#osomatsu in this set is so damn pretty it's not even funny he's so pretty he's so jhes

[puppiiiowo]

fehkvf

[hekatekun]

The metanarrative’s grand narrative: Osomatsu-san’s characterization throughout the franchise

The growing cynicism throughout the entire Osomatsu-san franchise shows itself in season 3 with more prominence than anything prior. I think that’s pretty common amongst any “long-running” gag comedy - replacing a plot with spiteful commentary that’s admittedly pretty hit or miss at times. However, it invariably creates a negative but pretty funny character growth, and I love the way the show (I’m including the movie too as “canon” material considering season 3 has referenced it way too many times for me to disregard) has set up this metanarrative across seasons. Long post ahead.

Obviously, Osomatsu-san is self-aware and has a casual relationship with itself. No linear plot (though S3 seems to be trying it out and I’ve enjoyed it - I love that they’re willing to experiment), rather a collection of unrelated skits; and so it points out its own metanarrative because of this “lack of consequences.” With comedy comes impermancy and Ososan AND -kun will always bounce back from that week’s insanity. From the Oxford Dictionary, a metanarrative is “a narrative account that experiments with or explores the idea of storytelling, often by drawing attention to its own artificiality.” Basically: a story about stories.

On top of this, is what I’m calling the “grand narrative,” which is often used interchangeably with metanarrative, but here I’m making a distinction to make it less confusing. Of course, Ososan is a story about stories, but with that comes a story it’s not directly telling, which is where most of the (little) character development is taking place. This is what I’m going to call the grand narrative of a show whose premise is being a meta-aware comedy. I’ll admit I’m by no means an expert on these subjects, but storytelling methods are something I enjoy trying to analyze. As a media format, Ososan really utilizes the fact that it’s a tv show.

Right off the bat S1E1 makes it clear what to expect: Nothing. Not a damn thing. But, the show had already been cleared for this first season, so it has to be produced. This same episode’s preview is done by Osomatsu, which I’m just gonna quote instead screenshot because there’s too many.

“...we plan on properly starting the anime the next episode.” “...you ended up with an extra minute, so you need me to do something to fill it?! Actually, is this anime going to be okay with episode one being like this? I’m getting worried about how the rest of this is going to be...” “There, I used up a minute! [EPISODE ENDS]”

Episode one is not only batshit referential, but downright mocking the state of anime in 2015. Which, truthfully, I don’t have much to comment on in that regard, as I’m not an avid anime fan. However, it does this under the premise of being indecisive about what kind of anime they wanted the Osokun reboot to be. 

They’ll do just about anything to stay popular and relevant considering that is, quite literally, all they have going for them as characters in the series and just being characters in general. They may be pieces of shit, but they’re likeable pieces of shit. The dynamics they’ve built upon to be entertaining is encouraged, and they’re basically just roleplaying different skits and fucking around.

All the AUs! All the skits! They’re just playing! They’re just fuckin’ around!! They couldn’t come up with any interesting plot nor could they “graduate” from being anime protagonists and join the real world, so they just fuck around and make a gag anime!

Even if we follow both as the audience, the show makes a difference between the what’s them in their “normal life” (crazy begets crazy, no?) and what’s their “show.” But, really, that’s just one way to look at it, as they don’t really follow any rules as a show. I could say the Joshimatsus are separate characters from the sextuplets, and it’d be a “correct” interpretation. It doesn’t really matter - I’m choosing to examine it all as being the six of them just running around and playing, because being entertaining and having fun is all they know as characters. Besides, having it blended together beyond recognition reinforces how it prioritizes entertaining us, the audience, above logic. Storytelling doesn’t need to make absolute spatial-temporal sense for it to be enjoyable to fans.

In any case, that mentality really seems to be what pushes their character development negative, as they look to reinforce habits and rituals despite them being really detrimental for them in the long run. They know they’re popular characters as is, and with really everyone from staff to fans encouraging this behavior further, so they see no point in fixing what isn’t really broken.

I found this 4 year old article from Manga.Tokyo discussing the Ososan phenomenon in Japan because while the craze died off pretty quickly in American anime circles (which deserves a whole other post), Japanese fans went fuckin’ nuts.

