#i think it was shinya who said on twitter that it was his first time ever producing an opera. first time. r u fucking kidding me

[ikusayu-no-hana]

what possessed shinya and manzo to go absolute batshit over kiden's soundtrack why is it so haunting

[kyotakumrau]

2021.04.06 a talk event at Meguro Rock-May-Kan film screening at Namba Hatch with Kyo and Shinya  - PART 1   Report by とあ on twitter (topics are not reported in order things happened, I mostly followed the order they posted, 1st and 2nd session bits are mixed together)   my comments go in (*…) 

Shinya entered the stage in black hoodie, both hands in his pockets. He also had hands in the pockets when he left the stage. Came with a drink. 

Kyo came on stage with his arms crossed. He drank some water soon after sitting down, I thought he started to play with the flyer but he made an airplane from it.   Q “To Die. Please tell us the secret of your youth.”  Kyo and Shinya face each other and laugh.  Kyo: Is it okay to imagine what Die is doing? I said that I quit McDonalds, right? Die also said he hasn’t had McD in years.  Fujieda: He also said he doesn’t eat ramen.  Kyo: and he doesn’t eat spicy food.  Kyo: Now he’s just eating, like tofu? Tofu or soybeans.  Shinya: he researched and knows a lot. Even when going on a diet in the past he found a good plan.  During the rapid question time they also answered another one for Die “I bought Die’s model guitar. Please tell me how can I get better” when reading Kyo answered “tooth guitar”.  I think it was when reading about this guitar? Kyo started laughing then Fujieda started laughing and for a bit they both faced each other laughing. 

  “Coffee”  Kyo: I drink it black. Even at home. Using beans from Starbucks. I drink 1~3 cups a day.  Fujieda: Kaldi’s coffee is also great. They have many types.  Kyo: If you say that they have many different types you have to try them to compare.  You don’t say this even though you didn’t drink them, right?  Fujieda: I tried quite a lot. There’s different one for each season. Now they sell sakura blend etc.  Kyo: Ah, then it’s fine. If you drank it.  Shinya: some years back I bought Nespresso coffee maker but I’ve only used it for 2 weeks. It’s still in my house.  Kyo (suddenly looking at Shinya): gimme! (くれ!)  Shinya: o, okay.  Kyo (turning to Fujieda looking happy): he said okay!  Kyo: Then I will give you a coupon to get that right side curl fixed. it caught my eye that looking from here that just the right side of your hair has this weird curl.  Shinya: No, it’s not weird...  Kyo: But I will give you a voucher to get that fixed.   

 “What’s your routine before the show?”  Both of them don’t have one  Kyo: Does anyone have?  Fujieda: Toshiya is doing muscle training.  Kyo: Ah... and doesn’t Die move around a lot?  Shinya: He does. Until the start he’s very restless.  Kyo: Right? Even when we all gather one is always going back and forth.    “Your favourite takoyaki”  Shinya: I don’t care. Even though I’m from Osaka I don’t really eat takoyaki. It is said that every household in Kansai will have a takoyaki machine but we didn’t. In the 20 years I lived there I only had like 5 octopus balls.  Kyo: That time when you were wearing that long earring? You only had 5? So what type?  Shinya: the one that is crispy outside and soft inside   

“A difficult song”  Shinya: Rinkaku. Because I need to keep kicking. It’s faster than Zan. The drum is nice but it totally kills my leg.  Kyo: DIFFERENT SENSE as I said before. I imagined a dialogue as it’s a heavy song when I made it, but when I didn’t get any response, I ended up having to sing all of it by myself so it’s really tiring. I tried control my breathing when swimming but I can’t.  Kyo: So in the end it’s like swimming the whole thing without breathing.  I was told by Kaoru to try pointing the mic [at fans], but all I get is ‘eh right now?’ (gestures pointing with his right arm) I get ‘eh here?’ The people in front of me try to respond, but the people on the sides (again points with his right arm) go ’eh? Eh? Here? (agitated) so I gave up. I don’t mind if it’s the wrong pitch, just put your feelings into it. 

 Kyo: I started playing Monster Hunter. On Switch.  Takabayashi: I’m also playing.  Kyo: Then let’s play together! (big grin)  Takabayashi: Okay.  Shinya: I bought it on the day DS got released, but I couldn’t understand the objective of the game after playing for a day so I didn’t feel like playing anymore.  Kyo: So you just started playing from zero by yourself? No one helped you saying what to do?  Shinya: Yup.  Kyo: If you told me I’d have helped you.  Shinya: So in the end what happens? What is the goal?  Kyo: there’s none.  Shinya: What?  Kyo: You just continue getting your level up.  Shinya: And for how long do you continue to play?  Kyo: There are people who continue playing until the next game comes out.  Shinya: Woah... 

 "What weapons you're using in Monster Hunter" Kyo: I'm using a bow. It might seem it's because it's huge, but I can attack from a distance and avoid being found. Make a shot from a distance, if you're found out you can run away. Direct confrontation is scary.

 “During the Osaka period what studio did you use?”  Kyo: Was it in Umeda?  Shinya: Yup.  Fujieda: What was the name?  Kyo: I don’t remember. Do you?  Shinya: Yes. It was M4　www.m4-studio.com  Kyo: That’s some memory.  Shinya: I booked it. I confirmed the date with 4 of you and called them. We made Karma and Aoi Tsuki there. 

 “About Oboro teaser”  Kyo: Could you see me? I only watched it on my phone so couldn’t tell what was what. 

 “Rock-May-KanGIG"  Shinya: there were many problems... no one around me [to help]. When my ear monitor fell out I had to fix it myself. And I made this rookie mistake of not pressing record on camera...  Kyo: We don’t remember things like that.  Kyo: Do you remember what you ate a month ago? You don’t right? It’s the same. You might remember that the main dish was shrimp but you won’t remember sides.  “About SOGAI in May”  Kyo: something that will happen in a month...Do you think about what you will be eating in a month?  Fujieda: But I think many fans are looking forward to it.  Kyo: I guess, but that’s because they’re going to enjoy the food. From the side of people who will be cooking you only start preparing about a week before, no?  Fujieda: So you will start feeling motivated a week before...  Kyo: Nope.  Fujieda: Shinya, do you think this analogy works?  Shinya: After hearing it I think so.   

“What are some food combinations that you find just wrong?” (*from other twitter reports the question had example like pineapple in sweet sour pork etc)  Shinya: as long as there’s no foods I dislike anything is okay.  Kyo: I don’t have any food like that, but but I hate when people mix different sports brands. Wearing adidas with Nike shoes and so on. When I see someone like that I want to tell them ‘could you not?’ 

 “What expensive item have you bought recently?” 

 Shinya: I’ve already answered this earlier. A camera. The camera itself was 40k and lens was 20k yen.  Kyo: What do you use the camera for?  Shinya: For recording and so on.  Kyo: What kind of [recording]?  Shinya: For youtube or Haiiro.  Kyo: Isn’t iPhone good enough for that?  Kyo: When I’m taking a photo I just pass my iPhone and ask someone.  Fujieda: I was given a camera for taking photos, but after about 15 minutes I was told to use iPhone in the end.  Kyo: Do you know what was different?  Fujieda: I didn’t.  Kyo: (*going back to the main question) an expensive item... Nike and Garcons sneakers I guess. They were about 20k yen.　(*Pegasus?)  I’m drinking coffee while looking at the sneakers. 

“Do you prefer indoor or outdoor festivals?”  Shinya: If it’s daytime then indoor. It would be too bright outdoor in daytime.  Kyo: I hate insects so indoor. Weren’t there so many insects when you had plants? Fujieda: Speaking of insects, don't they get into your mouth when you ride a bike? Kyo: You ride a bike with an open mouth? Silly kid. Fujieda: Instead of having open mouth, it's like there's suddenly an insect in your mouth, when it crashes into you. Kyo: Riding a bike with an open mouth is silly. Why, are you singing? Fujieda: Sometimes I do, actually. Kyo: If you're singing while riding that's okay, if you just have your mouth open while riding that's silly.  

 "About SOGAI in May"  Shinya: We're working on the setlist, it will be great.  Kyo: That's why I don't want you to ask me about a concert in a month. Don't ask me questions about concerts next year. I won't answer.   

 "What's a good place in Hirakata?"  Shinya: Hira pa (Hirakata Park) and TSUTAYA, right? TSUTAYA is where I was born.  Fujiefa: Eh? Really? I didn't know.  Kyo: if in Tokyo you say Hirapa no one will understand   Kyo: Do you know? (looks at Shinya) when you just come in and there's a place with dogs Shinya: Like real dogs?  Kyo: Yeah. There are about 20 dogs, but all are so tired. Lifeless as if they were abused. Of course they weren't abused, but it's a place where you can spend some time with dogs but they are so tired, so lifeless and tired that it's almost a shame they are kept there.  (*I think he's talking about Doubutsu Hug Hug Town) 

  "What hotel facilities do you find exciting?"  Shinya: ...for example?  Fujieda: ehm...  Kyo: This is not something exciting, but. You know in a shower? When you don't know if you're supposed to move the handle up or down? Maybe this way? And then when you move it the water suddenly comes out from above! (Shinya nods)  Fujieda: That's criminal! Was it hot?  Kyo: First water came out, but when I turned the handle the water suddenly poured from above, I got totally soaked. How do you use that?  Shinya: there are some places where water comes out in 3 places instead of 2.  Fujieda: Criminal!  Fujieda: Anything exciting?  Shinya: Like?  Fujieda: Like a big tv.  Shinya: I don't watch TV.  Dujieda: That's true, you don't. How about a very good pillow?  Shinya: I don't care.  Kyo: And the shower [head]! Just from one hole the water goes in a strange direction, there's nothing stuck there, just water, but just this one spot. What's that about?  (Shinya continued to nod while smiling)  

 "To Shinya. What time did you wake up today?"  Shinya: Around 1. At night.  Fujieda: What time did you go to bed?  Shinya: I think about 10pm.  Fujieda: You almost didn't sleep at all.  Kyo: Aren't you an old man now!  (*🤣🤣🤣🤣) 

 "What toothpaste and toothbrush are you using?"  Kyo: Any toothpaste is okay, but I prefer small toothbruses. Because I have very complex teeth. Like a maze. You get lost there. That's why I choose a tothbrush with a small head, has good reach.  Shinya: I'm using a toothpaste from overseas with an M, any brush is okay for me. But I use one with water coming out of it.  Fujieda: Is it electric?  Shinya: Yes.  Fujieda: Is it painful?  Shinya: Well sometimes it gets a bit bloody.  Kyo: You're really into it (laughing) to keep using it even if you're bleeding. 

  Kyo is watching The world unknown to Matsuko every week (depends on the episode but it's interesting), when finishing the 2nd sessiin event Shinya said 'go straight home and from 8:57 watch The world unknown to Matsuko'. It already started and it seems [dir] appeared there.  

 "Where do you want to tour besides Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka?"  Shinya: Somewhere we still haven't been to... where was it?  Takabayashi: ehm... Shimane, Wakayama, Saga.  Shinya: There.  Kyo: Kyoto. Kyoto is good. Kyoto is the best. Even now I'd love to [have an event] in Kyoto instead. Kyoto is the best or, I want to become Kyoto.  

 "What animals do you like in the zoo?"  Kyo: ehm... sheep I guess. I want to look at them or hold them.  Shinya: Animals you don't see in everyday life like giraffes, elephants or lions. 

"What do you like in an amusement park?"  Kyo: I guess the haunted house? Yeah, haunted house. It's okay when people try to scare me. It's not scary. I'm laughing all the time.  Fujieda: So you can enjoy FujiQ no problem?  Kyo: I haven't been, but I think it's fine? I would be fine bringing a sheep with me I guess? Going in while stroking the fluffy sheep.  Shinya: Ferris Wheel.  Fujieda: How about the thrilling ones? Shinya: I don't like them. Fujieda: So Ferris Wheels for Shinya, understood.

 "About shooting Oboro PV"   Shinya: It was tough. Kyo: You say that? Say that to ME?? Shinya: Well, you were shooting naked. The green stuff got all over my clothes and cleaning that took ages. Kyo: Ah, I guess. But you could've gotten it dry cleaned, no? Shinya: It was a fabric that cannot be dry cleaned. I couldn't remove it in the end so I gave it to Fujieda. Kyo: You did? You got it? Fujieda: Yeah, I passed it to the person who designed the costume. Kyo: I see... Shinya: And the floor was very cold. Kyo: You say that?!?!?! Fujieda: Were you okay, Kyo? Kyo: Yeah... I'm a pro in the end. Fujieda: Oh (claps) Kyo: Are you mocking me? Looking down on me? Fujieda: No! Not at all! I clapped because I think that's great! Kyo: No, you're defnitely looking down on me. It's the same as the 'whats your salary like?' 'this much' 'oh'.

 tbc

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

Die and Toshiya member talk at SENDAI GIGS 13th March 2021 Bits III

 Notes from twitter user botdv_304

- Question: Have you ever had a hard time because of your height?

Toshiya: When I go to grandpa and grandma’s house in the countryside…. the entrance is low, so I might hit my head?....

Die: Sometimes at exclusive/high class shop, isn’t there a place where the entrance is really low? Don’t you hate that? (laughs)

----

-Talking about a festival that left an impression on them. In Germany?

Die: Many things being thrown. Like crushed cans or tiny soccer balls. The stage was full of stuff like that.

Toshiya: I got hit by a stone that someone threw.

Die: Then I realized, something that fell off…. A bra…..it was quite big.

Fujieda: Eh….did they take it off and throw it?  What happened when they got back home?

Die: They were bra-less? ----

Fujieda: Die, what do you do for haircare?  What do you use? Like shampoo and so…

Die: Are you (asking this) unreservedly?

Fujieda: Yes….it’s the thing you are careful about the most!

Die: Well, I use shampoo, then the conditioner, then things like hair mask and so….

Toshiya: That takes so long, so long…. ----

Fujieda: Toshiya, where is Kaoru now?

Toshiya:  *laughs* at home, at home…..*laughs*

 ----

Fujieda: Toshiya! Kaoru and Shinya said that JEALOUS' B-melody is difficult. Is there any difficult song for you?

Toshiya: I forgot

  -----

Fujieda: Today you are feeling “on” or “off”?

Die: Well,  On! If it weren’t “on”, it would be bad (laughs)

 -----

-How difficult was  to shoot at ROCKMAYKAN?

Toshiya: I don't think we had any particular difficulties ... I felt like I was going to the actual performance after rehearsing as usual. It feels like a virtual live with no audience, but it was nice to be able to play the five of us.

  ------

*Toshiya looks interested in a paper . It’s a psychological test.*

Toshiya: Test yourself. Which is the place that you don’t want to go the most? 1.Dark forest 2. Abandoned and decayed House. 3. Cemetery 4. Tunnel Die chose the tunnel. Toshiya and Takabayashi chose the forest and Fujieda the cemetery.  The one you chose reflects what a person is scared about the most.

Tunnel (Die): The future. They are worried they can’t see their future. Forest (Toshiya and Takabayashi): Loneliness. They need to have someone nearby. Cemetery (Fujieda):  They are not scared. If they can live happily, that’s fine.

Die: I can’t see what lies ahead….I’m scared! Takabayashi: Loneliness? Toshiya: Well, one person is scared… Fujieda: Me? Toshiya: If you can live happily, that’s fine (laughs) -----

About their drinks.

Fujieda: Toshiya, is that coffee?  Toshiya: That’s it?  Fujieda: Die is drinking carbonated water…  Toshiya: Do you have that information?

Fujieda: Toshiya, what are you drinking, is it always coffee?

Toshiya: No,  it’s not that….sometime it’s tea. Coffee or tea.

Fujieda: Do you prefer warm drinks?

Toshiya: Warm…..cold….

Die seems to like the sound of the bubbles of the carbonated drinks.

----   -About Oboro

Toshiya: I can't say much right now, but ... I think it's the core song of the album, so please look forward to it.

Die: It's not finished yet ... it's at the final stage. It’s overseas now ... I think that once is completed and finished it will come back. (He seems to be talking about the mastering stage, the master engineer seems to be a new person?)

 ---- -The OP doesn’t remember the question, but it was about the Shinkansen train.

Fujieda: Toshiya, did you miss the shinkansen this time?

Toshiya: (I took the train) at the last minute *laughs*

Fujieda: It was really at the last moment *laughs* Just about 1-minute left…

Die: Ah, I thought he wouldn’t come  to this…

Fujieda: You made eye contact with Die…..You were late last time, right?

Toshiya: I…..I've been waiting in Shinagawa for a long time….

Die: Doesn’t make sense (laughs)

  -----

-About next concert with audience.

Die: I'm happy to be able to play in front of everyone. I can't say “please come " in a loud voice, but when Corona is over, I want to make a live that makes me happy to experience.

Toshiya: In 2020….I was like “what’s going on?”….I was frustrated. But I can't get that time back, so I guess the right answer is to move forward. I would like to have a live performance that shows us trying to move forward.

  ----

Fujieda: Toshiya, among the members, are there any Ameotoko (rain man)? *Ameotoko (rain bringer man) refers  to an unlucky person that seems to be jinxed to have the rain follow them wherever they may go, thus gaining a reputation for ruining special events such as weddings or sporting events.*

Toshiya: That would be…..that person…

Fujieda: Who is that person?

Toshiya: I’m not telling *laughs*

 ---

 Fujieda: It’s still cold in Sendai

Toshiya: Weren’t you like an energetic kid yesterday?

 -----

-Die about meeting the members for the first time

Kyo:

Kyo told Die to talk later but he thought Kyo was just being diplomatic, so he went home. They met at a venue about a week later and Kyo told him “You went home that day, right?”. So, they talked again at the emergency stairs and Die was invited to join his band. When Die thought about it later, Kyo wasn’t in a band anymore at that time, so he wondered if Kyo tried to contact him.

Die: Flyers at that time were black and white, and the image quality was poor, but I think he chose me for that (the flyer).

Kaoru:

Die: When I first met him, he was at another band. Kaoru was also a good guitarist. He told me “You often play lives here, right?”

Yamo-chan (Shinya)

Die: It was at a taiban ( band’s event) but I didn’t notice him at that time. Later I was like “Were you at the Taiban?”

Toshiya:

Die: I used to say hello to him at live houses, but we properly talked at a Sugamo’s coffee shop. Kyo was with me. It seems that Toshiya lived close to Sugamo, so Sugamo was fine. Kyo and me weren’t used to Tokyo so we didn’t know how to get to Sugamo. We got on the opposite Yamanote line and I said, "Isn't it the other way around ...?"  and Kyo replied "Maybe ..."

---- 

Fujieda: Die, have you had any fun lately?

Die: Today!

  ----

Notes from user rikr66603 at twitter.

 Die about meeting Kyo:

Die: I met Kyo for the first time at a toilet. Our bands were playing at a taiban (battle of bands/band’s event). Kyo was doing his hair at the bathroom and I passed behind him and say “nice to meet you”. He told me to talk after the live, but I thought he was just being polite. Like “Let’s drink someday”… I thought he was just being polite so I went home. *laughs* The next time we met, he told me  I went home after that and I told him “I thought you were just being polite” *laughs* He told me to talk later that day after the live. He invited me to do a band together at the emergency stairs. It was a big turning point. Kyo wasn’t in a band at that time so he was like “come and see me”.

