyuubei-Tsukuyo
Both of then are parallels and foils of Hijikata
Both of them are used to mingling/hanging out with opposite sex and know how to play their charms well to their advantage
Storywise
In my old posts, both Otae and Gintoki have preached the same things to other people at different points in time, which means they seriously have a lot of shared values and both live under the same life philosophy.
Them doing dogeza in Beam Saber Arc (nuff'said)
Their tragic future selves dying at the same time in Be Forever Yorozuya Movie and Novelization
Both risked their lives/ imprisonment/death penalty for Hijikata and shinsengumi
Otae earning Queen of Kabukichou title from Otose, Gintoki seen as Tatsugurou/Jirocho Protege
Similar Stands
Lots of manga panels where they mirror the same actions and dialogue on different pages
And etc
GinTae as Foils
Opposite Genders
Otae usually needs to be saved; Gintoki is usually one of the saviors
Gintoki can be quite a gourmet pastry chef and cook; Otae cannot cook ever
Different social classes / poverty level
Gintoki usually needs to be found, Otae does the finding (or is the cause) of the Yorozuya getting back together
Fighting style: Otae is rooted in reality and the traditional martial concepts; Gintoki is more freestyle, fantastical and wild
Fighting Style: Gintoki is Vanguard, Otae is backup/Rearguard or Home Defense/Baggage Train
Sexual experience: gintoki isnt a virgin and have slept with men and women, otae is a virgin through and through
I'm quite rusty on the GinTae nowadays so I hope you can suggest more too. But may I recommend my big essay "Otae's Involvement With The Odd Jobs" back in my older sideblog called @ukaiknowsbest ?
Thank you so much for the ask. I love questions like these.
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izanori · 1 year
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just in time for their birthday! happy birthday testament <3 to celebrate, i have 8 new comics from Guilty Gear XX Yonkoma Kings translated
{part 1 / part 2}
how to read yonkoma + translation notes under the cut:
how to read yonkoma (aka 4-koma):
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translation stuff (not even all about things you need to know, i just like to talk):
remember how i said this is my first time cleaning manga? yea, im still learning and using these comics to experiment with ways of handling sfx and stuff, so if you notice any inconsistencies there, thats why. for now, ive decided id rather not erase sound effects because theyre so prominent in manga theyre part of the art... and also because im lazy, and also because i'm no letterer and shouldn't try to redraw them in english
anyways
("im sorry, forgive me") i know nothing about sports and had to look up "wii sports announcer all voice lines" to figure out what someone says when a batter makes a good hit 😭
("this week's plagiarism") did you know patents are "abandoned" and not "canceled" or "annulled" or something? translation really does make you learn something new all the time
("love") napa cabbage? chinese cabbage? hakusai? i dont know. i dont cook. i just dont know. also, asazuke is a pickling method in japan that's real quick, where you put the vegetables in a sealed bag/container with salt or any other pickling solution and wait for 30 min - a few hours. yakiniku = grilled meat!
("all funny men...") so in the japanese, where i wrote "funny man" the text originally said "boke," and where i wrote "straight man," it originally said "tsukkomi." i'm not sure how familiar everyone here is with comedy routines, but in japan they have a traditional comedy duo thing where one guy (the boke) says something stupid, and the other guy (the tsukkomi) hits him with a fan or etc. very simplified explanation. in the west we have something similar, a double comedy act where one guy (the funny man) is very silly and the other guy (the straight man) must maintain his composure. youve probably seen this dynamic in many animanga and sitcoms
aaaaand... i have a ko-fi, if you feel somewhat inclined to give me $3 for being a nerd about testament and supporting other testament fans who can't read japanese. i'd be really thankful!
that's all! bye for now ^_^
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writing-in-sin · 10 months
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Pattern in my OTPs: Sadistic! Top x Fearless! Bottom
Dont mind me, just self-indulging about my OTPs
Anyways!
