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snkpolls · 3 years

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SnK Episodes 73 & 74 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 135 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

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RATE EPISODE 73: SAVAGERY 129 responses

As expected, this highly anticipated episode didn’t fail to deliver and fans absolutely loved it, with over 95% giving it a 4-5 star rating.

I loved the episode 73. The fight between Levi and Zeke was spectacular! The animation was 10/10, definitely worth watching. Good, old Kenny's theme brought memories back. I have to admit that Mappa made Levi look hundred times better and definitely more masculine.

RATE EPISODE 74: SOLE SALVATION 128 responses

While episode 74 generated slightly less enthusiasm across the board, it still managed to garner a high rating from respondents.

when i read the manga version, i wasn't that much moved by zeke's backstory. but with the music, voice and color additions... it's fucking heartbreaking. mappa did an outstanding job. and the tension when he activated the thunder spear???? the animation? we were blessed. ALSO! the movement of the bodies when they threw the ball looked so realistic! it's a tiny detail that i loved.

Zook

WHICH WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF EPISODE 73? 128 responses

Levi vs. Zeke 2.0 got the largest piece of the pie, getting 23.4% of the vote. Behind that was the moment when Levi had to kill his comrades in titan form (14.8%), Armin punching Eren in the face (14.1%), Eren disparaging Armin and Mikasa (11.7%), and at 8.6%, that one screenshot of Armin the entire fandom was thirsting over. Shoutout to the person in the comments who wanted Mikasa to pin them down (the pollster writing this feels the same!).

💥🐒 mOnKe and Lebi 🍄and Jean go BOOM 🐎💥

For me, the real gem of EMA talk isn't that one Armin frame that everyone's going crazy about. It's the frame before it, that low angle of Mikasa half sitting on the table holding Armin down. Holy...I wanted to be Armin so bad right at that moment.

WHICH WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OF EPISODE 74? 127 responses

35.4% felt the most memorable scene from this episode was the ending scene where Zeke triggers the thunderspear and sends Levi flying. Behind that was the moment where Zeke listens to Grisha yelling through the door (18.1%), Zeke and Ksaver coming up with the euthenasia plan together (8.7%) and Ksaver telling Zeke to sell out his parents (7.9%).

EPISODE 73 IS TITLED, “SAVAGERY.” OF THE OPTIONS BELOW, WHICH CHARACTER DO YOU THINK BEST EXEMPLIFIED THIS WORD? 128 responses

In an episode filled with both verbal and physical violence, we asked which character you thought best exemplified the episode’s title. 35.2% felt that Eren was the worst offender with his words and actions against Armin and Mikasa. 29.7% felt that Levi’s violent acts against Zeke were deserving of the title “savagery.” Only 22.7% felt that Floch most suited the episode title, while just a small handful, 12.5%, felt that Zeke is the one most deserving of the term.

HOW BADLY DID YOU FEEL ABOUT LEVI HAVING TO KILL HIS OWN SQUAD? 127 responses

The majority felt, on at least some level, sorrow for what Levi had to do in order to survive and catch up to Zeke. Though a small handful didn’t feel too bad for our Captain.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW WOULD YOU RATE LEVI VS. ZEKE 2.0? 127 responses

In general, the fight received positive reception. Though it wasn’t all hype, as the highest ranking was actually a 4 and not a 5. It was hype, but not quite hype enough for us manga readers.

I loved Levi vs Zeke 2.0 but they really should have used the instrumental version instead of K21, I laughed out loud when I heard that beacuse I felt like it took all the seriousness from the scene

levi and zeke goat

WHY DO YOU THINK FLOCH MADE THE RECRUITS BATTER INSTRUCTOR SHADIS? 128 responses

The majority of respondents feel that Floch’s motivations are a mix of factors. For those who did think there was a more specific reason, though, 16.4% felt it’s simply a matter of Floch having a massive ego trip. 10.2% feel that Floch truly believes what he says about taking out the old and bringing in the new, and 7.8% believe Floch simply wanted to make an example out of Shadis (presumably alluding to the fate of those who resist the Yeagerists).

He was testing if the recruits can go this far

He wants to intimidate people into joining his cause by using violence and threats of arrest and also make them feel empowered by his ideals.

Standard protocol when there's a change of regime, you'd want to eliminate the old guards' influence ASAP.

That's how fascism works

All of the above and the fact that he's a fascist.

HOW CUTE WAS BITTY ZEKE? 130 responses

After a long time waiting, we finally got to see child Zeke in animated form. The vast majority think he was cute as a button, ready to pinch his little baby cheeks! Only a small handful think bby Zeke is anything but cute.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GRISHA’S TREATMENT OF ZEKE? 130 responses

This chapter created more controversy surrounding Grisha after it’s publication. In general, fans still aren’t particularly proud of Grisha’s behavior. 36.9% felt that Zeke didn’t deserve any of the treatment he got from his father, and 24.6% outright want to give Grisha the award for worst parent in the entire series. 24.6% don’t approve of Grisha’s behavior, but they do empathize with the way Grisha must have felt. 10.8% feel that while he could have treated Zeke better, he also could have been much worse.

Zeke was a sweet child but no child deserves to be treated like that regardless of how nice or well behaved they are. Grisha is disgusting.

Grisha was a large dick and asshole and he deserved the all punishment he got.

Grisha is a terrible father but such a well written character

it's crazy to me how people really thought grisha wasn't that in the wrong in terms of how he raised zeke.

DO YOU FEEL THAT ZEKE WOULD HAVE GROWN INTO AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT KIND OF PERSON IF GRISHA HAD TREATED HIM BETTER? 129 responses

Just over half of respondents think it’s possible Zeke could have become a different kind of person if he’d had a brighter and happier childhood, though they didn’t want to say for sure as they feel that Grisha’s treatment wasn’t the sole reason why Zeke sees the world the way he does. 41.9% believe that the outcome of Zeke’s mindset would have been completely different. Only a few think that he would have come to the same conclusions about the world either way.

Unless Grisha gives up being a restorationist I don't see it as better treatment, if he does then yes

Yes. The whole point for the euthanasia plan was that Eldian children don't have to go through what he went through.

WHO DO YOU THINK HAD A BIGGER IMPACT IN SHAPING ZEKE’S WORLDVIEW? 126 responses

When it comes to “father figures” in Zeke’s life, 65.1% believe that Ksaver holds much more responsibility than Grisha does when it comes to the way Zeke views the world.

WHO TURNED OUT MORE LIKE GRISHA, IN YOUR OPINION? 128 responses

Between Grisha’s two sons, 68% of respondents feel that Eren is the brother who turned out much more similarly to Grisha, leaving only 32% who feel the opposite and think Zeke ultimately turned out more like Grisha in the end (For those who are curious, 81% of anime-only fans feel that Eren is the one who turned out more like Grisha).

WHO WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO PUNCH IN THE FACE AFTER THESE EPISODES? 129 responses

There was a lot that happened in these episodes that could have bred resentment from fans. From the options provided, 35.7% of respondents would most like to punch Floch in the face. 22.5% wish to channel their inner Armin and give Eren a sock to the face. 14.7% felt more visceral toward Grisha. 11.6% don’t want to punch anyone at all. For those who wanna punch the pollsters, meet us out back at 16:00 hours.

Floch sucks

HOW DO YOU FEEL FINALLY GETTING TO SEE THE PAINFUL EMA CONVERSATION IN ANIME FORM? 127 responses

A lot has happened since chapter 112 published, but the chapter still continues to stick with us and spark conversation. With such a highly anticipated scene finally being animated, we wanted to know how you felt seeing the scene reimagined with music, voice acting and color. 29.9% just felt that the chapter hits much differently now after the contents of chapter 138. 25.2% had a much harder time watching the scene in anime form than they felt reading the manga. 12.6% felt even more strongly, expressing extreme heartbreak over E/MA’s breakup. Only a handful of respondents felt the scene hit much harder in the manga.

I'm over it, I felt nothing. Props to Yuki Kaji though, his voice acting is as amazing as ever.

I liked both manga and anime versions, but hearing Armin's sharp intakes of breath from being hit ;~; MY POOR BABY!

M M G H, boi

mmgh

There is no pain, only support for whatever horny animator drew that shot of Armin.

I love EMA emotionally destroying each other and Mappa made it SO FUCKING GOOD, I watched this scene like 100 times

Eren = me | Armin's fist = EMA scene punching me across my expressionless face | Mikasa = my anime-only gf

BEFORE THE FINAL CHAPTER HITS, WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS EREN’S “TRAIN OF THOUGHT” IN REGARDS TO HIS WORDS IN THIS CONVERSATION? 126 responses

With the last chapter just over a week away, we’re hoping to finally get some closure in terms of Eren’s characterization and the choices he’s made. 42.9% believe that Eren chose to be cruel to his friends in the hope it would drive them to be willing to put an end to Eren’s life. 24.6% felt the opposite, hoping that Eren would push them into a corner where they wouldn’t interfere with his plan at all. 18.3% still aren’t sure what to think. Will we get answers, Isayama?!

He wants to "free" Mikasa and armin from himself because he knew he was gonna die

Probably the first option but there might be some truth to what he was saying.

He definitely wanted to push them away and antagonize them but I'm still not completely sure why. I don't feel we've gotten a satisfying explanation.

He chose to be cruel to Mikasa and Armin in an attempt to make it so they wouldn't mourn him when he was dead and could be free of him entirely.

Eren still has heart warming feelings to Mikasa and - by being cruel - he wanted her to let him go (and most likely) kill him. His feelings to Armin however are much colder and they don't seem to like each other anymore. They are way too different. Armin and Eren are like two deities who will always fight each other.

Like he said in 138, he wanted to push them away so they would move on from his death and live happily without him.

SOME DIALOGUE FROM THE EMA CONVERSATION WAS CUT OR SHORTENED. WHICH PART(S) DID YOU MISS THE MOST? 125 responses

Due to time constraints, the EMA conversation took a big hit in terms of how much content was cut from it. Of the cuts we noticed, the dialogue snippets that were most missed by manga readers were; Eren bringing up Armin’s good judgement when they were younger, Eren telling Mikasa that the “real her” disappeared in the mountain cabin, the mention of Ackermans being a “byproduct” of titan science, and the mention that Ackermans manifest the power of titans in human form.

OVERALL, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE AFOREMENTIONED CUTS? 123 responses

When it comes to how manga readers actually felt about the cuts in the EMA conversation, 35% agreed that they felt bitter about them, while still understanding that there was probably little other choice. 22% think it was just too watered down and cut down the impact significantly. 14.6% didn’t care, 11.4% felt the cuts were actually a positive thing, and 10.6% feel that the manga is simply just the superior medium for this series.

I find it interesting that the titan science stuff was cut and wonder if maybe Isayama agreed to those cuts bc he knows he won't have time to really explain in the last chapter of the manga.

Oof, too many important informations have been cut.

I'm okay either way!

Although I would've loved to see all of those aforementioned cuts animated, I understand why they had to be cut in the first place, so I'm not bitter by it at all. I still think the conversation still had the impact it was intended to have.

I kind of understand why some dialogues would have to be cut but it lessened the impact of how Eren tried to hurt his friends which I personally think is too much even if he might have good intentions in doing so. I also like how MAPPA rearranges scenes to better fit the airtime limitation of each episode.

MAPPA CHANGED EREN’S EXPRESSION AFTER HE WAS CALLED OUT BY ARMIN. THOUGHTS? 127 responses

A small change can impact a lot… or perhaps not. 34.6% felt let down by the change in Eren’s facial expression after Armin calls him out for hurting Mikasa, feeling that his original expression spoke volumes about his true feelings about what he’d done. 28.3% didn’t notice any change at all and so are unaffected. 15.7% are on a similar page and feel that there really wasn’t enough of a difference to gripe about anything, and 9.4% actually preferred the way MAPPA handled Eren in this snippet.

as they did when mikasa calls him out in liberio, they harden his expressionstry to make him look like a heartless monster with no empathy for his friends. this expression hinted that he was hurt by telling all of that to his friends, so his self sacrifice motivations can be misunderstood by anime onlies, or worse: they may even think it comes out of nowhere.

