#now that jojolion is over

[we-love-morioh-cho]

I think this might literally be my all-time favorite panel in Jojo. I want it printed and in my home so I can look at it everyday.

[simpingforcreamsoda]

On Dragona Joestar

and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s inability to handle its content privileges.

For those unaware, this is Dragona Joestar. They are the deuteragonist of The Jojolands, the 9th part in the manga anthology series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series has been long running, and for a long time had fallen under the Shounen genre— manga aimed at teenagers, arguably young boys specifically but that’s somewhat besides the point. Under this label, there was plenty of violent and shocking content to be found in JoJo, from implications of vampires eating children alive to many characters meeting gruesome ends from punches driving through their stomachs. Character backstories tackled themes like parental abuse, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, rape, and even featured an on screen depiction of a KKK lynch mob. The series particularly became known for a somewhat dark meme— that the author (Araki) would often demonstrate that a villain was evil by having them kill a dog. So, with all that in mind, why do I only now have a problem with how JoJo chooses to handle mature themes?

In 2005, Part 7 of JoJo was soon to begin as a new, fresh take on the series. It took place in a different continuity than the first six parts, and came with another important distinction— JoJo was no longer a Shounen. It was now a Seinen, a manga category that for all intents and purposes could get away with publishing far more “adult” themes and visual depictions. The effect was immediately noticeable.

At the end of part 7, there is an elongated attempt of rape. This is by no means an exaggeration: the main villain pursues a fourteen year own girl with attempt to assault her in a prolonged horror sequence in which her breasts are exposed in several panels. As a reader, this was surprising, but tolerable to consume. Lucy’s attempts to flee directly result in her summoning a stand ability in self defense, putting an end to the attempt and furthering the narrative along. Because I will almost certainly bring this point up later, yes, this could have been done in ways other than SA. Valentine could easily have been trying to murder Lucy, and the narrative effect would have been the same, but I can understand the intent behind the angle they chose. It’s a direct assault on Valentine’s self proclaimed righteousness, and presents him in a more grounded sense of horror that we had not quite seen in the series prior.

Cut to part 8. Nudity is back— the first fight has a woman entirely nude. I read this in a public space, thank you Araki, lmao. That’s irrelevant to what I have to say, just thought it was funny how quickly jojolion throws tits at the reader.

But part 8 brings something else to the table— Yasuho. She’s a beloved fan favorite, the deuteragonist of part 8, and… is CONSTANTLY sexually harassed as a plot point. Joshu, a character meant to be extraordinarily dislikable, stalks her with unwanted attention and on at least two instances attempts to force himself on her. Tsurugi, a child character of moral ambiguity constantly tries to lick and grope her legs. Even the final villain of the part, Tooru, is revealed to have groomed her from a young age. Aside from Yasuho, other characters are put through situations that are particularly sexually vulnerable in order to demonstrate the horror of an enemy. Lucy’s occasional brushes with SA in part 7 between Valentine, Scarlett, and in High Voltage have become more than a pattern, they’re the default device. Araki has made it clear that when he wants to truly make a villain villainous, he is past killing dogs. Sexual assault and abuse is the new manner of proving the mark of a villain, and while it may be “realistic”, it’s dreadful to read. It’s sickening to watch fan favorite characters be put through an endless loop of suffering, just for a shock value attempt to ramp up stakes. Hell, Lucy even shows up in a flashback, and she gets her clothes ripped off. There’s no end to it for her, even over a real life decade later.

And now we’ve reached part 9.

Dragona Joestar is an interesting character. Here are some fun facts:

They appear feminine but have male genitals and (presumably) male pronouns, but I will use they out of caution.

Their favorite fruit is no longer watermelon that got changed to papaya I think?

They are sexually assaulted twice across the first 13 chapters

It is remarkably unpleasant. The part OPENS on Dragona having their penis groped by a policeman, and later in a flashback we see school kids cornering them in the back of a bus, before tearing off their clothes and trying to carve scars into their skin with a potato peeler.

And I’ve fucking had it. I don’t care if this contributes to their nihilistic worldview, this is fucking sickening! I don’t care if it’s no more violent and realistic than parental abuse or medical abandonment in a hospital— no other “adult” topic in JoJo has been handled this poorly. No other topic has been so constant, so expected, and so specifically targeted at the same characters over and over. Part 9 has taken it a step further— in each instance, it has been very specifically because of Dragona’s non typical gender presentation. Their being is constantly made into a sexual object of lust for villains, and this lust is consistently presented in sequences where physical contact is presented gratuitously to the reader.

When I’ve tried to express my specific disgust for this, I’ve made the poor choice of saying this is breaching a line that feels akin to a twisted fetish one might find on 4chan, but no matter how many times I emphasize that I don’t believe Araki intends this, people misinterpret me. So I’ll be clearer now: I do not believe Araki has intended anything more than pure shock value. What I DO believe is that he ONLY thinks of it as shock value, and in doing so has lost sight of what it truly means. He’s become completely careless with such a theme, and has used it in places where other topics could easily be interchangable— and the shock of SA has lost its purpose. It is no longer something that makes me fear a character— it has made me despise the story. It’s turned into a semi monthly event, one at such a rate and manner of depiction that I do not believe JoJo is mature enough to handle it.

i dont know. I’m tired of writing about this. I might edit with clarification later.

I’m just dreading what’s to come for a series I love so much.

[starry-blue-echoes]

Ok so hear me out, villain (angationist) Jotaro. I can't get this thought out of my head. A Jojo Discord server I'm in had a whole ass debate about scenarios for this during an alternate stone ocean.

Scenario 1: Jotaro after years of stand bull shimata(sh*t) is fed up with stands and seeks to rid the world of stands and their users.

Scenario 2: Aims to achieve Star Platinum Over Heaven to change his past and that of his bloodline.

Scenario 3: Jotaro sides with Pucci but it's a ploy to achieve his own goals.

Scenario 4: Ropes his entire family into siding with him on a scenario 1 esque plan.

As you can see, that night sure was productive. What do you think of these? How would u rank them? What's your favorite?

Okay it’s not quite what you asked, but this made my brain ZOOM with a possible AU idea

what if at some point prior to Part 6, Jolyne dies. Maybe one of Jotaro’s enemies found and killed her, maybe it was a complete accident, but bottom line is she’s dead

And Jotaro…….. just fucking snaps

He’s angry, he’s grieving, and after years and years of trying to outrun his trauma and fears everything comes crashing down all at once. Every fight, every death, every ally he made along the way who got hurt, the countless innocents who’d gotten caught in the crossfire, EVERYTHING all at once and at the worst possible moment

He doesn’t want this. He never wanted this, not when he was 17 and in that jail cell, not when he killed Dio, not when he went to Morioh and especially not right now

……and then he remembers the book he’d found in Dio’s mansion. About Attaining Heaven and recreating the world to be perfect

At the time he’d brushed it off as the ramblings of an insane megalomaniac

but now that’s he’s a bit less sound of mind…… it seems like the perfect option

Part 6 goes……. pretty much COMPLETELY differently. With Jolyne dead, Jotaro “on” Pucci’s side and her friends not even really together, there’s functionally nobody standing in their way since nobody even knows there’s any danger to begin with. After all, Jotaro is still incredibly intelligent and knows better than to make needless enemies. He has no desire for anymore bloodshed amongst his family, so he’s going to take every possible precaution necessary to keep them out of the loop

And what if his end goal is a mix of Options 1 and 2. To erase any and every Stand from existence, leaving their Users as normal people and ensuring his family never had to suffer their fates. And he is not exempt from this, his plans include getting rid of Star as well. He has no desire to rule or lead, he just wants this nightmare to be done and over

Now, I don’t know too much about EoH(I’m planning on watching a cutscene complication when I finish Jojolion), but my base knowledge is that Someone(maybe Dio?) is trying to fuck with the universe and all the Jojo’s across the timeline end up meeting and working together

So what if this evil Jotaro ends up traveling back in time as well to various point. After all, he can already mess with time and the Universe, why not go back far enough to save his friend’s lives……. but then things get a bit messy and he accidentally starts dragging people from all around the timeline and it becomes a whole mess

and for some added fun, what if they don’t know it’s Jotaro at first. They just think it’s some new evil Stand User trying to stir shit up again and are prepared to deal with him

However……. eventually they notice there’s something different about their enemy. Because again, Jotaro doesn’t want to kill anyone. He just wants them all to be safe and happy and normal and is ready to tear the universe apart to accomplish that

I’d imagine he almost crumbles apart when he sees Jolyne for the first time. She’s grown up to be big and strong and the hole in his heart for her aches at the ferocity she fights him with, but he’d rather her be alive and despise him than dead dead dead the ground just like his home universe

And when his identity and reasons ARE revealed…… ho boy is that going to hit like a bus. At this point the group had probably gotten to know the Good Jotaros(possibly multiple of them because of Time Fuckery), so seeing how far this one had been driven? The brink he’d been shoved to? It’s going to be both terrifying and also the saddest thing they’ve seen. That the man before them lost EVERYTHING, and now was doing everything he could to get it back

[goatpaste]

id like to hear more of your thoughts on hato! shes my fav jojolion character and no one else talks ab her i love her sm

wAHH i love Hato I really really do love herrrrr

she's defiantly probably my fav character in that part which i know is a bit silly because she really didn't get as much screentime as a lot of others but i really just like what we did get of her. she's just delightful. i really wish we got more of her, in general but also in replace of Joshu. I would have love Hato and Yasuho friendship

then theres the part of me that reads too much into her!!! i know iv overanalyzed her but i did and it sits in me!

Hato rambling under the cut lol

This idea of her oldest daughter, but second oldest child. Her parents love her and her siblings but dad works on their family business and as much as mom never lets you forget she loves you, she clearly has subconsciously picked a favorite in your older brother. Theres something between them you could never have with your mother or brother. This special clique just between them. Then your mother is taken from the picture, your brother is older than you and even if she isnt there his best friend is mom, and its not long now that he's working with dad. You have a younger sister but the age difference is there and she's become quite the daddys girl as dad's stepped in to be both parents. So your left with the sibling closest to you in age, Jobin. He isnt great but you get to have your moments, but even then he's busy being self entitled and chasing some girl who doesnt want him around and constantly doing his own thing.

Despite all this your the odd man out in a house where everyone is the odd man out of each others relationships.

Some time goes by and you find out about your absent mom, and with that disconnection from everyone else, you don't say anything. You dont want to upset them, you simply have to digest the truth of the matter, the bond of your mother and brother. Your the oldest daughter, your not going to stir shit up. But you can't help but feel a bit of resentment toward the whole thing... maybe jealousy that it wasnt you? Its stupid to feel that way on the topic of the death of a child, but she missed out on having that connection with either of them.