Recently, I've noticed that I have a certain type when in comes to my OTPs which is a sadistic top paired with a fearless bottom. Granted, not all of my OTPs are of this type but I dont think its an exaggeration when I say that at least 90% of them are like this
GinHiji
Out of all of my OTPs, I'd say GinHiji pretty much embodies my favourite type of OTPs. Gintoki is canonically a Sadist and in fact, is known to be a Do-S alongside Sougo. Contrasting him is the fearless yet tsundere Hijikata. Another reason why I like them is the manzai combi they have. Hijikata is forever exasperated by Gintoki and cant help but be the tsukkomi to Gintoki's boke 🤣
BakuDeku
These 2 have a very complicated relationship but thankfully have improved a lot especially in recent years. Bakugou can be quite sadistic but considering what's happened between them and him canonically wants to do better, I think it'll take awhile for Bakugou to let out that sadistic side of him around Deku
With Deku though, he doesnt mind and I think we all can agree that Deku is a disastrous combination of fearless and reckless 😅
6927
One of my 1st OTPs since high school. Now, I dont think i need to tell anyone who's ever read or watched KHR that Mukuro is hands down quite terrifying and considering his introduction, has a sadistic streak a mile wide
For Tsuna, yeah....while its true that he tend to be more afraid than not but as time went on, it became more apparent that he's grown to be couragous and fearless when it comes to his Famiglia
KamuShin
granted, this is more of a crackship since Kamui and Shinpachi barely interacted but I like how their personalities mesh together. Kamui is another canonically sadistic chara in Gintama, anyone who's ever seen him fight in the Yoshiwara or Silver Soul arc can attest to that. Not to mentioned all of the shenanigans and mayhem he likes to cause with a deranged grin
Shinpachi is noted to be fearless in his own right, capable of accomplishing feats that other normal humans would feel impossible to even try. cant forget that he's also the one who made Utsuro pause before the timeskip
plus, they're also a manzai combi! a Do-S Yato boke with a glasses tsukkomi XD
ParaEmu
initially, i like them as a switch couple but recent years make me lean more of them as a fixed pair with Parad as a top. starting out as a villain, Parad was noted to be quite sadistic especially when he possessed Emu. He's since mellowed out but since we dont see much of how the charas are post-canon, its hard to say if he retained his more sadistic nature. i tend to hc that he does but only lets it out when needed
if anyone knows Emu's not so pleasant childhood and how he's risen to overcome many obstacles in life, then i think we can agree that he's become one of the most fearless charas in Ex-Aid
DeathPuss
okay, this one is pretty much on the nose. sadistic grim reaper hunting down everyone's favourite fearless hero anyone?
WangXian
Wei Wuxian is one of the most fearless charas I've ever had the pleasure to know about. the way he holds onto his morals and convictions even as the whole world turned against him is nothing short of inspiring. born with a smile and a noble heart that's matched by his beloved husband Lan Wangji
while he's not sadistic in the usual sense, Lan Wangji in the novel is known to mercilessly tease his husband especially in :ehem: bed. not to mentioned that when he deems it necessary, this man never hesitates to swiftly cut people down with just a few words right at jugular too
DazuShi
a suicidal former Port Mafia who's known to torture people paired with his steadily fearless were-tiger. i love their dynamic
MiSawa
Miyuki Kazuya is canonically known as twisted by both allies and opponents alike even feared to the point of petrifying the target of his ire with just a glare.
