#princess parakeet

[studio-beebs]

ha ha funny head shape

[otiksimr]

Princess Sunset

[all my designs are free to use, just be sure to credit :)]

[click image for better quality]

[astroboyart]

Source: Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum (official website)

The Capcom vs Tezuka characters art exhibit is returning in 2023!

Originally held in 2020, the 「テヅカプファイティングユニバース CAPCOM VS. 手塚治虫CHARACTERS��� "Tezukapu Fighting Universe: Capcom VS. Osamu Tezuka Characters" exhibit will be held from June 30, 2023 to October 29, 2023 at the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum. Information about the exhibit can be viewed in the sourced link.

Poster art is by Kazuya Nuri.

[kowtownart]

A request! What if Birb interacted with an actual, irl birb...like with something as cute and friend-shaped as he is, like a parakeet or a chickadee. 👀

Yes!!! Birb and the birbs! His people!!

Bonus with no glasses!! (I just love seeing his cute little beady eyes <3)

[starsweepers]

if faith got a pet bird she would name it tim mccaw

[darkkpastels]

[lesbitorte]

Just found out that a classmate has me on his phone as Lesbian Disney Princess

[nestavadavat]

New birdies on the block!!!

They're both rejected budgies (got bought and then returned) and we think one of them is a female which is a bit of a whoopsies.

Their names are Buttercup and Westley atm! Westley is loving Dan and Phil and likes to talk about it. Buttercup us doing great learning step up after just a couple days and she discovered their mirror and loves it.

[ginmasahiko]

TAG GUIDE

SIDE NOTES: Everything is tagged with the fandom & every character has their actual name, as to not bypass any filtering

GENSHIN IMPACT

Blonde Parakeet: Mika; Mehrek's Handbag: Kaveh; Dream-Life Dream Husband: Al-Haitham; Secret Academic Criminal: Tighnari; Pun Master 9000: Cyno; The Weakest Harbinger: Tartaglia; Who?: Scaramouche; Our Princess: Fischl

TOKYO REVENGERS

The Reaper: Hanma; Puppy Dog: Inupi; Kitty Kat: Koko; The Pawn: Sanzu; Invincible Michael: Mikey; Thing 1: Ran Haitani; Thing 2: Rindou Haitani; The Peer From Above: Hakkai Shiba

YOUR TURN TO DIE

Mandarin Peel: Sara Chidouin; Bruised Legs: Shin Tsukimi

All of these will be tagged below, for quick access to any tags you may want. Fandoms themselves and characters won't be tagged, only their special tags. I don't want to clog up any actual tags.

[queenie-the-court-jester]

where the birds and fish gather

A/n: my silly fish and bird hybrids! Few sexual references but mdni! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ASK ABOUT ANY OF THEM I'M DESOERATE FOR ASKS- ignore my grammar haha

ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ- ︶︶︶︶༉‧ ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ- ︶︶︶︶༉‧

★ sydney the cockatoo

sydney's the most mischievous bastard out of all of them. Your watch is missing? In his nest. Your necklace? His nest aswell. Your hat? He's wearing it. You're never getting it back. He sees something shiny, it's in his little claws. Like all the avian hybrids, his arms are wings and he's covered in feathers. Having a human face with little beak like lips. His legs are bird legs. Black eyes staring at you from his nest in a tree. Be careful where you step after any surprise snow in's. He's probably burying himself in it. 5'4

★ Evangeline the peahen

The elegant, sophisticated, coy, angelic Evangeline. Gabriel's mate but she despises his guts, similar to princess, she much prefers you. Often dragging you to their nest and squabbling with Gabriel when he tried taking you away. She may not be as pretty as he is outside, but she certainly is Inside. Proudly showing off her brown little feathers. 5'6 brown straight hair, black eyes and a little pale

★ gabriel the white peacock

Egotistical bastard. He hates his wife for being so ugly, but he does think you are extraordinarily beautiful. He could definitely envision putting his clutch inside you. He'll figure a way out, don't you worry! An albino peacock male with red eyes, white feathers and extremely pale. 5'7

★ fajarah the ring necked parakeet

she's sydney's little partner in crime, but lately she's mellowed out more. Now preferring to watch the koi mers swim around and munch on some chips she stole from the main house. Tilting her head curiously at something she finds interesting. Bright green feathers and hair, black eyes and tan skin. 5'2

★ foolish the owl finch

often seen in the fields with the cows and bulls, he's quiet and prefers to watch. Hopping around quickly and pecking things that catch his eye. There's not much to say about him since he keeps to himself alot, but he does seem to like the biscuits you bring for him.

