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popculturebuffet · 10 months

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Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Review: That's How It Could've Happened, But How About This?

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN AT LEAST EPISODE ONE, TURN BACK. SERIOUSLY DUDE. DO IT NOW. IF YOUR COOL WITH SPOILING YOURSELF, ROCK ON.

Hello all you happy scottaholics. I"m back in the saddle again. For those just tuning in i'm Jake, I review stuff.. and a few years back I reviewed the entirety of Brian Lee O'Malley's masterpiece, and the movie as a chaser, having been a fan of Scott Pilgrim since my teens but only having just revisited it at the time I started my retrospective. It was a wonderful journey that made me appricate one of my favorite comics even more and gave me a ton of my best running gags. You can find links to each review HERE in one masterpost.

So naturally when the anime was announced last year, I was entirely on board: I loved this story in all three of it's major forms and was excited to see it again, maybe updated a tad. I was also curious if the story would get a setting update, what would change , and what subplots we'd FINALLY see on screen after the film had to trim a lot thanks to half the series not being finished yet and a tight two hour run time. I was cautiously optimistic when the cast was announced as while I was happy to see the massively talented breakout cast of the film return and get another shot at the characters, I was worried it'd just be the movie but animated.. which thankfully turned out not to be remotely true once trailers came out. Instead they'd simply get a shot at playing the characters again but this time with diffrent characterizations. I coudln't be more stoked.

As it turns out though.. O'Malley had zero intention of telling the same story again. In fact, he almost DIDN'T sign on despite getting the juciest of offer, with the anime's studio, Science Saru, wanting their next project after their breakout hit Devilman Crybaby to be Scott Pilgrim and coming to O'Malley Directly.

The problem wasn't the offer: O'Malley, unsuprisingly, was a fan of Science Saru, who in addition to Devilman had also made Space Dandy and the early pilot shorts for OK KO. The problem was O'Malley.. really didn't want to simply retell scott's story a fourth time. It was a story that was personal, deeply loved and made his career.. but after a movie that everyone knew and love and a video game that was so well loved it was many's holy grail for a rerelease for over a decade after it was delisted, he didn't know how to take the story in a new direction and didn't want to do the story again if it was simply going to be a rehash: people could read the book sometime or watch the movie if they wnated Scott fighting the exes.

Thankfully for us, Brian brought up the offer to his good friend BenDavid Grabinski, a tv and film writer. BenDavid was a huge fan of Scott Pilgrim and thus when the idea came up coudln't help spitballing ideas. And one stuck: What if Scott LOST that first fight. It was naturally just a joke.. but like when Superman died.. it's one that had some heft to it. If Scott were gone what would happen to everyone else? How would Ramona react to his loss? Was Scott really gone? how would his friends go on without him... and what would happen to the exes now they weren't guaranteed to die in a fist fight and the entire problem with Gideon's whole plan was laid bare?

These questions and more are answered as Ramona gets to the bottom of what REALLY happned to scott, who unsurprisingly is not dead and even more unsurprisingly the truth is all kinds of bananas. The story of a human tire fire learning to be a better person and not runa way from his problems... becomes the story of a much more composed tire fire learning she can't run away from her problems after she chases after what might have been, forced to get closure with most of her exes as she tries to hunt down the ex that never was. Along the way there's messy bisexual love triangles, movie rental melee's, Tony Hawk style antics done on swarms of paparazzi ninjas, the greatest musical of all time, the rise of Matthew patel, the fall and re-rise of Gordon Goose, explosions, cameos, and more as Ramona Flowers gets it together while Scott Pilgrim takes off, resulting in one of the best animated series of the 2020's and possibly the best of a very stacked 2023. So take off with me as we press start on a fresh new take on one of my favorite franchises under the cut.

Ramona Flowers Gets It Together

This one's going to be a LOT to unpack, and the best place to start is with our new lead: Ramona Flowers. Ramona has never been unimportant to this franchise: after all it's her exes that make up the fight of the week each volume and who give the franchise it's hook, and in the comics she develops alongside scott: As I said in my reviews, Ramona develops alongside him, having to learn to not keep people at arms length and to not run away, nearly running away from everything before coming back, realizing Scott's worth it. Through each other, they grow stronger.

So with Scott gone... Ramona is forced to grow all on her own. If she wants to date Scott, SHE has to fight this time, and she can't run like she tends to. In the comics, she had to scrap with Envy and Roxy, but all the weight to evolve as a person was put on Scott: Ramona had a stable job, was content in her life even if her friend group was basically "Whoever scott happened to be friends with", she was seemingly all together until the last three volumes slowly chip away at that and reveal she's just as bad at staying and improving instead of noping the fuck out of an intense situation as scott. She has to evolve.. but her getting better isn't the point till the climax of the story. It's a lesson in how while a relationship can HELP you grow, ultimately it's on you to: Scott grows because he stops running and embraces his evil self and thus the memories of all his fuckups, embraces that he could sometimes be shitty so he can learn past it. Ramona has to choose to stand and fight gideon and let go of hte hold he has on her, to let go of running and embrace what she has.

Here without Scott and only the vauge mystery of a guy she dated once, Ramona instead has to confront herself: many a character question her doing this. While it starts simple enough with just Julie questioning it, because Julie hates scott as much as I hate the comics version of her, we get harder questions from Kim, whose dated Scott and knows how insesntive he can be, and Lucas who KNOWS Ramona and knows her style is to run. That a happy ending isn't as easy as finding scott again andmaking out intensely. Ramona has to make her own happy ending.

As a result instead of being the sneaky deutratonist or a prop depending on the version (I Love the movie but man do they not do her well), Ramona has to confront her past on her own, and instead of just getting cathartic punchings, she has to actually.. TALK to her exes and resolve things like an adult. And you can imagine how much she likes the prospect of that.

And this flip in how the story works.. is brilliant: It allows us to get to know Ramona: We're seeing things from her perspective instead of Scotts so we see her way more vunerable, genuinely shaken by Scott's "Death", obssesed with solving his kidnapping, and forced to confront her past. Granted like the books we also get to see the lighter side: Ramona is still the straight man to a lot of the cast especially her exes. She and Kim are the sanest one's here and Kim is often out of focus, leaving Ramona one of the few rational people in a sea of gloriously goofy nonsense. Yet we also see her own intrests: she's a columbo fan, turns out to be a natural for stunt work, and has a meticulous routine for her hair dye. We also find out she's a blonde which is only TECHNICALLY cannon to this version.. but fits too well as her hair color to work.

We get to see Ramona not as some ideal to chase slowly turned into a person but just.. a person. Funny, aloof, kind, easily baffled... this is easily my favorite verison of her. Granted it's not exactly ac ontest: The comic's version is great and this simply takes the best of that and fleshes her out, the video game is a 16 bit brawler, and the movie... well look I like the movie, but the film version is a nigh emotionless prop that barely gave Mary Elizabeth Winstead anything to work wtih forgetting ramona HAS emotions who instead of simply having her emotoins amplified is outright brainwashed. I used to think Kim got the shortest end of the stick but doing this review.. no it was Ramona. Ramona got screentime but had any personality stripped. Thankfully both Ramona and Mary Elizabeth get a second shot on the screen here.

Mary Elizabeth's performanc ecan't be overstated: she nicely ballances Ramona's stocisim, something key to her charcter as her main problem is distance, that she puts up and that she creates by running away, with the emotoin peeking up just underneath to say hello. IT's a truly great performance and I hope she'll consider doing more voice acting, she's an natural.

And this is great as Ramona's quest eventually leads her back to scott.. and to an ending that's both profound.. and pokes some holes in the series itself.

The Adventures of Scott and Scott

So turns out Scott was kindapped by of ALL characters, Robot 01, the Katanagi Twin's robot minion who shows up for one fight in the comics and video game and then explodes real good. Here he's their little robot son.. and how Scott got kidnapped.

But thankfully the culrprit isn't the Twins. I would've liked for them to get more to do, more on that later. THeir involved, having leant their robot boy to a friend since , as a robot who can't eat, Robot 01 has never had meat and has no human limits and thus is the strongest robot vegan who ever existed.

God I love this stupid reveal. Anyways, turns out Scott's kidnapper.. is SCOTT. Specifically a version of him who did the usual story, won, had a happy ten years with Ramona, then it fell apart after an argument which he assumed ended in divorce.

This is another twist that was brilliant.. I thought Scott's kidnapper was another scott, but I assumed a clone situation. I never thought FUTURE Scott but it's such a brilliant move. We see a Scott who won.. but who simply didn't let the lessons he learned stick. It's easy to learn something about you sucks, I have many a time.. it's harder to make the changes stick. I can't tell you how many ephnaiinies i've had only to end up back where I started. Some change has stuck with effort, but it's not easy. You have to constantly work at it, to grow. And it's easy enough to backslide.. and thus sadly easy to buy that this verison of Scott , when hit with his relationship not working, spiralied instead of working at it , not helped by Old Ramona, their words not mine, ghosting him.

He's a ghost of Scott future, every bad thing about the guy amplified: he's oblivious, thinking his newest band is going anywhere with his gloriously crappy music video, and refusing to accept it was his fault, throwing a tantrum when Young Scott states the obvious solution: just tell his younger self some of his fuckups and hopefully that'll right the relationship. Instead Future Scott goes for the solution that's easiest and laziest: use time travel to undo his relationship. And naturally this being Scott he got this stupid idea from taking a joke Wallace told him seriously. I love Wallace's "Buddy I was kidding".

I also love the performance here. Rather than use Michael Cera , Future Scott is voiced by voice acting, comedy and beard legend Will Forte. Forte's goofy nature, penchant for playing man children blind to their own flaws, and deadpan deliveries make Future Scott work. He's deeplys ad, but also deeply hilarious, sharing some of Scott's weird intricates like assuming because Future Wallace's husband works for nintendo he gets all the video games for free and making a virtual boy scrapbook of his relationship.

He's still throughly Scott.. just one who can't get past himself, requiring Scott and Future Wallace to go to Future Ramona for help. Shockingly.. she's more than willing too: While she still has Ramona's own problem of running away at the first sign of trouble, she does still LOVE this idiot, she just dosen't know how to fix it and knows she can't talk him out of this, so she sends scott back to be with his ramona... well rides him back leading to some awkward selfies.

But naturally for this tale, Scott coming back.. dosen't fix things. And not just because his older self put anti kissing nanites in him.

Scott has grown some from seeing what he could be: He apologizes to Knives, in a scene that I truly love.. mostly for this line "Apparently a 23 year old dating a high schooler is frowned upon by society".

And I have to stop for a minute to give ALL the props to Michael Cera. He already had done plenty awesome this year as the boy of the year

He didn't need to go for two but he did. Cera wasn't at all bad as Scott the first go round: the character was different, a bit less goofy but still awkward as hell and oblivious to his own flaws: the core was there. Here .. Cera is playing the character as on page, if slightly amped up: Goofy, excitable, trying to ignore his painful past and flaws, charming.. all the good and bad of scott is bubbling around this guy. And the line deliveries my god: we have instant classics like "I'm using the world wide web" "The place where they make the video games", the instantly memetic sonic scene (Which would be me trying to flirt with a girl, ngl), and the above frowned upon line. Cera just bubbles in this roll, sliding into who scott is: Loveable but a total mess who needs to get his shit together and has made some grave mistakes.

Granted they also take steps to make sure Scott's relationship with Knives as judging from interviews, O'Malley is kinda tried of the take that scott pilgrim is a bastard man. I mean he is, but it's less that Scott has some shit to work out and need to be better and more that everyone acts like this is a new discovery. As the author himself said it's there on the first page and a good chunk of chapter one is the people who know him best asking what the hell is wrong with him.

Granted this is mixed with Stephen hooting and hollering as much as he can with his stoic personality, Neil being in awe and asking if they'd "done it yet" and Wallace being tempted with the idea of a high schooler himself, though I get the impression he never seriously considered it. So it is muddled slightly.. but not NEARLY enough.

I do get it with the movie: the movie.. outright portrays Knives as a legit love interest, and while it ages Scott down, it's not enough to make that not blehhhh and the game has Knives end up with Kim, which younger me didn't get was still pedophilia. So I do get it as while the comics make it clear this is messed up, it got muddled.. but it's also still a pretty weak gotcha when the source material has always said "This is wrong" They even bring up trainspotting for fucks sake, which I haven't seen but is a pretty good indication O'Malley knew what he was doing.

So here they make it clearer that while Scott's still stringing this poor baby girl angel baby along, he dosen't really consider it a relationship, or just dosen't want to and after seeing what he easily could be even with Ramona, apologizes way sooner. So they did make strides to make things a bit clearer here if only so another version didn't miss the point.

So one rant later while Scott and Ramona think things are wrapped up.. it's just not that easy. You can get closure, we'll get into the exes more shortly, but it dosen't mean your done or done growing... or that the past is done with you. Or future in this case. Like I said, Old Scott/Future Scott put nanintes in scott and after figuring out the exes aren't involved, the two get kidnapped along with the exes , knives, pretty much anyone who can throw a punch.

The kidnapper is naturally Old Scott.. EVEN OLDER SCOTT.

I love his look: he still has his old jacket, his iconic x-men one, but laso looks like Ryu from Street Fighter 5, just with a giant beard and crazy eyes, being a mix of that ryu and devil ryu.. and nega scott. Old Scott wasn't a great person but still had the potetial to turn it around if he got his finger out of his ass. Even Older Scott is every horrible thing Scott Could've been.. and this is something the comics foreshadowed was possible.

And the thing is while Ramona was being dickish in her own right there, not getting that while Scott cheated on Knives with Ramona he had changed since then, she's not WRONG. Scott was VERY close to giving up on change entirely if Kim hadn't turned him away. Hell had Ramona not come along Scott might've become Old Scott sooner just by dating a teenager. The potential to, like the exes, sink into his resintment and worst self was always there... this is just a Scott that did. A Scott who when faced with the fact change is hard would rather hull up, get buff and plan to kill everyone he cares about just to avoid changing. This is the Scott he almost became.. and sadly at least one scott did become.

He's also horrifying for more than just the implications of seeing this guy who while a dickhead, CAN be better if he puts in the effort and does change and grow in both main versions as his worst self. It's sad to see that.. but we also quickly see just how dangerous an evil ex scott would be: After all Scott beats all the evil exes... I mean original timeline scott beat Lucas and Todd via Indigo League style technicalities, but still. While Scott was still beatable, it took multiple rounds, a feint, and ramona's help to put down the last four exes, he was still fairly strong.. so give him 24 years more of experince with ten of those spent JUST training and specifically preparing to counter the exes , ramona and his past self.. and you have an unstoppable monster that NOTHING can stop and everyone else is very lucky they get sent back. They all put in a good offense.. but the league is out of their league.

Even Older Scott is a brick wall.. and one that smacks straight into Scott and Ramona trying to run from their problems. Scott is forced to face the fact that even getting better might not last even if he dosen't become this guy and Ramona's forced to face the hide this guy is right. Our heroes are up against the wall, their relationship almost over...

Enter Even Older Ramona. Turns out Even Older Scott just.. ghosted her. But her presence finally gives present Ramona the wakeup call she needs as finding our her older self just.. ran away each time her and scott had issues.. gives her a needed ephinay the same way Older Scott being a dumpster fire on cocaine gave this Scott one and Scott in the comics got one from seeing a dark mirror in gideon: Ramona Flowers.. always run. Lucas outright said as much and with the series fleshing out the exes more, almost there just give me a minute, we find out she just.. bounced on each relationship. Matt isn't a suprise, his backstory is the same as it ever was, and in some cases she was ENTIRELY justified in her assholery: Todd was an obnoxious prick she left another, far better guy for, the Twins were recontexculazed as serial predators who preyed on new freshman with Ramona dating them both being a way to get even on both of them, so while she still did a bad it was on legitly bad people, and Gideon.. is still Gideon. He may get more development here and have his own backstory.. but the series makes it VERY clear he was every bit as shitty to ramona as previous versions, he just hadn't got to using the glow or mind control chips levels of creep yet.

But as i'll get into more in a bit... she legitly hurt everyone else: While Matt didn't get into supervilanny till high school, it's hard not to think that being used as a weapon to keep other boys away didn't lead him down the tryhard path he now walks, Lucas was left devistated and became a xerox of a xerox of the kind of guy Ramona left him for, and Roxy was left genuinely devistated thinking she was nothing. All Ramona has done is run and deny people closure and the series reckons with that.. and like the comics forces Ramona to stand and fight, recognizing that her relationship with Scott could end badly.. but it's worth having.

It's a neat metaphor: our heroes see exactly how badly things could end... and that's how relationships can be. You worry about how badly things are going to go or how you'll fuck up. But the only way it can go forward.. is if you try. Risk the hurt for the good. present/past/whatever Scott made a valid point when trying to talk to his Older Self before seeing that was a lost cause: There had to be good times too? While Old Scott and even Older Scott bury them in self pity, a relationship, even if it fails.. has something to add. Something to help you grow. And given Brian himself had been through a divorce after a ten year marriage it's hard not to see the subtext, to see that idea of "would you talk yourself out of a relationship if you knew it'd end". And the answer he and Ramona have.. is no. It's worth the risk, worth the pain, and worth the possiblity that someone else can do it better.

Granted this being scott pilgrim doing it better involves the ramona's fusing and Even Older Ramona, while done with Scott (He ate up his second chance a LONG TIME AGO) gives both Scott's another chance. As she puts it "This one's just an idiot kid... and this one's a real mess" (When told to kick his ass) "It's never too late to clean up a mess.. " Despite it all.. part of her loves him.. and gives him another chance. Not with her, Oh lord no, but to be better. That .. we can always be better, no matter if your 23 or 47, you can become better. As Super Ramona says "What you've done in the past dosen't define you, hell me keep remembering that". It's a beautiful message: you can screw up, there is no happily ever after.. but you can always be better even if you stumble. And as our heroes face a new future together once again.. it feels a bit brighter this time, like these two kids will make it you know?

Not That Evil

One big pull of doing the story this way for Brian and BenDavid was the exes. Brian admitted in interviews he wrote the books by the seat of his pants and as a naive 20 something who didn't know how skaters or musicians worked except via magazines. Moving to LA among other stuff gave him more perspective, and he wanted to add that to the story, flesh the Exes out as people and use the bits he didn't have time for in the original.

As such 5/7 go from sometimes one dimension, sometimes wholly evil bastards for Scott to punch.. and Lucas, to 5 very flawed , very intresting people we get to see way more of and who all get something resembling a happy ending. Also Kyle and Ken are there. Getting them out of the way once again the adaptation barely uses them, as their more a plot device/backup so we can hear Will Forte sing the theme to Bubblegum Crisis. You know when Brian hinted at that scene in interviews pre show I expected to here Kirean Culkin, Bree Larson, maybe even Micheal Cera. I didn't expect Will Freakin Forte and god bless Brian for that.

So yeah the Twins are.. fine here and I love the anti climax: they don't get closure with ramona.. but are cool with Scott since they'll be buddies eventually. I also like that out of ALL the exes for Scott to befriend after they respawned it's these two guys.

Thankfully everyone else gets way more and no where is that more apparent than with MATTHEW PATEL, the first evil ex.. and the one who naturally gets the most to work with, going from the biggest jobber who ever jobbed, to the guy who killed scott pilgrim

Satya Bhabha gets to have a fucking feast here and I hope this leads to more rolls, voice acting or otherwise. While he was already one of the highlights of the film, easily, taking what was implied to be a music number and making it into this glorious thing.

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The series takes it to new heights.. mostly by giving Matt his best life. Granted.. this life naturally dosen't include Ramona who walks out pissed off and Matt is befuddled "Wait we DON'T get her automatically if we win?"

So he does what you'd expect from an egocentric theater kid who realizes he was just played and this whole evil exes setup is a sham... call a meeting in GIDEON"S OWN LAIR to dramatically reveal it all. And punch the head off a good soft robot boy because he's a prick and a half. A loveable prick and a half but still.

It's something I just.. never thought about with the league. I assumed it was simply a "If I can't have you" situation as that was GIdeon's whole goal.. and to put her in his girlfriend freezer which i'm sure Matt released. Gideon and Roxy seemed like the only ones who wanted her back. But given the weird logic of this unvierse even if some of them DIDN'T want her, I like the idea they'd still like to keep that option open by unaliving someone. It's fucked up as it is sensical for a group that all gathered to keep their ex from moving the fuck on.