The manga was just superior here, from his expression to the fact that Armin did manage to make him bleed. It was disappointing.

I read this chapter way too long ago, I don't remember this stuff

He looks a lot more hurt and regretful in the Manga. Anime just looks annoyed.

Not a big deal to me. Manga is definitely superior though.

In the manga Eren was more human, while here we can clearly see his anger towards Armin's words.

THE ANIME ADAPTATION CUT OUT A BIT OF CONTEXT IN REGARDS TO LEVI STATING THAT THEY WILL FEED A YEAGERIST TO HISTORIA AFTER SHE GIVES BIRTH. DO YOU THINK THIS MAKES THINGS CONFUSING FOR THE ANIME-ONLIES? 123 responses

Historia’s pregnancy plot continues to get the shaft (for better or for worse), with the mention of her eventually eating the Yeagerist that eats Zeke being cut out entirely. 39% of respondents felt that this was a poor choice on MAPPA’s part, feeling that it will make things confusing for anime only fans (“why would they feed Zeke to a Yeagerist?”). 26% feel the opposite, and think anime only fans should be able to put 2 and 2 together to realize where Levi was going with his idea. 22% aren’t sure if it actually makes things confusing, and 10.6% just don’t care.

I'm not sure how confusing this makes it for anime-onlies but them cutting out mentions of her pregnancy makes it seem even less important than it already does.

That plan was shut down so quickly it doesn't matter

I don't/didn't really understand this. None of the Yeagerist have royal blood... maybe I'm missing something. I figured he was just joking? Bc, tactically, what does Historia eating a Yeagerist do or have to do with anything?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ADAPTATION OF THE ZEKE RUNNING PANEL? 124 responses

When Zeke ran from Levi in the manga, the scene was memed to death. 46.8% of respondents weren’t disappointed in MAPPA’s adaptation and felt it was just as enjoyable as it was in the manga. 29.8% felt even more strongly, thinking MAPPA did an even better job than Isayama had done. 17.7% still prefer the manga version.

It was funny in the manga but not in the anime and that's probably for the best given the weight of what's about to happen.

I honestly don't remember the running panel lmao

Funny monke

HOW WELL WAS ZEKE’S BACKSTORY ADAPTED, IN YOUR OPINION? 126 responses

60.3% felt that MAPPA did an incredible job with executing Zeke’s backstory in the anime, with the impact feeling even greater than it did in the original manga. 37.3% agree to a lesser degree, simply being pleased that it was faithful to the source material and feel thankful enough for that. Only a sliver of the pie felt that MAPPA didn’t deliver well on this or didn’t care.

Made him too sympathetic/made grisha look even worse

MAPPA REPLACED THE MONKEY PLUSHIE WITH A RAM PLUSHIE IN KSAVER’S VISION. THOUGHTS? 125 responses

We got a couple of Easter Eggs in this episode, with one of them being the inclusion of a ram plushie in place of the monkey doll that was in the manga. Knowing now that Ksaver’s Beast Titan was a ram, we were curious how many of you caught this. 55.2% absolutely loved the easter egg, and 31.2% just felt that it was neat. A few were confused, missed monke, or wanted to squish the adorable plushie. Baa!

I jumped out of my seat seeing that little fecker. I was literally like "...!!!! THE RAM!!! WE KNOW KSAVER'S TITAN NOW SO THEY PUT IN A RAM!! YOU..!!! ISAYAMAAAAA!!" It was hilarious XD

THE DOLLS IN KSAVER’S VISION APPEAR TO RESEMBLE ARMIN, MIKASA AND HISTORIA. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS? 121 responses

Aside from the ram plushie were also dolls that some thought seemed to resemble Armin, Mikasa and Historia. We got very mixed responses on this question. 20.7% felt that it was simply just a fun easter egg and didn’t hold any kind of narrative meaning. 19% were unsure what to think at all. 16.5% think the third doll actually represents Ymir Fritz and not Historia. 15.7% felt it was meant to represent the three people Eren is working hardest to protect, and 9.1% didn’t think they represented anything.

i thought that was ymir fritz, zeke, and either eren or levi

I think the two dolls inside the box look more like Gabi and Falco but I'm not sure who the doll with the pink dress is, Ymir Fritz maybe?

I didn't even notice this, lmao. I'm bored of overthinking things like this, there's one chapter left y'all.

Oh, I thought it was Eren, Zeke and Ymir lol.

Reminds me of the Eren doll in the Lost Girls OVA.

The box represents those who we will see in the final chapter. Sorry Historia :'(

All of the above xD

The doll isn't Historia - It's Ymir Frtiz - and her position under the wagon means that Eren values Mikasa and Eren more than Ymir/anything else. I think the wagon is also significant to that bit where Eren confessed to the squad that they were the most important people in his life, and that he doesn't want anything bad to happen to them.

EREN TELLS ZEKE, “I’LL PUT AN END TO 2,000 YEARS OF TITAN DOMINATION.” EVEN AFTER EVERYTHING, DO YOU BELIEVE IT’S POSSIBLE THAT THIS WAS HIS TRUE INTENTION, AND THAT HE CAN STILL BE THE ONE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN? 122 responses

Will there be a final twist in the series finale? 34.4% seem to think so, hoping that Eren’s words will ring true and he will somehow abolish titans from the world. 23% feel similarly, though they think he knew his actions would lead to the catalyst to rid titans from the world, rather than him doing it himself. 12.3% feel the opposite, and think Eren was simply just lying to Zeke about bringing an end to the titan power, and 9.8% think he’s just too dead at this point to accomplish anything. 19.7% aren’t sure what to predict.

Yes, ending the era of titans and setting Eldians free is one of Eren's goals.

GIVEN THAT ZEKE’S FLASHBACK ELEMENTS FROM 115 WERE ALSO ADAPTED IN THIS CHAPTER, DO YOU THINK THE FINAL EPISODE WILL HAVE ANY ANIME-ONLY SCENES? 124 responses

The episode has already aired and we can now confirm that there were no additional scenes. 41.9% were correct in their hunch that the remaining contents would be enough to fill an entire episode - in fact, they didn't even end up animating all of it! What about Levi and Hange?!

Since we won't reach Ch. 121 or 122 I don't really care.

Since Mappa took over, not anymore :(

What tou MEAN ”the final episode”?!

HOW DO YOU FEEL KNOWING THAT ANIME ONLY FANS WON’T HAVE A SOLID ANSWER ON LEVI’S FATE FOR MONTHS? 127 responses

We didn’t expect this question to come off as cruel as it now feels after MAPPA didn’t even throw us a bone in episode 75 about Levi’s fate. That being said, 29.1% are ready to snack on their popcorn while they watch anime onlies worry and theorize over Levi’s fate. 21.3% are simply feeling mischievous. 9.4% think it’s cruel to take any delight in anime watchers’ woes, as we also had to experience the same thing for several months. 33.9% think it will be next to impossible for anime only fans to avoid being spoiled about Levi’s fate.

It should be fairly obvious he's alive when they show Hange jumping in the river with him next episode.

Good. I think most of them will assume he's not dead yet though.

Maybe it will inspire some of them to read the manga to find out.

Ugh, I hope they won't be complaining as much as the manga readers did even though it was obvious he's not dead.

THE PREVIEW ONLY REVEALED ONE SCENE TO US. SO INSTEAD, WHICH MOMENT FROM CHAPTER 115/116 ARE YOU MOST ANTICIPATING? 126 responses

31% of respondents were most looking forward to the moment where Pieck declared Eren as the enemy. 23% had most anticipated seeing Ymir revive Zeke (rip) and 19.8% were most looking forward to seeing Hange dive into the river with Levi’s injured body (double rip). 10.3% were most anticipating the scene with Eren, Pieck and Gabi in the jail room, and 7.1% were most hyped about Marley’s airships showing up onto the scene.

WE’VE ONLY GOT ONE EPISODE LEFT FOR THIS RUN! HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT IT? 125 responses

59.2% were feeling hyped to get an announcement about a part 2 of the season. 24%, on the other hand, are bummed out and have a new void to fill in their heart while they wait. 11.2% feel similarly and on a greater level… the seasons between the SnK anime seasons are just the worst anime seasons of all!

Too distracted by manga-ending-anxiety to feel much about it

Disappointed. It's not actually the final season.

I'm ready for this season of heartbreak to be over thank you just put me out of my misery and stop dragging me along behind the car

I can't believe it's near ending already

DO YOU THINK WE WILL GET AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE NEXT ANIME INSTALLMENT NEXT WEEK? 122 responses

54.1% of respondents were hopeful for a part 2 announcement and the good news is that MAPPA didn’t let them down. 19.7% were right on the nose with this one!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODES?

GOAT

The scene with Levi's comrades turning into Titans was one of the most visually stunning moments for me; the whole panning out throughout as they all started turning sort of gave me chills. Levi's reaction to it all, and ultimately having to kill them too was heartbreaking. Honestly that entire scene was quite gripping. I hate to admit that watching it in anime form has sort of solidified me resonating with Zeke in regards to his relationship with Grisha. Dude just wanted to spend time with his freaking dad and instead went through all of that, I don't blame him for the resentment at all. Still a douche for some of the stuff he's done. And ersonally I prefer him over Eren. Eren never went through that kind of treatment from Grisha and ended up... like that. Also!!!!!! Love me some Bertholdt crumbs, thank you Mappa! God, I miss him. :(

The removal of mostly anything mentioning titan scientists/research and Ackermans being a byproduct of titan science makes me wonder if Isayama regretted introducing that. I was already disappointed the manga didn't expand on that and the anime made it worse. Almost nonexistent tbh. Loved seeing Zeke's backstory, like all the other children in this series, he deserved better.

The ost during Floch's speech was brilliant. Young Zeke and Grisha VAs also. Makes me want to adopt Zeke right there. Not sure if Pieck and Porco already appeared as background characters (in ep 13&14) there were some figures that looked like them so I can't wait for the next episode!

Nah, I just loved them

These were one of the best of the season!

i just want more, also i loved MAPPA's style so far

In those episodes, the emotions weren't as strong as in the manga. I didn't feel much. And for the EMA talk... well, I liked Eren's neutral expression in the manga better, it was more fitted. And the animation of his "fight" with Armin was absolutely terrible, and it's sad to say that when you know that Mappa can do so much better.

*points at Zeke* WITNESSED!!

MAPPA stans Armin, it shows, and I am 100% here for it.

Being aware if latest chapters, I see young Zeke with different eyes

Mappa has done a fabulous job so far. The only thing I hoped for is that they should not have made the face difference so obvious from previous seasons to the last one, for the benefit of anime-only people. Yes, they stayed true to the manga, but their animators had to have control over it, which is what happened in S1 where girls had some sort of gloss on their lips and Yams requested for them to be removed in succeeding episodes.. that tells me that the animators/mappa have some semblance of control over how the characters look

I think MAPPA is doing a good job with the episodes.

Feels. That is all.

I really loved how Mappa executed that scene wint Ksaver's wife's murder/suicide. In the manga, they just outright depict it happening in the room. In the anime, they blended it in with the present surroundings. It literally gave me the chills. I do worry that the missing dialogue from the EMA scene, especially Eren explaining how Mikasa's dedication to him is nothing but science. I also worry about him not mentioning the slave/freedom thing, bc afaik the dialogue in the leaked panel of 139 says ""you are free"", and I always thought it was gonna be related to that.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 118 responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We will post the poll for episode 75 soon!

In the meantime, please feel free to send us up to 5 of your favorite characters via ask or submission for our ongoing popularity poll - that poll will close on the 10th of April! :D

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk spoilers #snk s4

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animegenork · 3 years

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Fruits Basket Season 2 Episodes 21-25

So obviously life happened and I never finished out season 2 with my not-so-reflective analyses of the Fruits Basket episodes. Well, season 3 has officially started (and this is the one time in my life I waited for the sub before watching it) and it’s about damn time I did this.