Fujieda: Kyo said he saw you in a flyer and thought that your aura was different.

Die: I used to put a lot of flyers at live houses. They were black and white. The image quality was poor. It seems that he chose me among them." )

---

About Oboro.

Die: We used to shoot individually and combine them but this time the 5 members gathered and did the shooting…..5 members…or should I say 6? *laughs*

Fujieda: To be exact, there were 6 people *laughs*

Die: Did we shoot in January? Or was it at February?

Toshiya: February

Die: There was a woman and she couldn’t move even though it was cold. Or even if she got hungry, Kyo either. Kyo was very close to the woman (makes a hand gesture of about 30 cm). It seemed awkward. He/we were talking turning sideways.

Fujieda: They couldn’t move. Also, he was covered in a liquid…. the other members as well, right?

Die: it was a cold liquid

Toshiya: It felt gross when it got dry….

Die: It was dirty….

 ---- 

Highlights of the live footage

Die: JEALOUS. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing from the intro. The recording was at a private house. Ah, didn’t we do it at a private house?

Toshiya:  I haven’t gone there.

Die: We used two rooms at a apartment house for the drum and bass. We pierced/ put through the wall a cord and recorded it. The guitars and Kyo were recorded at a private house. It was the engineers’ house. He lived in a normal residential area. Behind the house you could heard the dogs and the crows in the evening. The dogs were barking so you could hear the dogs at Kyo’s signing part. We waited for the dogs to stop barking so Kyo could record. I got fever and I felt asleep. I put a futon on the tatami floor and I slept but, there was the portrait of a deceased old woman that I didn’t know. While thinking that I wasn’t going to get better, I felt asleep.f Was it May? After that, we recorded for 3 weeks in New York. The difference from doing it in a private house was amazing.

[sailorspazz]

10 Dance Vol. 6 Special Edition overview

Volume 6 of the 10 Dance manga was released in Japan on March 18th, 2021. As with volumes 4 and 5, there are both regular and special editions available. In this post, I will provide an overview of the release, including observations on changes that were made to the chapters compared to how they were printed in the magazine, plus summaries and select scans of content from the special edition booklet.

It is often the case that when chapters come out in the manga magazines, they aren't always fully polished, and since I became highly familiar with this run of chapters from the summaries I made, several things immediately jumped out at me as I went through the book. First of all, though chapter 29 was split into two parts and released in subsequent months in the magazine, these two halves were combined into one chapter, with no indication they had ever been separate. I assume that they were always intended to be one chapter, but since the full chapter was not completed before the deadline (and it was a month when 10 Dance was being given the cover image, so not possible to delay its release), it was simply split over two months instead.

For visual changes, the most common alteration was scenes that originally had little or no screentone having it added in:

There were also some instances of either slight panel redraws, or complete replacements with new panels. None of these were from particularly important scenes, so it could just be Inouesatoh or someone on her team didn't like the look of the original panels and wanted to change them. The following example has a bit of both, with Suzuki in the upper left corner being replaced, and his eyes being redrawn in the lower panel:

Personally, the most amusing addition I noticed was when Max was thinking about throwing a party. Originally, we didn't see what he was envisioning, but in the volume, an addition has been made in the background: the New Year's piece Inouesatoh drew with sexy men dressed as cows, except now they're bunnies!

As for dialogue, it appeared to be almost the same in both versions throughout. Some minor exceptions include a spot I found where the dialogue was put in a different order, swapping Sugiki’s lines between this panel and his first line on the following page (in addition to another altered panel example):

As well as in this shot of Suzuki describing how they tug at the thread that connects them through their dance. Whereas before it put the word “dance” next to the part about tugging on the thread to specify what was meant by that, it was deleted in the volume. And while it was originally described as “affirming that we’re connected”, this was also tweaked a bit to be, “affirming our connection”.

There were a couple instances of character names being different from when they appeared earlier in the story. In this volume, two characters who were last mentioned back in volume 2 (Lucas Calvo, one of the champions at the table in Blackpool, and Deeks, who Ernie said hated Sugiki because he "stole" his girlfriend), either from typos or intentional changes, weren't the same as before. Lucas' last name was written with a 'g' sound (ガルボ) instead of a 'c' (カルボ), and this change carried over to the volume. On the other hand, Deeks' (ディクス) name got transposed as Disc (ディスク) in the magazine, but was fixed in the volume.

There was a typo that unfortunately made it through to the volume (but could perhaps be fixed in future printings). In chapter 34, when Norman is testing Suzuki's skills, he flashes back to Sugiki taking the national title from him several years earlier. The text in this scene, written in English, incorrectly states that Suzuki won the championship, rather than Sugiki.

The volume also includes the usual additions that are not present in the magazine, such as the under the cover flap comic, and Inouesatoh’s notes about each chapter.

The cover flap comic (which looks very much like a sketch, compared to previous ones that have had more complete art), features the Shinyas during a practice session earlier on in the series in December, where Suzuki complains that Sugiki’s Latin just isn’t sexy. Sugiki suggests that he can practice being sexy by wiggling his butt around to write a message in the air. Suzuki worries that if he starts writing out “love” or something, he’ll have to run away and escape. Sugiki gets started, and Suzuki calls out each letter that he can make out from his elegant butt bouncing. After figuring out he’s written “M-E-R-R-Y”, Suzuki guesses that he’s writing “Merry Christmas”. Sugiki gets mad that he said it aloud before he finished writing his message, and says he’s going to leave. Suzuki says, “Wait, I love you,” as narrative text says that this somehow turned into a love story in one panel.

And here are some tidbits I found interesting/amusing from the chapter notes:

She thinks readers who are fans of pecs will like Saichi.

She’s not sure if readers will love Max or hate him, but she personally likes him (sorry Sensei, I kinda hate him lol)

As of chapter 32, a portion of the art is now done digitally.

The epic “last dance” scene from 33 was something that she had planned since the beginning of the series, and it ended up being 8 times the cost for a typical chapter.

Special edition booklet:

The special edition comes with a 48 page hardcover booklet that includes a variety of different extras, divided into 8 sections called “heats”.

Heat 1 is a newly drawn, 12 page parody manga. Back in September 2020, Inouesatoh put out a request on Twitter for fans to send in their suggestions for an erotic side story. Putting the characters in a high school setting was the most requested scenario, so she chose this idea as the basis for the story. The title is “And All That Jazz” (the premise makes this somewhat confusing to summarize, so keep in mind that I’ll mostly be describing their actions based on the soul rather than the body, but will use quotation marks if it’s about other characters and who they think they’re addressing. It’ll all make sense, I promise...I think :P)

(The title page actually depicts the ending of the story, so I’ll come back to it later). It starts with Suzuki narrating his introduction, saying that he’s a transfer student to the Standard Academy. He really doesn’t get along with a guy named Sugiki, but for some reason, the two have now switched bodies with each other. Sugiki opens his shirt and inspects his new physique in front of other students, as Suzuki yells out asking what the hell he’s doing to his body. They look at themselves wearing each other’s expressions, Sugiki seeming surprised his mouth can gape open like that, and Suzuki wondering what happened to his body’s facial expression muscles. The bell rings and Sugiki heads off to class, as Suzuki is baffled that he can act so calm about this.

Sugiki perfectly reads a passage aloud in English class, something everyone (including the teacher, who looks like Norman) find unusual coming from “Suzuki”, as they wonder where his usual hearts are. Suzuki makes the decision to enjoy living as Sugiki for a bit, and is shown getting flirty with several girls. He notes that the more serious personality in his regular body is also strangely popular, though with a very different crowd.

A student named Alberko (Alberto in a girl’s uniform) shows up and says that “Sugiki” was supposed to have lunch with her(?) today. Suzuki says that he thought Alberko was going out with Dorou (a masculine alteration to Dolores’ name). Ernie and Suzuki watch as his harem falls apart with Alberko running amok. Ernie comments that both “Sugiki” and that transfer student have been acting weird all week, and he asks if something happened. Suzuki internally reflects back to one week earlier, when he was relaxing in bed in the infirmary. Sugiki comes in and accuses him of skipping class, and Suzuki tells him to mind his own business. He thought this would turn into one of their usual fights, but he can’t believe that actually happened instead...

After school, Sugiki asks Suzuki if they can go home together today. As they’re walking, Suzuki asks if Sugiki realizes what it was that made them switch places, and Sugiki says he does. Suzuki says that in that case, they know how they need to fix it, and they should go over to his house. Sugiki asks for clarification of whose house exactly he means by that.

As they start to get undressed, Suzuki says that he always thought his mom and sisters were annoying, but after a week apart he really misses them. Sugiki promises that he’ll make sure he can see them soon. Suzuki claims that he’ll be the one making Sugiki come, and Sugiki asks how he can talk like that when he was the one who looked like he was about to cry when Sugiki first touched him in the infirmary.

Sugiki peeks into Suzuki’s pants and wonders if he won’t get hard unless he touches him. Suzuki thinks it’d be weirder if he could get hard while looking at his own face, and wonders if Sugiki has AI in his crotch or something (Sugiki contends that it’s not his body). They fool around with each other until they finish, and Suzuki wonders why they didn’t change back yet. Sugiki suggests that maybe it needs to be just like the last time to count as a complete set, when they went at it until they fell off the bed, so both agree that they need to go for one more round. This then ties back to the title page, where they’ve finally managed to get back into their old bodies, but have now sprouted cat ears and tails.

Heat 2 of the booklet is 8 pages long, and contains short comics and illustrations that were not previously included in the volume releases. The comics include “How to 10 Dance”, a one-page comic with the Shinyas demonstrating the tango. Their privates end up touching, and Sugiki seems highly amused, gleefully asking Suzuki how it feels. Suzuki says that he was the one who got all bent out of shape over that back in volume 1, and tells him to lay off the sadist mode since they’re not dancing Latin right now. The second comic is “2nd Step”, and shows a glimpse of how the Shinyas were with each other after Suzuki gave the go-ahead for kissing. In fact, Sugiki ends up kissing him so much that Suzuki’s lips get sore and swollen. Sugiki then tries to kiss his neck as an alternative, but Suzuki’s not having it. The third comic depicts Suzuki’s first time in a public bath, where he realizes that Japanese people aren’t fully shaved everywhere like he is. Some of the old guys talk to him and slap their balls with their towels, and Suzuki, seeming a bit confused, gives his own balls a slap, too. After the comics are a selection of illustrations that were never used in the volumes, including this one from a Real 10 Dance event in 2018:

Heat 3 is 18 pages, and contains a variety of colored versions of both chapter covers and scenes from the manga, a couple of which I’ll share below:

Heat 4 includes 3 pages of insight from the professional dancers who consult for the manga, in which they explain the moves shown in specific panels.

Heat 5 is a single page look at Inouesatoh’s work space.

Heat 6 is 3 pages worth of advertisements that have been used to promote the series, including things like ads that were posted in subway stations:

Heat 7 is a single page look at the storyboard for chapter 1 of the manga.

Heat 8 is a single page showing the covers for foreign editions of the manga (Taiwanese, Korean, North American, and French).

Finally, there’s one last page with a thank you message from Inouesatoh, including an absolutely precious illustration of the Shinyas in happier times.

And that’s that! This really is an incredible release, and I’d definitely recommend picking up the special edition if you can. CD Japan offers direct international shipping, and I’ve also seen that Kinokuniya lists it as “available to order” currently (though they don’t appear to have stock on hand, so might take longer).

[gdwessel]

Rumors About Ospreay + Unrest In The NJPW Locker Room; Government Adds Okinawa to State Of Emergency, Another Extension Possible; Quick Review of DSOTR Collision In Korea; Shota Umino News!; Ren Narita on Dark Elevation; Satoshi Kojima In Impact Next Week

Strap in because this is going to be a long one.

There are rumors and reports coming out now (mostly from one source, the Voices of Wrestling website, from behind a Patreon paywall) that Will Ospreay's injury may not be what it seems, and there is growing discontent to the point of "mutiny" among the non-Japanese wrestlers regarding the state of emergency, the last-minute decision to resume touring when some were already travelling out of Japan, and the constant need for quarantining when coming back into Japan. Unfortunately this is as much as I can say, because this is behind a paywall, so until it gets made for public consumption I’m kinda limited in what I can say.

I can totally buy that all is not well within NJPW, especially after the COVID-19 bubble has burst. I've already discussed the creative malaise happening in the company right now. That there seems to be backstage dissent shows possible signs of trouble ahead for the promotion, and this golden period that we've been accustomed to is well and truly over. (I mean, it already was once lockdown happened, but they did the best they could, in my honest opinion, including a Pretty Good if not great WK15. Right now, creatively, we are below 2nd-half 2018 levels of poor.) But NJPW has weathered these storms before, although not with a global pandemic looming over everything. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that Ospreay is indeed injured, because a) they haven't exactly been shy about wrestlers being injured and needing to vacate titles before b) if Ospreay is legit injured, he is far more likely to receive treatment as a citizen of the UK from the (somehow still alive if not totally hobbled by Brexit) NHS, as opposed to Japan's healthcare system which is far more like the US model. Some wrestlers are swearing up and down he is injured, from the rumors. Ospreay certainly hasn’t said anything in his own words, beyond RTing NJPW’s announcement of his injury and vacating the title, and posting a pic of himself kissing the belt. RevPro kinda sorta said something but were also pretty vague. But for an injury suffered on 5/4/2021, this pic posted on 5/18 does not look like someone who just had such a severe neck injury they need to fly back to the UK (mind you, it COULD have been taken much earlier than that). Indeed, Ospreay’s still-active Twitter is more focused on Hana Kimura at the moment*. All this said, professional wrestling by it’s very nature has a baked-in amount of bullshit as part of it, so that this injury might be phony is always a distinct possibility.

It is utterly believable there is conflict between wrestlers and management, and communication is piss-poor at best. It is also believable that NJPW and Bushiroad are only taking their cues from a government Hell-bent on holding an Olympics an overwhelming majority of those polled are against, and who are treating the extended state of emergency as a vague suggestion rather than as a, you know, state of emergency. Pretending everything is hunky dory hasn't worked so far, so not sure why NJPW, nor the Japanese government, think eventually it will. (And NOAH is on my shit list right now too.) On that note, the government has now officially added Okinawa to the state of emergency. There is also talk that it will be extended further, as a government subcommittee member is quoted in the article as saying “it is difficult to think” that it will be lifted on 5/31/2021. Among that talk is word that Tokyo particularly will be under a stricter lockdown if this goes on. On a piece of actual GOOD news, it has been announced that the government has approved both the Moderna and AstraZeneca versions of the vaccine, so perhaps the vaccination rates will start to go up at last.

* - The anniversary of Hana Kimura’s tragic death is tomorrow (5/23/2021). I still sometimes struggle with the idea she is gone. Tonight at 10:30pm EDT (which is 5/23/2021 12:30pm in JST), FITE TV will be showing a live Hana Kimura tribute show put on by her mother, Kiyoko Kimura. Have a look in if you can

I was able to watch the Vice Dark Side Of The Ring episode on Collision in Korea, the two-night joint NJPW & WCW show from May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, on 4/28 & 4/29/1995, as it aired Thursday. It will hit YouTube here pretty soon. I am working on a podcast project about this documentary, and the (WCW version of the**) show itself, with the good lads at the Days Of Thunder podcast, so I won't talk too much here, but I will say a few things about it:

I did appreciate the detail here, as well as being able to get an interview with Antonio Inoki for this, especially as he was the principal driver of this show happening. I did also like that they took time to detail Inoki's mentor, and the "father of puroresu," Rikidozan, who himself was a North Korean national by birth. I did not appreciate the mythical pathos they added to the death of Rikidozan, which by all accounts was a random street fight with yakuza over a perceived insult (stepping on Rikidozan's shoe). I also felt they could have done a better job explaining the situation between Japan and North Korea at the time. When the event was first proposed to the NJPW roster, Scott Norton recounts Masahiro Chono telling Norton that "they want us dead," but it took until introducing former CNN foreign correspondent Mike Chinoy nearly halfway through the documentary to (briefly) explain the brutal colonialism that Japan wreaked on North Korea in the first part of the 20th century.

Also, as salacious as DSOTR can get, I am very surprised one of the most famous rumors/stories about this show did not get discussed, the internet wrestling legend that Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto were, erm, Quite Vocal when they were together, which of course did eventually lead to their marriage four months later which continues to this very day. But that was also part of another critique I had, which is, they mainly focused on the WCW part of the events, when this was an NJPW promoted show. The way it was told on DSOTR, the only Japanese wrestlers there were Antonio Inoki, Shinya Hashimoto, Akira Hokuto and Bull Nakano. I'd love to hear more from the NJPW side of things, besides how proud Inoki was of this political stunt that did not get him re-elected to the Diet anyway.

Overall, I do recommend watching this when and how you can, because it is absolutely bonkers. I will definitely keep you posted on when the podcast project for this drops. ** - I've tried looking for the NJPW version and have failed so far. NJPWWorld only has two matches from this, Antonio Inoki v. Ric Flair, and Akira Hokuto v. Bull Nakano. The WCW version is not officially released, even on WWE Network, so yeah search the internet to see it.

We finally have an update on Shooter! That is, Shota Umino. Earlier in the week, RevPro's official Twitter had a tweet saying This Summer, showing Umino in not only his white/pink Tanahashi-esque tights, but holding his Death Riders jacket from Jon Moxley, that Shota retweeted, making this his first tweet since September 2019. Two days later, a hype video appeared with footage of Shooter, including performing Death Rider. Now a Sports Illustrated article is claiming that Shooter was supposed to have reunited with Mox on the NJPW Strong episode that had Mox & Chris Dickinson face Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita, but Umino had an unspecified injury preventing that. (They further say that Mox v. Nagata’s IWGP US title match was originally set for Strong but Tony Khan convinced NJPW to hold it on AEW Dynamite.) Umino's last match listed on Cagematch was on 3/14/2020 in ATTACK! Wrestling in Cardiff, Wales, on the winning side of a 6-man tag match with Kyle Fletcher & Kid Lykos II defeating Shigehiro Irie, Chief Deupty Dunne & Los Federales Santos, Jr. It's great to have him back wrestling again, and I hope we get that reunion with Moxley soon enough too.

As an update to an item from an earlier post, it appears that the Ren Narita v. Royce Isaacs match that was teased but then not aired on AEW Dark this past Tuesday will actually be on AEW Dark: Elevation this coming Monday instead. Also part of that will be approximately 35 other matches (I only slightly kid), one of those being Rocky Romero v. JD Drake. This usually drops on YouTube at 7pm EDT / 6pm CDT Mondays.

This past Thursday on Impact, a video package showed that Satoshi Kojima would be appearing on next week's episode. This will be Kojima's first time ever wrestling in Impact under any name, as the last time NJPW and TNA were working together, Kojima was still away in All Japan Pro Wrestling. No word as to what he will be doing or whom he will be wrestling.

