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soupthatistohot · 3 years

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Sk8 headcannons because brainrot

- Langa doesn't know how to swim except the doggy paddle

- Reki wanted a dog as s kid so badly that he made an entire presentation about it for his parents and got his sister involved, too. They had to tell him no, because they couldn't afford it and because dogs require a lot of attention. Reki wouldn't speak to his mother for two days.

- Reki has definitely tried to skateboard in high heels before and he definitely failed

- Miya's YouTube recommended page consists solely of playthroughs and theories for his favorite RPGs

- Kojiro was a pokemon kid

- Langa had braces in middle school but hardly anyone noticed because of how quiet he was. His mouth was almost always closed, and he smiled with his mouth closed for photos, so there is no photo documentation that he ever even had braces

- Langa doesn't take a lot of photos, not at all. If he does, it's of nature or whatever. He has, like, one photo of him and Reki in his phone.

- Reki takes more videos than photos. If vine was around when he was a teen, he definitely would've made a viral video

- Kaoru got the first piercing because Kojiro dared him to, thinking he wouldn't actually do it. After that he just kept getting them because he thought they looked cool. (Though he definitely did that first piercing himself and it got infected. He went to tattoo parlors after that)

- the only person in the past five years who has seen Kaoru in anything but a yukata (or similar traditional clothing) is Kojiro. Apparently Kaoru wears shorts in his own home occasionally.

- Reki has long eyelashes

- Reki always has to remind Langa to wear sunscreen, even on cloudy days. Langa did NOT inherit any genes from his mother that would allow him to tan, and thus was constantly either a) white as a sheet or b) red as a tomato

- as soon as Koyomi learned what "gay" was, she looked at Reki and Langa and decided that they were secretly dating (they were not, but she wasn't that far off, it was just mutal pining!)

- Reki knows that airpods are useful and convenient and he can definitely afford them but refuses to ever buy them

- Reki likes grape flavored popsicles and Langa and Miya agree that this is a crime against humanity

- Miya loves sour candy and once made Reki and Langa eat seven warheads at once with him. He was majorly unaffected, but the other two actually physically damaged their tastebuds

- Miya eats lemons in restaurants (including Sia La Luce, and it drives Kojiro crazy)

- Miya doesn't like lemonade, though. It's too sugary.

- Before "S", Hiromi's persona of Shadow lived online as an internet troll

- Langa gets weirdly invested in internet drama even though he doesn't know the first thing about the people they're about (he could tell you the whole timeline of the Tati and James Charles drama tho)

- Reki's English writing is just as bad as Langa's Kanji, and they try to help each other with it but get a little frustrated

- While Miya has great grades in school, it's not because it comes easily to him (like skating). He actually works really hard, and he struggles the most with reading and writing. His favorite class is art.

- Kojiro is a truth serum drunk

- Reki really likes sunflowers, and just flowers in general. He'd probably never say it out loud to anyone but Hiromi or maybe Langa, but he just thinks they're pretty and appreciates their beauty.

- Langa is not a picky eater, but he will, under NO circumstances, eat anything with mustard on it.

- Kojiro taught himself how to braid hair in middle school using Kaoru's hair (he very reluctantly let Kojiro do this)

- Langa used to have a lisp as a child, but he eventually grew out of it

- Reki has glasses with a fairly weak prescription that he just doesn't use (they're supposed to be "just for school" but he really cannot be bothered. plus, he heard that if you don't wear glasses when you need them that your vision won't worsen and might even improve)

- Kojiro not only speaks fluent Italian, but also is proficient in French and even speaks English well enough to get his point across

- Reki loved reading American comic books as a kid. It was just too bad that he had no clue what the dialogue was. He'd try to come up with the dialogue himself, though, and his mom would always find him muttering to himself in various voices when reading

- Reki's headband was a gift from Oka

- Almost anyone in Reki's school could call him their friend, but he never really hung out with anyone (but his other friend who used to skate) until Langa came along

- Langa is a good dancer, Reki... is not (but he has fun!)

- Kaoru can break dance, but no one but Kojiro knows this (for now)

- Miya never has a huge growth spurt like everyone expects him to, he remains below average in height

- Reki doesn't watch a lot of shows, but he LOVES Avatar: the Last Airbender (I assume that show has been translated into Japanese??)

- Langa straightened Reki's hair once with his mother's iron. He burned both his ears multiple times

- Miya actually has a convoluted haircare routine

- Kojiro got Kaoru into the habit of always carrying around lip balm with him (whenever Kaoru would ask to borrow his, he would make an indirect kissing joke. eventually Kaoru just got his own)

- Reki definitely had a crush on the friend that taught him to skate and just did not realize it at the time because he thought he only liked girls

- Reki sleeps under his sheets and blanket all year round

- Langa had terrible acne in his early teen years and he was an early bloomer

- Reki had a tooth gap before he got braces

- Miya wears Invisalign, Reki and Langa insist that he’ll never know the torture that was having braces and remark how “kids these days” have it so easy

- Langa is good at history, mostly because he has a decent memory

- Kojiro got homesick very often when he was in culinary school in Italy, and he called his parents every Sunday

- Langa had a kindergarten girlfriend who was absolutely heartbroken when Langa told her that he just wasn’t that interested. She threw a temper tantrum and punched Langa in the face.

- Hiromi was in a long-term relationship with a girl in high school, but they broke up when she left for college. It took him a while to recover.

- Hiromi is better at mariokart than Miya and it pisses him off

- no one wants to be in the room when Kaoru and Kojiro play mariokart against each other

- Reki got sick a lot as a kid, usually just the common cold (which was kind of ironic given the climate he grew up in)

- Langa never really held anyone’s hand (not since he was a literal child, anyway) until he met Reki. He then discovered that he liked having his hand held

- Kaoru wears eyeliner to “S”

- it takes Langa a few months to really start to unpack his boxes and decorate his room when he moves to Okinawa

#sk8 the infinity #sk8 anime #reki kyan #langa hasegawa #kojiro nanjo #kaoru sakurayashiki #miya chinen #higa hiromi #sk8 headcanons #sk8 the infinity headcannons #sk8 renga #matchablossom #renga #sk8 cherry blossom #sk8 joe #sk8 shadow #soupshcs

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reki-of-the-valley · 3 years

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Brainrot time! - Kyan Family Edition

Reki has been doing errands and groceries for his mom since he was 12. It was a way of giving him little responsibilities and teaching him about money. His mom would give him a list of things she needed him to pick up, not too much because he was still young, and she'd give him money. He was allowed to keep the change as pocket money, which he almost always spent on sweets

As he got older, and as the family grew, the amount of things he had to get and the frequency grew. At 12 he loved it since it was the first time he had that much freedom, but at 16-17-18, it feels a lot more like a chore, not that he really minds doing it. He rather get groceries than clean a bathroom

His mom still gives him the money and lets him keep the change, but he doesn't keep it anymore. He gives everything back and when she won't accept it, he'll just dump it back into her wallet without her knowing. And from time to time, he'll use the money he makes at DopeSketch to pay for groceries, in hopes of giving his mom a break from expenses.

However, he still buys sweets whenever he's at the grocery store. The only difference is that he doesn't buy them for himself anymore; he buys them for his sisters. At first, when he was 13-14, he would share what he got with Koyomi. Then he started buying sweets for the twins because they always seemed so excited when he came home with a bag of sweet treats.

As Koyomi got older, he'd tease her by telling her to get her own sweets, that he shouldn't have to buy her anything. So she stopped asking him to get her things at the store because he always said no. (He'd say no, but he still got her whatever she wanted unless she was particularly mean to him. That was his little revenge - not giving her anything while Chihiro and Nanaka bounce with their treats - but then he'd feel bad and go out to get her something. And after everyone's gone to bed and it's just the two older Kyan siblings awake in their rooms, he'd poke his head into her room and give it to her. She pretends to be mad at him, taking whatever he's handing her, mumbling out a thanks, but he knows she's grateful and that she loves any strawberry sweets he gets her. Reki knows it's just because she's a teenager and it's not cool to love your brother)

When Reki is out and he comes across things he thinks his sisters might like, he doesn't hesitate to buy it if it's a reasonable price. It's often little things, like a funny pen he thinks Koyomi might like. A cute toy Nanaka had been looking at when everyone was out together. A replacement dress for the one Chihiro ripped while playing outside. Reki never minds spending his money on his family because he loves them. He never minds spending money on the people he loves.

The only person he doesn't put a price range on is his mother. If he sees something she might like and he can afford it, he will buy it for her. Because she buys him so many things. She takes care of him. She's his mom and he just loves her so much.

Reki is the best at dress-up and tea parties. Every Saturday afternoon he'll have a princess tea party with the twins (sometimes Koyomi will play along too if she's feeling up to it or the twins pester her enough).

Obviously, he's the prince that all the princesses love. He even puts on the crown that the twins made him out of construction paper and a ton of stickers. Or at least he's the prince until Langa plays once with them and suddenly Langa is the prince that all the princesses love

R: "What do you mean only Langa can be a prince?? What am I then?" N/C: "Reki is a princess too!" R: "Do I look like a princess to you?" L: "you can be my princess"

So Reki is stuck being a princess from that moment on and he absolutely hates the smug look on Langa's face, especially when he reminds him that he's supposed to be head over heels for the prince (Langa is living for this because 1) teasing Reki, 2) Reki has to pretend to be in love with him. If only it could be real and not just a game)

Langa is super awkward with the twins, he doesn't really know how to play princess tea party, but he quickly learns that teasing Reki, calling him a beautiful princess makes the twins giggle, so he just does that because it's easy. It's very easy to tease Reki and Reki can't do anything about it, he can't kick Langa to get him to stop because that would be setting a bad example. So he just has to endure the torture that is having his best friend dressed up like the prettiest prince he's ever seen, upgraded to an actual plastic crown (which, admittedly, Reki bought for the twins), and """pretend""" to be head over heels in love with him. Because the twins find that hilarious. They find it absolutely hilarious and have planned out a whole royal wedding for the two, inspired by their favorite princess show.

Koyomi definitely helps the twins plan the wedding because she sees how Reki looks at Langa. And she also sees how Langa looks at Reki. And she will never let them live it down, constantly reminding them of their beautiful wedding over tea, especially after they get together.

Langa Bonus:

It doesn't take long for Langa to be known as the trash can at the Kyan house, aka he will finish everyone's plate

At first he held back, not wanting to eat absolutely everything, but that didn't last very long, not with Mrs. Kyan always pushing food his way. So it's not long that he's collecting bowls and plates, finishing off whatever isn't eaten. He honestly will eat after anyone as long as they arent sick and even then, it's the worth the gamble. (Ok, maybe only if it's Reki. He'll eat after Reki no matter what, even if he has the sniffles and is literally fighting Langa to keep him away because "Dude! No! You're going to get sick if you eat after me! It's bad enough that I have a cold!")

There will be no waste around Langa. All food will be eaten and enjoyed.

However, Langa won't explicitly ask if the plate is done. If someone isn't paying attention to their food and he wants something, he will pick off their plate (except the adults because respect and all that. but Langa will pick off of both Reki and Koyomi's plate. The twins is eeehhh, he'll let the kids eat.) So that piece of meat that Reki was going to eat but got to heated in an argument with Koyomi? It's gone when he wants to eat it. Those vegetables Koyomi was pushing around her plate because she didn't want them? Langa solved that problem.

Langa will eat anything and won't stop until the table is completely cleared.

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silverynight · 3 years

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Big brother

Reki doesn't admit it out loud, but he loves to take care of his sisters. Koyomi is usually locked up in her room and claims she doesn't need him to babysit her so he usually ends up watching over the twins alone when their mother is away.

This time though he's asked her permission to take the little girls to the park to teach them how to skateboard.

Langa is with them; it's not a surprise, he's always with Reki. Sometimes he wonders why he spends so much time with him instead of a cute omega girl. He's a very popular alpha and has been invited to several parties, but doesn't seem interested in them for some reason.

Even though Reki is the only omega in his house (well, at the moment, they don't know about the twins yet, they're too young for that) he likes it.

When they get to the park Reki leaves Nanaka and Chihiro on the ground carefully. He sits next to them and starts putting them the helmets, knees and elbow pads. He's so focused on the task and their excitement he doesn't notice Langa has been staring at him the whole time.

Well... At least until he speaks.

"You look good with kids," he blurts out, prompting Reki to quirk up a brow at him. Langa's scent becomes more intense suddenly, almost protective, and he blushes when their eyes meet. "Would you like to have your own... someday?"

"Of course!" Reki beams at him before turning around at the twins that are constantly demanding his attention. "At least two."

"I-I'd like that too, you know?" Langa mumbles before handing him one of the boards he's been carrying.

"I'm sure you'll soon find a nice omega for you," Reki says absentmindedly, after explaining to the girls how to stand on the board. He helps one at a time, holding them firmly when they get on the board.

Chihiro chuckles and her sister pouts, already making grabby hands at him. Reki smiles at her fondly.

"Be patient, Nanaka. It'll be your turn soon enough."

"I think I-I have already found someone."

Even though he's still watching his sisters, Reki hears Langa clear enough and feels suddenly, inevitably sad, however, he wants to show his friend he supports him so he turns around and grins at him.

"That's great! What's her name?"

"Her?"

"Slime!" Miya stops right in front of Reki, prompting the twins to squeal in excitement, looking up at the cat ears over the teen's hoodie.

"Hi!" They both say at the same time to which Miya just frowns in response.

Reki suddenly remembers that the young alpha is an only child so he's not that surprised by his reaction.

"Who are they? Langa and you have pups already?"

The older alpha groans like he's in pain, covering his face with one hand. Is it really the thought of having pups with Reki so disgusting to Langa?

"They're my sisters! Chihiro and Nanaka!"

At that, the young alpha looks at him like he's been betrayed.

"You didn't say you had siblings!" Miya hisses, looking almost hurt.

"I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it a couple of times," Reki says, confused.

"You didn't," Miya insists, still upset.

"What is it, Miya?" Reki reaches out and strokes that black hair of his, for a moment the alpha leans into the touch, but he quickly moves away.

"Nothing. Anyway, I hope you pay attention because I'm about to do a few tricks. You need to learn a lot."

"Alright, but be careful because my sisters are here."

The girls seem to be really impressed with Miya, they think he's flying in the air and would like to do something like that too; Reki has to remind them they're not ready for that yet.

Langa is watching over the three of them; he's constantly asking Reki if he needs help and preventing the little girls from falling right on time.

Nanako manages to stay still enough for Reki to move her along with the board. When she giggles, delighted, Reki takes her in his arms and gives her a kiss on her little forehead. When Chihiro starts pouting, he leans to give her a kiss as well.

Finally, he notices they're not alone anymore, a group of people are looking in their direction. Langa looks particularly tense.