Hold on to your pants--

Episode 21

I would like to make it very clear that Baby Yuki is Baby and most be protected at all costs. With that in mind, let’s begin.

The episode starts with Yuki meeting Akito for the first time, back before he became a mess and way before he ever met Tohru. There is already an internal conflict here with what he wants versus what the zodiac spirit wants, and that is to see Akito. Due to the “God” role Akito plays, Yuki wants to see Akito... but Yuki himself knows deep down that he does not.

We see Yuki spending more and more time with Akito, which makes sense, since we’ve known for a while that they were “friends” of the childhood sort. Perhaps new information is Shigure comforting Akito whenever he was upset, but that’s not important to the storyline at hand. Everything was all fine and dandy until, Yuki notes, Akito became twisted.

This is where it starts to get bad for Yuki.

Sometime during the latest tantrum, Akito begins turning his inward self-hatred to Yuki, telling him that the Rat is hated and no one wants him. Of course, we’ve seen similar poison towards Kyo, and frankly, I’ve always loved this juxtaposition toward them. Kyo and Yuki’s zodiac spirits are hated in similar ways, and while they hate each other superficially because of this, they also hate themselves more than anyone else. Both of them have remained on the “fringes” of things for most of their entire lives, which is probably why we get to see more of them than really any other zodiac member.

Naturally, this causes young Yuki to seek Kyo out when he hears about someone else who’s on the outside looking in. They meet, and Yuki’s all gung ho to try to make a friend. Unfortunately, Kyo has seen his own shit and is convinced Yuki is to blame for his suffering. So he tells Yuki he should just disappear from this world.

[A moment to cry over Baby Yuki’s expression. *sob*]

As most children do when faced with something awful like that, Yuki goes to his mother for comfort. Instead, she slaps him. (I just really hate her.) This leads into a scene of Akito spouting his usual poison at Yuki, brainwashing him into thinking everything is hopeless and bleak and that he’d be better off not going outside (to paraphrase). It doesn’t help that when he reaches out to his brother, or to anyone else really, he’s rejected. So, really, it’s no wonder he became such a mess, when the whole world has been working against him from the beginning.

Following this, we get to see Yuki going to school and attempting normalcy, even making some friends. Of course, we all know how that turns out, because Yuki has told us before: his friends’ memories were erased when his curse was revealed. Props to Hatori, I guess, for not succumbing to Baby Yuki’s cuteness when he begged the older boy not to do it.

Yuki reveals, in another interaction with Kyo in which our resident cat boy refuses to take back his hat because Yuki touched it (while I can’t blame him, I’ll always be a little mad at Kyo), that he really just wanted a home. A place where he was happy. Even Kyo had friends and a foster father, despite any verbal abuse launched his way.

When he falls ill, Akito tells Yuki more about Kyo, heartbroken over the loss of his mother and swearing that he’ll kill the Rat and make amends. If possible, Yuki falls into a greater despair and decides to run away, donning the hat that once belonged to Kyo. In a way, this is where we see Yuki’s selfless side, which has always been there--he ran away in order to alleviate some of Kyo’s sadness, which he believes he caused.

GIVE. THIS BOY. A HUG.

So he runs and runs until he finds a woman talking to the police. Her daughter is lost. Now, obviously this is Kyoko--who else could it be--but Yuki doesn’t know that. However, he had seen a little girl crying somewhere and went to find her again. The girl, our lovely Tohru, follows him when he tries to go find Kyoko again to tell her, so he begins to lead her home. When they get there, before they can meet or hug or anything that would put her in danger, he gives her the hat and runs away.

Thus endeth the story of Tohru’s “prince.”

In some ways, this one event helped alleviate some of Yuki’s pain. He was useless and needed. He’d helped someone feel better. That can be the best feeling in the world for someone like Yuki.

Now, the funniest part about all this is Yuki was caught up in a memory. He’s not telling Kakeru any of this. Kakeru himself is a little weird, so he’s not terribly surprised. Yuki finally explains that he met Tohru once and didn’t realize that he had until sometime after they met again. Through her influence, Yuki decided to perservere, as he says, and keep trying to live for himself. Unfortunately, Akito’s influence is strong as well. He became twisted once more.

Poor Yuki. All this time, he wanted that stupid Cat to be his friend. That is one of the most interesting revelations, I think, that we ever see in Fruits Basket. I don’t think we ever find out if Kyo feels similarly, but the fact that Yuki, the one always insulting Kyo, just wanted to be friends is him, is somehow mind-blowing.

Then in comes Tohru again. She was there for him, time and time again. “She accepted me time and time again.” And really, that was all he ever wanted. To be accepted. To have someone care and give a shit. “Like how the sky feels so close, yet so far.”

“Like a mother.”

So, yes, folks, that’s the truth of it: Yuki sees Tohru as the mother he never had. I feel like for some this isn’t the type of truth you ever wanted to see, but here’s the important part to remember: for Yuki, romance wasn’t entirely important. He needed a parent. Someone to care for him. And Tohru gave him that time and time again. Perhaps, at one point, his feelings skewed toward the romantic, but over time, he realized that Tohru wasn’t that for him. She was something he needed much more.

Kyo has his father. Yuki has his Tohru.

And that’s all I’m going to say on that. Because the rest is a matter of what you think.

Episode 22

Y’all forgive me it’s so hard to find gifs months after the episodes air a;lsjdkf;ajsdfas this gif is NOT mine

Hi, I love Kyo.

Anyway.

We pick up right where we left off with the series-changing revelation that Yuki considers Tohru to be his mother. Kakeru is the voice of “lol what do you mean she’s our age”. Yuki explains that he’d always yearned for a parent’s love (haha it’s like I knew that) and valued Tohru’s care so much that it just seemed natural to consider her that way. His inner monologue realizes that’s what Rin was looking for, too.

And like I said before, it takes him a while to realize this is the particular feeling he had prescribed to Tohru. It started when she went after Kyo, the night we see his true form. Of course, as with all the zodiac members, he probably hadn’t been able to put voice to the feeling just yet. It happens. But he even admits that he tried to be romantic with her, but eventually, it just felt too wrong to do. I get it, since I have a friend I consider my father, and when people told us we looked like a couple, we were grossed out beyond belief. So yeah. Makes sense.

Kakeru goes, “Well people look for romance with people like their mom all the time.” First of all, Kakeru, Tohru is nothing like Yuki’s mother. Okay. Second of all, Yuki clarifies that he doesn’t see her as a woman. But Kyo does. The Cat always knew how he felt about her. And you can see the same feeling radiating from Tohru.

*sobs* Okay. Sorry.

Yuki resolves to live on, spurred on by Tohru’s encouragement and love. Kakeru responds by throwing a soccer ball at his face.

I’ve mentioned before I love their relationship, right?

Shenanigans ensue, and Yuki says he might be able to tell Tohru precisely what he told Kakeru, but not right now.

BACK TO THE PLAY! Tohru is attempting to memorize her lines, and Shigure finds out Kyo is the Prince. This angers Kyo, naturally, because no way in hell does he want that Dog to embarrass him. He confiscates Tohru’s script (I cackled at this part) and tells her not to tell Shisho (but she obviously did already). Basically, we get some unintentional flirting between these two until Yuki cuts in using the classic Fruits Basket slapstick.

Yuki tells Kyo that Tohru has the hat in a moment of just sheer understanding passing between them, and Kyo goes to his room to sulk. Cuz Kyo.

A lot of what happens next is pretty self-explanatory: Ayame is Ayame, Yuki is the resigned brother, Tohru can’t play an evil stepsister to save her life, yada yada. The class eventually decides to rewrite the play because obviously a non-evil stepsister ain’t gonna work. Kyo is nowhere to be found. Tohru offers to find him, but Yuki takes over.

Ah, yes. The classic.

Here we see a classic rival clash, but it’s not physical. It’s verbal. Yuki’s very good at putting on a certain face in front of Kyo, but it’s always when Kyo needs it most. Kyo yells that Yuki has his parents. He’s loved and praised. What it all boils down to is that Kyo doesn’t think he’s worthy of being a prince. That’s always been Yuki’s crown to wear. It’s a case of the simplest thing triggering a much deeper emotion. Kyo claims Yuki doesn’t understand, but we all know that’s not the case at all. Yuki understands all too well. So Yuki asks if he really wants to achieve this impossible thing (defeating the Rat), if he really wants to not have anyone to hate.

Kyo punches a window.

We have a brief scene of Machi coming by and saying something about Yuki not being a prince. While the other classmate with her is appalled, Yuki is just stunned. Because that’s probably exactly what he’s wanted to hear all these years. (Go Machi!)

Returning to the classroom, Kyo finds the ever-cheerful Tohru with the revised Cinderella. As she babbles about how he’ll probably be able to do the play better this time around, he reflects on Yuki finding him sulking. Tohru notices his injured hand, and he just leans on her. He’s very good at this, I’ve noticed. The leaning. Makes my heart pound every time. And clearly, it worked on Tohru, too.

Kyo tells her she better not laugh at his performance, and they go home.

And scene.

Episode 23

To be frank, this episode doesn’t need much analysis. It’s mostly comedy and shenanigans and everything one could love about Fruits Basket.

Also, woof. Kyo with long hair.

We’ve got a narrator telling the classic Cinderella while the play goes in an entirely different direction. Cinderella Hanajima loves her Stepsister Tohru deeply but fears the prince taking her away. (Oh wait this is an allegory or something isn’t it.)

Flash forward to the ball, Prince Kyo wants nothing to do with all of this, and Buddy Uotani is telling him to get the hell up. Kyo doesn’t budge, refusing to dance with anyone, until, of course, Tohru approaches. He wigs out, because that’s what Kyo does, and tries to call her back. It’s almost like he forgets this is a play or something as he deflates from rejecting Tohru.

Cinderella arrives, she and Kyo clash, she leaves, wishing she’d eaten more meat. Naturally, a glass slipper is left behind. Kyo says he doesn’t really want to go find the girl, and Uotani begins the second most important scene of the episode.

With passionate urging, Uotani tells Kyo not to waste this chance to see her, saying that some people don’t get to see the people they want to. Then she screams, “COME SEE ME, DAMMIT” and we all know that’s aimed at Kureno.

We got to the classic glass slipper scene, and Hanajima enters and pulls quite the badass move. She asks Kyo if he plans on deceiving himself forever and keeping himself locked away. Most of the audience doesn’t really know that she’s referring to his feelings for Tohru and, to us the viewer, the way he’s going to willingly give up his freedom after high school ends.

Kyo: “So what if I do? Does that hurt anyone else?”

Tohru knows precisely what conversation is happening, and she starts to say that she doesn’t want to lose him. But, being Tohru, she’s not quite able to put it into words. But Kyo picks up on this, and he’s taken off guard. He’s an idiot, not picking up on her feelings for him in their entirety despite all the hints thrown his way. Even Momiji and Kisa know what’s going on here.

Awkwardness ensues, Yuki swoops in and tells Kyo to make his wish come true on his own in a classic “Broheim you better FUGGIN do it YOU HEAR ME” way.

The play ends, we see Shisho, Kyo tells him not to get married (because Hanajima is swooping in), and we find out Haru told him about the play. Obligatory reference to shirtless Kyo. Shisho picks up on Kyo’s conflicted feelings about Tohru while Kyo tells himself Tohru probably wasn’t trying to say what he thought she was.

Shenanigans ensue again, this time with Haru and Hiro, which is pretty funny, and then we check in on Yuki and Kakeru, who see Machi getting bullied. Petty girls being petty about a girl who’s not petty. How petty. Machi makes it clear that she thinks Yuki’s an airhead (which hits him like a brick LOLLLL) and then she says he seems lonely. That gives him pause, because she picked up on the one thing no one else at the school (besides other Sohmas and Tohru) have picked up on. She’s amazing like that.

BACK TO KYO I LOVE HIM. He meets up with Tohru and they start walking together. At the exact same time, they tell themselves that it couldn’t be, the other doesn’t have feelings for them. “I won’t let myself think it.”

And they break their own hearts in the process.

Pardon me, I have to sob again.