Also on Impact, Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr. successfully defended the Impact World Tag Team titles against Ace Austin & Madman Fulton... before getting blindsided by two members of the Violent By Design unit (in this case, ECW veteran Rhino and former AJPW Triple Crown champion + cancer beater Joe Doering) with whatever Impact's version of a Anytime Anywhere Challenge is, and took the belts from FinJuice. They claimed FinJuice were going back to Japan, but, erm, who knows if that's the case or if it was for a time period when Wrestle Grand Slam was still a thing that was happening.

Also also, it seems Don Callis is no longer in any executive capacity at Impact. This is a little significant as it seems it was Callis who opened the negotiations back up for Impact to work with NJPW. Of course, lately he's spent more time as an on-screen heel manager for Kenny Omega, the Good Brothers and now the Young Bucks on both AEW and Impact programming. We'll see how much longer Kenny Omega's belt collector shtick goes on for with Callis no longer part of creative or management.

And that is actually it for now! Yipes!

[yridenergyridenergy]

Hello there! If you have some time to spare; I would be very interested in hearing your opinion in each album of Dir en grey so far.. or what they make you feel like etc etc.. If you got the time ;)

The Insulated World

If you try karaoke with this album, you quickly notice that the MAJORITY of the lines are structured long and you always run out of breath. Like you are spent and out of oxygen or life after each. It's tasking on the abdos, painful no matter whether the song is constituted of screaming or is a 'ballad'. Whether it is by screaming the end to expulse the last bit of breath or transitioning from one sentence to the other for as long as there is still air in your lungs, Kyo orchestrated these lyrics in a manner that demonstrates his meaning, which will bring him to the brink of death and that he wishes to use all ounces of his existence to transmit. "Until my very last breath". With this album, it helped that I worked on posting the lyrics and stuff to incorporate them into my understanding from the start. So, there is no escaping that this is the "I hate myself" album. But this loop of ending the last song the same way as the beginning of the first song – I scream therefore I live – is genius. Globally, the tone isn't one void of hope.

Another particularity with this album, I think, is the "spitting" going on. The 'dare' sounding like 'zare'  in Ningen wo Kaburu for instance isn't just a Kyoto accent: you can hear the lack of restraint, the raw and unfiltered loathing that can't warrant one second spared to collect the saliva properly in the mouth. But it's not screamed as much, everything has been very reflected.

Musically, I have found myself detecting melodies that are extremely familiar to ARCHE and Dum Spiro Spero ever since their release. That was usually on the first couple of listening sessions though, so I would have difficulty pointing them out now, but it feels like the raw sound is not as unique as it used to be. Perhaps just the band thinking about giving themselves a break on stage by thinking about how difficult things could be to play and keep in mind if they want to move around or interact with the fans.

 THE MARROW OF A BONE

Some sorrow, but an orgy of frustration. No care for how long, just short bursts of anger stringed one after the other. That being said, there are some interesting guitar melodies among everything using that dirty, somber tuning, even though Shinya's track does not demonstrate his independent streak. Overall, listening to this album, I develop a vision of dwindling, swirling pieces of flesh exposing a head that exploded open out of sheer intellectual anger? Perhaps because of the majorly English lyrics which, coming from a Japanese, means that there was more effort put into them to reach a wider range of recipients. There was too much contained but not just in the heart – like the person tried to contain it and reason with those feelings, however it became overbearing and transcended all restraints of the mind.

 UROBOROS

Before even realizing that that was the intended world view featured in the ultra deluxe release whatever, from the first few songs I was really imagining a desolated landscape. A very somber one. Throughout the album, it feels like you navigate from one area to the other in this world, encountering deserts but also destroyed cities and even living beings, like demons. And yet, at the end there is a twist of hope, it seems. Overall, UROBOROS sounds so sophisticated, the melodies are starting to be elegant while dirty and low. But, I hadn't noticed before, you can discern some melodies following the lyrics very closely like in all of the rest of the music produced in the world. Still, this album really has Shinya shining with his truly unique, genius drumming. If you don't know what I am talking about, watch him or an amateur drummer playing GLASS SKIN. To finish, is it just me or does this album's guitar riffs sound very "piratey"? In addition to the dry, post-catastrophic land, there is some personality in the guitars that my mind associates to pirates for some reason... Well, UROBOROS is very beautiful and goodness, I love Tue Madsen's mixing.

 VULGAR

This album is ominous but exudes confidence. There is something daring about the individuality of the songs that is fully assumed and goes in your face. The music is more repetitive than in most Dir en grey albums, but the heavy riffs are catchy and there is a plurality of sounds regardless. With this album, I get reminded that Kyo's voice is rather unique in the Japanese music scene for not being as low as the average singer. I love the UGHs throughout the album. It's very lyrics-heavy, each song is an individual story for sure.

 Six Ugly

Again, the music can be repetitive but there are some very good beats and sound experimentation. In general, this mini-album gives me the sense of a renegade teen expressing madness both as frustration but also as some delusion. It's slightly on the crazy side hah. The way it ends is representative: a scream followed shortly by a laugh.

 GAUZE

As much as I was approaching this album now with some resentment due to those people on Twitter who hold it as the sole album worth mentioning in all of Dir en grey's history, damn this was a very, very solid debut album (MISSA tends to be overlooked hah). It feels like a train,  both as a continuous, relentless ride but also a train hitting you head on. The music can get very repetitive at times, but there are such good riffs too. The tone of the singing throughout most of the album is "revendicateur" (no real equivalence in English), respectful but very powerful regardless. There are already very interesting experimentations with the voice at this early stage.

 MISSA

How did Shinya even go from such standard, non-varied drumming skills to his genius and unique performance of these days... Still, much better than a lot of other stuff I hear on today's radio or from the past, and especially from ANY other visual kei/J-rock band of that era. I listened to Aoi Tsuki all the time before hah. There is something insolent about the sound of the guitars in this album. The repetitiveness and the lyrics that are dragged on make this a more contemplative work.

 (As far as semi-albums go... Do you consider The Unraveling one? AH don't get me started on this one, my love is absolute! 改-KAI- is just remixes though...)

 Kisou

Like I am witnessing a very particular ceremony. There is demonic mixed with frustration and sadness. There are some highly powerful atmospheres in the songs on this album, like Bottom of the death valley, Gyakujou Tannou Keloid Milk and Karasu. It's vicious, it keeps me transfixed. The transitional tunes (shinsou) are so nice to have, they really transport you from one mood to another.

 Withering to death.

Ah this is when I discovered Dir en grey. THE FINAL had been enough to trigger the rest of this past decade+. This whole album grips my heart and elevates it, deepening the trend of exuding all that's inside. And hey, having watched these songs live a few times, they definitely have that 'dancey' vibe. There is a remarkable trace of maturity in this album from all members and every song is very unique. Ending with Kodou too... All in all, a very relatable work, like everything that followed.

 ARCHE

Du Shinya génial tout craché. This album wholly demonstrates Shinya's talent, the rolling and so diverse drums. Overall throughout this album, the bass and drum tracks are very, very appreciable. And the guitars pave some amazing, fantasist sonorities. ARCHE, to me, is desolation but, primordially, HOPE. It feels like the sadness is acknowledged but the energy of this album possesses me, courses through my veins and what unfolds is an encouragement to take control and turn your gaze forward. When a closed one passed away, "What now?" from Chain Repulsion and other segments of the songs on this album surfaced in my mind. When the dearest soul in my life passed away, in the end, this album is what I turned to in order to assimilate the situation, pour it out and still leave with a sliver of hope.

My initial thoughts about ARCHE when it came out was that the songs were universes that were cut short prior to being fully fleshed out. Almost a "coït interrompu". Now, I deeply appreciate them as they are, but indeed each tune is a world of its own, so immensely unique. There is something very stubborn about some of the songs too, like "I won't let you ignore what happened, I'll make sure of that". Seize the reins.

 Dum Spiro Spero

I get the image of one horribly gigantic and tenebrous snake sliding across the ground, fangs bared but discrete, prowling. There is something difficult to seize about these songs, like they are up there on a pedestal trying to lure me in with fantasy golden linings... Otherwise, I am quite biased by a review I had read, which described this album as the opening of the gates of hell, letting loose all that it had imprisoned. I really agree with this depiction. The sounds on this album are very bewitching, it's as if there was magic involved and many of the songs sport twists and turns, as though to pull the listener into various tunnels up and down in something that you are not too sure you want to partake in.

 MACABRE

Honestly I am relieved when I remember that this came right after GAUZE, not Kisou. Macabre's content is definitely very raw and overall, the sounds are very constant. It feels like a storyteller album, where things are expressed and you are entranced, but as far as relating to the stories being told... Weird things are going on sometimes hah. What is sure is that, no matter the range of emotions, they are powerful. There is little restraint to this intensity and madness. What it starts, it ends. And this album gave us the likes of Wake, a fist in and of itself.  

 And yet, throughout these two decades, there is an unmistakable constant of five men producing unique rhythms that aren't bound by even one another and yet come together as one to form a plethora of the most genuine expressions of pain, sadness, anger and, still, hope. Which is why I say that my favourite album is all of them.

I would be very interested in reading other fans’ impressions of each album too, and curious to know if anybody agrees with my thoughts on them. Let’s open a discussion!

[vnshkk]

Let's talk about Kyo's media blackout.

It is with a slight reluctance that I post this. It's not wise to mention Tanuki online nor share what they talk about within the overseas fandom for a multiple of reasons. 

1. I don't want them to get angry at me

2. I don't want the overseas fandom to flip out and judge the Japanese fandom

3. I just want everyone to be chill and happy and flowers

But I've seen a lot of people freaking out, a lot of random theories floating around and people worrying so I wanted to post this theory and open it for discussion. 

Of course this isn't fact. It's pure speculation. But given the timeframe, PERSONALLY I feel like this may have had something to do with Kyo decision. 

So I post this with two DISCLAIMERs. 

1. As mentioned this is not in any way fact. There is no proof that Kyo does or doesn't look at Tank. I simply find it interesting the sequence of events, the timing of the media blackout and I am only translating this for those who are interested. I hope this doesn't cause any huge arguments or any bad blood. It's simple here to discuss and consider.

2. Please do not judge the whole fandom based on Tank. Just like any forum, any comment section on the world wide web; there will be people who leave negative feed back. It is a tiny portion of people and not a reflection of the Japanese fandom as a whole. Judging them based on what they said would be like someone looking at negative comments or sarcastic jokes on Tumblr and judging the English speaking fandom. That's not to say what they post is okay, but it's just dumb shit posting and shouldn't be taken to heart. 

you get me fam?

Okay, so I contemplated posting screenshots and translating what happened immediately after Kyo changed his profile picture up to when he deleted everything but as I said I don't want to be taken out by angry tank users so I'm just gonna translate a selection of posts. 

These posts are taken from the Meg thread (remember the girl linking arms with him at a concert? That's Meg.) which to be honest is a shit show. It was a thread born from those notorious pics and for over a year now has remained a place where people post rumours, shit talk, complain and just make shit up a lot of the time. So please, AGAIN, bare that in mind. It is a place of negativity born from a scandal that shocked a lot of the fandom. Aint nothing nice ever gonna be said there. Periodt. In reality a lot of the people who post there are still fans of Kyo. I think they're just still a little hurt by the way it came to light about Meg. 

After Kyo posted his new picture I checked tank before going to bed because I was curious about what their reactions would be and everyone had exploded. During the 7 hours I was asleep Kyo deleted everything and left the internet forever so tbh given the fact he was probably bored in a hotel in Fukuoka, just did a radio show, probs wanted to see peoples reaction, etc I personally, believe he was on Tank. This is a running theme in the thread itself and people often say he actively browses it (this is not a major thing, a lot of guys in bands browse tank same as celebs browse twitter. Why Kyo would look at the meg thread in particular? idk. ) 

SO TLDR 

Yesterday around 7pm the thread suddenly changed to mixed reactions after Kyo changed his Twitter pic. 

"His new twitter icon had me shook lol" 

"I hope he changes his instagram one too" 

"Idk I don't like how quickly he's become some kind of social media old fogey" 

"Kyo's turned into a social media monster too" (*edit; my bad Yuchi is beer monster, Shinya is social media monster lol)

"It's kinda cheap" 

"I get you, it's like he's lost his values" (probably because Kyo has always made big deal about how much of himself he shares) 

 It continued like that for a while with people more or less saying the same thing until he posts about leaving social media.

"He just suddenly said he's not gonna do social media anymore" 

"lol after he went to all the effort of changing his profile picture" 

"I'm shook" 

"annoying 40 year old nut job" 

"Bet you he came on here"  

"Do you normally change you icon then quit" 

"Join Kyo online" 

"idg why even though Kyo's had so many haters since he first started twitter he's suddenly affected by it??" 

"I still think he's cute even when he's sulking like this lol" 

"I knew he was looking at Tanuki"

"I don't get why he's suddenly deleting it after all this time?? It's like what is this old man on about?" 

"It's lame how he's making such a big deal of out saying he's quitting" 

(lots of people agreed with this post saying that he's acting childish)

"I wonder what happened? Like everything seemed fine recently. I mean we'll never know but like I'm sure he has a lot going on.." 

"I can't believe he basically wiped his instagram clean but left all the pics of cake and omurice lmao" 

"If only he'd go to sleep earlier and eat a banana the serotonin would fix everything" 

The random comments and mixed reactions continued for all of Friday.  One of the main points that stuck out after the initial reactions was how people began to become suspicious that this was merely a tactic to get people to join Kyo online with people claiming this was typical of business man kyo,  that it was about that time of year where they usually begin to advertise and promote in order to get new members. 

So, allow me to play devils advocate for a second. As someone who is a member of Kyo online I have to admit since he started posting more and more online (compared to hardly ever on Kyo online), the membership has become more or less invalid. In the past it was worth the money for the videos and pictures that as fans we rarely saw. But if he's going to post them online then it raises the question (tickets to concerts aside) is there any point in being a member if you can just get the content for free?  I'd imagine that this plays some kind of role in why the reactions are often negative. Members of Kyo online have suddenly gone from having something exclusive that was only for them, to simply being a part of something anyone can access. 

Another point someone brought up is that whilst it's acceptable for Kyo to be upset. It is very, very childish and the timing is selfish.  Sukekiyo literally made their instagram days ago and suddenly Kyo states how he isn't going to post online anymore. This act instantly casts a negative feel on Sukekiyo's insta. It almost gives a vibe that any picture Kyo is in might be "against his will". Kyo is not new to criticism. He's been in this game for 20 plus years. Everyone who is in the Indies scene knows about Tank. Every fan, every bandmen, knows it's a bad place filled with mostly shit posting and rumours and doesn't represent fans a whole. 

The meg thread is simply fans flogging a dead horse, posting any poor Japanese girl with a straight fringe and some tattoos, anyone who looks even a little like Meg and saying she MUST be a groupie of Kyo. Which begs the question why would Kyo go there? Why would he look at that? Why would he want to subject himself to that kind of thing and then punish the majority for some dumb comments a few bored fans made? What was he expecting by going there?

Of course there is no proof Kyo lurks. But the reality is he probably does, I mean he's only human, he' s bound to be curious about fans reactions for Madara, etc and where else to get honestly reactions than an anonymous forum? Personally, as someone who has lurked tank for a few years now, I think he reads it. There have been times in the past where he's mentioned certain things, done certain things and I've thought "hmmm that's weird tank was literally talking about that". But once again there's no proof. It's just one of those vibes you get sometimes. (one major one I can think of is during the interview for mode of gauze where he said everyone massively complained about it. I know people can submit questionnaires after lives but I feel that a lot of Japanese people are more brutally honest when they can hide behind anonymity. ) 

Considering the "staff" posted a pic of his feet on the sukekiyo instagram today, I feel like this is just Kyo being (sorry to say) butthurt and it might just blow over.  A lot of the comments mention his age, mention how he's clearly trying and failing to copy 20 year olds by using insta, that he's lame or cringe and that's gonna hurt anyones pride. But I honestly think Kyo should be looking at the billions of comments on instagram of people who love him rather than a few trolls online. 

So with that being said I hope this was an interesting read and gave a little insight into why Kyo is often private. It was a big deal that he was posting so much and actively using instagra. I for one was very happy. I believe that in this day and age it is something that is required in order to engage with your audience and keep a good relationship. Hazuki and Ruki are good examples of this and Ive been saying for the longest time I wish Kyo would get more on board with it. So it's a shame he's left at the first hurdle. 

Oh well. This is why we can't have anything nice isn't it. 

[onsgiftexchange]

Melodrama - GureShin Yakuza/Mafia AU (R17+)

◈ Pairing: GureShin ◈ Characters: Hiiragi Shinya, Ichinose Guren, Ferid Bathory, briefly mentioned Kureto and Mahiru ◈ Genre: Mafia/Yakuza AU ◈ Warnings: Angst, Gun Violence, Blood and Gore, Injuries, Stabbing, No Happy Ending, Character Death, (heavily implied) Major Character Death ◈ Word Count: 4032 ◈ Summary: 

Killing the host would be a vigilante’s wet dream, Shinya and Guren told each other in the days leading up to embarking to downtown Tokyo. To see his long, silver hair stained red from the blood gushing out of his head—to see his body riddled with bullets upon bullets upon bullets—to see those unsettling, vacant eyes gloss over as the convicting hammer of death cast his filthy soul into hell.

Author’s Notes: Hi, Feli here! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ Surprise, surprise, I am Ouyajuice’s (tumblr // twitter) Secret Santa for the ONS Gift Exchange. I hope you enjoy reading! (And let me know if you’d like for me to continue and take away Guren’s rights.)

Broken champagne glasses reflected more of an internal state than any mirror ever could.

Factions in a modern day guerrilla war against each other in the bustling criminal underground of Tokyo was nothing novel; each day, reports of catastrophic street battles littered the daily news morning, noon, and night; families were torn apart; husbands turned on their wives; sisters killed their brothers—all for some supercilious illusion of power no one would have the fortune of uprooting.

That didn’t stop ambitious rival gangs from trying.

What was to note, however, came from the flaring extravagance of these modern-day gangs calling the messy, gruesome shots in Tokyo day-in and day-out. Lavish philanthropic ballrooms filled to the brim with the most influential names in Japan and overseas—the aroma of escargot and Venetian wine, of freshly popped champagne glasses sensuously mingling with Parisian perfume tinging the chandelier-lit hall an ambient pink. The expensive flatscreen televisions displayed a slideshow of a variety of food and drink choices offered, as well as a growing list of names of some of the attendees.

Though, the true allure didn’t come in the form of luxury kissing the patron’s senses, but from the patrons themselves.

These patrons clad themselves in crystals and gold, largely ignoring the undeniable fact that their bounty came from blood. Only the richest survived, and the rich would continue to get richer if there was enough blood on the floor to wet the bottom of a martini glass. 

Within the sea of patrons having a hearty time laughing at some awful dinner party joke and complementing the financial success of the friend, they were about to have their lower ranking yakuza members slaughter in the back of an alley—discard their remains across the underbelly of Tokyo as a cruel scavenger hunt, and wipe out their entire bloodline—were those who sought to level out the playing fields.

