#the whole the mc is so male -coded thing……

[mvalentine]

everytime i re-read this book i get more and more annoyed at how underrated it is….. like they make me so mentally ill. you guys just don’t get it!

[shootingshinestar]

ATEEZ AS FRUITS THREAD ⤵️

I had trouble thinking what fruits they would be cuz they are the whole fruit basket

•

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Hongjoong as cherry 🍒

Cherry can be sweet or sour. However, that doesn't stop it from being on top. I imagine cherries with being on top of ice cream like a banana split. He is always on top of work and performing! He is their captain leading his crew! Cherry is the center piece of desserts and used as the final touch. Just like those cherries, hongjoong brings ateez together as their center~

Seonghwa as strawberry 🍓

Literally strawberry is part of the shine star core. Talk to any hwa stan and they will have something with strawberry on it. Strawberry and croquette is just part of shinestar life atp 💀

Yunho as pear 🍐

Honestly, I had trouble with what yunho would be as a fruit, and then I chose pear! I read that pear is associated with good and healthy relationships! I think his friendship with mingi shows that. He is the ateez member who always does the tiktok challenges with other idols lol he has a friendly demeanor and good aura to be around (I think it's funny that yunho is always the Mc for shows like his vibes are just prefect for showcasing awards and acting)

Yeosang as grape 🍇

Grape are often in portraits of luxurious and rich. Yeosang has a very elegant and royal visual so I thought grapes fit him so well! Grapes come as a bunch, which fits yeo well as everyone in ateez is always after him hehet

San as orange 🍊

Ever since I saw him dressed as an orange farmer for thier fan meet, I associated with him with oranges. Orange can be simple like his fashion taste but it can versatile like him doing all sorts of things like going to fashion shows to picking garlic.

Mingi as watermelon 🍉

The hard shell of the watermelon can be compared to his cold and judgy approach however in the inside, he is a big softie and cutie ^^ (I'm gonna bring it up now, but mingi is not a frat boy 😭 I've seen those videos of which male idols would join a frat and it includes mingi and san??? Like bro stays in the room all day and watches anime lmao he only hangs out with yuyu)

Wooyoung as peach 🍑

Bro is so babygurl coded like ??? Anyways, Peaches are often associated with sweet and cute aesthetic = babygirl woo. Also bro had shake that during crazy form. Iconic fr ✨️ Bro is grabbing everyone peach too lmao.

Jongho as apple 🍎

Apple is literally part of his brand lol apple are so strong that it cause head injury which is funny considering jongho can possibly do the same thing to you haha. He is one of the strongest members in the group! I mean he is known for breaking fruits like apple with his bare heads like? Pretty iconic fr

[minsarasarahair]

My thoughts about Devil Venerable also Wants to Know by Cyan Wings after finally finishing it. It took a while for me to finish this because I'm obsessing over You Yao donghua...

Well, it was fun and very insightful read. I believe the message of the book are:

Be a critique to what you read and don't consume everything you read as if its the only truth available. Perspective matter. Look at the bigger picture. (God of Annihilation vs Abusive Romance)

Difference between a hater vs critique (Commenters vs Wenren E questioning the plot holes)

The balance between good and evil is important for the cycle and order of the world. World is not Black and White. (Baili Qingmiao character development)

Roles matter in relationship. You should know what your partner wants, strength and what role they are comfortable with if you want the relationship to work. (Yin Hanjiang & Yin Hanjiang story)

Real love is not abuse nor about social order. Its about equality and healthy communication. (Wenren E, Yin Hanjiang, He Wenzhao & Baili Qingmiao story)

I know there's a lot and it varies depend on what the reader noticed but that's what I remember that are the most important for me. I really love it when danmei point out some issues I barely see in straight romance. For example, this story shows the difference between fiction media for male and female. Male demographic care about the strength and power of MC while the female demographic are either annoyed to the naïve heroine or protective of her. Its really interesting to see that different media have different types of people. This is why its important to consume different genre to improve your media literacy, people!

As for the characters, I really love Wenren E as the protagonist. He's very aroace-coded and levelheaded so its easy for me to relate to his thoughts. Even if he's the leader of a demonic sect and chose a path that is harmful to him, he's very rational. His character explore what I wish MDZS Wei Wuxian should care. Demonic cultivation is not the issue here but MDZS Wei Wuxian dismissing the fact its harmful to him so it got worse to the point where there's no turning back. Wenren E on the other hand, know the stake very well so he focus in cultivating his mind seriously. But well, MDZS WWX is younger so it make sense he's more reckless and Wenren E is already jaded by his past experience. Anyway, I love both characters okay? Tbh Wenren E reminds me of SPL's Gu Yun more than WWX because they are both generals. I'm also thankful that Wenren E is very knowledgeable about the cultivation world and explained to the readers how it works while adding his own input about it such as heavenly tribulation is a thing, dual cultivating, bonded weapon etc. I don't really have a problem with him aside from the fact he use the ABUSIVE romance book to try to understand love in the beginning LOL That's like the worse book choice to understand what real love it.

Yin Hanjiang's journey in accepting what he desire is very compelling to me. I love that he was never submissive or yes man originally but he's more like playing the role that don't fit his personality at all. Thanks to that, the result is he became mediocre or he can't progress. All this time he's suppressing the real him with the thought of being afraid it won't fit to Wenren E's standard. I like that their whole fighting dynamic was changed in the ending. He used to just assist Wenren E like a typical righthand man or side kick but later we found out he shines more if he's the one who charge first or be in offensive. I like that in the final battle he become the star of the show while Wenren E became his support.