"Your fans are here, Miya," he says, grinning. "Well, maybe they're Snow fans too."

"They're looking at you," Miya replies, irritated. "You're acting like a perfect omega mommy again."

"What?" Reki blurts out, at the same time his brain goes: 'again?' What is he talking about?

"Are those your sisters?" A pretty girl asks, staring at him with a huge smile. She smells like a beta.

"Yes!" Reki nods. He introduces them quickly, making the girl's eyes glimmer.

"You're such a good big brother," she comments, leaning closer to him. "Can I have your num–"

A growl cuts her off suddenly; it takes Reki a while to realize that it has come from Langa.

"Are you alright?" He asks the alpha who looks a little bit embarrassed out of the sudden.

As he nods, still eyeing the girl, she decides to run away from them.

Reki would like to point out that's not a good way to get a girlfriend, but chooses to keep teaching his sisters the basics.

"Such a pretty omega," an alpha boy comments. Honestly, Reki just assumes he's talking to someone else and doesn't look up until the boy is just a few feet away from him. "You do seem to know how to take care of pups."

"Uh... Thank you?" He's not sure where the conversation is going or why he and the other people around appear to be interested in him.

Before the boy can say something else though, Langa has already walked in between them and is glaring at the other alpha like he wants him to disappear.

They stare right at each other until the other alpha nods and walks away. It's really weird.

"Reki, let's get out of here before Langa kills someone," Miya says, trying not to look worried, however, it's easy to smell the concern in his scent.

Noticing the tension on Langa's shoulders, Reki nods, rises quickly and takes both girls in his arms.

"Let's go, Langa."

The alpha doesn't hesitate, he takes the boards and follows Reki with a smile on his face.

"You're acting like a puppy," Miya tells the other alpha, rolling his eyes, but he follows them as well anyway.

"I'll see you at school, cutie!" A girl tells him, waving a hand at Reki. "I'll help you babysit your adorable sisters whenever you want!"

"Thanks!" He says, although Miya grabs him by the sweatshirt and pulls hard so he keeps moving.

Langa looks like he's going to get sick.

When they get home, Reki gives the girls a bath, puts them clean clothes, makes sure to feed them and finally takes them to their room when they fall asleep.

He doesn't realize that Miya and Langa are having a discussion in the living room.

"What was that all about, Langa? Are you alright?" He asks, sitting on the couch when he comes back. The two alphas sit right next to him at each side.

"I'm... fine."

"He was being a stupid jealous alpha," Miya informs him, prompting Langa to blush to the tip of his ears. "He doesn't like when other people hit on you."

"They weren't hitting on me," Reki protests, feeling his cheeks burning, his blush is probably matching Langa's now. "But I don't understand... what about the omega girl?"

"Reki, there is no omega girl or anybody else for that matter," Langa mumbles, taking both of the redhead's hand in his. "I just want you."

"Oh," he whispers feeling like he's been purposely blind all this time. "I... like you too."

"Would you let me scent you, please?"

Reki has started to realize that Langa is a very possessive alpha, but he kinda likes it. He nods, ignoring Miya's protests or the way he covers his eyes and enjoys when Langa nuzzles his neck.

He kisses him on the lips afterwards, but Reki can't lose himself in the sensation because Miya is already making puking sounds.

"Later," he promises Langa who's eyes darken at the thought.

"You two are disgusting," Miya grimaces.

"Miya is jealous of your sisters," Langa says in revenge.

"What? That's not true!" The young alpha hisses, turning completely red.

Reki is about to ask why, but then all those memories of Miya demanding his attention come back to him at once.

"It's alright," he says, running his fingers through the boy's black hair. "The fact that I have sisters doesn't mean I don't consider you my brother as well."

Miya tries to deny it, but something in him breaks and he jumps into the omega's arms.

"Really?"

"Yes, I consider you part of my family."

Langa embraces both of them, purring happily as he keeps nuzzling Reki on the back of his neck.

"You already scented me," he points out, amused.

"They all need to know you're mine."

Miya protests, but keeps his arms around the omega's waist.

***

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#renga #reki kyan #langa hasegawa #miya chinen #sk8 #sk8 the infinity #omegaverse #omega reki #alpha langa #alpha miya

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pandaponderart · 3 years

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Underrated Anime Part 1:

Hello my fellow Weebs, I’m back for some more Anime blogging, this time to talk about so not so well known ones. Some that have got forgotten with time, some that new Anime fans have maybe never heard of and the ones that I feel deserve more love and recognition. I’ve been watching Anime for about 13 years so I’ve seen a lot so this will be in at least 3 parts, so hopefully you like this and look forward to more. Til then enjoy, hope you can find some new anime you’ve never heard of thanks for reading and look forward to part 2!.

1. Azumanga Daioh(2002)

Starting off with an older Anime, and one of the best and earlier comedy, slice of life Anime that paved the way for a lot of other Anime in the same genre like Nichijou and Daily Lives of High School Boys. Off the wall and highly unrealistic, this comedy is completely over the top in the best way possible. it’s old but gold and should be crowned as one of the best comedy Anime to exist.

With the most lovable cast, you have Chiyo the 5th grader who is so crazy smart she gets placed in a high school class, then there’s Osaka, who’a real name is Ayumu Kasuga who’s named that because she‘s from Osaka. Osaka isn’t the smartest and neither is her other classmate Tomo Takino who will do anything to avoid studying. Then to balance out the cast is Koyomi Mizuhara aka Yomi, the smart one who keeps everyone in line and Kagura the sporty one. Then of course can’t forget to mention the teachers Yukari Sensei who is anything but the normal responsible teacher and to balance her out Minamo Sensei the responsible one. There’s no real plot with Azumanga Daioh but there’s not meant to be it’s just an over the top comedy slice of life, with moments that will make you laugh from your gut. It’s all about the characters and the ridiculous situations their put in and each one is a lovable idiot that really drives the show. Give this one a shot if you want a show that will put a big smile on your face the whole way through.

2. Eden of The East (2009)

Another older Anime, not everything on this list will be older Anime but there’s so many good ones like this!. Eden of The East is an action, mystery with elements of romance with one of the most unique stories I’ve seen in Anime. It’s a short watch being only eleven episodes with two movies following after which I recommend watching because they continue the story. I’m really surprised not more people know or talk about this show but it need to be talked about more!.

With one of the funniest and most bizarre starts to an Anime, our lead charcter Saki is on a trip to Washington D.C, when she gets in trouble for throwing a coin in the White House’s fountain she’s saved by a naked man who claims to be a terrorist. Not only is this mysterious man naked and claims to be a terrorist, he also has amnesia and is carrying a phone with 8.2 million dollars. Saki befriends this strange man and throughout the story they try to uncover more of his past, his involvment in an incident called careless monday and a dangerous death game with other players. They must also spend all of the money as instucted by the mysterious voice in the phone Juiz as well as try to save the world.

3. R.O.D The TV( 2003)

Ok I know I said this list wouldn’t only be older Anime but I guess the older Anime just has my heart and this one has a special place in mine. One of my all time favorites and one of the earliest Anime I saw and it still holds up to me til this day. It is hands down probably the most underrated show on this entire list and if you only watch one of these Anime please make it this one. The story is completely original, the characters are complex and endearing, there’s action, heartwarming moments, comedy and mystery, I wish there was more Anime like it, it deserves to be a classic.

It‘s a one of a kind show about the paper sisters Michelle, the oldest bubbly bookworm, Maggie the seemingly intimidating quiet giant. Then you have the youngest sister Anita who unlike her sisters hates books, she’s a bit rough around the edges but loves her sisters. Although they aren’t actually sisters they have a detective agency to help find lost books to help pay for rent while also doing odd jobs like being body guards. Their first assignment is to protect the author, Nenene Sumiragawa who is being threatened to be killed at her book signing. The paper sisters aren’t called that just because of their love of books, they can turn paper into weapons and whatever else they please, but each having their speciality. Nenene finds out they‘re paper sisters just like her friend who ‘s missing, Yomiko Readman and asks them for help finding her. They try to help Nenene find her friend, while solving other cases and saving the world with the power of paper.

4. Baccano(2007)

Probably the most well known but also I think one of the most under appreciated Anime, from Durarara’s creator, Baccano. I feel like most newer Anime fans won’t know this one and although it’s a beloved series by many, I still feel it’s underrated. Also another bias opinion shocker, it’s one of my absolute favorites but that’s why it’s here. It’s once again a shorter anime with only 13 episodes but it somehow manages to combine all of the storylines cohesively, it’s a wild ride full of mystery, murder, and magic that will keep you on board the entire time trying to piece everything together. Also warning it jumps around a lot so make sure to pay attention everything pieces together!.

Based in the 1930’s in the prohibition era you have several stories involving different characters going on but they‘re all connected to one thing the transcontinental train, the flying pussyfoot. Yes that’s actually the name of the train, why, still no idea but all these characters from different walks of life end up here somehow. Now to introduce some of these crazy characters, first off the goofy thieves in love Isaac and Miria, who aren’t the brightest but can steal just about anything. Lad Russo the sadistic hit man who loves to see people die, including fantasizing about killing his fiancé one day. Then you have the ones involved in gangs, all In different ones, but nonetheless involved in some sort of crime. First there’s Firo, the youngest of the Martello family and one of the immortals in the show, then there’s Jacuzzi Splot and his partner Nice, Jacuzzi is a big wimp and crybaby but will protect his loved ones with all he’s got and Nice is a bomb expert and his childhood food. Those are some of the main characters it’s such a large cast it’s hard to name and explain them all. This one is a must watch especially if you liked Durarara, jump on the hype train of this wild show.

5. Black Cat (2005)

Now quick disclaimer before I begin talking about this one, I haven’t watched this in years so it may not hold up as well as I’m remembering but when I watched it I really enjoyed it so that’s why it’s here. This was one of the earlier Anime I watched I’m pretty sure my friend showed me it but it caught my interest from the beginning. It’s not the most groundbreaking show to exist and I’ve heard that the manga is apparently better but that’s for almost every show. It’s got cool action, funny moments and a great cast of characters, plus not gonna lie I had a crush on train when I was younger. its just a fun show and definitely worth giving a watch!

Train Heartnett is an infamous cold blooded assassin who works for the organization Chronos, and because of his lack of empathy for killing he’s named Black Cat. But after a chance encounter with a bou hunter named Saya Minatsuki, they become friends and Train decided he wants to leave Chronos to pursue an honest living as a bounty Hunter. However chronos and particular his fellow member Creed Diskenth are not pleased with this and try to get Train to rejoin Chronos. Along the way Train teams up with fellow bounty hunter on the brink of broke Sven, the bio mech weapon and little girl Eve and master thief and seductress Rinslet Walker. Together they try to escape from Chronos and get enough money for their next .

6. Arakawa Under The Bridge(2010)

Where do I begin with this one first off, this is one of the weirdest Anime I’ve ever seen but just like Azumanga Daioh that’s what make it so good. Beautifully animated by Studio Shaft with some of the most colorful and visually appealing animation I’ve seen, it’s pure eye candy. it’s equally as strange as it is hilarious and it’s just a fun time that’s not meant to be taken seriously. So if you want a good laugh and something thats truly one of a kind in story and characters give this crazy show a shot.

The show begins with one of our main characters Kou Ichinomiya getting stuck by his underwear on a bridge by some kids, he falls into the river and is saved by a mysterious girl. Kou is the son of a wealthy businessman and his life motto is to not be indebted to anyone, so when he’s saved by this girl he asks what he can do. He finds out that her name is Nino and what she wants is to fall in love, so she asks Kou to be her boyfriend. At first Nino seems like a regular girl but she claims to be an alien from Venus and lives in a box under the bridge, not wanting to be in debt Kou agrees and begins living under the bridge with Nino. However Nino isn’t the only one who lives under the bridge there are many other strange characters like hoshi, the aspiring musician who wears a star on his head, and the captain who’s a human in a kappa suit. I highly suggest watching this strange sci-fi romantic comedy for something different and fun to watch.

7. 91 Days (2016)

The newest Anime on this list so far, see I told you it wouldn’t be only old ones!, this is also the darkest Anime on this list so far. This has been highly overlooked since it’s release in 2016, it reminds me of baccano and in parts like death note. If you like mafia movies or just a dark gritty story with some light hearted moments, it s short show but nothing is rushed and it’s solid from front to back and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Just like Baccano, 91 Days takes place in the prohibition era in a town called Lawless where crime is rampant and illegal alcohol sales are thriving. In this town our protagonist Aviicio‘s family is killed by one of the mafia families, The Vanetti Family. He receives a mysterious anonymous letter telling him to return to lawless to infiltrate The Vanetti Family. He tries to befriend the families son Nero, to find an opportunity for revenge, the story keep you constantly guessing if they’ve truly become friends or if he’ll kill him. Please watch this wonderful mafia crime drama of friend vs foe.

8. Yamada Kun and The Seven Witches (2015)

This is one of the ones that I still really want to read the manga for because I just couldn’t get enough of it! i’m still hoping for a sequel one day! The premise of body swapping has been done many times in Anime and cinema as a whole but this one adds a unique enough of a twist to keep it fresh and interesting. I looked forward to watching this weekly each week meeting a learning about each new witch and learning what power they had.

Ryuu Yamada is a high school delinquent who wants a fresh start at a new school, despite the intention to start with a clean slate he soon falls into old habits of laziness and getting into fights. One day he trips on the stairs which leads to an accidental kiss with fellow student Urarara Shiraishi which causes them to switch bodies. Another student Toranosuke Miyamura learns that they can switch bodies and recruits them to his Supernatural Studies club. There they learn about the other seven witches that all have different powers

9. Arslan Senki (2015-2016)

The second to last of the list comes from the creator of my all time favorite Anime Fullmetal Alchemist, while it’s a very different series and not quite as good as FMA it’s still deserves a spot on this list and deserves your time. It’s hard not to compare it to FMA but it really is it’s own thing, and it actually came out before Fullmetal, it’s a historical drama about war and strategy and a character growing into his potential. Just as Hiromu Arakawa is known for there’s still some comedic moments and some great character development and a well done story, Plus if you like this there’s two seasons so there more to enjoy.

Ok I promise from this point forward I won‘t say anything more about Fullmetal Alchemist this is about Arslan Senki, here’s the story. In the year 320 the Kingdom of Pars is at war with the neighboring kingdom Lusitania. Pars is ruled by the ruthless king Andrangoras III who has a son who’s the complete opposite of him Arslan. Although he doesn’t know how to fight Arslan tries to prove his worth by joining the battle, but things take a turn for the worst when one of the kings officials betrays him. The once prosperous Kingdom of Pars is seized, and since Arslan is the kings son he must flee to avoid capture. So he sets off with his loyal bodyguard Daryun to find allies to help take back the kingdom. Knowing that Arslan is still alive he is still faced with pursuers from other kingdoms and the head of the Lusitania army, a mysterious man with a silver mask who knows a secret that could jeopardize Arslan‘s succession to the throne. Arslan is a gentle, kind person that doesn’t enjoy fighting, he must learn to fight and protect himself and gain the courage to lead an army to regain his home.

