#shounen baking anime

[random-bi-writer]

My oldest followers, you all remember how I come up with the wildest theories for Amphibia (especially my corruptianne and anastasia theory era.)

Well, here I am. Wondering what the heck did did I eat when I come up with them and I finally have the answer.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold; The Lore of My Childhood.

Pretty Rhythm: Ice skating Idol anime, in s2 the s1 mc got possessed by the clothes she's wearing and it dragged her soul to hell.

Shugo Chara: Magical Egg anime, Mc's youngest oc went evil the moment they were born and that oc decided to live with the edgiest idol in existence.

Danball Senki: Toy Robot anime, in s2 the s1 mc's friends got kidnapped by his dad and he teamed up with a gamer/power ranger cosplayer and a martial arts fighter to save them and they ended up having to protect the world from a capitalist company and the cosplayer's brother. Said cosplayer got his brain damaged and became a villain in the novels.

Idaten Jump: Bike anime, three idiots got isekaid with their bikes and they found out that the mc's dad is the missing king of the world they're in right now.

Mermaid Melody: Mermaid anime, A penguin and an octopus have a wholesome enemies to lovers relationship and tries to hide it from their friends romeo and juliet style.

Tamagotchi: Yes this game has an anime, a 12 year old alien accidentally kidnapped a human child and almost end the world cause he made god think that he's going to take a break.

I swear, I'm not messing with you all. All of this actually happened in canon.

[tarotwithlove]

PAC ⋆ christmas with your fictional other

reminder that this is a general reading and messages found here may not apply to everyone. take what resonates, leave what doesn't, and don't force anything if it does not fit.

BOOK A READING WITH ME · LINKTREE · 18+ PATREON · SUGGEST A PAC TOPIC · TIPS ♡ tips and feedback are highly appreciated!

GROUP ONE

cards · eight of boons, keeper of challenges, five of boons, three of challenges, eight of visions, keeper of spells.

channelled songs · gift & a curse by megan thee stallion. cry out by one ok rock. dear. by the boyz. loving you is a mountain by isaia huron. 

hey there group one ♡  you may spend a lot of time on making or finding the perfect gift for your fictional other - or, in some cases, fictional others, because a large group of people, in particular, is coming to mind. it may be important to you that the gift is handmade, and crafted with a lot of care for your fictional other(s) and their family or group of friends. 

you may bake or cook something special to celebrate the christmas festivities, only for your efforts to be disregarded. or for what you made to be burned or broken. for some, you may share the food with your fo's family or friends, only for one of them to make a snide remark about how it tastes. if you craft something, like a bauble for the tree or a tree angel, someone may mention how it's lopsided or the paint is uneven. they make a comment that stings but that is, ultimately, meaningless in your overall enjoyment of the day. 

for some in this group – though, it is likely that it is for most – your christmas with your fictional other may start off beautifully mundane and end as it is disrupted by some great tragedy or some large-scale event. of course, it depends on the character and world that you are asking about and holds especially true for those of you asking about a shounen anime -- jujutsu kaisen in particular. 

so, this christmas starts off as any other christmas, as any other day, and ends with your fictional other (or fictional others) running off to fulfil other, more urgent responsibilities. you will likely end christmas day alone and overwhelmed with bittersweet feelings about what you wished the day would be like versus what it actually ended up looking like. 

GROUP TWO

cards · seeker of boons, seven of boons, two of spells, child of boons (reversed), seven of challenges, eight of spells.

channelled songs · animal instinct – acoustic version by the cranberries. sunflower by triple h. foreign by thutmose & alex mali. deep in love by day6.

hey there group two ♡ the christmas with your fictional other will be a non-traditional one. neither you nor your fictional other may care much about christmas, may not care to spend much time with family, especially during the christmas period, or you may be separated from your respective families in some way.

instead of a christmas celebration, you and your fictional other may spend much of your christmas in the service of others -- volunteering in old age homes, orphanages, and/or homeless shelters. hopping from place to place, going where you are called or where you are needed, and giving to others in any way possible. you may even make a pot of food and drive around your city, handing out food and water to the homeless, or to anyone who comes up asking for some. 

you and/or your fictional other may have a complicated relationship with christmas, so you may fill the day with activities with which to distract yourselves from what is going on around you. 

later on in the day, you and your fictional other may go to markets. there may be a thrift market or a christmas market at which you decide to while your time away. here, your fictional other may pickpocket something small to gift to you. you two may make a challenge of pickpocketing small items to gift to each other. of course, not only pickpocketing, but you may just go around buying items for each other. 

i’m thinking of nami and usopp from one piece – in particular of this post i saw about how their talents as a thief and a liar would probably make for such fun nights out. so you and your fictional other, besides the pickpocketing or the buying things for each other, may also make a challenge of seeing how much free things you can get. 

GROUP THREE

cards · seeker of visions, seeker of boons, keeper of boons, child of boons, child of spells, black shuck, five of spells.

channelled songs · fuckin' sound by lucky daye. goosebumps by travis scott. heaven by taemin. after we make love by whitney houston. 

hey there group three ♡ this group has the most romantic overtones, the greatest romantic energy. you and your fictional other may not just be lovers, but soulmates; you're like two halves of the same heart, or two sides of the same coin. there's just so, so, so much of love and warmth here. it's as if you and your fictional other waited your whole lives to find each other and now that you have found each other there's nothing more important than building a beautiful, safe life together. 

a child, or children, may be a significant part of your relationship with your fo. you or your fictional other may have a child, or either of you may be in a position where you look after children. this may even be your child with your fictional other. christmas with your fictional other, more than anything else and regardless of whether children are directly involved, feels like a family affair. with family and community being of the utmost importance to you and your fo. 

i don’t know when was the last time i even thought about the x-men, but i’m thinking of them now, so a member of the x-men or the x-men as a team may be who you are reading this pick a card for. whether or not you’re asking about the x-men, though, i do feel that you’re asking about a character from a movie. i’m also thinking of irish pubs and traditional dancing, so you or your fo may be irish. 

christmas with your fictional other is so fun and lively, with lots of dancing, singing, and loud expressions of joy. 

this may be both of your first times spending christmas with a lover, so there is a lot to navigate. or it may be the first time introducing your respective families together. but because of how light this energy is, any worries quickly dissipate and it starts to feel so natural you both wonder what you were ever worried about. you get caught up in the dancing. in the singing. in the merriment. 

christmas with your fo will be a large gathering, with pockets of people doing different things. some playing board games. some baking or cooking. some just chatting. there's also this energy of friendly competition, and this event may have a costume or ugly sweater competition. you and your fo will dress up as festively as possible, though it's likely that you had to corral your fo to dress up to theme – of course, in matching outfits with you. 

