#there are very few manga with fat characters that are written this well

[rav3nmuse]

Debu to Love to Ayamachi to //

[shinneth]

The Sailor Moon AU born from my saltiness towards the manga

Read this for context. tl;dr: basically my love for Sailor Moon's 90s anime and 2003 tokusatsu has only grown over the years, while my feelings for Crystal remained at pure hatred whilst my feelings for the original manga has taken a sharp decrease.

In other words, I seem to work backwards from most other Sailor Moon fans.

Over a year ago, I had written out a hypothetical of how Sailor Moon's manga would play out if Naoko Takeuchi rejected the Super Sentai concept and made Usagi a (mostly) solo hero, sort of in the vein of Sailor V but much less fun with even more tragedy. I guess you could say it's a Sailor Moon but with more of a Kamen Rider motif?

Either way, I never released it anywhere until now. Mind you, it's not really a story so much as it is a gathering of ideas for a story...

THE SAILOR MOON MINIMAL SENSHI AU

One nagging sentiment I felt while rereading the manga is how it so often felt like Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibi-Usa were the only characters who mattered, and on several occasions the only characters who were able to get anything done. Even on the rare occasions where other characters got a chapter named after them, oftentimes the Moon Family still had more pages dedicated to them, and/or the non-Moon Family character's power-up ultimately became more of a battery to beef up Usagi and the character development was often minimal and inconsequential.

Crystal amplified that feeling many times over, but it was disheartening to realize one aspect of the source material it did justice was marginalizing the rest of the main cast. If I were to look at this in a super-cynical light, I'd hypothesize the likelihood that Naoko never wanted a big cast, or even the Core 5 team. If she did care about the non-Moon Family characters, perhaps it was out of obligation.

I'm willing to bet that the main reason Naoko Takeuchi bloated out her cast was due to mandates from TOEI hoping for more toy sales if more heroic Sailor Senshi existed. But that's just my headcanon on what must have been a nightmare production behind the scenes.

So it made me wonder about how the manga would have been if it “trimmed the fat”, so to speak. For all of Usagi’s protestations about how she “can’t use mist, fire, or lightning” to be useful… well, let’s face it: she already had a higher kill count than all of her friends even that early on in the story. Mamoru often had little episodes later on in the manga where he felt oh-so useless and powerless even though he’s killed monsters/notable antagonists plenty of times AND regularly takes part in killing off the main antagonists WITH Sailor Moon (while her friends were benched, even when they weren’t ragdolled into submission).

So, how much would really change in the manga if Sailor Moon was largely by herself with very few allies who could help her in battle? I can easily picture Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter being snipped from the story entirely.

Believe me, it KILLS me to say that. Mercury was my favorite since the beginning. But if I'm being honest with myself, it'd only take a few tweaks of the story beats to make Sailor Moon's first three allies completely superfluous.

For story purposes, Sailor V/Venus would have to stay in since she does play a vital role as a princess decoy, but otherwise… what if she lost her power entirely after the reveal of the true Princess Serenity? Or dies soon after? Without a team to lead, Minako wouldn’t serve much of a purpose. Heck, in this AU she wouldn't necessarily even need to wield Venus' power (since so few other planet powers are getting represented here) so much as a bootlegged copy of Moon Power.

We have a canon example in the Black Moon arc of how Venus was just “there” for much of it, even when she didn’t have to contend with her three teammates for spotlight/exposure. Hell, I recall her complaining in the manga that she’s bored and frustrated because she can’t do anything.

Luna and/or Artemis can easily substitute the exposition given by Venus.

Chibi-Usa would stay on and become Chibi-Moon; as previously stated, she’s a consistently focused-on character in the manga. In fact, she's highly integral to 3 out of the 5 story arcs. Definitely enough to the point where most of the manga would have to be changed if she was denied Senshi-ship.

Sailor Pluto… is tricky, but not impossible to write around. She’s heavily tied in with Chibi-Usa’s backstory and character growth. As Chibi-Usa’s friend and Time Gate guard, that much would stay the same. I would argue that Pluto needn’t be a Senshi to serve either role (she’s succeeding her father Chronos iirc, and Takeuchi is firm in her stance that men can’t be Senshi). So it can be arranged that she can maintain her duty as plain ol' Setsuna. It's heavily implied in the manga that she's not a reincarnation like the other Senshi were... at least, prior to her canon death. It wouldn't be too crazy to say Setsuna has beyond-mortal powers that give her extended life even without being a Senshi.

Hell, Queen Serenity basically enlists this child to duty saying "Here's all these awesome powers that you're not only not allowed to ever use, but if you DO use them, it'll end up killing you!" - Setsuna shouldn't need her powers to guard the Time Keys, and we've seen the Talismans can be held in civilian form. Though I'd argue her Garnet Rod needn't be a proper Talisman if she isn't to transform; it'd just be her means of self-defense.

Perhaps she never gets revived/reincarnated after her death? Because her connection to Chibi-Usa greatly diminishes from Infinity (and beyond).

The rest of the Outer Senshi… well. If one tweaks the Talisman prerequisite for the Holy Grail, such as make it LESS than three needed…

That’s all you need to cut Sailor Neptune and Pluto out entirely of the manga for sure. As much as I love Michiru, I can’t deny she is the epitome of “just there” in the manga. Pretty sure no one’s gonna contest this.

Even her relationship with Haruka is a side-note compared to Haruka’s constant pining/angsting over Usagi. I just kept getting this sense of Michiru being Haruka’s silver medal.

Haruka and Hotaru are the hardest ones to write around for this concept. That much I will admit.

But, one running theme for this AU is that, Moon and Chibi-Moon aside, no one else can wield the power of a Sailor Senshi indefinitely. Well, technically Mamoru is still there representing Earth, but only so much as he's able to in his canon iteration due to that pesky Y chromosome. I slated for Minako to permanently lose her power, and possibly even die for it once her narrative purpose was fulfilled.

Even if Setsuna remained a Senshi in this revision, it’s a similar outcome for her. In a best-case scenario for the latter, a reincarnated Setsuna likely would have no memory of her lonely past life and possibly come off as an entirely different person from who Chibi-Usa knew. She'd finally be able to live out a normal life no longer bound to duty and that's about as happy an end I could imagine for her.

(And hey, that’s all the more impetus for Chibi-Usa being drawn to Hotaru!)

Going back to Hotaru, then, her being a cyborg in this iteration of the story lends well to a tweak in the narrative: Pharaoh 90 attempting to artificially replicate the Moons’ Senshi powers, possibly referencing the means in which Minako was temporarily able to wield her power, to create a Sailor Senshi exclusively to realize its desires. One might say it's a perversion of the Moon Power itself.

But tampering with this dangerous power ends up corrupting Hotaru, of course, and retaining how Hotaru becomes Mistress 9 works nicely with this tweak. A Silver Crystal could sustain her powers without destroying her, or at least that's the running theory.

Whether or not Hotaru becomes a Sailor Senshi proper… I’m 50/50 on that. Mostly due to Saturn’s canon role as cleanup duty following the fall of the Silver Millennium. If any non-Moon Senshi were to exist for the long haul, it should be Saturn. Their powers are polar opposites, so it’d be a neat yin-yang deal, with Saturn still being dormant until an equalizer is needed.

Although I'd probably not call her Sailor Saturn, as it is arbitrary to include some planets (Venus, Saturn, Uranus) but not others. In general, I think the names of the non-Moon Senshi that have to be kept because removing them would completely upend the story would have to be a little more generalized than that. The Moon is often paired with the Sun and the Star(s), so that might be a safe bet. Even though the Sun itself is literally a star-

Anyway, keep Hotaru's rebirth a thing, but possibly end her role in the story once she becomes babby. So that Chibi-Usa, as canon manga mandates, seeks horse-boy as her rebound.

Alternatively, we could stay the course of the “Moon only” team narrative and have Sailor Saturn be little more than an artificial Senshi, not unlike the kinds we see all over the place in Stars. Between Dr. Tomoe, Kaolinite, and Pharaoh 90, I can buy them creating what is essentially a bootleg Senshi. Heck, that might even be the intended evil purpose of the Holy Grail once Uranus unlocks it with her Talisman.

Speaking of Haruka... Honestly, as far as the manga goes, she can single-handedly represent the Outer Senshi and their credo by herself.

But in the context of this AU, that doesn’t amount to much, lol. Honestly, I’m picturing Haruka as a darker counterpart of Minako. A temp Senshi at best, but one who’s using her powers for morally questionable reasons. This can range from romantic rival… (with no Michiru in the AU, that at least partially makes Haruka less awful - I’d nix the non-consensual kiss on Usagi, but in the spirit of a manga LITTERED with suchlike kisses, it’d probably need to stay as-is)

…. to embittered and vengeful foe who fully recalls her past life and blames Usagi+Mamoru for their failings. It was kind of a shit deal for the Outers to be permanently stuck in their post in the outer solar system, never getting to enjoy any of what they're dedicating their lives to serving. Perhaps she now perceives the practices of Queen Serenity as morally dubious at best - and tyrannical at worst, now believing, maybe, that the Dark Kingdom was RIGHT to end the Silver Millennium. And irony ahoy, Haruka - like Minako - can tap into her former life’s power. Make her take up Michiru’s role as the one who awakened as a Senshi on her own thanks to her Talisman.

Hell, one can have Haruka play both sides during Infinity. Tomoe can use his twisted science to amplify the "Uranus" powers to bypass the limitations of Venus’ powers. Probably at a deadly cost down the road.

As for the prerequisites for Super Sailor Moon? The whole “all Senshi aligned + grail” deal? Well… y’know, the Cutie Moon Rod came into existence as a trial run of how UsaMamo’s love is so potent that they don’t even need to do a WooHoo to procreate shit. Do that again, just add the actual product of future WooHooing. Chibi-Usa is familiar with the Holy Grail prior to its creation. Not a stretch. As far as this AU is concerned, Moon, Chibi-Moon, and Tuxedo Mask are the only "valid" Senshi to begin with.

Despite the amount of non-Moon Senshi chapters in Dream, I don’t see much changing in a setting where only two Moons and a Mask are fighting. For pretty much every arc, Usagi gets the lion’s share of killing blows. Mamoru and Chibi-Usa canonly have several as well - so what’s a few several more?

After all, the manga’s focus was always first and foremost on Miracle Romance. More often than not, when other characters got panel time, Usagi, Mamoru, and/or Chibi-Usa were the topics of discussion.

At the end of the day, the antagonists of Dream are squarely focused on screwing over the Moon family; the other Senshi were mere chess pieces for them to knock over. And they only became an actual threat when they literally handed over their newfound powers over to beef up Super Sailor Moon to Eternal Sailor Moon, so... there you go.

And for those few times Usagi was just hanging out with gal pals at school? Well, that’s what Naru is for. Hell, add Yumiko+Kuri too; they might end up with some degree of characterization! Usagi never not had the benefit of company during downtime! There just... tends not to be a lot of that in the manga; that's all.

Really, the biggest question in handling Dream is wtf to do about the Amazoness Quartet, considering they eventually become Senshi themselves - namely the equivalent of Inners for Chibi-Moon to have in the future. Since Usagi wouldn't have Inners in this AU, it stands to reason the Quartet are likely not gonna be redeemed and likely one-shotted much like their Trio predecessors.

As for Stars...? Well, it's basically this entire AU but dialed up to 20. The running theme of this arc is fake Senshi running around parading as the real deal while they kill, conquer, and pillage for their tyrant, who'd be the culmination of all the worst aspect of not just past antagonists, but past attempted would-be Senshi like Minako, Haruka, and Hotaru who would all either be permanently powerless at best or dead at worst.

But a worst-case scenario just might make them come back for one last go, and this time, there's be no blurred lines or moral greys: if Venus, Saturn, and/or Uranus made a return in this iteration Stars, that would be their permadeath. Unless, you know, this series still ended with Usagi yeeting herself into an automatic happy ending. And even then it's a big maybe. It'd be in Galaxia's hands, and you know Galaxia don't give a damn.

Chibi-Chibi/Chibi-Chibi Moon would still be a thing, as would Sailor Cosmos, obviously, since they're technically a form of Usagi and all. Their stories would largely be the same, I'd imagine.

I honestly can't think of where I'd put the Starlights and Sailor Kakyuu as good guys in this AU, though. I think the only way to make them work in the story and not be killed as quickly as possible like the Sailor Animamates is to have them allied with Galaxia and be functionally identical to Animamates (aka they're all fakers), but function as undercover agents to identify the holder of the Milky Way's strongest Sailor Crystal (Usagi's), find her weaknesses and the best ways to corner her, then coordinate a strike.

Alternatively, pull inspiration from the 90s anime where they ARE legit Senshi (they just come from another galaxy and all, so it wouldn't break the AU if they're more just reflections of the minimized Sailor Team) - but make them willingly surrender their Sailor Crystals in exchange for bracelets that will keep them alive, so long as they do whatever Galaxia says. Then they become reflections of Usagi and her family, and even perhaps make analogies between the three Starlights and what Venus, Uranus, and Saturn tried and failed to be for Sailor Moon.