It makes equal sense that this was all a ponzi scheme, Gideon , being an entiled dick, just.. assumed he got her if anyone won. That the exes wouldn't object or, more likely, they simply woudln't make it far enough. They were just patsies so he could swoop in and score her on the rebound, also not getting that would never work and sh'ed just hammer his nuts so far in they'd be impacted.

What threw me after this.. was Matt's Challenge to gideon. Not him challenging Gideon, I expected that easily: Matt gets all of Gideon's empire if he wins, Matt dies if he looses. I figured Gideon would kill Matt, again, and would do some sort of cordinated strike. But as before Scott Pilgrim Takes off Decides

Instead we get an absolutely gorgeous, awesome fight scenes. one of the best i've seen in animation and one of the best of the year, which given Invincible came back, is saying something. Gideon, while not having his pixel or glow powers, fights well with swords, a harness and pure skill while Matt is consistently forced to push his powers in new and creative ways. While we get the ones he got to show off against scott, fireballs and demon hipster chicks, we also get to see a lot of cool new shit as he manifests arms ala the Hindu god shiva, with all his powers seeming to tie into Hindu mythology instead of "magic stuff I guess" like the originals. It's a tense fight I assumed would end one way.. but instead... Matthew Patel FUCKING WINS and wins Gideon's emppire, only leaving him alive as a brag

Yeah I assumed from this when first watching that this was some sort of Buffy "Superstar" situation, that Matt had altereted reality to make it better for him. Instead.. nope. This just happened organically. Turns out Matt is badass as fuck, Scott simply had the power of friendship and punches. No power scaling here bitches.

As a result... the League falls apart. Matt is TECHNICALLY leader.. but in practice the exes all go off to do whatever, with Ramona instead encountering them organically. Matt spends the season as a highly paid CEO, mostly showing up once in a while to shut down a whole movie production because it makes him look bad, pathetically hit on ramona.. then get scared when he finds out Scott is alive. My faviorite bit of that is his very timid "Is he mad at me?" like he's a second grader and Ramona's understandably irritated "I dont' know dude" as a response.

Granted this dosen't stop his dreams as Knives and Stephen are able to pitch him a Scott Pilgrim Musical, one of the most gloriously batshit subplots in the history of this franchise. Which really can be said for.. most of this fucking show, but I digress. Despite seemingly hvaing no talent, the prospect of finally getting his broadway dreams back after his dad crushed them is enough for him to level up again, do a performance everyone loves and become a broadway icon. I assume the last part. Hamilton move over, your new compettiion's in town.

(Sidebar to that refrence, I think Hidgens and Matt would be besties. THeir both weirdly violent and obessed with musical theater).

Hell Matt.. dosen't even get upstaged by Gideon. When Gideon tries a looney tunes plan to bomb the theater, the Demon Hipster Chicks just.. disarm it and Matt.. gives Gideon his company back. Turns out being a CEO is hard yo. He's already lost billions. So Matt has his career, his musical, the only thing he didn't want to give up and Gideon could care less about anyway, and a new evil bestie. Life is good.

And naturally it sucks to be Gideon Graves as a result, or rather Gordon Goose. I liked giving Gideon a backstory, aging him down to be julie's old peer who used to wear no fear shirts every day and got shot down hard. Huh I never knew the guy I knew in high school who gave every girl he knew an invitation asking them out in high school became a super villian.

So Gideon spends most of the series in a depressed daze secretly plotting revenge and watching anime. Why is every guy I knew in high school compressed into one sad canadian?

Where he's crashing though was a nice twist: Julie. For those who read my reviews of the comics, you'll recall I didn't exactly like Julie very much. And for good reason: she's the worst. Here she still is.. but Brian found the secret to having a character whose human garbage around without making the audience pull their hair out. You have to make them entertaing. Julie is still a high school alpha bitch all grown up here, but instead of just constantly talking about how Scott sucks, she gets to be funny. She swears constantly, taking a great gag from the film and escalating it, slacks off at her job, and snarks to Ramona about her taste in men.

She also.. gets redeeming qualities. Something I never thought any verison of Julie could possibly have, but here we are. Instead of just seeming to know Ramona and only claming to be her friend because Julie Powers is a starfucker, she's GENUINELY a good friend to Ramona, giving her the info she needs and being contrite when Ramona catches her with Gideon. Julie here feels more like a person and less like a blob of all the worlds sins congealed into that bitch.

And yes she ends up with Gideon, a ship I never thought of in my darkest day but somehow works perfectly. Their both awful in a way that's made for each other and Julie taking in Gordon at his lowest is genuinely sweet.

We get to see Gideon not as G-Man.. but as a nerd whose lost everything.. and gets the greatest and most wholesome montage ever with Lucas Lee. Seriously Lucas and Gideon fucking around Julie's house like two teenage boys is one of the greatest thigns ever put to film, even greater knowing it was somehow only 90 fucking minutes. It's fucking adorable.

What helps though is that while Gideon is a touch more sympathetic and pathetic... he's still not let off the hook for how he treated Ramona. He's not putting the glow in her and stuff, but he was still the same controlling manipulative asshat. I mean he still made the league just to win her back. It's just without the league or the trappings of power... he's a less charming scott, something the books largely hinted at. Ramona DOES get him to be a better partner to Julie, calling him out for leaning on her hard and taking advantage of her, and as a result instead of leeching off her they become equal partners in villianny with vauge never to be elaborated on plans at the end. And it's honestly.. sweet. It's nice their evil together. Sure they'll probably be meancing our heroes with a super mario bros 3 airship eventually, i'm sure, but at least their better. And matt freed his frozen kidnapped wives so we're good.

So moving right along fun and fancy free we have Gordon's best bro, Lucas. Lucas Lee takes more after the film, something Brian admitted was unavoidable for some things: after the movie made some versions of the characters more iconic he really coudlnt' go back. It's why getting the movie cast was so important: While this was going to be it's own thing, having them added a layer and frankly he didn't think anyone else could do it as well. I do think someone could've, there's tones of great voice actors, but i'm still glad he got the all star cast back as their just.. giving it their fucking best. God bless Michael Cera for reviving that email chains.

And you can feel the enthusiasm in most performances, but especially Chris Evans, who responded back within 20 minutes of being asked and hams it up. This Lucas is a bro whose on the verge of being cancelled and who is delightfully try hard, saying let's party as every other line in his films, throwing parties, and generally being axe bodyspray made into a person. He also tony hawks a lot, and you can tell BenDavid loves skater culture.

Lucas is fun to watch, being arrogant and an asshole, but one whose hilarious epsecially squeezed into Scott's t-shirt playing him in young neil's movie. It's a great visual. And his downfall being dating a 30 year old who happens to LOOK like a high schooler is both a brilliant meta joke on ellen wong, and just.. fucking great.

The show also, like all the exes, fleshes him out: It takes what we knew ,that Ramona cheated on him in high school, and fleshes it out: Ramona was his everything, helping a skinny skater kid get by, fixing his boards and generally being sweet.. then aburbtly left him for a fuck boy, with Lucas deciding to become the KING of all fuck boys in revenge.

Lucas isn't super deep, but I love that he's not just the dudebro party massacre we see on the surface: he does actually read the script, has genuine insight into ramona pointing out how unlikely the regular ending of the story is .. simply because she always runs. He also willingly skates into a cloud of ninja paparazzi to cover for her.

And the skating scene.. is one of my favorites in the show. Granted I like me some tony hawk even if I suck eggs at it, so that helps, but the animation is gorgeous. Granted this whole damn cartoon is gorgeous: Science Saru put their heart and soul into every frame and everything looks stunning, having a very early 2000's look with it's frayed edges on the characters, and capturing Brian's style perfectly.

The Skating Segment shows this off, with fluid motion, some great set pieces and some impressive jokes like the alien. It's fucking great.

So Lucas ends up not even able to afford a first class ticket back home.. but finds happiness as a barita. and Stacey finds happiness starring at his ass. Everyone wins. I kinda low key ship those two.. I mean Stacey's a bit younger, yes, but it's not knives level of age gap, and Lucas could use someone with their head mostly on their shoulders. They do try teasing him and kim.. but she'd eat him alive. It'd be fun but she would. So speaking of Kim and the evil exes, let's roll on to my faviorite, Roxie. Roxie is a fucking delight this time, with Mae Whitman, unsuprisingly, bringing her best. It's fun to get to see her cut loose and just play a horny lesbian ninja gremlin like she deserves, with Roxy hamming it up. She spends the evil Ex meeting dunking on everyone else ("Act like you've been here todd!"), and already being the best. She comes off as a combo of her two versions: she has the manic gremlin energy of her film counterpart, being as bi-furious as ever, but has the snarky energy of her book counterpart, being willing to take shots at people and question them... it's just spread to all of the exes since Scott isn't around to be the sole obstacle in her way of ramona.

She's then the first ex Ramona has to deal with herself on her investigation, and it perfectly fits her character: In the film she tried to jump the line, but got a cup of accidental boob punch instead, and while she did wait for Todd to get headbutted out of existence in the books, she also started her attack with some ninja poster clones of Canadian hillary duff in the excellent Free Scott Pilgrim one shot (The very comic that got me into the series), and tried the same sneak attack that ended up in boob punch city. No matter the version Roxy is an impatient little cave goblin and of course the second she realized Ramona was free and the others had stopped giving a shit she'd be the one to show up at her door.

She's also the only one Ramona has to fight instead of just having an adult conversation. And while Takes Off changes a lot by design.. it dosen't deny giving us another excellent Roxie vs Ramona fight, something that I didn't realize was a tradition till this one. Still they saved the best for possibly last as the two's video store dustup is one of the best fights of the series, only topped by the final battle with Even Older Scott and even THEN it's a very close call.

Starting with a furious one on one in No Account Video, one of my faviorite settings from the books i'm glad to see get fully fleshed out and used here, even if it gets wrecked and then shut down as a result, with sprinkler's going off, discount tapes being bodied and Hollie deciding fuck this i'm clocking out, we then get a fun take on an old trope as a stack of tapes fall on them, leading to the two getting stuck in video land. We get westerns, film noir, samurai flicks, Hollie griping about them ruining her faviorite movie but watching anyway, it's a gorgeous fight and the video tape grain just adds to it.

We also get at least one fun bit using the medium as when Ramona gets sucker punched, Kim simply rewinds to help her new bestie out.. and Roxie takes it like a champ and... exits the tape JUST to stomp the remote. Fucking amazing.

The best part though, like a lot of SPTO, isn't the punching, though it's glorious but the payoff. With both exhausted, Roxie lashs out in a brutally painful way, blood down her cheek. It wasn't just that Ramona left, it's that she left.. without saying anything: we get an actual sense of their relationship this time and rather than be the "phase" Ramona cruelly brushed it off as the last two times, we see the two slowly fall in love, a really cute shot of ramona throwing a blanket over the two of them.. and then Ramona moving out, almost saying something but not wanting to, leaving Roxie devistated. It's easy to see WHY she has this bubbling anger at Ramona: every time they've fought, she's made her feel like nothing, something she vocalizes here. It takes what was an extremley dated bit that made Ramona come off like a giant asshole in the previous versions, it's fine if she realized she's not bisexual (which any scene with her and kim in both the comic and this very anime proves is just.. factually false), but it's a face punching way to put it, and puts it in the context of really hurting someone. Ramona realizes she done fucked up, genuinely apologizes and the two.. just collapse. Their friends now.

I also love Roxie hitting on Kim. I could honestly see those two working out.. I mean yes there were no sparks but Kim was kinda put on the spot there and Roxie was on the rebound. Give em some time. Plus I think Kim would work well with a feral gremlin she has to reign in. She's done it before. Roxie also asking about hollie right after before cheerfully leaving.. it's the best. Mae Whitman's the best and I could see her headlining a spinoff easily. Give me more of my feral cave gremlin daughter comma you cowards.

Finally we have Todd. Unlike the others, Todd.. isn't really fleshed out more and is given an entreily new personality from the comics swaggering egotistical rockstar jackass (Since Lucas very much had that niche filled), and the film's errrr...

Brandon Routh done good with the cleaning lady bit, but he wasn't given much to work with. Here... he makes Todd into a gloriously dumb and horny slab of moron. The guy can't go ONE SCENE without nearly fucking envy, which is one of the funniest bits in the show, capped off with the glorious wolf whistling, then fucks Wallace about ten diffrent times that we see over three days, then gets an adorable wallace sailor tatoo.

Todd.. really isn't changed. He was a fucklord in high school and he's a horny cheating mess now. He's an excus efor an already rediculous show to take it up to 11.

So let's unpack the show's sense of humor since I hadn't got to yet: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off takes an already ridiculous franchise with psychic vegans, bollywood hindu sorcerers and literal one ups, and decides to take it to the next level with film fights, lucas lee pro paparazi ninja skater 3, future renditions of Konya Wa No Hurricane by will forte, the montage from stepbrothers: Canadian edition, stunt double fights, and Matthew Patel: The Main Character. This is a series that takes it's emotinal consequences seriously and not much else. And I love it: I love weird shit, I Love balls to the wall humor, and the humor still feels very much scott pilgrim just taken up a notch.

And episode 5 is where it hits it's what the fuck is this peak as Ramona infiltrates the set of the Scott Pilgrim movie. The episode feels like one long shit post and i'm entirely in favor of it. We have Wallace fucking todd and casually dumping him, Envy and Wallace siccing their stunt doubles on each other, an Edgar Wright stand in voiced by Kevin Mcdonald for some reason and Young Neil, who in this series is entirely shit post and i'm here for it. IT's glorious chaos and only the ending is really at all emotional on some level. I mean I feel for Todd, even if he was a cheating bastard, but it's hard to take his grief or envy's seriously when Envy is a carcature of herself in this series and Todd's depression is eating a KFC bucket of poutine and sadly recounting every place he and Wallace made out. Todd isn't given extra depth.. but even as a villian he never really had depth to begin with. He had a disapproving dad and a massive ego. It's fine if he's a giant goofy blushy man who's soul wallace destroys. Brendon Routh does a phenomenal job with that.

Overall the expansion of the exes is part of what makes this adaptation so fantastic. With the exception of the twins they all get to live their best lives, and we get to see more of them. It's fun to see them implicitly join scot'ts friend group, and i've already written little chats about that, as it's fun as hell now their full characters in the world instead of respawning back probably not having learned much except not to punch scott in the face.

And the Rest

So with everything upside down, how do the rest of the people in Scott's Precious Little Life fare when the main character their built to support is gone? It's another hook of this series: if scott's gone, even just temporarily, what happens to everyone else.

Sex Bomb-Omb naturally gets impacted the most, and the versions here are superb.

The standout of course is Knives who deals with Scott's death by discovering a new love: playing music. While Knives had always been a huge fangirl in past versions, it was in the way more teens find music: by glomming on to the first band or two that makes them feel something and guarding that new faviorite thing like a cat with a ski chalet

See? Despite letting these characters live rent free in my head for the past decade, I never once thought of this idea, letting Neil join shatterband, sex bomb omb's followup as it crumbles to dust in the comics, instead.

In hindsight this idea is the most obvious thing: Knives loves music, it's an easy excuse for her parents that eases them into the fact her friends are all 20 year olds, so she can stay with the group easier, and as for why Stephen and Kim would let it happen... both have always liked her. Kim's annoyance is more worrying about Scott scarring her for life, and Stephen an dher get really close towards the end of the series, with him becoming a big brother towards her. The two becoming big siblings to her and letting her join makes sense.

It's especially nice to see with Kim. Kim interacted with Knives a BIT in the books, being the only one on Team Sex Bomb-Omb (The band plus knives and young neil), to take scott to task for the Knives thing to his face, at worst getting annoyed Knives is copying her. Granted like most of the Team, Kim still fucks up with her, most notably.. this

Which at the time I, and apparently the devleopers of the game, saw as a shippable moment but nowadays I see as NOPE PLEASE STOP, PLEASE STOP.. PLEASE NEVER AGAIN. AGE GAP'S STILL AS WEIRD AS WITH SCOTT. PLEASE DONT' TRAUMTIZE THIS CHILD MORE. Kim gets more of a pass than her band mates and neil because she was drunk at the time and clearly regrets it, but it's still something entirely fucked up I wish hadn't happened and feel bad for all involved. This is not how you should find out your bisexual.

The series wisely avoids this as they've realized "This is also statutory". and instead nicely has Kim take up the big sis roll to Knives, being the only one to really look after her after her boyfriend allgedly exploded and was found to have been cheating on her.

Hence we get one of the the best scenes in the series, the drum session. Which I know some did interpret romantically but first off...

And secondly.. really dosen't given the context: Kim sees the band needs a bassist.. but more importantly sees Knives is trying really hard to learn and is clearly spiraling after Scott's death. So she invites her to play since Neil is busy with his screenplay and Stephen, as usual is handeling this sudden loss with all the grace and dignity he's known for

IT's a beautiful scene as two people simply bond as they jam, and both heal a bit from what they've lost. And we find out Knives is a musical progidy who mastered the Bass in only four hours, and masters a keyboard later in less.

This gives Knives her first real plot in the series that isn't tethered to Scott in some way, something that was jarring to realize, but easy to see why: the books are centered around Scott's life, his friends, his love intrest, etc. Their there as needed for his story. Knives has one of the most detailed and intresting character arcs of the main cast.. but it's still thorughly tethered to Scott: his dumping her sends her on a journey of spiraling depression and growth, eventually going from someone who puts scott on such a pedestal that she attacks his new girlfriend instead of seeing the obvious, to accepting Scott wasn't perfect, he cheated and that while he opend her world up, they were really bad together and it was never an equal paring. Even the fun subplot with her dad as the mystery swordsman in book 4.. is because he thought she was still dating Scott and thus attacked him for dating his daugther. The movie makes this worse by trying to make the relationhsip seem legit missing the point entirely. While Knives has a friend in Tamara an da passle of high school drama she gleefully tells scott about, neither are important to the narrative. We only meet her parents because her mom was there when Knives met Scott and her dad tries to run him through.

Here while Scott certainly is part of her story, why she met sex bomb-omb and why she wears his jacket for most of the series, and his death certainly had an impact, she moves on quickly here not because she forgot Scott like it seems a chunk of the cast do or she's TRYING to avoid thinking about him like Kim and Wallace seem to be, she just found a healthy creative outlet, something to put her pain into in a healthy way instead of getting highlights and trying to murder Ramona or dating a guy who looks close enough to Scott. Knives moves on faster here, taking what's implied to be maybe a month at most to move on versus a year.. because she's not isolated in her pain. Scott's friends dont' dump her because it's awkward now and then awkwardly let her stay around post neil because they feel bad. Kim invites her in and after hearing she can wail, Stephen warmly welcomes her into the band, and the two become besties. So we have to talk about Stephen really quick as his plot dovetails into Knives, with the two being a duo for half the series. Stephen is based more on his movie self.

Yeahhh while I love the books on re-read, Book Stephen sucks. He just.. sucks. If your wondering some of the lowlights i'm glad you asked, here's an expertly crafted montage.

And that's just what I could fit into a montage: he also cheats on Julie for most of volume 4, focuses on his affair with joseph to the point he refuses gigs when it's clear playing live is something Kim LIKES doing and helps her relax, and never even informs Scott the band's broken up. The last one's .. iffy because Scott was in a waking depression coma after loosing Ramona, so he coudl've told him and forgot, but out of Scott's friend group he's the most consistently dickish, with Kim's grumpy nature mostly being a wall. It's partly the writing as , again given this is scott centric, we dont' peel back the layers on him the way we do with say Ramona, Knives or Kim. We don't see why he thought it was easier to cheat like we do with Scott and Knives, which wouldnt' make it okay but would make him less punchable. we don't know WHY he stays with Julie. Stephen is just an enigma and as such comes off immesnely annoying when most of his major endevors screw up everyone elses life in some way. And as one final coda to this rant, i'm not saying telling knives about Scott's two timing is bad... i'm saying he's the wrong person to tell her as not only did HE cheat on his partner, and as the last panel shows, KNOWS it's wrong Ramona clearly dosen't know half a year into the relationship, but won't tell her anyway for a friendship he REALLY dosen't seem to remotely care about.