This portion caught my attention, as it makes sense that entitled and enabled asshole children would grow up to be entitled and enabled asshole adults. The article also goes on to compare them to idols (even beyond the F6 spoof) and that they are rooted in being comfort characters above all else. 

It’s worth a read, especially because Japanese fan response is what drives majority of the content post-S1, and, inevitably, ties into their character development. 

They know that they’re Characters, particularly Protagonists. You know what happens to protagonists? Everything works out. Just about every single story created has stuff working out for protagonists. In fact, we have a whole genre made that separates stories with bad tragic endings from our Normal Stories. Ososan is a comedy, not a tragedy, so surely there’s gonna be some payoff somewhere along the road, especially as the seasons and other content are still being pumped out. To a self-aware, entitled, enabled protagonist, assuming everything is just gonna work out for you isn’t that far off from your narrative truth.

However, Ososan is a gag anime, and a lot of gag content (like 4koma mangas) is dropped for other projects before any emotional cathartic ending is provided for characters and fans alike. So, three seasons and a movie later, nothing has happened. It’s a great idol cash cow with a Family Guy filter, and the characters (and writers) don’t even bother to hide it anymore. And I know I’m being hypocritical concerning my definition of “canon material” but I think this portion from one of the drama cds “Choroplex” basically summarizes my point:

CHOROMATSU: Wait, don’t make this into a gag! You don’t even care about becoming employed, right? KARAMATSU: There’s no way that could happen... CHOROMATSU: What kind of future are you imagining? Is it nothing but this? [HUGE PAUSE BEFORE THEY MOVE ONTO SOMETHING ELSE]

They’re parodies of themselves and are running out of ideas. Stagnation and decay is normal, if not unavoidable, at this point in time for them. They’re just 20 somethings who’ve hit a wall but they’re too scared and insecure to bring about permanent positive change. It’s easier for them to fall back into normal patterns and joke off the rest.

They have an antagonistic relationship with expectations. They can’t handle a single iota of expectations, or responsibilities. They’ve never needed to worry before, so why bother now? Once the biggest hits on the block, now they’re just guppies in the ocean, and there’s nothing they believe themselves to be able to accomplish to keep up with this big brave new world. This is epitomized in S3E15, where old man Osomatsu tells a bastardized version of the Tortoise and the Hare, blatantly projecting his feelings onto it. Again, too many screenshots so let me pull more quotes (bolding for my own reference):

“The place that the tortoise thought was the goal was not actually the goal. His journey down the road of life still continued on. The tortoise was quite tired, but he continued running anyway.” “No one actually knew who was in front anymore. There are too many people above you.” “After the tortoise found out how society worked, he thought, ‘So this is the difference in talent? No amount of hard work is going to fix this. All right. I’m done competing with others.’”

S3 has left more questionable endings than its counterparts. The last 2 skits I referenced don’t even a gag to them, and the marriage skit doesn’t play music for the entire second half of S3E5. There’s more involved too. I haven’t even brought up the rice ball twins becoming actual entertainers in their universe, or how they introduced this whole AI subplot only to reject it because All Six Of Them aren’t interested in expanding their little corner of the world. Here’s a transcript of the ending preview from S3E1:

“Hey, hey, Osomatsu here. I thought we were saved from being replaced, but I guess we get new characters next week. Man, we’re busy. New encounters, changing surroundings... We’re NEETs to begin with because all that is a pain. I guess a lot can happen after three seasons. [EPISODE ENDS]”

The sextuplets’ mindsets are extremely self-centered, which is also an environmental thing (the parents don’t even really care that they’re NEETs, for one) and an understanding of what they ought to be (epic successful protagonists). They also have a very black and white mentality, all or nothing. They’re extremely sheltered, and once they realized where they stood in society at large, they just gave up. To them the world is divided between winners and losers, and somehow, “inexplicably,” they found themselves to have fallen from grace. But they’re protagonists, that has to count for something! Everything’s gonna end up okay, right? Well... what this show has told them: No, not at all. They are consistently compared and warned of Iyami, and are perfectly aware of this fact, and have come to internalize it as a truth rather than a reversible self-fulfilling prophecy.

