#they had a few SEKAI ideas but then i decided i really wanted to use a train and then BOOM here we are

[eir-parade]

Station: Nightingale

Nightcord at 25:00 Adjacent Music Circle

A group of online users that uses the app Nightcord to communicate in order to create songs that can hopefully save someone and maybe even themselves

Kanade Yoisaki (K) - Composer. Blames herself for what happened to her dad, and so has cursed herself to create songs that will save people.

Tenma Saki (Nozomi) - Lyricist. Spent her Middle School years in hospital where she found K’s music and started writing lyrics to the songs. She hopes that her lyrics will speak and reach out to people.

Kamishiro Rui (Chrono) - MV Creator. Ostracized due to his eccentrics, Rui started attending night school to avoid his old classmates and spends all his free time creating Music Videos from his heart to try to get his feelings out.

Aoyagi Toya (Yato) - Arrangements. Wanted to escape Classical Music by any means and try to find his own sound and so one night came across K’s music as was mesmerized by it and the feeling it gave him so attempted to chase it by making his own arrangement of the song

SEKAI: Train Station SEKAI

Consists of a train station platform and a steam train with as many carriages as the eye can see.

The station itself seems to be located in the middles of an expansive field and is perpetually dark, only lit up by the stars in the sky and the stations lights.

Each carriage layout is identical to the next and despite how far down they go down the train, if they wish to exit, the door will immediately take them back to the platform.

Luggage and bags seem to dot around the platform and in the carriages.

First Virtual Singers

Hatsune Miku - Train Conductor. Isn’t necessarily very talkative but can be found humming or singing songs quietly. She offers a quiet and calm presence that makes the others feel welcoming. She assures that they are all safe on this train.

MEIKO - Passenger. Can almost always be found sitting on of the the benches on the platform with a bag. Similar to Miku, she offers a welcoming presence and is always willing to listen and give advice to the others, though she tends to act a bit aloof. She assures them that is fine to be themselves here and that there is no rush, the train will still be here for them when they are ready to depart.

Virtual Singers

Order of Appearance (StC)

Kagamine Len - Runaway. Is always caught hiding behind pillars of the station, or slouched deep into a chair in the carriages. He arrived on the train without a ticket and is scared of the ticket inspector (KAITO) finding him, so whenever he sees KAITO, he bolts the other way or quickly hides. He explains that he is on this train because he wants to get away and chase his own dreams which really resonates with Toya and slightly with Rui.

Kagamine Rin - Train Employee. Rin is always bursting with ideas on how to improve the station and the train itself. She is always covered in paint and dirt and is always carrying around tools and paint brushes with her. Some carriages of the train seem to be victims of her creative outbursts. The other virtual singers seem used to her eccentrics but don’t seem bothered by it and in fact actually encourage it.

Megurine Luka - Passenger? Luka isn’t seen very often in the SEKAI and mainly only appears when the group is ready to release a new song. She always warns of rejection and failure, saying “that this song also might not save anyone, or it won’t reach those it needs to reach. Are you prepared for that?” The group is normally hesitant after she says that but push on with their determination because even if this one fails, they’ll learn from it and the next one surely will and if not, one day a song will. Luka tends to specifically pick on Kanade, testing her determination.

KAITO - Ticket Inspector. Seems scary and strict but is actually exceptionally kind and is always ready to bring a bright atmosphere to the station. He jokes with the group and cares for them in a type of father figure way. He tells the group that whilst it’s always important to be kind, it is okay to have your own morals, if something upsets them or rubs them the wrong way, they don’t need to just smile and brush it off, it’s okay to say “I’m not okay with that.” In the same way he handles his job, he understands that some people can’t afford a ticket but he can’t just let anyone on board.

Subject to Change as I go on figuring out this AU more.

[haru-dipthong]

Translation of Sekai no Owari - Habit

I love this song, and the choreo is fucking crazy. I'll attempt to explain some of the decisions I made in the translation below the cut!

First a little explanation about this song. I have been thinking about my gender for a few years now, and I recently had a few conversations that have made me realise I'm probably agender. My partner showed me this song at the peak of when I was thinking about it the most (she didn't know at the time), and I was shocked at how relevant the lyrics were to my thought process and especially to our relationship. This song means a lot to me, and I felt like I just had to translate it.

Anyway, let's talk translation. I've had a look at some other translations, and mine slightly differs in that I feel I've attempted to convey the core message of the song more strongly than the others. For example:

陰キャ陽キャ "What's your MBTI?"

This line could be translated to something literal like "are you cheerful or gloomy" but I felt it was better to use an english-world equivalent of a popular system of putting people into boxes. Also worth noting that this line is extremely short, and my subtitling software warns you when the amount of time the subtitle appears for is too short, based on how many letters are in it. The translation needed to be like, 3 short words. I'm honestly pretty happy with this, I think it fits well and introduces the premise of the song well.

気付かない本能の外側を 覗いていかない？　気分が乗らない？ Nice dichotomy idiot, what exists outside it?　Wanna take a peek? Not in the mood?

Ok, obviously this isn't a direct translation, but I love that post and this song is basically "nice dichotomy idiot" the song, so I really wanted to work it in somewhere. A literal translation would be like "Won't you peek outside your subconscious instincts?" and I had trouble making that sound song-y in english until I decided to work in the meme.

やってるのにイケないヤツ and the ones using skills they don’t have

The Japanese here is a bit of a double entendre. It could be translated to "people doing stuff who really shouldn't be doing that" (いけない being kind of equivalent to ダメ in such an interpretation), but it could also mean "people who are fucking but can't cum". I tried really hard to work in similar sexual imagery ("the ones who go but don't come"??) but it just didn't work and in the end I just made it mirror the preceding line.

I almost want to say that was the hardest line in the song but that award has to go to this:

大人の俺が言っちゃいけない事言っちゃうけど 説教するってぶっちゃけ快楽 酒の肴にすりゃもう傑作 でもって君も進むキッカケになりゃ

Most adults won’t admit it, but what the hell, Lecturing is such a guilty pleasure This, plus a drink - that's heaven And if this gets you to grow up?

Making this catchy and natural was really tough. I actually stole a bit of the first line from another translation because I liked the way they handled the 大人の俺 part. 酒の肴にすりゃ is also a difficult thing to translate - in the English speaking world we don't really have this idea that food needs to accompany a drink.

But the line I'm most happy with is this:

すぐ世の中金だとか愛だとか運だとか縁だとか なぜ2文字で片付けちゃうの？

It’s all about cash, or love, or luck, or fate How neat, summing up the world in 4 letters.

This wasn't a particularly hard translation to come up with ("love" and "luck" are basically the only translations for those words which locked in "4 letters", and it wasn't hard to find 4 letter words for 金 and 縁), but I was surprised to find that none of the existing translations I could find did this. One went with "Why do you want to wrap it all up with a single word?" and another even further abstracted, "How can it be so simple?"

I hope you enjoyed the song/translation! Let me know if you would have translated something differently or if I've made a mistake, I really love seeing your responses!

[the-ocean-in-motion]

A post for publicly sharing the products of my Drawfee Lalafell idol project!

(if u don't know what the fuck I'm saying just scroll on)

NOTE: I am not affliated with Drawfee I just stole their logo for that edit. I'm not making money Julia pls don't sue me

FAQ

Q: Why do this? A: Fatal case of brainworms

Q: How long did you spend on making these? A: Too long. Enough questions

Jokes aside, here's a proper intro to what this is for people who aren't in that one very specific discord: As a creative project of sorts, I decided to make 4 Lalafells in FFXIV based on the Drawfee crew (youtubers). SPECIFICALLY these are based on their Newsday Comic Designs, because there's only so much staring at real people's faces really zoomed in I can do before I start feeling like a creep.

So, No, these are not "lifelike" or even "as close to life like as i can make potato people in a 10 year old video game". They're based on stylized ideas of people, warped by my creative liberty. That left me more space to make them cute instead of uncanny valley, which I'm sure any drawfee members that see this post might appreciate too.

They're also all heavily modded. It's more fun for dressup.

With that said! Onwards to the pictures (and design notes)!

Nathan: I actually "made" the beard for this myself - or, rather, I refitted it from a modded beard for Roegadyn. I even made an effort to mold it into a rough flower shape, but I'm afraid it doesn't show up that well. Still, remembering that there is no full beard for Lalafell in the vanilla game, I think it actually looks quite cute! For this "casual" fit I made an effort not to make Nathan look too fashion-y. Of course, they're idol photoshoot style pics, so I still had to dress him up a bit! With this sporty fit with the fun big red boots reminiscent of early video game character designs, I think I landed in a pretty nice middle ground.

Julia: This is the only design I paid real life money to make. I spent forever futzing with free hair mods trying to find one I liked, but in the end I forked over a few bucks to an experienced hair modder's online shop and got this hair that comes with all the features I wanted. Can't say I regret the purchase, it's very pretty. For the outfit, I knew what I wanted pretty much immediately. I have had this outfit mod for a long time, but I've never really known what to use it for. It feels very Julia, even if I can't remember necessarily seeing her wear this kind of thing before. Maybe it just feels French, and I associate Julia with France?

Karina: Karina's face sculpt mod was very easy to decide. Looking at the list of the free female Lala faces, I saw one that looked like a little shit - and named "Give Me the Phone" - and immediately knew it was perfect. I had to edit this hair to become hat compatible for later outfits, but overall this one was full of easy picks. Maybe I'm projecting too hard, though? I even dressed her in a top I modded for myself, after all.

Jacob: Jacob's design is one I agonized over, because finding a hair for him was quite hard. Short hair mods are rarer than long ones, and Newsday Jacob's hair is very distinctive. In the end I had to settle for a more realistic style, but I'm told it still reads as him. I wound up putting Jacob in maybe the cutesy-est outfit of the four. I don't think he'd mind, but either way the funny little overalls were too big a temptation for me to resist. Accessorising with bandages is where my weeb roots really shine through, though. Portraits done, here's the additional materials I've made!

Drawfee Kindergarten Field trip! Fun fact, I took this screenshot mere seconds before the dungeon I used as a set kicked me out, which means I spent the entire instance timer just deciding on accessories and posing! Where are they going? To see the big squid at the Aetherfont's center, of course!

The first music video! Motions not by me, I'm not that talented, these are retargeted Project Sekai dances (retargeting also not by me lmao animation modding scares me)

Childish war is such a fun song and dance, never mind the fact that none of the "personalities" really work for drawfee. It's dancing lalas! Who cares!

That's it! I might do more music videos or photo shoots in the future, but that's highly dependent on my brain chemistry, so truly nothing is certain. If you made it this far, I hope my silly little project brought you some joy! (and olive) And hey!

Check this out!

[karmic-epiphany-archived]

I made a unit shuffle AU because uh

why not

No idea for names though

I do not have ideas for how these could have formed for all of them but I do for the first two

so Uh

(Also the "group leaders" as a concept Don't really exist because I said so [As in the groups don't have leaders not that the characters in those roles are secretly non-existent])

There is Elaboration under the Read-more

for the first group:

-Vivids form as in Canon, but never group up with Akito and Toya (I don't know why exactly)

-Ena makes an illustration based off of one of their songs, Mizuki asks to make an MV off of it, Ena says yes (They still interact online only at this point)

-An and Kohane see the video, An realizes "Hey wait that's My friend's account who uploaded the MV"

-An Asks Mizuki About it next time they go to school, asks them if they will keep doing it since they liked it

-Mizuki, omitting the fact this was in person, brings it Up to Ena, who is suspicious that it's actually the Vivids, and asks for proof

-An and Kohane Discover SEKAI around this point, which is similar to Street SEKAI, but the buildings outside of the Café have things in them resembling Ena and Mizuki's Fragment SEKAIs.

-Mizuki Gets a video of An confirming that they are asking Ena and Mizuki to work with them, forwarding it during lunch to Ena to convince them.

-Ena Recognizes the classroom the video was recorded in, and shows up to school to meet them as they leave. An asks them both to come along with her to meet Kohane.

-At some point during the meet up Ena or Mizuki find the Untitled track on their phone and end up sending them all to SEKAI.

Now for Group number 2:

-This one diverges from Canon more in a few ways

-Saki hasn't gotten better enough to where she can go to a normal school. She can leave the hospital, but can only leave for brief periods, not even the length of a school day.

-Oh yeah also the hospital would be a location you can view since Most of Saki's non SEKAI area convos would take place there since she is confined there.

-This leads to her taking Online school as a result.

-Shiho Drops out shortly after Drifting apart from Ichika and Honami.

-She is also taking online school.

-Nene, also drops out, taking Online school as well.

-Kanade remains mostly the same.

-They all end up meeting through online school, Eventually adding Eachother on Nightcord. Although Saki and Shiho don't recognize each other since their communications are text only.

-None of them had heard Kanade's music as K before.

-Kanade shares a music piece and asks for feedback, which leads to the others deciding to join them in music creation, albeit for different reasons

-Nene realizes this is a way they (kind of) can achieve their dreams of singing

-Shiho recognizes Kanade's Talent and Determination as similar to Her own.

-Saki honestly just needs something to do. She's taking this as seriously as the others though, since this is one of the first things she's been able to do for fun in years, and she doesn't want to get left behind.

-They start Using Voice chat at this point, although Saki and Shiho haven't recognized each other yet.

-Eventually Saki starts appearing Less and less, along with being more and more tired each time she does show up.

-This is because Saki discovers SEKAI first, and has been going to it during the night instead of sleeping. For whatever reason her illness' Effects completely Vanish while in SEKAI (It's a magic otherworld there is no logical explanation). This leads to her being there whenever she can get away with it, at the cost of sleep.

-SEKAI takes the form of a Hospital for the most part, with an Empty SEKAI like Void (It's not identical, just similar) existing past the hospital grounds.

-The others Discover SEKAI after finding Untitled in roughly the same way N25 does in canon.

-This is when Shiho and Saki recognize each other btw

-The Sort of Conflict (?) of the story is basically that they have to convince Saki to, as much as it may suck to do so because of their illness, not stay in SEKAI 24/7.

Also while Leo/Need may not form they will still slowly reconnect throughout the event stories!

[doorbloggr]

Sunday 22/8/21 - Media Recommendations #16: Top 3's of Right Now

In terms of new media to recommend this week, there is none. So this week I'm gonna do a bit of a recap/best of media thing. From the categories of Music, Anime, and Videogames, I'm gonna list my top 3 of right now.

What do I mean by Top 3 of Right Now? Well, personal taste in consumable media is very malleable and subject to change over time. So today, I'm gonna quickly highlight what I can declare my Top 3 Favourite Songs, Anime Series, and Videogames are, as the Mitchell of August the 22nd, 2021.

Some of these things I'm recommending I will have discussed in a previous Media Recommendations post, but my discussion of each of the things I talk about today will be very short. So without further ado, let's start with music.

● Top 3 Favourite Songs

▪︎3rd: Caramelldansen - Caramella Girls

I can't really explain in words why I like this song so much, but it's just really good. I am not fluent speaker of Swedish, so I do not understand much of anything in the lyrics, but that's the magic of good music, you don't have to understand. If a song bops hard enough, the lyrics can be complete nonsense and still make worldwide charts even outside their native tongue. Caramelldansen also manages to capture that quintessential excitable weaboo nerd energy that I've come to accept is definitely part of my being.

This spot was the hardest to place out of any other placing in this post. There was about 6 songs I could declare as being my 3rd favourite song of all time, but at the very second I'm writing this, midnight on Sunday, I decided that Caramelldansen is my third favourite song.

