#rereading some of the manga so i can compare to the episodes as they come out

[holographicbutch]

Ok I think I understand why I like chil so much. He's so talee'ah core

[epickiya722]

Do you think that when Gojo first heard that Itadori ate a cursed object he was instantly reminded of Geto? Do you think that somewhere in his heart he knew what was going to happen because nothing good came to the person, his Suguru, who ate curses. Do you think that's why Gojo was so insistent on helping out Itadori, because in some cruel way every time he looked at the teen he was reminded of Geto? Of Geto and how he didn't notice his best friend lover spiralling until it was too late already? Do you think--?

I mention a few spoilers later in this answer!

I don't doubt that he did! Satoru did become a teacher to help guide the new generation and to make sure their youth isn't stolen from them.

I'm sure Satoru was reminded of Suguru because Yuji ate a cursed object, but even more so later down the line when he starts interacting with him more.

I do feel like Satoru may have always wondered how Suguru was feeling about swallowing curses, but given how he was at a teenager (a little less sympathetic), he didn't bother to ask. But probably didn't want to trouble Suguru with questions because he wasn't sure how he would react, but at the same time kept close to at least shine some of his silliness into Suguru's life to at least get some smiles out of him. It works given all those scenes we see of Suguru smiling at him.

It's like "I can't do this, but I can at least do this for him".

So, yeah, Satoru probably doesn't intend to repeat the past. With Yuji, he's taking that second chance.

Personally, I don't think Satoru was completely at fault with what happened with Suguru, but Satoru probably feels he is.

When I think about it right at this moment, it's interesting to me how kind of similar Satoru and Suguru interact comparing to how Satoru and Yuji do.

As I said before in other posts, Suguru and Yuji share common traits. Other than the obvious one of swallowing curses, they both cater to helping (weaker) people.

Satoru probably caught that when Yuji says he'll consume Sukuna's fingers if it means less lives are lost. Suguru also consumed curses, doing so to save lives.

Peep also how Suguru and Yuji act towards Satoru compared to everyone else.

They match his energy. While everyone else tends to come back at Satoru in a more annoyed manner, they tend to play along with his antics. Suguru is just more on the line of banter and sass, but still retaining that familiarity of being his best friend. With Yuji, they really are two peas in a pod. Yuji also tends to make remarks towards Satoru that even he sometimes is like "oh". Like when Yuji recalls to how Satoru said he was the strongest. There's that brief silence before Satoru continues on about cursed energy. (Episode 6)

I think back to the Juppon audio dramas (you can find them on YouTube). Yuji is quick to participate in the game whenever Satoru brings it up while everyone else is like "ugh".

What makes this even funnier is that when Yaga was a teacher, he would propose the Juppon game. Satoru actually wasn't for it. Meanwhile, it's Suguru who doesn't mind playing the game. (That audio drama I can't find anymore. I think the poster has to re-upload it.)

There's also Satoru's reactions to anything involving Suguru and Yuji.

When Suguru deflected and Satoru heard about it, Satoru was yelling, getting aggressive, clenching his fists. Man was downright distraught.

The only other time I can recall him having a reaction similar to that is when Yuji first dies by Sukuna's hand.

While he wasn't screaming and just a bit more calmer, he indeed was clenching his fists and visibly just as angry as he was about Suguru the time before. It's telling that as Shoko walks into the room, she comments how Satoru isn't that emotional usually.

Even later in the manga when Satoru returns, Satoru is composed when he faces Sukuna possessing Megumi. Of course, he's still upset, but the way he reacts kinda throws me off whenever I reread that part.

I say that because I would have thought he would have a screaming episode like he did before because it is Megumi, the kid he took care of for years. But I suppose he didn't want to act that way in front of Sukuna, someone I guess he wouldn't want to show a "weakness" in front of anyways.

Although, it still just a little odd to me that when he does meet Sukuna again for their fight, Satoru taunts Sukuna about how did the other expect for him to hold back because he has Megumi's face and notes how he can go all out because it's Megumi, so he'll worry about him after he has killed Sukuna.

It even gotten to the point others questioned if Satoru remembered saving Megumi.

There's even a point during that fight Satoru has a thought of Yuji, vowing he'll bring Sukuna closer to death more than Yuji was back when Sukuna ripped his heart out. Satoru really wanted to not just crush Sukuna's heart. He wanted his liver and lungs, too.

Makes me wonder if Sukuna was still possessing Yuji, would have it been the same? (As in his behavior and words. Of course, the fight would be different.)

Now, I don't think Satoru has a favorite student and I do think he does care about Megumi. With every one of them, he has a different relationship, but equally he cares about them, sees their potential.

When it comes to Yuji, it's like having Suguru around again because who else treats Satoru the way Suguru did? Again, everyone else sees Satoru as "the strongest", an annoyance or even if they're on more friendly terms with him, they don't give back the same vibes.

Yuji does. He treats Satoru as a friend who just also happens to be his teacher. Think of that scene when just before Satoru fights Sukuna, everyone was unsure how to approach, but Yuji comes out and tells him to move his Infinity out the way so he can pat him on the back and Satoru obliges.

Think of it this way! If SatoSugu would have raised a child, Yuji would have been the result. A child that thinks like Suguru but acts like Satoru.

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread; special edition] Episode 1: Aladdin and Alibaba [Part 1]

Lmao, yeah. Ofc I'm also rewatching it. Btw, you'll proobably see some Polish subtitles, sorry in advance. Usually, if I cut some pic, it's because I tried to cut out the subs.

Starting off strong with Aladdin screaming his throat dry (I feel that rn, but also, man, that's some good screaming, I give it to the VA, you can really feel how he's seriously losing it here).

Also, I didn't remember the animation being this pretty. Like, my mind is still on that scene with Ja'far attacking Cassim, and the dart being a bit too slow, which made it look kinda awkward ngl. But, well, first three episodes tend to look best.

He protecc.

But also, in the manga it was less breakdown-y. I actually like how the anime shows more desperation in Aladdin than the manga does, in which he's pretty chill about it all (unless we're shown him losing it in some later flashback, in which case I don't remember.).

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE Magi OST? Well, I'm saying it now.

Me: Is it Notre Empire playing? (compares to yt) Yes.

Bro, do you ever get so invested in the OST that you can tell the song right away?

Far, faaaar more despair. He's saying "I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life here." (I cut it). Damn.

Also, man, making screenshots is so goddamn annoying here. It keeps just. Not working for some reason. I hope somebody appreciates my commitment to adding some visuals here.

Ugo has such a low voice. It's almost weird. I always imagine him having it a bit softer. Also, kickstarts Aladdin's "who am I?" dilema earlier.

Also, man, Ugo does come off as kind of an ass here.

The shining planet looks so cool.

More of the shining planet.

Man, I feel like I'm going to divide these episode-posts. It hasn't ben 1.5 minutes, but I'm on 4 pics, with that stupid 30 pic limit. It's going to be annoying.

I like that we don't find out what's Aladdin's wish until later. But also, you know what? That was such a good way to cut it! Ugo tells him he'll grant his wish, and Aladdin repeats "My wish...?", and is IMMEDIATELY cut by V.I.P.'s "All my wishes are finally within my reach". Say what you want abt the anime adaptation, but that was an awesome choice here.

I'm kinda skipping the OP, I'll probably go about it in another post.

Workign hard.

Overall, there's a bit more interactions with some random people. You get the general impression that Alibaba is pretty well-liked here.

Also, something I meant to point out - I know it's not some ground-breaking discovery, but in the anime you very much get the feel that Alibaba is the protagonist instead of Aladdin, and, yeah. You very much do. Aladdin might've got the first scene, but for some reason you do feel like Alibaba's already got more focus. Though that might be because we learn more about him faster. In the manga Aladdin had an entire chapter to be established as a character first, but here we've got that one (1) scene, and then we have Alibaba working, interacting with others (they comment of how hard he's working), chatting about Budel, and him having a "I'm working to reach my goal" moment, like, that's a lot of information compared to what Aladdin's got. Aladdin meanwhile has only got that breakdown scene, which, honestly, tells us very little about him. Just that he's ectremely desperate to get out, so he was probably stuck there for a long time. Like, it does kind of play well to Aladdin's general mysteriousness, but also makes Alibaba steal the spotlight a bit. Which will be a bit of a trend for at least the first few episodes.

So, a small thing is that Alibaba comes off as a bit more confident here, at least regarding the Dungeon thing. In the manga it looks more like him daydreaming a bit, while here he's like >:/ I'm serious.

Take a moment to appreciate the camels, they're very cute.

Hm.

The face of a man who's about to get into debt, and is fully aware of that.

A classic.

"Hi, I'm Aladdin, a traveler!" You're a thief.

I do agree with him, tho, watermelons rule.

Smol.

Lmao.

Also, yeah, I'm definitely dividing this ep into several posts.

Very cute.

Also, yeah, watermelons instead of wine. Like, there's so fucking much changed to make it Sort Of work, though also not really, cuz you just end up ??? at times. But it could've been worse (it will be, I haven't forgotten Al-Thamen attacking Sindria for no fucking reason, like, that kinda defeats the purpose of being a secret organization??? and also since Al-Thamen is part of Kou, they borderline started a war...)

Alibaba being unexpectedly cat-coded here.

He was yeeted just like that.

What are your teeth made of? Steel?

"I am in so much trouble" face.

See? That's what I was referring to. In the manga he doesn't throw Aladdin on the ground like that.

Again, what I was talking about. I didn't cut it very well, but he's holding Aladdin's head. In the manga he pushes him back, and takes the punishment on his own.

Also, now that I think about it, it's another case of the focus being shifted from Aladdin to Alibaba. In the manga in that scene you're watching Aladdin freak out behind Alibaba, whereas here you can actually see Alibaba's expression a bit (not on this photo, sorry), and you can't really see Aladdin's face at all.

Mood.

And now he steals apples.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the ridiculousness of this situation. Aladdin just. Followed Alibaba there. Just like that. They don't even know each other's names. He just followed Alibaba into his house, and ate his apples.

And Alibaba doesn't throw him out for it.

Instead he started to monologue about dungeons, lmao. That's actually another difference - in the manga Aladdin doesn't care about the dungeons and Alibaba's monologue, but here he's actually curious about them, and listens to Alibaba's explanation.

Cool af imagery. I need this as my wallpaper.

Pretty, but also. Alibaba just. Faints, I guess. Lowkey lmao. We don't even know why exactly. He might just be tired from all that work or sth. But still kinda funny.

And Aladdin's like, welp, guess I'll go to sleep, too. In this random guy's house. They still don't know each other's names.

Aww, he's telling Ugo that maybe they'll find his friends ;w;

Welp, next part soon, cuz I hit the photo limit. Also, I need you to now that it hasn't even been seven minutes of the anime. And I skipped the opening.

[novelmonger]

I just finished Trigun Stampede, and it's left me feeling so disappointed, because it could have been...so much more.

To be fair, I have to acknowledge that the storyline is distinctly different from both the first anime and the manga, and while it retains certain similarities to both storylines, it's kind of its own story--and not a bad story, either; it was engaging and interesting in its own right. I especially liked how it handled Vash and Knives's history, what it did with Wolfwood's backstory, and how it wrapped things up at the end.

But the point is that my disappointment with Trigun Stampede has nothing to do with which anime is a closer adaptation of the manga. (I'm due a reread of that anyway; there are a lot of details of the Trigun Maximum portion that I don't remember very well.) When I compare the two animes, I just...enjoy the first one so much more.

It's all very subjective, of course, but here are some of my thoughts:

Where's my girl Milly? :( Why'd they take her out? Did they really think Roberto was a good substitute for silly Milly, the giant girl with the huge gun and the innocent voice, who comes across as an airhead but is actually really sharp? I'm sorry, I'd much rather have her in the party than a jaded, world-weary alcoholic who honestly feels like a less-interesting Wolfwood most of the time. Also, having Milly around meant that Meryl could take the role of the straight man most of the time, whereas the Roberto-Meryl duo is like...two straight men. Just doesn't have the same spark as Meryl and Milly :/

Vash is so much less goofy in this one, he's practically a different person. I mean, yes, his heart is the same, and in a lot of ways the goofiness is a mask and something Vash uses to keep himself from despair (better to laugh than to cry and all that). But it's still a huge part of his personality, and a huge part of what I love so much about Trigun in the first place. I love how the first anime will switch back and forth between being utterly hilarious and dead serious. Trigun Stampede, on the other hand, is almost entirely serious. As a result, the serious moments don't have the same impact as they would have if they came at the tail end of a string of ridiculous hijinks. I probably wouldn't think of that if I hadn't seen the first anime and knew how the story would feel with that kind of tone, but there you are.

There's so much less time to get to know the characters. You can really tell that Trigun Stampede's primary target audience is people who are already fans of the story, because they don't let the story breathe in the beginning. I really got the sense that we're supposed to already know who these people are and why we love them, rather than getting introduced to lovable characters for the first time. I have to wonder whether I would care about any of them if I didn't have tons of episodes where I'd gotten used to them and their quirks and had the time to really learn what they're all about.

WHERE IS BRILLIANT DYNAMITES NEON?! HOW CAN YOU BRING IN THE BAD LADS GANG WITHOUT THEIR FABULOUS LEADER?!?!?

Okay, I'm going to say it: I hate the animation. Sometimes it looked really good (particularly everything with the plants), but other times--especially when it came to character animation, particularly facial animation--it was so...sluggish? It was like the mouth movements couldn't keep up with the voicework, and every movement a character would make would take twice as long as it should, like they were moving through water or something. I'm certainly not against CG animation in anime, but I've seen it done so much better than this. I didn't know such a stylized art style could veer into the uncanny valley, but that was the feeling I got over and over again while watching this anime. It was so distracting that sometimes I found myself staring at their faces without reading the subtitles, and had to back up.