With weapons concealed under a dashing dress suit of expensive material and golden Rolex watches, a handsome, handsome pair of men leant against one of the walls furthest from the grand stage at the back of the ballroom, sipping on crispy champagne and engaging in small talk with peers they knew they were tasked to murder in less than fifteen minutes. 

A sturdily built man with dark hair carefully combed back into a formal sweep—with just a few strands sticking out to add that spark of charisma so essential to his character—passionately, protectively wrapped an arm around the waist of his fair-haired companion who laughed softly at some horribly told joke one of the women attending the banquet dared to utter in his presence.

He felt the gun securely strapped to the waistband of Shinya’s trousers and had to resist the urge to rip it off of his partner and fire a single round of hot steel between this woman’s eyes.

“Ladies, please, if you keep inflating his ego like that, he’s going to end up leaving me again!” Shinya said with audible amusement, but Guren knew well enough that there was abjectness and fear carefully woven into his words with a solid mask, and he groaned loudly enough for the beautiful man at his side to laugh and lace his fingers through the ones at his side, making a show of how affectionate he wanted to come off to these patrons.

But the crushing squeeze cutting off Guren’s circulation was a far, far, far cry from affectionate. It was hostile. Angry. Terrified. And a reminder to him of the mission they were given from their Boss, Hiiragi Kureto.

“Again?! My goodness, what do you mean again?!” One of the women cried out incredulously, black hair swishing around as he dramatically turned her head between the men before her, the pink Zinfandel dangerously close to splashing over the rim of her glass and staining her hideous white fur scarf.

“Shinya, can we not—”

“Yes! Do you know I saw him sleeping with my sister before I caught her?” Another loud groan followed by a chorus of scandalized gasps and an enraptured laugh. “I admit, my sister was beautiful. Was. But we all know beauty is fleeting and God loathes sinners, cheaters, and nasty fiancée-stealing whores.”

“Oh, is she not alive anymore?”

“No, she betrayed our family. Sold our information to The Brotherhood and tried to run me through with a sword, haha! This guy—” Shinya jerked his thumb backwards with a jovial smile, intentionally catching Guren’s bottom lip and ignored the irritated “ow” that curdled the fabricated atmosphere of amiability. “—still hates me for killing her, but what was I supposed to do? She nearly put a bullet through his pretty little head before I could, so I had to protect the man I love.”

Shinya surveyed the sea of sympathetic nods, bright blue eyes glancing upwards to catch the boiling gleam in his partner’s stormy ones and shot him a satisfied smirk. For some reason or other, knowing that he was admitting to total strangers that he killed his sister– for secondary reasons like protecting his family’s gang, and more importantly for sleeping with his husband-to-be– felt good. He was boasting that he killed her, and these women didn’t think anything out of the ordinary, like murdering your siblings was just daily life (which, for these criminals, it was).

Petty shithead.

“Oh, Mr. Hiiragi, I am truly sorry for the circumstances, but it’s good to see that you and Mr. Ichinose are back on track! Have you sent out the wedding invites yet?” Another woman asked, a curious expression on her face, like she was dying to know of any other juicy conflicts these bright young yakuza are involved with. Before Shinya could open his mouth to indulge the woman in his fair share of gossip and continue throwing Guren under the bus, the crowd of patrons near the front of the stage erupted into delighted screams and deafening laughter at the arrival of the courier of the banquet.

Just as the noise died down, a small beeping from a Bluetooth securely  positioned in both men’s ears rang as a signal for them to begin their mission. Guren huffed a short “Let’s go” into Shinya’s hair, meant to appear to the guests as a gentle kiss placed on the side of his beloved’s head.

“We’re finalizing the last few details before we get them printed out. First, I have to hear Guren say he loves me and to make sure my engagement ring wasn’t won in some cheap arcade,” the smaller man laughed, holding up his left hand sporting a lavish diamond ring to the women to emphasize his point and send the joke home.

Oh, he sure is a lady killer, Guren thought with soured levity and a wry snort at the irony.

“For now, you’ll just have to wait for your lucky golden ticket. Until we meet again, my dears! We have some other business to attend to, but I would love to get your opinions on some decoration colours one day soon.” Shinya dismissed himself and his partner from the company of the women, his friendly exterior melting to expose the ruthless assassin borne as his true nature the moment he and Guren distanced themselves from the women.

“Thanks to you, we’re going to ruin this mission,” Guren hissed quietly as he checked his watch for the time and poked his head above the crowd of tipsy patrons for the unmistakable flagrance of their target.

“Will you shut up and search for him? I want to kill him so I can go home and get Kureto off my fucking back. I don’t know why he couldn’t get any of the expendable rookies to stop wasting our supplies on inconsequential turf battles and kill this pretentious asshole instead,” Shinya snapped back, lowering his tone so only the violet-eyed man could hear his heated words of aggravation for the task they were so graciously given.

“Well, if someone wasn’t bitching about my suit before we left the condo I might’ve had time to put in my contacts so I could see—”

“Stop. What you were planning on wearing was so ugly, Guren. I couldn’t let you do that to me—I refused. Why do you even own a yellow suit? Why? Who gave that to you? Who lied to you and said you looked good in something that is just a mustard cum rag?”

Between the tense silence and the muffled laughter from one of the waiters who overheard their conversation, not another word regarding the evening’s earlier mishap was spoken. Shinya didn’t need to see his fiancé’s face to know he was both livid and irrefutably embarrassed, with the flush dusting across his angled cheeks, past the dark circles under his eyes, all the way up to the tips of his ears.

The platinum-haired man snickered to himself as he reached into the holster at his side to unclip the polished Glock. The action brought no attention from any potential onlookers, either too consumed with the fanfare of fancy food, useless chatter, and illicit riches or arrogantly assured the man loading bullets into his gun was not here to ruin their nights.

No, the yakuza’s intended target was a singular foreign man who engraved himself into the merciless gang scene with his nonstop triage of intimidation, torture, slaughter against any and all who stood in his way. How sickening it was for such a monster to host a philanthropic dinner to donate all the proceeds and contributions to abused and neglected children in foster care, knowing damn well that he was responsible for the gruesome deaths of all those children four years ago in the Hyakuya orphanage.

But no charges were ever brought against him; the police were too busy shitting themselves over the very near and dear threat of losing their only source of income if they actually gave those poor children justice.

Killing the host would be a vigilante’s wet dream, Shinya and Guren told each other in the days leading up to embarking to downtown Tokyo. To see his long, silver hair stained red from the blood gushing out of his head—to see his body riddled with bullets upon bullets upon bullets—to see those unsettling, vacant eyes gloss over as the convicting hammer of death cast his filthy soul into hell.

“Do you see him?”

Squinting and scanning the patrons, Guren suddenly sucked in a breath, nodding firmly in the direction of the buffet table near an “Employees Only” door—most likely a rouse for the crowd and a quick escape plan for the host—and grabbed Shinya’s soft hands to get his attention. He lowered himself to brush his lips against the shell of Shinya’s ear, his warm breath dancing across his skin as he dropped his deep voice to a whisper. “The bastard stuffing his face with those little pastry things? The ones Kureto makes the lower ranks buy for him before a meeting? That’s Ferid. If we don’t kill him here and now, let him escape, then we’re both dead.”

All Shinya gave was a slight nod of acknowledgement, eyes flitting around the grand ballroom for all possible escape exits and any of Ferid’s guards, lest he and Guren fail detrimentally in their attempt. Pushing himself away from his partner already disappearing into the depths of patrons to cover himself, Shinya slowly approached Ferid with the gun loosely connected to his hip and ready to be fired at a moment’s notice. Besides the front archway leading to a magnificent set of dark cedar doors to the brisk night-time air and the “Employees Only” door directly behind Ferid, he noticed no other options of a quick escape for either the egregious host or the rival yakuza.

So either they’re blessed or extremely fucked.

Releasing a shuddering breath of apprehension and exhilaration, Shinya turned his head for merely a second to look for Guren, hoping to see him somewhere nearby as a safety crutch—but he was met with only patrons laughing in distorted greed and corruption. He saw pampered, makeup beaten cheeks; horrible plastic surgery to achieve a youthfulness never once experienced; wicked smiles of deceit and betrayal from other reputable office officials and yakuza bosses surveying the younger, oblivious women and sizing up the young men ready to throw their livelihoods and identities away for a named painted in curdled innocence and false hope of prosperity.

Much like how he and Guren were indoctrinated into this mess.

Just as Ferid came within walking distance—only five or six steps away—Shinya began to feel horribly wrong; a rapidly expanding ball of dread weighing down his stomach as the target came into view, absolutely unaware of the danger closing in on him. His left hand reached behind him in the most inconspicuous movement he was capable of, carefully managing the reactions of the warm bodies pressed around him in case they became privy to the black Glock sparkling under the limelight.

Alas, the thrill of the first bullet would not be used on Ferid.

In the midst of his calculating steps intended to deliver one fatal blast to the base of Ferid’s neck, the silver-haired gang member didn’t realize one of the waiters carrying a tray of champagne glasses had trailed behind him–bubbly liquor in one hand, unsheathed knife in the other. Completely inattentive to the threat of being stabbed, Shinya pulled back the safety on his gun and aimed it at the host’s carefully managed head seconds before he heard glass shatter; held the trigger ready to release and plant a bullet that would make a pink and red Banksy out of their biggest rival’s brains mere seconds before the weight of the world thrust into his side in the form of polished steel from the banquet’s kitchen.

He felt the cold metal of the knife cut into his skin immediately before his body registered that it was wounded, punctured, bleeding over the shiny linoleum tile; He felt the waiter–with excruciatingly uncoordinated movements, indicative of an untrained hired help–attempt to drag the blade through the middle of his body and dissect him on the spot, but this unfortunate young man was either extremely nervous, scared out of his mind to recognize the position the knife drove into Shinya’s agile body would give no purchase, given how it was securely wedged into his gun holster, protecting its wearer from any further life-threatening injuries; or the amount of blood on his hands from the flesh wound kept his grip unstable, continuously sliding off the handle as he tried to pull-pull-pull the knife in a direction counterintuitive to his own body.

The young Hiiragi’s initial reflex was to protect himself, first and foremost. No gap in time sequencing passed between Shinya hurriedly rearing the arm clutching the gun backwards against the waiter’s head, his finger slipping off the bullet, and the deafening sound of a barrel of steep blasting through bone, brain, and connective tissue.

The waiter, already dead, dropped to the ground in an unrecognizable lump of gun powdered flesh, his stunned body gushing and gushing and gushing from the gaping hole in his forehead in time to the panicked screams and thunderous footsteps of the patrons fleeing the building. Some people–frightened by the violence so commonplace in their world of killing off their enemies–ran towards Shinya, perceiving him as the ultimate threat, but didn’t make it far enough before they slipped on the waiter’s blood coating the floor. They fell into the mangled pieces of a man ruled by lies and clamoured backwards, shrieking hysterically and brushing off chunks of warm fat before a bullet silenced them.

And it continued until the mass of attackers waned and Shinya could focus on what the fuck went wrong.

In the chaos that ensued, one of Ferid’s guards–perfectly camouflaged within the crowd–knew he was going to kill him; the guard, who he immediately identified as the waiter that tried concealing his laughter while he angrily whispered to Guren about their plans (despite him no longer having any discernible features, courtesy of Shinya), followed him to protect his boss… his boss, Ferid….

Who used the turmoil of the patrons to escape.

“Fuck… fuck fuck fuck–FUCK!!” He screeched into the empty ballroom, furiously glaring at the dead bodies scattered around him. The knife sticking out of his side became less important than finding Ferid, figuring that he could let it stem the blood long enough for him to make his way to his motorbike and find his target.

But where was Guren?

“Fucking–” A strangled hiss of pain nearly had the man doubling over, however. His entire right side stung worse than flames licking his skin ever could. The blood seeping out of his body incrementally made him nauseous, nearly provoking him to spill his guts onto the little red sea at his feet. Yet he couldn’t–not until Ferid was dead. Not until his gang–his brother’s gang–was out of harm’s way, even for a little while. Not until he was home, safe, wrapped up in Guren’s arms.

Gritting his teeth hard enough to hear them creak beneath the force of his jaws, Shinya wrapped his free arm around his front to cradle himself, pushing the skin underneath the knife up against it to slow the bleeding just enough to refocus on walking–no, limping– to the “Employees Only” door, the one slightly ajar and reeking of death.

Opening the door should have been nerve wracking, but the silence of it was… almost soothing. The red hand print on the handle tipped the yakuza off that he should expect at least another attacker, but all he found behind door number one was his fiancé–bruised and bloodied, like he was just in a nasty brawl with someone; black hair effectively dishevelled and dripping in sweat from exertion and the utter stuffiness of the secret corridor; lips swollen and busted from taking one too many punches; large purple and red marks sure to leave ugly indentations in his skin for weeks to come–with his hands assuredly wrapped around Ferid’s neck, squeezing the last few puffs of air in his lungs before his consciousness gave out.

The foreign boss’s perfectly manicured nails were dyed a horrendous pink from the series of primal scratches wrought again the back of Guren’s palms and his face in his last struggle of survival.

Shinya leant against the wall, transfixed, watching the muscles in his fiancé’s arms strain, flex, relax, and repeat in order to suffocate the rich piece of shit. He stared with something akin to adoration as Guren released the listless body with a hard thump against the cold concrete floor.

Ferid wasn’t dead, not yet. Guren left that job to Shinya to finish.

Approaching his partner with an unreadable expression, he reached for the knife embedded in the smaller male’s side with the intent to pull it out and possibly perform some painful fucking first aid, but he didn’t even manage to wrap his hand around the blade before the sounds of yelling echoed throughout the corridor and a shower of gunfire hailed in the couple’s direction.

During the surprise attack from Ferid’s lackeys rushing in to avenge their boss, Guren tackled Shinya to the floor as a reflexive response to protect him, not registering the loud pained scream as the knife tore against more of his flesh and clattered against the floor on impact. 

Even on the ground steadily losing blood, Shinya was a trained killer and expertly fired single rounds into their attackers to give them even a few more minutes of life. He pushed Guren–fumbling on the concrete for his gun–off his body to regain enough stability to continue shooting, and a small sigh of relief escaped him when Guren took a protective stance in front of him to shield his injured body from any other trauma. In a practiced, synchronized tandem, they kept up an unstoppable momentum of firing–reloading–firing–reloading, watching the ragtag team of underlings fall like flies against the cool grey concrete slowly soaking up to a deep red.

But the relief would not last long and events soon spiralled out of control.

The barrage of Ferid’s men stopped after only a few minutes of an intense shootout, the corridor smelling of fresh blood and gunpowder. The only sounds were erratic, strained gulps of air from the handful of grown men dying as their lungs and heart succumbed to their injuries; and the laboured breathing perforating the air around Shinya and Guren, both battered and worn out from the night and their botched mission.

Hard puffs of gasps for air turned into breathless laughs as Guren got to his feet with a groan, cradling his arm, squeezing the flesh around his biceps like a vice. The lighting of the corridor couldn’t mask the prominent hole in Guren’s upper arm the size of a golf ball; couldn’t mask the way his skin rapidly lost its colour; couldn’t mask the blood spurting out of the very clear arterial wound and the tiny singed ring of cloth and flesh around the entry point.

Of everything that’s happened that night, Guren laughing at the injuries were draining his strength was the second-most mortifying sight Shinya had ever seen in his entire life.

The first-most was a bullet traveling at mach speed, piercing straight through Guren’s back and out through his left rib cage, with almost certain accuracy. The man released a startled gurgle and a choked noise of confusion as he stumbled over, face-first into the red-soaked ground. A bone-chilling three seconds of eerie silence was suddenly split wide open by an anguished howl of pain and panicked panting that only told a portion of the damage that single bullet had done to him.

Eyes wide and in horrified disbelief, Shinya’s gaze trailed downwards to the mop of long silver hair whose ends were permanently stained red and stared directly into the eyes of a man who refused to die without taking his assailants with him. He huffed, somehow audible through Guren’s low groaning and dry sobs of torment while the feeling in his body quickly dissipated and the writhing he did on the ground ebbed into sporadic convulsions. Still staring in shell-shocked astonishment, Shinya’s mouth opened and closed, gaping like a fish out of water and at the mercy of the target they didn’t kill.

Ferid, baring his teeth in a defiant grin and cackling madly at the critically injured men, pointed his gun at Shinya and mouthed “your turn” before he smashed his bruised finger against the trigger.

And then he smashed his bruised finger against the trigger… against the trigger… against the trigger…

Five, six, ten times, Ferid’s finger pulled and released the trigger in the hopes that something would give, and the jam would fix itself. Yet it did not. The only respite for his suffering the Lord, if he existed, gave to the yakuza boss came in the form of a single bullet, which was quickly returned in kind to him.

Returned in kind to him ten times over, until the barrel of Shinya’s shaking gun was almost emptied into his immobile body. It slipped out of his hand with a loud clamour, and in the back of his mind he should have been wary of the trigger inadvertently going off and striking either him or Guren, but he was at a loss to give thought to much else, not when the cries from behind him weakened with every passing minute.

Trembling—oh, trembling and trembling and hoping to his brightest stars that his worst nightmare wasn’t coming true—Shinya ever so slowly, with the weight of the world crashing into his body like a freight train, turned his torso around to see the uneven breathing of his fiancé lying on the floor, blown open from the back, and eyes swimming in a mixture of fear, agony, cowardice, and determination as they glassed over, almost resembling the bloodied, broken champagne glasses from the banquet in the ballroom over.

[manjuhitorie]

Hitorie’s various antics + bonus bursts of trivia - Mid June-July 2019

I’ll begin this long digest with news of ygarshy’s recent involvements! Because he has been dipping his toes into a few pools of waters and his bass is *chef’s kiss* precious.

It’s been disclosed that he played for the song ‘Shadow Tag’ on Ken Kamikita’s new album! Kamikita is a singer songwriter, also once known as KK, who belches out vivid vocals from his diaphragm while the substructure of skilled technique is there as instrumentals, holding it together sturdy. His songs are very thought-provoking alone, yet music isn’t his only reign as he writes scripts for his shows, he puts careful consideration into his visuals: and abracadabra! ygarshy is continuing to be supporting Wasureranne yo with concerts for the summer.Concurrent reports consist of ygarshy smiling, poker facing to hide his smile, yet his smile seeping out because of Shibata’s noble passion for music. Shibata will do risqué shouts or gatling release the word "sex" out of his mouth, when which yg will subtly sip his water in a means to dodge, or just knifesharp glare at him. I love these drunken bards. Wasureranee yo's twitter posts clips of them performing after ever show also!

Also Wasurerannee yo with The 50 Kaitenz↑ good. June 8th was the Kankaku Pierrot x Hitorie concert, which was originally meant to be a joint show for their tour, yet was now turned into a jamboree of respects and thunder... Rie themselves were unable to attend yet Kan-ero nevertheless performed a cover of Ao, Polaris, and clenched a spiritual presence...! The cover of Ao is a tear trenchcoat I'm a trench of water... Kan-ero so good...