Your considered silly and air headed, and you are you guess, you like to have fun and things escape you sometime. But your finding a nice well off boyfriend, the perfect first boyfriend to bring home to your family. Someone thats yours. Plus, shows everyone your a responsible adult who can have an adult relationship. You can step up you can be someone people rely on and trust, your going to be a good person who brings no trouble to your family. Your not your mother, your not your brother and your not going to let personal feelings lay harm.

Then despite all that, all that you've tried to do right backfires and you've put everyone in danger. Your misjudged and it caused everyone to get hurt. Maybe you are air headed..

All this business with these people trying to hurt her family, her mom back in the picture, jobin acting more distant from the family than ever before, falling back into this way with their mother, secrets just for them while you just have to sit and watch and stew in your own feelings.

... then their gone. It's all over and their gone, and your left with having resented your mother for the last years. But you dont hate her, well.. maybe you do. you just hated that she wasnt as attentive to you as you wanted. You hate that you couldn't have had a proper relationship with her or your brother and now it's too late.

But its not too late for family.

I love to picture after the events of Jojolion, Hato going on to pick up Jobins work. She steps up as the eldest child of the family and starts working closer with her dad, helping with the family business, as well as her and everyone else stepping up to help Mitsuba with Tsurugi and the new baby.

Hato finding some peace in the new flow of the family, through strengthening her bond to family finally, finding some sense of connection to the ones they lost through them.

miss growing pains!!

also this comic i love it soo much on twitter i think about it a lot with miss hato

[cophene]

012 | strange new tourist.

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pairing : jojolion x gn reader summary : the heir to an limitless fortune goes on a vacation to morioh to find their true love. seems easy enough; only, if that they're unable to find their love, they'll lose not just their fortune, but their life. notes : multi-chapter fic, sfw, doesn’t follow canon plot word count : 2.4k+

★ . . . NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, Yasuho went home only to find her mother passed out in front of a blaring TV, a bottle of alcohol leaking into the couch from where she’d knocked it over. 

“Can’t you at least try to clean up after yourself?” Yasuho snapped, snatching up the bottle. She tried to blot at the couch with a kitchen towel.

“You’re finally home,” her mother mumbled. She tried to sit up. “Do you want dinner? There’s still some take-out in the fridge.”

Yasuho huffed. She took the towel to the sink to wring it out, crouching to check the alcohol cabinet. 

“Mom, did you drink everything in here?! You still had four bottles left!”

“Why buy it if you’re not gonna drink it?” Yasuho’s mother slunk into the kitchen. “I’ll microwave your food for you.”

“I don’t want it. We’ve been eating takeout for the past week.”

“Then I can cook you something—”

“You can barely stand, Mom.” Yasuho threw the towel into the sink. She screwed her eyes shut, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths. “Just go to bed.”

“You’re always out,” her mother chided, poking her cheek. “You never come home.”

“Because I have classes.” Yasuho pushed her mother’s hand away. “Go to bed. I’ll be fine.”

Her mother frowned. Then she made a gagging noise. “I need to throw up.”

The sound of her mother’s retching forced Yasuho out of the house. She had talked to her mother about changing things, finding something her mother could be passionate about. Sometimes Yasuho thought she might be getting better, but then her mother would give in and they would switch roles; Yasuho cleaning up and fretting after her impulsive, oblivious mother.

Yasuho thought briefly of calling her father, but decided against it. Instead, she let the streets take her where they would, following one street lamp to the other. Eventually, her neighbourhood gave way to night insects and restless trees.

It had been a while since Yasuho had been to this playground. She’d gone all the time with her dad as a kid. The swings had been her favourite. 

She bought a drink from one of the nearby vending machines, a can of sweet iced-tea. She was about to take a seat on one of the swings when she noticed someone already there. She would have left them alone if she hadn’t caught their face in profile, their mouth stiffly downturned. They held themselves so carefully, the way you did when you didn’t want yourself to fall apart. 

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Leave me the hell alone.”

Yasuho drew back. “That’s a little rude. I don’t even know who you are.”

They turned to look at her, and the intensity of their gaze made Yasuho’s breath catch. They hissed out a swear, scrubbing a hand over their face. Nonetheless, their red-rimmed eyes gave it away.

“Sorry. Just in a shit mood right now.”

“That’s fair.” Yasuho hesitated, then took the swing beside the stranger. She held out her drink. “Here. You look like you need it.”

They stared at the can, then took it. Silence settled between them. Yasuho studied the stranger from the corner of her eye. Their clothes were cute, as though they’d just gotten out from a date. Was that why they looked so miserable?

Yasuho gave herself a little kick to start swinging. “So what are you doing out here?” 

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I asked you first.”

“It’s kind of personal.”

“I can deal with that.”

The stranger drank from their can. “Have you ever done something for your family, but your family gets pissed at you, because they don’t understand what you’re doing?” they said haltingly. “They accuse you of being reckless and inconsiderate, when really, you’re putting everything on the line to keep them safe. And you can’t explain, because what’s the point when you’re already here and they’re already pissed? You’re trying so hard to do the right thing, but it’s even worse because you realize they don’t believe in you at all? So why are you trying so hard? Is it even worth it to protect them?”

Yasuho blinked. “I think if it wasn’t worth it, you would have given up by now.”

“Maybe. Or I’m just too stupid to know when to quit.” The stranger let a bone-deep sigh. They glanced at Yasuho sidelong. “So what are you doing here?”

“Nothing as existential as you. I just couldn’t stand it in my house.”

“Something happen?”

“My mom was drinking again. I just needed a place to breathe.”

“Sounds like we both don’t want to go home.” The stranger leapt off their swing. A few more minutes slipped by, the silence filled only by the swaying tree branches. 

“Is there somewhere I could get something to eat but also drink myself into oblivion?” the stranger asked.

“I didn’t take you for the drinking type.”

“I’m on vacation. I have to drink.”

So they were a tourist. Yasuho got to her feet, smoothing down her skirt. “I’ll do you one better and take you there myself.”

Yasuho would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about the stranger. She’d tried to keep her questions low-key, but that turned out not to be necessary because a few glasses in and the stranger unspooled their entire life story.

L/N Y/N was the heir to a limitless fortune, or they would be, if they could find their true love. They weren’t here just for vacation, but to carry out their curse put on their family by the mountain gods. They had one month before their nineteenth birthday to find their true love in Morioh or their family fortune would disappear as easily as the mountain gods had bestowed it. The curse had to be the alcohol getting to their head, but Y/N’s tone went strangely serious when they talked about it.

Y/N went on to talk about their family and how self-absorbed they were. How Y/N had been living that same life because no one told them otherwise. Their face brightened when they talked about Karera, though. Their words were easy and light, but Yasuho caught an undercurrent of something else. They cared about Karera, and maybe not in the way they thought. 

“We should get going,” Y/N said after their seventh glass. Yasuho eyed them, trying to judge how drunk they were.

“I’ll ask for the bill.”

“No, I’ve got it. Or didn’t you hear about my never-ending fortune?” Y/N raised their hand and a server brought over their bill a minute later. They slapped their card onto the pad and the server whisked it off. Yasuho raised an eyebrow. Heir to a fortune or not, she didn’t like how much that gesture reminded her of her mother.

“So any luck finding your true love?” she asked mildly.

Y/N groaned. “I don’t wanna think about it. I’m drinking to forget. It’s starting to feel like there’s no one in this town who could care about me.”

Yasuho wanted to say something but she didn’t know what. Y/N was flippant and a little blasé, sure. But there was something about them that Yasuho wanted to see more of. Something small and soft at the core of them.

The server came back with a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry, but your card was declined. Is there another way you could pay?”

Y/N squinted at him. “What do you mean?”

The server handed the card back. “Er, you handed me a discount card for the supermarket.”

Y/N swore, patting down their pockets for their wallet. They took it out, but it seemed like their credit card wasn’t in there.

“Don’t even think about it,” Y/N said before Yasuho could offer her own card. They looked around the restaurant, their eyes settling on a youngish guy with a buzzcut. 

“Could I have a minute?” they asked the server.

“Of course. Call me back when you are ready.”

Yasuho watched, mystified, as Y/N got up from their seat and walked over to the guy. They planted a firm hand in front of him. Even from a distance, the rakish grin they pulled onto their face made Yasuho’s stomach dip.

“Say, you feel like playing a game?”

The guy looked up at Y/N, unimpressed. “Excuse me?”

“Play a game with me.”

“I’m just tryna eat.”

From their pocket, Y/N withdrew a pair of black dice. Their grin sharpened wolfishly. “It’s easy. If you roll under a seven with my dice, you have to pay for my dinner. But if you roll over, I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget.”

Yasuho made a small sound. What the hell? She should step in, right? Y/N was making a fool of themself. And yet there was an assurance in their voice that gave Yasuho pause. 

“What are you talking about?” 

Y/N leaned down, whispering into the guy’s ear. Yasuho frowned when his face flushed red.

He took the dice. Y/N cleared his table to make room for a small jade plate. They stepped back, clasping their hands behind them. They winked at Yasuho’s expression, mouthing, Just you wait.

The guy dropped the dice on the plate. Y/N clapped their hands.

“You owe me dinner.”

Yasuho stood up to see what the guy had rolled. A five. Go figure.

“Bullshit,” the guy scoffed. “Whatever. I was just humouring you.”

“I don’t think so.” Y/N laughed, scooping up the dice and the plate. “Go pay for my dinner. I need to get back to my villa.”

“Pay yourself.”

“Are you refusing?”

“I’m not paying for your dinner because of some goddamn dice.”

Yasuho heard something snap. It was followed by the guy shrieking in pain.

“Pay for my dinner,” Y/N said calmly. They ignored the alarmed glances shot their way.

“Fuck no! You’re crazy!”

A meaty crack. The guy screamed, bringing up his hand. Yasuho went cold at the blood sliding down his arm.

“Y/N, stop,” she said.

“We made a bet and you lost,” Y/N said, in that same calm tone. “Pay for my dinner and this will all be over.”

“Someone call an ambulance!” the guy wailed. “You saw what they just did to my hand, right?”

“Pay. For. My. Dinner.” 

The guy’s hand twisted in on itself. Yasuho didn’t know what was happening, but she would have bet anything it was Y/N’s Stand. Y/N stood by impassively, deaf to the guy’s screaming.

“Stop,” Yasuho said louder. “I can pay for the dinner.”

“But this game is between me and him,” Y/N said. “If he pays, his hand will go back to normal. That’s all.”

“What’s going on here?” The server from earlier hurried over. His eyes widened at the mangled hand. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he said tightly. “We don’t tolerate—”

“I’m on my way out. This gentleman here has kindly offered to pay for my dinner. I’m just waiting for him to follow through.”

