#japanese voice actors that can also sing

[probablygayattorneys]

Katrielle Layton and Maya Fey aren’t allowed in the same universe because their friendship would be too powerful

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Kathryn Grayson (Anchors Aweigh, Kiss Me Kate)— Gorgeous brunette whose singing voice was one of the best. Could've been an opera star.

Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, The Idiot)— "'The only time I saw Susan Sontag cry,' a writer once told me, his voice hushed, 'was at a screening of a Setsuko film.' What Setsuko had wasn’t glamour—she was just too sensible for that—it was glow, one that ebbed away and left you concerned, involved. You got the sense that this glow, like that of dawn, couldn’t be bought. But her smiles were human and held minute-long acts, ones with important intermissions. When she looked away, she absented herself; you felt that she’d dimmed a fire and clapped a lid on something about to spill. Over the last decade, whenever anyone brought up her lips—'Setsuko’s eternal smile,' critics said, that day we learned that she’d died—I thought instead of the thing she made us feel when she let it fall." - Moeko Fujii

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Setsuko Hara:

One of the best Japanese actresses of all time; a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s After seeing a Setsuko Hara film, the novelist Shūsaku Endō wrote: "We would sigh or let out a great breath from the depths of our hearts, for what we felt was precisely this: Can it be possible that there is such a woman in this world?"

One of the greatest Japanese actresses of all time!! Best known for acting in many of Yasujiro Ozu's films of the 40s and 50s. Also she has a stunning smile and beautiful charm!

Linked gifset

Linked gifset 2

She's considered by some to be the greatest Japanese actress of all time! In Kurosawa's The Idiot she haunts the screen, and TOTALLY steals the show from Mifune every time she appears.

"No other actor has ever mastered the art of the smile to the same extent as Setsuko Hara (1920–2015), a celebrated star and highly regarded idol who was one of the outstanding actors of 40s and 50s Japanese cinema. Her radiant smile floods whole scenes and at times cautiously undermines the expectations made of her in coy, ironic fashion. Yet her smile's impressive range also encompasses its darker shades: Hara's delicate, dignified, melancholy smile with which she responds to disappointments, papers over the emotions churning under the surface, and flanks life's sobering realizations. Her smiles don't just function as a condensed version of her ever-precise, expressive, yet understated acting ability, they also allow the very essence of the films they appear in to shine through for a brief moment, often studies of the everyday, post-war dramas which revolve around the break-up of family structures or the failure of marriages. Her performances tread a fine line between social expectation and personal desire in post-war Japan, as Hara attempts to lay claim to the autonomy of the female characters she plays – frequently with a smile." [link]

Leading lady of classic Japanese cinema with a million dollar smile

Maybe the most iconic Japanese actress ever? She rose to fame making films with Yasujiro Ozu, becoming one of the most well-known and beloved actresses in Japan, working from the 30s through the 60s in over 100 hundred. She is still considered one of the greatest Japanese actresses ever, and in my opinion, just one of the greatest actresses of all time. And she was HOT! Satoshi Kon's film Millennium Actress was largely based on her life and her career.

[hatredmadeofgold]

So, Raiden has DID, right. This is a fact.

What do you think about his system? I know you write fanfic about him, do you think there are any other elaborated parts other than Raiden and The Ripper? (I'm not a fan of "evil murder alter," but I feel like naming would be pretty ambiguous. :)

Hey anon, I am sorry in advance but this answer is 2263 words long lmao Go sit back with a beverage of your choice (I recommend water) and enjoy the ride.

[Not sure if you’ve read my little attempt at an essay from July 2022 about him having DID (it’s here), but I do consider it outdated now and would love to update it (same as the one on him having ASPD) at some point when I got the energy for that.]

This is a fact made me laugh a bit, ngl.

I am not a fan of the “evil murderer alter” thing either (I watched Split once and while I give my kudos to the actor’s portrayal of various alters, the story itself sucks ass and I also found it boring as hell to be honest) — if anything, Raiden’s entire system consists of “evil murderer alters”, or none of such at all. We’re speaking about a character who admits to enjoying murder, and that wasn’t The Ripper speaking back then in MGS2 either — Raiden isn’t left in the dark of his violent nature, but he’s left in the dark about the details.

I don’t want to give too many spoilers for my fanfiction series @mgsr-sing-to-me away, since the story goes in-depth about my concept of his DID system, how it was created and what each alter roughly represents, but I’ll try to give you a quick rundown:

Something I think most MGS fans can all agree on is that Raiden in all three games in which he appears feels somewhat different, to the point of ‘inconsistency’ even, and this has created my interpretation and headcanon for him to have DID in the first place, and Raiden having suffered from amnesia is a well-known canon fact.

To me, however, it’s not MGR Raiden who feels strongly different in terms of personality — it’s MGS4 Raiden who feels like an inconsistency.

I consider the Raiden we see in MGS4 actually a different alter being in control of the body than the one who is in control during MGS2. During MGR, it feels like a mix of both of those alters but let me get to that later.

‘Jack the Ripper’ is an obvious alter, not an ‘alter ego’, and when I played MGR in Japanese, the cutscene after the Monsoon boss battle in which Raiden touches the wound on his abdomen made me realise — hold on, he suffered amnesia right there.

Something that I strongly dislike about the English Dub of MGR is that Quinton Flynn isn’t really good at the portrayal of Jack. Throughout the Japanese dub, however, Ken’yuu Horiuchi uses his voice to show the literal switching between at least three alters present in Raiden throughout the game. Unfortunately, this isn’t evident in the English dub much at all, aside from the Jack the Ripper Awakens cutscene.

For easier understanding’s sake, I will give those alters some nicknames (also to prevent spoilers for my fanfiction):

The Raiden of Denial, as we see him both in the first half of MGR and MGS2

The Raiden of Dissociality, as we see in the later half of MGR and on and off during MGS2 (especially during {optional} Codecs with Rose)

Jack the Ripper

The Raiden of Sorrow, as we see him during MGS4

I took these 4 observed alters from the canon as my pillars to roughly create my concept for his DID system, which boils down to an approximate number of 16 or more alters in total.

I say ’16 or more’ because Raiden has never received adequate therapy for his mental health issues during canon, and it’s hard to determine an exact number of alters in general due to the covert nature of the disorder.

I decided to keep the exact number ambiguous but clear and simple enough to not get overwhelmed because technically someone with such severe trauma as his could result in poly-fragmented DID (aka 100 or more alters), but that’s not even set in stone.

Let me get into the specifics a bit.

—

Raiden of Denial alters are parts of him that are, what the (flawed) model of structural dissociation would probably call “apparently normal parts” (short: ANP). I take this model with a grain of salt because DID isn’t as neatly structured as this model suggests (in my experience), but to keep it simple, these alters are less aware of the full extent of their traumas and are therefore ‘functional’ in everyday life as well as interpersonal relationships, however, they feel less ‘fleshed out’ or ‘mask-like’ in his case sometimes.

All Raiden of Denial alters tend to run away from their past, hence I label them with the word “denial”. All of these alters are adults, and the apparent Host alter {at the time}, present in the first half of MGS2 until the nanomachines suppressing a part of his memory (aka suppressing the majority of the system) are deactivated by Solidus Snake, is one of such.

—

Throughout MGR, we can see two alters intruding on each other’s consciousness with thoughts, feelings and memories. One of them is like the one we see in MGS2 and the prologue of MGR, one in denial. Then there’s one we see sometimes in MGS2 and more and more prominently during MGR, a dissocial one.

We see an indirect switch right at the beginning of Chapter 1, where a dissocial type takes over. This shift is also picked up by Kevin, mentioning Raiden’s callousness that Raiden does not respond to.

These two alters are in so much conflict with each other throughout the game that Jack the Ripper decides that he’s had enough of that shit from the other two because neither of them is capable of handling being consistently confronted with triggers and reminders of “who they all really are on the inside”, and shoves them both out of the frame and takes on full control.

This comes with strong amnesia about what happens during his takeover. It’s not total blackout amnesia, but rather that it feels like watching himself act in the third person perspective, and the memory feels like Raiden is watching a YouTube video on a bad internet connection in 360p resolution.

—

Now Jack the Ripper is a persecutor-type of alter — an alter that has a protective role for the system, however, a persecutor’s methods are causing harm to the system overall.

I don’t want to give too much away from my fic as I said, but I’ll give you the hint that Jack the Ripper that we see during MGR is both an adult and a child at the same time.

A child who is trying to protect himself by lashing out at everyone and everything around him. It is obvious given the context of what we are told from the games that Jack the Ripper was born from the horrible things he was forced to witness and forced to do himself when he was a child soldier in Liberia, hence his age-ambiguity. And even The Ripper is split into several variants, making The Ripper his own category of alters.

The variants of The Ripper handle various parts of the horrible things that he had to endure as a child soldier, and they vary in ‘age’ and what triggers them out but they all behave roughly the same.

Despite being different alters of the same category, unlike the other alters within the same category, Ripper variants all consider themselves to be one and the same, perhaps unable to understand the barriers between them as well as gaps in memory.

Also one part of these alters is a child alter who has none of these violent and hostile traits at all, but is still a part of this category. This alter is protected by the rest of The Ripper, and contains all of these emotions that he was not allowed to openly show to guarantee his survival back in Liberia, like fear, sorrow, and pain but also empathy.

There are multiple of these child alters in the system, but they are hard to distinguish without giving them names, some have memories of their trauma, and some are completely oblivious.

—

The Sorrow type of alters are what we exclusively see in MGS4 and are what I associate with self-hatred, recklessness, suicidal ideation (internal homicide), self-harm and substance abuse.  

Sorrow types are either adults or teenagers. They exclusively have a detailed awareness of Raiden’s addiction issues, which is another headcanon I have and is also listed in the content warnings for Sing to Me (ARC 2: Parasite Eve will handle this topic the most; and it may or may not be rather graphic, it depends on what I decide in the end what I will decide to publish).

—

Now I have listed 4 types of alters but I did not say anywhere that each category of them equates a set amount of alters to get to the number of 16 known alters in the system.