10. Shingeki No Bahamut: Genesis (Rage of Bahamut) (2014)

Leaving one of the best for last, not to be confused with the popular series with a similar name Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan) this show is just as good. One of the first shows from one of my favorite Anime studios, Studio Mappa. I had low expectations when I heard this was a card game adaptation from a new anime studio but I decided to check it out despite that and it was the best decision. This has all the elements of a great anime, the beautiful animation, the unique characters and the compelling story and all the cool action scenes are just a plus. There is a second season too but I’ll leave that for another time, ok time to stop gushing about this wonderful show, time for the story!.

Years and years ago the ancient powerful dragon Bahamut reeked havoc on Mistarcia, a land where gods and demons lived harmoniously with humans. The gods and demons manage to seal away Bahamut with the god key and agree to split it to keep him sealed. Now that the the peace has been restored we meet the main characters and one of my favorites the orange Afro haired bounty hunters Favaro Leone. Favaro is constantly on the run from his adversary and fellow bounty hunter Kaiser Lidfard who‘s main purpose in life is to get revenge on him. One day both of their lives are thrown into chaos when they meet the mysterious girl Amira who holds half of the god key sealing Bahamut and wants help reaching the land of Helheim. I also can’t forget to mention my other favorite character and the fourth member of this unlikely crew Rita the zombie necromancer little girl she is just the definition of cool. Then there’s the characters that want to steal the god key the demon Azazel and the knight Jean D’Arc who are constantly in the characters way but you’ll find out more about them in the show. These unlikely heroes must face the threat of the battle of gods and demons, the pursuers of the god key and incoming threat of Bahamut awakening.

#anime #anime gif #anime blog #blog #art blog #blog post #new blog #azumanga daioh #manga #baccano #91 days #eden of the east #arakawa under the bridge #black cat #yamada kun to 7 nin no majo #R.O.D the tv #r.o.d #digital art

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klaptl · 2 years

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KLAP Translation: Part 3 (Touma)

Touma Rampage

Koyomi: "*sigh*..."

(Staring at the ground while walking isn't gonna help me find the answer though...)

Koyomi: "――Oof."

Hoodlum Student A: "Ouch!"

At the loud voice, I looked up to a student who just radiated "I'm trouble".

Koyomi: "Sorry I wasn't paying attention――"

Hoodlum Student A: “...Tch! You lousy human, what are you doing strutting in the middle of the street! Why don't you go cry in a corner or something?!"

Hoodlum Student B: "Humans sure are an eyesore..."

Koyomi: "......"

Koyomi: (...If these kids were to go into a Rampage――)

Suddenly, the image of that underground dungeon came to mind.

Hoodlum Student C: "...Huh? This thing looks like they're thinking about something?"

Hoodlum Student A: "Huuuuh? You got some nerve thinking of something before me."

Koyomi: "Wah...?! H-Hey! Let go of me!"

Hoodlum Student A: "You bump into me then order me around without even apologizing, huh."

Hoodlum Student A: "But, I'll be generous. If you calmly give me what I ask for, I just might forgive ya."

???: "Let her go, bonehead."

Hoodlum Student A: "Agaaahhhh?!"

Koyomi: "Touma-kun...?!"

The person that held a grasp of me was blown away flying, and the other hoodlums recoiled.

Hoodlum Student B: "Wha... What was that for?!"

Touma: "...ut up.

Next time I see you guys pick a fight with her, your days will be numbered."

Hoodlum Student A: "Mimasaka of the Tengu clan...?! Despite being a UMA, he's watching a human's back...!"

Touma: "Shut your yap, underdog-kun. Or what else?

Do ya want me to put you in a more miserable state?"

Hoodlum Student A: "D...Dammit! I'll get you for this...!!"

After the exchange, the group of UMA hoodlums quickly scattered.

Koyomi: "......"

Touma: "......"

Koyomi: "Uh, Touma-kun. ...Thanks."

Touma: "...Wasn't any big deal. But, you tooー I don't know what you keep dawdling about, but watch where you're walking."

Koyomi: "Yeah..."

Touma: "......"

Touma: "You seem awfully gloomy. Did...something happen?"

OPTIONS

> The lives of UMA must be difficult.

> I can't muster any confidence.

> This world is just too different...

OPTION: The lives of UMA must be difficult.

Koyomi: "For UMA their... lives must be difficult."

Touma: "Huuhhh? What are you talking about?"

Touma: "Also, don't go around and decide how others' lives are. That's just terrible manners."

Koyomi: "S-Sorry...! I wasn't trying to say it like that..."

> OPTION: I can't muster any confidence.

Koyomi: "Yeah… I just kinda lost my confidence there."

Koyomi: "I was just wondering if I am really cut out to be a trainer here at Yomi School...is all."

Touma: "......"

Touma: "...Does that really matter if you aren't confident?"

Touma: "In the first place, aren't you still new? Anyone just brimming with confidence is annoying."

Koyomi: "Touma-kun..."

> OPTION: This world is just too different...

Koyomi: "What may be commonplace in Aima does not apply to the world I am from… Moving forward, I just feel a bit anxious."

Touma: "Huuuuh...? That's what it's about?"

Touma: "But you don't need to be so flustered about it. Everyone here knows you're from the human realm..."

Touma: "You don't have to be so worried about all that."

Koyomi: "You...sure?"

Touma: "*sigh* I don't wanna pry into it but… Can I guess why you're so bummed out?"

Koyomi: "Huh...?"

Touma: "It's 'cause you saw Ryou's Rampage right? Then you got freaked out. 'I can't do this. I'm no good'... You were thinking that right?"

Touma-kun looked straight at me for an answer, and I slowly replied with a nod.

Koyomi: "...Yeah, you're right."

Touma: "Wah! So stupidーYou don't need to be so hung up about it."

Koyomi: "...! B-But I..."

Touma: "No, it's stupid."

Touma: "Just like how humans can't fly or live for hundreds of years, we have our own conditions, when met, that causes Rampage..."

Touma: "That's all it is, isn't it?"

Touma: "You may not like this reality, but our abilities have nothing to do with what's impossible and what isn't. That's just what we are as 'UMA'."

Koyomi: "......"

Touma: "...A-Ahhh... So what I'm saying is, it's not worth your time overthinking it all, you just gotta do what you can sometimes."

Koyomi: "...Touma-kun are you――"

Touma: "...Huh?"

Koyomi: "Touma-kun, are you not scared? If you were to go into a Rampage yourself."

Touma: "......"

Touma: "...When that time comes, I'm prepared for the worst. I'm a full-fledged member of the Tengu clan."

Touma: "But, it won't change anything if I get freaked out. Because, even if that time comes, I'll fight until the end to maintain myself."

Touma: "If I end up being taken care of by someone else while in Rampage, I'd rather just die."

Touma: "...Besides, you still haven't done any 'training' yourself, right? Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Touma: "By some chance, you might be able to do it well, right?"

Koyomi: "...Yeah, that might be the case."

Touma: "To begin with, there's something I still need to do. If I ever Rampage, I'll beat it with my fighting spirit!"

Koyomi: "F-Fighting spirit..."

I thought that might be a bit of a stretch...

As I saw Touma-kun stick out his chest with dignity, he brimmed with confidence and appeared to be beaming――

If he were to erupt into a Rampage, his fighting spirit is so strong he might actually succeed.

Touma: "*sigh*... I went off and rambled there."

Touma: "Anyway, start acting more like an actual teacher and put on an air like one!"

Koyomi: "Ow ow ow!"

He patted my back hard, and I nearly lost my balance.

Touma: "Haha. I wasn't even hitting you that hard, don't make it such a big ...deal...?"

Koyomi: "...Touma-kun?"

Touma: "Huuuh...?! What...is this...?! My body's...!"

Touma-kun, who was lively just a moment before, suddenly crouched down and started to breathe heavily.

Koyomi: "Wha...What's wrong?! Is it an injury from the quarrel earlier or――！"

While I asked, I peeked towards his face and noticed them.

Koyomi: (His eyes are red――！Don't tell me, Rampage...?!)

Touma: "Guh...Gah...! Damn, what is...this...?!"

A strong wind surged around him. Just like Ryou-kun's Rampage, it was a strange wind which held a force I couldn't see.

Koyomi: "......!"

Even though I was in a state of shock, I instinctively grabbed my training whip. But...!

Koyomi: "I can't do this by myself...!"

Suddenly――

Koyomi: "That's right, the training room...! If I can go there...!"

Touma: "Gwah...Ah...Gaaaaaahh..!!"

During that time, Touma-kun's groans grew more intense, and I held him up in a panic.

Koyomi: "T-Touma-kun...! Just a bit more...! Just hold on a bit more...!"

Let's hurry to the training room, then――

Koyomi: "Touma-kun, I'm sorry...!"

Somehow I was able to prop him up and firmly shackle both his arms to suppress him.

Touma: "Haaa... Haaaa...! This might be turning pretty serious...!"

He seems to be in pain, but he has a sort of captivated look on him.

Koyomi: (I'm the only one here who can save him!)

If I can't help him, what'll be waiting for him is a future of decades in that underground dungeon.

If I don't save him...!

Koyomi: "Just wait, Touma-kun...! I'll save you――!"

[Excluded is mini-whip game]

[Good whip score]

Somehow, after completing my first training, we were both left heavily panting.

Koyomi: "*pant*...*pant*... S-Somehow we were able to suppress the rampage..."

Touma: "*pant*...*pant*... Yeah, somehow..."

I wonder if he feels numb from the restraints? Touma-kun rubbed at his wrists and quietly stood up.

For a while he watched my reaction and looked a bit guilty, then…

Finally he made up his mind, and turned towards me.

Touma: "At any rate, you saved me. Do you...have time after this? I'd like to thank you somehow."

Koyomi: "Eh, I don't need any sort of thanks...! I just did what I could do to help, it's not something you need to worry about..."

Touma: "That applies to me too. I want to help you out for my own sake. So there isn't anything you should worry about."

Touma: "...Again, do you have time?"

He spoke with conviction, and I nodded back, slightly taken aback.

Koyomi: "Y-Yeah... I have time."

Touma: "Then it's decided."

We headed towards a family restaurant located on the main street of Tokoyo Town. I knew it was here, but today is the first time I've been inside.

Koyomi: (It seems like a typical family restaurant...?)

While restlessly looking around, Touma-kun returned from grabbing drinks.

Touma: "Here, Iced tea."

Koyomi: "Thank you. ...So they have family restaurants here too."

Touma: "I hear they serve a variety of food in the human realm here. Are the menus similar too?"

Koyomi: "N-No... I think the menus really different..."

This month's recommendations!

A full course of Panaeolous, Japanese-style pasta:

Fall down holding your stomach, breathing trouble guaranteed! I stared at the words on the poster as I gave my answer. Would I really be okay if I drank this iced tea...?

As I was feeling a bit shaken over it, Touma-kun shyly grumpled out his words.

Touma: "...So, ya know. You really helped me out earlier...thanks."

Touma: "If I had stayed in that Rampage long enough to wipe out my consciousness, I would've been sent to that underground dungeon――that's no joke."

Touma: "So this is to convey my gratitude. Drink as much as you want!"

Koyomi: (Even if he says to drink as much as I like, the restaurant is drink-bar style so it's a free for all either way...)

Well, although I had my doubts, I thanked him for his kindness for the time being.

That day, Touma-kun's impression seemed different than before, like he's become more comfortable――

It wasn't long until we both went to head home, but in that short time, it felt like the distance we had between each other had narrowed.

Koyomi: (Even though I'm unskilled as a teacher and as a trainer… There's still something I can do for these kids...)

I was glad to discover that fact, and smiled to myself as I returned to the streets, dyed sepia in the sunset.

The Next Day.

I reported back to work to the school, and met with Nurarihyon-sensei in the staff room.

Nurarihyon: "Oh, it's you. What is it?"

Koyomi: "Until yesterday, I was asking myself if I could really continue being a trainer at this school but――"

Nurarihyon: "Ah yes, I remember. From your expression...did you find your answer?"

Koyomi: "Yes. I will try my best at this school...!"

It was a small resolution, but a big first step. I have made my first steps forward.

[Bad whip score]

Somehow, after completing my first training, we were both left heavily panting.

Koyomi: "Did...the Rampage somehow calm down?"

Touma: "In exchange, my body's all messed up though."

I finally released Touma-kun from his chains, and was met with a face of complete displeasure.

Koyomi: "I'm sorry... I couldn't do it that well..."

Touma: "Hm... Well, the Rampage subsided at the end... So I guess I should be more or less grateful, thanks."

Koyomi: "Touma-kun..."

What I wanted to be was a teacher, not a trainer...

These encounters are in an unknown world to humans, known as Aima Prefecture.

Principal Nurariyon.

Shion-sensei.

Everyone in class. There was still much I did not understand, and some things I may NEVER understand. However——

Koyomi: (I will try to do all I can here...)

I thought about that as I saw him standing in front of me.

#klap #klap translation #translation #japanese translation #otome #otoge #otome translations #otome translation #kindless love and punishment

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toku-explained · 3 years

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The Master Swordsman's Goal

SSSS.Dynazenon: And from their own perspective, here's Anti, now going by Knight, and Anosillus the 2nd, both have clearly aged. This is evidently not Akane's world, but another one they've come to protect due to Kaiju emerging endangering it. GridKnight attacks Bullbind, after using a GridKnight Storm the Eugenecists opt to retreat, and then he turns his attention to DynaRex, before powering down when he hits his limit. Dynazenon is pretty beat up, and Koyomi suddenly rushes off. The rest split off to seek Bullbind, Gauma regretful for letting it get damaged. Anosillus tells Knight to watch for now. The Eugenecists don't know what to do, Mujina is still different. Koyomi stops at a wrecked car he spotted, where Arata is injured, and decides to leave him, but remembers words with Inamoto-san when they reunited, and realises he has to help him. Gauma drags Yomogi and Yume for food, Onija iterates to Mujina that there work is to destroy humanity, not satisfy grudges. Chise finds the others, they agree to wait together in case Bullbind appears. Koyomi finally arrives in a dark mood when Knight and Anosillus appear, Knight berating them for their poor battle earlier. They go by the GridKnight Alliance now. Knight explains who he is, and acknowledges Dynazenon isn't a Kaiju, Gauma immediately refuses an offer of alliance, he and Knight rub each other the wrong way. Between themselves, Knight and Anosillus refer to Dynazenon and others as like a world's antibodies against Kaiju. Koyomi explains to Gauma that he went to save someone he thinks he hates, Gauma commends him though and offers wisdom from the person he's seeking, Chise listens in uneasy. When Yomogi asks about Yume's toy she opens up more about how distant her relationship with Kano had been, and she has no idea if Kano did kill herself, and if she did why she smilingly asked her tobthe recital, Yomogi winds up crying and insists they keep trying to find the answer, and she seems to sincerely smile. Chise's seed seems to be sprouting. After a long night of Mujina and Onija powering it up, Bullbind rides. Dynazenon battles, struggling with the damaged leg. Knight joins the battle, with a reprise of humanlove. Anosilus uses their one Fixer Beam to repair Dynazenon. It's a proper team up to defeat the enemy, but both sides seem surprisingly optimistic in the end. The GridKnight Alliance head off, Yomogi and Yume head off to school, and Koyomi gets a grateful phonecall from Inamoto-san before just sitting with Chise. Yume' next step is to find Futaba.

