#kaoru kisaragi

[arkaylarts]

I ended up also getting into HanaDoll*.....

[microwav3ov3n]

Quiero transcender, montarme bien, dejarme ver Desde el momento en que me vi nacer, ah Quiero transformar, juntarme más, dejarme amar Desde el momento en que me vi nacer (I want to transcend, mutate for good, be seen From the moment I was born I want to transform, mutate even more, be loved From the moment I was born)

art heavily inspired by Luna Llena by Arca (lyrics above from the same song)! very chise-coded, plus the kaoru-coded title was the cherry on top

[hohotaro]

Girl, It's you Lyrics (JP)

This is the magic 予感する

夢の中いるように

咲いてない 恋の歌

Ah Girl, it's you

I'm gonna love you

君はヒロインのよう

愛らしい姿に

7秒待たず目をそらす

臆病なnovice

一言だけでも話せるように

シミュレーション

"Can I try these?"

何が好きなの?

君のこともっと教えて

たまってくチェックリスト

使えないまま

This is the magic 予感する

夢の中いるように

咲いてない 恋の歌

Ah Girl, it's you

I'm gonna love you

目覚めたら会いに行くよ

今は起こさないで

咲きそうな恋の花

"Maybe" not "Perhaps"

I'm gonna love you…

Someday, the time will come

眠ること忘れて

夜行性になった

空に浮かぶ月に

君を重ねながら

ぼくを彩るOutfit も

何かが変わった? 教えて

いつも気づかないうち

君色に染まって

甘いスイーツも

零れ落ちていく

鼓動に合わせ揺れる天秤は

もうわかってる

My heart is for YOU.

It's not anyone.

This is the magic 予感する

夢の中いるように

咲いてない 恋の歌

Ah Girl, it's you

I'm gonna love you

目覚めたら会いに行くよ

今は起こさないで

咲きそうな恋の花

"Maybe" not "Probably"

I'm gonna love you

Oh, the time is come

Yeah, I'm in love

[koumeowkami]

i love you guys so much... kithing both of you rn

[6shevan]

🧁

[hinaginagii]

Let’s reconnect like this, time and time again 🧡💙

[poyaposted]

Oh Kisaragi Kaoru :(

Really wanted to mess around w/ my art, and I wanted to draw more Hana*Doll fanart!!

I’ve been on a Kaoru kick recently so it worked out 💪

[uenodivision]

Hypnosis Mic Shuffle Team, Vol. 3 (Part 1) (Cont.)

Team Sapphire (Luna Veritas)

Wataru "Overseer" Sasaki

Lyall "Corvus" Shiba (Team Leader)

Kureha "Eclipse" Koizumi

Kaoru "Arachne" Shinozaki

Law & Order (Overseer Solo)

Baby, I Love Me (Corvus Solo)

Disappearing With the Snow (Eclipse Solo)

Superb Cyberpunk (Arachne Solo)

Team Peridot (Amoureux)

Aoba "Guinevere" Yamamura

Ryuko "Mista Z.B." Umemoto

Rintaro "Ignis" Himura

Touya "MC Darling" Kisaragi (Team Leader)

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? (Guinevere Solo)

Fuck Wit Me or Not (Choose Wisely) (Mista Z.B. Solo)

What's Next to Burn? (Ignis Solo)

Reward for Obedience (MC Darling Solo)

@kanazawa-division @niigata-division @saitama-division @edogawa-division @kumamoto-division @suginami-division @katsushika-division

[edogawa-division]

ヒプノシスマイク -Rhyme Anima- (Fatal Four Ver.)

In honor of Season 2 premiering soon here's this!

Bring the Beat!

[Wicked Requiem:]

Wicked Requiem!

[Yuriko:]

I'll only say this once to any enemies who appear 

Dare threaten my family, and the only thing left of you will be a bloody smear

[Kaoru:]

Think you can hide your secrets from me? 

Oh, please! Nothing can be hidden from my sight! 

[Kanra:]

With the face of an angel and the rage of a devil 

Try your luck, I’m just itching for a fight 

[Silent Tragedy:]

Silent Tragedy!