Oh, that reminds me: I'm sure there's a whole host of reasons behind them changing Vash's voice actor, but...I'm sorry, Masaya Onosaka is Vash the Stampede to me. He did such a good job with both the serious and the goofy sides of the character. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka did a great job; I have no complaints with his performance. But...he's just not Masaya Onosaka. It's probably a good thing that this iteration of Vash wasn't as ridiculous and all over the place, because I'm not convinced Yoshitsugu Matsuoka could have pulled it off.

The new character designs were okay for the most part. Not my favorite, but generally not a problem (though I'm not a fan of Meryl's outfit; it makes her look like a kid somehow). The only real problem I have is that Vash's floppier, softer hairstyle makes Wolfwood's nickname "needle noggin" just...not work very well. It was clear why he would give him such a nickname when Vash's hair was sticking straight up like a shock of wheat, but this way? Doesn't look like needles at all. His hair isn't noticeably spikier than anyone else's.

There weren't really any surprises or suspense in the story, because everything was shown in a fairly straightforward way. Not necessarily a problem, I suppose, and it makes sense that they have to cut to the chase more quickly when they've only got 12 episodes to work with. But I missed the way the first anime would just drop hints, show a little bit of a flashback, then move on for another episode or two. Particularly when it came to the nature of what, exactly, Vash is. They basically tell you right away in the first episode what's going on, rather than letting you wonder and slowly piece it together over time. I don't like that.

All in all, Trigun Stampede just doesn't hold a candle to the first anime. Now I'm off to rewatch that one, and then probably reread the manga.

[pepperbox]

What are your thoughts on the Trigun reboot?

the big tl;dr is that i'm enjoying it a lot!! there are a couple things that i'm like, not suuuuper thrilled about but overall: it's a yes from me!

(for clarity, i was a huuuuuge fan of the '98 anime and watched it with my mom as a kid! i read trimax later in life and adored that, and now the og anime is like. fine?? but comparatively falls flat for me now as an adult in my 30s. i've rewatched the anime only once as an adult but i've reread trimax uhhhhh three times in the past year alone lolol)

i'm gonna bullet point this bc that's just how my brain works best:

i love the animation! there have been a few instances where it felt off, but overall it's been a feast for my eyeballs

I'M SORRY BUT I LOVE THE NEW VASH DESIGN transmasc icon, he's perfect. i am absolutely not biased, ignore my undercut--

also it updated his look for the 2000s?? the broomhead was a Look in the 90s but it's so dated now i'm SORRY LMAO

also who out here is making hair gel on this fucking desert planet, i s2g,

the inclusion of roberto at first i was kinda ??? about but i quickly adjusted to him, esp as he started throwing soon-to-be-dead-mentor flags all over the fucking place. he cracks me up but i'm legit just waiting at this point for him to die to further meryl's development and to pass the torch derringer on to her

i do hope millie makes an appearance for meryl (so they can be girlfriends, as is only right) but her absence really doesn't break trigun for me bc uhhhh y'all, her and meryl have relatively minor roles in trimax and straight up disappear for like, volumes at a time

also i really hated her random romance with wolfwood in the 98 anime even as a kid and i will never forgive it for that

but ymmv!!!

i do think the pacing is a bit fast and i wish they either had longer episodes or more episodes to let it breathe a little! not entirely plot-wise because i actually like the reveals so far we've gotten because it's keeping even long time fans guessing for what's coming, but just for the relationships between the characters

like i would like more casual interactions between the four protags, and more vash & wolfwood getting to know each other before we jumped right to them butting heads so aggressively over morality and killing

but i do love that it also heavily showcases the consequences of vash's actions (or inaction)

because as meryl pointed out during the nebraska fight, he isn't actually doing anyone a kindness, he's just running away from pain

i am also sad that they took wolfwood AND livio's tits by the looks of it

rip 😔

also i am. not thrilled about elendira? i was really excited to see my wife on screen but instead they did that to her :(

ANYWAYS

i am curious about where the story is going to go!! because lost july hasn't happened yet but we're walking towards it, but when?

is it going to be mid-season? is it going to be the end of s1 if we're getting more than one season? will there be a time skip?

will [redacted manga spoilers] arrive?

will we get to see chronica and domina??

there's still SO much to cover, but i know they're mashing some things together (like jeneora rock was a couple different settings smashed into one, and it seems like the gung-ho guns and the eye of michael are even more woven together??) so we'll see but

I HAVE QUESTIONS

BUT YEAH like!!!! i am enjoying it a lot overall!! i have a few gripes with it but i am so fucking happy to be watching trigun again, and as much as i would adore a 1-to-1 trimax adaption like they did with fma, i am really enjoying it being a retelling because i genuinely don't know what's going to happen!! it's fun!! i'm having fun!!

also there's a really emo thought i had about all trigun adaptions just being different lives for everyone and they're just caught in a loop

history doesn't repeat but sometimes it rhymes

but!!

i also love the fact that it's screaming that it's a passion project. that people who love the source material are all working on it, with nightow. they're bringing back VAs for both japanese and english versions, fans are animating and voicing it, it's amazing and shows how much love is going into this series, and i'm so glad to be able to experience it again

[eyes-like-obsidian]

[[10 and 16 for the munday questions, please!!]]

Munday Question!

16 What is your favorite band/music genre?

Hmm... That is so hard to explain. It's really mixed actually. I love hard rock and then sometimes I really love to listen to classical music, sometimes goth music. Though I can tell you my favorite artists that I listen frequently right now.

Hozier, The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey, The Neigbourhood, Meg Myers, etc. Its too much tbh xD

10 What is your favorite fictional character (in or out of the current fandom)?

UFF! Thats a really hard one, because I love them all so much after reading the Manga (I am still rereading the Manga constantly xD) Let's make a time stamp and a little list (It's gonna be long and I am already sorry so I will cut the post here >//<):

When I first watched the first episode I immediately fell in love with Tanjiro. The kindness, empathy and love he helds for the people around him just touched me such on a deep level, it's really hard to explain. Without sounding weird, it's probably because I see the world as him. Be kind to your surrounding, you never know what they go through even if they are mean to you (but not too much!)

Then Inosuke came (and believe me I am not saying this because you are the one who send that ask xD) I swear this pretty little piece of shit. Everytime when he laughs I laugh with him and I just genuinely enjoy watching him doing stuff.

Zenitsu and Nezuko also have a special place in my heart (did you see them? They are adorable! Yes I ship them! You can judge me xD)

The Rengoku's. All of them. I cried like for the rest of the day when I watched Mugen Train. Cried again when I read it in the manga. Cried again when I rewatched it yesterday. (I know I am hopeless... I mean why am I doing this to myself??) I don't wanna even get started why I love Kyojuro so much so I won't but I have to go into detail with Shinjuro, because this man deserves better from the fandom. I know hitting his own child (just alone a child) is unforgivable and I would smack him gladly for that, but that doesn't make him a pure villain. This man is deep broken and people don't understand that. He was a passionate father who adored his family. He was so happy when he wanted to teach them Kendo, but then he lost the love of his life (and I truly believe that he loved his Ruka dearly), then he reads in the diary of his ancestor and realizes that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you train, you will never get to that level of strength that the first breather (Yoriichi). This man was depressive and deeply broken down and made later a character development. Give him some slack please (also his man tiddies are also nice but thats another story 👀)

Then we come to my first true love. Yoriichi Tsugikuni. This man... THIS MAN! I don't know where to start and my post is already long enough and ugh. Shit I will try to make it short. This man was born with a strength that is not comparable to any other person and yet he desired only a quite life with his loved that was him denied. A man who stands true to himself and who stood humble. A man who is so strong and soft and even softer for his loved ones. Someone who truly loved and was not able to forget them as they hold them high in their hearts (we know that he never remarried as he thinks that Uta was his true love. We know how much it has hurt him to attack his own brother who's flute he was still carrying with him). I could go on and on, but I think that would be too much.

[turboacek-blog]

What a Naruto remake/Kai would do/be

So they released some illustrations and a video to celebrate the anime’s 20th anniversary

And it was said more was coming in the celebration

Leaning a good number of to think that they’re going to remaster or at least do a Kai version of the anime

I don't think is going to huh happen but I did want to explore what if?...

So first what would this mean?

Filler would be reduced, so all those filler arcs would be cut including those that can be argued added to the story like Kaguya’s backstory

That would cut the 720 episodes to about

88ish (Naruto) and 192ish (Shippuden) making at least 270 episodes cut (rounded down from 280 from my potential bad math)

So reducing 720 to 450 already improved the pacing and such

But then there’s the actual pacing of the episodes

Like there are episodes called “mixed” canon as in it had a decent amount of filler moments to go with canon/manga stuff

Like side characters' backstories for example and even some fights

And if that gets cuts that could reduce it by about half (exaggerating but you would be surprised how much anime filler was thrown in episodes)

For simplicity, I’ll say 300 episodes with the mixed filler and recaps and such cut

This may seem low but again rough estimate could be closer to 400 depending on what they would do

And to be safe could make it stay at 300 or make it lower when you improve the pacing

Pacing as in that almost all 2000s anime and media, in general, were slower paced compared to today

So if that pacing is sped even just to meet today's standards one episode back then could be half an episode now

For example, the bell test was 2 episodes that could easily be made into 1 episode now

Let alone the more “annoying” aspects that were in the show like the moments they repeat a “punch” or something to sell the epicness or when they pause on something or a shot too long (like when it could be 1 second but it’s 5 seconds)

There’s also the seasonal route where they do it in bunches of 12/24 episode seasons

The beginning to the end of the land of waves was 19 episodes

But that could be cut to be 12/13 having that be a “season”

Chunin exams were from around episode 20 to about 50 for the preliminary and 68 for the transition into Konoha Crush/end of the finals

If that could be reduced to 24 episodes (and if possible 12) that’s another bunch of episodes cut/reduced

Like without checking literally every episode count for arcs

Land of waves 12 episodes

Chunin exams 24 episodes

Konoha crush 12 episodes (including Naruto vs Gaara)

Tsunade arc 12 episodes

Sasuke retrieval 24 episodes

Naruto total: 84 episodes

And for Shippuden

Kazekage 12 episodes

Tenchi Bridge/Sasuke and Sai 6-12 episodes

Hidan and Kakuzu 12 episodes

Itachi (pursuit, Jiraiya, Sasuke vs Itachi) 24 episodes

Pain 12/24 episodes (depends on where you want to cut off the lines between this and Itachi's)

Five Kage 12 episodes

War 24 episodes

Ten tails and Kaguya 24 episodes

Ending 12 episodes

Shippudden Total: 138-156 episodes

So based on this at most 240 episodes

Obviously, this isn't me rewatching every episode and rereading every manga chapter to see the exact percentage of filler canon, etc

But everyone knows the filler in naruto was a problem and that it's just a common thing to skip it now so having a version that reduces it naturally without having the weird attempts the studio did to weave the filler into the canon (like the three tails arc)

As for the animation part, I've seen that they loved the updated look from the video and a whole anime looking like that would be marvelous

I agree, but I don't think original naruto and especially Shippudden are “outdated” yet

Like yes some fights like the infamous Naruto vs Pain an update could be nice but in general, the animation and art are still good

And I do understand people that don't like the updated look, it's like with Dragonball the cell-shaded look was normally for specials and such but now it's the norm

Like now it's the Boruto look but was the movie style previously

I think it's one of those we all just got to get used to it as we're never getting back to the 80s-00s look mostly just because of the workload

So should they make a Kai/remaster?

Yes just having a “definitive” version would be great

Now?

No, doesn't feel like enough time has passed, at most Naruto would get updated and not Shippudden, plus Boruto is still ongoing and would rather that conclude or reach a time skip otherwise we'll be having 2 Naruto's

Also random but I would like if it's called Naruto: Chikara / Naruto: Power to play off the filler arc that most liked

(I know Kai means updated so Kai still works)

[manwaifu]

Tracking Kou and Aoba's romantic progress in Cross Game: Volume 1

You having fun? Pitching like that. It's August, AKA Koushien month (it's almost over but I started reading earlier plz understand), and I've been in an Adachimood™, so I've been catching up to Mix by rereading it from the beginning. But! My mind keeps wandering in the direction of Cross Game. Now, I adore Mix. It's a perfectly entertaining slice of life baseball manga, and grandpa Adachi is still a master at his craft. It definitely succeeds more on the spokon aspect compared to his previous outings, but with the larger cast and its focus on legacy (aka HEYDOYOUREMEMBERTOUCH? + ~familia~), it's rather lacking in the romance department. I miss the romance of Kou and Aoba, I'm desperate as fuck for more content of them, so I...keep going back. I can't stop thinking about the gradual development of their relationship, how they fell for each other before they could even realize it, how they expressed their feelings at the end... So I am going to track their romantic development for my own sanity and to clear up some misconceptions I've been reading, because Adachi is a subtle little shit and some of us are too dumb for his storytelling, like myself back when Cross Game was serialized.

Chapter 1

Back when I read Cross Game in HS, I never actually parsed it as a romcom. I was simply sold by the first episode's ending and fell in love Adachi's storytelling. Aoba is, however, the first girl introduced. She is our heroine, despite the first volume informing us otherwise.

As much as Kou likes to object to Wakaba's PDA and bossing him around, she has him wrapped around her finger.