Because there’s another category to throw into the mix: Introjects.

So far, I have 4 introjects in mind that are part of Raiden’s system, but due to Sing to Me spoilers I cannot share them all.

Introjects are alters based on another person, be that a person in the system’s life, a celebrity they look up to, or even a fictional character. They exist in all DID systems in real life (and some sources confirm fiction-based introjects aka fictives since the 1980s) and their existence has a link to the psychology of child development.

One introject Raiden possesses is based on Solidus Snake/George Sears. Said alter is also a persecutor type and could be overlapping somewhat with the Ripper category, but is not a direct part of them. This persecutor introject of Solidus causes the entire system a major hit to their self-esteem, as he enacts the very same punishment onto the system, as the real Solidus Snake did on Raiden when he was a child soldier under his control, and also sabotages a lot of Raiden’s relationships by ‘protecting’ him from perceived threats that he sees in others.

—

Another I have in mind is perhaps based on Solid Snake/David and could have formed way before they’ve actually met. This makes sense because Raiden had gone through 2 years of VR training for the Big Shell mission, which put him into Snake’s role when he was on a solo infiltration mission on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska. This David introject is very loosely based on the actual person and is more of a fragment of what Raiden had been made to believe during those times. After their meeting, this introject might take the role of a ‘caretaker’ type of protector. Caretaker in this context must not be understood as to be something like a mother or father figure! However, this alter is counteracting the Solidus introject as well as the Ripper variants, by trying to get himself back on track.

—

Then there’s a fictive I feel like I can share about, and it’s the only female alter in the system: Ripley. And with that one I mean the actual Ellen Ripley from the first 4 movies of the Alien franchise.

Given that MGS2 mentions Raiden and Rose having met over arguing over King Kong, I came to think of what other types of fiction Raiden would enjoy and wrote myself a (still unfinished) list of movies and books.

The Alien franchise started in 1979 with the first movie, so it even matches timeline-wise that Raiden possibly saw those movies in his late teens, perhaps on TV or borrowed them from a local video rental store. Kaijū movies seem to be his thing, and although the Alien franchise is not considered one, it does overlap in some aspects of the genre.

Ripley as an alter might have formed when Raiden was moved into a foster family’s home, and to cope with his terrible nightmares that felt far too real, his psyche latched onto the fictional character to dissociate himself further from his past.

What I imagine is that he saw his nightmares, the flashbacks, and what he went through as something as undefeatable and unkillable as the xenomorph as described in the first movie, “the perfect survivor, without a conscience, guilt or remorse, nor moral code”.

Now Ripley was able to survive the xenomorph, and also kill it — by shooting it into space. Something that Raiden always wished to do with his past, just to erase it, as we learn in MGS2. At the time this alter takes its shape, he was maybe 15 or 16 years old. Ripley is also a protector, to protect the child in him additionally from pain. This alter then also takes a motherly role for the system inside Raiden’s Inner World, something that cannot be seen by an outsider.

—

The last introject I cannot say anything about it, since that one would give a too-harsh spoiler for my story plans with Sing to Me. I’d LOVE to talk about this alter and the absolute mindfuck he will create once he surfaces and interacts with other characters in the story, but my hands are tied. It sadly takes me so much time to work on the story due to the lack of energy I have overall, but it’s on my mind every single day. Even writing this answer took me two nights T_T

And considering that I’ve written over 2200 words to answer this ask already, I will make a cut here. Because honestly, I could write an entire book about Raiden (and Sam).

Which… I am actually doing, sort of, with my fic, due to its sheer estimated length of around 100 chapters for just the main story.

[nerd-cat-rambles]

Danganronpa Opinions

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL...

(I mean none of this with offense and I'm not targetting in any way shape or form btw-)

THH:

. Chihiro is VERY overrated.

. Off topic but it's canon Taka can sing, he wants Sayaka to teach him to sing so he can project his voice, and his Japanese VA is amazing at singing, and his English VA is Kinger in TADC (which I don't know much about but heard a song and imagined Taka singing it - which made me laugh -)

. Sayaka is underrated and over hated.

. Some of the executions aren't that good, and Celeste's was good and theatrical, but she (technically) killed 2 people and deserved to suffer a bit more.

. Toko is bad in THH and highly overrated if people like her and haven't seen her in UDG.

. Kiyotaka is annoying and loud even in his FTEs (He's like... my favourite character but I HAVE TO BE HONEST I WOULDN'T BE FRIENDS WITH HIM IRL-)

. Byakuya and Kyoko are EXTREMELY OVERRATED!!!! (If Byakuya has no haters I'm dead-)

. The survivors were so uninteresting, Hiro did almost nothing the whole time, and after Chapter 4 Aoi seemed to outlive her usefulness. She's still cool though, but also overrated.

. TRIAL 3 WAS WORSE THAN TRIAL 5 AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND.

. 11037 is still kind of funny, but only in context and not for making fun of Leon as a character.

. Sayaka haters are just mad for no reason... leave her alone gang-

. Junko was a terrible choice for a master-mind, they should've given fake Junko more development before killing her off. I forgot about her after Chapter Two.

. Byakuya x Anybody is a terrible ship, especially Makoto x Byakuya.

. Celesgiri have chemistry, but no interactions that make us ship them.

. LEON, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND THE MANGA EXPLAINS IT IS SELF DEFENSE.

SDR2:

. Nagito is actually kind of annoying... he was better in Chapter One, but he did make the game 10x more interesting.

. Nekomaru > Ibuki

. Peko is a cool character but not as loveable as the fans see her to be.

. Hinanami is ONLY platonic, nothing else.

. SDR2 TRIAL 3 IS NOT AS BAD AS EVERYBODY SAYS

. This may be exclusive to me but Trial 4 was stupidly difficult (I knew who the killer was and didn't get it because I'm a fucking moron.)

. Mikan and Hiyoko are both equally as annoying as eachother, but Hiyoko is much more upfront about it.

. MIKAN HAD A TRASH EXECUTION AND THIS OPINION ISN'T GONNA GET ME SHOT IN THE HEAD!!!

. Souda x Gundham is a bad ship... even the Voice Actor of Tanaka says so.

. Chiaki is slightly overrated.

. AI Junko is mid.

. Kamakura should have gotten more development, and is overrated.(I haven't seen the anime)

V3: (Updated version btw)

. I love V3, it's the best game

. Maki>Kyoko

. They shouldn't have killed Kaede off early, for her development as a character, but it was necessary to do so.

. Rantaro's overrated and him and Ryoma NEEDED MORE DEVELOPMENT.

.Tsumugi best mm real???

. Gonta is overrated.

. The Motive-Video for chapter two is a reused from chapter one THH, did they run out of ideas? If so, how did they recreate Danganronpa 53 times without the audience getting bored?

. Traffic Light (HimokoxAngiexTenko) is a bad ship because though Himiko cares for them both, Tenko doesn't like Angie much. (from what I've seen)

. They should've gotten in some new VAs for V3, I love Shuichi but I can only hear Leon in his voice...

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - There's so much airing even I'm struggling to keep up

That's why I'm late.

Aug 2023 Wk 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Sat iQIYI) 6 of 8 - Oh no. I am totally in love with the escaped young master & his smitten bodyguard. How did that happen? (Be careful P’Thee the broken ones are the most tempting. Tin understands.) NO SINGING! Trust Thai BL to destroy any moment of sentiment I might have by picking up a damn guitar. And we finally get Charn’s Batman villain origin story. Good use of back hug! This is a GREAT show. Melodramatic as fuck, but GREAT. Gotta say this pair in NOT Thailand’s best kissers but not everyone can be Zee++. Still I think that + singing + a touch of overacting is likely to keep this out of the 10/10 club.

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 1 of 12 - Rich /poor dynamic with characters & set up exactly as expected. Chimon is great. Perth is good too. A real rich-kid bully, Heirs level or Japanese F4 evil. All the teachers are also corrupt (that’s kinda a Thai thing, I think because they can't call out the government). I gotta say, Marc is doing a bang-up job as the jock friend, too. And the kiss twist was fun. All in all, this is good. And you know me, I love a high school BL.

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Sat YT) ep 1 of 12 - The time travel historical romance many of us have been waiting for. Adaption of y-novel by Violet Rain, from the producers of Lovely Writer. Heartbroken architect is transported to the 1930s. Nonkul (actor playing Jom) keeps reminding me of Cho Han Gyeol from Love Mate. It’s a bit slow to start but interesting when it hits its stride. The pacing feels like a Chinese historical (makes me wonder if this with be 4 or 6 act structure). Nonkul is a wonderful actor. They weren’t sharing the screen for long, but the leads seem good together. I’m in. 

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 2 of 10 - Well. It’s entertaining, I'll say that for it. Addiction. Manipulation. Queer as folk & all that jazz. (No jazz for you, Thailand. Oh no! I’m giving them ideas.) I would like it to turn out that Mew is actually manipulating everything. This is his revenge con on Top. Mew is, after all, supposed to be "the smart one." Gotta say, this is darn near perfect casting. But honestly? This show could just be about Ray & Sand. Their story (and them in it) is easily the most riveting. Sand better be careful, the wildly broken ones are always the best in bed, because they don’t care ao they have no shame and that's HOT.

Hidden Agenda (Sun GMMTV YouTube) ep 6 of 10 - I like how soft Joke’s version of seme flirting is. It’s mellow, like his voice gets with Zo. I also liked Zo casually chatting to his friends about how he feels about being flirted with. His friends gave good advice & were supportive. Oh no! A boy in a BL went into the rain ALONE. What ON EARTH will happen next? The argument was interesting, because it gave us insight into Zo’s maturity & ability to handle a relationship. I’ve been wondering why anyone would like him, and now I know. Joke & Nita’s backstory is fun. I like the gay boy protecting the straight girl reverse beard action. On a complete aside, I really like Dunk’s makeup in this series. It’s very Kdrama.

Low Frequency (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 8 - The house ghosts trying to help are cute. The plot is at least... a plot? I don’t know. Dias Ex Mafia is a new one on me. (COME ON THAT’S A GREAT PUN, PRAISE ME!) I’m ready for this show to be over. 