★ simon the tyto alba

Simon is deaf and mute, having been found wandering around the farm as a little chick. Now the farmers are looking for any way to help him with his hearing long term, but he seems to have adjusted to looking for any vibrations on the ground. Pale and white hair,black eyes, very pointy beak like lips

★ the koimer quintuplets

There's nothing much different between the quintuplets except their different patterns. Just that tancho is the leader and more mature, Kiko is more curious and childish, Hime is sweet and reserved, tsu is a chatterbox and humble, koromo is loud and nosy

★ mason the "lake monster" (crocodile)

Mason is like an older brother figure for the quintuplets, teaching them Little bits of English and watching you interact with them from the depths of the lake or hidden behind some underwater trees in the lake. You may not always see him, but he's always there. Silently watching. Messy grungy hair, green eyes, and has a light tan. 6'4

[studio-beebs]

A

[twig-draws]

Have a fantasy AU!

It’s got a lot of stories from a lot of hermits. Grian and Pearl are the ones I have most figured out There’s the Celestial Kingdom, the Fairy Kingdom, the Hybrid Union, and the Ordinary Empire

Celestial Kingdom: Led by King Solis and Queen Midnight, this kingdom is based around celestial bodies. Everyone living there has wings, whether moth or bird. The current heir is Pearl Celestial.

Fairy Kingdom: Led by Queen Lizzie and King Joel, the Fairy Kingdom consists of fairies, allays, vexes, and other mythical creature hybrids. King Joel is actually a human, which is rare, and many are angry about it.

Hybrid Union: These people are led by a council of five, and are all hybrids. Any hybrid is accepted into the union.

Ordinary Empire: Normal humans are the only people that live in this empire. All leaders are elected.

Pearl: She's a luna moth hybrid, and is Princess of the Celestial empire, the only heir. The one who was supposed to take the throne, her brother Grian, went missing a year ago. She’s now forced by her parents to be perfect, and hates it. Whenever she can, she visits the Underground Acceptance Club, where everyone is welcome. She has a lot of friends there, Gem, Tango, Etho, Scott, and many others. All she needs to do is make sure her parents don’t find out. 5"11, 22 years old

Grian: He's a sun conure hybrid (it's a type of parakeet). Pressured to be the next ruler of his kingdom, Grian wasn’t very happy. His only friend was a royal advisor named Mumbo, who had an interest in machinery. He met a commoner in the Fairy Kingdom while on a diplomacy mission named Scar, and ended up becoming friends. They often communicated via letter. Mumbo noticed Grian was stressed out with the pressure, so suggested they go meet Scar and possibly run away, all three of them, considering Scar wasn’t happy with his home life either. So they did, settling undercover in the Hybrid Union, and they were marked missing from their home regions. 5"9, 24 years old (Scar is 6 months older and Mumbo is six months older than Scar)

Mumbo: He's a cecropia moth hybrid. Mumbo was trained from a young age to be an advisor and counselor for the prince and princess of the Celestial Kingdom. He had a particular interest in machinery, and wasn't too happy with the fact he would have to deal with royals. All the officials he'd met so far had been snobby. That changed when he met the two he was supposed to advise. Though he was a year older than Prince Grian, they became fast friends. He liked Pearl too, of course, but Grian was a better friend for him. He still didn't like being in the palace though, he liked fancy things, but this was too fancy. Now that Mumbo is with Scar and Grian, away from their kingdoms, he feels a lot better. Mumbo is 6"11 (Tall as heck, basically)

Scar: He's an elf/vex hybrid. He grew up as a commoner in the Fairy Kingdom, and baked cookies for a living. No one really bought those cookies, so his parents would always get mad and tell him to 'find a better job' and such. But he liked making cookies, so that's what he did. He'd never liked his parents much, they were kind of mean, but not exactly horrible people. It was pure chance that he ran into Prince Grian and his advisor Mumbo from the Celestial Kingdom, but he insists it was fate. After the initial meeting, they continued to talk via letters. One day, Mumbo proposed the idea to all run off together, and Scar gladly accepted. All three of them ended up in the Hybrid Union, and have a farming job. He's 25 years old, but only turned 25 recently, and is 6"5

Tango: He's a blaze hybrid. Tango was brought up in the Hybrid Union, taught in school to not trust humans. His parents, however, taught him everyone should be accepted. Generally, Tango had a very good home life and still does. He had only a few friends, Zed the sheep hybrid and Jimmy the canary hybrid being his closest ones. When he was seventeen, he discovered his parents had started an underground club for everyone, hybrids and humans. Here, he met Skizz, an angel from the Celestial Kingdom, and Impulse, a human. Now that he's 23, he works as a mechanic for a system of mail that the Hybrid Union wants to use, accompanied by Etho. He's 6"1.

