#misu does stuff

[froliginal]

:>

[ultraericthered]

Three cases where the Sailor Moon 90's anime totally went against the point of what Naoko Takeuchi's manga. One case I like, one I'm mixed about, and one I loathe with every fiber of my being.

Black Lady in R: I already mentioned the thing with Luna-P in another post, but even beyond that one factor, the way Black Lady behaves in the anime compared to how she did in the manga & Crystal has a huge core difference - Takeuchi's Black Lady put her childish ways completely behind her, while Toei's Black Lady did not. The entire point of Chibi Usa's corruption into Black Lady is that it's the dark extreme end point of why she took the Silver Crystal to begin with: she wanted to stop being treated like a child and instead be a mature grown-up lady like her mother. Which is why she punted Luna-P away when it came back for her, and also why she...well, did the thing she did with her daddy Mamoru. But in the R anime, Black Lady is a Psychopathic Womanchild who still carries about her that sense of child-like mischief, still loves games and trickery, still uses Luna-P and does stuff like weaponize playing badminton against the Sailor Senshi, and is more prone to lashing out at her former family and friends in tantrums. She feels like a kid in an older girl's body, and....I honestly really dig that. 'Cause now it's less that this is Chibi Usa's ideal of a grown-up and more like this is how Chibi Usa would turn out if she was raised by a different family - the Black Moon Clan in this case. As Rubeus said, "love does not exist in the Black Moon Clan", and thanks to Wiseman's mental manipulation and the influence of the Malefic Black Crystal, Black Lady believes that love exists in no family, including her original one, so she might as well just live for herself, embrace the darkness and have fun with it. And this also ties into how she's turned back to the light by the family she'd been decieved into rejecting. It's a different but just as nuanced and interesting take on the character and her time in the story.

Professor Tomoe in S: I'm mixed on this because it works on one end but not at all on another. On the end of Souichi's character itself, the change comes off perfectly. We got to know and like the professor through all the little quirks, eccentricities and humanizing personality traits displayed by Germatoid!Tomoe throughout the season, so when it's revealed that he once was a good man who truly does love his daughter and had turned to extremes to protect her but is now remorseful for what he'd ended up bringing about, it checked out. It's completely against the point of Takeuchi's Tomoe, an irredeemable monster who was never a truly caring, loving father to Hotaru and who willingly threw away his humanity in pursuit of godhood, but it works on its own merits. But on the end of the Outer Senshi, this change works in tandem with their own misues and Flanderization to derail so much about their part in all this. In Takeuchi's narrative, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna end up becoming Hotaru's real family, as her father had never been a good parent to her. It's important to Hotaru's story that she gets another chance at life to be raised by people who actually love and care about her, and it's important to the other three Outers as a show of growth, how they accept to become the guardians of the girl they know to be the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn, who they'd been fearful of and set to kill beforehand. In S? Haruka and Michiru want to murder Hotaru for completely inane and unsympathetic reasons, do not gain custody of Hotaru since Souichi is alive and around to raise her up himself, and when they do take Hotaru off Souichi's hands for a time in Stars, they prove how much worse off with them Hotaru is because they fucking get her killed by Sailor Galaxia! Moreover, it robs Haruka and Michiru of yet another chance to have an argument with some ideological high ground that even Usagi ends up having to cede to, as in the manga and Crystal Usagi does not want to take any life that is or was human, but Tomoe is too far gone into inhumanity and end up needing to die by her hand just as Uranus and Neptune said. By having him alive and redeemed, Usagi doesn't need to make any hard decisions. and Haruka and Michiru end up not being right about one single thing by the end. And lastly, nothing more is done with Souichi in Stars anyway, so I have to wonder if maybe they should've gone the direction Sera Myu went and had Pharaoh 90 kill the man.

Queen Nehelenia in Stars: I had plenty of words to spare about why Nehelenia in SuperS worked so well. She was still every bit the grim and malicious fairy tale-style villain, still the darkness threatening the light of Elysian, still tied directly to Zirconia and fixated on her own beauty, and still evil to the core beyond any hope of redemption. The Nehelenia who showed up for the first six episode arc of Stars was exactly none of those things. She's not deep, she's not interesting, she's not enjoyable to watch, and she's barely a thing like the villain from Takeuchi's Dream Arc save for the design and the aesthetics of mirrors and nightmares. She's just some raging, vengeful hater who fixates on her "loneliness" (y'know, the thing she willingly chose for herself so long as it meant she kept her beauty?) over her beauty, has a sudden hate boner for Usagi that's strong enough to break her free from her mirror because she despises people who love themselves and who love others because she was never truly loved and never truly loved herself in her sad lonely childhood, and said childhood apparently so deeply effecting and so heartbreaking that it renders her deserving of friendship and a chance to start over in a better life where she can be loved and happy. The larger plans she had in SuperS to completely corrupt Elysian, make Earth into a new Dead Moon, and take over the universe with the Golden Crystal's power? Nonexistent now, her only goal in life is to hurt Usagi. Her old lady form? Never seen again, though that's logically what she'd turn back into once out of the mirror. Those Zirconias she could create? Never creates another one. And by pushing her as a personal enemy for Usagi in particular, the writers on Stars inadvertedly made her more like Sailor Galaxia, the very villain who then became that season's Big Bad! Living in loneliness and envying Usagi for the better life she had? The whole "wanting to completely break Usagi" thing? Cursing Mamoru and turning him into a puppet? Wiping Chibi Usa from existence to make Usagi suffer and piss her off? Those were all Galaxia's things! Giving them to Nehelenia instead limited what Galaxia could actually do as an active force for evil other than slapping on and removing bracelets and boom-killing all the Sailor Senshi until it was time to fight Sailor Moon to the death. And sweet Sailor Comos, that forced, bullshit ending. Much like Prince Dimande before her, Nehelenia was not set up as a redeemable villain prior to this moment, not even in Stars itself, and to give the pretense of redemption and a happily ever after to one of the Big Bads who was spawned from Chaos in the manga...it just doesn't feel right! So nothing about this deviation worked. It really feels like a bad dream.

[teddybeartoji]

MICKEYYYYYYY WDYMMMMMMMMMMM SUGU SELFSHIP??????? MISU???????????? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I CRIED . IT’S SO CUTW I NEED TO MARRY YOU BOTH!!!!!! holding both your hands so very gently………….

cracks knuckles . anyway i have some questions 😇 how does suguru show you that he loves you? (through words or otherwise?) and how do you show him that you love him?? :3 do you have any pets? any regular date spots???

ALSO . which of his clothes do you like to steal most……. i know you steal them it’s okay we all do. it’s a sugu selfship staple . he’ll just have to deal with it bc he loves us <33333

ARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII:333333333333333333333 EEEEHEHHEHEHEE THIS IS SOOO FUCKING EXCITINGGGG MISU IS FINALLY HEREE!!!! i am already letting you know that this uhh.. will be long lmao get something to drink get something to eat and enjooyy:333

okok so first things first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like i already spilled to you in dms - this is a little college roomie au okay. just a little 20something mickey and just a little 20something suguru suffering from sleepless nights together<33333 i am one hundred percent going with the literature major suguru bc oh my god that feels just so so fucking right. he also has a part-time job at a little bookstore/cafe place!!!! i often hang out there too just bc it's such a cozy little spot,, there isn't too many people and he gets to put on his own playlist!!!!

i think (saying this abt my own alleged relationship btw) we're not actually a couple yet yk?? there's just a lot going on overall aaand so we just do what feels comfortable. we're very very close!!!!!!!!!! liike i often sleep in his bed bc i sleep better when i do it with someone/ around someone. and this btw makes me feel kinda bad bc he still can't sleep.. i like to think that he might catch just a few more zzz's with me there but ahhh.. he tells me that he does too but he really isn't the best liar.