GROUP FOUR

cards · eight of boons, nine of visions, keeper of challenges, child of challenges, five of challenges, the faery wind.

channelled songs · hello future by nct dream. shattered dreams by earl sweatshirt. amusement park by baekhyun. far by sza. 

hey there group four ♡ you will put in a LOT of effort on christmas; decorating your home, cooking and baking, and just making sure that everything is perfect for your christmas together. 

you may have wished time and again to have someone with whom to spend christmas, and so you do everything in your power to make sure this day is as worthwhile, beautiful, and memorable as possible. this may also be because you're hosting your fictional other and their family for the first time, so you want to make as good of an impression as possible. 

you may feel like you are under a lot of pressure on this day, and it will likely boil over and lead to small arguments with your fictional other. a significant argument may come from your fo inviting someone extra at the last moment -- someone you had not prepared for, and thus are unable to cater for. this could be made worse by this person being an ex-lover or an ex-mutual friend, with your fictional other not realising the implications of this. to them, it is harmless, while to you it is a sign of disrespect. 

you may find it difficult to truly enjoy christmas with your fictional other because you are so busy running all over the place – making sure this person is comfortable, or reheating that person's plate, or getting a blanket for this other person because they're cold. your perfectionism tendencies coming through again.

your fictional other will spend much of the day observing you keenly. as much as they want to step in and help, or to tell you to breathe, there’s this sense that they don’t want to overstep or undermine your efforts. so instead of telling you to take it easy – likely because you won’t even listen – they’ll go behind your back and pick up the slack. if you’re setting the table and someone is looking for you to ask about drinks, your fo will guide them away from you and get the drinks for them instead. if you’re in the middle of cleaning a spill, your fo will start talking to you in order to sneakily get you to hand over the cleaning tools so that they can clean up instead and you can go and be the amazing host/hostess you want to be. 

they want to help but they also know how important this day is to you. they want you to rest, to take a breath, to calm down, but know that it would only hurt you if they voice this. but when the day is done and everyone has gone home, they will run you a bath. they will clean up. and once you’re out of the bath, they will sit you down and make sure you’re eating a hot meal, after which they will give you a shoulder massage and congratulate you on a successful christmas party.

[numbbface]

A whole lotta Creek...

(just as the title suggests... its an art dump/repost of my stuff from twt with more words lol) 🤷

i know this isn't that much of a creek art but our man Craig is there so it counts... 🙈

Also Baker Tweek!!!☝️☝️☝️

Just drew this bceause i just really wanted to go to the beach and there was a power outtage and had nothing else to do...

also i guess this was also a bit of a supposed idea or scene for my Creek Karaoke AU but decided to just separate it midway.

this one has long been my idea to draw... i just keep forgetting to get to it and now i've already did it.

So this one is definitely part of the Creek Karaoke AU since the name of the Baked Goods are their pet names for each other or at least what Craig came up with and calls Tweek fer time to time.

Yes, i headcanon Craig as a Big Eater, or at least someone who's not very picky with food, thought it would be cute since in my AU, Tweek likes to cook and bake and his taste tester is Craig who either ends up Happy for being able to eat really good food or a round trip to the toilet.🤷

Also as much as Tweek likes to bake or make sweets he's not very fond of'm but Craig on the other hand🧍...

thought i'd add a side by side of the sketch and the finished one...

was originally going to do all this one MsPaint but idk... changed my mind halfway. Not much thoughts on this one, just fluff :3

oooh golly been meaning to draw them in this style for a really long time😭😭😭

just been having a hard time replicating or at least adjusting their features to the art style that it honestly doesn't even look like the one i was aiming for, all you need to know that this art style came from a pretty old BL manga. Art is really good, Story... not so good, no happy ending😔

genuinely just thought of drawing them more anime or manga shounen-ai style without it looking like parody or come off as ironic

lmao this was just for funsies and i was so pissed and tired that day that i just wanted to draw something to take me out of it. Inspo idea for this one was from those one Shoujo manga's of Good Girl x Delinquent/Bad boy/indifferent guy troupes

damn.. its been so long since i've actually read manga or watched anime lmao🧍

[eightpuppet]

There's been some posts around that want Aziraphale to be very badass next season. To show up, lick kick ass and take names in Heaven. There's been reminders about how he's a protector, a guardian and a BAMF, and should really go feral next season.

(Also some posts about how Crowley should do that, but that's not the subjext here. Also some posts about actually licking ass, but also not the subject here.)

And while the action movie and shounen anime fan in me appreciates the visceral satisfaction of that sort of thing, and I don't want anyone to feel guilty about wanting that, another part of me finds the thought incredibly tragic. That the angel who declared himself soft after Gabriel called him a lean mean fighting machine should become one after all. That the angel who threw down his uniform in front of his quartermaster and told him he has no intention of fighting in any war should have to go to war after all.

That's the solution? That the very first being in existence who gave up his sword willingly should pick it up again?

Well. He did already pick it up again one time. In the book to make a hopeless last stand in defense of humans, yes, which is about the only situation where that seems about right, but in the show he took one look at it and decided this could still be solved by talking. Or by threats of not talking, as it were. And it's the show we're talking about here.

And I don't know what the show's solution ultimately will be, but I want it to be, at least in part, because of Aziraphale's softness. His gentleness. The part of him that stops burglaries with baked goods. That deflects aggressive humans at graveyards with politeness, and in the end everyone involved benefits. The part that defiantly remains kind, even if he can be a bit of a bastard.

Or maybe even more than that, I want it to be his humanity. Humanity is infectious. It's a theme of Pratchett. And it's a theme of Good Omens. And it takes so very little. Gabriel and Beelzebub spend only years meeting each other on Earth, and lose their taste for what they live for, what is essentially their only purpose, and find their song (it contains information in a tuneful way, did you know?) Muriel, Heaven's biggest cinnamon roll that they are, couldn't grasp why Aziraphale was so upset about Job's children in the time of Uz, but one look at the world and they're amazed, one book and they're hooked.

Aziraphale knew Adam and Eve only for a few days, and felt so sorry for them after their punishment that he defied God's orders and then lied directly to Her illuminated face about it.