We start the first chapter, and the first volume, off with a full four leaf clover.

Chapter 2

Kou may deny it, but Wakaba makes it clear to the world that she is his girlfriend.

Chapter 3

The four Tsukishima sisters, each representing a leaf in the clover. Wakaba's is the left.

Likely when Akaishi started to give up on Wakaba. Kou always has and always will be the main character in her heart.

Impressive, Aoba.

Chapter 4

It's funny how only Aoba fails to see his good sides, arguably because she fails to see her own because she's so insecure. Her sisters are well aware of how thoughtful he actually is.

Chapter 5

At this point, Kou still couldn't care less about baseball. But Aoba looks pretty damn cool when she plays, does she not? On the other hand, their families believe Kou and Waka are fated to be with each other. After all, they were born on the same day, in the same hospital, and grew up down the street to each other.

Wakaba agrees. Aoba does not.

And unlike her sister, Aoba has high standards for her ideal man.

Chapter 6

Do you ever see a pitcher so cool, that she inspires you to reach her level? Initially just to compete with her, but later on to seek her approval.

Chapter 7

This is the image of Kou that Aoba will cement in her brain for the next four years: a lazy slob who has no respect for the sport she loves.

But he's already showing her signs of how capable he can become with some hard work.

Unlike her sister, Waka truly believes in Kou. She knows Kou is capable of throwing 160km/h; it's a goal she sets for Kou, to prove to Ao that he can, so she can finally eat her words and come to like (platonic) him. Aoba, on the other hand, loves her older sister so much that she would never steal her man, even if he does grow into her own ideal (as if she would ever entertain this idea in the first place).

Chapter 8

Kou may not admit it out loud, but he's smitten.

They are very well dating at this point, as young as they may be.

Chapter 9

And, she's gone.

Chapter 10

What can you do but honor your last memory of her?

And thus we continue our story with a single leaf faded. If you want to watch the first episode, which covers the first volume:

[nerdgatehobbit]

Take a wild guess where the next batch of screencaps will come from.  :D

More seriously, should I wait until I’m done with the “Emissary” ones or is it okay if there’s some overlap?

9/13/22

On to the more typical ramblings.

I really need to start watching XWP’s third season.  I haven’t been doing many Sun & Moon screencaps, so that’s likely to apply to XWP too.  I have absolutely no clue how I’ll react to Arrow, which is also on my to-watch list for this autumn.  And I need to finish ALOK’s first season before I really get into my mini PR re-watch for next year’s anniversary.

I’m still early in my DS9 watch, especially as I re-watch to get screencaps as on the first time around I want to be watching, not trying to get good images.  I’ll get them separately, but once I do have them, I’ll alternate between “Past Prologue” and “A Man Alone” given their jumbled timeline.  Jumping ahead to the latest episode I’ve watched, it was great to get the context for Sisko punching Q.

In contrast, this is essentially my third time around with SGA (saw a good [most?] chunk on TV as a teen, the actual watch recently, and now this) so I can focus more on getting good images.  It also helps that I don’t have to worry about WordPress’s image limit like I do on my blog (I have not really made a dent in it yet, but that’s because I’ve been relatively careful once it sunk it that there was one).

I haven’t had the time to figure it out yet, but!  I have obtained a Blu-Ray drive so that I can watch them on my laptop and ergo get screencaps.  This is Very Important for Sailor Moon purposes whenever I get around to it (next year??), as I know I will need images for the comparing and contrasting that will arise from doing the original and Crystal first seasons.  It might be weird to be watching the original and the reboot for the first time together as well as reading the manga, but I think that it will be fun as well.  Although I do have basically all the spoilers for the first four seasons thanks to reading Shadowjack’s reviews.

... Please let there be re-releases for the later seasons soon-ish.

Huh, it will also come into handy whenever I get around to re-watching Princess Tutu and/or TCW as I can then get screencaps for them as well.

So far I’ve really been enjoying The Rings of Power.  It’s definitely different from Jackson’s vision, but that’s not inherently a bad thing.

2023 is edging closer, so I really do need to start the YW re-read.  At this point, I suspect I might end up doing posts on each pair of books rather than trying to deep-dive into each pair of chapters.  I’m just nervous about putting on my serious analysis goggles on rather than just reading & enjoying them.  Any tips?

I also want to read the first two Spy x Family volumes and see if I like them enough to get more.  So a Lord of the Rings reread shouldn’t be on the table for awhile.  Especially as there’s also The Dragon Quartet to be read (so much nerves about if the actual first, second, and fourth books will live up up to the hazy theorizing I did as a teen based off the third book, which is why it hasn’t happened yet).

I definitely am experiencing choice paralysis with my media backlog, because this isn’t even the entire list.  :/

[mysterylover123]

Mysterylover watches MHA: “TDBKDK Family Dinner #2: Anime Version”

So yes last episode we did cover the first half of the family dinner. Now we’re covering part 2. BTW this music is BIZARRE. Why are we recapping all this angst with triumphant music?

Anyway so let’s talk about this arc in general. Since I already posted about the manga chapter, I’m not sure what to add about the anime episode other than “hey, music choice” or “line delivery”, but I’ve reread this arc a lot so I feel like I wanna analyze it instead.

3. Let’s talk about Bakugou. Bakugou’s arc throughout most of the series has been all about learning to care for other people. Learning the “save to win” part of things. He comes to the internship wanting to find “what he was missing”. In the climax, he rescues Natsuo from Ending. But the odd thing is, Bakugou already showed in the Joint Training arc that he was capable of saving people now. So it wasn’t that he needed to learn to save.

What Bakugou got from this arc, many fans believe, was the realization that he mistreated Deku and needed to make amends. All Might at the start of the arc points out that Bakugou is like Endeavor. This comparison was probably one Bakugou was making since the Sports Festival when he overheard Todo’s Backstory Confession to Deku. And here, Bakugou witnesses exactly what being an obsessive, violent asshole who pushes their loved ones away to become the top pro will end up with.

Complete alienation. A family who will never forgive him.

And Bakugou, I believe, wants Deku’s forgiveness and friendship back. He pushed Deku away - he admits to bullying him and hurting him in Chapter 284. And he’s trying to atone for his actions. From this arc, Bakugou learns that he needs to make things up to Deku. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but that’s what most fans take from it. 

Endeavor can never truly make it up to his family, it seems, for all he did. Natsuo will never forgive him, Shoto probably won’t either. Now, currently in the manga Endeavor’s actions have spiraled out to pretty much destroy hero society thanks to Touya, so he’s become even more of a cautionary tale for Bakugou.

What makes that even more interesting, though, is that Bakugou and Midoriya are two halves of one whole. So the same person who is an interesting foil and cautionary tale for Bakugou has to be one for Midoriya too. Given Deku’s current arc in the manga - pushing everyone who loves him away in an obsessive quest to be the best - it’s clear that Deku could maybe have benefitted from comparing himself to Endeavor too.

This hard-hitting examination of his own flaws is what makes Bakugou so compelling, especially in recent times. Unlike Endeavor, who seems to keep floundering back into the same mistakes, Bakugou just keeps improving. 

Shoto and Midoriya mostly got New Cool Moves out of this arc, and less on the Character Development scale. Deku’s conversation with Shoto about being a “nice person” was something a lot of the fandom eviscerated him for back in the day (before the arc had wrapped) since Natsuo overheard it and felt bad about it. 

Deku is a very forgiving person, I’ve never seen him hold a genuine grudge (he’s currently on a quest to save the Supervillain who kidnapped his soulmate, which is about as forgiving as you get). But while holding grudges can be bad, Deku’s mindset may also be problematic. Being too forgiving of evil done to you and others can also cause problems. Deku’s advice to Shoto was well-intentioned, but it had the unintended side effect of guilt-tripping Natsuo and making him feel like a bad person.

Interestingly, even though Deku is the unofficial Todoroki Family Counsellor, he’s never really been able to help Shoto and the fam get through their trauma all on his own. “It’s your Power” was a great moment, but in the aftermath Shoto wasn’t sure what to do with it. He needed to go work through his own problems afterwards. Deku can’t magically fix all the Todo family’s problems, even though he’d like to. To some degree, given the Sports Fest and this arc, it seems like Shoto may need the help of both Halves of the Wonder Duo.

Fighting Bakugou forced Shoto into the position where he had to face his past trauma. His fight with Inasa revealed that he still holds resentment against Endeavor, and that resentment wasn’t something he could - or should! - just be zen about. So what’s Bakugou’s approach to being harmed by someone?

Bakugou has channeled his anger over Shigaraki abducting him into productive motivation. Maybe I’m letting my recent FMA binge watch bias me as to how the story is going to go, but my guess is that the message may be something like Winry’s story there. No need to forgive people who’ve done something terrible for you; instead, learn to channel anger into motivation and power. That seems to be how Bakugou is handling Shigaraki, and maybe it’s how he can help Shoto handle Endeavor too.

Well, that’s not so much clear in this arc, but anyway. Back to Deku and Kacchan’s story. So Deku pretty clearly holds nothing against Kacchan for mistreating him (look at how cheerfully he interacts with him in this arc! Very, very shippy stuff, they’re every bit the Old Married Couple here). So if Bakugou needs to make amends to Deku, and Todoroki needs to channel his anger, what does Deku need to do?

Given the most recent arc, it’s clear Deku needs to learn to rely on other people. That’s his overall arc. In this arc, we see him doing the Evacuation portion, using BlackWhip to save lives. But we also see Kacchan saving Natsuo and Shoto beating Ending. When the Trinity work together as a team, they surpass the #1 pro. That’s probably why they weren’t able to do so before Natsuo was taken.

Deku needs Kacchan’s strength and confidence. Shoto needs Kacchan’s ability to channel his anger. Kacchan and Shoto both need Deku’s kindness and compassion. Deku and Kacchan needed Shoto’s cautionary tale to mend things with each other. Together, of course, they are the best trio. Who win, rescue, and save together. 

in other words, The trinity need each other. Duh. 

[connan-l]

All right, so now that I finally digested the final a little I have some random messy thoughts about Fruits Basket 2019. It got really long lol, but this has been stuck in my head for a while so I needed to get it out!

Honestly, it was a very good adaptation and I’m still in awe I was able able to see the whole manga animated. Fruits Basket is pretty important to me, as I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was definitely one of the series that impacted me the most — the way it tackles themes of cycle of abuse, loneliness, grief and moving forward still feel very special to me even now (I briefly wrote a post about it months ago after rereading the manga), so of course I was delighted upon hearing the reboot announced and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint. I’d never truly thought I’d be able to see characters like Rin or Machi actually move on screen in my lifetime so in a way it still feel surreal lmao (RIP to Komaki though). It was really refreshing to revisit the story in that way, especially given amusingly enough I am myself in the middle of some big changes in my life where I have to leave things behind so it felt sort of... well, I won’t say empowering per se, but quite encouraging and satisfying to watch Furuba, and especially its final, at this timing, in a way. It wasn’t perfect, there are certainly a lot of flawed directive choices that I question and unfortunately quite some important cut contents — but even at its lowest it stayed all in all good. I’m genuinely a bit stunned there are people who thinks the entire thing is worthless or a failure, because man, I have seen what a bad anime adaptation looks like, and Fruits Basket 2019 definitely isn’t one. Natsuki Takaya herself was clearly very invested and satisfied in that adaptation — I mean, just the fact she drew arts for every single episodes or for the season 3 ending really shows that I think. And while there’s a part of me who will always have a soft spot for the 2001 anime, there’s no contest that the 2019 one is the superior one and more representative of the original manga as a whole.

I believe some people really don’t realize how... uncommon it is to get such a consistently good-looking and complete anime adaptation for a shojo manga? Shojo really aren’t lucky in that prospect usually; they rarely get animated, and when they do they’re usually very bland or outright bad, or they get one short season of like 13 episodes that never receive any follow-ups — even shojo considered like classics tend to get poor treatment, unless they’re Sailor Moon of course or a long-running magical girls franchise like Precure (and even then we could have a discussion about the way Sailor Moon’s treated compared to say Dragon Ball for example, but that’s another topic entirely). So yeah it is quite awesome we were able to get this kind of anime adaptation that covers the full manga with good quality from start to finish, and I am so, so glad it exists and that it managed to revive and makes the series so popular again. (Hopefully its success means we’ll be able to get more good anime adaptation of shojo manga from now on!)

But yeah, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t problems with it and I also understand why some of the manga fans had issues. We were kind of hyped with the fact this would be a complete adaptation and in the end we only got a... sort-of-complete one lol. The art and animation stayed fine during the run (there certainly were some episodes that were uhhh, lacking in that sense, but that’s just how it is sometimes with productions and budget), but I admit I was a bit letdown regarding the direction, where it often seemed… a bit uncreative or heavy-handed. There was some very beautiful and smart shots here and there, but on the whole I really had an issue with the adaptation failing to actually take more ambitious decisions on its visual aspect, especially compared to the pretty pannelling of the manga — and when it did take these decisions it just was… kind of obnoxious and in-your-face, like the show is trying to hold the watcher’s hand (with unnecessary things like Kyo’s father record player derailing or the whole big ropes symbolizing the curse that often slapped you all over the screen, which usually just made me want to roll my eyes because of how annoying it felt.) Multiple people also pointed out the overdramatization of some scenes like the Kyo and Tohru’s confrontation at the end of season 1 or Akito and Ren’s fight which was, indeed, not very good and a weird choice. Fruits Basket is already a pretty dramatic show and these scenes are already intense, there was no need for such over-the-top theatrical display of emotions that only made them comes off as comedic. I’m probably nitpicking here but it also bothered me some characters’ expressions didn’t feel properly retranscribed (Shigure especially, whose characterization depends a lot on that, really suffered from this), or that odd habit of making some big panorama plans instead of focusing on the faces and bodies, which particularly sucks during emotional scenes (like the backgrounds were pretty I guess, but that’s not what was important here lmao).