[Kanon:]

How amusing, scurrying around my lab like rats

You won't get very far, I can assure you of that 

[Reika:]

A girl can get used to this, you know? 

The feeling of having the world in the palm of your hands 

[Sakura:]

A blood-stained crown rests on my brow

Who are you to give me a command?

[Death Row Block:]

Death Row Block!

[Akihisa:]

Call it a desire for vengeance and strife 

But I still have more to do before heading to the afterlife 

[Touya:]

Think you can leave me all alone? 

Just for that, I’ll make sure to give your throat a slash 

[Rintaro:]

What a pretty picture-perfect life you live

Makes me want to burn it all to ash!

[Valor Guard:]

Valor Guard!

[Seiji:]

Tough as steel and stronger than any shield 

Even against the entire world, I will never yield! 

[Lyall:]

For those who commit the worst of crimes 

I’ll see you judged by Anubis the Jackal! 

[Ayumu:]

The life of a medic isn't for the faint of heart 

You’ll find that it's a constant uphill battle!

[Fatal Four:]

Hypnosis action ends corruption

Lyrics that kick away verses

Nautilus diving into your mind

Attacking by surprise, ignition!

Beyond this endless game

Even if the world ends

We'll continue to fight

At the Division Rap Battle!

[Wicked Requiem:]

Deadly song!

[Yuriko:]

I can see it in your eyes that you’re afraid 

Fear not I’ll sing your final serenade 

[Kaoru:]

Even if I pray to the Muses for guidance

It's to the goddess Athena whom I dedicate my win 

[Kanra:]

Inhumanly born from the deepest pits of hell 

The masses would call my existence a sin 

[Silent Tragedy:]

Fierce blade!

[Kanon:]

Begging for mercy from a maniac? 

Fool, my heart has long since turned pitch black

[Reika:]

How can you say I'm horrible for being evil? 

At least I do it with stone-cold style 

[Sakura:]

Locked and loaded with my finger on the trigger 

I'll gladly put a bullet in your head with a smile

[Death Row Block:]

Execution!

[Akihisa:]

Opposing us is the quickest way to die 

Perhaps you ought to say your final goodbyes 

[Touya:]

Just the sight of you gets me all hot and bothered 

Come on, let's go a few rounds

[Rintaro:]

Think you can run the fuck away?

I’m hot on your heels like a hellhound!

[Valor Guard:]

Duty bound!

[Seiji:]

A warning for all there is very little I fear 

Especially when dealing with threats to all I hold dear 

[Lyall:]

With eyes that see everything like an owl 

I’ll catch you even during the darkest nights 

[Ayumu:]

Even when everyone else has long given up 

I'll keep on going with all my might 

[Fatal Four:]

Hypnosis action ends corruption

Gimmicks that burn synapses

Nobody can stop this now

Ignition!

Now we invite you to catharsis

Rhyming all over the place

Carving into history

With this Division Rap Battle!

[Kaoru:]

Mind racing faster than you can comprehend 

Even now it's plotting your bitter end!

[Reika:]

Even decked out head to toe in jewels

I’ll destroy anyone who tries to overthrow my rule! 

[Touya:]

Seems like you’re someone no one will miss 

How about I seal your fate with a kiss? 

[Lyall:]

Hidden like the dark side of the moon 

Your doom approaches soon! 

[Kanra:]

I’m quick to anger and, with my strength enough said 

So careful, or else you’ll end up dead!

[Sakura:]

Don't even think about trying to be brave 

You'll only just dig your own grave! 

[Rintaro:]

A battle between divisions, call it a nuclear winter!

Leaving nothing but ash and cinder!

[Ayumu:]

I might be here to heal 

But that doesn't mean I'll kneel! 

[Yuriko:]

That's it I’m done playing nice 

It's time I leave you in agonizing pain! 

[Kanon:]

A verbal barrage rains upon the psyche 

Let's see you undo the damage to your brain!

[Akihisa:]

This is our reality now 

One where words have all the power! 

[Seiji:]

Opponents stand all around 

The Division Rap Battles are no place to cower! 

