#the animation.... is so early 2000s/2010s it hurts

[snawbeanart]

a small tribute to those 2010's character tribute videos (some context under the Read More)

(Copied from the YT description)

Tribute video for Fawfuigi, a "what-if" scenario if Fawful had fawfulized Luigi early on during Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Also a tribute to those really old Mario tribute videos from the late 2000's - early 2010's (especially the Luigi and Mr. L ones that'd use this same song). Set quality to 144p for the optimal viewing experience. Song used is Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace, and I drew all the artwork (though some are edited Nintendo renders / artwork. also some backgrounds are from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story).

If you're not familiar with the Mario & Luigi series and are wondering what's gone wrong with Luigi, he's been turned into a goofy prankster bean man by a genius evil bean scientist / engineer named Fawful. Fawful sparked chaos throughout the Mushroom Kingdom by starting an epidemic of bloated Toads, hijacking Bowser's Castle, stealing a forbidden object of great dark power, with the kingdom's authorities trapped in Bowser's stomach all the while.

Fawful does something called fawfulization throughout the kingdom during his conquest- this usually means he stamped his face and/or likeness onto something. He fawfulized statues, carpets, castles, animals, and even clouds. So what would be a bigger middle finger to Mario than fawfulizing his own brother?

The story of this scenario / AU (note this is an unfinished and pretty condensed retelling, I didn't want to write out all the elements of BIS that'd still happen but weren't really plot-relevant):

The morning that Mario and Luigi were supposed to appear at the Blorbs epidemic conference held at Peach's Castle, Luigi was strangely absent. Luigi is assumed to be late and the meeting continues until Bowser barges in and, under the influence of Fawful's Vacuum Mushroom, inhales all of the participants.

Meanwhile, the now-fawfulized Fawfuigi is running amuck, further adding insult to injury to the befuddled kingdom. He doesn't mean much harm most of the time, but his sense of humor can be very mean-spirited. His objective is to stall Mario from getting anywhere near Fawful, but can't seem to find the red plumber for a while.

Mario has been struggling without his brother. When he finally leaves Bowser's body, he's too late. The Dark Star the princess had warned him of was stolen. Things were only going to get worse.

When Mario leaves the town's caves and hobbles home to take a breather, he finds that his door has been slathered with rotten eggs. His shelves have been unconventionally reorganized. Someone had drawn over his family portrait with marker. Mario was infuriated but also baffled. Who and why?

He finds out soon enough. When he sees Fawfuigi, he knows that must be Luigi, but he doesn't want to believe it. He found him at Bumpsy Plains, setting up banana peels on the pathway to Bowser Path. When Fawfuigi spots him, he hurls a ball of electricity at Mario intending to start a fight, but Mario doesn't want to hurt him. Starlow urges Mario to do something to stop him, but after Mario fails to reason with Fawfuigi, he flees.

[the-s1lly-corner]

could I um.. request the whole alphabet with gangle.. take your time :))

The fluff alphabet w/ Gangle (Full!)

so sorry it took me so long to get to this! i got back to my computer just now and decided to whip up a masterlist/begin one before working on requests again! i must admit gangle is a hard character for me to write, so if some letters seem lackluster, sound repetitive, or whatever, i apologize in advance </3

ABSTRACT- if you ever abstract gangle will be absolutely beside herself, overcome with grief. i dont think she would abstract, though. she keeps to her room, her comedy mask long forgotten. broken or not, she cant bring herself to put it on. she feels bad, why didnt you reach out to her? did you feel like you were a burden? did you think she wouldnt be enough to save you? thoughts like that eat her alive

BONDING- you two draw together, sometimes even making comics with each other! i saw a few posts where gangle loves to draw, and draws in an early 2000-2010s anime art style and i absolutely love that. you guys just do that, when you have the free time

CUDDLING- neither little nor big spoon, gangle is simply. ribbon. its like cuddling ribbon, there isnt much to be said in that regard. kinda cold but thats because ribbon doesnt really carry heat. wraps her body around you

DATES- drawing dates! similar to the bonding segment, but you guys make it a point to draw things for each other. you even get to bust out some paints. yipee! ends up in you two drawing each other. so many painted hearts

EMOTION- gangle is definitely the more emotional one between the two of you, especially if shes wearing her tragedy mask. not much to be said, gangle is a cry baby and i dont mean that in a bad way

FAMILY- should the two of you ever escape the digital world and find each other, you two would definitely get married! as for children, i honestly dont see gangle as the type to have kids, but thats just a me thing

GIFT- really nailing the art stuff deep, gangle draws things for you all the time. but i can also see them being into origami! they make you paper hearts and little critters, bows and crowns, things like that! gangle loves receiving gifts as well, unsure of what she would like, though

IN HOUSE ADVENTURE- the only reason she wouldnt spend all of her time with you on an adventure is if she gets paired up with someone in a group (ex. her sticking with kinger after jax put them together), since i feel she would be too scared to speak up about it, even if shes starting to gain more of a voice thanks to your influence

JEALOUSY- gangle doesnt really. get jealous. at least not in the "traditional" way, to be more accurate, she gets sad. i mean, she knows shes a crybaby, she knows shes frail, but she wouldnt want to make you feel bad that she feels bad. please give her a lot of reassurance :(

KISS- lets play my favorite game! admins favorite hc for characters with no normal mouth/lips! she gently doinks her mask against your face; careful not to hurt you and to not accidentally knock off her mask! loves giving you cheek kisses, loves receiving forehead kisses

LOVE LANGUAGE- gangle feels loves when you reassure her that you love her just as she is, as well as when you spend time with her. gangle shows her love by making you gifts and fawning over you

MENDED- should you ever come back from being abstracted some how, all those thoughts that plagued her mind are now voiced. she cant help it, she feels so bad for dumping her grief onto you the second you're retrieved from the cellar. but she cant stop herself. poor girl is going to wrapped around you, literally..

NO- please dont be mean or rude to her she will feel very bad, even if you're just teasing her or joking. she already has to put up with everyone else (well, mostly jax)

ODDITY- when the comedy mask is on, she can light up a room, well, kinda. we dont get to see her with her comedy mask but i think shes loads more cheerful with it on, and perhaps even a smidge more confident in herself, when the mask is broken she can take a quick nose dive. its not so much thats it weird, more so that its a bit jarring at how big the change is

PDA- very shy about PDA, but i think ultimately if you want to hold her hand she wont object!

QUIET TIME- one word, drawing. but also i can see the two of you just being able to lie in bed with each other in comfortable silence

ROSES- PAPER ROSES PAPER ROSES! i may have a soft spot because i myself used to make origami flowers, but i think she would give you a bouquet of paper flowers. she would be over the moon if you gave her some, she looks like a dandelion enjoyer (like the yellow ones, but i think she would also like the white fuzzy ones)

SHH- loads of secrets, a lot of them tying into the jealousy segment. gangle probably also doesnt speak up about when someone is mean to her, opting to stay quiet in order to not cause issues or drama. please help her break that habit

TUNES- it might be because ive been listening to jack on loop, but this is the first one that comes to mind:

UPSET- when she gets upset she just wants to be comforted and held; when you're upset shes ready to do everything it takes to help you, just say the word and she'll do it... the image of gangle confronting someone for your sake has just flashed through my mind, though i think that may be the one thing she wont do... would love to see it though

VALENTINE- paper hearts. you two decide to go to the digital carnival together and experience some of the themed attractions... namely, the ferris wheel.... should i bring up everyones favorite ferris wheel trope...

WANT- she wants someone who wont think shes some. weirdo. and who thinks shes worthwhile

XOXO- little love notes, similar to my idea for ragatha! though gangle is more... eh, about it, since she fears you might be turned off by it

YEARN- id say in the middle, since she can respect your space and whatever it is you need to do, and she has to admit herself there are times where she wants to hang out with someone else or be alone; and thats perfectly okay!

ZZZ- likes wrapping her entire body around you, head to your chest. she doesnt really move when she sleeps, too entangled around you to do that. probably snores very softly

[linabirb]

OK OK SO. 3 16 24 (i was LITERALLY gonna ask abt 6 and 7 but taru beat me to it LMAOAOAOAO) ummm i wanna see for twst and milgram pls <3

HEHEHEHEHE thank you for sending these sol!!

3. "screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr"

twst: OHHHHHH THERE'S A LOT. but i'll keep it short. again, that one bday vignette line and also people saying that riddle will grow up just like his mother despite the character development he got. that one hurts me so much because again, i had said it many times, i have anger issues myself and one of the many reasons why i like riddle is because of how much i relate to him and because he feels so human and not just. you know. "haha angy boi". so seeing things like "ohhh he should never have children because he will treat them like he was treated when he was little" is so. painful.

milgram: tbh there's so many that my brain just kinda refuses to process them anymore ALSO SINCE THE FANDOM IS KINDA SMALL. I FEEL LIKE ALL THOSE POSTS ARE EASY TO FIND but again i'll keep it short: mahiru is NOT a stalker/kidnapper/etc, stop saying she is, she literally said she's not one and i doubt it was a lie and also hhhhhhh i have my. own opinion about whatever is going on with kazui but i don't wanna go into detail but basically. before he himself said that his crime wasn't related to cheating, there were some people who were like.. very passionate about voting him guilty because he's a cheater and like. i'm sorry this is so funny to me like we have a guy who killed a child and MANY different animals, we have a guy who cyberbullied a teenage girl into committing suicide, MIKOTO, SHIDOU LITERALLY ASKED "WHICH ONE" AFTER HE GOT A QUESTION ABOUT HIS VICTIM(S) and cheating is where you draw the line?? 😭😭 ah and also whoever says that it was his wife's fault <3 i'm in your walls right now.