Sawamura Eijun? the fearless sunshine boy who overcome odds that would and have retired many players from the game. the Yips arc was remarkable in showing Eijun's strength and determination
KaiShin
the trickster who can easily manipulate law enforcements and enemies alike. its more noted in the early chapters of the manga, but Kaito was more callous. while thats no longer the case, Kaito is still quite unhinged
Shinichi? well, with all the reckless stunts he's pulled over the past 20+ years, i think fearless is an understatement for this detective
LawLu
the recent addition to my OTP list. LawLu is the one that made me realise that I tend to favour sadistic tops when I was trying to articulate Law's preference in my HC
thats when I realised that Law has a sadistic streak in canon. while its not explored all that much since he's an ally of the Straw Hats, we see hints of it. combined with the fact that he's a nerd, big on plans and control, he's a terrifying force. this is the same guy who cut opened 100 pirate hearts and sent them to the Marines
Luffy? he's fearless as they come. overcoming many hardships and coming out stronger. who fights for freedom and nakama even if it means facing death. hell, its canon that he's not afraid to face death for what he believes in
_____
With that said, I love my OTPs 🤩😍
.....Also, should I be worried that I'm a little too fond of sadistic tops for my OTPs? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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duckiemimi · 1 year
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i really don't wanna be that person but what is your thoughts on gojou with utahime as a pairing? like no hate to anyone that likes to ship them but i just don't see the significance in this relationship, especially since it feels like a reach when they try to compare utahime with geto for example, saying they have similarities supposedly, which?? utahime in general is like a typical girl from a manga that people seem to project onto because she has this tsukkomi vibes or something? like the whole dislike towards gojo is disregarded and treated as a joke despite adults in jjk are obviously capable of putting aside their distaste of one another to work for the greater good if goals aling. i honestly think these two work better as allies because they have rather sibling like type of dynamic. and i didn't mean for this to get so long and overboard but i needed to share and i hope you'll have some thoughts along the way because i really enjoy your theories and metas. have a good one :)
before i start, disclaimer: if you like gojohime, by all means, ship it! there’s nothing wrong with shipping two characters you think go together, so as long as you don’t pick unnecessary fights about it!
now let’s start.
i think i don’t see the appeal in gojohime because i see no chemistry between them. they’re professional coworkers who might even be acquaintances once in a while to me.
i think what i truly dislike, though, is how utahime is portrayed in the ship. if a woman says she doesn’t like a man, then she doesn’t like a man! but even through a reader’s standpoint, while these are fictional characters in a story we can find wholly knowable because they are readable (unlike in-real-life humans), there is no evidence to suggest that utahime even likes gojo. they work well together and that’s it.
i think because we don’t see much of utahime in the story, it becomes easy to see what isn’t there. most of her on-screen interactions with gojo, if not in tepid professional manner, are fiery, with her becoming defensive and quick to anger. i think many shippers read this as utahime becoming flustered and perhaps they see her as the quintessential “tsundere” who shows affection through irritability. if anything, though, i think we should consider the fact that teenage gojo used to blatantly call her weak and it’s definitely affected their dynamic as adults. utahime could still be a little resentful, and i don’t think gojo realizes this.
you also have to remember that gojo isn’t the most likable person (not character) in the series. nanami is not entirely fond of him, and neither are most of his students. they care for him, and they might love him, but he’s not an easy guy to get along with. it isn’t just utahime who finds him “annoying.”
as for the geto and utahime comparisons, they make me giggle a little. is it because geto is objectively the closest person to gojo, and that’s how shippers wished it was for utahime, or is it because they both have dark hair? besides the fact that pre-defection geto and utahime have a sense of duty as sorcerers (which also differ, by the way; their motivations were completely different), they have absolutely no similarities. where did this argument even come from?
i think it’s important to realize that you can ship characters without grasping at barely-there evidence. you don’t owe anyone your ship’s canonicity. you’re allowed to like a ship even if two characters have never even interacted with each other. of course, different people are bound to perceive the story differently, so i guess as long as you don’t pick fights, do whatever you want!
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demonslayedher · 2 years
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Things that ran through my head while watching this episode:
--Something I love about Uzui is that he strikes us as an extreme narcissist or somebody who just does random stuff and dramatic poses, but you can't even place him in that shallow of a box. He's a character who is hard to place at first because of his flamboyance and unconventional style, and part of the difficulty in making some gut decision about his character right away is because he defies stereotype. In every scene we get with Uzui, we dig deeper and deeper into what we erroneously might had assumed was a shallow box to place him in, but the box keeps going deeper and deeper--and the best part is, none of it is a front. What you see is indeed what you get.