Joel: He's human, but has antennae. No one knows why. He gets super protective when someone mentions the fact that he's a human and is king of the Fairy Kingdom, or that Lizzie made a bad choice. For his own pride, but also Lizzie's. They met at a diplomacy meeting, Joel being the son of a noble at said meeting, and Lizzie being a princess. They fell in love pretty quick, and ended up getting married. Lots of people think Joel is bad or stupid for marrying a fairy, as it's generally looked down upon to marry someone not of your kind. He's 29, Lizzie's the same age, and he's 5"10

Xisuma: He's not classified as a fantastical creature, or a celestial creature, or just a normal hybrid, because he's a voidwalker. Those are so rare that they are practically non-existent, but he and his brother are both one. His brother preferred a loner life, but Xisuma didn't want that. He joined the Ordinary Empire with a mask that had a purple visor, hoping it would hide the fact that he wasn't human and had purple eyes. When he got kicked out eventually because he was discovered, he went to the Hybrid Union. Somehow, he ended up in the council, but he doesn't really know how he got there. He acts like a dad, is 42, and is 6"8.

Other notes: Gem (deer centaur) is a botanist for the Fairy Kingdom, Etho (arctic fox) is an architect and a mechanic, Wels (bright wave moth) is a knight in the ranks of the Celestial Kingdom, Stress is a healer in the Ordinary Empire, Impulse comes from a family of commoners and is an inventor, Zed is a scientist, Skizz is an actor, Scott (elf) is an artist, Jimmy is just Jimmy and works where he can lol

As for some of the ships, we've got Mumscarian, Ranchers, and Gempearl :D

May add more?

[astroboyart]

Source: TEZUKA_goods (Twitter)

Official artwork for a Christmas gift campaign on the TEZUKA_goods Twitter account. 5 people will receive the official 2023 Osamu Tezuka calendar.

[redfoxwritesstuff]

Another Day in Paradise, Chapter 2

Pairing: Eventually Alastor x OFC, later- light Alastor x ofc x Lucifer Rated: E for eventual smut Content warnings: It's Hazbin Hotel- this feels redundant. Sex, eventual smut, referenced implied suicide to be discussed in more detail later, drugs, drinking, poor coping, toxic behavior, controlling behavior, cannibalism, idk, it's fucking Hazbin Hotel, if it's worth a content warning it's probably going to come up at some point? Religious trauma

AN: Why not post another chapter?