The other elephant in the room is whether or not Mamoru gets killed off in the very first scene of this arc like he does in canon. It's a no-brainer that he'd have to die by Galaxia's hand eventually. Usagi just won't have nearly as many buffers to block her PTSD and be in total denial like she did in canon. Naturally, Chibi-Usa will be even less effectual than canon since she won't have her own personal underlings to pretend she's BFFs with and add firepower, so if only to balance that out (since the Sailor Quartet are literally the only ones who didn't die at any point in canon), Mamoru might be allowed to live a bit longer and make his love-forged bond with Usagi not quite so easily broken. But it will still break by force, one way or another.

Of course, because Galaxia's intent will still be to break Usagi, no one's getting spared at this point in the story. All of Usagi's normal civilian friends will end up biting it one way or another throughout the arc. Stars is clearly meant to be a depressing af climax to the series - at least that'll kinda deter people from hounding the mangaka into yet another arc for money's sake.

Usagi would ultimately jump into the Galaxy Cauldron at the end, though I imagine it'd be somewhat a different experience than how it was in the manga, given most of her friends don't exist in this AU, and the few that do either left/died on bad terms, or fucked off entirely without remembering Usagi or her family at all.

Maybe, if we're being generous, Usagi reunites and the temp/fake Senshi she encounters here actually make amends and promise to work for a better future? There's a lot of variables here.

It'd still end in a wedding because this is the Miracle Romance Supremacy AU, after all. Guess it depends on your mileage whether or not the ending is worth it.

So yeah, that's the long and short of the really fucked up AU I thought up inside my head because friendship and comradery always came off so hollow in the manga to me. Especially with ~Miracle Romance~ being so infuriatingly inflexible in the manga.

Hope you got some sort of entertainment value out of that. Highly doubt I'd write this proper - it wouldn't be worth the backlash, and I'm not nearly invested enough in UsaMamo to do this concept justice.

Feel free to leave your thoughts or whatever.

[softgrungeprophet]

my favorite books about making comics that i read growing up:

anything by Scott McCloud, esp for comic theory and the craft of comics and sequential storytelling, comics literacy etc.

How to Draw Manga by Ben Dunn, which is a 344 page book with a lot of solid information about drawing, perspective, backgrounds, and all kinds of stuff. THAT BEING SAID I think this book is very much a book written by a man who is interested in specific kinds of manga, though the actual technique is very well-honed. But the author’s ideas about male vs. female bodies, body types as it pertains to female characters especially, and character design in general related to those things, is very narrow-minded and restrictive (literally all of the female body types he shows are almost identical, but the male ones are varied from muscular to fat to thin... it’s not great. also panty shots abound). Despite that, there is some good anatomy stuff in this book, along with a lot of other useful info.

Draw Your Own Manga: All the Basics by Haruno Nagatomo, which isn’t super long but has a lot of concise info about drawing basics, material, proportion and technique, plus some interviews! It is definitely very, very manga-specific (even compared to Dunn’s book) and very analog-focused but still has a lot of really solid info any artist could benefit from (even illustrators who don’t do comics) Includes a lot of really good info on pens, ink and other art supplies. This book also falls somewhat into the male vs. female stuff that is so common but... not as severely or obnoxiously as the other one

(caveat: i read these when i was in like... early high school? and obviously the latter 2 are both about manga, but i think they still have a lot of good stuff for anyone interested in comics or even just art basics and tools. there might be newer, better books out there i haven’t had the chance to read, but these books were really useful to me as a teen and inspired me a lot)

also, on the writing front: I just (as in, just now over the span of a couple of hours) read Bendis’ book Words for Pictures (which is why i was thinking about books about comics) and it’s a pretty solid book for understanding comics from a writing perspective and offers a lot of salient advice, though it’s not like a... writing class or anything—it won’t teach you how to write a plot or any of that stuff, but it briefly explains things like script formats and best practice in terms of working with other people and being a collaborator etc. It’s got a lot of good stuff even if there are some details I don’t agree with (but then again, i’m not a professional like he is :P ) so I recommend it even if you aren’t necessarily a Bendis fan... He sets out from the start saying it is not a book teaching you how to write like him, and it’s not. It’s not even a book teaching you how to write. It’s a book about the process behind writing comics in general, with a lot of interview stuff, advice from various pros, and a few brief exercises in the back, as well as a brief explainer from his wife on contracts and the business side of things.

(but also re: scripts I think this “anatomy of a comic script” post by Fred van Lente is a great rundown, way more in-depth than what’s in Bendis’ book since it’s a post dedicated to script, whereas Bendis’ book is much broader in scope)

[tamelee]

You be all friensly with other shippers on socials but then you draw Sakura??? I see why you dont post that here as you pretend to be all anti ss/nh and write about it making these posts.

If you dont like ss or sakura then dont pretend you do by drawing her, what you really think about her anyway? Be honest. And why hide it here?? As if we wont find it out? You probably will ignore this ask huh?

Secondly, if i so may you know that she is worse than Hinata, so then if youre going to draw a girl from the 2 then why not draw Hinata? In your pinned post you say you dont want to but that it then makes no sense also? It is full of contradictings. All you sns shippers like hinata but shit on sakura for the same annoying reasons even if she was way more of a main character and importance to the story. What did hinata do anyway? Pleass do try tell your audience tamelee.

*rubs forehead* This? <

Well you ask me a question now, right? I can answer it freely on my own Tumblr I hope? 😂

I’m going to pretend this was a kindly written ask without any accusatory tones, so I’ll respond accordingly. 

Yes, in comparison quite a few SS-shippers follow me on other socials, because of my Sasuke art and SS-art had been requested a lot. Since I am definitely not going to draw that, I decided to draw Sakura for her birthday. Fair?

Besides, just because I don’t agree with majority of the claims made about the ship, doesn’t mean I dislike Sakura (or always argue with people).. I am also very aware that my opinion on her character is VERY unpopular both for anti’s/fans. (In fact I don’t dislike ANY character ever in any type of media at all and- oh.. wait till we get to the wife of Sasuke’s boyfriend.)

I would even go as far as to say that without Sakura, Kishimoto couldn’t develop SNS in the Naruto-verse as it was.

I just see her for what she is. And I can hear one side think: “Yes! A selfish asshole!” And the other: “A strong, powerful, girl boss!” But for me, once I realized what Kishimoto was doing (and not doing) with her as a character, I couldn’t take anything seriously anymore as he didn’t either. I can’t see her as “Sakura”, if you know what I mean. People always say she was so “useless”.. and story-wise/in battles that might be true, but she always benefitted a scene- just not in her favor. 

With Sakura we were able to see the contrast between Sasuke’s body language and overall demeanor between her and Naruto. Even without her we could say all the same things about SNS, but it would fall flat. The contrast in an author’s writing is what makes it more authentic as you have something to compare it to and he’s aware.

He was able to create this rivalry between Sakura and Naruto, hinting at many opportunities for you to pick up the clues. Having her be the character that is the “words speak louder than actions” (not to be confused with the opposite) so the actions of others (mainly Naruto and mainly when it comes to Sasuke) are more easily seen, showing how Sasuke would just let her die while he saves Naruto who could’ve saved himself- just to name a few.

People love to blame Kishimoto because “she’s supposed to be this great hero alongside them!” But who decided that anyway? “She’s supposed to be this well developed, inspirational girl that saved Sasuke!” Who says that? Who wrote this story? From the start she has been always a girl without much of a background, yet her main motivation was always clear: ‘a selfish love for Sasuke.’ 

Which yes, is a terrible trait to have, but one the author gave to her. That’s not bad writing, that’s a deliberate choice. Now, him saying: “Oh, I dunno why people hate her.” Is such bullshit- a big fat lie. Of course he does.

The anime displayed her a bit differently (damage control and trying to make Naruto straight etc). And so you get the manga readers saying one thing, but having the anime watchers (mainly part of her fanbase) having a completely different view on the matter, which makes the whole thing confusing and messy. But it’s not surprising that people who like her character want to defend her seeing how she is used as a Red Herring in the story and not as the ‘independent Kunoichi’ people wanted her to be. Even now as an adult.. she seemingly has adapted a lot of her childish behavior again. If they can’t blame the author, then it’s Sasuke’s fault, or Naruto’s, or Hinata (lol, I agree), or SNS-fans- but never Sakura. 

And so I neither like or dislike her character, I’m just indifferent. 

(Lmao, I don’t hide anything, this is just not the place to post that drawing, certain drawings I only post on certain socials, you seem to know an awful lot about me- you didn’t notice? This is my SNS happy-place + I rant however much I want.) 

But when it comes to the wife of Sasuke’s boyfriend- Hinata.. 

OH boy. 

I highly, HIGHLY, disagree with everyone who says that Sakura is worse than Hinata. Or anyone who says SS is more toxic than NH. I won’t go into it all now, but trust me, I have my reasons. 

As I said before, there is no character in any type of media that I dislike EXCEPT HINATA HYUUGA. 

Even villains who do the worst type of shit do them with a reason- or not, but the creator of the story usually wants you to dislike the character. (Well.. Kishimoto can be sneaky.) Even assholes like Danzo are meant to be disliked, unless you’re into those type of creeps- I’m almost not judging you. 

There is not one character that is worse than Hinata H, it just doesn’t exist. I talked before about Kishimoto and his ability to manipulate the reader, to use emotional psychology in his art, but in this case he did it SO well that most people aren’t even able to pick up on it and so miss innocence gets away everything. And no, I’m not even talking about the slavery thing, in fact I was so bored with her I don’t even know much about all of that. Even if you say: “she really genuinely just likes her N-Naruto-k-kun 🥺👉🏼👈🏼 and wants to be so happy and live happily ever after with her lil sunshine family~” 

THEN STILL SHE IS WAY WORSE THAN SAKURA. 

I’ll leave it there before I go on a complete rant. 

(There is a reason I call myself a SNS-fan, not ‘shipper’ and no, sorry to break it to you, but not “everyone likes Hinata”, get it out of your head.) 

Anyway, thank you for your nice ask :)! 

[commander-hanji-zoe]

First I wanna say I really appreciate and love the attention and more in-depth analysis you give to Mike, content for him is severely lacking..I can’t find many blogs that really gives him the time of day. Secondly, in your size kink ask, by ‘bigger’ were you using it in correlation with ‘curvier’(idk if that’s the most appropriate word to use) because that’s what you meant, a curvier girl myself a blurb on him comforting them would totally be the best.

Thank you for this message, and for being so sweet - i’m glad you enjoy my writing! Your message it put so many sweet images in my head because let me tell you Mike would be wonderful at comforting a partner who was struggling with body image/feeling insecure regardless of body type/physical appearance. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I think Mike is someone who falls in love with a person for their mind/heart/personality, of course there has to be a physical attraction there too or it won’t work, but he isn’t shallow. 

When I posted about his s/o being larger in that previous post I meant whether they were taller/bigger built/more muscular/curvy/fat etc. So, yes, thinking of a partner with curves was definitely on my radar. I’m really glad you enjoy my more in depth analysis of him, he’s a character I adore and always feel he doesn’t get enough love. And a lot of the love he gets is based on physical appearance, which I mean, isn’t wrong the guy is drop dead gorgeous and as handsome as they come, but what little we get of him in the manga/anime I feel he’s a very deep character and I try to do him justice with my writing. 

Warnings for the below - goes into issues with body/stretch-marks & low self-esteem/confidence quite a bit. (On that note I have to say this is written from experience) 

You sit on the bed looking at the floor length mirror, more specifically just staring at your reflection. As you study every part of your body you sigh. Whenever you see yourself recently you can’t help but compare yourself to others whose uniforms fit slightly better, the beautiful ones, the pretty ones, the ones that everyone would want to date. Somehow you feel like you just don’t fit in with them and that makes you question whether you fit in at all. When you think of Mike and just how much you love him there’s always something else niggling in your ear.

Mike is drop dead gorgeous. He’s one of the most handsome men in the Scouts, well, the most handsome to you. Incredibly tall, muscular, strong and then there’s you. Telling you how beautiful you are, how much he loves you, how he loves every inch of you - this is how your days start with Mike. 

He isn’t afraid to show it publicly either and often in group situations will kiss you on the cheek or lips, put his arm round you, dance with you if the occasion calls for it and occasionally will rest his hand on your thigh. A hand so big that despite your squishy thighs which you’ve referred to before as small tree trunks (Mike detests it when you do this as it makes him incredibly sad to hear you say bad things about yourself and to demean yourself in that manner). His large hand will squeeze your thigh and remind you of what’s to come when you’re alone. How you love the feeling of his hands on your body, he tells you he cannot get enough and showers you with praise and body worship. And in those moments between the sheets you believe him, you really believe him. You believe you’re beautiful and perfect the way you are, that you’re worthy of a man like him, worthy of love just the same as everyone else.

But sometimes when you’re apart, when the ecstasy of orgasm has worn off and you’ve awoken from a day dream, it can be easy to remember how good it felt or how much you believed his words. 

Now sat on the bed it’s hard to control the tears, you don’t want Mike to see you like this to see you so weak and pathetic. If it really bothered you that much why weren’t you doing anything about it? Then you just feel angry and lazy and start to think that if you really loved Mike why aren’t you getting more in shape for him? By the time you’ve finished judging yourself in the mirror you feel absolutely rotten and wish you hadn’t looked today.

You heard the door open and panic set in as you wiped away your tears, lowered your shirt and jumped off the bed.

There is no hiding from Mike, he knows you far too well. He only has to study you for a moment, to tilt your chin and see the reflection in your eyes, watery like a golden lake for him to give you that sweet melancholy smile.

