#to look at Minoa wrong

[lesserfandomappreciation]

Ariadne and why the Mycenaeans can fuck right off

Warning: Includes brief mentions of r*pe, cultural destruction, ancient patriarchy reminding us why no woman would ever time-travel more than 5 years into the past if that and a great deal of spite for male historians/public education history/mythology classes. 

Possible side effects may include a sudden intense rage for an ancient society equivalent to the innate rage one has for the Romans burning the library of Alexandria, a distinct hatred for ancient men not being able to let anyone have nice things, and a sudden fascination for Minoa. 

Usually, I stick to writing imagines and being happy with that. It’s fun! I love it! But every now and again, in an attempt to escape the crushing forces known as reality and responsibilities I’ll put on a few cutscenes from games I’m: A) Too lazy to play B) Too broke to play C) Too unskilled to play D) All of the above

because cutscenes are free and why torture yourself with impossible levels when its free on Youtube?* *In all seriousness please support video games and video game creators, but no shame to those of us who prefer cutscenes to gameplay.  A few weeks ago I added the game Hades made by Supergiant to the list because the cutscenes were bomb and the characters are so much fun! Intricate as all hell! Hella cute too but that’s unrelated! Now my pretty little simp patootie is especially a big fan of Dionysus and his gorgeous design so the cutscenes with him are my favorite.

I’m re-watching his cutscenes a few nights ago for fun as background when he has a certain line about Theseus. Don’t quote me on this since my memory is foggy at best but roughly it was: Dionysus: Good job with Theseus. Never cared much for him- what he did to that girl was just horrible.*

*I know that’s not his exact line but this is clearly a rant post fueled by spite and ADD-hyper-focused obsessions with ancient civilizations so let’s not worry too too much about the semantics here. 

Now, I like mythology! Personally, I prefer the Norse mythology due to the general lack of very very gross dynamics that several other ancient mythologies seem to include, but I’m decently familiar with Greek mythos. Enough to go - “Why does the God of Wine give a single fuck about the frat bro of Greek heroes being a dick to a woman? Grossness is embedded into the very DNA of all distant relatives of Zeus, a woman being harassed by Zeus or his bastard army is a typical Tuesday in ancient Greece.” 

Wikipedia confirms that Ariadne is the only woman in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I kinda knew already so unless Theseus did some f’ed up shit to some other princess of Minos, Dionysus could only be referring to her. Disregarding what I know about Wikipedia and how it can suck you down the rabbit hole of rabbit holes through sheer fury I stupidly clicked the link to Ariadne’s article. 

By the time we get to the end of this shitstorm, I will have two separate plotlines for two separate stories based of Ariadne, 2k+ notes (and going) on an ancient civilization prior to a week ago I didn’t know existed and within me there will be a rage towards a different ancient civilization I vaguely recall learning about in high school. 

Here’s how this shit went down. 

First of all, apparently after Theseus abandoned Ariadne on an island to die (yep! He did that! To the one person who is the only reason he defeated the minotaur! Fuck this guy.) there are multiple storylines where Dionysus takes a single look at Ariadne and falls in love. 

“A god falls in love?” you say, aware of how most love stories in Greek mythos can be summed up with Unfortunately, Zeus got horny and Hera is a firm believer in victim blaming. “This poor woman is about to go through hell!” I thought so too! And in one variation of the story, Dionysus does his daddy proud by being an absolute tool to Ariadne. In the majority though? He woos the fuck out of her, and ultimately marries her by consent!

Her consent!

In ancient Greece!

The party dude of the Greek pantheon knows more about consent then his father and modern day frat brothers!

Okay! That’s interesting, so I keep reading. 

Ariadne getting hitched to Dionysus is a big deal in Olympus, to the point of getting a crown made of the Aurora Borealis from Aphrodite who is bro-fisting Dionysus, beyond glad she didn’t have to give him the talk about consent. The rest of the gods are pissy especially Hera who doesn’t like Dionysus much since he is the son of Zeus and Semele but they don’t do much. Ariadne ascends to godhood, becomes the goddess of Labyrinths with the snake and bull as her symbol and that’s that on that. 

Colorin, colorado, este cuento se acabado.  And they lived happily ever after. That’s the end of the post right?

NO! Because curiosity has made me their bitch and there’s more to this calling me. 

Also, I was pissed! Still am! Why the fuck-a-doodle-do did I have to learn about the time Poseidon r*ped a priestess instead of the arguably healthiest relationship in the entirety of the pantheon? Why is Persephone and Hades’ story (which has improved since it was first written and I like more modern versions of it, no hate) the only healthy-ish Greek love story I had to learn when Dionysus and Ariadne were right there? The rage of having endured several grade levels of “Zeus got horny and Hera found out” stories in the nightmare of public education led me to keep looking into this. 

There’s this wonderful Youtube channel called Overly Sarcastic Productions that I highly recommend that delves a lot into mythology, and I have seen their bombass video about Dionysus and how his godhood has changed since he was potentially first written in a language we comprehend. 

Did ya’ll know this man is the heir apparent to Zeus? ‘Cause I didn’t know that!

YEA! Dionysus, man of parties, king of hangovers and inducer of madness, is set to inherit the throne of Olympus! Ariadne didn’t husband up the God of Wine, she husbanded up the Prince of Olympus and heir apparent to the throne! Holy shit! No wonder some of the gods were against her marriage to Dionysus - can you imagine the drama of an ex-mortal woman sitting on the Queen’s throne of Olympus? Hera must have been pissed.

BUT WAIT.

There’s more.

The reason we know Dionysus is a very important god and is possibly even more important than we think is because of a handy-dandy language known as Linear B, otherwise known as the language of the Mycenaeans!

For those of you fortunate enough to have normal hobbies and interests, the Mycenaeans were the beta version of the Greeks. Their written language of Linear B is one of, if not the first recorded instance of a written Indo-European language. This language, having been translated, gives us an interesting look at what the Greek gods were like back in their beta-stages before they fixed the coding and released the pantheon. 

Interesting side facts of the Mycenaean Greek gods include:

Poseidon being the head god with an emphasis on his Earthquake aspect, and being much more of a cthonic god in general. 

Take that Zeus, for being so gross. 

The gods in general being more cthonic, as Mycenaeans were obsessed with cthonic gods (probably due to all the earthquakes and natural disasters in Greece and Crete at that time)

Several of the gods and goddesses that we know being listed, alongside some that we don’t consider as important (Dione)

The first mention of Kore, later Persephone, but no Hades because since a lot of gods were cthonic, there would be no need for one, specific cthonic god to represent the majority of death-related rituals.