[Fatal Four:]

Hypnosis action ends corruption

Lyrics that kick away verses

The Nautilus dives, invading the brain

Ignition!

Even if what results from this endless game

Is the end of the world

We'll keep resisting

With this Division Rap Battle!

[taito-division]

Round 2 Poll Results!

Ren Nakashima of Kobe & Kureha Koizumi of Saitama - 10 Points

Tomi Chōten of Aoyama & Miho Kobayashi of Shinagawa - 9 Points

Karada Kessaku of Aoyama & Lola Takahashi of Saitama - 9 Points

Kito Sakura of Shizuoka & Yano Ietsuna of Toyama - 9 Points

Luis Kōkyū of Aoyama & Aoba Yamamura of Kumamoto - 8 Points

Ace Douglas & Evelyn Rose of Okinawa - 7 Points

Eldrid Iwasaki of Taitō & Kirumi Mayeda of Takatsuki - 6 Points

Touya Kisaragi of Katsushika & Kaiji Sano of Kobe - 6 Points

Criss Hiromi of Akihabara & Kanade Alarie of Kyoto - 5 Point

Lyall Shiba of Niigata & Kaoru Shinozaki of Edogawa - 5 Points

Current Ranking:

Ren Nakashima & Kureha Koizumi (The Dark Canvas) - 14 Points (1st Place)

Karada Kessaku & Lola Takahashi (The Deities) - 11 Points (2nd Place - Tied)

Touya Kisaragi & Kaiji Sano (Angelic Facade) - 11 Points (2nd Place - Tied)

Tomi Chōten & Miho Kobayashi (The "Power Couple") - 10 Points (3rd Place - Tied)

Eldrid Iwasaki & Kirumi Mayeda (Valkyrie's Resonance) - 10 Points (3rd Place - Tied)

Lyall Shiba & Kaoru Shinozaki (Blue Blaze) - 10 Points (3rd Place - Tied)

Ace Douglas & Evelyn Rose (America's Sweethearts) - 9 Points (4th Place - Tied)

Kito Sakura & Yano Ietsuna (Master & Servant) - 9 Points (4th Place - Tied)

Luis Kōkyū & Aoba Yamamura (Inferno Pair) - 9 Points (4th Place - Tied)

Criss Hiromi & Kanade Alarie (Phantom Powwow) - 6 Points (5th Place)

[kanazawa-division]

Special Thanks!

We can’t have done this without all the talented and amazing people within our own Divisions so let’s give a proper thanks to everyone who’s helped put in the effort to make possible! Starting with our…

Staff

Kureha Koizumi — Camerawoman

Alexis Ward — Photographer

Kaoru Shinozaki — Videographer

Reiaki Suzubayashi — Makeup Artist

Kaiji Sano, Ramuda Amemura, Touya Kisaragi, Shuu Edogawa — Outfit/Costume Designers

Musical Performances

“86”

“Fleuret Oshiro”

“Fumio Shimizu”

“Sayaka Miyuki & Yuriko Kuromiya”

And finally, Security..

Saji Buranka

Vito Koi

Ted Bridges

We thank you for your hard work and services!

@saitama-division @arakawa-division @edogawa-division @minato-division03 @kobedivision @katsushika-division @suginami-division @minato-division01 @taito-division @enoshima-division @megurodivision @hakodate-division

[hohotaro]

Imitation Flower Lyrics (JP)

一人きりのベッドの中で

何を祈るの?

夢に描くように踊り続けてた

写す Frame, frame, frame,

ひらり指先

伸ばしたその手で君を探してる

触れる Face, face, face,

僕らが選んだ世界なら

上手に笑えるよ

愛のカタチ Shape of my voice

交わすコトバ Shape of my heart

こんなに愛おしく

願う未来あるかな?