“My love what’s upset you today?”

There’s no beating round the bush with Mike, you are his number one priority and he says things how he sees them. The sooner you can talk about it, the sooner he will be able to work on a fix for you, that’s the way he sees it.

He sits beside you and when at first you don’t answer and struggle to get the words out, Mike doesn’t push you. No, he sits patiently by your side, arms wrapped round you and strokes your hair.

After a few minutes you sob quietly, he pulls you in a little tighter then presses a firm kiss to your cheek, “Just breathe, we’ve got all the time in the world.”

Another thing you love about Mike is how understanding he is and how he never rushes you to speak or tell him what’s happening. He knows it will come in good time when you’re ready. Just having him by your side is already like a remedy, the smell of his skin, his warm smile, his comforting hands on you.

When you finally tell him what’s been happening he seems almost hurt, hurt that you are hurting so much and that so far he has been unable to reassure you of how beautiful and perfect you are already.

He takes his time with you, kissing your lips slowly and pulling you on top of him. He massages you, strokes your thighs, legs, arms. He kisses all your scars and stretch marks telling you just how beautiful each one is.

He goes down on hands and knees and worships you. Mike, the second strongest soldier who fights for the future of humanity, here in front of you vulnerable, naked and ready to beg, steal, kill….for you. He pulls you into his arms so you can wrap your legs round his waist. He nuzzles into your neck and tells you you’re his star. 

“There is nothing in this world that can compare to your beauty, your wisdom, your charm or your kindness. There is no night, no matter the amount of stars that could come close to the radiance that shines from you when we’re together.”

His words are so sweet that they make you cry again, but this time they are tears of happiness, the tears of someone who has been feeling tired for so long and just wants to fit in. The tears of someone who feels a little bit foolish and wishes they were more ‘normal’ like others.

“And there’s nothing you would change?” You ask sincerely as you look into his eyes - determined to see if there is any hesitation, of course there is none. 

He shakes his head, “Nothing, you are gorgeous as you, you are loved more than anything just as you are.”

“All of it?” You ask as you squeeze the chubby bits on your hips.

He gives a small laugh, “All of it,” as he puts you down on the bed he kisses the bit of flesh you’d been holding. “There’s so much to love, to cuddle, to hold when we make love. All your stretch marks, scars, freckles, I like to join the dots together and turn your body into a night’s sky.”

You frown.

“Don’t you see, your body is covered in constellations, stories formed by a life of love and honour.”

Mike climbs on top of you as you fall into bed, when he kisses you you know it will be a long night where you need nothing but the company of one another. 

[cherry-valentine]

How Black Clover Gets Lady Characters Right

*Spoilers for most of the Black Clover anime (mostly character related stuff, not much in the way of major plot stuff)*

Black Clover is right up there with Gintama in terms of shows that reward viewers for sticking with them through some mediocre early episodes and arcs. When Black Clover began airing, I was excited. Manga readers had been hyping the series up, and it sounded like the next big shounen fighting anime that would take anime fandom by storm. Then I started watching it, and I was immensely disappointed. I found Asta’s constant screaming almost unbearable (to the point that I started muting the tv when it looked like he was about to open his mouth). The early episodes were totally predictable and cliche. The animation was, at times, embarrassingly bad. But I stuck with it because there were a few elements that kept me interested. One was the absolute bangers of opening and ending themes (at one point the thought crossed my mind that they were entirely too good for this show). Another was Yuno, whom I liked from the start. Then there’s the fact that Asta’s magic, or lack of magic, was the one element I didn’t predict a mile away. I honestly expected him to awaken to some super powerful magic early on. Almost 200 episodes later, he is still magic-free. I really did not see that coming. Still yet, I came close to dropping the series several times during those first thirteen episodes or so.

Somewhere around the time they went to the undersea village (I don’t remember the name of the arc), I began to notice that I was actually looking forward to each new episode. It was a gradual change from being at the bottom of my watch list to being near the top. So gradual it took me a while to realize it. The show still had some problems, sure, but it stopped being predictable. Asta talked more and screamed less. More interesting characters were introduced. The fight scenes were exciting. By the time this arc was over, Black Clover had become a favorite. So, if you tried the series and found it boring and annoying, consider giving it another shot. Like I said, it rewards you for sticking with it.

One of the best things about Black Clover, for me, is how it treats its female characters, especially when compared to other popular shounen fighting anime. It is by no means perfect, and I’ll talk about the show’s minor failings in regards to its ladies a little further down. But overall, it does a phenomenal job.

The first thing that struck me about Black Clover’s women is just how varied they are. There’s a surprising range in their appearances, personalities, and skills. And there are lots of them. Far more than a lot of other shounen fighting anime allow. There are five women in the main squad, the Black Bulls, alone. And we see that each squad has several women as well. Then there’s the all-women squad the Blue Roses. This extends to the villains, as well as the non-combatant supporting cast as well.

Speaking of skills, the women of Black Clover are unusually powerful. The two male leads, Asta and Yuno, eventually get “power-ups”, some kind of new form or transformation or whatever. This is super common in shounen fighting anime. What’s not so common, however, is the female lead getting her own cool power-up/transformation. This is what happens for Noelle, and it was such a great surprise. A little side note here: I’ve been watching the series on a streaming site that allows comments, and I was so amazed by the comments on the episode in which Noelle gets her power-up. The (mostly male, judging by their names) commenters were genuinely happy for her! They were proud of her for getting stronger and cheering her on! I didn’t spot a single comment about her looks or how great of a waifu she is (at the time anyway).

But it wasn’t just Noelle that got stronger. Another Black Bulls member, Vanessa, got an interesting power-up of her own, in the form a cat familiar that basically makes her and her teammates completely impervious to harm for as long as her mana holds out (which has saved their lives countless times). Another lady, Grey, has recently (in the anime) demonstrated some shockingly powerful magic that none of her teammates, or even she herself, realized she was capable of. Then there’s Charmy, who was already quite powerful but gained her own powered up transformation that made her strong enough to defeat an elf-possessed Magic Knight captain. If anything, the ladies have received MORE power-ups than the men.

And while we’re talking about powerful women, I have to talk about Mereoleona. If you’ve watched the show, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, just imagine a character who can curb-stomp a powerful villain who is on a higher level than villains that the main characters were struggling to team up against just a few episodes before, who can then take on a whole group of these powered up villains and remain standing, even after losing consciousness, because they’re just that badass. Now imagine that character is a woman. And she’s so terrifying that one of the elf-possessed enemies (her comrades who had their bodies taken over by elves) remarks that his body froze up because, even though he’s controlling it, the BODY ITSELF was afraid of her. Mereoleona is an absolute beast, the kind of character that is almost always male in these types of shows. And the best part? The icing on this badass cake? The only person who was stronger than her, who could defeat her one-on-one, was ANOTHER WOMAN. Noelle’s mother. And a huge part of Noelle’s motivation as a character is becoming strong like her mother.

On the subject of Noelle’s motivation, I really appreciate that it has nothing to do with her crush on Asta. Sure, she likes him, but it’s not a motivating factor in her life and it’s not even really that important to her story arc. Her arc has always been about HER, about becoming stronger, living up to her powerful family’s expectations, discovering the truth about her mother’s death and then about avenging her, about becoming more empathetic to the common people despite being royalty. Noelle’s story is ABOUT HER. And it’s really sad that this is something remarkable, but we’ve all seen the “heroines” with no real arcs of their own, or worse, their arcs revolve almost entirely around their love for a male character (Sakura from Naruto is the most obvious example here but anyone who watches a lot of shounen can no doubt name many more). And Noelle isn’t an exception in Black Clover. Almost all of the women have interesting back stories and character arcs that have little to do with men (or if men are involved, they’re in supporting roles to these stories and very rarely the main subject).

An exception to this is possibly Charlotte, who is in love with Yami and this plays a big role in her story. However, even this is framed in a way that puts the emphasis on her own growth. It’s really about her learning to be honest with her feelings and getting over her own awkwardness around Yami. A big moment for her is when she admits to her squad that she’s in love with Yami, and they’re all eager and excited to help and support her, like the wonderful ladies they are.

Now, as I said before, Black Clover’s depictions of women are not perfect. There are a few issues I consider minor that I need to address. The first is the tendency the show has of making almost all the ladies be in love with someone. A large portion of the women are sporting crushes, though some of them are quite subtle or mainly used for comic relief, it’s still a little annoying that so many of them are in love. Of course, many of the male characters are in love with someone too (including the protagonist, Asta) and there are several female characters who are totally disinterested in romance, so I can overlook this. Another small issue is that, even though there’s more variety than usual in the body types (one female character is fat and another, Charmy, often gets quite pudgy for extended periods of time, plus a few ladies have more muscular builds), a significant portion of them have very large breasts, including two teenage characters (Noelle and Mimosa). It feels a little unnecessary, to be honest. Though to be fair, it’s rare that any of these characters are used for fan service and the camera never really seems to linger on their bodies. Most of them dress fairly modestly and among those who don’t, the more sexy clothes fit their characters and make sense for their personalities.

The last minor issue I have is that we often get the “designated girl fights”. If there’s a female villain, it’s likely that a female hero will be the one to fight her. This isn’t a rule set in stone, because there are plenty of male/female battles, but it happens enough to be very noticeable. Of course, these lady villains are demonstrated to be just as powerful and dangerous as the villainous men, but it’s still mildly irritating.

Those little nitpicks aside, Black Clover is still a shining example of a shounen fighting anime getting its ladies right. The women in the series are well-written, interesting characters with compelling stories. They’re powerful, have wildly varying personalities and motivations, and never feel like window dressing. They’re not just there to be pretty romantic interests. The show does all this very well, and I think it deserves a lot of praise and credit for it.

[carriagelamp]

Book Review - Summer Summary 2020

I didn’t get around to doing an individual post for the books I read in June/July/August, so I decided to choose a dozen that I read over the summer... I’d separate the wheat from the chaff for you so to speak. Though like you’re about to find out, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were all good by any means...

Crave

My girlfriend got this for me to “tide me over until Midnight Sun”. Between you and me, I think she was taking the piss. Anyway, Crave is very... standard fare paranormal YA school romance with the added flare of being written by an adult erotica writer, meaning the rhythm and tone of this novel is fucking bonkers. If you want to read the novel without reading the novel, just take Twilight and the entire Vampire Academy series, shove them in a blend, and force down the sludge you get from that. Normal Average Girl Goes To Secret School In Alaska For Vampire, Werewolves and Dragons. That’s this book. It is so big and so so so bad. I finished it out of spite, please don’t do that to yourself. Unless you are really craving (hurr hurr) some top tier trashy paranormal romance, in which case... no judgment.

The Last Firehawk

The Last Firehawk is a Scholastic “Branches” series, written for beginning readers (grade 1-3ish, depending on the child’s reading level). It has short stories, big text, and awesome pictures on every page. Guys. I unironically am adoring this series. It’s simple and is introducing children to a number of classic elements in the fantasy quest genre, but it is so charming. Friends Tag and Skyla discover a firehawk egg, and species that is supposed to have disappeared long ago. When Blaze hatches from it, the three are tasked with going out and finding the magical ember stone which was hidden long ago by the firehawks and which could be used to defeat the evil vulture Thorn and his dark magic... I read the first two books to second graders who ate it up and read the next four books because I personally wanted to continue the series. If you have young readers in your life (or just want a fun kid adventure) then please try these they’re the literary equivalent of nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3

All the kind people that still follow my tumblr and haven’t tried to murder me because of my Lupin obsession are not going to be surprised by this one. I finally read one of the manga for this series and honestly I’m delighted. Somehow even hornier than the show, but hilariously funny. I felt like I was reading a more adult version of Spy Vs Spy. It’s a bunch of short, individual bits/adventures with lots of visual gags and an artstyle that is really different and delightful.

River of Teeth / Taste of Marrow (American Hippo series)

I’ve talked about River of Teeth before, but I finally finished the American Hippo duology and need to sing its praise. This is an alternate history series composed of two novellas that explore the question What would have happened if the States had decided to import hippos as livestock...? Anyways, my pitch for you: queer hippo cowboys. That’s all it took for me to read it. You have a gay gunslinger who loves his hippo to death, a nonbinary explosives-expert / poisoner who is the main love interest, a fat con artist who spoils her hippo and is the only voice of reason in this entire series, and a latina mother-to-be who is the scariest assassin in the entire series and is obviously scheming. The four of them are brought together on a job to deal with the Mississippi’s feral hippo problem.

IT’S A QUEER HIPPO COWBOY HEIST NOVEL GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M STILL TALKING AND YOU HAVEN’T JUST GONE TO READ THIS YET.

Petals to the Metal (The Adventure Zone series)

The graphic novel adaptation to the McElroy family’s DND podcast The Adventure Zone. Most of you are probably aware of this? It’s a great adaptation, it hits all the important beats, shows off the characters really well, and still gets lots of good gags in even while condensing entire arcs into single book stories. This one is probably my favourite so far just because Petals to the Metal was one of my favourite arcs in the show... but you can also see how the art has improved and the chaos of the race is fun to see drawn out.

If you like The Adventure Zone but haven’t tried the graphic novels yet -- would recommend! If you’ve always wanted to listen to The Adventure Zone but don’t have time for such a long series or struggle to focus on podcasts then pick up the first book of this series (Here There Be Gerblins) and try reading it! It really is an enjoyable adaptation.