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 7 of 12 - Honestly, the whole time I’m watching this I’m just thinking I wish JaFirst got better scripts. Speaking of, I don’t object, but these characters sure moved into sex fast. I really don’t quite understand how Daddy & Hot Doc got together so fast either. It feels like their story was meant to be spread out into the other episodes but didn’t get cut in properly, so it ended up all in this one? Or is it just the pacing is particularly bad in this show?

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI) ep 8 of 10 eps - I have no idea what is going on. What are all of Dino’s friends doing? What do they want? what’s their point in the story? I’m even annoyed by Peak, and love him. Sex scene which they tried to make sexy. Operative word being tried. Although, there was some interesting after sex discussion about mechanics. And there was a cute bathtub chat about pet names. But this show is a lotta work for very little pay out. 

Wedding Plan (Wed YT & iQIYI) ep 5 of 7 - I like the sunshine sides? PUNCH LOM 2023! Trash watch here!

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 1 of 10 - Pushy older bro is Earn from Love Sick, yay! And he’s the hyung of a side couple, which is "best friend’s older brother" trope! My favorite!!!! Have we seen this in BL before? I don't think so. Anyway, DOUBLE YAY! The main couple… eh. You know I loathe stalker characters. And I viscerally HATE this one. Almost as bad as SCOY, not sure I can take it, actually. The squealing of "Tammy!" is worse on my ear than any off-key guitar strumming. I may have to DNF or fast forward through all his parts… but he’s the lead. What to do? I do like the “Chinese” businessman actor. He very cute. (On an aside, I was just reading about commercial real estate as the loophole for foreign property investors in Thailand. Cool plot point.) I’m getting a Taming of the Shrew vibes from this. Just me? For now it's living at the bottom of the list for sheer unadulterated loathing of Phumjai. Not the actor, he was my favorite and only good thing about Our Days. But this character? NO.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 5 of 8 - This is basically the gay Boys Over Flowers of my heart. Or as close as I think we’ll get from BL. I like both of the 2nd leads, even though I suspect Simon of actually being into everyone’s fav hyung. Cute to see the Mr Heart boys back on my screen, oh so briefly. Such a Taiwan trick, reusing a beloved couple like that. Nice gimmie to the fans. Meanwhile, Choi Jun - boy sure knows his angles but his motives? Please don’t let this be another arranged marriage beard situation? I can’t take 2 in the same month. 

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - The boyfriends ep! JC is biggest simp spoiling his baby EVER. Taiwan = the sappiest of saps. “Owning the same key” is such a cute way of putting it. Also I love the "knew all along" twist, made me happy. The angst is silly but that's normal in Taiwanese BL. 

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 3-4 of 10 - Pair 1: Lee Hyun is such a wide-open, bleeding, no-shame romantic. It’s kinda great. Boy has a poet’s soul & NO artifice. J-Min is startlingly good, very nuanced. I know I keep saying that, but I’m v surprised by his skillz. And… add in creepy stalker, goody. Pair 2: The "other student couple" I’m not into, also NO SINGING. Pair 3: The underwear gift was so fucking funny. “I’m going reap the boxers I sewed” is next level script excellence. These two are brilliant at gayest-of-gay flirt-negging, I'm INTO IT. One of my housemates said, in response to my audible cackling, "You seem to be enjoying your shows extra much tonight."  

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 2 of 8 - Oh I love love love them. It’s so old school yaoi and SO JBL. No other country could produce this kind of show. I love this little feminist aspect where the weatherman treats his boy like a 1950s housewife & said boy thinks that makes him an indentured servant. Clocks. But also, the way our weatherman LOOKS at his boy. He is so in love. (It looks like we skip next week for holiday reasons?) 

Sing My Crush (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - It remains enjoyable. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 6 of 12 - At least we know Minato actually desires Shin, he just won’t do anything about it. Also, Minato chose the perfect person to come out to. That's nice for him. Finally, Shu & Asuka are glorious. Sides are winning these days.

Stay Still (Hong Kong Tues YouTube) ep 3 of 5 - A proper faen fatal has entered one of our couples. She won too, since she ended up marrying the boy. Still not sure about this show (and it should have convinced me by now). I definitely like the tattoo couple better than the reunion couple. Still, not a lot happened in this episode and this is short series, they don’t have time to waste. It remains intriguing but not... erm... good.

In case you missed it

River Knows Fish Heart is leaving Gaga soon. It's a decent little bully romance Chinese BL (pulp) - yes, you read that right. Actual CBL. Not great, but if you're into the CBL stuff, especially the early stuff, this has some of that tenor only made in 2018 (I have a feeling it was shot in 2017 and skated through). Anygay, just staying. Catch it before it disappears because with CBL once they gone, often, they gone forever.

Friend. Boy Friend a new Thai BL pulp was supposed to start airing on Aug 19th. I can't find it. Neither can MDL.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Everything from Thailand seems to be dropping on Sat & Sun this month. It's a good thing I got quiet weekends for a while. Also the BL firehose is upon us, so much content.

Starting this week:

8/20 (tomorrow) My Universe series (Sun iQIYI) 24 eps - This is sampler pack BL, 12 pairs, each pair gets 2 eps, not sure on the order they’ll drop. Known couples include EarthBank from Destiny Seeker and KaownahTurbo from Love Stage!!!, fresh faces otherwise. Jane to direct.

8/22 Kisseki: Dear to Me formerly known as Miracle (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) 13 eps - From screenwriter Lin Pei Yu (We Best Love, H3: Trapped) features a student doctor forced to take care of a gangster. I love the premise and like the writer.  

8/23 Why R U? (Korean remake iQIYI) 8 eps - I find everything about this hilarious. I mean if Korea remakes it, we lose all the sexy and then... would we have a story at all? No we would not. Not even for 8 short eps. It’d be like one of those mesh shopping bags.

8/24 Man Suang (Thailand movie, domestic cinema release) - historical drama about Thai burlesque with KP’s MileApo. 

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

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Another show reviewing itself. (Dino Love)

Don't insult bastards, Lom. (Wedding trash)

I would like this adorable romcom GMMTV, please and thank you.

See what I mean? Trixy.

Thanks boys. (All Only Friends)

(Last week) 

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hey Slug! Now that all snippets are out, what are your thoughts so far on the BB songs for the 3rd DRB? I'm especially excited for Ichiro's. It reminds me of Hiphoppia but with less intense dream vision feel and more funky back alley hip hop stuff. Jiro's sounds good too tho!

I love anon asks like this that remind me to go look at the new stuff that comes out... I would never think to do it otherwise. Thank you; it's very sweet of you.

Let's fire up the old YouTube and give them a listen.

Ichirou -- H歴維新 / The H Age Revolution

(Side note about the title: I'm using "revolution" here in a general sense, but this specific wording is evocative of the Meiji Restoration, the political revolution in the late 1800s that ended the regime of the Tokugawa shoguns and "restored" the old social order under the emperor while radically transforming Japanese society as a whole. Here, we should understand that Ichirou is tearing down Chuuouku's reign to usher in a new state of society.)

(Fifteen seconds in) YOOO this goes hard. I like this beat and the vaguely military-esque theme w/ the horns.

(At end of preview) DAMN okay. Give me a sec to get my thoughts in order.

Every time I see the language in these songs, I'm reminded of a video of an NHK presenter guy reading the lyrics of one song and announcing dryly, "They're all very good at kanji."

I love how this is much punchier than Break the Wall. Ichirou seems to be much more of an active agent in it, not just the figurehead leader of a revolution--and I LOVE that. It's great to see Ichirou embracing his individuality and not simply playing into the image of MC BB that others want him to be.

I also love all the callbacks to previous songs, quite literally going back to basics. ペンは剣より偽りがない ("The pen is mightier than the sword, and that's a fact!") goes all the way back to Hypmic's very first song's ペンは剣よりヒプノシスマイク ("The Hypnosis Mic is mightier than the sword")

Can't wait to get the full version and learn the lyrics. Seems like a hella fun song to rap.

Jirou -- Sunshine

(Five seconds in) Getting "This Means War" vibes.

(Fifteen seconds in) Bro what is this autotune... This sounds like the opening of Rhyme Anima season 2.

(Forty-five seconds in) "I'm ready; the wind's pushing me along; I'm flying with the wings Ikebukuro's given me" Hell YES Jirou you get that identity independent of Ichirou

(Fifty seconds in) "I can't shake the past. I take my scars with me off into a future--a future that's still unknown." Yo this is bars. (I'm butchering its lyricism but whatever) I love that Jirou is actually acknowledging his past and his struggles instead of pushing it away. You notice how his comments on the past are always either "Ichirou was so cool" or "Saburou used to be such a cute kid; what happened?" ? It's good to see him finally being honest enough to touch on his hurt feelings.

(End) Hmm... I don't know how I feel about this one at first liston. I really like Jirou's voice actor's singing voice, so I'm kinda not feeling the autotune. On the other hand, his singing voice definitely has more of a sweet/young flavor, and I can see the authors wanting to lean away from that to make him sound more adult. I think my issue is this song sounds... idk, a bit too idol pop rock to my tastes. I don't mean that idol pop rock is a bad thing; it's simply not my personal preference.

Here's a selection of people in the comments having a normal one:

"Wtf he's hot now"

"I'm picturing Jirou going to school the day after this song drops and his friends being like 'EYYY' and he's like 'Aw, you listened to it? Thanks, guys!' Then a bunch of girls swarm him and he deadass has no idea what they're on about it"

"Say it isn't so... Not my sweet baby boy dumbass Jirou... They made him hot af..."