That's what I want to see, I think. The Metatron brought the most human of angels into Heaven by plying him with human drinks like coffee and human desires like love, and I want that to be his undoing. Humanity is infectious, and he's brought that infection to Heaven, and I want it to spread. All of us against them, all of humanity against Heaven (and eventually Hell,) except not quite like Crowley probably thought, because after all these years he still hasn't got the hang of us.

I want people-positive management style. I want the angels to at first be weirded out and maybe mutinous, but then grow to like it. I want them to get to know each other, not as coworkers, not as bees, but as friends. I want them to fall in love while gossiping about the weirdo Supreme Archangel who put up a suggestion box (because that definitely felt like a Foreshadowing, even if only for a joke) and then actually kinda like it, because some of their suggestions were heard and that's actually pretty nice. To be heard. I want them to figure out that they actually like to get some compliments for their work. To figure out that they actually kinda like Aziraphale's leadership style, and maybe resist when he eventually gets replaced for doing something off the wall.

(I may want to watch OFMD's first season again. I admit it.)

I want the angels to do things that spread humanity in them, like the cocoa going down Gabriel's mouth, throat and stomach, doing different things in every place, like Muriel opening a book and finding out it's just like people, and now they love books, and therefore people.

I want them to find their songs.

Maybe the angels also just need some baked goods. (Aziraphale had to miracle in the cherries.)

Maybe Aziraphale accidentally brings the six shot espresso Crowley angrily shoved at him during their latest attempt to talk with him, and someone tries it and likes it, and Aziraphale gives them permission to visit Earth to get more because why not, and it spreads, and the world doesn't end because where would the Heavenly Host get their coffee, and all of Heaven chooses coffee rather than death, because people are so predictable, aren't they, Metatron?

Maybe Muriel brings up a book and someone borrows it and it becomes this whole thing and they have to bring up even more books, and the angels don't want to destroy the Earth because they gotta know the end of some trilogy or another, and who knows, maybe GRRM will finish A Song of Ice and Fire after all, and Aziraphale indirectly saves the world not by being a badass, but by being the world's biggest book nerd, and okay, the bookshop didn't last forever, but it's okay, nothing does.

Maybe when there's a choice to watch something other than the Sound of Music, because the Supreme Archangel brought up some new films in the hopes of being able to watch literally anything else... the angels choose. And keep choosing. Because once you start, you can't stop, even if it starts with something small like "What should we watch today?", because humanity is infectious. Maybe they choose to taste ox, or sushi. Maybe they listen to something not by Liszt or Elgar. Maybe they'll have a look at a cup of tea.

I just don't want it to be Aziraphale's masterplan that goes off without a hitch. Or Crowley's. When have their plans ever solved anything? Their big plan wasn't enough to fool all the archangels that these were Job's new children, they only got away with it because of Aziraphale's status as an angel, and because Gabriel considered him beneath suspicion. Crowley's plan to fool Hell into thinking he only did a good thing because of being high on Laudanum didn't fool Hell, or Aziraphale, or anyone. And their plan to stop the Armageddon? We know all about that. The only successful plan they've ever had was given to them by Agnes Nutter.

Besides, seems like they're gonna be busy with Jesus, anyway.

I dunno. I'm rambling, and Gaiman's a much better writer than I am. But Heaven isn't toxic because angels, or even archangels, are inherently bad. We've seen that. It's more that it's a soulless corporate machine. I've heard the opinion that the book was more the absurdity of the Cold War, and the show is more capitalism is bad, and if so, I feel like the solution should reflect that. Putting Aziraphale in charge cannot solve that problem because they will always find some other schmuck to put in charge, same as they did with Gabriel.

But if the army doesn't show up because it doesn't want to fight? If everyone, not just Gabriel, says nah to the Apocalypse? If they just... don't show up to work?

(Alternatively, I guess they could eat the archangels. Put that gluttony of Aziraphale's to good use.)

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10

[hxhhasmysoul]

You've frequently said that Yuuji is like a shoujo protagonist. Could you elaborate on that? I don't read shoujo and the last shoujo anime I watched was years ago so I'm not very familiar with it but I'm very fascinated as to why you think Yuuji's like a shoujo heroine. I don't think I've ever heard anyone else describe him as such.

I think I've seen some people talk about him in the context of a shoujo manga, though it might have been more in the context of him being a shoujo love interest which from what I recall of shoujo isn't really apt, Megumi with his aloof personality fits that bill more. but maybe others compared him to a protag too.

As you can see I'm also not some shoujou manga, or any manga category, expert. And I'm sure there's at least one, but more likely several, in-depth academic analyses of shoujo as a category, or what a shoujo protagonist is. And as with any such broad category there are surely exceptions, possibly even very popular ones.

With the above caveats, what I mean when I say "Yuuji is a shoujo manga heroine" is that he kinda fits the bill of what I picture when I think of a shoujo heroine. But also it's a bit of a sad joke, because, le sigh, patriarchy.

So historically, and maybe even today, not an expert, the manga categories were very strongly targeted at very particular demographics. Which any form of media like that, you of course get a lot of stereotypes baked into it. Stereotypes about what these groups may want to see which are based on societal norms and expectations for these groups. And the main manga categories are gendered and divided by age into shoujo - manga for adolescent women, josei - manga for adult women, shounen - manga for young men, seinen - manga for adult men.

From what I've gathered, the adult categories, I think especially the seinen category, are more flexible in what they allow for in terms of topics. Like adults can be interested in whatever they want, especially when it comes to men.

The categories directed at the youth feel more rigid when it comes to what they should depict. In gross simplification, girls should be exposed to relationships while boys should be exposed to action.

It's not like you don't get any action in shoujo, like you can get a lot of it, but it's framed differently than what you get in shounen and I will get to that. But the relationship will be at the forefront, and there's usually romance as an important part of the story.

You also get relationships in shounen, the already cliche power of friendship and so on, though rather no romance. It's a running joke that we get epilogues where we find out the protag who had the most dramatic and kinda romantic moments with his male friend/rival/enemy is happily married to one of the girls that cheered on him from the sidelines. Heteronormativity needs to be maintained. It's also a cliche that any romance that happens in shounen is played for laughs and kinda cringe, or downright laced with some really creepy shit like pedophilia (older women taking interest in young boys usually but it's "just a joke" or even depicted as cool) or incel shit (like male characters harassing and stalking female characters).