Also that might be just a personal thing, but can I point out that the openings were pretty disappointing to me... They're not bad, but they all looked so... bland. The songs are fine but the rest feel so uninspired and it's kind of sad... I dunno, I wasn't asking for much but I just think they could've done more than just scrolling each character looking vaguely melancholic or making them walk randomly one after another :/ The endings have at least pretty illustrations and I'm okay with them (I liked what they did with Kyoko’s photo in season 3 too), but the OPs kind of feel as if they ran out of budget and ideas for them or something. I kind of feel the same with the OST as well, where they’re generally fine but were a bit lackluster, and sometimes… they were kind of played at bad times? I remember the Rin episode in season 2 were the music felt a bit out of place and took me out of the immersion, which is a shame cause it was otherwise a pretty good episode. But that might just be a me-thing here lol. The voice actors were awesome though! (The Japanese ones, at least, I didn’t watch any other dubs). I’ve said it before but special kudos to Maaya Sakamoto cause damn she’s so perfect as Akito, and Shimazaki as Yuki and Toyosaki as Rin truly delivered too. I didn’t know Manaka Iwami at all but I was really impressed by her Tohru, especially in season 3 — she really was good at capturing her character’s subtle emotional turmoils (I think she makes a better Tohru than Yui Horie too, although I admit I missed Horie a little lol.)

Anyway, on the topic of lack of ambition, that might be an unpopular opinion but there’s also the fact that I’m sad they didn’t actually... try to change or add more original scenes. By which I mean, obviously we had some changes, but not ones that were really interesting (when they’re not actively detrimental to the story). For example, I was really hoping that we’d be able to get at least one original episode focused on Ritsu (and Mitsuru too why not) in season 2 or 3, or on Kagura or Kisa; I dunno, it would’ve been a good occasion to give something more to the characters that got sidelined in the original manga, or add some moments that would’ve been nice to develop like about Akito post-cliff confrontation, but we never got that. And well, that makes sense now that we know they seemingly had an episode restriction (at least on season 3), but, yeah, that’s still a shame. Honestly in the end Ritsu’s character made even less sense in the anime, because like, it was nice they tried to adapt his introduction episode so that it feels less “you have to adapt to gender norms to feel better about yourself,” (the gender non-confirmity is definitely one of the bits that aged the less well in FB) but then they still made him cut off his hair and give his feminine clothes to Kagura at the end so why lol. (And speaking of his episode introduction, I dislike that they cut off his conversation with Tohru after the suicide attempt, not only for Ritsu but also for Tohru cause it is one of the small instances bringing up her issues that is set up early on and that is crucial to her, but I’ll come back to this later.)

And now about the biggest problem to me being, the cut content and episodes rearangement. So, just so we’re clear, I definitely don’t think an anime adaptation needs to be a page-by-page adaptation of the manga to be good. Every decent adaptation needs to have changes, and the ones that tries to just follow the source material without any heart often tend to get pretty bad. So changes are good! Cut content are needed sometimes. But in Furuba 19, it really... wasn’t the case.

And the most unfortunate thing being that the one suffering the most from this is the show’s main character herself, Tohru.

So, obviously other characters also got done dirty by this; Yuki and Machi’s relationship was so incredibly shifted in the background and rushed it’s almost funny. I’m one of the people who thinks that, while I do think they’re cute, I definitely agree on the fact their relationship was a bit underdeveloped in the manga — and that Machi’s character especially suffered as a result by being a bit reduced to just "Yuki’s love interest" when she was a character with so much more to offer (and as a whole I also tend to agree with the fact that Yuki probably didn’t need a romance at all and that his arc is more meaningful while focusing on his platonic relationships, but that’s another topic entirely) — but man, if the manga already underdevelopped them, then ohhh boy, the anime just completely dropped the ball. It feels very odd because to me it seemed like season 2 was taking their time with setting them up, so if they knew they had only 13 episodes for season 3 then they should’ve started the changes there; instead we got 1 nice Yuki/Machi/Kakeru episode, and then it’s like "Yep, they’re in love, just trust me." (It does makes me wonder if season 3 wasn’t originally supposed to be longer but then got restrained because of budget or covid or something…) Kakeru also very much suffered because of them cutting off his girlfriend and his complicated relationship with Tohru… Now, to be honest, I’ve always found the Kakeru/Komaki/Tohru subplot pretty... contrived and useless, and Komaki’s not so much a character more than a device for Kakeru’s development, but it does have some good moments relevant to the story’s themes (I like the ‘‘you can’t play suffering olympics with people’s pain’’morale) and it is important to his character (and Komaki is cute, I admit), so it was still sad they shafted it entirely. (Also I kind of like the tense relationship between Tohru and Kakeru. The fact they both seem to not appreciate each other even afterwards feel sort of refreshing even if it’s never explored unfortunately orz.) I was still surprised they didn’t actually try to make a Komaki cameo at the end? Cause I think it would’ve fitted and Kakeru’s girlfriend had already been mentioned in season 2 but... for some reason they... didn’t. (Mayyybe we’ll get an OAV like with Kyoko and Katsuya? Who knows.)

One scene that was skipped/rearranged that I’m very bitter over is the whole Tohru/Kagura confrontation and Kagura/Rin scene — it might not seem like much, but the moment of Tohru refusing to forgive Kagura is very important, and I was pretty annoyed they turned Rin’s trauma response to Kagura’s violence and her subsequent apology/hug to a gag, it legit felt tasteless. The Tohrin scene they removed at the very end too was frustating; it was great they managed to fit in the "Rin doesn’t want to forgive Akito" bit at least (I was afraid they’d cut it off entirely), but it was so essential for her to say to Tohru, not to Haru and Momiji (plus the way they put it in felt very random and awkwardly placed there, when they were initially talking about Tohru before orz). OH AND the Akito/Hana friendship too! Yeah I know it’s not a Big deal but I absolutely love the little glimpses of their friendship and it’s very important to me so I’m disappointed over them not including the ‘Ah-chan’ scene… (It was kind of weird that the show sort-of implied Hana and Kazuma got together too cause that’s… not the vibe at all from the manga… oh well.)

Most people I’ve seen generally only bring up season 3 regarding the cuts/rearangement because it’s the most obvious and the biggest offender, but I personally think there were already problems with season 2 and 1. At first glance I didn’t have much issue with some of the rearrangement, because early Furuba can indeed be pretty episodic, but thinking back on it as a whole I think it might’ve been better to leave some stuff, like Hana and Uo’s episodes for example, to season 2 (I do wonder if they did this specifically so the reboot would offer original content and differ from 2001 early on...) and cut off other not-so-important things from S1 & S2 — because as a result season 2 kind of suffer a bit by being The Yuki Season, which, for as much as I love Yuki, did end up being a bit annoying and made his development feel less natural and gradual, as well as the fact it sidelined the other characters a little and left them with not much conclusion in its final. So this added to how much they ended up cutting in season 3, it makes the show as a whole feels really unequal. I think they did overall a good job in season 3 with what they had, and they really nailed some of the dramatic and Kyoru moments (the sheets scene, cliff confrontation and post-hospital confession were practically perfect), but it is a shame that it ended up as an extremely marathoned emotional roller-caster rather than a more well-paced watch that we would’ve had if it had been 20 or so episodes. (I know others argued that season 3 was what it was because there wasn’t enough content left to cover for 22 or 24 episodes, but I disagree and even if there weren’t, it would’ve been the perfect occasion to add original episodes then. But I think it was more of a budget and Covid issue personally.)

But anyway, all of this isn’t actually what I’m the most annoyed with (and YES that’s a already a lot lmao), those are stuff I can live with, but like I said earlier the most problematic is what they cut off from Tohru’s character. And that indeed includes her parents’ backstory.

So, just so I get this out of the way; yes, I do understand why people were relieved to not see Kyoko and Katsuya’s relationship play out on screen, and yes the age gap and teacher-student thing is creepy and I do kind of wish it hadn’t been written that way. (Though I was a bit amused by people who thought we didn’t get the backstory because of the questionable age gap when, uh... you know I very much doubt the anime industry has an issue with that. Like, to start with, we wouldn’t have had Uo and Kureno’s romance if that was the case (even if Uo and Kureno is less problematic, it’s still the same basis of a underage high school girl/20+ adult man relationship), and second there was a literal romcom anime about a high school girl and an adult man that was broadcasted at the same time as Furuba season 3 lmao. So nah, it wasn’t there the problem to them, it was just time and episode restriction, which was pretty much confirmed with the announcement of the OAV focused on them.)

So, Kyoko and Katsuya is definitely Problematic and I agree on their relationship being uncomfortable; however, I’m a bit baffled that people were literally cheering on not having that part in the show, because it is... it is not just like a small bit of family trivia, it is Extremely important and actively essential to Tohru’s character and Fruits Basket’s themes and narrative as a whole. It’s very important to understand Kyoko’s character, of course; to humanize her and finally present her as a very flawed person and not just the idealized mother that Tohru project upon her, and it is extremely important simply to understand Tohru herself as well; to understand where her way of thinking, her trauma and attitude stems from, and this in a way that just isn’t possible to see with the little fragments of that flashback we got or the bits of Kyo and Kyoko’s interactions.

See, Tohru’s character is principally constructed around two things; her grief over her mother and her almost-pathological selflesness and people-pleaser needs that comes from her abandonment issues and loneliness, and her arc is very much about letting go of both of these things and finally moving forward and letting her life change. There’s this perception of Tohru I see sometimes that she’s not a very interesting character especially compared to others like Yuki or Kyo, or that she ‘‘stays the same kindhearted, naive girl from start to finish,’’ and while I deeply disagree with this I know where it comes from. The thing with Tohru is that she is firstly an extremely emotionally repressed character, and so a lot of her depth and development is made through small, gradual details scattered throughout the manga. It’s done in such a way that except for some obvious scenes those small, apparently insignificant moments are easy to miss or disregarded, and unfortunately it is a lot of these details that the 2019 anime cut, or rearanged in a way that feel less impactful or makes less sense; such as, like I pointed out earlier, her conversation with Ritsu after his suicide attempt. As I’ve seen others point out, this result in altering Tohru’s portrayal and rendering her character mostly about her romance, undercutting and downplaying all of her small, subtle character moments and developments, and miss a bit the second part of the story where the narrative actively challenge the ‘savior/therapist/mom’ that other characters and Tohru herself projected upon her.

And as a result it also means undermining things like her parallel and relationship to Akito, which idealistically should’ve been slowly built up throughout the last season but because of how rushed season 3 was in the end felt a little flat. (Akito’s character in general had some issues also because of the unequal pacing and rearranged scenes, though admittedly I think this was also an issue present in the original manga.) Kyo’s character and his romance with Tohru is the one element that managed to get out of this mostly unscathed (although Kyo also does suffer a bit from it), but because of what was removed from Tohru’s character it still inevitably impacted them by making their characters as individuals lacking. It’s not like it is a complete failure, mind you; I think the anime at least did a decent job at showing Tohru is Not Okay even at the beginning in season 1 (they certainly did a better job at it than the 2001 one lol) and managed to roughly portray her issues well enough overall, but it is just… lacking in the subtlety and nuances that, to me, makes her character and writing really special and unique.

(This post explains what I’ve tried to say here in a much more eloquent and better way that I ever could, and this all put into perspective what I basically love so much about Tohru and Fruits Basket in general.)

And, you know, it would’ve been sad but comprehensible with any other character, but here we’re talking about the story’s literal protagonist, which is why it is the part of the adaptation that makes me feel the most bitter. Tohru and her story is truly amazing and well-written, the thing I was looking forward to the most with this reboot — and while I do understand the episode restriction and I do believe they still did their best with what they had — her arc still deserved to receive a full proper adaptation, not a kind-of-half one.

So, yes, I am at least glad they’ll adapt Kyoko and Katsuya’s story in OAV, but the fact that it will never be included in the actual main narrative is still actively detrimental to it, and it will never have the same effect that if it had been played out before the Kyoru sheets scene where it should’ve been. (I hope they also won’t cut the fact that their story is narrated by Kyo, because that is also a very important detail for both Kyo and the story, but I have the feeling they will…)

Welp, that was quite a long, messy rambling. Not sure if anyone will actually read all of it but if you did then congrats lol. I feel in the end I’ve been really harsh and negative with the reboot… I do love it a lot! If someone asked me I would wholeheartedly recommend it (though I guess I would still argue to read the manga first if you really want to experience the story in all its nuances). I think they truly did an impressive job — even with season 3, which a lot of its episodes were beautifully done and did make me tear up a few times lol. I’m just sad it couldn’t actually offer a better, more nuanced delivery of the story’s depths and of one of my favorite manga protagonists that means a lot to me. But that’s an adaptation that so many fans wanted for years and I’m happy and grateful it’s here cause Fruits Basket deserved at least that much!