That’s not what we’re focusing on though! What we’re focusing on is a specific translated portion of Linear B that we have. One of the translated portions of Linear B that for the life of me I can’t find (someone please help me find it and send the link so I can edit this post) says an interesting phrase. “Honey to the gods. Honey to the Mistress of Labyrinths.”

One more time. “Honey to the gods. Honey to the Mistress of Labyrinths.”

Mistress of Labyrinths. 

Now wait a gosh darn minute. Isn’t there a goddess of labyrinths in the Greek mythos? Why yes! Yes there is! Ariadne!

Here’s a question for you. If Ariadne is but a minor god in the pantheon, a wife to a more predominant god, why is it that while all the other gods and goddesses are bunched together in a sentence of praise, the so-called ex-mortal gets a whole-ass sentence to herself singing praises?

And thus, we have arrived to Minoa!

What is Minoa, you ask? Minoa is to Rome what Rome is to us. An old-ass civilization either older than or younger by a hundred years to ancient Egypt. Egypt, that started in 3200 B.C-ish depending on who you ask. That’s old. Old as balls. They were contemporaries to their trading partner, Egypt until 1450 BC-ish. A 2000 year old civilization.

Minoa was founded on the island of Crete, and was by what artifacts we have found a merchant civilization with its central economy centered on the cultivation of saffron and the development of bronze/iron statues of bulls. Most of what we know about them comes from artifacts and frescoes found on Crete that managed to survive everything else I will mention later, but what matters is that we know a few things about them. 

Obsessed with marine life for some time, given their pottery. 

Had the first palaces in all of Europe, some of them ridiculously big. 

Wrote in Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphs, both still untranslated languages. 

Had a ritual involving jumping over a bull, for some reason. 

Firm believers in “Suns out, Tits out.”

You’d think I’m kidding on the last one but no! No no no! All the women apparently rocked the tits-out look in Minoa!

^^^^One of many, many Minoan works featuring women giving their titties fresh air. ^^^^

“Wait a second Pinks! What does this have to do with Ariadne being the Mistress of labyrinths?”

Well you see dear wonderful darling, while we know very little about Minoan religion because Mycenaeans (we will get to those bastards in a second), we do know this:

All the religious figures appear to be exclusively women.

The most important figures of their religion seem to be goddesses as there are few artifacts featuring male gods.

Because of the religion, the culture may have been an equal society or even a matriarchy! Historians who are male aren’t sure. 

A frankly ridiculous amount of their temples, including the ones in caves in the middle of fuck-all feature labyrinths. A lot of labyrinths!

Their head god is a goddess! Whose temples have labyrinths and whose main symbols are snakes and bulls. Who do we know is a) the mistress of labyrinths and b) is symbolized a lot by snakes and bulls?

ARI-fucking-ADNE THAT’S WHO!

Ariadne didn’t upgrade by marrying the prince of Olympus! Dionysus wifed up possibly the most important goddess in all of Crete and becoming her boy-toy! 

I’m not even kidding, most Minoan depictions of the goddess’ consort features a boy/man who cycles through the stages of death. Dionysus himself in several myths goes through the same cycle - life, being crushed, death, rebirth, repeat.  Cycles the consort goes through in Minoan legend depictions too!

Okay, that’s great, but what does that have to do with the Mycenaeans? Why do you want to single-handedly go back in time and strangle the beta-Greeks with the nearest belt?

Everything I just said about Ariadne being a Minoan goddess, the Mistress of Labyrinths being hella important on Minoa, is all theoretical. The Mycenaeans are partially to blame for making it theoretical. 

Minoa thrived for 2000 years but it had a lot of issues, mostly caused by natural disasters. Towards the end of their civilization (1500 BC-ish), the nearby island of Thera, today known as Santorini, decided to blow up. The island was a hella-active volcano that when erupted, destroyed a lot. 

How big was the eruption? Well when Pompeii was wasted by Mt. Vesuvius, the blast was heard from roughly 120 miles away, 200 km. 

The blast on Thera was heard from 3000 miles away. 4800 km away.

Fuck me, the environmental effects of the explosion were felt in imperialistic CHINA.

Holy shit that would waste anybody! And it did! Minoa went from being a powerhouse in the Mediterranean to scrambling to recover from losing 40,000 citizens and who knows how many cities. Tsunamis may have followed the blast, further destroying ports which for a navy-powerhouse of an island nation is a bad thing and the theorized temperature drops caused by a cloud of ash lingering for a while would have destroyed crops for the year.

Minoa was fucked. 

The Mycenaeans and all their bullshit made it worse.

Up until a few hundred years prior to Thera’s explosion, Minoan artifacts don’t depict much in terms of military power. Why would it? Crete is a natural defense post. Sheer cliffs, high mountains and a few semi-fortified areas would make it pointless to invade. It’s only when the Mycenaeans in all their bullshit decided to attack/compete that Minoa really needed any army to speak of.

Guess who decided to invade while Minoa was reeling from an incredibly shitty year? Mycenaea!

Guess who won?

Also Mycenaea!

Nobody knows how this shit went down though because wouldn’t you know it, the Mycenaeans in all their superiority-complex glory decided to destroy most written accounts about Minoa, a good junk of the temples and culturally eliminated most of Minoan beliefs. 

Minoa isn’t even the real name of the civilization! It’s just the name Arthur Evans, the guy who re-motivate interest in Minoan archaeology, gave to the civilization because the writings that would have included the name of the civilization were destroyed.

“That sucks!” Fuck yes that sucks! “What does that have to do with Ariadne though?”

Oh ho ho. Strap in because you’re about to be pissed. 

Those of us unfortunate enough to be aware of all the bullshit the Christians pulled on the European pagan belief system are familiar with the concept of cultural, religious destruction. There’s a special name for it I don’t know but if I did I would curse it to be absorbed by the horrendous will of fungi. 

An example: Christianity was not the most popular of religions amongst the Vikings. A monotheistic religion that is heavily controlled did not strongly appeal to anyone with a pantheon as rad as the Norse one. 

In order to appeal to the Vikings, what monks would do is they would write down traditionally Viking stories which up until that point were orally passed down. Beowulf, the story of the most Viking Viking to have every Vikinged, was one of these first stories. 