“Get them out of here!” the guy screamed. A sickening sound came from his arm and Yasuho felt ill when she saw how it hung limply from his shoulder.

The server’s face was pale. “P-please just—”

“Pay for the dinner!” Y/N snapped at the guy. “You lost the game, you pay for my dinner!”

Yasuho tugged on their arm. “What are you doing? Stop it!”

“Fine, I’ll pay! Just leave me the fuck alone!” The guy scrabbled in his pocket for his wallet and practically threw it at the server. Y/N glared at him when he just stared at it.

“What are you waiting for? I thought you wanted me to leave.”

If Yasuho had any doubts the guy’s mangled hand had been the work of a Stand, they were quickly banished when the server left and the guy’s hand healed immediately. The bones snapped back into place and the blood disappeared from both his skin and the ground.

Y/N left the restaurant. Yasuho followed after them, mind still reeling.

“What was that? What did you do all of that for?”

Y/N looked back. “Don’t know what was up with my card, but it would’ve been rude to make you pay, so I got someone else to do it.”

Yasuho gaped at them. “And what you did to that guy wasn’t rude? You should’ve just let me pay! You didn’t have to twist that guy’s hand up! Didn’t you see how much pain he was in?”

“He wouldn’t have been if he’d just paid.”

“Was that your Stand?”

Y/N looked faintly surprised. “You have one too?”

“That doesn’t matter! Why did you do that? There was no reason for it!”

“Why do you care? His hand is back to normal, isn’t it?”

“It was cruel!”

Y/N’s face darkened. “Is it so bad that I want to get things out of life? I’ve got this Stand ability. What good is it for if I don’t use it?”

Yasuho grimaced. It was nearly an echo of what her mother had said. Y/N might be acting like this because they were drunk, but it still rubbed her the wrong way.

“If it’s going to be over something as petty as paying for dinner, maybe you shouldn't use it.”

“That guy was leering at you the entire dinner, did you notice? Maybe I shouldn’t have used my Stand, but I couldn’t stand the look on his face. My Stand isn’t just good for making people do things.” Y/N took in a breath, and looked at Yasuho. “I could have forced you to hang out with me, you know. Strangers rarely roll over a seven. I could have forced you to keep me company, but I didn’t. I didn’t even show you my dice. Forcing people to do things might be cruel, but I never force people to do things I think they don’t deserve. My way of justifying things, I guess.”

Yasuho couldn’t hold Y/N’s gaze. She dropped her eyes.  

Y/N shrugged, turning on their heel. “Whatever. I’m going back to my villa. Thanks for having dinner with me. Hope things get better with your mom.”

Yasuho stared as they left. A part of Yasuho wanted to make sure Y/N got home safely. The rest of her told her to go home. She wondered how someone could be so bull-headed but terribly sensitive in the same breath.

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[voidyperson]

Sorry guys ship art thingy will come at some point

Read jojolion and now I need to get over the heart break

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch.18-22

So, this scene with Yasuho idly touching her tongue to her own elbow has always bothered me. It has nothing to do with anything, and why is it even in this story?

The only explanation I can think of is that this embodies the ability of her Stand, Paisley Park. It guides Yasuho in the right direction, and finds ways to progress to a goal. This is a reflection of Yasuho's own talent for research and investigation. She gets interested in a mystery and just refuses to let it go until she can find out more.

So I guess she found out once that it's physically impossible for a human to lick their own elbow, and she put her mind to it and found a way to pull it off. But realistically, the only way that can work is if she's got hypermobility in her shoulders, or a really long tongue, or both of those things.

Anyway, this is the "Shakedown Road" arc.

Quick note: In chapter 18, Josuke contemplates Yoshikage Kira and decides that he must be a somewhat decent guy, since he apparently snuck into the Higashikata home and removed Kyo Nijimura's name from their copy of the family tree, so that they wouldn't suspect her when she infiltrated their home as a maid. This is probably why Kyo went after Josuke in the previous arc, because she found out he looked at the family tree, and worried that he was going to expose her identity.

Although, I find it odd that Kyo would have bothered infiltrating the Higashikata home at all, if Yoshikage could sneak in and out that easily. Although it seems like the two of them didn't compare notes much, even though they're on the same side.

As for the Higashikata Family, they're all having breakfast in their swimsuits, because they were planning to take a trip to Hawaii this week, but had to call it off because Hato never got her passport. This is because Hato didn't know Hawaii was part of the United States. At first I thought she didn't know anything about Hawaii, like maybe she thought it was a Japanese territory, like the British Virgin Islands or something. Or she thought Pearl Harbor was the end of World War II, and Japan got to keep Hawaii.

But no, I think it's more like... she just didn't know where Hawaii is? Like she just thought it's one of the islands in the Japanese archipelago, like Iwo Jima or Okinawa. Or maybe she just thought it was in Tokyo or something. Like, that's really dumb. Hawaii's a pretty famous place, and you'd think she'd know her own country a little better than this. "Oh, yeah, we're all taking a vacation to the Honolulu Prefecture."

Anyway, they all wore their bathing suits to at least simulate the experience of a poolside breakfast. This seems pretty sad. I mean, they have beach resorts in Japan, don't they? I mean, if I were one of the idle rich and my trip to the Bahamas fell through, I might fly out to Miami and try to get something similar.

Oh, and Joshuu isn't playing along because he never would have gotten on the plane in the first place. This is because he's an atheist, so that means he doesn't trust... planes? He also complains that the milk is a day over the expiration date, and he refuses to take chances, even over something so minor. I feel like that's not now atheism works? It's not like people only trust planes and milk because they believe that a higher power is the only thing keeping them safe.

But then again, Joshuu's an idiot. Like, I really don't get the point of this guy, aside from just putting an unlikeable, obnoxious person in the story for its own sake. Joshuu does get some consequences for his bad behavior, but most of the time he's just a complete shithead who makes an ass of himself and everyone sort of endures his presence. There's no joke, no lesson or moral. Joshuu never does anything or learns anything. He tries to act like he's a rival for Yasuho's affections, but literally no one else believes this.

Josuke wonders if he's a Stand user like Daiya, and his moronic act is part of his Stand Power. But no, he's just an idiot. And yet, the rest of the family also act like idiots, but they do have Stands and they're more dangerous. So I can see why Josuke stays on guard around him.

All right, so let's talk about Shakedown Road. In this arc, Josuke declares that he wants to go to school, and he wants his own cell phone. This is partly so he can have more freedom of movement to investigate his origins, but also he's thinking about his own future. Now that he knows he's a chimera of Yoshikage Kira and some other person, Josuke realizes that he has no past of his own, and no place where he belongs. So he needs to find a place for himself, and he figures he can discover his own talents and interests in school.

Norisuke tells Joshuu to take Josuke along to his own classes, and Joshuu decides to take a trip down "Shakedown Road". He warns Josuke that he's had money taken from him every time he's come to this place, but he insists that this time will be different. It's like he's counting on Josuke's presence to resolve the problem for him.

At first, it seems pretty unassuming. It's not like there's a bunch of muggers everywhere. Just Ginkgo trees and seemingly ordinary people. But then a woman complains to Joshuu that he stepped on her daughter's toy and demands he make restitution. Joshuu never came anywhere near the toy, but one of the stickers from it got onto his shoe, and his shoeprint is on the broken pieces, so the evidence is clear.

Joshuu explains that this was how it happened the last time he came here, but it wasn't the same woman back then. Josuke is intrigued and they use the camera on Joshuu's phone to record their movements along the road.

Then this old man accuses Josuke of breaking one of the aquariums in his shop. The collision fatally wounded an exotic turtle in the water tank. He says the turtle was decapitated, but its body was still moving around after the accident. We don't see the turtle, but this makes me sad, because there was a cool turtle in Parts 3, 4, and 5, but the Part 8 turtle has met with a tragic end. Rest in Power, Part 8 turtle. I'm sure you kicked ass.

Josuke wants to review the footage on Joshuu's phone, but Joshuu pretends he didn't hit the record button. In fact he caught the whole thing. Josuke was walking along, then he stepped on some gingko leaves, and was impossibly flung into the turtle tank at super speed. His elbow hit the tank, breaking it and killing the turtle, and then he got jerked right back where he was. And it happened so quickly that Josuke never even knew he had moved.

So Joshuu figures out that the gingko leaves have something to do with all of this, but he plays dumb so as not to clue Josuke in on this. Josuke, for his part, believes that there's a Stand User at work here, but the old man seems oblivious to Soft and Wet, so he can't have a Stand of his own, or he'd be able to see other Stands.

This is kind of a weakness with Part 8. Stands had been a fixture in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for over twenty years by the time JoJolion started, so it's probably fair that Araki assumed the readers could keep up with the rules. Indeed, this scene where neither Joshuu, the old man, the dog, nor the cell phone camera can perceive Soft and Wet pretty much spells out how this one rule works.

Still, Parts 3 through 7 each did a much better job laying all this out for new readers. Part 3 had to get it right, because that was where the Stand concept was first introduced, but in Parts 4 and 5 the main characters had their own Stands, then learned that there were others with the same kind of power. Also, Parts 4, 5, and 6 all featured characters who developed Stands during the story, so there was a learning curve for the audience. And Part 7 was a reboot, so the idea literally had to be reintroduced on account of this.

Part 8's problem is that Josuke has amnesia, but he appears to understand his Soft and Wet powers implicitly. Either he came out of the ground immediately knowing how to use his ability, or he sorted it out while he was in the hospital in Chapter 2. The problem is that he really doesn't have anyone else to explain it to, and the battles with other Stand Users are essentially ambushes with no time to process the details.

I sort of wonder how Part 9 handles this issue. My impression is that the main characters start the story already familiar with Stands, sort of like Bruno's team in Part 5. Maybe there's a viewpoint character they can explain it to, or maybe there's a wall of exposition somewhere. Well, that's a problem for another time.

I'm a little confused on this part, but some shady-looking characters notice Josuke and Joshuu and try to use them to complete a transaction on Shakedown Road. They coerce Josuke into delivering a package to a nearby woman, and receive her handbag in exchange, I think. Joshuu realizes that the people who understand Shakedown Road can use its mysterious properties to conduct this sort of illegal business. There are undercover cops nearby, but it doesn't matter. The crooks do some tricky stuff with the gingko leaves to make the swap without getting caught. Also Josuke gets yanked at super speed so that he accidentally hits one of the cops. So while they search him for the package, the crooks all walk away, their transaction seemingly complete.

While Josuke is tackled by the cops, he notices a bunch of little creatures under the gingko leaves, and that's the Stand he was looking for. This is Les Feuilles, and the Stand's user is the gingko trees themselves? I guess?