So yeah a hammy constantly anxious relatable stephen was better, and Mark Webber was a delight by contrast. We didn't get to know movie Stephen.. but I didn't want to punch him either. So having Anime Stephen be more like the one who isn't punchable was smart: He's still panicky, crying more over the fact Scott leaves them baseless than over the fact his friend's dead (Which is mildly douchey but as we learned with Julie, if it's for a joke it's fine), and still obessed with making music his career while his band mates are like "Yeah fine whatever", so he's not really changed hard from the core of the character, but he is a delight and him and Knives becoming best friends in a far less hypocritical sense is adorable.

I also REALLY love their pet project: After Young Neil's movie falls through, more on him shortly, they make Scott Pilgrim, the original timeline, into a MUSICAL, complete with a bread makes you fat music number. I do like the ocasional nod here and there: O'Malley and Grabinski conciously didn't want to just.. repeat a gag because it was expected, but threw a few of the more iconic bits in as long as they could remix the joke. It's why the pee bar and the shoe tying making cameos, as their in new contexts, while there just wasn't room for the l-word or scott going out a window.

This whole subplot is gold from Stephens aying "as a creative to another creative" a hundred times, something I relate to since i say as a critic way more than I probably should, to it paying off.

And this is where Knives asceneds. By the end she not only gets closure with scott, admitting she's glad he's back but is glad he died, as the relationship wasn't healthy and she could grow into a hit songwriter, but she has a huge career with an award winning (Probably) musical, a new best friend and mentor, and writing songs for her fav envy.

And most nicely for me.. .I get a reality where Sex Bomb Omb dosen't fall to pieces in some way or form. Yeah without Stephen's drama or callousness depending on the version and with Knives creative vision the band not only stays together, but has a real shot at being something, giving everyone in it a bright future. Knives Chau really got to take off.

Kim is as usual the meaning in my life and the inspriation, with Allison Pill getting to do more with the character since she's not shunted to the background to say one or two lines. I mean she's still IN the background sadly: She gets a major roll in episode 3 and then just shows up when Sex Bomb Omb's together, not even getting that involved in the musical. I really wished after the film Kim got a big beefy roll. She could've been Ramona's sidekick or something like that, the two been clue buddies together. But I suppose the raw sexual tension would've left Scott out. Still she plays of Ramona well and it woudl've been nice ot have Kim around to response to the madness of episodess 4 and 5 with ramona. Still she gets a better shake than the movie: Episode 3 highlights how this version is actually over him, but encourages Ramona's attraction to him, simply warning her of what he's like, is a good friend to Rammy, and gets that moment with Roxie. I love how sh'es just like "I'm not... oh alright". And I think given another chance there would be sparks. Kim is sadly not given MUCH but it's still more kim pine, and i'm always in favor of that.

Finally we have my newly adopted son Young Neil. Unlike with Stephen, they didn't really take from the previous neil, whose super excited, and goofy and better than the graphic novel version whose alright. They go back to the Graphic Novel's glass eyed, barely emotive werido.. yet STILL make him something new rather than just adapt that version.

The result is a neil whose spacey, barely emotive.. but also REALLY dumb and really weird. Naturally I love him and relate immensely. Neil is somehow CRITICAL to the plot this time and entirely unaware of what is going on. He's season 1 todd chavez and it's wonderful.

This Neil gets most of the best bits, with Johnny Simmons having perfect timing. A good chunk of this series weird shit comes form Neil, who takes Scott's death as as sign he should persue his passion for screenwriting and get's his big break when in a half assed wel lmeaning plan, ramona adapts his book into a screenplay and sends it to him. Neil sees a mysteriously cloaked future ramona writing the script.. then assumes it's his sleep paralysis demon and he's a scripting genius.

We then get two glorious episodes of Neil at a movie set not remotely qulaified to be there as he assumes Americans and then the japanese call golf carts mario karts, gets a perscription but somehow winds up with sunglasses, and barely registers Matthew shutting his expesnive nightmare of a film down becuase he can't drive golf carts anymore. It even takes a lengthy and fucking glorious scene with sex bomb omb for him to realize "oh maybe my sleep paralysis demon didn't write this". Just the casual way he says it while everyone else is baffled, and how Kim and Knives have to slowly explain reality to him is great. Neil is comic relief incarnate and I love him, easily the best version. I'm also happy that like most of the cast, he gets a happy ending, as he apparently got a job at the studio after Gideon reopened it driving his cart around. Nick Frost is right, Young Neil really is off the chain.

So onto the one charcter who over FOUR DIFFRENT MEDIUMS has never really talked to anyone I just talked about but knives, we have Wallace. First off: yes i'm still disapointed he never really talked to Sex Bomb Omb. I got it vibe wise: everyone has friends who just.. don't know each other, but the intro got my hopes up they'd actually.. hang out at some point. But just like everything else, the intro isn't remotely indicative of what happened in the anime. The comics sure. And it's a true banger.

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Seriously the colors are vibrant, the song is vibrant and fits scott perfectly, with Necry Talkie really nailing him down, and it's a perfect intro. Even if it ends up being nothing like the series , I still love it. One of my faviorite anime intros of all time. Love that cute falling shot of scott and ramona and the bit showcasing the exes. So good.

What was I on about? Oh yeah Wallace. Wallace here is a mixed bag. As with the film Kirean Culkin is perfect as Wallace: he gets the dry tone down, his drunken antics down and the whole sarcastic vibes perfectly. He was the best performance of the film, and while the compettition's too steep here for him to win again, he's still amazing.

That said Wallace.. is a bit more of a dick here. He comes off more.. tolerating scott instead of having a genuine friendship with him, and the only hint we get of him mourning his best friend is just how plastered he is.. and even then he threatens to change the locks. If Ramona reminded him to. I get the two weren't going to be as focused on, but it's still sad.

I also wish his friendship with Ramona stayed. While it makes sense they don't bond, Scott isn't around to link them, it was one of the funnest parts of the books.

Really this Wallace shows why he needs Scott and what he might be like when his bestie isn't around: Just because Wallace is more put together.. dosen't make him not an asshole. While I admi the's more dickish here with reflection.. I have to say it's not out of character. He's still giving us killer bits from wanting to see a notriously straight actor play him, to his smug acceptance of becoming an actor, to his deadpan acceptance that todd's in love with him, he's still the wallace we love... it's just we're seeing the side of him that dosent look better with a dumpster fire constantly ned tot him.

The biggest douchery is of course stealing Todd from Envy.. but besides it taking two to cheat, Wallace stealing someone's boyfriend.. isn't new behavoir. I laughed at how out of left field the PARING was.. but Wallace is Jimmy's bi or gay or pan, whatever he is, awkaneing in the book and film, and Stacey's reaction in both makes it clear he steals her boyfriends CONSTANTLY. So him stealing Todd and then explaining it was just a fling to him.. is entirely in the realm of Wallac'es douchebagery. He's not a terrible person.. but like everyone else in the cast he's a mess. HIs abuse of his stunt doubles was a bit over the line, but is so over the top it works. And this wallace also sings us complicated. So while I wish we got to see more of the Wallace we don't in the books... what we do get is still great.

Envy.. gets the shortest end of the stick here next to the twins, as she at least had a fairly comepelling arc in the book, being the focus of volume 3 and a major part of volume 6. Here while Brie Larson is once again great there really.. isn't much for Envy here. Even the film, which basically squoozer her in at the last second, still gave us an awesome version of the phone call she gives scott and the iconic black sheep sequence. Here while Envy gets another all timer scene in her funeral concert, the second most obnoxiously awesome crashing of a funeral behind flintheart glomgold

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Envy DID at least get to dance on his casket. Or a stage above his casket. still counts.

Envy.. is left at the face value we meet her at the start of volume 3: queen biatch, queen of all the chaos, queen of all you love and adore. She's still a lot of fun from the above horny antics with todd to her yanking Ramona out of a talking head interview to fight her battles for her, but there's .. nothing really to her and it stand sout in a series that gives everyone else but the twins something new.

Okay ALMOST everyone as Stacey is once again out of focus like the comics. The movie gave her a bit more, but here she's scott's sister who calls people. That's it. It makes sense, Ramona has no real reason to talk to her, but it's a waste of your Anna Kendrick to not find more antics for her, especially since they found wallace and Neil great subplots. That said she does live her best life at the end starring at lucas' butt.

I also want to note the presence of Hollie, kim's roomate, best friend and co-worker. She does little, Shannon Woodward does a fine job, but I like that she's in here at all: Hollie was a character I liked in the comics.. who went on to steal kim's boyfriend for plot convience. So having a verison of her that dosen't do that shit and is just Kim's snarky foil and friend again works for me.

Finally we have a bunch of cameos, the bulk of them legendary. We get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as security guards, Weird Al as the intro narator for the doc on the failed Scott Pilgrim film, comedy and voice acting legend MIcheal Mcdonald as Edgar Wrong, Bowen Yang as a tv gossip, kal Pen as matt's lawyers and Kirby HOwell Baptiste as Lucas Lee's agent. All fun one or two off bits, all fantastic.

Finishing off the character stuff we have a missed opportunity too: Joseph and Lisa get to cameo.. but are once again left out, to my annoyance. I get not being able to fit them in and Lisa has less of a point without Scott around.. but it'd still be nice to get a scene or something, especially since I was far from the only person asking for Lisa Miller to get a proper apperance.

So with that we close the book on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. and it was phenominal. While I would've loved a new adaptation, this.. is even better: a spirtual sequel that expands the characters, is not afraid to go full nonsense, let's a lot of the cast from the film fully shine, and has a bitching soundtrack once again. Not a ton of original songs sadly, but I Feel Fine and Orange Shirt are bangers, and we get Will Forte singing an anime theme song. If the last part dosen't appeal to you, I don't know how you got this far in the review. Takes Off is one of the best entries in this franchise and leaves me hopeful we'll return to this world again. Maybe not on screen but hey, even with the mountain of work it took to get this cast together again, tthis adaptatoin has proven anything is posisble.

Thanks for reading.

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heartbreakercupcake · 3 years

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As the earth burns to the ground Oh boy it's you that I lie with....

My OC for Devilman (Crybaby but honestly it all round) I have her the name Laila but I might change it ( like I’ll either spell it Laelia or Vanina or Engel)

her backstory underneath

Laila is just at for glace just a normal girl who happens to be very religious, she was pretty much raised in the church, so much so that she became a nun and just spends most of her days taking care of it, she mostly in the background and sometimes can be so quiet you forget shes there, which doesn’t bother her at all she likes it that way, how she became friends with Akira in childhood is because he noticed her and wanted to include her cause he thought she was lonely she was a bit reluctant at first but joined him, Ryo didn’t trust her at first cause something felt off about them but had to put up with it cause Akira kept dragging her, Laila is shown to be just has unnaturally intelligent at such a young as like Ryo but she hides it around adults and other kids but around them she doesn’t bother, she said its because she wanted a normal childhood like everyone else, very little is known about her real family but she was raised by nuns.

Years later she still kept in contact with them as could (not as much as she wanted to with Ryo cause he went off some where) Laila is not really in school like most people her age since she devoted her life to the church. Akira still visits her at the church to see if shes okay, if she wants to see Ryo she has to go to him cause he not very religious and wouldn’t be caught dead there which shes fine with, his ill talk of her religion never gets to her, she actually finds it funny. Akira does go to her more after fusing with a demon cause he thinks being a Nun she’ll also know how to ward off demons.

When things start to take eventual horrible turn, Laila spends all her time in the church, no matter how empty or broken down in the aftermath it gets she is still there, she is actively avoiding them but would never admit that to Akira but Ryo clearly gets the hint cause if she wanted to see them she would, last time she sees Akira he is trying to get her some place safer but she coldly refuses and says shes remain in the church and reassures him that she’ll be safe, she dose give him a gift, her cross necklace she can’t tell him its for protection but just something of her he can keep for now. Laila is soon confronted by Ryo in the run down church where she is just sitting there still in the same spot, at this point he remembers that hes Satan which means he knows what Laila really is, Laila is really the angel Araqiel.

Araqiel, was sent to earth by God to watch over Satan but he gave her one rule, to not interact or interfere with them, which is a rule she has clearly broken this time cause Satan shouldn’t even know she existed, of course Satan has come to maybe kill cause she might be a threat but she tells him that’s not what she was sent here to do, her job was to just watch and shes already interfered enough and tell hims to continue if he thinks that’s what best, but for some reason he tries to sway her to join him, but she refuses.

Araqiel is an odd case cause she keeps her memories of each of the timelines and she is the only angel aside from Satan that stays on earth, so it was only natural for her to have an attachment to humans along with Akira and Ryo, she hated watching everyone suffer over and over again so she disobeyed God’s orders as an attempt to lead things down a better path but she couldn’t... She is known as the weeping angel cause she cries for everyone even Satan her blood is red to represent her humanity.

#HONESTLY #SHE MORE OF AN OC IF ANYTHING #the only thing we share is skin tone #and maybe not being skinny #Devilman #devilman crybaby #Devilman OC

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bthump · 3 years

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I wanted to touch on the whole gutsca thing with someone (I know zero people in this fandom so you're my lucky pick!). Am I alone in feeling like their first time together came out of no where? My meta with Guts is that he was not at all comfortable with sex at that time of his life (this instance being his first time [outside of the rape he experienced as a child]). His choice of words too, "here I go", translated to me like someone only doing what they felt was expected of them rather than something he was yearning for. He clearly wasn't even ready given how rough he was and how he regressed and attacked her. This moment seemed very forced and almost rang to me like Kentaro's declaration of "no homo though". I would be curious to know how Kentaro felt about homosexuality (bisexuality, etc) and if he ever addressed the ever blatant gay tension and romantic-non-platonic-love blossoming between Guts and Griffith pre-eclipse. I do get the sense that this may be a case of severe queer baiting or perhaps a PSA against gay love altogether ("falling for a man will literally destroy you and send you and everyone you love to hell" type of message); but I'm a very jaded person so I hope to be proven wrong. Sigh, my point being Gutsca seems pretty dang forced and empty of true development. I buy them more as besties than anything romantic. Especially since both he and Casca are actually in love with Griffith (what a fucking triangle!). Does anyone in fandom have any opinions on the sad possibility of this whole beautiful and ultimately tragic love between Griffith and Guts actually being a fucked up anti-gay PSA? Are there any interviews with Kentaro shooting this theory down so I can stop being sad and bitter about it? What are your thoughts?

Thanks for sending this, I'm definitely down to talk about it! I hope you connect with more people in the fandom but don’t worry about sending random asks even if you do lol.

Anyway you’re definitely not alone. I have a lot of thoughts on Guts and Casca's hook up, and they're all pretty much "it feels really forced and not particularly romantic but I think you can argue that that's deliberate" lol. For instance I discuss in a lot of detail here how various aspects of the scene indicate that Guts and Casca having sex is shown to be a case of both of them rebounding from Griffith and sort of giving to each other what they were unable or failed to give to him.

And I talk a lot about how Judeau essentially orchestrates it all and what that suggests about Guts and Casca's relationship here.

And lol sorry for all the links but also this post is about how their relationship feels one-sided to an extent and is used to illuminate a lot of Guts' flaws, using Judeau as a comparison point.

Oh shit and also one more lol, here's a comparison between the sex scene and Griffith's with Charlotte that suggests that both start as ways for the dudes to repress their feelings.

(Don't feel obligated to read all those posts if you don't want, you should get the gist of what I'm saying w/ those descriptions.)

But yeah basically I do think that Guts and Casca getting together felt forced and awkward. At best it might be intended to be seen that way, as two friends hooking up awkwardly in an emotionally intense moment but probably doomed to failure because neither of them are ready for a relationship with the other, or particularly interested in one deep down, once they finished "licking wounds." At worst it’s just bad writing lol. But again like I think there are good arguments for the former.

I also totally agree that their relationship has a strong vibe of doing what's expected. Like for real, at least to me both Guts and Casca read so easily as gay and repressed lol. Casca talks about her feelings for Griffith in terms of “he was a boy she was a girl can I make it any more obvious”

and I can’t help but see it as Casca like, wow I have strong feelings towards Griffith, he’s a man and I’m a woman, so clearly these feelings must be romantic, there’s no other option. Then when she has sex with Guts she keeps contextualizing it essentially as repayment for Guts saving her, like she owes him. “I too want a wound I can say you gave me.” “Not just being given to... maybe I can give something as well.” Which just doesn’t make her desire for him look all that genuine lol.

And then you have Guts. The way he tells Casca that from the start only her touch was okay with him after he has sex with her, referencing the scene when he wakes up with her on top of him and starts to panic before realizing she’s a woman, is soooo suggestive of repression to me. Like, first off because it’s incorrect, he was also okay with Griffith going in for a face-grab after winning a duel Guts had been projecting his rape trauma all over, which seems like a pretty conspicuous omission. And secondly because the reason he was okay with Casca’s touch specifically is solely because she’s a woman, not because she’s special or because they have a magic romantic connection - it’s because she’s not a man. To me that just screams that Guts was open to sex with Casca because she’s the only woman he knows, and he’s afraid of the idea of physical intimacy with men, regardless of what he might actually want deep down.

So yeah that’s basically how I feel about Guts and Casca’s relationship, strong agree with you.

When it comes to Miura’s intent, I can tell you that Miura was asked about the subtext in an interview once, back in 2000, and he responded with something along the lines of ‘two men can have passionate feelings for each other without it being romantic.’ The interview is here, but this is a paraphrase the translator mentioned in the comments.

Other than that I’ve never seen him address it directly, but on the flipside he has cited several textually gay stories as inspiration (off the top of my head: Kaze to Ki no Uta, Devilman, Guin Saga, mangaka Moto Hagio in general), and he has straightforwardly said that the (magical intersex) central character of his other work, Duranki, was intended to have romances with both male and female love interests. Also people tell me there are strong griffguts vibes with the main, presumably canon or intended-to-be-canon ship there. So there’s that lol.

As for the no homo aspect and the potential homophobia in the griffguts subtext... I can’t deny I’ve also considered the idea that it’s a deliberate anti-gay PSA (though I haven’t seen anyone else address the idea as far as I remember, and I’ve only briefly mentioned it offhandedly). Like, Guts and Griffith’s relationship turns bad because they’re both too invested in each other, maybe the barely-subtextual desire is meant to look like a sinister twisting of pure platonic feelings that ruins everything, if Griffith hadn’t loved him the Eclipse never would have happened, etc.

But honestly I don’t think that reading holds up compared to a much more positive reading of their feelings, in which it’s their failure to understand them and act on them, thanks largely to formative childhood trauma and self-hatred, that leads to tragedy.

I don’t know what Miura intended, and there certainly are aspects of the story that are homophobic regardless of his intent, even if my best-faith reading is entirely correct, like the only textual gay attraction being pedophiles and over the top heretic orgies lol, or yk, Guts and Griffith both assaulting the same woman while looking at/thinking about the other in a very sexually charged way.

But the reading of their relationship where it’s positive and good for both of them, even including sexual desire, and only gets fucked up because they both incorrectly think their feelings are unrequited is legitimately so weirdly strong, much stronger than a reading where the sexual nature of their feelings is what fucks everything up, so I’m pretty happy just rolling with that take.

And as much as Casca can be seen and may very well be intended as a no homo, it’s also very easy for me to read her relationships with both as less of a hopeful opportunity for positive heterosexual romance and more of a “here’s how repressing your feelings thru attempts at heterosexuality fucks you up” PSA lol. Griffith and Charlotte too, for that matter. It’s definitely a stretch to think that’s intended, but whether it’s intended or not it’s an easy sell for me and I’m fine with not really worrying too much about possible authorial intent there.

Finally, I also want to link this post that goes pretty thoroughly into why I interpret griffguts as very positive rather than as a cautionary tale or predatory gay lust etc

And also have this shorter post about Femto on the same subject too, why not

Oh and maybe this thing where I split hairs about Guts’ lust for Griffith and desire for revenge to make a point that the homoeroticism isn’t necessarily being equated with violence by the narrative lol

#ask #a #b #anonymous #theme: repression #theme: homoeroticism #interviews #ship: griffguts #ship: gtsca #theme: homophobia #theme: heteronormativity

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erismerald · 4 years

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𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵 (Ryo Asuka x plus size reader) 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 1

HeyHey my little angel, I’ve been a little off from Tumblr wasn’t I? Well I’ve been thinking about new fanfics and I’ve been enjoying the summer holidays, I hope everything is all right with you! From now on I’ll start writing again, and I’ll bring you news, in a few days I’ll open the requests again, so be aware!!