Too many screencaps, taken from the S3S5 marriage discussion:

JYUSHIMATSU: I wonder if we’re gonna get married someday, too. CHOROMATSU: Well, I mean... probably? I’m not exactly sure, but... TODOMATSU: What? You’re gonna get married, Choromatsu-niisan? CHOROMATSU: Huh? Well, yeah... someday.

Surprise! They have commitment issues! The same group that couldn’t commit to a fucking plot! Though their personality issues have several factors involved, I can’t overlook the theater motifs abound. Life’s a stage, and they’re performing entirely unscripted and it shows.

Do I think all of this is 100% intentional on the writers’ part? No, probably not. There’s also an extra layer here regarding contemporary Japanese commentary that I’m not familiar with, so I just ended up focusing on the characters. I can’t be in the writers’ heads, but whatever decisions are being made by executives regarding censorship and “compliance” are reflected in these character changes that result in being significantly more bitter and defeatist.

In the all or nothing, winner-take-all mentality, the only way to save face at this point, in their minds, is to own up to it - act like it’s what they wanted all along. And, hey, it’s funny to watch, right?

“Why is Osomatsu all my examples”, you might be asking. Well, he’s the damn blueprint for it all. The leader of the bunch, the first personality to grab your attention, has had all his issues projected and ricocheted in their echo chamber.

Ultimately, my point here is that you could think their “canon characterizations” (though canon means nothing in a show like this) as being intertwined with the nature of their self-aware existence. They’ve shown you all their tricks, the smoke and mirrors are getting boring, and they’re stalling long enough the story seems to be moving on without them - in spite of them. And when something genuinely threatens their way of life, they don’t know how to respond.

You can play it all straight, of course. Remove the meta jokes and all the same plot points can be hit, but, as a slapstick comedy, it’s able to easily add this additional layer in that I appreciate. I’ve said it in my last post and I’ll probably say it in more, but with comedy comes sincerity - the caveat of all the cartoon violence is that, on some level somewhere, this is how they really feel.

[whumpmatsus]

hmmm Jyushi getting comfort from his s/o (any pronouns) after having a bad migrane? Maybe s/o cuddles with him after.

aaaaa gosh I’m always a bit shaky writing Jyushi because like damn he’s such a wild card BUT this was fun!! I’m always up for migraines :D

enjoy your Honey Nut Feelios =‘)

-

As much as the Matsuno brothers all take care of each other, it’s also nice for one of them to have someone outside the family who wants to do that, too.

Even though Jyushimatsu probably would have been fine with (Name) coming over to look after him, the migraine that’s had him knocked down for the past day or so has made it kind of difficult to think clearly. He would usually argue and go over to his partner’s place himself… except trying to move makes him too dizzy to get far.

He’s already thrown up once, when he woke up feeling like this and tried to move, and he really doesn’t want to be sick again. He needs his brothers’ help to sit up and take medicine, so there’s no way he’s stepping a foot outside the house.

By the point he realizes he wants (Name), it’s hard to communicate that. He remembers telling his brothers that he wanted to see his partner, only for one of them (Choromatsu, probably) to shush him and say, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea… let’s wait just a little bit, okay?”

And maybe it’s for the best. He doesn’t want to argue the point, plus he really just feels like resting. If (Name) were here, he’d want to be awake and talking to them; he doesn’t need the temptation while he’s trying to sleep. Vaguely he wonders if that makes him bad or mean because he doesn’t feel the same with his brothers.

Those feelings are quickly forgotten in favor of trying to feel better. He spends most of the day in the futon, with all the blinds closed and curtains drawn, his brothers filtering in and out. The first time he falls asleep, he’s gathered snugly against Choromatsu’s chest, burying his face in his big brother’s shoulder to shut out all the light.

When he wakes up, it turns out he hasn’t been asleep for long, but he wakes up with Ichimatsu’s arms around him. Seems like the others are taking shifts to make sure he knows all of them want to take care of him. Each time he’s asked if he wants to take some painkillers, he’s too dizzy and nauseous.

It’s only when Karamatsu rouses him shortly before dinner, urging him that if he can swallow the medicine, it might take the edge off. So Jyushimatsu lets his older brother get the painkillers and some water into his system. It might not be a bad idea anyway; he needs to drink some water so he doesn’t get dehydrated, since he knows that makes it worse.