16. "you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)"

twst: HMMMMM LET ME THINK ABOUT IT. okay okay let's see. well, first of all, i'm not a fan of the time loop theory simply because i'm not a fan of time loop tropes in general. i'm pretty sure there was a time (i think it was like.. late 2000's-early 2010's? maybe even earlier) where like ALMOST EVERY SINGLE VISUAL NOVEL, GAME, ANIME, MANGA, ETC (but especially vns), used that trope AND I HATED IT SO MUCH. i love it when time loops are used to make a character go through the same painful event over and over again to completely change their character, but most of the time (haha get it) time loops feel like.. basically it's like writers use them to just explain everything that doesn't exactly make sense in-universe. why does this character say mc looks familiar to them and doesn't elaborate? well that's because they've seen them before in previous loops! why does mc know how this world works even though they've never been there? well that's because time loop! why do these two characters are in love with each other even though they've never even talked? well that's because they were in love in previous loops! i can talk about my hatred for that trope for hours, honestly.

okay, let's talk about characterization. tbh there's not much i can say because.. let's be honest, even though twst characters are definitely deep and interesting and fun, their personalities feel a bit "limited"(?) mostly because of their disney counterparts or because of how strong certain traits of their personalities are. and i'm not complaining.. mostly. i really wish some characters had more personality traits. but what i really hate is when some writers just.. throw away all the "ugly" or "unlikeable" traits of those characters to make them more "imagines-friendly". like i'm sorry, but sometimes i just read some fics and go "he would NOT say that". i know that people love the "OH BUT HE'S NICE TO Y/N" trope, i use it too sometimes, but like.. some people just really forget that this game is about characters who are literally based on disney villains. like it's okay, let them have flaws. and i don't mean those flaws that are like "omg he's so shyyyy >///<" or "hehe he can ramble a lot <3" NO. I MEAN ACTUAL FLAWS.

milgram: it's okay. it's okay guys. i promise it's okay that somebody can't see that character being gay or ships them with someone of an opposite sex. it's okay. and that's coming from someone who has almost no straight ocs.

like, listen, i'm a 0104 shipper. i see their relationship as romantic but i absolutely have nothing against platonic interpretations. but when people see something like ship art and go "muu is literally a lesbian btw" i'm like. i have so many hcs too but it's one thing to say that "hey i think this headcanon is very plausible and i think it's very neat" and to go "IT'S LITERALLY CANON" unironically and not as a joke. like idk, i'm just that kind of person who has lots of headcanons but until i see them actually being confirmed, i won't try to make people change their mind. (and just so you know i'm not trying to deny that she's attracted to girls. she has that vibe and she literally says "i love you" when she sees a girl and her pupils become bigger like?? but come on. it's okay for people to ship her with a male character until she literally says that she's not into boys in canon)

kazui is a whole different thing, i really was interested in the whole "yeah he's gay actually" theory and i love the memes, but now that people are saying it's "officially" canon and lowkey just. kinda being annoying, yeah, i don't even want to look at the tag anymore because i want to see actual theories and i don't want to see another "yeah he's gay so vote him inno". i'm not here to say that it's a dumb reason to forgive him, since we are literally allowed to have all kinds of reasons to forgive a character, but i think it's a weird thing to say when this guy really does seem like a very deep character, but i can't take him seriously anymore because of those theories that don't even sound like theories (and i mean it in a bad way and not bc they sound so canon)

24. "topic that brings up the most rancid discourse"

twst: honestly, this fandom mostly has like.. people-related drama, like this artist/writer/etc did something problematic, things like that. but i think if i had to choose a topic that annoys me the most.. these two topics kinda go together but i'll start with mc's gender. it actually doesn't get discussed that often, since we're supposed to see them as a self-insert, but i've really seen people say things like "mc is obviously supposed to be female" or "mc is obviously supposed to be male", etc.

i'm not going to pretend that i don't have my own opinion and i'm going to say that tbh i see twst mc as being male (one of the reasons why my mc is a guy), but that's mostly just because i usually prefer to play as a guy when it comes to games like that. (honestly if i have a choice, i choose fem mcs very rarely, stelle is like one of the few exceptions) however, i never try to prove why i'm right, i just kinda go "eh you do you". but i'm not gonna lie, those who believe that mc is female are the most annoying ones, like i get it, of course, a large part of twst fandom are women who are attracted to men, but also. there are. so many otome games. no literally a huge reason why i often don't feel comfortable playing otome games is because I HAVE NO IDEA WHY but i really just don't want to play as a girl and i don't want those characters to see my mc as a girl. (i rarely see my mc as a self-insert btw and almost always see them as their own character) LIKE I DON'T KNOW CAN'T PEOPLE WHO SEE THEIR MCS AS MALE/NB HAVE SOMETHING. like i literally love twst and obey me (i really should play it more often but again. my phone doesn't like it and idk if it will run on my tablet) exactly because of how "genderless" their mcs feel and that i can just see them as whatever gender i want them to be. and idk it just.. doesn't feel good when people are trying to remind me that "btw mc is obviously supposed to be a girl" especially when i already kinda know that considering the audience/demographic.

the second topic was probably more popular to discuss when i first got into the game and when it first came out: character x mc or character x character. i was a big character x character enjoyer and didn't really care about character x mc at first until i got interested in riddleyuu and malleyuu. but yeah, watching those sides fight was like. guys you both are losing. like some character x character fans were being mean and hating on self-inserts and some character x mc fans were saying things like "y'all just want more guys to ship". and like. there's nothing wrong with both of those things like calm down. i still can see people arguing because of that, but i just try to ignore them now tbh.

milgram: *clicks on the tag* .. yeah whatever is going on right now.

[dlamp-dictator]

Thinking About Combat Schools

In an attempt to try and write at least one decently sized essay post that isn’t about Arknights for once (and god is that difficult) I’m going to talk about something else that is near and dear to my heart.

Combat School Anime/Manga.

Along side my thoughts of how Hypergryph is doing everything in their power to make Vigil suck as a unit I’ve been thinking a lot about the Combat School genre of anime and manga recently. It seems this odd sub-genre of the late 2000s and early-to-mid 2010s is making a mild resurgence with shows like The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World, Reborn to Master the Blade, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World, Reign of the Seven Spellswords, and so on. The world is slowly but surely leaving the realm of isekai and going back the formula of classrooms about battle and facing enigmatic foes of various species and organizations.

And most of them suck.

Okay, I’m being a dick here, but they really don’t do anything I like and most of them feel like they have the same problems that Hundred. Few of them take the aspect of a school revolving around combat and martial prowess seriously since most of the students either don’t take the classes seriously or are at the schools for reasons aside from learning combat. Few of these shows give the protagonist a legitimately good reason for being at said school since most of them are unnaturally strong and dust through the classes with ease to the point of them being there is pointless. And very few of these series have protagonist that interest me since most of them boil down to the same Gary Stu archetype of being the best or having the most potential for greatness right out the gate with little trouble in terms of the combat portion of the combat school.

Like, folks, you can make this genre interesting.

But I digress. And rather than mindless complain about all I currently hate about the genre’s reemergence I believed it would be better to channel my venting into something worth a damn and just talk about some of the more interesting and fun points of the genre, maybe with a few recommendations thrown in as well.

But first, as always, a synopsis.

The Combat School genre of anime essentially focuses on a school setting that revolves around teaching students combat, martial arts, or efficiently utilizing their supernatural abilities in a semi-controlled environment for the sake of them graduating and using those abilities to better society. Most of the time the end goal of these schools is to work as a paramilitary academy to train students to either fight ambiguous monsters of some kind like in Katana Maidens or Hundred, and sometimes it’s to work under a government-sanctioned supernatural military force like in Absolute Duo or Chivalry of a Failed Knight. There’s also the third option of simply keeping all the super-powered teenagers under one concentrated location for the sake of keeping an eye on them, but that’s rarely done or discussed save for one series I can think of and mentioning it would be a huge spoiler of its premise so I’d rather not.

But anyway, onto why exactly I like this odd little sub-genre.

The Appeal

Originally I was going to break this down into two different types of appeals but I’m scrapping that going with just a few key points. This sub-genre has a lot of fun bits and aspect about it both from a mechanical writing perspective and emotional one, and for the sake of your time and my sanity I’ll be doing the appeals in a semi-short list form of each aspect I like about this series.

So... with that said.

Easy Action: Action junky I am, it’s pretty easy to show off action in a setting that allows and likely encourages both organized combat and unorganized combat due to the school’s very setting focusing on the eventuality of battles, and those battles will have the narrative weight of not only our characters having to be good fighters for the sake of not getting hurt, but being good students as well. High school can feel like a battlefield at times, and this genre can make that very literal.

Easy  Worldbuilding: This one’s a bit tricky to do smoothly, but a combat school setting being a school usually gives us, the audience, a good reason to quite literally be lectured to about the setting when it is an in-universe lecture that the main cast is also listening to. This can get boring if it isn’t done well or the teachers in question don’t have interesting ways of give that information, but usually it’s excusable by the nature of use needing to know this information as much as the character, no matter how boring the exposition might be.

Cast Diversity: This often depends on the world’s settings and other specifics, but it’s pretty easy to get a wide and varying cast of characters by the nature of it being a school, especially if the main character is a transfer student of some kind. Not to the mention the chance of getting an exchange student or some other outsider that isn’t the region’s usual demographic or ethnicity. Things like that are easy to justify in a school environment and gives a good reason to explore the world outside the setting without leaving it.

Easy Character Arcs: Being a school, the amount of personal stakes you can attach to things like tests, competitions, and even romance will be both natural and in character with a cast of teenagers. Plus the more intense settings could have more straightforward stakes like risk of injury or death depending on how gritty you want to make the series. You can also focus on more tertiary that aren’t explored as the main cast of students to keep things varied without it feeling out of nowhere. There were plenty of Assassination Classroom episodes that focused on the D-Cast without it feeling weird after all.

Power Levels/Powerscaling: As much as I want write essays on this topic I’ll keep things brief. Being a school that often revolves around learning how to either fight or use the world-specific powers to fight grants the writer a lot of interesting ways to limit and expanse the magic system/power levels of the world, letting them increase the escalation of the level of threats and powers in a smooth fashion. Teachers tend to be the aspirations in terms of power with professionals and graduates of the school being a step or two about that. It varies, but that’s the gist of things to make it simple.

There’s a few more, but these are the immediate advantages of the setting I can think of. Overall, the Combat School setting is very inclusive to a number of different ideas.

And... I’ve honestly seen only a few that do this well, and the handful that do usual have a massive asterisks in front of them.

Quick Notes on Other Combat Schools

Just going to make a quick list here since I don’t really have anything worth endorsing with confidence. Like I said, most other combat school series tend to have some kind of asterisk to it that makes it hard for me to recommend. With that said...

Absolute Duo has a pretty decent opening with a more down-to-earth setting compared to other combat schools that really understands the school is about combat, but it falls into a lot of fanservice and harem tropes that aren’t needed since Tor and Julie’s narrative journeys and general school activities are already interesting enough to hold the plot together without a needless panty shot.

Chivalry of the Failed Knight also takes the combat school portion of it’s setting seriously, but post anime a lot of the more... specific issues surrounding the big tournament and spoilers of the events during it tend to break my suspension of disbelief in terms of the antagonistic force in the setting that isn’t Ikki’s family actively screwing him over because of political reasons.