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𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓸𝓶: Devilman crybaby

𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼: none ( for now 🌚)

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The sky seems more starry tonight, it seems like a dream you don’t want to wake up to, you miss the old days when you were with the people you loved the most, but that was a long time ago, until one of us left and you had to say goodbye to the only boy you really loved.

It has been a few years since you last saw Akira, he is older than you 2years so he has always treated you like a younger sister, Ryo was the same age as Akira and he treat you…well he treat you like a friend.

The last time you saw Akira and you were 8 and he was 10 years old, of course they still exchanged messages and letters, but since your parents moved to Europe when you were 8 it was always a bit more complicated. After so many years you still felt the pain of having to see Akira crying after the news of you leaving, you knew the pain of losing someone you care about because some months before your best friend had left too.

The three of you were inseparable, you and Akira were more emotional and more connected to each other, but your heart had chosen Ryo to be the person you would fall in love with.. why? You admired him and you always felt safe around him, besides he taught you many things and you were always amazed how a boy with only 10 years old could be so intelligent.

You and Ryo had a bit of a strange relationship, you were different ages and had different mentalities but that didn’t stop you from falling in love with him. The day he left you and Akira cried a lot and fell asleep crying, it was painful to see someone you loved go away, you spent weeks a little depressed, but after some time you already felt better with Akira’s help.

Since then, since you knew nothing about Ryo, you always tried to ask Akira through the letters you wrote but you always received the same answer “I don’t know anything about him either… I miss him too”. Where would he be? Would he still remember you? Nobody but you knew the feelings you had for him, neither your parents nor Akira and you preferred to keep it that way, it was easier to try to forget him… at least that was the idea you had in the first years but no matter how hard you tried it was almost impossible to forget his crystalline eyes… so you decided to hide these feelings only for yourself, of course you tried to have some kind of loving relationship with other boys but they didn’t last more than a week.

Today was the day you came back to Akira’s side, he was living with some friends from his parents and only they knew that you would come back, they offered if you stay with them and that was great news. You missed him, he was your brother from other parents, the last time they spoke was a few weeks ago and since then you try to hide the surprise of moving in with him.

It was a few hours before you got to the Makimura’s place and you couldn’t stop thinking about how Akira would be now.

You felt so comfortable that you ended up falling asleep in the cab on the way home, it had been a long trip and you were really tired. The hours seemed like minutes and without realizing it you had already arrived at the Makimura’s house.

“Thank you sir” you said when you took the bags out of the trunk and put them down, you thanked him and said goodbye.

A few seconds after you got out of the car you walked to the front door, you noticed that they had a motorcycle at the gate, whose would it be?You rang the bell and waited for someone to open it, you kept looking to the side waiting until they opened the door.

“Y/n?? Oh hi my name is Miki Makimura, come in,” she said giving you a space to come in.

“O-okay, and nice to meet you miss miki” you came in and looked down.

“Miss Miki? you don’t have to call me that, we are friends now, please call me miki” She said with a huge smile on her face, she was really nice, I remember Akira talking about her in one of the letters.

“S-sure” you looked up and saw a smile from her dirrored to you, you felt a warmth in your heart, it was so good to be back.

“Well akira hasn’t arrived yet, he’s at a friend’s house and he won’t be back until later and my parents went on a business trip so it’s just the two of us and my younger brother” she bent down and grabbed my bag “you’re staying in my room for now, I hope you don’t mind”.

“Of course not, I’m the one who has to apologize for being in the way” you smiled lightly following to your room.

“And here we are, it’s a small room but it’s good for both of us” Miki smiled and put my bag on the floor near the bed.

“I loved it, it’s like my room in France, I lived there for two years”you said sitting on the bed, feeling miki sitting next to you “you traveled a lot, huh?” Miki asked if lying in bed.

“Yes…my parents’ job took us everywhere, the place I was the longest was here, where I met Akira and …. Well I spent 8 years here and then my parents took me to Europe, and we didn’t spend more than a year in a place, except in France, where I was two years” you explained lying next to her “honestly it’s good to come home, this feeling of nostalgia is good”.

“I’m happy for you, and I’m very happy to be with you personally, I’ve heard a lot of stories from you.” Miki said leaning on her elbow and looking at you, “Akira won’t shut up, he only talks about you, I think he’ll love it when he finds out that you’re here.”you look at Miki with a confused look

"Have you heard a lot about me? I thought akira didn’t speak so honestly” you smiled and stared at the ceiling, you’re so excited to be able to hug him again.

“So Y/n how old are you? I remember Akira saying that you are younger than us” Miki turned to you-

“Oh I’m 16, I’m two years younger, Akira always treated me like a younger sister… to speak truthfully I miss him” you spoke turning you in his direction to face her.

“Oh that’s really interesting and sweet, I hope you don’t mind me treating you like a little sister” she said laughing.

“Of course not! I always wanted an older sister! And once again Miki thanks for welcoming me here” you said and smiled at her and ended up laughing.

You two spent some time talking and did not realize the time, when you looked at the window it was already dark outside, you suddenly heard a noise on the floor below:

“Miki I’m home!!” this voice… was Akira? since when does he have a hoarse voice? “I’m coming down!!” miki answered looked at me

“Well, your best friend has arrived, shall we?“ she said and pulled you by the arm.

We went down and when I saw him he didn’t look the same defenseless and crying boy from 8 years ago, he was now tall, muscular, his hair was uneven, he was much more attractive

"Miki I saw some bags down here, your parents hadn’t left in the morning?” Akira said turning around and stopping the moment he saw you:

"Y/N?!?! ITS REALLY YOU!” he ran towards me and hugged you “I DON’T BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE HERE” he said by grabbing your body.

“H-hi, I missed you and I decided to come back, I’m sorry I left” you said embracing him “ Akira, you’re suffocating me” you said laughing a little bit. “oh sorry, it’s just that I was so happy to see you again, what are you doing here?” he asked away a little but not leaving the hug

“I came to live with you, I got tired of traveling with my parents, and Miki’s parents offered to take me in” you said with a smile and looking at him “and since when did you get so tall? you were my size when we were kids” you laughed and hugged him again.

“I think we can say puberty was generous to me, unlike you, you are still lower than I remember” he laughed and separated from your embrace and sat down on the sofa.

“Ah Ah, you became a comedian? I’ve grown up a lot, and let me sit there” you said, walking on the sofa to sit next to him.

“First of all I’m going to the supermarket and then I’m going to get the …., have some fun” Miki said laughing.

“Okay” both replied in harmony seeing Miki leave home.

“So tell me all the news, how did you get like this?” “It’s a long story but I think you have time to talk now” Akira said seriously The conversation flowed and Akira told everything that was going on including the part of Ryo… that he had returned home, why didn’t he contact you? did he still remember you? There were too many questions in your head, Akira realized the confusion of feelings and put a hand on your shoulder.

“Akira…do you think Ryo still remembers me?” you asked facing your hands.

“I think so, I was surprised to see him myself, but I’m sure so” he smiled and you tried to smile back but you were confused and hurt, you knew you were such an important person in his life, but did he ever have an interest? Some time passed and you both fell asleep on the sofa, you woke up with a weight on your belly, still a little sleepy, you looked at the place to see what Akira’s arm was around you ‘I have to find a way out, I have to help Miki make dinner’ you thought and tried to drag Akira’s arm to the side.

After a few minutes of many attempts you finally succeeded,you got up from the sofa and walked to the kitchen and glanced Miki in the cutting some ingredients. “Do you need help?” you asked with an embarrassed smile

“I’m sorry I fell asleep, because of the trip I’m very tired it was almost impossible for me to stay awake” you explained while looking at her with an embarrassed look.

“Don’t worry Y/n, I understand, and yes we can cook together it’s always more fun to cook with someone” she smiled and grabbed both your hands. You smiled and followed her directions.

Finally you felt at home!

𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒽 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓇

You were living with the Makimura and Akira for a month now, it was really a dream and a nightmare to live with them, you, Akira and Miki always went to school and stayed until late to see their athletics training, it was an intressful sport but not for you, Even though you were younger than them, Akira always made it a point to left you in your classroom, It was a bit uncomfortable, listening to the girls’ comments addressed to you, because you were always with Akira but you didn’t really want to know that for anything.

You were supposed to go to the athletics training but as you had a math test that week, so you decided to stay and study in the library, and without realizing the hours went by and when you looked at the clock it was already 6pm. Is it already 6 pm? I’ll be home late and it’s raining a lot and I don’t have an umbrella’ you thought about how fucked up you were, you packed your books in your backpack and almost ran out. You could feel your heart beating, when you were leaving the building you felt a hand on your shoulder and you automatically got scared and put yourself in an attack position.

“WOW take it easy, fighter, we don’t want you to rip my arm off” Akira said laughing “Where have you been?”

“Oh I had an exam this week and spent the afternoon in the library, sorry I should have warned you” you said laughing, you looked more closely at him and saw two motorcycle helmets in his hand “are you going somewhere with someone?” you asked a little curious.

"Yes with you” he said quietly walking “I’m going to take you somewhere, so I stayed here waiting for you to leave. Come on".

“Wait what? Do you know what time it is Fudo? We don’t have much time to go out there and besides it’s raining” you said refusing to move.

“Don’t worry, I already told Miki and you’ll like where we’re going, so come on” he paused waiting for your reaction but you didn’t move

“Is that how you want it? It’s ok” he went to you and picked you up like a potato bag.

“AKIRA FUDO! it’s raining, i’m going to be sick on Idiot” you screamed as you felt the rain wetting all your uniform, he put you on the bike and gave you the helmet.

“If I die on top of this I will haunt you for the rest of your life” you said a little in panic.

“ahahaha don’t worry, it’s okay!” he laughed and took off. He was going really fast it was almost impossible not to have a accent but for your happiness nothing happened, you were watching everyone around and you saw that they were going towards a huge building.

He parked the bike and helped you down.

“Oh how thoughtful Fudo I had never seen a building before, now we can go home” you asked looking at it as it walked towards the entrance of the building.

“Ah it’s really boring sometimes, don’t spoil the surprise, it took me days to get you here” he said opening the elevator shaft.

“Where are we anyway?” you asked curiously.

“At Ryo’s house, he owns the building and its surrounding area, I told him what I was bringing with me today, honestly I think he already knows it’s you” RYO? WAIT YOU IN THIS MOMENT ARE GOING TO RYO’S HOUSE? you feel dizzy, and nervous, excited but scared, what will you tell him when you see him? Akira turned to you and realized again the confusion of feelings.

“You don’t have to worry, only if you yourself and let the conversation flow, so much for what I know he also missed you” those words hypnotized your mind. You heard the sound of the elevator a stops, you took a deep breath and you left the elevator… it was all white, wide and white, it was as if you were entering the sky.

“Good afternoon jenny! Do you still remember Y/n? she was 8 years old when you saw her” Akira said

“Of course, how are you?” Jenny asked, you couldn’t fool her, she was a bit scary.

“I’m fine, thank you” you said with a warm smile on your face.

“Jenny where is Ryo” Akira asked you sitting on the sofa and pulling you to do the same, you looked around…

“I’m here, sorry for taking so long, as it was raining I asked jenny to prepare the service bathroom so you could take a bath”

When you finally looked back at him, all dressed in white, he had grown a lot too and was more attractive, you felt your Heart stopping a bit when his gaze crossed yours, you look quickly forward feeling your face burning. Akira got up quickly and went to hug Ryo, confused looked back to see you still sitting on the sofa looking forward intensely.

Ryo approached the sofa and squatted beside you.

“After 8 years, this is how you will greet me?” he looked intensely at you, you turned your face slowly and still felt your heart beating super fast.

“H-hi Ryo, it’s good to finally see you again” you said shaking and smiling a little nervous

“Its really good to see you too Y/n” his answer was short but you couldn’t resist much more, without thinking you jumped off the sofa and hugged him hard, and to your surprise you felt him hugging you too, it was so comforting to be in his arms, his smell had changed now his smell was characterized by the smell of weapons, cigarettes and alcohol.

𝑅𝓎𝑜 𝒫𝑜𝓋

I looked away from the computer and observed the view from the window, it was raining a lot, I looked at the phone next to me and noticed that I had two messages from Akira.

Akira: Sorry I’m late, I just found her now

Akira: We are there in 10 minutes

I sighed and stood up slowly rubbing the back of my head.

“Jenny?” I called looking through the window glass.

“Yes?” jenny asked by my side. “Can you set up the service bathroom for when they arrive? and put the bag of clothes I bought there,” I said, walking away and walking up the stairs to the top floor. Why did he go to so much trouble to bring her here? She will be a distraction in our objective and I can’t let that happen. In a few minutes I heard voices downstairs, I left my room and approached the stairs, I could see her from there, she hadn’t changed much yet she was still small and her body was not the ideal that society asked but still she was beautiful, I felt the chest heavy but I could not let this affect me in any way.I went down the stairs and interrupted the conversation:

“I’m here, sorry for taking so long, as it was raining I asked jenny to prepare the service bathroom so you could take a bath” I said approaching them, I watched Akira get up from the sofa to greet me but curiously she didn’t get up, she looked back and our gaze crossed if, her face was red and could see that her breathing was faster than normal. hugged akira and without thinking I approached the sofa squatting next to her waiting for a reaction.

“After 8 years, this is how you will greet me?” I said staring at her, slowly she turned her head to face me, her cheeks were red and her gaze was shy.

“H-hi Ryo, it’s good to finally see you again” her voice was shaking, she was nervous to see me? but why? without hesitating I answered calmly

“Its really good to see you too Y/n” I quickly saw the relief in her gaze, and in a few seconds her body was clinging to mine, automatically my body moved and corresponded to her embrace for a moment I let my body relax next to hers, her smell was mesmerizing, it was delicate but at the same time strong, my body almost melted close to hers.

𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒫𝑜𝓋

You felt his body relaxing in yours for a moment it seemed like nothing else existed around you, but in a few seconds we were back to realidader. ~

“The bathroom is ready to use,” Jenny said, forcing Ryo’s body to separate from yours, for a moment you felt empty.

“Y/n if you want you can go first, I bought some clothes for you, they were there in a bag, I hope you like it” Ryo said when he got up, your gaze looked at him, you got up and followed him, you looked back and saw Akira sitting on the sofa moving his phone. “This is it, you can take your time, I asked jenny to buy some more delicate products for you, since from now on you will begin to participate in the missions with us…but we will talk about it later” Ryo said opening the bathroom door giving you space to pass, when you entered he closed the door.

You couldn’t believe you were in the bathroom at Ryo’s house right now…it’s been eight years since you last saw him, both of you had changed…it was a lot of information to keep track of at that moment.

You took off your wet clothes and went into the shower, the water was warm and on the wall there were lots of buttons, he really was too rich to have a bathroom like that. You got out of the shower and rolled up in a towel, you walked up to the black and red bag and took off some clothes, when you saw the mark you got scared, they were very expensive marks, how come he bought this for you? you took a dark green hoddie and some jeans and looked at yourself in the mirror, nearby there was a basket full of perfumes and expensive creams, it was really frightening the amount of money he had spent on things for you, you chose a random perfume and got out of the bathroom.

You walked to the room again and saw Ryo sitting on the sofa stirring the computer, you approached and sat a little far from him.

“Thanks for the clothes and the perfumes, I promise I’ll return everything as soon as I wash,” you said looking down, yet you could feel his gaze drifting away from the computer screen to you.

“You don’t have to give it back, from now on I’ll offer you everything you need, so keep the clothes with you,” he said smiling lightly, but his gaze was still on you “I suppose Akira told you everything about what’s going on,” ryo said as he put the laptop on our side.

“Yes he told me…” you were silent for a while waiting for a reaction from him “Ryo? What did you mean when you said I would be part of the missions?” you looked at him with a confused look, you had too many questions in your head to be able to reason properly

“What I wanted to say is that it’s too late to let it go, and I know that Akira will feel safer if you’re around… but I promised him nothing will happen to you I’ll protect you myself” even though his words seemed cold, your heart reacted in a different way making you blush

“Oh… I understand and thank you… I don’t want to get in trouble with anyone especially the two of you” you said by looking away and looking at the ground, until it occurred to you that someone was missing “Where’s Akira?” you said by looking everywhere

“Ah he went to buy some things at the mall, you two were going to stay here for the night” Ryo said as he got up from the sofa and walked to a small closet taking out a vodka bottle, walked to the window and opening it looking through the glass while the rain fell in the pool water.

To be in his presence after so many years is increasibly hypnotizing, he seems mysterious, cold, inaccessible, you could feel your heart beating fast, you wanted to get close to him, but the shame of your feelings did not leave you.

“Y/n…” lost in your thoughts you were dragged back to reality with the voice of ryo calling you.

“Yes?” you stood up and walked to him, you waited for him to continue. “I heard that you’ve been traveling for these years, what made you come again to Japan?” he questioned without taking his eyes off the glass, you look at the landscape, gaining courage to answer him.

“I couldn’t forget the memories I made here, I couldn’t forget the friendships I had made, and no place in the world gave me the feeling of calm and security that you gave me here…I couldn’t forget Akira…I couldn’t forget you” without noticing you had revealed the nostalgia you felt for him, you immediately closed your eyes and cursed yourself mentally.

“To tell you the truth I knew where you were, all this time I had people who inform me about you and Akira, but I admit that seeing you in person was unexpectedly good” he says, walking away from the window and sitting back on the sofa putting his computer on his lap

“Why don’t you come sit here? I knew you were good at research and languages, you could help me translate a document” he said looking back at your waiting, you smiled and nodded and sat down next to him. ~

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✦ ✧ ✦ So what did you think of the first chapter of my new story? I hope you like it, soon I will bring the second part! Until then, take care🤍🤍

#devil man crybaby #devilman crybaby fanfic #devilman crybaby x reader #anime #devilman #akira fudo #akira fudo x reader #akira fudo fanfic #ryo askua #ryo asuka x reader #ryo asuka x plus size reader #ryo asuka fanfic #miki makimura #netflix #devilman crybaby #bnha fanfic #demon slayer #nswt fanfic #ryo asuka smut

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fishbaiit · 3 years

Text

I posted 34 times in 2021

34 posts created (100%)

0 posts reblogged (0%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.0 posts.

I added 155 tags in 2021

#anime recommendation - 31 posts

#anime of the day - 31 posts

#anime - 31 posts

#action anime - 10 posts

#action - 10 posts

#drama anime - 9 posts

#psychological - 9 posts

#horror anime - 8 posts

#supernatural anime - 8 posts

#psychological anime - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 71 characters

#idk why my gifs look blurry when i have them saved with good quality;-;

My Top Posts in 2021

💛Anime of the Day!

Kiss him, Not me

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Harem

Languages: both sub and dub

Has 1 season with 12 episodes

Kae Serinuma is what you'd call a "fujoshi." When she sees boys getting along with each other, she loves to indulge in wild fantasies! One day her favorite anime character dies and the shock causes her to lose a ton of weight. Then four hot guys at school ask her out, but that isn't exciting to her at all — she'd rather see them date each other! (Source: Crunchyroll)

் ⃝ ⃟⃜⃛ 𓏭 ்

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21 notes • Posted 2021-07-26 22:52:28 GMT

֎Manga of the Day

Any of Junji Ito’s work

Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Psychological

Total of a 16 volume series

Volumes 1 and 2 are Tomie stories, Volumes 5 and 6 are Souichi stories, and the rest are stand-alone short stories collected from various magazine publications.

Junji Ito is a Japanese writer, penciller, inker and mangaka, who is best known for his horror manga. Some of his notable works include The Enigma of Amigara Fault, daily line Tomie; which is a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricked admirers to madness, Uzumaki; a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals, and Gyo; a two-volume story where fish are controlled by a strain of sentient bacteria called "the death stench". His other works are Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection, which is a collection of different short stories including a series of stories named Souichi's Journal of Delights, and Juni Itou's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a self-parody about him and his wife living in a house with two cats.