Gege doesn't do any of that, and will be very good about it if they stay on course and not make the "and they were all heterosexual" epilogue. I wrote a more detailed post about it, one that also delves into a lot of gender stuff, though it's a bit of a questionable one due to its origins and it's a bit old, etc. etc., proceed with caution if you choose to check it out. (A side note too, Hell's Paradise is quite interesting with it's premise of the protag loving his wife even if it's not executed well. Generally Kaku tries a lot of interesting things, though doesn't always manage to stick the landing).

A shoujo heroine often isn't the brightest when it comes to school stuff, or strongest in terms of physical strength, if there's magic involved her powers usually don't seem to be the most devastating in their effects. What she will usually have is an ability to deliver moments of very high vulnerability. She will also usually have a huge heart and ability to bring people together. These 3 combined is how she usually will win fights. A shounen character often can also have the last two, but usually the vulnerability he delivers is a bit one note, sometimes feels almost performative with the "I'm not strong enough". (also I'm sure that there a plenty of shoujo that also fail these). And the shounen character uses his vulnerability moment to charge the final attack while a shoujo heroine can win just through being vulnerable. (There's obviously shounen which has done this too, like categories this big will have everything, Killua wins with Palm through showing vulnerability, he does that with Illumi too.)

You might already see where I'm going with this.

Yuuji is built around his very strong humanity, his compassion. It's in his name. He is extremely good at delivering moments of devastating vulnerability, moments that are not power ups for him at all. He's also built around his loneliness and desire for connection, for being surrounded by people. He's very people oriented, has a warm personality and brings people together. He's capable of deep compassion and love. He has very high emotional intelligence. And he's capable of winning a fight through that alone, actually.

I started to call him a shoujo heroine after the Junpei battle, because he literally wins that by making himself vulnerable in front of Junpei and talking Junpei down. That's why what happens next is all the more devastating. He makes himself vulnerable in front of Higuruma.

If you apply shounen logic to JJK you get all those fans shitting on Yuuji because he's not the strongest. Because he doesn't have flashy powers like Gojou or Sukuna or Megumi. The cold takes like: "he loses several battles, omg he's not really the protagonist", or "he doesn't get amazing power ups", or "he's not driven to be the strongest, he's not proactive in achieving some lofty goals, climbing to the top of the hierarchy", etc. etc. blah, blah.

However if you apply a more shoujo logic to JJK, Yuuji is the clear and only protagonist. He's the heart of the story, he's the most people-oriented, relationship-oriented, vulnerable character. People are drawn to his warmth, not his power (Toudou's fanfiction about Yuuji is about Yuuji being his emotional support, about Yuuji letting Toudou be vulnerable together!).

All of the themes of the story converge onto him. He's emotionally tied to both major villains, and to their victims. His subtle personal, highly vulnerable goal, screams shoujo manga.

That's why I call him a shoujo heroine.

Why I say this is all a bit of a sad joke. While everything I wrote above, I stand by with my full conviction, the joke is that it all hinges on buying into patriarchy.

The division between shounen and shoujo is based on the societal norms for the gender binary. The idea that girls should like certain things, should behave a certain way... boys should like other things, behave in a different way etc. etc. In a system like that even personality traits are gendered. Men are stoic, calm, collected, decisive, forward, intellectual, high-minded, practical, project strength, they should feel comfortable taking up space blah blah. Women are emotional, fragile, caring, supportive, they don't care about practicality but are interested in the trivial and pretty things, they should be shy and quiet, feel good in the background, blah blah blah.

One of the principal traits of a shoujo and shounen protagonists is their gender. Because girls should read about girls and boys should read about boys.

This is why it's a bit of a sad joke, because calling Yuuji a shoujo heroine feels a bit like calling him a girl. And while I do it with love, and with my highly internally processed views on gender, I do it in public. I do it on this website where so many people perform a lot of feminism or queer activism in ways that are full of internalised misogyny and queerphobia of various stripes. In a patriarchal society calling a boy a girl is an insult, it's a form of devaluing him because girls are seen as less than. It's implying that he's failing at being a man. And Yuuji gets a lot of shit from the fandom for not being strong enough, for failing as a shounen protag. For failing to be that idealised, aspirational version of a boy. One that can overcome anything, one that's always strong, that is always driven.

I will quote here what I wrote about Yuuji in the post I linked above not to repeat myself:

"Yuuji is written more like a female character than a male one if we take the gender stereotypes into consideration, especially those that pervade the shounen genre. He’s built around compassion, cooperation and orienting himself towards others. These are stereotypically female coded traits. He doesn’t have a self aggrandising goal like so many shounen protagonists. His goal is intimate, it’s about his emotional needs. I forgot to mention that Yuuji is quite passive compared to a typical shounen protag. He rarely takes action on his own and only when the situation really forces him to do it. He’s reactive not proactive. He has this goal of eating all fingers but he waits for instructions, follows them. He doesn’t go out in the world seeking out the fingers. Same goes for his missions to kill curses. The reality had to hurt him real bad for him to become more active and still even now he falls in line, he’s not driven in the way shounen protags usually are. Passivity is associated with the concpet yin, which is also associated with femininity. Why do I mention this concept? Because jujutsu sorceres are kinda the successors of onmyōji, or more literally the yin-and-yang masters. He doesn’t have much of an ego. He knows he’s good at fighting but he’s not arrogant about it like Gojou or Sukuna are. He’s tactile, he has an open body language. His best friend is Nobara. The way they are close is astounding. All their idiot to idiot moments. All their physical contact. The way they complement each other while fighting. The way Nobara can just text Yuuji to come and he does. Nobara being gone really affects Yuuji deeply, to the point where he uncharacteristically lashed out at Hana. And it’s completely not sexual or romantic. Compared to that his friendship with Megumi is pretty shit and not really close. He’s been very clearly socialised as a boy in a pretty misogynist society on shit like shounen manga. He has “a type” when it comes to girls, that he can invoke instantly because that’s how young boys are socialised, it’s expected of them. And yet that type is just an aesthetic preference. It’s not really what he’d even want from a potential girlfriend. He treats women like people. Naturally, instinctively not in the fake “nice guy” way. He’s such a well rounded role model of young masculinity. He is that because Gege doesn’t build him on the stereotypes of what masculinity should be according to the conservative patriarchal viewpoint. Yuuji is a human who’s entitled to emotions, who’s not a total victim of his socialisation, who doesn’t strive to live up to societal expectations. No status quo, the mantra of JJK."