Heroes' Odyssey: Z continues the story, describing Sevengar, Windom and King Joe STORAGE Custom battling Destrudos, Haruki saving Yoko, and Z, Haruki and Beliarok battling Destrudos. Afterwards, Zero acknowledges Z as an Ultraman, and they part ways.

Saber: When Touma hugs Luna for a moment all his books, and Wonder Story glow. For a moment the 3 friends are all children again, but Kento returns to his fatalistic attitude just in time for Sabela to grab Luna. He knows where it will end. Ryoga is still unhappy about unsealing Bacht, but Master Logos does point out he needs Kyomu and Eternal Phoenix. Touma awakens after a night haunted by Kento's words. Rintaro, Ogami and Daishinji arrive where the Worlds connected twice before, Master Logos, the Shindais and Luna then appear. On a table they have Genbu Shunwa, Hanselnuts to Gretel, King of Arthur, Lamp do Alangina, Kin no Buki Gin no Buki and X Swordman, and a tree contains Gekido, Ikazuchi, Suzune and Saikou. Blades Tategami Hyoujuu Senki faces Durandal, while Storious arrives to watch. Touma leaves Mei and Sophia behind. Desast senses what's happening and informs Ren. Sabela takes Ogami and Daishinji hostage, which lets Durandal beat Rintaro, Nagare flies to the tree and Lion Senki and Tategami Hyoujuu Senki to Master Logos' table, he groats. Kento arrives, telling him his ambitions will fail, and uses Jaou Dragon, seals all the Seiken in the tree. Bacht arrives, swiftly defeating Durandal and Sabela, Master Logos casually places Ocean History and Konchu Daihyakka as Kaiji and Noroshi fly up, telling the siblings their work is done, Ryoga stopping Reika from lashing out. Falchion clashes with Caliber when Kenzan arrives, seeking to demonstrate his strength by defeating everyone, asserting he rejects Kento, Desast watching. When Falchion attacks a down Kenzan Caliber defends him, losing Kurayami and Jaaku Dragon and giving Master Logos eleven Books, Kento admitting he can't help himself from protecting his friends. A lashing out Kenzan is quickly beaten by Falchion, giving Master Logos Sarutobi Ninjaden and Hayate. Touma and Mei arrive, starting with Elemental Dragon Saber to battle Falchion. As Luna awakens, Master Logos opens the Book of Ruin, drawing out the Dragon of Love and Dragon of Pride, which also brings out the Dragon of Courage from Saber's books, combining into Emotional Dragon, Saber using it. Falchion tells him his power will bring more conflict, Touma swears to protect, defeating him and giving Master Logos Eternal Phoenix and Kyomu, he gloats as Bacht falls apart for possibly good. Master Logos thanks Touma for being a pawn and attacks, sending Rekka to the tree and giving him Brave Dragon, Dragonic Knight, Primitive Dragon, Elemental Dragon and Emotional Dragon. 18 books, 11 Seiken. Adding his own book, the spell starts, the books and Seiken flying into the portal, as Storious notes the needed spell components. Luna is forcefully dragged up and Sophia arrives, choosing to act as her replacement, but Master Logos drags her down. The Original Book appears. Luna calling for Touma manages to create a bridge which lets him reach her and pull her free. Kento notes the future is changing, but Master Logos doesn't care, as energy from books in both Bases flows out to restore the Original Book. Touma pulls Rekka free and destroys the spell, the Seiken and Books fall to earth and Yuri appearing from the fallen Saikou. Everyone reclaims their unsealed Seiken and Books, Kento erring briefly between Ikazuchi and Kurayami before choosing Kurayami, while what remains of the Original Book turns into a Wonder Ride Book and falls to Master Logos. As the Northern Base members prepare to fight, a Golden Seiken appears to Master Logos, which he uses to grant everyone a taste of what Kento has seen and escape. Storious leaves. An exhausted Luna vanishes, but hopes she will be back. Kento leaves, leaving Ikazuchi and Lamp do Alangina, while Ren and Desast sneak off.

Zenkaiger: Kaito and Vroon spot Flint and the twins, who are arguing over Buns when Onigokko World appears, Riki and Katana intend to settle there argument by beating him, but are made into the Oni by Onigokko World, forced to tag others, with everyone tagged also forced to be an Oni. Zenkaiser and ZenkaiVroon try to fight at long range, but the twins ambush Vroon, Zox grabs Flint right as the twins ambush her, then the others arrive, Gaon shooting Vroon and Magine creating a slingshot to lose the twins. Zox promises to save the twins. At Colourful a plan is made between Kaito's skill and Magine's magic, but Vroon arrives, tagging her and Yatchan, forcing the others to flee. Kaito runs into Flint, who blames herself for the Twins situation now and what happened in SDtopia, due to her not stopping their arguments, Kaito offers some advice from his parents before they're ambushed, they flee for a moment before splitting, Flint having an epiphany. Onigokko World starts tagging more when the Zenkaigers arrive, all changing even as Magine and Vroon chase the others. Unable to shoot through the crowd, Zenkaiser uses Goseiger to Tensou Windrive Card, getting the Oni away, but the twins get Gaon, and Onigokko World uses rocket tag to get Zyuran. As Zenkaiger runs, Twokaiser jumps from CrocoDaiOh above, in the air using the Gekiranger Gear to give himself the SaiBlade and hit Onigokko World, ending the game. Flint has made new gears for Zox based on Kaito's, showing those for Kakuranger, Megaranger, Patranger, Zyuohger and Ryusoulger. Twokaiser then uses Hurricanger for the Senben Knocks attack, Secchan noting the same gears cause different effects for Twokaiser. The Zenkaigers finish the job, then Dai Onigokko World arrives alongside another Kudaitest. ZenkaiOh ZyuraGaon leaps into battle, and is forced into Bomb Tag. Thanks to ZenkaiOh VrooMagine they tag the Kudaitest just in time. With the twins wanting payback, they grow, CrocoDaiOh separating into the Katana ridden CrossSkyOh and Riki ridden CrawlingOh. Dai Onigokko manages to tag one of them, the pair tagging back and forth, but ambush him at the last second, the fight a ruse. Flint thanks Kaito for the inspiration. Ijirude is finishing a project.

Dogengers Nice Buddy: Ohgaman explains the timeline of what's just happened, and it's evident from looking at them that the Great Z at the show is just a guy in a suit, and he leaves after the audience is teleported away, while the real one wails on Yamashiron and Fukuokaliber. He then uses his drones with the Affect System to show a DX mecha commercial, summoning the Great Daizenshin Robo, entering it and attacking the assembled heroes, seeming to consider the Marou Kaijin collateral. Tanaka finds himself not changing, the suddenly present Shuraomaru pointing out his changer's absence. A final attack is stopped by the arrival of Kitaqman Metal, and Shuraomaru ninja smoke bombs them away. Great Z has some kind of attack and Great Daizenshin fades, he's still struggling. At base the Marou Kaijin are on their own, while the Dogengers seem quite despondent over something Great Z said. Maid Shitsuji, Shuraomaru and Metal waiting for them to speak. Metal explains he and Shuraomaru had been fighting when a broadcast showed them recent events up to episode 3, and they agreed to help out. Metal shows a Great Z CM, most recover but Yamashiron is bothered, presumably because he picked a fight with a normal person. After Yabai Kamen is brought up Metal devises a rescue plan, putting the established pairs together, and having Maid Shitsuji and Shuraomaru team up to save Yabai Kamen, he'll be support and the Marou Kaijin will take care of the base. Yamashiron, Aoiron and Daidairon are still despondent, Ohgaman gives some words before rolling out, Fukuokaliber and Yamashiron left behind. The stage show Great Z comes over to the ailing real Great Z, checks if he's ready for this, asvthe stage show Great Z removes his helmet, revealing himself to be Riku.

#toku explained #ssss.dynazenon #kamen rider saber #kikai sentai zenkaiger #Dogengers

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venus-says · 5 years

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Kamen Rider Movie Wars #1-#6

So... what is all this stuff?

When I decided on starting my Kamen Rider watch I was determined to watch as much as I could, everything seemed okay but there was always a huge problem: the movies.

I didn't know where to look at for information so most of my research was done in the Wikia and if you visit the Kamen Rider Wikia you'll see that the way they list the movies IS CONFUSING AS HELL so I set my mind in watching only the stand-alone movies and any extra released after the show ended that wasn't part of any crossover project.

I decided to do this way to try to avoid spoilers of the previous series that I haven't watched, not necessarily because I didn't want to know what exactly happened in those series, but because I didn't want to have a certain impression of a Rider before I could watch their own show and don't be so judgemental about it before actually knowing that character and the set of extras that'll orbit around it.

But then we cut to 4 months later and I'm watching a video on youtube about W and they comment about how in the crossover movie they explain the events of Beginning Night and I go "shit, these movies DO have necessary information, I think I'll need to watch them orz", so here I am.

Before I go talking about these movies let me just say I think they're all pretty stupid. Like, even calling them movies is a low move, they're extended episodes of each series that converge on an awful CGI battle scene at the end, it's not a lot of fun considering the thing that sells the movie usually don't last longer than 30 minutes. I think the thing that just really pisses me off is how they aren't very considerate of people who didn't watch these movies and they'll usually bring up in the show events that only happened in the movie to the show itself, don't explain them, and expect that the audience will already know what the things they're referencing means. I know it seems like a dumb complain since I'm watching these seasons after they aired so I can watch the movies in the proper time if I want to, the thing is I shouldn't need to watch a movie to understand a thing that happened in the show, the movies should be extra material. And I'm not saying these movies shouldn't be canon, but they shouldn't be integrated with the main continuity in a way that would exclude people who didn't get the opportunity to watch said movies to understand them.

But that's enough for my rant let's get to these movies.

Movie War 2010

So, for the original Movie Wars, I watched only the W's portion, I didn't watch either the Decade part or the conclusion because of the reasons I mentioned up there.

This movie was more or less just a huge flashback, this is also the movie that pisses me off the most because it introduced Skull and the Lost Driver that are things that would become key elements not just for the show but also for their movie and well I already made a huge paragraph about this issue so I won't repeat myself.

I honestly don't remember much about it, but as many problems as I have with this whole set up, I enjoyed this movie. Huge part of it was because Skull was there and he's cool as heck, I'll admit, but I had fun. Though nothing will change my mind that this should've happened in the show not isolated in a movie.

Movie War Core

The next one in line is Movie War Core, I had more fun with this one but this was still pretty bad.

W's portion of it was pretty decent, seeing more of Skull was great, and it was also nice seeing what would lead up to the events in the Accel movie. My biggest problem here is that Akiko never seemed so against the Kamen Rider before so it seemed a little off that she would freak out like that only now, but oh well, it was still nice seeing Skull, I wish we had a movie exclusive to him he's so cool he deserves it (I know it's probably late for me to ask for this, just let me leave XD).

Sadly from that moment on the movie got really boring. I wasn't interested in the attempt of reviving Nobunaga plot, I feel like things were happening way too fast in that, and also Kamen Rider Core was just awful as a final villain, I hated that.

Movie War Megamax

The Fourze x OOO movie is probably my least favorite of the bunch. I really didn't buy that thing of a Kamen Rider from the future coming out of a black hole after meteors were falling, the implication that the medals weren't destroyed in OOO's final battle kinda weakens the ending of the series and the fact they didn't explain Ankh being back just shows how this plot wasn't very well thought. Also, the Kamen Rider from the future coming back at the end just to give OOO the Super TaToBa medals was very dumb, that form also doesn't look good either.

And the Fourze portion was awful because they decide to "give" Gentarou a "girlfriend" and that was just the most stupid plot EVER. They gave the girl a rider form but even that they screwed up, it still baffles me they made the girl attack with her butt. I know this is a show that has primarily boys in mind but you don't have to make every female character like that, especially in a live-action where real people have to act that with their bodies.

Gosh, I hate this movie so much.

Movie War Ultimatum

The next movie wasn't as bad, it was just way longer than it should've been. I watched the director's cut and that is almost two hours, that's absurdly long for a movie where not a whole lot happens. This movie was also pretty weird to watch because they did a whole bunch of homages to older tokusatsu, and while having those didn't make the movie any less good or bad it was still off, you could tell those weren't creatures that originated in this world/franchise. I also wasn't really here for this time travel concept, especially in here it was done in a very messy way, it wasn't cute.

But you know, for the part while I was still paying attention I enjoyed it. The Fourze cast is way more bearable when they're not stupid teenagers, seeing them as adults was quite fun, I like how it started like an actual action movie with Ryusei and that girl from the Fourze movie doing some spy work, and I also like to see that he and the goth girl still have their thing. Gentarou as a teacher looked like a mess, but I like that they put him to be a teacher, it makes a good amount of sense for his character. The students were also a bit interesting so watching Fourze was actually fun for me for the first time! But once again Fourze was there being nasty and doing a whole bunch of close-ups in the girls' tights during the fighting while one of those two was supposed to be a teenager in school and that's just gross. Nadeshiko also comes back for this afterward and ew the butt attacks came back, she even jumped at a monster once where it looked like she was reverse cowgirling him and that was very uncomfortable to watch.

The Wizard portion was quite decent as well, I like the concept of the "farm of monsters", I wish they had used more of these smart ideas in the actual show, Poitrine was fun and I like the reveal that in the end, she was actually the Donut Shop keeper, but I think this portion was longer than it needed to be, especially considering they don't do much. But I guess this is the best way to describe this movie. The joint part was pretty bland, but I like that they had a good amount of out of suit fighting, that kept my attention for a while.

Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle

This was an odd one, kinda like Core this one had a decent first portion and a meh one for the current season but overall it was still pretty bland. It was good seeing an actual epilogue for Wizard, I wanna complain about jetpacking in this plot because Haruto was in Brazil for some reason and then in the next scene he was in Japan again, but he has a teleport spell so I can't call them out. But it sure was funny to see they randomly put a Rider on Brazil for the second time in this movie series. The thing of using a 3D pen to make another Koyomi and make her the villain was a fun twist, but I feel like it wasn't used at its fullest.