Anyway, Joshuu managed to grab the handbag, thinking it's full of money, and runs off in all the confusion.

But the crooks catch up to him pretty easily, using their experience with the gingko leaves to zip and fly towards him. Joshuu gives them the handbag but it's empty, so they're all set to fuck him up, but then Joshuu's own Stand activates. It has the power to disassemble people and objects. In this particular situation, it just gives these guys a scare, but once Joshuu escapes the effect wears off and they decide not to pursue him. I think Joshuu's Stand is more useful than this, but he absolutely sucks, so I'm pretty sure we never see it reach its full potential.

As it turns out, Josuke managed to foil the crooks from the start. He didn't know where the Stand was or exactly how it worked, but since none of the people involved were the user, that allowed him to use his own Stand to trick them without anyone realizing it. He used Soft and Wet's bubbles to switch the money with gingko leaves, or... something. I'm a little confused to be honest. The point is that the handbag was empty, the crooks didn't get their money, and Josuke can't get pinned with anything because having money on Shakedown Road just proves you're clever, not a thief. As for the woman who got the package, Josuke tells the cops to go chase her down, so it's fair to assume that she didn't get very far.

Josuke tries to call Yasuho on Joshuu's cell phone to meet up with her, but it doesn't work because Yasuho blocked Joshuu's number. She tracks the phone's location to Shakedown Road, which is close to the Joestar Jizo, and that gets her interested.

Jizo, also known as Kṣitigarbha, is a bodhisattva revered as the patron deity of dead children and aborted fetuses. He's also revered as a protector of travelers and firefighters. The Japanese are quite fond of Jizo, and so there are a lot of statues of Jizo in cemeteries and roadsides in Japan. The idea is that the statues serve as a memorial and a sign of Jizo comforting and watching over the dead.

In this case, the Joestar Jizo was built to honor the death of Johnny Joestar, an American who died in an accident in Morioh. I guess the death of a foreigner in a foreign land was particularly sad for the locals, so they set up the Jizo to express their condolences to Johnny and his family.

Of course, we know Johnny Joestar as the hero of Part 7, Steel Ball Run. Part 8 is set 120 years after Part 7, so Johnny's death is kind of a no-brainer, but how did he die, and what was he doing in Morioh?

This sequence here is one of my favorite scenes in JoJolion. There's a certain rite of passage in JJBA, where the hero of the next part will have some sort of connection to the previous Jojo. In Part 2, Joseph never met his grandfather, but he looked just like him, and he was surrounded by people who knew Jonathan and his legacy. In Part 3, Jotaro teamed up with Joseph to track down Dio. In Part 4, Jotaro finds Josuke and informs him of his Joestar heritage. In Part 5, Giorno Giovanna is ignorant of the other Jojos, but Koichi Hirose, who has met several of them, recognizes in Giorno the same noble qualities. In Part 6, Jolyne reconnects with her estranged father, Jotaro. Part 7 was a reboot, so Johnny couldn't meet any of the previous Jojo's, but that's okay.

What I'm driving at here is that Josuke has a predecessor in Johnny, but the gulf of time between them is too vast. Josuke can't meet Johnny or anyone Johnny once knew. Josuke is all alone in Morioh, with no family of his own and no place to belong. He thinks that no one can possibly connect to him, then he sees the Joestar Jizo, wearing the same hat he has on, the same hat Johnny wore during his time in Japan.

The connection wouldn't mean anything to Josuke. He recognizes Johnny as the ancestor of Yoshikage Kira, but he doesn't see himself as part of that family. Nor would he understand that he and Johnny are part of the same college of shonen protagonists, along with Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, and the rest.

But we know, and in this brief moment, Josuke briefly connects with his fellow hero, and it's a beautiful thing. He's not alone, the universe tries to tell him, and he can't hear it, but maybe his heart knows, somehow.

The old man from earlier shows up and tells Josuke the legend of Johnny's death. He claims this is just a fantasy, and the library is full of other interpretations, but this is the only version we get, so it might as well be the true final fate of Johnny Joestar. So after the end of Part 7, Johnny met and fell in love with Rina Higashikata, the daughter of Norisuke Higashikata I. We saw all three of them together on the ocean liner. Norisuke was heading back to Japan with his prize money from the race, and Johnny was heading to Naples to bury Gyro Zeppeli. Eventually, Johnny and Rina married, and they lived happily for a time, until Rina came down with a strange illness. It kind of affected her mind like dementia, and Josuke wonders if it has anything to do with the condition Holly Kira has, but this is never explained. Physically, the disease does something weird to her skin, turning it rock hard and with these creases, like you'd see in origami.

The Jojo fan wiki refers to this as the "Rock Disease" and this is as close to an official name as we'll get. Johnny decided to move to Morioh so Rina could live out her remaining years in her homeland, but as her condition grew worse, he made a fateful decision.

The plot of Steel Ball Run revolved around the "Saint Corpse", the remains of a holy figure with supernatural properties. At the end of SBR, the Saint Corpse was locked away in a vault so no one would ever use it again, but Johnny knew where it was, and he chose to return to New York to steal it and use it one last time to cure his wife. The American authorities tried to stop him, but he managed to give them the slip and made it back to Morioh.

The problem is that the Saint Corpse doesn't actually perform miracles. Rather, it simply transfers fortune from one to another. Johnny's hope was that the Corpse would shift the Rock Disease from Rina to some other person, someone he didn't know. He was ashamed of doing this, but he loved Rina so much that he was willing to consign someone else to death. But the equivalent exchange backfired on him. Rina was cured, but the Rock Disease was transferred to their young son, George Joestar.

So Johnny mounted up with his son and the Saint Corpse and started riding away from their home. He didn't want his wife to see this, you understand. Realizing that he could never use the Saint Corpse to get rid of the Rock Disease, he used it one last time to transfer the disease from George to himself.

I'm a little confused about how this worked, exactly. In this scene, Johnny uses the Golden Spin to activate Tusk Act IV, which he uses to shoot a hole in his son's head, and then it bounces back onto him. I don't get it, but then again, I didn't understand Tusk Act IV in Part 7, either.

Johnny falls off his horse, and while George is cured, he shows signs of the Rock disease. Also, something about all this triggers the Les Fueilles Stand. I don't know if it was already active back then, or if Johnny's little stunt with the Saint Corpse somehow caused the gingko leaves to develop their own Stand. What I do know is that when his hand touches the leaves, they cause a giant boulder to suddenly fly in from somewhere else, and it lands right on Johnny's head, killing him.

Initially, the Morioh authorities treated this like a homicide, and even arrested Rina as a suspect, but later it was found to be an accident, and they let her go. The town built the Jizo in his memory, and I think that this whole incident might be what caused all these people to develop Stand powers in Morioh whenever they go near the fault lines. It might also explain why the land on the Higashikata estate can combine things like the lemon and tangerine from Kyo's demonstration.

At one time, I assumed that the Saint Corpse was still in Morioh, and its powers were behind everything, but that's not the case. In the old man's version of the story, the Americans finally tracked down Johnny after he died and they recovered the Saint Corpse.

Meanwhile Yasuho has independently researched the Johnny Joestar legend, and has come to the spot where he died. It's pretty close to the Higashikata mansion, as well as the spot where she found Josuke.

Yasuho also learned of another news item from the same day as Johnny's death in 1901. A small boy, no more than 2 years old, was discovered on the coast near the same area. No one ever found out who he was or where he came from, and apparently this never comes up again in JoJolion. I looked him up on the wiki to see if I might have missed something, but he's just listed as "Mysterious Boy" in the list of minor characters.

It's possible that the story of the Mysterious Boy was just a way to get Yasuho to poke around in this area, so that she would find a hole in the base of a certain pine tree where the boy was found 110 years ago. And once she gets close enough to it, someone grabs her and pulls her inside to set up the next arc. So the Mysterious Boy may never have been a plot point or a clue at all, just a curious mystery that would bait Yasuho into getting captured. Either that or the Mysterious Boy is the main villain of Part 9. Whatever.

[the-illiterate-pirate]

Begging to request something sfw for tooru from jojolion. I can't find fics of him anywhere. Idc what you do, maybe how he confesses? Him pining after reader? I'm deprived man.

Hi hello ty for the request! Apologies for the long wait!

Bad Case of Lovin' You

Notes: CW for scraps and cuts mentioned as well as hospitals, fem!reader in mind, it's talked about the reader having a long term illness but it isn't specified about but takes a part in the story. Also trying to get this out quick and I'm tired so I'll try to go over it for errors later

TG University was always so boring and lame. Until Tooru got to see you. Tooru didn't care if he wasn't allowed to have these feelings for a patient. He... was it even possible? He felt so passionately about you. Something inside his cold, rocky heart came to life when you visited him. Nothing else was able to elicit so much feeling from him. Aside from music. But he couldn't explain why.

You had been coming to the University hospital for years now. Some case of an unknown disease that you were plagued with from a very young age. Most of the time you came in for little checkups to make sure your health wasn't dwindling. But you did come in once every few months for more intense testing.

Tooru could tell when you were nervous. He meets a lot of patients, but you were one of the easier ones to read. So animated and loud. He.. kind of enjoyed it. Even the light check ups frightened you. Sometimes he indulged in the idea of coddling you, kind of like a baby. Holding you in his arms made him feel so warm, feeling your skin under his fingers set a fire in his loins. He just wished he could tell you.

"Just another checkup today?" Tooru asked you, sliding in next to the examination table you were sat on. He had his clipboard ready, earbuds dangling on their wires rested on his shoulders. The music was loud enough to hear, but nothing that took his warm, puppy eyes away from you. It sounded like some slow, American rock you couldn't understand.

You hum as an answer, bobbing your head up and down in an exaggerated nod. He noticed your hands never left the hem on your skirt. They bunched up the fabric in fists, and showed off the comfy, thick black leggings you were wearing and all of the nicks and tears. Underneath were pretty bandaids in all types of colors. Duly noted.

"Hmm. If so then there's no need to get the doctor, I could check you out for him. I mean, if you don't mind."

"Oh, it's no problem! I trust you're just as c as Doctor Wu, Tooru-kun." You shyly wave of his unease and Tooru is quickly back to normal. He never lets his face leave his clipboard. He can't stand looking at your face directly. Your sweet face, and your doe eyes that looked down at him with so much worry. You were such a wreck.

He read over the paperwork. Nothing new has popped up, he's supposed to check out your breathing and heartbeat. Should be easy enough.

Right. Let's start. He stood up, hands already clean with those familiar blue gloves. Tooru grabbed the stethoscope, putting it to his ears, the cold shiny piece in hand, "May I?"

