#knt original character

[hiitsugo]

Sorry for the long break everyone! And also sorry I haven’t been drawing a lot of Unicorn recently! I promise I’ll continue to do so in a hot minute. BUT I have a new OC I want to introduce to y’all! If you remember Kid n Teenagers, then I give kudos to you!

Meet Damari! A Kid n Teenagers OC! First glance you think he’s a beautiful girl but actually he’s a beautiful STRONG MAN. Damari’s a man who’s not afraid of being feminine despite his strong build. Besides that, he’s also very obsessed with bees and flowers :3

[cielingg]

I like Aiden, so here's fanart of him from Knt

[sprayjea]

KNL is back too !! I've been receiving a lot of asks about what happened to the comics and illustrations, so here !! I havent forgotten about it, dont worry !! But i am happy that people still want more of this series !! :'^0 Pish belongs to me and Aiden belongs to @z-t00n (With permission !!)

[waitmyturtles]

I managed to take in the newly translated film version of Kinou Nani Tabeta last night (in-between my continued sadness over Old Fashion Cupcake being over and my work on Keeping Up with KinnPorsche, which I am TREMENDOUSLY LATE TO because I wasn’t active on Tumblr until like three weeks ago, and holy shit, is it taking me for the ride of my life, I need to have hot cups of tea and water to calm myself down while watching it). ANYWAY.

KNT was my first BL drama when it came out, and one of the first Japanese dramas I got into, after Midnight Diner, which I consumed first a few years ago in a state of nursing-induced forever hunger. I had no idea who Nishijima Hidetoshi and Uchino Seiyou were, and had barely read the first volume of the original manga when I watched the first episode, and I realized that I needed to read the source material fast to really “get” the drama. Once I got into the manga (and actually started cooking from it! Ninben tsuyu is the best), I realized that the absolute magic of the manga series is in the quiet subtleties of intimacy and closeness that Shiro-san and Kenji exhibit. Food sustains them, but food and eating together is the conduit that Yoshinaga Fumi uses to help build up their quiet intimacy over the course of the series (at least, if you’re not reading the doujinshis. If you’re reading the DJs, then you know their intimacy is not always quiet.). 

Over the course of the television series, the New Year’s special, and now the movie, I see that the television writer, Adachi Naoko, needs a bit more to go off on to demonstrate that intimacy, and I think she does an absolutely brilliant job of getting Nishijima and Uchino to do that without taking away from the quiet, everyday homelife spirit of the manga. 

@kinounaniresource (the incredible subber of all the episodes and the movies, THANK YOU!) noted that one of the most impactful scenes in the movie was a close-up on Shiro-san as a homeless man explains that society doesn’t accept him for who he is -- a parable for Shiro-san himself as a gay man, which is a major theme for all four main gay characters in the movie (Shiro-san, Kenji, Kohinata-san, and Gilbert). Between that shot, and the conversations with his parents about putting Kenji first in his life as his family, that’s as close as we get to Shiro-san’s visceral thought process on the discrimination he’s faced as a gay man. 

However, I think in other instances, Adachi Naoko pushes Shiro-san -- and Nishijima as an actor -- to go slightly beyond the lines of the manga for Shiro-san to demonstrate his love for Kenji. The scene in which they’re leaving the French restaurant, and Shiro-san looks deeply at Kenji and says, “I want to brag about you to everyone on the street” -- I’m not sure Yoshinaga’s Shiro-san would ever say that in the manga. But is it convincing for Nishijima’s and Adachi’s Shiro-san to say that? I think so. The movie needs that -- it’s almost as if the movie doesn’t have time for the really quiet subtleties of the manga, because the script packed SO MUCH in by way of stories. 

The amazing thing about the movie is how, in this allowance to push Shiro-san to be less tsundere than his version in the manga, is how WELL Nishijima pulls it off, and how Uchino plays utterly perfectly to it. (And -- Uchino needs not to push himself for his Kenji. He IS Kenji, lol, through and through. He’s an incredible actor.) Between the manga and the movie, Nishijima’s Shiro-san does not dilute what Shiro-san ultimately stands for -- a conflicted gay man, somewhat still in the closet, always coming to terms with a previously unimaginable reality that he had found a life partner with whom he could call family. And all the while, he’s establishing that familial intimacy through the everyday cooking and eating of meals with the person he loves the most. What Nishijima can do, because he’s a ridiculously talented actor, is to take Shiro-san just far enough out of the manga to allow him to express his feelings verbally without discomfort or cringe -- and then bring him right back to the Shiro-san that shies away from PDA in public and at home. All in very cute, convincing, and loving ways. 