--A friend who knows me really well once called me an Uzui type. I was shook. Of all the Hashira, he was the one I had the least desire to emulate (I strive most to give off Shinobu vibes when I'm at work), but then when I remembered this scene when he introduces himself, I recalled, "wait, I have indeed struck that pose." And if you catch me leading a nerdy tour group, yes, that's me. Painfully so. I promise I've never punched anyone for not following directions, though.
--Speaking of that same friend (whom I dragged into watching KnY), this episode has personal signficance to me because it aired when we had our first reunion in years, and not even an hour had passed before she underwent a small tragedy. It had the perfect timing for airing after she'd made some fragile peace with the situation, and it had us laughing and laughing to nurse away the pain. Could not had asked for better timing.
--I want that painting of The God of Festivities lording over the Kamaboko boys as a wallpaper for my computer. I love that while Zenitsu is constantly Tsukkomi-ing the others in his head for how more and more ridiculous they all are, Uzui just does it outloud straight to Inosuke's face. Uzui and Zenitsu are like two same ends of a magnet, repelling each other because they are the same in so many ways. I would like to see that grow to have enough of a friendship someday that they could talk about how they perceive other people's sounds and stuff like that, but I also find it so unlikely that they'd ever reach that contemplative level of conversation any time soon.
--That's so cute that Sumi & Naho are both clinging to Aoi. They're so relieved to keep her!
--Some of my favorite filler in this whole anime is the scene of Uzui and the boys checking out Yoshiwara. Not only does it establish the setting, but the boys are adorable and in-character, it gives Tanjiro (and the audience) a clear understanding of how this town works, and frankly, it's hilarious and adorable. Uzui has already had it with these boys before they start ticking him off even more while he's trying to explain the mission details.
--Makio, Hinatsuru, and Suma really are capable, as it was after they entered that they were able to narrow the suspicious locations down to three establishments. That makes me suspect that they slipped around more like maids from place to place, or just as Kunoichi who could blend in, before specifically infiltrating those targets as women who can be more entwined with the inner-workings. But the two things that get me are that they became Oiran so fast (what remarkable talents did they show off? Were they sold as being top property from other flower districts outside of Tokyo or something??? How long were they on this mission?? I have to assume being Oiran (and therefore more prohibitively expensive) made them less occupied by taking common customers), but also, WHY WERE THEY USING THEIR REAL NAMES????
--I love the off-key violins played in Sumiko's background
--Speaking of BGM, the one played behind Zenko as the screen fades to black and we get Zenitsu's angry thoughts towards Uzui is similar to the BGM played as his inner-space was infiltrated on the train and he started going gardener on the guy.
--Inoko picking up the ends of the kimono to walk faster, hahahahaha
--Again, loving the set-up to the Yoshiwara setting, from Koinatsu's footsteps to the dialect used by the yarite who bought Inoko--she feels like someone who has totally been doing this since the Edo period, though that might be a stretch. Also, after Inoko is dragged down the hall, there's the girl carrying a tray of food who stares after her a long time, then finally blinks. I love that Ufotable takes their time with things like this. Also!! I love that Neesan who sees promise in Zenko.
--According to Kimetsu Radio commentary, Hanae-san and the others were directed against doing falsetto voices so as to keep the boys recognizable (especially since it is harped over and over again how the three of them were chosen for how they'd be distinctive against each other). The directions for Sumiko were to do it as a "refreshing" tone of the Tanjiro voice.
--This is making me think back to how much fun I had with the activities at the TOEI movie studio's event in their Yoshiwara set, where you could carrying stuff like Sumiko or pose with the shamisen like Zenko. The shamisen kept getting broken. XD I posted photos here, but unfortunately what I thought would be a crafty way of getting way more than 10 photos on a single post backfired and they're only reasonably visible on mobile. Sigh.)
--Awww, Sumiko kept the candy from Koinatsu-oiran! If Tanjiro slipped that in his sleeve, I wonder what he did with that later? I'll bet his first thought was wanting to let Nezuko taste it. Also, I didn't buy it, but I liked that this was a piece of merchandise available at a traveling Ufotable gallery.