▪︎2nd: Foolish Heart - Nyanners

One thing that will always make me enjoy a song is a funky beat. Music that just pumps and jams. Foolish Heart is fun to groove to and there's not much more to it. I also have a soft spot for bitter-sweet lovesongs, and there aren't many songs I know that are as bitter about the sweetness of love than this. I follow the artist who does this song on many of her socials and I was a fan of it the second it came out, and it will probably stay in my regular rotation for a long time.

Honourable Mentions:

Old 45s - Chromeo

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton

Mr Blue Sky - ELO

Mansion Party - Ninja Sex Party

Roundabout - Yes

▪︎1st: I Want You - Savage Garden

I had actually heard this song a bit when I was much younger, but it was only recently I became obsessed with it. It is the song used in the closing credits during JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4, and I instantly fell in love with it. It's just so funky and goes so damn hard. It's a soft song, but also very powerful. The vocals are so smooth and the instruments are so sexy. It's been my favourite song for many years in a row now, and I think it's gonna keep that number 1 spot for a while longer yet.

● Top 3 Favourite Anime Series

▪︎3rd: Darling in the Franxx

Darling in the Franxx just vibed with me on an emotional level. My very soul was touched by how much love this anime exudes. Studio Trigger are known foremost for their intense action and over the top characters, and sure this anime has those in spades. For someone who hasn't watched it, it may appear to be a cosmic mecha anime, but in fact, it is a romance story first. I can't really explain it well, but Darling in the Franxx just punches you right in the soul with how much emotion there is. It is a beautiful anime.

▪︎2nd: Food Wars - Shokugeki no Soma

There's just something fun about rooting for a snarky protagonist who is overconfident. Especially when, most of the time, they are precisely big enough for their boots. Food Wars is a complete 3 course dinner that fills many different niches of anime. It's a lesson in many different cultures, it is food porn, it's a battle shonen, it even has light romance, but never lets that take centre stage over the journey of the protagonists. I'm admittedly a lover of tasteful fanservice here and there, and Food Wars delivers just the right amount of echi to entertain those into it, but no more than necessary. Food Wars is just... a lot. And it's great.

Honourable Mentions:

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!

Dagashi Kashi

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Log Horizon

▪︎1st: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

FMA is just such a full package. It has a fun and interesting cast of characters. A complex and vast setting that is neither overexplained nor underexplained. A cast of villains that are all unique and the perfect balance of sympathetic to hateable. And most importantly, it does not outstay its welcome. I was very much considering putting JoJo's Bizarre Adventure up here, but the issue is that like, many other series, a series can be too long. A good anime has to be long enough to sink your teeth into, but if drags on for too long, it can become exhausting. FMA spends the perfect amount of time building up the plot and ends where it should. Edward and Alphonse Elric are the perfect dynamic duo, and every character has such fun designs and personalities. I could blab on for ages on why I love Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I have in a previous post. So go search that up in my pinned post if you want a longer breakdown. It is an anime MUST WATCH.

●Top 3 Videogames

▪︎3rd: Super Smash Bros Ultimate

The very idea of Super Smash Bros is something that appeals to gamers everywhere. A suite of characters from all over gaming that are all playable in one huge game. You get to play that classic "my favourite character could kick your favourite character's butt" in real time. I'm not a big fighting game guy, but Smash has a very accessible jumping off point, simple controls and a system of combat that's only really as deep as you need it to be. Smash Bros is also a very important game to me socially, since I owe all my current closest friends to meetings I had interacting with the competitive scene. I used to be really into competitive Smash too, and Smash Ultimate in particular had a fairly balanced cast, in that if you were committed enough, you could dominate with any character. But even if I've grown exhausted with that scene, and only ever play the game casually now, I owe a lot to this series.

▪︎2nd: Animal Crossing New Horizons

As of right now, Animal Crossing is not a game I play.... at all. But for the few months after the game released, ACNH was a religious dedication. I'm in a pretty shitty place these days. Can't see friends, can't even go to work, the world is falling apart as our leaders can't get Covid under control. But while I was playing ACNH, it brought structure and purpose back into my life for a while. I had villagers depending on me, museum collections to complete, flowers to breed, an island to transform into my vision of a nice place to live. It was nice. This number 2 spot might be taken by a different game in the future, but this year, Animal Crossing New Horizons was a very important game for me.

Honourable Mentions:

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

Pikmin 3

Jackbox Party Pack (the whole series)

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove

Pokémon Soul Silver

▪︎ 1st: The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Despite Zelda being a huge part of my identity, I didn't actually get into the series until my mid teens. By that point, most of the later games were very formulaic and linear. And sure that can make for a very compelling story and experience, but BotW just threw that idea out the window. Breath of the Wild is a game you can just get lost in. Spend an hour just dicking around in the middle of nowhere and it's a blast just to move around. The world is tranquil, and also exciting. The game is gorgeous and fun to play and there's just too much to talk about. I've played the game from start to finish at various levels of completion about 5 times now, (one playthrough being a 2 hourish speedrun to the final boss) and every playthrough I found new locations, puzzles, interactions that I never encountered before. It's a game that just matched my being perfectly and I doubt a game will leave an impact like that for many years to come.

[x0401x]

Music Natalie Interview with Akane Kazuki

Interview and cast comment featuring director Akane Kazuki, who aims for a contemporary Japan version of “Stand by Me”.

The original TV anime “Hoshiai no Sora” started airing on TBS and other channels as of October 10th, 2019. Akane Kazuki, who is in charge of this work’s script and direction, is a veteran director with a history of over 30 years in the business, who has been making series such as “Tenkuu no Escaflowne”, “Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e”, “Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito” and others. With a boys’ soft tennis club on the verge of disbanding as its stage, “Hoshiai no Sora”, which he is delivering as his “new challenge”, is a multi-protagonist narrative that portrays the problems shouldered by second-year middle school boys. There were probably many spectators who were surprised by the last scene of the first episode.

Why did director Akane, who produced several sci-fi and robot series, challenge himself with this theme now? In this special feature, we had director Akane discuss in detail about the process until “Hoshiai no Sora” was created, and of course, about the sense of crisis that he feels from the anime industry. In addition, we are including and delivering a Q&A with cast members Hanae Natsuki, Hatanaka Tasuku, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu, Satou Keisuke, Amasaki Kouhei and Yamaya Yoshitaka, revealing memories of their middle school days and things to pay attention to in the series.

Raw || Index

Director Akane’s Interview

“I want to write a proper human drama with brilliant animators.”

——Director Akane, in a pamphlet interview from the TBS Anime Festa 2018 (see: Pamphlet Interview with Director Akane Kazuki), where the title “Hoshiai no Sora” premiered, you talked about your belief that “animation had to move forward onto its new weapons and possibilities”, right? First of all, could you tell us the process until the point where you bound this feeling to the series named “Hoshiai no Sora”?

Blunty put, anime nowadays has fallen down to a “in what way can we make money with this” kind of thinking. Of course, it is commercial anime, thus it cannot be done if it does not give returns correspondent to the costs, but the time I entered the anime business was the period when Miyazaki Hayao-san and Tomino Yoshiyuki-san’s works were starting to be released, so I looked up to the innovation of their animations as video media. Like, “So there’s a part of this industry that can make proper dramas like these and manage to do new things animation-wise”. Yet, looking at the past ten years, there has been nothing but repeated copies of things that sold well, with a “that work was accepted, so let’s get on the bandwagon and make something” kind of feeling to them. I think that a feeling such as, “The animes made by Miyazaki-san and the like are different, so isn’t it okay if we keep doing our thing on this side?” has been going on all along.

——This side of it might have come to light precisely because the number of late-night anime fans increased and the market for them established itself to some extent.

A few years ago, when the so-called “moé anime” was trending, I was told, “Once you start doing it, there’s no helping if it doesn’t sell. It’ll be more accepted if you use cute girls and include erotic scenes”, but I thought, “That’s not true”, because I believe that we are becoming unable to sell anime Blu-rays and DVDs as a result of making a fool out of our spectators like this. When we do that, the younger directors cannot challenge themselves at all, even if they have the sense to. Therefore, it has been over 30 years since I have entered this business, so I wondered if I couldn’t create some sort of new path once again, even if it were an animal trail.

——You were aware of a sense of crisis regarding the industry and of nurturing the next generation.

Companies must equip themselves with new technology just for making new things, so at first, I talked to the CEO of Eight Bit, Kasai Tsutomu-san, about firstly levelling our footing with a hop-step-jump feeling and then gradually accelerating it in “Hoshiai no Sora”. But out of a bad habit of mine, I end up suddenly stepping onto the pedal with all my strength when I start doing something (laughs). It is modern, so I believe it is still easier for the staff to make it than near-future sci-fi.

——I also want to ask about that point, director Akane, but when the topic is you, we do get the image of sci-fi and robots after all, and from the words “new possibilities of animation”, I reminisced to sci-fi with flashy footage, action and things in that direction. But “Hoshiai no Sora” is the complete opposite of that, and in a way, while having a puny soft tennis club from a present-time middle school as its stage, it is the story of a very small world.

About that, to tell the truth, the first animation work I looked up to was Takahata Isao-san’s “Sekai Meisaku Gekijou” series. I adore “Anne of Green Gables” and such, like, “You can stage human mentality so sensibly with animation, as if you’re approaching the viewer”, and I always thought that I wanted to try doing it. In the beginning, when I entered Sunrise, it went to a point where I asked in an interview, “Isn’t it fine to also aim for something masterpiece-like, an animation that only compels human drama?”. The sci-fi personnel kept telling me to “do what would be accepted”, so I included that because I had no choice.

——Eh, was that so (laughs)?

But now sci-fi has grown obsolete, so I thought that, this time, I would be able to make something pieced together from nothing but human drama; something that could project a sense of the current times with this, which is what I had always wanted to do ever since I entered this business. After all, far more than our generation did, children nowadays carry with themselves several kinds of issues. Besides, a number of old animes were less skillful in comparison to now when it comes to depiction methods. The power of animation and portrayal of “Sekai Meisaku Gekijou” series is absurdly high, so it managed to portray extremely sensible changes of heart in people with art, but it is a work that could be made because genius animators like Miyazaki-san, Kotabe Youichi-san and Kondou Yoshifumi-san were gathered for it. But in the past few decades, the number of brilliant animators increased a lot, and compared to when I entered the industry, where the quantity of series became so big that we cannot deal with them all, the quality of the animators has grown far better. Wouldn’t I be able to direct the depiction of a proper human drama if I were with children like them? If so, I thought, I wanted to try creating a scenario that would be in accordance to this.

“I wanted to make a contemporary Japan version of ‘Stand By Me’.”

——By the way, other than “Anne of  Green Gables”, was there any other work that you had as an image of something along the lines of “I want to make a series like this” during the conception stage of this one?

Something I thought of wanting to do was the movie “Stand By Me”. It makes you reflect upon the mood in America during the period when the Vietnam War had just ended, and the suffering of children who cannot let go of their parents is properly written in it, so the question “Then how about making a ‘Stand By Me’ with present-time Japan as the setting?” was always within me.

——So the idea of making a multi-protagonist story about boys comes from there. It sure makes sense.

There is the fact that animation is a media essentially watched by young people, so even as I said that I was going to make a human drama, I did not want an old man as protagonist (laughs). When I remember about myself, I think that the time around the second year or so of middle school is a period where the entrance to adulthood starts becoming visible, but no matter what, you cannot escape from the restraints of your parents, so it becomes a turning point in the formation of people’s growth. Moreover, I decided to add sports to it, in which you can easily insert a balance for entertainment, but I have a twisted personality (laughs), so I thought just normal sports would not be fun, thus I tried choosing a somewhat minor sport such as soft tennis.

——When you went on-stage during the TBS Anime Festa, you said, “The number of competitors in soft tennis is really huge in middle school, but it becomes smaller as people grow up, and they end up forgetting what they felt during those times. This overlapped with my image of the so-called ‘adolescence’”, and it left a big impression.

There is also the fact that I used to play it, but I believed that, if it were soft tennis, the wordly thoughts of adults would not barge into it. Whenever parents have their children do something, no matter what, the greed of grown-ups is often involved. I despise things such as doing something while aiming for victory and throwing everything away (laughs). I thought it would be better to write about a more innocent kind of sport where one would say, “I do it because I like it”.

——Director Akane, looking at your previous works and interviews, I feel like you always have your eyes on the children, so to say, and that you want to make animes that remain in children’s hearts, but are you conscious of this?

No, just because the protagonists are children does not mean that I am making animes aimed at children. I believe I cannot make a kids’ anime (laughs). Isn’t the “children gaze” something that everyone is supposed to have experienced before? That’s why, when I make the protagonist a child, I am aiming it at “general audiences”.

——I see.

It would be great if I cause adults to remember their childhoods and think things such as, “I used to be more serious, huh?” or, “Aren’t I hurting my child?” with “Hoshiai no Sora”. Even though they were supposedly hurt by adults in their own childhoods, when people become adults, they pretend that they forgot about it for some reason. Of course, I would also be happy if middle school kids watched it, and I want to tell them, “You’re not at fault for anything; you don’t have to blame yourselves”. Adults are human beings too, so they are not right about everything, and it might not be your fault that they are scolding you. This has both a “it’s okay to be aware of that” and a “it might be okay to make others understand that” side to it.

“The last scene of episode one was an unexpected finale.”

——From here on, I am thinking of asking questions also related to the contents of the first episode, but the background music by Jizue bears a sense of presence. I had a very “present-like” impression of it, and having that post-rock-style instrumental as anime soundtrack felt fresh.

When I told our music producer, “I don’t want an OST and theme songs that are wholly anime-like”, he made arrangements with Jizue-san. Jizue-san’s compositions are unique and interesting and gave us good influence even during the staging. I decide everything by myself as far as music pieces for the middle of the story are concerned, so I believe the music and the drama are in sync.

——One more thing I felt to be fresh was the character design. Itsuka-san, who made the concept drafts, is an illustrator that has over a hundred thousand followers on Twitter, draws covers for several novels aimed at teenagers and is extremely popular amongst young people, right? You told us that you were introduced to her by someone from your staff.

Yes. I believed that, story-wise, more realistic character designs would be better at first, but on the other hand, I thought that, in the end, unless you also have people at around their late teens watch an anime, its life force as an animation drains out, so I concluded I had to make the art into something that children at this age would want to see. And then the one who Producer Kasai from Eight Bit introduced to me was Itsuka-san. Her drawings are soft, so I had wondered if they would be able to handle the hard parts of the story, but when it was animated by the photography director, Takahashi (Yuuichi)-kun, and the characters started moving, it was praised with a, “If it’s this, it can work”.

——Just as you say, even though the characters are deformed, I thought this was an unexpected finishing touch that allows their facial expressions and the scenarios to feel realistic.

When it was selected to be animated, I repeated countless manuscripts. In the beginning, I tried making it more real, a bit removed from Itsuka-san’s art, but when I did that, it somehow ended up looking like an “average anime” to me. Itsuka-san had gone through the trouble of drawing it, so I went over trial and error in order to have it leave its mark. When we actually finished the first episode, I thought it synchronized quite well with the story.

——And when people watched episode one, what really left an impression was the last scene, which reveals that Maki is abused by his father. I had somewhat heard about the contents of it, but when I actually watched it, the shock was bigger than I thought it would be. The mood felt unpleasant from the moment that his father came, so to speak, and at Maki’s aspect as he was hit after rebelling once, then crouched down and became unable to move, I was at a loss for words, like, “Uwah…”.

That scene was entirely written by Takahashi-kun, but it was a finale that made me think, “My, that’s terrible…” more than I had imagined, so I was also surprised. In our own childhood, there was a fair number of parents who hit their children, and I believe it is not rare at all for children to have this sort of home circumstance, but if we had portrayed it objectively, people would go, “Something so cruel doesn’t exist”. I think that it went well performance-wise because it came in the form of facial expressions and that it would be great if people felt lots of things watching that scene.