However! Did these monks write Beowulf as closely to the original oral transcript as possible? Of course not! They took liberties! While Norse features such as trolls and dragons and all sorts of Norse magic occur, there is a lot of Christian features added in. 

This happened across all Pagan religions that Christianity came into contact with in Europe. Stories would be altered when written down to be more Christian (this happened to the Greek Pantheon too btw), holidays that were Pagan magically lined up with ones the Vatican just happened to suddenly have. Even names of mythological figures were taken and added onto Christian figure names. Consequently, a lot of pagan religions they did this to got erased over time, with many of their traditions and details being lost forever, and the details we do know being tinted by Christianity.

The Mycenaeans were likely no different. 

Minoa and Mycenaea were as culturally opposite as can be. Minoa is theorized to be a matriarchal or equal society*. Mycenaea and most of early Greece absolutely was not. In fact, during early stages of their religion where they believed in reincarnation, the Mycenaeans believed the worst thing to come back as was a woman. 

Did you get that? With your options ranging from man to ever single animal on Earth, a woman was ranked as beneath literal animals in Mycenaean society.

Fuck the Mycenaeans.

* This is not to say Minoa was without fault, as a society that is matriarchal or equal can still have rampant issues such as privilege, classism, racism, sexism and more, but when history has a shortage of civilizations that didn’t treat women like shit, you find yourself rooting for them more. 

 What do you do then, when you take over a society that is very much the opposite of a nightmare of a patriarchy? You fold their beliefs into your own to bait them into yours. Going back to the Linear B line about “Mistress of Labyrinths” that line would/could have been an early tactic of incorporating Minoan belief into Mycenaean belief. Other goddesses and gods were made into aspects of Mycenaean gods. Bristomartis, the Minoan goddess of the hunt, would become Artmeis. Velchanos, a god of the sky, would become Zeus. 

With more time, the religion shifted more into Mycenaean and eventually into ancient Greece as we know it. Through trade other gods and goddesses would continue to shift and change, some being straight up imported (Aphrodite for example). Dionysus himself changed a lot too, going from a God representing freedom and attracting slaves, women and those with limited power into his cult, to a God of parties for the wealthy. 

Theseus and the Minotaur was a myth likely based on a Mycenaean myth based on a Minoan myth that changes Ariadne from an important, possibly the important goddess of an ancient religion and relegates her to a side character in a pantheon so vast that she would be lost within it. 

All of this brings us to today. Today, where as soon as work ended I spent most of the day, as well as the past two days, looking up everything I can on Minoan civilization and added it to my notes. Spite is fueling me to write two possible different stories for two different fandoms where Minoa dunks of Mycenaea and it is giving me life. Expect an update within the next two weeks folks as I lose control of my writing life once more. 

In summary: Ariadne deserves more respect, fuck the public education system for skipping over the good parts of Greek mythology instead of the r*pey as shit parts, the Mycenaeans can eat my shorts, and a world were Minoa became the predominant power instead of Greece would be an amazing world to live in.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Pink out. 

[maryroyale]

The lovely @curiouselfqueen tagged me on this one. (Thank you! I love these things.)

Uh. I have *feelings* about these? I have no idea why I feel so strongly, but... uh... there you go.

deep violet or blood red? Both? Not at the same time, but I love both. Purple and red are both power colors, but they convey very different things. Old ladies are allowed to wear both because they have the power to pull it off.

sunshine or moonlight? Oof. My default answer is moonlight? Some of the medication I’m on makes my eyes super-sensitive to sunlight. I’m like a damn vampire. Even on cloudy days I need sunglasses. I like seeing the sunlight through the trees when I’m in the woods? It’s pretty and far less painful.

Don’t get me wrong—I do love the moonlight. It’s so beautiful. Winter moonlight and summer moonlight are gorgeous.

80s music or 90s music? How dare you! Don’t speak to me or my 874 music genres ever again. Seriously though, I really love music. I listen to a wide variety of genres and some artists span decades. I love new wave and synthpop, but I also love pop punk and the swing revival. I can’t say one decade is better than the other.

orchids or dahlias? I like to garden, and from a gardening standpoint it’s dahlias all the way. Orchids are a wildly diverse species (over 25,000 types), but the pretty, delicate orchids they sell in stores are not hardy and require a lot of intensive, specific support. They’ll die if you plant them outside where I live. And the garden outside is what makes me happy and brings me joy.

garnet or ruby? These are such different stones. It’s almost like asking if I like chocolate milk or cola. Yes, they are both brown and you can drink them—but they’re really not similar.

Garnet— it’s semi-precious, plentiful, in use since antiquity. A decent go-to stone for jewelry. Like any gemstone, the color is determined by the type of impurities, so garnet can be almost any color. Blue garnets are the rarest. The Mohs scale for garnet depends on those same impurities because some can actually strengthen the hardness of the stone. Generally 6 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

I like garnets. Depending on the talent of the jeweler you can get lovely pieces set in silver that won’t cost an arm, a leg, and your soul. It was also my mother’s birthstone, so there’s that.

Ruby— Occasionally confused with spinels, rubies are pieces of corundum that contain the impurity chromium. Corundum that contains the impurities iron, titanium, vanadium, or magnesium are usually blue and referred to as sapphires. (Pink sapphires are actually poor quality rubies that the jewelry industry decided to rebrand to dupe the public. Similar to “chocolate diamonds” and other attempts to sell gems that don’t meet the criteria for their type.)

Corundum is a 9 on the Mohs scale. They highly sought after, have a rich mythos surrounding them, and feature prominently in history.

It seems like a lot of hype to me? They’re sturdy pieces of jewelry, not prone to breakage, but they ought to be for the price you pay. They’re pretty, I’ll grant you that.

moths or butterflies? Well, one is nocturnal and one is diurnal. One is fuzzy and stocky and one is smooth and slender. One is drab and one is brightly colored. I feel like I should picks moths on principle. I love Luna Moths. But butterflies are so very, very pretty. Moths I guess?

Aphrodite or Athena? Okay... so, um, here’s where it’s going to get heated. I apologize. I am *specifically* addressing how Athena and Aphrodite were worshipped/treated in Greek myths. I’m not looking at proto versions from Minoa, Mycenae, or Phoenicia. I’m also not looking at later syncretizations with other cultures e.g. Rome. It is the Greek myths that matter here because those are the myths and attitudes that were directly incorporated into Western culture. We’ve learned a lot about their origins, but *those* myths and attitudes were *not* incorporated into mainstream Western culture.