--So that outer layer Warabihime-oiran wears has a black pattern I can't recognize, but it reminds me of zoomed-in snake scales. It looks even more like that in the manga. Gyutaro reference!?!??!
--This low-lighting is doing all kinds of favors for Inoko's delicate features and bright eyes.
--I love the imagery of the ending theme, especially that tender shot of the Kamuro from the various Okiya being out in the sunshine, laughing and playing together, simply as the young girls they are. It's so freeing, especially considering the life they've been sold into and the harsher work which awaits them in the future. The beautiful oddity of those bolts of kimono fabric flying around provides such a moment of respite for everyone in that den of darkness.
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putschki1969 · 2 years
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[KEIKO]  "CUTLERY" Feels Like a Collection of Short Stories with Various Main Characters
Source: https://avexnet.jp/column/detail.php?id=1000604
Interesting tidbits:
All songs were written by a different composer and feature a different type of protagonist. It was fun for Keiko to slip into various roles
She explains her fast-paced releases with wanting to escape boredom. Everyone is getting bored easily these days and constantly looking for change (including herself) so having all these new singles and a new album every year feels exciting to her [I obviously understand the thought process behind this but I’d personally prefer higher quality and less frequency]
The title “CUTLERY” was inspired by her regular Uber Eats orders. Every order seems to have an option to add “cutlery”. Keiko feels like most people are probably familiar with the term by now. They are fashionable everyday items so the word seemed fitting for an album title
Keiko decided on the tracklist order by trying to find the most suitable placement within a person’s daily life (commuting, working, taking a walk, spending time at home, relaxing in bed, etc)
For the beginning she wanted some exciting up-tempo songs so no one would get bored. “Watashi Update” basically had to be even more crazy and unexpected than “Alcohol”. She compares “Watashi Update” to modern J-POP which apparently has a lot of words and less music. [Maybe one of the reasons why II can’t really get into this type of song]
The lyrics for “Watashi Update” are described as eccentric and rather self-centred. They reflect the thoughts of a young protagonist who is rambling to herself. That’s something that resonated with Keiko.
“Alcohol” with its sound and lyrics is quite sexy. Even though Keiko doesn’t drink alcohol she thinks the song has “Keiko-vibes”. It conveys a sort of tsukkomi image.
“Yoru no Uso to” features a very reserved and polite woman putting up a strong front in the face of a separation. The song awakens thoughts of someone you hold dear. Thoughts you wouldn’t usually allow yourself to indulge. Keiko feels like everyone has those kinds of feelings about someone which you would rather avoid or keep secret (whether it be a person of the opposite sex or the same sex) [Ohhh! Keiko once again sneaking in some possible hints. Makes the song even better!]
“KIRAI.” is apparently a song fitting for the TikTok generation but it probably also appeals to millennials. Keiko really likes it when girls are defiant and just won’t put up with any shit basically. The many rhymes and wordplays make the song sound light and fun but the topic is actually not that light since Keiko is singing about various worries of girls.
“Close to you” is soft and mature. A time to catch your breath between “KIRAI.” and “Amanojaku”. The structure is not very dynamic so quite unorthodox but it’s a gentle build-up. This was originally supposed to be in “dew” but she didn’t think it would fit.
Keiko highlights the peculiar guitar arrangement in “Amanojaku”. The song was written by a guitarist so there’s a lot of attention on the guitar. She thinks the girl in this song is incredibly cute.
“Fly, Black Swan” has a nice bass. Originally it was more jazz-y and digital sounding. The protagonist of this song is once again a woman but this time from the point of view of a man.
“Yura Yura” also has a sort of jazz-y feel but very different to the previous track. Strong vocals and impressive strings are what stands out here. There is a nostalgic and sentimental atmosphere.
“Your” was difficult. They lowered the key significantly compared to the original demo. She was advised to sing this a little aggressively and sharply with a strong male image.
“Hitori Janai Kara” was born out of her feelings during and after the pandemic. But she didn’t want a song that was too pushy and in your face. She feels like everyone has released songs like that during the pandemic because depression was strong. This is just a quiet statement to take time and face yourself.