I was finally able to tell Shinoda-san that “These lyrics are way too long.”. For the sake of today I had to spend the whole week sleeping on the couch, as my bed is practically buried by all the alphabet He wrote, yet still I simply want to thank him for leaving us with so many words. They’re really all so cool. I’m sorry for being unable to sing them well. Let’s meet up again soon. The photo shows a large cloth-covered bed-like surface strewn with printout papers of World End Dancehall, Montage Girl, Imperfection, and Senseless Wonder lyrics.... Because..... The setlist for Village Man’s Store’s concert on 6/13 went like this. 1. Senseless Wonder 5. Montage Girl 7. Imperfection 13. Ao Encore 1: World’s End Dancehall

Thanks for coming to our show, “The Holy Land Pilgrimage - Village Man’s Store VS Hitorie”! Utmost love and gratitude goes out to Hitorie and all of you who made this day possible. P.S. Hitorie, cheers to doing even more with you in the future. From vocalist: Mizuno Gii. Mizugi “I sent Shinoda-san a LINE message reading “I'm going to be playing this song and this song and this song and~~... at the next show”. And normally right, you’d think someone’d reply “Sorry ‘bout making you do this” right? Yet Shinoda replied “Why’re you doin’ that many lololol” Han (drummer): “He laughed at you" After all is said and done, have y'all properly purchased 'Tsuiraku, Kurushiku wa Lucky Strike’ yet or what. It’s fire isn’t it

((I hate(love) how Mizugi has (14 years old pun) in his profile, (63 years old) in this MV while dressing up as a slanky old man, and is actually 31 years old.)

When is the rain going to stoppp

There's a lot of people who dislike Weezer's Green Album but I like Green Album Is it cause the music takes such a different turn? Reply from Saito Shinya, the vocalist and producer of ONIGAWARA: The drums suddenly neatened up so it hit by surprise. Also Matt Sharp left. SND: Ahhh so it’s because of Matt Saito: Fans of their first-second album’s more squishy sound went into denial I think

I can’t believe 'Sayonara Dake ga Jinsei da' isn’t here *The late 90's band 'Eastern Youth’ has uploaded the majority of their discography unto music streaming sites. Except for the niche EP which SND is fond of, but all their albums are cool so zipper your lips and open your eyes shuuush!

Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet They're a posse of blurred out faces with burlesque bases. Their current series is one where they dress up as Yugioh characters, roleplay them with accurate voices and cult-like enthusiasm, before the instigation of the series’ famous ~Shadow Games~ together. Which are all uhh, epic card games, yeah, like tabletop Jenga or  or Mariomaker or electric Russian roulette, pick them up like they’re Kuribos. It’s a riot.

 I’m sure I’ve said this for the umpteenth time now but, my favorite album from syrup16g is “delayed" syrup16g are an indie band who began in 1993 and keep resurging again to pop off. With performances in Budoukan and high Oricon points on their back. This pivotal album of theres is mellow with whimpering instruments and ephemeral sounding visuals and it's really nice, thank you SND.

Media outlets have been making misleading headlines like “A manga opposing the legalization of euthanasia”, and I bet there’s a lot of people are blindly dissing Death Harassment now Death Harassment is a comic written by Yoshida Yori, challenging the problems which could come with euthanasia, and a society which might pressure departure unto the unwilling. Euthanasia has been becoming a uproarious subject in Japan, ever since a woman fled to Sweden because she suffered brain diseases, and wanted to die while still preserving her sanity and dignity. People are now starting to welcome the prospect and yearn for a mercy fate but, please consider the demerits and the demoralization also, is the message. I translated the comic for fun also here.

This evening as I was eating soba alone, in front of me were a middle-aged couple throwing curses at each other with sullied mouths, but by the time I finished my soba they were smiling together. I think that’s perfectly peachy. That reminds me, I ate 4 whole eggs today. I think I ate too much.

My habit of getting the urge to play with people only at this time of the day, is really bad.  Posted at 3 AM JST.

Yumao, also at 3~ AM JST.  Bubble milk tea for sensible people has been gaining traction on twitter but, the fact that it's not Chinese tea milk tea is the nonsense to me. There was a post about purchasing uncooked tapioca pearls at a Seijou Ishii (an exotic super market chain), and putting them inside of a convenience store bought bottle of cheap tea. Budget bubble tea.  In regards to Yumao’s comment, the Chinese oolong tea is such a standard I’m assuming he’s referring to that. Is this more flavor wars, the civil wars over various flavors of integrated foods from equal or same brands is rampant throughout Japan’s domestic history. It’s kinoko VS. takenoko etc. Why such fervor over flavor YUMA

I gotta buy toothpaste I can’t sleep whatsoever so I thought if I drank I would get sleepy but I drank and it’s somehow backfired by revitalizing me so now I got no idea what the fuck to do, I’m screwed I’m screwed I know that feeling when your stomach is in a frenzy, too well

I haven’t heard the term “moe” used in a while I kinda want to go heavy on it now Replies: "Shinoda you’re moe” “Shimoeda” “Your expression when you got kicked was so moe" (He was kicked by yg during SLEEPWALK ref: the 6/1 report)” “The term moe technically d- (*The definition copypasta-ed from wikipedia*).” Within a split second replies have already turned into hell so I’m putting the lid back on moe, please forgive me Damn it’s hot.

I saw Tokyo Syoki Syodo in concert for my first time today. It was the best. I seriously thought I was gonna burst into tears. It might be a long time since I was last this excited to see a band live - it's been a long time since I even saw a concert live but still,,, I was surprised by how much of the lyrics to Saisei Button I subconsciously remembered. It just shows that Tokyo Syoki Syodo's songs are that good. They are a group who indulge in the typicality of cutesy culture, instagram filters, sparkling make-up, and all while flexing the power to whack you with whamming hard rock. He mentioned them again in his June 9th twitcast also, calling them natural and epiphanic to how bands can just be just as they are. I have no doubts that this is my top-played song these past few months. This is my anthem. -Saisei Rock, their most recent music video, check it out! I don’t even know how many years I’ve lived at this point but it’s not commonplace to find a song this great. 

This example will only be understood by super like-minded folk, but I haven’t felt this way since I got obsessed with Sakasama Cider. 

He’s expressed countless times how much he likes this song and the artist, Gucha Gucha's, Though the story behind SND’s partiality may be ultimately uncertain, it can be easily understood from one listen. The guitarist and cofounder of the Gucha Gucha’s, Shimoyaka, borrowed Shinoda’s guitar for their first live. Chikyuu Monogatari chapter 3 uses Shimoyaka as a model.  Shimoyaka has posted porn on forums, getting banned from youtube, he was on a team with infamous Shotacon Kurage, here’s SND’s cover of Sakasama Cider playing over the team, nowadays he does retro~modern gaming livestreams or his own cooking episodes because he got kicked off a cooking show, he slipped at the Niconico Douga Game Party, he’s videos are quite civil now though Shinoda even joined him for a stream and is watching them often.  Shinoda on the July 9th live said not verbatim “When I heard Sakasama Cider and ‘Sad Delay-chan’’ live, I was amazed by Shimoyaka that he can actually make good songs. Justice doesn’t have to be one-sided~ Gucha Gucha’s are unrefined and shitty and helpless, but then they bounce back up with a sudden good song and it’s irresistible. I’m always yearning to meet those sort of exciting experiences. 

We are people who clench our fists until our palms are red with blood, and we keep going on singing. Though we tend to forget it

Happy birthday ygarshy!! ygarshy's birthday is on June 17th and I hope you celebrated. SND’s birthday is also on June 6th. And I Hope. If not they can still be celebrated 365/24. Because even SND had proceeded to tweet these words of celebration at…. 12 o’ clock AM June 18th. Right when the clock changed!!

Look at this simultaneous trickery. Then Yumao RT-ed them both. I love you Rie… I love you so much...

I liked when Brocken Jr. was hit by Prisman's rainbow shower and super fucking glowed. (Timestamp 1:38) Also Mariposa’s victory pose was freakish-, ly cool (Timestamp 3:14) Kinnikuman is branded as Ultimate Muscle foreignly, if you recognize it! This youtube video is is a short promo reel celebrating the 40th anniversary of the series, Yudetamago has been in it for the long haul and is well honored by the lords of the wrestlers.

Wooooooooooah

I wanna eat a negitoro bowl Raw tuna and scallions plomped on top of a bowl of rice The special issue of Kinnikuman, I didn’t think it would put me on the verge of tears like this. Chairman takes way too many goods to the table. Plus everyone is cheerfully chit-chatting about how absolutely maniacal of a character Robin Mask is. Robin Mask really is one loony mister. Most characters are weirdos on thin ice but Robin Mask is in a whole different league of weirdo so,,, Also for the 40th anniversary, an original episode was spotlighted in the 29th issue of Shounen Jump magazine. and taken for another spin! Chairman, AKA Harabote Muscle, had an emotional arc in it too. Robin Mask I'm guessing is as rambunctiously malicious as ever in it.

The final episode of Sarazanmai had me bawling like a baby.

A photo of the possession of Kinnikuman -Supermen Dictionary-.

futurrrrrrrreee funnnnnnnnnnnk

I spent about 4 hours dancing alone in the club I am a party person Party people(パリ�� is just ENG articulated into JP)* is a slang which means just that. It’s believed to have been originally popularized by a song called Let’s Party People from Illmania. Since then it’s curved to hold different nuances for all kinds of different people also. It can indicate ‘avid partygoers' or ’normies’ or it can just be for people who’re having a good time.

Puuuuuuussssshhhh! An issue of 100M, an upcoming shounen manga by the author Uoto. It's bout a runner who’s world revolves around his sport and nothing other, who then meets a boy who runs only to forget the troubles of the rest of the world. The story spurts off from there. 笑顔いっぱい！ https://youtu.be/QXuGweSMxUI @YouTubeさんから ときめきメモリアル　キャラソング【おサカナになりたい～1000wに願いを～】～虹野沙希～（TokimekiMemorial music） https://youtu.be/rV16KgKKUi8 @YouTubeさんから YUNG BAE - Fly With Me https://youtu.be/BWgQvj0Nd_U @YouTubeさんから TenmaTenma - September https://youtu.be/6VsJgk5Qw6s @YouTubeさんから ~~~A slew of various song recommendations~~~

People that're posting pics of ramen while talking about being on a vegan diet, and people who gang up on them both, aren't they all becoming a clusterfuck of boringness without even heed to their actions

People who were peacefully posting their favorite music until suddenly bursting blustery onto the net, ain’t that the definition of emotional instability SND are you heeding your own actions Seven-eleven when are you gonna sell microwavable mugimeshi (rice with boiled barley mixed in) Task-san (a trusty companion of all of Rie’s, and an even more lovable animator who runs most of Minaken): *Replied to SND with a photo of Seveneleven brand microwavable mugimeshi*  SND: So they do have it

As I was frying some fried eggs, it hit me, people who heedlessly throw heavy words at other people tend not to let anyone else complain about the heavy weights they themselves may put onto other people huh.. But actually that’s not necessarily true so whatever

I just recently caught up with Murata-sensei’s version of One-Punch Man but, thanks to the insanity of the quality level, Tatsumaki has gotten so sexy I burst out laughing See: ONE VS. Yusuke Murata 

Clever folks, I’m positive you could figure out who my favorite One Punch Man characters are. There’s two of them.  The answer is King and Unlicensed Rider Oops there’s Zombieman too

I’ve noticed that washing ashtrays squeaky clean seems to put me in a better mood The Marías - Cariño youtu.be/QHVp9xiUr9U @YouTubeさんから The Marias are soo good The 3 monkies game, the host is so cockeyed that I’m laughing out loud I think he’s talking about サルヂエ(Sarudie), a quiz show about 3 people donned in hyper-realistic monkey attire, overseeing the “homo sapiens” as they try to solve unique questions. Which are usually twists on daily life concepts, find the difference, or digesting puns on pop culture. The word Sarudie(猿知恵) itself refers to something which seems profound but is actually simple and shallow, like monkey business etc, and the hosts are spoofs of The Three Wise Monkeys, while they hooked in a lot of famous figures to be the quiz undertakers. I want the DVDs. Though if SND is talking about a different 3 monkey game then I’m oopsie-doopsie. I heard a voice for the first time in a while

I can feel my manga-artist muscles crippling

nico.ms/sm35308083?ref… #sm35308083 #ニコニコ動画 It’s here!!!!!!!!!! Ref his tweet from earlier 'Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet’. So if any youtuber works with a band on a music video then everyone’s going to assume they’re Starmie next I guess A recent cause of discourse was the twitter account A Starmie Who Wants to Quit My Band(@shhf9kr)*. It originally was suspected of being the side-account of KANA-BOOM's bassist, Meshida, due to the timing of the account's appearance and the unsettling content. Meshida had gone missing for about a week’s time, much to relief he’s returned home, but upon return he’s now taking a break from the band to heal from pressure/anxiety… Which is a huge worry in itself (On top of Alexandros’ drummer going on hiatus because of physical issues and then MONGOL800.....) though for now we only have the power ease his soul.. BUT ANYWAY - This Starmie twitter account tweeted “I’m so far gone with band work that I’ve devolved into a Starmie. ~~~~ I feel so disgusting.” on the exact same date as the dilemma. As the situation progressed the details Starmie revealed about financial problems and wage didn’t match up with KANA-BOOM, so they’ve continued to suspected to be SEKAI NO OWARI, now signing salient as someone named Ishihidari from BASEMENT TIMES, the writer of a snazzy sassy J-Rock blog and band of that same name. Shinoda here is a direct reaction to Starmie’s recent tweet under the lines of “I hate having to work with a youtuber.” Yeah SND you're 100% right, it's now on the radars of us curious critters. Why is the J-rock scene such a pain hoho. I bought new shorts but it’s chilly out today so I’m in a sort of pickle

I tried out lo-fi hiphop style for a change of pace and I ended up making songs I get to feel like I’ve done good work as easy as fast-food, lo-fi hiphop is good Maybe this is fine, we have flowers here (The word in the insta video means "to hide from the rain")

I don’t wanna add screentones

He used a southern accent on this, unlike his usual slurry casual city boy tone. I notice that southern JP seems to simplify the connotation of tone by omitting certain sounds or replacing them with vowels and then they’ll proceed to make the whole phrase more musical, it’s like ending your sentences with a “~” but it’s a whole accent done that way~ vowels are cute, gimme more~ Or maybe not idk It’s a hardship to even work on my manga because of my back pains, people who’ve actually wrecked their back must go through serious hell Kobayashi Doumu (*ref: later in this post): *sends SND a photo of himself hospitalized with crutches and bandages for his back* I was watching Kura-kyun’s stream but, does that guy actually still live in Aichi…? This seems like a rabbit hole I don’t want to dip my toes so I’ll take a step back but… Shotacon Kurage is a long time streamer who seems to get up to a lot of unfavorable antics. のどちんこって呼び名、いくらなんでもメチャクチャ過ぎないか No matter how you put it, isn’t the nickname “throat schlong” just a little too messed up Kids super often call the uvula part of the mouth by that nickname I don’t like the rain because I can’t go out drinking

View this post on Instagram

ボディメンテナンス怠るべからず

A post shared by シノダ (@snd_vs_snd) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:14pm PDT

One mustn’t slack off on their self-care The drawing says “Shoulder pains”.

シノダ「地球物語 35話 – BABYBABYの夢 – 」 | MEETIA After a 2 month break period, the 35th issue has been topped off. It’s full of all the ideas and memes I’ve accumulated over the whole 2 month span, so please if you may, take it easy on me. And please give it a read. Shinoda “Chikyuu Monogatari: Chapter 35 - Dreams of BABYBABY - meetia.net/manga/shinoda-… #meetia 

Shiohigari, fantastic artist of 1 panel light-heavyhearted gags, girls who share their feelings and a Picasso-esque mascot named after himself. He also happens to share many interests with SND and a decade-long historic friendship with him: That part there, that’s the Robin Mask moment! During the Survivor Match for the Kinniku Throne Arc, the match against Kinnikuman Zebra and Parthenon!  SND: I’ve been exposed Trivia: ●The title "Dreams of BABYBABY” is a reference to the song by TANUKI of the same name. SND’s interest in future funk grows. ●The Chikyuu Monogatari chapter has a parallel to a Kinnikuman scene. When that manga went on hiatus for 3 months due to an illness of the author's, right in the middle of a fight scene's cliffhanger, he returned and doubled-down on it. By making the characters do this:

And SND’s comic has this parallel:

“Wake up!” “Please excuse me. How could I not get sleepy after being left here for 2 months….”“Are we allowed to say this stuff, I’m sorry Yudetamago-sensei.” ●Please keep having fun Shinoda-sensei.

I made 10 lo-fi hiphop songs *They’re magnificent and they’re incoming, check his Instagram for the ongoing bonanza! https://www.instagram.com/snd_vs_snd/  Laundry is so draining  Harassment sentences are going to such extremes that now it’s as if they’re the one’s doing the harassment meow, said the kitten who’s sleeping next to me There’s not actually any kitten sleeping next to me: it’s the imaginary friends in my head

What an article. Don’t be releasing things like this into the world. Do they have no dignity, mishandling words while trying to write about the subject of words.  Emo, in terms of usage and genre, has especially been through a lot of change. But upholding only the era you lived in and then proceeding to feel nostalgia and begrudging the next generation for being different is amazing in itself, not to mention their absolute subjectivity combined with presumptuous usage of “Us”. 

Or, so had spoke the kitten sleeping next to me... In reference to his retweet of this article: https://letters-to-you.life/emoi It’s a petty, convoluted text rebuking the masses for a simplicity and resisting the implacable evolution of language. The word “emoi” in Japan (which is super equivalent to the English "emo") is transforming from not only the emo band subculture or a descriptive of emotional experiences, but also to mean the likes of an adjective for any emotion-evoker and the author is uhhh conservative. Let us get emotional over things!! wowawa lived through all the evolution also and he’s still an enthusiastic user of all definitions of “emo” too...

I’ve been cooking nukaduke at home recently and all I have to say is that home-cooked nukaduke is the best. 

Trivia: Yumao lives together with his super duper saikou cool mother, Yurika.

My nukaduke paste is getting better and better, and the pickles I’m making are amazing. I need to consider cutting back on the salt a bit though.