[beneaththetangles]

Reader’s Corner: Mint Chocolate, One Piece, and The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 1 (Manga)

If you’re not familiar with this series either in its light novel or anime form, it pretty much is the epitome of the wish-fulfillment isekai with an overpowered MC and a harem of girls. Pretty much everything that can be said of the first light novel volume/first few anime episodes, good or bad, applies to the manga. The protagonist is fairly bland, his overpoweredness is rather ridiculous and pretty much removes all drama, and the titular smartphone isn’t even used that much here, with Touya solving more problems with his ability to use every kind of magic. Still, given that the story doesn’t even try to pretend like it wants to be anything serious, there is still some fun to be had with silly moments and the general feel of enjoying life in another world. As for the manga adaptation, overall it is plenty good with simple but cute art that makes good use of facial expressions, and in my opinion looks better than the anime. Although for some reason, they spelled Linze’s name as “Rinze”, in yet another case of L and R being too similar in Japanese… ~ stardf29

The In Another World With My Smartphone manga is published by Yen Press.*

The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya (Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 7)

Time travel is complicated. Part of what draws fans to the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise is the intelligence and sense with which the franchise approaches time travel, among other science fiction elements, and in volume seven of the light novel series, it’s that device that takes center stage. The longest volume to this point, The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya launches its central story in an unusual way, with Mikuru arriving in the Literary Club’s broom closet saying that she was sent from a mere eight days in the future forcefully by the one receiving her, a very confused Kyon. What ensues is one fixed story, a la Disappearance, in which the SOS Brigade and a number of side characters continue to lovingly receive the author’s expert hand in developing their growth as characters, not only personally but in revealing more of their purposes in being where they are and doing what they do. The stakes continue to be pushed higher, with some unexpected excitement and special appearances, along with the author’s crafty weaving of intricate and riddly plot points together. Another successful volume, as the time gets nearer to the physical release date of the long-awaited new novel. ~ twwk

The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya is published by Yen Press.*

Mint Chocolate, Vol. 2

First of all, that cliffhanger in the last volume turned out to be a whole lot of nothing, so thanks for that. Putting that aside, this volume confirms that Kyouhei does indeed carry emotional scars from his mom’s divorce—not just from her infidelity, but also from how she had never particularly been a good wife or mother. This naturally puts some extra stress on the romance that is developing between the stepsiblings. The volume is otherwise mainly a lot of fairly typical shoujo romcom stuff, though overall, I’m still enjoying this series. Even beyond the whole intrigue of the “understandable stepsibling incest” concept, this is a story about overcoming the fear of romance that comes from a broken family, and that I can definitely appreciate. ~ stardf29

Mint Chocolate is published by Yen Press.*

One Piece, Vol. 49

I am getting close to the half-way point in my readthrough of One Piece! I recently finished volume 49, which finishes up the “Thriller Bark” arc and introduces to Brook, the skeleton musician. Thieve chapters have BIG Tim Burton vibes, and I found myself having a Danny Elfman-inspired soundtrack playing in my head as I read through it—zombies, the dead rising, stitched-together monsters, human spirits being separated from their body, and the villainous Moria at the center of it all. In addition to atmosphere, the volume provides action and some beautiful moments as the found family that are the Straw Hats unite for some amazing passages, one of the most interesting of which is when hundreds of shadows are imbued into Luffy giving him the power of 100 people and all of their battle skills. This turns him into the huge, blue Luffy monster seen on the cover. The new characters, development of old ones, and a stronger feeling of camraderie among the Straw Hats Mark volume 49, which for me, makes a successful volume. Still loving it. ~ MDMRN

One Piece is published by Viz Media, with the newest chapters simulpublished via their Shonen Jump imprint.

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, As I Expected, Vol. 4 (Manga)

Volume four of Oregairu takes an unexpected turn, diving into a pair of side stories from the light novel series that were never animated, both of which involve fan favorite Zaimokuza as he gathers help from the service club to save face with a gaming club and then when he participates in a judo tournament that Hachiman and company organize. Thus, these chapters have a heavy “club anime” feel that’s largely lacking in the anime, and which is a welcome respite for the manga, which has thus far featured a more joyful tone than the other properties. However, most distinctive in this volume is the artwork, as Naomichi Io’s detailing, particularly, has progressed considerably. Hachiman looks far better in this volume as compared to the initial one (and Zaimokuza, too), even getting a scene of fanservice (one of the best panels in the series so far, with Yui blushing as she sees Hachiman stripped down to his boxer briefs). Meanwhile, the color panels that begin the volume are equally lovely, as are some fantasy-focused panels distributed throughout. Fans of Oregairu will find the volume worth purchasing just for these pieces, and perhaps also for the first appearance of a certain character who will play a major role throughout the rest of the series (Senpaiiiiiiii). ~ Twwk

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, As I Expected is published by Yen Press.*

Your Lie in April, Vol. 9

As I continue my reread of Your Lie in April through the month of April, I’m nearing the home stretch. Volume 9 is a heavier volume than it appears at first glance. At this point, Kousei is teaching Nagi Aiza, who is the younger sister of Kousei’s rival, Takeshi Aiza. Well, sort of. Takeshi sees Kousei as his rival; however, Kousei doesn’t see it as a rivalry because as a child, he didn’t even notice anything (much less anyone) around him when he performed. A lot of other plot threads progress here, too, but a huge component of this volume is a specific focus on Nagi. She was arrogant, angry, and motivated by jealousy. Yet, by the end of the volume, she grows to respect and appreciate Kousei, music, and herself a whole lot more. That last one is key because Nagi had internalized and begun to believe the personal attacks that were said about her by her fellow students. Kousei helped her see herself as something more, as a unique individual and as a fellow traveler in the realm of music. I really appreciated this volume and the character development given to everyone. Also, everyone needs a friend like Watari. ~ MDMRN

Your Lie in April is published by Kodansha.

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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

[hapuriainen]

Hapuriainen's Animation & Comics & Games of 2020

It is again time for the annual compilation!

Manga:

Attack on Titan

I'm so sad this is so close to end... It's been my main thing for a few years now. Eren definitely didn't take the route I expected but I still find this consistent with his character and a bold and interesting move from the author.

(My notes say I also finished the jr high spin-off manga but it's not worth talking about)

Awards given: Best Side Girl (I still like Gabi, haters gonna hate), Best Boy (ditto Eren)

One Piece, My Hero Academia My interest in OP is still at an all-time low and I'm just waiting for the arc to end. There are so many characters and I have little idea what their deal is, Carrot hasn't been interesting in ages and currently Yamato is the only character I care for. Same for HeroAca; at least the excruciatingly long action scene is finally over.

Undead Unluck New Jump series! I think the main duo have a really good dynamic, but they're pretty much the only thing I care about and I'm very lost with what the plot is actually supposed to be about.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

I like detective stories so here's one from the Assassination Classroom creator! The detective stuff itself could get rather nonsensical and as the story progressed more and more fantasy elements were added, but the titular character was entertaining enough to keep me interested. The viewpoint character was refreshingly (for a Jump series) a girl and her dynamic with Neuro (an ordinary schoolgirl and an arrogant amoral troll demon) was great.

Awards given: Best non-romantic relationship (Neuro & Yako)

Spy x Family

Super fun and the characters are cute!  The main couple has such great chemistry and in general I enjoy following characters who are really competent at their job. Not surprised that this has become hugely popular.

Awards given: Best romance (it is rare to get me to ship anything but the main couple here is just so cute)

Delicious in Dungeon

This manga has amazing character design and the author clearly loves to play around with it, like by drawing each character as each other's races, or making clones of everyone but each clone is a little different so you can guess which is the real one with the characters, and there's so much thought put to the outfits too. And then there's of course all the worldbuilding around how an RPG dungeon and the creatures in it could work, but it's presented simply enough that the story is still easy to follow. I also like the upbeat atmosphere; maybe I could get a bit more emotionally involved if there was more drama, but I still really like this as it is.

Awards given: Best character designs

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Reread one of my favourite manga ever and it's still just as good. I love how the manga still has a positive vibe to it, under it there is the quiet melancholy of a world that is close to ending. And it's wonderful how uninterested the story is answering any of the worldbuilding questions it sets up.

Beastars

This was incredibly interesting in how it presented an animal society where the carnivore-herbivore differences couldn't be just explained away with "the differences don't really exist", and the story looks at this from so many different angles. Pairs really well with Zootopia for a completely different approach. Louis was a really interesting character with how he publicly managed to appear as if he was a good candidate to be the next ambassador for the peace between the animals but was actually very cold and broken inside, and I really liked his breakdown moment. The ending was pretty meh though.

Awards given: Best Side Boy (Louis)

Kannagi

This one has really cute character designs but apart from that it's a pretty generic harem story. Except for the twist that the main girl already had been involved with a boy which caused otaku to shred their manga or whatever. I believe I would have enjoyed this more if it finished back when it went to hiatus since at this point it didn't do much for me.

Witch Hat Atelier

The main girl is the kind of heroic, friendly, plucky goody-two-shoes protagonist I really don't like but apart from that this is a great manga. I love the art, and the way the magic works is really well set up but also easy to understand. Great outfits too!

Anime:

This year I learned that in order to clear stuff from your anime watch list you need to actually watch anime. So unexpectedly I think I watched a lot more different series than usual.

Attack on Titan

It was my plan to watch seasons 1-3 before jumping on board with the last one, and of course I dragged my feet for the entire year and had to marathon the whole thing in autumn. I still prefer the manga, but the anime does have great colours, soundtrack and voice acting and some of the action scenes were amazing. But I really hate what they did to Historia in season 3... The final season has been excellent so far and I can't wait for the big scene in the next episode.

Awards given: Best OP (all the Linked Horizon ones)

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi continues to be one of the best girls in the anime and manga industry ever with her confident and no-nonsense attitude, and Tamaki's oblivious and overflowing friendliness makes for a great counterpart to her. And the opening theme is so darn catchy.

Awards given: Best Girl (Haruhi)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Finally managed to watch this. I love the iconic character designs and all the chaotic energy. Kamina for best bro. I've never cared for mecha, the girls were nice but the writing around them sucked and the second half wasn't as strong as the first one, but still a good package overall.

Awards given: Best ED (don't care for the song that much but Simon looks somehow really cool in the second ending)

Haibane Renmei

Another one that had been on the watch list for years. A lovely quiet and contemplative show. Visuals were rather dull though but maybe it's better for a show like this that the characters didn't have bubblegum pink hair.

Digimon Adventure 2020

This started promising but has since lost steam. I really like how different the story is from the original Digimon Adventure, and compared to Precure it's super nice how not every episode has the exact same structure, and the cast has different roles and regularly gets split up instead of shoehorning everyone into every conflict. But on the other hand the characters feel way more samey and flat, and the original "kids want to return to their home from the Digital World" plot was a lot more personal than the current one about global crises and prophecy jargon. And some of the action scenes last way too long.

Awards given: Worst side boy (Agumon and his evolutions, it is of course expected that he'd get a lot of screen time but I'm so over how much he's constantly pushed in your face in the franchise)

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?

This wasn't afwul but still left me kind of cold. I think the character designs were a problem here, in general I'm used to brightly coloured anime characters but this was trying to be a very serious story about child soldiers who know they're going to die young. But when they were colour-coded and always wore the same clothes (and mostly had pretty generic animu girl personalities) they felt so artificial which made it harder to get into the drama. Nice OP song.

Yashahime

Inuyasha was my first show after really getting into anime so I was super hyped for any kind of new content. So far this has unfortunately been rather dull since I'm not particularly interested in either of Sesshoumaru's daughters, and the way the show treats the absence of the old cast is annoying. Just either show them or make it clear we're not supposed to care about them, now it's just annoying how their disappearance is treated as a mystery but the three heroines know barely anything about their heritage and don't even seem interested in learning either. But I'll watch this to the end for Moroha.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels, Twin Angel Break, Pretear, Happy Seven, Healin' Good Precure

Watched a lot of magical girl stuff this year too, these being shows that play the tropes straight. The Twin Angel seasons had different flaws but were otherwise watchable aside from the awful Twin Angel Break heroine. Pretear had surprisingly nice character writing and I feel I would really have liked this if I saw it at an earlier part of my anime hobby experience but now it doesn't feel so special any more. Healin' Good Precure has been rather dull.

I also watched a bunch of Precure movies, out of which only the Star Twinkle Precure one was actually good, and the Spring Carnival crossover movie was also good in an absurd way, while the rest ranged from awful to somewhat decent.

Awards given: Worst girl (Meguru - Twin Angel Break), Biggest WTF (Happy Seven suddenly going from monster of the week shenaningans to alien mass destruction weapons)

Concrete Revolutio, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Re:Creators

Also some anime where the magical girl was a side character. Concrete Revolutio was an unpleasant mess with nice visuals, Myriad Colors was a pretty boring otaku high school harem thing and the magical girl episode was also rather bland, and Re:Creators had a lot of potential with the "anime characters come to our world" setting but the result was somewhat uneven. Re:Creators had the best magical girl out of these three.

Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship, Worst side girl (Setsuna from Re:creators, with the main boy) not really an awful character on her own, but the writing around her was pretty bad, let's also give Worst Boy for the said main boy

Nausicaa

I watched the first half of the movie over a decade ago and didn't manage to finish until now. After seeing so many other Ghibli movies this didn't do much for me, but the animation and nature were still beautiful.

Western:

Most Popular Girls in School

The newer seasons didn't reach the heights of the earlier ones but there's still something entertaining about a very raunchy Barbie doll stop motion show. Also pairs well with the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse for a fun but more child friendly Barbie experience.