oh my sad little meow meow:((((( this is literally him but yk add a few years

ok anyway so yesterday when i was thinking about what exactly misu is the miguel series popped into my head. it's called rigor mortis and it's done by the lovely @/loganlermanstanaccount!!! i'm not basing misu off of that i genuinely think they're kind of two sides of the same coin if that makes sense. to put it shortly the series is abt a reader who is going through a very hard breakup and miguel who is dealing with grief. they're both clearly going through things but that's kind of what makes them bond and that's what connects them. i know your tbr is long too and you have stuff to do so i'll just pluck out a snippet for you because the writing is just fucking incredible. i was literally up every wednesday to read the new parts lmao this series was also one of the things that inspired me the most

this is a snippet from the third part - they were here, she says (sorry i had to take screenshots bc tumblr quite literally just didn't allow me to type it all out smhh)

this is just really reminds me of suguru. sorry this really is a lot lmao imagine asking abt a selfship and getting a novel back about something different pls this is the loserville way okay. but yeah i just think it goes really well with my little roomie suguru (and me i guess). different types of grief but somehow it's all the same.

AAANYWAYY NOW TO YOUR ACTUAL QUESTIONS😭😭😭 a romantic relation ship or not.. suguru let's me know he cares through acts of service!!!!!! like grocery shopping and just getting me a little treat every time he goes out yk? i mean overall we both do the laundry together but he just gets to it faster than i do,, he takes care of my clothes and his without a second thought. he really is a malewife through and through damn...

and i show my appreciation by being a little clingy. HEARRR ME OUTTTTTTT LISTEN LISTEN LISTENNNNNNN though he likes to act all tough and shit (smhhh) we all know he likes the attention. and he's so used to satoru being clingy too (btw oh my god mitoru as best friends<333333333333) so when i kind of follow him around too, he feels more like at home yk? it's not necessarily even physical touch, at least not at first but just that i keep sitting in the same room with him. kind of like parallel play. i think he really likes the company even if it's just the two of us sitting in silence. liiike he's having a smoke by the window in his room while i'm idk scrolling on tumblr on his bed and it just feels very comfortable.

another love language of ours is listening to music together. i think while yes i listen to a lot of pop too, our tastes are very similar. so taking the public transport while standing side by side while sharing earbuds is very typical for us<333

WAIT ALSOOOOO i am always always always here for turtleneck suguru but.. i think in my head..... this!!!!!!!!!! like eeeespecially the blue jacket one ohhhhh this piece of art has changeeed mee i literally cannot stop thinking about it i really really love the idea of this mm like streetwear type of suguru??? is that what you'd call it idk i'm bad with labels but yeah this is misu's suguru<333333 ari i love him sm he's so boyfriend i mean roomie. oh god wait i have more to say,, his style is soooo so versatile though!!!!!!!! bc while overall i kinda imagine him wearing hoodies (i am. biased), he still does really like turtlenecks. and he has his fair share of long coats. ahhhh he likes to switch it up a lot!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S SO STYLISH I'M SO JEALOUS HE LOOKS SO FUCKING GOOD NO MATTER WHAT HE WEARS THIS IS SO UNFAIRR!!!!!!!!

on the topic of clothes!!!!!!!!! i steal his hoodies>:3333333 constantly. i can't really wear sweaters so those are safe from me but oh... the second i spot a hoodie of his... mwahahaha it is mine now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE SOOOO FUCKING COMFORTABLEEEEE WHAT THE FUCKKKK AND THEY SMELL SO FUCKING GOOOODDD LIKE I THINK I'M GENUINELY ADDICTED TO WEARING THEMM AAAAAA and yes just like in your little snippet.. he does kind of lose his mind when he seems me in one>:33333333333

SHRIMPMIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER HOW I TOLD U EARLIER THAT I LEAVE HIM OUT OF IT BC I JUST GET TOO SAD AT THE THOUGHT OF LEAVING HIM ALONE AT HOME?? BUT NOW ME AND SUGURU LIVE TOGETHER ANYWAY WHICH MEANS.. THAT I DON'T HAVE TO LEAVE HIM ALONE WHICH MEANS THAT SHRIMPIN IS CANON IN THE MISU UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAA this is so exciting. he loves suguru so much. and sugu finds it so funny when i try to act like that doesn't bother me😒😒😒 and every time i let the little beast gnaw on my hand (he is feral.) suguru scolds me and it's uhh kind of hot ngl like he comes over to make shrimp stop while grabbing my wrist and taking my hand away yeah i die a little every time i won't even lie

now... since....... i am on a roll (rip ari)............. i definitely fall faster btw. uhm like stupidly fast but i don't think anyone is surprised here..... but idk he's just a little bit scary in a way that i just simply could never make the first move...................................... he's literally just so handsome and so great i feel weak okay don't judge me (i know you understand) buuuuut i don't think he'd actually take too long to mmm grow fond of me either.. he is not as strong as he thinks he is.

i also need to talk about mitoru as best friend i just have to. mitoru is always meant to be no matter what universe okay we are Connected. he comes over SOOOOOOOOOOO OFTENNN he almost lives here too lmao we play video games together a lot<33333333 and suguru does get a little jealous<333333333333 he's so cute. satoru makes so much fun of him btw and i try to.. not think too much abt it or else my heart will explode.

OKAY WAHH I THINK NOW IS ENOUGH THOUGH. ENOUGH OF BLABBERING ON LMAO PLSS MISU JUST MAKES SO MUCH SENSE ACTUALLY I KIND OF DO FEEL BAD ABOUT NOT MAKING THIS INTO A THING SOONERR AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INDULGING ME AS ALWAYS ARI!!!!! IT LITERALLY MEANS SOOO SO MUCH TO MEEE AND THANK YOU FOR READING THROUGH ALL THIS😭😭😭😭😭😭 I LOVE YOU SOOOSO MUCH I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING SUCH A LOVELY DAY PLEASE REMEMBER TO EAT AND DRINK WATER AND REST!!!!!!!!! PLEASE SMILE LOTS N LOTS N LOTS AND PLEASE REMEMBER THAT MISU LOVES YOU SOOOO SO SOOOOOO FUCKING BADD<3333333

[ashipiko]

TENYUKI PATF AU J LIVE EM SO MUCH MY SONS 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

<33 some tenyuki art kinda like a redraw from the SS below the cut?? I LIKE HOW IT TURNED OUT THO I THINK IM MOTIVATED AGAIN!!!!!

🙏🙏 also decided to drop the cast list down below!!! MORE RAMBLES ARE BELOW THE CUT

TIANA: Yuki

NAVEEN: Tenma

CHARLOTTE/LOTTIE: Muku

LOUIS: Taichi

RAY: Yuzo

MAMA ODIE: Misumi

JUJU: Kazunari

TIANA’S MOM/EUDORA: Omi

DR. FACILIER: Reni

LAWRENCE: Haruto

AND THE SUPER LONG ASHI RAMBLE ABOUT THE PLOT N STUFFS feel free to read!!!