Chapter 1 Chapter 3

~~~~~<3

Amber had a good cry again, allowed herself a moment to fall apart before pulling herself back together again. Washing her face in the sink, she tried to push the fear away. It was easier, having had a chance to cry and get clean. 

Standing tall with her back straight, Amber pulled her shoulders back and tried to tell herself that she was going to be okay. 

Charlie was waiting outside the room door as Amber opened it. For a second, worry was on her face but it was quickly replaced with a bright smile. “You look so much better without the dirt! Not that you looked bad, just- you’re perked up. Oh your ears are so cute!” 

“Thank you?” Amber felt her ears twitch on her head, shifting to lean back as Charlie leaned into them, towering over. The woman was a giant. “And thank you for the clothes.” 

“Come on! Let me give you a tour now that you’re feeling better.” Charlie grabbed her hand and pulled her along. The careful strength of the Princess had been replaced by someone that very much reminded Amber of a golden retriever or perhaps a cinnamon roll, should one have someone become sentient. 

Amber wasn’t tall in life and that hadn’t been greatly corrected in death. Her eyesight? That got fixed. But her height? Nope, she was still short. There wasn’t a hope in hell that she could keep up with Charlie.

“Sweetie, you’re dragging her.” Charlie dropped Amber’s hand and pulled her in front of a woman who thankfully did not tower as well with long white hair and gray skin. 

“This is my girlfriend,” Amber smiled at the warmth and giddiness in Charlie’s voice. Was the relationship new or were they just still that in love? 

“Vaggie.” The woman gave her name, sparing a warm look to the tall woman behind Amber before refocusing her attention. “I’m glad the clothes fit you.”

“Thank you for them. I’ll return them to you as soon as-”

“No need.” Vaggie waved off Amber’s words as if they were annoying bugs. “Call it a welcome gift.” 

It was a simple hotel, all things considered. There were rooms on the upper floors with the main ground floor acting as a lobby and parlor. Behind a set of double doors was a modest commercial kitchen. An open room separated by large arches held the dining room. Tables looked to be shoved together haphazardly to make a larger family table in the center. 

The lobby was littered with a few couches, some armchairs and coffee tables. It was cozy in a way, if you ignored the stains on the carpet and the ripped wallpaper in places. In the lobby she met the smallest woman she had ever seen with one large eye that held a murderous glint. 

“We’re pretty sure Nifty is harmless.” Charlie assured as the woman ran off to stab bugs. 

“Are you sure ‘pretty sure’ is sure enough?” Amber didn’t mean to say it out loud for fear that questioning would upset her hosts and result in her being sent out again. Instead of being offended, Charlie laughed as if she was making a joke. 

These people were so weirdly normal.

The hotel bar looked like it had been ripped out of another building and dropped in the lobby. It didn’t fit in the slightest. 

Behind the bar was a tall cat man with dark fur and wings. Wings. This was hell and hell had cat men with wings. Amber remembered her childhood cat’s obsession with trying to catch her father’s parakeet. Did winged cat men chase birds or was that too close to cannibalism?

Hell was fucking weird. 

“This is Husk,” Charlie introduced the man behind the counter who simply raised an eyebrow at her. “He’s our bartender. Husk, this is Amber- she’s our newest guest!” 

“Pleasure to meet you,” Amber wasn’t sure what else to say. If she left her mouth open too long, she feared something else would come out unintentionally again. 

“Yeah, yeah- pleasure and all that shit.” Husk paid more attention to cleaning the glass in his hand than them. Never had she seen someone give off the vibe of ‘I don’t get paid enough for this shit’ as this man was.

“Hey foxy lady,” Spoke a tall thin pink thing leaning on the bar in what she thought was an attempt to be seductive. “What brings you here?”

The man leaned up, supporting his weight with a lower set of arms as he positioned an upper set of arms. Why did he have to sets of arms? Why was he pink? What was he? Was he a he? Amber felt like she had seen him before but for the life of her, she couldn’t place him. 

“This is our long time resident and friend, Angel Dust!” Charlie had what Amber was starting to believe was an unending well of manic energy. Was she on something? “This is our newest guest! Amber!” 

Amber was starting to feel like a prize with how Charlie would throw her arms out and introduce her. It reminded her a lot of a game show host showing a prize to be won. 

“Don’t be weird.” Vaggie warned the pink person. 

“He’s fine. You get used to him.” Charlie assured. 

He was a he, good to know. Amber watched as Angel directed his attention to flirting with the bartender who didn’t seem to want any of it for a moment before directing his attention back to her. “You look pretty normal, minus the foxy bits. Wonder why?”

“The more you sin in life, the more you’re distorted in death.” Charlie offered offhandedly, clearly not comfortable with the topic of life. She was the princess of hell, Amber couldn’t help but wonder if that ment she was truly born here and never had a life. 

Were there others born here? Shit, could they have kids here? Not that she had interest in having sex with hulking winged cat men, multi armed pink fluffs or the various beasts she had ran from in the city. 