You hum again, quickly bringing up the hem of your shirt just a little to give him a peak of your bare back.

"This is gonna be cold." Tooru warned quietly.

"It always is." You sigh, but Tooru chuckled a little.

The metal piece pressed into your skin, sending a shiver down your spine. The piece traveled up, then stopped. "Breathe in," Tooru told you, you complied.

He moved it again, the stopped. "Again."

This went on for a moment. Tooru subconsciously leaned into you. He could feel your warmth, smell the perfume you chose that day. You always smelt good, it was such a good contrast to the sad smell of disinfectant and old people. Hammering in his ears was your heartbeat. Just slightly faster than normal, but Tooru could chalk it up to anxiety. He liked to think he had an even worse affect on you then you did on him.

"Well, your pulse is normal. Your lungs sound a bit congested, but all around okay. Is there anything I need to know?" Tooru spoke while taking off the stethoscope and placing it to the side.

"I think it's just allergies, I feel a little stuffed up but other than that I'm fine!" You said in a rather cheery tone.

The nurse nodded, "Good. I can get you a prescription for some medicine to help with that." And his eyes lowered to your ruined leggings. "And maybe some ointment for those?"

You didn't understand what he was talking about until he pointed down. Your skirt was still pushed up to your thighs, all the holes and cuts in your legs visible. It was embarrassing, you quickly fixed the hem but the damage was already done. "O-Oh! I slipped on some ice this morning and took a pretty nasty fall. I cleaned them out with soapy water, though!"

He hummed a little but made it over to the cabinet over the sink. "Maybe we should put some Neosporin on them just to be safe? It looks like you have quite a few... I wouldn't feel good about letting you go home like that."

"Aw, Tooru-kun, you're so sweet!"

There it was. That skip in his heart when you said his name.

He was staring at the bright colors peaking out from your leggings. The holes in them were too big, more like they've been ripped rather than stretched out. He couldn't work through them, so maybe the best course of action would to be... Ask you to take off your clothes.

"M-Maybe you should put this on." Tooru loudly declared, offering you the bottle of ointment. "It'd be best to take off the leggings and put them back on. I'll turn around and make sure I don't look."

He acknowledged the stuttering agreement from you, walking off behind you to the sink, hiding his face in his hands. You got to work quickly, Tooru heard the sound of clothes shuffling, the light noise of bandaids being quickly ripped off to not cause any pain. With his heating face in his hands he could only hear what was happening, and imagining it in his brain despite how much he wanted to ignore it.

What the hell was wrong with him? Why was it only you that made him feel so nervous?

No. He knew exactly what it was. Your sweet nature, the cute little faces you make when you're surprised or anxious or happy, you had amazing taste in music. Tooru saw you the most out of any of his other regulars. And you just happened to be his age. Because of your sickness you were weaker than most, and that all just made Tooru want to protect you even more. If he were a robot, he'd be short-circuiting. All of these feelings were so foreign to him.

He chanced a peak behind him. Nothing important was seen, just the back of your head. The movements you made told Tooru you were being gentle with yourself, softly applying the healing gel to your wounds, taking your time.

You were so fragile. If just a trip on asphalt can do so much damage to you... What could another human being do to you? Tooru dreaded the thought.

"I'm done, Tooru-kun."

"Ah, good. I've got some new bandaids right here." He masked the shaking of his arm by reaching above to grab the metal tin. "I've got the pastel ones for you, I thought you'd like them the best."

He was rewarded with a soft giggle of yours. "You know me so well."

"I'd be a little sad if I didn't... You are my favorite patient after all." Tooru looked down. Your legs looked a little better than he expected, still cut and bruised, but nothing serious. That was good. He glanced back at the bandaid tin, and offered it to you. "Here, I'll give you some more privacy."

"You don't have to. I mean–! I don't mind having you here with me, Tooru. You won't try to hurt me, I know you won't."

"Are... Are you sure..? I don't wanna make you uncomfortable."

With a little blush, you shyly admitted, "There's no way you could make me uncomfortable, Tooru-kun."

So he sat with you, decorating your legs in pretty bandaids. You on one leg, him on the other. Tooru was very careful not to hurt you, not to stare, not to do anything to make this strangely intimate scene anything less.

After all was said and done, you stood back up to put on your leggings. Seeing all the pastel colors peak through the tears, you groan. "I guess I gotta buy some new leggings... I was in a hurry, so I couldn't change before this appointment."

Tooru let out an airy laugh. "It would be for the best."

This was it. Maybe he could ask you now. Your appointment was the last on his shift. Well, the patient before you was supposed to be his last. But he really wanted to see you. So he waited. There was that fruit parlor a couple blocks away he wanted to go out and try. Tooru hoped you wanted to go with him. Romantically or not, he'd love to try any fruits with you.

"Ah, Tooru-kun? Are we gonna finish up my check up now?"

"Oh! Right, right! I was so busy worrying about your cuts, I almost totally forgot!"

No... Maybe it's for the best that he wait. It would be pretty weird if your nurse just popped the question on you so suddenly... Tooru could be patient, he'd wait until the time was right, when he was sure you liked him back, more or less, and when you got to feeling better. He was sure it would come soon.

[joan-deactivated20230204]

The "Favorite Comics I Read in 2023" Roundup

I didn't read as many comics this year as I have in the last couple- partly because I've been a lot busier with university and living in a new country, partly because I've been trying to read more books, and partly because I spent a good few months on a certain behemoth of a comic that'll be taking the #1 spot on this list. At the end of the day, though, I'm an opinionated woman who can't resist doing a retrospective on her favorite reads of the year. There's a few honorable mentions that deserve to be given note, though: Dogsred and The Jojolands are two of my favorite ongoing series right now, and the only reason they aren't making it onto this list is that they're too new for me to have a really solid opinion on beyond "I get excited when the new chapter comes out". I also, somewhat guiltily, want to give a shoutout to Sins of Sinister, which isn't what I'd generally consider a "good" comic, but which went a long way to revitalizing my interest in the X-Men after a decade of not reading X-books, pretty much entirely off the back of the new faggy characterization of Sinister.

Without further ado,

10. Chainsaw Man (Part 2)

Despite starting the year as probably my favorite ongoing comic, this comes in at #10, with my feelings on it going pretty hot and cold over the course of the year. It struggles with the same erratic pacing that all of Fujimoto's projects seem to encounter, but the highs are very very high- there's a very interesting story being built here in which the idea of normalcy and in particular its relationship to heterosexuality and domesticity are called into question. It still remains to be seen if it'll stick the landing, though, and admittedly I'm not thrilled about the last bunch of chapters. But it's been a fun ride this year.

9. The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing

This was the year in which I tried to really get back to familiarizing myself with what the superhero genre has been doing in the last decade, and this was, surprisingly, a standout. It presents the most interesting take on the character that I've read in a long time, turning the "one bad day" narrative on its head by emphasizing the Joker as a character defined by the negation of an originating narrative. The real highlights here, though, are the side stories that accompany each issue, giving great thematic juxtaposition but mostly just being darkly funny shorts in their own right. It does end up hitting a lot of the shortcomings of most superhero comics in 2023, though- there's a subplot with the Red Hood that doesn't contribute as much as it should, an annoying interjection by a crossover event I didn't read.. but looking past that, this was a good one the whole way through.

8. Jojolion

I almost didn't include this because I forgot that I read this all the way back in February! I do feel pretty strongly that this is Araki's most developed work (although Jojolands is shaping up to be a strong challenger)- it breaks away so dramatically from the storytelling conventions that have defined his career, keeping a lot of the superficial elements of a shonen but using them to tell a much more intimate and everyday kind of story. All of this comes through wonderfully in the art, where Araki's trend towards more and more unrealistically beautiful people meets a passion for grotesque violence and painstakingly detailed backgrounds, imbuing the whole work with a wonderful surreal feeling. The comic is governed by a tension between the highly graphic shonen elements and the comparative mundanity of the story around family and personal identity, and it threads that needle in a way that is so perfectly unique to Araki's style.

7. The Pervert

Honestly it's a surprise that it took me this long to read this, given how its become cemented as part of the "depressive trans girl indie" canon. Narratively its a gut-wrenching look at the interplay between isolation and sexuality in trans womens' lives, but what really elevated this for me was the use of very muted watercolors and consistent 2x6 panel grids to imbue the work with intense feelings of loneliness, punctuated by rare moments when the format gives way to these beautiful full-bleed pages. Fantastic stuff.

6. One! Hundred! Demons!

Honestly, I'm a little bit at a loss of what to say about this one: there's just so much going on. Lynda Barry's memoirs do an unbelievably effective job at building the texture of a childhood and adolescence, drawing us into a life that is sometimes very funny and sometimes deeply sad. Barry's unique cartoonish style is used to great effect; juxtaposing the limited worldview with which a child has to process their own experiences against text carrying the reinterpretations of an adult Barry. The whole thing has a very intimate tone, and while that feeling is underscored by Barry asking the reader to consider the precarious relationship between truth and fiction within a memoir; I feel that the admission of her own unreliability only enhances the personal qualities. Absent of the expectation that we are reading a chronicle of events as they happened, the work becomes much more interesting as a way of processing events as they are remembered.

5. Shimeji Simulation

It's a little awkward putting this here because I haven't finished it.. or read it since the summer... but it's such a masterful work. It takes the trappings of the slice of life 4koma in such interesting directions, where the mundanity of the genre and the negation of drama become diegetic forces governing the world. But its not really a story about that- the character of the older sister shows up from time to time to prod at the limits of the genre, but its secondary to the very touching Girls' Love story at the heart of the work. I'd love to say more about the intersection of these threads and how the work deals with the idea of normalcy as it relates to adolescence.. but its hard to give good takes when I haven't finished it! But! I've adored everything I've read so far.

4. Choujin X

If you wanted to point a finger at why Chainsaw Man is so low on this list, its because I read another ongoing madcap thriller with a ridiculous amount of gore: Sui Ishida's Choujin X. The story, about an organization of super-powered beings tasked with stopping other super-powered beings while trying to avoid being turned into monsters by their own powers, is nothing spectacularly new for the genre; what stands out is instead Ishida's artwork. The combination of sketchy stylized penwork and black and white photography give the series a gorgeous, unique look. And this isn't to say that the story is bad, either: there's a ton of personality to the characters and setting that make it a very very fun and interesting read above anything else.