—No.֎—

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22 notes • Posted 2021-10-23 12:00:18 GMT

⚽️Manga of the Day

Blue Lock

Genre: Action, Drama, Sports

Has 16 volumes at the moment (Is currently on a hiatus)

Is gonna have an anime adaption scheduled for 2022

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan's team struggles to regroup. But what's missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Japan Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match...and to do so, they've gathered 300 of Japan's best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team...and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way? (Source: Kodansha USA)

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24 notes • Posted 2021-11-11 17:44:59 GMT

✞Anime of the Day

Devilman Crybaby

Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural

Language: both Sub and Dub

Has 1 season with 10 episodes

➤ The first adaptation is Devilman and was released on 1972

⚠︎ Has content that may be too explicit for some viewers

It starts off a bit quirky before devolving into a tale of violence, sex, demons, and biblical conflict.

New Devilman project marking Go Nagai's 50th anniversary as a creator. The protagonist Akira Fudou learns from his best friend, Ryou Asuka, that an ancient race of demons has returned to take back the world from humans. Ryou tells Akira that the only way to defeat the demons is to incorporate their supernatural powers, and suggests that he unite with a demon himself. Akira succeeds in transforming into Devilman, who possesses both the powers of a demon and the soul of a human. The battle of Devilman and Akira Fudou begins. (Source: Netflix)

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35 notes • Posted 2021-10-20 09:25:11 GMT

✃Anime of the Day

Corpse Party

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Supernatural

Languages: only Sub

Episodes:

First: Corpse Party: Missing Footage

Corpse Party: 4 episodes

⚠︎ Warning: This anime is highly gruesome, it is recommended to watch at a mature age.

Nine students gather in their high school at night to bid farewell to a friend. As is customary among many high school students, they perform a sort of ritual for them to remain friends forever, using small paper charms shaped like dolls. However, the students do not realize that these charms are connected to Heavenly Host Academy, an elementary school that was destroyed years ago after a series of gruesome murders took place, a school that rests under the foundation of their very own Kisaragi Academy. Now, trapped in an alternate dimension with vengeful ghosts of the past, the students must work together to escape or join the spirits of the damned forever.(Source: MAL Rewrite) This anime is an adaptation based of the actual game Corpse Party by Makoto Kedōin

✎ᝰ

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73 notes • Posted 2021-10-16 12:16:29 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #anime #anime of the year

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thebladeblaster · 3 years

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Heart of the Vanguard Concept Chapter part 1

(Concept chapters are basically just to test to see if people will like a fic idea I have. This fic crosses over Yugioh Duel Monsters and Cardfight Vanguard.)

(Note: Besides the god cards this fic will stick to tcg/ocg effects for simplicity. People can also still stupidly set cards in face up defense position.)

Yugi double checked that he had everything with him before making his trip. He tiptoed out of the door he sweat dropped as he felt a fiery glare aimed directly at him. It was his grandfather Solomon Mutou holding a broom as he had been previously sweeping with tightly.

“You're not going to another card shop, are you Yugi?”, his grandfather questioned, remembering the invitation his grandson had received earlier.

“W-what…of course not grandpa. I’m just uh...going to hangout with my friends. You know Jonouchi and the others.”, Yugi replied nervously.

“Um hm...well have fun!”, Solomon replied with a wave before going back to sweeping.

After closing the door the young Mutou took a sigh of relief. He met up with his friends Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda in the subway.

“Took you long enough Yug!”, Jonouchi said.

“Sorry, you know how my grandpa gets at the idea of us going to other card shops.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...reminds me of when we went to Duke’s.”, Honda replied, sweat dropping.

“Hopefully Jonouchi doesn’t end up in a dog suit this time.”, Anzu teased.

“Shut up!!! No one’s making a dog out of me this time!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Better hope we don’t run into Kaiba on the way.”, Honda replied much to Jonouchi’s chagrin.

“If I see Kaiba I’ll wipe the floor with him!!!”, Jonouchi yelled.

“Guys the bus.”, Yugi pointed out as he saw everyone boarding.

They all hastily ran onto the train so they didn’t miss it. They took a sigh of relief as Yugi looked out the window. The buildings passed by like a blur. It always felt weird for him to leave Domino City. He always seemed to be off on some strange supernatural adventure every time but this time it was different. He was going to see friends. A definite nice change of pace.

After they finally got out of the subway they were greeted with a big expansive city.

“How are we supposed to find that tiny card shop in this mess?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“Well, we got there once. We just have to find where we are so we can find it.”, Anzu replied, looking over at the map.

“Maybe we're better off calling Misaki for directions. She has a perfect memory after all.”, Honda suggested.

“Oh, that’s right!”, Anzu gasped, as she brought out her phone and started calling her number.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered.

“Oh, Anzu. Are you guys almost here?”, Misaki asked, though there was an extreme amount of background noise.

“We're having a bit of trouble. We have just arrived outside the station and this place is a bit...big. I was wondering if you could give some directions to the shop?”, Anzu asked.

“Hmm...I guess the city is pretty big. Alright.”, Misaki replied as she started giving them directions.

They were astounded at how accurate it all was. She wasn’t even there but she was leading them perfectly throughout the city. On the way they stopped as they saw a familiar face.

“Gah, Kai?!”, Yugi gasped.

It was indeed the aloof fighter Toshiki Kai. Along with him was a blond haired teen with grey eyes. He wore the same school uniform as Kai. Jonouchi growled as he saw the older teen.

“You guys are here?”, Kai questioned, completely ignoring Jonouchi’s growling.

“Yeah, Aichi invited us to come over remember?”, Anzu replied and Kai simply nodded.

“Man, this is so cool to think we’d meet the King of Games in the flesh!”, the blond said.

“Hehe. I’m not that great, I'm just an average teen like you guys.”, Yugi replied with no hint of irony.

“Cool. Name’s Taishi Miwa. Looks like you guys already know Kai. Though let’s be real who doesn’t?”, Miwa introduced.

“Yeah. My name’s Mutou Yugi. Oh wait...you already know that.”, Yugi replied.

“Yeah...average.”, Kai replied blandly with a hint of sarcasm, rolling his eyes as he remembered Battle City.

“Well...average kid with an ancient magic necklace.”, Yugi replied awkwardly.

“Uh huh...you're just as ‘normal’ as Aichi and Ren.”, Kai replied, which made Yugi sweat drop.

“I’m gonna clean your clock in a duel!”, Jonouchi said to Kai.

“I don’t need another hyper kid like Kamui constantly challenging me to duels.”, Kai replied.

“Grr! I’m no kid!”, Jonouchi replied.

“Really? You sure act like one.”, Kai replied.

“Down boy. You can duel him at the shop.”, Honda said as he put his arm on Jonouchi’s shoulder.

“Hey I’m no dog!!!”, Jonouchi yelled as Honda pushed him along.

Eventually they stopped before a small card shop named ‘Card Capital’. It had a poster on the front and a sliding door. The small shop was completely crowded by people clamoring to get inside.

“Hehe, maybe Misaki can give grandpa some pointers on how to get his shop this busy.”, Yugi commented.

He jumped as some turned around to see him.

“Oh my god, is that the King of Games!”

“He’s here!”

“I thought he was taller?”

“Would he really be in a place like this?”

The door slid open and they saw Misaki on the other side. She had on a white dress shirt and a orange apron with two Cs.

“Are you guys gonna come in or will I have to give your spots to one of these guys?”, Misaki questioned.

“No need. Come on guys!”, Anzu said.

They all walked into the shop. It was just as tiny as they remembered. It was full of posters advertising various card games. It had lots of chairs and tables including two standing tables. The front desk had various card packs and there was a display on the other side with various assortments of rare cards. The shop was packed with various people dueling. It was rather lively for such a small shop.

“Is it always like this?”, Anzu asked.

“Nosy? Yes. Packed? Only when we host shop tournaments here.”, Misaki replied.

“You scoundrel!!!”, they turned their attention to a familiar voice.

They walked over to see Aichi and Kamui. The latter of which shook the former by the collar. Aichi laughed it off raising up his hands in surrender. A redheaded girl with blue eyes was trying to diffuse the situation. She wore a pink top with an orange tie and a blue skirt.

“Kamui calm down.”, the redheaded girl said.

Aichi sweat dropped as the younger boy continued to shake him.

“It’s fine Kamui. I think you’re overreacting.”, Aichi replied.

“Yeah, he just beat Emi in a duel.”, a teen with brown hair and eyes wearing a grey uniform replied.

“He just?”, Kamui questioned.

“Yeah…”, Aichi replied.

None of them seemed to notice them yet.

“You were supposed to let Miss Emi win!”, Kamui shouted.

“I was?!”, Aichi questioned, completely confused.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”, Honda commented.

“It’s best if you don’t try to understand Kamui’s stupidity. You might catch it.”, Misaki replied casually.

“You say that as if you wanted Aichi to hold back against me.”, Emi replied.

“Well... I!”, Kamui was saying before he was cut off.

“I wanted to duel him at his best. Why would I want him to hold back?”, Emi replied, crossing her arms as Kamui shrinked back.

“It’s fine Emi. Kamui just got a bit overexcited.”, Aichi replied, brushing it off.

“Overexcited is an understatement.”, Miwa chuckled, making Aichi turn his attention to the new arrivals.

Aichi’s eyes brightened up as he saw them.

“Kai! Yugi! Miwa! Jonouchi!”, Aichi said.

“Are we gonna talk about how he called out Kai first…”, Honda commented as he sweat dropped.

The short teen was practically beaming which made Yugi blush. Though, he was at least taller than Yugi though not by much.

“No need to be so excited it’s just us.”, Yugi replied as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Oh, that’s that Yugi guy right? Didn’t you duel him in Battle City?”, Emi questioned.

“Yeah, your looking at the King of Games here!”, Jonouchi said as he gestured to Yugi.

“Woah cool!”, Emi replied.

“Oh uh...this is my little sister Emi.”, Aichi introduced gesturing Emi.

“Sister?!”, the Yugi gang gasped.

Jonouchi bent down to Aichi’s level.

“Don’t tell me she has crazy psychic powers too?”, Jonouchi whispered, causing Aichi to sweat drop.

“Uh...no. At least I don’t think so.”, Aichi replied.

“You don’t think so?”, Jonouchi replied as he pulled back sweat dropping.

“Hopefully it doesn’t run in the family.”, Honda whispered nervously.

“Yeah…”, Anzu replied as she sweat dropped.

“Since your here do you want to duel, Yugi?”, Aichi asked with a light blush.

“Gosh, why are you always so nervous, kid?”, Jonouchi questioned.

“I’d love to Aichi! It’s time to duel!”, Yugi replied.

“He said the thing!”, a black haired teen with v shaped hair and brown eyes with a grey uniform said.

“Oh my god this is awesome!”, the brown haired guy from before gushed.

Yugi chuckled, blushing nervously at all the attention he was getting.

“Their like two anxious peas in a pot.”, Anzu commented.

“Are we going to duel in here. I don’t think the holograms would fit.”, Yugi replied as Aichi blinked.

“Oh...yeah that’s true. We were dueling retro style with the Battle City rules in here since there’s still a lot of people who don’t have duel disks.”, Aichi replied.

“Oh? Retro’s fine.”, Yugi assured.

“Okay.”, Aichi replied as he nodded.

“You guys should use the standing fight table.”, Shin suggested.

“Who wants to stand and fight without the duel disks anymore?”, Misaki questioned, making Shin sulk.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that Kaiba would build portable hologram systems to duel with?!”, Shin questioned.

“I guess we’ll sit?”, Aichi asked.

“Yeah.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh man this will be awesome! It’s like Godzilla vs Kong or Devilman vs Mazinger Z!”, the brown haired teen gushed, embarrassing the two.

“Heh, I could take them.”, the v haired teen proclaimed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh really why don’t we duel tough guy?”, Jonouchi suggested.

“Alright I’ll take you on 3rd place Duelist Kingdom guy!”, the v haired teen replied, causing a tick mark to appear on Jonouchi’s head.

“Hey it’s Katsuya Jonouchi!!! And it was second place! I lost to Yugi!”, Jonouchi corrected.

“Yeah, whatever 3rd place guy my name is Katsumi Morikawa! You will forever remember my name after the beat down your about to endure!”, Morikawa proclaimed, causing many in the shop to sweat drop.

“You're going to wipe the floor with him, Jonouchi. He’s the worst duelist I’ve ever seen.”, Kamui commented.

“As if! I’ll show you Kamui!”, Morikawa growled.

Aichi and Yugi sweat dropped at the conversation around them.

“Are they always like this?”, Yugi questioned.

“Would you believe it’s usually worse?”, Aichi replied, making Yugi chuckle nervously.

“I know that feeling.”, Yugi replied.

Kai and Miwa had seated themselves down at one of the tables. Some duelists had actually lined up to challenge the aloof fighter.

Yugi noticed Yami’s spirit hovering over his shoulder.

“Oh, it’s just a normal duel for fun Yami.”, Yugi said.

“Fun?”, Yami questioned.

“Yeah, it’s not always shadow realm and convoluted plots.”, Yugi replied.

“Oh, hello Yami.”, Aichi greeted waving at the spirit.

“Who’s he waving at?”, Miwa questioned, confused.

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katyichigo · 4 years

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My little review of Banana Fish

a poetic and absolutely heartbreaking masterpiece.

After watching the whole season, and reading two extra chapters that give us some kind of closure about what happened years later , and while listening to the so amazing Endings “Prayer X” and “Red” while crying my eyes out, I couldn’t not share my thoughts about all the different kind of emotions this manga made me feel. (in this review I will solely focus on Eiji and Ash's relationship)

So the story starts as we delve into the lives of Ash and Eiji, two guys who are the complete opposite of one another, one being an emotionally broken american guy, and the head of some gang in NY, and the other an innocent warm and kind japanese guy, living a completely normal life. Together they will try to uncover the secrets of that drug called “banana fish” used to brainwash and control its victims, and try to stop its traffic.

The anime being well paced, with a good bunch of interesting characters, good OSTs, quickly grabs the viewer’s interest, as we can see both MC bonding together, experiencing something new, finding a new purpose to their lives, thing they had lost over the years: Ash being an unloved killing puppet and a sex toy to Golzine, and Eiji who wasn’t able to do pole vaulting again due to his injury, but found in Ash a reason to fight, the one for whom he would take risks and trust his life in.

Ash and Eiji’s relationship is interesting in many points. At first, when we generally seach about the manga, what comes the most is “shounen Ai”, so I was expecting to see that...when in the end, it wasn’t really the case. Nothing romantically ever happenned between them, and they bonded on a deeper level. It’s no mere love story, or friendship. They call each other “friend” or “greatest of friend” throughout the whole story, but I think the one who explained their relationship the best, was Sing in the extra chapter “Garden of The light”, when Akira asks him if Ash and Eiji were lovers, he replied:

“connected to each other, soul to soul” (Well, we could easily say they were soulmates)

At the beginning of the story, we can notice how easily they connected; Eiji didn’t show any trace of fear when meeting Ash, which was surprising for the latter. He immediately noticed how pure and innocent Eiji was, almost like a child,-when Eiji was somewhat older than Ash, even if he didn’t look like it.

I like to think that Eiji represented Ash’s lost innocence (when he was 8), and that he wanted to protect it at all costs. Ash didn’t want Eiji’s soul to be stained by killing people or even holding a gun, and after Eiji ended up being involved with Ash’s cruel and deadly world, he couldn’t prevent it anymore, and got obsessed with protecting him, thus turning Eiji into Ash’s Achilles heel.

As for Eiji, Ash represented all he ever wished to be: a charismatic, confident and fearless guy. He was able to defy people, to survive painful injuries, while Eiji felt like a burden to him at times, making a bunch of mistakes and unable to endure the same things.

But despite all that, Eiji was the only one who could see Ash’s true pain and suffering, and the only one who could appease it with his warmth and care. So that led to Ash experiencing for the first time the greatest feeling: to love and be loved. To find someone who truly cared about him as a person, who viewed past his flaws, his past and his sins.

I could write for hours about how their relationship was the best part of the anime, how well developped it was,...How Ash went from the untrusting, cold guy to a man who found a new hope and purpose for his life, and most importantly: freedom and happiness.

I’ve watched a few animes since 2020 has started, and this one, sure did left a big mark on my heart, alongside “Devilman crybaby”, “91 days” and “Neon genesis evangelion” of course.

#banana fish #eiji okumura #ash lynx #aslan callenreese #eiji x ash #anime

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fortunamuta · 4 years

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Pt.3 Devilman Crybaby Post (anime spoilers)

Alright so this is the last post and honestly i forgot to talk about the last episodes 7-10. Can u feel my depression while writing this, bro the sadness is never ending. I have become one with the mf void, and within it there is no self, no thoughts, no emotions just darkness.

Also TW alot of this stuff is extremely gory and dark (lots of horrible deaths that I may talk about, so tread lightly)

Lets just say things took a turn for the......first of all WTAF Homeskillet NOOOOOOOOOOO (if u haven’t read part 1 of this post homeskillet is Taro Makimura) HE ATE HIS FREAKING MOM, AND WHEN I TELL U I GAGGED AND FELT MY EYES TEARING UP. THAT WAS THE MOST TWISTED THING I EVER SAW AND THE DAD FOUND THEM. Basically the mom had taken Taro away from the family when she learned that he was a demon, also i thought he was a devilman but he didn’t win against the demon so he was taken over. But in the scene when he’s slowly eating his mother, and his dad is screaming why pointing a gun at his son, who he now realizes is his son. Taro’s demon begins to tear up making me believe that Taro was conscious but not in control of his actions. And thats when the tears begin to fall, and the dad was screaming and crying at how unfair the world was and how disgusting the sight in front of him was he couldn’t bring himself to shoot. So then the army guys who kill demons came and the dad begged them not to kill his son, but without hesitation they fired on dad and Taro, subsequently killing both. Akira tried to save them but was ultimately too late and ended up atleast grabbing the bodies and burying them.

The next scene in the episode shows Akira crying while on his knees infront of three graves (with crosses) on what looks like a hill. And I wondered if this was alluding to the three crosses who stood on Golgatha’s hill. This definetly marked a turning point for Akira and how he felt about Ryo. Anyway demons from everywhere popped up and tried to kill Akira at the instructions of Psycho Jenny, but then Miko saves him.

OH SCHNAPP I FORGOT TO TELL YALL Miko is a devilman and sis ate MY KING OF SPOKEN WORD and I think she ate her grandmother too. Anyway she really uses her new abilities to her advantage and wants to be better than Miki M. She later confesses that her jealousy and hate was just her inability to come to terms that she loved Miki and looked up to her, she didn’t like being outdone when she was used to being the best. Anyway she saves Akira from the demons trying to kill him. At this same moment Ryo is having a come to jesus moment (more like come to satan moment) he realizes that he is SATAN. I FUCKING KNEW IT. Anyway he goes on air, and stirs chaos by OUTING AKIRA. If i could throw hands and get my grandma to pray the mess outta that fool I would, damn he really didn’t have to do him like that so the whole worlds now knows that humans can become demons, so people begin to openly attack everybody. Anyway that public call out puts a target on Akira.

Akira and Miki have a moment where shes like even as a devilman he’s still the crybaby she’s always known and love. oh btw Miki now knows her parents are dead and so is her little brother. Let me tell u her screams of anguish THAT SHIT HURTED. Anyway The Spoken Word Squad is now friends with Miki because the main dude gotta crush on her, and THEY ARE SO MF LOYAL THE REAL MVP’S of THE SHOW. (except shorty he really played us) Anyway Akira goes to get answers and confront Ryo and u can see the betrayal on his face he truly still believed Ryo was trying to make the world a better place. Anyway a mob descends on the Makimura household and the Spoken Word Squad says to leave it to them. At this point I am bawling my eyes out, and i’m slowly being pulled apart by the void. Miko takes Miki on her back to try and escape from the mob but those hoes mad angry and for what reason, anyway before this Miki made a twitter post talking about how much she loved Akira i think in the familial since tho, and how even though he is a devilman he is still who he used to be and that the humans are capable of loving them even though they are different. He’s not the enemy they should be focusing on.