Ah nukaduke is emo

Yumao has nowset his location to nukaduke, hunger ensues

Kobayashi Doom congrats on a good run & Congrats on the new issue #SupportForLet’sMeal

The picture shown is SND’s face was drawn in the background of Meshi ni Shimashou(Let’s have some food!), a manga by Kobayashi Doom. It’s a story which digs into the lives of a a manga artist and her assistant, who bask in the dying embryos of production and then cook meals with crazy twists or gimmicks to restore their “MP”. There’s an official sneak-peak preview of it here! It’s only available in JP though… If you like the look of it please feel free to yell at your local manga provider to officially translate it, Kobayashi Doom is someone SND is so undeniably influenced by. Especially their series Negi nee-san. A webcomic about a surreal girl drowned in surreal antics. It’s usually rooted in nonsense and that’s the grandest appeal. The visuals consist of copy-pasted collages, intricate professional art dynamics, cute girls, to stoic jokes such as “’seven eleven is an integer so seven & I is a complex number” and mostly references to mathematics or science or Jojo. The most parroted one is “Yes” “Not yes”. Also worthy of mention is that things resembling Negi-neesan’s various nameless beasts will show up as backdrop etc. in SND’s manga Chikyuu Monogatari. And most importantly here, there’s even a comic about Shinoda on that link, with the Let’s Meal characters! It reads: Madare ”Who's that?" Omega "From the band 'Hitorie',His name is Shinoda and he seems to be a zealous fan of mine, (sign reads: zealous whatever food hall) He told me he wants me to experience his recent works so he sent me the mp3"Madare “Ooh Isn’t Hitorie that [insert amazing praise here]“. Omega “Look, he’s even wearing a Negi-T (Negi-nee-san’s surreal brand) in this video” (Reference: In the Talkie Dance MV he wears this one) Woah　Click-click Omega “So now, I’ve listened to it 100 times but in sheer honesty I don’t know anything about rock besides the band Ningen Isu so I thought I’d use this comic as an equivalent of an answer to him, a sort of "guess my feelings" quiz. Madare “I see you're popping your conman skill again. (You’ve even beaten me with that skill before )” “I’ve been eavesdropping. Time to cook a meal and get together with him” Omega “I like it." *The chorus lyrics to Hitorie's NAI from ai/SOlate are written on the top left corner, Kobayashi Doumu on the right, and the beastly text written next to the youkai-looking Shinoda in slide one I believe is an feisty ateji encrypting ‘For Shinoda’. SND replied to that comic too! Saying “Even insane miracles can happen huh, Doom-sensei thank you so much!! No this is seriously sick, wtf…." Q.E.D. Kobayashi Doom is strangely important for SND’s character development.

This isn’t specifically concurrent with my current feelings but The text on the video reads “I like you I like you!l I snuck a glance at myself in the mirror and my back has a hunch far worse than I even imagined SND’s RT:  ONE BY ONE RECORDS, the indies label, is hanging up the hat after 12 years of service…. Ahhhh… Congrats and good luck on future ventures oh employees..  Key to this article is the band, JONNY. A Weezer cover/original group of which, a certain familiar chestnut-headed rock hero played for. I’ll save the stories of the explorations into that beloved dark past dungeon for another day but, yes, click that link and you’ll see, that glasses fella is a young Shinoda in the flesh.  I woke up in the middle of the night. Have a listen to this if you plan to go to bed anytime soon. instagram.com/p/BzV23p6HpRl/… Written on the drawing is “Poyashimi”, which simply means “Oyasumi (Good night)". It was originally just a misspell due to “O” and “P” being so close on standard keyboards but, it’s cute so it’s been adopted in it’s own rights. Can been paired with “Pokita (= Okita = I just woke up)” in the morning. Cute. I wanna go to the beach instagram.com/p/BzawsWGHaGg/…

I wrote MUNEYAKE but I myself don’t have any muneyake heartburn, that’s all there is to it I couldn’t make the bubble tea visible without making the emblem on the hat invisible, and just fought a weird-ass battle with this https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzh7fqRnkBQ/?igshid=1hmx49pswt6ns … “Yasumi" means like “take a breather"

I recorded drums for Sasaki Sayaka’s song, the ending theme for 'Ultraman Taiga’. I used a big and powerful setup for this. The broadcasts start on 7/6. I can’t wait. Also Taro's son is crazy. Ultraman Taro's son is the main character of this new spinoff tokusatsu series! The ending song is called “Hitotsubishi” and will premiere along the first episode, I’ll update this if an official video arrives later, so we can listen to it! I watched the first episode of Taiga, I’m think I’m gonna cry.

This morning a drunken me slipped while walking down the stairs, and turned into the Kinnikuman side of the Kinniku-Buster. My butt hurts. Smack down on the floor, legs aflight.

colormal’s concert was downright fantastic, everybody listen to colormal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ83BZ_BIHA&feature=youtu.be

colormal, a galvanized nerd who turned his hobby into a hopping constitution for his livelihood, his quest for the alternative rock. He makes music alone and he’s namely even inspired by Shinoda’s past solo project “cakebox”. He’s bound to mention a cakebox song in his interviews, on top of a whopping list of other western or indie bands. His music itself has flows of climaxes into unfluctuating concord and it’s either guitar or guitar with pretty effects and I enjoy it SND. His filling bassist, Matsuyama, was even thrilled! https://twitter.com/mtymJb/status/1147537998898069504

My body isn’t able to finish even the small size ramen with full toppings. “Mashi” is a trademark menu option of the chain Ramen Jiro. It’s under the lines of “Pile it up”. You can choose to pile up a bit of everything like Shinoda seems to, or you can choose from specific topping such as veggies or meats. If you ever go into such a ramen shop, try shouting “yasai mashi mashi!” or “buta mashi mashi!” for a heap of piggie. 

Tokyo Shoegazer are definite They’re an indies band who had a concert in Shinjuku that day! One of their most recent tweets draws my attention 👀 The wheat and grated yam beef meal at Yoshinoya is delectable but, the sign says the large rice portion and refills are given for free until 11 PM, but when I go there’s a fee on the large portion, how am I supposed to interpret this Reply: I work at Yoshinoya but the free portions and refills is a recent offer, the menus just haven’t been reprinted to represent it… The meal packages generally all have free refills and large rice portions. Shinoda: Thank you. Ref: their ENG menu. Feel free to use this information if you ever get the chance to go to a Yoshidora!!(?) SWEET https://www.instagram.com/p/Bznm6DTH-Gs/ I want to see Siamese Cats live They’re a definite J-rock band who have tinges of psychedelic and a sort of 80’s pop style to their music. They had an outdoor show the day before SND tweeted this, but they also have a 10th Year Anniversary Celebration concert this December. SND GO! Siamese Cats - Escape Eve (Official Video) 2018　　シャムキャッツ - 逃亡前夜 https://youtu.be/5Jtd5nmI0Fc

salad days was on Amazon Prime so I gave it a gander but it was really fucking good. The walking alone Straight Edge scene or at the beginning when everyone was partying together until strange people starting flooding in one by one and the safety of the concert went downhill Or how the terminology “emocore” doesn’t resonate at all with people who were directly associated with it at the outset.

The fact that controversy which we’re still having today has existed since the 80’s is an astonishment
 Also once the Smells Like~ MV wrought the knowledge of crowd-surfing (stage-diving) upon the world, and then the crowd became a flood of stage-divers so much that Fugazi lost his temper, that scene was so good

The joint show with Trouble Funk, when they were reflecting on what became the final Minor Threat show, everyone was vocalizing the horrors, the turmoil of it, yet I laughed when only Ian said it wasn’t that bad

Not disregarding how these types of issues really did exist those days, ultimately the concerts and their music really are awesome, the energy and thrill everyone held was amazing

Formidable figures such as Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl are shown looking back on the past, and then pops in J Mascis with such batshit indifference that I laughed again 
Why does Ian MacKaye not have a Japanese wiki page If it draws your attention here’s the link!:https://www.amazon.com/Salad-Days-Fred-Armisen/dp/B01MAV0YAH I’m not specifically feeling emo https://www.instagram.com/p/BzqVd4wnaOX/?igshid=nhnyzm9vipdi …“emoi”

[dailymikayuureminders]

Do you have any nsfw headcanons of when Yu and Mika get down in the sheets??

Yeah I think it’d take them like years to get it on, if they ever do.I mean, one of them went through puberty as a vampire (no sex ed, no sexual feelings), while the other rejected any interaction with humans. Yuu must have had sex ed (because of the JIDA’s “repopulate the world! Viva illicit sexual relationships!” policy) but still doesn’t seem very interested in any of that, taking how he’d been living for revenge and family only.

So basically! They’d experience their first time together in what I imagine as a super awkward and cute moment.

Let’s pretend they can research for information about gay sex in a world where repopulating earth is crucial… who would they ask? Where would they find it?  Just… can you imagine them looking through all the old sex ed books like “does that book say anything about gay sex?” “idk Yuu-chan but could you please keep it down? If Shinoa hear us we’ll be doomed.”

In the end, they’d have to ask for help and that would be awkward as fuck.Thankfully, OnS is a gay ass manga. They wouldn’t ask Shinoa’s bisexual ass because that’d be more troublesome than helpful… But maybe Shinya?

Now, by the time they get the information they needed just, can you imagine the embarrassment they would feel? Save them.

Now, I’ll bring back ideas I wrote on twitter last year because I don’t have many nsfw headcanons and I’m running out of ideas:

---

*Yuu and Mika trying to get it on* 

Yuu: *frustrated sigh* how the fuck does your uniform work

---

Mika: so will your demon see and feel everything you feel? Because that'd be very awkward

---

Yuu: feel free to bite me if you want to 

Mika: don't worry, I won't do that 

Yuu: ... 

Yuu: I said feel free to bite me if you w

---

Mika: don't...touch...my ears... 

Yuu: pff I won't 

Yuu: *does it*

---

Yuu: maybe I should've mentioned this before but this might re-awaken my demon 

Mika: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TELL ME THIS AT THIS POINT

Yuu: YOU WOULD HAVE SAID NO 

Mika: OF COURSE I WOULD HAVE SAID NO, YOU IDIOT 

Yuu: SEE?!

---

Yuu: *starts laughing* 

Mika: what's so funny? 

Yuu: I just imagined what this would look like if we were ducks- wait, where are you going?

---

Yuu: *opens box of chocolates*

Mika: what are those for

Yuu: heard they enhance your sex drive 

Mika: but I can't eat them 

Yuu: drink my blood

---

Mika and Yuu: *finally get it on* 

Narumi: *barges into the room* YOU TWO- WE NEED YOUR H- oh no, how to unsee

---

Yuu: finally...Shinoa won't call me "cherry boy" anymore*later* 

Yuu: Mika I'm sorry! I didn't do it because of that, I promise!

---

Mika: *whispers* no homo 

Yuu: *whispers back* I shouldn't have showed you that meme

---

Mika: how are we doing this?

Yuu: idk man, I never thought I'd get this far

---

Yuu: I got sex ed bc we were supposed to repopulate the world, and you? 

Mika: ...I got fangs 

Yuu: tsk, you always get the best things

---

Mika: Krul told me I should wait for marriage

Yuu: Guren told me being a virgin is for losers 

Mika: isn't that how he lost his girlfriend?

[saotome-michi]

Hi! Well I think they might have changed the regulations since even a BL that was broadcasted this year (the one about the blond guy and his teacher) couldn't show kisses (though i think they could show one in last episode?) anyway regarding not mentioning the kiss perhaps it was due to the fact they didn't choose the BL tag, the scan of the fanbook and translation you can find it in the tumblr account "gogoeeg" under the tag "sayo-yamamoto"

About the event in Philippines, I got friends from there who went and talked to me about it but I couldn’t find a post until now, to read it go to the account zuzusexytiems and search the tag “yoi-news” also not long ago mappa’s ceo talked about how Sayo always had the intention to depict a romance which i think was the most direct statement but of course not choosing a BL tag arrises problems, but even so as I told you about that other bl series, they couldn’t show kisses until last eps

Still same anon, but messages sent later on with links and more clarification: 

Hi! Don’t rush if you need to study, I hope things go well with your finals, i found a twitter thread about the director’s statements on the fanbook (they also put tumblr links with the scans in the thread) i hope this link can be sent well twitter.com/hanleia/status/877682683429609472

Also this is a report of the event my friends in ph talked about, i met them because the persona fandom but they were into yoi too so it caught my attention, there might be more reports but is difficult to find them zuzusexytiems.tumblr.com/post/165924693224/met-sayo-yamamoto-fuuko-noda-of-yuri-on-ice-at-a?is_related_post=1

A second anon, I presume: 

Regarding what the other anon said, is true, that other anime hitorijime my hero had a lot of censorship despite being a BL and even the staff of series “explicit visually” like no6 have explicitly stated the relationship is “probably one sided” or “up for interpretation”. The thing is that even co creator Kubo has already labelled Victor and Yuuri as a couple as well as mappa’s ceo Otsuka and even Sayo said in yuri on life that their love encompasses love like lovers, family, etc so (½)

As someone who participates a lot in japanese fandom I can tell you almost no one denies the kiss and they took that statement as “confirmation” (for westerns it would be when Otsuka said their relationship was 恋愛) I dont consider yoi the best representation but i can assure is not bait, you just have to check official material, あの二人の愛多くの意味を包含するから…友だちだけじゃない、恋人だけじゃない even JCM and Johnny Weir have spoken with the staff and assure is romance (2/2)

First of all, I would like to apologize to both of you for this late response. Although I said I would address this after finals, I got sidetracked by family obligations, and couldn’t really get together enough energy to look through these sources and do research until now. Hopefully you two still see this answer. I am compiling your messages and answering both of you at the same time due to the similarity in topic.

Before I get started on talking about TV regulations, I wish to clarify (especially for those who are not aware of what I’ve already written on yoi) that I do not consider yoi bait, due to queerbaiting being a US/UK concept. In my opinion, the term simply does not make sense in Japan–MAPPA was never trying to attract LGBT viewers to yoi, their material was always well in line with the light BL/shoujo demographic. My past criticism about yoi was focused on its overblown reception among international anime viewers; people were acting like yoi was going to revolutionize all Japanese media in regards to depictions of lgbt people, as if yoi was the first show to have men in love, as if Japanese lgbt people and organizations have not already been fighting this fight for years… and frankly it just annoyed me on how much people misunderstood and oversimplified the situation in Japan. Whatever your views on yoi are, I think most can agree that there’s a real disconnect happening when the only articles talking about how revolutionary yoi is were from western/international websites, and Japanese sites, including lgbt sites, had nothing.  

Hence, despite having voiced my dissatisfactions towards Kubo and the yoi staff before on my blog, my main beef with yoi has always been more about its reception, the international fandom and their activity. 

But I digress– the discussion regarding TV regulations goes back to my post “Yuri on Ice, anime ratings, and censorship”. I wrote this post on Nov 20, 2016–so not long after episode 7 had been released–and in this post I put forward arguments refuting the idea that “the YOI staff censored the kiss either because they didn’t want to change their rating or their genre, or to avoid government censorship laws.” While I still stand by this idea (because ratings and genres really don’t work the same way in Japan as they do in the US, and there are no government censorship laws that apply here) I also see that, after doing some more research, there were other factors that I failed to take into consideration, namely: 

While there are no government laws or agencies that censor depictions of homosexuality in media (as there are in China), that doesn’t mean people/companies in Japan don’t exercise other forms of censorship, such as:

Corporate censorship: the sanctioning of speech by spokespersons, employees, and business associates by threat of monetary loss, loss of employment, or loss of access to the marketplace. 

Self-censorship: the act of censoring or classifying one’s own work of media. Usually done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences of others (Wikipedia).

What I’m hinting towards is that, basically, either: 

Broadcasting Stations, while not having legal regulations, may pressure Anime Studios to change their content and/or

Studios themselves might be inclined to change their content in order to not conflict with Broadcasters’ perceived preferences or to better market their anime to certain Broadcasters. 

This is actually an idea that I brought up in “Yuri on Ice, anime ratings, and censorship”, but did not fully develop– it would make sense if different broadcasting stations had different “preferences” in place regarding what content they prefer in the anime they broadcast, depending on their reach, image, and perceived audience. For example, stations such as AT-X and BS11, which are known for broadcasting a good deal of “shinya anime” (if you do not know what this term means please refer back to my post linked above), are much more likely to screen niche anime with explicit content than say, stations like TBS, whose anime content consists of those targeted to either children or shounen manga readers, a much wider demographic. 

There is a possibility that these “preferences” are formalized in the shape of outlined standards. The JBA (The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association), a non-profit incorporated association whose membership consists of 206 commercial broadcasters in Japan, focuses on upholding fundamental standards for commercial broadcasters, as well as on improving broadcasting ethics throughout the industry. Their standards, which are detailed in this document, “ JBA Broadcasting Standards”, are then used as a guideline for individual broadcasting stations to outline their own standards. However, since I am unable to find any individual broadcaster’s standards on the internet, this is mostly speculation, although the document itself is an interesting read and gives an idea of the various social pressures more mainstream broadcasters might face. For example, a couple of the outlined standards include: 

26. Public morals shall be respected. Any possibility of arousing favorable feelings toward speech or action that is against common social practice, or desire to imitate such speech or action, shall be avoided.

77. When presenting sexual minorities, full consideration shall be given to the human rights of people who belong to said minorities.

A bit conflicting, given that a portion of Japanese people still think same-sex relationships go against public morals... 

So, with all this being said, do I think it’s possible that the yoi staff was pressured into making the kiss scene what it was, not by any laws, but by social pressures translated into Broadcasters’ standards, a combination of corporate and self censorship? Yes, I do. Although TV Asahi did broadcast Shin Sekai Yori, an anime with same-sex relationships and kiss scenes, Shin Sekai Yori is an outlier among TV Asahi’s anime content. The majority of their programs (and BS Asahi’s, another station that broadcast yoi) are targeted towards a wider demographic, so I can see them having stricter standards. 

Having come to this conclusion, I wish to apologize for my old post; although the information included there is accurate, I failed to consider the factors and possibilities outlined above, thus not giving readers the full picture. 

Does this change my opinion about yoi? It changes my opinion that Kubo and Yamamoto could’ve included the kiss if they wanted to, but it doesn’t change the rest of my criticisms about yoi and its reception. 

Oh and before I forget–

Regarding Hitorijime~My Hero: I am not familiar with this anime, but whichever way the kiss scenes were handled does not prove anything in regards to TV Asahi’s regulations, because the anime was not broadcast by TV Asahi in the first place. A quick look at the anime’s main website (http://hitorijime-myhero.com/onair/) shows that it was broadcast by AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS日テレ–not by TV Asahi.

Furthermore, while Hitorijime may have only had one kiss scene, BL/GL anime such as Super Lovers 2 and NTR~Netsuzou Trap showed multiple kiss scenes, and non-BL/GL anime like Kuzu no Honkai and Koi to Uso each had one as well. (All mentioned anime were broadcast in 2017.)

But if anything, this lends more weight to my theory that different broadcasters simply have different standards, and anime studios self-censor their content in order to market to certain broadcasters. Hitorijime, Super Lovers 2, and NTR~Netsuzou Trap were all broadcast by AT-X (shinya anime) and Tokyo MX (shinya anime), but only Hitorijime was broadcast by BS日テレ (wider demographic), while Super Lovers 2 and NTR were broadcast by BS11 (shinya anime). So perhaps BS日テレ is stricter? Makes sense to me. 

[kyotakumrau]

2021.04.06 a talk event at Meguro Rock-May-Kan film screening at Namba Hatch with Kyo and Shinya - PART 2

Report by とあ on twitter (topics are not reported in order things happened, I followed the order they posted, 1st and 2nd session are mixed)

"What is Shinya's hair colour called? Is it okay to copy you [and dye my hair the same colour]?"

Shinya: Violet rose.

Fujieda: How about copying?

Shinya: It's fine.

Kyo: ... Violet rose?! It's called violet rose? (laughing)

Fujieda: It's sounds like a song title.

Kyo: Like our next song? Doesn't sound exciting at all (laughing).

Kyo: Did you name it Violet rose yourself?

Shinya: No, when I requested pink shade I got this colour, when I asked what colour is it I got told it's Violet rose.