OK SO BASICALLY LIKE

Yukki’s the son of a seamster (Omimi) and so yukki works hard everyday in dreams of opening his own salon place thingy CLOTHING LINE? I DUNNO

Tenma’s the prince coming from his kingdom to visit New Orleans broke and w no idea how to navigate places and life <3 his lackey named haruto secretly hates him and they stumble upon a voodoo stop after tenma ends up getting lost

voodoo shop is owned by a guy named Reni and he convinces tenma that he’ll help him out around town (this is a lie) and convinces haruto that he’ll get him money and power

TADA tenten gets jebaited and turned into a frog <3 in the meantime MKYK is getting ready for a party (Mukkun heard news of tenten the prince and is ECSTATIC dunno if it should be romantic or if he just wants to fanboy or whatev) tenma stumbles upon yukki while they’re getting ready, tenma thinks Yukki’s a girl and then he jebaits him to kiss him IG?? THEN BAM DOUBLE FROGS

yada yada they meet Taicchan the alligator who dreams of vibing and being super cool <3 dunno if we’ll still use the music element Louis has or not I think it’d be super cute Taiten if Taicchan recognized him like “T-TENMA???? THE PRINCE?????? WHERE ARE YOU GOING??? ILL COME TOO!!!”

Taicchan tells them of Mr. Misu and Sir Kazu and says “yeahhh I’m super good friends w them!! LEMME SHOW YOU THE WAY”

THENNN they meet Yuzo and he joins the gang after calling Taicchan an idiot for going the wrong way 😔 makin their way to mr misu and MSKZ sings a fun little banger does some gay dances and tries to teach tenyuki about love (parent and children bonding moment amirite)

THEN ITS LIKE THE END OF THE MOVIE YADA YADA yk how it goes tenyuki and yukki gets his store thing!!! <33 happy end (ignoring yuzo and reni’s deaths)

IF ANYONE HAS ANY ADDITIONS OR FEEDBACK OR COMMENTS OR WHATEV TO THE AU PLEASE LMK!!!! I THINK ITS A FUN NEATO AU <3

<3 also the SS I redrew

[ohnojustimagine]

what are your thoughts on zack sabre jr?

Oh, I really like Zack. I’ve never written him though? Not sure why that is? I’ve never even stuck him in the background of a MiSu story, which I think I’ve done with most of the other Suzuki Gun regulars. I kind of can’t see him participating in generalized debauchery like that. That’s one of the things that interests me about him, actually, that he’s kind of a little bit of an odd duck in that group. He’s one hundred percent just as terrible as the rest of them for sure, but he doesn’t seem like he’d quite be into the same kind of... lifestyle, for want of a better word. Like I can’t really picture Zack hanging out in a hotel room with Taichi and Despey and being plied with whiskey and hookers. I kind of think Zack would find that boring or beneath him or something, and not in any moral kind of way, just that he’d rather be in his own hotel room doing creatively awful yet highly enjoyable things to you.

He’d call you ‘darling’ a lot and I bet he’d talk a lot just generally and it would mostly be demeaning-but-somehow-in-a-hot-way stuff. “You’re a stupid little slut, aren’t you, darling?” Also, really, really likes to tie you up. Like a LOT. And is pretty imaginative with the ways he does it. And I can only imagine the positions a guy that flexible could manage, like he fucks you in ways you wouldn’t have thought were physically possible and he always manages to get it right where you need it, because for all his mouthiness, he actually does pay quite a lot of attention to the subtleties of how you respond to what he’s doing to you and that pays off pretty amazingly. For both of you.

[suzukigone]

@gifsbysimplysonia is a REAL ONE in tagging me in any MiSu stuff and I'm just really happy she does.

[ariyadaivaris]

two questions: 1) why is kenny a bad person? be specific if you can, I honestly want to understand. 2) what's the better lgbt+ representation you mentioned in your post? Not trying to be mean I'm really and truly ignorant about these things and you seem like you know something. Help me understand so I don't support bad people/content.

i know youre not trying to be mean, its cool! don’t worry dear <3 im putting this under the cut bc it got long, if you need me to break it down into shorter paragraphs please let me know, i get rambly often haha

uhhh kenny isn’t GREAT, i know that that varies from person to person but i personally don’t think he’s a good dude. back when he first won the iwgp heavyweight championship off of kazu, he had an interview where he said that the “local” (japanese) talent were complacent and lazy and the gaijin wrestlers (the only ones he mentioned being white, ofc) were just hungrier and wanted it more and people like naito and evil were very rightfully pissed off. (also kazu and misu had a match like a week later in the middle of a monsoon while kenneth was off who KNOWS where so like #Whatever) 

he also booked a convicted sex offender/p*do for an event? on the preshow? i think he also used his ring and then claimed he didn’t know abt the dude when he’d associated with him before and also when people were pissed about it he responded VERY sanctimoniously bemoaning how cruel people were to judge him for this lmao. (the dude’s name is chasyn rance if you wanna...go verify stuff i really dont wanna delve into. all that on here its a sensitive topic) he’s also best buds with michael elgin whos an abuser so thats neat

also like a few weeks ago tanahashi criticized kenneth on a podcast and said that his matches were all flash and no substance and you could just as easily skip to the last five minutes because thats where ALL the story is, which, i mean, disclaimer i agree with! kenneth heard this and freaked OUT, which is WEIRD because tana has a history of giving his coworkers constructive criticism and advice bc he’s a veteran and its like he’s trying to help people improve and not be complacent??? weird! anyway kenneth started insulting everything from tana’s hair to his wrestling and its just generally REALLY poor form and behavior

idk it varies depending on who you ask and im not...the best memory? sammy hiromutakahashl and ava purplesandgolds both do INCREDIBLY valid work pointing and laughing at kenny and if you delve into their archives you could probably find more in-depth and like, credible criticism of him? but tldr he can eat a pile of dirty socks

AS FOR OTHER WRESTLERS YOU CAN SUPPORT!!!!!!!!

charlie morgan is a british wrestler and a lesbian and she’s very very butch and very very cool!!!!!!! she’s the current ace of pro wrestling eve and its rightfully earned, she also wrestles in progress and she has like, THE most incredible moonsault. also this which kicks ASS

ddtpro (and tokyo joshi pro) is at the very least friendly to The Gays!! one of the co-founders, dino danshoko, is a gay man and his gimmick is HMMMM A LITTLE FLAMBOYANT AND UNCOMFY TO WATCH AT TIMES but coming from a man who is very explicitly incorporating his gayness into his wrestling and yknow what...thats valid. also i think he became champ recently FUCK yeah dude gay RIGHTS

a wrestler named asuka has wrestled for ddtpro to boot, but she mainly works in wave, and she’s trans! you can find an interview she did with lgbter over here! also she and daisuke sasaki had a very cute romance arc for a bit it was excellent

dragon gate has the ICONIC tribe vanguard, and i know they’ve got several queer wrestlers in their ranks that i unfortunately don’t know TOO well bc i dont watch dragon gate, but i DO know yosuke santa maria is VERY cool and i love her and she jumps real good

CANDY LEE!!!!!!!! SHE’S THE CURRENT IPW WOMEN’S CHAMPION AND I WOULD LAY IT ALL ON THE LINE FOR HER her twitter is very very good go look at it and love her and support her

progress wrestling in general is usually PRETTY good re: Ze Gays!! besides charlie morgan, killer kelly and laura di matteo also wrestle there (UGH we love iconic lesbians), and so does KNOWN light of my life and yours too probably jack sexsmith, THE pansexual phenomenon. sexy starr is canonically a thing. we LOVE romance and we love queer romances being the heart of goodness and honesty and bravery. PLEASE support my boys. i love them so much

ive got a bad memory and also limited knowledge of things but randy myers? i believe? is very cool and weird and talented and he sings sometimes and yknow what that is? valid

sadly i don’t know many lgbtq+ luchadors off the top of my head because im a fool and a coward tumblr user luchagoth might have more valuable input on that than i do!!! ^^;

i know this is long and winding and poorly worded but i hope this can be like, at least an...introduction? an IDEA of where to go? there are so many more spaces that don’t throw you just table scraps or suggestions of support, there’s the A Matter Of Pride events that you can find on full in youtube, there are so many promotions and wrestlers out there that are good and i hope you can find folks you like and wanna support!!!

im sorry this is a weird bad post i hope i could help even a bit, thank you for being patient with me and for being curious in the first place, whatever you decide to do from here is your choice but whatever choice that is i hope you find happiness and peace in it!!