The Gaim portion was just awful, I didn't care for this parallel world where they revived a Sengoku battle, I feel like this is one of the things that works better with people who actually have knowledge of Japanese History, but I believe that even if you have knowledge this would still such because we're in those Gaim early days where the characters aren't very likable yet so it's really not enjoyable to watch.

This movie also introduced crossover power-ups and Holy Jesus, this is probably one of the worst ideas this franchise has ever made because none of them look good. And speaking of things that don't look good, they ruined a very good design Bujin Gaim had going on for it in order to make him this weird CGI flower thing that doesn't look good, neither intimidating, it was just awful.

Movie War Full Throttle

Last in the list is the Gaim x Drive movie and while this isn't the movie I disliked the most, this is the movie I less cared about, this is the movie I less remember about, which is weird because I watched it twice. I think my problem comes from the villains for this movie, I didn't buy the idea of this apparently alien race defeating an actual space god and capturing another one, I also didn't care for their designs they were pretty bland. But this movie gave Gaim an actual closure so I guess it wasn't so bad. The Drive portion was weird because it seemed very disconnected from the plot. I like this story and I like Lupin's design, but this should've been, if not an actual episode, a TV special, especially considering they give Krim's backstory about how he ended up being in the belt and nothing can change my mind that this should've been explained in the actual show.

Ironically enough, the part of the movie I remember the most is when Gaim and Drive use each other's powers and they get in those awful crossover forms. Again, this idea was a mistake, Drive's hat looks like a fucking trash can lid, it's awful.

Just like these movies. I had fun at moments, but I'm not gonna lie, I wish I could have those hours back, these movies aren't good, they completely drained my energy. I think I'm gonna wrap up for now, what are your thoughts on the movie wars, let me know in the comments. I'm gonna try to be happy again now. I'll see you guys tomorrow for the second Drive review.

#Kamen Rider W #Kamen Rider OOO #Kamen Rider Fourze #Kamen Rider Wizard #Kamen Rider Gaim #Kamen Rider Drive #kamen rider

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linkspooky · 5 years

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Ougi and Araragi

Hi! I was wondering if you could write a meta about Ougi from the Monogatari series.

It’s impossible to talk about one of them without talking about the other, so let’s discuss the unique relationship between Ougi and Araragi underneath the cut, the special relationship between a boy and his shadow.

1. Character Concept: The Jungian Shadow

There’s a lot that can be discerned about Ougi just from the type of character they are. Their relationship with Araragi defines them entirely, without Araragi there is no Ougi.

Ougi’s design is intentionally meant to parallel Araragi’s. Araragi has a very bland light novel protagonist kind of look to him (hence why he never gets any cover art) his only distinguishing feature is that his hair is styled to cover one eye at almost all times. This is because Araragi’s primary character trait is obfuscation looking at things through only one eye you are never going to get the entire picture.

If Araragi’s character design is plain and normal, because that is what the primary protagonist type of these kind of series are an ordinary high school boy, then Ougi’s is the opposite, their design is attention grabbing and unique. If Araragi is normal, Ougi is visibly abnormal, you can already tell there is something subtly off by looking at them. What Araragi hides underneath the surface, Ougi is.

The primary feature of Ougi’s face and the one you notice immediately is their eyes, large, dull eyes, which are the focus of their entire face. Ougi is always shown staring forward with those eyes, unblinking, directly at you. It’s symbolic, eyes are symbols of insight, if Araragi obfuscates then Ougi sees everything. Ougi also wears the Naoetsu high girls uniform. They take the appearance of what Araragi cares about the most, a girl that he can save. Their skin is pale, and their hair dark, which could mean two things, either black and white, light and shadow kind of thinking that Ougi represents or, it’s just supposed to make them look like the kind of ghost that is common in Japanese horror.

Finally, Ougi’s sleeves are so long that their hands are almost never shown. This indicates two things, one human hands are signs of intimacy. What are your hands for? is a pretty famous quote from Evangelion, by never showing their hands Ougi cuts off intimacy because they exist as a symbol of isolation. The next is that Araragi is characterized as someone who always reaches out a helping hand, whereas Ougi is the opposite they stress individual agency and often leave others like Nadeko to their own fate. They may orchestrate things from the shadows, but ultimately Ougi never directly acts, and let’s the characters decide to step off the cliff all by themselves.

The fact that Araragi a boy, makes Ougi appear as a girl is also a play on binary gender. Ougi is technically genderless, but they appear as a girl initially because themes of binary opposition, and black and white thinking are at play in their character. Araragi is someone who tends to see the world in a binary way. Light and dark, black and white, male and female, they assume there is some kind of proper order to the world that needs to be followed. When Araragi begins to let go of these ideas Ougi is freer to express their gender any way they like.

A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.

Ougi is based primarily on two ideas. One of them is a pretty obvious reference to the King of Distortion from Boogiepop, which is the series which started what we now call ‘Light Novels’ in Japan by popularizing urban stories with heavy sci-fi or fantasy elements. Araragi even directly references the king of Distortion.

“Tell me, what are you thinking about now...?” “Don’t suddenly become the king of Distortion.” Out with the cool quotes, scolded my sister. I deeply reflected on it. (Nekomonogatari White).’

The king of Distortion is a character who’s physical appearance and personality changes with every character they interact with, and who is able to enter the dreams of other people and see the desires in their heart after which point he makes an attempt to correct them.

While the King's personality changes with whatever person's form he is taking, in general, he seems to share a soft-spoken, calm and collected attitude each time, always seeming confident, most likely because of his knowledge of distortions in the hearts of each person's subconcious he enters. He claims his goal to be to 'turn the people's suffering into gold', which involves having people deal with their inner turmoils and coming to terms with them, which is why Boogiepop does not consider the King an enemy of the world, as he doesn't truly do anything particularly villainous.

King of Distortion like Ougi is also born from a single character’s regrets. The King of Distortion was born the moment Shirou Tanaka arrived at the Moon Temple. The main cause for the King's creation was the pent-up regret Shirou felt after entering a relationship with Naoko Kamishiro even though he didn't love her, figuring that he would just develop feelings for her later. After the girl's death, Shirou's self-hatred grew as he realized he wasn't particularly affected by her death in any real way. These feelings were also amplified by the fact that he knew about Akio Kimura, someone who truly loved Naoko, and deserved her way more than himself. These complex feelings of his manifested as the King of Distortion, a being born from Shirou's MPLS evolution.

King of Distortion is an entity born from repressed regrets and self hatred, what a character refuses to acknowledge about themselves or confront. Therefore, both King and Ougi are Jungian shadow archetypes.

Both as one, one as both.

One is both, both are one.

The Niounomiya siblings with their slaughtering magic.

He and she pass their time in the same body.

Passing their shuttered time.

Passing their shuttered space.

She is Jekyll, and he is Hyde.

One as both, both as one.

Both are one, one is both. Hitokui Magical - [x].

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the now famous tale, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story famous for its astute psychological insight that “Man is not truly one, but truly two.”

In Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll is a well respected doctor who cares deeply about the admiration of others and strives to be a good human being. In his laboratory he concocts a potion that when ingested transforms him into Mr. Hyde a primitive, unruly and destructive man. Reflecting on the nature of his transformation, he discovers a truth about the nature of a human being.

“I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could be rightly said to be the either, it was only because I was radically both.” [Source.]

The shadow exists in a dual relationship with the persona, developing in turn with it. In Jung’s terms the self, is the sum total of the psyche. Both is one, and one is both.

The persona comes from the latin word for “mask”, it’s the elements of personality which arises “for reasons of adaptation or personal convenience.” [Source.] It’s a simple idea, the way you talk around your friends is different from the way you talk in front of your grandmother. People are constantly choosing consciously which parts of their personality to show in front of others, especially in relation to how they would like to be perceived. It is a performance, but that does not mean it is not real. Every part of the identity matters.

It leans heavily on embodying only one’s best qualities, leaivng all those negative traits which contradict the Persona to form the “Shadow.” Jung called the shadow the part of the psyche the unconscoius aspect of the personality. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspeccts of one’s personality, the shadow is largely negative. It consists of everything which exists outside of the light of consciousness, but it can be both positive and negative. “Everyone carries a shadow”, Jung wrote, “And the less it is embodied in a person’s life, the blacker and denser it is.” The shadow is unscious, things which our mind experiences but we cannot control, dreams, desires, instincts.

Without a well developed shadow, a person can easily become shallow and extremely preoccupied with the opinions of others, much like how we see Araragi act in Monogatari. Jung believed that, not wanting to look at their shadows directly, many people project those flaws onto other people.

In terms of literary theory then, the Jungian Shadow archetype is a character who is made up of all the flaws that the protagonist refuses to confront. They challenge the protagonist merely by existing, because the protagonist wants to look away and leave those qualities unacknowledged. Often, they are an antagonist merely because the protagonist projects all of the flaws they cannot see into themselves, onto that other person.

2. Araragi Koyomi - He Obfuscates

It is impossible to see the shadow without the light. It is impossible to describe Ougi without first talking about Araragi Koyomi. Just like Ougi, let’s start with the origins of his character. While this is just my own personal speculation I’m not NisioIsin, Araragi has always read as written in response to two things to me: First Ii-chan, the protagonist of his first series Zaregoto, and second harem protagonists in general.

II-chan and Araragi are both very flawed and non-confrontational human beings, but whereas Zaregoto is a story about how II-chan really does not want to change himself and instead just kind of wants to stay treading water, wants to never cause any more ripples, wants to hold onto the fragile sense of self he has Araragi’s is a story of a bad and hypocritical, shallow kind of person striving to grow up and become a good person, acquire depth.

The stereotypical harem protagonist is this, a plain guy with no personality who somehow gets girls to fall all over him, often for showing them the bare minimum of kindness. Monogatari is partially a deconstruction of harem series because it shows the kind of circumstances that would cause all these girls to fall all over one guy, literally they are all so deprive of affection that the smallest show of kindness does actually make them fixate on Araragi.

The thing is Araragi does have a clear personality. He is very cynical, he’s judgemental of other people, he really likes to snark. Part of the reason he likes talking to Senjyogahara so much is he can be meaner, and sharper tongued than he normally presents himself as around people. He has traditional black and white views of justice. He tends to meddle. He is observant, but his style of thinking is flawed because he tends to jump to conclusions quickly rather than thinking out the details slowly and methodically. He’s almost constantly anxious, but usually responds to the anxiety with avoidance. However, a lot of his more distinct personality traits sound more negative rather than positive, so Araragi has a version of himself he presents to others who he is less close to. This ‘self’ is much more vague, and wishy-washy, very go with the flow. Despite the fact that Senjyo and Hanekawa both comment that Araragi is well known among the students as a delinquent, Araragi himself says that he’s a typical high school student with a completely normal personality. He defines himself as vague on purpose, that sole purpose being to appear as more acceptable to others, because like an ego that refuses to acknowledge his shadow Araragi is very shallow and defines himself entirely on the opinions of the other people around him.

He is lacking a sense of self, or rather that sense of self eventually escapes from him when his shadow runs away Peter Pan style and becomes Ougi.

Araragi has three primary character flaws that manifest in the form of Ougi, Araragi is a hypocritical altruist who only cares about weak girls that need to be saved, Araragi obfuscates, and Araragi only thinks in black and white.

Araragi is not someone who helps people because it is the right thing to do. He does not do good deeds because they are good. He only helps others because there is something he gains out of it. One thing that’s important about Araragi is that he has a cripplingly low self esteem, to the point of self harm, self flagellation, and even suicide attempts.

He literally says so when he finds Kiss-Shot’s body, his first response is not to call for help but rather to try to let Kiss-Shot kill him, apologizing for living such a worthless life until this point. It’s not just that Kiss-Shot was in trouble, Araragi also made it about his own self loathing.

Araragi seems selfless to a fault, but he’s actually very self obsessed. While it’s true that Araragi desires to be a good person, and improve as a person, his methods for self improvement are faulty. He’s obsessed with appearances, and it’s more like he wants the appearance of a good person rather than actually having to put in the work at first. He wants to feel like he’s saved others. He wants to feel like he is someone worth something. He saves others because it increases his self worth, and also once again he gets something out of it. Araragi saving women that are weaker than him makes him feel special, like somebodyy needs him.

He wears the persona of a hero, rather than actually trying to be one. It happens again and again in the series. Despite the fact that Araragi actively does heroic things literally all the time, he also denies any role of being a hero because he does not want the responsibility of being one. Araragi wants the world to be burger king, he wants to have it his way. He wants the best of both worlds, Hannah Montana style. He wants to save girls, but he doesn’t want to be their hero and be entirely responsible for them.

“Araragi-kun, even if you can become a star, you can’t become a hero.” “I can’t become a star.” I shook my head. “I can only become a vampire.” And I even failed at that. “I see.” So you’re not going to be - my hero.

Nekomonogatari: White (Hanekawa and Araragi)

Take his actions in Nekomonogatari. Araragi claims it’s impossible to be a hero, he says that Hanekawa cannot be saved and calls for her to take personal responsibility and face everything that is wrong with her life. However, rather than trying to just support her with that difficult task Araragi immediately jumps to self harm.

It’s impossible for Araragi to become a hero, but he can swallow a katana and then trick Hanekawa into killing him because that is somehow easier than facing his feelings for Hanekawa head on. Araragi prefers bloody, painful self harm to the terrifying ordeal of being known. Araragi knows that Hanekawa is in need of help, but the fact that she is such a messy person different from the person he originally saw her as, makes him afraid of her.

The thing is human beings are really sloppy. They are a messy gray, and Araragi wants to save them, but he really is just a kid out of his depth with a lot of things. He sees the abuse of Hanekawa’s household, and because he’s literally never even encountered an abusive life he gets so terrified that he runs away screaming. He does care about Hanekawa, but she’s far too complicated for him. He does not even want to touch that mess. It’s much easier for him to see Hanekawa as a hero, all black, or all white, then try to attempt something he does not know how to do and could screw up Hanekawa even worse.

Once again while it is not Araragi’s responsibility to fix an abused girl, and it makes sense a normal high school kid does not understand coping with abuse at all, Araragi at the same time wants to help her. Instead of just admitting that he can’t do anything for Hanekawa, he play-acts at being a hero.

Here’s the thing about Araragi, have you ever once seen him try to save a boy? He only cares about helpless girls because those are the kind of people that heroes save. He does not care about people that are stronger than him, because then he is depending on them rather than the other way around. Araragi only interacts with about three male characters in the story significantly.

Oshino, who is an adult figure that Araragi aspires to be like, and then Kaiki and Seishirou who he both views as rivals for the two most important girls to him Senjyogahara, and Seishirou. Do you notice there is a far different tone in Araragi’s interactions with Seishirou and Kaiki? Araragi absolutely refuses to see Kaiki as anything other than a villain, and while Seishirou is clearly a victim, Araragi cares very little about actually saving him and instead prioritizes competing with him over Kiss-Shot.