Radio static filled her ears for a moment and then there was a hot sticky breath over her shoulder. “Well, well, what have we here?” 

“Jesus, Fuck!” Amber lept out of her skin, launching herself away from the voice that had spoken right into her ear and nearly scared her to death. 

“He’s not here~” Came a singsong answer from the man that had somehow ended up behind her. “And I don’t believe he was interested in such activities,” He added, standing straight. 

He was a looming figure, putting a new perspective on towering over someone. He had to be seven feet tall and could be described as simply red. His hair was cut in a bob and red tipped with black. Tufts stuck up on either side of what looked to be tiny antlers. 

Continuing the red were two tone red eyes that blazed out from corpse pale skin. His skin wasn’t white in tone, like Charlie’s or as light as Amber’s. What had his skin looked like flushed with life? 

He wore a monocle of red glass that seemed to just hover in place and a red suit paired with a red pinstripe tailcoat. Everything was miraculously put together, right to the bowtie around his neck and yet the tails of his coat were shredded in places. 

The only thing that wasn’t black or red about him was his yellow smile, full of jagged teeth and cutting across his face in a way that looked threatening and decidedly not human. Not that she looked human herself. Or the pink fluff and cat man looked human either. 

This man was dangerous. She knew it as well as she knew her name but if anyone were to ask her why or how she knew it, there wasn’t any way she could put words to it. The man simply radiated danger, packaged in a well fitted suit and a smile. 

“Terribly sorry for giving you a fright, my dear.” She had no doubt in the world that he wasn’t sorry in the slightest. Still, he tossed a microphone tipped cane from his right hand to his left and offered the newly freed hand to her in greeting.

“It’s alright,” She didn’t know what else to say as she accepted his hand in what she expected to be a handshake. 

“Alastor! A pleasure to meet you, quite a pleasure indeed.” Rather than shake her hand, he ran his finger tips down the underside of her wrist and palm before grasping her fingers and pulling them up as he bowed down at the waist, placing a chaste kiss at her knuckles. 

“This is Amber.” Charlie offered as Amber struggled between the desire to run far away from this dangerous man and the self destructive urge to burn up in his presence. “She’s our newest guest. Alastor is-”

“Charlie’s hotelier. If you require anything at all my dear, do not hesitate to ask.” Alastor finished, finally letting go of her fingers as he stood again to his full height. 

“Heya, Toots.” Angel waved from the couch as Amber came down. It had been a week and she had a tentative friendship with these people who took her in like a stray dog. Well, most of them in some way at least. “What cha got going on today?” 

“I don’t know.” Amber shrugged, “Probably see where I can help out here.”

“Don’t you ever, you know, go anywhere?” He sat up, long legs flying through the air on their way to the ground with a fluidity that shouldn’t really be possible. 

“No.” Amber answered honestly. She hadn’t left the hotel once since she dragged herself up the hill in a desperate bid for safety. There wasn’t a need. 

“Why not?” Angel asked as Amber picked up whatever she could find to tidy up the space. It wasn’t needed but she had to do something to busy herself. 

She hadn’t left because she was scared but she didn’t want to admit that. 

“How long have you been dead?” Angel asked, instead. 

“Like, almost two months?” Amber whispered.

“You’re like, fresh, fresh meat, huh.” Angel whistled a bit. “It’s rough, the first few months, first year even. Shit’s scary. If you don’t find your feet, you get hurt and make mistakes.” 

It felt like he was talking very much from personal experience. “How about you?” 

“A good bit. Not as fresh as you, that’s what matters. Couple decades.” Angel was uncharacteristically serious at the moment. “You got lucky to end up here. I won’t ask what happened on your way here but you’re lucky to get here so fast. But don’t let this place become your prison either. A pretty cage is still a cage and all that shit.”

“It’s ‘a gilded cage is still a cage’” Alastor’s voice came somewhat annoyed from where he sat in an armchair, newspaper in hand. Amber was sure he hadn’t been there before.

The man terrified her no less today than he did upon their first meeting. 

“Whatever, Smiles. My point is, if you don’t want to go out on your own, that’s fine. But go out with one of us sometimes. Hell, do you even have another change of clothes? You gotta start living, not just existing. Go out, buy some clothes. I’ll take you, if ya want.”

“I couldn’t- I can’t. I don’t really have any money and I really don’t need anything, anyway. Really.”

“Crack may be expensive but I’m living rent free babycakes.” Angel smiled, pulling her from her chair. “And if you asked, I bet Charlie would pay you for what you do too.”

Shopping was far from a fun adventure, Amber discovered. She was smaller than so may in the realm. Off the rack clothes simply rarely fit her. And the pants that did, rarely had accommodations for a tail. It became clear that tailors and custom clothing was far more of a thing in hell than it had been in modern life. 