In a world not steeped through with patriarchy this wouldn't matter. In a world without such rigid standards as to what is masculine and what is feminine, calling Yuuji a shoujo manga heroine wouldn't stand out. Because it wouldn't feel like a thing. Yuuji wouldn't draw anyone's disappointment or ire. There wouldn't be a feeling of him crossing gender norms because the norms either wouldn't exist or would've been very very wide and flexible.

_____

tldr: Yuuji is a shoujo manga heroine because he also has pink hair and is capable of extreme cuteness, and have you seen him holding the bunny so adorably? Very Usagi coded.

[limeade-l3sbian]

This might come across as an unserious question, but I’m asking genuinely as a new radfem; is it still okay that i’m a radfem even if I enjoy manga? I’m not into stuff that degrades/objectifies women or is creepy loli shit, which unfortunately both are ultra present in the medium, but i’ve been a huge shounen fan since I was a kid so to part with my favourite mangas and animes for radical feminism would be a bit of a heartbreak. I don’t wanna seem halfassed in my beliefs though.

Radical feminism is not a label, it's a movement. So there's no need for you to "refine" your 'allegiance' lol. There will be parts of it that you disagree with and parts that resonate deeply with you. But ultimately, to call yourself a practitioner of radical feminism just means to believe in its core tenets and to practice methods of rebellion in the safest and most realistic way you can.

I'll compare your question to this: is it okay if I'm a radfem even if I enjoy rap music? The answer is yes. I listen to rap all the time, but have cut down on the most offensive parts of it and acknowledge that some of the songs I listen to still have misogynistic bars. But with those songs, I temper this concession by listening to those in a way where the artist doesn't benefit.

Not even just to be a "good radfem" but because once you start reading more and really having more conversations in the space, you'll find that your aversion to these things will come naturally. It won't be that you'll feel like you can't watch/listen to flagrantly misogynistic media. You won't even want to. You won't have the patience or stomach for it anymore.

Plus, misogyny is baked so deeply into every culture in the world. So to think you can evade it entirely is a waste of time. Just be conscious of when you are not acting in the interest of radical feminism and don't try to insinuate that somehow what you're watching/listening to is actually good for feminism lol.

BUT, you say you don't even bother with the gross parts of manga, so I'd say you're already making a good effort. Ultimately, no movement can tell you what to watch or do. I like that your question appears to come from a place of solidarity. Reminds me of when bisexual/lesbian women ask, "How do I make sure I'm not objectifying women like men?" And they don't realize by even being concerned about that is already a sign that they likely aren't since a great deal of men don't even think about that.

I don't think you have to give up manga. But as you read more into radical feminism (outside of radblr!) Just be prepared to start seeing things differently.

[moothecowgirl]

What are some of your hobbies and interest?

Oooh!

Ceramics - specifically hand building, going to the gym, watching soccer (arsenal fan 4evaaaa), F1, and cricket. I like to go on runs, read (big fan of memoirs and dystopian novels), write, hike, scrapbook, and take my camera(s) out. I am obsessed with jewelry, my cd collection, jewelry, trains, maps, and jewelry. I love anime (shoju > shounen womp womp), podcasts, Bollywood movies, theatre, and long form news articles. I like to dance, listen to music, play video games, go see plays, and bake! Very recently I have been spending an extensive time with jewelry making and print making!

[stardustizuku]

I have to ask out of curiosity, on the TVTropes wiki page, the Miraculous Ladybug page says that the show is a Magical Girl/Superhero genre hybrid of sorts. If you believe that is the case, since I believe it might be just speculation, would that change or impact what the rules can be established or removed in either of these genres?

The reason why I made the essay with Magical Girls at its focus - was simply because I’m more well versed in Magical Girl stories than super heroes. As well as the fact that it hurt me deeply as a fan of that genre.

But let it be known. Miraculous Ladybug suck ass as a Superhero story too.

For mostly the same reasons as I stated in the Magical Girl Analysis because…

Well, Magical Girls ARE superheroes.

Like, sexism has sort of wrapped peoples’ idea of what Magical Girls are but despite all the frills and cuteness - these are girls that fight evil on a daily with super powers and secret identities.

You see, Japan and the USA have very different ways of marketing their animated show for children. Japan has a very gendered demographic, you have Shoujo and you have Shounen. They’re aimed for different audiences. While boys have stuff like Kamen Raiden and Super Seitan, girls have Pretty Cure. They serve the exact same purpose they’re just - gendered differently.

The USA has…also! Gender. Just. One.

It’s supposed a nebulous “kids” with mass appeal, aka unisex of sorts…? But no, really it’s just boys. And maybe girls to get them to buy toys.

When it comes to superheroes in particular, that’s the main difference.

It’s not a Magical Girl with Superhero thing, but American Superhero for girls with Japanese Superhero for girls.

The real issue MLB has when it tries to shoehorn in the Superhero theme is that…it sorta sucks?

Like, if it’s lagging behind Magical Girl adjacent takes in the western hemisphere, it’s outright losing in the SuperHero department.

While Anime has been sort of mainstream for the last 20 or so years (maybe less), which leads to maybe 15 years worth of Magical Girl takes in western cartoons…

There’s almost a century worth of Superheroes before MLB.

Everything that could have been done by MLB was done by superhero stories at least in the 1970’s.

Even the idea of “girls superhero” is something seen before. Like, we have the powerpuff girls, we have wordgirl, we have Kim Possible, DC superhero girls, totally spies…

It’s not a new concept. In fact, superheroes are such a common concept that blockbuster movies are running out of ideas. So they’re throwing everything they can at the board to see what sticks, creating something so Goddamned convoluted no one has the brain energy left to keep up with it.

Sounds familiar?

It’s obvious that the creative team took heavy inspiration from magical girls to make their superhero story. In their head, and at surface level, this makes sense.

BUT as I’ve stated above, there’s a cultural difference between Magical Girls and Superheroes each baked into the identity of each genre.

This is the rough equivalent of trying to mix English Mythology with Japanese Mythology, knowing only about yokai and fairies in regards to each…if you know nothing it sorta makes sense but if you KNOW

Then it’s total BS

Which by the way, American and Japanaese superheroes mixed in, with Chinese culture as powers made by a French guy who knows next to nothing about any of these cultures…

Do you get why I keep calling Thomas’ weird attitudes towards his project a “fetishization”? It’s because it is.