[arabaka-archived]

Does the no mxm rule include mxmxreader? I sent a Serirei x reader related ask and if that broke the rules I wanted to say my bad!

*₊˚💬୧ hi anon! no worries! <3 and to answer your question, yes! i've dabbled a bit in poly serirei thoughts but i don't think it's fair for me to label it as such anymore when i really don't ship them... i read a post once that was like "don't tag stuff as poly if the two dudes aren't going at it, that's a reverse harem" and that's kinda stuck with me bc i really don't want anyone to think i'm like. misuing labels or leading people on ??? idk i have very high paranoia so i'm always worried about disappointing people like that >___< esp bc... it's more like me just being thirsty for the both of them and wanting both of them carnally... sometimes at once aha... so if y'all don't mind that...

sorry for rambling... but thank you for coming back !!! no bad vibes here, i'd love to have you back in my inbox anytime <3 love and light your way !!!

but also anon there were many asks not related to serirei that were putting me in an uncomfy position, so please don't feel bad or anything!!!!

[darlingpwease]

My beloved 🌹

I'm sorry that it's been a while since I chatted with you but I've started using tumblr less and less. All of the copy and paste "you rail X character so hard they are crying" has driven me insane and it's hard to find other stuff, unique and different stuff, because of tumblr's search system. I still love what do and write and share, don't get me wrong! It's just hard to find the good shit I wanna read. 🥀

hello hello, my sweetest <3333

... It's okay, misu, I understand — I myself haven't been spending as much time on tumblr as usual lately, so I can't blame you, prrrr (��ˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈ෆ)

Yes! Although Tumblr seems to be proud of its search engine, it's not so convenient — or maybe I don't know how to use it, but it still can't distinguish between "Sub!reader" and "sub!reader", continues to give out what you don't want to see and doesn't let you see less popular works other than "recent", but "recent" ≠ works by unpopular authors or good ones, and this is disappointing.

Most of the popular ones have been around for years, and sometimes they set a trend for other works in one form or another, which is why everything soon becomes cliched — and boring. And the worst thing is when they become boring, when you start to anticipate what will happen next and you can't enjoy the story. You know, there are cliched stories that you can enjoy — yes, they are predictable and made according to a popular trope, but they are interesting and/or pleasantly written; and there are stories that are absolutely impossible to even read, although they are very popular and they could even be recommended to you¹

¹ especially applies to male!reader and trans!reader — in fact, dom reader can still try to compete with switch reader and even sub reader, but as soon as you try to pick up a different gender, the whole structure breaks down.

It is even worse when a writer does not mark their work and it is impossible to find something new unless you specifically go to their profile and find out that they, it turns out, write well, but for some reason they do not mark in a normal way and at the same time they are not so popular that their work appears higher in the tags </3

And I don't even know which is worse: when the work is not marked properly or when the work is marked incorrectly — because both there and there it gives "UNPLEASANT FEELINGS", ugh.

And I can feel you, dear — dom reader is still not the most diverse thing, especially when you're looking in an exclusive fandom; writers who have left and the most popular writers are constantly biting any attempts to find something new and interesting ( ͒ ́ඉ .̫ ඉ ̀ ͒)

Anyway! Hello again, tiramisu! Glad to see you again — we've been chatting for so long that it's unexpected to see you again, but very nice (especially considering that I was the one who didn't answer, but shhh). If it's not too personal, can I find out what you wanted to find? ヽ(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ

By the way, if it's sunny/hot, don't forget to drink water and use sunscreen, sweet <33

[froliginal]

God I love the conversation dazai and atsushi have after the headmaster dies. Just how they’re able to recognize that yes while the headmaster did that to help he did very shitty things and wasn’t a good person. And atsushi feeling all these mixed emotions that he can’t parse especially because he’s so used to boxing people in as good/bad. And atsushi starting to cry when dazai says that usually when one’s father dies they tend to cry. I’m so insane

[maiji]

Thoughts on Grasses of Remembrance (The Tale of Genji through its poetry)

Finally had some time this weekend to sit down with A Waka Anthology, Volume 2: Grasses of Remembrance Part B by Edwin A. Cranston. This book is the last in an impressive and intimidating collection translating a number of major classical poetry anthologies. It’s basically a speedrun through Tale of Genji (if such a thing were possible) filtered through all 795 waka poems written or uttered by the characters over the course of the novel.

Poetry was a Really Big Deal during the Heian era. If you were an aristocrat, not only were you expected to compose decent poetry, you had to be able to do it off-the-cuff appropriate to the occasion. AND to do this properly, you were expected to be able to recognize and respond cleverly to references to a ton of other existing classic poems from memory that people would just mention casually in conversation or writing (kinda like how people quote the Simpsons today lol). This was a prime marker of how intelligent/competent and - no joke - how sexy you were. So not surprisingly, these poems are extremely important to the development of character interactions and themes in the Tale of Genji which has a lot of romance and relationship plotlines. 

However. Translating Heian era Japanese into modern Japanese is already challenging. Rendering Heian era Japanese waka poetry into modern English is, as you might imagine, harder for a bunch of reasons. Considering how dense the actual novel already is, it’s super easy to gloss over the poetry, and some modern translations simply integrate the basic intent of the poems right into the main text/dialogue.

I was really interested in finding something specifically focusing on and analyzing the poetry, and this book appeared to fit the bill.

Short review: IT TOTALLY DOES. If you’re into Tale of Genji, Heian era, classical Japanese history, classical Japanese literature, Japanese poetry, or just love reading translators articulating eloquently while sassing characters or flailing through linguistic complexities, I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

Long review: blah blah blah thoughts follows, including some quotes/poem for reference.

The book starts with a quick 2 page intro setting the context of the Tale of Genji, then goes straight into the poems. TBH I personally found it more flowery and redundant than necessary (it repeats a few poems that are then explained later). But it’s only 2 pages, we’ll live.

Then, the poems. For every poem (or poems, in the case of an exchange - sometimes a flurry of them with multiple characters speaking or dashing letters off to each other) there’s an intro and summary of context followed by an analysis, including notes on meaning, narrator and character intent, structure, symbols and wordplay. The original Japanese is included in romaji alongside the English translation. The commentary also flags known references to other classic poems (WITH those poems in-line! This is awesome because I don’t have the rest of these books!), and even mentions poem and folk song quotations from the rest of the novel where the characters have not composed new poetry, but are reciting other existing known pieces.

Overall, I have only three real “warnings” about Grasses of Remembrance Vol 2b:

1) It’s very academic and flowery in tone. If you’re not used to it, it can be hard to read. But then again, if you’re not willing to get past that, how are you reading Tale of Genji? lol. In any case, I personally thought the commentary was a lot of fun. Cranston definitely has opinions and can get pretty sarcastic in places, which I found hilarious. Here are a few sample quotes:

“Tamakazura has remarked to herself how superior the Emperor [Reizei] was in looks to all the courtiers in his train (It is a principle with this author that superior people be dashingly handsome or ravishingly beautiful).” 

“The ruefully witty poems exchanged between Yugiri and To no Naishi [Koremitsu’s daughter, the Gosechi Dancer] are rather more to my taste than the soggy ones Yugiri and Kumoi no Kari exchanged on their wedding night. Might it be the case that a totally sanctioned relationship is literarily uninspiring?”

“The old lady reaches for the melodramatic ultimate and dies just as Yugiri’s letter arrives.”