“Don’t worry Ears,” Angel walked with his lower arm draped around her shoulders. “We’ll get some snaps or buttons or something. A little snipping, sewing and you can button your pants around your tail. Then you won’t be walking around holding it out like you’ve got a dick up your ass.” 

“What a distasteful way to speak to a lady.” Alastor materialized out of shadows at Amber’s side, walking as if he had been with them the whole time. “But not an inaccurate description of how you’re holding your tail out, my dear.” Alastor’s clawed finger ran down the top of her tail as he leaned into her space only to dissolve into shadows and rise up a short distance away. “Did you manage to acquire anything for the lady that isn’t more appropriate for a lady of the night?”

“Styles change, old man.” Angel shot back. 

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” Alastor tsked as he approached them again, only to stop in front of them, blocking the sidewalk with his presence alone. They could walk around him, physically he was a thin man and the sidewalks were wide enough to accommodate beasts but somehow, that just didn’t feel possible. 

“You’re in the way.” Angel said as if it needed staying. 

“Am I?” Alastor’s grin widened. “I hadn’t noticed.” 

“What do you want?” Angel was clearly uncomfortable with the extended interaction. 

“Why, simply to ensure our lovely guest is properly provided for!” He laughed as if that was somehow a funny statement before holding out his hand toward Amber. “We’d not had a chance to get to know each other. How unfortunate! I’ve got to make a run to the tailor, you see. I simply need to pick up a few things. You’ll accompany me.” 

That last statement should have been a question but his tone didn’t hold any questioning. It was stated as a fact. It was clear that she had nothing but the illusion of choice. 

Amber’s hand trembled as she hesitated. Alastor started twitching his head from side to side, “Tick Tock, Dearie. Tick Tock.”

“Okay,” she slipped her hand into his timidly. Why did the creepiest man have to want to touch her?

“You don’t have to go with him Toots,” Angel said. She really didn’t think she had as much of an option as he seemed to think she had though. 

“She’ll be perfectly fine, don’t worry!” Alastor kissed her hand before raising from his folded bow and tucking her hand around his arm. 

[junypr-camus]

Badly Summarized WIPs Poll Tag!

Thanks for the tag, @mysticstarlightduck (poll here!)

Rules: Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible

tagging (no pressure): @simonnebethel, @rubywrite, @lookingforlifeoutthere

[sloshed-cinema]

The Boy and the Heron [君たちはどう生きるか] (2023)

It’s interesting to see what sort of story a master wants to tell over the course of their life. While it lacks the workmanlike nature of Kiki’s Delivery Service, the vast epic stakes of Princess Mononoke, or the spiritual abstraction of Spirited Away, The Boy and the Heron, despite its interrogative title in the original Japanese, seems to reach inward with its narrative thrust: How do I feel? This is an introspective journey even as Miyazaki retraces familiar steps to earlier films. Mahito is a schoolboy moving to the countryside after a bombing raid on Tokyo claims the life of his hospitalized mother in a fire. He is hollow and emotionally distant, quietly angry at Netsuko, his aunt and the woman his father has fallen in love with. But when she goes missing, Mahito follows her to rescue her and (according to the mischievous grey heron who plagues him at his new home) his own mother. This has the building blocks of a tale akin to something from CS Lewis, but quickly becomes far more absurdist and surreal (perhaps closer to one of Lewis’ later stories). As Mahito fights off parakeet soldiers and chases after the fiery maiden who rescued him before her own capture, we see him grappling with his mother’s loss and a drive to, beyond all reason, save her. Life and death are omnipresent in the world Mahito enters, and he wants to preserve all of the life he can. It abruptly takes a turn for the cosmic and existential, his Granduncle at the center of Italy, speaking to the fragility of existence and the balance of things. But is it better to preserve perfection in tenuous balance, or to accept the good with the bad? Looking back on it all, Miyazaki seems to signal a preference for radical acceptance.

Miyazaki’s films have a really interesting way of animating fluid. When Mahito strikes himself on the temple with a stone after a tussle at school, blood flows in such torrents as to rival a wound inflicted by Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. It is dramatic and extreme, underlining the rage that he is expressing in this self-destructive act. Later, when he drinks water from a tap in the other-world, it has such a viscosity as to emphasize his thirst, showing just how refreshing and essential a good, cold drink is at the end of a long day.

Joe Hisaishi delivers an elegant and simple score for this film, heavy on piano. Not quite pointillistic in its sensibilities, it refrains from bold statements. And yet it’s all the more powerful for it. The four opening chords of each reprise of the “Ask Me Why” queue are enough to shatter my soul.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'Mahito'.

The heron makes weird goblin noises.

Bird shit. Why is there so much bird shit?

The heron attempts to repair his beak.

BIG DRINK

The Granduncle is referenced.

Hisaishi's score jerks some tears outta the ol' ducts.

Certified Ghibli Food Moment.