Athena was either born from Zeus’ head or his thigh. Either she has no mother—Zeus is her only parent—or Zeus swallowed her mother Metis (wisdom, prudence, counsel). This is critically important. In Athenian law, the father was the only legal parent. Mothers had no legal rights to their children at all. Athena is a very real symbol of that.

She is often portrayed as the goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and war. She is a goddess of industry (wine and olive oil). The thing we must ask is what kind of wisdom? What kind of war?

Plato argues this in Cratylus— that Athena’s wisdom could be a number of things from divine knowledge to moral intelligence. I think it’s important that Plato, one of Greece’s most celebrated philosophers, and more important one of the philosophers most embraced by Western Culture praised this choice of “moral intelligence.” [see Plato’s stance on poets in The Republic.]

Athena’s war is not the war of Ares, which is tied to passion and emotion. Ares represents the brutal aspects of war where humanity gives way to cruelty and inhumanity. Athena’s warfare is rational and “just.” Athena makes war on behalf of the city-state. Athena makes war to defend the government.

Athena’s purpose in myth and in poetry and song is to support the government. She is the shield of the king. She upholds and enforces the status quo. Look at her role in the Orestes trilogy. She supplants the Erinyes [the furies originally hunted and tormented ppl who committed matricide]. She decides that Iphigenia’s murder didn’t matter. Clytemnestra (Iphigenia’s mother) didn’t have the right to revenge for her daughter. Orestes was *justified* in murdering his mother because she killed his parent, his father.

Aphrodite also has a motherless birth, but it’s more incidental and spontaneous. Kronos cuts off his father Uranus’ genitals ( like you do ) and tosses them into the sea. Aphrodite is born from the sea foam. There’s a different feel to Aphrodite’s myth. An independence almost. Yes, a male god was involved because it’s a Greek requirement for any child, but it’s in such an incidental way. There was no purpose or intent on Uranus’ part. He had no control over her birth.

Aphrodite is an incredibly independent goddess. She owns her own sexuality and has autonomy over her own body. She is often referred to as the wife of Hephaestus, but in both the Iliad and Hesiod’s Theogony, Hephaestus has wives with different names and Aphrodite is unmarried.

A goddess with this kind of freedom and power in her own right—not tied to a husband or male family member (sorry Artemis!)— is almost unheard of. It makes Aphrodite unique and interesting.

TLDR: I prefer Aphrodite.

grapefruit or pomegranate? Pomegranate. For so many reasons, not the least of which is it’s associations with death and fertility. It’s a lovely contrast and a reminder that death brings forth life e.g. Nurse logs.

angel’s halo or devil’s horns? Oof. This is another rant, guys. Horns as a symbol of divine power are used throughout history and throughout the Indo-European culture. From Egyptian gods like Amun and Isis to Hindu gods like Śiva to Canaanite gods like El and Yahweh, horns have been used to show their power and might. Moses has most famously been depicted with horns due to murky/difficult translations of the Hebrew verb keren/qaran, which can mean BOTH “to send forth beams/rays” and “to be horned”.

There was a concerted effort to associate horns with the devil/evil/bad. Horns are also used to imply fertility/abundance, and that may have played into the perception of horns as devilish. Moses with horns was used as a jumping off point to demonize Jewish people during the Medieval period in a variety of European countries and cultures.

Halos, too, have been used across history and cultures as a symbol of divine power. Sumerian literature talks about a bright emanation that appears around gods and heroes. Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art shows Buddhist saints with halos.

I choose horns because I choose to reclaim that divine power. I reject the idea that either symbol is wholly good or wholly evil. I reject the idea that sexuality by itself is evil/wrong.

sirens or banshees? Both!!! I must admit a partiality to Sirens that is based wholly on my preference for the sea/ocean.

lorde or florence + the machine? Both!!! I love both groups and I’ve listened to their albums so many times. I will admit that I end up listening to Lorde more often when writing.

the birth of venus or the starry night? Huh. I’m going to assume that you mean the painting by Boticelli, even though there’s more than one Birth of Venus.

Honestly, Venus Anadyomene (Venus rising from the sea) is my favorite. It’s her origin myth and anyone could paint it, draw it, write about it, and put their own spin on it. It is malleable because it is myth. It lives on and changes and grows with us. Boticelli’s version is particularly lovely.

Starry Night (1889) belongs to VanGogh. No one can really recreate it without copying his style or his vision. Verschuier’s The Great Comet of 1680 Over Rotterdam could never really be confused with Starry Night. Not even Munch’s Starry Night (1893) could be confused for VanGogh. The two paintings are wildly different in subject matter despite the fact that their subject is the night sky.

I doubt any modern painter would dare. O’Keefe called hers Starlight Night, and I can only guess that others would follow that naming pattern of not quite using the title Starry Night.

Boy, I bet @curiouselfqueen is regretting tagging me now... sorry?

[bunnyramen]

Shinsou took a long deep breath, a bit nervous for his first day in Class 1a. He had been moved somewhat abruptly when some grape kid was expelled, Kinetic was it?

The lavender headed boy normally didn’t get nervous, it usually only showed on the inside.

But anyone could tell from his stance and his tightened back pack straps that he was mentally sweating bullets.

He decided to just go for it, it’s usually what Pops (Mic) told him to do, or at least that’s what he did when he asked out Dad.

And his brother Todoroki was in here, it shouldn’t be too bad.

He slid open the door to reveal everyone in little spots talking about whatnot, only some turning to look his way.

“Hey Shinsou!” The boy he had gotten to know as Kirishima Eijirou left his small group gathered around a couple desks and started walking towards him.

Was it normal to be squinting in a ordinarily lit room, or was this guy just that bright?

“I’m so glad you got to come to our class, especially with such a cool quirk! I mean when you’re in it, it feels so strange! Like this one...” once again, Kirishima began to ramble about something that Shinsou really wanted to pay attention to but couldn’t.

—-

“It looks like another person has fallen victim to Kirishima’s cuteness.” Kaminari shook his head sadly as he watched Kirishima y’all at Shinsou, remembering the first time he met Kirishima.

Min had been pushing him to be more outgoing during the summer before U. A. and it really paid off when he confidently introduced himself to Kaminari, the blonde was a bit star struck .

He had no choice but to befriend the overly bright boy.

—-

“Sorry, I’m talking too much, aren’t I?” Kirishima stopped himself right in the middle of his story. He looked up questioningly at him, Shinsou noticing their height difference.