Once again this is dude psychology that is present in Harem series. Did you notice if male characters do show up in harem series they are oftentimes, either comic relief, they are terrible people for the main character to look good in comparison, or they are old men mentor types. That is because any other man who would exist in a harem series is automatically competition for the girls. Araragi does not want to compete, he does not want to feel inferior to anyone else, because he always feels inferior all the time therefore he never has any male friends.

Therefore it’s hypocritical altruism, while Araragi is willing to help and that’s a good thing, he also never once helps unless there is something he gains from it. Even if it’s a chance to exercise his self loathing. Once again Araragi’s self loathing is incredibly harmful, he literally gets bones broken, limbs severed, and organs torn out almost every time he helps someone. Not only that but it’s always the first solution he jumps to. This is not the behavior of a healthy person, this is the behavior of someone attempting to punish themselves. Helping these girls by martyring himself is an act of attrition for Araragi, because he believes he deserves pain for all of his hypocrisies, but once again it’s still self obsession. Just hating yourself, just beating yourself up, is different from having to do the actual work of facing yourself and picking yourself up. Araragi will always choose dishonesty over honesty, obfuscation over seeing things clearly.

Araragi’s primary strategy of dealing with these many hypocrisies and contradictions in himself, and keeping his ‘ego’ in balance has always been obfuscation. Araragi is observant, but he presents himself as ignorant. He always goes on claiming how stupid he is, and how he’s nothing more than a worthless washout.

This is because Araragi was raised with an overpowering sense of responsibility. While his parents are not necessarily bad parents, they are police officers. He was raised made to feel responsible for things like justice, saving others, and especially made to feel responsible for his own flaws. Police officers are also symbols of justice, who as human beings often fall far short of the law and authority they are supposed to represent, because symbols are symbols and humans are humans.

Therefore, what Araragi wants to avoid at all costs is feeling responsible. He wants to be important, but he never wants to take the responsibility of actually being important. This is his immaturity, the part of him that refuses to grow. For Araragi, if situations are too complicated for him to handle, or he fears his meddling will only make things worse and therefore he will be indicated as responsible his response is to just avoid it entirely rather than struggle or try.

This is shown in the case of Sodachi Oikura, once again someone that Araragi knew about and sympathized with but at the same time could not comprehend. Sodachi lived in horribly abusive circumstances, and both times Araragi encountered her he was a child. Araragi at the same time takes far too much responsibility, and far too little. It’s completely understandable that Araragi a middle schooler had no idea what to do to deal with what was obviously an abusive household, most adults are pretty useless when it comes to handling abused children. Yet, at the same time Araragi avoids any responsiblity whatsoever, he just forgets about Oikura claiming he has a bad memory depsite encountering her at three different significant parts of his life. Rather than struggle and fail, it’s better for Araragi to just not know anything at all therefore it can’t be his fault.

When Ougi drags Araragi through Sodachi’s case, Ougi ‘deduces’ everything, but Ougi’s catchphrase is I only know what you know. Ougi cannot have come to a conclusion that Araragi did not already know or was not capable of figuring out on his own, Araragi just did not think of those things because it was too painful to think.

This is also present in his dealing with other characters. There are several characters who have heavy romantic crushes on Araragi while Araragi is already in a relationship, Nadeko, Hanekawa, etc... Rather than ever just going through the awkward interaction of rejecting them it’s much easier to just pretend he never even notices their affections. Therefore we see him hypocritically, have a girlfriend, at yet at the same time constantly hang out with other girls who have a clear attraction to him and romantic feelings for him and never do anything about it.

Nadeko turns into a god because of obfuscation, both on Araragi’s part and on Nadeko’s. Nadeko is called out for what a hypocritical person she is never wanting to face anything directly, but that behavior is only a reflection, a foil to Araragi’s own, hence why Araragi was never able to save her.

Once again, Nadeko clearly has several problems with her personality, and she also blatantly hits on Araragi several times despite one being a middle schooler, and two Araragi having a girlfriend. Rather than just reject her outright, or acknowledge these parts of her personality, Araragi chooses to ignore everything and reduce her to being a cute girl. Nadeko puts on the act, and Araragi perceives. He then ignores all of her feelings, until they repress more and more and then bubble out into a jungian shadow expression that is Snake God Nadeko who just indulges on all of her instincts and desires and gives up conscious thought and her persona completely.

Ougi always mocks Araragi has a helpless fool, because that is what Araragi wants to be, helpless, foolish, and therefore not at fault when there are unintended consequences of his actions.

Finally, Araragi only thinks in black and white. This is also part of his obfuscation, he never wants to acknowledge how complicated people are. When he’s forced to confront the ugly side of people he almost always looks away.

Black cats, white cats, hmmm, I wonder what that means. Araragi was only disappointed with the idea of justice, because he wanted to believe in it in the first place. He wants to believe that things like heroes can exist, and that his black and white perceptions of the wolrd are real. Araragi craves that order more than anyone else, perhaps even more than his younger sisters who just play at being heroes of justice. The reason he becomes so disillusioned is because he expects there to be an order of things, for their to be roles just like in a story, for their to be a sequence of events with meaning.

Araragi expects narrative rules to apply to real life. For life to have meaning. That is why he is a story teller. There are monsters and oddities, and humans with a clear line between them, despite the fact that Araragi himself is someone who blurs these lines by existing as a quasi vampire. Araragi’s life is a story that he tells himself, and that’s why it’s so important that his perceptions are so off. In Tsuki he even gets called on this twice, he calls his increasing vampirism punishment instead of just consequences for his actions and he’s told not to think he’s so special that god would go out of his way to punish him. Tadatsuru asks why they are facing off like this, why Araragi is protagonist and he is antagonist.

Araragi does not like acknowledging how sloppy the world is, because that makes him feel insignificant and weak. It would make anybody feel that way, because it means acknowledging that we are not as in control of things as we would like to be.

3. Oshino Ougi - They Reveal

Ougi Oshino is Ougo Oshino.

They are a vague existence, Araragi refuses to define them because defining Ougi means defining themselves and that kind of confrontation is the last thing Araragi wants.

Ougi Oshino is born out of a desire for Araragi to punish himself, the same way he always seeks external punishment by allowing people to beat him up and rip out his intenstines. Rather than confront what is inside of him, Araragi externalizes it and confronts it as an external force which he projects upon.

Ougi is a shadow born from the light of Araragi’s ego. It was not the darkness that created them, but rather Araragi himself and the shadow he cast. Therefore while Ougi can be seen as a corrective force, they actually embody all of those flaws that Araragi has, and their own character traits are always in response to those flaws.

Wheraes Araragi is a hypocritical altruist, Ougi is someone who exists to fix people’s mistakes, or punish them for their mistakes rather. Despite manipulating them, Ougi also ultimately leaves them up to their own fate. He leads them up to the cliff but does not push.

Ougi is a hypocritical fixer, because while he seems to be punishing others for their mistakes he really only exists to punish himself in the form of Araragi. All of the ‘mistakes’ he corrects are just Araragi’s own mistakes foiled in other people.

Nadeko is a foil to Araragi, she represents his own feigning of innocent and being unknowing. Kaiki is a foil to Araragi, he represents how much of a fake Araragi is by pretending to cling to ideals of justice and saving others but also denying them as well. Sodachi is also like Araragi, they both prefer to wallow in misery than try to work towards their own happiness. Araragi even says his famous line with his relationship with Shinobu, an ending where everyone is miserable, where nobody gets what they want. There are serious problems with his current relationship with Shinobu, a power imbalance, and both know they cannot last this way forever but rather than attempting to fix their relationship they both cling to the way thing’s are.

Repression and obfuscation is always favored over directly addressing the issues, especially the things which Araragi probably cannot control, or fix, like the complicated nature of abuse. Ougi claims they operate out of some imaginary set of rules that totally exist, but once again Ougi is the hypocrisies of Araragi laid bare. They are every bit the hypocrite that Araragi is.

They are just punishing other people who reflect Araragi’s negative traits. Those who do not acknowledge their shadow, will project their flaws onto other people and see themselves in other people in order to cope.

Ougi is made up of Araragi’s repressed desires. They are a girl he wants to save, which is the only type of person Araragi interacts with. At the same time, they are also connected to Oshino, who is Araragi’s model in the series for adulthood and maturity. Oshino who is always able to figure things out, and very self-collected often making fun of Araragi for his youthful excitement and his naivete for not knowing much about the world.

While Araragi presents himself as an idiot, Ougi is intelligent an capable of figuring things out from scraps of information. Araragi jumps to conclusions, Ougi is deductive and a good thinker. Ougi Oshino already knows Araragi better than himself, therefore Araragi does not have to carry any of the burden of self reflecting, or making himself known to other people around him.

During Ougi and Arraagi’s first meeting in the anime, he hallucinates that the classroom that he is locked inside of floods with water. The depths of the water, the shadow, dreams, these are all the realm of Jung. If the conscious mind is the water’s surface, then the subconscious is its depths.

Araragi obfuscates, whereas Ougi reveals the uncomfortable truth. Ougi always positions themselves as a detective. In the realm of stories, it is the detective who makes the big reveal at the end. After all Ougi even says when they are locked in the room together, because there is no famous detective that Ougi themselves will play the role and announce the culprit.

However, Ougi’s reveals are just as hypocritical as Araragi’s obfuscations. Ougi takes the shadow to be representative of the whole self, because they themselves are a living breathing Jungian shadow, but just like Jekyll and Hyde man is both. He is not one or the other, he is both at the same time. Ougi always act with the assumption that there is some kind of truth to be revealed, that this is just like a detective novel where there is a reveal waiting at the end.

Ougi takes the repressed desires to count as the “truth” of the whole mind, and ignores the conscious mind entirely. Therefore, in their view Nadeko is only capable of being a selfish cute girl who sees herself as a victim, Hanekawa is only something scary which Araragi must avoid. They at the same time as Araragi both read the same black and white narrative of the world. They do not care at all for the persona, or how people choose to present themselves. Desipte what Kaiki said to Nadeko that people can choose to be whoever they want to be, and they can try as many times as they like.

Ougi also views themselves as inhuman, and therefore incapable of doing anything, or defining themselves as anything outside of their role. Ougi is in a way, just as repressing of themself as Araragi is. They even lament this in front of Tsukihi, that once the detective reveals the mystery the novel is over. That if anybody would know the truth of them, they would come to hate them because they are abhorrent.

Ougi by repressing concious thought, silences other people and what they have to say about themselves. The only thing that matters is the repressed, what Ougi dictates as the truth must then become the truth. It’s just as much a limited way of saying the world as Araragi’s is. Hence Ougi’s famous catchphrase, I don’t know anything, you’re the one who knows. Ougi sees themselves as a person fundamentally incapable of knowing anything other than outside the bounds of what Araragi already knows.

Which is finally where the black and white thinking comes in. While the two of them seem like polar opposites, their views of the world are actually the same. Ougi wants what Araragi wants, for the world to exist like this is a story. For there to be roles, and order and most importantly meaning. The same way that Araragi just ignores things that fall out of step with their roles, when people contradict the way Araragi sees them he just pretends to be oblivious rather than see them as complex human beings. Ougi actively goes out of their way to punish people, for not playing the role in the story they were supposed to play. He acts like a corrective force, pushing people back into their roles. His wrongful assumption is not that people improve by “correcting mistakes” but rather there was a proper path in the first place. That there was a hero’s journey they were supposed to be going on. There is no path, there is no meaning, it’s all senseless but Ougi exists out of a desire for things to be sensible.

Ougi exists as Araragi’s opposite, because Araragi assumes that things like binary opposites exist in the first place. Heroes and villains, crime and punishment. They both believes these things exist in a fundamental order in the world, and they are not just made up values that humans invented and give meaning to.

“Let’s not joke. Virtue is the antonym of vice, not of crime.” “Are vice and crime different?” “They are, I think. Virtue and vice are concepts invented by human beings, words for a morality which human beings arbitrarily devised.” (No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai)

For both of them clinging to these hypocritical beliefs are better than the alternative, admitting to their own helplessness in the face of a world that is mostly indifferent to them.

That’s why, when they are separate both of them choose to stick to their ultimately restricting and punishing roles, as protagonist and atagonist, persona and shadow, hero and villain, rather than just trying to acknowledge themselves and live as people.

Both is one, and one is both. Araragi Koyomi and Oshino Ougi have a relationship that ultimately results in not antagonism, but rather union and acceptance. Just like the King of Distortion is not an enemy of mankind in the enemy, Ougi was never an enemy to Araragi in the first place. Araragi never needed to hate himself or punish himself. The true path forward lies in union and acceptance.

You can never be anything more than yourself, nothing more and nothing left.

#monogatari #monogatari meta #mg meta #araragi koyomi #oshino ougi #meta #nisio meta

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mugen-monogatari · 5 years

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Kabukimonogatari - Shinobu Silence; Humanizing a Monster

This post is the second part of my Kabukimonogatari posts. In the first post, I talked about Hachikuji and her key scene, while in this post, I’ll be talking about Shinobu and her important scene. To me personally, this climax of the arc was probably one of the best scenes in Monogatari as a whole. This entire exchange, was so satisfyingly, unsatisfying. It left me feeling empty, and almost disappointed (which sounds like a bad thing), but that’s what makes it so great. The crushingly painful realism. This entire arc was a commentary on how even our smallest actions and decisions can affect the greater world around us. It shows how we take even the smallest things for granted, with some pretty insightful commentary on depression and being in a dark place.

So with that brief introduction out of the way. Lets talk about shinobu and her climactic scene in Kabukimonogatari. For this analysis, I’ll be potentially spoiling all the way up to episode 10 of the Monogatari second Season. Keep that in mind if you haven’t yet seen up to that point. Also, this is all just my interpretation, none of this should be taken as fact.

Ironically, this arc was the first which made Shinobu, a vampire, an aberration, feel the most human in the entire series. She demonstrates, while seeming like a transcendent being, she’s very much so susceptible to the same problems everyone faces. Jealousy, pride, depression. They affect her just as much as they would anyone else. Which was top-notch characterization for this point in the story. Up to then, Shinobu was almost an enigma, being incredibly cute and wise, but having very little going for her in terms of emotional depth (that is unless you watched or read Kizumonogatari before this).

This entire humanization is what leads to the apocalyptic events of Kabuki. Shinobu’s jealousy. Her envy for the people around Koyomi, her pride and child-like stubbornness. Most of you probably didn’t remember until it was mentioned, Shinobu was missing at one point in the story, only returning upon seeing Koyomi’s efforts to find her. She saw this as an act of mutual affection. Him searching for her demonstrated his need or care for her, so she returned the kindness by helping him with the Hanekawa situation. However in this reality, Hachikuji had never incentivized Koyomi to go search for Shinobu, prompting her to destroy the world in her solitude and envy.