To summarize, even if you take this show as more of a Superhero story, it still sucks. My points would (for the most part) still stand. With the added caviar that it’s not only shameful for its lack of interest in its own genre - but the fact that every single person and their mother would see the story as 100x more uninspired. Because at least 5 other comics from 70s would have done smth similar with either powers or identities.

The only redeeming quality it had was it target towards little girls and doing so by borrowing the Magical girl aesthetic.

Which it fucking spat on and I’m still pissed about it.

In regards, and trying to answer your question - it’s complicated.

This would essentially be a massive cultural exchange challenge.

For example, the reason why superheroes in the USA have powers given to them as failed experiments and radioactive waste, while Japan has magic or aliens… is very much tied to their history and cultural identity.

The values that each have reflect on their superheroes too - American Superheroes may value individualism more than Japanese superheroes do.

And again, there’s the whole gendered thing. Superheroes stories in the USA tend to lean more gender neutral for mass appeal, Japanese superheroes are very heavily coded as in what they’re meant for. (Cough the reason why there’s so much queer subtext in magical girl stories cough)

So, asking the question “what rules should it make so that it’s a hybrid between these two genres”, while a valid one, I’m not sure I can be the one to answer it.

Because it depends. On what the creator saw, what they wanted, what they intended to say by mixing these two.

This is not something you ask AFTER you’ve your show. These are the questions you ask BEFORE it.

To properly create a hybrid, you ought to have a vision. And take parts of each to create what you wanted to say.

MLB borrows (or should I say steal?) aesthetics and surface level aspects of both genres. It broke as many American superhero rules as it did magical girl ones.

In specific, The Alger Ego and Theme stands as something it fucked over in BOTH. But it also failed superheroes. In what way, I really wouldn’t be able to tell.

I’m not a fan of superheroes. I don’t know why people like them, I don’t know why they watch them. I have a mild understanding of them but trying to tell you in the same depth as I did in the Magical Girl Essay what exactly they did wrong…would be an impossible task to me.

But if Thomas thinks that we, the magical girl fans, are mean to him…oh boy. Wait till he tells a Marvel Stan he thinks he’s made the best superhero story ever.

I would pay money for that

[the-owl-tree]

okay

I for some reason have a very strong feeling that I am gonna poke the bear by asking this

and I am very scared to

but

considering you like xenofiction and manga

what are your opinions on Beastars

runs away

you know what that's fair because i had to do a little circle around my chair when you brought up beastars because of how many feelings i have on it.

tldr: beastars first half is an original and immaculate story that grounds its issues in its world before metaphor, but falls so flat on its face for the finale that it essentially doomed its own fate to die with a pitiful whimper

spoilers for beastars

I adore Beastars (the first half at least). It is such a strikingly original world that roots all of its problems IN ITS WORLD - which is my biggest problem with allegorical works of art. Beastars takes every step to show how these issues manifest within its world and how people would respond BEFORE it tries to lean on the metaphor and that's what I think separates it from Zootopia. Beastars is a world before it is a metaphor. I love her artwork and I love the character design, her expressions and the way she draws teeth and claws are my favorite. Paru Itagaki is an amazing artist, she has this very sketchy style reminiscent of Q Hayashida that I adore and much like Q, she knows how to make scenes weighty and bloody and PAINFUL. You will FEEL IT when these characters bit and claw at one another.

Beastars justifies its high school setting because it is specifically about how this world informs the development of its characters. Them being in high school is a great way to show their growth between young people trying to figure out their place, their self in their understanding of their school only for them to change as they grow. It's fantastic! The rich way the characters interact and perceive one another, interweaving both animal urge and emotions is fascinating to read. Paru Itagaki's strength is in her character writing and interactions, I adored the high school romance because I understood WHY these characters did things the way they did and I loved all the care that was put into making sure that every aspect of themselves informed their actions.

Legosi is such a kindly and endearing protagonist. I like that's he's a little weirdo and proud of it, I like that he's consistently making an effort to understand others. His relationship with Haru is my absolute favorite and, well, that's why the second half was such a let down.

In a stunning first half with enjoyable character arcs and fascinating character development, the sudden plummet into shounen battle arcs with the I'm InSaNe Melon was a huge let down. The second half, I firmly believe NEEDED to focus on Haru and Legosi's relationship. It is the ANCHOR of the story, it is the complete heart of both character's and it is so firmly enjoyable because of the dynamic that Itagaki has written. But instead, the finale stumbles on half-baked concepts (they made jojo stands?? and did NOTHING WITH THEM?????), unfinished plot lines (louis was in the mafia and didn't go to jail, his father is still cartoonishly evil and its never resolved), and antagonists so boring and unoriginal that i was begging for the manga to just put me down. Not to mention the whole predator and prey thing is just....resolved? all of a sudden?? not very well explained? Oh yeah! The great whale says we can eat fish now, glad that elaborate building up of the market and its cultural importance in the city can be resolved! What a way to go!

It is such a horrendous finale for such an intriguing and original series. I can only be at peace knowing the final chapter was the date we deserved WAY EARLIER. I loved Legosi working as a delivery guy, I could've had an entire slice of life series around that but nope! Boring pointless battle arc time. Sucks ass.

It sucks because the first half is so so good and I highly recommend it! I don't want this series to go out with such a whimper but goddamn....the ending is soooo bad. If you're interested in it, dip out as soon as Melon appears I mean it. You'll be happier, just go read Beast Complex it's so much better than the finale please just trust me on this.

[signed-heart]

it’s lunch time!

suzue has somewhere to be for lunch so she isn’t able to spend time with you. still, you are left with the hint to ponder who your mystery love letter writer is. 

‘we spend our time together 5 days a week, but even in those 5 days, closeness i still seek.’ 

it’s a vague hint, almost making everyone and anyone a strong candidate, but it’s enough to get you started somewhere. 

and as always, you’re having lunch with the other second years on the volleyball team. you aren’t so sure whether or not you should bring the love letter and challenge up with them—if they’d even know anything or if they just might blow it out of proportion—so you think to keep it to yourself and just work around the existence of the letter. 