3. X-Force (and its spinoff, X-Statix)

I'm not sure what surprises me more: that this seems to have been lost to the abyss of history, or that I loved this as much as I did. Milligan & Allred's run on X-Force and X-Statix is far from the only take on "what if superheroes were selfish assholes", but something about this really hooked me in a way that nothing like it really has. Maybe its the specific choice to apply early 2000s celebrity culture to the X-Men, maybe its the fact that the asshole superheroes in question still manage to be rich and compelling characters, maybe its the comedy of jumping from Rob Liefeld's "Cable shoots a bunch of guys and grimaces" to Milligan & Allred's neurotic wanna-be celebs with powers, or maybe i just have a really big crush on Dead Girl. One way or another, this has ended up being the standout hit for my sojourn back into superheroes (and its probably telling that my favorite superhero comic is the one that tries very hard to not be a superhero comic).

2. Maka Maka

There's an impulse to dismiss this offhand as just being lesbian porn, which it is; but aside from being really hot this manages to be one of the most interesting and endearing explorations of sexuality and intimacy I've read. There's no tension between the porniness and the maturity of the narrative here- its a work focused on the complexities of sex and desire that is just as intent on exploring those themes as it is on giving you something hot to read. Pretty undeniably one of the best girls' love works I've had the pleasure of reading.

1. Homestuck

I finally sat down and reread Homestuck this year, having originally read it from late 2014 until its conclusion in 2016, and flirted with rereading it now and then but never really committed, partly because of whatever drama surrounded it in any given year and more emphatically because its really long. But now I feel that I can say very strongly that Homestuck is a masterpiece. Given the scale of the work, there's so much that could be said about it: how it uses the format of a webcomic to its full potential by incorporating minigames, animations, changes to the site, & so on to convey narrative; how it plays with genre in a really interesting way by making genre conventions diegetic (not just with captchalogues &co but with things like Causality acting as a clear narrative thread for the cast to relate to); how effectively it captures being a teenager online at a certain point in time; or just how funny so much of it is. I'm extremely glad I read it this year, partly to be able to have an opinion about Homestuck that isn't informed by my teenage impressions and Tumblr discourse, but more than that because it was an extremely fun journey. At some point I'd like to write something longer about Homestuck and its place in comics because I do think that it is overdue for a reappraisal that is not overshadowed by the fandom.. but until then all I can say is that I loved this more than anything else I've read in a while.

And that's what I liked this year :3 As far as next year goes, I'm very excited to see where Dogsred and The Jojolands go, and I have hope that MamaYuyu could be really great if the writing gets a bit less rote. I've also liked the directions Frieren and Gokurakugai are heading, as well as the new Penguin series thats currently going. Hopefully, 2024 will also be the year that I sit myself down and finally read Berserk, which has been an embarrassing blank spot for me for the past few years. Unfortunately because I'm not on Twitter anymore, I'm less on the pulse of the cool Indies coming down the line, but I'm sure I'll get recommendations for the really good stuff from someone somewhere. And! Maybe if we're really good, Togashi will leave some new Hunter x Hunter chapters under the tree.

[trowelaway-blog]

Why Stone Ocean is cursed to be underappreciated

Posting this rant here because I think people might like to read it. Wall of text ahead.

In the manga industry, mainstream publications are usually split by target demographic: shonen for boys/young men, shojo for girls/young women (think Sailor Moon, Rose of Versailles, etc), seinen for young men, and josei for young women are the main four, with shonen being THE thing people think of when they hear the word "manga". Before SBR, Jojo was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, alongside such titans as One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Naruto. And until SO, Jojo pretty well fit in with the shonen demographic, bizarre though it is. Fundamentally, it comes down to cool guys punching each other in cool ways, which shonen readers are absolutely down with.

But then SO comes along. Imagine Araki going to his editors at WSJ and saying "yes, this next part will be centered around a nineteen-year-old American woman in prison". It's a stark contrast to the historically-focused Jonathan or Joseph, or the Japanese cool guys Jotaro and Josuke. The whole premise is absolutely orthogonal to WSJ's target demographic; looking at SO as a whole, it's clear that Araki was pushing boundaries - for example, making Anasui first appear as a woman (he "wanted to make a character that transcended gender", which ironically FF ended up doing in the anime).

All this is anathema to the famously formulaic shonen genre, where the friendly, big-eater protagonist with a good heart who never gives up defeats enemies with the power of friendship, even from his hot-headed, abusive rival/frenemy, and also there is a Designated Girl there for some reason. There were few other WSJ titles with female protagonists; the only contemporary that comes to mind is Claymore, which only got a few months in WSJ, starting and ending in Shueisha's adjacent, less-renowned monthly publications Monthly Shonen Jump and Jump Square. (These days, there are more titles with female leads in WSJ, like The Promised Neverland, and, uhh... hm. The Emperor and I, I guess? Maybe you could argue for Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man part 2?)

In other words, SO pushed the envelope in many big ways. Interestingly, we already saw Araki start to expand his creativity beyond the shonen genre a little in DiU, and definitely in VA, where he starts to delve deeper into his idea of "fate", and where there are rumors about how Giorno was originally supposed to be a girl. But it's not just feminism - the story itself is complicated, with postmodernist touches that bring the reader's own experience into the story (i.e. the ending) and all the classic Jojo bullshit cranked up to 11 (frogs, snails, rods, "assassination feng shui"...). So it didn't exactly resonate with, say, Dragon Ball's reader base.

The final thing to remember is that SO ran from 1999-2003. All these themes that we're much more accepting of now - I mostly mean messing with gender roles - were not so unremarkable 20 years ago (at least in America; I can't comment on the gender politics of millennial Japan). It's not ancient history, but times have certainly changed; look at Guilty Gear's Bridget controversy, and ask yourself how that would've gone down in 2000, when virtually no one was coming out in support of trans people. To put Jolyne and Hermes and FF, and their bizarre adventure, in that context - it just didn't resonate with the world at the time.

For SBR and Jojolion (and, now, Jojolands), Araki moved to seinen magazine Ultra Jump, where he could be more creative and more adult. Stone Ocean got screwed over in a lot of unfortunate ways, but in my opinion the main thing was the growing pains of Araki's maturing storytelling, which just didn't jive with the typical shonen reader. The fact that Stone Ocean got published and sold at all is a testament to his existing reputation.

So yes, SO is massively underrated, and seems to have a curse on it to that effect, given how the anime adaptation was screwed over by covid (and, according to some, Netflix’s distribution). It's subtle and daring and complicated, which people reading Jojo for the fights didn't really go for. But it was not only a foreshadowing of Araki's even more matured storytelling in SBR and Jojolion, it's a magnificent work in its own right, and deserves to be appreciated as such.

(More can be said by anyone who actually has experience in the pre-2012 Jojo fandom either in the West or in Japan, which I don’t.)

[incorrectinfinity]

Ok I need to rant about jjba part 8 because my brother is taking literally forever to finish it and I need to talk about my feelings

Ok. Hi. You have entered here willingly and so now I don't have to apologize. Lmao.

Ok first off Jojolion is not bad. I liked a lot of it quite a bit, actually. Josuk8 is great, I love Yasuho SO much, and Rai is literally my babygirl I love him so much I wish he was introduced sooner DAMMIT!!!!!!!

The romance between Josuk8 and Yasuho is also the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Jjba is a series that rarely ever focuses on romance (well unless you look at it with the perspective of These Bitches Gay but I digress) and that is genuinely one of my favorite parts of the series, the only downside being that a lot of jojos are paired up eventually, and usually to a woman who is barely a character which is really unfortunate. But Josuk8 and Yasuho's relationship is literally my favorite thing about Jojolion.

They are so fucking cute and wholesome and avoid so many pitfalls that usually come with romances. For example when Toru is introduced as Yasuho's ex she clearly talks to Josuk8 about it and how he doesn't have to worry. Josuk8 and Yasuho are never torn apart by Toru because they COMMUNICATE, even if Josuk8 does still act out of jealousy a few times.

The thing that bothers me about this is how their relationship is resolved, mainly due to the worst thing about the part: pacing.

Josuk8 and Yasuho never actually become a fully certified couple by the end of their part. Idk what part 9 may throw in but I personally think this is REALLY disappointing, even if it was just a minor piece of dialog in the lasg chapter or something really I wish their relationship was fully solidified. (Maybe I missed something, I dunno)

Another pacing issue comes with my aforementioned beloved lil shit, Rai.

I love Rai. He literally shows up and serves cunt for like 40 chapters and then he dies an icon and legend for all to aspire to. But the thing about him is that he shows up for 40 chapters in a 110 chapter part. Rai is supposed to be the final member of the Jojolion cast, but he shows up so late that he feels like such a wasted opportunity. Also his death.... very unfortunate. The deaths in part 9 never resonated with me aside from Johnny (because holy fuck) and Jobin (because damn I did not expect him to die). Unfortunately Rai's death is no different. Jojo deaths after part 1 are always fast and unexpected and moved on from quickly because they have to be, but they still get their time to resonate with the audience. Rai's death to me wasn't like that, it felt glossed over. I got the same feeling with Kei too, which just really made me sad. I loved those two and they felt like they were done so dirty because of how fast the plot moves in the last few chapters compared to almost everything else in the part which is so weird.

And aside from the pacing... sigh.

Joshu fucking sucks.

That's all I'm gonna say about him. Well actually I just wanna say that literally the only arc I have ever skipped ever in the entirety of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was one where the focus was on Joshu and only Joshu. It was also an arc very similar to one done in part 7 and it was done INFINITELY better there because it's part 7.

Anyways I have done so much complaining and I want to do more (like how a lot of the Higashikata family felt wasted, or how Kei deserved more time in the spotlight, or how the Fruit and existence of stone humans confuses the fuck out of me, or how Toru was barely even a character, or-) but I really want to talk about the things I fucking adore about this part. No strings attached, just things I fully loved.

Firstly, the Fun Fun Fun arc is one of my favorite arcs in all of jjba.

It's a fucking INSANE introduction to the part and has a gag so fucking amazing I literally drew a shitpost inspired by it which has never actually been posted to tumblr so uhhh. Enjoy.

Wonderful arc, absolutely horrific and just utterly perfect. I can't believe it took so long for jojo's to take inspiration from Saw.

That's not the only arc I love either! The one where Josuk8 is hunted by people who can only go in straight lines?!?!?!?!?!? WHERE HE LOSES?!?!?!!?!?!? BECAUSE THE STAND USER FORCES HIM TO EITHER GIVE IN OR KILL A FUCKING BABY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? AND THEN YASUHO SAVED HIS ASS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!??!!?!?!?!?!? FUCKING PEAK ASS SHIT RIGHT THERE.

And the arc with the ski lift!! Rai you little freak of nature I love you SO MUCH.

HIS INTRODUCTION IS FUCKING PERFECT HE LITERALLY JUST SAYS THIS

AND THEN HE'S FUCKING RIGHT

PEAK CHARACTER. LOVE THIS MAN.