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jjk chapter 242 spoilers under the cut!!
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JUST ONE SINGLE CHANCE KENNY PLEASE IM BEGGING 😥😥😥😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😥😥😥😥 U CAN DISSECT ME I DONT MIND …… im normal abt her. takaba move over </3 me next <//3
ive said it before and ill say it again; gege made this fight specifically for me like theres just no other explanation. FEM KENNY. FEM GETO? yeah. this chapter was a fucking fever dream and a full course meal and i ate literally every single crumb
FIRST OF ALL? SO many good kenny moments. the most silliest of kenny crumbs. hes looking a lil too good in some of these i adore this freak to the moon n back (HEAVY on the first and last one i fell to my knees)
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but aaaaa i just seriously love the direction this fight is going in, how kenny is the tsukkomi to takaba’s boke T_T n how !! kenny mentioned having no friends / takaba's greatest sadness comes from never having a comedy partner ☹️ !!! but in this fight theyre kinda filling that gap for each other and. i just think its nice ok…
this chapter was just genuinely so sweet and cute in some parts ??? im jsut . pshhdgsbv…… my sweeties…… kenny x takaba is no longer a joke to me i need them to kiss
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takaba is such a cutie ☹️☹️☹️ i love him !!! hes so happy to have a partner sob look at him blushing…... my silly lil guy !!!! i hope their show goes well !!!!!!
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mistbow · 1 year
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Zaveid, the Wind, Connections, and the Messenger of Love
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「恋の妖精さん」 風はいろいろな物を運び、生態系に影響する。それが風の天族になると……
“Messenger of Love” Wind can carry anything, and even affect the ecosystem. And when wind seraphim are involved, it's a different story...
“The wind can bring many beguiling pleasures your way. A letter, a melody... Even the heady perfume of love!”
Seraphim have their own blessings, whether they know [are conscious] of their own blessings or not. And their blessings are always related to their elements.
It is also said, as a joke, that Zaveid’s blessing is “matchmaking (mainly for himself)” (“縁結び(主に自分に対しての)”).
Anyway. Here’s the entire script of the skit “Messenger of Love” in both the original Japanese text and official English localization, as a refresher: 
ミクリオ「スレイ、ほらここ。下界にもイズチと同じ植物が生えてる」 スレイ「本当だ。ジイジの加護に包まれていたとはいえ、やっぱり繋がってるんだな」 ミクリオ「ああ。下界の植物が風に乗ってイズチまで運ばれて来たのかもしれない」 ザビーダ「おっと、風が運ぶのは種だけじゃないぜ」 スレイ「なんだ急に?」 ミクリオ「面倒な予感しかしない……」 ザビーダ「まあそう言うなって。青少年の君たちに関係してくる話だぜ?」 ザビーダ「風ってのはな、便り、メロディ、恋なんかも運んじまうから」 ザビーダ「何かあったら俺まで言うように!」 スレイ「 ……確かに、そういう風に言う事はあるけど」 ミクリオ「ザビーダだけには絶対、言わないだろうな」 ザビーダ「えーー!! 俺応援するし、良い仕事するぜ?」 ミクリオ「浮ついた話を聞きたいだけなのがダダ漏れだ!」
MIKLEO: Sorey, look. The land below has some of the same plants that grow in Elysia! SOREY: You’re right! Gramps’ blessing surrounds and protects Elysia, but I guess the two lands are still connected. MIKLEO: Yeah. Maybe plant life from the land below has gotten carried by the wind all the way to Elysia. ZAVEID: But seeds aren’t the only thing the wind carries, boys... SOREY: Uh-oh, what are we in for now? MIKLEO: Nothing good, I’d imagine... ZAVEID: Now, don’t be like that! This is a highly relevant topic for youths on the cusp of manhood! ZAVEID: The wind can bring many beguiling pleasures your way. A letter, a melody... Even the heady perfume of love! ZAVEID: So if anything like that ever crops up, ol’ Zaveid is here to be your guide! SOREY: ...It's true that sometimes things like that come up. MIKLEO: But you’ve gotta be the last person we’d ever tell about it. ZAVEID: WHAT?! But I’m your greatest ally, your most tireless accomplice! MIKLEO: You just want an excuse to pry into our affairs!