Episode 24

Once again, the gif is not mine. Apologies, y’all, I’m bad at this.

MACHI TIME!

The student council is going out to party--er, not really party, but just have lunch, I guess. Machi doesn’t really want to come, and Yuki tries to get her opinion on things so they can make everything more amenable. She tells him he doesn’t need to make such a fuss, that her opinions aren’t his concern. He says she’s right, and that he just wants to see the world through her eyes.

Does he REALIZE when he does that??? Probably not.

Anyway, everyone goes home, Yuki and Kakeru are THEM at its finest, and Machi goes home. Her mother calls, and we see a little bit of her past, where her mother pressured her to be better than Kakeru at everything. This suppressed her personality to a point of what her mother calls dullness. And Machi agrees. She knows she’s dull, that she struggled to make people happy, only to be abandoned and left an empty shell.

She then reflects on how Yuki’s changed. Even when he smiled before, it seemed lonely, not genuine. But now he’s changing to smile for real. While he’s changed, she’s remained stagnant.

Machi ends up going to the student council gathering, reflecting on how she’s not sure if she means something to the world. She’s stopped in her tracks by Yuki calling out to her, saying he’s glad she came. And she drops everything.

What happens next is typical rom com. Yuki notices she kept the maple leaf and says he’s happy, Machi yells that there wasn’t any special reason behind her keeping it. Understandably, Yuki is confused. Kakeru makes her embarrassment worse by popping in, but it’s a cute moment, because Yuki finally gets the answer to the question, “What’s your favorite color?” Because of course he remembered.

We cut over to Tohru, who’s staying with Shisho for New Year’s so she’s not lonely. Good call on the part of the Sohmas. Yuki and Shigure really just didn’t want to leave Kyo alone with Tohru, which is funny in itself since Kyo is a harmless kitty, but alas.

But they’re not alone with Shisho; Rin’s there! And Tohru goes in for a hug only to splat against the wall. Poor thing. We find out Rin and Kyo don’t exactly like each other, but they don’t dislike each other either. Very confusing, but I don’t question it.

We cut over to the banquet and a riveting shot of Hatori (fanservice for Hatori’s fanclub hehehehe) and we get some Ayame and Shigure shenanigans. I love them dearly, ridiculous as they are. We see Akito try to do the thing with Yuki again, saying he forgives him for his transgressions, and Yuki just says that he forgives Akito as well. He’s tired of blaming others, sick of it. He needs to move so he can change.

Akito sees something in his eyes, and she has a flashback to something involving Kureno. So he attacks, demanding Yuki apologize. The rest of the zodiac is stunned and confused. Ayame mobilizes to get Yuki some medical attention, and Hatori helps him out. Yuki takes a moment to apologize for blaming Hatori all those years for what happened when he was a kid. We see that Hatori felt indebted to Yuki for that as well and had resolved to keep an eye on him. They have a brotherly moment.

We see Tohru resolve to wish for the curse to be broken this year, and Momiji gives Kureno the DVD of the play where Uotani yells for him to see her. Haru goes to see Rin, who’s fallen asleep. Overall, Tohru says, she wishes for change.

Dun dun dun.

Episode 25

The plot thickens.

So we start off with Kureno and Akito, where Akito feels kinda sick after the episode with Yuki (episode as in incident, not---anyway). Kureno promises to stay by his side, and we immediately cut to Uo still missing him, but not saying so in so many words.

Tohru reflects on what happened during New Year’s, including Yuki coming back with a bandage on his forehead. He explains that he stood up to Akito, and he asks her if she thinks he did a good job. Now he’s just milking the mom thing, but she doesn’t seem to notice as she says yes.

Back to the present, we see that Shigure and Akito are fighting. He says something snarky about how Akito’s the one who’s always with Kureno, and Hatori treats this like it’s a childish argument. It is. Because Shigure’s a bit of a child. But it’s a bit deeper than that. They discuss how Kureno feels different than the rest of the zodiac, but they don’t say exactly what it is. That’s for later.

Kureno watches the DVD of the play, and he struggles with his feelings for Uo and his loyalty to Akito. He calls Shigure’s house and gets Shigure, and then we see Tohru come home and go right back out for an errand. She ends up at a park and sees some sparrows (AH YES, THE SYMBOLISM), and Kureno walks over to her, causing the sparrows to fly away.

What’s important here is to remember that members of the zodiac attract the animal they have the spirit of. We see it most often with Kyo and the cats. So why is Kureno chasing away the sparrows, the bird he turned into? Even Tohru is confused, until he hugs her and nothing happens.

That is to say, his curse is broken.

Kureno explains that he’s not sure how it happened--which disappoints Tohru, considering her quest to break the curse--only that it did. Now he’s resolved to stay by Akito’s side, meaning he can’t see Uotani anymore. He tries, unsuccessfully, to make himself feel better by saying that he doesn’t need to see her--their meetings were flukes. Then Tohru puts her hand on his face, and he admits that he fell in love with Uo.

And thus, we reach the crux of Kureno’s conflict: he’s free to do whatever he wants now, but because of that, he needs to stay by Akito’s side. And really, it’s because he can’t stand to see that child cry again over an ancient bond. He needs to be there for Akito, so that he can always be there and never abandon “that sorrowful girl.”

Tohru is shocked, and yet something seems to fall into place when she realizes Akito is a girl.

And that’s where the season ends.

~ ~ ~

That was a long boy, so sorry about that, folks! Now I’m off to finally watch the first episode of the new season! See y’all next time!

#fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket season 2 #excellent i actually did this at some point #now to actually watch episode 1 of season 3 #y'all i'm so sorry i bet no one actually cares about these a;lsdjkf;alsdjkfads

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natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk · 5 years

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Kiznaiver - Thoughts

I just finished Kiznaivers and despite people on both sides saying that they love it or hate it, I can say that it fits the niche that I was looking for, so I really liked it. I like shows where romance is prevalent but not the most relevant plot point of the show. The cast wasn’t as bad as I thought they were going to be, and I ended up enjoying this more than I should’ve. I’m about to get hyper-critical on a show that was given a 9/10 on MAL because that 9 was purely based on enjoyment.

Pros

Voice Cast

Good cast of characters (at times)

Good concept

Good script (at times)

Amazing art

Stunning music

Cons

Some of the characters aren’t that great

Lots of things are left hanging or just never got addressed ever

Story and writing can leave some things to be desired

Was not done to its fullest potential

Spoilers and full thing below!

Story

I separated stories and characters this time because I felt like I wanted to address both on their own.

The script was written by Mari Okada who’s known for writing the script for other sob stories like Anthem of the Heart and Anohana. I really like her writing despite criticism saying that her style is melodramatic. The script was a bit stuck at times during its idle moments, but when it was trying to hit, sometimes, it truly resonated with me. But I’ll admit, the tone of the show had a few mixed messages at times that took away the impact of her writing. It was unfortunate but between the mascot things and the Trigger art style, I understand how people think that the show can’t be taken seriously.

The story itself... needs to be taken with a large grain of salt. Or maybe a small pile. Heck, just take the whole bag of salt. It establishes more questions than they could ever answer within their run. While you can mount most of this to humans and their stupid ideas, I have a hard time believing that this happened in modern-day Japan with kids under the government’s eye with mascots roaming about. Yeah... it gets off to a bit of a rough start.

Characters

In this kind of show, characters are vital to the show’s success. This show takes the classic “seven deadly sins” and spin them off using a mix of classic anime tropes. We have the “lifeless kid”, “tsundere”, “thug”, “eccentric freak”, “ikemen”, “cold bitch”, and “insane masochist”. We also have the “mysterious girl” to top it all off, but I found her annoying throughout the duration of the entire story. It didn’t even matter once her backstory was revealed, I didn’t like her.

But want to know the weird thing? I liked the tsundere and thug. Chidori and Tenga were my favourite characters. This cast was written pretty well. Maki the “cold” one gets the development she deserved. We barely touched upon the other characters besides Noriko, Katsuhira, Maki, and the environment. Maki’s development had so much potential, and luckily, they used a lot of it. However, as I mentioned before, too many ends were left undone. We see characters have issues that are never addressed. One character arguably has an eating disorder, and I was waiting for them to come out, say, it, and show us that it’s okay to come out. And for a male character at that. Why couldn’t we have that? And Maki’s development, she’s bisexual. It’s canon. Nice. I think they could’ve gone further into it. Where and how did Chidori and Kacchon meet if he wasn’t “always like this”? I felt that the romantic connection between Niko and Tenga was kind of forced within episodes eight and nine, but that scene in episode eight and nine was so well done by all standards. Given the certain circumstances, maybe it didn’t hit that hard, but for me, it gave a pretty good impact. The love confessions were so well acted that even if the feelings flew over my head, I still felt bad for them.

The way I see it, Noriko and Katsuhira go way back and their past is the reason why they wreak havoc on these other people’s lives (I weirdly didn’t like either of the leads). Noriko does it because she’s in pain, and Katsuhira is like this because he never got over his childhood crush and doesn’t understand anything. Chidori deserves better than she got, I don’t know why she gets so much hate. Her design is cute, she has the perfect voice, and she’s transparent making her very easy to read. Tenga is super transparent too. He’s the kindhearted thug, and I like that trope. His genuine liking towards Chidori comes across easily. I also like the whole “trying to set people up but falling in love along the way” when it’s done right (look at Toradora). Yuta is good, but we got nothing on him. Maki is great. She got the development she deserved, and even though it took a whole chunk of the show, it was one of the best parts of the series. Hisomu is just a messy insert character who is a masochist because it fit the niche of the series. He also spews wisdom at times because he’s a plot device. I didn’t strongly hate any of the cast.

Art

Yuzuru Tachikawa has worked on Death Parade and Mob Psycho 100. And with Trigger’s style, the anime turned out great. The OP and ED were stunning in their own right. Even when the anime got emotional, it was still good! The art did its job great and showed the eccentric side of their characters in a way that made me believe them even more.

Sound

This is one of the strongest parts of the anime. The OP by BOOM BOOM SATELLITES was so catchy, fitting, and I know they won’t ever make a song like that again because of the tragic death of one of the two members but this song was such a high note. The ending was great and with the visuals, I liked it! The score was done by Yuki Hayashi which I didn’t find out until after I watched the show, and if you don’t know what he has worked on, he has done Haikyuu, My Hero Academia, and more. When they use the soundtrack, it’s really good. I just wish they let it showcase a little more.

The voice acting! Where do I even start?

Another role for Kaji, and honestly, I have heard too many main characters by him now. My outlook was like Katsuhira. It was so bland. His performance as an actor was great leaving little to ask for, but I almost wish this role was given to a smaller voice actor to get their big break.

Tomoaki Maeno has blown me away quite a few times with his performance in Death Parade and Hak in Akatsuki no Yona. He was also really good as Doujou in Library Wars and the White Blood Cell in Hataraku Saibou. However, he has had quite a few misses for me. One of the biggest misses was the main character role as *cough* Dino (*STOMPS FOOT*) in Blend S.

Nobunaga Shimazaki is quite a capable voice actor too, but he is mostly known for a certain niche with his higher voice. Ironically, this character in Kiznaiver doesn’t hesitate to swim. One of his most notable roles is Haruka Nanase from Free. I personally know him for playing Shinichi in Parasite and Kaidou from Saiki. I would say something more, but as his character wasn’t developed much, what can I say? A voice actor only gets as good as the writing does.

Ironically, both Yuka Terasaki and Hibiku Yamamura are known for voicing the child versions of a lot of main characters but don’t get as many main characters themselves.

And I tried to see whether there was any other Terasaki role that I would want to watch, and honestly, there wasn’t anything (since I hold general consensus and genre above voice actors). I wanted there to be, but there wasn’t any. Her performance for Chidori was so powerful, innocent, pure, naive, and raw that I was genuinely surprised. Terasaki got married a little while back. Congrats! Maeno and Terasaki both gave me surprises performance-wise.

But you know who else surprised me? Kuno. Misaki Kuno. I only know her for voicing children or babies or the token mascot pig. This was genuinely surprising. I had already heard Sugita and her having a heart-to-heart conversation, and I heard her interview saying that she had a hard time with this role, but it came out beautifully.