Hundred... I’ve talked about already, but to keep it short feels like an action series that takes place at a school rather than being a combat school series.

Armed Girl’s Machiavellism is actually a good series all things considered, with a main character that’s fun to watch, a female cast that’s interesting without them all being completely tied to the male lead, and some decent action shots in it, but I consider it more a school with a lot of martial arts and combat in it than a proper combat school. The setting is mostly a school where the student body knows martial arts and swordplay out of convenience rather than it being a part of the school’s curriculum, so technically I don’t think it should count.

Overall it just feels like a lot the more recent combat school series don’t see the fun potential in the genre and instead just... have school with some combat in it. And that’s just not fun, or at least not interesting. If I had to be honest I’d say the only decent Combat School series out right now is Reign of the Seven Spellblades with it actually taking the whole wizard thing seriously and letting the characters learn and understand the wonder and dangers of magic as well as the kind of place a school that encourages magical growth and experimentation is like. And even then I consider it more a magic school series than a combat school.

I don’t know. All this talk about the genre’s potential now has me in the mood to try and write my own. Tempting, but... I’ve got enough on my plate already.

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to talk about. A bit meandering, but just wanted to get my thoughts out somewhere. Maybe I’ll talk about something a little more concrete in the future. Anyways, be seeing you all later.

[derschwarzeengel]

Getting real tired and very annoyed of seeing Negative Legend's videos on Loveless (anime and manga) in the tag by people who have never actually watched the anime/read the manga and proudly identify as Antis (or have "Proshippers/NSFW blogs DNI" in their description; same fucking thing at this point).

Again, way to miss the whole fucking point of this story and demonize people who are in the fandom and genuinely like/love Loveless. People in the fandom on Twitter were Not Happy with his anime video, corrected him/them multiple times, and each time he/they doubled down with trolling responses.

With both videos, Negative Legend doesn't even try to understand why this series was so popular to begin with, why it's so important to the fandom, and/or the themes within.

Yes, Soubi and Ritsuka's relationship is very complicated and fucked up. Yes, Seimei is a sexual predator and is in all likelihood a psychopath/sociopath. Yes, Ritsuka's mother is extremely abusive towards her youngest son. Yes, Soubi is a child sexual abuse victim later paired in an emotionally abusive relationship with Seimei when Seimei was 14 and Soubi 17.

This is all intentional on part of the mangaka. Loveless is a story about abuse, about trauma, how words hurt a person's psyche more than physical injuries, and (through Ritsuka and Soubi) how to break free from an abusive relationship and grow as a person. It is repeatedly noted in-universe that Ritsuka and Soubi's relationship is not normal.

Yun Kouga has outright said that while there are a lot of BL themes in Loveless, she doesn't consider the series to be BL in and of itself and the focus is more on relationships and how they affect people within them.

Being a josei manga, the target audience in Japan is adult women. It was never meant to be targeted for a teenage audience, but North American publishers saw the cat ears and tails aesthetic for virgins in this universe + the BL-ish themes and the fact Ritsuka is in the sixth grade and marketed it for older teens.

For a lot of North American fans who first picked up this series in the early/mid-2000s as young teens when it was first being published by TokyoPop? This was baby's first exposure to BL and queer themes in media in general. (Same with Black Butler.)

The other thing that annoys me so fucking much about these videos and has earned Negative Legend my contempt, is this:

Who exactly is Negative Legend trying to warn with these videos about how Problematic and Messed Up and BadWrongTM Loveless is?

The manga has been running since 2002, and the most recent volume came out in the mid-2010s. Since then, the manga has been on hiatus.

Loveless is long out of print in US bookstores; if you want a physical copy, you have to order it online.

The anime first aired and completed in Spring 2005, covering the first four volumes of the manga and creating an ending out of whole cloth.

Negative Legend fully admits that they weren't around when this series was popular.

Fansites that were around in the early 2000s dedicated to this manga and the anime, given the nature of the Internet, are probably long since shut down with how long the manga has been running and the increasing corporatization of the World Wide Web.

If you were in middle school/high school when Loveless first came out, by now you are well into your thirties/forties.

Back to Soubi/Ritsuka/Seimei/Nisei for a moment:

Soubi being overly affectionate with Ritsuka in the first few volumes is twofold: 1) he was ordered to do so by Seimei, Ritsuka's older brother, when he knew nothing about Ritsuka other than he was Seimei's little brother and would inherit him when Seimei was killed; 2) all Soubi has ever known ever since he was six years old is abuse in some form or another, and he was raped by his mentor/father-figure when he was ten years old. All while being brutally trained to submit wholly to whoever is his Sacrifice. Soubi has never known what it is to be in a healthy relationship, and so he visibly does not know how to react whenever Ritsuka treats him like an actual human being.

From what we see of him in volume 5 onward, Seimei is all but stated to have some form of antisocial personality disorder, and he is obsessed with earning Ritsuka's love. Nothing matters more to him than his little brother; everyone else are pawns and toys for him to use and discard. (He also has powers that other Sacrifices do not seem to have, but that is neither here nor there.)

Ritsuka, the 12-year-old protagonist, has been abused by his mother since before Seimei faked his death and the abuse became even worse after Ritsuka developed selective amnesia at the age of 10 over the trauma of losing Seimei. He was also subject to increasing molestation by Seimei, who was more of a parental figure to him than their father and definitely more so than their mother. Yes, he attends therapy weekly, but this is only so his mother can have her "Ritsuka" back. Enter Soubi and his introduction to the Fighter/Sacrifice world and taking on yet another identity as Loveless. He's incredibly tsundere toward Soubi, whom he doesn't want to continually rely on, yet at the same time doesn't really have a choice. It doesn't matter that there might or might not be a destined Fighter for him out there; Soubi is his Fighter, Loveless's Fighter, and as patchwork as their bond is, it's better than the corrupted bond Soubi shares with Seimei.

And Seimei takes advantage of the fact Soubi was his Fighter and they still share the same name to force Soubi to help him, to make him (in a way) betray Ritsuka against Soubi's will. Soubi breaks down first when he realizes Seimei is alive, to the point Ritsuka realizes something is deeply wrong here, and then again after Seimei and Nisei's attack on Seven Voices. He's basically catatonic after Seimei essentially mind-rapes him and forces him to act against his and Ritsuka's wills to help Seimei (his abuser) escape.

Gods forbid dark, fucked-up shit happens in a dark story about abuse and relationships and how words mean things and affect people.

I don't really know what else to say here other than media literacy is dead, antitubers stop coming up with dogshit takes challenge, and not censoring the names of Loveless fans on social media knowing people who watch your videos will harass people who actually like this manga/anime and want to talk about it?

Not fucking cool. Fuck off. And fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.

[transfemlogan]

(about your recent posts) is. is my scene au bad kajdkdkf if you were to point out the weak areas in it that’d actually be great!! ive done research and i do consider myself scene (among other things) but im by no means an expert on the subculture lmao - @werewroammin

I LOVE UR AU !!!! I don't think your interpretation is Incorrect, bcuz theres so many diff eras of scene (scene queens vs the og scenesters vs current scene culture vs "scenecore" & its inclusion of decora)

Also I . Can't tell other scenesters what they can & cant wear. You know, I barely dress scene but am constantly listening 2 crunkcore.

I WILL however say ur logan is not scene like. At all. /lh /silly

Ignoring the fact she's wearing demonias. Which kind of hurts me seeing them being called scene. Nothing else about her is scene. Her makeup isn't scene, her hair is vaguely scene, her clothes are .... i don't know what you would call it. But it's not scene

I know it's very hard to figure out scene wear for Logan, because (s)he's. Logan. NRHWKFHD

Might I suggest: knee high converse, as opposed to demonias? Scenesters don't wear platforms usually! (Unless you're looking at tik tok's "scenecore".) You could also do a denim skirt instead of their spiderweb skirt (which is very cute, i wish i had it). You can keep the longsleeve stripped shirt, i would change the overshirt but you don't really have to, & as for the makeup keep the racoon eyes, just get rid of the little lines & black lipstick (mainly because of how makeup was done back in the early 2000s!)

Patton is. Also. A strange case of like "this isnt scene, i dont know what the hell it is" HEJEKWNEUKSJD. Again, I'd probably call it more... tik toks scenecore, but it's not really that either. I don't know what's up with the fishnets & garters. That's not usually seen within scene fashion (it can be done but due to how it's paired up w/ the rest of hearts clothes it doesnt come off as scene). I would personally trade it out for animal print.

Everyone else is ok!!! I really love Remus, ☠️ is such a scene queen. ☠️ is the scenie everyone wishes they could be. & janus is such a fashion disaster I love it. & roman looks like a 2010s soft boy HEHEJEJEHE

[alyszaen]

HELP IM GONNA TRY NOT TO BE SO AWKWARD WITH THIS OKOKOKOK…. Okay okay okay. I am 5”3 and i have an athletic build and I recently dyed my hair blue. It was a disaster at first but I’m really warming up to it. Especially after the purple shampoo gave it a bit of a sky blue color(my favorite.) I listen to a lot of different types of music, it’s a lot of 2010s pop or early 2000s rock because I’ve been on a horrid nostalgia kick. But I also listen to a lot of movie soundtracks, guardians of the galaxy, the goofy movie, even like old anime soundtracks. Ouran and black butler had me by the nuts growing up. So did FNAF, ddlc, yandere sim etc. I absolutely loved 2016 and still do oops. I am a cancer and only a couple days behind leo. I’m really sensitive and get my feelings hurt easily but I don’t take it out on anyone. If it gets to the point of not being able to take it then I’ll confront my feelings as respectfully as possible. I don’t get as snappy at other people as I used to, I’m more mellow now. I am very hard on myself though and need a strict routine. Like, wake up, wash face, eat, workout, homework, write, eat, etc. I like my routines and get stressed out easily if it’s broken. I feel I need to loosen up a lot. I like being around people who aren’t intimidating, or if they are we have already broken that barrier. I’ve had icky experiences with people so trust issues 📈📈📈📈My hobbies are writing, art, learning French, and working out. I’ve been creating art since I was a kid and so growing up everyone thought I was going to be an artist, but I made a promise to myself to never make my passion a job. Art class taught me that. I’m a portrait and abstract artist, I HATE doing landscapes but I love looking at them. I really love monet. I’ve been writing since middle school because I was a huge homestuck and anime loser so someone had to write the fanfics and assign people characters lol. Oh god I used to wear homestuck horns to school. ANYWAYS I’ve been working out for the past couple years, it helps a lot with my confidence. It also helps me keep on top of my meals :) OH AND I DONT EAT MEAT BUT ILL EAT FISH SO PESCATARIAN! I’ve also had a sweet tooth lately 😋 OKAY THATS IT THIS IS WAY TOO LONG!!!! THANK YOU AGAIN WHUDBDJBD -🦝

Henlo hun, thanks for the ask to be shipped!