“That means you watch too much anime.”

——Speaking of which, there are already several club members just in the soft tennis one, so how did you create the image of each?

They partly hint novels that I have read up to this point and movies I like, and I also insert all sorts of elements from people I have met until now. Such as, “They had this kind of reaction back then, didn’t they?” or, “That kind of guy was there”. There are also episodes that include real stories. This is why I think that it would be good if the viewers do things such as having the person next to them in mind or imagining the person they are with in the character’s shoes as they watch the series.

——I was thinking that Touma was going to be the so-called protagonist-like story teller, but his lines are much fewer than I had expected. Maki is also flighty, and the tennis club members around them are careless too… The fact that you cannot see the true thoughts of anyone and that there is no storyteller was also fresh.

If you feel that to be fresh, it certainly means you watch too much anime.

——Ahaha, I cannot deny it (laughs).

If it is in movies, isn’t that completely normal? Explaining too much through lines and monologues is a bad habit of anime. I think people come to like characters even more when they ask themselves, “What’s this guy thinking?” and then figure it out. This is a particularly strong trait of original animes, so I hope people ask themselves about what kind of characters they are. All the hints are supposedly depicted there.

——As you say, I think the first one was exactly the type of episode that draws out a “What kind of people are these kids?”.

“The sort of performance that real actors do can also be portrayed through animation.”

——Regarding the animation, it is mostly hand-drawn and it seems even the 3D is devised to look hand-drawn. Director Akane, I wonder if this is not because you are against CG, but was the obsession with hand-drawing meant to match with the story in this case?

In a previous work, I tried seeing what would happen if we used CG to the utmost limit. The operator was also an awfully brilliant person, so I believe he did all he could, but in the end, I thought that it could not win against action hand-drawn by human beings. The more we maximized with CG, the more I perceived once again the greatness of action drawn with human hands all too well, so this time, I believe I want to depict these boys with the sensibility and flexibility of hand drawings. It is not that I am against CG, but in the end, there is something wonderful in the art drawn by actual animators. Of course, there is the pre-determined condition that they have to be skilled (laughs).

——So animators who can make this possible are gathered in “Hoshiai no Sora”.

Right. This applies to Takahashi-kun’s art in particular, for he makes drawings so delicate that the faces can change just by moving one line. For example, he portrays very deftly those facial expressions of Maki’s where you cannot tell what he is thinking for a moment, as well as Touma’s air of inflexibility, or the fact that he sometimes suddenly has on an anxious-looking gaze. I want to leave behind this kind of fineness by hand-drawn animation. I want young animators to realize that the detailed performances that actors do can also be portrayed with animation and it would be great if the viewers could understand this too. You said earlier that Maki’s suffering was conveyed very well in the last scene of episode one, and I think this is exactly because it is not live action but animation.

——This is part of the power of art, and there is also the facet that one can relate emotionally to it precisely because it is entirely fiction. After all, we sometimes end up feeling that it is “just acting” in live action, but the anime characters are not putting up an act.

Aah, that is right. There is also the fact that I made the protagonists be children, and in Japan, gathering just seven to eight good child actors for making a live action series with lots of children is really difficult. That’s why it would be fake no matter what, but it looks true in animation. I believe this is something that cannot be done with live action, and that we can achieve because it is an anime. The voice actors, too, can play the boys regardless of being already past their twenties.

——Now that you mentioned it, this time, it seems the casting was decided only through the tapes, without anyone looking at their names or profiles at all.

Yes. In the tape audition, we picked just by their numbers without looking at the names. Except, even if we select them without look at their names, we ultimately choose the good ones, and all the popular ones are good. I only asked for Itsuki’s actor, Matsuoka (Yoshitsugu)-kun, to be selected before-hand this time, because when we were together in my previous work, I thought that “he’s so good”.

——There are many young actors, but do you feel any difference between the voice actors of before and now?

No, nothing of the sort. Whenever I was the director, since long ago, I would often favor the rookies. From the very start, I was fond of voice actors who performed in a natural way, so I believe that we have chosen mostly people like that this time as well.

——During the advanced screening, too, everyone in the cast was hinting at each of the worries that the characters bear, so as to call the attention not only to Touma and Maki, of course, but also to the other club members.

This is a series that started out from all sorts of challenges, so I believe the story will not progress the way people may picture it, and the story might not come down as imagined from the title “Hoshiai no Sora”. Developments that you cannot expect may be something unpleasant to see at times, but I think this will turn into pleasure if people bear with it and that there will be no disappointment from watching it. I also look forward to them coming up every time. The staff is doing their best, so I hope people will enjoy how the story will advance.

“Hoshiai no Sora” Cast Comment

Hanae Natsuki (voice of Katsuragi Maki) / Hatanaka Tasuku (voice of Shinjou Touma) / Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (voice of Ameno Itsuki) / Satou Keisuke (voice of Takenouchi Shingo) / Amasaki Kouhei (voice of Ishigami Taiyou) / Yamaya Yoshitaka (voice of Asuka Yuuta)

Q. How is director Akane Kazuki during the recording?

Hanae: The director talks to us quite a lot even during breaks and whatnot. Maybe he is quite the worrywart, since he asks things such as, “Was it fun?” and, “You guys okay?”. The fact that he is very hyped towards “Hoshiai no Sora” really conveys, so we also feel like we should do our best.

Q. This is a work that depicts the troubles of middle school boys, thus I believe it made you all remember how you felt during that period of your lives, so if there is any episode that stayed in your memory, please do tell.

Hanae: When it comes to the episodes that we can talk about, I remembered a time when I had a class where we had to go out in groups, and I had brought gum with me and my teacher found out when I was eating it, so they gave me a battered earful.

Hatanaka: I wanted to be popular… I wanted that, so I played basket. But I did not become popular at all. It was truly hard, so I would like people not to laugh at me.

Matsuoka: There was once an extracurricular lesson at school where we had to pick grapes and turn them into wine. But the field was super large, so no matter how much we picked and picked, and we had to repeatedly put the grapes in a big container in the middle of it when our buckets were filled up, and I got sick and tired of it, so I kicked my bucket flying and the health teacher saw it and it was a shock to me when they said, “Matsuoka-kun, I didn’t think you were the kind of child who did things like this”.

Satou: I rode to school by bicycle when I was in junior high, so I had to wear a helmet, but I hated it. A student who had the status of school leader did not wear it and he told me something like, “You take it off too!”. But I was conflicted… because the teachers would get mad at me if I did so (laughs).

Amasaki: I remember one time when swimming class had ended and the girl I liked whispered in my ear, “Amasaki-kun, you had belly rolls, huh?”, and I was extremely hurt (laughs).

Yamaya: There was a girl I used to like in my class, and she liked anime, so I started watching anime in order to have common topics with her. It is thanks to this girl that I am now a voice actor.

Q. Please leave messages for the people who have watched the first episode and who will watch it from this point on.

Yamaya: From the impression that the art gives off, I believe many people will watch it thinking that it has warm and cozy world-building, or that it is a multi-protagonist drama about refreshing youth where schools and club activities appear. I think they will be dealt a shock, but please do look forward to the developments ahead.

Amasaki: I think that, surely, anime is something that you watch with all sorts of feelings. There are people who watch with lighthearted feelings while eating snacks, and people who watch levelheadedly with fixed sitting postures. The people who want to eat snacks should finish eating fast! Please watch the latter half of it steadily. There are many scenes that are a waste to miss out on, so I hope people will watch with all their mights from the first episode onward.

Satou: The director and everyone from the staff made this while obsessing a lot with minute details, so I hope people will see even these delicate parts of it.

Matsuoka: Please watch it with your family while having dinner. I believe this series is related to everyone’s futures.

Hatanaka: The way each character is written is extremely sensible and the things they bear are heavy, so I think there will definitely be people who will be pained to watch it, but I would be happy if they could watch, with these feelings also included, how these children will face it and move on. I believe there is always something to be found in the aftermath of a painful feeling.

Hanae: I think it is an anime in which the way you feel towards it changes from person to person, and there are also lots of characters, so I think that how people will relate their emotions with a given character also changes depending on each person, so I want all sorts of people to watch it. How the club members will unite through soft tennis is also depicted there, so please do pay attention to it.

[paradisobound]

World’s Greatest First Love: Chapter 8

Summary: Dan Howell wanted a clean break from his father’s publishing company. It was why he applied for a different company in London: to stop the ridicule of his coworkers for riding on his ‘daddy’s coat tails’. But he wasn’t expecting to suddenly be going from a literature editor, to a graphic novel editor. And he certainly wasn’t expecting to come face first with his first love who broke his heart from when he was a teenager: who just happens to be his new editor-in-chief.

Based on the Anime and Manga “The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera” aka Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi

Rating: Mature (For Now)

Word Count: 2.3k (this chapter)

Warnings: None

Beta Read by: @phanandpenguins 

Updates Every Tuesday 12pm EST and Saturday at 1pm EST

READ ON AO3

IMPORTANT A/N: These next few chapters, if you haven't seen the anime, might seen a bit like a fever dream haha I mean this as the storyline gets a bit more complex and new characters and other elements began to be thrown in. I'm trying to keep this as close to the anime as possible and follow these same plot points, while also keeping it as close to Dan and Phil as possible too. Like my outline is each chapter is an episode of the anime so keep that in mind too. That being said, these next few chapters, if you have any questions at all, please them in the comments on Ao3 or come to my inbox and ask them to me!

Dan’s next manuscript is due at five and he is currently fighting with his author to try and get it. He feels like he shouldn’t have to pry this hard to get the manuscript, but his author isn’t budging. He keeps telling Dan that it’s coming and Dan will have it soon but Dan is having a hard time believing that.

He really needs the manuscript because he needs to send it to the printer for the initial printing decision. But without it, he can’t do that and now the workers at the printer are going to be all up in arms because Dan just wasted their time.

Dan could go to Phil and ask what to do. But Dan has made it a point to avoid Phil these last two weeks since their interaction at his apartment. It wasn’t that he thought he needed to avoid Phil, but it was more or less the idea that he didn’t want to be confronted with the fact that they do need to talk about everything.

But Dan isn’t ready for any of that yet. So instead of letting himself just get the talking done and over with, he’s been walking opposite directions from Phil, taking the bus instead of the train even though he hates the bus, and just not talking to him besides exchanging pleasantries in the morning or when Phil walks by.

As Dan turns his head to take a quick look towards Phil, he notices Phil isn’t even there. His desk chair is pushed back and his laptop is still open but he’s gone. Dan feels like that’s normal, because of course Phil is busy and is being called to everywhere in the building. But it still bothers him a bit when he looks up and sees Phil isn’t there.

But he doesn’t have to wait long to know where Phil is because suddenly his tall, lanky frame is coming down the hallway and he has a book in his hand a bunch of paperwork in a manilla folder. Dan assumes that it’s for Phil’s book that he just tried to get published but instead, Phil makes a beeline right to his desk.

“Congratulations, Dan!” Phil says, placing the book and the papers on Dan’s desk. “This is the final printing edition for your book and on top of that, Onyx is asking for us to do a second printing due to the demand already. Here is the paperwork talking about how you’ll need to go about the second printing.”

Dan feels all air leave his body because his first graphic novel that he edited is getting a second printing! That’s amazing.

“We should celebrate!”

Dan looks up to see the other editors all perking up at their desks at Mitch’s exclamation.

“Yes!” Phil says back, “Let’s all go out for some drinks tonight in celebration for Dan’s first book getting a second run.”

“Oh no, I don’t think…”

“It’ll be fun,” Mitch speaks up, reaching out and putting his hand on Dan’s arm. “I promise we’re a fun crowd.”

Dan feels like he doesn’t have much of a say in the matter but he decides to give in because honestly, it’s just going out with coworkers. That’s all it’s going to be. It’s not going to be him and Phil alone and that's totally fine.

Phil leaves from behind him and walks back to his desk and sits back down into the seat. Dan looks down at the cover of the book and feels it. The hardcover feels amazing under his touch and he can’t believe that he’s just published his first book at Onyx. It feels a bit like this is all a dream.

***

Mitch had made reservations for a restaurant in central London for later that evening so since Dan had some time between when he left work and dinner, he decided to stop by W.H Smith and see if any of the copies of his book have made it to the shelves yet.

He was a bit eager to see how well it was selling so it would be really interesting for him to find a copy of it and see how many have been sold off from the shelves or the tables. He stops at the first one he sees between Onyx and the tube station and he walks inside the doors to see his book sitting in the front on a ‘New Releases’ table and he walks over to it.

Dan lifted the book up and flipped it over, looking at the back and seeing that the store was charging £15 for it and he knows that that’s mostly what the sales department decided but he feels like that’s a bit steep. But then again, he sees the contrasting colors and how high quality the book looks and he actually feels like the price is justifiable.

He fingers through the pages of the book and is looking through the published pages. He doesn't even remember what the books from his father’s company looked like while published but a thought in his head made him smile when he thought about how he these had to be a higher quality. He is still thumbing through the pages when he hears someone clear their throat behind him. He turns his head and sees Damien standing there.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, folding his arms over his chest, his blazer pulling tight across his shoulders. He looks so much more professional than Dan who is in just a sweater and a pair of black jeans.

“I was checking out my book.”

Damien shook his head and furrowed his brows, “Don’t do that.”

Dan furrowed his brows, “Why can’t I? It edited this.” He held the book up in his hand as if trying to make a point.

“Because that’s not your department. You’re editing, not sales. It’s not your job to see the book in stores. That’s mine. I’m the one who goes to the stores and gathers sales reports every month,” Damien says, snapping back.

“Why are you acting like this is such a big deal?” Dan asks, his voice getting huffy as he sets the book back down on the table. “I was just checking out the book.”

Damien lets his arms back down to his side and Dan watches as his chest puffs out and then retracts back, “Just...don’t do this again. It’s not your place.”

Dan softens his demeanor back, not wanting to continue the argument if Damien was backing down as well. It was clear that they were both coming to a compromise and that was good enough for Dan.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Dan says finally, not quite accepting Damien’s response but wanting to keep everything at a stasis.

Damien nods back and that’s when Dan sees he’s holding a bag in his hands that he hadn’t honestly noticed before in the momentary confrontation. It’s for a pet store and his stomach sinks a bit more as he remembers the animal it must be for.

“Is that for your cat?” Dan asks, not even realizing he’s talking until Damien’s eyes widen and he stiffens again.

“How do you know I have a cat?” He asks.

“I...I saw you chase after the cat one day when I was going to my apartment. You were coming out of Phil’s.”

“You live near Phil?” Damien asks, his voice changing a bit.

Dan nods and then quickly backtracks, “Well, yes, I do but I didn’t know he lived there before I moved in. I promise.”

Damien hikes his shoulders up for a second and crosses his arms again as he says, “It was Phil’s cat...but I’ve taken it over. It’s none of your business.”

Damien then turns on his heels and leaves Dan behind. Dan watches him leave out of the doors and he feels a bit like he has whiplash. He has many more questions roaming around in his head but he’s not sure if he wants any of them ever to be answered.

He leaves the store not long after.

***

Phil: Mitch and the others can’t come anymore so it’ll just be you and I

Dan stares at the text for a solid five minutes before he even begins to think of a reply. This is the worst possible scenario to have happened and he cannot believe that his luck is doing this to him. He genuinely wants to scream but he can’t.

He’s still contemplating a reply when Phil texts him back another message.

Phil: I’ll pick up some drinks and we can just celebrate at my apartment. I’ll be home in 20

Oh, that’s even worse, Dan thinks.