“mannnnn it’d be nice if suzue was ‘ere,” atsumu whines, letting out a sigh as he deflates against the gym wall. 

you, the miya twins, suna and ginjima are all comfy in a corner of the volleyball team’s gymnasium where your group typically always has lunch. suna and osamu are busy reading over one another’s shoulders of the newest release of jump (they had borrowed it from a classmate); ginjima is hurriedly copying someone else’s homework because he of course forgot to do his own; and atsumu slumps against the wall by your side with his now empty bento box resting on his chest. 

you look to him with a small smile. “it’s not like she’s never comin’ back, tsumu,” you tell him, raising one brow, “she’s just got a meetin’ with some of the baking club kids since, ya know, that was her club before ya snag ‘er from it.”

atsumu’s quick to move his bento off his chest and sit up. he’s fired up with your light jab and gets up on his feet, raising his voice at no one in particular. “and that’s my point exactly! she’s part of our club now and they’re still stealin’ ‘er away! she told me she was gonna let me borrow ‘er nintendo ds at lunch and now i ain’t playin’ on it ‘cuz she doesn’t wanna let me play on it unsupervised!” 

“maybe ‘cuz ya dropped it last time and she had to beg ‘er parents to get the screen replaced?” osamu calls out which makes atsumu’s head whip towards him, "and ain't it the dsi? that's much more expensive than a regular ds, no?" 

the blond points a finger at his twin. “shut yer trap!” he says as he crosses his arms tightly, "i already apologized and i felt bad! i even gave 'er my allowance that i was saving to buy my own ds!" he spoke with a small whine as he began to pace around, clearly frustrated at the absence of suzue and the rise of his previous... crime… it seems that he really does want to play on her dsi, though, and you wonder what game he was suppose to play. 

ginjima beats you to the question. “what were ya gonna play, tsumu?”

atsumu's mood lifts and he grins. “animal crossing,” he says proudly, “i’m thinkin’ of gettin’ the game! ya have it too don’tcha, y/n?” atsumu turns to you with an excited expression and you can’t help but smile, amused with his sudden change of mood. 

he was rather adorable when he was excited—the way his eyes sparkled for things other than volleyball was always amusing to you. 

“i do, yeah,” you respond pleasantly, “me and suzue play together sometimes. it’s pretty fun.”

“it’s kinda boring,” suna chimes in, everyone turning to face him. his lips purse slightly before he returns his attention to the shounen jump magazine. “my sister plays it. all you do is run around and i don’t know… pick up weeds and chop trees or whatever.” 

atsumu snarks back before you can. 

“hey don’t shit on the game, sunarin!” atsumu huffs, crossing his arms, “ya ain’t just given it a real try yet! plus, suzue's a real master at the game and she said if i get a console and the game, she'll help me out tons!"

you all share a laugh, his passion amusing the rest of you. you find it cute, though, and can't help but entertain him just a bit.

"did she?" you ask, a smile on her face.

the blond gives you two deep nods. 

“well, if ya head over to the kitchens now, ya just might find ‘er,” ginjima chuckles, pausing his hurried copying to give atsumu a grin. it’s a small push that he gives to the blond, knowing just how eager he is and how long he’s been talking to suzue about the game. “there’s around 30 minutes of lunch left.” 

atsumu tilts his head, furrows his brows, and thinks. it doesn’t take long for him to come up with a decision. “yer right! i’ll go get ‘er now! maybe i’ll just sit in the kitchen or whatever and play there, right?” 

you laugh lightly. “well, that is an option.”

he gives you a bright smile. 

“wanna come?”

what will you do?

accompany atsumu to find suzue

stay behind with ginjima, suna, and osamu

[olderthannetfic]

*Incoherent screaming*

Okay, so... ‘shounen-ai’ means the love of boys, yes—with adult men in the assumed subject position, like many other sex terms in Japanese. It was originally coined by Taruho Inagaki to talk about historical m/m in Japan and to make an analogy to Ancient Greece. Outside of a manga context, it means pederasty.

In a manga context, it’s slightly different:

Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio got dragged to see Les amitiés particulières by their buddy Norie Masuyama, and the Tragic Schoolboys era of shoujo manga was born.

(See this old interview with Hagio.)

'Shounen ai’ was used for a while to refer to these manga like Heart of Thomas that were being written in the 70s: dark, fucked up, #aesthetic, showing signs of too many hours at the arthouse theater and between the covers of a Herman Hesse novel.

By the 80s, both styles and terminology had shifted. ‘June’ (from the name of a magazine) and ‘Tanbi’ (’aestheticism’) were in vogue. ‘Yaoi’ was coined in the late 70s and was used throughout this period to mean something like “PWP”.

In the 90s, ‘BL’ won out as the general market niche term and has held strong ever since.

--

Meanwhile, in English, dumbasses decided that ‘yaoi’ referred to porn (more or less true) but ‘shounen ai’ referred to tasteful art about feelings and not Bad Sex Things... LOL. WTF. Have they read any 70s manga? It’s all chock full of rape and abuse!

The yaoi/shounen-ai distinction is baked into the site design of many weeaboo websites, including plenty of ones that categorize anime and also the fic archive MediaMiner. Thankfully, this stupidass use of the term is finally, finally starting to die out as these websites age and disappear.

[stackslip]

You got me interested in Vinland Saga. What is the source you are using for that translation? Nyaasi? Or something else?

vinland saga is a not very historically accurate retelling of the story of thorfinn karlsefni, an 11th century icelandic explorer who attempted to settle vinland--part of what is known in the modern day as the coast of north america. in reality by chapter 170 he still is far from even seeing vinland (haven't caught up yet though lol).

rather than actually being about vinland itself, vinland saga is rather an attempt to explore the violence of the viking age and ask how one can live in that time and not participate in such a violent system--do you work within it? do you find other solutions? or do you flee? thorfinn is essentially a child soldier driven by revenge for his father's death, who then has to deal with the consequences of the violence he has endured and inflicted upon others, and how much of it is baked into his own people's society and economy. in some ways it unfortunately falls flat, but it's still a lot more interested and nuanced than other attempts to do in a shounen setting tbh (though one can argue this is a seinen series).

i wouldn't call it historically accurate and i've had my criticisms, but i think it's definitely worth a read--i use bato.to, though keep in mind some of the chapters are missing pages and you gotta hunt them down in the second bato.to vinland saga category.

also i very rarely rec anime adaptations, but mappa has just concluded the second season of the anime (season 1 was by wit studios) and while i haven't watched all of it i actually think the anime is a fantastic adaptation. again, i have my nitpicks--i think the manga's art is one of its strong suits, and the anime can't quite capture its level of detail, but both seasons are genuinely fantastic adaptations that are worth checking out ALONG with the manga. they run until about chapter 100

have fun!