The overall effect is like an exceedingly well-educated, gossipy and sassy ride through the entire novel hahaha. 

2) Minor typos. I noticed some speckled throughout the text every so often (e.g., Tamakazura being rendered Takakazura, Akashi as Asashi, instances of accidental extra letters, etc.). It was pretty clear what the correct spelling was supposed to be, and TBH considering this is the last of a huge-ass series of over 1300 pages I think it’s forgiveable. Maybe a few that spell-check should have caught, but oh well.

3) This book is NOT CHEAP. As I mentioned in a previous post, not only did I not buy the entire collection, I didn’t even buy a complete Volume 2 - I only bought the last half of the second volume lmao. And the Tale of Genji translations are only HALF of this half of a book. The rest is actually the footnotes, appendices, notes to poems, glossary, bibliography and indices (including indices for every poem by author and by first line) for this beast of a translation/compilation project. This includes a lot of additional commentary and other poems and makes for pretty interesting reading itself, even without the rest of the volumes/parts. The price can definitely be scary and an issue for a lot of people, so if you’re interested in it, I suggest try checking it out at your library or on Google Books first. (In fact, Google Books is how I learned of this book in the first place.)

For me, the depth of insight for the poems was fantastic. It gave me a lot more appreciation for the scenes, including the mental state of the characters, plus a million more symbols, metaphors and ideas for my own creative works like the Genjimonogatari illustration series, North Bound and other original stuff. 

It also clarified several fuzzy translation questions I had that relied on specific knowledge of Heian culture and history/evolution of the use of the language and wasn’t easily found in Google searches or online language resources. And even if you’re already familiar with common allusions, metaphors and puns/homophones in Japanese poetry, it’s still helpful to see them all summarized. And sometimes lamented by the book’s author too. SO MANY PONIES EATING GRASS. SO MANY PINES. Especially the pines. (It IS an amazing pun though, especially because it works in both English and Japanese. Pine [tree] -> to pine, matsu/pine tree -> matsu/to wait)

In term of the actual translations themselves, you may still find them coming off a bit roundabout in some cases when comparing to the original Japanese. But overall I find Cranston’s translations more direct/flavourful than how they were rendered in the Tyler translation, partly because of how Tyler chose to juggle his set of translator’s challenges for rendering not only meaning but also more technical aspects of the poetic form. So the imagery ends up being, to me, a lot more vivid. The overall effect usually ends up more colourful, more emotional, more erotic, more cutting, more entertaining, and whatnot. 

For example, Kashiwagi’s suitor’s poem in the Kocho/Butterflies chapter. When reading the novel, I was like, uh-huh, yah, OK. When I read it here, I was like whoa, dude, that’s a little intense lol. Cranston’s translation amps up the connotation of the heat of the water based on the rest of the line. For comparison:

(The original non-romaji Japanese in the samples following are thanks to the Japanese Text Initiative from the University of Virginia Library Etext Centre and the University of Pittsburgh East Asian Library. Their Tale of Genji page has a FREAKING AMAZING side-by-side comparison of the novel in original Japanese, modern Japanese and romaji. Bless them and the people who had to organize and wrangle that text together.)

Original Japanese: 思ふとも君は知らじなわきかへり 岩漏る水に色し見えねば Omou to mo / Kimi wa shiraji na / Wakikaeri Iwa moru misu ni / Iro shi mieneba

Tyler version: You can hardly know that my thoughts are all of you, for the stealthy spring welling from the rocks leaves no colour to be seen.

Cranston version: Hardly can you know / Of the longing that I feel, / For the boiling wave / Is merely colorless water / As it drains away from the rock.

Here’s another example. Oigimi (Agemaki in the book, as Cranston used Wayley’s names for the sisters) telling Kaoru that he’s the only one who’s been actually visiting them and Kaoru is like all riiiight :Db! From Shii ga Moto / Beneath the Oak chapter:

Oigimi’s poem 雪深き山のかけはし君ならで またふみかよふ跡を見ぬかな Yuki fukaki / Yama no kakehashi / Kimi narade Mata fumikayou / Ato o minu kana

Tyler: No brush but your own has marked the steep mountain trails buried deep in snow / with footprints, while back and forth letters go across the hills.

Cranston: Over the bridges / Clinging to the cliffs along / Our deep-snow mountains / No letter-bearer leaves his trace: / Those footprints are yours alone.

Kaoru’s reply つららとぢ駒ふみしだく山川を しるべしがてらまづや渡らむ Tsurara toji / Koma fumishidaku / Yamakawa o Shirube shigatera / Mazu ya wataramu

Tyler: Then let it be I who firsts ride across these hills, though on his mission, / where ice under my horse’s hooves crackles along frozen streams.

Cranston: In the sheets of ice / Covering the mountain streams / My steed crushes / Such letters as form my reason, / My first, to cross as a guide.

In other examples, Genji’s “*throws hands in the air* I give up” poetic reply to Suetsumuhana about how she keeps using Robes of Cathay/Chinese cloak imagery in her poems in the original Japanese alongside the translation cracked me up even more. And one of my favourites is a pair of poems between the future Akashi Empress (as a child) and her birth-mother the Akashi lady. It’s really sad, sweet and cute all at the same time and completely flew under my radar when I read the novel originally.

The poetry analysis for the Uji chapters is especially intriguing. The plot pointedly pits Niou against Kaoru as opposing personalities with particular similarities and contrasts that drive their relationship with each other and with the woman they’re competing for. Especially in the latter half of the story, a lot of their poems, even ones written independently (i.e., to Ukifune), are specifically composed to highlight those attributes and play off of each other.

Finally, it’s also super interesting to see my experience with the narrative changes through the lens of the poems. Obviously, as I mentioned, some things I easily missed without paying as much attention to the poems in between the rest of the story. But also, some prominent characters have very few poems, so the narrative shifts away from them. Meanwhile, a number of otherwise very minor or usually overlooked characters stand out even more, thanks to the fineness, loveliness, resonance, and sometimes just sheer consistent presence of their poetry. This book definitely gave me a lot of additional perspective on the Tale of Genji, and enhanced my appreciation of the novel and the skill behind its crafting!

[leaveharmony]