Frozen 2

I'm wondering if these really are the only Western piece of media I consumed this year? I certainly didn't go to movies after March. Anyway, like the previous film I had major problems with the plot and characters (I don't think Elsa's story was set up properly, Kristoff's sub-plot feels like an afterthought when he doesn't factor to Anna's sub-plot at all, Olaf is annoying, too much Lore) but ultimately I still had a good time. I like the costume design, the idea for Elsa's arc is fine, the songs are great and there were plenty of good scenes too, and the lullaby was beautiful. I'd say that like the original Frozen this was patched together from perfectly serviceable pieces that didn't quite work combined.

Awards given: Worst romance (not the pairing itself but the way Kristoff x Anna was written)

Games:

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Early this year I just decided not to open this app for the daily money-grubbing grind and haven't touched it since. I'm free!

Animal Crossing New Horizons

However the daily grind continues here! It's been way more enjoyable, primarily due to lacking the microtransactions/limited time item angle and also for being so much more customisable. And the nature is so pretty... But I've reached a point where even this has started to feel kind of stale.

Super Mario Odyssey

My first Mario game since Super Mario World so of course I'm blown away by everything. I like how colourful and welcoming the worlds were, Cappy was a surprisingly enjoyable sidekick/mascot and also the game was easy enough and had a simple linear plot so it was far easier to approach than Zelda BotW which is still on hold.

Plans for 2021

Actually play Zelda BotW

Maybe finally Evangelion?

Finally finish the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure tri

Various magical girl sequels and remakes

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep1-6

It took me way longer than I expected to get around to writing this, and now we’re like one day away from ep7 coming out so that’s a bit awkward, but better late than never, lol.

Anyway I’ve slipped back into full-on When They Cry brainworms mode because of this new series, and I have a whole lot to say about it. 

One thing I wanna say before I put the rest of this post under a cut, though, is that I think Gou should be approached as a remake/retelling first, and a sequel second. That might change later on, but I think Ryukishi and the director really meant it when they said that they wanted this to be accessible to new fans.

Since we’ve already gone through one and a half full arcs, I guess I’ll just start off with my overall thoughts on the series, and how I think it’ll go in the long run, before I get into the specifics of what’s happened thus far.

Like I said above, I really do think that this was written from the ground up as a remake or retelling first and foremost, with the sequel aspects being more like background fanservice to give old fans something to chew on. In spite of the various changes and cuts they’ve made to the story thus far, they’ve been very faithful about replicating the overall experience and vibe of the VN in a way that works well in an anime format.

For one thing, I think this is basically the reason why Rika seems to be weirdly hands-off about everything in this series, instead of actively interfering with everything going on and telling everyone about what’s going on. I get why it frustrates people, but I think it really just boils down to how Gou is specifically trying not to spoil new fans on the story in advance, so they’re keeping Rika pretty much entirely as a background figure who doesn’t actually do much. I think it’s a good set-up, though, since instead of having Rika dominate the narrative in the same way as in Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi, Keiichi is still the ‘primary’ protagonist of Gou, who’s perspective aligns more with that of new fans, while Rika is a secondary protagonist of sorts, who old fans can see things from the perspective of because of what we all know about the story.

Which I think is actually pretty similar to the VN, since if you go back and reread it, you end up seeing things more from Rika’s point of view, even though she’s more of a background figure for most of the story.

I know there’s the whole scene from the start of ep2 where she’s talking to Hanyuu in the fragment world, but now that we’re further into this new series, I think that scene didn’t actually change a whole lot compared to the VN. It’s mostly just there to spell out that supernatural elements and time loops exist right from the start, instead of only revealing it later on. But in the long run it’s not really that important, so I can see why they decided to just get it out the way immediately. And they still intentionally side-stepped having Rika actually say anything explicit about who the mastermind is, or what the rules of Hinamizawa are, so new fans are still mostly in the dark about what’s actually going on.

Anyway, I’ve been kinda surprised by the sort of pacing and structure Gou’s had thus far, especially since it’s ended up feeling more like a full on remake with mostly superficial differences from the source material. I was worried about how it might go when it became obvious that it’d probably only be 24 episodes, but at this point I think they know what they’re doing with this. And even though it seems to still be trying to cover the same plot beats as the VN, I honestly think that they can pull it off in just 24 episodes. As long as they’re willing to make some ambitious and controversial edits, at least.

I suppose it’s still possible we might get a second season later, and that it’ll end up playing out more like the pacing of the 2006 anime, but I doubt it. The fact that they intentionally combined different elements of Tsumihoroboshi into the Onidamashi arc makes me much more inclined to think that this is going to be a more compact retelling of the VN, with it all being condensed into just 24 episodes.

Going by how many BD/DVDs there are gonna be for Gou, and how they divide up the episodes, I think it’s safe to assume that this will be split into five arcs with 4, 4, 5, 4, and 7 episodes, respectively. Which gives us a better idea of how things will go later on. I think it’s at least safe to assume that they’re splitting up the arcs this way, since that seems like a very strange and lopsided way to split up the discs, and we’ve already seen that Onidamashi was four episodes, and Watadamashi will probably be the same, so it seems to line up thus far.

Basically I think that after this we’ll get a new version of Tatarigoroshi covering five episodes, and then the rest of the series will be made up of two ‘answer arcs’, which will probably be where Gou gets more into original story stuff, and/or more major plot editing. I know the 2006 anime covered the first two answer arcs in season one, and then basically spent the entirety of Kai on the last two answer arcs, but I’m leaning more towards assuming that they’re actually going to cover all the important answers in just these two arcs.

Which seems kinda hard to believe, and I’m still kinda wary about how it might pan out, but there’s a lot they can do to shorten the answer arcs. For one thing, I think everyone’s already guessed that Takano probably won’t be the main villain anymore in Gou, so if that means they can basically skip over all/most of her material from the VN, that’d already let them cut out a lot. 

And for one thing, it seems like Gou’s whole framing device with Rika is kinda already doing the same stuff as Minagoroshi, so I think that basically already makes most of that arc unnecessary for this series.

This is just my speculation at the moment, but I think that Gou’s ‘game board’ might be based on the timeline where Takano’s parents don’t die, and she doesn’t end up involved in the politics surrounding her grandfather’s research, which is I think how they’ll explain her not being the villain anymore. Even though she seems to be the same sort of person thus far in Gou, it’s entirely possible that in this version of events she’s just a regular nurse who has a bit of an obsession with Hinamizawa’s history, but isn’t actually part of any nefarious conspiracies. 

At the very least I think this is the ‘simplest’ theory for where Gou’s heading, since it’s just based on stuff that already happened in the VN.

I also don’t really think that there’s a ‘new villain’, so to say, even if Takano’s more or less out of the picture in this version. I think we’re gonna find out that Featherine and Bernkastel are responsible for throwing Rika back into the loop, but I think that’s a bit different to the idea of there being some entirely new villain or something causing problems.

Anyway, I think it might be a bit more clear if I go into my thoughts on what went down in Onidamashi, lol.

Basically I think that 90% of what happened in Onidamashi was just Rena being infected by the virus like in Tsumihoroboshi. Rika and Satoko’s deaths is a bit of a mystery, but the main thing is that I think Rena killed Tomitake and Takano on the night of the festival. I think it’ll be a bit more clear what’s going on when the next episode comes out and we see what happens to those two again in Watadamashi, but I think it makes sense that Rena killed them in Onidamashi. I think she’d already killed Rina and Teppei before the story even started, and she seemed immediately suspicious of Tomitake when she first saw him and Keiichi joked about how he might be a spy, so I think she ended up killing him and Takano out of fear that they were gonna find out about the murders she did. Also there’s the whole scene where she was ominously watching them on the night of the festival, so there’s that, lol.

And on the note of Rena’s paranoia in that arc, it’s worth noting that the bit where she accuses Keiichi of hiding stuff from her at the dump site is [I think] entirely new, and seems to heavily imply that she was paranoid about the idea that he might have found out about the murders she did. So it makes sense to me that she might have had similar fears about Tomitake. It’s also probably the main reason why she ended up trying to kill Keiichi at the end of the arc, since he’s the other person who she would have been afraid might rat her out to the police.

I think there was also some element of her believing in the idea of Oyashiro-sama’s Curse, and going along with the expected patterns of that, but mostly I think she was concerned about protecting herself and her father.

I’m also assuming that at some point we’ll find out that Keiichi hallucinated the second half of their fight, and that what probably happened was that Rena got knocked unconscious when she hit the table, and Keiichi then went over the edge into full-blown virus paranoia and started attacking her, while hallucinating that she’d woken back up and started stabbing him.

On the other hand, I’m leaning towards assuming that she wasn’t actually involved with Rika and Satoko’s deaths, since there wouldn’t have been any real motive for that. With Keiichi, Tomitake, and by extension Takano, she had clear reasons to be suspicious of them and to want to get rid of them, but there’s no real reason she would have suspected Rika or Satoko. I think they also got killed in their house, so she would have had to really go out of her way to kill them, which seems unlikely. It’s also worth noting that Rika was convinced the whole time that she was back in the Onikakushi route, which is made more explicit in the manga version of Gou where the scene with her and Hanyuu happens after the end of the arc. For one thing she reveals that she was murdered by someone [but she doesn’t remember who], so we can at least rule out the idea that Rika killed Satoko and then herself, but it also indicates that Rika was assuming the whole time that Rena was totally innocent, which is why she told Keiichi to trust her. So I think there’s no real chance that she confronted Rena about her murders and then got killed by her.

So basically I think their deaths are completely unrelated to the other stuff going on in the arc. Which is why I don’t really have any super confident theories about them, lol. My best guess is that, unless there’s some entirely new and unpredictable stuff going on, maybe Shion was off in the background dealing with her own version of the virus. So maybe like how the Tsumihoroboshi scenario seemed to be going on in the background, it’s possible that the Meakashi scenario was happening too. Which would at least be a fairly understandable explanation for why Rika and Satoko would wind up mysteriously dead.

I’ve seen people also raise the theory that maybe Shion also killed Mion, and that it was her disguised as Mion talking to Keiichi at the hospital at the end of the arc, but I’m not entirely sure about that. It’d be a neat twist, though, and in a way it’d help address one issue I’ve always had with the VN, in that Shion seemed to be 100% completely irrelevant to the events of Onikakushi. 

I’m also very curious about the scene where Keiichi goes to the Irie Clinic and finds that it’s being remodeled. Which seems to imply that they were basically packing up shop and abandoning the village. I imagine it’s a response to Tomitake and Takano dying, but it might still be consistent with my theory of Takano not being very important this time around. Even if she’s not involved in all that anymore, it’s possible that just means that Tomitake still is, so maybe it was his death specifically that caused the rest of the team to stop their mission and leave the village.

Either way, I think it goes to show that either Tomitake and Takano both actually died this time around, or they were at least taken out of commission in some way or another. Even when Tomitake dies in each arc, the clinic still continues it’s operations since Takano never actually died.

It makes me wonder if the Great Hinamizawa Disaster would even happen in a version of events where Takano isn’t in charge of things. Unless we’re meant to think that it happened off-screen while Keiichi was in the hospital, it’s odd to think that they’d just pack up and leave before doing it.

Keiichi probably got more or less assassinated by that random nurse at the end of the arc, though, so I think the people from Tokyo in general are still around, and are still at least somewhat aware of the virus. I’m not sure how that might impact things with the GHD, though.

Anyway, I’ve got less thoughts and predictions related to Watadamashi since it’s only halfway done at this point, and is a lot closer to the VN than the last arc was, so I’ll just go over them quickly.

In general I really do think that the arc’s been 1:1 with the Watanagashi arc thus far, aside from Keiichi giving the doll to Mion, which I don’t even think is that important. After ep5 I was wondering if maybe they were going to avoid showing Mion and Shion together until the very end of the arc, but then they immediately went into that in ep6, lol. It looks like they’re trying to make it a bit more obvious what’s going on with the whole Mion and Shion thing in general this time around, though, which I think is a good choice. I think it’s still the same as it was in the VN, but my current understanding of the timeline here is that Mion was pretending to be Shion, and we only first see Shion herself when she invites Keiichi to the cafe in ep6. And I think for the rest of the episode they were just being themselves.

There also seems to be a subtle difference in how Mion and Shion’s eyes are drawn in this version, as a hint to who’s who in each scene, so that’s neat. They’re similar enough that it’s kinda hard to be sure sometimes, but still.

Going by the ep7 preview images, I think the arc will continue following the same path as Watanagashi, with us seeing the group breaking into the Saiguden and talking about Hinamizawa’s history. Though one thing that’s really interesting is that in one of the preview images, Takano seems to be holding a folder of some kind inside the Saiguden, which makes me wonder it’s the same folder of documents she gave to Rena in Tsumihoroboshi, and that she’s gonna talk to Keiichi and Mion about her theory with the virus. That’d at least be one way to bring certain plot points up earlier, and it’d be another way to let them skip Tsumihoroboshi.

Since Watadamashi seems like it should be four episodes, but has also been going notably slower than the 2006 adaptation of Watanagashi, I think it’s safe to assume that like with Onidamashi, it’ll have a more abrupt ending than the VN, and skip over some stuff. There’s already several scenes from the PVs that seem to be from the whole torture basement part of Watanagashi, so what I think will happen is that Rika will just preemptively avoid getting herself and Satoko killed by Shion, and the story will just go more immediately from Shion killing the other family head people to Keiichi and Rena interrogating her. Assuming that the arc as a whole continues going in the same direction as Watanagashi, at least. And I can’t really imagine Rika letting herself and Satoko get killed yet again like this, so it’d make sense to just cut out that part. Also, if I’m right about my guess that Shion killed the two of them in Onidamashi, that’d be another excuse to skip that part in this arc, and that way they’d just be moving it to a different arc instead of outright skipping it.