Toward the end of the day things get a little bit better. Osomatsu is able to coax his baby brother into drinking some soup, just a few sips of clear broth, when the nausea tapers off to the point he thinks he can eat without throwing up. Although his head is still spinning, and he still sees funny, hazy shapes at the edges of his vision when he opens his eyes, it’s more bearable.

At least, by the time Totty gets home from work, having had a later shift than normal, the ice-pick feeling is starting to become duller. While the others are sleeping in the spare room, likely fighting over the sofa and the guest futon, to let Jyushimatsu have the quiet bedroom to himself, Totty slips in beside his big brother to sleep. Jyushimatsu’s last memory of the day is falling asleep to his only younger brother stroking his hair.

Today he’s feeling much better, the headache part of the migraine has faded into a soft throb, and the torment of the fuzzy aura plaguing his eyes is starting to go away. The nausea has subsided into brief twinges. He’s only lightheaded when he moves too fast.

More than anything, he just sort of feels tired from the horrible day before. So he’s glad that he actually feels excited when (Name) walks into the room.

“Heyyy, there’s my boy,” they coo as they drop down, settling in next to him. “Your brothers told me you weren’t feeling so good yesterday. Sorry I couldn’t be here with you.”

He shakes his head twice, a brief, slow swing from one side to the other. “Nooo… it’s okay. Everyone else was probably keeping you away! Choromatsu-nii-san said I should rest… and with you here, I’d be all excited, haha.”

They laugh and move to pull him into their arms. He comes without a fight, allowing them to snuggle him as close as they’re physically able to. “I think I could have gotten you to rest, but it’s okay. How are you feeling now?”

He hums, closing his eyes so he can nestle into their chest. They’re so warm; just feeling them right beside him like this makes everything… okay. Although he wants to think that maybe his brothers were wrong, that them being here wouldn’t have made it a challenge for him to sleep, he feels excited to be hugging them like this. A little too excited to drift off into sleep… not so excited that, well, other places are an issue.

Their heartbeat is in his ears. It’s a steady thrum, and it hurts his head only a little bit. It’s not so bad? Not bad enough that he wants them to move. The last day was more painful than this, and having them next to him makes him happy. Happy people heal better, right?

“I’m okay,” he finally says. “I’m really tired, but it doesn’t hurt as much and I’m not super dizzy. It’s nice that I can cuddle with you now. I’d rather be playing baseball with you… it’s okay, though. Maybe tomorrow when everything’s all the way better.”

They nod, then he can feel himself melting when they start to pet his head. Their touches alternate; a gentle comb through his hair, then a kiss to the top of his head, then back and forth… back and forth… it’s relaxing. “Yeah, maybe tomorrow. This doesn’t hurt, does it? I don’t wanna hurt you.”

He can kind of understand their concern. If someone’s head hurts, it might stand to reason that any touch there would be painful. Except… they’re being really careful with him. Their touches are the same as his brothers’ were while they were taking care of him ― cautious, tender, being mindful of the pressure they’re using, as if he’s made of glass and might shatter if treated too harshly.

And despite the fact that he can take a lot of punishment… it’s kind of nice to have people be gentle with him sometimes. Especially when the pain he was feeling yesterday isn’t that far away from coming back, it’s easier to keep calm and not be overly excited when someone is touching him in a feather-light way.

“No, no, it feels really good.” There’s a bit of a hazy wobbling in his vision when he opens his eyes to look at them, but it’s a lot better than it was yesterday. At the very least, it makes them look kind of cute. Sort of like he’s looking at them through a kaleidoscope, just not as intense. “Thanks, I like this.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, mhm! You’re so nice to me, haha.”

They snort, and kiss the side of his head. “Well, you are my boyfriend, and I do love you, and you were just knocked out for a day with a migraine. It would be pretty horrible of me not to be nice to you since I love you so much.”

He nods lazily before nuzzling into that comfortable little place between their neck and their shoulder. “Hm, I guess… if you aren’t nice to the people you love, then you probably don’t love them very much, right? And you love me a whole lot.”

“That’s right, I do.”

His usual smile is starting to come back. Maybe a little weak, but it’s there. “I love you, too. A whole, whole lot. More than anybody’s ever loved anyone.”