Baili Qingmiao is the heroine of Abusive Romance. I admit I'm annoyed to her in the beginning because I hate naïve mary sue heroines with romance-driven mindset. It turns out she just need Shu Yanyan, Zhongli Qian, Qiu Congxue and Wenren E's guidance to realize what she's doing is wrong. Revolving your life to just one person especially if this person is not even worth your sacrifice is not the way. Life is not all about Romance. Its about love that comes in different shapes. That's why platonic relationship also exists. Self-caring and caring about the world are also love. I also love her realization that the world is not black and white. Even the righteous sect has bad apples in it and it don't mean righteous sect is entirely bad just like how Xuanyuan demonic sect is not pure evil either. They have demonic cultivators and ruthless, yes but that don't mean they are guilty to every bad thing happened in their world. But that don't entirely excuse them that their sect is still one of the most cruel sect when it comes to brutality. At least they have rules that they only harm cultivators and not commoners lol

There are so many interesting characters to talk about. We have Shu Yanyan the right protector who was always seen scheming against Wenren E but always failed, the scholar-like handsome gentleman cultivator Zhongli Qian as the most reliable supporting character ever, the insufferable He Wenzhao who treat women as his stepping stone to advance his cultivation, etc. But I'm afraid this post will never end if if I talk about it more so I only chose these 3 because I think they are the most important to the story. Just read it if you want to find out more.

I think I recommend this to people who read MDZS, and TGCF if you want to know how cultivation world works because it covers the immortals, gods and cultivators. I also recommend it to You Yao and SVSSS fans because it has the comedy that make fun of story stereotypes. And yeah, to Tian Ya Ke fans because of antiheroes couple with healthy relationship. I will read the Governor is Sick next because I'm thirsty for this dynamic.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

i think that one transmasc anon means being nonbinary but also male/more masc aligning. transmasc ≠ identifying with being a man fully. like i'm personally nb, but it's a pretty broad term that can encompass a lot of labels that aren't just male/female so i'm also transmasc, and it can equate into being comfortable in the gay men community (just like nb lesbians)

BUT gender is a spectrum and not the same for everyone so that's just my two cents! this isn't me trying to persuade you to change teddie's romance btw, i'm playing a man mc anyway lol

That makes sense! You articulate this better than the vague understanding that was in my head.

Unfortunately it comes back to one of those darn things where I'm limited by having to put this stuff into code, both for players to be able to pick, and then for characters later to act appropriately, and I just can't cover the whole spectrum.

[burning-academia-if]

Hi! I just finished playing the update, and I loved it!

I had my highly coveted Lars content, and I couldn't be happier about it. I just ADORE the interactions with him! And I must admit I laughed out loud about the interaction during lunch, where he took some food from MC's plate, and the MC could do the same. It's funny how I didn't even interpret it as annoying him, but just as some sort of... well, exchange. Somehoe, that scene was surprisingly cute to me. And Nevio's reaction was so priceless!

I'm also very intrigued by that customer who left my MC her card at the end of the chapter... so mysterious!

The only character I have a hard time "dealing with" (sort of) is ??? because they make me pretty uneasy because of the whole "stuck in MC's head" thing. At least, I'm glad we can actually have a very reluctant MC who just doesn't want to interact with them!

Now, because I liked Nevio a lot, and because I'm on a Lars romance playthrough, I NEED to ask... Will we get to see Nevio's reaction to when MC and Lars actually enter a relationship? And if we don't or if it isn't too spoilery to share, just WHAT will the reaction (or his thoughts) be? I'm so curious!

That aside, I had... well to be fair a bunch of coding errors. I'll list them all here!

This one isn't an error, but when going with Rhea to the library in chapter 1, would you consider making it so picking the option "You'd be fine. You'd go in" would add to the courage stat? I've noticed it doesn't while the second option does. But that one doesn't fit my MC since it's too hostile.

In chapter 2 when going to the first class and Scout asks "Mind if I sit here?", the answers feel as if she asked if the seat is empty or something rather than what she did ask, which makes it so the answers don't really fit the question.

In the same scene, some stray code: "The haze had rendered your memory of the place almost dreamlike, a moment suspended. It had to have been The $hname."

On the page where we meet Nevio, he calls the MC "infamous" and uses their full name, but on the next page (at least if MC is optimistic about the whole thing), Nevio asks them their name and the game considers he doesn't know it.

If agreeing to lunch when Nevio asks and being honest when Lars asks why (my MC accepted because he thought it would be nice to get some answers), I get a strange error where it seems there is an interaction missing at the start of the page, and a bunch of weird stuff after (and the whole exchange is disjointed):

If refusing to entertain ??? by the end of the chapter, and if they are set to male, I get this: "It would be nice to know why the two of you are connected, and what his deal is with wraiths, and just who he are. But you're not sure if it's worth whatever he want." - both with "who he are" and "whatever he want", the verbs are not properly accorded. Same a few lines lower: "With that, he vanish again"

During the closing scene with Lars and Zoe, I have this: "He hadn't been surprised when they'd refused to take hold of one of the death-touch items. Survival instincts overtook anything else. He'd gone through so many ghosts and wraiths, he no longer felt anything. He knew that wasn't the case for everyone. It was the fear of a new world. It meant he hadn't really had to deal with them. It also showed they had a brain, at least." I believe this is about MC? But not only my MC is male (in regards to the first sentence), but also my MC didn't show reluctance in picking one of the objects - he just did without any fuss (picked the "sure, fine" option during that segment) because he had to. And well, my MC has been very brave overall, so it seems a bit strange in general for Lars to be thinking about his fear and all of that.

Hope that helps!

Fixed all of them!

I'm glad you liked the Lars scene, I really enjoyed the friend/romance options with him lol they were a lot of fun. I also rather like Nevio! I don't think him and Lars are too close for him to comment on it.

And you'll see more of the mysterious customer in chapter 4!