First of all as a person who's favourite artist has always been Monet I stan you.

Okay let's get into this.

I am so convinced that you belong with Lixie!

You would watch marvel movies together on the couch in the dorms and you're 100% both crying during most of them. Felix and you would probably do so many things together! You'd cook food together, work out together, all that jazz.

He would for sure try to play some of your favourite games with you. I'm convinced he already played yandere sim before. It just seems so like him.

But now the most important thing with lixie is CUDDLES. This man would not give you a break (in the best way). You're standing in front of him? Backhug. You're standing next to him? Hand on your hips. You're sleeping? He's half on top of you. Sitting somewhere? Wrong, you're sitting on his lap.

Yongbok is so soft for you he would do anything and everything to keep you happy. We stan.

Now I'm also soft for him again. Brb while I search for some lixie fluff smh

I hope you like this <33

[thevalleyoftriumph]

every time someone asks for media recs i resist the urge to jokingly suggest nexo knights just for the 2d4 psychic damage it would cause the person

[ethrenisnotthehero]

@hogwartsmystory is a predator (part one)

Ethren Whitecross is a Hogwarts Mystery MC created by an abuser, and his story has been utilized to torment the survivor. Ren, his enablers, and the friends who support him are a danger to the HPHM community, and it’s important that people are made aware of their presence on tumblr. To ensure this callout reaches as many people as possible, some of the normal tags on our posts are not present on this callout. I know that this isn’t the kind of content most people want to see, but it would mean a lot for everyone who reads it to pass the warning on. It’s the responsibility of adults (all adults, period) to help prevent kids in our circles from getting wrapped up with people who would hurt them. TW: Pedophilia, Abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual Assault, Self Harm, Suicide, NSFW Topics

Thanks to everyone who’s been checking in. It means a lot to Ren’s victim to know that people hear her and believe her, especially after all the time she’s spent suffering because of this. I’m frustrated that no one did this sooner, because predators like Ren will continue to abuse people to cater to their power fantasy unless they’re consistently called out for their behavior. Unfortunately, many of the people who support Ren now were also some of the same people who excused/enabled his behavior, or were even children themselves at the time. @hogwartsmystory is run by a man who used to role-play on children’s websites, going by the names “Wolfsabre,” “Strider,” and “aaron.”

The Act of Grooming, Part One: Access  

One of the communities he frequented was an adoptable pet website known as Chicken Smoothie. We’ll refer to this website as CS from now on. Between 2011 and 2014, CS staff went through several periods of cracking down on adult topics their role-play forums. Frustrated with not being able to get away with RPing adult topics on CS, Ren decided that he would make his own site to serve as a “haven” for mature role-players. At the time that Ren created his site (first known as Awesome Sauce and then later as Advanced Scribes), he could have been as old as 16. For the rest of this callout, his website will be referred to as AS.

Ren’s founder blurb on the Staff section of AS:

A significant portion of users who switched to AS did it because they could no longer RP popular topics on CS, including: + sexually explicit scenes (crackdowns in 2009, 2011, and 2014) + nonconsensual romance (huge crackdowns in 2011/2012) + slave/master dynamics (crackdowns in 2010, 2011, and 2013) + prolific violence (crackdowns in 2011/2013) + detailed gore (crackdowns in 2010, 2013, and 2014) + most swearing (consistently since 2011) + dog-fighting, puppy mills, and animal abuse (banned in 2012) + and abusive relationships (huge crackdowns in 2011/2012). When I say get away with, I mean get away with. Explicit or sexual scenes/RP topics were banned in 2009, so by the time staff were truly cracking down on NSFW RPs it had been banned for years. Official topic banning explicit content on CS in 2009:

Ren knew the rules of the site, but chose to RP mature content in the forums, making excuses about why he continued to stay. He also consistently proved that he was aware of the fact that it was against site rules, but continued to advertise his website as a place where users could RP sex, drugs, and violence, among other things.

And this is just a fraction of his advertising. After he created AS, a significant portion of users flooded over to his site to get around CS rules. In fact, so many users used CS to solicit partners for mature AS role-plays that even mentioning the site was banned for a period of time after it was created. Proof of AS ban from advertising on the site:

And despite everything said, it’s not like AS’s content was occasionally outside the scope of CS rules. People knew AS as the place to RP suicide, addiction, sex, drugs, abuse, salve and mater RPs, violence, gore, etc. These were people who were bothered that they couldn’t RP slave and master relationships on a children’s website. 

And keep in mind, CS was created in the early 2000s. A lot of the people who grew up on the site were pretty young back then, myself included. Jill, the person that Ren would go on to abuse, was 12 at the time that he started advertising this bullshit on CS. This behavior was pervasive on CS, literally so bad that there would be huge waves of bans every few months during the early days. I had my own underaged character be sexually assaulted in an RP by someone who claimed to be an adult man. For God’s sakes, there have been actual arrests made in connection with this site, that’s how bad these infractions of the rules were. From 2011 to 2013, at the height of predatory behavior happening in a place meant to be a safe haven for children, Ren gave them a safe haven to go to and created a space perfect for luring in impressionable, vulnerable youth. And that’s how he met Jill.

Continue to Part 2

[thechanelmuse]

Just a few of my favorite takeaways from Kobe Bryant’s book, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

NBA 2K

After [my ankle injury in Game 2 of the 2000 NBA Finals], I missed Game 3, but managed, thanks to stimulation therapy, to play the rest of the series. This treatment involves wires that deliver low-level electrical current directly through your skin. It actually helps bring the pain down. But the ankle was so bad that, to be honest, I couldn’t hoop much that summer. What I did do, though, was take up tap dancing. 

That’s right: tap dancing. 

That was my worst sprain, but it certainly wasn’t my first. I realized at that point I needed to be proactive about strengthening my ankles. After researching the matter, it became apparent that tap dancing was going to be the best way to build up my ankle strength while simultaneously improving my foot speed and rhythm. So I hired an instructor and started going to the studio. I worked on it all of that summer and benefited for the rest of my career.

Playing Through the Pain

I hurt my finger on December 11, 2009. Gary was assessing, trying to gauge how bad it was. Pretty much right away, we went back into the bowels of the arena, had it X-rayed, and Gary told me it was fractured. I said, “Alright, cool, now get me back out there.” 

Gary looked at me like I was crazy. 

I asked him, “Is it going to get better?” He said no. I said, “Exactly, there’s nothing we can do about it now and it can’t get worse, so tape it up and let’s go.”

I Had to Change My Shooting Form

After I injured my right index finger in the 2009–2010 season (see previous page), I knew my usual method would no longer work. Up until then, I’d always shot off of my first two fingers. After I hurt it, I had to start focusing on using my middle finger. The middle became my point of release, and I had to sort of let my index finger drift.

Making that change took a couple of practices. Not average practices, though. Days flooded with mental and physical work. I had to mentally download the software that was the new form, and then drill it in. I definitely got my one thousand makes in on each of those days.

People ask me if the change impacted my shot, if it made me a better or worse shooter. I can’t answer that. I can say that there are times when my index finger just went numb, when it had no feeling in it at all. I can also say that was still good enough to win another championship—and that’s the only thing that matters.

My Mental Preparation Varied Based on my Headspace

It varied based on where I thought my head needed to be for that specific game. If I needed to get keyed up, for example, I listened to hard music. If I needed to soothe myself, I might play the same soundtrack I listened to on the bus in high school to put me back in that place. 

It’s all about putting me in the place I need to be in for that game. Some games required more intensity, so I would need to get my character and mind in an animated zone. Other games, I needed calm. In that situation, I wouldn’t listen to music. Sometimes, even, I would sit in total silence. 

The key, though, is being aware of how you’re feeling and how you need to be feeling. It all starts with awareness.

My Midnight Workouts Have Become a Thing of Legend

They were always purposeful. They were born from a mix of obsession and real-world responsibilities. 

I always felt like if I started my day early, I could train more each day. If I started at 11, I’d get in a few hours, rest for four hours, and then get back to the gym around 5 to 7. But if I started at 5 AM and went until 7, I could go again from 11 until 2 and 6 until 8. By starting earlier, I set myself up for an extra workout each day. Over the course of a summer, that’s a lot of extra hours in the gym. 

At the same time, starting early helped me balance basketball and life. When my kids woke up in the morning I was there, and they wouldn’t even know I had just finished at the gym. At night, I’d be able to put them to bed, then go work out again during my own time, not theirs. 

I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my game, but I also wasn’t willing to sacrifice my family time. So I decided to sacrifice sleep, and that was that.

[alvearesss]

Tow Ubukata hates Ginoza Nobuchika

I don’t know about you guys since a lot of you don’t care all that much about Ginoza Nobuchika as much and believe Kougami is the stardom of the series and should be treated as such despite the show introduces a balance for each character to have their own share of screentime unlike other shows and anime who share a habit of favoritism for the main character and leaving no other character a fair share for their own growth and how the progress among the characters themselves and the plot.

Although Ginoza was not the main protagonist of show, he was still an important character, or the tritagonist (the third important character after the protagonist and deuteragonist) followed after Akane. I have yet to make a Kouginaka anayls essay on why Akane and Kougami (or as in the Shinkane territory) cannot progress or even happen without the presence of the senior Inspector and no matter you all want to deny this but it is true, where did you think the direction would go if Ginoza never existed?

Anyways on to this…

It’s not a unheard for me for having such a hatred for S2 and for good reason. One of my biggest pet peeves for S2 is that it’s a rewritten version of S1; everything Urobuchi worked and developed for the series was thrown in the trash to make room for Ubukata’s gory sci-fi and melodramatic scenario and the characters are watered down from their representative personalities in favor of the new environment and drama playing in his tunes.

But to become an exact clone of his former father? why make him a Masaoka 2.0 if the writers knew on producing another season for psycho-pass, look at Tenma for peek’s shake he’s basically another Masaoka 3.0 (are there any other Tomomi Masaokas I should know about? ok, enough with the Spongebob jokes) By the end of S1, Ginoza became more down-to-earth after being rehabbed and no one seemed to realize and ignore the fact he was not only devastated by the death of his father and Kougami leaving them behind and was possibly dying from blood loss as well, he showed no signs of the former Enforcer and lost father in terms of personality and antics by the end of the series. This just makes Ginoza appear out-of-character and it drove me nuts to this sudden character change and haven’t notice it by the first time watching S2.