This entire night is just getting worse and worse and Dan falls back on his couch and groans out loud, rubbing his eyes with his hands. How on Earth could such a great thing of getting a second printing of your book suddenly turn into drinking with your boss because the others couldn’t attend.

Dan still hasn’t answered the message when his doorbell rings and jolts him from his thoughts. He stands up and walks over to the door, opening it up to see Phil standing there with a bottle of wine and a few other bottles in bags in his hands.

“Didn’t know what you drank so I picked up some different things,” He says. “Let’s go to my apartment and celebrate.”

“I’m not sure if I…”

“Come on, Dan,” Phil pushed. “It’s just celebrating for an actually super rare occasion. Hardly anyone gets a second printing on their first book. I definitely didn't so we need to celebrate!”

Dan doesn’t know what told him to agree inside of him, but suddenly he was walking to Phil’s apartment and sittin in Phil’s living room as they opened up a bottle of wine and Phil poured them both a glass.

Dan drank his down in no time, mostly because he didn’t really want to be sober right now. But Phil took slow sips of his and took a while longer to finish. They don’t speak much, which Dan doesn’t actually hate.

But the silence begins to eat at him more and more, and he finishes half of the bottle by himself. His world begins to get a bit cloudier, and his vision a bit softer as he sits back on his palms and tries to remain grounded.

“You’re a lightweight,” Phil says with a chuckle.

“Am not.”

Phil laughs. “You were already pissed after the first glass.”

Dan shakes his head and looks down at the floor in front of them. He’s not sure of what else to say.

“Damien told me he saw you at W.H Smith this afternoon,” Phil says and Dan looks up suddenly.

Of course Damien told Phil.

“I don’t mind if you go there every once and a while to check out your books,” Phil says. “But that is the sales department and if Damien sees you there often, he’s gonna start getting upset.”

Dan rolls his eyes, not even meaning to fully do that but it happens as a natural reaction.

“I know you don’t like Damien but he is your superior.”

“Can you stop mentioning him so damn much?” Dan snaps out. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Is this because of what happened the other day with him?” Phil asks, setting his glass down.

“I don’t like Damien,” Dan admits. “He’s mean.”

Phil shakes his head, “He’s really not when you get to know him.”

“Well if that’s the case, can you tell him to get off my fucking back?” Dan exclaims.

“What is Damien doing?” Phil asks, his tone serious.

Dan bites back his tongue from yelling out that he wishes Phil would stop playing with his emotions and just go to Damien but the small rational side of his brain is telling him that’s not fair for either of them.

“Damien told me that he is taking care of your cat.”

Phil looks at him and his mouth opens and shuts for a moment before he speaks up, “Oh? My cat? It’s not really my cat. I got it a few months ago but my demanding work schedule didn’t allow me to take care of the cat properly so Damien took it over since he works a set schedule.”

“Why was he coming out of your apartment with it a few weeks ago then?”

Phil shakes his head, almost as if he doesn’t know how to answer the question but then he says whatever he was thinking of, “Damien goes out of town for work on occasion and probably needed me to watch her. So he was probably bringing her over that day.”

Dan sat in silence because of course that’s the solid answer but Dan wishes for whatever reason that it was different. He sits back, trying to not stew on anything that was just said.

“Is this all why you don’t like Damien?” Phil asks, his voice questioning but sincere.

“Why don’t you just date Damien?” Dan asks, turning his head away. “Why are you still chasing after me when you’ve had him by your side all this time?”

Phil suddenly moves next to him and Dan does all that he can to remain fixed in his spot and not flinch and scutter away like a startled animal.

“We tried, back when we were in uni,” Phil says, “But it didn’t work because I’ve told you a million times. I never stopped thinking about you.”

Dan feels his eyes well up a bit with tears that he can’t control as feelings bubble in his chest. Because as much as Dan hates admitting it, he knows he never stopped thinking about Phil too.

Every night he dreamt about Phil until he suddenly stopped one day. Every day he thought about Phil, some days he even cried. He never wanted to admit it because deep down, he always figured he would never see Phil again.

But with the alcohol in his veins and Phil sitting beside him, so close to him, Dan feels his inhibitions lower a bit more than they should. He’s tired of fighting off these feelings that he knows are there. He’s tired of acting like he doesn’t feel the same because…

He does. He feels the same as Phil and fuck it hurts.

“You’re crying,” Phil says gently, reaching up and running his thumb over Dan’s cheek just as Dan feels the wetness seep down his skin.

“Sorry,” Dan apologizes with a watery laugh.

“Don’t apologize,” Phil says. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“We were really young, Phil,” Dan says, laughing a bit more now, “We didn’t even know what love was.”

“No, but it felt like we did.”

Dan nods because it did feel like that. Dan had felt genuine love in the short time he had been with Phil.

Dan doesn’t know who leaned in first, but all he knows is the feeling of Phil’s lips on his feels like a dream. Phil’s hand comes and cups his jaw and Dan allows the kiss to deepen. Dan can feel the heat coursing hotter in his veins and he can’t tell if it’s from this or from the alcohol.

All he knows is that it feels like ten years ago.

[dinonat385]

Song: Adabana Necromancy / 徒花ネクロマンシー Anime: Zombieland Saga / ゾンビランドサガ Artist: Fran Chou Chou (フランシュシュ) Sakura Minamoto (CV: Kaede Hondo) / 源 さくら (CV: 本渡 楓) Saki Nikaidou (CV: Asami Tano) / 二階堂 サキ (CV: 田野 アサミ) Ai Mizuno (CV: Risa Taneda) / 水野 愛 (CV: 種田梨沙) Junko Konno (CV: Maki Kawase) / 紺野 純子 (CV: 河瀬 茉希) Yuugiri (CV: Rika Kunigawa) / ゆうぎり (CV: 衣川 里佳) Lily Hoshikawa (CV: Minami Tanaka) / 星川 リリィ (CV: 田中 美海)

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Video Source Sheet Music Source *That's from the YouTube video's channel's link in their "About" box.

[Kaosub’s] SUBBED LIVE PERFORMANCE: 

It comes in Romaji, Japanese, and English, so I used it for my video!

Here’s the OFFICIAL OPENING from��CrunchyRoll’s YouTube!

[Ramble about the new year, my birthday approaching, anime this year, and my plans for future songs... kinda?]

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It's a little late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR! We all survived the holidays! I personally had a very rough time with all the parties and awkward interactions. Now that it's over, my mom's birthday has passed, and now we can get started planning the real stuff. My birthday is at the end of the month! January 28th. Mark your calendars! International Dino Day is just around the corner! Time zones are a hassle, but Hiroshi Kamiya is one of the most famous Japanese voice actors out of there, and he shares a birthday with me! How cool is that?

I really liked this anime! It was one of my favourites from last season and one of my top anime of the year! I originally watched it because I heard how strange it was with its premise and Mamoru Miyano's crazy acting as Kotaro. Speaking of Kotaro, some people found him annoying, but I liked him! He was a highlight of the show.

And about Lily being a transgender girl, I don't think it's a spoiler anymore over how much buzz it has gotten. It was overshadowed by G****n S****r (I watched that anime and hated it a lot). Anyways, let's respect Lily. She's valid, and the show makes a point of that in both English and Japanese. My favourite girl (excluding the LEGENDARY TAE YAMADA) is probably Saki. She got the best episode, and I liked every moment of it. It was one of my favourites.

On my Tumblr, I wrote my favourites from this year (I haven't finished all of them!): Hataraku Saibou, SSSS.GRIDMAN, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san, Violet Evergarden, Wotakoi, Hinamatsuri, Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai, and Zombieland Saga.

But I haven't watched: Planet With, Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho, Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, Megalo Box, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, Yuru Camp△, Golden Kamuy, and Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara.

I am sure I'm missing a few, but those are the ones from my list for now.

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I have a Synthesia video for this as well that I want to get uploaded eventually. It's better aesthetically, isn't it?

I'm not sure if I want to make a full version, but I am open to the idea. I don't know what I want to work on next! It's tough to decide... I also start a lot of things I never finish...

*As usual, sheets will be linked if anyone wants them.* I have this written as a piano duet, but it can easily be a solo piano piece if you take out the second piano. And again, if you want it simplified, just ask! I might ask for a reference piece that you can play in return just to see what level it's at. I am not a very good piano player though. I am also open to other instruments as well. This was originally written for brass and woodwind band!

[lilyginnyblackv2]

How did I live in a Kingdom of Thieves?

I feel like this line of Don’t Think Twice really ties in with Sora’s monologue that we hear at the start of the Last Battle Trailer. In it, Sora says: “They can take your world, they can take your heart...” And in the Japanese, he says 奪われた世界 (ubawareta sekai)、奪われた心 (ubawareta kokoro), which more directly/literally translated turns into something like “Worlds that were stolen, hearts that were stolen” or even just “Stolen worlds, stolen hearts.” In the English, they decided to translate 奪う(Ubau) as “take,” which works ok, but the connotation of ubau is more serious than just “taking,” it is more associated with “stealing, theft, robbery.” Sora’s words there really tie into the idea of a “kingdom of thieves.” A line that a lot of people find a bit odd in Don’t Think Twice (I did as well). But after the Final Battle Trailer that lines makes a lot more sense and makes me firmly believe that Don’t Think Twice is from Sora’s POV. In the previous games, while Sora was aware of the bad guys, discovers their motivates, and is aware of the darkness - there was never that same level of awareness that I feel he has now in KH3. 

After DDD, when he actually lost himself to the darkness (rather than willingly sacrificing himself to it like he did back in KH1), I have no doubt that Sora will gain a new level of self-awareness, both of the dark and of the enemies that he is fighting against. Which ties back to the “How did I live” part of the lyric “How did I live in a kingdom of thieves?” In the previous games he was so sheltered and protected by the Light, but in KH3 there are heavy indications that he no longer will be. Other lines that also heavily confirm (imo) that Don’t Think Twice is from Sora’s POV: This post I made the other day. “All you gotta do is say the word, you know I’ll follow.” This lyric can fit a few moments and scenes. In ~A Fragmentary Passage~ Riku stated that he was “tired of being the role model.” And there is the implication between that, Sora and Riku’s talk back in KHII, and the first scene that we get between Sora, Riku, and Kairi back in KHI that Riku had always been the designated “leader.”  In KHII when Sora and Riku are getting ready to take on Xemnas, Riku is the one that asks if Sora is ready and then kinda takes the lead in the battle. Sora follows of course. And in DDD, we see that, at first, Sora didn’t want to take the Mark of Mastery. He felt it was unnecessary. But the second after Riku states that he thinks he needs it, Sora decides to follow him and jump right in. Of course, this line could also fit with Riku too (”Sora, you lead.”) But I think it fits Sora a bit more, especially because most of the games, Sora is usually the one looking for Riku. Which leads me to the next line: “I’m only crying ‘cause I never dreamed it take this long, it’d take this long.” I’m just gonna...

(Source) Yeah, I feel that line could fit with the idea of “I can’t believe it has taken me this long to finally find you again.” Which gave us the scene above in KHII and, lbh, It’ll probably end up applying to KH3 in some way, too. There is a lot of overlap, a lot of these lines could easily apply to Riku too. But I think that goes to show the connection that Sora and Riku share and how their character arcs complement each other throughout the series.

[kimonobeat]

aiko bon: Official “Chiisana Marui Koujitsu” liner notes

aiko’s major label debut album, released April 21, 1999. The title of the album comes from a line in the first song, “Orange na Mangetsu”.

Orange na Mangetsu (オレンジな満月; Orange Full Moon)

Jet (ジェット)

Shiseikatsu (私生活; Private Life)

Utahime (歌姫; Diva)

Akai Kutsu (赤い靴; Red Shoes)

Ijiwaru na Tenshi yo Sekai wo Warae! (イジワルな天使よ 世界を笑え!; Mean Angel, Laugh at the World!)

Koi Ochiru Toki (恋墜ちる時; When You Fall in Love)

Natsu ni Muffler (夏にマフラー; Scarf in Summer)

Bob (ボブ)

Naki Mushi (ナキ・ムシ; Cry Baby)

Ashita (あした; Tomorrow)

(Thank you parasmichael for the commission!)

☑ The album as a whole

This was in 1999. When we were making this album I was sorta overwhelmed by just how awesome everything was: “Wow, a studio! Wow, a mic! Wow, oh my gosh, Tokyo!” We didn’t have just one set recording studio either; we recorded in a few different places. Plus, I didn’t have much time because I was still commuting from Osaka then. Because of that, my mental picture of recording it is that it was all pretty much over in the blink of an eye. There’s parts where my voice sounds nasally because we recorded when my vocals weren’t in great condition. (laughs) Oh, and it feels very ‘early’, doesn’t it? Back then I thought it was better to sing everything with force. Like, personally I don’t think you should sing very sharply or shrilly when the song itself is mild, but I used to think the stronger the better. I didn’t know a lot about laying off at certain points in the lyrics back then. What a trip down memory lane.

☑ Orange na Mangetsu

One thing I don’t really like is when people call this song “Oraman”. (laughs) I’m happy people even know this song exists enough to call it that, though. It was the opening theme song for the late-night Tokyo TV show “Gekkan Chikyuu TV (Monthly Earth TV)”. We shot a video for it thereーa sort of music video, if you will. It’s a rare video. I don’t even have it. Thanks to that, I had the chance to perform the song “Utahime” on the show. Back then I was up to my ears in work, so I appeared on the show covered in mud. I’m actually afraid of the moon. You know how sometimes you see it all big and amber-colored up in the sky? A long time ago, I often used to get so scared of seeing a big moon in the sky that I would cry. I’m still afraid of it to this day. I’m really scared that it’ll fall out of the sky or something. The song’s about how I want so badly for my feelings to be understood that I even go as far as to fearfully get a glimpse of it through the gap in my curtains and make a wish, even though I’m so scared of the moon. I used to be such a weakling back then. I used antiseptic for my throat so much that people would say my place smelled like a hospital when they came over. That’s why the word ‘antiseptic’ appears in the lyrics. The album title ‘chiisana marui koujitsu (a nice calm little day)’ appears in the lyrics too. I think that phrase represents what I personally consider to be a happy day well. I still find myself hoping that every single day continues to be full of happy things like these. Another thing I don’t really like was when this one comedian pronounced it as “Chiisana Marui Koupi”. It’s “Koujitsu”, not “Koupi!” Kind of feels like the album kicks off with drums, doesn’t it?

☑ Jet

Okay, first of all… Right around the time Shimayan had finished up the arrangement, I went over to his house and we recorded some vocals as a sort of demo. I was so happy when I listened that tape. I listened to it while running through Sangenjaya by myself. It just kinda made me feel like running. Like, “WE DID IIIIIIIT!” Anyway, I was running, and it felt so good that I knew then and there that this song would be a hit. It just felt so good when I was running that it felt done to me. It gets people really excited at my concerts, too. I guess the “d-dun!” part has a lot of impact. I also use the pronoun ‘boku (masculine ‘I’) in the song too, which is rare for me. The boy in “Jet” and the boy in “Boushi to Mizugi to Suiheisen” are one and the same. So the hair sticking out of the back of the girl’s hat is all messy and curled upーthat’s what the line “Because the messy hair on the back of your head are your wings” means. He’s looking at the hair sticking out of the back of the girl’s capーy’know, those messy hairs that are all over the placeーand looking at the way she lives her life, how incredibly free she is and how she really enjoys every single day of her life, and he sort of admires her for that. That’s why you also see the line “I know for sure you’ll fly” in the lyrics too. I guess I included it after it all just popped into my head once I came up with that visual because this song, “Jet” and “Boushi” are all especially candid. There are others like that too.