AND THE BEETLES AND THE CAR IN THE TREE (???) AND THE HATO ARC AND THE JOSEPH JUMPSCARE AND LOVE LOVE DELUXE JUST AUAYSHSNZJZK

This part has so much amazing stuff in it I swear!! It's so good!!!!!! And so weird!!!!!!!! And then it just kinda. Joshu.

This part is so upsetting to me because I love it so much, the fact that it is such a mixed bag makes me sad

But it is what it is, and we don't know wher part 9 may lead. Maybe Josuk8 will be like his alternate self and stay in Morioh, or maybe he'll come visit his (half) cousins in Hawaii... who knows.

I have a love/hate relationship with part 8 and I am still really conflicted about it. I do want to read it again though and give it a second chance, skipping the arcs that really dragged it down in the process. Maybe that could improve my future experiences idk.

Anyways, in conclusion: Yoshikage Kira is a bitch in every fucking timeline he literally drove a man insane for no reason what the fuck is wrong with him???????????

ALSO THE MONA LISA JUMPSCARE??

(Apologies for calling Josuke "Josuk8" the whole time it's just so I could avoid confusing myself lmao)

[unexpectedbonk]

I feel like I read through JoJolion and the whole time I was fully prepared for a crazy climax but now its been over for a while and JoJolands has started I'm kinda just confused as to what that whole part was. It was good there's no doubt about that but it feels like a fever dream, which is saying something when SBR is about a horse race turned scavenger hunt to find bits of Jesus before the President

[starry-blue-echoes]

Top 5 saddest moments in jjba?

oh boy here we go-

(also just a heads up, these are all based on when I was

1) First one's easy: the Stone Ocean ending. I was bawling my goddamn eyes out and I Was Not Okay for a long time and honestly I still get a little teary watching the finale even now. It's sad, but also hopeful in a way that makes the sadness even more apparent

2) Gyro's death and the aftermath........ god that one hurt a lot

3) Abbacchio's death because not only was there my own grief because he was one of my favorites of Golden Wind, but there was also the character's grief that pushed me over the edge and that fucking bus scene....... that one h u r t e d

4) I kinda have a tie for this one being a) Jonathan's death. I was rewatching Phantom Blood a bit ago and now that I've gotten more attached to Jonathan? His and Erina's goodbye killed me and I started tearing up, and b) Holy's death in Jojolion and Gappy calling her mom....... fuck that hurt

5) Caesar's death, simply because I was not at all prepared for it. It completely blindsided me so those emotions came out of nowhere and I wasn't able to prepare

[goatpaste]

Im re reading jojolion for the second time now and it is a really funky part!! Who is your favorite!!!

ITS LIKE SO GOOD

like hONESTLY surpingly so both in just the generalness that arki kinda hits more in making fun characters and concepts but his story telling is lacking. but jojolion hits in both areas SO hard ?? and sbr really was ass so the boUNCE back from that was insane

you literally just have to set jojos in morioh and its such a winner

and ugh,, thats so hard like

i REALLY do loev josuke he's just great

i REALLY love hato, i wanna say she's my favirote but she did NOT get a chance in hell to be a full character. if you set me loose id go on about hato tho...

the whole family really is so good,,, Norisuke,.. kaatooOooo KAATO AND JOBIIINNN AHHHH

and yasuho is soo soo good i really love her and josukes dynamic, their so in love

rai also,, like he's up there as one of the most handsome men i think araki ever drew which is so crazy to admit...

uGH the whole part is so solid, beside (sadly) daiya's intro chapters and some of joshu and yasu's interactions being less than favorable, everything else hits so sO hard

jojo's has its emotional parts, but nothing ever got me past the JUST 'feelin a lil ow my fee fees about this'. nothing in jojo's made me cry until the end of stone ocean FR... jotaro's whole 'your only weakness is your daughter' hit me so hard i get soppy thinking about it literally rn

BUT JOJOLION, MULTIPLE times got my ass. like mAYBE its because anything with moms makes me cry cry FCRY CRY

but LIKE josuke crying over holly.. THE

THE THIS

THE 'I am your son. no matter where i go or what era i live in.' THAT SHIT HURTED

THE WHOLE KIRA AND JOSUFUMI BACKSTORY CHAPTERS INT EH VITAMIN C ARC WAHH

KAATOS DELIVERY WHEN SHE KILLED TORU WITH THIS!!!!

THIS GOES

and this last lil clip, this last chapter snippet gets me... josukes journey of who he is.. just.. ugh.. he is josuke higashikata.. the man who came from the ground..

[cophene]

015 | gold dust champagne.

previous chapter || next chapter || table of contents

pairing : jojolion x gn reader summary : the heir to an limitless fortune goes on a vacation to morioh to find their true love. seems easy enough; only, if that they're unable to find their love, they'll lose not just their fortune, but their life. notes : multi-chapter fic, sfw, doesn’t follow canon plot word count : 3.4k+

★ . . . SHUT THE HELL UP.”

“I’m not even saying anything.”

“Then drop that goddamn smirk.”

Joshu did not drop his smirk. It stabbed at you from the corner of your eye even as you kept your gaze stonily forward. You wouldn’t be surprised if your bone dice cracked from how hard you were clenching them. 

“Why don’t you just take it off?”

“Why don’t you just take it off?”

“Because I wore it first and I actually have no problem with unintentionally matching hats with you.”

You sank in your seat. Josuke absolutely adored the SBR hat shop and made your promise that you would buy at least one hat on your vacation. The little purple bucket hat made you childishly happy when you wore it, which was why you’d put it on today for some fortitude. The last thing you’d expected was for Joshu to pull up wearing the exact same hat. Since neither of you could swallow your colossal prides to take it off, you were now matching hats. Which might have been cute for any other date, but Joshu had a talent for making things insufferable.

“I’m just surprised you showed you know how to put clothes together,” you muttered.

Joshu side-eyed you. “My clothes are always put together. You just don’t have taste.” 

You would have bet money Hato had been the one to throw this outfit together. Instead of his horrendous green shirt and bowtie, Joshu was wearing a boxy blue button-down, a stylized gecko crawling up his side and short sleeves baring his—admittedly nice-looking—forearms. A purple undershirt peaked out over his pants, and the fact that it matched with his bucket hat only further supported the fact that Joshu had not chosen this outfit. Baggy black pants and high-top sneakers completed the look, the blue and black of his sneakers echoing his outfit colours.

“Where are you taking me?” you asked. 

Joshu drummed his fingers along the steering wheel. “You’ll see.”

It was so much harder to talk to Joshu in person. Roasting the shit out of him was way more enjoyable when he wasn’t right next to you. When you could actually see him, it felt like your words might actually stick instead of glancing off him. It made you uncomfortable to think you would see if something you said hurt him.

Not for the first time, you wondered if you’d made a mistake agreeing to go with Joshu today. If it turned out to be a waste of a good day, you would kick yourself. The end of your second week was fast approaching, and as prickly as your mother had been, she was right. You really didn’t have time to waste. It would have been so much easier to spend today with Tooru instead. You’d been surprised by how well yesterday had gone and actually looked forward to seeing him again. 

Admittedly, you had been embarrassed to admit to him that you hadn’t remembered him from the fruit parlour, but Tooru had taken it in stride. He had seemed quiet and unassuming, and had pleasantly surprised you with how attentive and perceptive he was. He was a wonderful listener, and had been one of the few people who had actually taken your curse seriously. For someone you had just met, Tooru had a surprising amount of faith in you. Out of everyone you had met thus far in Morioh, no one seemed to get you the way Tooru did. It was too bad you had gotten too caught up in your conversation with him to take out your bone dice. You would’ve liked to see what number he would’ve rolled. Some other time, hopefully.

Reluctantly, you turned your thoughts away from Tooru. As much as you wished you were with him, you weren’t, and you had to be in a completely different mindset to deal with Joshu. Civilly.

“Can I ask you something?” you said.

“If it’s not stupid.”

You watched his face carefully. “Do you really want to start something with me? Or do you just want the fortune? Because you realize you can’t have one without the other, right?”

Joshu pursed his lips. “Sure I can. You just have to fall for me. It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“But that wouldn’t be true love.”

“Look, it makes sense in my head, alright? I want your money, but I don’t want anything to do with you.”

You frowned. What Joshu said didn’t hurt because you’d known that from the beginning. “I get that, but I don’t want you to waste your time. I’m going to lose my fortune if it isn’t true love. And that means my feelings have to be reciprocated.”

“You never said that.”

“Falling in love is easy,” you said. “It’s holding on that’s hard.” 

Joshu didn’t answer. His expression turned inscrutable.

“I’m not kidding around this curse stuff. If this month goes by and I can’t find my true love, I’ll—” your throat closed, the curse preventing you from saying the word die. “I’ll lose everything. It was fine when you wanted to mess with me before, but I don’t have time for that anymore.”

You hated how small your voice sounded. It was nearly lost under the rumble of the car on the road. You clenched your jaw, looking everywhere but at Joshu. 

The car stopped at a red light. “Do you think you could fall in love with me?” Joshu asked.

“What?”

“I don’t get what your approach with this is,” Joshu said. “All you’re doing is going out with people who show an interest in you. Why aren’t you going after the people you want?”

You blinked. “Because there’s no guarantee they’ll like me back.”

“The same can be said for this! If someone ends up loving you, how shitty are you going to feel if you don’t love them back?”

From the start, you had thought it would be best if you let people come to you. If you were too bold, too eager, too quick, you would set yourself up for rejection. It would be easier to learn to love someone than to suffer being rejected, right? If they loved you already, wouldn’t it be that much easier?

“Yeah, I’m an option, but only if you want to let me be. Spend today with me and figure out if there’s even a possibility you could love me. Because if there isn’t, it really is a waste of time.”

“I thought you just wanted my money,” you said faintly. “Why are you giving me legitimately good advice?”

 “... Because I don’t like seeing you run around with anyone who will have you. If this is your curse, you should start acting like it.”

Who was this person and what had they done with Higashikata Joshu? You stared at him and the car was quiet until Joshu flushed.

“At some point this stopped being a joke and now it’s something I’m actually interested in. So thanks a lot. I’m wasting my time for you.”

You wondered if you had been looking at this wrong. If at some point you had started to look forward to Joshu’s texts instead of dreading them. If at some point you had started to talk to him because you wanted to and not out of an obligation to be nice. 

If Joshu wanted you to use today as a measure of how much you liked him, what did that mean? Hadn’t he just admitted he only wanted your fortune? But that wasn’t all he’d said.

Could he actually be interested in you? 

The thought wasn’t as unpleasant as you expected.

“Just forget I said that,” Joshu muttered. He stopped the car and put on the parking brake. “We’re here.”

You eyed your destination warily. “You brought me to the movies?”