The best part, for me, of KNT, is the lovingness and calmness of the environment it creates, in the face of the discrimination that they face. (I know the movie came out last fall, but I can’t help but think of the state of Japan’s politics now that the election is over, with the LDP gaining even more control and thus, less of a likelihood of any national movement towards legalizing gay marriage.) In the end, Shiro-san wants peace, and with Kenji, he has peace. Gilbert is the perfect character to slightly upend that peace when they’re together, but Shiro-san and Kenji aren’t rattled. What the movie showed me is how Shiro-san can continue to work on toeing the line of “letting go,” as he said in an early volume of the manga. Nurtured by Nishijima’s acting, we get to see Shiro-san literally get older and wiser, happily and peacefully, with Kenji by his side -- and that central nature of the show and the script is what keeps bringing me back to KNT as my favorite drama ever.

(I know I’ve said this a couple times, but KNT would not be the series it is without Nishijima and Uchino. I can’t help but compare Nishijma’s acting to his work in Drive My Car. The guy had an absolute banner year in 2021, and both film roles totally showcased his range. I think I actually like his Shiro-san MORE in the movie because of how brilliant he was as Kafuku in Drive My Car, coming to grips with Kafuku’s reality as a grieving husband and father. If I hadn’t known how well he’d play a character like Kafuku, I think I would appreciate his Shiro-san a little less. And Uchino -- forget about it. He brings Kenji totally to life. And he wears the blond well!)

So -- if you’re recovering from OFC, if you’re crying your eyes out over the end of KP, then watch KNT. We are totally spoilt for amazing writing and acting in this movie.

[psycho-alchemist]

Hi so first of all you seem really awesome and your blog is amazing, I always love seeing what you've reblogged on my dash. Second, I was wondering if you had any anime recommendations of like your all-time favorite animes or series you think everyone should watch? I just finished a Fullmetal Alchemist rewatch and I'd love to find some new shows to get into. Thank you!!

Oh wow thank you, that’s so sweet of you!!

Three anime everyone should watch (not including FMAB, since that’s a given and you’ve already seen it):

Steins;Gate - Not many people talk about S;G anymore, but the people who have watched it pretty much unanimously love it. It’s about a man named Okabe and his friends who discover how to send messages to the past. But in doing so, they start to change their world too much, and suddenly all of their lives are in danger. Okabe has to undo the mistakes he made to save his friends’ lives and change the world back to the way it was. It’s a really cool time travel show! From what I have seen, most people who dropped it did so because it seems to move pretty slowly at first. I actually nearly dropped it too during my first watch, but upon rewatching I noticed that there are a lot of subtle hints dropped during the “slow” episodes that something horrible and tragic is about to happen. There’s this very faint, ever-growing feeling that something isn’t right, and suddenly it’s too late to fix anything.Time travel is a very very tiny theme in media, but I love it because it’s a great opportunity for pseudo-science and angst. The helplessness a main character feels as they try to fix things in a fucked up world when no one else around him even realizes how fucked up it is? 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Steins;Gate handles the angst and plot twists really well, and it also manages to avoid all the plot holes that often come with badly written time travel stories. I am usually of the mindset that if I need to wait more than 4-6 episodes for an anime to “get good,” then it’s not worth it. Steins;Gate is a very rare exception to that rule, and I think everyone should watch it!!