[wolfsetfree-if]

hi there! me again. I was gonna reply but i wrote a lil too much. my baaaad so! i asked both because my MC and I are trans so i wanted to see what all was going on there. For if MC was transitioning before the capture, any surgery changes or big physical changes won't revert during captivity. However, with hormones and hormone blockers being unavailable a lot of smaller physical changes will revert. As an example for TransFems, a tracheal shave won't revert but maybe their features will be rougher than before, and they might be dealing with male-pattern-baldness. This is, of course, assuming MC got help before being captured. If MC didn't, then starting their transition will just be a whole journey after the rescue. Having Bela support the protagonist is a super amazing thing as, in both the 'just starting out' route and the 'already figured things out but got setback' route. Older trans people are just super amazing in general. I also wonder if, with all of the magic in this world, there is some way to make more permanent gender changes which could counteract MC accidentally de-transitioning over the course of their captivity. Because I know that some people might want to be trans but not deal with the angst and such that would come with the accidental detrans route. anywho these are just some lonely transbian's thoughts on this. im just one girl so take what im saying with a grain of salt! also, best of luck with writing and i hope this helps!!

also small followup for clarification. the reason i kept saying "accidental detransition" was because MC didnt want to detransition, not because they detransitioned on accident. i just didnt have a better way of putting it my apologies

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! As I said, it's very useful for me to get this kind of feedback <3

I think having MC transition only prior to their capture might be easier coding wise, but at the same time I really don't want to pass on the message that one can transition or discover their identity only as a teen and be done with it. People can transition later in life and it's completely valid.

So I believe I will complicate my life and go with that. MC will have a talk with Bela and see how they can manage it. Both to restart their therapy, look into surgery or whatever necessary.

I was also thinking we could have something more permanent for MC to not experience some things reverting back. For example a permanent implant for hormones or maybe some sort of amulet built by werewolves (they usually contain some magic given by the moon). Werewolves wouldn't ask witches for help because they are quite dangerous and would absolutely love to get their hands on a stray and use them as ingredient for potion making

[couldtransitionsaveher]

ALLEN RIDGELEY from XENOSAGA

JUSTIFICATION:

"OK LISTEN,

First- if you played the game series you probably can Understand this is a transbian egg in love with her boss. But because most people Have Not played xenosaga I can break it down;

So Allen is the longsuffering workwife of the main character and in a impressive feat of gameplay and narrative coding she is in the role usually reserved for the female love interest of a male MC- never in combat except maybe in a cutscene where she does one cool thing and then needs to be rescued. Because the people who wrote the game are Insane at narrative Themes and Symbolism, this is likely purposeful positioning (though likely for narrative twist reasons instead of trans ones- this IS a 00s jrpg). Now Allen is also very unconfident, she doesnt seem to comfortably take up the 'male role' in that she seems clearly unsuited to it in practice but tries really hard at it and keeps bringing it up. This girl would be SO much happier if she realized she wasnt one and that it was ok for her to be one. Leading into that her character arc is about balancing the self-reliant 'man' ideals with the co-dependent submissive following his boss around she is prone to. Conquer toxic masculinity with the power of accepting the 'girly' bits. Like her whole gender. She is so anxious and vaguely pathetic and I feel like she would be so much happier as a girl. Just look at her. Thats a sad lesbian in the tech field. Save her.

She wears fullbody covering clothes and her swimsuit model is one of the old fashioned kind of swimsuits that covers the torso fully. Her dysphoria is so bad. Come on, spare her some E.

It wouldnt stop The Horrors of the plot from happening to her and everyone else, but she sure would be happier." - Anonymous

Reminder: Submissions are always open! Submit here!

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[thrilling-oneway]

I'd give you 5$ if you post that draft

you didn't even need to bribe. it's not actually in the drafts of this blog so i'll write a better version

i've said it a billion times before: tsukasa is the comedic relief weirdguy, the devs basically will do anything with him so long as it's funny.

so starting with that valentine's day vlive in 2021. during the MC part of that he gets jealous that rui has been getting chocolates and tries to brag that he got lots of chocolates too but then immediately reveals that he got friendzoned by multiple girls. his voiceline that year is something about how he catches everyone's attention on vday and year round bc he's a star or something like that but anyway that whole interaction there seems to suggest he's straight lol.

however.

he's REALLY oblivious. played for comedy ofc but i see a lot of people interpret this as him being somewhere on the aro spectrum (probably not what the writers intended but fair instance of accidentally coding a character as smth). examples include: not understanding why Akito doesn't want to be seen at PXL alone with Toya in an Akito's initial 3* (second story), literally says "thank you" when Asahi basically confesses to him and completely misses the point (he actually did seem to nearly get this one for a second), and he doesn't understand why Rui's friends are impressed that he's friends the incredibly attractive Shizuku (Tsukasa is the only not-gay-coded male character who isn't attracted to Shizuku, probably because they're childhood friends. or if you want to view him as being aspec, then that works too). also when he mentions that he's friends with guys in his class who are cool and popular and good with women, Hibiki says that he was in a class with one of those guys in 1st year and is amazed that tsukasa is in that crowd now, emphasis on the "tsukasa's friends are good with women part". tsukasa's just confused about that because of course they talk to girls a lot they're in the same class.

also he usually rewrites a lot of romance plays to remove the romance. he rewrote R&J to just make it focused on the action (which is probably because he likes playing action heroes more than anything else), and he got rid of the romance plot in little mermaid because he didn't felt it was needed (this one is justified in-universe as they do fun shows for small children and don't really need the tragic romance, and also from production standpoint like you don't do that because fandom). so yeah that could again be read as him being aspec if you want but i don't think the writers intended it to be read that way, especially the R&J one that was purely for comedy.

all that said, this is an idol game, which generally run on the rule of thumb that every character is some flavour of queer, even if it's just for fanservice (i don't play enstars but from what i do know of it it falls a bit on that last point). anyway you can probably tell where this is going but he gets ship tease with rui sometimes. vast majority of this is from Rui's side but there are things like Oki ni Mesu mama

Tsukasa: Waiting for the "1, 2…" signal, holding hands with you is an act of courage for me

or that one part in pandemonium where he drops his persona for a brief second when he's impressed by rui's plan that was very much put there on purpose, or that Tsukasa and Airi's cheerful carnival team name from that event is "swayed by their partners (相方, aikata)" and when you consider that Shizuku and Airi are heavily implied to like each other, and have canonically been on a "date", that was also a Choice.

idk whether to count KING because justified by them being actors and the fang motif in the song... vampires kinda homoerotic it makes sense that the dance routine was that. also i'm not sure if the connect lives are even canon, especially the wxs one since tokishun broke character and the 4th wall.