"I feel like a mom watching my widdle Jiro-chan grow up"

Saburou -- 朱夏 / Maturity

(Side note about the title: Japanese borrows some terms for stages of life from ye olde Chinese (<- very technical term) wherein stages of life correspond to colors and seasons. You may know the word "seishun" (blue spring) or have seen blue = youth as a recurring piece of imagery in Japanese media. (BSD's Blue Period, anyone?) "Shuka" (red summer) is the stage that encompasses most of adulthood; it's the summer or prime of a person's life. The word conveys a sense of energy and a greater understanding of the world than in the youthful seishun period. Sounds like the Hypmic authors want to convey that our baby boy is growing up! *sobs into a hankie*)

(Five seconds in) Chill lofi hip-hop beats for studying

(End) Hmm... Musically, I liked the piano as a consistent piece of imagery for Saburou. It was a little too chill for me, but I always say this and always warm up to Hypmic songs over time lol.

Lyrically, I kept thinking throughout the video "This would be easy to translate" because Saburou monologues for most of it haha. Apart from the imagery related to seasons and the BB's heat/energy "firing" him up to reach the hot summer of adulthood, most of the song is surprisingly literal and straightforward. Saburou states in plain terms that he wants to go be his own person (seems to be the running theme of this album), but it's a departure from his usual style of complex imagery and vocabulary. I would guess that's on purpose, as the song opens with "All through my childhood, I could never wait to grow up. I'm a better rapper than Ichirou, but no one ever sees me as anything but an accessory to him. At least I'm better than Jirou in every way-- oh, who am I kidding? Look at me going on like an edgy middle schooler. I'm always smart, collected, calm--but on the inside, I'm NOT okay!" That is, Saburou is purposefully throwing away his attempts to look smart and mature for his age. He's allowing himself to be rough and emotional like any fourteen year old.

Really fun start to an album; can't wait to hear all the songs! Thanks again for sending this ask, anon.

[fanby-fckry]

Ok, I was gonna add this on a reblog but I have so much to say I’m making my own post.

The whole fucking cast is made up of people who are both actors and singers, with several of them having been on broadway. Which means!

Everyone’s going to have the same VA for speaking and singing!

Erika Henningsen makes an amazing Charlie, I can already tell <3

Stephanie Beatriz is such a good choice for Vaggie, she’s already played one badass sapphic woman.

Blake Roman’s Angel Dust is going to take some getting used to for me – just because his version of Angel’s voice so much deeper – but ultimately I think it’s a good fit.

Amir Talai as Alastor, I am screaming!! (positive) Did anyone else look up the video of him singing You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile after the casting was announced? If you haven’t, here it is, go watch it:

Kimiko Glenn is voicing Niffty. I think she’ll do a great job, but I also wanna point out that this casting choice may point towards Viv confirming Niffty’s ethnicity? Kimiko Glenn is half Japanese, and this is the second time Niffty has been voiced by someone with a connection to Japan. Her pilot VA, Michelle Marie speaks Japanese. Here’s an amimatic of her speaking Japanese as Niffty on Hunicast:

I don’t have much to say about the others, tbh but holy hell, I am hyped!!

[umaia3aurart]

What are your thoughts over the Japanese dub of the transformer prime series? Or any tf series!

I kinda love the second opening song of the primverse

OH! This is gonna be a long post! Let me talk a lot PLSSS!! 🥺👉👈

I love the original TFP dub but I also dig the Japanese version! I often enjoy comparing the differences between them!

A lot of popular voice actors in Japan participate in the show. Some of them even did voices in the “BEAST WARS” series, which had a big fanbase in my country.

The biggest difference between the original and the Japanese version is that the latter makes a few adjustments to the characters to make them more distinctive and child-friendly. They even added some comical lines that weren’t in the original to make it more mild and relatable for children. Because the original had some pretty serious moments. So in the Japanese version, Starscream and Airachnid turned out to be the funniest characters…

Similarly, “BEAST WARS” also underwent some comical changes for similar reasons. And because of that, the show was a hit with Japanese kids back in the day. So in TFP, I'd say they also gave a nod to fans who grew up watching it.

But as you can imagine, these changes have divided opinions among fans in Japan. Tbh, I understand how both of them feel about it because I love the original vibes! That being said, the Japanese dub has a lot of adorable moments that don’t exist in the original version! Let me pick up MY BOY BREAKDOWN as an example!!!!

He has a funny childish demeanor and talks more than in the original dub. His favorite phrase is “壊すの大好き!(I love breaking things!)”

In “Deus Ex Machina,” the episode of his first appearance, he says, “あーーーごめーーーーん！！(AAAHHH I’M SOOOORYYYYYY!!!)” to Knock Out when he accidentally hits his partner's face with his hammer!

In the next episode, “Speed Metal,” when Starscream scratches Knock Out’s paint as a punishment, Breakdown breaks the fourth wall and speaks to kids in front of the TV, saying “みんなぁ！ いじめはダメだぞぉ！(HEY YOU GUYS!! BULLYING IS WRONG!!)” AWW IT'S SO ADORABLE!! HES 100% A NICE GUY lmao

And surprisingly, he even sings a song sometimes... If you don't believe me, please check out “T.M.I” and “Operation Bumblebee part 2” 🥺

And Our Knock Out is even more of a narcissist than in the original. He always praises himself for how beautiful he is. He usually uses polite Japanese when talking to others, but sometimes he talks to Breakdown casually! I love how the difference in his behavior signifies that Breakdown is special to him as a friend! ( ꈍᴗꈍ) <3

In addition, the voices of Optimus and Megatron both sound younger than in the original! On the other hand, Bulkhead sounds older than in the English version. That's interesting! Oh, and did you know? Wheeljack speaks just like a samurai! This change is probably due to his two-sword style.

I especially love Japanese Ratchet. The voice actor is Nobuo Tobita, who has played many TF characters until now. His voice is really soft and gentle! Besides, he also voiced Scourge in Rise of the Beasts! Wow, he has a wide range of acting! I’m a long-time fan of his!

Oh, speaking of ROTB, let me mention Japanese Mirage’s voice actor, Shingo Fujimori! He’s a famous comedian, and his comedy style is acting like a player and a party person (or someone like that… it’s difficult to explain). He shouts things like “YOOO! GIRL, YOU’RE SO PURDYYY!” So he really fits the character of Mirage!

Oh! And you listened to “TRANSFORMERZ” by M-flo? I like the song too! The original opening theme of TFP is magnificent, so you all might be surprised at the gap between them, but such an anime style is not bad, right? It's interesting how we find different styles in different countries!Unfortunately, the show was only broadcast in Japan up to seasons 2. I wish I could have seen the entire series dubbed in Japanese...😭

I really talked for quite a while, sorry! Thank you for the question, and for taking the time to read!

[himehikoshrine]

Jack Jeanne Explainers: Takarazuka Revue

This post is a quick and probably incomplete overview of Takarazuka Revue specifically for the context of its inspiration on Jack Jeanne, for reference. It's a basic overview but it's not intended as a guide to the form and fandom.

Takarazuka Revue (JP: 宝塚歌劇団) is likely the most direct influence on the game. It also has a very dedicated fan base that maintains robust English Language resources, so if this aspect of things intrigues you, it is quite accessible to dive further into.

Takarazuka Revue is an all-female musical theater company founded in 1913 and based out of the city of Takarazuka. All roles, male and female, are played by women. It also has an associated training school, the Takarazuka Music School.

The original pitch for the game was an All Boys Revue School, so the reference starts at the very beginning, as a kind of gender swap of Takarazuka.

You may notice that the term used here for "Revue" 『歌劇』 is the same one that the game uses. It gets translated sometimes as "opera" sometimes as "theater" - in general the term does mean "opera" but it's pretty clearly not opera that they're training - it's being used as "Revue" the same way that Takarazuka uses it. Which is, loosely speaking, musical theater.

Continued below the cut --

(I suspect that the similarities in first sound and also first character between 宝塚 - Takarazuka and 玉阪 - Tamasaka are intentional as well)

Takarazuka was founded by a businessman looking for an attraction to draw people to the city and settled on the idea of an All Female Musical Revue and a focus on more western style musical, mostly, as far as I know, as a business decision and a feeling that traditional styles of Kabuki were falling out of favor with most people. It drew heavily from French Musical Revue. The full history of the company, like I said, is well documented in English, and is longer than I can get into, here.

Compare and contrast this to the information we get about the 13th Himehiko, the current principal's great-grandfather, Chuza Dairi. He's said to have been born during the Meiji era and lived into the Showa era, and was fascinated by western style musicals. He's credited with the name Univeil, and starting to use the Jack and Jeanne terms.

Takarazuka stands in contrast to a long line of male exclusive theater forms in Japan. Japan, of course, also puts on co-ed musicals, both originals and adaptations, like the rest of the world, but Takarazuka is very much, to use the phrase the game uses, the "pinnacle of all-female revues."

This image is of a showcase from 1930, where you can see the lavish, european revue style inspiration clearly.

In Takarazuka, male roles are called otokoyaku (男役) - which just means 'men's roles' and is the term Jack Jeanne uses for what "Jack" roles are. Female roles are called musumeyaku (娘役) - which translates to 'girl/maiden/daughter roles'. The game actually uses onnayaku (女役) or women's roles when introducing Jeannes.

(Worth noting that the character Kisa plays in the Newcomers' Performance is translated as Maiden but is 娘 (musume) in Japanese which means occasionally when she or other characters are talking about "playing the role of the maiden" they are saying "musumeyaku" which I think is probably an intentional reference.)

Takarazuka puts on Musicals as well as both song and dance revues. It adapts many things, from extant musicals to manga to film, as well as history and classic stories. It has a reputation for being bright, sparkly, and lavish in costuming and set design and dramatic in style.

The voice actor for Tancho, the singing teacher and head of Rhodonite, is a former Takarazuka Otokoyaku. Tancho's outfits and style of speech are directly taken from Takarazuka. The feathers Tancho wears are part of the standard Revue portion of Takarazuka shows.

Right - Tancho's image, from the website, Left - Tancho's voice actor, Nanami Hiroki, from the Asashi article announcing her retirement from Takarazuka, showing her wearing one of the typical feather backed outfits that leads appear in parades after performances.