Barakamon - I am not a fan of children, so an anime about a misanthropic twenty-something-year-old spending a summer on a rural island with a bunch of country kids is not something I would typically even glance at. When I originally saw it on the Summer 2016 roster, I wrote it off instantly. But during the first week of the new season I had finished all my other anime, so I watched it out of pure boredom. And boy, was I FLOORED.Barakamon is a surprisingly charming and hilarious story. Handa, the main character, is relatable to the average dramatic grump like me who would prefer to stay indoors during the summer, away from the bugs and sunshine and nature in general. The children are actually realistic, unlike a lot of the children or children-passing lolis we often see in anime. They’re a tiny bit bratty and very mischievous, but it’s actually really refreshing and endearing. The situations they get themselves into are ridiculous and hilarious. And despite Handa avoiding them at first, he ends up getting very very attached to them, and them to him.I was very reluctant to like Barakamon, but the first episode completely charmed me, and every episode thereafter. The humor was rarely an overdone punchline, it was situational and felt very authentic. I still laugh a lot just thinking about some of the scenes!

Psycho Pass (season 1) - This is only regarding season 1. Don’t bother watching s2 or the movie. But Psycho Pass was a special show for me, not just because of the very fascinating world-building but because of the way it makes you think about how morality works. How do we decide what is good and what is bad? How do we determine if someone is guilty or innocent? How do we make the judgment on whether someone deserves punishment or forgiveness? Psycho Pass made me think about those questions in a way I never really had. It actually made me agree with the psychopathic villain for once, which had never happened to me beforehand. (I’m pretty black-and-white so I usually side with the good guys and hate the bad guys without questioning it.) I understood and agreed with the villain’s philosophies, and it was really intriguing to consider that anyone could become a villain if they twisted their thinking the wrong way. In addition, Psycho Pass also brings up an interesting point of what would happen if humans didn’t go through any kind of stress or hardship. It suggests that perhaps stress and trauma are...not good exactly, but perhaps essential to the human experience.In short, Psycho Pass made me think about humanity and morality in a way I never had before. Again I am only speaking for s1, since s2 and the movie fell off that trend, but s1 was a fantastic watch and perfectly fine as a standalone series.

Those are the two I recommend to everyone, regardless of what genres they prefer. Here are my other favorites: 

Haikyuu!! - If you’re a fan of sports anime, or would like to watch sports anime but don’t like the overdone sports moves, Haikyuu!! is a great watch. It’s funny, it’s inspiring, and the sports actually don’t defy the laws of physics. The characters are all very lovable and have a great dynamic.

Hunter x Hunter - If you’ve been looking for a fun action series, HxH is definitely worth it. It’s got great action and really cool storylines, and it has a fun shounen feel without being overbearingly so. It’s a pretty long one at 148 episodes, and I definitely understand how intimidating that can be, as someone who hesitates to watch even 2-cour series. But Hunter x Hunter was worth every single minute, and I cannot stress that enough. It’s so much fun to watch, the characters are so unique and interesting, and the last two arcs are Angst Central if that’s what you’re into. It’s got someone for action fans who love fluff and those who love angst, and I am so so glad I decided to watch it despite its episode count looming over my head. 

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! - If you love a good rom com, definitely check out KWMS! The animation is done in a way that brings out each of the characters’ charm and really adds to the energetic, cute feel of the show. I’ve rewatched it more times than I can count, and it never gets old!

Kimi ni Todoke - If you love rom coms but want a slow-paced romance, KnT will do that for you. It’s still really funny (first anime that made me laugh so hard I couldn’t breathe!), but the romance is slow and steady. Some people have complained that the romance is too slow, and while I won’t disagree, I think the show still did a great job showing a very shy girl slowly establishing deep relationships, both platonic and romantic, with kind people. 

Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou - Technically a rom com, but don’t expect too much romantic development! It’s more like a comedy anime with a side romantic plot. But there’s nothing wrong with that! I love the characters; they’re all super eccentric but go together perfectly. And don’t get me started on Brain Base’s gorgeous animation and the lovely soundtrack! Overall this is just a really pretty, aesthetic, feel-good fluff show. Perfect for casual laughs!

Hopefully this helps you! :) If you would like recs from one particular genre, just let me know and I’ll tell you what I like!

[mollusks-in-top-hats]

I doodled some fan art of the characters from the comic series KnT by @z-t00n. The second image was originally gonna be the bg for the first image, but I realized there were way too many colors. So, wallpaper???