Rina Satou is a very, very, very strong voice actress. She’s almost as old as Sugita and Nakamura. She’s married with a kid, and this role was done just a year before that news came about. In fact, this anime came out in 2016, but within that same year, she revealed she had a kid and was married. You probably heard her voice somewhere, but she doesn’t have a whole lot of mainstream leading roles. She does have a seiyuu award for Best Leading Actress though.

And Koutarou Nishiyama... right... him... his BL career (assuming he has one) is paying off because you can certainly see it shine? I don’t know. The writing didn’t let this character go far. Maybe another role will make me respect him as an actor.

This show had a strong voice cast, and it’s one of the strongest parts of the show.

#kiznaiver #anime thoughts

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osakaso5 · 5 years

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Yuki Re:vale Police Rabbit Chat Part 5: Relaxing With Re:vale And TRIGGER!?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Tsumugi: Yuki-san, good work! You were great at today's shoot!

Yuki: I made up with Momo ^^

Tsumugi: Wow!! Really!? I'm glad to hear that!! ><

Tsumugi:

Yuki:

Yuki: Thank you for everything, Tsumugi-chan

Tsumugi: I did nothing! I didn't get to meet you at Re:vale and TRIGGER's review meeting, so I was really worried... ><

Yuki: We were still fighting that day, which wasn't very nice to the others

Choices/outcomes:

1. How would you sum up that incident?

Yuki: It was an incident where an unusual number of people pushed their way into my home, and laid unusual waste to it. Though I did have fun.

2. Who do you think was the key player of that incident?

Yuki: I think Momo's the primary culprit? He's the one who got everyone to drink so much.

3. Which one of your homemade dishes would you recommend?

Yuki: The tofu skewers. They're unpopular because they're simple, despite it being so difficult to determine the proper amount of water drainage.

Tsumugi: Above all, I'm happy that you made up!

Yuki: Me too.

Yuki: I even lifted my rabbit chat ban.

Tsumugi: Ah! You mean the one about him not discussing you with other people...

Yuki: That's the one

Yuki: He promised to hold back on rabbit chatting so he could mind his health and sleep properly.

Tsumugi: That's good! Your bodies are your most valuable asset, so you should be careful too, Yuki-san.

Tsumugi: I've collected the notes detailing the truth of what happened, so I'll share them with you!

Yuki: I bet that'll be long... Some of my memories did end up returning, so I do want to know, but keep it short.

Tsumugi: A-alright! I'll just give you the cliffnotes version, then!

Yuki: Please do

Tsumugi: A dinner party begins at Yuki-san's house. At the urging of Momo-san, Tsunashi-san drinks glass after another, until he is is blackout drunk. He becomes unable to speak anything but Okinawan.

Tsumugi: This is where Tsunashi-san’s recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Tsunashi-san’s comment: “I had the feeling Momo-san wanted me to keep drinking, so I didn’t refuse his offers.”

Yuki: Even if this is the cliffnotes version, I can only laugh at how quickly Ryunosuke-kun got taken out, lol

Yuki: Momo was acting weird that night, that's for sure.

Tsumugi: Drunk and unable to keep up a conversation with him, Momo-san calls in Nagi-san to translate.

Tsumugi: This is where Momo-san and Gaku-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Momo-san’s comment: “Things were awkward between me and Yuki, so I kept clinging to other people. I couldn’t stop drinking. Ryunosuke turned into an alcohol beast.”

Yuki: I figured as much, Momo. But you were cute, so I left you be.

Tsumugi: Gaku-san's comment: "I had fun."

Yuki: I remember that he seemed to be having fun. Gaku-kun was so drunk that he kept repeating the same three conversation topics over and over. I let him keep at it, because it was funny, and it was easy to reply to him.

Tsumugi: Nagi-san tries to decline the invitation, but is forced into a taxi by Yamato-san and Mitsuki-san, who tell him to spend more time with other groups.

Tsumugi: Even after he gets to the party, Nagi-san is unable to interpret the Okinawan conversation. Unable to keep up with the drunkards, he tries to leave altogether.

Tsumugi: Hearing that Sogo-san and Iori-san are good at quizzes, Yuki-san starts testing them over rabbit chats.

Tsumugi: Whenever they get something right, he toasts them on his end, and that is where his recollection of the events stops.

Yuki: I think I was so drunk that I blacked out the moment I got the satisfaction of getting them to name Douglas Rootbank's 4th album title and hum the riff from the hook of its 7th track.

Tsumugi: Noticing Nagi-san’s displeasure, Gaku-san and Yuki-san style their hair to look like Cocona's, of which Momo-san posts a picture on the internet, and Okazaki-san rushes to delete. He gives up on trying to control the situation, and drowns his sorrows in alcohol.

Tsumugi: This is where Okazaki-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Okazaki-san’s comment: “We’re a small agency, so I thought I’d let Yaotome Productions would do something about it!”

Yuki: As expected of Okarin. That's the capability of a man who's looked after me and Momo for 5 years now.

Tsumugi: Around this time, an imitation contest begins.

Tsumugi: Team Hure Hure: Kujo-san, Gaku-san, and Yuki-san. Team MATSURI: Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, Momo-san, and Okazaki-san. Team L&G: Tsunashi-san, Nagi-san, and Anesagi-san.

Tsumugi: This is where Anesagi-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Anesagi-san’s comment: “I regret nothing.”>

Yuki: I saw pictures of all that, and Tenn-kun's gaze could not have been colder. I have to respect the oldest one of us for that do-or-die baring of her midriff.

Tsumugi: The topic shifts to the fact that Re:vale used to live together. Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, and Okazaki-san keep casually suggesting that they move back in together, and they keep bashfully rejecting the idea. This goes on for the next 30 minutes.

Tsumugi: Then suddenly, Momo-san erupts with a “Do you hate being with me that much!?”, and Re:vale begins arguing.

Yuki: Ah! I thought Momo might've been the one who sent us into that downward spiral first.

Tsumugi: What happened?

Yuki: At the meeting, he kept insisting "I'd never blow up at Yuki-san!!", until I found myself agreeing with him.

Yuki: He really is awful. Though it's pretty hilarious.

Tsumugi: Momo-san declares that he will move into the IDOLiSH7 dorm, and begins gathering the things he keeps at Yuki-san’s apartment.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san responds with “I’ve always thought I should rescue him from the Kujo family, so I’ll start living with Tenn-kun.”

Tsumugi: Thinking that he’s going too far by bringing up Kujo-san’s delicate family situation, TRIGGER begins booing loudly.

Yuki: I thought Gaku-kun was on my side, I wonder what happened?

Tsumugi: Momo-san decides that “Yuki, Tenn, and Sogo’s uncle seem like the types of people Kujo will go after”, and discusses forming an “Anti-Kujo Front” with Riku-san and Tamaki-san. Tamaki-san agrees.

Yuki: Momo was worried about me, even though we were fighting. That must've been confusing. He's so cute.

Tsumugi: As he’s being asked about possible vacancies in the dorm, Riku-san finds out about Kujo-san’s potential move.

Tsumugi: At this point, Kujo-san finally loses his composure. He makes everyone except Nagi-san kneel on the floor and think of what they’ve done.

Yuki: I did a good job, reflecting on my actions. Though I don't remember it.

Tsumugi: Final report. Nagi-san slept in Yuki-san’s bed, while Tsunashi-san slept on the floor next to it. Yuki-san fell asleep while still kneeling on the floor. Anesagi-san took pictures of Nagi-san’s sleeping face. Momo-san fell asleep while gathering his things into a cardboard box. Gaku-san and Okazaki-san fell asleep mid-drink.

Tsumugi: Kujo-san’s final comment: “I guess I could compare this to being a zookeeper for a day?”

Yuki: Nice.

Yuki: What a mess.

Tsumugi: It really was...

Yuki: I did enjoy the party itself, but when I woke up, my place was in shambles, my mood was so low it was practically underground, and because the aftertaste of our fight remained, I was vaguely annoyed at Momo. That's when I found the box with his things, and got into another fight with him.

Tsumugi: I'm glad neither one of you got hurt in that fight!

Yuki: If it had gotten physical, I would've lost.

Tsumugi: Which one of you apologized first?

Yuki: Momo. He's always the one to give in when I'm feeling lonely.

Yuki: TRIGGER contacted us out of worry, too. Even though I'm their senior.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san...

Yuki: I tried to leave my mess of an apartment alone, but then I got depressed, thinking that I didn't want to clean up alone... So I went to go get Momo after his shoot ended. I need Momo, after all.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san..?

Yuki: Is something wrong?

Yuki: We cleaned up together. I was relieved when he put his things back where they belonged. He got a good night's sleep on my sofa.

Yuki: Re:vale's finally back to normal. Thank you.

Tsumugi: I'm very happy if I was of any help to you two! And I'm sure IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER think so, too!

Yuki: It's really nice to be filming a drama with this group. I'll see you again at the shoot.

Tsumugi: Yes! Until then!

Translator’s notes..?

next up: momo’s re:vale police rabbit chats!

#idolish7 #yuki #re:vale police #translation #re:vale #rabbit chat

65 notes · View notes

risingfire17-the-weeb-trash · 5 years

Text

Amuto Fic (Working Title)

A/N: This is the first chapter in what I hope is going to be a multi-chapter fic. Also, if anyone has any ideas for a title, please send them over. Dedicated to my precious babies: Amu and Ikuto! Also, trigger warning for an abusive relationship (her ex was a massive dick).