In Case 2, we finally got introduced to Ginoza’s mother for the first time after years of curiosity wondering what happened to her, we came to the conclusion to the possibility of her being dead since she was barely mention at all and how did that impacted Ginoza as a person. Masaoka said his son have the same eyes when he was younger meaning that senior inspector have took after his mother in appearance. We can see distinguish them as they don’t look that similar

let’s not us forget the horrible same face syndrome from Frozen (a movie so mediocre that it deserves the same mockery as Twilight did back in the late 2000s - early 2010s, good old days)

Ginoza and Sae manage to dodge the bullet on this one

Plus, there is also the Mika-Ginoza dynamic, because why not? if you notice how in both season 2 and 3; any interactions between Kougami/Akane and Ginoza seem nonexistent? In season 2, they barely talk about anything else outside of the workplace and all Gino does is worry constantly about Akane’s hue despite knowing she is capable of handling her hue very well by the end of S1 after putting her down multiple times for her so called reckless behavior. His reunion with Kougami in S3 was a shallow one and to my disappointment, was expecting a soft of teary-like or grounded, hell even Ginoza and Akane don’t have any interactions in S3 now that I think about it. In Case 1, it is revealed he is worried and misses Kougami and talks fondly about him; how he hated himself for not saving him but is proud of him for being strong which made him jealous. Then there’s the hallucination trope that Shinkane fans are madly in love with and it brutally debunks the notion that it’s only Akane but it turns out Ginoza also suffers from hallucinating Kougami as well!

To me, it’s feels like the team had Ginoza rewritten for the reconstruction of the new dialogue for the show and as a someone whom Kougami and Akane never had interactions in the past and as someone is now given the background character treatment.

While the official website does mention Mika is a lesbian and the show implied it by the end of the Rikako arc but it was never explored, her interactions with Yayoi seems more like sisterly love rather than romantic love, because of this, Mika’s orientation doesn’t share the same treatment as Yayoi’s creating the notion she is not a lesbian after all. So Ubukata decided it to throw it over the window because an enforcer for some reason doesn’t have a love interest so how could he pair him with someone not named Akane? oh! tease ship him with Mika! (plus gino is not gay so why not AGAIN lol)

what a lovely hetero couple despite they don’t have a much of an emotional interaction but birds of feathers am I right?

Say what you want to say about the Butcher and how he likes to the tease Ginoza just for angst but at least he managed to write and develop a well constructed character who went from an indifferent detective who doesn’t bat an eye for what happens to the people he loves after combating the hurt of losing them to level-headed guy who now accepts a new method on how to handle criminals after becoming one himself because he still has that special someone (not Mika) can show him that there is a life outside and it is not the end of the world to be demoted, Ubukata on the other hand doesn’t know what to do with him and do not see Ginoza as important as the two main two and decided that it was okay to not respect his former character.

I know it is not Ubukata who is only to blame for this, the entire team as a whole and it’s very shocking how Shiotani and Fukami who worked with Psycho Pass since the very beginning hasn’t called any of this out and went along with the flow because reasons

Sure, he wasn’t killed off for any reason but is demolishing his character worthy of it? Geez, who knows what will happen to him in the supposed S4

#JusticeforGinoza2020

I had to delete my previous post because it wasn’t showing on the tag so here’s a standard edition and enjoy your reading and let me know if you want to add commentary in relation to this topic

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Things Dobson mocks because he is too ignorant...

One “talent” Dobson seems to have, is the ability to alienate a lot of people through his opinions. And while he claims to be proud of that talent because he believes those he alienates are just assholes and racists who disagree with him CAUSE he attacks their abhorrent worldviews, the reality is much simpler; On average, people just don’t like him cause Dobson has no idea what he is talking about, which won’t however stop him from mocking the mere existence of certain things/interests and the people enjoying them. And those people tend not to be racists who want to see non-white people go extinct, but simply nerds and enthusiasts who like to enjoy their hobbies without the input of someone who won’t get over how he was bullied as a nerd back in school, but at the same time will bully you for being “nerdier”.

I could go into more detail how I mean that by analyzing a lot of his anime related SYAC strips as well as his soapbox strips on comic culture in a row. However, for the sake of “simplicity” I just like to go over one of his oldest strips, published around 2011. Back when Dobson was portraying himself still as a human. This strip alone will show how even a decade back, Dobson could just be an asshole to any “nerd” who dared to be into stuff he wasn’t, how he could manage to piss off many people all in one going AND be unfunny.

Now the first thing I want to put out is that I do not even think that Dobson’s primary intention with this strip was to mock others and their interests. See, one thing about So you are a cartoonist especially in its early days was, that it was in a way Dobson’s attempt to make himself look likeable in the eyes of others. He portrayed himself just as an Average Joe, wanting to make comics. This strip itself was even part of a series of strips I like to call “Things Dobson likes/dislikes”, which really were just him in each panel pointing at something he is into or not.

 And honestly, part of me does not mind it. It is just Dobson’s attempt to show others how “quirky” or contrarian he is. The problem really steams more from the following two facts: a) It is not really a cartoon or comic if you think about it, because there isn’t a joke, punchline or story attached to them, just Dobson showing off what kind of person he is and b) that his “things I do not understand” comic is really mean spirited compared to the others if you look just a bit deeper into it.

Right from the beginning the strip is just indicative that this will be more mean spirited than Dobson will later like to claim it was. Otherwise he would not feel the need to say “chillax” as a sort of semi defense mechanism, cause if he really intended to make his grievances heard through “good fun” he would not need to say that. So from the gate we can assume its snarkier and more hurtful than it needs to be. So lets get through the things he does not understand, shall we?

Sports: I will admit that I am not really into sports myself, neither as a fan or someone participating in it competitively. I go to the gym however in order to feel good about myself and do something for my health instead of going every Friday to McDonalds. In addition, as long as you do not go overboard with being a fan or participating in it, I understand how sport can unite people (see events like the Olympics and Soccer worldcups) , and while I am baffled upon the fact that the salary of many people in sports (particularly soccer and football) are ridiculous high in addition to money they make with advertisement deals etc. I have respect for them. Respect for how they can stick to a hard training schedule, can take injuries, will do stuff for charity etc. Furthermore, unlike Dobson, I do not believe people who are into sports are dumb. Yes, I know the stereotype about college footballers and sports who only graduated because of their sports activities and are otherwise “meatheads”, but that stereotype does not apply to everything in reality, Dobson. Ever heard of NFL lineman Duvernay-Tardif, who also has a degree as a surgeon? Granted, he made that title only in 2018, seven years after the comic was made, so look a bit further and see what we find… Oh, look: Myron Rolle, college football player and later members of the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers around 2010/12: Has a bachelor degree in exercise science and in 2008 studied for a Master of science for medical anthropology in the UK.

Ron Mix, famous AFL and NFL football player forever immortalized in the Hall of Fame has a Juris Doctor Degree and after his work as a sports became an attorney.

 And that are just three examples googled up in relation to American football. Other famous sports worldwide have degrees in medical and sports related sciences. Heck, one of Europe’s most famous boxer’s in the 2000s, Vitali Klitschko, not only has a doctors degree in sports, he is nowadays head of the governing party of Ukraine, following the independence of the country in 2014.

So stop wiggling your three sets of eyebrows and cease your smug grin and shove that periodic table up your ass, Dobson. I bet you yourself don’t even fucking know the chemical symbol for silver or titanium you Agonizing Twat who never got over the fact some popular kids in school bullied him.

 Final Fantasy: I doubt Dobson ever even tried to play Final Fantasy or ANY JRPG, honestly. Heck, not only does Cloud look pretty wrong (anime hair seems to be another thing Dobson can not draw) but frankly, the statement of Cloud being an emo is false and is based on misinterpretation. Bear with me for a bit; Final Fantasy 7 is in my opinion a good game and it had a major impact on the series and the perception of JRPGs in the west. However, I do also believe that many people overhyped its quality over the years. Including SquareEnix themselves, who particularly around 2005 released all sorts of tie in and sequel games, including also the movie “Advent Children”. Or as I like to call those things, Tetsuya Nomura’s wankfest, because now all of sudden everything is related to some guy called Genesis, we have even more characters to supposedly care about than we already got through the original game, happy end override happens almost on every corner and “goth” aesthetics are everywhere. And Cloud himself became an embodiment of that emo/loner stereotype in anime and manga around that time, despite never having been like that in the original game if you ask me. Yes, Cloud in the original game went through a lot of emotional trauma and he was not like some happy go lucky laid back shonen manga protagonist. But he also didn’t come off as a pretentious fucktard who never showed emotions and shut himself off from his friends and allies. He was more of a determined person who still cared for others and wanted to stop Sephirot so no one suffered like he did. His most “depressing” moment was when Sephirot revealed his false memories, making Cloud question his own existence as an independent being to the point he was broken enough to hand the Meteor sphere to Sephirot, but that was about it.  But hey, “emos” sell better, so SquareEnix tried to sell that aesthetics and others were just so dumb and further misinterpreted it as emoness being Cloud’s main character trait, when in reality freaking Squall Leonhard in his original game was worse than Cloud in comparison.

I also find the implication of Dobson, that Final Fantasy is pretentious in that panel funny as fuck. Cause Final Fantasy 13s’ pretty dumb story and wankery of clicheed anime tropes not withstanding, the average Final Fantasy game has a straightforward fantasy plot of good guys vs bad guys, with some twists and anime tropes thrown into the mix. The most pretentious guys in those games really are just the bad guys when they talk on average about how the world is suffering and misery, and even that is just straightforward nihilism to justify why they want to destroy everything. It is in fact so straightforward, most little kids will get it particularly in the first 6 games of the series, which are just set in more “classic” fantasy worlds to begin with. I am not saying the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole is flawless (I really am not a fan of 13 and its sequels, but if you like it, you do your thing) but you do not need a thesaurus to get why people enjoy it or individual games from it. So stop hating on an entire game series, which btw has actually some pretty awesome female characters in protagonistic roles in it too.