So as u may have guesses SPOKEN WORD SQUAD DIED, eversingle one of them, but not without being the baddest bitches every before going out. Seriously Homeslice with the dread had that crowbar and my boi was swinging and taking hoes out, but homie ended up getting over powered and visciously stabbed to death. The same happen to the dude who was crushing on Miki M basically there were just too many people(those people were the real monsters, giving into raw fear to tear into children like that)

Anyway Miko and Miki are making there escape and they end up on their old running path, and its really sad. A jeep comes out of nowhere and everybody a motherfucking automated weapons. And they continue shooting at Miko and Miki until they bring them down, Miko urges Miki to run and continue running until she’s safe and to leave her behind. Miki runs and then the show the screen with them as kids running and passing the baton. Miko passes Miki the baton signaling her death, then Miki continues to run with the baton she’s trying to catch up to Akira who in front of her but she can’t seem to and then someone in real life shoots her in the legs, but she keeps moving and finally she’s able to pass the baton to Akira. At this moment (not me tearing up as I write this) she is tackled by some guy who stabs her and she screams out, calling out for Akira. But he never makes it.

Akira goes to this place where humans have crucified other humans and there are throwing stuff at them. Akira comes and shields them, and cries out that if they should kill someone kill him. In the midst of his crying, a voice over of miki’s letter is played. And like in the bible a little child shall lead them, which a little boy goes up to Akira to hug his leg and other kids follow the mob stops throwing stuff and now some adults are coming up to Akira to apologize hugging him and crying and they help the people they had crucified. In the midst of this the demons convince Track Homie to betray Akira even though Akira was helping him. So he impales Akira with his horn thing, in the process trampling many of the humans who had been standing near, causing a panic. Demons come out of nowhere and Akira gets away.

Now Akira has made it back to Miki’s house after a big fight with Ryo promising to defeat the other. He gets there to find the house up in flames and a mob surrounding it all whooping and cheering. He focuses on the mob and almost throws up finding that Miki, Miko and the Spoken Word Squad had all been decapitated and amputated and their limbs where pushed down on spikes which were being lifted and waved around for all to see by the mob. In a fit of rage and sadness at the fact that humans had done this he releases a fiery blaze crisping the humans in the mob. He swiftly leaves and the final strand attaching him to Ryo breaks. In Ryo’s tranformation to satan they now are naked, full breast and genetalia on display with big white wings. Ryo tells Akira that he doesn’t want to fight him, he did all of this so they could be together. But Akira said he has enough spite and anger for both of then and charges, they have a midair battle and the demons back up Ryo, in the end other Devilman come to help Akira lending him limbs so that he may continue fighting sacrificing themselves.

The fight is long and sad, you can tell immediately that Akira is no match for Ryo. The scene changes to when they were younger as children, playing in the snow and going to hotsprings, exploring and just enjoying each others company. It shows just how pure and adorable Akira was and how Ryo always showed sign of not having any regards for life and believing that the weak deserved to die. Then it changes scenes to the baton passing scene showing the baton being passed from miko to miki then to akira and finally akira trying to pass the baton to Ryo but the baton keeps dropping between then, it happens several time until it drops one last time and the new scene is of the sky. Ryo’s voice is speaking to Akira as he stares at the sky, we see the side profile of Akira and his eyes are open but he’s not responding.

Ryo continues to speak about them as children, then the screen pans to the sky showing broken planets and the earth around them is destroyed all that remains are broken pieces and the heel they are on. No other signs of life. Ryo asks Akira a question, and believes him to just still be mad at him but then he touches his face and says he’s been so quiet. Finally he cries and he exclaims how he doesn’t understand these feeling and asks Akira what these feelings are.

Akira finally hands Ryo the baton.

The scene pans to show us Akira missing half of his body and dead. Ryo cries out to Akira pleading with him to say something, then he pleads that Akira not leave him alone. He continues to sob into Akira and plead to not be left alone as the screen moves further away from them, showing the actual destruction caused by their fight which basically destroyed the solar system.

So yeah, i am one with the void, devoid of emotions, thoughts, and feelings. I belong to the darkness, how tf am i supposed to feel after that. I-i just wanted Akira to be happy, but apparently that was too much to ask. Goddamn THE WHOLE MF SOLAR SYSTEM. I cried so hard my brother was actually worried about me, I had puffy red eyes and couldn’t stop my mf hiccups. and warning i do no cute cry, that shit was really ugly.

So yeah, I thought it was really good, definitely not for everybody though. Imma need to watch some Ouran Highschool Host Club. Also prayed with my grandma the other day for extra protection. But umm somebody please tell me what the relationship between Akira and Ryo because the end scene got me confused. I think it Ryo realizing his feeling for Akira because he didn’t want him to die and realized Akira had always been there for him. So this was def a wild ride, Miki was honeslty a pretty solid person except when she was modeling for that creepy dude. And then sis went to his house and asked for a shower, I was like sis are u DumbDDumbDDDDumb, luckily Akira was there because Ryo out here killing grandmas and was ready to kill Miki back then too.

Also FLY HIGH SPOKEN WORD SQUAD and MY KING OF SPOKEN WORD.

and Taro really was bestboi led astray.

My pain level is astronomical might as well be numb. 10/10 probably won’t watch again unless I need a good cry and psychological trauma. But it was really good all in all.

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theuniverseisforgetting · 4 years

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Anime Recommendation List

My Little Monster

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Episodes: 13 + OVA

Information: My Little Monster focuses on the relationship between Shizuku Mizutani, who has absolutely no interests except in studying and her plans for the future, and a boy named Haru Yoshida, who sits next to Shizuku in class but rarely attends school.

Devilman Crybaby

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Episodes: 10

Information: Akira's best friend tells him that ancient demons have returned to take back the world from humans and suggests that he unite with a demon. Akira successfully does that, transforming into Devilman, a being with a demon's powers but who retains the soul of a human. This sends Akira into a brutal, degenerate war against evil. With fear of demons gripping the world, humanity devolves into paranoia and violence and Akira sets out to save other demon-human hybrids like himself.

Yano Of The Dawn

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance

Episodes: 24 + 3 OVA

Information: This story follows the redemption of Yona, the sole princess to the Kingdom of Kouka. Yona lives the carefree life of a princess in Hiryuu Castle, being sheltered by her pacifistic father, King Il, and protected by her bodyguard and childhood friend Hak.

Hyouka

Genre: Mystery, Slice of Life

Episodes: 22 + OVA

Information: At the request of his older sister, student Hotaro Oreki joins Kamiyama High School's Classic Literature Club to stop it from being abolished. They begin to solve various mysteries, both to help with their club and at Eru's requests.

Carole & Tuesday

Genre: Music

Episodes: 24

Information: Tuesday Simmons runs away from her affluent lifestyle as the daughter of a politician and makes her way to Alba City where she crosses paths with Carole Stanley and the two decide to team up as a singer-songwriter duo under the name Carole & Tuesday.

Golden Boy

Genre: Comedy

Episodes: 6

Information: Golden Boy depicts the life of Kintaro Oe, a free spirit, roaming Japan from town to town, job to job. During his travels, Kintaro meets several women whose lives he dramatically changes, despite poor first impressions.

Kill La Kill

Genre: Action, Comedy, Magical Girl

Episodes: 24

Information: follows vagrant schoolgirl Ryuko Matoi on her search for her father's killer, which brings her into violent conflict with Satsuki Kiryuin, the iron-willed student council president of Honnouji Academy, and her mother's fashion empire.

Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon

Genre: Fantasy

Episodes: 25 + 2OVA

Information: The story follows the exploits of Bell Cranel, a 14-year-old solo adventurer under the goddess Hestia. As the only member of the Hestia Familia, he works hard every day in the dungeon to make ends meet while seeking to improve himself.

No.6

Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction

Episodes: 11

Information: Shion, a boy raised in the elite and privileged environment of his home, gives shelter to another boy, who only gives his name as "Nezumi" (or "Rat") on the former's twelfth birthday. What Shion soon discovers is how drastically life will change after meeting with the mysterious Nezumi, with whom he had shared one unforgettable, stormy night.

The Devil Is A Part Timer

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Episodes: 13

Information: The story is about a demon king named Sadao Maou seeking to conquer the world of Ente Isla, but when confronted by the Hero Emilia, he is forced to retreat through a gate that transports him to modern day Tokyo, Japan. To survive and find a way to return to Ente Isla, Satan gains part-time employment at a fast food restaurant called MgRonald.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Genre: Apocalyptic, Mecha, Psychological Drama

Episodes: 26

Information: Evangelion is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji, a teenage boy who was recruited by his father Gendo to the shadowy organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha called an "Evangelion" into combat with alien beings called "Angels".

Fooly Cooly

Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction

Episodes: 6

Information: A boy's humdrum life turns upside-down when he encounters a maniacal girl who causes strange things to grow out of his forehead and draws him into conflict with a mysterious, otherworldly organization.

My Hero Academia

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Superhero

Episodes: 88

Information: The story follows Izuku's entrance into U.A. High School, a school for training the next generation of superheroes. Izuku and his new friends try to balance their Hero training with ordinary school duties. However, the League of Villains, an evil organization established by All Might's archenemy All For One, has plans to destroy all Heroes and take control of society.

One Piece

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Episodes: 917

Information: The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a boy whose body gained the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit. With his crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy explores the Grand Line in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as "One Piece" in order to become the next King of the Pirates.

Snow White With The Red Hair

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Episodes: 24 + OVA

Information: Shirayuki is a herbalist with red hair. However, her hair gets noticed by Prince Raj, who wishes for her to wed him. Refusing his orders, she escapes to the neighboring kingdom of Clarines, where she meets and befriends Prince Zen and his two aides Mitsuhide and Kiki, who turn her life around. Shirayuki passes an exam for a position to train in the palace as a herbalist.

Relife

Genre: High School Drama, Slice of Life, Romance

Episodes: 13 + 4 OVA

Information: One day, a mysterious man named Ryō Yoake offers 27-year-old Arata Kaizaki, who has been unemployed for several years, a job opportunity; but first, Kaizaki needs to become a tester for ReLife: a scientific experiment to make him appear 10 years younger and send him back to high school as a student.

Seven Deadly Sins

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Episodes: 24 + 2 OVA

Information: Follows the adventures of a princess in the Kingdom of Liones as she sets out to find the seven deadly knights to save her empire from their repression.

Terrorist In Resonance

Genre: Psychological, Thriller

Episodes: 11

Information: In an alternative iteration of the present, Tokyo has been hit by a terrorist attack that has devastated the city. The only evidence of the culprits is a cryptic video uploaded to the Internet, which sparks paranoia across Japan.

Parasyte

Genre: Body Horror, Horror, Science Fiction

Episodes: 24

Information: Teenager Shinichi Izumi is a high-school student who lives in a quiet Tokyo neighborhood with his parents. His life changes when wormlike creatures, called Parasites, appear on Earth, bent on taking over the brains of human hosts by entering their ears or noses.

Free!

Genre: Sports, Swimming

Episodes: 37 + 2 OVA

Information: Free is set in the town of Iwatobi, Japan. The story is centered on high school student Haruka Nanase, a gifted swimmer. After encountering his childhood rival, Rin Matsuoka from Samezuka Academy, he and his friends revitalize Iwatobi High School's swim team.

Yuri On Ice!!!

Genre: Sports, Figure Skating

Episodes: 12

Information: Yuri Katsuki makes his way to the Grand Prix ice skating competition as Japan’s top representative with his eyes on the prize. However, instead of celebrating, Yuri walks away defeated and ready to retire for good. But a run-in with champion Viktor Nikiforov and rising star Yuri Plisetsky ignites a new fire within him. With the two of them close by his side, Yuri will take to the ice once more.

Charlotte

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Supernatural

Episodes: 13

Information: In a very small number of young boys and girls, the onset of puberty brings with it special abilities beyond mortal ken. Yu Otosaka has one such ability and he uses his power to live a fairly normal, average school life. Suddenly in front of Yu a girl named Nao Tomori appeared and due to this chance meeting the fate of special power-users will be exposed.

Fruits Basket (2001)

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Episodes: 26

Information: The Sohma family has been cursed for generations. When a member of the clan is embraced by a person of the opposite sex, they transform into an animal from the Chinese Zodiac! After keeping their secret hidden for years, their unusual household is turned upside down when young Tohru stumbles into their life. She must promise to keep their secret as one of her own—or face the consequences!

Assassination Classroom

Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Sci-Fi, Offbeat

Episodes: 47

Information: A powerful creature claims that within a year, Earth will be destroyed by him, but he offers mankind a chance by becoming a homeroom teacher where he teaches his students about how to kill him. An assassination classroom begins!

Attack On Titan

Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror

Episodes: 59

Information: After his hometown is destroyed and his mother is killed, young Eren Yeager vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

Banana Fish

Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery

Episodes:

Information: Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa's insatiably ambitious hands--and it's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx's acquaintance

Junji Ito Collection

Genre: Horror

Episodes: 14

Information: A collection of animated horror stories based on the works of Japanese artist Junji Ito.

Bungo Stray Dogs

Genre: Action, Mystery, Supernatural

Episodes: 36 + OVA

Information: After young man Atsushi Nakajima saves a man from his wish of suicide, he and his friends join the "Arms Detective Company," a league of literary figures that also harness special powers.

Kamisama Kiss

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Slice Of Life, Kids

Episodes: 25

Information: Nanami Momozono is alone and homeless after her dad skips town to evade his gambling debts and the debt collectors kick her out of her apartment. So when a man she's just saved from a dog offers her his home, she jumps at the opportunity. But it turns out that his place is a shrine, and Nanami has unwittingly taken over his job as a local deity!

How NOT To Summon A Demon Lord

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Episodes: 12

Information: Takuma Sakamoto is famously known as Diablo throughout the MMORPG Cross Reverie. And although he’s a magical prodigy in-game, in reality, he’s a total social outcast. One day, in his video game body, Takuma is summoned to another world by two girls seeking to control him.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun

Genre: Comedy, Supernatural, Romance

Episodes: 12

Information: It is said that "Hanako-san" lives in the girl's toilet on the 3rd floor in the old school building and will grant anyone a wish for a price. Yashiro Nene goes looking for "Hanako-san" in the hopes for a successful love encounter, but the one that she meets is completely different from what she imagined.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Genre: Action, Drama, Magical Girl, School

Episodes: 12

Information: In this world, there exists strange creatures who have the power to grant one wish to a chosen girl. However, in exchange, that girl must then become a magical girl and use her powers to fight against witches, evil creatures born from darkness that are responsible for murders and suicides. Madoka Kaname is one such candidate. Will she choose the path to become a magical girl? This is her story.

Stars Align

Genre: School, Sports

Episodes: 12

Information: The teen adolescence story revolves around the coming-of-age of boys in a junior high school's soft tennis club, which is on the verge of shutting down. Touma Shinjou asks Maki Katsuragi to join the team for his vaunted abilities, and mentions a summer competition. Katsuragi asks for money in return for joining the team.

Case File No 221: Kabukicho

Genre: Action, Mystery

Episodes: 24

Information: Shinjuku ward east side... The center of the street with most chaos, There's a Kabukicho full of neon lights. When the light is stronger, the shadow is deeper. The story begins when certain bizarre murder happens one night!

22/7

Genre: Drama, Slice Of Life

Episodes: 12

Information:

Miu Takigawa is a shy, introverted girl who one day receives an invitation from a talent agency. What doors might this invitation open for Miu?

The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat

Genre: Comedy, Harem, Romance, Super Power, School

Episodes: 12

Information: It is said that a stony cat standing in a hill can make our dream come true. Asking for their wishes, the protagonists come to a hill and ask for their wishes to the cat. Then, for some reason or other, a high school boy loses the face he wears in public and his nickname becomes a pervert prince. A cute girl is deprived of her true feelings... The cat makes mischief to their relationship better and worse. What will become of them?

Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist

Genre: Comedy, Fan Service, Harem, School, Off Beat

Episodes: 12

Information: It's 16 years since the "Law for Public Order and Morals in Healthy Child-Raising" banned coarse language in the country. When Tanukichi Okuma enrolls in the country's leading elite public morals school he is soon "invited" (see - blackmailed) into the Anti-Societal Organization (SOX) by its founder, Ayame Kajo. As a result Tanukichi is forced into taking part in obscene acts of terrorism against the talented student council president (AKA - the girl he has a major crush on).

Haikyuu!!!

Genre: Sports, Volleyball, School, Comedy

Episodes: 85 + 4 OVA

Information: Inspired by a small-statured pro volleyball player, Hinata creates a volleyball team in his last year of middle school. Unfortunately the team is matched up against the "King of the Court" Tobio Kageyama's team in their first tournament and inevitably lose. After the crushing defeat, Hinata vows to surpass Kageyama after entering high school, Hinata joins the volleyball team only to find that Tobio has also joined.

The Promised Neverland

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

Episodes: 12

Information: Emma, Norman, and Ray are the three most brilliant children the Grace Field House has produced in decades. Unlike in a typical orphanage, they, and their fellow children, eat well and are given an intensive education. However, despite living in a peaceful environment with fun games and a caring mother, there's something not quite right. When six year old Connie is "adopted" by foster parents, she forgets her favorite stuffed rabbit, and Emma and Norman sneak out to return it to her. When they arrive at the scene, the two realize exactly why they had always been isolated from the outside world.

Gamers!

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 12

Information: Keita Amano is a lonely young man who loves video games; Karen Tendō is the beautiful president of the video game club; Chiaki Hoshinomori constantly fights with Keita; and Tasuku Uehara puts on a facade of being satisfied with his life in the real world, but he in truth loves video games.

Kiznaiver

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Psychological, Romance, Science Fiction

Episodes: 12

Information: The fictional Japanese city named Sugomori City is built on reclaimed land. But as the years go by, the city's population is decreasing. One day, Sonosaki tells her classmate Katsuhira: "You have been selected to be a Kiznaiver." The Kizuna System, which allows Katsuhira to share his wounds, connects him to the classmates whose lives and personalities completely differ from his. The Kizuna System is an incomplete system for the implementation of world peace that connects people through wounds. All those who are connected to this system are called Kiznaivers. When one Kiznaiver is wounded, the system divides and transmits the wound among the other Kiznaivers.

#anime #anime recommendation #anime rec list #anime list #anime rec #anime review

113 notes · View notes

jackcinephile · 4 years

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L'Inferno (1911) Movie Review!

As promised, we're gonna be celebrating this Spooky Season with a Devilman Crybaby headcanon! In order to fully express my HC, I will be reviewing icons of horror cinema and literature that helped contribute to many of the themes and ideas that are prevalent in Go Nagai's original manga. So, without further ado, let us descend into the Blind World. Put all fear and cowardice aside. I will be your guide through this eternal place, where you shall hear the shrieks and see the tormented spirits who all bewail the second death.

And how appropriate? Because our first film is the 1911 adaptation of The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. I suppose it's only right to begin this saga of horror films with one of the first horror films ever made. Okay, "first horror film" is actually debatable, so keep in mind that I said "ONE of the first." In any case, it remains one of the most important landmarks in horror cinema.

"Stopped, in the middle of what we call life,

I looked up and saw no sky, but rather a dense cage of leaf and tree and twig,

For I was lost."

The film opens as the iconic poem does. Dante Alighieri is a middle-aged man who finds himself lost in a dark, gloomy forest. This opening of the story always had a way of making me feel somewhat lonely and isolated. In my interpretation, I always saw this forest as being symbolic of how Dante felt after the death of Beatrice. Allow me to explain...

For those who don't know, Dante met a young girl named Beatrice when they were both nine years old. The young boy immediately fell in love with her, even though they hardly interacted. Despite their lives continuing in separate directions, Beatrice had always and forever held a special place in Dante's heart. When he received word that she had died, Dante was absolutely devastated. He felt that she deserved to be immortalized in what he intended to be his magnum opus; The Divine Comedy.

I believe that this opening to the Inferno is actually Dante going to a journey to find Beatrice so that he could say goodbye to her. Along the way, he got lost, both literally and spiritually. That, in my opinion, is what this forest symbolizes. In many ways, this opening kind of reminds of the opening to Silent Hill 2, just from how dismal it is.

Having said all that, I think the film does a very poor job of conveying those emotions. Sadly, I just don't feel any of the despair that was present in the original poem. He just wanders around for a few seconds, then steps out into a clearing. But don't worry! As soon as Dante steps into the clearing, the film IMMEDIATELY gets better. Upon entering this clearing, Dante finds himself at the base of, what I believe to be, Mount Purgatory. I can only assume that's where he is, because the gates of Hell are at its base, and Dante seems to suggest the gates of heaven are at its summit, just like Purgatory. Unfortunately, his path is blocked by three ravenous beasts: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf, all representing different Earthly sins. He runs back the way he came, before being rescued by a strange apparition. It's here that the film begins to remind us all of why the original poem is regarded as a self-insert fanfic...