Otokoyaku are the stars of Takarazuka and tend to draw the biggest crowd and they get top billing, though each troupe tends to have a top Otokoyaku and top Musumeyaku, decided by a complex mix of seniority (especially for otokoyaku) and gradings. I will stop short of saying these are kind of like Jack Ace and Al Jeannes of a class, though. The Musumeyaku is expected to support her Otokoyaku. Using the terms Jack Jeanne uses, for Takarazuka, the Otokoyaku is essentially always the Flower, the Musumeyaku the Vessel, which is more standardized than the point of view of characters at Univeil.

The top Otokoyaku and top Musumeyaku are called the Top Combi (コンビ). Takarazuka and its fandom use that, rather than Partner (パートナー) that Jack Jeanne is fond of, which carries a potentially romantic connotation.

Takarazuka expects its actresses to maintain a more masculine or very feminine (depending on their role) persona on and off stage, and the expectations for behavior and appearance are quite strict even off stage. For example, much like Idols, they are expected to not date, let alone marry and have kids, until they retire.

EDIT: Someone who knows more than me let me know that the rules for dating are slightly more lax now, and relationships are tolerated so long as they are kept strictly out of the public eye - though still no marriage.

Jack Jeanne remains frustratingly vague on the rules for this during school -- No one seems to think dating itself is an issue, but Ao does say that it would 'cause trouble' if people saw them holding hands. So perhaps we're supposed to imagine something similar? But back to the post.

Takarazuka is divided into several different Troupes (組, kumi, read as gumi when used after the name of a troupe). They currently have five.

They break down as follows

Flower Troupe (Hanagumi 花組) - 1921 Moon Troupe (Tsukigumi 月組) - 1921 Snow Troupe (Yukigumi 雪組) - 1924 Star Troupe (Hoshigumi 星組) -1933-1939, reestablished 1948 Cosmos Troupe (Soragumi 宙組) - 1998

Each troupe has a reputation, though they are fairly loosely followed, and many performances get performed by different troupes for different runs. However, I suspect this was a strong influence on the way the classes were divided in Jack Jeanne. For example, Moon Troupe is known for singing. The newest troupe, the Cosmos Troupe is written with a character in Chui's name, and their stereotype is 'experimental and tall'. Snow troupe, interestingly, is known for more traditionally Japanese works (loosely) which is a conspicuous absence from Univeil, especially considering Tamasakaza's style is said to be more traditional than Takarazuka's -- closer to kabuki, even.

In Takarazuka, stars are sorted into these upon graduation. The Music School is probably better as a whole separate post.

The term "Newcomer's Performance" used in the game to refer to the first show of the year is also used in Takarazuka -- shinjin kouen (新人公演), where it has the meaning of a different casting of a play with all newer Takarasiennes (a term used for the actresses of Takarazuka).

The specific announcement that Tsuki makes in the intro is almost exactly, in both wording and tone, the announcement made before each Takarazuka play. His outfit in that scene is a version of a very famous style of Takarazuka Costume, inspired by fancy French dress and specifically the manga Rose of Versaille, whose adaptation is one of Takarazuka's most iconic plays.

I would strongly encourage you to browse their official English Language site (or Japanese one, if you can read it), which can be found here : Takarazuka Revue

While you're there, if you're there for Jack Jeanne reasons, it may be interesting to pay attention to the use of the word "dream" which is one of the theme/motif words of Jack Jeanne, and is use heavily in Takarazuka's official material as well as writings on the subject.

Had to throw this in because these? These are the Takarazuka words right there. Well, their official Motto is "Modesty, Fairness, Grace" or "Be Modest, Be Proper, Be Graceful" (which is a whole lot to unpack elsewhere) but unofficially it could be "So Dreamy and Sparkly."

You'll probably get a more thorough history on the website, too, than I provided.

Rather than make this even longer, I'm going to make a separate post on Takarazuka Music School, the path into Takarazuka, and it's similarities and difference with what we know about Univeil.

I'm by no means an expert of Takarazuka, and I should probably defer to people more involved in the fandom for that, but if anyone has anything to add that I missed in this brief post, please please reblog and add! If you have any questions, I can try to answer, asks should be open!

[feministsouthpark]

Betty Boogie's Avatars

I don't see many people talking about it, but one of the more interesting and most definitely the cutest characteristic of recent South Park is Trey Parker's daughter voicing some specific characters. Most viewers might not even realize how much impact she has on the actual show. For instance, when she has favorite pop songs, Trey makes sure to include them in the episodes, such as Humble in S21E1 or when she got into horse dressage, Trey made an episode about it (S25E4), and he specifically stays up to date about current children's trends through her. I'm here to take you on a journey of the characters she played, so naturally first comes Ike.

Ike Broflovski Ike had a lot of voice actors, famously voiced by the children of crew members. Betty's been voicing Ike since season 20, and that might just be a reason why Ike had such a big role in that season, since Trey evidently loved making his daughter say the silly obscene things Ike said. She started doing the voice when she was 3 years old, just like Ike is. And while she gained other roles, she still does Ike at the age of 10 in S26.

Hannah Williams Interestingly this first grader, Hannah, has been a background character since S9, waaay before Betty was even born. But she was never named and she never said a word. That changed, when in S21E2 she is singing at a school talent show, voiced by Betty. In S22 she continues voicing Ike and also she provides sound for the priest call whiste. ("I love Jesus! I love Jesus!")

As of S23 she is also credited for voicing the PC Babies, most prominently Riley, and a vegan boy, who might be a first or second grader, she is also Menorah in S24, the daughter of future Eric.

However an interesting shift happens at the end of The Return of Covid, in which we meet an entirely new character, Heather Williams (also mistakenly addressed as Heather Thomson before her on-screen appearance) who is decidedly a new fourth grader created specifically for Betty to voice.

We first see her watching Terrance and Phillip and eating ice cream. Then the boys (as adults from the future) blackmail her with a photo of her farting, since she can get Denver Nuggets tickets from her dad. Then she becomes a recurring character in S25, keeping the idea that whenever Trey thinks a line would be funnier if it came from the mouth of an actual child, he invited Betty to say it.

In Pajama Day she calls PC Principal a fascist and appears to be friends with Wendy and Millie. And she dares to argue with Eric about the correct pajama terminology at a kids meeting. In The Big Fix, she is seen in the main fourth graders' classroom, arguing with Stan, and it's clear Trey enjoys Betty opposing with his characters specifically.

I wonder if there's some history behind her voicing two characters named Williams. We know she played a girl called Harper at the South Park 25th Anniversary Concert specifically named after one of her friends, so Williams might be the surname of one of her friends as well. Soon, Heather fades into the background without any explanation, after the show seemingly decided to make her a regular, she gets replaced. Why? It seems like when Betty got 9 years old, Trey decided she should get a permanent character. Perhaps for that idea, they had a better design to use...

Back in S24, before either Heather Williams or Menorah Cartman got introduced, there was a Lil' Qties member who has never appeared before. She was specifically designed by Betty, seemingly already created to serve as her avatar (and I applaud Trey's bravery to represent her daughter as an anti-vaccine character). Still, I forgot about her, kept waiting for Heather Williams to have a role in S26, and instead when Stan's family buys a japanese toilet, which girl voiced by Betty shows up?

The blonde girl with the black jacket and bow. And she's officially named Betsy now. The personality is the same as Heather Williams: an assertive, outspoken girl who lashes out at Trey's characters without ever being talked back to. Except she is a different character in-show, and therefore none of the development and experience Heather had in the episodes count anymore. While both of them had exactly one season at this point, I believe Betsy is here to stay, since she is designed by her, named after her, so unlike Heather, she is a more personal avatar.

Betsy already seems to be friends with Nelly, Nichole, Bebe, Red, and to a lesser extent, on friendly terms with Wendy (although I can imagine their strong personalities would clash at some point), I hope they decide to expand upon her character and make her a mainstay. And it seems like that's the intent. Especially after Trey's father's day cake had Betsy's face on it. My theory is that Heather was supposed to stay relevant, but they just chose the Betsy design after a trial year. So if nothing else would change in their real life, I think it's safe to assume we can count on Betsy returning.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group A Round 4: Symphogear vs Trese

#A6: Symphogear (Senki Zesshou Symphogear)

Sad lesbians sing while fighting monsters

#A8: Trese

Badass woman deals with the supernatural

Details and poll under the cut!

#A6: Symphogear (Senki Zesshou Symphogear)

Summary:

The world is beset by creatures known as the Noise. Nothing can touch them, and if they touch a human being, both turn into carbon dust. But, with the symphogear system-magitech battle armor powered by music and singing, humanity has a chance to fight back.

Propaganda:

This is the best example of music fights I’ve ever seen. They sing WHILE fighting. It’s amazing. The fight choreography, how the music plays into it, and let’s not forget the incredible character development. The entire cast is full of characters that would be the highlight of any other show. And last but not least, it is off the walls insane fun. You think it reaches its heights at the end of season 1, but no. It keeps climbing, and you are along for the ride.

Trigger Warnings: Drugs, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Guns, Kidnapping, Nudity, Slavery, Suicide

All warnings apply to the main characters, some are for the later seasons (drugs, guns (especially S2)). Slavery and kidnapping are rather said than shown and are from a flashback.

#A8: Trese

Summary:

In Manila, where dark supernatural forces pervade the criminal underworld, it’s up to one woman to keep the peace—but there’s a storm brewing.

Propaganda:

It’s the first Filipino anime (at least, that I know of) to feature the country’s supernatural creatures, so if you’ve only watched Japanese anime up to now, you will find the magic in Trese very novel. I also like how the protagonist is a woman when the Lakan, in Philippine history, tended to be a man. She’s also quite badass. Although she has two bulky twin sidekicks who can serve as her bodyguards, she is in no way less than them when it comes to fighting. The show’s on Netflix with different language audios. If you’re gonna watch it in English, you can even hear Dante Basco (Zuko’s voice actor) voicing one of the minor characters.

Trigger Warnings:

Child Abuse – for the episode about a reanimated baby

There’s Violence from fight scenes. There’s also Gore for when the monsters get killed brutally, but because of the art style, it doesn’t appear that extreme.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

[thenightling]

Tim Burton and Racism

Tim Burton and racism

Now that "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" is coming out people are looking back on an interview Tim Burton did where he unfortunately implied that diverse casting doesn't match his "aesthetic."