I need to work on anatomy and coloring more…

[maryroxburghetrust]

'Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton Raleigh' by June Davey

    Historian June Davey continues her series of essays exploring the fascinating women of West Horsley Place.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Bess Throckmorton was born in 1565:  she was around 12 years younger than the great Sir Walter, whom she was to marry.  Bess was the daughter of the diplomat Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and Anne Carew. She had family links through both her parents to Henry VIII.  Nicholas was the cousin to Henry’s last wife, Katherine Parr.  Anne Carew’s father – another Nicholas – had been a close friend to Henry, but fell from favour and was executed in 1539.

The great influences in Bess’s life were her mother, and Arthur her elder brother, who paid to install Bess as Lady in Waiting in Queen Elisabeth I’s Chamber.  Sir Nicholas had left a scant inheritance and Bess received just £500, which should have been her dowry, but her mother loaned the money to Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon.  Loans among courtiers were common practice at the time, and repayment often unreliable.  Bess learned to read and write, and she would certainly have approved of plans for phonetic spelling, as hers was to say the least, innovative.  It should be remembered that the standard of literacy for many women in Bess’s day was the same as for humblest levels of society. The Queen, of course, was a brilliant exception. But Bess had character: she was clever, honest, passionate and courageous.

BESS AT COURT

Her first introduction to court came on 3rdMarch, 1579, when Arthur wrote tersely in his diary: ‘My sister and I went to court.’ There was a hiccough in plans to gain her a position, when Francis Throckmorton was accused – rightly – of plotting with Mary Queen of Scots, and executed.  In the summer of 1582, Bess received an offer of marriage from one, Bassingbourne Gawdy,  a connection of Lord and Lady Darcy.  Bess clearly resisted the idea of marriage, and Anne Throckmorton  prevaricated.  She had other ambitions for Bess and regarded the court as the key to Bess’s future. Eventually Anne and Arthur’s efforts succeeded, and on 8thNovember, 1584, Bess was accepted as a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, one of ten or twelve ladies in personal attendance to the Queen.  She was expected to embody virtues such as chastity, modesty and obedience, and absolute loyalty to the Queen.

Elizabeth I

DALLIANCE AND CONSEQUENCES

 At the court, there was entertainment in plenty: masques, plays, dancing and a plentiful allowance of food and ale!  Bess settled into her new life and then in 1587 her dear mother died, and this is about the time that the affair with Walter Raleigh, a favourite of the Queen began, and Bess became pregnant. Elizabeth jealously guarded the virtue of her ladies and equally jealously guarded her favourites!    It was bad enough to marry without the Queen’s consent, but for a maid-of-honour and a favourite captain of the guard to marry without consent was almost suicidal.  To make matters worse, instead of grovelling, the pair tried to brazen it out, with Bess back at court after losing her child and Raleigh planning his voyages. In July, 1592, Elizabeth found out that her ‘Water’- as he was known – had married behind her back, and to the Tower the couple went. Walter had been shamed, but not ruined: he still had Durham House,  Sherborne  Castle, and benefited from his monopolies.  Then, in the September of that year, one of Raleigh’s fleet, the ‘Madre de dios’ arrived in Dartmouth, laden with spoils, and he was released from the Tower to prevent looting,  and to  apportion the riches. By Christmas, Elizabeth had relented and after a spell at Sherborne, Walter was back in good grace with the Queen, and he remained close to her for the rest of her reign.

BESS, LADY  RALEIGH

Bess never apologised after discovery and banishment: she was never allowed to return to court.  But while at Sherborne, where her second child, Walter, was borne, she consolidated her position as Lady Raleigh, enjoying the prestige of being mistress of Sherborne and of Durham House in Town. The 1590s –  those years of exile  – when Sir Walter was organising his Guiana trip, were a decade of relentless rains and atrocious harvests.  Bess, as mistress of Sherborne would have been involved in charitable works to ease the lot of the many less fortunate in the neighbourhood.  She organised the education of young Wat – as he was always called –   also of her nieces.  There were many visitors to both houses.  Durham House had always been a centre of intellectual and philosophical discussions, and Bess became a close friend of Ben Johnson and of the magnificent John Donne, who was her relative by marriage.