Tiny love wanna cry

今あなたと出会えたこと

Tiny love wanna smile

些細なことも話せること

今は少し爪先立ち

ぎこちない僕でも

I'm so glad that I sing

for you

共に歩もう

ひざまずきその手に祈りを

Flower…

Flower…

そっと仕舞い込んだ胸の軋み

癒すように包み込む

あなたの声救いのようで

扉開ければ眩しい世界

映る Image, image, image,

きらり全てが

輝き僕らを照らし続けてる

Reflect, fleck, fleck,

このまま僕らで

何にでもなれる気がしてた

夢のカタチ Shape of your love

ほろりナミダ Shape of your tears

こんなに狂おしく

望む未来あるかな?

Tiny love wanna cry

ずっとあなたと居たいってこと

Tiny love wanna smile

触れた肌があたたかいこと

傷だらけのこの世界で

頼りない僕は

I'm so sad that I sing for you

側にいたいと

ひざまずき星に祈りを

Flower…

Imitation flower…

[x0401x]

Hello, can you speak about episodes 7 and 8 of Tsurune S2, always enjoy reading your thoughts on the episodes, and thanks so much for sharing them!!

I've talked about episode 7 in a previous ask, so I'm gonna leave my impressions of episode 8 here. As a bonus, I'm also gonna talk about episodes 9 and 10, as an apology for taking so long to answer this ask. ;v;

I'm gonna start with the positive points, just like I did with episode 7, because there's so much goodness in this one. I love the first scenes so much. Sen and Man's morning practice with Shuu, Kazemai and the twins finding out that Ryouhei and Shuu are now friends, Daigo and Nanao bonding, the girls getting excited at Kirisaki's high school campus, Minato being a bow nerd... so wholesome.

But my favorite part has to be that moment where Kaito thinks the Kirisaki girls are about to approach Nanao and tries to block them out... except they go talk to Rika instead. That was so fucking funny. And so in-character too. Plus Seiya noticing the whole thing and giving Kaito a follow-up? Nice touch. He 100% would.

I love that we see more of the Kirisaki team in this episode. We barely get to see Hiroki and Daigo, so it was nice to have them interact in this one. I still think we have a major lack of them and the twins in this season, though, but given the direction that the anime is going, it can't be helped.

I like that we finally got the whole flashback where Minato learns about Eisuke's original shooting style and Eisuke learns about Minato being Saionji's apprentice. It's fascinating how much character study you can do in that one scene, especially the way Eisuke goes from flattered to straight-up hostile in a matter of seconds with a single piece of information. He's being nothing but sarcastic and petty when he says it's incredible that Minato was accepted as apprentice, but Minato (being Minato) doesn't take notice of it.

The joint practice was great and highlighted in very subtle ways why Manji should return to the team. Kaoru and Umetarou getting to have a role in that kind of warmed my heart. Also, the scene in the dorm. Just fantastic. The way we got to see everyone's rooms and the difference in size between the rooms of the first and second-years in comparison to the third-years'. Daigo's Noririn shrine. The crest of the dorm being purple irises. The nod to the novel during the takoyaki party time. Heart eyes. Nothing but heart eyes.

All in all, this episode was really damn good. The only things that had me raising a brow at certain moments were stuff that I have already discussed before, such as Eisuke for some reason insisting that his team should win without help from anyone, not even their school itself (except this time he had to reluctantly give in and take budget money for a training camp). Or Minato being a little too innocent and not realizing, even now that he's in high school, just how openly resentful Eisuke is towards him.

That last one bothers me in particular, as it implies that Minato has no negative feelings towards Eisuke simply because he doesn't notice how shitty Eisuke is to him. Not only is Eisuke's hostility mostly internal, Minato is also unrealistically oblivious of Eisuke's words and actions. The anime even makes a point to change his first interaction with Minato and make it so that Eisuke approaches Shuu instead.

In the novel, Minato knows very well that Eisuke has a deep-seated grudge against him and Shuu, and both of them have been directly and indirectly offended by it in every interaction they have with him, yet Minato chooses to be nice to Eisuke regardless. It takes Minato a while to get rid of his innitial resentment towards Eisuke, but he does, and he does it consciously. He acknowledges that Eisuke is mean as hell and doesn't make up any excuses to justify why he's liket that (because, let's be honest, this is what we'd get in any other sports series). Yet he still decides to be good, not because he's naïve, but because he has matured. That's the difference. Novel!Minato sees Eisuke for what he is and accepts it. He takes in the bad things Eisuke has said and done and forgives them. Rather, I'd say he makes them null. Not because Eisuke had a reason to be like that (nothing justifies it), but because Minato is quite literally above it all. It had irritated him at first, but after he went through a certain amount of enlightenment, it just stopped mattering. That's Zen and that's what his character is about.