Upon introducing himself to the apparition, Dante learns that it is the actually the ghost of Virgil, author of the Aeneid. The significance of Virgil being in the story is that he was Dante's favorite poet of all time, and Dante always longed to meet and interact with him. It's literally a self-insert fanfic of Dante meeting and interacting with all of his inspirations. It's honestly a mystery to me why I love The Inferno so much, because it's everything I hate! It's a Catholic's fanfic about why he sees himself and his friends as morally superior and why everyone he ever disagreed with is going to Hell. Somehow, in spite of all that, I still love it.

So why did Virgil even decide to help Dante in the first place? Well, remember when I talked about Beatrice dying? It turns out, she descended from Heaven into Hell to ask him for help, because she knew how important he was to Dante. She tasked Virgil with being Dante's guide, after seeing that he has gone astray.

This is where the film's innovation starts to take shape. Beatrice has often been drawn as having a halo around her head. The problem is, how do you show that in a film made in 1911? The effect was strikingly realized with, what I assume to be, spinning rods covered in reflective material. I can only guess this is how it was done, but it appears right to me, because that's how a similar effect was created for the lightsabers in the original Star Wars. It looks like the rods were placed behind the actress, so that the rig couldn't be seen, making it appear as if the light was emanating from her head. This scene also displays an early appearance of wire work on film. In those days, that shit wasn't easy. It was even harder to hide the effect, which this film does fairly well.

So, Virgil explains to Dante that he must take him on a pilgrimage through the three different stages of the afterlife. To be perfectly honest, I never understood why. Maybe I'm just an idiot with little to no reading comprehension. It's also a factor that I haven't read parts II and III of the Divine Comedy, so maybe it's elaborated better in there. From what I gathered, since Dante is going on a journey to find the literal Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin intensifies) Virgil needs to take him to Hell and Purgatory, so he can face his sins and better appreciate Paradise. And thus, Virgil's pilgrimage to lead Dante through the Afterlife begins!

"Through me, the way to the City of Woe

Through me, the way to everlasting pain

Through me, the way among the people lost

Divine Power made me

Eternal I endure

Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here"

That is the inscription above the Gates of Hell. It is here, that Dante is already planning on turning back. Virgil literally tells him to stop being a pussy, and I was satisfied. Once they enter the gates, it becomes apparent to the viewer, if it hasn't already, that this isn't just an adaptation of Dante's work. This film is actually a cinematic translation of the ICONIC illustrations by Gustave Dore that were created in the middle of the 19th century. So much care and detail was put into recreating his AMAZING artwork, that many consider to be his magnum opus. This film was basically the Zack Snyder's Watchmen of its day!

Those familiar with the story will recognize this iconic scene that is being recreated onscreen. Dante and Virgil have come to the shores of Acharon, where the souls of the damned board Charon's vessel to be taken before Judge Minos, who lives in Limbo.

Speaking of Limbo, that is the first spiral of Hell Dante visits. This is where good people who weren't Christians come to face eternity. Their punishment is meant to be the denial of Paradise, but if you ask me, it doesn't seem so bad. Apparently Dante felt the same way, because this is where he meets his other great inspirations, such as Homer and Ovid! The poets all enjoy their visit together before Virgil must take Dante on his way. This is honestly the part that makes me cringe the most. Nothing reeks of self-insert fanfic more than meeting your idols and being greatly respected by all them. This is exactly why I abandoned my Silent Hill fanfic.

Anyway, Minos's throne lies at the lower boarder of Limbo. The king himself appears as a giant naked bearded man with a snake tail. The tail is used to determine the punishment of sinners by wrapping around Minos's own neck multiple times. However many times the tail coils determines which spiral the sinner is sent to.

And here we get to my favorite scene in the whole film: Lust! This spiral perfectly displays the true innovation of special effects. In this spiral, sinners are punished by being caught in a tumultuous whirlwind. The wind symbolizes the tumultuous feelings that arise between lustful lovers. It's one of Dore's best illustrations, and it blows my mind that the filmmakers were able to recreate it so well!

Our two pilgrims move onward to the Spiral of Gluttony, where we come across Cerberus. He guards this spiral, but Virgil subdues him by throwing a clump of dirt in his face (still more respectful than Lore Olympus). Honestly, Gluttony is nothing to write home about. It's just a raining landscape with people laying in the mud. Still, I have to give credit for the meticulous recreation of Dore's art!

Down in Greed, who else do we find guarding this spiral, other than Plutus?

SIDE NOTE: I've read a very strange "translation" of his dialogue. The original line reads, "Pape Satan, Pape Satan, allepe!" Strangely, no one seems to agree on what exactly this means, so most translations are different. Particularly, in the case of Douglas Neff, he translates "Pape" to "Papa," which is strange because "Pape" means "Pope" in Itialian. Then, he changes "allepe" to "you are my king." Let's also not forget that Plutus was also occasionally used as an epithet for Hades and/or Pluto. This means Douglas Neff literally wrote Hades to say, "Daddy Satan, I worship you" (still more respectful than Lore Olympus)!

In the Spiral of Greed, the sinners are forced push heavy sacks of gold around for eternity. Once again, this scene is nothing special, but still an admirable recreation of the illustrations that inspired it.

The next scene, however, shows off more of the innovative talent that makes this film so amazing! Virgil and Dante move on to the Spiral of Anger, where the sinners are punished by being submerged in the black sludge of the River Styx. The only way across is by boat. This is where Phlegyas comes in. The two poets stand by a giant tower which they use to signal for passage to the City of Dis. Along the way, the boat is stopped by Dante's political and intellectual rival, Philipo Argenti. It's here that one realizes just how petty Dante truly was. "Oh, I disagree with you politically. Therefore, you deserve to drown in sludge for all eternity!" He sounds like people I used to know. Hell, he sounds like me in high school!

All while this is going on, we see an amazing special effect of a double exposure of Dis in the background. It's an amazing miniature of the city's outer wall, optically printed to take up the entire top half of the screen.

Finally, they make it to the other side of the river, where we actually get a cameo by Hades' and Persephone's children! No, not Zagareus, Makaria, and Melinoe. None of those people were Hades' and Persephone's children. I'm actually referring to the Erinyes (also known as, the Furies). They block Dante's entrance to the city's gates, so Virgil calls upon the aid of an Archangel to rid them of the Furies. It is here that Dante asserts the superiority of Christianity over the Hellenistic faith (still more respectful than Lore Olympus).

Within the City of Dis, Hell begins to look more like how we always imagined, with fire and brimstone. In the Spiral of Heresy, sinners are stuffed into eternally burning ovens embedded in the ground.

Beyond that is the only omitted sequence from the poem. In the original Divine Comedy, the Spiral of Violence is originally guarded by the Minotaur! Beyond that are sinners, stewed in a boiling river of blood (The Phlegethon). On the banks, we see a heard of Centaurs practicing their archery on them. These are the individuals who were violent towards other people. In order to cross the river of blood, Dante and Virgil must ride on the back of one of the centaurs. You know, having heard of centaurs' notorious reputation for being horrible rapists, it makes me concerned for the sake of our Pilgrims. Maybe they didn't include this in the film because they couldn't figure out how to make a centaur?

On the other side of the Phlegethon, Violence continues into the suicide forest (*Logan Paul reference here*). Here is where sinners, who were violent against themselves, are punished. Once judged to this spiral, they grow into trees. The symbolism being that trees are a symbol of life, of which these sinners have deprived themselves. I'm surprised this scene isn't more controversial. After all, seeing as how seriously mental health has been taken recently, it's fucking awful to tell someone they're going to Hell for committing suicide! As a peice of horrific imagery, I love this scene, but knowing that Dante actually believed this makes me despise it.

In addition to being a horrifying concept, this scene also includes one of the first instances of bloodshed in a horror film. Virgil explains to Dante that he can speak with the sinners if he breaks one of their branches. When he does, blood sprays out of the tree like a drinking fountain!

After a brief conversation with the sinners, Dante moves on to the final section of violence, where people were violent against God. Here the sinners are punished in a desert that perpetually rains fire.

Now, not every special effect in this film is good. Because when Dante rides down to the eighth spiral on Geryon's back, it is such a stiff, unnatural, badly puppeteered marrianet that they couldn't even keep stable for the shot!

"There is a place in Hell called the Malebolge..."

Now, we get to my favorite part of the whole poem: The Spiral of Fraud. Here the deceivers are punished in a myriad of ways, depending on how they lied to others.

In the first Spiral of the Malebolge, those who pander towards others are mercilessly whipped for all eternity. This marks the first appearance of the classic image of the winged demons that we all know and love.

In the second spiral, the flattererers bathe in a stagnant pond of their own feces and vomit. This symbolizes the value of the words that they spew at other people. I think this might be where the expression, "You're full of shit," came from. Think about it; you say that to people whom you think are lying to you, and this is in the Spiral of Fraud.

Incidentally, this punishment was referenced in a Turkish horror film called Baskin -- a film about a small group of off-duty police officers who crash their car and wake up in Hell. In that film, the main characters realize they're in Hell when they find demon raping someone, while shoving her face in a bowl of her own face and vomit. Baskin is not a part of this HC, so I'll have to talk about it later. For now, I'll just say it's one of the best horror films I've ever seen!

In the third spiral, those who joined the Catholic Church for their own personal gain are buried head first, with their feet sticking out in the air.

In the fourth spiral, fortune tellers have their heads turned backwards. This prevents them from looking forward, symbolizing their attempts to see into the future.

In the fifth spiral, the sinners are repeatedly dipped in boiling tar. This scene is especially interesting because it shows that the demons we see aren't actually monsters. They're just creatures doing their jobs, punishing sinners. In fact one of the demons named Malecoda assigns a group of demons to help escort Dante and Virgil through the rest of the Malebolge. That, unfortunately, doesn't work out, however, because the demons are distracted by a sinner trying to escape, so Dante and Virgil move on alone. What's also unfortunate, is that other demons, who assume that Virgil and Dante are also sinners trying to escape, chase them into the next spiral. Luckily, each demon is confined to their own spiral, so they can't keep chasing them.

In the sixth spiral, the hypocrites are forced to wear robes made of solid gold. They also find Caiaphas nailed to the ground. As someone who has Jesus Christ Superstar on his top three list of favorite albums, I was happy to see Caiaphas get referenced.

In the seventh spiral, the thieves are bound by snakes, whose venom causes them to burn to ashes. One thief in particular gets attacked by a giant lizard that makes him into a lizardman (someone tell Alex Jones).

In the eighth spiral, the false advisors are eternally engulfed in flames.

In the ninth spiral, the sowers of discord are viciously mutilated. My favorite part about this scene is that it's one of the first instances of gore in a horror movie. The prophet Muhammad has been cloven from his belly to his throat with his guts spilling out all over the place. That's right! Muhammad is depicted in the Inferno. Not only that, but Gustave Dore drew him. Damn. Dante has no chill. Hey, the founder of the most homophobic religion in the world rots in eternal Hell? I'm not complaining! This kinda makes up for the portrayal of suicide victims.

In the tenth spiral, the falsifiers are punished with enternal leprosy.

At last, we make it to the Spiral of Treachery, at the center of the earth. Here, the traitors are frozen within the Lake Cocytus.

"Lo! Dis Himself!

Emperor of the Kingdom of Woe"

Finally, at the climax of this horrific epic, we see Satan, and it's not what you're expecting! He is in the very center of the lake, frozen up to his waist in ice, and forced to eat the three greatest traitors of all. His body is covered in course fur, and he has three heads and six wings. Satan's appearance in this story is disarming and almost pathetic in a way. You'd imagine Satan to be this fearsome king, but he's just shown to be suffering like everyone else. It's kind of sad, really.

The film ends with Dante and Virgil climbing down Satan's leg fur and ending up at the base of Mount Purgatory.

L'Inferno is one of the first true masterpieces of horror! It's hard to believe that this movie is almost 110 years old! Just think of how it would have been to see it in theaters for the first time when it was new. We owe it to this film for proving the language of Cinema could be used to tell the most epic stories possibly conceived.

You can watch the film for yourself here:https://youtu.be/cMUPbPOGPdM

youtube

Now, you're probably thinking, "What the Sam Fuck does any of this have to do with Devilman Crybaby?" Well, for starters, in Go Nagai's original manga, the character Asuka Ryo implies that Dante's Divine Comedy might have been based on a true story. This is futher validated when the demon Xenon appears and bears a strong resemblance to Dante's description of Satan. But beyond the surface-level details, let's discuss some of the deeper implications of what Hell actually is. Within this headcanon, the Afterlife is an entirely separate dimension, occupying the same space as our Earth, but invisible to our eyes. There is a way, however, to see and explore this separate dimension. You see, when different dimensions intersect at certain angles, they sometimes leave gaps through which we can come through and cross over to the other dimension. It was through one of these gaps that Virgil was able to find Dante. These angles and gaps between dimensions will be further explored in a later film.

#dante's inferno #dante's divine comedy #l'inferno #devilman crybaby #devilman crybaby headcanon #Youtube

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frankpanioncube · 4 years

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Karaoke Night - I did this whole thing on one of my Discord Servers

So basically - it was the 7 main guys and what they’d do on Karaoke night.

I said I’d put it on my Tumblr...but it was going to be when I could do some linking to stuff: So I have put music vids, links to songs wherever they are and if nothing else - enjoy this

Lucifer: Can sing like a...well (fallen) angel. Is a lyrical baritone but can get up to some Tenor stuff.

Karaoke night is a hard thing to get him involved in because (and he recognizes it) he will be asked to do STUPID stuff.

They make him do Weird Al covers, Eminem...the lewdest crap they can imagine because...well..also - he can pull off a lot of stuff it's like 70 percent to irritate him and 30 because ....well...they all want to have him sing "Friend of the Devil" by Adam Jensen.

MC/Lucifer - they're doing Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. "Time to Say Goodbye" and mC can't keep up with him...it's his show.

Lucifer/Mammon Duet: Mammon willl make Lucifer sing X Gonna Give it To ya (specifically the Deadpool version) and Mammon does most of the work here but but he is so invested int getting Lucifer to rap it's actually quite amazing.

Lucifer/Leviathan Duet: Carameldansen - Levi will pull off all the dance moves in the background and will back up Lucifer. Who will be stock still otherwise.

Lucifer/Satan Duet: It's Shia LaBouef. Satan is no singer but pulls off those spoken word bits - and Lucifer is ...okay until he realizes what he's singing about. It's an odd vibe - it's awesome and also very strange to watch.

Lucifer/Asmo Duet: It's "Mad World" but the live version from the Adam Lambert concert. Asmo is the vocalist and Lucifer does back up and by GOD it works.

Lucifer/Beel Duet: I'd Do Anything for Love - and it doesn't go how you'd expect - Vocally it's Beel's show - Lucifer turns off the kareoke player and plays the piano. It makes everyone watching very hot. it's a dangerous combo.

Lucifer/Belphie: I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace. And BY GOD. It lands.

Karaoke Mammon:

Is the guy who figured out you can make dying whale noises in rockband to pass levels. And does it unappologetically. As a singer - not bad when he's trying. He could pull off something if he practiced. He has a good range but it's not refined. He can hit some contralto notes occasionally and some baritone stuff but very much lacks the practice.

Mammon on his own: Picks villain songs from musicals. He can do "Gaston" or "All you Wanna Do" from Six (much to Asmo's disgust).

Mammon and MC Duet: It's Tough to be a God from The Road to ElDorado. He'd love to do that and he makes a great Tulio to MC's Miguel.

Mammon and Lucifer: They do a duet of "Not a Common Man" - Mammon does a lot of musical stuff and he HATES Lucifer takes this one over. Cause the lyrics are him. Lucifer likes that he does the legwork on this.

Mammon and Leviathan: Butterfly by Crazy Town - to be fair - Levi thought it was Butterfly from the DDR game. However - between Mammon's voice and Levi's aptitudte for rhythm they manage this shockingly well.

Mammon and Satan: This duo isn't nearly as vicious to Lucifer as Belphie and Satan but - oh it's gonna get messy. Rage Unrestrained by Excessum and they're all going to the ER. Including Mammon. It's worth it.

Mammon and Asmo: THey do a duet of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. It gets chaotic. Both can't wait to be the centre of attention.

Mammon and Beel: Sex Bomb - Because even if it makes everyone feel sorta...weirdly sexual (and probably because he wants to stick it to Asmo) - Getting Beel to do some Tom Jones is a great idea.

Mammon and Belphie: The Real Slim Shady - Eminem - and they they can do it. And Belphie can pull that nasal stuff.

Karaoke Leviathan:

On his own: Does lots of anime and idol stuff of course. He's mediocre as a singer but pulls off all the dance moves well.

Levi on his own: Does exclusively stuff from his fave idol groups - not that he nails the vocals but he's not intolerable. He does nail the chorography.

Leviathan and MC - gets as many people invovled as he can and they do TRI-ANGLE feat BOA and the TRAX - They know if they flatter Mammon enough he'll do the break down.

Leviathan and Lucifer - Real Emotion - The idol song from FFX-2 - but Lucifer doesn't find the song that offensive and Levi can do the background dance stuff.

Leviathan and Mammon: X Japan's Rusty Nail. And if you haven't seen the music video to that - it's the epitome of 80ies/mid 90ies anime music vids. (plus I am in love with Hide and cried my eyes out over his suicide.) - they'd manage this one. Not without Mammon remembering the music video and SOBBING.

Leviathan and Asmo: Hey, they do this one song: Sinful Indulgence. It's from a popular Otome game. It's Asmo's show but Levi can keep up.

Leviathan and Satan: THey do the Local Butterfly Guy rap from Devilman Crybaby. It's best not to have Satan sing but he can get away with spoken word and raps quite well.

Leviathan and Beel: Has him doing Evil Food Eater Conchita from mothy. It's hard outside of his range but actually Levi pulls off the background vocals really well. He does some higher vocals well. Beel feels bad for the subject of the song...but sympathizes.

Leviathan and Belphie: Lizzy Hale and Lindsey Sterling's Shatter Me - Belphie can be convinced to do the ballet here and it's BEAUTIFUL. Neither Belphie nor Levi are the best of singers but they manage it together.And Belphie doing ballet is something to behold.

Karaoke Satan

He's just NOT a singer - It doesn't matter that much - He know it drives Lucifer nuts because Lucifer is lovely to listen to. But he's in two minds. He's either sober and refuses to embarrass himself or is three sheets to the wind and WILL embarrass not himself but Lucifer rather.

Satan on his Own: Will do William Shatner's spoken word version of Rocket Man. Can be convinced to rap but doesn't get into it too much.

Satan and MC: David Bowie's 'Space Oddity’. He's off key the whole time but no one cares - they manage to do the acting for it.

Satan and Lucifer : Here Comes the Snake by the Cherry Poppin' Daddies - It's rough but but Lucifer does the hard notes and Satan isn't pretty by any means but he does it a tad more spoken word. Lucifer does this like champ however. It winds up being way more attractive than it should be.

Satan and Mammon: Mammon does 'Every Last Motherfu*cker should Go Down' from Jerry Springer the Opera...and lets Satan choose if he wants to actually play Satan. He usually plays Jerry as a matter of fact. Up to the second half. After that Satan chokes it out. Because he'd love to stick it to Lucifer like that

Satan and Leviathan: An odd one - "Hell" By the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Levi would groove to it but everyone would enjoy joining in.

Satan and Asmo: (And everyone) Somebody to Love - Queen - and everyone shrieks it along. Cause Asmo would simply get in every one all in and that'd be that. Asmo's gonna hit that high note but Satan doing the song on his own isn't fabulous but he's backed by the whole group in the end.

Satan and Beel: Royal Oil by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Ska stuff works with Satan and Beel's rumble works with this song - it...didn't hurt that Satan explained what the song was about sometime LATER.

Satan and Belphie: Dark Personality by The Planet Smashers. Mammon gets to join in on this one - this is dedicated by that trio PERSONALLY to Lucifer. It's VICIOUS. Mammon is DEFINITELY in on skanking. He dances like a true rudeboy. Oh and so does Satan.