 Twilight: Both an example of Dobson’s hypocricy and idiocy. Idiocy cause frankly, what is hard to understand why people liked the books? Twilight (in my opinion) was just a professionally published self insert fanfiction, in which Bella/the reader fell in love with the local bad boy who just happened to also be a vampire. Sure, a vampire in name only (seriously, if you asked me, the Cullens could be replaced with a lot of other fantasy creatures and it would barely affect anything), but that is beside the point. Shameless romance stories about someone falling in love with the bad boy who deep down has a heart of gold and just needs someone to fix them, are nothing new. So I was not surprised that people, particularly teenaged girls and other women, enjoyed it. It was the romance literature equivalent to fast food which just happened to explode in popularity because Young adult novels were a simultaneous hit and something needed to fill the void after Harry Potter. I read the first book myself and I thought nothing in particularly wrong with it, aside of the fact I thought the book itself was plotwise kinda dull. But that was not why people bought it, they wanted Bella getting together with the bad boy. The fact Dobson did not understand on what the popularity was build up on, is just an example for how Dobson does not even in theory understand how stories work and what it is on a pure technical level that makes them interesting and sell worthy to others.

As for the hypocritical aspect, that comes up nowadays when Dobson claims he feels bad for mocking Twilight all those years ago and how people were bad for making fun of it and Stephenie Meyer. That those who did it were like women hating assholes and still are if they do not apologize. Cause frankly, I feel a majority of people “apologizing” are just dishonest with themselves now. Apologizing primarily because in the eyes of some other people they look up to, if they do not they will be pariahs. Especially when extend of their initial childish disdain for Twilight becomes clear. I e.g. do not hate Lindsay Ellis aka the former Nostalgia Chick, but the fact she made a big apology video on Meyer was laughable when you see how she “stood” to her opinion back in the day to the point she wrote a novel to mock the kind of story Twilight did. Sure, she admitted to a lot of her own faults back in the day so there was also some self reflection to it and I respect that. But I think in a way this was also a tactic to just appease some other people and it does not take away that initially she had those thoughts about Twilight. And frankly, Twilight is problematic in a way.

Again, I read the first book and I did not consider it the worst thing in the world, just kinda dull for my taste. However, having read on a lot of things that happen in the book series itself, it is clear that Bella and Edward are some pretty horrid and selfish characters who barely get called out or face consequences for terrible actions. Take also into account the pacing of the story and you get on average a book series that deserved a certain amount of criticism from a technical point of view and Meyer’s at least being questioned about some of her decisions in the writing process. It did however not deserve book burnings or people mocking and harassing fans and the author, the former being mocked by Dobson here funnily enough.

 Transformers: And what is it you find weird about people caring for cars? This is not even me being a cars fan here or something, I just ask because even that “explanation�� is no explanation at all. He is just saying “I don’t care for X because I also do not care much for Y”. The correlation between the two is missing.

As for why people care about those two things Dobson, perhaps it is for the following:

Cars because people like the aesthetics, the technics, like to build stuff or get a rush by driving them. Transformers, because people just like action as well as the lore to the franchise and think giant robots turning into vehicles is cool, as long as Michael Bay is not involved in creating a story.

Furries: As with cars, likely aesthetics. Anthropomorphic animals have been part of our culture even long before cartoons (just look at fables, fairy tales and legends all across the world involving animals) so I assume there is even something more subconsciously involved with it. And frankly, I like furries myself. Some of them are way better artists than Dobson could ever be. That said, I do as an individual draw a line at furries that harass other people and show creators, hurt animals or are combining their interests with some really weird sex fetishes (two words: diaper fur). Which I guess do many other people cause there is a healthy amount of furries and non furries who have standards. The thing is just Dobson seems to think all furries are the same. Not to forget that for a long time he did everything denying he was interested in furries, citing his college as a reason for it cause people there installed a hatred for furries into him. A wonder then he would even enjoy Looney Tunes anymore. And honestly, himof all people mocking people for having a “sick” fetish? I am sorry Dobson, but compared to the kind of inflation you drew, I would say the average furry (as in someone who just draws two adult fursonas making out with each other under consent) is less “disturbing” than you. Someone who did not just inflate the female, at times underaged victims, but also made them pop/killed them.

DnD: I wish I had the comment Dobson posted on deviantart under the comic, as in it he digged himself even deeper with every panel and the explanations he gave. Just to show I am not pulling it out of my ass when I say for DnD one of the main reasons he hated it was that he thought nerds made the fantasy genre even nerdier by adding math to it.

Oh no. The fact people have to add numbers from a couple of dices together is too high of a math concept for Dobson. So those people must have absolutely no lives and are all just fat, bald and with acne.

Seriously though, fuck off. I am not into table top gaming, but whoever is, they shall just have fun. And stop body shaming nerds with the way you draw the DnD player here (and in that other infamous DnD comic he did), especially when you yourself look like a shaved egg in real life. Heck, did you know of all people Vin Diesel enjoys DnD?

Just let the people enjoy their adventure campaigns and come together once in a while instead of being shut offs like you, whose only experience with an interactive fantasy story involves playing Skyrim at 10 fps.

And yes, I am aware that Dobson has changed his opinions on DnD now thanks to some podcast. But based on his record, I feel that Dobson only did join it because it is now the cool thing to care on average about DnD as nerd. In addition he also did not own up to his past “mistake” till people just called him out on his bullshit often enough.

Klingons: Okay, I am not much of a Trekkie myself, but again, I get that people just like the aesthetics of them and the story crafted around Klingon culture within the franchise. So, just let them have fun with it. What is even the “joke” here? That people enjoy it despite it “just” being black Asian barbaric samurai in space, which is a very simplistic, in my opinion even outright racist description based on the choice of words here? Frankly, I am glad he did not just also add a racist Japanese accent to the guy here.

So there you have it: Things Dobson does not understand and essentially mocks for existing. And don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Dobson not “getting” those things. Everyone has their own tastes, likes and dislikes as well as reasons why they are into it or not. I e.g. understand that people enjoy Bob’s Burger, but I myself really do not like the show much, because most characters come off as annoying to me in terms of personality and quirks. That said, I understand the visual appeal to it, if you like it that is fine and if you ass why I don’t like it I will give an explanation to it. What I will not do is make a comic mocking the existence of it, imply that my disinterest is correlated to me thinking there is also something inherently wrong with you if you enjoy it and build my disinterest on none existing issues with the thing in question.

Dobson however seems to have done that quite a couple of times and combined with his self righteous nature, it becomes kinda obvious why people began hating his stuff to the point that almost all of 4chan and tumblr developed a stern disdain for him.

[raganandhersurveys]

3/1/21~5000 question survey 1-100 {CXV}

I started this about 2 years ago and never finished so I’m going to restart and see how far I can get. I’d love to get it done before the end of the year but I am definitely not holding myself to that statement haha. Here we go pt. 2 

(also shoutout to @lovemesomesurveys for doing this so i could get the questions from one source. Thanks girl! <3!!

1. Who are you?

~my name is ragan

2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?

1. I am very outgoing and fun loving 

2. I have a big heart but am not afraid to speak my mind

3. I hope I can one day pursue a career in fashion

3. When you aren't filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing? 

~hanging out with my friends, doing hw, eating, or talking to my bf haha

4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn't like at the time). 

~choir, drama appreciation, geology, american gov. 

5. What is your biggest goal for this year? 

~to begin to plan out “big girl things” in my life. i’ll be a freshman in college in the fall and i really wanna feel confident about my future(if that’s possible) so saving money, getting a real job, looking into new opportunities, etc. (if you have any advice, plz send my way haha:))

6. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 

~to feel a little secure in my job or career pathway, or at least have a plan

7. What stage of life are you in right now? 

~the ending of my teenage years :(

8. Are you more child-like or childish? 

~neither honestly 

9. What is the last thing you said out loud? 

~i was singing along to a song haha

10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now? 

~8teen by khalid haha

11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes? 

~nope

12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same? 

~it’s honestly one big rollercoaster. i have my good days and bad days but i try to keep a positive mindset:)

13. Does time really heal all wounds? 

~it doesn’t necessarily heal it but it does help it some

14. How do you handle a rainy day? 

~usually stay inside or take a nap. if it rains for a long period of time i tend to get a headache so i usually take a nap haha

15. Which is worse...losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights?

~losing luggage for sure 

16. How is your relationship with your parents? 

~pretty good. my dad and i are super close. my mom and i have our moments but i love her

Will you miss them when they are gone? 

~are you kidding?!?! i don’t know how i’ll recover from losing them tbh

17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you? 

~for the most part yes; i’m pretty good at reading the room

18. What is the truest thing that you know? 

~God.

19. What did you want to be when you grew up? 

~gosh so many different things; teacher, pharmacist, reporter, author, family therapist, actress 

20. Have you ever been given a second chance? 

~yep

21. Are you more of a giver or a taker? 

~both tbh

22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?

~definitely 

23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you? 

~i had to go to the hospital one time because my stomach was hurting so bad I thought i was gonna die. i don’t think anything except child birth could beat that

24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you? 

~some things my mom has said to me

25. Who have you hugged today? 

~honestly no one :(

26. Who has done something today to show they care about you? 

~i can’t think of anything but i’m sure there was something 

27. Do you have a lot to learn? 

~for sure. i don’t think we should ever stop

28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?

~how to start my own clothing brand, how to make straight a’s, and to cook perfectly

 29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel? 

~how they make me feel fo sure 

30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship? 

~communication, loyalty, passion, 

31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die? 

~have a successful job, find the love of my life, and travel the world 

 32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing? 

~having to get divorced, letting down my future children, and emotionally traumatizing someone 

33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause? 

~not a cause, but i’m a christain and that’s the truest thing in my life 

34. What does each decade make you think of:

The 19.. 

 20's: flapper dancers and the roaring 20s

 30's: the great depression and poverty

 40's: world war II and classic movies

50's: sock hops and diners

 60's: iconic fashion and audrey hepburn

 70's: my dad and classic rock

 80's: the breakfast club and how much i wished i grew up then ahahah

 90's: rnb and friends

 2000 (so far): brittany spears and my early childhood

 2010's: middle school and social media 

 35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why?

~the 80s because i’ve always felt like that was the decade for me. that’s when my mom grew up and i envy her so much for growing up then. but also the 2000s because that was my early childhood and its crazy to think i’ll never get those days back 

36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song? 

~stairway to heaven: led zeppelin

37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country? 

~the usa and president biden 

If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be?

~you good homie?

38. What's your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night? 

~i rarely watch live tv

39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why? 

~bahah probs ursula because if i knew ariel could sing like that, i’d steal her voice too

40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout? 

~no

41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat? 

~neither but a boat in the middle of the ocean during a storm would be terrifying 

42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night? 

~the sun?

43. What does your name mean? 

~i just looked it up and apparently it means noble LMFAO

44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space? 