He can feel the smile in their kiss when they set their lips on the crown of his head. “My cutie pie. Sweet ball of sunshine.”

“Mmmh. I don’t really feel like a ball of sunshine right now… hey, can the sun get tired?? Maybe I can just be a tired sunshine ball.”

They giggle. “Well, that doesn’t sound like a very far-off idea, you know? I bet the sun gets tired all the time. Nighttime is probably the moon taking over so the sun can sleep.”

Huh. When they put it that way, it makes a lot of sense. Then maybe it’s okay that he’s a tired ball of sunshine right now. It doesn’t mean he’s not himself. After all, his brothers get migraines too, and everyone is always just super exhausted the day after they’ve had one. It’s just been a while since he’s had one this bad… he might have just forgotten what it feels like for something to totally drain him like this.

“That’s probably it,” he murmurs, and lets all the tension, even the excitement, the good, happy tension, slowly slip away from his muscles. It’s okay if he can just rest for a little while. “Hey, (Name).”

“Mh? Yeah, babe?”

“Will you be my moon?”

He can feel their arms around him just a little tighter. And another kiss. And they’re all around him, wrapping him up so he can just be tired for a bit.

“Of course I will, sunshine. Of course.”

[bluinary]

gag anime that you need to watch maybe

 hi hello my name is juli and i will now gently guide ur attention to some top-notch shows, please pay attanetion

(this list is for people who don’t watch much anime or who are new to it. if ur a fucken weeb youve probably seen it all. dont @ me i want to help the kids)

ONE PUNCH MAN (the obvious 1st choice lol)

Genre: Action/ Shounen

Expectation: OP protagonist with riveting backstory fights to become the strongest hero, makes many friends along the way who recognize his talents and pure heart, big bad scary villains make him stronger

Reality: OP protagonist is already the strongest hero. His backstory? After fighting a lobster-man with nipples drawn on him with a Sharpie, Saitama decides to do a workout routine every day, and somehow ends up becoming the most powerful known being in the universe. His main issue is that now, he literally can take down any villain with a single punch, and he’s very bored of it.

Best Qualities: Animation is bomb, music is dope, humor is funnie, and Best Boy is a man whose superpower is riding a bicycle. Also Saitama egg head

If you were in a coma for all of 2015, this is the main thing u missed. Moving on.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (Monthly Girls’ Nozaki)

Genre: Romance/ Comedy/ Slice of Life

Expectation: Smol shoujo protag girl grows closer to her oblivious crush through a fated, if awkward, incident which reveals an embarrassing secret that has to be kept at all costs. Through one another they gain more quirky friends, help each other grow, and, eventually, the male lead realizes that what he needs has been beside him all along.

Reality: The crush writes romance manga, and that is literally all the man cares about. It’s not a secret, but when he told people they didn’t believe him. Nozaki and Sakura grow closer, but only because he confuses her confession with a request to be his Beta. They gain quirky friends through one another, but there is zero character development throughout the entire fucking cast. Every episode is run by Idiot Plot. All the characters share a singular brain cell. There’s a tall butch lady turning every girl in the school gay. Please watch

Best Quali-teas: Everyone is baby, lots of gay shenanigans, and toxic masculinity does not exist, the OP is pretty nice, too

I literally heard about this damn show, like, two months ago. This shit was released circa 2015. Pleeze watch

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. / Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan

Genre: Shounen/ Supernatural/ Fucking Everything tbh

Expectation: Slice-of-life supernatural where protag has psychic powers, albeit limited ones, and has to keep them a secret at all costs for fear of his safety. He has a few friends he loves and cherishes, and at least two girls who are in love with him that he has to choose between-- all of which are people he wants to protect from his double-life.

Reality: Kusuo is very aware that he is the protagonist of an anime, and he does not want to be. Born with pink hair? He rewrites the human genome to make colored hair normal. End of the world looming? He just keeps rewinding time so he doesn’t have to deal with it. Harem situation? He actively uses his powers to avoid all love interests at all times (see the above). The plot of each episode is him trying to stop the plot as quickly as possible without killing anyone. The main issue is that everyone around him is either dumb or just generally attractive to plot-driving circumstances, and they all, for some reason, want him to be in on their adventures.