The anime seems to think Minato is pure simply because he's clueless. To be fair, he's clueless about a lot of things, but he learns. And then he picks the right path, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. It all depends on what the situation calls for, and in this case, it was calling for a conscious choice.

Now for episode 9.

Another wholesome one, though not as much, as there was some friction going on. It's funny that the friction was one-sided on Eisuke's part, though.

Again, this episode doesn't have negative points aside from what I've already mentioned a lot before. I like that the anime also took some time to make Kazemai and Tsujimine bond a little. It was refreshing and cute. I think, if the author had more space within the page count of each volume, she might've included something like this in the story.

Speaking of bonding, gotta love that the show is finally giving us proper interaction between Seiya and Kaito, especially Seiya fucking around, but it's hilarious to me that it was done in the most non-gay manner possible. The scene where Seiya doesn't wear his spare glasses on purpose just to get Kaito to do things for him is the finest example of that. In canon, Seiya makes it very clear that he's pissed and wants Kaito to make up for breaking his glasses, and Kaito responds to his demands without question because he feels genuinely sorry and wants to be forgiven. After all, he broke Seiya's glasses by accident in the novel when Seiya tried to stop him from breaking Eisuke's whole face, so Seiya is twice as angry and Kaito is twice as guilty. And of course, the anime didn't show what happens after that. Nor did it show Seiya's implied jealousy of Nanao, his prank on Kaito during the night or him cleaning up Kaito's face the next day.

The anime is also insisting on Eisuke's don't-wanna-own-anyone-anything attitude without explaining why exactly he is like this. It's getting a little tiring to see that in every single episode and not be given a concrete reason for it. We got an explanation as to why he's so hellbent on winning against Shuu and Minato, all right, but why the insistence in not relying on anyone? The only thing I can think of is that anime seems to be trying to sell him as a tsundere. They keep trying so hard to make him cute and likable and don't see that it makes his character kind of confusing. He's so determined to win, yet he keeps nitpicking his methods only when it comes to relying on adults and on using money. Even money from the school and club budget, which he 100% has the right to use as a student. He wouldn't be owning anyone anything for that, since his family is literally paying for him to go to school in the first place. Make it make sense, KyoAni.

Also, I really like that the anime decided to give us more details on his relationship with Shigeru, but did they have to add that scene where Eisuke is rude as fuck to him? That one made me cringe big time. I don't know how it got translated in the subs or dub but I don't like that dialogue. Nope. Not cool.

Especially not cool when it's followed by, you guessed it, Masaki and Eisuke's exchange at the beach. It's a very different interaction from what we got in the novel and seems to have been framed in order to favor Eisuke and how amazing he is. In the novel, they have a talk during practice, prompted by Eisuke's willingness to do anything in order to get a hit. He's basically doing yumiate, which isn't the point of kyudo, so Masaki approaches him discreetly and lectures him in the nicest, most indirect way possible, AKA the Zen way. But in the anime, Zen is out the window. Masaki and Eisuke even boast about their school getting stronger and being the one that will crush the other's team, and I can understand Eisuke having that kind of beginner mindset because he's just a teenager, but Masaki? Hello??? Winning isn't the goal. Even having a goal isn't the goal. Kyudo isn't a sport. That's literally the first thing about it and KyoAni forgot. They got so caught up in trying to show off that they completely slipped up in this one. I'm crying blood. They 100% don't realize this was a fail.