Kyo: It's not pink at all.

"Which place is painful to get tattooed on?"

Kyo: It's said that the hand's palm and back of the foot. The one on this hand was done by the person who did the tattoo on my back, but she lives in Germany. She told me it's easy for the colour to fade on the palm. That's why she told me she will use an ink that's not approved in Japan but will not fade, and she did it for me.

Fujieda: It's really not fading.

Kyo: That's why she used some weird ink. Suspicious one, with something bad for people in it.

There are four small tattoos on this hand

(during this talk Kyo was showing his palm almost all the time)

Shift of conversation to the topic of tattooing a giraffe on Fujieda's back.

Kyo: A giraffe going all over your back to your thighs.

Fujieda: And the head would be on the neck?

Kyo: No, on the shoulder. So when you move your arm the giraffe's head would move as well. If I had a machine I could do it on you.

Fujieda: When there's a chance.

Kyo: Eh, if there's a machine?

(*there's a brilliant word play here with 機械・machine and 機会・opportunity both being read as 'kikai'🤣)

Kyo: Then I'm going to get the machine and tattoo you. Using that not approved ink from Germany.

Fujieda: No no no, we're talking about different 'kikai'.

Fujieda: "I'm in trouble eating too much. What should I do?"

Kyo: Eat!

"What do you drink when you wake up?"

Shinya: Cola.

"What lip balm do you use?"

Kyo: Cola flavour.

"A drink you like"

Kyo: Ehm... Dekavita, Oronamin C, things like that. But it's not good to drink those too much.

"Favorite chocolate sweets"

Kyo: Ehm... there are too many. ...Ah, but I love cheap sweets.

"When you eating a candy do you suck it till the end or do you crunch it?

Kyo: I crunch it from the start.

"Your favorite Japanese sweets"

Shinya: Ichigo daifuku (rice cake with a strawberry)

"Anything special about Namba Hatch, first time in a while?"

Shinya: Not really. First time since we played here and not for a show. It's feels quite empty.

Kyo: I have something I buy every time I come to Osaka, but I'm annoyed because they weren't sold. Half of me is made of sweets! I always buy 3 or 4 flavours of Curl before going back but I couldn't find them.

(*Curl is a corn puff snack)

Kyo: I never talk to the shop clerk, but this time I checked the shop few times and couldn't find it so I asked. I got told they only have cheese flavour so I got it and left.

Kyo: But don't send me Curl. It'd be troublesome to start receiving so many Curl packs. I'd get them myself.

Before I bought 4 packs to take home but by the time I was home I only had one left.

"What type of dogs do you like?"

Kyo: It's a secret. You'll know eventually.

Shinya: small dogs.

"What colours do you like besides members colours?"

Takavayashi: How were those colours decided? By the hair colour?

Kyo: That's what I think?

Shinya: They were decided without my knowledge.

Takabayashi: it's pink for you, right? Although it doesn't really match you?

What colour do you like best?

Shinya: Black.

(two if them look at each other in silence and laugh)

Takabayashi: How about you Kyo?

Kyo: Pink!

"Merchandise item you like"

Shinya: I guess the travel pouch.

Fujieda: Are you using it?

Shinya: Today I brought a smaller one.

Fujieda: Eh? You use it...

Kyo: He said he doesn't. The size is wrong.

Fujieda: Btw where's your bag from?

Shinya: It's from MUJI.

Fujieda: How was the hot pack? It's warm!

Handed it to Kyo

Kyo: Yeah, it's warm... but it was supposed to be released last time.

Fujieda: Eh? Saying that does it mean it was your idea??!

Kyo: Yup. Actually I wanted to have it last year, last year end was cold right? But the design wasn't done in time.

That's why it didn't come that time, just now. Niw it's not needed anymore. ...I hope you can use it next winter.

(*aaaaah so that's why he was poking at Fujieda so much about it☹️ it'd have been great last December!😆 but it'd definitely be useful next winter!!😊)

Fujieda: That's true, let's use it next winter. And it can also be used as a power bank so that can be used now.

Power strip.

Fujieda: Before this event Shinya was using this backstage. There aren't enough outlets backstage.

Kyo: Lol... is there really that few outlets backstage?

Fujieda: Well... not that few. But he was using it.

Kyo: Huhm.

Kyo (looks at Shinya): what is that, drawn on it?

Shinya got the power strip in his hands.

Shinya: That is cats who got electrocuted.

Kyo: Those are cats? Why cats?

Shinya: Who knows.

Fujieda: But isn't it cute?

Kyo: Yup, ...I guess it is.

Kyo likes the hoodie.

Kyo: The design in the back was drawn by the person who is my tattoo artist after I asked.

Fujieda: Why a hoodie?

Kyo: Eh?If its something to use it at home... you can't use a heat pack at home. Only a loony would use a heat pack at home. It's better to just turn on the heating. So it'd be crazy to use heat packs at home.

Kyo: and then you also won't use the pass case. And no use for the travel pouch at home nor the sticker...

Fujieda: What about the tote bag? Shinya is using it, for his shoes etc.

Shinya: I'm using it. I didn't bring it today though.

"In an old interview you said that because you couldn't afford to stay in a hotel you slept in the car and thought of sleeping position like yoga, what kind of position was it?"

Kyo: I said that?

Takabayashi: In a magazine interview I think? Didn't you said you didn't stay in a hotel?

Kyo: Saying I slept in the car, it must have been when traveling?

Kyo: You're sitting, right? There's someone next to you so totally no space. Saying it's like yoga, so like this, your head goes down and your legs go up, kinda have to turn around

Shinya: I thought then Kyo had a great idea, when I tried it, it was comfortable.

Kyo: I've put a plastic box in the legs and used it for my head, rose my legs, like L shape.

Fujieda: Is that really comfortable?

Kyo: Yup.

Takabayashi: There won't be any swelling, if you raise your legs.

Kyo: But in the past, when we got to the venue I was in that position some fan suddenly opened our car's door. I was so upset she saw the L shape position.

Fujieda: It's also hard to believe someone would just suddenly open your car door.

"How do you like your meat cooked?"

Kyo: rary rare

Fujieda: You mean to grill it only a little bit? Like sizzle siz..done?

Kyo: Yup.

Fujieda: How about you Shinya?

Shinya: Medium rare.

Kyo: You don't eat Yukhoe? (*dish similar to tartare steak)

Kyo: Isn't it rary rare?

Shinya: But that's special.

"A song you just hum"

Kyo: the '♪gohan ga susumu gohan ga susumu♪' one

"Do you look at the needle when you get an injection?"

Kyo: Fixedly. I also watch when I'm getting tattooed.

"You should know that ZARAME DONUTS bacon donuts will come back, so don't worry."

Kyo: .......? What? How do you know that?

Fujieda: When we were in Nagoya we got told the same. That for now they are gone but they will be available again.

Kyo: Uhm... Who are they? Why do they know this? Are you the shop's spy or something??

"A vegetable you like"

Kyo: what spring veg are there?

Fujieda: Bamboo shoots and so on.

Kyo: Bamboo shoots!

"What are you into right now."

Kyo: Sneakers and Bugs Bunny.

Fujieda: Batsu Bani?!

Kyo: Batsu Bani lol

Fujieda: What's that? Batsu Bani?

Kyo: It's a character...

Fujieda: Eh? Do you know it?

Takabayashi: Of course.

Fujieda: Batsu Bani... I have no idea. I didn't bring my phone so I can't check... What kind of character is it?

Kyo: I said.

Fujieda: Baksu Bani?? ...ah! Bunny! It's a rabbit?

"What fabric softener do you use?"

Shinya: No preference. Something smooth

Takabayashi: Not the pods?

Shinya: No. Water... should rather say liquid.

Takabayashi: I'll look for it next time.

Kyo: Any softener would be okay for me, but there's Fafa, isn't the bear super cute? Have you seen that commercial? Where the bear falls on the towels. It's very cute. Watch it. It's on the net. It makes me feel better even when I'm irritated.

Fujieda: So at the moment you like two characters, FaFa bear and Bugs Bunny.... !!! Bugs Bunny! You meant Bugs Bunny!

Kyo: You finally got it 😆

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

Die and Toshiya member talk at SENDAI GIGS 13th March 2021 Bits II

 Notes from user memomomemo3886 at twitter.

 -About meeting the members for the first time

 Die:* Thinking hard* The first one I met was Kaoru. He was in another band. We both were playing in different bands. He was good at that time. Like, at some point he was setting up the equipment and he was doing it well. The next one….would be Shinya? He was at another band but I didn’t know about his existence at that time.

Fujieda: You didn’t know?

Die: I didn’t.  The drums. If you play in another band, everyone will get along with you….Kyo….was it at a toilet?

Fujieda: Toilets are a common place among men. You were side by side?

Die: No, it was at a narrow place. I think Kyo was doing his hair at the washstand? I passed behind him. Kyo told me to talk later but I thought he was just being polite, so I went home. The next time I met him he asked me “Why did you go home?”. At that time, Kyo wasn’t playing in any band, he was free.  We were taking at the emergency stairs and I told him “Why don’t you join our band?”

Fujieda: I heard it was like….when you saw the flyer….”This person!”

Die: "At that time, it ( the flyer)was black and white and the image quality was poor ...I didn’t know who was who. At that time,  there were many flyers stuck on the wall.  Toshiya….where was it?...”

Toshiya: Wasn’t it at Sugamo? At a coffee shop in Sugamo.

Die: No, it wasn’t there. Didn’t we met somewhere at Gio?

Toshiya: Ichikawa? Could be…

Die: After that,  I met you at coffee shop in Sugamo with Kyo. It was a coffee shop? Not a cafe….at that time….you were living in Tokyo, right?

Toshiya: Yes, I was.

Die: We're still in Osaka, and we didn’t know about Tokyo, so we didn’t know  about  Sugamo. We got on the train at  Yamanote line, but at the opposite direction. When I asked Kyo if we were going in the opposite direction, he said “maybe”. We were like “this direction is wrong” and got off. We went to a coffee shop in Sugamo.

Fujieda: Why at Sugamo? Did you live there?

Toshiya: I didn’t. I lived nearby so it was just right for me…

 ----

Fujieda: Are there any young V-kei bands you are interested in?

Die:  I would say….”Kizu”

Fujieda: Ah, thank you!

Die: Why?

Fujieda: Because they are part of our company (label)

Die: Oh

---- 

Question: Is there something that you like to do on a rainy day?

Toshiya: Nothing.  I don’t hate rain I just don’t  go out.

Die: Rain might be the thing that I hate the most. The humidity….because humidity is bad for my hair.

Fujieda: Oh, I understand that!

Die: Eh? You do?

Fujieda: I do….because…. I have curly hair…

Die: Oh…

  -----

Takabayashi: Do you want to wear the outfits of other members?

Die: Mmm…..

Toshiya and Fujieda laughs.

Die: Why are you laughing?

Fujieda: Do you want to wear Toshiya’s outfit?

Die: Mmmm…..but just because we are the same….like size and so. Can you wear it? Could we exchange them? Should I lend you a red suit? The oMeguro Rock-May-Kan one? Time ago, as I am good friends with Noisy from SEX MACHINEGUNS, he told me he would lend me a costume and he did. He lend me the costume for JEALOUS but as I’m tall, I was dragging the hem of the trousers. It was dragging while I was playing. -----

Talking about JEALOUS

Die: Do you remember the recording of it?

Toshiya: It was at a private house, right?

Die: At that time, we lived in Tokyo, but we did the recording at Osaka. Kaoru, Kyo and me did the recording in a place that was like a house studio. There were houses around it and you could hear the dogs and the crows in the evening. When Kyo was singing, the dogs started to bark, that’s why we had to wait for the dogs to stop barking. The engineer’s body was big, so we were like “Can you check the sound? We can’t hear it though its going on” His body was so big that we couldn’t hear it because he was blocking the sound of the speakers. Kaoru was trying to hear it while moving left and right, but he couldn’t. We were doing it for two days but I got fever. I lied down, putting a futon on the tatami floor. Well, it was someone’s house. When I lied down and slept….there was a portrait of deceased person in front of me. I didn’t know who that person was. But as there was a portrait of a deceased person….I’d would say that as there was that….I thought my fever wouldn’t cool down.

 ---- 

 Toshiya is looking at the questionnaire and starts giggling suddenly and shows it to Die. Die burst out laughing. Toshiya also laughs. Fujieda urges Toshiya to read it but he hands it over to Die to read it.

Die: The content of the questionnaire is pretty good, but someone wrote that their favourite song is…”son-shi…..budosorou”….it’s a new song or a song by another…. DIR EN GERI…. I mentioned about the FILTH mistake…. DIR EN GERI….I bought the magazine.

Fujieda: It’s like a jagged 10 yen coin. Something very rare.

Die: Should we rename the band? Should we change the name even though the band was formed 24 years ago?

 ----

About Oboro shooting

Die: It’s was the first time in a long time that the five of us….or should I say 6?

Fujieda: That’s right. There are 6 people. They are standing out in the center….

Die: That person….must be all the time in the same position. We recorded the PV with them in the same situation. I just stopped to check but Kyo and that person couldn’t move because of the setting. Because the distance was quite close,I thought it would be awkward. The woman was almost naked, right? We couldn't see it properly, and we were talking turning sideways. "

[sambart93]

2017.12.15 Touken Ranbu Stage [TouStage]: JyoDen [Review]!

By some miracle I managed to get a ticket for this.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage　1、2、3、4、5、6、7、８ Press Videos　1

CAST and CHARACTERS

Aramaki Yoshihiko as Yamanbagiri Kunihiro Wada Masanari as Heshikiri Hesebe Naya Takeru as Sayo Samonji Kitagawa Naoya as Honebami Toushiro Takeshi Naoki as Doudanuki Masakuni Yokoyama Masafumi as Yamabushi Kunihiro Narimatsu Yoshihiko as Nihongo Kizu Tsubasa as Hakata Toushiro Iiyama Yuta as Sohaya no Tsurugi Yamaura Tooru as Kuroda Kanbee Isaka Tatsuya as Kuroda Nagamasa Kawashita Taiyou as Toyotomi Hideyoshi Hinata Akihisa as Yasuke Matsukawa Shinya as Mori Tomonobu

NON-SPOILER REVIEW! Overall: This was so much better than that pile of crap Akatsuki! There’s so many surprises and twists this time, as well as some things we were hoping would happen and do and it’s so satisfying to see. Also, there’s quite a few things that maybe fans of the game have questioned before or possible situations that came from playing the game - I feel like they really gave a nod to the actual game fans his time. Also, definitely take tissues! I was crying my eyes out in the first half so much and it’ll just continue for pretty much the entire play; both from shockers, sad moments and happy moments. It’s just over 3 hours which sounds super long but actually, it goes so freaking fast. So far the only thing that annoyed me was one element that was in Akatsuki, was used again in this one which just kind of made me sigh. And I hope you don’t class this as a spoiler but: oh damn Tsubasa-kun as Hakata!!!!Speaking of characters: lots of comedy again this time. I really liked Doudanuki’s fighting style. And surprisingly, for me, I actually ended up liking Hasebe and Yamabushi somewhat – but I of course won’t give away why or what scenes. And the last note: Oooooh damn the opening and ending songs are great this time! Again so much better than Akatsuki! I really enjoyed this this time! And before I forget: DO NOT LOOK AT THE COVER OF YOUR PAMPHLET BEFORE SEEING THE STAGE! DON’T LOOK INSIDE IT EITHER! ALSO!! THE MAIN VISUAL IS A SPOILER SO AVOID THAT ON THE MAIN SITE AND THEIR TWITTER TOO! Rating:　8/10

*

SPOILER REVIEW

This is excessively heavily spoiled from the very first sentence, so proceed with full knowledge that I’m gunna spoil the whole damn thing. doLets get right to it straight away! The full story!

So they (meaning the TouStage Staff, Scriptwriter etc.) told us the story is set before Jiji; well they damn well lied! Only the FIRST part is before Jiji and he ends up turning up towards the end of part one anyway! The second part is set AFTER Akatsuki. The focus of the story is about the one failed mission Manbachan went on while everything and everyone was still knew; we follow Kuroda Nagamasa and his father (Kanbee) who is taken by the Jikansokougun; not only that but he also wants to partner up with them so he can rule and become the Tenkabito which so many failed to do. Also we have another guy (Yasuka) working with the Jikansokougun who hold a very big grudge against the Touken Danshi so clearly he's gone back in time with the bad guys to where ManbaChan and co. are. BUT because this is BEFORE they go to Honnouji, ManbaChan and co. have no idea why he holds such a grudge on them. Another great twist is that Kuroda Nagamasa fucking knows about Touken Danshi and what they are and even travels to their world and asks them to come back to that time again to sort it all out. But obviously; they've already been back once so they (Sayo, Hasebe, ManbaChan etc.) have to be SUPER careful so their past selves done find them or discover them.

Part One — Before MikaJiji

The Group: Manba, Sayo, Doudanuki, Yamabushi, Hasebe, Honebami

So they go back in time but can't quiet figure out WHY the Jikansokougun have come back to this time. But then they are attacked by the bad guys. With Honebami heavily injured, they have to seek refuge in the castle without being caught by many of them. But Nagamasa discovers Manba, Yamabushi and Doudanuki, but happily welcomes them. 

Meanwhile Kanbee got knocked out, taken away by the Jikansokougun and manipulated into wanting and needing their power in order to become the Tenkabito. When it becomes apparent what the Jikan's plans are, the Danshi attack; unfortunately they are way out numbered (the Jikan this time are those who survived Honnouji and are so much stronger than they were then!) and while Manba is desperately fighting and almost ruining himself, Yamabushi rushes into to protect him and cracks a little. 

Doundanuki and ManbaChan also keep bashing heads; Doudanuki doesn't want to work with someone who's so hotheaded and only cares about the fighting and completely the mission rather than caring for wounded Honebami and such. He disappears towards the end claiming he never wants to work with Manba every again; after they retreat from the battle in defeat, Doudanuki isn't seen around or near Manba (and assuming the Honmaru) ever again. I have a note here which says 'Manbachan’s very smart mouth towards Doudan' which means I super love the way Manba spoke (or argued) to Doudan in the first part of the play; some of the lines he said were great! Lots of great writing between their arguments. I also think I recall a slap? But I could be wrong.

When Honebami finally awakes from his conciousness, he's consumed from the fact he can't remember where he's from or what happened to him when he was a sword. But towards the end, Jiji finally appears and tells him to not worry about his past; that them two can finally be friends and to look towards the future.

So many parts of this story I love! Especially this first part!

I love how EVERYONE cried when Yamabushi started cracking; also we started crying when Doudan and Manba when full on out in an argument; also the fact that Manba was practically fighting himself to death broke us all.