~neither. both of those sound like a bad idea 

45. Word association What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:

Air: traffic

Meat: steak

Different: breed

Pink: drink

Deserve: freedom

White: elephant 

Elvis: graceland

Magic: treehouse

Heart: pump

Clash: boom

Pulp: fiction

46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be? 

~audrey hepburn 100%

47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive? 

~jimmy garoppolo ;))

48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday?

~not everyday but i’m always down for a lotr/hobbit marathon

49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do? 

~a phone with some kind of wifi box so i can gtfo lmao

 50. Have you ever saved someone's life or had your life saved?

~uhhhh not that i can think of 

51. Make up a definition for the following silly words... 

 Fruitgoogle: a website you can search up fruits with

 Ambytime: free time

 Asscactus: an annoying person

 52. What was the last thing you made with your own hands?

~this little gift bag for my mom’s students 

53. What was your favorite toy as a child? 

~american girl dolls omfg 

54. How many TV’s are in your house? 

~3

55. What is your favorite thing to do outside? 

~swimming or just being at the beach

56. How do you feel when you see a rainbow? 

~awwwwww

57. Have you ever dreamt a dream that came true? 

~i have dreamed about people and then met them which is a super weird experience 

58. Have you ever been to a psychic/tarot reader? 

~no

59. What is your idea of paradise?

~i think it would be a couple of different places or themes because i love to see the beauty in a lot of different ideas

60. Do you believe in god and if so what is he/she/it like? 

~absolutely. He’s just and loving 

61. Do you believe in Hell? 

~yes

62. What one thing have you done that most people haven't? 

~i honestly cannot think of anything 

63. What is the kindest thing you have ever done?

~i’ve done some volunteer stuff for other people so ig something like that 

64. Are you a patient person? 

~i try to be 

65. What holiday should exist but doesn't? 

~free shopping day where only i can shop for free :))))))

66. What holiday shouldn't exist but does?

~i love all the holidays 

67. What's the best joke you ever heard? 

~apparently none because i can’t think of one

68. Where is the most fun place you have EVER been? 

~southpoint mall in charlotte. it was shopper’s heaven 

69. Is your hair natural or dyed? 

~all natural .

70. Do you have any deep dark secrets or are you pretty much up front? 

~none that are interesting 

71. What is under your bed right now? 

~dust and stuff from my childhood

72. If you were in the Land of Oz would you want to live there or go home? 

~gtfo bahaha

73. If you drive do you frequently speed? 

~always

74. What is the world's best song to dance to? 

~depends on what kind of dancing. any 2000s club song is an absolute banger 

75. What song was on the last time you danced with someone?

~some tik tok sound. just a gen z kid here :)

76. Do you prefer Disney or Warner Brothers? 

~probs disney 

77. What is the first animal you would run to see if you went to the zoo? 

~otters or tigers 

78. Would you consider yourself to be romantic?

~if i’m crazy about you, absolutely. .

79. If the earth stopped rotating would we all fly off? 

~ig lol

80. What is the one thing that you love to do so much that you would make sacrifices to be able to do it? 

~travel all over 

81. If you (and everyone) had to lose one right or freedom, but you could pick which one everyone had to lose, what would you pick? 

~i’m sorry that’s too stressful lol

82. If you had to choose would you live on the equator or at the North Pole? ~equator. i hate the cold 

83. Would you rather give up listening to music or watching television?

~tv. i can’t live w/o music

84. What do you think makes someone a hero? 

~being selfless 

85. What cartoon would you like to be a character in? 

~powderpuff girls 100%

86. Name one thing that turns your stomach:

~rats

87. What was the last thing you paid for? 

~clothes from shein

88. Are you a coupon clipper?

~nah

89. Get anything good in the mail recently? 

~not super recently 

90. Which would you rather take as a gym class...dancing, sailing, karate, or bowling? 

~dancing 

91. In Star Trek people 'beam' back and forth between different places. What this means is they stand in a little tube and their molecules are deconstructed and sent to another tube somewhere else where they are reassembled. Only problem is when the molecules are deconstructed the person is dead. When they are put back together it is only a clone that has all the dead person's memories. So... Is the person who gets beamed the same person on both ends? 

~no because the real person died, so it’s a clone but not the original

92. What insects are you afraid of? 

~roaches and wasps

93. If you could print any phrase on a T-shirt, what would it say? 

~”she stressin’ over her wardrobe” 

94. What's the most eccentric thing you have ever worn? 

~i have these huuuuge tiger earrings that are freaking extra. i wore them with green corduroy flair pants and a brown stripped shirt and literally looked like the 70s threw up on me hahah

95. If you could pick one food that you could eat all you wanted but it would have no effect on how much you weigh, what food would it be? 

~chick fil a

96. What are your parents interested in? 

~my mom loves 70s tv shows and christmas lol and my dad likes classic rock and anything to do with christianity

97. Have you ever caught an insect and kept it as a pet?

~we used to catch lightning bugs in a jar when i was little and put them in a jar.

98. What is more helpful to you, wishes or plans?

~uhhh plans....lol

99. When do you feel your life energy the strongest? 

~when i’m hanging out with friends or at a high energy place like an amusement park or concert

100. You are spending the night alone in the woods and may bring only 3 items with you. What do you bring?

~water, a flashlight, and something for protection like a gun

[kindestegg]

Pspspspspsp ROMEO do you have any ocs 😳

HI!! yes i DO x3 i have a lot, for many different universes n stories... the most developed ones ive got are for some stories involving toons... tho i dont have a lot of new art for them, but i can give brief descriptions on what im developing!

the first story ive got in mind is a story called “razz and juliana into the dark sea” (kind of a working title but probs wont change it much). it follows the protagonists, razz and juliana, two brazilian kids who are best friends, as they end up activating and getting sucked into a portal for a strange underwater world hidden beneath the old ink factory that used to belong to juliana’s (presumed dead) grandfather.

razz is a VERY energetic kid, they embody the feeling like you could do anything as a child, and they often feel like they are a human cartoon. theyre also very curious and friendly, so when meeting and seeing new things in their journey, they will be the first to want to explore and say hello

juliana on the other hand is a very sweet and calm girl, and is more of the voice of reason between the two. when it comes to calming down razz shes usually the best one at the job, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy their shenanigans, in fact she finds it very fun! she just hopes they can have fun without breaking stuff.

then there is “silly world!”, which tells the story of a girls journey into yet another world of cartoons, but with a much less friendly protagonist, who is also older.

the protag in question being nora, who is pulled out of detention after she stabbed a bully with her trusty scissors (weapon of choice) by a friendly character called veeveehead, who promises to bring her to a world that is much more fun. nora starts out rather annoyed at veeveehead’s shenanigans and really at this whole silly world shes pulled into, and ends up discovering some darker secrets. thankfully, the friendships she will build will help.

nora herself is a teenager, think around 15, shes very deadpan and has kind of a grim outlook, she is somewhat violent and is constantly alert to any danger that might come to her. you dont have to dig deep down to understand she is actually a good person though, shes just scared and hurting.

finally there is “the world is dead”, which follows five cartoon protagonists of different eras of animation brought together through some kind of scientific experiment to purge the world off of zombies by dancing and reminding their souls of happy times so their spirits can move on.

we have mimi the cat witch, from the 20-40s, a peppy little cat from the black and white cartoons, accompanied by her talking broom and wand.

then we have wally the weasel, from the 50s - early 70s, a fast talking criminal weasel who delights on stealing for himself and tripping up nature guards.

from the late 70s to the 80s, weve got paula pavon, the leader of a magical species of bird people who live in the clouds and sing and dance to neon lights to save the world from pollution.

the 90s to early 2000s is kool foxx, a cool rapper fox who loves to skate and has starred in his own video games! he is responsible and teaches kids safety in the coolest way possible.

and finally late 2000s to early 2010s is starla, an embassador of the earth who travels to space to keep a conflict between alien races from happening, and works as a great diplomat. she actually takes the role of the leader of the group, due to her determined personality and abilities to make such a group of unique creatures work together.

(i actually DO have art for them but damn its old ndfgjsdg but the designs are more or less the same as seen here)

[bayside-smoking-blues]

Ok so. Since Hypnosis Mic has a Visual Kei lover in its cast now (I’m talking about Jyushi, of course), I’ve decided to make a post in this blog to introduce some Visual Kei bands to the ones who aren’t familiar with the style. I’m not a pro myself but I love J-rock/VK since I was like 12 so I know my share of bands... Here are some I hc that Jyushi would love too!

Ah, before you ask "Cain, why didn't you add (insert band here) in the post?" the answer is most likely:

I don't know it.

I know it but have never stopped to actually listen to it so I don't feel comfortable recommending it. X JAPAN

I don't listen to it. the GazettE

I chose not to bc I couldn't post 77349072409273 bands so I selected just a few since this post is just an introduction to the style after all.

I forgot.

This post is gonna be kinda long and have some pictures and links to videos and songs and a small introduction about the bands, so I’m gonna put it under a Read More!

Kagrra,

Kagrra, (神樂 Kagura) was a band formed in 1998 by Isshi (vocals, flute), Akiya (guitar), Shin (guitar, koto), Nao (bass) and Izumi (drums). Their major debut was in 2004 with the single Urei. Their lyrics were in the style of Heian era poetry, their costumes frequently incorporated traditional Japanese clothing styles, and traditional Japanese instruments and drum rhythms were used in some of their songs. On November 10, 2010, it was announced that Kagrra, would be disbanding. As a final request, the members asked that fans refer to it as a "demise" rather than a disbandment. The band released one last CD and held a final tour. The CD, entitled Hyakki Kenran, was released on February 2, 2011. Their final tour began on February 13, 2011 and ended on March 3, 2011. On July 25, 2011, it was announced that vocalist Isshi died in his home on July 18, 2011. He was 32 years old. (Source: Wikipedia)

Some PVs/songs:

Urei (2004)

Utakata (2006)

Uzu (2008)

_

Plastic Tree

Plastic Tree, also known as PuraTuri (プラトゥリ) or Pura (プラ) is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 1993 by Ryutaro Arimura (vocals, backup guitar), Akira Nakayama (guitar), Tadashi Hasegawa (bass) and Shin* (drums). Early in their career, their music had heavy visual kei influences. As time went on, their sound seemed to change and evolve with every album. Plastic Tree combine alternative rock with art rock, electronic, and heavy metal. Their sound is a blend of raw melody, with the occasional orchestral backing track. However, the band does not think that they should be placed into any specific genre. Plastic Tree claim that their sound has been considerably influenced by British bands such as Radiohead and The Cure.