Pony to the Rescue (Pony Pals series)

I continued my April/May theme of reading old-school chapter book series to combat Covid Brain Fry, so I picked up a few Pony Pals books. I read these as a kid and always enjoy them -- there’s just something so appealing to a child about having a horse. It gives your child characters a level of independence and ability to explore that you wouldn’t get otherwise. These books definitely read young, but they were nostalgic to revisit.

Small Spaces

A really cool middle grade horror novel I picked up. Maybe it’s because I live around a lot of corn fields, but farm/scarecrow themed horror absolutely does it for me. One evening, after seeing a woman try to destroy a strange, old book, eleven year old Ollie doesn’t stop to think, instead stealing the book and running. That’s how she becomes wrapped up in the strange, sinister story of a cursed family and creature called the Smiling Man that seems to live out in the foggy fields. While unsettling, Ollie tries to remind herself that it’s just a story... but this becomes more challenging when her school bus breaks down one day out their own set of fields, and a fog is rolling in...

“Avoid large spaces. Stick to small.”

Snot Girl #1 - #2

A Canadian graphic novel series by the creator of the Scott Pilgrim series! I love his work so I decided to give Snotgirl a try, even though it’s not generally my genre. I’m glad I did! First book took a while for me to get into, but by the time I hit the second I was really wrapped up in the mystery and character development. Snotgirl is about Lottie, a self-consumed fashion blogger whose biggest struggles are dealing with her allergies, frustration with her fellow-blogger friends, and how entirely her self-esteem is tied to her “beauty” and how people view her. But everything shifts in strange and horrifying ways when Lottie starts taking a new allergy medication, meets a new friend... and then witnesses that girl’s death. Or does she?

Seriously, or does she? I have no idea, I need to read the third book. This book is full of intrigue, complicated relationships, murder (or not?), and a healthy dose of magical realism to keep you guessing. If you like slice-of-life, crime, and abstract reality then this series is world a try. Plus the art is gorgeous.

Summer Wars #1 - #2

I recently rewatched Summer Wars (still one of my favourite movies) and decided to read the two-book manga adaptation. It was a really neat little adaptation. The creator of the movie gave the writer free range to tweak things to fit better in a manga format, which means some movie elements were allowed to fade into the background, whereas other aspects were fulled into the forefront and fleshed out to a greater degree. It was very cool, it kept the same story but gave you new things to think about which I wasn’t expecting. Reading this as a stand alone works just fine, but honestly if you’ve never watched the movie Summer Wars you should give it a try! It’s a great mix of slice-of-life, sprawling family dynamics that I relate to a little too well, cyber adventures, and fantasy. Super feel good.

This One Summer

Okay, last graphic novel, I swear. This One Summer was... weird and intense. It’s a coming-of-age Canadian graphic novel that follows a pair of pre-teens who meet up like they do every year at their family’s summer cottages. You see them both in the awkward phases between childhood and growing up to become teenagers, as they’re confronted with things like maturity, friendship, self-esteem, family problems, and sexuality. A beautiful read, but probably the heaviest out of all the books on my list.

Wild Thornberrys Novelization

I rewatched The Wild Thornberrys movie with my girlfriend earlier this year, and decided I wanted to hunt down the chapter book novelization because I’m kind of a sucker for novelizations. Honestly, this was about what you would expect from the era. 90s/00s novelizations, especially young novelizations, are generally just a transcript of the movie without much thought or effort put into them to make them anything but. That’s what this was. It was fine, and it really let me revisualize the entire movie, but honestly you’re probably better off just rewatching the movie unless you also really deeply love The Wild Thornberrys.

The Willoughbys

I saw that Netflix had done a funky looking adaptation of The Willoughbys and I decided I needed to read the book first before watching the movie. This was a little bizarre, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Over all, I think it was a net-positive experience. It’s an obvious satire on classic children’s novels, especially the likes of Mary Poppins (real Mary Poppins, not the Disney version) and while a little heavy-handed, it does a Series of Unfortunate Events vibe that redeems it. The story is about a group of horrible children (The Ruthless Willoughbys) who decide they are sick of their parents and would rather become Worth Orphans... and to do that, they’re going to have to dispose of their inconvenient parents, obviously. Conveniently their parents are also sick of having children and decide to do away with them as well. The Willoughbys sets up three (or four?) different subplots that are gradually woven together through a series of schemes and exploits. It’s definitely more ruthless (hurr hurr) than the Netflix version, which tried to make the children more sympathetic, and in some ways I think that’s a definite point in the novel’s favour. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to recommend it, but it was a fun romp if you want something short and off the wall (and a lot more fleshed out than the Netflix version).

[alyasalias]

One For All Users Theory

My theories on the mystery users of One for All. Major spoilers for the manga...so make sure you're caught up. You have been warned.

For those still curious, the somewhat spoiler free TLDR of what I have written here: The naming system of One For All users appears to follow the trend of having each user's name have something to do with their number. We only know four of their names so far and have been led to believe that their name-number thing is tied to the number of user they are/were. While reading that tidbit I realized that "Katsuki" is homonyms with "victory", which lead me to thinking "first place"...so..."first user...that One For All was passed onto...so technically the second user"...and that "Eijiro" when written with the right kanji means "Second son"...so...second person the Quirk was passed onto? So...maybe this lends some weight to the theory that Bakugo Katsuki and Kirishima Eijiro are our mystery previous users? Building on that theory, I suggest a potential explanation for All Might's Muscle form.

A while back I found a few theories online floating around  that Bakugo Katsuki and Kirishima Eijiro are the second and third users of One For All, respectively. The silhouette for the spiky-haired dude definitely seems like a dead ringer for Katsuki.

I thought this theory was kind of ridiculous because a true time-travel Quirk has yet to be established in HeroAca. The theories that I found insisting that it was so all linked it to Eri--that Eri's Rewind somehow sent Katsuki back in time all the way to the point of the first user. Personally, I think that claiming Rewind can do that is a stretch. The only victim of Eri's Quirk that we know of that was rewound out of their present existence was her father, and we have no idea what actually became of him. Some claim that she basically rewound his body to the point where he deaged into inexistence. Eri's Quirk is still largely unexplored, but based on the way it was used in the battle against Overhaul I don't think there's enough evidence to claim that Eri's Quirk could send someone back in time. At present, it appears to only have an effect on a single individual's cells and/or molecular structure. She appears to be able to make damage to living cells reverse themselves. De-aging would fall under that, 'cuz some people would consider aging basically gradual cell death...so it's possible that is what happened to her father. Potentially, he had no injuries and was far too intrigued or shocked to get out of range--he was an adult, he should have had time to get out of range before vanishing into nothingness. Unless, of course, Eri's Quirk awakening happened like Tenko's and she goes through a similar subconscious suppression of her Quirk due to trauma. It's possible she could de-age a person out of existence in an instant, but after doing it to her dad the trauma caused her to keep a lid on it...hence why Izuku had time to think and realize what was going on with his body and that he'd have to damage his body fast enough to keep up with Eri's Quirk. I don't see any hints that Eri's Rewind has elements of time travel though. If she's capable of it, then our best bet would be to question what actually happened to her father--were his cells simply rewound to the point that he no longer existed (rapid de-aging), or was he maybe transported to a different era? It's possible, but it's currently unexplored in canon.

Ultimately, I think that until we get some more facts it's too soon to claim that Eri will send Bakugo and Eijiro to the past. How they get to the past isn't what I want to theorize on tonight...but on *why* it's probable they could become the mystery users.

We all know that Horikoshi loves meaningful names and that each One For All user appears to follow a naming rule where their names have some connection to which number of user they are with the Quirk. Izuku's "ku" is homophones with nine, Yagi's got an eight in his surname, Nana is homophones with seven, etc. That would imply that the unknown users should have "two" and "three" in their names somewhere, since they are the second and third users of One For All. It's another stretch, but what if the first user was "Zero" and the mystery users became "One" and "Two"...being the first and second users to have One For All passed on to them (after all, in the original user would it be called One For All if it's just the power-stocking quirk coupled with the ability to pass on quirks?) It gains the "one for all" moniker because it's passed on. Also, if we're screwing with time, having the numerical naming order be disrupted seems a bit poetic--it shows in the names that something messed up as far back as the 2nd user if his name bears allusions to "one" or "first".

After reading the bit about the users names again recently, something began to bug me--especially with the silhouette of one of the users being a dead ringer for a Katsuki look-alike. Katsuki can mean victory--which made me think of 'first place'. Eijiro, with the right kanji, can sometimes mean "second son" as a name--"second person to inherit the quirk (technically third user)"? This would definitely create an odd naming system for sure and a number would end up being missing from the names. However, it could be possible. In Asian cultures 8 is seen as a lucky number and fours are considered unlucky. It's possible that "four" could be skipped entirely, having All For One's brother be "zero", Katsuki being "First/one", Eijiro being "second/two", and the unknown fourth user being named with "third/three", skipping four entirely and we get Banjo Daigoro (Black Whip) as our confirmed fifth user ("go" in his name is homonyms with five), the dark-haired dude as our sixth user, Nana at seventh, All Might at eight, and finally our nineth as Izuku/Deku. Fours are already taken anyway--All For One claims that "Shigaraki" was his own name...and that he gave it to Tenko/Tomura for that reason. "Shi" is homonyms with "death" as well as one way to say "four" in Japanese (the other being "yon"). Maybe the One For All users won't invoke four because it's the name of their fated enemy.

It's definitely a stretch dependent on whether or not Horikoshi is superstitious about fours or whether or not it'll be a factor in the naming system at all or whatever. Also, this names theory only means anything if we're willing to accept the possibility that Katsuki and Eijiro are the mystery users.

Another thing I wonder as part of this theory has to do with Eijiro's Hardening Quirk being within One For All.

All Might claims that he was Quirkless, and now that the embers of One For All have left him, he should be completely Quirkless...but he's still shown the ability to turn into his muscle-form...and it's acknowledged by the characters as his muscle form, so that makes me think that it's actually happening in the world of the story and that it's not just a gag for the readers. Muscle-form looks like a Quirk to me...so...if Toshinori was Quirkless and One For All has left him...then where did muscle-form come from and why does he still have the ability to change into it--no matter how briefly?

My theory on muscle-form is that it's Kirishima Eijiro's Hardening Quirk (assuming we accept the fact that Eijiro is one of the past users of One For All)--that Toshinori drew on the stored Quirk without knowing it...and that even if the embers of One For All are truly gone from him...somehow that last bit of it stayed with him. After all, it's different from all of the other Quirks we know of within One For All. Hardening is a transformation type Quirk--the results are temporary. Black Whip, Float, and whatever happens when Izuku taps into One For all, Full Cowling and any SMASH! moves--all of those appear to be emission-type Quirks. Perhaps Transformation-type Quirks linger or merge with the very cells of the user...and thus don't entirely leave even when the embers are gone? My theory on why Hardening looks different on All Might than it looks on Eijiro can be explained by Monoma's explanation of his copy ability and "blanks".

Monoma could copy Fatgum's Quirk, but it wouldn't function the same way. It appears that FatGum's Quirk gives him the ability to convert calories into fat at a more efficient rate than normal, and that his bodyfat has some extraordinary qualities--behaving like quicksand or rubber or whatever. His stored fat gives him the ability to trap people, stockpile force/blows, and the ability to basically lie on a dentonation device and absorb the force of the explosion--letting it out (ike the stockpile of force/blows) in a safer manner than if the device were to simply dentonate (see Vigilantes). FatGum's Quirk wouldn't work on Monoma because it relies on the stockpile. He'd have the quirk but wouldn't be able to do the same things with it--especially given the time limits. Potentially, Monoma would be able to convert calories into fat and get rounded out in the time he copies FatGum's Quirk...but he wouldn't be able to absorb people or blows in the same way until he had enough stockpiled fat. Basically, he could copy FatGum's Quirk, but he wouldn't balloon out to look like a copy of Fatgum.

I'm suggesting here that All Might's Muscle-Form is Kirishima Eijiro's Hardening Quirk (assuming that we accept that Eijiro is a previous user). Maybe "Hardening" manifested differently on All Might's frame than it does on Eijiro. It's a transformation type while the others currently known to be a part of One For All are emission-types. All Might's Muscle-form certainly looks like a transformation-type to me--maybe he's just not as rocky as Eijiro because the rocky part of it is something to do with Kirishima's own cells...cells All Might doesn't have. The way the Quirk manifests on All Might is different from how it manifests for Eijiro.

It's a stretch 'cuz we don't have enough facts from canon--and a lot of what I've written here relies on a heck of a lot of speculation. But hey, this is all just a theory (jkjk...love that channel...system of channels btw. Thank you MatPat for the amazingly done edutainment).

[iohourtime]

Think Note Vol #87 Full Force

Myojo 06.2020

(Translated from scans by MoMozzz32 on weibo.  The photos are also from her account.  Please let me know if there are any errors.)

Because it is a tough time* right now, I want to provide entertainment to you.

The filming of “Daikaiju no Atoshimau” (The Aftermath of the Big Monster [Attack]) has started. Amidst the cancellation of numerous concerts and events, Yamada is fully focused on filming. He believes that “the day will come when this movie can make lots of people laugh”.