“Yeah, but it’s fine. I mean, I’d rather have someone talking to me than being ignored.” He chuckled nervously, putting a hand on his neck.

“Well, I know you know Kaminari but you’re going to love Mina, Sero, and Jirou! I don’t know about Bakugou, ‘cause of the sports festival but we’ll see.” Kirishima grabbed his other hand and started bringing him over to his group of friends.

Shinsou’s cheeks turned pink without his will nor consent.

—-

“It hasn’t even been three minutes and his cheeks are already pink from being in close proximity of Kirishima. That’s gotta be a new record!” Mina pointed out as the lavender boy was brought over to their group.

“I’m surprised Kirishima doesn’t notice every time it happens.” Jirou put her feet on the desk, showing off the new patch she put on her pants. She was pretty proud of it since it was made by Momo herself.

“You know how dense Kirishima is, if the world’s oxygen cut off for five seconds, he’d probably still try and continue breathing.” Sero flicked a paper football through Kaminari’s waiting fingers, hitting the boy in the nose.

Bakugou nodded in agreement, going back to finishing up his English homework.

“Hey guys!” Speak of the angel, Kirishima came into hearing distance with Shinsou in tow, slightly hunched because of how low Kirishima’s hand was.

“Sup Shinsou!” Kaminari turned around in his chair since he was facing Sero.

“Hey, you’re that kid from the sports festival! Welcome to class 1-a!” Mina patted him on the back rather roughly, pushing a cough out of Shinsou.

Bakugou looked him up and down, “Ew.” He mumbled.

“Dude, be more respectful! If it were Minoa or whatever, I would say have at it but Shinsou’s nice!” Kirishima unknowingly held the lavender haired boy’s hand a bit tighter, momentarily forgetting that they were still holding hands.

“Boomer is just mad that Shinsou spit facts before the sports festival.” Kaminari dogged the oncoming pencil with about as much grace as a broken legged gazelle, the pencil clocking him in the side of the head.

“Denks, are you okay?” Kirishima walked over to him quickly, letting go of Shinsou’s hand, who wouldn’t admit to himself that he missed it already.

The redhead checked the side of Denki’s head, sighing when he found nothing wrong.

“Dude, that was so rude! You could’ve seriously hurt Denki!” He hugged the blonde to his chest protectively, Kaminari’s cheeks rapidly turned a bright red fire hydrant color.

He laughed dazedly, seeming to be having the time of his life.

“Well, he should shut the fuck up if he knows what’s good for him!” Bakugou raises another pencil threateningly, Kirishima glares at him.

“You throw that, and you’re history.” Kirishima raised an eyebrow, daring him to do it.

Bakugou stares for a while before putting the pencil down and going back to his work, Kirishima smiling.

The redhead breathed in to say something but Aizawa came in, telling everyone that butts should be in chairs and mouths should be shut.

Aizawa tiredly trudged up to the podium, asking for Shinsou to come up next to him.

Shinsou stood up from his place in the back, walking just as tiredly up to the podium next to his Dad.

“This is Shinsou Hitoshi, he’s moving from the General Departments to Class 1-A. Any questions?” Yellow eyes looked around the room for any signs of hands.

“Is Shinsou your son?” Deku raised his hand from the back of the room, getting his notebook ready for a new page.

“Yes.” Aizawa decided in that moment that there was no hiding anything from the observant boy.

There really wasn’t an uproar like Aizawa expected, just small murmurs of “I knew it.” And “That makes sense.”

“Anyway’s Hitoshi, you can go back to your seat.” He patted the boy on the back.

As Hitoshi walked back, he caught glimpse of Kirishima smiling at him, making the corners upturn a bit.

“Alright class, today....”

——-

As Shinsou sat down with Midoriya and the self proclaimed “DekuSquad” for lunch, Kirishima approached him holding a book in his hands.

“Hope you don’t mind but I drew you, as a welcoming present to class 1-A!” Kirishima flipped his heavily stickered sketchbook to a page and handed it to Shinsou, the boy down his chopsticks and grabbed the book.

Shinsou blinked a few times, expecting a child like doodle of some sort but this was so far from it.

Ochako looked over his shoulder, failing to keep in a small gasp.

It was him, but he was in action, using his capture weapon to tie up bad guys, he looked kind of like spider man with his webbing. The hero outfit he had on was styled with so much detail and finesse that it looked like a photograph at first glance.

He very much liked the design.

“Kirishima, this is amazing. Do you mind if I keep it?” Shinsou said monotone and deep, as he always did, but you could tell something different was behind it.

“Oh! Sure thing!” Kirishima looked surprised that he would even ask, ripping out the page in his book carefully and handing it to him.

“Thank you, Kirishima.” He gave him a small grateful smile.

“Of course! No need to thank me!” He scampered off back to his table.

“Wait, there’s writing on the back!” Ochako flipped over and placed it back in his hands.

“What’s it say?” Midoriya finished up his noodles and pushed the bowl away from himself.

“I am quite curious myself, actually.” Iida looked at him, Todoroki doing the same.

Attached to the picture was a little red post it nots, written in Kirishima’s squiggly, loopy handwriting read “Hey Shinsou! Wanna go out for ice cream after school? My treat! Text me (679-999-8212)-Kirishima”

“Looks like Kirishima-kun likes you, kero.” Shinsou blushed ten-fold at her boldness,

Tsuyu smiling somewhat smugly.

This time Shinsou smiled broadly, Midoriya getting a small shiver down his spine from how uncanny it looked compared to Aizawa- Sensei’s.

He pulled out his phone and typed in the number, replying with a one word answer.

“Yes.”

—-

(Small story to the ice cream shop. Aizawa and Mic also showed us since it was also their date night, and while ordering Mic saw them sitting at a table. Aizawa thinks to himself, “Huh, not blonde like I expected but red is fine too.” And they both go over there and they just all sit together. Kirishima learns that Aizawa Sensei can be really funny in a Wednesday Addams sorta way. Mic says something like “I wish Shouto could’ve been here to see his little brother on his first date!” Shinsou and Kirishima both blush, the other not realizing it did look like a date. And in walks Todoroki, coming in to order his weekly salted caramel ice cream. Mic is loudly waving him over and Aizawa quiets him down. And the 5 of them just eat ice cream together.)

@deepseawave Happy Valentine’s Day!! I love you! I got really inspired by one of your posts (as you can read) and WOW JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH!! YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!