Other than that, this scene is all about praising Eisuke, and his only flaw is that he doesn't take it to heart due to his trust issues. Like. At this point, it just feels like we're being force-fed the same information over and over again because Eisuke just keeps getting so much attention, way beyond what seems necessary, while Kirisaki is relegated to the sidelines with Shuu being the only exception (but even he isn't getting as much attention as in the books). It's a little bit too obvious by now that KyoAni is trying to invest in Eisuke as their trumpcard to attract a bigger audience for this season. They're doing with him the same thing they did with Seiya in S1, changing his whole character in a desperate attempt to make him endearing and seem desperate to make the fans like him (as well as Koushirou, by extension). They also have to fill up the extra time they get from trying to get rid of any actually gay content, so they're giving us excessive amounts of him, while simultaneously managing not to expose what truly matters.

I mean, I don't know who else noticed this, but after getting this far into the story and having so much Eisuke content shoved down our throats in every episode, we haven't been presented to a lot of basic things about him. For example, the fact he has photosensibility and that's why he wears a hoodie all the time. Or his claustrophobia. Or his mental and emotional instability. Those are all things that make him relatable, but they're not cute, so there doesn't seem to be much interest in showing that part of him. So yeah, it's not really about Eisuke, it's about how KyoAni can use him as a tool to get viewers hooked while simultaneously buying time.

This trend continues into episode 10, where we begin with a flashback of how Eisuke joined Tsujimine's kyudo club. Eisuke is portrayed as the guy who brought the members of the club together and is leading them single-handedly to the nationals like some messiah. The novel scene where he tries to cheat during practice half-assedly makes it to this episode, with Touma making the mistake instead of Eisuke (for no reason other than not knowing any better) and Eisuke deciding to cover it up instead of doing it himself. Once again, Eisuke is doing something wrong, it's watered down to make him look good even when it's not a good look.

At long last, Minato finally finds out that Eisuke basically sees him and Shuu as enemies on a personal level. Not because he realized it but because Koushirou decided to spill the beans. And yet it doesn't seem to affect him much. In the end, he manages to know and stay clueless at the same time, so there's no need for him to make an effort to process and accept Eisuke and his resentment.

On the topic of Koushirou, he's as out of character as can be, but I like his description of what goes on in his mind when he draws the bow. The Heike reference was great. An awesome nod to how old kyudo is and how much it permeates Japanese culture. Chuunibyou as fuck, but good.

And then there's Masaki and Eisuke's convo at the baths. Nice visual language where Eisuke is in the smaller bath in comparison to Masaki, which highlights that Masaki is more experient, more mature and more knowledgeable, therefore more skilled. The content of the conversation is also good. The only problem is that the anime is getting closer to a territory that I'm not sure it wants to go, which is to present Masaki as an excellent coach only when he's lecturing someone from a different team. When he's teaching Kazemai, he's portrayed a fine mentor, but his real worth only ever seems to be revealed when he's before either Kirisaki or Tsujimine. That's where he truly stands out. Easy to tell that it's because those moments are mostly shown through Minato's perspective in the books, with him either admiring Masaki or longing for him all the while, and KyoAni is having none of that gay shit. But by trying so hard to keep Minato and Masaki five feet apart like two bros sitting in a bathtub, they accidentally make Masaki a better teacher when he's helping out or making demonstrations to rival teams.

I'm losing my mind because, holy crap, what have we come to? Masaki is literally having a bonding moment with Eisuke out of all people before having any bonding moment with Minato this entire season aside from that one scene at Yata Shrine, if you can call that a bonding moment at all. KyoAni has managed to make them barely give a fuck about each other in the span of 10 episodes. Actually, screw that; it managed to give them nothing to care about regarding each other aside from club-related stuff, since KyoAni has rid the anime of anything these two could bond over to begin with. Masaki didn't get his scar saving Minato's life, Minato's hand injury was never a thing, their fight never happened and so neither did their make-up, we never get to see what Minato is thinking outside of the dojo, Masaki's background is never touched upon again aside from archery-related facts, Minato didn't get sick so no hospital scene, etc. The list is endless. They've been stripped bare of any reason to care about each other on a personal level, so they just... don't.

As a result, at least to me, it feels like they barely exist within the story. I feel like I've hardly seen them at all this whole time, even though they were always there. I've learned nothing about them even though we've been shown a lot of stuff about Minato, because almost none of it was his emotions or the inner machinations of his mind. It was mostly just facts. This is probably the most fatal mistake that Yamamura Takuya made in S1, and he's repeating it in S2: he seems to have no interest in Minato as a protagonist.