Also, shoutout to @oodlittlething and @noviceotakus-blog for proofreading and offering tech support!!

~~~~~

The ringing phone shocked 16-year-old Amu Hinamori back into the present moment as her close friend Berkeley Walker laughed at her startled expression.

“Spacing out again, were we?” the latter asked with a kind chuckle. Berkeley was one of Amu’s best friends, by her side ever since she started at her new high school in Cupertino, California, two years ago, after moving there with her parents and younger sister from Japan. Berkeley, herself a transfer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, (which, she assured Amu, was as different from San Jose as the latter from Japan, despite being in the same country) was a loud and confident girl, tough when the need arose, but surprisingly calm and level-headed. She was on the volleyball and martial arts teams at their school, and had met Amu in their homeroom class freshman year; the two transfers had learned to navigate their new school together. Amu was so happy to have found someone as strong as Berkeley to count on during her first year in America!

Today they were on the bus to meet their friend Suzie Chen. They had befriended Suzie last year, before she switched to the private girls’ school she currently attended following her father’s company’s relocation across town. Though she was doing well at her new school, she said she missed her friends terribly and couldn’t wait to see them today. The studio where she studied violin after school was giving free promotional lessons today, and despite Berkeley’s claim that she “100 percent lacked that kind of coordination,” Suzie had successfully convinced the girls to attend. Amu was also uncertain whether she possessed any sort of musical talent, but was dying to see Suzie, and figured the violin would be fun to try out, at least once. Suzie’s violin had such a lovely sound, peaceful and warm like a springtime afternoon spent frolicking in meadow blossoms. But just now, Amu had been thinking of another violin, slower, more melancholy notes, and a kind man with a terribly sad smile….

“I hope it was a nice daydream, Amu-chan,” chimed their acquaintance Yuki Yotoba sweetly as she walked to the front of the parked bus, waving good-bye to the two girls. Yuki-chan is so kind-hearted, even after I spaced out the entire time she was on the bus with us…I’ll have to make it up to her later! Thought Amu to herself. Yuki, aiming to attend nursing school, volunteered almost every day after school at the hospital, so they didn’t see each other much, but happened to be taking her bus today. A quiet, sweet-mannered girl like her would be a perfect nurse! She would definitely need to properly apologize next time! Maybe if she kept taking violin lessons, she could see Yuki-chan more, and become better friends with her!

Amu grinned sheepishly, looking down more than necessary to fish the still-ringing phone from her bag in an attempt to hide her flushed cheeks. How silly! How long had it been since she had seen, or even thought of, that person anyway? She retrieved the phone, answered the video call, and was greeted with Utau Hoshina’s beaming face. Amu was ecstatic; Utau was one of Amu’s closest friends from Japan, though they could rarely talk with Utau’s busy schedule. She worked so hard, having become a Japanese pop sensation while still in middle school, and was now, at age 19, singing internationally and also acting, having landed a major role in a hit TV series being filmed in Los Angeles, all while pursuing her degree in communications! “Moshi-moooooooooooooosh,” Utau sang into the phone in a playful voice. “Oh, hi Berkeley! This is perfect!” she exclaimed, switching to English for their American friend. “Did you two get your tickets for this Saturday?”

“Yes we did, thank you so much!” The girls were practically jumping out of their seats now. This Saturday, Utau was performing in nearby San Francisco, and they would see each other in person for the first time since her concert there last year.

“Good, I’d better see my two biggest fans there!” she said with a wink. “After all, I’ve been working super hard for you!” After a brief pause, she added, “Oh, I think you’ll like the opening band too, it’s a local one performing especially for the San Francisco concert.” Berkeley squealed with excitement.

“A band from here? What kind of band?”

“Indie rock. I met them last time I was in SF. A bunch of sweaty, grungy-haired guys,” she said with a grimace, “but their sound is nice. Soft guitar rifts with a piano. Just got a violinist too, pretty classy stuff. Now if only they would wash their hair more often! They better not embarrass me!” Amu’s stomach tightened slightly at the mention of the violin, remembering a certain Indie band Utau had briefly been involved with while they were still in Japan. An Easter project. Angsty pop music with a sad violin….

“-so not fair! Just because he’s a jock doesn’t mean he doesn’t wash his hair! Besides, you’ve never actually met him!” They were talking about Utau’s boyfriend and Amu’s former classmate, Kukai Soma. He was in his final year of high school in Japan, diligently studying every moment he wasn’t participating in extra basketball practice. A star player and stellar student, his dream was to secure a basketball scholarship to UCLA so he could get a US visa and move close to Utau. She acted like it didn’t matter if he came to America or not, but she always asked him how his UCLA application was going, adding a “not that I care particularly.” Kukai was shining with confidence, so sure that he would secure that scholarship no matter what! It must be harder on them than they let on, thought Amu, to live so far apart, as they have for most of their relationship, since Utua had started touring internationally shortly after they started dating over three years ago. But they were so strong and supportive of each other’s dreams. Oh please, please let Kukai-kun get that scholarship!

“Amu, please tell Berkeley that Kukai isn’t grungy!”

Amu chuckled. Utau may pout, but Amu knew she enjoyed the teasing, especially when it gave her an excuse to talk about her boyfriend; Utau had confided that it helped make him seem less far away, not that it bothered her, of course. Amu rolled her eyes and smiled. The girls stopped laughing just in time to hear their stop announced and began to gather their bags. “You two have a violin lesson today, right?”

“Yeah, Suzie’s studio is giving free lessons today, so we decided to try it!” Utau’s softened, then narrowed mischievously as she broke into a teasing smile.

“Amu, will you become a great violinist like Ikuto?” Again, Amu caught herself blushing. This time, Berkeley caught her as well.

“Ooh Amu, you’re blushing! Who is Ikuto, a cute boy?”

“As if! Ikuto is Utau’s man-child pervert of a brother! And he’s lucky he was able to record music, because he certainly can’t keep a real job!” she said a little too loudly, all the while cursing her cheeks for blushing so brightly and begging them not to turn redder. Berkeley laughed as the bus pulled up to their stop, while Utau just narrowed her eyes, smiling even wider with a “hmmmmmmmmmm.” Amu wanted to melt away. But why? Ikuto Tsukiyomi really was just her friend’s man-child pervert of a brother. Why did everyone think he should be anything else. Even Tadase….

Suddenly Utau’s face was a great bright smile again. “Well, ladies, my break is over! I’ll see you both Saturday!” The girls said good-bye as they exited the bus, Suzie waiting for them in her school’s uniform and carrying her violin case. Berkeley called out to her in her loud, emphatic voice (a credit to her Midwestern roots, she had explained):

“Oi, Suzie, look at our prim, proper paragon of wifey material! You ready to school us in ‘etiquette befitting a lady,’ or whatever it’s called?” But before they were fully in earshot of their friend, Berkeley clapped Amu on the back and whispered, “You’ll tell me all about Ikuto later, right?” She ran ahead with a carefree smile and wink.

It was true that Amu had never told Berkeley about Ikuto, even though she was her closest friend in America, knew about all her friends from Japan, and had met most of them, at least electronically. Kukai-kun she had met last year through a video chat with Utau while she was home for a visit. She had joined Amu in Skype calls with Nagihiko Fujisaki and his boyfriend Richie Preston, who both studied dance in England. She followed Nagi-kun’s dance videos on Instagram, and had even seen videos from his days as Nadeshiko. Berkeley frequently chatted with Rima Mashiro, Amu’s closest female friend in Japan. Rima-chan and Nagi-kun had dated for a while, but broke up after he moved to England for high school. Not everyone could handle a long distance relationship as well as Utau-chan and Kukai-kun, after all! Rima-chan and Berkeley turned out to share a love of comedy, so despite the latter’s “uncouth American manner,” Rima “approved” of her. Geez, that girl could be such a tsundere at times! Why can’t she just admit that she loves talking to Berkeley?

As did Yaya Yuiki, who, practicing for her dream of becoming a preschool teacher, took it upon herself to give Berkeley regular Japanese lessons via Skype. Amu had tried to tell her teaching preschoolers and teaching a high school student Japanese weren’t exactly the same thing, to which she responded “But if she knows that little, it’s almost the same thing right?” Honestly, Yaya-chan could be the uncouth one at times! It wasn’t Berkeley’s fault she didn’t know much Japanese! Apparently most American schools don’t teach any foreign language until high school, and even then only the Spanish of neighboring Mexico! Really! How did any of their students go to school abroad? Amu couldn’t imagine starting high school in America without having taken English since elementary school!

Berkeley had never met Kairi Sanjo, but knew him as the polite boy from Amu’s emails. He was too old-fashioned for the social media that kept Amu in constant communication with the rest of her friends, probably because it’s too “worldly” for his devout samurai lifestyle. In his final year of middle school and top in his class, he was applying to schools in Europe and America. He has even applied to a school in San Francisco, so maybe Amu would see him again soon!

She had shown Berkeley pictures of him at his sister Yukari’s wedding to Yuu Nikaido. Berkeley had met Yukari Sanjo-san, Utau’s manager, at last year’s concert, and knew Nikaido-sensei had been Amu’s teacher in elementary school. Amu had let it slip that those two used to be bad, but she let Berkeley think she was only talking about Sanjo-san’s addiction to take-out and Nikaido-sensei’s dangerous level of clumsiness. After all, Easter, the Embryo, and the Guardians were probably things she could never talk about with anyone, no matter how close the person or how fond the memories. Besides, that was all so long ago; they were good people now, a sweet couple with an adorable child, a 3-year-old girl named Su Nikaido. The name always made Amu swell with pride.

Berkeley knew of Amu’s mentees, Rikka Hiiragi and Hikaru Ichinomiya, now in middle school, and both knew of her, though she hadn’t talked directly to either. Rikka was too embarrassed by her poor English, but studied and looked forward to properly introducing herself in English someday, and Hikaru was busy with his intense studies and taking on more and more control of Easter, aiming to be able to run the company on his own by the time he came of age. Though he still found time for surprise visits to cheer Rikka-chan on at her track meets, always saying he “just happened to be free, no big deal,” when she jumped for joy to see him. Poor boy, thought Amu, Rikka doesn’t read the mood very well, and will take him at his word until he tells her how he feels honestly! When she told Berkeley about it, she responded that from what Amu said about him, he seemed like the type who wasn’t entirely aware of how he felt to begin with, which made a lot of sense to Amu.

Berkeley had a true gift for understanding people in that way. She pretended not to notice the inner conflicts people either didn’t understand or tried to hide, but she could tell, and when she did, she would give an elongated, kind of knowing glance, as if to say: “when you’re ready to talk, I am here.” And that look made people want to talk to her about it, not least of all Amu herself. Berkeley should really study to be a therapist, because she would make a great one!

In Amu’s case, a much-welcomed therapist. In the last year, Amu’s guardian characters had all been reabsorbed into her, first Ran, then Miki, then Su, and finally Dia. She knew it would happen eventually. As children grow up and become their would-be selves, they no longer need these selves to exist outside of them. When it happened depended on the person and how well they matured into their would-be selves, but losing a guardian character was a natural fact of growing up. The girls assured Amu that they would always be there inside her, but she still missed having them to talk to. How wonderful, though, that she had grown up into a girl who could talk honestly with her friends just the way she had with her guardian characters, like a normal person! And how especially wonderful to have such a good friend to talk to, all the way here in America, who she could talk openly to with no fear of judgement! Come to think of it, she thought, except for those secrets she couldn’t tell anyone, she had told Berkeley almost everything about her past.

So why, after knowing the rest of Amu’s history, did Berkeley never even get a mention of Ikuto? Well, first off, Amu wasn’t sure where to start with Ikuto; he was such a confusing man. She had met him in elementary school, and, like Nikaido-sensei, Sanjo-san, and even Utau-chan, he was once an Easter employee who corrupted and shattered children’s hearts’ eggs. But he didn’t have a choice; that was never something he wanted. Although what did he want, anyway? He sometimes seemed happiest when left alone to play violin in the park and then curl up to sleep on a bench. Though if he was truly happy, then why did the music he played in those moments seem so incredibly sad?

Other times, he seemed to enjoy teasing children, particularly Amu and her friends. He especially loved picking on Amu, telling her he loved her, kissing her cheeks, and all kinds of creepy things, then laughing at her confusion before disappearing, reassuring her that he would never do anything like “that.” (Whatever “that” was!) And then he would turn up months later, napping on her balcony, or even in her bed! Geez, he was just like a stray cat! Maybe I should have left tuna out for him, thought Amu with a smirk.

But even Ikuto seemed to know when to stop playing sometimes. Fighting Easter, there were so many times Amu could have gotten hurt, or worse. She had been kidnapped, shot at, and pushed off of buildings, and hadn’t Ikuto defied his boss’s orders countless times to save her when that happened? Why would he do that, though? If she wasn’t able to fight Easter, wouldn’t that make his job so much easier? Didn’t he get in trouble over that sort of thing? Hadn’t he actually been hurt after letting her escape that one time? He had been so helpless and alone, that Yoru had begged her, the enemy, to help him. Of course she had, because those injuries were her fault.