And he turned a Jewish folktale (Corpse Bride) into a story set in something that resembles nineteenth century England (even though he said he was heavily inspired by Mexican Dia de los Muertos celebrations.)

I will NOT justify him saying or doing these things (even though I have a soft spot or Corpse Bride). I will NOT justify his lack of diverse casting in the past. What I want to draw attention to is the fact that this sixty-five-year-old man seems willing to grow and change. And I want to give him the benefit of the doubt about this.

I am NOT an apologist. When Tim Burton's film-making quality went down in quality, along with his questionable views, I started to drift away from him when I had been a life long fan. I switched favorite directors over to the charming, kind, friendly, and sweet, approachable, scary-teddy-bear Goth, Guillermo del Toro. (I want that man's house and its contents!)

I will however look back on a few things about Tim Burton's previous films. One of Tim Burton's first projects was a lesser known TV adaptation (back when Disney Channel was experimental) of Hansel and Gretel, made as a homage in appreciation and love for Japanese film making.

Tim Burton had the great James Earl Jones play multiple Genies in Shelley Duval's Fairy Tale Theatre version of Aladdin. Consider how easy it would have been to have a white man in he role ala Robin Williams a few years later. This is not an excuse for his lack-of-diversity. I'm just listing these things as signs of his potential to grow and change.

Tim Burton was the first person to have a black man, Billy Dee Williams, play Harvey Dent (who comic fans will know is meant to later become Two Face.) Today you know someone would whine that this is woke / race-swap casting. But in 1989 it seemed that everyone just accepted it.

In Edward Scissorhands one of the only sympathetic characters- the ONLY good cop character, is a black man. A kind hearted officer who pities Edward and helps make it look like Edward is dead so he can escape toward the end of the movie.

In an episode of the Beetlejuice animated series, it was a little black boy who was the only one who appreciated Lydia's Spooky Boutique that she and Beetlejuice attempted to open in a mall.

When Tim Burton made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he made sure that Deep Roy (An Indian man who played all of the Oompa Loomps) was paid the same as the lead actor, Johnny Depp.

Deep Roy was also Napoleon Bone-apart (Gotta love the pun that dates back to Beetlejuice the animated series) in Corpse Bride.

Tim Burton's favorite composer is Jewish man, Danny Elfman, who has done nearly all of Tim Burton's movies.

I know that thanks to some statements by Caroline Thompson (who had a bitter falling out with some of the crew of Nightmare before Christmas) it is now believed that Oogie Boogie was a racist caricature and that "Oogie Boogie" started as a slur. I have yet to find actual evidence of this fact.

The notion of a Boogie man Boogying is quite old. "I'm your Boogie Man" is a popular Halloween song. I used to have a "Little bopper" dancing green monster in a fake leather jacket that rocked back and forth to the song.

Oogie Boogie was inspired by Cab Calloway. If he hadn't been played by a black man, THAT would have been racist.

Ken Page (The voice of Oogie Boogie) has debunked claims of racism in regard to the character and in fact the role has been very good to him. It's become a recurring job in his career for Nightmare before Christmas video games, the Haunted Mansion seasonal lay over, and even stage work in the Disney parks. His voice is currently featured in the Hocus Pocus Spooktacular stage show where he sings a slightly modified version of the Oogie Boogie song, this time addressing the Sanderson Sisters instead of "Sandy Claws." Ken Page never viewed the role as racist. And has even played Oogie in Nightmare before Christmas in concert multiple times.

Now we come "present day" Tim Burton where in 2022 Tim Burton became showrunner for Wednesday (the Addams Family spin-off on Netflix).

Here it felt like people were looking for reasons to accuse Tim Burton of racism. Even though the lead actress is a Latina woman, Jenna Ortega, and Luis Guzmán was Gomez people still latched on to things like "The only black characters are bullies!" which tells me they didn't really watch the show. Yes, a black boy is part of a group of bullies but he's also the only one who realizes that they are wrong and quickly turns against his former associates.

Moosa Mostafa (Islamic heritage) plays Wednesday's close friend, Eugene, with the delightful power to control bees.

And the charater Bianca is annoyingly mistaken as Wednesday's bully. Bianca was NEVER a bully! She was Wednesday's rival and frankly, Wednesday deserved to be taken down a peg. Bianca bested her in a fencing match, that is all. Later Bianca showed her true colors as a loyal friend and ally. She helped save Nevermore Academy. She was a hero.

Joy Sunday, the actress who plays Bianca, has repeatedly debunked attempts to claim Tim Burton was racist in casting her to play "The bully" Bianca (again, suggesting that the people making the accusation never watched the show). She has often said how well-treated she was and is treated on the set.

And there's heavy hints that she is going to have a very intriguing story unfold in the next season of Wednesday.

I am not justifying Tim Burton's previous lack of diversity. But I feel that he may have come to realize his mistakes. I think he might be trying to make amends with things like Wednesday. Jenna Ortega has become Tim Burton's favorite actress to work with. And I think she has, perhaps, had a positive influence on his views of diversity.

This isn't an attempt to justify his past failings. This is the suggestion that perhaps he is now willing to grow and change. He's sixty-five. How many sixty-five-year-olds are open minded enough to truly grow? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Actions speak louder than words and I saw a lot of positive change with how he handled / is handling Wednesday.

[cherrylng]

MUSE X EMO [STYLE Series #004 - Muse (August 2010)]

MUSE X EMO

Dramatically beautiful melodies, exquisite guitar playing and a rich worldview……. Exploring the similarities between ‘emo’ and Muse.

Text: YAMAGUCHI Tomoo

There is nothing more upsetting to a rock fan than to hear the band they love described in one word: 'emo'. So when I heard that many fans are upset about Muse being described as 'emo', I nodded my head in agreement.

On the other hand, however, it is not hard to understand why people listen to Muse and use the term 'emo'. Without fear of misinterpretation, it is true that similarities can be found between Muse and certain types of emo bands. For example, Matthew Bellamy's vocals, in which he sings tragic and beautiful melodies with a sense of urgency while also using falsetto, could well be compared to those of emo bands in terms of narcissism and emotionalism, and, weirdly enough, are quite highly emo.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Muse = emo, but here I'd like to introduce some emo bands or bands from the emo scene that I think Muse fans might also like.

Emo is a strange genre that has its devoted fans, but also its haters. The reason for the emo hate is, of course, that today's emo has become too diverse and far removed from its origins (hardcore to post-hardcore), but there are many other reasons as well. But emo, like any other genre, is also only a category of convenience. Many of the bands that are called emo do not call themselves emo bands, and most of them are probably considered emo because that's where they happen to be active. If people are interested in Muse, rather than hating it and calling them "emo", then this will surely lead to new encounters.

So, first up are Coheed and Cambria, led by Claudio Sanchez (vo,g). Since their debut in 2002, this New York four-piece has released five rock operas based on Sanchez's sci-fi tale The Amory Wars. Their dramatic, contemporary progressive rock, performed with the sensibility of the post-hardcore/alternative generation that has passed through hardcore and metal, and in some cases with orchestral or acoustic sounds, earned them the reputation of being America's version of Muse at the time of their debut. Their latest album, Year of the Black Rainbow, was released in April this year. Despite their more metallic impression, they too have a unique aesthetic. It is highly addictive, including Sanchez's vocals, who uses both a beautiful high tone voice and wild screams that send you into a rage.

"What, Sanchez's looks are disgusting!" Then how about Thirty Seconds To Mars, led by Jared Leto (vo,g), the handsome actor known for his role in 'Chapter 27'? The band's spacy modern rock combines emotional heavy sounds and inorganic digital beats, and should be welcomed not only in the USA, where they have had a million-selling album, but also here in Japan. The narcissistic and cool worldview invited by Leto's vocal, which sings as if whispering in the listener's ear, is truly unique. Their third album, 2009's 'This Is War', which evolved into New Wavey, has just been released on Japanese vinyl.

Coheed and Cambria and Thirty Seconds to Mars were both considered to be in the emo-screamo (screamo-emo) vein at the time of their debut. However, they have now grown to become one of the leading bands in the USA. Summer Sonic 2010, where both bands will perform, is the perfect opportunity to experience their respective worlds.

Screamo, which began to gain momentum around 2002 as the next step in emo, not only rapidly approached metal, but also evolved into freer and more chaotic music, boldly combining densely complex performances with catchy, beautiful melodies, and appealing to a desire for excessive expression. The bands that appealed to the public, in other words, progressive screamo bands, emerged one after the other. The aforementioned Coheed & Cambria were the forerunners of this trend, and it is not difficult to imagine that the existence of Muse was also a great inspiration for them, as Madina Lake acknowledges their influence. Two albums that are representative of this trend are Saosin's In Search of Solid Ground (2009), which gave a pop contour to a chaotic sound, and Chiodos' Bone Palace Ballet: Grand Coda (2007), which can be described as a dark rock opera! .

Speaking of which, it was recently reported that the former Matchbook Romance drummer [Aaron Stern] has joined the new band of Craig Owens (vo) [Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows aka D.R.U.G.S.], who left Chiodos, but thinking back, Matchbook Romance's second album Voices (2006) was an ambitious work in which they achieved an evolution from being a screamo band to something akin to a Radiohead and Muse-like evolution. By the way, one of the main attractions of Muse is their pathetically beautiful melodies, but if that's the case, I'd like you to try bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, who were responsible for the noble spirit of early emo, and Copeland, who were influenced by UK rock were praised as beautiful emo, and Portugal. The Man. Incidentally, Portugal. The Man's style changes from album to album, so in terms of beautiful melodies, I recommend 'Waiter: You Vultures!', released in 2006

Finally, Nebraska indie rock band Cursive. The band's freaky, blues-like sound, reminiscent of the lees of human emotion, is quite different from the aesthetically inclined bands we have introduced so far, but fans of Muse will surely understand the rich world of raw human drama that unfolds.