yeah i dunno. the writers kinda just do whatever they want with him. interpret any of this how you will i'm just recounting shit from the game.

oh hey it's longer than 300 words now

[crehador]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

ahh this is such a fun question, thanks so much for the ask! a difficult question as well lol, i am very indecisive so a top 10 anything is... tough

i'll limit myself to animanga only, aaand lump some characters in under the same banner so there's definitely going to be more than 10 here. i'm also prohibiting myself from giving more than one slot to hpmi characters or that would just be the whole list

anyway:

ICHISAMA (package deal, do not separate)

this is probably obvious (or should be obvious) from my pinned but in first place are of course my forever blorbos (and forever otp) ichiro and samatoki of hypnosis mic

it's hard to say what i like about them besides "literally everything" which is kind of funny because for like the first year-ish of me being into hpmi neither of them were my top favorites lol

and now i genuinely have to say i like them both equally, and like them both the most. out of any characters of anything ever. i typed a bunch of paragraphs after this but think i'll actually just stop here because nothing really does justice to how they make me feel (unwell, in a good way)

this post is already getting long so everything else will go under a cut! and besides ichisama in first, none of the other characters will be strictly ranked in order. mostly just listed as i think of them

2. bon my beloved, of showa genroku rakugo shinju

this is my favorite anime of all time, and what i would personally consider the best anime of all time, and bon is perhaps the single most beautiful character with the single most beautiful story i've consumed ever. i never feel any urge to make or consume fanworks of this series because it's just so mind-blowingly perfect and complete to me

i won't spoil too much about the series, but it's a tragedy, and that's something i don't read or watch much of. so it's truly exception for this to be my favorite, but it was just that good

bon is in so many ways a tragic character, and the series allows you to see him through his whole life. he's tragic in such a hauntingly beautiful way, though, and i left the series feeling like he now lives in my bones

this is probably also my favorite ishida akira role ever, which is saying a lot because he's always great. i love the anime because it gives such life to the rakugo performed in the series, and though i'm not an expert on rakugo, i felt like the performances were top-tier. and it always impresses me when voice actors take on roles that require them to perform a whole ass other art form (like rakugo or rap)

3. aomine (knb) AND grimmjow (bleach)

these are the same goddamn man i'm putting them together no one can stop me. they are a) blue b) panther-coded c) very aggro d) very aggro at a ginger mc specifically e) DEPRESSED and f) voiced by suwabe

(though honestly grimmjow's just here because they're too similar to separate, aomine's the real favorite here)

the thing with aomine is basically—

—and that paired with his tough guy/badass/fuckface manner is very appealing to me. i don't think it's even remotely possible for me to be brief in why he's so dear to me, but the short version is he's a deeply traumatized asshole and i'm into that

4. KIYOSE HAIJI RUN WITH THE WIND GUY OF ALL TIME (and various other sports guys who are single mothers)

i may have a lot of guys of all times but haiji is for real. before ichiro he was my favorite character of anything ever for a while, and he is definitely my favorite type of sports guy (so a lot of other sports guys are going to be lumped into this category with him lol)

he has an infectious passion for running and he will infect you. whether you let him or not. it's not negotiable. you will run. no matter what

i think he brings out the best in those around him, sometimes at a detrimental cost to himself. he pushes his team hard but pushes himself even harder. we stan a self-destructive king

and i'm putting natsusa number24 right in this rank with him

because while number24 is objectively Not a good anime, it's easily one of my favorite sports series and i sincerely love natsusa just as much as i love haiji. natsusa is like if someone made haiji but cranked the bitch factor up to one billion, he is the most gaslit gatekeep girlboss guy in all of sports anime and i love him for that

bonus shoutout to iura kei of shakunetsu kabaddi, usui yuuta of days, and sugawara koushi of haikyuu. gotta be my favorite flavor of sports guy

(ok this is not even fully true because i think my days favorite did ultimately end up being mizuki because he's just so fucking stupid BUT usui i still love you.........)

5. kaworu and all his ridiculously many expies (aka the "and then a weird guy appear" category)

basically i'm talking about these fucks

they show up, sometimes not even for very long, and all they do is cause problems (ok victor probably doesn't really belong here but he honestly does fit the mold and i'm too lazy to crop him out from this old graphic i made lol) and love another weird guy so catastrophically that it alters the course of the story

the way kaworu loves shinji the way komaeda loves hinata the way zashunina…… obsesses over shindo. like fine wine to me, chef's kiss. tbh that's why victor fits the mold for me, his and yuuri's love is less the "People Will Die" type of catastrophic but it's still life-changing, life-saving, for them both

ironically even though kaworu is a ryo expy himself i'm not. i'm not that big on ryo, i'll be honest. maybe it's because i wasn't the biggest of netflix devilman in general. i should probably read the manga sometime, might change my mind

6. SOFT BOYS natsume and rei

putting them together in part because lol look at them making the same pose on their anime covers even

these are both (natumse's book of friends and march comes in like a lion) two of my favorite series, and two of my favorite protagonists. they're soft but not weak, hurt but not broken. it just feels comfortable to spend time with them, to follow them even when they're hurting

7. CELTY MY BELOVED, of durarara

honestly celty is just cool as fuck. there are lots and lots of reasons to love her but i get so incoherent about it. it's really strange because i feel like the way narita writes women is not great in many ways, and yet... he always fucking... writes the hottest fucking women goddamn, i can't be mad about that

i always liked shinra too. because of how relatable he was lmao. i would be a weird little man about celty too i'm sorry

8. sir integra fairbrook wingates hellsing, of hellsing

god. yet another. she's just so fucking cool. massively obsessed with her. it's been too long since i've watched hellsing (and durarara for that matter) for me to remember a ton of details but her whole personality is just so appealing to me

you know the way people like fma olivier armstrong. sir integra's my armstrong

9. hei, of darker than black

once again he's just cool as fuck, also i'm chinese and it's rare to see a really good chinese character in anime, much less as a main character. darker than black is an older series at this point, but it remains one of my old favorites. second season was a bit questionable but honestly i didn't hate it. my boy got fuucked uuupppppp (said with delight)

funny story about hei is when i first started watching the show there was this moment where i thought "this is a weird detail to notice but something about his collarbones look really nice to me? they're just two lines but idk they're lovely"