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I also want to bring your attention to the way Mikleo reacts to Zaveid’s offer for help here, compared to the more chill Sorey. In Zestiria comedy routines, oftentimes, Mikleo is the “tsukkomi” (“straight man”) of the group, who often acts as the only one reasonable, or at least he thinks himself as that. He’s so earnest, in a different kind than Sorey, that he usually takes himself too seriously, even when others are making fun of him.
But Mikleo has always been prejudiced against the wind seraphim, for some reason, anyway, lol.
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ミクリオ「……結局こっちの話は聞く耳なしか。風の天族はよくわからないのばかりだ」
MIKLEO: Guess he’s not willing to listen to us. I never did understand those wind seraphim.
But anyway. The first word in the novel epilogue (narrating Mikleo’s side of the epilogue just like in the game) is wind. It’s a big part of the epilogue, actually.
風が青年の頬を撫で、通り抜けていく。
朽ちた遺跡を進みながら、青年は思い出す。かつて、仲間と共にここを訪れたときのことを。
その頃の青年はまだ若く、幼なじみの人間と同じ年齢だった。
遺跡の歴史について幼なじみと意見を交わし、時にはムキになって議論しあった。そんな自分たちを、ほかの仲間たちは微笑ましく、また呆れたように見ていたのを昨日のように思い出す。
あれから悠久と呼べるほど時間が流れた。もはや人間で同じ年齢の者がいなくなって久しい。
The wind caressed the young man’s cheek and passed through.
As he continued to walk through the ruins forgotten in time, the young man reminisced. He remembered a time when he, with his companions, visited this place.
At that time, the man was still young, the same age as his human childhood friend.
How he would exchange opinions with his childhood friend about the history of the ruins, sometimes getting into heated debates with him. Then, how the other members of the group would look at them smiling, some astonished. He remembered as if it were only yesterday.
It has been a long time since then, long enough to be called eternity. It has been so long that there are no more humans of his same age.
Even more mentions of the wind here:
その意志を余すことなく受け止めたい青年は、ひとりでここを再訪したのだ。かつて訪れたときには見落としていたものが、幾つも見つかった。ひとつひとつ丹念に調べていくうちに、ふいに風が止んだ。
まるで何かの兆しのように。
青年は遺跡に触れていた手を止め、周囲を見回す。やがて風が戻ってきた。けれど風の流れが違う。遺跡内で何かが作動し、風の通り道が変わったようだ。
好奇心に導かれるままに青年は歩き出した。
The young man, wanting to accept in all of that will, revisited this place alone. He discovered several things that he had missed when he visited in the past. As he painstakingly examined each one, the wind suddenly stopped.
As if it were some kind of sign.
The young man stopped touching the ruins and looked around. Eventually the wind returned, however, the flow of the wind was different. It seemed that something had been activated within the ruins; the path of the wind had changed.
Guided by his curiosity, the young man started walking.
The rest, you should know already. The focus on wind is a bit peculiar here, when it’s about Mikleo, the water seraph. As if a sign, guiding him to his reunion with Sorey in the end. Is a certain wind seraph involved in this?
Because I think it’s nice if Zaveid, who everyone (especially Mikleo and Edna) sees as frivolous, even more especially when it comes to things like relationships, actually can genuinely help them out on this very exact matter. He just jokes a lot about it. And “縁結び” is often conflated with “marriage” or “[love] matchmaking” but I think it can be more general: “縁” is a unique word in Japanese, a concept that is hard to translate to English, but think of it as an invisible “connection” that life circumstances bring people together. Something like chance meeting, a fated encounter. Strings of fate, if you will. And “結び” refers to how he will tie that “縁”. Tying of bonds.