Best Qualities: Heavy “me and the boys” energy, plenty of Idiot Plot, so funny that my 47yo mom who hates anime admitted that it’s funny, meta as fuck, occasionally sweet scenes, equally good dub and sub, Saiki is babie

The fandom for this shit is like. Nonexistent. Apparently it came out the same season as Mob Psycho 100, so that might be why. I almost didn’t watch it, but I got bored and it turned out to be a serious gem. Go watch if ur having a bad day, it will make u cry laughing

Sakamoto Desu Ga/ Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto

Genre: Slice of life/ Comedy

Expectation: God I don’t even know. I’d say a typical slice of life where the quiet kid is bullied but makes friends, there’s a love triangle as they grow up together through high school, yadda yadda, but look at this dude. I can’t imagine him being anything other than what he is-- a legend.

Reality: The entire show is just a question of how extra one man can be, and how well he can pull it off. Sakamoto is an “average” high school senior (in the sense that he has no supernatural abilities), but he’s....far more than that. He’s Sebastian Michaelis if he’d never been a demon. Everything always works out for him in the most ridiculous of ways-- he’s just that good. He makes a McDonald’s uniform look like Prada. He’s so smooth his bully ends up having a crush on him (and yes, it is a gay crush. no heteros in this show). 

Best Qualities: lots of homo content. the side characters, inspired by Sakamoto’s grace, all become better people, and you root for them. The circumstances are always average, but the presentation is fucking riveting. Watch to send ur depression into remission.

Another one no one talks about????? U all were so busy with ur broku no hero macadamias and ur Nartoes that you slept on this. Now’s the time to take back what was lost. Love yourself and binge this shit. 

Nichijou/ My Ordinary Life

Genre: Slice of Life/ Comedy

Expectation: Cute girls do cute, girly things and have fun with Their Close Good Friends (TM).

Reality: Cute girls get into very bizarre situations with extremely manic energies. Sometimes, the situations are normal, but the girls react in a bizarre, manic fashion. It will make you alarm-laugh.

Best Qualities: Adorable art style, little continuity, relatable as fuck

A nice little watch if you’re bored. I think the eps are on YouTube.

Pop Team Epic/ Poputepepiku

Genre: Only God Knows

Expectation: Probably a cutesy 4koma-type thing with 2 schoolgirls having shenanigans.

Reality: A regular acid trip with lesbian icons Popuko and Pipimi who are not schoolgirls, but gods. Like if Eric Andre and Hannibal Buress were turned into omnipotent anime icons. Watch at your own risk.

Best Qualities: Lots of unexpected parodies and references amongst a shitpost of a show. The OP is a bop. Popuko terrifies me, but also empowers me as a young woman because she will not hesitate to kill a bitch. She and Pipimi love each other a whole lot, so it is LGBTQ content, which is always a plus. 

I’m sure you’ve seen this one floating around. It will make you feel fear, and then laugh. Now, finally...

Ouran Highschool Host Club

Genre: Romance/ Comedy

Expectation: The protagonist is a girl who is mistaken for a boy and must be the servant of six rich, handsome young men, all of which are in love with her, and her secret must be kept at all costs. A reverse harem anime with plenty of fanservice.

Reality: Haruhi is a genderfluid queen who doesn’t give a fuck what others think she is. Because she broke a Conveniently-Placed Vase and is relatably poor, she has to pay off her debt by being a host herself-- which means male-presenting when flirting with her female classmates to make her dough. The six rich, handsome young men all share three brain cells, and most of those cells go to the character who has one line per episode (usually, it’s “Yeah”. I hope that VA got paid well). The only love interest-- the “leader” and most popular of the six men-- is so dead-set on their club being his Found Family, he confuses his romantic feelings for Haruhi with paternal ones. This is obvious to everyone but him. He never gets the brain cells. 

Best Qualities: Trans characters!! Lesbians!! Extreme “me and the boys” energy, except they’re all rich, so shenanigans skyrocket. Many 4th wall breaks. The most powerful Host looks like he’s 5. Any “fanservice” is never played straight. Takes the Found Family trope to a whole new level. Nice Parks & Rec-quality balance between hysterical and sweet. Everyone is in drag at some point.