*Shin has been replaced by other two drummers since their debut, and their current drummer is Kenken Sato. (Source: Wikipedia) 

Ghost (2006)

Makka na Ito (2007)

Replay (2008)

_

Girugamesh

Girugamesh (ギルガメッシュ Girugamesshu) was a Japanese visual kei rock band, formed in 2003 by Cyrien who was soon replaced by Satoshi Ishikawa (vocals), Hotaru, who was soon replaced by Nii (guitar), Shu (bass) and Яyo (drums). The band’s name is derived from the Final Fantasy character. They disbanded on July 10, 2016. Their music has elements of alternative metal, alternative rock, nu metal, industrial rock and metalcore. (Source: Wikipedia)

Vermillion (2007)

Break Down (2008)

Asking Why (2008)

_

Nightmare

Nightmare (ナイトメア Naitomea) was a Japanese visual kei rock band formed in 2000. It has consisted of Yomi (vocals), Sakito (guitar, backing vocals), Hitsugi (guitar), Ni~ya (bass, backing vocals) and Ruka (drums, percussion) for the majority of their career. They enjoyed mainstream success with the inclusion of their songs "the WORLD" and "Alumina" in the Death Note anime and are onsidered a major act in the visual kei scene. (Source: Wikipedia)

the WORLD (2006)

DIRTY (2007)

Raison d’être (2007)

_

DIR EN GREY

DIR EN GREY is a Japanese metal band formed in 1997, it consists of Kyo (vocals), Kaoru (guitar), Die (guitar), Toshiya (bass) and Shinya (drums). Numerous stylistic changes have made the genre of their music difficult to determine, though it is generally considered to be a form of metal. Originally a visual kei band, the members later opted for more subtle attire, but have continued to maintain a dramatic image on stage. (Source: Wikipedia)

Note: Diru's sound has changed A LOT through the years. I'll focus this post in their early works because it's when they had their VK era.

Cage (1999) (tw: this video contains gore and hints of BDSM)

Schwein no Isu (1999)

Bottom of the death valley (2002)

_

DELUHI

DELUHI was a Japanese visual kei metal band formed in 2008 by Juri (vocals), Leda (guitar), Aggy (bass) and Sujk (drums). The band announced that they would take a hiatus starting on 1 December 2010, following the completion of their concert at Shibuya O-East. However, on 1 April 2011 DELUHI announced that they would disband after their final tour in July 2011. (source: Wikipedia and Visual Kei Wiki)

Two Hurt (2009)

Revolver Blast (2009)

Hybrid Truth (2011)

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An Cafe

Antic Café (アンティック-珈琲店- Antikku Kafe, nicknamed An Cafe) is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 2003 by Miku (vocals), Kanon (bass), Bou (guitar) and Teruki (drums). In 2007 Bou left the band and Takuya (guitar) and Yuuki (keyboard) joined. Their visual image is oshare kei (a style derived from visual kei) and they describe their music as "Harajuku Dance Rock". The group has released five full-length albums, one compilation album, and four EPs. On September 1, 2009, the band announced that after their live show on January 4, 2010 at the Nippon Budokan, they would suspend activities and put the group on hiatus, however they stated they will not disband. On April 1, 2012, after two-year break, the team announced the resumption of activity. In June 2018, the band announced the departure of all members but Miku and a hiatus beginning in January 2019. (Source: Wikipedia)

Smile Ichiban Ii Onna (2006)

Kakusei Heroism ~The HERO without a NAME~ (2007)

JIBUN (2016)

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The post is gonna end here! But there are many, many more good visual kei (or not) j-rock bands out there! I can give more recs if you’re interested! :3

Ah, before the post ends, I’ll link the video from Amaterasu by the band Kiryu, which I don’t know much about yet but I love this song and their style and I think Jyushi and Kuko would enjoy it too! 

[groundramon]

So curiouscat has stupid short reply lengths so i had to post this here

Tw for: bullying, fatphobia, discussion of sexual harassment (oh it feels good to have enough characters to write a proper tw)

So it might surprise ppl to know that my favorite frontier character is JP, the raging heterosexual. But like, to me...hes so much more than that. JP is a character that I saw so much of myself in. His social isolation from his peers, leading him to push away others to avoid getting hurt...its not that people outwardly bully him, its that no one sees behind his surface and nobody bothers to truly care about him. People only recognize him as the class clown - no one actually wants to hang out with him. And that...that hit me HARD as a kid. It was the experience i had growing up. I wasn't outright bullied, I just felt...excluded. Judged. I wanted friends but was too afraid of being judged or excluded. And sometimes it caused me to be dismissive of genuinely good people. And quite frankly, that's STILL a problem I have, not even a year after an exfriend of 7 years said that our interests were one of the things driving us apart. My intense fear of being ridiculed for my interests drove me as a kid, and sometimes even now as an adult, to completely stop caring what my peers thought about anything. For all intents and purposes, im a bit of a hipster - i hate on what's popular and i tote my more obscure interests. Because I feel like that's the only way. Obviously i have fairly mainstream interests but lemme tell ya, i went to a christian school in the late 2000s/early 2010s - goddamn pokemon was obscure/counter-culture in a setting like that. But despite my desperate attempts not to care, I DO care, just like JP. It fuckin stung. And now i have depression and social anxiety whoops. Honestly ngl, it got so bad that I genuinely projected that it was implied JP was isolated for being fat/not conventionally attracted, until i was like "wait a minute...frontier didnt go that hard"

But what makes JP such a tragic character to me now is that at the end of Frontier nowadays when i watch it, im left asking myself....DID JP make any friends?

I know JP is a raging heterosexual but quite frankly, he is dealt such a shitty, judgemental hand for an innocent crush. JP's most nsfw fantasy is marrying Zoe and holding her hand, like... And yet, despite this, he's accused time and time again of being a perv. JP is, well, a big fuckin guy. As such, he thinks "its probably a good idea to let all my friends climb up this latter before me, so i dont crush them all if i fall - plus ill look chivalrous too!" But he unfortunately forgets that Zoe has a skirt on and, y'know, not pants. I understand Zoe's hesitation completely - i wouldnt trust a man who kept hitting on me either. Her relationship with JP is completely justified. Like, its not like JP doesn't take no for an answer - he just still has a crush on her. Yes he should probably give it a rest but like, he's 13 and his most nsfw fantasy is to hold hands and marry and respect his crush. Inb4 you say "but its a kids show of course it is-" literally everything about Zoe is sexualized so no the fuck its not lol

What gets me the most though is the beach episode... again, not because of Zoe. She thinks someone has peeped on her (understandable but it was a digimon) and confronts them about it. But koji and takuya IMMEDIATELY suspect JP, and only believe his immediate denial when Tommy points out that JP was with them the whole time. Like first of all, YOU FORGOT HE WAS THERE??? it took the baby of the group pointing that out for you to remember???? Second of all, JP has never done anything to warrant not being believed - again for zoe id understand, a bitch has gotta be weary, but not for the guys? And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly of all, YOU GUYS CONSIDER SOMEONE YOU'D EASILY SUSPECT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT YOUR "FRIEND"???? i would NEVER be friends with someone who i could see sexually harassing another one of my friends!! What the shit!! I realize they're kids but GEEZ. And i know its implied JP only cares about the perpetrator because he likes Zoe but idc, despite being persistent in his crush JP has literally NEVER done ANYTHING to disrespect women. And if the scene where takuya and jp run into Zoe's changing room to see whats wrong after she screams counts - well lol takuya was there too.

Zoe was dealt a terrible hand by the writers (worse than JP imo) so I understand people being weary of JP, but - in the dub at least - he literally did nothing wrong... dont confuse the writers sexualizing zoe and being misogynistic with JP sexualizing zoe and being misogynistic.

And im gonna say it - JP is only treated this way cuz hes fat lol. Its not a coincidence that the only MC in the digimon anime who's treated like a perv (despite the fact that they failed in writing one, cuz hes not a perv) is the fat guy. Japan LOVES the fat otaku stereotype (America, look what you did, you made it fatphobic) and in JP's case he's treated completely differently because he's fat. Takuya doesn't have an explicit crush on Zoe but just look at how he treats her vs JP. And which one is demonized lmao? Like, frontier has major problems in general, but to me this isnt a coincidence.

Also, I think JP's crush on zoe is initially just flirting/wanting to impress a girl to fill the void in his heart, but then he genuinely comes to respect her and like her for who she is. He likes that she's kind but stands up for herself and even though he's hopelessly infatuated with her, he just wants her to be happy, even if its not with him. He relates to her struggles to fit in despite not understanding how someone so beautiful and charismatic (in his eyes) could be disliked by her peers.

Hackers Memory discussion coming up, but the spoilers are minor/vague. Frank discussion of sexual harassment and...pedophilia i guess? But its like...ephebophilia, not literal children.

I realize the Story games and the anime are two different beasts entirely, and Cyber Sleuth especially is targeted at an older audience. BUT... compare how JP is treated in Frontier to how Chitose and even Keisuke are treated in HM. Chitose goes after countless women and isn't even reprimanded for going after someone he considers a CHILD. To clarify - Ryuji and Chitose both call Arata a child. Arata is canonically older than Yuuko. Chitose flirts with Yuuko. It is gross. Like he gets the physical embodiment of the cold shoulder and you get to insult him for it, but that's not proper reprimanding. In comparison, yes JP is older than Zoe...by a year/grade. But JP gets accused of SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY HIS "FRIENDS" and Chitose just gets "haha good ol chitose, hes a wild one." Plus i think Chitose and JP get the shit smacked out of each other an equal amount of times in the story, which like...one of these people is worse than the other!

Then there's Keisuke, the protagonist of HM, who's significantly better than Chitose but still gets dirty thoughts about Yuuko and is only reprimanded by Erika. And honestly I love Erika but HM plays up the tsundere heterosexual couple aspect. So imagine the only person who calls you out on your shit is your fucking love interest, who also beat the shit out of you with a plush toy for entering her room without knocking, not knowing anyone was in there (id say hes not a playboy but considering he befriends a stranger to practice "getting chicks" at chitose's recommendation, hes totally a playboy) and yet all she does when you start thinking weird shit about Yuuko is be like "hey. Stop that. Get some help"

Also Erika's best friend is chitose so like, someone save this poor girl PLEASE

But my point is that Chitose is conventionally attractive and...well they play up the idea that Keisuke isn't but hes not conventionally unattractive like JP is.

Gee, i wonder why they're treated differently? /s

TLDR: JP drinks respecting women juice and i kin him