“Is that a problem for you?”

It wasn’t, really. It was just that it seemed very … normal for someone like Joshu. 

Joshu allowed you to pick the movie. And the seats. And the snacks. You wondered why he was being so agreeable until you realized he wasn’t planning on spending a single yen on this date.

“Wait a minute. You’re not expecting me to pay for all of this, are you?” you said.

Joshu’s face twisted. You were relieved that he really had been under all of that somewhere. “What? Can’t spare a few thousand yen from your trust fund?”

“That’s not the point. You’re the one who brought me on this date. You should be paying.”

“You have a literal fortune that never runs out and I should be the one paying? Have you heard of socialism? The wealthy have to provide for the poor. It distributes wealth.”

Now you were the one twisting your face. “And where is this coming from?”

“Two years of sociology, asshole.” 

“You’re not even poor. It’s the principle of it. Or didn’t you say you were trying to impress me? I’m really getting a feel for how courteous and generous you are right now.”

Joshu glowered at you. You raised an eyebrow. “I’m only too happy to take my trust fund somewhere else if you don’t want to do this.”

Joshu turned away and stalked towards the front counter. He made a show of extracting his wallet and withdrawing the stack of banknotes inside. You only frowned. Why had he been so stingy when he had at least 500 000 yen in there?

Even growing up wealthy, you had never thought to buy out all of the seats around you so you could have a private bubble in the theatre. It made you feel guilty, but Joshu showed no such restraint as he kicked back his feet, taking up three seats at once. It didn’t surprise you that Joshu was one of those people who acted like they owned the place, cackling and shouting and being a general nuisance. You all but dragged him out of the theatre once the credits started rolling, intent on getting out before the staff could throw you out.

“Excuse me, sir!” one of the ushers called. Your chest seized until you saw that the girl was waving at Joshu with a huge grin on her face. “Would you like to enter your ticket stubs into our lottery? We’ll be drawing from the lottery very soon! The prize is a limited-edition full-size figurine of the main hero!”

“Sure, why not?” Joshu dropped the dozen tickets he’d bought into the lottery box. You shot him a dirty look that he ignored.

Surprisingly—or not—Joshu won the lottery. He raised the box over his head, grinning aggressively at you as though you were supposed to feel something. You watched dubiously as he headed over towards you, only to be stopped by a man with a goatee.

“Excuse me, but that’s an amazing figurine! Would you mind if I bought it off you?” he asked eagerly. He was already taking out his wallet. “I’ll give you twenty—no, thirty thousand yen for it!”

The figurine changed hands. The insufferable grin hadn’t left Joshu’s face and you felt your insides shrivel a little. 

“What was that about?” you asked flatly.

Joshu shrugged, flipping through his freshly-obtained banknotes. “Who knows? You should be happy. Now I have enough to cover your dinner.”

It turned out Joshu didn’t skimp when it wasn’t his money he was using. He drove you to the other side of Morioh to a classy, five-star restaurant. The two of you couldn’t have looked more out of place among the finely dressed couples, but Joshu couldn’t care less. He ordered the host to take the two of you to their best table and proceeded to order the most exorbitant items on the menu. Your eye twitched at every order, because if Joshu ended up not being able to pay, who else would foot the bill?

Deep, red wine and succulent cuts of beef and pork arrived on immaculate plates. Plump shrimp and steamed peas and broccoli. Perfectly seared fish and roasted chicken. About halfway through the meal, Joshu squinted at his plate of roast beef. He pinched something between two fingers, lifting it pointedly. The gesture was so familiar, you almost expected to hear Karera’s voice. 

“There’s a piece of hair in this dish.”

With comical swiftness, your server, host, and a line of other stiffly-dressed employees proceeded to your table. They all bowed deeply.

“Our sincerest apologies for the disturbance,” the server said, his body at a ninety-degree angle. “We don’t know how this could have happened. We have wasted your precious time and insulted your esteemed patronage.”

“Oh, it’s not a big deal. The service has been wonderful,” you said quickly, shooting a look at Joshu. You wouldn’t have put it past him to pull a Karera and put one of his own hairs in the dish just to get out of paying. “It’s nothing. You don’t have to apologize.”

The server shook his head. “This is a most egregious mistake. Your entire meal will be free of charge and if it at all improves your mood …”

The hostess stepped forward, meekly placing an envelope on the table. “It is not much, but if you would accept this compensation, we would be most humbled.”

At this point, even Joshu had to be suspicious. He eyed the envelope. For a second, you hoped he wouldn’t accept it. 

But then he snatched up the envelope, rifling through it. A shit-eating grin spread across his face. “Today’s my goddamn lucky day! Money just keeps on pouring in!” To the server, he said, “If you’re so sorry, why don’t you get us another bread basket?” The man nodded quickly, whisking everyone off.

“Joshu, what the hell is going on?” you asked. “Where is all of this money coming from?”

“The hell am I supposed to know? What, are you gatekeeping being rich?”

“No, but don’t you think something weird is going on?”

Joshu scoffed. “You were the one who wanted me to pay for your shit. That’s what I’m doing. Why don’t you just enjoy it instead of bitching and moaning?”

Something just felt off. You brushed your bone dice in your pocket, feeling their comforting chill. Was it so hard to believe that Joshu was just lucky?

Joshu took you to a nightclub after dinner. Normally, you loved throwing yourself into a city’s nightlife. Right now though, you only felt a looming sense of apathy as Joshu tried to shoot peanuts down a girl’s cleavage. He had abandoned you for a busty group of girls as soon as you’d entered, leaving you to sit at a booth by yourself as he draped himself all over them.

The only thing that showed Joshu even remembered you was a bottle of champagne one of the servers brought over. There’s real gold dust in this champagne, he said, as though that could make up for the shitty day you were having. Even you, with your limitless fortune, had never thought about drinking gold dust champagne.

You didn’t even know why you’d tried giving Joshu the benefit of the doubt. He had just seemed so earnest yesterday, asking you out, and then again in his car. It had surprised you much he cared under that blasé attitude of his. As you scrolled through your past messages, you wondered where he had found the energy to consistently send you stupid things every morning.

Was he being serious? Or wasn’t he? Did he like you or not? Did it really matter?

Under the strobing lights in the ceiling, you stared at the brand on the back of your hand. It looked so dark all of a sudden, so stark. It was starting to feel impossible that it would ever fade from your skin.

“Oh. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

You tilted your head, and the slightest hint of a smile tugged at his mouth. 

“Tooru. What are you doing here?”

“What most people tend to do at nightclubs,” Tooru said. Despite that, he appeared very much alone. He didn’t even have a drink in his hand.

“You have a very sad idea of clubbing,” you said. You waved at him to sit down across from you and poured him some of your golden champagne. You couldn’t help but notice how out of place he looked here, with his careful expression and shoulder teddy-bears.

Tooru tried to say something. When you indicated that you couldn’t hear over the music, he slid across the booth until his shoulder brushed up against yours. His voice in your ear made your stomach dip. 

“Are you here with anyone?” he asked.

“Sort of,” you said, resisting the urge to glance at Joshu. You suspected he was still in the same position with those girls. “We must have lost each other, though.”

“Good thing I found you then. To be honest, I was just thinking about how nice it would be if I could see you again.”

“You have my number.”

“I like seeing you face-to-face. Feels more natural.” Tooru’s eyes gleamed. “It feels like we’re hiding when we’re behind a screen.”

You blinked. “I guess?” 

“Ah, I said something weird. Sorry.” Tooru took a drink from his glass, wincing a little as it went down. “Why don’t we continue our conversation from the other day? About your curse?” 

Tooru seemed oblivious to the loud music and shouting around you. The two of you might as well have been the only people in here with the way his attention was pinned on you. It was odd how well he could tune everyone out like that.

“What do you want to know?”

“Who did your curse come from exactly?”

“I don’t know if you believe in them, but an ancestor of mine approached the mountain gods and asked to have his fortune reversed.”

“Do you think that’s fair?” Tooru asked. “Why should your family receive a boon when there are thousands of other people the mountain gods turn their backs on?”

You frowned. “It’s not like I went to the mountain gods myself.”

“Maybe not. But your ancestor’s blood runs through your veins, so at least a part of you is responsible.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying,” you said, your hackles rising. “Maybe it wasn’t fair, but it’s not like anyone else in Morioh has the same curse I do. They might be struggling, but at least they—they can still continue on. At least they have a chance.”

Tooru’s pupils were dilated. “And what do you mean by that?”

They’re suffering, but at least they won’t die by their nineteenth birthday.

You turned away from him. You didn’t know where this interrogation had come from, but you didn’t appreciate it. You took a large drink from your flute. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you,” Tooru said. “People have told me that I’m too intense and need to learn how to draw back.” He rested his head on the table, waiting until you looked at him before smiling sheepishly. The gesture made him seem boyish, like a chastised schoolboy.

“I really want to help you, you know. I want to learn as much about your curse as I can to do that. I like you. A lot. It would be a shame if you died.”

You didn’t quite smile. “I’m just not used to talking about my curse. I’m not used to people actually taking it seriously. It’s hard for me to talk about.”

“I don’t want to push you. Just tell me what you're comfortable with.”

You didn’t know what to make of Tooru’s questions. Did he have some kind of hidden agenda beneath the polite curiosity? Maybe they were questions you should have asked yourself ages ago, but it had just seemed easier to accept the curse and not think too hard about it. It was then that you remembered your bone dice. Tooru’s questions weren’t unwelcome, you decided, but you wanted to make sure you could trust him before you told him anything else. Just as you were taking out your dice, shouts from the other side of the nightclub caught your attention.

“Huh? But what’s the problem?”

“Please follow us outside, sir. We don’t want to make a scene.”

“I don’t understand what the hell you want to talk to me about! If it’s about the champagne—”

Joshu struggled as a pair of burly men lifted him bodily from his seat and hauled him outside of the nightclub. Everyone stared gape-mouthed after him, and your mouth went dry.

Goddamnit, Joshu. 

“I should go,” you said, rising from your seat.

“Friend of yours?” Tooru asked.

“Something like that. I’ll text you. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

Tooru lifted his champagne flute to you as you pushed past people to follow Joshu outside.

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thank you so much for the tag @shiawasekai !

Currently Watching: battle tendency. Extracted a promise to give jjba a shot from a friend and am now rewatching for fun and to warn him of various things [it will be his first anime...] oh and I'm watching dungeon meshi!

Currently Reading: Berserk! Again... rip jojolion one day i will finish you. I'd say berserk is a weird comfort read but I class the authority 1999 and ca 2004 as comfort reads soo

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Current Obsession: FFXIV! Woo Stormblood! And The Authority have taken over my brain again, other than that all my ocs!

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