This anime almost feels like an experiment to prove that Minato and Masaki are so deeply connected to each other as characters that when you take Masaki out of the equation, Minato is almost empty. Nearly every bit of personal information regarding Minato is related to Masaki one way or another, and Minato is usually the readers' gateway to getting to know Masaki. So when KyoAni insists on keeping them away from each other, the result is that they lose a lot of their essence and the story is left with holes in it, which KyoAni tried to fill up with Seiya in the previous season, and now they're using Eisuke for it. In short, Minato is being pushed to the background in the story he was supposed to be leading as the main character while secondary characters are used as a disposable means to draw the audience in because the director apparently can't bring himself to give two shits about him.

And, like, some people will enjoy this season and some won't, but regardless of opinions, this approach is objectively a fail on KyoAni's part. Whether the anime is good or not on its own is up for debate, but as for whether it's a good adaptation or not, I think we can all agree by now that no, it isn't. Not even because it's not faithful to the original, but because it keeps committing these narrative suicides. The plot doesn't care much for its own protagonist and tries to seek depth by latching onto a specific character. Minato is basically becoming a secondary character in his own story.

I think episode 10 did a great job on showcasing that, even though it obviously wasn't the intention. Especially the latter half of it, from the moment Minato and Eisuke get stuck in the elevator. In the novel, this scene was about both of them, but mostly about Minato. In the anime, it's entirely about Eisuke. Minato is literally used as a vessel for more of Eisuke's backstory to be revealed. We don't get Eisuke hyperventilating and Minato helping him stay grounded because he's had the same experience after the car accident that took his mother's life. Instead, we get Eisuke receiving a call from his aunt about Shigeru being hospitalized for the nth time and Eisuke freaking out. We don't get Minato collapsing with a fever from the emotional batter and Masaki taking him to the hospital, which leads to a heart-to-heart and Minato getting the necessary strength to overcome the hurdle. Instead, we get Minato and Masaki taking Eisuke to see Shigeru, and the whole thing is about how Eisuke feels and how helpful they were to him. This ordeal was originally Minato-centric in the books, yet KyoAni does everything in its power to make it be about Eisuke instead, because the original content is too inexcusably gay for the screen.

Which brings us to the last scene of this episode before the credits roll: the car scene. The only thing it has in common with its novel counterpart is that it's a scene where Minato and Masaki are having a conversation in Masaki's car at night in the middle of nowhere. I do like that it added a reference to volume 1, because we completely missed Minato's inner monologue during the last match in S1. But that's about it. We didn't get anything else.

And then the credits roll, and we end this episode with Minato promising that Kazemai will defeat Tsujimine. Again, the whole point of kyudo goes way over KyoAni's head. So does the point of Minato as a character. Minato isn't my favorite character, but I almost feel bad for him. I wish someone in this production team would bother to make him the protagonist aside from when the tournaments are going on.

[idolm-ster]

Nandodemo Waraou

THE IDOLM@STER FIVE STARS!!!!! - Haruka Amami (CV: Eriko Nakamura), Chihaya Kisaragi (CV: Asami Imai), Miki Hoshii (CV: Akiko Hasegawa), Uzuki Shimamura (CV: Ayaka Ohashi), Rin Shibuya (CV: Ayaka Fukuhara), Mio Honda (CV: Sayuri Hara), Mirai Kasuga (CV: Haruka Yamazaki), Shizuka Mogami (CV: Azusa Tadokoro), Tsubasa Ibuki (CV: Machico), Teru Tendo (CV: Shuugo Nakamura), Kaoru Sakuraba (CV: Yuuma Uchida), Tsubasa Kashiwagi (CV: Taku Yashiro), Mano Sakuragi (CV: Hitomi Sekine), Hiori Kazano (CV: Reina Kondou), Meguru Hachimiya (CV: Mayu Mineda).

[meowsydreams]

Oc I've only drawn once and that was in 2020 sorry man.... I still love you