☑ Shiseikatsu

I’m really fond of the title and kept saying I wanted to make it the title of the album. Then when I was writing the title track, I was afraid of making the overall vibe of the album into just one thing and gave it up. When you write a title track, the radio stations definitely play the title track on the air. I didn’t really like the idea that the title track would set the image of the entire album even though there were all these other songs on it, you know what I mean? Now I get what everyone was saying to me then. Back then I didn’t understand why at all. Now I’m like, “Oh, so that’s why.” I definitely feel the things I wrote about in the lyrics. It’s an established part of me that I’m a bit afraid of, and because it kinda like, expresses that part of me to a T, I decided to call it “Private Life”. The one thing I really remember about this song was when the bridge over my molars came off when I had my very first solo concert at Nest in Shibuya. I stuck them back on with Poligrip. (laughs) Using Poligrip for the very first time at 23 years old. That was when I first learned that Poligrip was clear. You know how it’s always pink when you see it on TV? When I found out, I thought I’d made some kind of huge discovery and mentioned it during the MC portion of my concertーthat I was using Poligrip and it was clear! I showed everybody. They all went, “Whoa!!!” When I sang “Shiseikatsu” during that Poligrip concert, there was this one girl who was so stoked that she was dancing like she was at a club or something. I remember seeing her and singing while thinking to myself, “Oh wow… That makes me happy to see! I’m gonna keep working hard then!” I also really love the ad-libbing that doesn’t follow the melody at all, and also the ad-libbing in the second half of the song.

☑ Utahime

This is another one of those songs that stands out more than I ever thought it would. A lot of my fans tells me they like this song. Probably because I suddenly started sang this song during the opening of my first time on the national net show “All Night Nippon R” along with the line, “Nice to meet you. I’m aiko, who are you?” Because of that, some people found out about me for the first time through this song and not one of my singles. The people on the radio station really liked “Utahime”, so they asked me to sing it. Everyone gets super excited when I sing it at concerts, too. I still feel like this song’s gotten a lot more mileage than I ever thought it would. But, I’d like to be the kind of singer who’s able to surpass this song so I can continue singing in the future. This is one of those songs that I feel like I need to sing any time I sing at a concert. It was in the program at the concert when I developed those nodules [on my vocal chords]. When I sang the part that goes, “I might cry and cry~”, I couldn’t get the ‘and’ out. That was really painful for me. I figured everything’d be fine if I could just hit that note, but I definitely couldn’t. That was a huge shock for me. Singing this song used to make me feel super sad. I just couldn’t get over how shocked I was about it. Any time I thought about singing this song, the memory of it overpowered the song itself. The song makes me feel really sad, but also happy. I still hope I can be like the person in the song soon.

☑ Akai Kutsu See liner notes for ‘Naki Mushi’ single

☑ Ijiwaru na Tenshi yo Sekai wo Warae

Okay, so another thing I don’t really like (laughs) is when people call this song “Iji Ten”. Sounds like ikaten, doesn’t it? Like some kind of fried food, right? Sounds like a fried fish cake or something like that. I’ve always called it “Tenshi” which is the usual, but some people call it “Iji Ten”. There’s also a part in this song where I put my hands up in the air along with everyone in the audience. I never thought I’d get pretty much everyone to do it. I used to hope that writing this song would help me enjoy myself at concerts. I used to be really bad at writing cheerful songs in the beginning. I write my songs using my piano, and the more I try to sing in-tempo, the more I try to play the rhythm on my keyboard and the harder it gets hard for me to sing. It’s like my right hand’s flipping things with a spatula and my left hand’s doing shabu-shabu or something… But I really wanted to write an up-tempo song. That was my task, an up-tempo song. It still is. So yeah, that’s how this song came to be. I think I’ve been doing this song at concerts since my indie days, maybe. I remember doing the peace sign and thumbs-up since before I had my solo concert. After I debuted, I appeared at this event in Tokyo called “The Freedom Fool Fry”. I was there with about 4 supporting bands. It was my very first time performing in Tokyoーit was a great place to be a nobody, although I was there because they’d asked me to come. I was super happy to see everyone shuffle out there to see me. I was like, “Wow, people in Tokyo are so dang kind~” (laughs) Now a lot of people know the signs. Seeing that from the stage is one of the highlights of the show. It’s just super neat. It almost doesn’t feel over ‘til they do it. Anytime I leave this song off the setlist people always write, “Not doin’ it this time?” on the surveys. The melody moves around a lot in this song and key’s pretty high, so it’s a fight every time. Like, I wanna move around, but I also wanna sing. You know? It’s a fight to the finish every single time, one where everyone who came to the venue is grappling with that ‘seize the day!’ feeling.

☑ Koi Ochiru Toki

My voice was real nasally then. I almost think it might be a good thing when I listen to it now, but the song reminds me how frustrated I was with it at the time. I caught a cold while recording. This was back when I didn’t worry at all about what state my throat was in either, so I slept until about 5 minutes before I had to sing because I had both a cold and a fever. Then they woke me up, I got up, and sang. People told me that they didn’t understand the lyrics of this one song in particular. (laughs) “What’s square foam?” they asked. It’s hard having people ask what things are. I was like, “Don’t ask about every single lil’ thing!” (laughs) In my head, I imagine ‘when you fall in love’ as something impossible happening. That’s what I think falling in love is. You’ve got all these things swirling around in your head. Things are like a cartoon, or a comic stripーthat’s what ‘when you fall in love’ is like to me, so that’s what I wrote about. You feel it with your entire body, you inhale their scent. I was super shocked when I sang it at a concert for the first time in a while and everyone sang along. They had me worrying that I’d mess the lyrics up!

☑ Natsu ni Muffler

So hot it’s like wearing a scarf in the summerーthat’s what I was going for here! I’m expressing the way you feel when you like somebody. I feel like I don’t do anything that sounds even remotely like this now. It’s pretty refreshing, I like it a lot. The more I listened to this song, the more I fell in love with it. I mean, I’m the one who wrote it and all, but… When you listen to something, over time you gradually start seeing new sides to it. Like, I love how expressive the melody is, and I love how the feeling of being purely happy comes through well. I love the phrase “Lemme see the tan lines your watch left behind”ーit’s very realistic.

☑ Bob

I’m the one playing in this song, tee hee. (laughs) Hm, where’d I sing this again? Hitokuchizaka, maybe… ? It came together pretty much instantly so I said, “Hey, I wrote this song.” I remember recording it after showing it to them at Hitokuchizaka Studio and being told it sounded good. You can really tell it was fresh off the press when I recorded it too. Wow, that really takes me back! I sound like I’m saying “I sink” instead of “I think”, “mot” instead of “not”, and all the words are the kind you’d use in school. Thanks to this song, anytime I get letters people write “I sink” instead. I used to write it that way a lot myself, actually. My hair really was cut into a bob when I made this song. That’s why I wrote it! In this song I’m really trying hard to act tough. I’m just talking to myself but wish someone was listening… but I’m also acting tough. That’s because I feel that way 24/7. (laughs) Oh, and the Wurlitzer is just fantastic, isn’t it?

☑ Naki Mushi See liner notes for ‘Naki Mushi’ single

☑ Ashita See liner notes for ‘Ashita’ single

[hunter934]

BRODY February 2018 - Ikeda Kazuma x Shinguu Ryouhei "A Dialogue of Keyakizaka46’s Music Videos"