*This issue of Myojo was released on April 22nd and usually these articles were written about a month before. So while large gatherings were cancelled at that time, the state of emergency had not been declared yet. Let’s not talk about the second wave. (T/N - July 2020)

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Right now, I’ve focused all my energy on the filming of “Daikaiju no Atoshimau”. Although I’ve only been on set for a few days, on one of those days, I started filming at 4am in a river in Ibaraki. It had been warm up to the day before [the shoot], but on that day only, it was really cold, so I was trembling while I was filming. As for what that scene was about, please look forward to it when you see the completed film. By the way, since filming was done at 5:30am, I did some [weight] training. I got addicted to super healthy living around a month ago. I wake up at 6am, then make breakfast, wash my clothes, and at 8am, I go training for 2 hours. After that, I go to work and if I have time when I get home, I will go [to the gym] once more. If my muscles ache, I will rest for two days and use this time to train other parts. I also watch what I am eating and make sure the P = protein, F = fat, C = carbohydrates intake are well balanced. I also have to eat a lot, so I will go to the yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant, order a 10-person portion of red meat, and will not go home until I finish; I have decided to do a “1 person Kaere Ma 10*”.

* Kaere Ma 10 is a variety show on TV Asahi where the guests have to correctly guess the 1-10 ranking of the subject and they can’t go home until they get it right. (Or something like that.)

My co-star in the film, (Tsuchiya) Tao-chan, takes the study of her character and acting very seriously; she is humble to everyone and is a very respectable actress. She came on “School Kakumei” before and we sat at the same table at the Japan Academy award ceremony, so we are acquainted with each other. On set, I will recommend manga I like to her… oh yeah, a manga I like, “Alice in Borderland”, is being adapted into a drama and Tao-chan is in the cast, although I secretly wished to play the hero. However, when I heard that Yamazaki Kento-kun got the part, I thought, “Yes, I am satisfied!” (laughs) Since the director, Sato Shinsuke-san, is someone I always wanted to work with, I asked her to tell me “What is it like to film [with him]?” When she told me the stories, I constantly made comments like “I’m so jealous!” or “That’s nice!”. Tao-chan said, “Yamada-san, you can still join the cast now, you know”; of course I retorted.

As the novel coronavirus spreads, we can no longer do a lot of the everyday things [we took for granted] and events and concerts are being cancelled. Although people have all sorts of things to consider, as someone working in the entertainment industry, I feel that we really need entertainment [as a diversion] right now. That’s why one of the things we can do is to fully commit to the film as a team. We hope the day will come when people can enjoy this film in their hearts without feeling anxious about anything.

For all those who support Johnny’s idols, they must be sad when the much anticipated events and concerts are cancelled or delayed. Surely, everyone must have worked hard in school and at their jobs as they look forward to the [concert] date. Knowing how you feel, although it’s not anybody’s fault, I still feel really bad about it. For the agency and my senpai & kouhai, I feel that it must be a tough decision to stop these events and concerts they’ve worked so hard to prepare. In order to respect these feelings, please look at this as the preparation time for us to have even more fun than [originally planned]. Whenever the events and concerts start again, I want you to feel that they are well worth the wait.

“...To the time when everyone can smile every day." - Ryosuke

[teababe27]

Notes From the 2020 Myanimelist.net Challenges - Part 2: Manga

Time for Part 2 of the Thoughts on the Challenge posts; this one talking about the manga side.

A lot of the executive dysfunction and side effects of the chemo kinda took away my desire to read sometimes. As such, I didn’t get as far into the challenge as I had hoped, only getting about halfway through the required amount I had chosen for myself. There were even a few manga I was reading for the challenge that I have unfortunately not yet finished (Billy Bat, Battle Angel Alita, Meteor Methuselah), so I reluctantly won’t be including them on here. However, I did still read and finish some decent manga and some pretty good ones, too.

Like the anime post, I will mention some honorable mentions/one I had thoughts on, followed by my favorites that I read for the challenge this year.

Let’s do this.

Honorable Mentions/Other Notables:

Scumbag Loser (aka Saiteihen no Otoko) - completed for the task “Read a manga series you can finish in one day”

Masahiko is a fat, perverted loser who has a smell fetish and thinks everyone is beneath him. He takes solace in the fact that he’s not the Class Loser. However, when the Class Loser gets a girlfriend, Masahiko becomes the new Class Loser. Desperate to get out of this position, he lies and says he has a girlfriend: his childhood friend Haruka, who transfers to his class the next day. But there’s a problem that only Masahiko knows: Haruka died several years before. 

This wins Worst of the Challenge, but I didn’t hate it entirely. Masahiko is not a good person, which is usually a negative in my book. This manga basically goes from 0 to 100 real fast. It takes a couple unexpected turns and I couldn’t help but wonder how the problem would be stopped. Ends on a bit of a downer.

Dragon Head - completed for the task “Read a manga that started serialization in the 90s”

While on a school field trip, the train carrying the students crashes after a natural disaster. Teru is the only survivor in his class. While trying to find a way out, he finds two other survivors, Ako and Nobuo. The three survivors try to escape while dealing with lack of food and light, earthquakes, cults, and the freaking apocalypse happening outside.

This manga was quite the ride. Creepy and scary at times. The artwork was really good, definitely adding to the atmosphere. I liked the characters. The story did kinda drag a bit in the middle and I felt the ending was kinda rushed and stopped inconclusively, but I liked this one.

Omukae Desu - completed for the task “Read a manga that started publishing the same month and year as one of your listed favorites” (Azumanga Daioh, in this case)

Madoka is a college student who has the power to see lost souls, kinda like the Ghost Whisperer. He is recruited by Nabeshima (the guy in the bunny suit on the manga cover) to work for the GSG, an organization that helps transport wandering souls to the afterlife. In order to help, Madoka often lets the souls briefly take over his body to do various things that they always wanted to do before passing on.

This manga was actually pretty adorable at times. Lighthearted and fun. Characters are kinda hit-and-miss, though their interactions are very amusing. I liked it.

Deathtopia - completed for the task “Read a manga that got cancelled/axed”

Kou Fujimura is an average guy. One day, he gets into an accident and is severely injured, leaving him blind and on the brink of death. He gets surgery and survives, but he now has psychic abilities and can see weird monsters. A mysterious woman appears, and she recruits him to help her and her fellow hot assassins who work for the police department. He helps the ladies take out the aforementioned weird monsters called Cheaters, people who come back from the dead with special abilities and blend in with normal people.

I liked the story/concept a lot. Kinda gave me Parasyte vibes at times. A little bit too fanservice-y at times. Very good in the beginning, but took a lot of lapses in logic (pointed out in the scanlations I read) near the end, and the ending felt rushed, though I can blame that on the manga being prematurely cancelled. I still recommend this one, as the story is interesting and the action is good.

The!! Beach Stars - completed for the task “Read a manga with a symbol in the title”

The sequel to the manga Beach Stars that I read for last year’s challenge. 

Iruka and the rest of the team are back, getting ready for and competing in the Madonna Cup. Iruka’s goal is still the same: to beat the local volleyball champ Sanae Kayakawa.

Everything I liked about the prequel is here. The action/sports scenes are great, and the camaraderie between the ladies is cool, too. Though it is disappointing that this sequel is only 12 or 13 chapters, as some things could have used more buildup and fleshing out, especially the final match. Still a fun read, though.

Favorites from the Challenge:

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan (aka Our Happy Time) - completed for the task “Read a featured manga” (Article: https://myanimelist.net/featured/1561/11_Epic_Manga_That_Deserve_to_Be_Adapted_into_Anime)

Juri is a former pianist who has gone down a dark path after a traumatic event in her life. She has grown to hate her mother, who was once a famous pianist herself. Juri has since attempted suicide multiple times. Yuu is a convict on death row charged with murder, and he has tried to kill himself as well. When Juri’s aunt Monica, a nun, invites her to visit Yuu, their lives both change forever.

This manga makes me think of how a friend told me they recently saw the movie Collateral Beauty for the first time. They said it was melodramatic, but they cried and enjoyed the movie all the same. This pretty much sums up how I felt about this manga.

This one honestly made me tear up a bit, as melodramatic as it was. A little dark, but I was still invested in the characters and the situations. The art is really good, too. It’s one volume, so it doesn’t take that long to read. 

Kingyosou - completed for the task “Read a manga that includes a character with a disability”

One day, a girl, Asuka, falls in love with a boy, Manami, after hearing him play the taiko drums at a school festival. Manami is deaf, however, and has closed his heart to love. Asuka and Manami get to know each other and face various obstacles in their relationship, both relating and not relating to Manami’s deafness.

I thought this manga was really sweet. I also liked that there was deaf representation here, though I can’t really speak on how accurate it is because I’m not deaf myself. You don’t see many manga where the characters have disabilities. The relationship felt a little more realistic in this one because it took some time (as proportional as time can take in a 2-volume manga) for Manami and Asuka to get into the relationship. Another manga that was short, sweet, and to the point, at only 2 volumes.

Babel - completed for the task “Read a manga that appears when putting in your username in the Myanimelist search bar”

Kouta is a hotel waiter dissatisfied with his job serving rich clientele on New Year’s Eve at the Babel Hotel. On New Year’s Day, a worldwide terrorist attack occurs, with bombs going off everywhere. Kouta then meets someone who gives him the ability to go back in time. Kouta has to use this ability to stop the terrorist attack from happening and pretty much causing WW3.

I liked this manga a lot. A lot of unexpected plot twists. A fascinating mystery, keeps you hooked. I’ve always found time travel plots to be interesting as well.

Bloom Into You (aka Yagate Kimi ni Naru) - completed for the task “Read a Shounen Ai or Shoujo Ai manga” (tagged Shoujo Ai)

Yuu is a new high school freshman who loves romance manga and wants to experience a love story of her own. But when a classmate confesses his feelings to her, Yuu finds she feels nothing. Yuu sees the student council president, Nanami, turning down a love confession herself. Yuu joins the student council and she and Nanami become friends. Nanami soon confesses her feelings for Yuu, and Yuu is confused.

This one is tied with the next entry in this post for Best of the Challenge.

I loved this manga. So sweet and adorable. Made me tear up at times. Great, well-written character development. Doesn’t rely on bad/problematic tropes like certain other yuri I’ve read and watched recently. I loved watching this complex and realistic relationship between Yuu and Nanami develop. Some of Yuu’s feelings are pretty relatable. Read this one if you’re looking for a great yuri manga.

Inside Mari (aka Boku wa Mari no Naka) - completed for the task “Read a Psychological or Thriller manga” (tagged Psychological)

Isao Komori is a shut-in who spends his time after dropping out of college fapping, playing video games, and visiting a local convenience store every night to see a high school girl named Mari, who he admires from afar. One day, Isao finds that he is in Mari’s body! Isao-as-Mari continues to live her life and tries to find out how to switch back.

I know I mentioned this earlier, but I’ll be giving Best of the Challenge to both Bloom Into You and Inside Mari. I honestly couldn’t decide between the two, as they are from two different subgenres and two different styles. Kinda like how I couldn’t decide between Hereditary and Into the Spiderverse as my favorite movie of 2018 because they were so different form each other that I couldn’t really compare them.

This manga threw me for a loop multiple times. A subversion and deconstruction of the usual body-swap plots. A darker take on one, if you will. A couple of interesting plot twists, and the manga often takes a different direction than you expect, especially about halfway through the manga, where it switches to different characters’ points of view.

Highly recommended, though not for everyone.

[venezolanoanimations1]

Legoshi´s stand (JJBA x beastars) ACT 1,2 & 3

I haven´t seen jojo, i mean, not a full episode but some clips, a few wikis and fan made content, but i have seen beastars (the anime, and few parts part the manga) and i was wonder what if legoshi was a stand user, with the idea that the shadow of his savage tendencys was actually his stand.

Information: the STAND born from the instints of legoshi, he unlock it when he was a pre-teenager, Posses diferent Acts that legoshi can select and switch through the battle. This is a dynamical stand meaning that it requires the user to fight by themself with the enemy user ( i mean againts the person, not the stand) and each Act have its onw abilitys

Name: Wild Side (localization name: Savage Side or primal tendency)

Stats:

 Power: Unknow

 Speed: Unknow

 Range: Unknow

Durability:Unknow

Precision: Unknow

Potencial:Unknow

 Abilitys (general):

 Predator: this can turn the tide of the battle real quick and make a [Wilde Side] one of the most powerfull stands. It allow to change the stats of [Wilde side] specific way, turnig it into the best counter for the enemy stando, and either making the user inmune to the enemy stand ability, counter the ablity, interfer or just stop the ablity. But legoshi need to know the name of the stand and have a small idea of the ability.

 Well, there´s the option of leave this to the hunting instincs of the stand with the promise of have 100% correct guess but is a huge gamble cuz it leave a big fat oportunity to the stand get out of control and go complete apeshit (like purple haze).

 Example: it make legoshi and the stand able to move in the stop time world or be fast enough to outrun made in heaven and it slow down to cancel the universe reset.

 However it can only preying on one stand at a time

Animality: Allows legoshi to gain any ability of any animal he do desire and multiply it by 50 (like speed of cheetah, strength of gorilla, etc.), and if he say a specific part of his body, only that part it going to be power up, being able so use more abilities from anothers animals and combine them. but he has to know the animal not only by name but species, and it not have to be a real animal, but it has to be considerate as one. It doesn´t changes the physical appearance, only change either the resistance, strength, density, etc.