I also love how part way through Doundan's arugment, he yells something like 'I can fight on my own!' and Yamabushi, being the idiot he is, blurts out 'why you pulling an Okurikara?' xD Everyone cracked up laughing. ALSO Yamabushi is such a sweetheart to his brother <3 he supports him so much and gives him so much good advice! Some more Yamabushi love is when Nagamasa first welcomes them and Nagamasa treats them to a meal while asking them their names and Yamabushi, as open as a freaking dictionary, yells 'This is Manbachan! And I'm BuChan! And this is (I think he said Doundan-chan)' and Manba is like 'YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE AWAY OUR IDENTITIES!' xD

I cannot compliment BuChan enough as a supporting brother <3 he's the sweetest and I love ManbaChan's and BuChan's relationship so much! All the way through their kyoudai/brotherly-ness is beautiful! Even hearing ManbaChan just saying 'hey kyoudai (brother)!' was a shocker because we all know ManbaChan has difficulty in opening up to others but with his brother, he's so much more honest and shows his affection more <3

ALSO we got a little Pre-Akatsuki-ness in Part One; where Hasebe warns Sayo not to be a burden and that's when he starts avoiding ManbaChan and when he starts saying he doesn't want to bother ManbaChan which I thought was a super nice touch and backstory they laid in there!

Also the biggest shocker is when freaking Yasuka turns up and is like 'I finally found you.... TOUKEN DANSHI!' everyone was like 'HOW DOES HE KNOW ABOUT TOUKEN DANSHI?!!?!' and then in another part (I think) Kanbee is like 'I found you! TOUKEN DANSHI!' and again the boys are like 'WHY and HOW do they know about us?!'

And then a SECOND ManbaChan runs on stage to protect ManbaChan himself, we all flipped our shit! Like ‘oooohhhh there's another aruji about?!?!?!?!?!' and it's heavily implied in the first part of the play that it's one of Yasuka's danshis! =O

And I absolutely LOVE Doudan’s fighting style! Also I really love Sayo's fighting style where he like gets all the Jikan to end up cutting themselves!

Part one (as I recall) ends with ManbaChan reporting to Aruji about the failed mission and it's AFTER Sohaya comes to the Honmaru.

I think that's it for part one but I'll probably edit and update it after.

Part Two —- After Akatsuki

The Group: Manba, Hasebe, Sayo, Hakata, Sohaya, Nihongo

The opening to part two confused the crap out of everyone because they redid the opening but with a different song to the first part. Also this time instead of it being Manba, Sayo, Doudanuki, Yamabushi, Hasebe, Honebami, it was Manba, Hasebe, Sayo, Hakata, Sohaya, Nihongo singing the opening and saying a completely different title. I think everyone was confused as fuck but then we quickly realised; OOHHH they've put TWO stories in to one stage; both are centered around the same part of time they go back two, but two completely different times in the Honmaru! I really like both opening songs and the ending song too!!!

So the boys are at the Honmaru and Yamabushi is back to normal and is challenging people to lifting his weights up, when Nagamasa turns up. All of them are shocked and don't know how to react. He explains he's spent a long time learning how to get his father back to normal and that's how he found out about the Touken Danshi and learnt how to travel to their world. Naturally, Hasebe is shocked that Nagamasa knows who he is and he becomes very happy (and also cries?). Also they talk about it's been a long time since Doudance and Sayo left to go on their adventures; which proves this is set AFTER Akatsuki.

So Nagamasa begs them to come back to his time period to fix what they couldn't last time. But Manba is hesitant at first but he decides to go with this group. They quickly realise that their past selves are still part of that timeline and Manba, Hasebe and Yamabushi have to seriously creep and sneak around so as their past selves don't discover them! But then this completely answers WHY there were two Manba's in part one! One is past Manba and one is THIS Manba! << which kind of upset me because I thought it would've been a totally juicy like if Yasuka had his OWN touken danshis and/or there was ANOTHER Aruji! xD But this story line was still good enough!

Oooohh there is a hilarious moment that's in both parts and that's when Manba and co. are sneaking around and Future Manba and Yamabushi run into PAST Hasebe and they end up screaming in the middle of the hallway >.< after Manba and Yamabushi leaves, Hasebe (it's seriously hilarious) sees the Jikan trying to sneak around, spots Hasebe, look at each other and then calmly keep walking their way xD obviously Hasebe is like 'WTF?! Don't ignore me! *charges after them*'

Oh yes, by the way, this stage has A LOT of comedy moments.

At one point we see Sayo return to the Honmaru/Manba (just before the final big fight) and OF COURSE he's returning in his freaking KIWAME outfit! I bloody KNEW they were going to Kiwame him when he left at the end of Akatsuki!!! I win ALL the kudos >.< Also at the very end when Hasebe talks to the Aruji, he also says a goodbye in a 'I'm going traveling' type of way so you KNOW he's going to be kiwame'd next!!!

Speaking of game elements coming into the stage world; the fucking SHINKENS!!!! THIS TIME WE HAD HASEBE, NIHONG AND HAKATA (and Sohaya?) SHINKEN'D!!!! OHHHH MYYYYYYY I know Tsubasa is still underage by Japan standards but he's almost naked in his Shinken AND he has the tightest damn shorts!! I was LOVING IT!!!!!!

Hakata in general was my favourite part of the entire play! Tsubasa was absolutely PERFECT as Hakata. But we did get confused; we got to the end of the first part of the play and Nihongo nor Hakata had come on ONCE; neither of them had any stage time until the SECOND half! Those boys must've loved the extra sleep, but also super bored that they had nothing to do for the first 90 or so minutes. And Sohaya only had the second part and about 5 minutes in the first part anyway.

ANYWAY back to (Tsubasa as) Hakata being the best thing to walk this earth! EVERY time he had the lines like "Japanese Business Man" I flailed and fangirled so fucking hard!!! His Fukuoka accent was great too and he had so much energy! And have I already mentioned how freaking amazingly tight those shorts are?! And he has perfect legs!! I am so in love with Tsubasa as Hakata!!!!

I also loved when Nihongo met HIS original Aruji and the guy is like 'you seem familiar...' and Nihongo is like 'yeah, I'm very similar to you... BUT SO MUCH BETTER!' xD Them two had a great back and forth during the stage.

I cried towards the end too because the final battle is in SNOW; they fight in SNOW! Not real snow obviously but the amount of 'white paper as snow' that falls looks absolutely out-of-this-world beautiful! And I legit started weeping just because of how beautiful the snow looked and everything!! Seriously, it's such a beautiful sight! I was a little worried the boys would slip but nothing which is great! Seriously, the floor is just covered in snow at the end and it's SO BEAUTIFUL!

Also right at the end after defeating Yasuka and bringing Kanbee back to normal, Nagamasa and the Danshis have a talk and beg and agree that Nagamasa and co. cannot say anything about ever meeting them -- which he obviously agrees to. But then there is this beautiful moment between him and Hasebe where Hasebe was super happy that his master gave him attention and knew who he was but now they must separate. But he says 'we will meet again' and Hasebe just like cries -- and we were all crying! Hasebe had AMAZING character development in this fucking play! Before this play I would've right out told you 'I fucking hate Hasebe. I cannot stand him. I wouldn't care if he died' but after this huge development and him meeting his master and him actually being happy and emotional and everything, I really warmed up to here!

And I think that's all, again I'll let you know if I edit or update anything about this.

The Negatives; I'll be quick about this because I really freaking loved this stage!

*The fact the Honebami spends 95% of the play either injured and down, or just not onstage; he really is pointless. And when he is concious he's too busy like 'why am I the only sword that doesn't remember their past. Boohoo woe is me'. And he gets carried or gets helping walking off stage about six times! *They repeated the same scenes and lines over and over which is what they did in Akatsuki too - both times this has annoyed me. Personally I think it's a waste of time. I don't want to see the same scene again that I just saw over an hour ago; my mind isn't that dumb. Sure there's some scenes that need to be shown again, but from a different angel in order to show the whole 'hey they're back in time and need to avoid their past selves' but when you're showing the exact same scene with no extra part or from a different angel then it's just a waste of time. *The pamphlet only has ONE page of Off Shots -__- << seriously I live for the off shots, it's what makes buying the pamphlet worth it!

And now to a goodie part; my seat was third floor and to the right so guess what; I could see WAY back stage and I saw some real good gems:

*I was spoiled for the ManbaChan double in the first half because I saw the body double get dressed and put the cape on about ten minutes before he ran on stage. But it was still cool it see - I couldn't figure out who it was though =[ *Also in the second half MakiChan was rubbing his eyes and yawning backstage which was adorable! *Also freaking Tsubasa; when he and MakiChan ran off stage, Tsubasa shuffled and went right up behind MakiChan, it was adorable! *Every time I saw MakiChan on standby to go on stage was great too! *Pretty sure I saw Iiyama dancing at one part behind stage. Either that or he was just swaying about >.< *Tsubasa was just adorable everytime he was on standby and waiting for patiently! *Also freaking Naya ran off stage at one point and nearly ran RIGHT into one of the ensemble who was about to run ON stage, but good reflexes, Naya dodged a little and slowed himself down FAST! *Also at one point, one member of staff was seriously shuffling through the Toustage script and talking A LOT to one of the other staff - almost like she was giving a huge amount of instructions or explanation. And then later on, she was JUST off stage and messing with the curtain; I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but she was fiddling with it for about ten minutes trying to sort the curtain out!

Honestly, it was just a gem-mine being able to see the stage AND backstage at the same time! I freaking loved it! I understand some people would find that a break in the stage world and bring them back to reality, but for me, it just adds to it so much more!

After the LV

So I've decided my rating for this is 8 / 10. I still majorly enoyed it and majorly cried the second time around and it's definitely my favourite TouStage they've made but... a few things just get to me.

DISCALIMER: When I first watched this, I was 3rd balcony to the far right so I couldn't see ANYTHING that happened at the top of the stairs.

I really don't like how much they babied the audience with the 'Past' and 'Present' signs throughout the second half of the play. I am definitely not intelligent nor do I have much common sense but even without that visual aid the first time around (because as I mentioned above, I couldn't see the screen or the top of the stairs at all), I figured it out and realised and understood 'oh their past selves are still here and they can't get caught' BEFORE they even explained it. And maybe my memory is better than others but I knew straight away when they were redoing scenes from the first part of the play so it was super easy for me to go 'okay that's past Manba, and over there is future Hasebe', so personally for me I found it very insulting that they felt the need to put up signs saying 'NOW' and 'PAST' every other scene in the second half. 

HOWEVER, I've seen a few people commenting and stuff that they wouldn't have had any idea what was going on without those visuals aids, but like I said, I really am not that intelligent and I'm usually the first and/or only person to get confused by something, so I personally just find it really hard to understand how it would've been confusing without the signs. BUT then again, I also understand a lot of people just want a story they can enjoy; they just want to go to the cinema or the theatre or turn on the tv and just be entertained; they don't want to be confused and/or don't want to have to use their brains so much; they just want to enjoy. So in that aspect I totally get why they would've wanted those signs in the play. I also understand that the director and stuff put those signs there so that half of their questionnaires from audiences weren't like 'oh it was so confusing. I don't get it. Why can't you make it more simplier' complaints. So I totally understand from those two stand points why those signs were there but I just... how could you not figure that out by yourself and without signs?! I'm just having a lot of troubling understanding that. Maybe I've consumed too many stories... Maybe it's my fault because I'm so into the theory and logistics and the building/structure behind stories, movies and stages etc. as to why I can't understand people who don't think about that side of a production or story. Maybe it's my fault because I freaking LOVE using my brain; I live and breath things that make me think. If a stage or a play doesn't make me think or feel or give me some mystery to decipher then I'm bored. It's just my personality. I love thinking logically and maybe that's why I got it and many other didn't because, like I said, they're just going to be entertained, NOT to use their brains and that's a huge difference between me and them.

So if you have seen the play, please let me know how you felt about those signs; were they a help to you, if so, why - because I want to understand that - or, like me, did you find the signs completely insulting and babying?

BUUUUUTTT some great things I noticed this time around:

HOW FREAKING CUTE SAYO IS!!! I always knew he was cute but damn! He holds his hands out when he runs down the stairs and it's the most ADORABLE thing in the world!!!

I really really liked Doudanuki even more this time around and I am even more in love with his fighting choreography this time too!

I warmed up to Sohaya and Nihongo and lot more during the LV too! I really want Nihongo to come back next time around just for more fun - seriously him and Hakata are such a great duo! Also I want to see more development on Sohayas side.

Even Yamabushi! I liked him the first time but I liked him even MORE this time around! The actor did such an amazing job taking a character I asolutely dispise and making me seriously love him and his relationship with ManbaChan <3

DAMN MakiChan's acting last night! So much more amazing than the first time around! Especially his and Doudan's scene I freaking love and I love how evil and strained his voice gets when he's yelling and/or angry! Absolutely amazing! I'm so proud of you MakiChan!!

*

GOODS

* 

And I am done! I hope this satisfies you until you get to see it!

If you know ANYONE else who’s done a review for this TouStage, PLEASE DM me the links and stuff! I want to see and hear what others have t say about it.

[astro-onechampionship]

Folayang Determined To Get Back On Track At ONE: MASTERS OF FATE

Eduard “Landslide” Folayang is in a tough spot, but he insists he can squeeze his way out at ONE: MASTERS OF FATE.

The former ONE Lightweight World Champion has endured a rough run lately. First, he lost his World Title to Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki in May. Then he fell to “The Underground King” Eddie Alvarez in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix semifinals in August.

Despite the setbacks, the Filipino icon is confident he can get back on the winning track this coming Friday, 8 November against Amarsanaa “Spear” Tsogookhuu at ONE: MASTERS OF FATE in Manila, Philippines.

“Landslide” is looking to recapture the same focus that helped him win his second ONE Lightweight World Title against the division’s knockout king Amir Khan last November.

Even though the memories from that emphatic victory on home soil will always remain close to him, Folayang is only focused on besting his Mongolian rival on Friday.

“I still have the same focused mindset I had even during my winning run last year,” he said.

The Team Lakay standout also believes there is no better way to end 2019 than with the all-important victory.

“We’re coming off back-to-back losses, so it’s important for me to get a win back in order to finish the year strong,” Folayang said. “I want to give the fans a terrific performance for my last bout of the year.”

Two straight defeats to Aoki and Alvarez have made Folayang’s 2019 campaign one to forget, but the 35-year-old has gained valuable insight from his losses, and he is ready to wipe the slate clean in his upcoming match.

“At this level, there is very little margin for error. This sport can be very unforgiving on small mistakes,” he said.

“I knew Eddie was a striker, but I focused too much on that and almost forgot that it was a mixed martial arts bout. He used that momentary slip of my mind to win over me. So now, I’m preparing for any aspect of the game.”

Having overcome tremendous adversity and early tragedy to become a World Champion, “Landslide” has the heart and courage needed to rebound from his loss to Alvarez.

“It’s a huge motivator for me. We lost, so we are certainly not happy about it. We faced legends in the sport who took advantage of the mistakes I committed,” Folayang said.

“The pain of losing will probably never fade, but the most important lesson we have to learn is how to move on from it.”

The SEA Games wushu gold medalist has seen Tsogookhuu in action and is well aware of his rival’s strengths.

“I can see that his game is more focused on the striking aspect, and he uses his takedowns to gain points,” the Filipino said.

“I think he’s a smart fighter who uses his skills well and with purpose when he competes.”

While the Team Lakay representative has a strategy in place, he is keeping an open mind until he steps into the Circle to face Tsogookhuu.

“I don’t want to focus on what he’s perceived to be because he can always have a game plan that might be completely different, so we’re really preparing for any possible scenario,” he said.

“If we stay on our feet, you know that I’m a striker as well, so I can play my game.

“I’m excited to see the results of our preparations and how I can execute our game plans in the Circle. If I can pull it through as planned, I’m 100 percent certain that the result will be in our favor.”

Check out ONE: MASTERS OF FATE, this Friday, 8 November.

The preliminary card starts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the ONE Super App at 5:30pm Singapore Standard Time (SGT). To watch the main card, head to Toggle at 8:30pm SGT.

Also, Channel 5 will cut-in to the live broadcast at 10:00pm SGT.

Read More From ONE Championship:

Joshua Pacio Explains Why This World Title Defense Will Be Different

Rene Catalan Reveals Why He Decided To Face Joshua Pacio

World Title Main Event And More Announced For ONE: EDGE OF GREATNESS

[recentanimenews]

Shinya Asanuma Dedicated Himself to Learning About Ainu to Make His Designs True to Life!

Golden Kamuy's official website is releasing a series of interviews with cast and staff over the course of the Spring season, which we're translating and brining directly to you! They started things off with the character designer, Ken'Ichi Onuki, followed by animal designer, Ryo Sumiyoshi, the art director, Atsushi Morikawa, firearm designer Koji Watanabe, and this week we bring you prop designer Shinya Asanuma, whose previous work includes key animation for Blast of Tempest and Garden of Sinners and, most recently, conceptual design for WorldEnd!

Tell us how you felt when you read the manga.

It felt to me like the way the story unfolded was really cleverly thought out. I couldn’t wait to keep reading and find out what would happen next. Even if you started knowing basically nothing about Ainu culture, you would learn it naturally as you read. The characters all felt alive and active within the story. Battles against nature, fistfights with wild animals… I was so impressed. Also, the way the art expressed the tension in the scenes really drew me in. Oh, and it was kind of a cooking manga! The stews looked so good. I’d love to try them sometime!

Tell us what you focused on when doing the prop design for this anime.

First, it felt important to me that all these props were things that really existed. Usually, I work on stuff like SF and fantasy, things that require a lot of imagination, but this time, all the props were real things, and things from a relatively recent time in the past. There’s photographs and written descriptions of all of them, so I had to be accurate. I had to use the available resources as best I could.

Are there any things you always keep in mind when doing prop design? Not just for this anime, but any others.

Creating an anime is a group process, so it’s important to create things that anybody can draw. Also, I try to create designs that will allow the animators to focus on animating the main story. I always try to make things with easily distinguishable silhouettes, and no unnecessary lines. If something is going to involve a lot of linework, I always make sure to discuss it with the director beforehand. Sometimes, I’ll create three versions of a prop: one pointed toward the viewer, one neutral, and one facing away. Lately, I’ll sometimes use computer graphics, but since props are something that are heavily involved with the action of the story, I always try to make them both easy to draw and beautiful.

What parts of this project were particularly difficult?

The research, definitely!

Usually, I’ll use the original work as well as materials provided by the production team. But sometimes you’ll run into things where that’s just not enough… Also, sometimes even if you have a photograph, it’s not clear enough to use. In those cases, I just have to talk with Mr. Noda, the original author, or speak with the supervisors… This time, I had a dedicated supervisor who dealt with the Ainu culture, as well as a round of checks by the original author. Both of them had to approve it… It was pretty nerve-wracking.

Please tell us anything you particularly remember about your interactions with Director Nanba and the rest of the staff.

Golden Kamuy is a work of entertainment, but Ainu culture also plays an extremely important role. I think we all saw that as a wonderful challenge, but also something that demanded full dedication from us. The first thing the director said was, “We know essentially nothing about Ainu culture. Let’s all learn as much as possible.” I remember that I felt this was something I needed to really dedicate myself to.

Tell us how it felt to participate in making this anime, and what you hope to see in it.

This was work that took a lot of calories to do. It was nerve-wracking, but it felt so good when the supervisors finally okayed something. And all the staff are working really hard to make Golden Kamuy a success as well. You can see their passion on the screen! I hope you’ll watch it to the end.

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com