After how Onidamashi went, it’s hard not to assume that this arc will diverge heavily from Watanagashi at the end, but honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being more or less the same. I think Shion would have basically the same motives for everything even in this version of events where Mion got the doll. And if I’m also right about the idea that Takano might talk to them about the virus theory in the next episode, maybe that’d push Shion over the edge for basically the same reasons as Rena in Tsumihoroboshi. At the very least I’d prefer them to keep Shion as the villain instead of making Mion the villain just for shock value, since it’s an important part of Mion’s character that she doesn’t ever do that.

I think the only way I could see it working is if Mion does the murdering in this arc not because of paranoia or the virus, but just because of her family obligations. Like, maybe she finds out about the Saiguden break-in, and ends up being obligated to kill the four of them as punishment for it. I still think that might be kinda contrived, but it’d be better than making her get the virus for the first time in the whole franchise.

I’m also still really curious to see if they’re going to talk about Satoshi at all in this arc, since they haven’t really talked about him at all thus far in Gou, which has been one of the more notable cuts. They did still show that one shot of him killing his aunt when Oishi was explaining how the past incidents went, so I don’t think he’s been completely written out of the story, but they’re being a lot more evasive about him than in the VN. At the very least, like with how the last arc contained references to Tsumihoroboshi, I wonder if this arc will reference Shion’s whole relationship with Satoshi, or if that’ll only be revealed later.

Also, since Onidamashi’s ending felt pretty similar to Watanagashi’s ending, I think the very end of this arc will go in a different direction to shake things up. I dunno what to expect from that, but maybe it’ll play out more like Tatarigoroshi, and Keiichi will leave the torture basement only to find out that the GHD’s happened.

Anyway, that aside, I wanna go back over why I think that they’re basically cutting Tsumihoroboshi out of the story, and moving different parts of it to other arcs. Like I said, I think the whole scenario with her killing Rina and Teppei was going on in the background in Onidamashi, but there’s also multiple instances of them reusing quotes from Tsumihoroboshi in that arc. The main one is that, when she’s venting out her paranoia to Keiichi, she says part of her monologue about ‘trying really hard’, which in the VN was from when she was explaining her motives for killing Rina and Teppei when she confessed to her friends. I don’t think there’s any major twists or subversion there. I think that was straight up just her alluding to the murders she’d done, even if Keiichi didn’t know what she meant this time around. The manga version of this scene is also a fair bit longer, and contains much more of the Tsumihoroboshi monologue, which makes it even more obvious.

Along the same lines, the manga version of the fight between Keiichi and Rena in this arc also used Keiichi’s internal monologue from the rooftop battle between them in Tsumihoroboshi, so that’s another example of them reusing stuff from that arc in Onidamashi. It’s not quite as obvious in the anime since they don’t really have any internal monologues at all, but the manga makes it very obvious.

And like I said above, it’s possible that the next episode of Watadamashi will also reuse elements of Tsumihoroboshi by having Shion find out about the virus from Takano and get paranoid about it.

Also there’s the whole fact that Keiichi was having flashbacks to Onikakushi throughout the last arc, which is also what basically happened in Tsumihoroboshi.

So basically there’s just a whole list of reasons why I think they’ve decided to skip that arc in Gou and spread out the important bits of it to other arcs, which is a major reason why I think they’re going to try and cover the whole story in just 24 episodes.

If they skip Tsumihoroboshi entirely, and cut out huge portions of Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi depending on how they handle Takano, then I think it’d actually be pretty easy to just cover the remaining parts of the answer arcs in just two arcs across 11 episodes.

Considering that they haven’t really referenced Meakashi at all thus far, unlike how Onidamashi was blatantly a mash-up of Onikakushi and Tsumihoroboshi from start to finish, I think they’re going to basically have Meakashi just be the fourth arc in Gou, and be kept mostly intact. But going by how it’ll probably be four episodes long, compared to being six episodes long in the 2006 anime, I think it’ll focus mainly on the flashback stuff, and the present-day part of the arc will be changed so it’s shorter and doesn’t feel like a repeat of Watadamashi.

In general I think a lot of the changes and edits they’re making are being done to avoid unnecessary repetition between the different arcs, so yeah, if they do a Meakashi arc, I think they’ll try and make it a bit more unique.

After that, I think the final 7-episode arc will effectively be Gou’s version of Matsuribayashi, but that’s probably be where it gets more into it’s original plot points and stuff.

I get why lots of people would be worried about them condensing the answer arcs that much, but I think it could work just fine, and if anything it might end up just feeling less back-loaded and slow than it was in the VN.

I think the overall structure of the last arc will probably be fairly similar to Matsuribayashi, though, with us probably revisiting the earlier fragments and seeing what was going on in the background. Which would probably be where we’d get reveals for stuff like what happened to Rika and Satoko in Onidamashi, and whether or not Keiichi hallucinated any of his fight with Rena.

Also, I agree with basically everyone who thinks that Featherine is gonna end up being part of Gou’s story [since she literally shows up in the OP, lol]. And probably Bernkastel as well, by extension. I’m not sure exactly how that’ll play out, especially since in Umineko, Featherine was more of a passive observer than anything else, but still, the idea of them being directly involved in Gou’s story is extremely interesting to me. Mainly just because it makes me wonder if maybe they’re setting up for an Umineko remake, since it’d feel kinda weird to bring up Featherine if they aren’t.

I’m kinda worried that Featherine coming into play would alienate pretty much everyone on both sides of the fandom, since it might seem confusing to new fans, and irritating to old fans who don’t want Higurashi and Umineko stuff to get merged together to that extent. So I hope they pull it off well.

At the very least, I think Bernkastel would work fine if they make her into a major part of Gou’s story. She’s technically the one who created the timeline where Takano’s parents survived, if they follow up on that here, and also she’s literally Rika, so it’d probably be pretty easy for new fans to understand their connection and any emotional stakes involved in them getting into conflict with each other.

I’m not really sure at all exactly what their motives might be for throwing Rika back into the loop, but that’ll probably be the core of what Gou’s endgame is about.

One thing that’s interesting, though, is that Rika was a teenager when she died and woke up in the fragment world with Hanyuu, and I think Ryukishi’s implied that we’ll find out more about that later on. So I think the circumstances behind her death as a teenager will also be a big deal.

Going by how she was apparently wearing the same uniform as Shion, it makes me wonder if maybe she got bullied into suicide, or if maybe Satoko did, and Rika fell into despair afterward and killed herself. Which kinda makes me wonder if maybe part of the whole story and message this time around will be about Rika struggling to come to terms with actually moving on with her life after leaving the loop. Maybe for a variety of reasons she just isn’t able to cope with it, and without really realizing it she just wants to return to the time loop where she at least got to hang out with her friends in a comfortable, familiar environment. But who knows, lol.

If Featherine does end up being important here, I hope they make her connection to Hanyuu a bit more clear, since that’s always been a bit vague. It’d also make me wonder if they’ll also elaborate on Lambdadelta and her whole history with Bernkastel, but I really can’t imagine how they’d have her show up without her completely clashing with Higurashi’s whole aesthetic and tone.

Anyway, I could probably make a whole separate post about my feelings on a theoretical Umineko anime remake and what I’d want and expect from that.

Also, before I forget, my current prediction for the next arc in Gou is that it’ll basically just be Tatarigoroshi, but this time around they’ll mix in Onikakushi elements with Keiichi learning about all the stuff with Satoshi and becoming paranoid that the whole town’s out to get him. I also think they might move the part with Keiichi’s letter to the reader to the end of that arc. They included part of it in the PVs for Gou, so I assume they’ll include it some way or another, and I think it’d make a lot of sense to have it happen at the end of Gou’s version of the question arcs.

Oh, and I’m also expecting that Himatsubushi will get entirely cut out, since at least if we assume that Takano won’t be the obstacle this time around, there’s no real reason to include anything related to Akasaka, and they’ve already spelled out that Rika’s part of a time loop and knows what’s going on, so all of that foreshadowing from that arc would be kinda pointless here.

So yeah that’s basically all of my predictions, and my thoughts on the whole structure and plot of Gou thus far. But aside from all that, I’ve also just really been enjoying Gou in general. I get why a lot of people dislike how it’s been surprisingly similar to the VN, but I really like it. I think it’s doing a great job of preserving as much of the whole experience of reading the VN as possible, while repackaging it into a more condensed, cinematic format. Rather than being a very slow-burn, dread-filled thriller in the VN, Onidamashi felt more like a concise yet effective horror movie that built up to an abrupt, violent conclusion, so I think that was handled really well.

I’ve also really warmed up to the character designs over the last few weeks. At first they felt a bit too shiny and cute to me, but the more I see them, the more I think they work well, especially in the more serious moments. It’s going for a slightly different sort of vibe to basically any other iteration of the character designs in the franchise, but I like it.

Which also reminds me that my favourite version of the character designs might actually be the ones from the light novels, but that kinda feels like cheating since those are just used for covers and illustrations, lol. But I just really like the simple, atmospheric, painterly style that artist has. I’d love to see a version of the VN sprites done in their style, but that’ll probably happen.

And on the note of the LNs, they’ve recently gotten a new print run to celebrate Gou coming out, so I’ve decided to start importing them. I know I’m not even fluent in Japanese so I can’t even properly read them, but I’ve always loved the artwork for them, so I’ve been wanting to own them, but I think they were all out of print before Gou came out. Maybe they’ll eventually get released in English, but I don’t want to risk it. It’s a lot more likely that the Gou manga will get released in English sometime next year, so I’ll probably wait for that instead of importing it in Japanese.

[Also, I recently bought the VN on Steam since it’s on sale and the first arc is for free at the moment, so I’m gonna start rereading that soon to compare it more thoroughly to Gou]

Anyway, this got MUCH longer than I would have wanted it to be, but that’s what I get for waiting so long to start talking about this, lol.

[ryqoshay]

So I just finished reading all of How to Handle a Nico and I absolutely fucking loved it, do you have any NicoMaki fanfic recommendations of your own?

I must offer my apologies for the delay in response. I did not forget you, Anon, despite answering two questions that came in after this one. However, I wanted to wait until I knew I had a good amount of time I could dedicate to making a proper list of recommendations worthy of my time in the LL/NicoMaki fandom, which is typically sometime during my weekend.

Also, please bear in mind that this list is not all-inclusive. NicoMaki has one of, if not the most extensive list of fanworks out of the various LL ships. If someone reading this list is a fan of, or the author of a given work not included, please do not take it personally, this is merely a sampling of my favorites. There are genres and tags that I tend to avoid for various reasons, and there are many perfectly good works with the NicoMaki ship tag that I haven’t read simply because they are not the primary focus. And due to current events, as well as those of last year, there is a sizable backlog of NicoMaki focused fics that I hope to get around to reading sometime soon.

And as I expect this to get long, I will put the list itself under a cut.

First and foremost, I must shamelessly shill an author whose first forays into NicoMaki fanfic are based on HtHaN. It’s been almost a year since the first one went up and I remain in awe that I was able to pay forward the inspiration given to me by other authors. For this list I will only be including said works based on HtHaN, though VNVdarkangel has written some other NicoMakis I haven’t read yet.  - Always there - Nico wakes up in the middle of the night. Some post-canon fluffy angst.  - On tracks to the heart - Takes place during the scene transition in Homecoming.  - Meet ‘n’ greet - Nico has a meet ‘n’ greet event and Maki shows up  - Part-time idol composer - Nico hires Riko to compose some idol music for Egao. Minor YohaRiko to keep up the casual connections between HtHaN and HL.  - Next steps... - A long, multi-chapter work that takes place after the numbered chapters of HtHaN. This work tells the story of NicoMaki as they take advantage of the research mentioned way back in Telling Mama. Yay science babies!  - Out of focus - Maki can’t focus on anything but Nico  - The door to dreams - Riko finds the piano from How to Celebrate a Maki and Maki finds Riko. More minor YohaRiko from HL.  - Idol trainer - A non-NicoMaki, RinPana honorable mention tied to HtHaN

Next, I must link a few things from jstonedd, whose works I can point to as being among those that helped cement NicoMaki as a my favorite ship.  - Buy Your Love - By the gods, I’ve honestly lost track of how many times I’ve reread this fic. It is also responsible for my headcanon that Tsubasa teaches Honoka how to skate, which I thusly include in Nico on Ice.  - Soldier Wars - If memory serves, this work earns its M rating less for lewd stuff and more for action movie depictions of violence, like an R rated Charlie’s Angels or something.  - After School Troublemakers - Earns its tag of Fluff and Crack.  - Babies Maybe - More Fluff and Crack I only skimmed the first few chapters of Otonokizaka Private Academy and it didn’t seem very NicoMaki focused or really much my cup of tea. But I’ve heard others like it, and it was finally completed a few years back, so there’s that.