Pic: Coheed and Cambria are popular for their progressive and dramatic sound with beautiful high tone voices and strings and piano throughout. Overwhelmed by a dense sound that makes extensive use of irregular time signatures.

Pic: Formed in 1992, Sunny Day Real Estate debuted in 1994 with Diary. Since reuniting in 2009, the band has also included original member Nate Mendel (b), now with the Foo Fighters.

Pic: The Alaska-born, Portland-based three-piece Portugal. The Man. They are a very prolific band, releasing an album a year.

Pic: Madina Lake, a Chicago band from Chicago, featuring the Leon brothers Nathan (vo) and Matthew (b), who are very popular in Japan as well, have declared Muse's influence on their music.

Pic: Cursive, who deliver dramatic and masculine rock while featuring strings and wind instruments. Returned to more straightforward rock on 2009's 'Mama, I'm Warren'.

Translator's Note: And with that, I've translated three column articles that questioned and answered certain things about Muse.

Are Muse an alternative rock band? Yes.

Are Muse a progressive rock band? Sort of.

Are Muse emo? ...Maybe this Radio X interview can sum it up:

"I'm feeling emotional." - Dom

[takigawa]

Mackenyu Arata (who became an internationally popular actor for his roles as the main character in the live-action "Knights of the Zodiac（Saint Seiya)The Beginning" movie and ZORO in the live-action "One Piece") and Min Tanaka star in this serious drama series “House of the Owl”about a Japanese, hidden political and financial mastermind known as the "Owl". https://x.com/takigawa_w/status/1790365255169904916?s=46&t=8Vf8aUwk_B-ZbQ5UAGv05w The owl sees everything with eyes that can see anytime, even in the middle of the night. Seventy-year-old charismatic Ryutaro Ohgami (Min Tanaka) has four children. His eldest son, Ichiro (Masanobu Ando), is unreliable, does not get along with his wife, has a Ginza hostess as his mistress, and is planning a new luxury restaurant without borrowing funds from his father so that he can leave his father's influence. Yumiko (Kyoko Hasegawa), the firm eldest daughter, has two seemingly happy children with her handsome trading company man husband, but her husband is doing shady deals (of a different kind than an interpreter for famous Major-League players) behind her back. The second son, Ryu (Mackenyu Arata), does not get along with his father, and after studying in the U.S., he returns to Japan to work for a small non-profit organization without contacting his family. One day, Ryu bumps into a beautiful American woman while jogging in the park, and her phone falls into the street and breaks. Ryu promises to pay for it, and when he asks for the woman's contact information, she gives Ryu her business card, which says "reporter" on it. Risako (Nakata Seina), the youngest and second daughter, aspires to be a singer-songwriter and is already 25 years old, but she has a natural singing voice and talent for songwriting and is expected to make a major debut. Risako tells her father, Ryutaro, about her dream, but Ryutaro is afraid that Risako will be swallowed up by the darkness of the entertainment world. One night, the son of Takeuchi (Masatoshi Nakamura), a candidate for the next prime minister, is killed after a bar fight. The son was also suspected of being on drugs. The murder suspect is caught, but "commits suicide" in jail. Overall, the story has a cool taste and a serious development. A scandal involving a politician, Ichiro's mistress, Yumiko's husband's ruinous dealings, Ryu starting a relationship with a beautiful reporter, Risako going for her dream, and their lives are vividly depicted. Hisako Manda's restrained performance as Ryutaro's wife, Kyoko, shines. The show's portrayal of the Tokyo club　(the one with hostesses)scene, with Tae Kimura's performance as a hostess, adds a touch of realism that makes the show feel all the more authentic. Tae Kimura's performance as the hostess Ryutaro values as a source of information has a realistic feel as if she actually works at a club in Tokyo. What sets "House of the Owl" apart from other Japanese TV drama series is its serious, captivating depiction of the family's struggles, without resorting to over-the-top acting or exaggerated music. There is none of the over-the-top music, over-the-top acting, or over-the-top (unintelligible) jokes that are common in Japanese dramas, nor are there any male celebrities from famous entertainment companies that have caused scandals in Japan, nor any female casts from dozens of female idol group members performing not-so-good songs and dances. Thus, we can calmly observe the whereabouts of this charismatic, mastermind owl, Ryutaro Oogami, and his family. And just as real owls have natural enemies, those who are after "owls" are also heavily represented. If you have watched the episodes carefully, you may be shocked by the series of events that occur in the latter half of the season. The series culminates in a shocking series of events that will leave you eagerly anticipating the next season. This is a must-watch for anyone looking for a drama that offers a glimpse into the complex lives of a family caught up in the world of politics and finance. I can't wait for the second season. #HouseOfTheOwl

[yumeko2sevilla]

Mekakushi_ runaway medusa

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ

"When I try, the result was always the same: Failed."

_Mekakushi- the test subject

Full Name: Mekakushi Kisaragi Hirohana

⤿Mekakushi (メカクシ): A name of Japanese origin, meaning 'blindfold.'

⤿Kisaragi (如月): A name of Japanese origin, meaning 'February'. It was supposed to refer to the Kisaragi Station myth.

⤿Hirohana (寛花): A name of Japanese origin, combine between '寛' meaning 'generous, tolerant' and '花' meaning 'flower'.

Japanese: 寛花 如月 メカクシ

Other Name(s):

↳Mekakushi-san/ Kisaragi-san_ By All

↳Little Medusa_By Tsukuyomi 'Shinonome'

↳Kushiragi/ Eki_ By First Years

↳Meka_ By Minako Sakamaki (@/queen-of-twisted)

↳Future Meat / Snake Freak_ By Yuzu Sakamaki (@/queen-of-twisted)

↳Monsieur Serpents / Monsieur Artiste_ By Rook Hunt

↳Sea Lotus_ Shīrōtasu_ By Floyd Leech

↳Child of Afterlife_ By Malleus Draconia

Twisted From: Shimomura Naoki_ Confession_Minato Kanae + Riishu_ The Apothecary Diaries+ Mahiru Shiinai_ Milgram

Voice Actor(s):

↳Japanese_ Shun Horie_ Haruka Sakurai_ Milgram

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Age: 17 (Appearance Wise)_ Unknown

Gender: Non-Binary (He/Him Pronouns)

Birthday: February 5_ Pisces

Species: Undead Medusa

Height: 193 cm

Hair Color: Light (Gray-ish) Red-Pink

Eye Color: Crimson Red

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Homeland:__

Family:...

Dormitory: Ramshackle

Grade: Freshman

Class: 1-A_ No. 28

Club: Art Club

Best Subject(s): Musicology, Alchemy, Art

Hobbies: Drawing, Reading, Hanging out with his friends, Drinking mint tea, Hairstyling, Napping.

Favorite Food: Chocolate Mint Icecream

Least Favorite Food: Meat

Talent(s): Singing, Hairstyling, Multilingualism, Weapon Mastery, Fashion Designing

❝Simply a Medusa that has been running away. A seemingly cold first year of Ramshackle who turns out to be very.. soft.❞

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ───╯

┌──═━┈━═──┐

ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ

Mekakushi.. What a sweet boy he is.

Judging from his whole appearance, you may as well think him like someone who's hard to talk with. In some cases, it's correct somehow but that's the totally different case for him.

..Mekakushi may not be cold. At all.

To people, Mekakushi is a person who keep his voice slienced. But to others who knows him, he is a very naive guy who just want to see the world.

It's just that,, Mekakushi is quite the people-pleaser, no?

Doing others' works and helping people despise he doesn't want to.. That sounds quite uncomfortable isn't it? But to someone like Mekakushi, he has already adapted to this new personality of his. He has grew up like this, after all.

Mekakushi is described to be naive in human eyes. He always finds postive traits of even the worst people around him, even if that payed him a cost. But he seems to apologise often, for what he didn't do.

Mekakushi is very kind. That he gets taken advantage of his kindness by most people around him. Whilist he knew that he was being manipulated, that people were guilt tripping him, he couldn't say 'No.'

And that was a weakness of him, honestly.

Sometimes, Mekakushi felt an unexplainable anger inside him, one that burned his heart up alive.

But he couldn't release that outside. He can't.

†•°•══════ஓ๑✬๑ஓ══════•°•†

✬Unique Magic: Ultamarine Hymm (群青讃歌 )

'Since we've already said farewell to the us of yesterday, only the wonderful world has all the answers in its grasp. Ultamarine Hymm!'

↳ The user is capable of boosting others' UM. When using this ability, a faint blue light will be surrounding allies, that it will expand their UM's ability into someing greater. However, it can also debuff enemies and even the user themselves if they were on the verges of Overblot.

†•°•══════ஓ๑✬๑ஓ══════•°•†

↳Backstory: [TBA]

↳Main Theme: Tokyo Getto • Ultamarine Hymm_ Eve

↳Mekakushi used to be the test subject in the same project KAFU was involved. However, he ran away sooner than them for a month, and then got transported to Night Raven College through a gate.

↳He likes to refer himself as 'Mekakushi Kisaragi' rather than 'Mekakushi Hirohana.' The reason was because due to personal issues regarding his family. However, some said that 'Hirohana' was his mother's name.

↳Being a Medusa, Mekakushi also has the ability to open a timeloop called 'Kagerou Daze.' But until this time, he doesn't know it.

↳Mekakushi was SA by Yuzu Sakamaki multiple times.

↳He can speak Swedish, Japanese, Russian, English, and a few more languages.

↳Mekakushi is implied to have PTSD.

↳He has lifeless and cold eyes. Although that, he seems prefers to act than talks.

@queen-of-twisted @achy-boo @writing-heiress @yukii0nna @abyssthing198

[azuretl]

B-PROJECT

I am honored to announce that I was part of the fantastic localization team that's bringing Ryusei*Fantasia to the west!

With Ryusei*Fantasia announced, I thought I could write a little bit about my experiences with B-PRO and the interesting coincidences that led me to this fantastic franchise. Since I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this blog, and I'm deadly sick still, I might as well do a bit of random writing and talk a bit about the project! Weird rambling under the cut.