Example: The tough back of a turtle and the ablity to fly of the eagle by using his arms. (something similar of kars ablity but with no need of grow up wings)

Stand´s User Card:

ACT 1:

                                                 Mostly for combat

It is base in the shadow that hunts legoshi mind. having the idea that is something than just escaped from a heavy containment, wearing a prison looking pants qiht the number 18 on it and classic fetter-ball, have many rusty prison chains made of combination of iron and silver. This chains represent the will, determination and struggle of legoshi to keep this side of him under lock

I added some things like the lines of legoshi beast mode, and dog-prison-collar with the word ACT and the number 1 on it.

This ACT try  often to take over control of legoshi mind to make him puppet of his instins and go in rampage, being controled by Act1 makes legoshi mostly invecible, almost inmortal, like if Lobo and Deadpool have a bab, but this is not good thing, he have no control of his actions in that stade, only able to see the horror from a loony place of his - now- controled brain and heart.

To give a idea of how screw up this situation would be: imagine if legoshi have Cartoon cat´s personality and evilness, and mulplied for 50.

 Unique abilitys:

Wild instincs: power up user´s sences, to levels that he can see the essence of the prey (enemys) throuhg walls, can hear sounds in 700 metros radio and say what makes that sound, the same thing with the smell.

Beast mode: it give to legoshi his iconic beast mode. As simple as it is, but this time - being aware of his stando- come with a insanely high pain toleracen ( can even being injured like Kakyoin and still fighting like hell) and light self-healing factor.

Act II

This one comes after legoshi meet Gohin and build a more deep relationship wiht him, since he is a doctor and help legoshi with instinct issues, making him to take control of his strengh, showing him that he can use his inner beast to protect and help others ( or in this case, his love one) but it do not mean that he accept that part of him yet, and still thinking that it must be under look and locked, but now, teh containment is less heavy that the previus one. It wear straitjacket with a gohin logo in the back, a light chains and the keys hanging in the belt of it, the sign of act II in the rigth arm and a ¨love one¨ sticker in the left arm (Lousi haru and jack)

Unique abilitys:

Containment belt: can tie up enemys (stands or users) with the belts that come out of the straitjacket with limit of 8 belts, wiht a range of 10 meters, it also can transfer information from the user mind to digital divices of any kind and to other person by using said belt.

Lobotomia or brainwash: By a deep look into the enemys eyes, allow to go inside of their minds and screw it up, making them a sorta of zombie-slave for a period of 10 minutes, this can be inflected by legoshi or act 2, but the conditions are that if stand do it, It have to look into the enemy stand eyes to be efective, meaning that i need to get the stand closer; like point blank, it takes 2 minutes to complete (givin the enemy space for try ro escape or for legoshi to being interrupted)

Bioquimical engaged: since legoshi is the grandson of a komodo dragon his front fangs have small hole in them, but legoshi posses not bag of venom (this is not canon as far as i know, is just a thing that pop my head) well, this ability allows to uses his hybrid reptilian-canine to infelct a hard bite to inject any kind of substance into targets veins. (something like harvest)

Act 3

The strongest version of the stand when it comes to abilities, but the most difficult to summon, cuz it need to be a complete balance and domination between act 1 & 2. Legoshi need be focus and calm to use it and keep through the battle.

It appears when he ate the foot of louis to save their butts, accepting that he cannot denied or ignore his carnivore status, either the upsides and downsides of being a carnivore, and he can’t change it, but it doesn´t mean than that part of him can be used for good, or to protect his friends in his full capacity at least.

Now completely free and balance, this ACT of [WILD SIDE] has total loyal at his master commands.

It has written in the back the names of the people, that mean something to legoshi, the ones that he sees as friends or care about, wears the same pants that legoshi have in that part of the manga - when he unlocks it- and it was design to look like a function between act1 & act 2

Unique abilities:

Wolfpack: this is a very but VERY unique ability, is simple, it can bring to the battlefield the other to ACTs, in cases to fight multiples enemies, allow them to use predator in two more enemies. but in need a big concentration and mind strength from the user, cuz now, it is like he was controlling 3 stand a once.

Legoshi must to be careful in his choice of abilities to use, to which enemy send the ACT and which one use, the strategy to follow, to which act pay more attention, or just let go the other two ACT on free run with the gamble of lose control over them. A least, it minimizes very much the harm that legoshi get from stands injures by distribute the pain.

Catarino spit: its more for support stuff, in a few word is like have [Crazy diamond´s] ability but it only can use through saliva, and in a limited amount with a cooldown of 30 seconds.

The name is reference to a Mexican song - I’m from Venezuela by the way- called ¨el paciente¨ on the line that said ¨quisiera ser catarino pa´ curarme con saliva¨ translated something like: I would want to be a ladybug to heal myself with saliva -yeah, do not attempt to find any sense on that- which is another reference to other Mexican musician called Erasmo Catrino.

Catarino= male version of the word Catarina, which´s mean ladybug in Spanish.

Lone wolf´s call: this is for when the satiation turns ant color (very hard) Act 3 shout a big noise howl, so high, that can kill a person with it; if them no cover their ears. This not only can alert the alleys of legoshi about unseen dangers, but also give them – the allies- the localization of the wolf by showing his aura through the walls.

it can bring for 15 minutes the essence of any stand (Even enemies) that was in that area the last 10 minutes and give them just specific command either to defend legoshi, attack the enemies or just distract them and take the user out there. The thing with this is that make legoshi very tired, so it is an only-emergency-move.

(the command cannot be changed and the stand that show up go complete auto mode and half of capacity)

Example: Legoshi is outnumber, heavy hurt and bleeding, surrounded by enemies, unable to fight any longer, take deed breath and realized ACT3 and it call the cavalry, so, Stands starts to appear from the floor, looking at legoshi, the wofl has no ideads that what shit guys do, so he choice the buy time by make a divercion.

Meanwhile in the distance: The Cherrintong gang run as faster as they can, cuz they hear and see the backup call of legoshi, they know what that means, he is in trouble and big ones.}

And in the end but not less important.

The Stand User Card:

So what ya think guys, did you like it, lads? i hope so.

 Well, i have another ideas to make a gang of stand users with the characters of beastars, like the stardust crusaders, Mama bruno squad  (passione) or Josuke´s friends.

 What ya think,did i should make it?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 144: Kirishima Flashback Part 1

Previously on BnHA: Chance the Rappa and Fat the Gum prepared to have a punching match while Tengai and Kirishima stood there and watched. Rappa punched Fat Gum like 600 times as Kirishima looked on, feeling increasingly powerless. Finally his shounen instincts couldn’t take it anymore and he leapt in there to take some of the blows for FG. Rappa was impressed by his durability, but things weren’t looking too good, as Kirishima’s hardening kept reaching its limit and breaking only for him to turn it back on again. Having been all but turned into a bloody pulp, he finally tried to counterattack, only to have Tengai step in with his stupid barrier. Fortunately, Kirishima’s intervention gave Fat Gum time to charge up his attack power, and as Kiri fell, FG stepped in ready to kick some ass. Oh, and he’s hot now. All of a sudden, just out of fucking nowhere. Shit’s wild.

Today on BnHA: Hot Gum gets ready to punch some bad guys as reality abruptly gives way to a sudden Kirishima flashback. Middle school Eijirou tries to defend a hapless kouhai from some thugs, but is shown up by middle school Ashido Mina, who effortlessly befriends the thugs and teaches them the error of their thuggish ways. Everyone is all “oh shit Mina is awesome”, and Kiri thinks that he himself is pretty lame in comparison. He knows his quirk is nothing special, and he’s trying to compensate by having a manly spirit just like his hero Crimson Riot. Later on while walking home, he stumbles across an intimidating villain confronting two girls from his school. No heroes are around, and he knows he should step in and try to help, but he finds himself frozen in fear. Luckily, Mina arrives to save the day again and sends the villain on his way. Later that night, Kiri sits in his room thinking about how his manly heart failed when it really counted, and miserably crosses off U.A. from his school aspiration report.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 175 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

two chapters in one day?? is it just because Fat Gum is that hot? maybe. maybe it is

“Red Riot” is the chapter title; that’s very promising

anyway so Hot Gum is all rarin’ to go with his punchin’ fist

incredibly, Rappa is actually asking Tengai to lower the barrier. seriously, this type of villain basically does all of your work for you

Tengai is saying that Kirishima’s thrilling heroics in the previous chapter must have been intended to set up this attack

but Kiri’s thinking that’s not it at all, and that he was just scared

“again...”

oh my god. this is a flashback. we ‘bout to get that good angst, aren’t we

I guess this is Kiri’s middle school

some thugs are picking on a child who has a quirk that lets him transform leaves into sweet, sweet cash. omg. are you serious

oh wait, he says it’s only a temporary transformation. dang

is he supposed to be a tanuki or something. he doesn’t really look like one, but he’s kinda got similar ears, and there’s that shapeshifting leaves connection too so idk

lol actually I just read the translation notes and they’re confirming that he is indeed a tanuki

the thugs are all “we’ll just spend it before it turns back” but obviously that’s. not nice

and here comes our boy!

this motherfucker really does dye his hair. I can’t fucking believe it. that’s such a nice character touch because it’s totally unnecessary but it’s just a nice little additional character detail

anyway, he’s charging at these guys in hardened mode but one of them is chucking a rock at his face. which fucking hurts

wow, he was this weak as recently as his third year of middle school? if that’s the case, he’s gone through almost as rapid of a transformation as Deku

oh my god the thugs just picked up the weird little tanuki kid and are scampering off with him while Kiri is all “HEY WAIT”

what the fuck

were they watching the whole time?!

...

damn, Kiri’s friends need more spine

it’s so weird how he’s now best friends with a guy who not too long ago was not all that different from those thugs. and yet, maybe not that weird after all, because even at his worst, Bakugou was still a hell of a lot more honorable than these guys seem to be

now Kiri is dashing off heroically

I really want to meet Crimson Riot. although the way they talk about him makes me wonder if he’s an older generation hero and maybe retired now or something. but then, Gran Torino is getting on in years too and he still kicks ass, so

OH MY GOD WHAT

MINA!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE CRASHING KIRISHIMA’S FLASHBACK

ALSO, YOU TELL THOSE THUGS OFF GIRL. FUCK YEAH

OH MY GOD

oh my god

what in the name of

lol are they best friends now

just. fucking Mina. we don’t deserve her

now the bullies and the leaf kid are walking off sparkling and waving back at Mina

my god. send this girl off to Tomura and let her just befriend him and all of his stupid hands. problem solved. I fixed your manga for you

Kirishima are you appropriately impressed by Mina’s outrageous big dick energy

he and his buddies are watching as Mina’s friends come up and ask her if she wants to come with them to that shop and she’s like “yeah!”

they’re saying she’s gonna be one for sure. a hero, that is. presumably

yep

Kiri’s mildly annoying friends are talking about how heroes these days are different from the ones in the past. “it’s all about entertainment and approval ratings”

and they’re saying that Mina is a perfect fit for the job

and while I can’t argue that Mina is going to make a phenomenal hero, Kiri is feeling a little down on himself now, thinking that he’s just “kinda dull and boring”

damn, who would have thought Eijirou of all people would have self-esteem issues. I mean, we’d gotten some hints previously, especially a few chapters ago when we flashed back to their special moves training and he was thinking how plain his quirk was compared to the rest. but this is more than I thought

by the way I really don’t have room for all of these adopted kids

also, are they trying to imply some sort of Kirishima/Ashido thing here now? I feel like they’re slowly but surely pairing off all of the 1-A girls one by one. Ochako with Deku, Momo with Todoroki, Jirou with Kaminari, and now this. this leaves us with just Tsuyu left, basically. (and Hagakure, but I still think she might be the traitor, so)

(ETA: and how could I forget that she’s paired up with Ojiro? so that really is all of them accounted for except Tsuyu. I swear to god, if Horikoshi so much as sneezes in a way that implies he’s considering pairing her off with Mineta, I will fucking learn Japanese and move to Japan and become a Japanese citizen and go to Japanese law school and become a Japanese lawyer and sue the fucking shit out of him for everything he’s worth until I fucking own the series and can pair her off with the mongoose snake girl. don’t test me, sensei. this is a little frog girl’s life on the line here and I will fuck you up.)

but anyways, try as they might, I doubt most of these vaguely “official” het pairings stand even the ghostest of chances against all of the glorious gayness that this fandom has embraced

so now we’re cutting to a one-panel training montage of Kirishima doing pushups and hitting himself with a stick and doing sprints and shit

and all the while he’s thinking of his hero Crimson Riot, who apparently said that as long as you have a manly spirit, it doesn’t matter what your quirk is. aww

so now Kiri’s friends are discussing what they’re gonna put on their career sheets, and which high schools they want to apply to

Kirishima’s acting like he hasn’t decided and doesn’t already have his heart set on U.A.