THEN LATER IN THE SERIES on at least two other occasions that i can remember, maybe more, actual characters in canon commented on THIS SPECIFIC THING. HIS COLLARBONES. so what do i like about hei? what does anyone like about hei? apparently it's his collarbones lmao

10. nooooo i'm running out of space now and there are so many more blorbso i would talk about i can't choose who to put here but but but closing my eyes and picking the first name that comes to mind MIKOTO SUOH K PROJECT

part of me thinks i shouldn't actually put him here because he's, like, red samatoki lmao but no he deserves a spot. i think. idk. that's what i'm going with for now but, you know, indecisive

anyway. love a tragic mfer with one dead boyfriend who haunts the narrative and another ex who [redacted idk if anyone is going to be reading this far but just in case no one wants k spoilers i want say anything but you know this show is old as balls by now]

i actually love both of the factions in k (there are more factions later but i'm focusing on red and blue) because they're both families in different ways, and mikoto and munakata both care about their families in different ways (yes i love that bitch munakata too)

and the way they care for their people while failing to fully let their people care for them in return is sooooo delicious as a character trait to me

so that's the end of this enormous post i guess! there are approximately a billion other characters i love that i didn't get to mention but i will do my best to shut up now lmao

thank you again for the ask, very fun exercise to think about!

[ecargmura]

Hello!

I really love your anime reviews. Just wanted to know if you have any wholesome/good plot bl/queer anime recommendation list. Pls pls pls do a rec list if you don't have any

<3

Hi!

Thanks for liking them so much! Your words seriously made my day.

To be honest, I'm really terrible with recommendations, but I'll do my best.

While I do like BL, there aren't that much that are "wholesome" but if you're into fujo-bait/queer-coded anime, then I can give some recommendations (No particular order).

Hybrid Child (A BL series of OVAs made from the creator of Junjou Romantic and Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi that revolve around dolls called Hybrid Childs).

Stranger by the Shore (A BL movie that tackles queer identity and a shocking twist on seme and uke).

Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (Not BL, but seriously BL-coded; created by the author of Super Lovers; it's a supernatural fantasy story with an interesting premise and a good cast--though, there are some questionable things in the story)

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi (A BL anime about shoujo manga editors. This is my absolute favorite BL anime of all time, but it does get questionable).

Sasaki and Miyano (Probably the most wholesome BL about two boys falling in love over a shared interest in BL manga)

Whisper Me A Love Song (Got into yuri/GL lately, and this is the first one I watched. It's wholesome, but the anime can be a little funky).

Given (BL, has good plot. I wouldn't call it wholesome as a whole, but the relationship between Uenoyama and Mafuyu is really wholesome).

Buddy Daddies (Not a BL, but it does revolve around two male adults accidentally raising a four year old girl together and learning what it means to be a family).

Cherry Magic (Another wholesome BL that revolves around the uke receiving the power to read minds and learning that the hottest guy in his company has a crush on him).

Tadaima, Okaeri (The first omegaverse anime and the most wholesome. If you're into ABO, there's honestly not that much aside from heat and second-gender discrimination, but the main couple is already together and they're seriously a great couple and their son is a toddler but he's his own character too).

My New Boss is Goofy (Not a BL, but does feel queer-coded. It's just a cute office comedy about the MC and his extremely airheaded boss).

Opus Colors (Not a BL, but has a predominantly male cast. It's about VR art. It's pretty wholesome as it does containing a lot of singing and such)

[leastdatablebracket]

ROUND 4, MATCH 1

Propaganda under the cut!

Jumin Han

Propaganda

manipulative and abusive asshole

He's a stuck up trust fund baby, and won't take no for an answer. His route is objectively the WORST

He is in love with his cat and constantly compares you with the damn cat😭 like an actual fucking feline animal that’s not nickname 😭😭😭

unapologetic member of the bourgeoisie. makes his secretary cut her hair and wear glasses so he can take her seriously. 0/10 hate this man so much it has been 7 years since i first set eyes on him and to this day i have carried this with me in silence. my hatred for this man has been my burden. my old mysme mutuals will never know.

ok so fun fact when i tried to play jumin’s route i hated it so fucking much i abandoned ship on day 7. this is a grown ass man who is far too immature (and has too much money) to be romanceable like can he see a therapist first? i’m not his therapist. i’m not. i’m not his cat either. why are you locking me in your penthouse does this LOOK like amnesia: memories. also i hate that in order to gain favor ability you have to act like a jerk to other characters at times and also i love jaehee (his secretary that he makes do Fucking Everything For Him) too much to want to date him romantically. imo he’s a great character in other routes, but in his own it’s just…. :/ . did i mention i hate the whole “getting locked in his house” thing. 

he makes jaehee do so much shit that is WAAAAYYY outside the scope of her job description???? she’s his personal assistant. he makes her take care of his personal — completely unrelated to the company— projects related to cats, makes her watch his pet cat at HER APARTMENT OUTSIDE OF WORK HOURS (as far as i can tell he didnt pay her extra for that, though she does get paid overtime) which is so wildly entitled of him to do, but he’s a rich man so. in every route except for jaehee’s and his own— in jaehee’s she quits altogether and in jumin’s she gets a long awaited and well deserved vacation— he piles her with so much more work than is reasonable. for example: in another story she is tasked with— on top of her regular work tasks — to become the HEAD OF AN IT DEPARTMENT FOR COMBATTING HACKERS. also, he constantly pushes zen —someone who is very, very allergic to cats— to interact with his cat. like he wants to take his pet cat to their charity party/event, and seems very blase and uncaring and disbelieving to the fact that he’s allergic, and that other attendees could be too! and as another example: in zen’s route he offers zen a job when he’s looking work— but it has to do with modelling for a cat food brand, and interacting with cats. which he’s explicitly told jumin he doesn’t want to do. they reconcile and it leads to zen giving in and doing the modeling job :/ now, i don’t dislike cats— i love cats! but i’m also very allergic to them (fur, dander, and saliva) so this hits a little close to home. but constant exposure to an allergen can trigger chronic asthma and asthma attacks, and chronic asthma can be very damaging to someone. it can damage their lungs! it’s not a matter to be trivialized! and even if zen’s allergies were “minor,” jumin’s constantly trying to force someone who’s set up a boundary time and time again about not wanting to interact with cats to interact with them and while it is a small example — at least in comparison to the rest of his route— of him ignoring/overstepping/bulldozing past boundaries, it still makes me itch!