I know all of us senior citizens grew up on this shit, but you younguns need to watch the classics to appreciate the newfangled stuff. I recommend watching when you’re in a cheesy rom-com mood. 

Honorable Mentions:

I can’t count these as gag anime, but they’re still ridiculously funny.

Mob Psycho 100

Scissor Seven

Kill la Kill

Cells at Work!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 

Ones I haven’t seen but have heard a lot about

Osomatsu-san

Himouto! Umaru-chan

Azumanga Daioh

Gin Tama

Sgt. Frog

Okay that is all just limke put this in ur feel-good tag because these shows will make you happy and donut for get to like and describe to my channel, where I post literally nothing at all ever good night.

[torinomonty]

Saga on Ice - Yuri on Ice Karatsu Tourism Collaboration

Saga on Ice is a special tourism collaboration held by the city of Karatsu in Saga Prefecture, as Karatsu was used as the model for Hasetsu, Yuri’s home town in Yuri on Ice. Saga prefecture is right next to me(I live in northern Fukuoka), and although I’ve been to Saga city I’ve never been to Karatsu. I’ve always been meaning to explore Kyushu some more given how much time I’ve spent living here, and given that this event was going on over Golden Week and @hideoutfromreality​ was visiting I figured it was a good chance. 

What I knew: The Karatsu tourism organization are really excited about Karatsu being featured in an anime and want to take advantage of it with some limited merch. What I didn’t know: The Karatsu tourism organisation are really, really excited about this and kinda went all out lmao. I was surprised at how much they did to attract YOI fans to the place.

Anyway, I bought a little Viktor with me, so here’s my photo report of the things we saw.

First here are some pics of the pretty scenery on the way to Karatsu from Fukuoka. The train runs along the Kyushu coast and is extremely beautiful.

Hey, what’s that in the distance?

It’s kinda hard to make out here, but its in the middle. We’ll see it again later.. Anyway, the train soon pulls into Karatsu station and when we walk down the steps this is the first thing we see.

They also had this poster up, the one used in-show to advertise ‘’Onsen on Ice’, the Yuri/Yuri showdown. I thought it was just in the station but it was actually all over the town, stuck on multiple buildings and store windows, in much the same way it probably was in the show itself. It made me laugh every time I saw it.

When you go through the gates you are greeted by these three in front of the Tourist Information Centre.

Um excuse me? Where’s the best boy?

It’s okay guys I found him.  All this art was specially drawn for the tourism collab. Makkachin is wearing the same helmet that the actual Karatsu mascot wears.

These flags were used out the front of restaurants/cafes/businesses that were participating in the campaign. there were...a lot of these.

(yurio never looks like he wants to be there lol)

Some merch/ You might notice Choromatsu is there. This is because a while ago Karatsu also had an Osomatsu-san tourism collab, and I have no idea why. I assume that it’s a mix of a) Karatsu sounding similar to Karamatsu and b) Osomatsu-san is apparently required by law to be everywhere in Japan at once c)Karatsu’s tourism agency will take what they can get to attract tourists. Anyway, there’s still left over merch from that, and most of it is Choromatsu, so every now and then I’d see him looking all sad and miserable next to the YOI stuff, and it made me laugh.

(The YOI merch above are tea cakes I believe) More merch;

I thought it was funny that they included those generic poodle plushies despite them not being official merch. The sign even says ‘Makkachin-ish plush”.

Heading outside the station, here’s the statue Yurio found so creepy.

And here’s the shopping arcade Yurio pitched a fit in.

They really want you to know that, too.

Here’s one of the participating cafes, you can see the flag out the front. All the participating eateries (and again there were HEAPS) had just one YOI-themed menu item. Most didn’t have a lot to do with the characters they were attributed to, but the point was to promote Karatsu specialities. We didn’t want to even bother trying to go to every cafe, just as long as we got katsudon and piroshki. (unfortunately the cafe doing the piroshki had completely sold out of their batch when we visited and weren’t due to restock for hours) Anyway, I can’t remember what this place had, I think it might have been the JJ baked curry. 

Karatsu is a really pretty seaside town - the air is really salty and smelled nice, and it reminded me somewhat of Coffs Harbour in NSW.

What’s that in the distance #2

Here’s the beach! Viktor and Yuri had a heart-to-heart here.