aww, he’s patting the sheet in his pocket which has U.A. written on it as his preferred school

now he’s walking down the street wishing that he had more confidence

you know, the more I see of flashback!Kirishima, the more I understand why he was so quickly drawn to Bakugou. he naturally exudes the self-assurance that this Kiri wishes he had more of. it’s similar to the reasons why Deku was drawn to him too

also, here’s a big dude in a lumpy cloak who just appeared out of nowhere and what the hell

holy shit

for a second I thought he was transforming into something because the outline of his cloak was so weird, but nope, looks like he just has some sort of massive troll body

anyway, Kiri’s looking over and realizing that those girls that this dude is terrorizing are from his middle school

and once again there are no pros in sight. there never are

now the villain dude is touching the wall and it’s cracking

Kiri’s thinking the exact same thing as me about the pro heroes. I kid you not

because pro heroes are the worst, Kiri. well most of them anyway

(ETA: and it’s fitting that later on in this chapter, Kiri mentions that one time that about a half dozen heroes all gathered around to watch a fourteen-year-old boy nearly suffocate to death because they were all afraid to get too close to his quirk. thank fuck for the Minas and the Dekus of the world)

he’s looking around frantically and thinking “somebody...!”

and then realizing there is nobody and he’s gotta do this himself

but he’s frozen in fear omg

HOT DAMN BUT LOOK WHO IT IS THOUGH

NO ONE TOLD ME THIS KIRISHIMA FLASHBACK WOULD RESULT IN ME BEING CONVERTED INTO A HARDCORE MINA STAN

OH MY GOD

SHE’S GIVING HIM DIRECTIONS. TO THE HERO OFFICE. THAT HE WAS ASKING ABOUT EARLIER

sflkahd

I’m fucking speechless

(ETA: ...hold up. holy shit.

that profile. the radio hanging from his neck. that face. those lumpy rock shoulders. holy shit. this is that guy. the guy we saw again in 162. Giganto something. holy shit.

this guy took out half a fucking mountain and nearly killed Gran Torino and Naomasa. Gran referred to him as an it. this fucking guy is one of All for One’s direct subordinates. and fourteen-year-old Ashido Mina just stood her ground against him and didn’t back down.

yet again I’m fucking speechless. damn but this girl is so much more amazing than she’s been getting credit for. also I’m just gonna file away everything that we just saw here, because we all know this guy is going to become a big deal probably in the near future. I can’t believe I didn’t even make the connection the first time around.)

y’all think I’m kidding about siccing her on Tomura. I’m not. this is the way to go guys. this is how we win the day

and now she’s collapsing from fear and crying about how that was so scary

and her friends are embracing her and thanking her for saving their lives, and they’re all crying together

I can’t believe Ashido Mina is my new favorite character. well actually I can. how far out is the next character poll? I think still a good thirty or forty chapters out, but just you wait. this girl is going places

(ETA: I regret to announce that, after ranking Mina at a pitiful #36, behind Mineta and fucking Overhaul, Japanese BnHA fandom is cancelled. or at least the ones who voted for the aforementioned two are. more than a thousand people voted for You’re Damn Right He’s The Best Fucking Jeanist, though, so in the end I still can’t be too mad.)

Kirishima are you in proper awe of Mina’s massive, huge, just totally fucking colossal dick energy yet?! bow down to it!!

he’s still standing frozen across the street, just staring at them

and he’s berating himself for just standing there and not taking action

now it’s later that night, presumably, and he’s sitting at his desk staring at his career sheet or whatever you call it. “aspiration report”

holy shit he’s thinking about Bakugou, somehow, even though he hasn’t even met him yet. and Deku too

Deku out there inspiring people even before becoming the Symbol of Peace Jr. was ever even on the table. what a legend

Kiri is miserably thinking to himself that not even his heart was up to snuff. boring quirk, timid heart

oh no he’s picking the pencil up and I think he’s gonna erase U.A. from his number one choice

except that can’t be right, unless we’re about to cut back to present day!Kiri and shockingly find out that him attending U.A. has actually been a 140-chapter dream sequence this entire time. whaaaaaaaaat

but he really is crossing it out!

I can’t. I don’t. where am I going to put all these sons. too many sad children

also this chapter was only 13 pages long what the fuck

and now there’s an omake corner??

oh my god it seems like the scanlators took it upon themselves to fill up the additional space with translations from the official character book!

this is awesome. but it’s also way too long for me to read right now, so I’ll have to come back to it. maybe do it as a separate post if I get into it

(ETA: so I most definitely am going to do a separate post on the character book, but I’m not sure when that will be. I have the whole thing downloaded, along with as many translations as I can find, so it’s mostly just a matter of finding some time and energy to do it. it will mostly just be me nerdily comparing the characters’ stats and also going “omg you guyyyyyyyys” at that one concept art picture of Shouji without his facemask lol.)

BONUS:

KIRI COSTUME :D I’ve actually done a fair bit of wondering exactly what all this stuff does, so I’m excited to finally see!

so apparently the headgear is supposed to protect the weaker spots on his face. I like how the explanation acknowledges that it rarely works :’)

and here we go, an explanation for the arm covers which were a new addition during the provisional license arc!

so apparently they’re to help protect the people he rescues from getting hurt if he has to carry them. that’s so thoughtful. here I thought he was just getting cold lol

I love his reasoning for wearing a deliberately tattered-looking costume. just embracing it as part of his look. Deku might want to consider a similar strategy at some point

the “manly justice” theme is just perfect. although ngl, I would have also enjoyed if we kept our usual naming conventions and these were referred to as kimipads, kimicovers, etc. but this works too, and it fits him to a T

I hope and assume that the double exclamation points are part of the official name. not just manly justice, but manly justice!! !!!!!!!

[lia-nikiforov]

Winter 2018 Anime Final Review

Why yes, pretty much all the Spring premieres are done (don’t even remind me haha I’m so far behind) and this is horribly late, I had a busy couple of weeks ;---; and am still struggling to catch up, but here’s my final rundown of this long slow winter! Worst to best, as always.

Dropped

Basilisk Ouka Ninpou Chou: Although I’d said I’d keep watching for the Nobunaga twist, given the onslaught of new stuff for Spring, it’s unsustainable to keep watching something so mediocre I don’t even find anything to say about it. Also Nobunaga hasn’t been mentioned in three episodes.

DUMPSTER FIRE

Darling in the Franxx: So we’re halfway through the show and still feels nothing of importance has happened, except we learned “lesbians are not viable, what a relief” and also KOKORO REALLY WANTS TO MAKE BABIES. The whole Kokoro business is very unsavory because on the one hand the writing is a dick to Walking Fat Joke Futoshi, but on the other hand Futoshi is an entitled Nice Guy who acts like Kokoro has some obligation to return his feelings, so basically everyone sucks lmao. Btw, does anyone know what happened with episode 13? I went to watch it but what I got instead was a Deadman Wonderland episode, complete with the story of Palurdo meeting Lab Experiment-turned-Beast Waifu as children and making a promise that would subsequently be forgotten until they meet again in their teenage years. Jesus, does Womenz are Beastz: The Anime have a single original idea?

How am I supposed to measure my own disinterest and contempt

This basically means I didn’t care for these shows. I don’t hate them but I was aggressively unengaged in them and I can’t really rank them from worst to best because that would imply me having any measurable emotional reaction to them

Violet Evergarden: I don’t think I have much to add about this one that I haven’t said before. Tryhard Sad Anime Girl stories rehashing old clichés with little novelty to them,  with a bonus of a super poorly explained and thought out child super soldier tragic backstory that still has me ?????? The final episode has the addendum of trying to redeem That One Asshole in a “he treats her bad because he’s sad about his brother dying sob sob sob he’s totally not a jerk” and i was very annoyed by that.

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni: It’s complicated to talk about this show. I really liked the first episode, hated the 4-6, then was mostly bored by the rest of it. The whole romance angle was completely dropped in the latter half, but I’m not even sure if that’s a good thing given how tastelessly it was being handled in some moments, or a bad one given how bland everything else was. It felt like Akira’s crush on Kondo turned out to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It also felt like Akira was profoundly underdeveloped, and it bothered me because Kondo was developed properly. His character felt more fully realized than hers. Like idk, I just cared so little for the last few episodes and it didn’t feel like Akira’s emotional progression was very connected with the first half of the show. 

Fate/Extra Last Encore: I don’t even have a screenshot. Apparently the reason the show started so late into the season is that it took a long time to produce, and apparently there are two more episodes that will be released at some point in July. But really, what matters is that I have no idea of what this show was trying to accomplish. The characters were a bunch of pieces of cardboard spouting pseudo nihilistic philosophical nonsense and I don’t even know how to describe the plot. It was generic in its Boss of the Week approach but the execution was often very flat. Definitely none of the fun from Apocrypha’s cool characters was to be had in this iteration of the franchise.

Too much iyashikei

This season we had too much iyashikei and I’m burned out. Here are the ones I didn’t hate but also wasn’t super in love with.

Miira no Kaikata: I think this show would’ve worked better as 3-minute vignettes. 20 minutes of it was a bit too much and I struggled to pay attention. I also felt the dragon and MukuMuku had very tangential roles. I don’t have a whole lot to say. It’s cute, if cute is your jam this show is for you. Connie is best smol monster.

Hakumei to Mikochi: Another cute show that gains extra points for its somewhat unique setting, beautiful color palette and picture book aesthetic and because the two main girls are great characters. I particularly liked the first and last episodes. It’s a relaxing, fun little show

Sanrio Danshi: The harbinger of feminism made into a toy commercial, while not quite iyashikei, is still a slice of life that just occassionally indulged in too much melodrama. It was nonetheless a fun little thing that managed to turn cynical consumerism into a positive message for boys: it’s okay to like non-traditionally-masculine things. One of the details I liked most was that none of the boys had to give up on their previous groups of friends even after “coming out”, Kouta’s friends and Shuu’s team were supportive of them and even participated in their dumbass musical play. Some may even read this show as a not-so-subtle allegory on homosexuality and while I don’t think this was Sanrio’s intent (their intent is to broaden their market, plain and simple) the fact that it works so well with that reading is honestly great. I had very minimal expectations for this show and I’m happy it turned out better than those.

Classicaloid 2: Classicaloid isn’t quite iyashikei either but it fits in the “didn’t love it, didn’t hate it” category. I’m a huge fan of season one, but unfortunately a big part of S2 failed to capture the magic. I think most of it was restored in the second cour, specially with brilliant episodes such as the one where Dovo-chan becomes a super-realistic painting of himself, and the last three episodes really captured what made Classicaloid great. I’ve really come to love this cast, so I wouldn’t complain if we got more seasons (please do Vivaldi!!!)

Shonen is a Good Genre, Actually

Shonen as a genre/demographic is much reviled for its repetitive clichés and childish stories, but I think we live at a time in which we can have well-executed shonen anime that, although falling for the same old clichés, have enough heart and sincerity that makes them enjoyable. This part also isn’t necessarily ranked, since my favorite one will change depending on which day you ask me

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: As I have mentioned before, this second season seems to be the polar opposite of the first one’s rapid pace. It’s been a while since I read the manga, but I feel like it took a lot less to get to the mid-season cutoff point there than this anime would lead you to believe, especially the training part felt excruciatingly long. NanaTai has other various flaws including its 1000% not funny harrassment jokes and the dumb introduction of quantified “power levels” (why Suzuki), but characters like Diane, King and Ban give the show a unique flavor. And I’m not even gonna pretend to be unbiased, I just love everything involving Ban, even the weird and questionable choice of bringing Elaine back. I’m excited that we’re finally approaching Escanor’s arrival.

Yowapeda Glory Road: I also forgot to grab a screenshot lmao. Yowapeda is a very particular beast, and with its episode count already in the hundreds, it’s not something I’d reccommend unless you’re super into dragged out ridiculous sports anime. This second season of Onoda’s second year has not been without its flaws either, starting with the, imho absurd persistence in making Sohoku look like underdogs even though they’re reigning champions. It’s made a lot of the first two days of the Interhigh feel a lot grimmer than this cheerful show ought to. Kaburagi is still an insufferable character, and the fact that he drags the team down doesn’t help him either, and I just wish the writers would let Best Boy Teshima win anything. I hope the second day ends on a lighter note, because the gloom and doom is making this a less enjoyable watch than it should be

Mahoutsukai no Yome: I feel a little better about this one knowing the final was anime-original, but at the same time I’m beyond livid with how it was wrapped up. I loved the second half of the series because of how well-written and emotional Chise’s growth was, and everything up to her embracing of Cartaphilus’s curse was a beautiful display of her strength and will to live. What I’m not here for is that asspull wedding whatever that makes no sense in the context of the previous events, especially because after the fact, Elias’s attempt to kill Stella is swept under the rug. This could’ve been my favorite show of the season without that bullshit ending and while I don’t regret watching it, it leaves me with a sad feeling of what could have been

Best of the season

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens: It had a slow start, but with its endearing cast and well-developed character relationships, HTR won me over, especially the last quarter. The animation was veeery barebones, but Lin and Bamba’s charisma and their organically developed relationship carried the show to be one of the most enjoyable of the season. I also really appreciate the fact that the series includes a gay couple with an adopted daughter and that Lin’s crossdressing is never used as a joke or treated as a character flaw or a “phase”. I love stories about found families and I’d love to see more of this gang fighting crime and doing shady business in their city of assassins.

Garo: Vanishing Line: This iteration of Garo had a somewhat slow start, but boy did it pick up steam in the second half. The action was great -the final fight against King had some incredible stylistic choices, the characters’ journeys felt complete and very human and the story was interesting and different enough from other Garo to not feel repetitive, yet with enough Garoisms that made it feel connected to everything else. Like I said, I love stories about found families, so the way Sophie found a home with Gina, Luke and Sword by the end was very touching. Watching Sophie’s journey has been a treat, and I’m immensely happy that this wasn’t a Guren no Tsuki disaster, but was more in line with the excellence of Honoo no Kokuin.