And that was one of the really heart-wrenching things about this arc- It shows even that little ounce of effort is enough to save someone, or to change things, even fix things. In our case, Koyomi actively put that effort in, going out of his way instead of settling for the easy route of just waiting for her to return. Shinobu while having lived for hundreds of years, still has the mind of a spoiled brat. She felt as if it was Koyomi’s job to come searching for her. She refused to be the one that put the effort in. She acknowledges this herself- “If I had only made one tiny compromise.” She realizes that you can’t expect things to happen for you, if you’re not willing to put some effort in yourself. She comes to terms with the unreasonable nature of her actions, having created this entire situation and forcing Koyomi to search for her, to see things from her perspective. But in this alternate reality- He never did.

I feel that's a painfully accurate depiction of human emotions. A lot of the time, we expect things from people that aren’t entirely fair. We can’t always admit we’re wrong, and we’re often too stubborn to just apologize. We instead run away and blame it on everyone else. “It was his fault for not chasing me-” That’s the sort of mentality she had. And that’s a mentality a lot of people have. But this entire arc shows you have to compromise. You can’t rely on one party in a relationship to fix everything. You both must actively work towards whatever happiness you seek.

“If I’d only opened up my heart to this boy a little more, Believing and entrusting…”

It also shows a slightly nihilistic view of our actions. Running away, destroying the world was completely pointless, she accomplished nothing in doing so. The void in her heart was not filled, she was just left feeling even more empty and depressed. Had she just waited slightly longer, or better yet, compromised, she would’ve had the happiness she sought after. Which is a good message told in a depressing way. Patience is key. Don’t run away from the problem and expect everyone else to fix it. If you’re not happy with the way someone acts or a situation you’re in, you can work on improving that, even when it’s hard, time and effort will help you ultimately achieve happiness.

This was a very rough scene for me personally. Your actions aren’t permanent, but your mistakes are. Running away isn’t the end of it. Had she just returned everything would have been okay, while never returning led to the end of our world as we knew it. Her world too. She was left with nothing but regrets. “My running away from home caused me to lose you… Making me feel like I had lost a wing, A half of myself.” A quote that just goes to demonstrate her pain. Her misery at making one, small, stupid, stubborn choice, which led to everything she knew ending. Leaving her with nothing but a destroyed world and a void in her heart.

Which leads me onto my second part of this scene. Depression. I know it’s a little cliche to talk about it, but I think this is a fairly accurate depiction of it. It’s not a switch or something that happens overnight. In the case of Shinobu and most people, it’s a downwards spiral, one bad day leading to another, before they pile up. In her case, she was stubborn. Taking her anger out on the world, before realizing in feeling alone, she truly became alone. She destroyed her own life, with her own hands. As DJ Khaled once said; “Congratulations, you played yourself.”(Had to get one meme in there to lighten the mood plsdontkillme).

Shinobu feels truly alone. She struggles with the fact that Koyomi is surrounded by all these girls, forcing him to divide his attention between them all, making her feel unneeded and desperate. So she flees. She runs away with the hope that he’ll chase her, and when he doesn’t- She kills everyone. In doing so, she realizes that she truly has become alone and is prompted to take her own life.

But then upon seeing her alternate self, it becomes all so painfully clear the futility of her actions. This could have all been avoided if- you guessed it- she compromised. There most definitely was a reality where she was happy. There was a certain almost guaranteed chance that everything would be okay, had she just waited or tried to put effort in herself. It’s a very touching moment actually, when she has the tragic realization that everything she did was pointless. She had ruined everything for no reason. That there was a reality where both her and Koyomi could happily snuggle together.

While that may sound bleak, I think the real hidden message is that things get better. Life will improve, and even when it’s difficult or hard or stressful or lonely, it’s not the end. There’s a lot of people out there who suffer from very serious, very real problems, and many see no way out of it. It can be draining and scary. But it does truly get better, with some time and effort, you can make a life for yourself. It’s unfair, yes, but if you just work at things, one day you’ll be able to look back on you life and wonder why you ever even worried. I think this arc was kind of like a really really depressing way of saying- “Hey. It’ll be alright. Just stick with it. It’ll pay off, your hard work and effort will be rewarded,” which is both sweet and touching. If this was truly the author’s intentions, I have to give him kudos, since I think that’s a good message to give people.

To relate this to my own life, me and my own Girlfriend argue sometimes. Occasionally the topic of breaking up will come up, but we never do. She always puts it best saying; “I won’t break up with you because that’s a permanent decision. This argument isn’t, we’ll move on and forget about it at some point.” And I think that applies perfectly with this entire arc.

Kabukimonogatari was another fanatastic arc in an amazing series, and I’m just glad I got to experience it and share it with you guys. If you take anything away from this arc, just remember, no matter where you are in life, one day it’ll get better.

Thank you so much for reading this, if you made it this far, maybe consider sharing this with someone. Next up I’ll be doing some stuff for the Fate franchise, as well as more Monogatari character stuff, don’t forget more Bleach posts too, So keep your eyes peeled.

Take Care of Eachother, Saki~

#monogatari #anime #shinobu oshino #araragi koyomi #monogatari series #discussion #kabukimonogatari #hachikuji mayoi

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hoodlessmads · 5 years

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Bloom Into You Chapter 40 Immediate Thoughts

It was exactly what was promised and exactly what I needed. What WE ALL needed. The only remote complaint I have is that Nakatani-sensei didn’t show the kiss at the end.

But alas, left to the imagination, it was still cute. I suppose. *deadpan look at camera*

Not only was it exactly as promised (or rather, as suggested by the last few pages of chapter 39), but it was exactly what I expected, in the best possible way. This somehow calls to mind that amazing Mr. Plinkett review of The Last Jedi. Can you imagine if Rian Johnson wrote chapter 40 of Bloom Into You? Subverting all of our expectations? (No shade, I jest, I like TLJ.)

Anyway, Nakatani-sensei is as in touch with her own characters as I feel I am in touch with them, thank the gods (or in this case the lesbian goddesses). Yuu and Touko bust ass to get to the student council room, both desperate to see each other. Yuu acknowledges to herself that she is still in love with Touko. Kokoro no ichi ga wakatta yo, as the song goes. But when she gets to that empty room, the adrenaline of the message and the run slips away and she’s left in darkness and solitude, and all of her doubts and apprehension come rushing back immediately. What does Nanami-senpai even want to talk about, anyway? Does Yuu dare to hope? What if what she has to say just breaks her heart all over again? Yuu finds herself waiting and thinking there’s no way Nanami-senpai would run as fast to get here as she did.

Except she totally does, of course. Touko arrives out of breath, sees Yuu’s mistrustful reaction and cuts straight to the chase with a returned love confession. Yuu’s reaction to Touko openly returning her feelings is just confusion at first. Maybe she’s desensitized to Touko saying, “I love you,” even now. Touko just goes on to calmly explain exactly what she means. And Yuu calmly listens. Asks clarifying questions. Works through her own hesitations, her lingering mistrust of the concept of “love.”

The implacable way that Yuu processes her own emotions is always one of the most interesting things to watch. Which is why when she finally, finally cries, it’s so god damn moving. Never in this entire series have we seen this girl cry. Ever. After all the shit she’s been through with Touko, where she’s had plenty of reason to cry, she never did. She locked it away inside. When she gets her heart broken by Touko, Yuu doesn’t cry because she can’t process the pain of it. She describes it as though her heart has gone off somewhere without her. It’s only at the end of the last chapter that she finally allows herself to feel. She’s always struck me as someone who’s quite similar to myself in this way; she refuses to let herself be vulnerable, she heavily dissociates herself from painful emotions and traumatic experiences, and on the flip side she hasn’t been able to find much passion in anything either. She strikes me as the type of person who has rarely cried, maybe in her whole life. So when she cries here, just like fucking lets go and sobs for the first time, finally, I’m dead.

And on the flip side, there’s Touko, who has managed to finally find some peace in her life after the play—but that’s not the instant end of her problems, and that is so important. She’s been living with this unbearably heavy burden for seven years. She’s been living with this pain for so long. It’s not just magically gone. When she holds Yuu’s hands and tells her that she wants to be loved, Yuu even notices this. Her hands are shaking because she’s still scared, in spite of everything. She’s terrified and yet she still pushes forward, because she knows that this is a good thing, and that this is what she wants in her heart. And that’s what I like about her. And when Yuu has her own do-over confession and starts crying, Touko wholeheartedly accepts her and her feelings, she’s there to hold her, not just because she knows how hard it’s been on Yuu bottling it in, but because she’s learning to embrace her own happiness at hearing those words. For herself. These characters are just such good people. So pure.

And don’t even get me started on how fucking cute the scene afterward is! Murder me!

This whole chapter is just one giant long…talk? Like? Characters? Talking to one another? Amazing.

Yuu HUGS her and CRIES and says, “Suki desu. Suki. Daisuki.” “I love you, I love you, I love you so much.” She said it THREE times!!! Not counting the first time!!! DAISUKI, dude!!! I’m dying!!!

Touko KISSES her TEARS. We got a “Geez” up in here!!! We got a “Senpai” and fucking FOREHEAD TOUCH up in here. We got a height difference Yuu-initiated OFF PANEL KISS UP IN HERE. I’m LITERAL MUSH.

What’s going to happen next?! Is the rest of the student council going to leap out of the bushes, yell “SURPRISE! CONGRATULATIONS!” and embarrass everyone? Are the two of them going to take things back to someone’s room and finally satisfy the UST? CUDDLING???

No, in all seriousness, I’m expecting some kind of brief timeskip to at least the next day after they’ve said goodbye for the night and then neither of them can even sleep because they’re so excited and cute, and then…I’m really not sure. Chapter 40 was purportedly the first chapter of Volume 8, which will be the last volume. Last volumes typically have bloated lengths to wrap up series, but not necessarily. So we could have anywhere from four to six chapters left before the end. What’s next for these lovely characters as we hurtle towards the resolution?

My heart really wants this series to remain as grounded as it has always been. Now that Yuu and Touko appear to have resolved their personal issues within their relationship, there is still…you know…the whole gay thing. Two girls in a romantic relationship in a Japanese high school setting is no small matter to gloss over, unfortunately. I want to see them slowly decide how they want to open up to others around them about it, or if they just decide to be up front from the get-go. I want to see Akari and Koyomi and Natsuki find out and see how they react, how inevitably supportive they will be, how fucking cute their friendship with Yuu is, how happy they will be for her. I want to see how Touko’s and Yuu’s families will react, the good reactions and the bad ones. I want to watch Rei physically turn into a pile of mush, just like I did, when she finds out that her hunch was correct and her baby sister has a girlfriend. I want to see the entire school somehow find out via word-of-mouth but ironically no one cares because everyone already thought Touko and Sayaka were lesbians anyway and the only unforeseen factor was Yuu. (And as reactions to the play proved, most people in their school are surprisingly accepting and non-judgmental and it’s precious.) None of this has to be that extensive or dramatic or take up that much time—just a bit of attention would be a nice touch and be incredibly satisfying.

I could watch Yuu and Touko being cute as fuck in a relationship literally all damn week. I’m so excited to watch Yuu finally be able to communicate what she wants from the relationship, to be allowed to show affection, to be as lovey-dovey as she wants. I’m excited to see Touko adjust to that and continue with her process of learning to accept that affection.

I could watch them learn and grow and encounter obstacles together for days, but we have limited time here unfortunately (this ain’t no 30 volume Kimi ni Todoke) and that means we have to trim the fat and focus on the real important stuff that needs to get resolved: HER NAME IS SAYAKA AND SHE DESERVES A GIRLFRIEND.

Sayaka is the UNSUNG HERO of this story. Would chapter 40 have EVEN happened if Sayaka hadn’t had the balls to confess to Touko the way she did and help Touko reach her own emotional catharsis? Sayaka is a selfless and kind soul who is OUT THERE doing the MOST for others. She is precious and her heart has been broken too many god damn times and she deserves better. She just does. This girl deserves a break and in the time the manga has left, my sincerest wish is that she gets one. I want to see her get a happy ending and a girlfriend who is head over heels for her and vice versa. More even than any Yuu/Touko stuff.

That’s my rant. I mostly wrote it the night of the chapter coming out at like 3 am so my feelings were a lot. I don’t even know. I feel like there’s so much more to be said, so much more you could analyze. Like the incredible, INCREDIBLE panel where Touko grabs Yuu’s hand and you can see their silhouettes in the glass, mirroring the exact position they were in last spring in the student council room when it all began. Can you even wait to see that shit adapted for the anime? The kinds of beautiful shit they can do with this scene? And the fucking godly Michiru Oshima soundtrack? I sure can’t. Nakatani’s art, her composition, her use of parallelism…it’s simply gorgeous on every level. But anyway, right now, I’m just gonna post this so I can get it off my chest.

My heart has been fulfilled and I can now survive until May 27th. But I also can’t wait still. :P

#bloom into you #yagate kimi ni naru #i love this series #can you tell?

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curestardust · 5 years

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if you want: something like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or Monogatari just more lighthearted / quirky fucking characters and story / randomness galore

If I say the words “Studio Shaft, quirky and Hiroshi Kamiya’ what anime pops into your head?

For most it’d be the Monogatari franchise. For some it would be Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. And for a select few it’d be Arakawa.

Due to how much these 3 have in common, it’s almost impossible to not compare them, even subconsciously.

Our story begins with Ichinomiya Kou, the son of an incredibly successful bussiness man. He has been brought up all his life with the idea that he must not be indebted to others in any way, ever. Well, he runs into a problem when he is stuck on a bridge in his underwear as he is trying to climb a pillar to reach his pants. A mysterious girl fishing there watches on in silence after he turns her help down. Suddenly, the pillar breaks and he almost drowns in the river but gets saved by the mysterious girl. Kou suddenly finds his entire life being indebted to this girl and desperately tries to compensate her but she only asks for one thing: for him to be his lover.

The Arakawa riverband is actually the home to a bunch of fucking weirdos as Kou later finds out. The girl who saved her, Nino, keeps saying the she is a Venusian. Then we have a guy in a Kappa suit pop up who is the “village chief” and keeps insisting that he most definitely is NOT a man in a kappa suit. He gives our main character a new name that he will use in his new home: Recruit.

We also have a buff former military man dressed in a nun suit who’s called Sister and a musician in a star mask called Hoshi and a few more.

So, this is where the comparison being a problem comes up. The weird characters, nonsensical story, the colour scheme, the quick cuts, reactions and overall presentation just makes you think of the other 2 works I listed above (if you’ve seen them, obviously). And that’s a problem cause Arakawa feels like a lesser product of those 2.