Oh and the backpack! I don’t know if you can see but there are little pins it, Present mic, Eraserhead, Todoroki, Eri, and Midoriya.

[thefutureisyellow]

ἆρα προὐφείλω τι χρηστὸν τῇ πόλει παραινέσαι; εἰ δ᾽ ἐγὼ γυνὴ πέφυκα, τοῦτο μὴ φθονεῖτέ μοι, 650ἢν ἀμείνω γ᾽ εἰσενέγκω τῶν παρόντων πραγμάτων. 

Lysistrata, lines 648-650.

I’m back to the Classics again! Today I helped staff the CU Boulder Classics table at the freshman academic fair. This is an (almost) historically accurate outfit for an Ancient Greek matron that I made for it, with a lot of help from @clearancecreedwatersurvival. Credit to her for the pictures, too.

This look is based on what a married citizen woman might have worn in Athens in the 5th century BCE. It springs both from my own academic pursuits as well as a ton of awesome people on the internet who had incredible tutorials.

A breakdown of this outfit below the cut:

I’m wearing a peplos here, made up of two fabric swatches from Walmart. A peplos is a dress that Greek women would wear, usually made up of one piece of fabric, frequently beautifully dyed and woven. The costume concept mostly comes from the Take Back Halloween group contest we all did years ago, with some minor edits (I’ll include the picture diagram below). We had to use two pieces of fabric for this one due to Walmart fabric size, but you can just use bedsheets. It’s tied with a spray-dyed piece of rope from Michael’s, and pinned at the shoulders with fibulae that I think I got from this shop.

Over my peplos, I am wearing a himaton, which was sort of a wrap or shawl worn by both genders. That’s also a piece of Walmart fabric! It, however, is pinned with safety pins, where it would have also been pinned with fibula.

I am barefoot, which would not have been out of the ordinary for a free woman. Also I didn’t really have any convincing shoes.

My jewelry is fairly accurate, if a little time-displaced. I’m wearing Minoan bee earring replicas, as well as a Roman replica bracelet and ring.

My hair is done as a married woman would do her hair. Single women were allowed to keep their hair down, but married women kept their hair up. This is the hair tutorial I used, by a hair historian! Her channel is awesome.

The make up I am wearing is applied accurately, though I’m not using the actual products they would. Because they were poisonous. Women whitened their face with lead; used ashes for mascara, brow powder, and eyeliner; and a particular type of ochre for both lips and blush. So that was a big no-no. Instead, I used Nyx concealer for my face; a Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen for the eyeliner; Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara for my mascara; the red lip of the Bobbi Brown Sexy Glamour Palette on top of the Bobbi Brown clear lip gloss for the lips; and the red lip of that Bobbi Brown palette for blush. It was kind of slapdash, but hopefully it reflects the trends of the time. Credit to Zabrena on Youtube for the tutorial on how to complete this look!

I was also wearing Black Phoenix Alchemy’s perfume Hetairae, which is based on the perfume worn by Ancient Greek prostitutes. Well, close enough to what I was aiming for. Also it smells great.

The inaccuracies:

The peplos would have been woven with the patterns in it, not screen printed. Also, the Greeks had some sort of incredible weaving that we can’t really figure out, so their fabrics were a lot less likely to fray.

My earrings are pretty wrong. They’re from a different culture (Minoa, which was on Crete) from a different time period (about 1800 BCE). Also, the Minoan bees were a pendant, not earrings. But they look cool, and they’re tangentially related.

My hair is pinned up. Partially because I have a different hair texture, we added a few bobby pins to my hairstyle, whereas Greek women would have just tied it up and hoped. Also, the ribbon would have been wool, not suede.

The make up is missing one crucial element (besides the toxic chemicals): a unibrow. The Ancient Greeks considered them to be sexy and to demonstrate intelligence, but I didn’t want to go too hard for the baby freshmen. 

[ithisatanytime]

One of the best episodes of the original Star Trek features the Mirror Universe, a twisted reflection or our own where our heroes are villains and vice versa (we know they're evil because they all have facial hair. Remember that, kids, facial hair = evil). This mirror (or "bizarro" to pick another pulp trope) universe concept has been shmeared pretty thoroughly, so we don't think we're confusing anyone when we point out our own Mirror Universe counterparts: Nazi websites. Whether they sit around twisting their mustaches is a question best left unanswered, but they do spend quite a bit of time figuring out who's Jewish and who isn't, and — shocker — getting it wrong on purpose to make Jews look bad. Stalin was Jewish. Beria was Jewish. Rosie O'Donnell is Jewish. History's greatest monsters were all Jews? Please. It's all ridiculous, and we spend a lot of our time trying to undo their evil plots before they gain any traction. So when we came across the concept that actor/assassin/stovepipe-hat-hater John Wilkes Booth was Jewish we thought: "ah, darn those bizarro JONJ-ers!" Except, actually, the source is surprisingly legit this time: Booth himself. Booth references his Jewish ancestry in completely antisemitic, hate-filled ways, sure, but do it he does. So was he seriously Jewish or just making rude comments? Sadly our last intern crashed the office time machine joy riding through ancient Minoa, so we're left to guess and so, sadly we're gonna concede this one for now. Apropos of nothing, though, Booth did have a mustache, so maybe he was trying to tell us something, hm?

Jew or not jew.com

look its not all that important to me that john wilkes booth was jewish, i realized this after watching a video about his brother, another famous actor at the time who coincidentally had saved abraham lincolns son from being run over by a train before his brother would assassinate his father. quite a coincidence, but i couldnt help noticing his face, distinctly jewish, so i decided to look into it. this snippet is fucking incredible, and very useful. john wilkes booth was a jew, according to john wilkes booth, and he hated the fact that he was jewish, but you wouldnt know it from reading this snippet, in fact you’d think they had dna evidence and divine intelligence both assuring john wilkes booth was a gentile, and in fact they ranked him a 2 out of ten, with ten being jewish for certain and 0 being certainly not a jew. the boothes hardly matter, maybe they were part of some grander jewish plot, i dont care its history, but read that article again and again until you become intimately familiar with how these people lie

they dont even mention the fact that john wilkes both was most assuredly jewish until paragraph 4 and the spend the whole rest of the article diffusing that fact. i was about 90 percent certain just from looking at his brothers face, but i always verify if its a prominent person, and there are old yiddish papers reporting on his jewish ancestry still strewn about the internet.

[ajholdsamb]

Beaches!