Sam Dalton

Propaganda

Spineless af, no personality but 'horny' for the mc. pretty shit at being a parent. Literally cheated on their fiance, but the fiance is made out to be the 'bad guy'. Character is gender customisable but is written so white male coded urgh. is terribly jealous but not in a cute way. just really annoying. much rather choose their ex wife or fiancé over them any day

He (like it was said before customizable but white man coded) was so bad when I played the game. He’s the only love interest of the story, but after a single chapter I decided I wasn’t interested in him. I went out of my way to avoid any romantic options with him. For me the game was just “The Nanny”. But, despite all my romance dodging, I ended up with a scene where he says word for word “My hands aren't clean, [character name]. How can they be, when I think about you every time I touch myself? Or when I want to murder the next man who touches you?”. BIG RED FLAG. Also at one point, Sam can give you the option to DITCH HIS 9 YEAR OLD SONS BIRTHDAY PARTY and hook up with him! 

[silver-wield]

Based from your former posts like super random old ones I guess you have watched shounen genre harems like code Geass. When you're aware of the tropes it's easy to shrug off what happened in between to just fan service or not. I guess I'm just bringing up people being adamant about cloud's reaction to aerith's dress. At least the favorable ones. I know of the real meaning of it, that he's confused, I watched Yamazaki about it and even he was surprised at the final production. I trust his reaction because it seems to me he didn't get "act all mesmerized to her dress" as a stage direction. But rather act confused would be more accurate. But that's not where I'm getting at. I'm getting at the parts in shounen harem or not harem really, where lets say the third party can go and kiss you and all that. Mc's going to blush, panic, or any reaction. This is technically romantic in the atmosphere. But does that mean it properly does that effect? Is he in love? Are these third party really doing anything? No. I could literally just compile kissing scenes from the third parties or any other reaction and then place in the part where the Mc straight on rejects the same girl like nothing happened. Like he never blushed, nothing, its cold. And so when I see defenders on reddit , twitter , or I don't know anymore saying that's supposed to be romantic! Any scene with her really. I just think of this phenomenon in Japanese media for boys and just smh that sure go ahead have deep thoughts on a fan service but it doesn't really mean anything. You could look at most mc in shounen for example ikki from air gear, he'd be putting himself out there in compromising positions with girls and they get a reaction out of him. Does that mean he has feelings/attracted to them? Nah, unless it's explicitly being showed , sayed, developed , wtvr actually substantial like it's supposed to be convincing okay? And not like your counting what is possibly counted / passably romantic because that's desperation (pssh like with aerith scenes). Just to push it out there as well, anybody thinking ff7 is inspired from shoujo tropes don't get FF is a male demographic game. If they do then they're probably doing that for a reason (perhaps to send of the illusion/ confusion part? Wink wink). One day you'll be seeing me out there putting out collage of the stuff I just mentioned and make people get it. Uncultured swines lmfao.

I've watched it a bit 🤣

Yeah, that whole red dress thing is one giant bit of fanservice. It's an optional result from the player's efforts. If it was canon you'd get the red dress no matter what you did, and there'd be links to it once the scene is over. Instead Cloud has the same line about Johnny and never pays any attention to Aerith no matter what she looks like. You'd think he'd be more attentive to her if he suddenly fell in love or whatever, but he's more focused on saving Tifa, and so is Aerith.

Aerith is dressed to impress Corneo. That's literally what the dress is for.

Cloud is literally confused and doesn't recognise Aerith in the red dress scene.

It's no different to when she offered a date. He just doesn't get it. Every time she tries to throw herself at him in any capacity he just doesn't understand what she's after.

And again in her resolution, he's confused. That's his emotional state around her. He doesn't understand what she's on about or why she says and does things towards him. And it's not him being oblivious about women. He's not a moron. He gets that Jessie is throwing herself at him and calls her desperate, so he's not some snow white pure innocent lamb. He understands he's attractive and women like him, he's just not interested in anyone but Tifa, and remains oblivious of her feelings because like him, she's buried them super deep in case it ruins their friendship. And he's under alien control but that's a whole other thing 🤣

And yeah, Yamazaki also confirmed Cloud was confused during the scene and in pretty much every other scene that Cloud appears with Aerith. He also scolded Cloud for being mean in scenes with Aerith. He said they're like siblings and Aerith annoys Cloud on purpose like a sister does to a brother.

If the mocap and the vas and the devs and everybody involved is telling you something then people should just shut up and accept it as a fact 🤷

[robd-if]

So why exactly is Seth only romanceable by female MCs?

I'm not 100% set on this, but I do have a few reasons.

1. Seth was never supposed to be a RO. He was going to be a bit of parallel/ cautionary tale to MC on the River ex-lover route, a general friend option, and a sort of filler for River when you were not on River's route in few scenes... and I think also a scene in Alex's route when not on his 🤔😅 He is still all those things, but I ended up liking him more than expected 🥲

2. the first description that came to mind for him was "generic straight dude with horrible taste in women" 😅😅 his whole route kinda also revolves a bit on wanting to retire and start a family and I'm also considering locking his romance from MCs that don't share that dream and path in life (like more fame driven MCs maybe). That being said, his route is still a bit under construction since it was not initially supposed to happen at all 😅 but in my mind he's a bonus RO that won't be for everyone's taste since there's a very specific MC that he'd fall for.