So I think there’s some truth to the blessing that is said to be said as a joke. Zaveid brings people together. (Add to this from what you know about him from Berseria too, for something extra.) Mikleo should be thankful for him now.
As said in Sylphystia Ultima,
スレイ「ヘルダルフ…!処断せし瞬天の先導!」 ザビーダ「いい頃合いだな!」 「「シルフィスティア!!」」
SOREY: Heldalf...! The wind that shall lead the way! ZAVEID: This time is now! BOTH: Sylphystia!!
The wind shall lead you the way... and carry the love.
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banqanas · 4 months
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I learned about Exile first because a Toku actor I adore was in one of their MVs, which was how I learned about LDH. Back then, Gekidan wasn't even really a thing. I discovered Sho through a comedy movie later and was immediately charmed by him. Next I discovered Onocha due to him being in the MV for a LDH girl group ("Love", they sadly disbanded pretty quickly).
It took a while before I really got into Gekidan after that. I did notice Keita in a couple of things here and there, but he had yet to make his big break.
By chance I discovered the Gekidan stage "Attack No1" which stared almost the whole group (minus Kanta because he wasn't part of LDH yet). Let me tell you what a blast that was. Luckily it was the first version with Kenchi and Tetsuya (both got later replaced in the second version by Naoki and Naoto, while Gun took over for Keita).
If you ever manage to get your hands on that stage, please watch the first version. It's one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen. Shin and Yuta kiss on the lips, Tetsuya marries off Onocha to Masa, though in the end it's Keita confessing (he's pining the whole time) and running away with Onocha. It's very wild.
It was around 2014/5 when I really got into the group, which was triggered by Omi's first movie and soon after the first HiLO season. Then Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Ultraman Geed happened at the same time, which was quickly followed by more HiLO, and after that there was no turning back for me. I still remember how Onocha congratulated Yuta on the Ultraman Zero role with Yuta saying that he was feeling a lot of motherly love coming from Onocha. XD
Idk if you know about their old manager's blog where he talked about the group and the members and what he thinks about them, saying that even though Gekidan is one group, it's actually two odd families living side by side with Sway being the weird uncle who shows up from time to time. Family A is Sho (papa, gamer), Shin (mama), Keita (too quiet/calm, often wonders what he's thinking) and Kanta (takes too many photos). And family B is Yuta (cook/househusband), Masa (owns too many cleaning products), Onocha (gamer/likes to annoy Sho) and Nobu (big brother).
(Also before I forget it; you are so right Gekidan + taiko drums are a match made in heaven. I really hope there will be a chance to see Aki, Yuki and Ken-chan doing it together with the others.)
It was really great to see Aki, Yuki and Ken-chan watch the JAM recital and cheer on their future group mates. They talked about it on Insta, saying that Aki was the responsible older brother who took his younger brothers to a concert. They were even decked out in JAM merch and all.
I think the photos of the summer outing are still up on the LDH Izakaya insta (I do remember that both Aki and Onocha posted about it on their insta as well). I guess we'll have to wait and see if they do the LDH Izakaya summer outing again this year and who gets paired off together since it's always odd pairs.
Wow you've known them for such a long time!!! Even longer than Kanta's history!!! and omg even seeing a stage with the Exile members...!! the only things i ever found of gekidan are just with the current members 😔
Ohh the gekidan family dynamics is so adorable 😭😭 that's exactly why i wanted to see interactions between the senior members and the newbies 🙏 i wanted to see where Akishio would put himself in the current dynamics because eventho he's new to the company, he acts around gekidan like he's always knew them personally (thanks to being in highlow & prilege i assume). He wasn't afraid to jab or tsukkomi the seniors unlike Maeken and Sakuyuki are.
I'm also interested to see how Machida Keita would act around the new kouhais because he seemed to be fond of Kanta. And like you said he's actually pretty quiet (with his reputation i thought he would be more talkative tbh) so it'll be interesting to see how he acts around new people.
I remember watching the Izakaya livestream with onocha, maeken and sakuyuki, but i guess i missed the one with akishio and onocha 😣 i hope they still have archive of it on CL
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