So, I actually knew about B-PRO when it was first announced years ago. My sister and I are huge fans of TMR (TM Revolution, aka Takanori Nishikawa) which stemmed from our love for the Sengoku Basara franchise. (I can go on forever about that one... We did cosplays, photoshoots, nightly gaming sessions [we had all the games in Japanese], I wrote fanfics... um yeah. It was...*a time* :P ) We caught wind that TMR was producing a new virtual idol group...and that's when I learned about B-PRO.

I didn't know the boys, but I did know that the music was going to be FIRE... And after seeing images of the characters, they didn't really have a lasting impression (except for Korekuni... At the time, I recognized him as "Kishio Daisuke's character" :'D I'm also a seiyuu fanatic, so...).

(Ahhh...the Daisuke team for KITAKADO...)

Fast forward to a few years later, B-PRO was still in its infancy, and, being the huge seiyuu fan that I am, I listened to a lot of seiyuu music. (I-CHU, Actors franchise, i7, etc. etc...) When just playing a random song list, I ran into some B-PRO music. That's really the extent of what I knew about it... It had a great voice cast and the music is FIRE.

I also found out that Kato Kazuki is voicing in it :O (And then I was certain the music was going to be SOOOO GOOOOD). I'm also a huuuge tenipuri fan (POT head here :'D. Cosplays, fanfics, fanart, dream novels [do people even remember those?] I've done it all.) and naturally, I became a huge Tenimyu fan as well (Prince of Tennis Musicals... I even got a group of friends together to cosplay + reenact some dances from Tenimyu for cosplay contests...and won quite a few of them too ;) ). My favorite Tenimyu cast was the Dream Live 3 group. (I guess they're considered season 2 Seigaku?) with the D-boys and Yanagi Kotaro/Endou Yuya as their Ryouma. (People who don't know Tenimyu, sorry for all the terminology that probably doesn't make sense to you lol... *sweat*) And my favorite school happened to be Hyoutei.

Now, for those who don't know, Kato Kazuki (voice of Aizome) played the captain of Hyoutei's tennis club in the musicals (Atobe Keigo) and he EMBODIED that smug, ore-sama sonuvabitch <3 aura. If you don't know PoT, Atobe is basically Aizome but younger and filthy rich. And naturally, Tenimyu being a musical, meant Kato Kazuki had to sing live... and I fell in LOVE with his voice. He is such an amazing singer! And actor! (I also started watching Kamen Rider Kabuto because of him... he plays one of the Kamen Riders and he is, again, a smug, ore-sama sonuvabitch... I guess he gets typecasted a lot...)

All this is to say, I really really really like Kato Kazuki...as an actor, singer, performer... he excudes sexy and he has so. much. presence. Seeing him working in an idol franchise was pretty refreshing and exciting!

(Side note, Goshi's voice actor- Toyonaga Toshiyuki is also in the Prince of Tennis musical... and he shared the stage with Aizome's voice actor, Kato Kazuki, quite a lot. They also interacted a lot in the backstage behind-the-scenes videos. They're really good friends so... queue my utter surprise when I found out how Goshi and Aizome interact in the stories >>;;;; )

So that was really the extent of my knowledge of B-PRO. Great music, great cast, great character designs. So when I was approached about joining the team, I was very eager to throw my hat into the ring. (PLUS my absolute favorite voice actor, Kakihara Tetsuya is in it... I HAD TO!!!) But boy, oh boy, was I hit with UTTER SURPRISE when I found out how much DRAMA and INTENSITY and STORY the franchise actually has!!!

What I thought might've been "just another idol game" turned out to be so full of drama... It was such a nice, pleasant surprise. I won't go too much into the process and the stories, since you'll all have to play the game to find out! But wow, all the boys were *nothing* like I thought they were at first.

Just for fun, here's what I thought at first vs what I think of them now. (Opinions are my own... and I'm sorry that some of my earlier opinions were...for lack of a better word, *dumb* )

THRIVE:

Goshi Typical bad boy chara -> I would love to have this character as a bigger brother. He's caring and really looks out for his kouhai... How can anyone NOT like him??? He's my second favorite...!

Aizome It's Kato Kazuki...so the typical Ore-sama kei, smug, flirty -> Ore-sama kei, smug, (playfully) flirty, and someone with so, so much depth. I want to be his friend...just to be there for him. He needs Goshi and Ashu more than he thinks. And you'll never convince me that he and Goshi aren't an old married couple that gets into fights literally every two seconds.

Ashu Genki boi #1 -> I remember his scenes very strongly, oddly enough. THRIVE needs him. Aizome and Goshi need him. He may act like a happy-go-lucky boyo with too much energy, but he's the water that helps keep the other Aizome and Goshi flowers alive, whether they realize that or not. He's also a really, really good senpai :')

KITAKORE

Kitakado Prince-kei. It's Ono Daisuke so...guessing we're gonna get something like his Starry Sky counterpart. -> Pretty much that... but he's also sooo silly whenever Korekuni is involved. Has a silly side to him, and a very loving and charming side too. He's a good guy XD and no one can convince me that he's NOT a married couple with Korekuni ._.

Korekuni Kishio Daisuke!!!! The Daisuke combo! Pretty boy. Guess he's snobby? -> I see a lot of myself in him. He's highly professional and demands the same level of professionalism from his peers, though that can come off as strict. He's so much more than his appearance, and he's not afraid to show that.

MooNs

Masunaga (I'M SO SORRY FOR SAYING THIS)I thought he looked...kinda boring...? -> He was one of the characters that I did the most research on because I wanted to grasp his character and who he really is...and when I did, boy... the tears were everywhere. I just want him to be happy. His side story is one that I remember MOST vividly. He's a good leader and a good person and I just really really really want him to be happy.

Onzai KAKKIIIIIII *screams and flails my arms around* I thought I would love him the most because of his voice actor. (I am obsessed with Kakihara Tetsuya) -> *pats his head* You're a good boy. I wish you will love yourself and realize how much everyone loves you ;~; He's more than his pretty looks... and he's very insightful. He really understands his teammates and cares for them deeply.

Osari The last time I heard Morikubo Shotaro voice a genki boy was GET BACKERS. [I KNOW I'M SHOWING MY AGE BY SAYING THAT...] Genki Boi #2. -> The mood-maker and a ray of sunshine. His crazy nicknames almost drove me nuts 8'D but he's such a lovable character. It's impossible to dislike him. I know one of the TLers on the team REALLY likes him and I can understand why!

Nome I love this character design SO MUCH!!! He's so good-looking! -> He's still really good-looking...I love his hair color...his build...his everything. Character-design wise, he's still my favorite. Was funny when I found out he's a gym buff :'D makes sense... He would also make a good big brother to the boys ;u; Though I THINK he has a big brother?? If I remember one of the special events I translated right...

Sekimura I'm usually not a fan of megane-types. He's okay. (I'M SO SORRY FOR SAYING THAT...AND I HATE MYSELF FOR NOT APPRECIATING HIM MORE BEFORE) -> WOW where to start. I want him to be successful. I want him to be happy. He has SO, SO, SO much depth. He deserves SO, SO, SO much. He breaks the usual megane-type trope and he's his own self that stands out SO MUCH. I appreciate him so much for his faithful, loyal support of his friends and I just REALLY want him to be happy. And no one can convince me that he's NOT madly obsessed with Onzai. He'd date him if he got the chance. :P

KiLLER KiNG

First off, before diving into characters, can I say that THESE BOYS ARE THE FURTHEST THING FROM SOMETHING AS EDGY AS "KILLER KING" I expected super edgy boys in this band... ._.;;

Haruhi Genki Boy #3. Ah, I think this will be my favorite genki boy. -> He is not my favorite genki boy :'D He's still great of course!!! But it's funny how that didn't turn out the way I thought it would. He's also a giant ray of sunshine, though a bit selfish, but that's part of his charm. The side story for him though... *Haaah* Haruhi... just...whyyyy... But I really really really liked his backstory. He admits his faults and grows to overcome them and I truly, really respect that.

Yuduki The gloomier of the twins. Lack self-esteem? -> He does lack self-esteem, but he grows from it too. I actually really like Yuduki...I was surprised because I didn't expect that. Again, he's another boy that had way more depth than I imagined. He takes good care of Haruhi, but he's not limited to being Haruhi's shadow. His individual stories away from Haruhi are where he really shines, I think. Go for it, Yuduki! Ganbare!!!

Akane Genki boy #4. -> MUST. PROTECC. AKANEEEE. *HISSSSS* The BIGGEST surprise for me is that Akane became my TOP. FAVORITE. BOY. His background story and his interactions in the special event stories made me empathize with him A LOT. He has INTENSE imposter syndrome and he doesn't know when to stand up for himself...so he needs his friends to help him. And in response, he LOVES his friends and will do anything to help them. He's selfless for his friends but tends to forget to care for himself. I can go ON AND ON but please, please PLEASE check out his backstory when the game comes out!!! That hit me really hard... and it resonated with me a lot. It might not with others, but it really did with me. Akane love. *sob sob sob*

Shingari Ah, it's Egu... Egu? With that kinda character design? I guess he's the silent type then? -> There's more depth than I imagined. I remember his backstory quite well, too, because it showed a more vulnerable side to him, and I came to understand Shingari really well after it. *pats his head* He's a good boy. I hope him success. Don't worry, you'll have your friends and your senpai with you! It's okay to be a bit vulnerable sometimes!

So...that was my evaluation of the characters before and after working on the series. It's okay if you don't agree with my views on the boys, I'm not saying they're the only view and the right view...it's just *my* view, after working on the select parts of the game that I did. It was *amazing* how much my opinions changed. No one was really entirely what I thought they were like...that just shows how much depth the characters really have. They're not bound to just their trope, but there's so much more about them... and I came to appreciate them and the franchise EVEN MORE than ever.

I am so genuinely blessed to have gotten the chance to work on this series and I am so genuinely grateful to PQube and the team that was put together for this title. I can't wait for all of you to play the game and experience this yourself, whether you're new to B-PRO or a veteran fan.