3. just less stuff for me to code honestly, which I don't hate... but softly despise with passion 😅 it is the most annoying part of the whole process and I'm always trying to ease the burden a bit. the general scenes would be codded mostly the same, but the nswf ones are a freaking nightmare!

4. i do have a particular kink in mind that I can only really apply to a female MC 🤣🙈

With all this, I do know it's annoying when ROs are locked for a MC gender you don't usually play as (I'm looking at Steel from FH, respectfully, with my sole male MC in existence, who is actually my main MC's puppet in MC's shoes 🤣🤣)

And he's also a fictional character... at the end of the day he's sexually and who he's attracted to is whatever I decide them to be, I guess, but he started out as a non-RO straight dude and I would be forcing myself a bit to see him as anything else at the moment.

[velvetbunniie-archive]

AHH YAY FOR THE BOOK BLOG!! Can’t wait to hear all of your book thoughts <3

I do have a question for you: I know how you feel about Jacks and Eva (and that whole disastrous spin-off), but what are your thoughts on the original trio (Scarlett, Tella, Julian… and Dante/Legend too I guess!)? Thoughts on the ships, the characters, the plot itself?

(Also, I’m glad your surgery went well, wishing for a speedy recovery and nothing but good news from here on out!!!) 💗💗💗

OH, EVERYONE WILL B HEARING THEM… i am annoying, babey!!!

((we don’t talk abt that fucking spin-off on this blog.. love and light <3 need to send eva back to her pre-algebra class fr.))

BUT THE ORIGINAL TRIO…. scarlett is honestly one of my fav ya mcs still… she’s got that eldest daughter syndrome burned into her + she’s so refreshingly sheltered and anxious, but has the strength at the core of her that feels so human and mundane … that said, i think maybe she should’ve smacked tella for killing herself and coming back to prove a point. as an elder sister, i think scarlett should be a bit more ruthless, don’t you agree?

and julian is also a nice departure from the typical ya male love interest, wherein he’s, like, actually respectful, omg?? and kind and sweet? i find him much more interesting than dante (though maybe that’s bc legend being his brother is important to his character development. i will accept legend for this reason and this reason alone.) honestly, out of all of the characters stephanie’s written, i think scarlett and julian are the most soulmate-coded out of all of them. i mean, they have matching white streaks in their hair bc they died together for a day <3 need i say more? the DEVOTION!!! even in the small things!!

i will forever mourn the fact that stephanie felt she wasn’t mature enough to write their love story in legendary… be soooo serious. i want to see it!!! instead we get, like, two scenes with scarlett and julian when actually i deserve a thousand of them. on top of that, it defs feels like lazy writing to ignore all that development that occurs in that book. many issues with this (>jst wants to see them kiss a bit more, ithink.)

((also they were quite possibly her strongest-written charas with the most compelling storyline… WHERE are they!!! i deserve to see more of them!!!!!))

OH ALSO, THEY WEREN’T A LOVE TRIANGLE (legend tried for,like , half a chapter, that doesn’t count), and that, my friend, is what i like to see in a soulmate couple. or in more ya couples in general, bc i literally can’t do this anymore. (>will make exceptions, as always)

i found tella to be fun, it a bit like most of the ya mcs in fantasy novels… but again,, you can’t tear a character that’s a bit of a bitch away from me. go harder. make her a feral bitch too. but, oughhh, the ya fantasy series doldrums… the love triangle… :// maybe i want tella to be meaner to jacks (and also i think jacks wants tella to be meaner to him too. many things to think of.) rather than running off with legend.

whiiiich brings me to legend. i kinda hate that he’s the way he is. he’s jst super up his own ass in a less engaging way than jacks is (i also want jacks dead. we all know how i feel about him. killing him with my mind.) not only that, but he’s boring. oh my god, he’s so boring. the romance with tella felt like stephanie chickening out / making the sisters fall in love with the brothers to make it nice and neat.. honestly, finding out she hadn’t decided who tella would end up with while she’d been plotting out the novel made me all the more enraged. we have a boring ass bitch here??? instead of jacks?? instead of an actually more engaging plotline? i want ppl that are horrible !!!! i’m here for an interesting time, not a wholesome one!

that said, i want jacks left out in the cold, where he’ll die alone. love him to bits. i hope he’s mauled by a wolf <3 i’ll also stick him in a little terrarium, if need be.

anyway, i… won’t lie, i think finale is probably the most interesting book (mostly bc we actually get to see mistress luck, god bless!!), but the scenes with tella and legend had me rolling my eyes. when has he ever been interesting enough to pine after? maybe tella should’ve jst remained single (and honestly, with that travesty of a scene in once upon a broken heart wherein all of the original characters had their personalities mauled to bits, it certainly fucking feels like tella’s single). but alas.

(yes, it defs did!!! my hand’s bruising a bit and my stitches are stinging like a bitch rn, but such is the nature of having a healthy hand in the end, i guess ;;;; )

[lizzybeth1986]

I’ve just dived into your perfect match posts, specifically the ones about the different dialogue for the various Haydens. Holy crap, PB put so much coding behind those and yet these days they can’t handle more than one meaningful romance route at a time, or get a GoC characters pronouns right.

Also I am just amazed at the depth you’ve explored some of these stories……wow!!!

Thank you Anon! I'm so glad to see my Hayden Young Project posts are still helpful, almost 4 years after I put it up! At the time I had planned an essay series to go with it, but I was too drained by the time I finished uploading all the screenshots to continue. Maybe one day...

But yes. Hayden was such a perfect example of customization done with purpose and thought towards the differences, while still giving the character itself a strong default core. No matter which trait/personality type you went for, there were certain things without which Hayden would never be Hayden: their questions about life, their thirst for knowledge, their fierce protectiveness, their desire to make sense of themselves and the world around them. They went through so much growth over the course of those two books.