Wk thoughts under the cut cos I am still too wired to sleep lol

Tana....thank god.  I cried through the entire match lmao.  I just cried and cried and cried.  His synthetic ponytail though, I mean I appreciated it so much but was so nervous that idk if I appreciated it ENOUGH and will have to rewatch just to love it harder.  Jay gave a good fucking account of himself, I think I was judging too critically at first just because I was so sure he was gonna take the title (coming off Hiromu's loss which was just a knife to the heart).  But him jumping down from the top turnbuckle when Tana couldn't get up actually made me laugh, which is something considering how hard I was crying so props for that lol.  It was a good solid story of a young lion returning full of anger at having been sent out in the first place and all his memories being tainted and him trying to take it out on his mentor, being SO ANGRY and having this false idea that Tana wasn't as wonderful as he thought he was when he looked up to him but also almost like desperate to reclaim that impression of him at the same time, even while he resented wanting to.  It was good stuff.  Gripping.  I nearly had a heart attack.  Lol. Standout moment was DEFINITELY Goto vs. MiSu, goddamn that was just...that was beautiful.  Like consider the NEVER elevated just on that match alone tbh.  MiSu going back to the ring and putting down his own fucking chair, grabbing the clippers and shaving his hair himself absolutely blew me away, I was literally sitting there applauding, what a fucking moment.  Also nice cameo by gymsocks hero YOSHI, who for his trouble got landed on by Taichi lol. Hiromu...oh my god.  Fuck he was so close, he /had/ it.  Honestly half the reason I was emotional roller coastering for Tana's match was because I was so upset Hiromu didn't win.  Honestly Thirstcast deflated like a balloon when Will took it, it was the result literally nobody wanted.  I guess they're gonna make it a longer campaign and KUSHI'll pass the torch before he moves up to do G1, I still think this is Hiromu's story, he's such a fucking head and shoulders above every other motherfucker performer that a blind man could see he's got a huge future ahead of him.  He's inspiring TANA to give his all for god's sake,  and Tana already does!  And Daryl Jr, oh my actual god lol.  Proud of my CHAOS boys, Yano for MVP honestly.  The real winners were War Machine who don't have to hold titles w/ Elgin lmao. EVIL and SANADA came through which was brill, long may they reign, good on Seiya for getting the pinfall too omg. I still dgaf about the gruesome twosome but did appreciate Roppongi's new gear, not sure why the Bucks need the titles again....like fuck off I was tired of you before I knew who you were.  Roppongi are SO GOOD. Gonna have to rewatch Kota and Cody bc since thirstcast went down in the resulting chaos I was trying to figure out how to set up a room and continue and didn't pay a load of attention tho I was trying to.  I liked Kota's new shorts lol.  Follow for more delerious exhausted in depth analysis. Lol I'm not even sure what to think about the main event!!  Like you could have knocked me over w/ a feather I was rooting for Kazu but didn't expect him to actually win the damn thing.  I dunno where they're going w/ this and I dunno that I agree with it honestly, but I'm choosing to trust.  Naito deserves a hell of a run w/ that belt.   Kenny looked like an idiot and Jericho didn't embarrass himself too badly.  Like I was riding so high on relief endorphins that I actually quite enjoyed their train wreck lol...in a way Tana was the star of that match b/c if he'd lost beforehand I wouldn't have cared at all.  I hope the pair of idiots didn't bang themselves up too much.  I'm glad to see that Kenny at least remembers how to make someone else look good while winning, which you'd never have known from his last few defenses...shoutout to Elle for being ready w/ the shame bell as I continued against all odds to stan Y2J lmao

[snow-okki]

Polor Night Rant

Because my way of showing love to Messiah is to pick clean each one of its bones until there is not even a speck of dust left to pick. And also because I've finally watched it (yes I'm that late into the party).

Disclaimer: I'm not a movie critic. Tis a rant.

Also spoiler if you haven't watched it, but really if you still haven't watched it till now, you live under more rocks than I do.

Also warning: it’s long.

I should have never expected much from Messiah movie the moment I saw them still using that obviously fake explosion in the trailer.

First, the directing. IT SUCKS. Even more than in previous movies.

I get it, they're not filming everything in chronological order. But that's not what it's supposed to feel like! The transition is supposed to be smooth, the continuity is supposed to hold.

Biggest offender is the scene where Kuroko chased after Mamoru. Mamoru was walking while staring onto a piece of paper when suddenly Kuroko appeared behind him. Mamoru broke into a sprint, and then scene cuts to Mamoru being blocked by a no-named sakura cadet, and then cut to Kuroko already standing behind Mamoru fancily twirling and pointing his lil knife at Mamoru's throat.

Unless Kuroko teleported, which there are better ways to imply that Kuroko can move faster than the wind, it feels like the editor forgot to add a clip and just be like "Eh, the fans can just assume that Kuroko teleported, no biggie."

But it is a biggie. It takes the immersion out of the movie. It's like a speeding car suddenly break into a halt. Ain't fun yo.

And about continuity, this is a small but the easiest to point out example. On the scene where Guen was confronting Misu with the data from the flash disc he had acquired from his lil bro, Misu was chilling on the sofa with a paper in hand. Cut to scene where Misu brought the paper closer for him to read. The next scene is zoomed out, and we have Misu, still chilling on the sofa, with his hand and the paper he had just read a second ago dangling loosely from the sofa head.

This is not Harry Potter Movie 2001 where they can get away with forgetting which side of the forehead Harry's scar is supposed to be on. This is 2017.

(And let's not start on the biggest continuity error that is Misu's past)

Secondly, music. Previously for Akatsuki I praised it for the variety and frequency of background music being used. The movie, however….is dead silent 90% of the time.

"It's an information heavy movie, lots of talking so music won't be appropriate." Fine.

You're lucky if the talking scene is accompanied by some keyboard mashing sound. Enjoy dead silence as two old men talk to each other~

And when the movie does use background music…it feels very out of place. At least some of them.

I have a bone to pick with that 'holier than thou' music for the Kuroko serves Ichijima tea scene, and the music for Misu dying scene.

The former, it's veeeryyyy out of place. The church may be fancy, and it might be Ichijima's tea time (with Japanese traditional glass), but the entire situation is not. If the creator's trying to achieve cognitive dissonance, congrats, they did it.

As for the latter, it's…well, it's not a good background music. It works for the trailer, but as background, I feel that it's too strong. It's as if the music's competing with Misu-Amane in 'who can make the audience cry harder' competition. Amane wins btw.

Thirdly, GEN 3.

My god I wish this movie doesn't exist for Gen 3. All this movie does is putting each Gen 3 kids into a stereotype. And it sort of developed Mayo's character but NOT KOGURE AND YUGI.

Yugi constantly spouting catchphrases like "Who should I defeat?" is unnatural, with the one in the public bath scene being the worst example. He's a sportsman, sure, but athletes don't go around to everyone saying "Hey you, wanna judo me?" or something like that. Gangsters do that. (Plot twist le gasp)

Kogure…is…uh……a talking machine? Besides being a butt monkey which I highly approve, all he did was spouting information super rapidly. (Now I find it hilarious if he's related to Ichijima since Ichijima always takes his sweet time in delivering his lines XD). But other than that, he’s as bland as the wall.

Mayo is one of the highlights of this movie, his character providing the much-needed break from all the seriousness, and he gets his character development too! We have "Call me Mayo-sama, Mayo-tan is also fine!", him being the first to figure out Mamoru-Kaito relationship, and all his scenes with his mysterious leaf. This is good.

IF ONLY THEY DO THE SAME TO THE REST OF GEN 3

Fourth, and probably the most subjective point to argue, is acting.

Some butai actors are not meant to act in a movie. That, or the directing sucks so bad this gap shows.

What happens is that butai actors tend to exaggerate their movements which looks very unnatural in movie (OKKI), or they can't deliver information heavy scenes without looking like they're reading a script (Shinchan, also Okki). The blu-billions minions stick out like a sore thumb, hair wise and acting wise.

Yes I find Misu's dying scene hammy. Amane pulled it off nicely, but not Misu.

They probably could benefit from better directing, as in less 'all in one take' scenes. But alas, budget.

Fifth, the making.

If we talk about butai backstage, I think Tenimyu is the first to make butai backstage such a huge thing that it gets its own DVD now. And I still find it (Tenimyu 1st) to be the most enjoyable backstage to date, for a reason: it's a bunch of actors naturally having fun.

Messiah is so not a good series to have this 'fun' backstage.

The movie is shot under very short time constrain so there's not much time to chill, let alone bond. Actors repeatedly mention how Messiah's lines are heavy, which again means there's not much time to chill. With the story being very serious, acting blunders can't be passed as a joke, and the actors who have immersed themselves in this serious universe can't afford to joke around at the expense of their actings. And for this title in particular, the actors' relationship are not solid yet with half of them being new casts, so some 'bonding' moments feels forced (Okki and Shinchan has zero chemistry).

In other words, they're really better off making some kind of documentary or interview, something that showcases the depth of Messiah series or their characters, instead of trying to make a friendship/fun type of backstage.

Ok I've ranted enough about all the stuff I have issues with. Let's end this in a good note!

The good things!