What’s that in the distance #3? I’m sure it’s obvious now, and that’s where we headed next.

But to get there we have to get up the hill. You can walk up the steps, or you can get the elevator here.

The elevator moved diagonally, and Skins found this so incredible she took a video of it. Here’s the amazing view from the top!

These guys are enjoying the view too.

“hey guys its your pal Karawan-kun, you know, the actual mascot of Karatsu, please dont forget me’‘

Karawan-kun is beckoning us into the gift store, which contained a lot of Karatsu souvenirs and also more of the YOI merch. Plus!

A signed poster! Photos were invited.

Apparently one of Karatsu’s products is colourful gum molded into animals and various other things, and they were selling a Makkachin version.

I wanted to get at least one of the collab items to commemorate the experience so I got a lil Makkachin keyring. They only had the one size bag though, which was kinda funny...

Anyway, if you haven’t figured out what’s up on this hill yet...

viktor voice: HASETSU CASTLE!!!

HASHTAG: NINJA!!!

“REALLY!? NINJA!?’‘ Anyway I’m not sure if you’re able to go into the castle but it didn’t seem you could at the moment. It looks like there are actually repairs being done there. This is also where the stairs Yuri does training on are. (They’re also the stairs we could have taken up instead of getting the elevator. We took the stairs on the way down though.)

These people here were also here for the event. I could tell because they were carrying maps, had merch with them and I also heard them talking about Yuri’s training montages. Actually, a good deal of the people here were YOI fans, they weren’t exactly hard to spot. Anyway before we go down, the wisteria.

Looking up the staircase from below:

We decided to catch the bus here cos it was getting really hot, but we got to see a lot of the town from the window. Here is the bridge that Yuri flails across on multiple occasions.

Fun fact: I missed getting a photo but a group of three girls, one of whom was carrying the Makkachin-shaped plushie tissue holder that Viktor has, were trying to imitate Yuri’s run when we went past...

(I took that pic earlier, but that’s the bridge from the castle)

Our next stop was a little harder to get to as it was outside the main town centre, but it was one of the most interesting. Kagamiyama Onsen!

Yep! It’s an onsen inn. Whether it’s the actual inn that inspired Yuri’s family’s ‘’Yutopia’’, I dont know, but it was the place serving katsudon for the collab.

A signed pic from Kubo at the counter.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the onsen restaurant had set times for lunch and dinner, and lunch was already over when we got there. Dinner wasn’t going to start for another few hours, and given that we didn’t get to eat anything else that day (due to the piroshki being sold out), we didn’t really wanna wait around for it due to being starving so decided to go somewhere else. It was kinda sad to not be able to have the katsudon, but it wasn’t a waste of time to visit the inn. Because..

There were cosplayers hanging out there! They were very very excited about us being fans and very very happy that we recognised them.

We decided to find somewhere else to eat before we died of hunger and it turned out there was a Hamakatsu right near the inn anyway. It’s not katsudon that comes with a YOI postcard but who cares it’s katsudon, and it was still damn good, and a nice way to end the tour.

aaaaaay And now for something kinda funny. When I realised that the inn was called Kagamiyama onsen, I was like “huh, that’s weird! So Saga has a Kagami Mountain too!” I’ve been to Kagami Mountain both as a field trip back in 2009 and again with my dad/sister when we went driving around Kyushu once. And for some reason I thought it was in Fukuoka, but...it’s the same damn mountain. I’d already been to Karatsu twice before and had no idea! Kagami mountain is a sacred mountain with a famous shrine (Kagami shrine) up the top, and thus the entrance to the road that leads up the mountain has this giant impressive gate you can see here.

Anyway, the tourism collab event was a lot of fun and it was a nice excuse to get to see Karatsu (or at least, more of Karatsu, seeing as I’d only seen Kagami Mountain and the beach near it before). The scenic train trip there alone was worth the price, and I’m looking forward to going again (which will be in another 3 weeks). Saga on Ice won’t be running anymore then but I’d still really love to try out some of the cute cafes we passed.

I really like when anime goes out of its way to draw attention to lesser known parts of Japan instead of just setting it in anywheretown, Tokyo. YOI has always been extra special to me for that Kyushu flair.