Karaoke Asmo

Is quite possibly the best Kareoke singer out there. It STINGS with him that he loses out to some of his brothers - Asmo's got charisma and sex appeal and a great voice...and well, that's actually where he loses. He's got this record quality voice and it tend to miss out on some of the kareoke appeal. Like that's the one place you're not supposed to be PERFECT singing and he IS. No fair!

Asmo on his own: Quite apart from this little ditty you may or may not of heard of "Sinful Indulgence" Asmo would do Marina Diamandos' alter Ego Electra Heart's "How to Be a Heartbreaker"

Asmo with MC: The Devil's Son by The Creepshow. It'd be verrry sexual. Asmo would however take over the song and be the singer - because it'd be right up his street.

Asmo and Lucifer: Nobody's Side - from CHESS. Lucifer does the intro to it just to get to get out of it - He plays the American (and does a fair job of it - he is after all quite vocally gifted) with Asmo as Florence.. Asmo is content to do the rest of the song. He's got the whole dramatic prodouction going on with it

Asmo and Mammon: If Mammon goes for Bowie, Asmo goes for Lady Gaga. They are going to do Applause and it's just as messy. They step all over eachother. Asmo's got the vocals to do it, Mammon's just simply not going to sit down for it and really won't outdo him on stage. It's a miracle they can throw it together.

Asmo and Leviathan: They're doing Pinball Wizard by the Who. They are actually a great team up for this song. Levi's got the moves and also digs the subject matter but Asmo gets to shine doing the lead singing on it

Asmo and Satan: Shut Me Up by Mindless Self Indulgence - Asmo is well aware that Satan can't carry a tune in a basket but is shockingly good at tempering him - Asmo is a great singer and can work with a lot. Satan's shrieking is actually quite awesome when paired with Asmo doing a sort of screechy emo/goth/metal thing himself. Asmo's the one you WANT paired with Satan should you not want to visit the emergency room later.

Asmo and Beel: They are doing Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher and Oh GOD is it fun. Beel's still a little stiff as a performer but Asmo gets everyone into it - he covers (and gets everyone to do) the scatting...but absolutely lets Beel do the low notes at the end. Even he makes happy noises when he can get into those low registers and it turns out to be fun for all involved.

Asmo and Belphie: Funnily enough - it's Belphie who pulls this one off. And of all songs? It's Wonderboy by Tenacious D. (Seriously just imagine "How about the power of flight, that do anything for you? and Belphie just doing a straight up "That's levitation, Holmes." It's not Asmo's style but he's got the chops to back Belphie up on this one so it turns out fun.

Karaoke Beelzebub

Beel on his own: Can't be bothered much but bribe him with food and he's got this incredible baritone, and can get down to a bass. He sings what other people want him to so there's a bit of a dichotomy about the fact that people want him to do the Beast Song from "Over the Garden Wall" - it’s not Beel’s style to sing that but god he could do it if you asked. and also Barry White's "Can't Get Enough of your Love"

Beel and MC: Dearly Departed by the Creep Show. It's MC's show and Beel does the backups but there's a lot of onstage chemistry. Everyone feels a ...way afterwards.

Beel and Lucifer: Where the Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave and Kylie - and yeah - Lucifer does the female part. It was sort of a joke that went in a really wildly sexual direction, but also it is capable of shutting down the whole night. Thankfully it was done at the end of the night.

Beel and Mammon: Mammon's got a bit of a penchant for musicals so he kinda is into doing a lil' bit of Little Shop of Horror's "Feed Me/Git It" Especially because he knows he could explain the concept and well yeah. Beel gets a LITTLE into it. "just pretend I ate your custard" And it's a done deal. Mammon also does a great Seymor. Beel and Leviathan: They're doing Zu Ende from Dracula Musical (Incidentally: if you want to know what my own voice is like - Wao Yoka is very close to me - if Wao was wite chick) - but Levi is doing Wao/Drac's part and Van Helsing's part is Beel's.

Beel and Satan: Poe - Control - Satan lets Beel do this - but it's not melodic enough that he can pull some weight here. Beel backs down if Satan's managing it. But he more or less just lets Satan do the second verse.

Beel and Asmo: Sweet Tooth by Scott Helman - It's Asmo's song really but Beel doesn't over take Asmo and they really pull this off. Beel joins real hard at the end and it gets very good.

Beel and Belphie: Slumber by Bad Religion. This really is a duet. They both sing this together. Beel does the bridge however. Belphie does air guitar occasionally. It’s rather potent - they are twins and they use this distinctly to their advantage.

Karaoke Belphegor

Belphegor isn't much for this whole kareoke thing but can be convinced into it. Hey - his twin's great, why does he have to put in the effort? However - when the situation calls for it - hes got a variety of tricks up his sleeve.

Belphegor on his own: Picks the classics. Just whatever the place has in the book mostly. But paired up then this guy is a little shit. As a singer he's not the strongest but he's not bad either. When he's trying he's quite interesting when he's bored he's just...meh, knows it and does not care. I want Candy? These Boots were Made for Walkin? Yeah those are Belphie's stuff

Belphie and MC: Belphegor's still trying too hard with MC and so they're doing Strange Disease by Prozzak. He thinks it'll help. He's not bad at doing the recieved pronounciation accent either though at that.

Belphie and Lucifer: Belphie ain't letting Lucifer get away with SHIT. Belphie is making him full on do Aqua's Barbie Girl and that's that. It's...ridiculously funny as a matter of fact. Belphie's plan may have backfired a little given that everyone really likes singing along. On the other hand, he DID make Lucifer say "Come on Barbie, let's go party."

Belphie and Mammon: Corey Hart's Sunglasses at Night - with Mammon indeed wearing his sunglasses at night for maximum effect. Mammon's way more into it than Belphie but it's an entertaining performance nonetheless.

Belphie and Leviathan: The ODDEST combo but - Dionysos (F. Olivia Ruiz)' 'Tais Toi Mon Couer' - Levi likes the animation in the video and Belphie can pull off the french and the vibe. it's actually much more effective than Belphie's attempts to do anything with MC (and if you haven't seen the vid and don't speak French there's some vids with subtitles - see above!) Belphie and Satan: (with Mammon) When You're Evil by Voltaire - Dedicated FULLLY to Lucifer. And they all get into it. Mammon's particularly good at this - but while Satan isn't much of a singer he's just willing to keep up. Mammon carries this but it's this lot very much singing directly to Lucifer. It's honestly terrifying but man the Anti-Lucifer Club pulls this one off like champs.

Belphie and Asmo: They do Four Chord Song by Asis of Awesome - it Belphie's brain of 'easy' with Asmo's need to show off. They can do this very well. Asmo does wonderful masterful work but Belphie does the stuff that Asmo can't reach. They just do a medley.

Belphie and Beel: Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeplin - and oh - Belphie will turn off the kareoke machine and bust out his accoustic and put in the effort - So it's Rodrigo Y Gabriela's cover. Beel is all in for it. But it's really Belphie's talent with the guitar. In almost any other story Beel's voice is the thing but here? No it's him.

#obey me #obey me head canons #what else #if tagged everything we'd be in for one wild ride #I have linked to official music and performances

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very-grownup · 4 years

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THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, PART 12

Episode 24.

It seems very unfair of us to watch Dorohedoro after Evangelion, because each episode of the former concludes by telling us things we've learned. I feel like all I've learned from Evangelion is "fuck the colour orange".

This is also the episode where I cursed that the episode length of Devilman Crybaby and Madoka didn't sync up with Evangelion so we never got the power trifecta of 'my first homoerotic teenage nihilist crush'.

The actual episode report under the cut.

So, so, so after last week's upsetting underground tang aquarium of Reis adventure the series remembers to check in on the super-traumatized Asuka (which is more than the adults within the series do). We get a greyscale small child Asuka running down an orange (bad) corridor. She's excitedly telling her mother about how she's been chosen to pilot a giant robot and protect humanity and it'll be with other kids and she won't be alone and won't need to depend on her father or anyone else and the excited child shots keep cutting to an ominous door. Eventually the door opens enough to show the red behind it and, knowing what we know from the Asuka episode a few weeks back, you can interpolate pretty easily and upsettingly what opening door onto solid red means.

There's a fight between Shinji and Asuka that we're catching the climax of, with thrown and shattered mugs, and Asuka calling Shinji a liar and Shinji apparently reiterating that fuckin' Kaji is gone (I can't tell if he's trying to tell her Kaji is dead or just that he’s bailed on them).

Misato's gotten notice from Seele, the obelisk council, that the Fifth Child is being sent to replace Asuka and Misato recognizes something hinky is going on and senses conspiracy which is ... pretty reasonable at this point. I'd also be seeing conspiracies everywhere. I wouldn't know what they meant or even whose conspiracies they were, but I'd definitely suspect multiple conspiracies going on if literally anything new happened.

Asuka, naked, maybe bloody? in a bathtub in a destroyed apartment with the ceiling crumbling down. Her eyes are vacant and her cheeks are hollow and she's mumbling about her sync rates falling. It's weird and haunting and the building is as destroyed and non-functional as Asuka. Someone from NERV finds her and it turns out Asuka's been missing for a fucking /week/ in this destroyed city and they've only just found her since I guess she ran away after her fight with Shinji and you know it's at least partially because they don't care about finding her. NERV barely cared about Asuka back when she could get in the robot, they absolutely don't care about her now and it's unclear who, if anyone, is responsible for her since fuckin' Kaji's death. Is there even law in Tokyo 3?

My point is, everything is falling apart in the structure of the show and the world within it and the first ball to truly get dropped and broken is the used up and now valueless teenage girl and it's heartbreaking.

Things are getting so real that Misato is /sending Penpen away/ for his own safety and I'm glad Misato cares about Penpen but I wish Misato could find it in her to care about, say, Asuka (Misato is a fuck up and trying her best, but at the end of the day she's still a fuck up). Is Misato the best adult in the series or is she actually the worst adult in the series because she recognizes how she is failing but fails to take action to correct her failures? As a viewer I can't be disappointed in Gendo because he's shit and I have no expectations of him. But I love Misato and so it hurts more when she lets me down and by this point she is letting me down HARD (but I suppose Misato disappoints herself).

Shinji is also in a bad place and he's contemplating the orange tang wreckage of the city and how the small thread of normalcy has gone now that everyone's evacuated. Shinji misses his friends who ... hoo boy.

The one Shinji last saw in the hospital after nearly killing him via giant robot and the other he last heard calling him to tell him how much he sucked for not wanting to pilot a giant robot. It's sad that those two are as close to friends as Shinji has had.

Shinji desperately wants to talk to someone right now about, you know, the /underground tang aquarium full of Reis/ which it seems to be implied is a result of forbidden science experiments combining Adam Trevor flesh with the remains of Shinji's mother? No one SAYS it but yes?

So Shinji can't talk to Rei about this because he feels weird about the whole thing. Asuka's missing. His friends, such as they were, are gone. The poor kid just needs someone to talk to, to confide in, and he asks Asuka, Misato, and his mother, in that order, for help. Are all women ultimately mother for him? Rei, Misato, and Asuka all got conflated when he was absorbed into the EVA which were all part of an ur-mother thing so ... maybe? I don't know. Probably nobody knows. Shinji certainly doesn't know.

Then Shinji's thoughts are interrupted by Akira Ishida humming "Ode to Joy" (gorgeous piece of music, loved it since I was a little girl) and Akira Ishida is here! Things are not going to get more sensical when Akira Ishida just appears in your anime.

So this is Kaworu, who is sitting on some picturesque rubble jutting out from the orange tang, and he's the replacement EVA pilot. His hobbies are having mysteriously deleted records, perching on things, knowing about Shinji, and talking deep and cryptic, but in a friendly way.

AT SOME POINT IN THIS EPISODE Gendo talks to Shinji's EVA and refers to it by his dead wife's name and is glad the spear of Longinus is on the moon, actually, because with it on the moon it can't stand in the way of their plans and Gendo has an eyeball in his palm.

The obelisk council have a meeting where they are once again berating and complaining about Gendo and it is unclear if they realize that Gendo's not there.

Misato is pretty sure Kaworu is a spy or agent of some sort sent by the obelisk council and she and the dude NERV subordinate who's always around are trying to do some side snooping to figure out what his deal is.

Hey where's Ritsuko? Sitting on a chair in a black void telling Gendo about how her cat died and she didn't think about it at all for years until her grandmother called to tell her it was dead and now she's having feelings about it and Gendo doesn't care about symbolism. Gendo wants to know why Ritsuko destroyed the dummy plugs and Ritsuko is like, I didn't destroy the dummy plugs, I destroyed Rei which ... I don't know, I don't know, are we all operating at cross-purposes here Ritsuko? Are you and Gendo even having the same conversation?

Gendo's like ... is this because I stopped having sex with you? And ... maybe that conversation went further but I think my brain strangled itself rather than contemplate Gendo viewing sex with anyone as a favour he's doing them and one Gendo finds inconvenient (and gross at that).

Rei's having a time and as is often the case with Rei it's unclear what she thinks about what she's thinking? Rei seems like she's a cypher to herself more than she is to anyone else. Rei's maybe trying to figure out what her purpose in life is or who she's alive for? She thinks about Gendo's glasses and something's different with this Rei, I guess, compared to the other Reis. I think something's breaking down, like maybe each new Rei is less and less connected to Gendo? I don't know.

At some point, Rei encounters Kaworu and he's like oh hey, you're like me, I thought so! Maybe they're at NERV or on their way to NERV? Look, the budget ball got dropped with Asuka, this shit is getting impressionistic. So maybe Kaworu doesn't have any background for Misato to dig up because, like Rei, he's a construct from some weird genetic fuckery (I think Misato even compares his lack of background to Rei at one point) anyway he's like it's episode 24 time to drop Lilith references!

Why are you doing this to me, Akira Ishida? If I had one of those murder evidence string boards it would be such a mess right now as I tried to find room for /Lilith/.

Misato's reached the point of fuck it, let's just throw all the kids into the robots for tests and Kaworu is /suspiciously good at robot numbers/.

After robots, Shinji is just sort of hanging around when Kaworu exits ... something NERV-y and Shinji is awkward and shy and doesn't want to go home and needs to take a shower and Kaworu is ... intense and suggestive and friendly. So they shower together and then bathe together and there's, like, an entire wall in the baths that's dedicated to a screensaver slideshow of NERV propaganda and Kaworu just wants to talk to Shinji and get to know him and hold hands in the bath and it's obviously weird.

Shinji is so desperate for friendship and someone to talk to and you don't want to see conspiracy or shady shit here because at this point I just want something /good/ to happen to Shinji for once in this constant tragedy train of a show. Just let him have this weird friend who wants to talk to Shinji about his intimacy issues and how his fear of being alone makes him keep to himself and causes the aloneness because chosen aloneness is better than risking connection and getting rejection. So probably the biggest red flag about Kaworu is that he's talking to Shinji about the things Shinji is concerned about without any overt robot-centric motives.

Then Kaworu invites himself over for a sleepover. Shinji takes the floor because of course he does and they talk more philosophy and fate and destiny and depression and Kaworu is intense and tells Shinji he likes him and no one has given Shinji even this crumb before.

The obelisk council has a meeting that isn't in the void but is over the tang craters of the ruined city and they're meeting with Kaworu because of course Kaworu is their construct of some sort being sent to ... something ... Gendo ... moons ... Lilith ... Adam ...

Misato is watching all of this from the highway through highspec binoculars and cursing that she can't read Kaworu's lips. She's looking at the back of his head, mind you. But I heard what Kaworu said and I don't fucking know, Misato, so don't feel bad.

Misato meets Ritsuko in the black void at some point and if I knew why in the moment I have since forgotten. I don't take notes. I just watch. Misato's angry, though and Ritsuko is just ... overcome with a sense of her own failure or maybe grief or anger at her inability to not repeat her mother's mistakes? There's definitely mom-stuff involved.

I'm aware that these reports are becoming longer and less coherent and also probably less interesting for people to read but once I decide to do a thing I do it. There's definitely a loss of narrative cohesion as the series nears its end, probably due to budget stuff.

It's an episode for people to talk to the EVAs in their giant hangers and Kaworu goes to have a chat with Asuka's robot where chat means 'starts floating and establishes some kind of mental link with the EVA and turns it on'.

In the NERV control centre everyone starts freaking out at the sudden activation of the EVA. IS IT ASUKA? they ask (no, she's shown to be barely conscious in a hospital bed, so someone's caring for her to some degree). NO PLUG, NO PILOT, JUST KAWORU'S PSYCHIC MANIPULATION.

Oh, and Kaworu's an Angel which means an Angel is now using an EVA to punch through ... NERV ... ground ... basement ... heading to where Adam Trevor is, the orange tang ocean, and that's really bad. If he/they succeed ... Third Impact?

Shinji's called in (and Misato hasn't talked to Shinji once about Kaworu even though the last time there was a new surprise EVA pilot it went ... poorly and, well, here we are now) and he's angry and sad and disbelieving (echoing Asuka's disbelief at the beginning). Shinji feels so /betrayed/ and he compares what Kaworu has done to his relationship with his father which is ... a lot to unpack. I suppose the friendship Kaworu offered is the most obvious affection Shinji has been offered by anyone. He wants affection and recognition from Gendo. But any affection, any seeing and noticing of him, must be like water in the desert to Shinji at this point, and if Gendo's greatest betrayal of Shinji's hopes was overriding his will to make Shinji nearly kill Tohji I guess Kaworu, the only character who's shown any interest in being Shinji's friend, being revealed to be an Angel, something Shinji /has/ to kill, is comparable. I'm sorry, Shinji.

Shinji fights Asuka's EVA, controlled by Kaworu, as they descend deeper and deeper into the bowels under NERV, the two EVAs locked into a very cool looking combat that Shinji doesn't want to be involved in, and Misato and her underling confirm plan SELF-DESTRUCT NERV.

"Ode to Joy" is playing throughout this. It feels very natural.

Kaworu gets to where Adam Trevor is, weird and white and bulgy, looking very pregnant and Adam Trevor is also Lilith and they are the parent of humanity while the Angels are maybe less tainted children of god and are siblings to the EVAs?

Shinji throws Asuka's destroyed EVA through the ... wall? into the orange tang ocean zone with Kaworu and Adam Trevor Lilith and since Shinji's the victor of that fight, he seizes Kaworu, who he still does not want to fight, let alone kill. Kaworu's calm about all of this, though. He's ready to die. He expects to die. He also is ready to live but he recognizes this is a situation where for one of them to survive, the other one can't, and he smiles and tells Shinji he wants Shinji to live.

There's once again a really excellent use of the budget and animation limitations the show was hitting at this point, as there's a long, still shot of Shinji's EVA holding Kaworu as "Ode to Joy" soars, the music the only sound for the static shot.

Then the screen flashes and a small shadowy shape sinks into the orange.

Gendo and Rei wear raincoats as blood is hosed off Shinji's EVA.

Shinji sits by Misato, devastated, and tries to express his feelings to her, express his grief and regret. Kaworu was a good person. Kaworu was his friend. Kaworu told Shinji he liked him and Shinji confirms that /no one has ever told him that before/. Shinji feels like he should have died instead of Kaworu. He felt awful about Tohji's near-death at his unwilling hands. Tohji wasn't even really his friend. His grief and culpability in his own loss here is ... huge. And all Misato can say is that Shinji did the right thing in killing his friend. She's the only adult who's been sometimes sympathetic to Shinji, who he's been forging a real connection with, but by this point she's had to deal with so much shit of her own that the fragile pseudo-parent-child relationship between them has shattered. Misato is just another adult who isn't hearing Shinji. He doesn't know why it's changed, he just knows she's telling him killing his friend was right. This concludes my report on Episode 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Edit: I know there was a lot of discussion and criticism when Netflix released their new dub and sub, particularly with respect to the line "worthy of his grace" and we can all agree, I think, that Netflix's subtitles are sloppy, their localization flawed. But regardless of the words used, it's clear that Kaworu offers Shinji everything he isn't getting from the rest of the world: affection, understanding, intimacy, a sense of being valued, a sense of safety. Love in whatever form, every form Shinji needs and wants.

I guess I wonder how genuine this offer of love is although I suppose it doesn't matter to Shinji because the betrayal happens, the universe punishes him for risking emotional intimacy, and Kaworu's sincerity doesn't change how awful Shinji is left feeling.

#neon genesis evangelion report #fuckin' kaji

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