1. The writing. All the callbacks to previous installments. The little things the characters get to do to show their personality (partially thanks to their actors as well). But not the plot. I find it too cheesy of an ending.

2. Kogure being a butt monkey. Eiri's the closest thing we have to a butt monkey in the entire history of Messiah. I'm glad some comedy is coming back. Especially that lil scene where Kogure complained to Yugi about the water splashes going into his eyes. That's adorable. *fangirl continues*

3. The making. Forgot to mention this but I find that some things are better not shown in the making. Like the shooting of Misu getting washed away by torrent of CG water. Watching that breaks my suspension of disbelief. I can't rewatch it and cry the same way I rewatch Mamoru-Kaito's scene in Shibi and cry.

But other things, like Okki totally not nailing his lines, Shinchan getting 'Messiah baptism' by also screwing up his lines, Ichijima somehow nailing all his long-ass lines with no miss, Misu accidentally hitting Guen for real, Ryoki chugging what looks like a milk but is probably not, Sugie not nailing his lines after splashing Shinchan in the public bath scene, Ichijima's wtf muscles…Many good stuff XD

Aaaand that's about it. Overall I'm not that into this movie. This feels like a spin-off, that is the main series can just continue from Akatsuki and there won't be any issue besides having to justify Misu and Amane's disappearance. None of the non Misu-Amane plot here are important or something that can't be justified by Akatsuki. Okay maybe besides Mayo's character development and the whole cult deal, which can also be explained off handedly in Yuukyuu in less than 5 mins. Sure I enjoy the fanservicy moments, but that's it, fan service. They'll be completely gone by the release of the next installment.

I really wish they've ended it with Misu and Amane settling down forgoing their goal for 'world equality', something like 'you're more important than my ideals'. That'll be poignant, and very Messiah like, and saves them the budget for that cheap-ass CG water torrent.

[sambart93]

Messiah: Polar Night [Review]

I got to see this movie two times in two days! Monday and Tuesday -- I shouldn’t say ‘got to’ because I didn’t enjoy it! Messiah, in true Messiah style, hurt all the feels we fangirls have once again. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Trailer here and here

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: Messiah, in true Messiah style, did what it does best: Hurting our feelings and the characters feelings. This was a very interesting movie, and having Amane and Misu as the center story was amazing! It’s a prequel to Akatsuki so gives us more introduction to the three new cadets. While it does rip your heart out in the end, there are quite a lot of funny moment which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am, though, not happy with how they treated and extended Mamiya’s story line. I just feel like they’re making him out to be more evil than originally perceived but that’s me being Mamiya bias. Thanks for breaking my heart once again Messiah! Why do I continue to stay with this abusive boyfriend?! Rating: 7/10

---

Now for the spoilers!! MWAHAHAHAHA So be warned; I’m going all out!

*Disclaimer: I do find Messiah difficult to understand at times, so if I get anything wrong, let me know, and don’t take my story 100% as the truth xD

I’ll try and keep in order of how the scenes happened and try to keep chronological.

The opening has this water effect that’s super, super pretty!! But OMG the foreshadowing even in the opening! I didn’t realise until the second time around just how much the opening credits like foreshadows the shit that goes down towards the end. And attention to detail in the opening too is amazing! 

I love how it starts with Misu waking up from a nightmare (pretty close up shot) and then we immediately see that Amane is in his bed! Of course my Bl-poisoned brain was like ‘that bed is big enough for both of them! Let them sleep together!’ But of course, Misu is just being a gentleman and logical and a nice friend so let Amane have the whole bed.

The opening credits is so sad because Amane up and LEAVES Misu! And he just leaves a note ‘三栖さん、今までありがとうございます 周’ so I was straight away up and crying! Amane!!! Don’t LEAVE Misu!

The next scene I also really love. It shows Misu working out and being all sweaty and doing these awesome movies. I love Misu okay -- BIG massive warning: I love Misu! Okay! So I am going to flail about him a lot. Good? Good!

We see Misu joining a new police force under the command of Shikura and when I noticed that the second in command is freaking NAKAMURA SEIJIROU!!!!! I FREAKED OUT!! TWO TOKIENTA* BOYS ARE IN THIS!!! I fangirled so hard! I really liked Nakamura’s character in this. But with this film being a prequel, I was immediately wondering ‘well why wasn’t he in the stage Akatsuki?’ but by the end of the film they explained why he wasn’t in the stage.

In this new group there’s obviously Amane Gwen (Guen) Shougo and I giggled so hard at Misu's reaction when Amane is introduced himself. Misu’s reaction was EXACTLY the same as my reaction when he was introduced in Akatsuki. me and Misu are clearly soulmates. 

Of course, Amane knows Misu is an (ex?)terrorist so doesn’t trust him at all, so Nakamura is like ‘well lets do some training and fight it out’. OF COURSE Misu kicks everyone’s butts! Seeing Amane all bloody after fighting Misu was actually pretty sexy. The moves they did too were impressive. And then we got Misu and Nakamura fight which was even more badass -- but there is a dodgy ‘trying to be slow-mo but very obviously not slow-mo’ shot.

And then we finally get to Sakura and we have the introduction of the new guys: Miike, Kugure and Yuuki. Miike being a fucking brat straight away, ugh but he’s an intelligent one -_- and they’ve been given a mission by Ichijima to find out why there’s been so many bombs around Tokyo recently, who it is and to decide and find out where the next one(s) will be. Naturally Yuuki and Kugure do and they’re told but Miike gets bored easily and is like ‘lets have some tea time!’ and also leaves the room very quickly -- he’s taken away by the sound of a violin.

While the new cadets are doing this, Shirasaki is in his room, sitting in silence, absolutely torn. His phone rings and he dreads picking it up and keeps getting on Ichijima’s case ‘do you have any news on Kaito?’, to which Ichijima always says ‘あなたが知るはず淮斗くんの情報がない / There’s no news on Kaito that you need to know’ (I wish I could remember the exact quote, it was a good line)’ which pisses off Shirazaki and ultimately he makes the decision to run away from Sakura and find him himself. But in reality, Ichijima knows jack shit about both Kaitou’s disappearance AND about what happened to Mamiya because the high-ups are refusing to trust and tell Sakura anything, and are in fact, deciding to give all the information to the organisation Misu is now a part off. So naturally Ichijima is pissed he’s not being told stuff, but keeps calm around the cadets.

I still don’t like Ichijima and I’m annoyed he’s back (give me back Goumoto Naoya and Kamikita NOW!) but I get why he does what he does and he’s good at what he does. But I’ve just never trusted him -- ESPECIALLY in Akatsuki when he was the main suspect for everything bad that happened in that storyline. I don’t trust him; never have, never will. I think his ‘leg click and fight’ fighting is badass though and I do like the actor just... thanks but no thanks Ichijima. ANYWAY! Back to the movie!

Eventually the two allumni of Sakura track down and find Amane, three times today, and tell him that he should join Sakura and that it’s his fate to join them. Every time he replies ‘I’m never going to join because those outfits are awfuk’. But eventually, in order to help Misu out and in order to stop the next bombing, he decides to go to Church and help them out. Once he’s there Ichijima says the cadets are free to attempt to beat Amane in a fight but naturally he woops all the new cadets’ asses, commenting that ‘I remember old Sakura being much better’. He ends up trying to attack Ichijima but in true Sakura style, Ichijima stops him.

Before he gets taken to Church though, he goes to the allumnis onsen/public bathhouse -- yes they’ve upgraded from a barbers to a public bathhouse -- and he has a public bath with Yuuki and Kugure -- it’s fucking hilarious! He’s like  ‘ -____- Why do I have to take a bath? Just take me to Church already!’ xD

With Shirasaki gone; Eiri and Haku join in on finding the pattern between the bombs, predicting when the next one is, figuring out what the hell the Mamiya report is, and finding and stopping Shirasaki.