Even so, in the larger fandom that effort and care for characterization was often ignored. More often than not, when PM was still playing, readers would find excuses to hate on Hayden and pretend they had no value. They spoke of Hayden as if they were an object, they hated on Hayden for normal emotional reactions - while their favourite Damien was hailed for his "incredible growth" even though we never once saw him apologize to the people he hurt - and even after the books ended, I would often see posts about how Hayden is "whiny" (fandom loved to wave around the "he's traumatized!" card for Damien yet waved away the abuse Eros had done on Hayden and the hostility they constantly faced like it was nothing). In fact, the whole reason I started the Hayden Young Project in the first place was because several stans (specially Damien stans) were lying notstop about how Hayden didn't have that many variations beyond the first few chapters.

For a character that really was crafted with a lot of care, the fandom clearly seemed reluctant to show any appreciation. And it's a pattern I see with a lot of the early customizable characters. They are far more easily written off as bland and boring and devoid of any development, meanwhile default white/exoticizable brown mains who get hundreds of diamond scenes yet still stangnate as characters - because their writers don't want to admit to their flaws - are hailed as the best written characters ever.

I definitely agree with your point about the current state of characterization in PB! (though a lot of my info is secondhand, so don't blindly believe me on this). I sometimes have a term for the way PB uses customization now - "bandaid customization". It has struck me, ever since I saw the note (post-BLM statement) from the company, as well as their one-year-later update, that they believe making their single main LI customizable is enough. But that doesn't allow for the character themself to explore aspects of their story related to gender or race (eg: TNA with an f!Sam skips over certain things related to sexism, that should affect her, but doesn't really) because the writers themselves seem unable to move out of the headspace that the "default" is definitely white and mostly male. And this is at a time when they prove that they KNOW how to change dialogue to reflect race or gender (eg. The D&D MC's responses to Luke when they discuss his father, or to Hamid when the two speak about racism). So you can get a black character, you can get a female character to romance...but it won't count for much. Because it's a lot more likely the writer is seeing a white and male main when they're penning the lines, and it shows...now more than ever.

Did these problems exist with the early customizables? Yes, definitely. But there was still a little more care and purpose to the way they were written, and not all the advancements PB has the ability to code in now were there before.

I call the currect state of customizable characterization "bandaid" because the company views this specifically as a solution for the lack of race representation, yet it really doesn't solve the core problem. But I may be wrong, and the new books that I haven't heard much about, could be better in this respect.

To go back to the subject of Hayden - not only was the PM team consistent about divergences in traits, but they also did the same for their different skills (polyglot, animal lover, music, massage). I found a number of incredible and really fun scenes that replaced a skill scene - my favourite one being Sloane trying to liven up our first real visit to their house with "baby-shower games" in PM1 Ch7 instead of us playing with Dipper 😄 Oh Sloane. You're such a treasure 💖

I just found the way they built Hayden so fascinating, and I wanted to share it with the fandom too...whether most of them wanted to admit to the value of such a character or not.

I definitely will try to get that essay series done, someday. Thanks so much once again, anon!

[beautifulmorningstar]

i never read the manga either. but, i did read a few other shoujo manga as a teen. i wasn't all that interested in the romance (with men) content for obvious reasons, but the girls around me liked that sort of thing, and i wanted very badly to understand them.

what i learned was a lot of straight women are all too eager to romanticize their own abuse. romance with way older men, romance with men in positions of power (they're her teacher, or her boss, or an extremely wealthy man that plucked her from an average, or even impoverished, life), men who verbally abuse women (including mc), men who assault them, men who don't take "no" for an answer, men who expect femininity from her, men who admonish her for being a human or individual rather than a servile decoration.

i think it's socialized, but the way that there's so much content out there made by women for women that depicts abusive, misogynistic men as charming, cool, or romantic does make me wonder just who is doing the socializing in this case. it benefits men, either way, so it's still men's fault no matter what, but i notice the most popular romantic material written for women is often written by women...and contains abusive and misogynistic material.

at the very least, the core premise of ohshc contains a couple glaring examples: haruhi is poor, and she got roped into essentially roleplaying "soft prostitution" by boys who were far wealthier than her by leveraging debt (from an accident) against her. sure, the boys are also roleplaying "soft prostitution," but that's also strange in of itself.

this is really long, sorry...😅

Anon you are so spot-on.. Like... I never say it because there's always someone who doesn't want to see it said. But you're totally correct: media by (straight) women is rife with toxic or even sick power dynamics in their relationships. I agree that this is probably a result of socialization (I would go further and say this could be an expression of their understanding of society), because I do know straight women who wholly reject this dynamic - but the ones who do often get the lesbian label wrongfully pushed onto them from dick-centric idiots, who struggle to find relationships that work for them, or have their perspectives ignored by larger society. Meanwhile the women with puddle-level depictions of heterosexuality and other relations between the sexes or within a sex class get platformed for regurgitating the same acceptable idea of male-favored dynamics. Not to mention the recurring phenomenon of actually interesting male characters vs background wallpaper / overly-unrealistic /eternally-suffering female characters that aren't the main self-insert. Why are women writers uninterested in giving their female characters the same level and detail of depth as the male ones?

Not all women-made media is like this, but soooo much of it is. There's an argument to be made about not censoring fictional works, of course - people can imagine whatever they want and enjoy whatever they want. But it would be silly not to acknowledge that a massive part of any popular media is one that supports the domineering ideology of relations between the sexes, and that this continues to socialize and influence each new set of young minds.

I wouldn't include in this, for example, female writers who have their male characters encounter actual growth and development if they started out annoying or misogynistic. But this is not usually the case (at least in my experience). Especially in romance, as you mentioned.

Many things about ohshc actually squicks me out in a way I was willing to overlook for my friends. I believe Kyouya knew from the start that Haruhi was female, and he's essentially the one who saddled her with the task of paying off her debt via the club...... The way they're always forcing her into feminine-coded dress...the whole thing reeks. :I

As lesbians though... Well, we should still throw out the forced feminization and other stupid parts, but at least the dynamics wouldn't be as painfully cringe.