First the presentation. This whole anime being played out in the same location feels restricting. Even though we have random buildings, the majority of the time we’re outside where the dominating colours are blue (river and the sky) and green (grass). I found it all a bit boring after a while. The quick cuts and seperate shots were also lackluster. Especially in Monogatari, these work to compensate for the long dialouges, keeping the eyes occupied while listening to characters talk. Here, these seperate shots aren’t drawn that well and they often use muted, pastel or just 1-2 colours for them.

There isn’t a story here, like, at all. There’s some bigger overarching plot in the second half but it gets resolved pretty fast. Arakawa mostly has short stories that are based on the randomness of the characters and whatever they get up to. So then, what this show needs is great characters. Well…

The cast is silly. As weird as you would expect. However, randomness is only funny if we know why it’s random aka we need to be aware of what is considered “common sense” in the world to really understand how weird the actions of the characters are. Our “common sense meter” would’ve been Kou/Rec, however in just a few episodes he becomes part of the weird community and finds less and less stuff weird. He still can’t get over certain people and whatever they do but he reacts less to them. This is basically an inbetween of Nozomu-sensei and Koyomi. Koyomi is almost completely seperated from the events while Nozomu-sensei is basically the weirdest out of the bunch. Kou is part of the weird gang himself yet still feels distant from them, making it hard to relate to him but not making him as funny and quirky as the others around him. Still, seeing Kou’s life philosophy completely get flipped on its head is fun to watch.

This review has really gotten away from me, I don’t even remember what point I wanted to make. So to wrap up: if you really want something in the vein of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Monogatari but would be fine with a more lighthearted approach, you can give Arakawa a try. If you haven’t seen either series but would like to see something non-conventional and quirky, I’d also recommend this. [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: cute girls being friends and spies / SPIES / about 3 plot twists / nice fight animation

While scouring the offering of the last Fall Season’s, my eyes immediately drew to this anime. Of course, I’d have watched it just for the fact that I saw a bunch of girls being badass but even more, the whole concept (and even the artstyle) reminded me of Princess Principal (x) which was one of the most surprisingly great anime I’ve seen so I was hoping for something similiar with Release the Spyce.

The plot isn’t anything special. Our introduction starts with Momo, who gets befriended by some girls at her new school. She is later told that these 5 girls are part of a secret spy organization, Tsukikage, who defend the city from the shadows. The Tsukikage are all young girls, as they use special spices that enchance their ability to fight and the effectiveness of the spice lessens, the older one gets. Tsukikage has been fighitng against an evil organization called Moryo for a long time.

As you can see, the story itself is pretty generic so the anime has to rely on other offerings to keep people’s attention.

First would be the characters, more or less. The cast has a varied set of personalities and chemistry between them. Due to the fact that 3 of the girls (including Momo) are apprentices to 3 of the older members, who are their mentors, we mostly see interactions with those 3 pairs. However, even with that I felt that there was some untapped potential with the girls and their unique relationships. Don’t get me wrong, everyone gets some background story and a decent amount of time establishing their characters but there still something missing. As I wreck my brain though, with everything that happens, the only thing that could’ve fixed this issue would’ve been more episodes. For its runtime of 12 episodes, the anime does as much as it can.

The second thing that can draw you in, is the missions and the animation of the fights. The shorter “mini missions” didn’t do much for me, but the ones that spanned across 1 or 2 whole episodes were really interesting to watch. The animation, while lacking in some departments, mostly shined in the fight scenes. Really, there isn’t much else to say about this one. If you want some engaging spy missions with nice animation, here you go!

Release the Spyce is very tame, everything considering, up until episode 10. That’s when shit goes DOWN and we get like 3 plot twists on top of each other and whew...I really liked it! I would’ve wished that the atmosphere we get at the very end would’ve been present at least here and there throughout the rest of the anime, but it does make it even more shocking. And I’ll stop here cause I won’t be spoiling.

RtS is a nice watch but it’s restricted by its short runtime. Nothing really can be done about that unfortunately. If you are interested based on what I’ve written above, give it a try! [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

#dusty reviews #Arakawa Under the Bridge #Release the Spyce

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reki-of-the-valley · 3 years

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Midnight Hearts

“Five minutes left.” Joe refills a glass, the white wine sparkling under the soft, dimmed lights of the restaurant. “Any last-minute things you want to have done before the new year?”

Miya glances up from his switch, scoffing a little as he returns to his game. He’s got that smug look on his face, one that rarely ever leaves him. “Is there enough time for me to make Reki regret trying to be my friend?”

“I know a guaranteed way to annoy him.” Koyomi’s grin is ridiculously big as she nudges Miya in the shoulder, bringing his attention to her. “Watch this.”

Reki yelps as a piece of bread hits him on the head. He whips around to see his sister leaning into Miya, giggling against him as his green eyes glance over everything except Reki. This was their attempt at innocence. This was their terrible attempt at seeming innocent, not at all involved in the vicious crouton attack.

With a slight huff, Reki turns away from the two demons. He grins at the others, hands on his hips as he puffs his chest. He seems proud; he looks like he’s glowing.

“Well, anyone want to make some last-minute confessions? Like,” he shrugs nonchalantly but his smile doesn’t falter for a second, “I don’t know, maybe someone’s finally fallen for my irresistible charm?”

Langa doesn’t quite know what’s possessed him but his hand is up as he’s half-shouting “me!” His hand is up and everyone is staring at him. Miya’s green eyes are wider than a cat’s staring at a mouse; Koyomi is biting on her finger, suppressing her screams. Cherry has put his glass of wine down, staring at him with dead eyes; Joe is wheezing, his head on the counter. They’re all staring at him, but none beat the big amber eyes, Reki gaping at him.

“Dude, Langa.” A deep, shaky breath. “I was joking. I didn’t actually mean— You can’t just— I mean, I wasn’t expecting anyone—”

“You asked. I answered.”

It comes out a lot more confident than he expected. His voice didn’t crack and he didn’t choke. The words came out smoothly, almost too smoothly. If Langa hadn’t been the one saying them, felt the way they formed, he wouldn’t have believed it was him talking. There’s no way he could possibly sound that smooth, that confident. Not when his insides are twisting and his throat is clogging up.

“Dude, you just-! You can’t-!”

The clock is ticking. And with each tik closer to midnight, it pounds louder in Langa’s ears. He can hear Reki, hear his voice, but the words drain out. All he can hear at the ticks. Tik. Tok. Tik. Tok.

Two minutes before the new year.

“Langa! Dude!” Reki’s waving his hand in Langa’s face, pulling his attention back to him. He can still hear the clock moving, but Reki gets what he wants; he has Langa’s attention. “Dude, why would you say that?”

“Because…” Another glance at the clock. One minute left. “Because… Because…”

“Because? Langa, that’s not a reason, man. I need something more here.”

50 seconds.

“It’s because you asked and… and no one was answering you?”

Reki sighs, rolling his eyes a bit as a smile quirks at the corner of his mouth. “So pity points? Cool, cool. I guess thanks for trying to cheer me up, man. But seriously, next time, I think you’d be better off saying nothing.”

30 seconds.

“But you are charming.” Reki’s eyes grow wide, a hint of red starting to blossom in his face like all those pretty flowers that bloom around his house. “You really are charming, Reki. And whoever happens to fall for you will be lucky. Because you’re amazing. And you make things so fun. I have so much fun when I’m with you.”

“Langa…”

15 seconds.

“Loving you will be a guaranteed life filled with happiness. Because you’re loving and charming and amazing and so much fun. And you’re just. You’re Reki.” Langa’s heart pounds in his chest. It’s never gone this fast before. “You’re Reki and—”

Langa grabs Reki’s face, pulling him close as he presses a kiss to his cheek. Midnight. It’s the new year.

“You’re my happiness.”

There are cheers and screams around them, but Langa doesn’t know if they’re from the new year or from the fact that he just kissed Reki. And honestly, he’s too afraid to look around to see. Either way, it’s embarrassing.

“Langa?” Calloused fingers brush against his skin, blue hair being cleared out of his face as amber eyes find his. “For real?”

He nods, though a little hesitantly. He doesn’t want to start his year with a rejection; maybe this was a bad idea after all. Maybe he shouldn’t have done this. He hadn’t prepared anything; it was all so spontaneous. Sure, he often did act on impulse rather than think them through, but maybe he should change that. Maybe he should put a little more thought into—

“You’re my happiness too, dude. You make me so happy.”

His heart is pounding all over as Reki presses his forehead to his. It’s in his ears and in his chest and even in his heels. Langa feels like he might be shaking, the adrenaline starting to turn into a panic. His heart is pounding, but his head is spinning. Reki’s hugging him, foreheads and noses pressed together. It’s not a kiss, but somehow, it’s better. This is so much better, Reki’s warmth pressed to Langa as he hugs him back.

“Happy New Year’s.”

“It will be if I get to spend it with you.”

And that is the truth. That is a truth Langa will hold close to his heart for as many years as he can, forever if life allows him.

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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The True Meaning of Anime Haircuts

If you ask people which part of anime characters' designs most catch their attention, chances are good many of them will point to anime hair. Anime hair comes in all sorts of over-the-top styles, and in garish and unnatural colors. In general, it sticks out as something unique to the medium. Whether you're a fan of it or not, anime hair exists for a reason – to make characters look more striking and by extension... more memorable.

Anime’s hair craze doesn’t stop there, though. It’s also obsessed with haircuts.

Anime's obsession with haircuts is found throughout many shows. In the Monogatari series, Hitagi Senjougahara’s long and flowing hair – feather-like in its descent into Koyomi Araragi’s outstretched arms during her intro in Bakemonogatari – finds itself cut down to a short bob mid-show. And while there may be aesthetic reasons behind giving characters a trim, a change can end up disappointing fans. Take the character designer for the Monogatari series anime, Akio Watanabe, for example.

During an interview with Switch Magazine, Watanabe actually complained about the decision to lop off Hitagi Senjougahara’s hair mid-show. To him, Hitagi’s long hair is one of her “defining features.” For Nisio Isin, the author of the Monogatari series light novels, that might have been true for an old Hitagi, fettered to her past. But for the new Hitagi, looking forward to the future, a new haircut might have been just what she needed to help her move on. The anime honored that sentiment.

The haircut here wasn’t just for switching up the character's look. It was a sign that Hitagi had experienced some important character development. And this hair-based marker of character growth isn’t exclusive to the Monogatari series.

In The Severing Crime Edge, the Rapunzel-length, black-haired Iwai Mushanokouji is freed from her loneliness when a spellbound Kiri Haimura cuts her hair with some scissors. Iwai's unusually long hair was doubly cursed with its inability to be cut and its propensity to attract trouble. Locked away within the confines of a manor, Iwai had previously frittered away her days with no company herself until Kiri appeared as if by fate. It is in these conditions that cutting hair becomes an intimate act, and for Kiri’s act of cutting Iwai’s hair, a romantic development. A plot is given a push and a conflict is set in motion as Iwai’s deliberate seclusion is ended with Kiri’s edge and a promise to be with her always.

So a haircut can also be a sign of love, something that's in full display in both The Severing Crime Edge and Full Metal Panic!. In Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, there's a scene where Chidori Kaname carefully snips away at Sousuke's hair. As she's doing so, she notices that Sousuke has fallen asleep. Sousuke’s normally a high-strung character, easy to disturb, a gun under his pillow, a survivor of many terrible battles. And yet in this scene he’s dozing off, a scissors’ edge over his throat, vulnerable in the arms of a person that he trusts.

The two of them had developed throughout the course of the show, and they become a confirmed couple not long after the scene. The moment is indicative of Sousuke’s evolution from a soldier who just shoots people and follows orders to a person who loves people enough to want to protect them.

Moving on from the past regrets and budding love, haircuts in anime have also symbolized determination, self-confidence, and maturity.

In an iconic example of a haircut marking major character development, during the chuunin exams of Naruto, Sakura Haruno cuts her elegant, long pink hair to escape the clutches of an enemy. Time slows as hair is cut and Sakura’s though, doubts, and insecurities stream by. A vision of two boys greets our eyes – Sasuke and Naruto walking ahead. We see that Sakura lags behind the two, watching their backs from a distance. Her place in the vision bothers her.

She imagines herself wanting to be between them, shoulder to shoulder. She wonders about what’s holding her down, and answers her question with a cut. In cutting her hair free with her knife, she raises rebellion against her previous complacence as a know-it-all, waving the banner of determination like the rest of them. She wants to be valuable and supportive member of her team. She wants to be a ninja, and decides that now she will work for it like them.

We see another example of forward-looking character growth in March comes in like a lion’s Hina Kawamoto.

Hina’s had to deal with a lot. Throughout the second season of March comes in like a lion, she weathers an onslaught of harassment at school. The bullying is debilitating enough to force her childhood friend to drop out and seek therapy, and damaging enough to turn her homeroom teacher into a shut-in. Through it all, though, Hina keeps herself together and endures with the help of Rei Kiriyama and the rest of the Kawamoto family.

Hina grows from this experience, comforting her elder sister during her tribulations with her bully’s parent while maintaining her willingness and enthusiasm to connect with other people. She manages to pass the entrance exam to Rei’s high school and decides to mark the occasion of starting the new school season with a haircut. She wants to shed her immature image to match her growing self-confidence. She gets the wrong hairstyle, but Rei likes her new look.

To end where we started with haircuts, let’s return to Monogatari.

In Hanamonogatari, we follow the perspective of Suruga Kanbaru. Previously sporting short hair in previous seasons to match her outwardly peppy disposition, we are visited by a Kanbaru in Hanamonogatari who has grown out her hair and whose internal monologue is far more melancholy than peppy, more depressed than chipper. She starts the season expressing lingering regrets over past mistakes and forlorn love, and later encounters a dead flame looking for her cursed arm.

There's a lot of stuff in between, but by the end of Hanamonogatari, Kanbaru bookmarks her self-improvement over the course of the arc – shedding her monkey’s paw, laying to rest a friend, and moving on from her old and damning regrets to become a new and more hopeful person – by asking Araragi to cut her hair short and sporty. Her upbeat personality from the past returns, but rather than faking it all, she’s genuinely looking forward to the future.

Of course, there are many more anime haircuts we could have explored, from Your Name’s Mitsuha to even more Monogatari characters. But let's leave it at that. From personal growth to love to a commitment to future change to an assertion of self, anime haircuts give us the double gift of a new look for a beloved character and an outward symbol of how far they've come in their stories and lives.

Do you have a character that you like who was given a haircut during their show? Let me know in the comments!

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A social scientist and history buff who dabbles in creative writing and anime analysis, ZeroReq011 has a Twitter you can follow and runs a Blog called Therefore It Is. In addition to writing for Crunchyroll, he has contributed articles to Anime Feminist, Anime News Network, and Genki Life Magazine.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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