Thanks to the cadets scouring the security cameras around Tokyo, they find Shirasaki with Misu. Misu gives him the directions to Hopporengo while Shirasaki hands over the Mamiya Report which is a music sheet with a hidden code in it.

Shirasaki, obviously, gets found by Sakura, and has a knife pinned against his throat from Kuroko who doesn’t want to kill him but threatens to.

There’s a super funny scene when Amane comes in to help Eiri and Haku and immediately Haku sits down (his computer desk filled with wrappers and candy) and offers some to Eiri, who immediately replies ‘ / I don’t need any’ and then he offer Amane who replies exactly the same. ALSO! Freaking Haku’s keyboard is BENT which I found hilarious!

Also the password to cracking the Mamiya code was ‘Messiah without G String’ which made me laugh SO hard but also the grammar-nazi in my was like ‘THE!!!!’ This is where Ichijima literally explains Mamiya’s entire life story and I can’t quite decide which way the story went: *UPDATED

A. Mamiya was brought up to be able to pass messages onto the rest of his terrorist group via the melody he played on his violen.

OR

B. He was trained to give messages via his violin and he didn’t realise he had been under Tstutsumi’s command and didn’t realise the manipulation until Hagane and Eiri/Haku’s mission that he’d been manipulated and by that time he’d already gotten in too deep.

Especially because they found the Mamiya report information in a capsule in his stomach during the autopsy and it had been swallowed 4 hours before he was killed. Also, Ariga mentions that Mamiya’d been playing the violin more frequently towards the end of Haku/Eiri’s mission -- I guess this was when he figured he’d been manipulated to send messages this way.

Swear to god if it’s route A then I’m going to be pissed. he is NOT the bad guy here!

Anyway...

So they finally find where the next omb has been placed and obviously Hopporengo are guarding it so Amane, Amane, Misu, Yuuki, Suwabe go in; either to the control center, or to kill the terrorists, or (for Misu and Suwabe) to get to the bomb and get rid of it. Of course it doesn’t go according to plan because...

And the biggest rage of this entire movie: They fucking KILLED Misu!! They KILLED HIM! THEY DROWNED HIM! His nae is MISU! Don’t take it or make it so meta oh my god! I cannot believe they killed him. before he went out on the mission, he spoke to Amane and was like ‘lets go eat after this. Make sure you make a reservation.’ and as SOON as he said that I started crying because I fucking knew they were going to kill him off and they did! I cried the entire way home (which is two trains and about 30minutes). WHY DID YOU KILL ANOTHER OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS?! You’ve killed TWO out of my THREE favourite characters now! Fuck you Messiah... Fuck you. But jesus christ, Tamaki’s acting as he’s screaming for Messiah, the police and for anyone to just stop the water from going into the tunnel where Misu was, was so heart breaking and real and raw to watch. It’s so heartbreaking! And Misu dies starring the water right in the face and giving it the middle finger and just... I’m going to cry now...

...

..

.

Towards the end, Miike leaves a note for Ariga and he goes down the where the violin and some plant is, and soon Mamiya reveals himself to Ariga. It’s this moment that Ariga says ‘You’ll always be my Messiah, but I have Itsuki now’ and Mamiya goes to speak, he starts with ‘from here on out-’ but fucking Itsuki freaking interrupts with his yelling from the top of the stairs and when Ariga turns back around, Mamiya is gone -__- but I do love Ariga’s last line where he yells “KAGAMI!!! .... Urusai / You’re fucking loud / You’re annoying’. It’s such a predictable moment but also a very good moment but god dammit! Give me that message Mamiya wanted to say!! RAGE!!

And then we’re back in the onsen. It goes (left to right) Ichijima, Yuuki, Kuruge, and Itsuki. Miike is, for some reason there, but outisde the bath fully clothed and just hanging there. Itsuki is sulking ‘Ariga told me ‘nothing’s wrong’ tut. But clearly something is wrong!’ xD

Ichijima yelling about Kaito being dead in front of Kuroko and Kuroko being dead scared of him. Ichijima was pissed at Kamikita the entire movie for some reason...

I absolutely love the ending! And by ending I mean POST CREDIT SCENE! We follow and suited figure walked down the aisle and then going into an office which has Amane’s letter and Misu’s picture and teddy bear and then the camera pans around to reveal Amane. He looked very sexy in that suit and glasses. He stars right at the camera and says ‘Okay Misu-san... 俺たちの革命の始まりだ / This is were our revolution starts’ and he smiles and BAM ending!

---

Some scenes I don’t remember what order they were in but I liked:

There’s a scene where Misu and Amane are in the car (a flashback) and I did not pay attention to conversation because the BL-idiot in me was like ‘are they gunna kiss?! Just kiss!’ xD I thought they were gunna kiss xD damn my brain!

James in a suit!!! He looked so good and he spoke Russia for most of his screen time which was interesting! But unfortunately I don’t know ho accurate it is xD

Also, upon the first watch, it looked like Amane Shougo had let James in and acknowledged his presences when he first walked into the cop institution.

After seeing this movie, some questions, theories and comments I want to make are:

What the fuck is up Miike? He’s able to hear Mamiya’s violin and sees him and obviously talks to him a few times. And Ichijima clearly understands what’s going on with Miike because he lets him relax rather than participate in the mission! Some ghost whisperer or what?! 

Is Shikura Misu's dad?!?! At the end Misu is like, ‘it was you who sent to teddy bear wasn’t it?’ and Shikura is like ‘yeah’ so he’s known Misu since he was  tiny boy! He’s gotta be the dad!

Also, I am convinced Kugure and Ichijima are related. They have the same speech pattern and speed, their way of thinking is the same, Kugure is always standing RIGHT next to Ichijima and sometimes a little too close. And they look similar and wear glasses.

Why, why, why, why did they kill Misu?!???! 

And what's Amane gunna do after this?!?? He’s on his own now! I thought both TamaChan and Nakamura were leaving Messiah for good but with THIS ending then... Amane’s gunna be getting some shit blown up right?! He’s clearly still going to be involved... but why did you have to kill Misu?!

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PHEW! I’m done... goddammit Messiah! Why you gotta break hearts?! Can we not have a happy story for once?!

*TokiEnta = Toki Entertainment Company which Tamaki and Nakamura, (other like Baba Ryoma, Tomita Sho, Takasaki Shouta, Aramaki Yoshihiko) are part of.

[lambchopviking]

I've been watching quite a lot of Misu's Pancrase matches from his early days and I can honestly say that this guy has not missed a beat at all. I have no idea how a guy his age can still move the way he does.

i love watching his old pancrase stuff, he’s a lot of fun to watch and i love just being able to see him calculating what to do next at times, it’s really interesting

it really is amazing that he’s aged so well

[ohnojustimagine]

Minoru has been a monster recently & with his new feud with mox it’s made me wanna a read back your old suzuki imagines and MAN theyre still just as good as the first time I read them!!! Just wanna say ty for them & wondering if u were keeping up with NJPW at all recently :00

I am indeed still keeping up with NJPW! (Watching New Beginning live right now - Gino just said Jay smells lovely. Of course he does!) But yeah, MiSu’s been on fire with this Mox stuff, I just love how much he seems to be enjoying himself with it all. Also damn, is there anything hotter than Suzuki just demanding to be hit harder and then taking it with such relish, like it’s turning him on so hard and he doesn’t even care how bad it shows. I’m glad you like all the old stuff! I need to write more New Japan, I’ve slacked off on that for a bit. And MiSu’s such a total delight to write about, I really do miss him!