Maybe he actually does love you, thought a small voice in her head, which she quickly drowned out. Yeah, right! He probably just didn’t want Easter to stop him from being able to torment me, like a cat guarding its favorite toy!

Besides, it wasn’t like he treated the people he claimed to care for very well anyway. He left to look for his father, all the while cursing him for abandoning his family; he disowned his mother, still in the asylum after Aruto-san’s disappearance, and he had left his little sister Utau to raise herself any way she knew how, even if that meant becoming a puppet of Easter. Even now, he was the only one she would openly show affection for (she could be cold even to Kukai-kun), and he still would only see her if he was paid enough to perform with her. He had been especially cruel in constantly bullying Tadase Hatori, who had looked up to him and called him Nii-san.

Tadase. Amu’s first love. Their relationship had ended badly, and Amu still partially blamed Ikuto for it. Amu had admired Tadase since fourth grade, and their Guardian adventures had brought them together in fifth grade, leading to a relationship spanning sixth and part of seventh grade. He had been such a kind boy at first, giving everything he worked at and everyone he cared for his all. It was probably this absolute dedication that had drawn Amu to him in the first place. Once they started dating, he doted on her, always checking in with her, surprising her, looking for new ways to show her his love. But after they went to different middle schools, Tadase changed. He became a bit…too dedicated. It probably started with the constant texts. They had been so sweet in the beginning:

“I hope you’re having a great day.”

“I know you will do fantastic on your test today.”

“Thank you for being in my life.”

“I love you.”

But then they became weird. Obsessive. And constant. She had sometimes felt drowned in texts that made her feel…off. Like, kind of drained and even kind of nervous for some reason she couldn’t place her finger on.

“Do you truly love me?”

“There’s no one else for you, right?”

“Why won’t you text back?” He would text her in class! He may have been smart enough to get into a special middle school for gifted students, but she actually had to pay attention in class to keep up, thanks very much! Then he started obsessively asking her friends about her. Yaya-chan and Rima-chan had complained about the constant “why won’t Amu text me? Is she okay?” texts while they were in class. He would even show up unexpectedly after school, expecting long walks while he prattled on he, blissfully ignorant of her concern over her missed student club meetings or the test she needed to study for, prattled on about how he would graduate from his elite school and get a fantastic job so he could meet her every need and she wouldn’t need to lift a finger. She never felt like she could tell him she didn’t want to be taken care of like a child.

Ikuto had texted her during those years too, sending pictures of his adventures in Europe and asking about his “little Prince” Tadase. He teased them both so much, and Amu had yelled at Ikuto for constantly berating Tadase to “hurry and grow up man enough for Amu,” and threatening to steal her away. Honestly, didn’t that man have anything better to do than pick on kids? Looking back, Amu couldn’t help but wonder if Ikuto’s bullying had pushed Tadase to become so freakishly possessive of her.

Ikuto had been there New Year’s Day of seventh grade, that painful day, and Amu still wondered if things could have been different had Ikuto not been there. Of course, things had not been going well with Tadase to begin with, but they had talked about a fresh start in the new year; she loved him so, so much, and she still had hope that things could work! It started off well; Amu and Tadase met with Yaya-chan, Rima-chan, and Nagi-kun (who had only recently confessed that he and Nadeshiko were one and the same, and while Amu liked Nagi-kun a lot, she was still trying to get used to it) at the town’s New Year Festival. The girls had gotten matching hair ornaments, and Tadase had bought hers for her. Nagi-kun had offered to buy Rima-chan’s, which she had proudly refused, although not without a blush. Everyone was not-so-patiently waiting for them to finally realize they liked each other! Amu had added a new year’s prayer for them, in addition to her prayers her strained relationship with Tadase. Oh, how she had prayed with all her might when it was her turn at the shrine that year! She had felt so fresh and new afterward, and after seeing Tadase’s old, kind smile and taking his soft, strong hand, she really did believe that everything would be okay….

And then Ikuto arrived, lazily strolling behind a red-faced, pouting Kukai-kun, something about “hurry and grow up man enough for my little sister,” and “oh that’s rich coming from someone who only came to her concert because he was paid to open for her!” As soon as they arrived, Tadase had tensed, and Amu with him. As the day went on, things had gotten worse, and all because Ikuto wouldn’t mind his own damn business!

He had tried to buy her a hair ornament, saying the one she had looked too childish for her. Despite her insistence that she didn’t need fashion advice from a nosy man-child, Tadase had gripped her hand more tightly, as he had started to do lately when he was becoming jealous.

When they visited a maze to be completed in groups of two or three, Ikuto just had to crash Amu and Tadase, saying he “couldn’t possibly trust his mischievous little brother with Princess Amu.” Tadase had been silent the whole time, his face a dark shadow, and his hand had gripped hers ever more tightly. Her hand had even hurt! Despite the tension and pain, Amu had tried her best to laugh, smile, and bring joy back to their day, which had only seemed to anger Tadase even more, resulting in an even tighter grip. And that damn Ikuto had not helped, but simply strolled along whistling to himself, his obliviousness to the awkwardness he caused even more painful than Tadase’s grip.

The final straw had been in the early evening, right before show, when they stopped to get hot drinks. Tadase had gotten Amu and himself hot chocolates-huge with mounds of whipped cream and toppings, an extravagant peace offering typical of Tadase. Amu had sipped hers slowly to prevent a massive rush of sugar to her underprepared stomach, allowing the heat to sooth her cramping hand. Ikuto was taking forever getting his drink, Kukai-kun had gone backstage with Utau, and Nagi-kun and the girls were singing and dancing in anticipation of the concert, leaving Amu and Tadase to finally get some time to themselves. They sat silently, feeling each others’ warmth, watching as the night’s first stars fought to shine in the fading twilight. His hand had caressed hers so softly; how could it possibly have been the same hand to crush hers so just an hour past? It was moments like these when Amu remembered the warm, kind boy who wanted to walk forever by her side, protecting her heart, and oh, how she wanted him to so, so much! If only time could have frozen in that last perfect moment….

And then Ikuto had shown up with two apple ciders, holding one out to Amu. “Yo, Amu,” he had said with that devilish smirk of his, “I got an extra cider, you can have it if you like,” and then with a sneer at her hot chocolate, “after all, you only drink milk after a bath, no?”

Amu had screamed at Ikuto to stop saying such perverted things, demanding to know if he had anything better to do that harass children, but the damage had been done. Tadase had flown to his feet, cocoa spilled, face red, fists clenched. He had opened his mouth, but uttered no words, and finally just pushed past Ikuto, storming off. Amu had wanted to call to him, to say anything to heal his wounded heart, but her voice had been caught in her throat, no words able to reach him, no thoughts able to comprehend this situation she found herself in. Instead, with Tadase out of her reach, she had unleashed all her feelings on Ikuto in a fierce rage.

“Why do you always ruin everything? Why do you like seeing me hurt? Why can’t you just leave me alone?” Looking back on it, Amu had hurled some pretty hurtful words at Ikuto, and for the first time, he had looked fazed, eyes open wide, face blank with shock as Amu continued to rant.

It was Rima-chan, in her fierce protection mode, who had stood between them with a curt “I think you should go, and Nagi-kun, in his rational, peace-keeping way, who offered, “I think there are some things to talk about that might be better discussed when everyone has had a bit of time to cool down.” Ikuto had just continued to stare in shock for what had seemed like an eternity before finally turning and walking away, slumped and defeated.

Amu’s friends had tried their best to help her enjoy what was left of the festival, as she had tried to take joy in their kind efforts. Rima-chan had shown her a comedy routine she had been working on, breaking her rule of only showing complete work (a rule she now broke frequently with her comedic partner Berkeley), Nagi-kun had offered to put his hair up and talk to her as Nadeshiko, an gesture met with a vigorous offer of hair ribbons from Yaya-chan and a jealous pout from Rima-chan. Both Nagi-kun and Kukai-kun (who must have been surprised to rejoin them and ask about Tadase only to be met with tears and sad glances) offered to talk to Tadase, “help him resolve things, man to man,” as Kukai-kun had put it. They had watched skits and acrobats, jugglers and dancers, Amu and her friends, and she laughed and smiled with gratitude for them, almost forgetting her heartbreak, but when a concert agent rushed past them, screaming into his headset to get Utau ready faster because “that damn violinist cancelled his opening act,” Amu’s heart tightened, and she took a bathroom break that became a long walk by herself.

She hadn’t meant to travel so far, all the way to the abandoned fence at the edge of the festival grounds, but she had found what her heart was searching for: Tadase, head down, covered in shadow and gloom. Oh, how she had run to him, so determined to set things straight and heal both their aching hearts once and for all! But when she had met his eyes, she had met with a crazed glare, piercing her from under disheveled hair.

“Oh, you finally showed up,” he had almost growled, as if he was so angry he didn’t even see her worth talking to as a person anymore. Amu’s stomach had been filled with so much dread, but still she must push on!

“Tadase-“

“Do you really only drink milk after a bath? Should I have waited to get you chocolate till you bathed? Would you have drank it then?”

“Tadase, I-“

“Why the hell do you let him talk to you like that? Do you like that?”

“No one can stop his teasing! You know that! It’s not like it means anything! He’s a adult, for heaven’s sake! An immature one, but an adult! He’s not…not like us!”

“It’s not just him! Everyone loves you, and you just let it happen like you like all the attention! What about Kairi? He confessed to you, didn’t he? Did you ever actually tell him no?”

“He…he didn’t really give me a chance to before he left, did he?” She stammered, not understanding just what he thought was going on. “Besides, I think choosing you is a clear enough rej-“

“And Kukai liked you too! Did you pretend not to notice?”

“What are you-? Kukai-kun is with Utau-chan!”

“And have you seen the way Nagihiko looks at you? Although it’s not surprising; you even spent the night at his house!”

“We thought he was a girl and you know it! Don’t you dare…Nagihi-no, Nadeshiko was my best friend!” This was when she had started to cry. Amu cared for Nagi-kun, and was happy he could be his true self. But at that time, Amu was still feeling the lost of her first female best friend.

Her tears had only made Tadase snarl. “And now you cry for him?! You cry for Nagi, for Ikuto, who won’t you cry for?” and after a pause, “you were supposed to be mine only, but who doesn’t your heart belong to?” And then he had grabbed her wrist, holding it over her head, backing her up against the fence.

“Tadase, you’re hurting me!” she had screamed into vacant space, all festival-goers still at the concert. She had struggled against his grip, only to have her other wrist captured and pinned to the fence, escape impossible.

“But you let Ikuto do this all the time, don’t you? Am I not good enough? Should I try harder?” His grip even tighter, Amu was crying. She had wanted to scream that he wasn’t making any sense, that this wasn’t the Tadase she knew. She wanted to beg for her old Tadase back, but she couldn’t speak; her words were drowned out by fear and pain. Through her tears, the world had appeared to be spinning in front of her, swallowing her. Even Kiseki had begged Tadase to stop, insisting that rule by fear was not the way to get real control of the world or even one person in it, but, in that moment, Tadase rejected his guardian character as “weak,” declaring that he would be a king by his own strength. Amu had watched as Kiseki was forced back into his egg only to disintegrate forever, destroyed by Tadase’s will that was still strangling Amu, nearly breaking her wrists. Meanwhile, Ran, Miki, Su, and Dia were screaming for Amu to transform, but she couldn’t reach her Humpty Lock in her captivity. And even if she had been able to, could Amu really turn her guardian characters on the boy who taught her to accept them in the first place; did she truly have it in her him, even then?

She had never been forced to decide. Tadase had been suddenly thrown backward through the air, crumpling in a heap on the ground. Without Kiseki, he no longer had the heightened resistance to physical damage granted to guardian bearers. Even so, he had raised his bleeding head only to meet the iron claws of Ikuto’s character transformation preventing any further attack. Amu had approached cautiously, the arm Ikuto spread out to block her from Tadase’s reach unnecessary; her throbbing wrists reminded her not to get any closer. There had been a moment of silence that felt absolutely endless, where Amu was swimming in so many nightmares all swirling together right in front of her while she searched in vain for some piece of…something…something that made sense for her to cling to in this upheaved world. She couldn’t even look up as she said the only words that felt so heartbreakingly right: “Tadase, I…can’t do this anymore. Please don’t ever come near me again.”

And then she had run, unable to face Tadase, Ikuto, her friends, anyone. She ran all the way home, all the way upstairs and to her room, unable to face her alarmed parents or whimpering sister. And how could she have, how could she explain the dreadful things that had just happened when she couldn’t even make sense of them herself? Even her four would-be selves had been unable to offer useful words, and so just waited with her, silent, sad, scared as she was.