“First Dialogue of 2 Directors who are Accomplices of Keyaki’s Revolution” The initial impact of Keyakizaka46, as well as their shocking debut, was no doubt, thanks to their “Silent Majority” music video. Since then, each time they’ve released a music video, it becomes a hot topic in every single direction. The two directors, who directed their music videos, talked to us about the truths of the music videos, as well as the true quality of Keyakizaka46.   Unusual approach to draw out their full potential   - This time, through the dialogue between the two directors who directed Keyakizaka46’s music videos, we figured there would be many things that could be revealed, thus we gathered the both of you here. First of all, let’s start with Director Ikeda’s “Silent Majority”.   Shinguu: I didn’t watch it right after it’s release. After a while, I heard information that it’s an amazing music video, I decided to watch it after that.   - What did you think?   Shinguu: The location left such a strong first impression. Normally people wouldn’t be shooting at a place like that (construction site near Shibuya Station). I thought “Ah, it turned out to be something awesome”.   - So, its strong point is the timing of when the location was used   Shinguu: That’s also correct, especially since idol music videos nowadays have become too boring. Though there still are styles like Director Takahashi Eiki’s works for AKB48. However, this music video turned out to be something really powerful. In all likelihood, we can’t shoot at that place for the second time. Shibuya is always reborn to be something new, so shooting at a place that existed in such a short time was the most amazing thing.   Ikeda: Thank you very much (laugh).   Shinguu: You’re being unfair, by using that place (laugh). Now the people from Tokyu Dentetsu already knew about Keyakizaka46, right?   Ikeda: There was a building in development at that place, while on the other hand, there was a group that was going to make their debut, I compiled those things properly into a concept, I was given the chance to make something special.   Shinguu: Did you choose Shibuya as a theme from the start?   Ikeda: At first, when I discussed with Keyakizaka46’s staffs, they told me to create a group of girls with a strong will and little bit rebellious as their image. Something like “If they were a town, then they are Shibuya”. Because of that conversation, I thought maybe I could use Shibuya as the stage for them. So, it was decided before I even planned the concept for the music video.   Shinguu: The CD jackets were also taken in Shibuya, right? I thought “Are they some sort of Shibuya idols?”, that question came to mind once, but this music video turned out to be really amazing. They’re very young, aren’t they? Also, Shibuya was in the middle of a dramatic transformation. It was really like showing people, those girls had been there once, at the town which reformed in a short amount of time. I felt quite emotional from that kind of view. Because it can’t be seen anymore, right?   Ikeda: It was a totally different place a year after that.   Shinguu: The dirt remaining on their knees when they knelt down were also quite emotional.   Ikeda: It feels like a documentary, right? I didn’t put too much perspective into it. It’s their first music video after all.   Shinguu: Director Ikeda, you once said that you purposely didn’t cut out the scene where they displayed poor dancing.   Ikeda: Yep.   Shinguu: “Ah, they were still poor at dancing at that time”, you wanted people to acknowledge such a thing when they look back at the past.   Ikeda: I was thinking so hard how to organize things since it was their debut single. At first, I wanted to make the story deeper. But on the contrary, if I shoot their debut moment as it is, I thought it would have a more exceptional feeling. After all, it’s a moment which only happens once.   Shinguu: If we look at it now, it was really worth the effort.   Ikeda: I didn’t even cut everyone’s tense faces.   - As a fellow director, did Director Shinguu ever think “Crap, he beat me!”?   Shinguu: I did. Music video is all about concept. Thus, if we want to do a shoot in Tokyo, location selection is an important thing. There is nothing left in Tokyo after all, it’s too boring. Also, we have to match our camerawork to the choreography. Did you draw the storyboard?   Ikeda: I didn’t draw anything.   Shinguu: You matched to their choreography, didn’t you?   Ikeda: Of course. If I’m not wrong, the choreography only got completed two days before the shoot. Thus, we decided to use about 50~60% of the choreography.   - What was your most favorite scene?   Shinguu: I like the opening scene.   - The scene where their faces appeared one by one?   Ikeda: It’s an introduction. It’s their first music video after all.   Shinguu: The pictures just came one after another.   Ikeda: Pretty orthodox, right? (laugh)   Shinguu: What came to my mind was that you particularly shot Hirate-san in such a thorough way. There were a ton of camerawork that shot Hirate-san only.   Ikeda: Because Hirate-san is the heroine. If I had given every member equal screentime, it would have ruined the balance.   - Normally it would make the video more balance, but that’s not the case for this one.   Ikeda: Like I said before, I decided who the heroine was, and she became the core of this story, I organized everything based on this person, I thought that it would make Keyakizaka be seen as a whole even more. Hirate-san’s amazing performance was one of the considerations though. However, that kind of camerawork was pretty different from Director Shinguu’s way of thinking.   Shinguu: It’s totally different. If Kazuma-san stresses the whole picture of Keyakizaka46, then I want to show every single one of them at any cost. In this kind of group, there must be only a few members who can appear on the 4-minute-long-only music video. But, I didn’t want to do it that way (laugh). Everyone has their own charm, so I always took a shot of everyone. Even though in the end not every shot was used after editing process, it’s a relief to do it that way.   - Since there’s a lot of people that were attracted by their charm on “Silent Majority”, this kind of presentation was indeed good.   Ikeda: In the end, this music video is all about their performance. It feels like they’re going to make a breakthrough from now on, for me it’s really like a documentary. I’m glad that I didn’t make it weird by creating a drama-like music video.   - Since it’s a good documentary, there’s no need to add a dramatic element into it.   Shinguu: Kazuma-san is a documentary maker after all.   Ikeda: Even though there are some bad parts, as long as their expression are good enough, I will use it. On the contrary, Shinguu-san is a perfectionist.   Shinguu: I’m the type of person that shows anything above its original value. For example, if there is a member that doing a late turn, I will show it in slow motion.   Ikeda: Or to make a messy jump looks better.   Shinguu: I’m a visual person. It’s like I just aim for the good parts only.   Ikeda: You also do a form of music-related editing.   Shinguu: If it’s Kazuma-san, he will definitely strengthen the part he wants to show rather than taking care of the rhythm.   Ikeda: That’s right.   Shinguu: If there is situation where the contents are less than it’s supposed to be, and they’re going to do nothing about it, I will tell them “This should be this way, this too, this too”.   - So, you show them how to deal with it, like “make this in slow motion”. I have an impression that “Director Shinguu = slow motion”.   Shinguu: That’s right. On the contrary, Kazuma-san is type of creator that doesn’t like to use slow motion.   Ikeda: If you say it that way, I won’t be able to use it from now on (laugh).   Shinguu: Kazuma-san used slow motion in “Eccentric” though. When he used it, I became afraid of him (laugh).   Running Keyaki, laughing Keyaki, some of the best works   - Next, we will discuss about “Sekai ni wa Ai shikanai”. This is also Director Ikeda’s works.   Shinguu: I watched “Sekai ni wa Ai shikanai” so many times. I love the chorus. It’s really unique. The first chorus didn’t start with a dance, they were just running. I thought “He did it~!”. He didn’t put a dramatic element into “Silent Majority”, but this time he injected some sort of girls’ youth attributes into it. Moreover, with Showa style (laugh). I highly appreciate his idea of putting a Showa vibe into it, something like a baseball match cut scene.   Ikeda: Hahahaha!   Shinguu: Also that shoe locker cut scene. It’s a music video that clearly made me understand Ikeda-san’s preference.   Ikeda: Yes, I injected my own preferences (laugh). It’s little embarrassing, it feels like I’m an inexperienced director.   Shinguu: Why did you use such a dim lighting in the classroom?   Ikeda: By making the class darker, indoors and outdoors really started to contrast each other. Since I wasn’t told to create something bright and idol-ish, I decided to make it dark.   Shinguu: Kazuma-san, do you like to change the drama aspect by utilizing the weather? It always changes depending on the weather, right?   Ikeda: You’re right. Though I cleverly matched it to its lyric.   Shinguu: I watched it thinking “It’s showing various kinds of weather”.   - On the previous interview, Director Ikeda once commented “I gave it a sort of anime vibe”.   Ikeda: That’s right.   Shinguu: What do you mean by anime vibe?   Ikeda: Different from “Silent Majority”, I aimed to create a painting-like thing for this music video. It feels like visualizing a vague feeling inside the memories.   Shinguu: Ahh, I see. Kazuma-san, to what extent do you entrust your cameraman? Do you give a lot of direction? Like “Use telephoto lens on this!”.   Ikeda: I only give the general concept when it comes to drawing storyboard. However, the cameraman who has worked for me on this second project is the kind of person that would take such interesting shots if I gave him freedom. For example, I only told him “I want to take a scene as if the camera followed the wind”. Then, he took a scene where members can be seen along with the windmills.   - It’s a very wide landscape, right?   Ikeda: Yes, it’s really wide. They couldn’t even see the ones next to them. Every member at the corner was 100 m apart.   - This location also gave such a strong impression, why did you choose this location?   Ikeda: We looked for a place with windmills, then we found it on Hokkaido.   Shinguu: Did you plan to use windmills from the start?   Ikeda: Yes. Since, the first project took place in Shibuya, so there was a thought to create something with a middle-of-town image for the next work as well.   Shinguu: Hey, it’s totally different (laugh).   Ikeda: There were white-and-man-constructed windmills standing in nature, I wanted members to do the performance there, in order to create a connection between them. That grassland scene in the chorus was an imaginary realm, so I wanted to create something that really contrasted the scene of daily school life.   - On the previous interview, you said you wanted to show the connection to the “Silent Majority”, by using something big and man-constructed, similar to the construction site on the previous work.   Ikeda: In the end, the center of this music video were the members themselves. I thought their image wouldn’t be ruined by whatever location we used, as long as we don’t ruin the presentation. Then, in contrast to the real school life realm, if the location for the imaginary realm in the first chorus had taken place in the middle of a town, there wouldn’t be much difference between them. I wanted to give a clear separation.   Shinguu: I see. That’s why I had a feeling that I was entrusted with the next work “Futari Sezon”, in order for me to do a shoot in the middle of town.     Ikeda: Hahaha. I think “Futari Sezon” is their best song. With such a nostalgic melody, this is the song that made them laugh.   Shinguu: Since it’s a sparkling and elegant song with such a nice rhythm, I could come up with this concept for the music video. I matched their steps, their walk, I matched every single thing to the rhythm, I wanted to show the harmony of their wavelength, their beat. That’s why the number of members kept increasing one by one from the first verse.   Ikeda: So, you wanted to shoot them in the most beautiful way.   Shinguu: This was about the cameraman’s peculiar preference. If we do a shoot outdoors, the sunlight would steadily change, so the cameraman said that he wanted to shoot at a specific time (laugh). “We will be here ‘till 2 PM, I want to shoot with this amount of light”, he had that kind of preference. By the way, it took place in Chiba’s Makuhari.   - How did you feel when you were entrusted with Keyakizaka46’s main track for the first time?   Shinguu: Since Kazuma-san had directed their first two singles, honestly it felt like carrying a heavy load on my back.   Ikeda: The vibe was different from “Katarunara mirai wo...”. Probably because this song was completely different from before, he shot such a fresh expression of them. I thought “Ah, he made them laugh!”   Shinguu: Yes, I did! I thought they were girls who barely smiled, but they came to the location with such a smile.     Ikeda: They are actually cheerful.   Shinguu: I perceived them as girls with the  “Silent Majority” image, so I was surprised, “Huh? They’re laughing naturally”. At that time, I decided the direction I would shoot them.   - So that’s it.   Shinguu: Although the only thing I had decided on was the last scene where they joined their hands with a feeling of “let’s be together”.   Ikeda: Between those stylish dance scenes, you used a portrait-style cut into it, right? The stylishness and clumsiness that contrasted to each other left such an impression on me. What does it mean?   Shinguu: Honestly, the thing I liked most was to shoot their cool dance, however, I thought that I had to remain the vibe of idol music video.     Ikeda: That balance is superb. The “cool” vibe didn’t swung completely. It probably became an unique single, by putting those idol-ish elements into it.   Shinguu: To some extent, this is a work that I created with a kind of safety measure. However, I didn’t use any close-up shots in this music video, I only used bust shots.     Ikeda: Ah~, I see.   Shinguu: I used a lot medium shots and full shots.   Ikeda: There is a cut scene where Moriya-san made such a nice expression.   Shinguu: While I was looking for the balance, the one thing that caught my eye was Moriya-san’s expression, despite there being a lot of funny ones among the many shots I took. I used it not because I particularly like her. In such a timing, it’s natural to have that sort of expression we like and we don’t, right? And the one I like was Moriya-san’s expression.   Ikeda: It was the  “Keyaki Tree” in the last scene, wasn’t it? The part where they joined hands. Did you plan to shoot that from the start?   Shinguu: Yes, I did.   Ikeda: You were using 2 different types of camera, right? The steadicam and one with a crane.   Shinguu: That’s right. The opening didn’t start with the choreography, but their individual scenes. It’s a cut scene which I shot with precision after I had a discussion with TAKAHIRO-san.   - Hirate-san’s expression in the last scene was magnificent as well.   Shinguu: I wanted to make something scary in the last part. When they joined hands, I wanted to end it with a scene where Hirate realized something. She smiled in the original version, however, I also took a shot where she cried a bit. But, I figured it was too boring, so I didn’t use it. Someday her youth will end, and she realizes that, something along those lines. Then, after the moment she realizes it, I would end it with a scene where she was alone on the bridge. We are happy right now, yet people will be alone at some point, someday we will end up being alone, something like that. Also, it’s because Kazuma-san always ended his work with Hirate-san. You ended “Silent Majority” with a close-up shot.   Ikeda: That’s right.   Shinguu: That’s why I selfishly created such a weird “End-it-with-Hirate” rule (laugh).   Ikeda: Seems like you had a struggle (laugh).   Shinguu: It’s a struggle of “how to end it with her” (laugh). That’s why it took about 10 minutes to shoot her face when she was on the bridge. As a result, I decided to use that face. However, which face I decided to use depended on my mood during editing process.   Ikeda: That’s right. It’s really huge. It’s not about lyric interpretation.   Dynamic line that helps the directors   - Next, let’s talk about “Fukyouwaon”.   Ikeda: What came to my mind is you used too many seagulls (laugh).   Shinguu: Ahahaha! Okay, jokes aside, did it bother you, Kazuma-san?   Ikeda: Nah, I think it’s just cool. You really placed emphasis on their performance. A music video that showed Keyakizaka’s performance at its core is probably the most amazing thing. You also didn’t put any unnecessary element.   Shinguu: This song was compared to “Silent Majority”, so I thought “Crap, this is difficult~” (laugh). This is about my equipment, I used 7 axes gyro stabilizing head called Maximus 7 for the first time. This equipment is probably not useful in an idol music video. However, I zoomed everything and took such close shots in the beginning of first chorus. Since I used crane shots, it became pretty fast.   Ikeda: The movement was really fast.   Shinguu: Korean music videos are really good at using the zoom shots. They used up to 4K resolution. After I watched it, I also wanted to implement it in Japan. Then, I used it for the first time to take close-up shots of members’ lipsync scene, maybe about the half of them. At first, I planned to only shoot the front row members, but I shot even more members in the end. Also, I shot their lipsync scene in a thorough way.   Ikeda: It’s pretty simple compared to the previous works, so you carefully placed emphasis in the camerawork and editing. You used it only once, but I like the scene where you used high-angle shot. The camera was moving while shooting from the gaps in the fence.   Shinguu: It’s the second chorus, right? The cameraman said he wanted to shoot from above. Also, when it comes to this 4th single, the accuracy of their dance was completely different.   Ikeda: Yep. It’s cool.   - Okay, let’s talk about “Kaze ni Fukaretemo”, Director Shinguu’s third consecutive work.   Ikeda: It completely felt like the second chapter of Keyaki.     Shinguu: That’s right. I talked about it with Kazuma-san when we went to see their Makuhari Live. When I saw them, I thought that Keyaki already arrived at the end of their first chapter. That’s why we wanted to shoot them with a style that wasn’t related to their styles so far.   Ikeda: The first chapter closed with the “Getsuyoubi no Asa, Skirt wo Kirareta” music video in the most beautiful way.   Shinguu: That’s right. “Getsuyoubi no Asa, Skirt wo Kirareta” beautifully brought them back to “Silent Majority”.     Ikeda: That’s why the first song that is able to use any kind of formula was “Kaze ni Fukaretemo”.   Shinguu: The whole team were thinking to bring something different to Keyakizaka that we knew so far. However, it’s a difficult task to retain the Keyaki-style somewhere (laugh).     - Where did you retain it?   Shinguu: The truth is I had a little bit of difficulty with this song at first. However, I turned it into a music video that showed the dance of the chorus.   - So that’s it.   Shinguu: That’s why I took shots in various places, from school, middle of town, till the conference room, however, I wanted to be apart from those things. There are so many places prepared for us in this life. And it happened in the exact moment when “La La Land” became popular.     Ikeda: It’s more musical actually.   Shinguu: That’s right. Actually, it should have been something like “musical drama of life”. But, I ended up only using the scene where Hirate-san was lifted with wires (laugh).   Ikeda: It was a funeral, right?   Shinguu: That’s right. It was a funeral actually.   Ikeda: It’s an ascension.   Shinguu: “What a good life it was”, it conveyed something like that. It’s something like “A dog of Flanders”. However, everyone was much better compared to “Silent Majority”. Their performance was really cool. Habu-san even came to me and asked for something.   Ikeda: Ah. She is really good.   Shinguu: I decided not to use her scene, but she came to me and asked, “Isn’t there another chance for me?”.   - She must be really serious, if she came to ask directly.   Shinguu: I said “I will consider it!” (laugh). She even created a kind of pose by herself, I think she has a high level of professionalism.   Ikeda: In “Getsuyoubi no Asa, Skirt wo Kirareta”, there was moment that made me touched. One of my cameramen, he didn’t really know about Keyaki, so he selfishly shot members with good performance skills, in that case, he shot Ishimori-san and Habu-san.   Shinguu: Ishimori-san and Habu-san! When we were working on editing, we always wanted to use their scene at any cost! I called those two “Dynamic Line”. Then, there is “Power Dynamic Line”, consisted of Saito-san, Habu-san, and Ishimori-san!   - Is it a power-up version? (laugh)   Shinguu: They have such supple movements after all.   Ikeda: Saito-san is always included in the difficult dance parts. She is super cool.   Shinguu: Their performances really help us in the editing process. If we also shoot Suzumoto-san, the rest would be much easier. She is awesome after all. I will shoot any member who dance perfectly and guarantee their places in the editing process.   Expression that completely surpassed their expectation and gave them goosebumps   - Now, I will ask about your impressions toward them. I want to hear about how you felt after doing your shoots with Keyakizaka46.   Ikeda: I probably shot them without thinking they were idols.   Shinguu: I see. You thought that from the start.   Ikeda: I think members and staffs who were involved in the music video production were working together as a crew. Normally, when I direct a music video, I will discuss it with the artist before I draw the storyboard, I think it will be better if there is a good discussion, like I will say “I want to shoot this way”, and they will say “I want to make this kind of expression”. If I have the chance, I want to try it.   Shinguu: I also see them as artists, but I probably see them more as idols than Kazuma-san. Like I said in the beginning, the world of idol music video is already complete, so I want to do some sort of experiment on how to escape from that thing.   Ikeda: You’re looking for a method.   Shinguu: Yeah. In that sense, I was given the chance to shoot the shape of this group.   - Ah, I see, I see.   Ikeda: I want to show people how I imagined the way of life and the concept of this group as a whole. It’s not about showing the real Keyakizaka46, I wanted to convey to the audience that the role they played in my work is the reality. When those things were established, I think it will be something completely original.   - If you can depict their way of life, it won’t be an imitation. How do you think about Hirate-san?   Ikeda: She is interesting, she has a consistency. In “Silent Majority”, I was thinking of creating something based on her.   Shinguu: Basically, I entrusted everything to her. I explained to her what I aimed for, and what I needed is to see how she was going to answer it. It was up to her.   Ikeda: She always does something unexpected. I always ended up grinning the moment she did that.   Shinguu: Aahhh~! Me too!!   Ikeda: On the second part of “Getsuyoubi no Asa, Skirt wo Kirareta”, she made an expression that completely surpassed my expectation (started at minutes 02:56). It gave me such goosebumps. Discovering these kind of moments is really fun.   Shinguu: I really understand that feeling. It’s only a blink of an eye, but it left such an impression.   Ikeda: About this scene, we didn’t have much time, so we only shot it 3 times, but suddenly an amazing thing came out of those 3 only chances.     Shinguu: It’s like a gift from above. It’s close to contemporary dancing. She was throwing herself, and dancing like someone else. She also gave me goosebumps in “Fukyouwaon”, when she laughed with such a scary face. (They’re watching the music video, stopping at minutes 03:54) Look! It surprised me.   Ikeda: It’s beyond logic. I couldn’t think of that.   Shinguu: That’s why after we finished shooting, there was a moment where she just staring into space. It’s interesting to see what kind of style she’ll show us with the setting we prepared.   Ikeda: She must be still nervous in “Silent Majority”.   Shinguu: But, it feels like she begun showing herself little by little since “Sekai ni wa Ai shika nai”. I think it’s not something dark, but something more pure.   Ikeda: Yeah. Not many idol can give off such goosebumps.   - We’re looking forward to your next work for Keyakizaka46! Thank you very much for today! _____________________________________________________________ Ikeda Kazuma is director of Silent Majority, Sekai ni wa Ai shikanai, Otona wa Shinjite kurenai, W-KEYAKIZAKA no Uta, Eccentric, and Getsuyoubi no Asa, Skirt wo Kirareta. Shinguu Ryouhei is director of Katarunara Mirai wo..., Futari Sezon, Fukyouwaon, Kaze ni Fukaretemo, and Glass wo Ware!. _____________________________________________________________ *special thanks to: toomuchidea (Raw & QC) & Seri (QC)

[animedelivered]

Anime Central 2017 Review

This year Anime Central celebrated their 20th anniversary, being the strongest, biggest midwest convention there is. Fans from just about everywhere come to this milestone anime convention, to share their passion for anime, cosplaying, hobbies, arts, games, interests, and just about everything a convention can have.

Location

Since 1997 the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Rosemont Convention Center, has been Anime Central home, giving it 18 year at this location. Acen (for short) is still expanding and making the most of the space from both venues. With tons of hotels surrounding the Rosemont Convention Center, you don’t have to worry about Acen being booked, but if you are looking to room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, you will need to book the day they are released. That’s right, this convention is so popular, the main venue hotel sells out within minutes! You want to be sure to stay connected to #AnimeCentral social medias to recieve up to date posts.

If you are not rooming in the hotel and you’re just a local, the option of taking public transit train is a block away. If you are looking to drive there, parking was available just about everywhere, from hotel garages to train station parking. Driving to AnimeCentral, your best bet would be to park at the Blue line train station, not only is it cheap but, you are able to leave and come back when you want. Unlike the garage parking provided for the hotels, once you’re out, its risking finding the same parking spot or being full.

Wasn’t thinking about packing food for the weekend? It’s ok! the Hyatt Rosemont has 2 restaurant, 1 being the bar/grill and the other being a buffet restaurant. Need something really fast and don’t want to wait for your food? They have that too! The Hyatt offered a discount for Acen attendees on Lunch and Dinner tables, where you can grab what you like and pay at the register. Didn’t like what they offered? Just outside the Hyatt, food trucks were also available, with staple foods like: hot dogs, burgers, tacos, salads, ice cream, pizza, etc. If non of this fancies you, taking a drive out or if you prefer walking within 2 miles, Chain restaurants were also available. If you need food now and don’t want to leave your hotel room, the Hyatt provides menus for places in the area that deliver to the hotel, and bring it to your room! You can never go hungry at Anime Central.