[your-old-sins-tournament]

12 YEAR OLD OCS; SIDE B

Tekki [Luna Wolf] (He/him)

Tekki is a walnut with pants (full name of his species). He has his arms stretched up always, because that's the most comfortable position for walnuts with pants. This also counts as his hobby. He lives on a house boat and has a farm with cows. He is christian. He is best friends with Roy from Fire Emblem (but he doesn't look anything like that because that'd be too hard to draw). He takes him out for ice cream at the end of their adventures but there's always something wrong with Roy's ice cream. Tekki once baked himself into a Pizza to surprise his friend Hulk. He is canonically 39 years old.

His design is based on a character from the Gigglebone Gang games.

Description

He is a round walnut with arms and legs and a face. He wears a white shirt and blue dungarees but that's hard to tell because of his weird body shape. He wears glasses and has crooked teeth.

Senshi (he/him)

Your classic shounen protagonist but with a twist... he's very effeminate yet surprisingly he isn't queer. He's a freelance "adventurer" kinda like in some isekai. He has some sidekicks which accompany him on his journey across the world to become "the greatest adventurer this world has ever seen" including Haruko, a shy twink with an incredibly tragic backstory, and Eruna, a spunky young trans girl who effectively sets back the queer rights movement by decades because she's a huge pick-me.

Description

Short spiky green hair gelled to a sharp point to his bangs

Has yellow eyes (if i remember correctly) and is drawn in the classic 2010s anime style

Wears an white victorian blouse underneath a solid black corset (reminiscent of the classic vampire aesthetic) with black pants and 2-inch heeled shoes

[imjustabeanie]

You seem so cool asjjdkshdjsks

Aurora, they/them

Cancer

INFP

4w5

I’m not sure what my sexuality is, but I prefer men.

Appearance: 5'5, straight black hair, brown eyes (its very brown with the right lighting). I'm built like a stick figure. Olive skin and beauty marks on my face (we match!). People have told me that I look unapproachable? It’s the rbf, aha. I'm experimenting with fashion rn, so my style can alternate between pastel blouses and skirts, or all black (alt style?).

I daydream a lot and tend to space out when I’m not talking to someone. I’m a true introvert, but I love to talk to certain people and about things I find interesting, like my fixations or a fun hypothetical situation. I also tend to get lost in new places. :’)

I value my authenticity, creativity and emotional intelligence (I can’t say I’m really empathetic, but I listen to people when they need me to and I try to be there for them). I am quite sensitive and emotional. Being hungry in a noisy place (lots of people talking) has sent me into sensory overload before I think? I got really angry, haha.

My hobbies are daydreaming, reading, writing, and listening to music. I like anime (mostly shounen), movies, and books (fantasy, thriller), especially analyzing characters with multiples layers and possible interpretations to their behaviour. I have taken a liking to buying clothes and crochet items, and plan to expand my collection of angry things in my room (I have two angry plushies and one judgmental cat bag). I also like sweet things and pretty scenery. :D

I think my giving love languages are quality time and physical touch. My receiving love languages are acts of service and words of affirmation. I wouldn't be able to stand a SO that often cuts me off when I'm trying to talk (especially when I would never do that to them), or someone that's only interested in talking about themselves. I would appreciate someone considerate with enough emotional intelligence to deal with my moody self, haha.

I kin Jade, Floyd, Dabi, Itoshi Sae and Shidou Ryusei from blue lock (look these two characters up and you'll find that they have basically nothing in common but it makes sense I swear.)

I speak English, a bit of Mandarin and Malay. I have two siblings. I plan to become a creative writer. :D

Thanks!

Hellooooo so sorry for the late answer I'm running on 3 hours of sleep lmao...also the biggest irony is who your match is 😭 I think you guessed it...

Your twst match is....Trey!

I know I teased you a lot about who it was, with deuce as my second choice but I believe that Trey would balance your personality quite well. He’s patient, understanding, kind and yet knows how to have fun. He’s quite the domestic boyfriend. I also think that appearance wise you two would look so cute! Concerning your RBF, I can see people being confused that the one they have to be wary about is Trey. Despite his appearance he does have a sharp tongue that he will use if he or his friends/lover are being insulted. The reasons I chose him is because he is quite far away from your deal breakers and his interest align with yours.

You said you liked sweet thing? Well…Trey can bake. I believe that you two got closer to each other after he asked you to test out his new recipes and give critique. Trey doesn’t mind you being a true introvert, I think he even selfishly likes it because it makes your relation more special in his eyes. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t encourage you to be more outgoing, no I believe he helps you make more friends. It’s just that he enjoys being the only one who can make you so flustered lol.

You’re one of the few people he can confide in. He feels so comfortable with you, he just can’t help it! His favorite moment of the day is when both of you meet up in his room and watch movies together or talk about books and manga you two are reading (or complaining about your siblings). He loves it when you get comfortable and start talking about your hobbies and analyzing characters with you. When he leaves for vacation back home, he always bring you a new book to read or any trinket he thinks you’d enjoy (and sweets from his family of course). He tries to get into crochet for you and your first anniversary gift is an angry cat he crocheted himself. He also asks Rook about clothes recommendations or accessories for your outfits.

Trey is also emotionally intelligent and can handle any of your moods like a champ. He loves you with all your moodiness and sensibility and if anyone judges you over this he will have a word with them. His favorite thing to do when you get worked up is to hug you and take you to a secluded place where he can help you calm down (and pepper you with kisses. Forehead kisses are his favorites). He is always here to tell you how proud he is and how happy you make him.

In short, a relationship with trey is like having a soulmate. He puts you above him and does his best to make you happy. The only problem is that, despite being comfortable with you, he still bottles up his real thoughts if he thinks it makes you happy (like we saw with riddle). Your runner up is silver.

[mochaakai27]

Read Me!

Welcome 👋🏾 I'll keep it short and sweet.

I'm a 30yr old, laid back guy who enjoys a good laugh and some nice flavored tea and this page is gonna be packed with the random things I enjoy. If you're 21 or older feel free to DM or ask me anything.

If you're a minor DO NOT INTERACT WITH ME.

Interests/Hobbies

- Anime: I watch mostly shounen but I'm open to exploring

-Gaming: I play everything from CoD to animal crossing. I enjoy multiplayer games and especially co-op games. I'd love to duo or run PvE stuff in MMOs too. DM me to find out what I play on.

-Cooking: I bake and cook stuff and enjoy watching the like.

- Reading: I'm new to this hobby so dm me books to read.

-Movies: I enjoy action/super hero movies. Not a big fan of horror but open to exploring other genres.