Our next stop on the honeymoon tour was four nights at the Minoa beach resort in Plantanias. Crete has some super fancy resorts on the east side of the island for celebrities, but we wanted to target the wild western side so western Plantanias was perfect with its more of an everyman sort of resort town feel. It was nice to be right on a beach, and in fact we didn't even have to leave the room to have a great view. Our plan for these couple of days was to relax, and visit some of Crete's famous beaches. We spent our first day or two alternating between the room and the beach at the resort. Well boy AJ did most of the swimming, I did a lot of my 'sunbathing' (I'm outside in the sun but completely covered in a towel and either reading or napping). After the craziness of the past month, where we had slept little due to wedding prep it was nice to have some down time. We also made friends with some local shop owners, learned that boy aj was not good at buffets, watched the sunset at 10:00, almost went out dancing, read a lot about Greek history, and I buried aj in pebble sand so he was finding pebbles in his belly button etc for a couple of days (sorry house cleaning!). To visit the famous beaches and the more remote areas of Crete, we knew we needed to get a rental car. Guy aj bravely volunteered to be the driver, and on our third day at Plantanias we set of to find an automatic car on Crete. Since we didn't have gps, we got lots of maps and we also prepared by map questing the directions before hand. The problem is that on Crete most of the roads aren't labeled, each town has five different ways to spell it, and even major thoroughfares will start off by looking like dirt roads... add that to the fact that most of the time there's two way traffic on a slightly larger than one lane road and I'm really glad aj is a safe and cautious driver. Our first driving expedition was to find the nearby beach of Stavros. We managed to get there relatively well (although siga siga (slowly slowly) as the Cretans say). It was well worth the drive, a turquoise clear cove set against the backdrop of an orange desert hill, I can see why they decided to film Zorba the Greek here. Plus it was relatively less crowded, with most beach goers seemingly Greek rather than tourists. We snorkeled & looked for fishes, explored the nearby quarries, & generally just felt honeymoony. On the way back we got significantly more lost, heading in the wrong direction for 15 minutes or so, so when we got home we decided to by an international data plan for my phone so we could have a gps. That turned out to be super helpful the next day when we made the hour drive to Elfonisi! Elfonisi is one of the most well known beaches in Crete, famous for its pink sand, turquoise fish filled water, & long peninsula that creates perfect mild swimming spots. We got there early knowing it would be crowded but we were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find a secluded spot. We explored the less sandy left side of the beach and were able to have a couple coves all to ourselves to snorkel in! Often I feel sites like this are overrated, but I'm pretty sure this beach is the prettiest I've ever seen. We stayed the whole day swimming in various spots, taking a long walk up the hill on the peninsula to the small church and look out at the top. Here we found a cave with a plaque commemorating the lives of hundreds of Greek men women and children who were slaughtered there in 1824 as they awaited ships out of hiding. It was strange that even a place with such beauty had such a tragic history, but Crete has been a central part in so many conflicts over the years that a lot of the island has had a rough past. To conclude, if you're ever anywhere near Crete I highly recommend visiting elafonisi! Next stop the mountains!

[habia1veredaempinadaxahimelanc]

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I really appreciate your article. Do you have any book suggestions on this topic or on how the sex industry is a western/patriarchal creation? I was sexually exploited quite a bit as a child and teenager (raped, dragged into a cybersex ring when I was 11 full of much older men that said all men expected sex and sex talk from me, forced to do things I felt uncomfortable with, recorded). I used to hate myself for being born as a woman. As I began to heal and take psychology courses, I started recognizing how exploitative porn/prostitution is. Women are being used for their bodies and it absolutely breaks my heart. I cry for myself and for the women around me who are seen as body parts. People have always shut me down, calling me a "prude" or saying that I'm trying to take away women's rights or that all men are wired to sexually exploit women, so I usually feel alienated and alone which makes me feel even more like something is wrong with me. But being used and seen as an object took everything away from me. I was so confused and sad growing up (and still am terribly sad) and I don't want any other woman experiencing that pain. I don't want any woman or young girl to believe that she is a commodity.

I guess I should include the caveat that I am a former prostitute/porn girl/stripper, and have found those lines of work to be pretty great at miscellaneous times in my life (getting through school, having a flexible schedule, getting by while focusing energy on non-paying endeavors), so I'm perhaps biased. I get that I was privileged and lucky because I worked in doors, was somewhat educated, wasn't coming to it because it was my only option. But I did feel like a lot of the problems my coworkers and I faced were due to prevailing negative social mores towards women who commodify sex. At the end of the day I feel very strongly that we need to decriminalize sex work, so I do care about these social mores because I don't know how we can fix the system of criminalization without helping people understand that just because they view sex as sacred and non-commodifiable does not mean everyone experiences it that way.

Here's something else I would say to you with regard to the perversity of the arguments you are up against, if sex isn't "sacred" then why is virginity so prized. A woman in Nevada put her virginity up for auction and received an offer of $400,000. She did it because her family home burnt down and her parents cannot afford to replace it. Selfless really isn't the word to describe such a thing now is it. There are people who will argue that this is just fair "mutual exploitation." Consent between adults. But where does the value attribution stop? One person their virginity, another person a kidney or lung to pay overwhelming bills. In some countries a female adult sexuality is defined by - well - very little. Could be defined by the parent who marries or sells her off. Same thing with boys. There are a lot of assumptions placed upon what we think is fair play between humans. Even the classification of what is "human" is something that has changed over time. So we certainly don't need a binary classification system for women to continue. That's how 39 women got tortured and murdered by that horrible pig farmer in BC. Don't need racial (terrible word there is one human race) and class/education and gender discrimination either.

It doesn't sound like you read the article. It's not a value discussion over whether sex is "sacred" (whatever that means) and shouldn't be commodified. (Sex has never been sacred by the way. That's why God and gods rape women, because well - men - just aren't up to the immaculate job. And have a look at Augustine - one of the largest figures in the Christian church - he insisted that without prostitution the world would be "convulsed with lust." Seriously now.) It's about resisting entrenched patriarchal attitudes to women. Those entrenched patriarchal attitudes toward women include dividing them into two identifiable groups based upon sexual behaviors, which in both cases are designed to serve men - prostitutes who are good for providing symbolic skills that indulge men in whatever fantasies they feel they are entitled to (yes sorry - sex really isn't that sacred when it gets right down to it now is it) and wives who are good at other socially symbolic "skills" like sitting on the PTA and community organization and producing children. It's understood that if the wife can prance around in whatever symbolic role will turn her husband on, and keep him happy he "shouldn't need" to use a prostitute. Or that she shouldn't mind, because the whole world of porn/stripping/prostitution is just a form of harmless entertainment, and to complain is to be insecure and jealous. I agree that it does not take much to understand that feminists are not interested in the whole male argument that goes into justifying a view that women's function is to serve men in whatever capacity they deem appropriate. Women have their own agency and their own capabilities and are more than able to rival men in terms of all social contribution and professional achievement. They don't really need men to sit and think anything else about them.