Registration

This year registration ran smoothly with some enhancements into place. People lined up hours in advance to pick up their badges, or to purchase at the door. They had everyone sectioned off in groups, pick up badges, buying a badge with a debit/credit card, buying a badge with cash, will call, and people that had their badges mailed to them. Giving everyone many ways to getting in and out of registration with out guessing what-is-what and “where am i suppose to go?”

We purchased our badges in advance and waited at the will call line. Once at the booth you were greeted with a staff member asking for an ID and a barcode, which was given to us via email at purchase. They scanned your bar code and Handed you a beautiful badge with your name sticker on it. Landyards, guidbooks, and bags were being handed out in front of registration, but theses weren’t just any grab bags, these were limited edition convention backpacks! Sentai Filmworks was also handing out these colorful bags to the first 10 thousand people who attended Acen.

This was the first time a convention of this size handled registration so well in our experience! We hope other conventions take note on what Anime Central has going on. 😉

Dealer Room

A convention is not complete without a dealer room, which Anime Central perfects so well each year. Bringing the veteran and new set of booths to the con for attendees to surround. Upon entering the dealer room, we are in Awe with big named companies. Big booths such as, Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Funimation, Good Smile Company, Sentai Filmworks, Sekai Project, Kotobukiya, Viz Media, and tons more. Anime Central merch booth was located in 2 areas of the dealer room this year. The usual booth located by the entrance of the dealer room, and the newest addition was located towards the center of the dealer room. Showing off all of Acens merchandise in glass cases from old to new. Providing a media deck giving the best bird eye view of just about all of the dealer room. Under it were backdrop of their mascots photo-ready for everyone that likes to take selfies and group pictures to remember this amazing event!

This years dealer room was set up a little bit different, as we mentioned the bigger companies at the entrance, but the right side of the dealer room upon entering was the artist alley. Rows and rows of unique work done by the artist themselves, in one room! Given the location of the artist alley, it was set up to have its very own entrance as well, giving attendees easy access right into the artist alley. Towards the end of the artist alley, Visiting convention booths were available for attendees to purchase advance tickets to their convention. Up next, was a section for cosplayers! Anime Central provided photo scenes for cospalay gatherings as well for their attendees. We hoping Acen provides more photo scenes to the venue all around for other photo gatherings, this something we have not seen at any other convention and love the idea.

Right next to the cosplay photo scene, was a company that was a first for this years convention, called Bang-Zoom!  With a medium size stage, as well as seats and tables for people to enjoy the show. This wasn’t just any show, Bang-Zoom! is actually a big deal for people that are interested in voice acting. They offered auditions for an anime called March Comes in like a Lion. Yes you heard correctly, Bang-Zoom! is giving the chosen winner tickets to fly to California to their recording studios to help dub the anime. Hoping this isn’t just a one time opportunity, we would love to see more of Bang Zoom! coming to Anime Central, giving inspiration to anyone attending the con and those around the area the chance to fulfill their dreams of being a voice actor.

To the right of their stage, you are faced with tons of Exhibitors with just about everything you can think of to purchase. If you are a figure collector, like ourselves, the exhibit hall is just for you. Sellers with old and rare to find items, as well as new and must have things. Aside of figures, sellers catered to just about everyone, from furry accessories,K-pop merch, Swords, Anime posters, kawaii plushies to hentai.

Held at the Rosemont Convention center, the venue provided lots of food, beverages, alcoholic drinks, and desserts. If fast food wasn’t your thing, within the convention hall, their restaurant was open for you to sit down and enjoy.

We truly love and enjoyed the convention hall, the dealers, the artist alley, and the photo scenes provided, and full heartily recommend checking out the dealer room on your next visit.

Panels

A Convention isn’t a convention without Panels! Every year Anime Central is loaded with panels, with just about any subject you can think of, even non anime related discussions. Panels such as: Godzilla vs Anime, Her legs are how long?, How to make you’re very own video game, Anime improve comedy, Waifu Wars 3D, Whose Line is it Anime, Sports Bras Over Athletic Cups, and tons of others including 18 plus panels, for the adults that enjoy the entertainment.

With over 200 plus panels going on through out the weekend at Anime Central,  it can be hard to decide what to do. For new attendees we recommend checking out main panels like the Masquerade, where talented cosplayer walk on stage and show off their work and craftsmanship to bring the character to life.

We noticed something might have changed this year regarding the panels held at night,  there weren’t any panels scheduled to start after 1am. Previous years at Acen had held panels going on almost all night until the next morning. Leaving you the option of checking out the video programming, video game or board game room if you were looking for late night activities.

Our favorite main event at ACEN has always been the Masquerade and this year’s was special in its hosting format. In a tribute to the legacy of ACEN on its 20th anniversary, the event rotated between several sets of MC’s during different stages of the show. This was a wonderful way to convey the love and dedication that the staff has had for this convention and it’s attendees for the past two decades. It was wonderful to see familiar faces and meet some new(older?) ones to get a grasp on how ACEN came to be and has continued to grow through the years as the reins were passed down to newer generations.

Once the show got started proper, the walk-on section started and we were able to see the best-of-the-best cosplay on stage! Right out of the gate there were several larger cosplays from Escaflowne, Gundam and Pokemon to get everyone excited. They were quickly followed by droves of smaller but no less impressive costumes with a few notable standouts from Overwatch, Suisei No Gargantia and Metal Gear Revengeance (personal favorite!).

Next up was the performance section which is comprised of many skits for attendees to show off their creativity. As with every year, there were some cleverly designed plays dealing with the hottest crazes in the anime and gaming scenes and a couple of misses. That said, it was easy to tell everyone on stage put forth their all into every song, dance or play making the entire experience enjoyable as a whole. A good time indeed!

There was also a performance piece and memorial video done specially to honor a member of the ACEN staff that had passed earlier in the year to honor her love and commitment to the cosplay scene and conventions.

All in all it was a fantastic reminder of all the things we love about ACEN and the people that make it happen. We’ll be patiently waiting to see what pops up next year!

Video Game / Tabletop

Leading into the Video Game Room, Acen has surprised us this year with a massive game room brought together by 3 companies for all the attendees at Anime Central!

Tokyo Attack providing all your favorite rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, Taiko Drum Master arcade, Dance Evolution, Pop n Music, Sound Voltex, Jubeat, Pump it Up, Beatmania. As well as other arcade games such as, Fighting Climax Ignition, Silent Scope Bone Eater, Initial D Arcade, and Super Table Flip.

World 9 Gaming provided consoles dating back to Atari to current generation consoles, PC LAN gaming, and a vast library of games.

Lastly Pachinko Fever, who brought about a dozen of Japanese pachinko machines for the attendees to try.

Sounds like a lot? It was! Which is why the game room was moved to the Rosemont Convention Center. Taking the walkway from the Hyatt hotel, it was just towards the very end on the left entry where you would find the game room, there is no way you can miss it, music and lights were booming as if there was a dance party going on. Upon entering you see a hallway of arcade cabinets and a few pinball machines. Moving forward you enter the mother load of all games, with retro consoles, the PlayStation VR, tons of DDR games, Rock Band  with a dedicated stage, 3 projectors showing the tournaments going on, almost at each corner.

This years game room was by far the best we have seen out of all convention we’ve been to the past years. We highly recommend checking out the game room when attending Anime Central!

Guest

Anime Central brought phenomenal guests this year, which featured:

• DJ Amaya • Daniel Coglan • Jillian Coglan • Crispin Freeman • Toru Furuya • Gacharic Spin • DJ HeavyGrinder • Imeruat • Eric Maruscak • May’n �� Helen McCarthy • Emily Neves • Final Fantasy – A New World • Tony Oliver • Putumayo • Micah Solusod • John Swasey • TeddyLoid • Alexis Tipton • Shinichi Watanabe • Lisle Wilkerson • Mamoru Yokota

A huge combination of international and local guests, to bring us the best of the best! Our highlight was seeing Crispin Freeman, which whom we haven’t meet in a very long time. He is a voice actor known for many roles such as popular series, Naruto, Hellsing, Ghost in the Shell, Big O, Slayers, Chobits, Last Exile, and Witch Hunter Robin. Not only is he well know in Anime industry, but in the Video game too! You can hear his work in Diablo 3 as the male wizard, Helios the Sun God in God of War, and in Transformers: War of Cybertron. He is a very knowledgeable and down to earth kinda guy, and is happy to give advice to just about everyone seeking a career in voice acting.

Another guest we had targeted this year was the craziest of crazy! A man who made an anime with himself as a character in the show called Excel Saga, non-other than Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe. He directed Excel Saga, Nerima daikon Brothers, and Puni Puni Poemy. Just like the anime he produces, he aims to make the audience laugh and have fun, he is approachable and fun to be around, though his English isn’t great, he tries to communicate to his fans and does his best to make you smile. He also held a panel showing off some of his work and some we didn’t know he was a part of.

Our next guest we were super excited to check out was Teddy Loid, a music/DJ artist who performed his work at Hardcore Synergy, also known as the Friday Rave. Very timid kinda of guy in person, but as soon as he gets in the notion of his performance, he shines and shows his rhythm. Which brings us to our next topic to talk about it, the rave!

Rave

One of most popular event at Anime Central is the Rave, like the previous year, Acen sold separate Rave badges for those that were only interested in dancing, listening to music or just enjoy the light show. Every single year the line for the rave just gets bigger and bigger, people lining up hours in advance just to be up close to the stage where you can check out  Acens guest as they put on the best music they have created. Bringing DJ’s from Japan like TeddyLoid! Best known for producing music for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Mekakucity Actors, Popular video Me! Me! Me!, Mugen ***Knights, and Wrecking Crew Orchestra. Another guest of honor is Taku Takahashi, who is part of another group called M-Flo. The group escalated the popularity charts by selling 2 million copies of their soundtrack. Given already the fame, Taku is well known for remixing music for prominent artist across several genres!

We were lucky enough to experience Japan awesome DJ’s all in one roof! The rave is an main event to not miss!

Closing Remarks

We thank Anime Central for giving us the opportunity to enjoy the convention as members of the Press. The opportunity to talk in a more intimate setting with their guest of honor is always the best part.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time and experience at Acen, and every year we are given something to “wow” about. We can not wait to see what Acen will be bring us next year! 🙂

Please be sure to check out our Anime Central gallery for more photos on the event!

Anime Central 2017 Convention Experience:

**Update** A total of 30,221 attendees for 2017

Anime Central 2017 Review was originally published on AnimeDelivered.com

[fuckyeahexofics]

fic search #146

Please use the reply function to answer these. If you do use the ask box (and we prefer you don’t) please give link, # of fic search and # of item in the search. Thank you.

1. deleted by author

pls pls pls help! i'm trying to find a kaisoo fic! it was on ao3! it's a hybrid au! so kyungsoo adopts jongin when he's young and he grows older with kyungsoo over time and as he gets older he starts to develop feelings for kyungsoo and i believe dry humps kyungsoo while he thinks he's asleep! jongin might've woken him up! also there's a part where kyungsoo sits on jongins lap and kyungsoo can feel his bulge and kyungsoo freezes lol and ksoo asks chen and xiumin for advice! thx

2. 

① Hello! Some time ago I've read an amazing fanfic and was silly enough to forget where it was (maybe AFF, I'm really not sure). However, I remember almost the whole plot. The pairing is SuChen, without anyone of Exo members. Rating: PG-13. Genre: AU, angst, happy ending. It starts with Junmyeon knocking on Jongdae's apartment door. When the latter finally lets him in, turns out Jongdae was forced to break up with Junmyeon (by $uho's rich mother, I guess). Jongdae bursts out crying, Junmyeon

② calms him down, they decide to stay together. It isn’t a long fanfic. I’ve been searching for it for a few days and got nothing. If you can help me, it would be great.

3. The Magic of Pixie Dust by MitchMatchedSocks

im looking for a fic where Sehun babysits and takes his nephew + niece to disneyland/a theme park and they're in line waiting to take a photo with a prince/character and his niece asks for ice cream and one of the kids throw a tantrum?? but when they finally get to the guy he turns out to be really cute and the niece makes sehun and the guy "adult kiss" and im pretty sure chen was the photographer and sehun ends up getting the guy's number and promising his niece ice cream?? please help!! thanks

4. Where Is Love by theworldwithkaisoo

welcome back, lovely mods! i read a fic about two weeks ago and despite scouring your blog, i don't think it's recced here. it's a soulmates!au with main chansoo and side sekai, in a world where if one person gets a cut, it shows up on the soulmate's skin. kyungsoo self-harms and finds chanyeol is his soulmate after sehun finds that jongin is his soulmate. kyungsoo's stepmom is abusive and there's a scene where chanyeol helps kyungsoo with a cut. thank you so much!

5. Fearless, Like the Stars by minnuet

Hi! So, I'm looking for a xiubaek fic that was on archive of our own I believe. It was a mama au, kinda space adventure fic, where only a certain few had powers. Luhan, junmyeon, chanyeol and jongdae are all in it, with Kyungsoo as the villain. Minseok had been exiled from his own planet and then found Baekhyun and he help Baek discover his own powers. It was kinda a newer fic but I can't find it. Thanks in advance!

6. Progressive Education by Brandedbutterfly

Hi ^^ ok, so I know this might sound pretty vague, but I have no idea where or whom should I ask for help: around 2 or 3 years ago I read a fanfic on aff, most probably hunhan, but my memory may not serve right. It was romance, had a lot of smut, was chaptered (a lot of them) + completed and the most helpful unique thing it had *i hope so*, the author posted pics of herself and her daughter at the end of the chapters in the author note section. I hope you could help me ❤ Thank you!!

7.

Hey admins , there's a wolf!au fic I believe the couple were HunHan where Luhan was the alpha but he liked being the bottom and sehun was the omega and he was the top (or the other way round) , and then the pack finds out and shames luhan or something like asdfghjkl I've been looking for it and I can't figure out its name

8. and we drown in our sins by khrysallis or  nostalgia (n.) by fumerie

hiii I'm so happy y'all are back~ i was wondering if you guys know this fic, too, EXO were "guardians" of their respective power, and I remember Lu Han was the Oracle in it but it wasn't Zodiac. (If that makes sense??) I think it was Hunhan or Lukai, sorry if this doesn't make sense :(

9. Frisk Your Friends by RacyRoulette

Hi I read a fic a while back and I think it was from this blog but I checked the tags and could not find it. It was a gangbang fic I think and baekhyun might have been dared or smthn I can't really remember but I do remember he ended up losing and had to deepthroat a cucumber. Then they had a little competition to see who could deepthroat it further and then all I Remember after that was that they all had sex and baekhyun might have been penetrated by two dicks at once?Dnt remember what site sry

10. deleted by author

Hello wonderful admins of beauty! I am looking for a Hybrid!AU fic with Taoris as main pairing. Tao's a catboy at a new school and Kris looks human but is also a catboy and somehow popular. Also love you guys lots xoxo

11. Young One by strange-seas

I've been trying to find this fic and I've looked everywhere :( it's minseok/(suho,kai or Luhan idk which) ?? Is the prince and minseok starts falling for him. There's asshole cousin sehun and best friend yixing who has one sided love for ??. seok knows he can't have ?? Since the prince can't leave his kingdom behind so seok leaves on a ship with yixing and then a few years later seok meets ?? Again.

12. Redamancy by abcdefghiluvyou (log into LJ to view the fic)

hi! I read a fic aaaaaaages ago and have been having trouble trying to find it again?? it was a/b/o verse nd one member was being given to a new pack as like a gift for the alpha or something?? idk but whilst making the journey to the new pack with like three or four members of it, one of them had to help him with his heat (think they ended up being mates??) I was p certain the pairing was baekyeol but couldn't find it in the tags?? thank you for your help!