Sir Walter Raleigh

SIR WALTER’S HEAD

During the years after Queen Elizabeth’s death, when James I succeeded to the throne, and  Walter was in the Tower, Beth was his lynchpin.  Their love for each other never wavered. When she was excluded from the Tower, her coach sweeping up to the entrance became a familiar sight. She pleaded, not only for clemency for her husband, but also for his sequestered estates, fighting like a tigress for her children’s rights.  Sir Walter was executed at Whitehall, on 29thOctober, 1618, and his body  laid to rest at St. Margaret’s, Westminster.  His head was embalmed and Bess kept it beside her in a red leather bag. During her widowhood she proved herself an astute business woman.

WEST  HORSLEY PLACE

Bess saw her son Carew go from strength to strength, politically and socially. He married a wealthy widow, Lady Philippa Ashley, and purchased a manor in East Horsley near the place where Horsley Towers now stands.  He also owned Lollesworth Farm in West Horsley. In 1642, his uncle Sir Nicholas Throckmorton left him the house that is now West Horsley Place, and Carew spent £2,000 on the house, and may have been responsible for rendering the original timber-framed exterior with warm russet brick.  According to Raleigh Treveleyan – and other sources – Bess spent much of her remaining life with her son at West Horsley Place, keeping Sir Walter’s head, in the red leather bag, in a cupboard near her bed.    Most historians give the date of her death as 1647. Sir Walter’s head remained with Carew at West Horsley Place, where he and Philippa raised their family.  There were two sons, Walter and Carew.  In 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne, he offered a knighthood to Carew, which he declined, asking that it should be given to his eldest son, Walter.  Sadly, in 1660, this Sir Walter died, together with his baby daughter Henrietta, and his younger brother Carew, probably of a plague related illness. St. Mary’s Church Register for 1660 records the death as follows:

         Sir Walter Ralegh Knt. deceased the Fifteenth day of August

            Carew Ralegh deceased the Seventh of September

                  Henereta departed the Twentieth September.

The burial of the bodies of his sons and baby grand-daughter was the occasion for Carew to finally bury his famous father’s head. He and Philippa were heartbroken, and in 1664, they sold West Horsley Place to Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary to Charles I and Charles II, and went to live in their house at St. Martin’s Lane, London. Carew died in 1666: according to St. Margaret’s, Westminster Parish Register, he was ‘kilt,’ and is buried with his father’s body there.  In the great three volume  History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, by Manning and Bray, published between 1804 and 1814, it is recorded that in 1703, the Raleigh grave was opened: William Nicholas was burying his mother Penelope, who died in the Great Storm in November of that year. He writes: ‘I do verily believe that the head I saw dug up at West Horsley in 1703 from the side where a Carew Ralegh was buried was that of Sir Walter Ralegh, there being no bones of a body to it, nor any room for any, the rest of that side of the grave being firm chalk.’

Recent Biographers of Sir Walter refer to the burial of the head in St. Mary’s, West Horsley.  The registry of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, where his body reposes, have recently contacted the Church Office to ask how St. Mary’s, as guardian of the great man’s head, propose to honour the 400thanniversary of Sir Walter’s  death, in October, 2018.

Note:  The family name was spelled in different ways by Sir Walter himself:  there was no fixed spelling at that time.  His usual version was ‘Ralegh,’ and biographers frequently use this.

  Bibliography

Beer, Ann, Bess: The Life of Lady Raleigh, London: Constable, 2004

Dale, Richard, Who Killed Sir Walter Ralegh?, Stroud: The History Press, 2011

Lacey, Robert, Sir Walter Ralegh, New York: Atheneum, 1973

Latham Agnes  & Joyce Youings, The Letters of Sir Walter Ralegh, University of Exeter Press, 1999

Manning, Rev. Owen & William Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County  of  Surrey, London: Nicholls & Son, 1804-1814, p. 4.

Nicholls Mark & Penry Williams, Sir Walter Raleigh: In Life and Legend, London: Continuum International Ltd., 2011

Trevelyan, Raleigh, Sir Walter Raleigh, London: Faber & Faber, 2010

  ‘Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton Raleigh’ by June Davey was originally published on West Horsley Place

[sprayjea]

KNT illustration ! Its been MONTHS since Ive drawn these 3 boys all together ! Hoo i feel so fresh drawing them again !! I feel like ive really improved :'^) Characters (c) @z-t00n !!