What do your views lead to you to in terms of what should be done in practice? Re decriminalizing/keeping prostitution illegal/some combination thereof.

Hi. I think it's really difficult to suggest a one size fits all solution to a contentious problem for many people in many different ways. I support the current Nordic approach that the conservative government took. I think the new Bill C-16 that has gone up to the Senate may help as well. My opinion is that sex work is a patriarchal institution. This is why I think making it illegal and criminalizing male activity within it is the right approach. It is gender based discrimination and violence, at least, if not also class and ethnically based - which I would say it is. I think it is deep, pernicious and not easy to get at.

So, to you, what does this mean in practice? I disagree with you but appreciate the clarity with which you presented your viewpoints in this article. I get that the existence of the sex trade runs counter to your ideal world, but it has been around as long as humans have and will continue regardless of how accepted or frowned upon it is by society. The United States' system that criminalizes sex work makes it harder for prostitutes to report assault, to properly vet clients, enables law enforcement to both enjoy sex with and then prosecute prostitutes, makes it harder to determine who is a victim of trafficking and who is voluntarily choosing sex work (yes, there is a difference and it matters). From a harm reduction standpoint, I believe decriminalizing is the answer. What do you think?

Julia tleighsmith • a year ago

I know this is from two months ago, but I can tell you, as someone who has a degree in anthropology, the sex trade has not been around since as long as humans have. And please note I believe in decriminalization for the safety of women, but abolishment to overthrow patriarchy. Sex work as we know is a Western system of sex and gender. There is a reason why many Native Cultures, including those in Canada, want it gone: it did not exist before it was forced upon them by Western colonialism, and it stripped women of their traditional power and continues to serve to uphold not just patriarchy but also imperialism. To talk about civilizations and empires, Minoans certainty had no version of sex work, as opposed to Pompeii, which existed in the patriarchy of Rome. Minoa was matrilineal and egalitarian. Even patrilineal societies did not all have sex work, Mongolia is a good example, probably because Mongolian women had a much higher status than Western women. So, to make what could be a thesis statement very short, sex work has not been around as long as humans have, it was never universal until colonialism. In fact, many models of stone-age cultures suggest otherwise, including the San, in which women control resources to the point where they have no reason to depend on sexual relationships for survival. Sex work is a relatively modern human phenomenon (the history of humanity goes back tens of thousands of years) and is specific to patriarchies. Settling for the inevitable existence of sex work fails to take into account the actual history of humanity and civilizations.

[recentanimenews]

Racing or Binge-Watching? Get Hooked on After-School Anime!

  This week, The Hook continues to preview the fall anime season. This time, we're checking out two very different sets of after-school activities. From the rough racing of Twocar to the hardcore geekery that is Anime-Gataris, we're digging into what works and what will get you hooked. Let's find out!

  Twocar

Sidecar racing is both very rough and very real. Teams of two circle a track on a motorcycle fitted out with a specially designed sidecar. One team member drives, and the other (the "kneeler") scrambles around, maintaining the weight distribution around turns and praying they don't fly off on the straightaways. In other words, obviously something safe and exciting for cute high school girls.

  Twocar focuses on the team of Yuri and Megumi, two students who trained with an exceptional coach. But their coach is off participating in the Isle of Man TT (a real thing), and has left the two of them to support each other in their local races. And considering their prefecture contains roads without speed limits, they tend to attract a lot of racers.

  So, as the first episode airs, we find their school's sidecar team facing off against a wide range of competitors: a sadist/masochist combo, identical twins, two goth lolitas, and what looks to be a highly stylish lesbian couple. And while all the teams have their own ways of communicating, Yuri and Megumi prove to be of one mind on the track that day.

  The Hook: And when they win, they punch each other out.

  While the two may be a stellar racing team when they put their minds to it, they tend to be pretty fighty off the track. Their fellow teammates are used to it. But it could prove to be a problem if they want to make it anywhere.

  Who Is It For: Miss Bakuon? Watch Twocar.

But in all seriousness, it is a fun show for anyone who's even a little into motorcycles and racing. And even if you're not, it's an entertaining, action-packed mental break full of colorful characters. And honestly, you can't go wrong with a show that launches with a high school girl making a Good Morning, Vietnam reference.

  Twocar airs Sundays at 9 am PT.

    Anime-Gataris

Minoa isn't much of an anime fan. She watched it as a kid, but doesn't take much interest now. So when school ojou-sama Arisu outs herself as an anime fan and demands to know Minoa's experience level, things get uncomfortable.

  But there is one mitigating factor -- Minoa still dreams of an intense scene from a show she saw as a child, featuring robots and angels and singing magical girls. She decides to ask the school anime club for help identifying the show... except there isn't a school anime club.

  Until now.

  With Minoa's reluctant help, Arisu kicks off an anime club, attracting students from all corners of the fan base. As well as a talking cat who gives Minoa lessons on how to be less of a noob.

  The Hook: As you might expect, this is an extremely referential show... but within literally the first thirty seconds, you're hit with references to Gunbuster, Creamy Mami, Sailor Moon, Macross, Mazinger Z, and several more that go by too quickly to grab. In other words, this is a show that really lays them on.

  The characters' dialogue is rife with off-brand anime titles (Reprika and Ru:ZERO, for example). But even outside the action of the plot, there are homages to other shows. The ending sequence itself is an homage to 3DCG idol dances. Though while there are plenty of modern and near-modern references, the amount of old-school references thrown in is impressive.

  Oh, and there's a possessed beret blowing around the city or something.

  Who Is It For: Fans of the referential humor of Hayate the Combat Butler will enjoy this for sure. And fans of Otaku no Video will see a whole lot of similarities between Anime-Gataris and the Gainax classic. But even if you're a rookie like Minoa and half the references fly over your head, it's still a cute, fast-paced watch.

  Anime-Gataris airs Sundays at 7 am PT.

  -----

  Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos. Her latest story can be found in Ride the Star Wind, available now from Broken Eye Books.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com