13. Play Pretend by cwtchbuddy

Hello, sorry if this is the same that everyone sends but, I'm looking for this fic for a while now ;;;;; is a fanxing where they (fanxing) are roommates and pretend being in a relationship for YiXing avoid some frashman and YiFan want to practice his skills in act, in the end they start a real relationship when found out that they like each other. Sorry if this was a bad discription and thanks for this lovelly blog.’

thank you to all the anons, @just-get-me-my-mineral-water, @teespoone, @thiscitywas, @brezjanae, @iminlovewithkyungsoo, @cactus-boii and @kaisoo-catalog

[tigerlover16-uk]

Anime I need to watch (May 2017 update)

... Yeah, I’m a day late with this because I never had the time to sit down and do it yesterday. It’s been a bit busy for me around here, so let’s just get started.

Luckily this one should be quick because honestly... I didn’t actually make much progress this month. Even though I keep meaning to get back to it, I still haven’t watched any more of Yu Yu Hakusho than I had last month, though I fully intend to catch up on it this month. Mostly I just kept getting distracted from it, especially since I got ahold of some DVD collections for other anime. Doesn’t help probably that I was re-watching the Frieza saga of DBZ for fun this month, plus some old movies like the first Yu-Gi-Oh film (I won’t give my thoughts on those since those are things I’d already seen before).

To count, I only watched 3 movies on my last list and I’m part way through 2 other series, Soul Eater and Fairy Tail, which I’ve been watching on DVD.

First off, continuing my catch up on the Pokémon movies was the duology Pokémon Black and White movies... which have probably the dumbest gimmick for a movie I’ve ever seen. Seriously, all the little differences here and there really don’t justify making two different versions of the exact same story. The games can get away with this because it’s been a tradition since the start and different versions give us different Pokémon to catch, but you can’t get away with this idea for movies where the story is the entire point.

And the story isn’t even very good. Honestly, I watched both versions and I still only have a vague recollection of what actually HAPPENED throughout half of these films. A lot of the stuff I do remember was pretty underwhelming. The battle between Reshiram and Zekrom was one of the most anti-climactic in the whole franchise and not even fun to watch for how short it is. Victini is cute, but doesn’t really offer anything that a bunch of other cute legendaries can’t offer in these movies. The climax was a bit dumb, and honestly it was just a dull, forgettable experience. I’m having trouble finding words to really describe these films, they were just lackluster.

And the sad thing is, I can’t seem to find the DVD’s for practically any of the other Pokémon movies that I still haven’t watched besides the most recent one that just got released in my country. So I haven’t watched any more Pokémon movies this month. Honestly looking around, I’m not even sure most of them even have UK dvds made for them, which would be a pain in the neck if that’s really the case. Luckily I do have the Kyurem movie now though, so expect my thoughts on that by the end of June. I just hope I can watch some of the other films by then.

And since I was feeling nostalgic for Naruto, I decided to finally check out some of the movies, starting with the first one Naruto: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. Which was awesome. Oh, it was nothing spectacular or amazing, feels like it would have been a fairly typical arc for the show in some ways. But as a movie it really works as a cool action movie that embodies the charm and spirit of the first half of Naruto. The production values are great, the action is good, there’s plenty of fun moments and Princess Koyuki was an interesting character. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking or up there with the best stories from the show, but it was a great film, I’d gladly watch it again. I can’t really remember if I had any issues with it, though I didn’t go in with a critical eye so who knows.

And then I also watched the first Shippuden movie. Kinda felt like a somewhat less good re-tread of the former film in some ways, honestly. Shion was a good character but I didn’t really like her as much as Koyuki, the villain was alright, and the story was pretty good, and it was nice to see Lee and Neji get some screen time. Though at the same time, it didn’t feel quite as enjoyable as Clash in the Land of Snow. But maybe that’s just me. I don’t remember quite as much from this movie as the first one though.

Also this month I ended up watching the first 48 episodes of Fairy Tail after buying the first two DVD collections, and honestly... I’m loving it so far. It starts off a bit meh with the first few episodes, but once it gets to the first real arc it’s a really good show. Kinda silly and stupid at times, but it’s pretty fun. The characters are likeable, I like the art and music, and really it’s just the kind of fun, kinda cheesy yet awesome show that I enjoy. I know it gets a lot of flack for being stupid, having overpowered characters, constantly hammering in the whole “Friendship is awesome” concept in really thick and having a laughable amount of fanservice, but honestly I don’t really find any of those to be an issue so far (And if I’m being honest, having watched some of Soul Eater straight after it, I think that show has more frequent and obnoxious fanservice at times, Fairy Tail doesn’t seem all THAT bad compared to several anime I’ve seen honestly. Though I hear the anime tones it down a lot, so what do I know?). But then again, I’m only 48 episodes in, so who knows.

Honestly so far it’s just a really fun, charming show. A little cliché and relying on some stereotypical shonen tropes, but honestly I don’t mind that sort of thing when the overall experience is an enjoyable one. I’ve got some more dvds in the post this week, so I’m happy to watch more of it. Honestly, Fairy Tail feels like the kind of crazy fun anime I’ve been looking for to pass the time with. I’d give my thoughts on the whole show, but honestly a lot actually happens in those 48 episodes, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover everything and this stupid update is already late, so I’ll just leave with those general thoughts and maybe go into more detail in a different post if anyone cares.

And as I mentioned I also watched the first 28 episodes of Soul Eater. I’ll save my overall thoughts for next month when I’ll have probably finished the whole thing, I’ll just say that for the most part it feels like a just above average anime with some really good elements, some weak points and it’s overall decent, but so far I don’t think it’s anything special.

Aaaaand... I guess that’s it for now. I didn’t watch nearly as much anime as in April, but I had a lot of other things going on this month (And I’ve still got plenty of stuff to sort out right now, especially with this stupid car of mine) and other shows to watch. I don’t really know how productive June is going to be, at the very least I plan to finish Soul Eater and hopefully Yu Yu Hakusho, or at least the next arc of it. I know I’ll be watching Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark side of Dimensions whenever it arrives in the post (I’m so excited to finally watch it), I’m going to watch at least one more Pokémon movie and 5 Centimetres per second. And definitely some more Fairy Tail. Other than that, it’s all a bit up in the air right now. I’m just going to try and sort out my personal life more than anything. So sorry if this update ended up short and skimping on details, I just don’t have as much to say. Looking forward to the next month of anime goodness though.

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series)

Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho (Up to episode 67)

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (Up to episode 48)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater (Up to episode 28)

Code Geass

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Natsume’s Book of Friends

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eureka 7

Black Cat

Black Shooter Rock

Gunbuster

Afro Samurai

Space Dandy

Vision of Escaflowne

magical girl lyrical nanoha

Shin Sekai Yori

Baccano

Cyborg 009

Gaogaigar

Danganronpa

Yo-Kai Watch

Pretty Cure

Future Boy Conan

Yona of the Dawn

Movies:

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: Bonds Beyond Time

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend awakened

Pokémon: Kyurem vs the sword of justice

Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pokémon: I Choose You

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

Boruto Movie

Fairy Tail the movie: Phoenix Priestess

Fairy Tail the movie: Dragon Cry

Godzilla: Monster Planet

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

[crystalusafanseries]

Rewritten Episode One of SPC

In Sodukai, a red and white house could be is shown, and if you were to open the door, go upstairs and turn to the right, a brown door is seen. If you were to open the door, you could find what looks like a girl’s room. Purple striped wallpaper covered every wall in the room, including the ceiling. Books were scattered all over the floor, anime dvds were on the bed, and the floor was hardwood, with a purple heart-shaped carpet. There was an alarm clock on a purple dresser, as well as a purple bed with a plain white sheet and cover. This Was Kohura Yume’s room.

Kohura Yume. 15, girl, certainly gay. Kohura usually went to sleep at 10:00PM and ironically, woke up at 10:00AM each morning. This wasn't good, though. She had school, and going to school required her to sleep early.

Her alarm clock rang. She wanted to get up and turn it off, but if she did, her mother would notice and she would have to get up. A couple minutes later, she had no choice but to move her hand forward and turn off the damned thing. "Ugh. I hate this shit", she groaned.

Like she feared, her mother heard not only the alarm clock get turned off, but also Kohura's groan. "Kohura!"

"Mama-sama. I'm sleepy, school isn't necessary..."

"Yes it is, young lady! You will get up and go to school now!"

"But mama-sama, I didn't eat breakfast", Kohura whined.

"You should've woken up!"

"But mama-."

"Shut it. Go to school, now,” her mother snapped.

"Fine."

Annoying old lady. You go to school. 

Sekai High School was a hell which was called school. Everybody was getting pregnant, people were forming gangs, cliques were appearing here and there, people were are bullied severely, and, worst of all, the lessons themselves. The school work was stressful, you had too many tests, and the teachers were assholes. And probably even worse , she had to walk because her mother was too lazy to drive her there.

Examples were nearly everywhere.

A girl, Haruna Aoi, 16, tried to walk forward until the school bully, Nagisa, pushed her out of the way, making her fall over while Nagisa and her friends laughed.

“Excuse me.”

“Do I need to excuse you? Why don’t you excuse us?”

The girl backed up some, letting the bullies go first. “Uh, ok.”

They didn’t let her though. With a small push, the girl fell in a puddle of water, and without feeling any remorse, the bullies simply laughed.

“Haha. Excuse us, next time.”

The general appearance of the school was beautiful, with flowers growing, a small garden, water fountain and the main school building was a bright, clean violet. But remember, don't judge a book by it's cover.

Well, that was Kohura’s idea, after all.

She thought for a second. Will the teacher let me in if I'm late? She had to see. Kohura opened the tall, silver door and nearly fell over before bumping into Hinata. "Ouch.." To give her a quick hello, she gave her a kiss and clung to her face.

"Ko-chan! I'm happy to see you today!"

"Gay. And please don't talk to me until after class, I'm trying to get to my classroom, plus I'm running late."

She ran past Hinata, leaving Hinata was a very deep frown, and up the stairs as fast as she possibly could. The adrenaline in her body pumped out at maximum speed. The con was that she nearly fainted while eventually making it to the classroom.

"Miss...Shibu", she said between gasps for breath.

The teacher quickly looked at her wristwatch, giving Kohura an angry glare. "Yume. It is 10:45."

"Oh that little bitch! I'm going to get my hands on her-"

She was cut off by Nagisa before finishing her sentence."Get your hands on..your girlfriend? Lol wow, I'm surprised you two aren't already, ahem 'active'."

The sex joke. Again. Kohura was not truly interested in that at all, and she hated when Nagisa, the bully, teased her about it.

"Whatever...Nagisa, you're a pathetic ass as always."

"Ignore Nagisa, Kohura. As a 10th grader, I expect good grades, including appropriate attendance. Also, Kohura, watch your mouth, please. This is class, not recess. Swear like nobody’s watching elsewhere."

Rolling her eyes, she responded to the teacher. "I woke up late, Shibu. I sleep later than the other students, and I wake up later. Yes, I have an alarm clock but I ignore it, mostly. Also, my mouth doesn’t need to be ‘watched’."

"That doesn't matter. If you are late again, you will have to wait in the hall. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Now, begin and finish your work, promptly."

The Land Of Love was a bright and happy place, located in the sky. Filled with rainbows, people got married and fell in love everyday. The land was free of sin. Everybody loved everybody.

Today was also the first day of the Festival Of Love, and annual event that celebrated even more love. People also called it the 'circle festival'.

A few days ago, the queen, Queen Mizuyu, aka Mizuyu Kotoko, got a threat from a city located in the land of love. She decided to let it slide at first, but then she got more and more messages each day. She was need and she had to do something. Your sister, your sister is coming! You must do something!

Today, a hot pink bear-like fairy was sitting on the lap of Queen Mizuyu. Admiring the queen's beauty, the fairy rubbed her paws on the queen's long, pink hair.

Mizuyu’s grin disappeared and she took a deep breath. "Heartshine."

"Yes, my queen, ~hafa."

"I need you to be plan and be in charge of the Festival Of Love."

Heartshine’s nearly shrieks, but replies with a higher voice tone than usual."For what, ~hafa?"

"In another city, called Ai, they have sent me a message. A message alerting me of a threat. And, as the queen, I have to take action in some way."

"But-"

"Heartshine...please, do this. Do this, for me.."

No one could reply after that, they were too shocked to talk. A large cloud of black smoke appeared, burning everyone’s eyes, stinging their throats and prickling their skin. And,  if you looked closely, the body of a woman could be seen.

The woman emerged from the smoke, with a big grin covering her evil-looking face.

This woman was Shizuku, Queen Mizuyu's younger twin sister. She looked like Mizuyu: brown skin, pink hair, same body shape. She was here, currently, to get revenge on Mizuyu. Mizuyu was chosen to become queen because of her intelligence, lady-like matters, her older sister figure, and many more factors got her chosen, instead of Shizuku.

Shizuku wanted to rule, and got upset over this. But, Mizuyu, however, wanted Shizuku's help. Shizuku refused, and ran away, far away, in an abandoned place called the infinity fortress.

“Queen? Who’s that ~hafa?”

“It’s my twin sister, who I never thought I would see again.”

“But why is she here ~hafa?”

“Maybe to...get revenge.”

“But why does she want revenge ~hafa?”

“Let her explain. She can talk.”

Shizuku smiled more, mocking her older sister’s deep, worried voice."Onee-chan. I don't mean to capture you, but it's the only way for me to become queen of this place."

"You aren't fit for being queen though. You have to rid yourself of your selfishness, and think more about other's. Smile."

"Funny, really funny. I need you..gone. Don't worry though, I'll keep you safe, in my fortress!"

A black swirl of bright smoke and light lifted up Mizuyu, sucking out all of her magical energy and making her weak. After the smoke was gone, Mizuyu collapsed on the ground, left with no power.

Mizuyu’s body is then picked up by Shizuku, who smiles and travels back to the infinity fortress with her. The second before collapsing, she let out a yell to Heartshine. "Find the Pretty Cure for me!

Kohura was in the hall looking for Hinata. She wanted to at least give an apology for the incident that happened earlier.

It was lunch time, so all the students were currently running out.  This was a great time for Heartshine to sneak in when one of the lunch teachers walked into the building. Heartshine ran in the hallway, too, trying to see who was a Pretty Cure or not. She did not want to get seen, so unknowingly, she went into Kohura's bag using Hinata’s locker.  However, she peeked out of the bag a bit, seeing Kohura's face.

Is she a Pretty Cure? I mean, it could be possible.

Finally, Kohura found Hinata. "Hinata-"

Hinata made a depressed face at Kohura, with her arms crossed. Trying to avoid possible eye contact, she turned around. "What...you ignored me earlier..."

"Aww, come on. I was late."

"I was 15 minutes late too, Ko-chan."

This had to end soon. Kohura wanted it to end. Girlfriends don’t stay mad or sad at each other 24/7. In her most apologetic voice, she continued taking. "Anyway, Let's-"

They heard someone talking in Kohura's bag. Hinata opened the bag, and looked closer. She saw a small bear like creature.

Hinata screamed and backed up. Having a horrified expression on her face."Ko-chan! There's a creature in your bag!"

"What! Get it out!!"

"Ok! I don't even know what is it so! Uh, come here, kitty kitty!"

"IS IT A BREATHING DOLL! GET THE BREATHING DOLL OUT!"

Heartshine didn’t want to use her suffix now. She was highly nervous and she was in a hurry."I'm not a doll!"

"IT TALKED", they both said at the same time.

"Look, you two. I'm not a doll, and I'll explain myself. This could take a while, though..."