One author with whom I’ve interacted moreso than any other - maybe not VNVdarkangel as of late, but... - is the creator of one of my favorite Fantasy AUs, which is often a genre I don’t read much as it so often leans on Harry Potter, of which I’m quite unfamiliar. Of course I say I often avoid Fantasy AUs despite now writing two... Anyway, we have a few differing headcanons and I must say it’s fun to have a civil discussion about them - as opposed to others that become heated and dissolve into ad hominum attacks like the one marked by Comment Deleted tombstones in the comments of HtHaN. Anyway, that train of thought derailed, so here are some of lonelypond’s works. Worth mentioning that most works take place in the U.S. instead of Japan, something that confused me for a few chapters when I first started reading, but have come to enjoy it, especially when places are mentioned that I know.  - Casual Lunacy - The aforementioned Fantasy AU as well as my introduction to this wonderful writer. Pulls in a quirky character from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, an adorable anime I’ve been meaning to finish. Maki is a werewolf. And I really need to reread this one at some point.  - PhotoJazz - Maki is a photographer and Nico is an actress.  - AU Yeah August - A collection of short 1 Shots. I haven’t read all of them, e.g. the Harry Potter one, but those I have were adorable, e.g. Summer Camp, Fake Dating and FWB.  - Christmas Confections - A collection of amazing Christmas themed works that rank among my favorite gifts each year since I first started reading them. I’d link them each individually, but they’re all amazing so just read them all; you won’t be disappointed. Maki and Christmas just go together and lonelypond writes them well.  - Can’t Get Started - To quote the summary “Nishikino Maki is trying to make it in the piranha fishbowl of movies, music and Hollywood. Yazawa Nico already has. And they keep crashing into each other.” Literally. It’s quite amusing. I’ve heard good things from other readers about the 1Kiss series but have only skimmed a few; they are high on my To Read list. The Idol House series came out during my troubled 2019, so it also remains on my To Read list. The Moonlight series seems to focus on NozoEli, which is fine, but for better or worse lowers it position on my To Read list. It’s lonelypond, so I do intend to read it eventually, but there are more NicoMaki focused fics that I’d like to get to first.

Next up is Lucia Hunter, a case where I must separate author from work. To this day I remain uncertain as to the details of the issues between this author and the denizens of Sukutomo, but the animosity exists nonetheless. Still, the listed works below were part of my gateway drugs into the wonderful world of NicoMaki fanfics.  - The Diamond Princess’s Melancholy - How NicoMaki came together.  - Love marginal - My favorite portrayal of KotoHonoUmi. NicoMaki is a side pairing here, and remain so through the rest of the works, but they’re still worth reading, imho.  - Shiranai Love*Oshiete Love - RinPana focus but NicoMaki still plays their role.  - Garden of Glass - de de deee de de deee Obviously NozoEli focused.

My first encounter with Rinforzando was a T rated cute and fluffy fic but they’ve done some pretty good NSFW works as well.  - Ten Years - Always enjoy a good adult NicoMaki fic. - Limbo - NSFW FWB NicoMaki - Caprice - NSFW 2nd Person post-canon NicoMaki. I’m not typically a fan of 2nd Person perspective, but this one was worth it.  - Cheers for Loving You - NicoMaki Secret Santa.

Hidekins is another author that has written a lot of NicoMaki I’ve enjoyed, but on a quick scan through the AO3 entries, few are jogging my memory with title and description alone. Perhaps I’ve read more here on tumblr? Perhaps I’ll come back and add more if I remember them better later.  - NicoMakisses - A set of five cute short NicoMaki stories about kisses.

Saberin writes a lot of 3rd year stuff, and that’s fine, but the NicoMaki collection is worth checking out.  - Prickly Love - As of writing this list, there are 10 chapters of cuteness

whoneedsapublisher writes a lot and I enjoy the style. Thus, when I see NicoMaki pop up on the account, I try to read.  - Couples Therapy - One of my favorite Maki headcanons is included here. Not explicit but earns its M rating and thus is NSFW.  - Subtle - Not particularly crazy about the Nico-taller-than-Maki, but that’s a minor complaint compared to the rest of this wonderful work.  - At Least Six Confessions - Presequel to the above work. Poor Nico had her work cut out for her with a romantically dense Maki.  - Keep Your Promises - Ten years later...  - Happy New Year - Sometimes stalemates must be broken by someone.  - Hidden Depth - Nico’s voice changes. And Maki likes it  - Pretending to Pretend - Not explicit, but earns its M rating so NSFW. One of my favorite examples of the Fake Dating trope.  - Merry Christmas Maki - I can’t think of a better present.  - No Lies Allowed - Truth of Dare, NicoMaki style.  - All Dressed Up - Based on a wonderful pic by noelclover  - Santa’s Stand-in - Guess who still believes...  - Switcheroo - Always love the idea of the girls trying to behave like the others. Makes me want to rewatch that episode.  - Tick, Tock - Some introspective Maki  - Insensitive - NicoMaki dating issues  - Tomatoes - Maki’s favorite food I’ve heard good things about Dazzling Warrior Nightshade, so it’s on my To Read List, but I must admit I can be picky about my Magical Girls stuff. Madoka set an... interesting bar for the genre for me and in most cases I’d prefer to watch it as an anime or read it as a manga/doujin. Still, the idea of Nico being a magic girl amuses me greatly, thus why the fic remains on my radar.

And here are some other random works I’ve enjoyed over the years.  - Smile, Nico Nico! - In which Nico drags Maki to the dentist  - Billiards - NSFW 2nd Person. Yes, I know I just said I’m not typically a fan, but this one was also good.  - Piano For Beginners - NSFW AU where Maki is assigned to teach Nico how to play the piano so as to be convincing for a film.  - critical rules for not-dating - NSFW FWB AU that I need to finish reading someday but was happy enough with what I’ve read that I’d still recommend it.  - 24 visits - Visits as in Nico the idol visiting Maki the doctor in the hospital.  - 24 dates - A NSFW followup to 24 visits

So yeah, that’s a fairly decent list to get one started in their AO3 NicoMaki delving. As mentioned above, this is not all-inclusive and there are a ton of NicoMaki works out there. I haven’t visited FFN in years, so there may still be some authors that post there exclusively and have written some amazing stuff, but I cannot recommend what I haven’t read, or at least skimmed. I also have some tumblr works bookmarked... somewhere, so if I find them I might compare them to this list and maybe add those missed.

Here’s hoping something here piques your interest and makes you fall a little more for the wonderful NicoMaki.

[onceandfuturekitty]

Meditation on Hatori, Snow, and Dark Backgrounds in Fruits Basket: Part 2

Part 1 < Previous Part | Next Part >

Like before, Fruits Basket angst below the cut. Unlike the previous part, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AS WELL below the cut for anime-onlys and people who haven’t read volumes 5 or 10 of the manga yet.

From last time, we know that snow set against a dark background signals Hatori/Kana angst and pain.

Here’s another example I found of Hatori’s thoughts on the situation with Kana, from volume 5 chapter 26. This lines up with season 1 episode 15 of the 2019 anime reboot, where Hatori likewise says that he doesn’t want to see Kana again, but that he simply wants (and prays for) her to be happy. (This man is SO SELFLESS, WHY??! ;_; T__T)

However, his reasoning for why he doesn’t want to see her again is also important, and does not quite line up with the anime reboot version. I know some people thought the anime explained this better, but I think the version in the manga ties way better to later events. We learn that Kana’s heart would grow ill (and that the ill condition of Kana’s heart is linked to our danger sign of white-snow-on-a-black-background), and that, similar to a sickness, that illness would spread. Stay tuned for why that’s relevant.

In the meantime, Ayame comments in the same chapter that Hatori seems to be the only one left behind, taking on all of the pain from Hatori and Kana’s ~break-up.

But Hatori’s not the only one left behind….

That’s right, my friends!

I GET TO FANGIRL ABOUT MAYU-CHAN-SENSEI THIS TIME!!!! and talk about the angst in her life. But also fangirl about my fave!!

Actually, in an interesting sort of irony compared to the scene in manga chapter 26, Shigure tells Mayuko in manga chapter 56 a) that she’s the only one left behind (of her, Kana, and Hatori) and b) that Hatori’s dating again—two intentional, calculated lies—but in doing so, really emphasizes some of her most positive qualities: her loyalty, determination, selflessness, and strength.

(Also interesting: Ayame lied unintentionally in chapter 26 by speaking a bit flamboyantly, aggressively, and perhaps carelessly [it makes me a bit sad because, come on Ayame, you and Mayu-kun are friends!! She’s the one who accidentally let slip about parent-teacher conferences, so you must talk to each other at least sometimes!], whereas Shigure lied deliberately in chapter 56, but did so very calmly and intentionally.)

But getting back to my main point, like Hatori, Mayu also feels pained at the thought of Hatori and Kana’s suffering and unhappiness: in addition to her thoughts three pictures above (”If there was a way to bring back the happiness between you two, then without a doubt, I would have tried my best…to find it,” emphases added.),

she starts crying after it hits her how happy Hatori and Kana used to be but now Kana’s forgotten it all.

Moreover…

(on top of the reminder that she just wants Kana, her best friend, to be happy,) YES, MAYU’S MEMORIES ARE ALSO OVERLAID WITH SNOW SET ON A DARK BACKGROUND. UH-OH.

Like, I love hate love how Takaya-sensei doesn’t even have to put words in that middle panel. You just know what happened off-screen at that point, between the right and left panels O.O and it wasn’t good….

On a very temporarily more optimistic note, I’m really happy that Mayu convinced Shigure to sneak her in so that she could visit her (probably really isolated and lonely and also DEVASTATINGLY guilty-feeling) best friend!! So devoted ;_;

Though, that contrast between the Kana of the right panel and the Kana of the left panel…yikes ://// It’s very clear that she’s not doing so well. (random side note: I wanna know who put the flowers next to Kana!! Was it Hatori? Aghhhhh that’s so cute and sweet but also painful)

Speaking of not doing so well…

…remember ^this?

Guess who else gets depicted with that kind of snow.

Yep, that’s right. Kana also gets shown with the fairy light-like kind of snow set against a gray background. But here, the snow looks much less like nice fairy lights.

No, here, it looks like Kana’s infected.

Kana’s covered with circular dots that look similar to chicken pox, her speech bubbles have irregular shapes, she’s looking at her hand like “How could my hand have done such a thing?” (as if she’s the one responsible for Hatori’s eye injury), her face is shadowed, she keeps breaking off her speech and repeating words…

As Hatori put it in chapter 12: “It was the curse.”

It’s a very interesting way of depicting the effects of the curse and who’s gotten infected by this particular manifestation of it. In the above picture, we see that Kana continues to be infected by it.

But we see that Mayu, too, gets transferred some of that hurt and pain (right hand panels—and why wouldn’t she? Her best friend is miserable, and she doesn’t know how to fix that, and she just wanted her to be happy, but that’s not happening), and that the effects in fact expand to take on their surroundings as well, despite their being inside a building. 

Hmmmm. Let’s look back at Hatori’s thoughts from the first picture: “Regret and self-pity won’t leave, slowly spreading bigger, like a stain[...]it would tire Kana’s heart,” (emphases added).

That is exactly what is happening above.

And that is why I think the manga version did it better, and why I really admire Hatori-san’s ability to read situations and people. (He can see through many of Shigure’s shenanigans, he advises Ayame on how to get through to Yuki but also to be patient, he brilliantly and succinctly explains what the heck was up with Hiro acting like an irritating bratty punk to Tohru, and so on and so forth.)

Connecting back to my original conception of those circles set against gray backgrounds as snow, perhaps what Hatori thought about being willing to be surrounded by snow for the rest of his life makes more sense now. He doesn’t want anyone else to be turned into snow or be frozen by surrounding snow like he is/has been. But if Kana’s condition had continued deteriorating, like it was above, he would not have been able to stop that freezing infection from continuing to spread. (I can see why he decided to erase her memories of him. Even though that thought really hurts.)

And geez, how sadly ironically fitting that the snow take on an illness-type quality, when both Hatori and Kana, probably the two main victims of it in the manga, are in the medical field. As Hatori’s character description in the Tokyopop manga translations reads: “The only thing he can’t cure is his broken heart.” (Ow. Whyyyyy.)

This reminds me of another Tumblr post someone made about how the Sohma curse negatively affected so many people’s lives, not just those of the Sohma’s, and these pictures (the one above and the one below) give some of the best proof of that.

Snow. Taking over almost everything.

What struck me most about this page is how the snow wasn’t just in the center dark black panel, but how it was dotted all over the right-hand lighter background panels as well, showing how the curse and the resultant unhappiness of Kana and Hatori have infected and affected others’ lives as well. Mayu and Shigure are suffering, too—they want their best friends to be happy, which evidently isn’t happening at this point. Memory-Shigure even looks mildly concerned for Mayu in the bottom-most panel on the right, which is when you know things are really bad.

However, the left-hand panel is brighter again. The memory erasure’s happened, then. And as present-day Shigure helpfully reminds Mayu later in chapter 56, the temporary fix [for Kana at least] gets a more permanent one now that she’s married to someone who definitively is not Hatori.

Shigure then tells Mayu that Hatori’s also moved on and healed—which, though it’s not true, does encourage her to reflect upon what she wants (not someone else—herself, being selfish for once; huh, it’s like a meaner version of when Kyo told Tohru it was fine for her to be selfish every once in a while too), and seems to help her decide that, yes, she does want to search for her own happiness now, and no, it won’t be with Shigure or out of loneliness this time.

(Mayu, you’re so strong. You go, girl.)

Actually, the scenes with Mayu and Kana and the infectious snow/sign of curse-unhappiness were the reasons why I wanted to make this series of posts in the first place. I noticed after like my tenth reread of chapters 56 and 57 how similar some of those scenes were to those in chapters 10 and 12…and the rest, my friends, is history. xD If this wasn’t too angsty for you, there’ll be more next time (and probably the time after that, too)!

Finally, I was floored by the sheer amount of Mayu love and support for my previous long photo-prolific Mayu post, so I decided to make another plz-just-help-Mayu+others-already meta analysis post. xDD Thank you all for your support. *bows* Hope to see you for part 3 as well! (That part should probably hopefully have more Hatori in it as well....Mayu kinda took over this one, but I’m totally fine with that! ^-^)