Gakuen Babysitters: This was the huge surprise of the season for me, I almost expected it to be pretty dull. Instead it turned out to be super cute and extremely heartwarming. It had a couple of duds here and there, mostly the not-actually-a-pedophile joke character and the early love triangle skits, but the former disappeared and the latter was vastly improved in the second half of the show. I wish Ryuichi’s grief had been dealt with a bit more, but I think what they did show was very well executed and empathetic. And the portrayal of the kids felt very realistic, including both children’s most adorable and most obnoxious behaviors. KIRIN IS BEST GIRL

Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc: I have expressed some complaints and dissatisfactions with this sequel all through the season. Mostly in regards to the new cards and how the old ones seem to have been forgotten (also the lazy designs of the new cards). In spite of that, Sakura hasn’t lost any of its heart in these 20 years, the characters are still the kids we grew up with. It is an overwhelmingly cheerful and positive show, from Sakura and Syaoran’s shyly developing relationship, to the hopefulness of Sakura’s magic and just the simple day to day life of Sakura and her friends. In spite of all its flaws, Sakura is still my favorite show of the season and I’m happy we get to spend one more season with these characters. Just please give me more Yue??? 

Ooooof, finally I’m done with this! PLEASE LET’S NOT TALK ABOUT THE 20+ SHOWS I’M SAMPLING FOR SPRING AHAHAHAHA. There’s too much anime. Anime must be stopped, immediately. Don’t hesitate to send me your thoughts about the winter season, even if it seems I’m losing my mind a little Dx TOO MUCH ANIME

[otomeshistarlight-blog]

Trucking right along, guys! We’ll be done before you know it! 

51: If you were given a chance to make a request to Horikoshi, what would it be? I would request a full blown Todoroki centric arc. Like, Deku can fuck off for 100 chapters for all I care, I want to know this family’s history from front to back. What kind of environment was Endeavor raised in? Does that explain why he has such an obsessive goal of being number 1 or is it literally just a rivalry with All Might? Speaking of, did they go to school together? Tell me more. Was it an arranged marriage or did he meet his wife in a normal situation and fall in love with her? How was their relationship before the kids? Whats the deal with Dabi? Please just give me the Todoroki backstory in its entirety so I can die in peace.

52: Sing you to sleep? Jiro, no questions asked. I can’t wait for the anime to get to the culture festival so we can hear her angelic voice in action.

53: Cuddle with? Fat Gum! He looks super comfy! 

54: Too pure/innocent character? Probably Nejire tbh. Her curious naivety is cute but I worry for what the life of a pro hero would do to someone with that kind of personality.

55: Deserve better? Endeavor deserves better than to be judged armchair psychiatrists whose PHd was printed off from the same website where you can become an ordained minister. 

56: Wish to have a no tragic background? Dabi, probably. It remains to be seen what exactly the canon explanation is but I have a feeling its not gonna’ be pretty even if he’s not a Todoroki. 

57: Most likely to be a gentleman? My instincts tell me that Fat Gum is probably quite the gentleman in an almost backwoods kind of way. That is to say, he’s a hot blooded country bumpkin samurai with a heart of gold. Now, I’m basing that bit of characterization on the fan-translated manga which gave him some interesting verbal tics that seemed to imply he doesn’t speak the same way the kids from the big city do SO I’m quite interested to hear how he talks in the anime when we get to it in 2019.

58: Fave old/middle-aged character (30+)? I’m not saying Endeavor is old but he is approaching silver fox territory and I’m more than okay with that.

59: Fav Opening song? Odd Future, hands down. Gonna’ listen to it right now, thanks. 

60: Fave ending theme? The fantasy setting one. 

61: Fave voice actor? I’ve really gotta’ give Bakugou’s seiyuu credit for his performance. Not only all that growling and screaming, no doubt straining his vocal chords every week no matter how much training he’s had, but also for really selling that line when he was abducted by the villains.

62: Fave Character song? *sweats nervously* I ... I haven’t listened to any of the character songs ... Do they actually exist? 

63: Fave OST? Uh, what? 

64: Fave battle(s)? Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that Deku vs. Bakugou round 2 is gonna’ be a great episode and I’m really looking forward to the hero vs. villain fight we’re ramping up to in the current episode. 

65: Most shocking plot twist/unexpected scene? Me subscribing to the Dabi-is-a-Todoroki theme. Ummm, not to get too spoilery but I think almost everything at the end of the Yakuza arc was pretty unexpected based on all that had happened up until that point.

66: Selfie with? I would love nothing more than to take a selfie with Bakugou’s grumpy ass. I know that might sound a little weird but I’m actually being completely serious. 

67: Study in a library with? I would like to make some lewd, sex-in-the-library related joke but knowing who I am as a person, I probably legitimately need the help so I’d probably be best off with Momo or Shoto.

68: Most underrated character? Probably Tokoyami. I’m damn close to stanning him and I demand more content of his edgy bird boy immediately.

69: Most overrated character? Present Mic. He’s really not all that and I don’t get this fascination with him.

70: If you desire to see one’s ending? Who would it be? I’m not entirely sure what this is asking but if you mean who do I want to see die, it’d be either Mineta or Aoyama.

71: Change Character design? I wouldn’t change any design because Horikoshi worked hard on these characters and it would be downright foolish of me to think that I knew better than him.

72: Looks like a cinnamon roll, but it is a cinnamon roll? Nejire tbh.

73: Cinnamon roll but would actually kill you? Toga.

74: Looks like would actually kill you, but it is a cinnamon roll? Bakugou.

75: Looks like would actually kill you, and would actually kill you. Endeavor lol

76: Over sexualized character? In canon or by the fandom? Because overall, I’d say that Horikoshi doesn’t sexualize his girls very often but as per usual the fandom goes hog wild on everything and there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that to fictional characters.

77: Cook with? I bet Fat Gum knows how to cook and he could show me some pointers. It’d be fun to cook with Tamaki too, so he could show off his quirk at every turn. 

78: Funniest character? Honestly there is no character that sounds out to me as being particularly funny but my sense of humor is also severely warped so take that with a grain of salt. 

79: Best hardening quirk: Tetsutetsu/Kirishima? I’m gonna’ side with Kirishima on this one.

80: Whose penis would be painful to be fucked? (LOL) Am I answering questions written by a 12 year old? Just asking. So, I headcanon that Endeavor is pretty well endowed and the haters will have to literally tear that fat cock out of my cold, unresponsive hands.I also think Fat Gum is packing because the kanji in his name mean ‘thick’ and ‘full’ which, yeah, if you’re an unimaginative prude that just means they’re talking about his fat body but to me, an intellectual, all I’m seeing is dick. Incidentally, I think All Might is pretty big too (essentially all of the bara’s)  

81: Best Goth character? Tokoyami is the closest we’ve got.

82: Shop with? Endeavor because he has plenty of money to spend on me and he seems like the type who wouldn’t even spare the cheap shit a second glance which is a sentiment I appreciate as a boujee bitch. 

83: Fave OVA? There were only two so this isn’t even much of a choice, but I liked the zombie one.

84: Would you let Momo spoil you with her quirk? I would let literally anyone spoil me because I’m an attention starved materialist. 

85: Villain that you’d wish to be a hero? Eh, probably Gentle. Maybe if he’d been able to become a hero we could’ve avoided that shoehorned appearance of his in the middle of the culture festival. 

86: Needs to calm down? Honestly probably Inasa. He’s gonna’ be so damn loud in the anime ... but I can’t wait to see him anyway! 

And with that my friends, we have reached the end! Apparently we just weren’t able to come up with a few more questions to round us out at an even 100 which I’m quite thankful for which means that I can finally go to bed! orz Thanks for sticking around with me through these trying times, your patience is much appreciated! 

[dynared]

Honest Voltron Characterizations

@alluraofaltea posted something similar and while I don’t agree with some of her items, I did think it sounded like a fun idea, to see what people’s interpretations of the characters were. Special thanks to @fenfishtrap for pointing it out to me.

I’d love to see others do this too -

Keith - Hi, I’m the main character...I think. The show really can’t decide. I mean, I fit all the requirements, I’m the best pilot, my character design looks like it was pulled right from a Go Nagai manga, but I’m also a complete hothead, make the same mistakes over and over, and don’t learn from my experiences. One second I’m being told I should lead the team, the next I’m put out of focus for an entire season because my actor got a role that paid more. I would have a Freudian excuse for all this, except the only people who saw my moping about my mom were hardcore fans that watched an internet exclusive blog entry. Thanks to that everyone thinks my lack of character development means I’m flaming gay. Well, this season I’m going to try moping about not getting in the f*cking robot. Maybe at least that will lead to fans hooking me up with a hot redhead girl.

Also I’m half Galra which means either nothing or I have Hitler genes baked in.

Shiro - I’m the main character when the executives are done with the script editing. I’m also, depending on the fan describing me, either a shell shocked prisoner of war that just wants to sip a Corona on a beach and really should be out of the line of fire, Optimus Freaking Prime and the Chosen One, or a gay pedophile. My relationship with the Black Lion is about the same. Also I may or may not be a clone. I’m pretty sure that I’m supposed to be the Roy Fokker to Keith’s Hikaru/Rick Hunter, but I kinda suck at it on screen. Thankfully there’s fanfic because Shiro loves you baby. ❤️

My robot arm makes for a killer Winter Soldier cosplay at least.

Hunk - I’m the FOOD GUY. Get it? Because I’m fat which means I like to eat and literally have no other character traits. And yet out of everyone, I’m canonically the most successful with the ladies, so I have that going for me. Chicks love a guy that can cook. I’d mention my other skills and personality traits, but they’re kind of nonexistent, while my Japanese counterpart in GoLion was a judo master because over there, heavyset, stocky frames are common in sports like judo and sumo. Nope, I’m all about the food, and looking like an idiot. Usually because of food.

Pidge - Hi, I’m Katie, although everyone calls me Pidge, and it took four seasons to explain the nickname. Better late than never, right? Thanks to progressive writing, I’m now a girl, but everyone thinks I’m either trans or gay because I don’t have D cups. Yay being progressive. When the show bothers to focus on me, I’m actually pretty kickass, but the fandom still treats me like I’m made of porcelain. I may or may not have a crush on Lance (not that I’d ever admit it) but the fandom is also quick to label anyone who thinks so a pedophile. Even though he’s only two years older. Progressive! At least my brother thinks I’m cool.

Lance - Thank you, thank you. I am clearly the favorite character of the entire fandom even though most of said fandom portrays me, the confident ladies man and bundle of issues, as either a self loathing gay man or a male Disney Princess. The best way for the fandom to gay up something is to add me to it when I would rather find a hot girl to take with me on my lion. Then again, this is the same fandom that thought “hey man” was me flirting with Keith. More essays have been written about how I’m the real hero of the series and Keith’s alleged love for me than on the root causes of the US Civil War. I just want a girl to know the real me, you know?

I’m also canonically Cuban (not that it’s ever acknowledged in the show) which makes me one of a very few non-sterotypical Hispanics in animation alongside Miles Morales. And yet my fandom often portrays me as a MEXICAN stereotype instead. No, I won’t sing “Gasolina.” Shut up.

Allura - My original incarnation was the grandmother of shipping cartoon characters together, but because I’m the same age as Keith as Lance, as well as, let’s face it, my “character design change”, I am now a Strong Independent Black Woman That Don’t Need No Man, or a butch lesbian stereotype. This is despite two characters declaring me beautiful on screen. I may or may not have feelings for Keith but they’re about as consistent as who the lead character is. A lot of fans wish I just stayed in the castle ship even though I’ve gone on and on about wanting to honor my fathers legacy by being a pilot. People keep calling me “Space Mom” when I am terrible with kids. Again, probably because of my “character design change.” Without it, I’d probably be everyone’s waifu.

Lotor - The show can’t decide if I’m supposed to be Prince Zuko to Keith’s Aang or the Char Aznable to his Amuro Ray. Probably the former given the show’s complete hatred of all things mecha. I run things for about six episodes before being kicked out of the command room because it’s easier to write Zombie dad. The showrunners complete hatred of giant robots means I get to fly in a series of increasingly silly looking ships. Also I am NOT a rapist! Sincline was, and I am not Sincline! My old crush on Allura is gone, but let’s face it, it would never work out here. Also someone made a homemade body pillow of me, am I’m not sure if it’s flattering...or incredibly disturbing.

Zarkon - I make Cobra Commander look nuanced, and I am literally a zombie. I’m also the only one of these idiots smart enough to fight Voltron with a robot of my own, which you THINK would mean my dumbass son would make more of them.

Voltron - I’m supposed to be the latest incarnation of what Americans think of when they think of giant robots like how Mexico thinks of Mazinger Z and France thinks of Grendizer. Instead I’m a glorified cannon that is woefully out of place in this super cereal space opera. My five lion components apparently have minds of their own...maybe? Most fans (and the writers) forget I even exist even though the damn show is named after me! The show itself seems to have no idea how to use me, so I guess we’re all in the same boat. I’m pretty sure there’s more fanfic starring Shay than there are about me. Fans don’t even want me in a hypothetical video game, and Japan would rather bring back Combattler V for the next Super Robot Wars.