How long had she been there, braced against her door as if she could keep the hurt out? An eternity? Two? More? before her mother knocked gently on the door, promising they could talk when she was ready, but a bath and some sleep would help her most. She had also assured her that when her worried friends had called, she had let them know Amu was safe and just needed some rest. In that moment, Amu had been so grateful for her mother’s gentle understanding nature that she followed her suggestion and took a bath, massaging her bruised wrists as the hot water wore away at some of the despair. When she had emerged, a glass of milk was waiting on her desk, and Amu even had even managed a smile at her mother’s thoughtfulness. She had taken the milk to her balcony and the refreshing night breeze, only to see Ikuto sitting on the railing, feet hanging over the street below. As she stood in the doorway in shock, he had turned to face her, tears streaking his face.

“I’m sorry.”

His voice came out as nothing but a hoarse whisper. She knew he wasn’t just apologizing for what had happened to her, but she also felt it was for something other than the teasing that had caused it. She didn’t entirely understand what he was apologizing for that could move him to tears like this, nor did she want to know at that moment. On top of everything that had happened already, this was just too much.

“Amu, what do I do?”

“I don’t know Ikuto. I’m just a kid. I don’t know.” She couldn’t stand his long, sad gaze, wanting something from her she could neither understand nor provide. “Please go,” she had whispered, unsure of her words at first, and then, louder and with more conviction, “please.”

Her final glimpse of Ikuto was still burned into her mind. A smile so wide, not his usual teasing grin, but a genuinely kind, well-wishing smile, one concealing so much pain. His eyes closed, shutting in the rest of his tears as his face still glistened. “Hurry and grow up, Amu.” An uncharacteristically gentle voice, cracking at the end. And then he had jumped to the ground and leapt away into the night, his silhouette revealing the cat’s ears and tail of his would-be self.

The coming days and weeks would involve doctor visits, calls to Tadase’s parents, and many precautions in place for Amu’s safety: her parents working more from home, her friends accompanying her to and from school, and the watchful eyes of Nikaido-sensei and Tsukasa-san over her as she continued to study.

Tadase would never speak to her again, either because he was decent enough to at least do that for her, or because he knew how well protected she was and was afraid to approach her. Amu had been so shocked, scared, and heartbroken during that time, but she had so many people supporting her along the way, that she eventually learned to feel normal and once again began to shine with hope for the future. By the time she left for her new world a year and a half later, she had become able to talk about Tadase, both the good and bad, just like every other piece of her past. When her new friend Berkeley had asked if she had ever dated before, she was able to her the honest story of Tadase, a kind boy with so much love to give that it had consumed him and made him sick.

She left Ikuto out of the story, though she had thought about him for a long time, perhaps even longer than she had about Tadase. Not that it meant anything, of course. It was simply that her situation with Tadase was clear. She could mull over what had caused it or what could have been different, and she had, but the fact was that he had hurt her and she could not safely be around him anymore. There was no point in further speculation.

But Amu had struggled more to put Ikuto out of her mind. She could tell that night that there was so much more he had wanted to say, but she herself had silenced his words, that secret heart she couldn’t carry back then. But she couldn’t help wondering just what was in that heart, and how did it concern her? Would he ever tell her now? Why hadn’t she listened when she had the chance, before he had stopped talking to her?

She would hear he was back in Europe, still searching for his father and becoming quite a popular performer, but she would receive no more pictures of his travels, no more blurry phone recordings of his cabaret concerts, no more questions about school and if she was grown up yet, no more teasing. Nothing. She had half expected him to arrive uninvited when her friends threw her a going away party the weekend before she left for America. But he did not, and after leaving for a corner of the Earth so far away he couldn’t possibly reach, he eventually faded from her thoughts. Maybe that was for the best. She had so much to be getting on with; she couldn’t spend what little was left of her childhood haunted by that enigma of a man, teasing yet protective, that sad smile, that melancholy melody pulling on her heart….

Amu hadn’t realized that she was now a considerable number of paces behind her friends, or that there were tears in her eyes. Berkeley and Suzie looked back at her, concern on their faces. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry; I think some of that concrete powder or whatever got in my eyes!” She pointed to the taped off area about twenty feet behind them, where two construction workers drilled into the ground with a jackhammer, and started to laugh. Suzie, bless her heart, pulled out a handkerchief, with which Amu pretended to wipe specks from her eyes. Berkeley gave her that knowing gaze, and Amu laughed sheepishly, knowing she had some explaining to do later. When she had recovered herself, they walked the remaining block to the studio and checked in at the table outside.

“Ah, Miss Chen, Mrs. Mansfield had to take her maternity leave early, but the substitute for your class agreed to start covering early, so you will be in good hands.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Nishida,” said Suzie in her sweet, refined voice to the studio manager. “Is everything all right with Mrs. Mansfield?”

“Baby came a bit early, but all is well. A healthy boy. Mrs. Mansfield will be back with us in about two months, after she’s had time to settle in. It’s her first, after all!”

“Of course, thank you so much for taking such good care of us all. Please send my regards to Mrs. Mansfield.”

“Surely, Miss Chen. Now, are these two sweet friends of yours here for today’s promotional lessons?”

“Yes, Mr. Nishida. Amu Hinamori and Berkeley Walker. Would it trouble Mrs. Mansfield’s substitute to take them in my class for the day?

“I’m sure it would be fine. He may be a bit rough-looking, but he seems like the type who can handle himself well. Now, Miss Hinamori and Miss Walker, loaner violins are available by the table at the start of the main hall. Once you’ve got those, just follow Suzie and let her teacher know you’re promotional students today. Have a great time and welcome!”

After they got their violins, they filed into Suzie’s class, gushing about what a sweet gentleman Mr. Nishida was, calling them “Miss!” Suzie explained that while Mr. Nishida was a very sweet man indeed, it was common, even expected, to call music students “Mr.” and “Miss,” rather than by the more common first name. Berkeley exclaimed “wow, so proper!” in wide-eyed amazement, while Amu was reminded fondly of the honorifics of her native Japan. The substitute appeared to be a few minutes late, so the girls watched as Suzie set up her instrument and attempted to copy her movements. How does she make poise look so easy, wondered Amu in admiration and slight embarrassment at her own awkwardness. Suzie assured her and the equally struggling Berkeley that it was quite normal; she had struggled at first too. The girls all giggled, having fun in this sweet moment together.

And then he appeared at the front of the classroom. His entrance had been silent, so few students noticed amidst the hubbub, and Amu might not have either if the corner of her eye had not been positioned just so at just the right moment. Tall, lanky frame clad in baggy gray and black plaid slacks, draped over an incredibly scuffed pair of black boots. A wrinkled and faded black button-up shirt, untucked, sleeves rolled up, top button undone to expose a bulky silver cross. Long indigo hair, only partially captured by the loose ponytail at the back, the rest falling into his deep blue eyes, framed by severe-looking black-rimmed reading glasses that actually dressed up the rest of his rumpled outfit. Those piercing midnight blue eyes, open wide in a shock that mirrored Amu’s own, boring into her soul to call back unanswered questions she had abandoned long ago.

Amu almost dropped her violin as he made his way to her, ignoring other students’ gossiping and giggling, the fiddling with instruments, and other reminders of the present world, suddenly far too mundane to contain this moment. He stopped a foot in front of her, leaning over her wide-eyed, upturned face, searching it as if he had left some sort of truth there long ago. Berkeley looked from one to the other with a slightly raised eyebrow, the only giveaway that her curiosity was anything more than mild.

Suzie was the one to break the silence with a soft greeting: “Um, excuse me, sir, are you the substitute instructor for this class?” He finally removed his intense gaze from flushed, trembling Amu to glance at her. When he said nothing, she continued “…I’m Suzie Chen of Mrs. Mansfield’s class, and these are my friends Amu Hinamori and Berkeley Walker, here to receive promotional lessons today. Thank you for taking over the class on such a hectic day, and if you need any help during class, please feel free to call on me.” He stared at her for a few seconds, his true attention still obviously on Amu.

“Yo, Amu,” he said, recovering some of his old confidence, but not the hint of teasing his voice had always carried. No, this was more reserved and polite, even despite the familiar language. Then, turning to Suzue, “thank you, Miss Suzie. I gladly accept your care.

He then strode back to the front to call class to order. “Attention, everyone. Class will now begin. I will start with roll call, first the studio members and then the promotional visitors. Listen up for your name.” Seeing the looks off confusion, he added, “oh yeah, Mrs. Mansfield took an early maternity leave, so for the next two months, starting today, you will be in my care. I have performed on stages in Japan, Europe, Australia, and the United States, both as a soloist and as a member of an orchestra. I have a recorded solo album and appear in six orchestral albums. I am currently working on my second solo album and collaborating with the Indie rock band Stray-t and Narrow, Stray-t spelled S-t-r-a-y-hyphen-t. We will be opening for the world-famous Utau Hoshina this weekend at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Is there anyone who does not believe I possess the qualifications needed to lead this class?” At the end his voice took on an icy edge, as if daring anyone to speak out against him. When no one did, he continued: “My name is Ikuto Tsukiyomi, you can call me by first or last name. I’m here to teach you music, not some stuffy outdated etiquette. You want that, go to finishing school.” Then, locking his fierce gaze on Amu, concluded, “Let’s get started.”

Amu, trembling, struggled even more than before to position her instrument. Her mind was all at once racing at light speed and standing dead still. Her heart was pounding against her chest, and her blood coursed in her ears, dizzying her. How can he be all the way here, after all this time? What do I say? What do I do? How do I act? Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Suzie chuckled nervously, probably uncomfortable with the coarse character of her new instructor, and confused about the way he was treating her frazzled friend. Berkeley’s stare rested on the strange man as she nonchalantly whispered under her breath, “So that’s Ikuto, huh? Well, this ought to be interesting….”

#anime #manga #fanfiction #shugo chara #amuto #amu x ikuto #amu hinamori #ikuto tsukiyomi #nagihiko is gay af #tadase is a dick #sorry not sorry

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yotsutama · 7 years

Photo

Iori Photobook: Special Interview

"We were able to shoot properly according to the theme"

Yuki: Iori-kun, good work on your photoshoot. I'm glad we took a good shot of you.

Iori: Good work. Thank you for being my producer.

Yuki: We rarely talk to each other so I guess I will ask about you thoroughly today.

Iori: Don't be too hard on me please.

Yuki: You're so stiff. Momo persistently told me, "We proposed this project so do this properly," so I'll be kind to you.

Iori: Haa....

Yuki: Let's start with the first question. What do you think about me?

Iori: What a difficult question and it’s only the first one....

Yuki: That reaction isn't bad. But it's an important question to help us get along.

Iori: That may be true. At first, I thought Yuki-san was a cool but scary person.

Yuki: Fufu, I get told that often.

Iori: However, you actually have an approachable personality, you give off a good senpai impression who takes good care of us, as his kouhais.

Yuki: Iori-kun....

Iori: Well, you are a bit odd though.

Yuki: Am I?

Iori: I guess.

Yuki: I'm ordinary, you know. To the point that there's no one else as ordinary as me.

Iori: If you are as ordinary as you claim, you wouldn't have tricked us when we first met, am I right?

Yuki: Like I had any other choice, you were all so cute that I wanted to eat you up.

Iori: Don't eat us please....

Yuki: Yum yum.

Iori: Don't "yum yum" me. Also, the other day, when we didn’t know you were there, you suddenly stood behind me and grabbed my butt whispering "You, you have a nice butt. You have caught the Peach-Butt Lovers Club president's eyes," didn't you!?

Yuki: Pfft (lol). That did happen. Your reactions were cute as always.

Iori: S-Stop that please! First of all, who on earth is the Peach-Butt Lovers Club president....

Yuki: Momo told me to say that.

Iori: You two senpais have bad taste, geez!

Yuki: But today's shoot was perfect, right?

Iori: As you said, I think we were able to shoot properly according to the theme. I rarely do a photoshoot alone so I hope the fans are pleased....

Yuki: What is the theme again?

Iori: Huh!? It-It's "A Morning with your Dearest Person," isn't it!?

Yuki: Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to hear "dearest person" coming from your mouth.

Iori: Ugh......!

Yuki: Being a high-schooler is nice. I'm glad we could take some shots in a classroom. I think I was able to show Iori-kun's natural form.

Iori: I did not think I would have to wear my actual uniform for this project, it's a bit embarrassing.

Yuki: You should use it as your weapon, HSB.

Iori: It's been a while since I last heard the HSB word.

Yuki: Seriously? Forget what I said then.

Yuki: I just realized though, isn't this a conversation between the oldest and the youngest among the 12 of us?

Iori: The youngest is actually Yotsuba-san who was born on April 1st, but Yotsuba-san and I are the same age so everyone often forgets that fact.

Yuki: I see. Okay then, almost youngest Iori-kun, the cameraman told you to imagine someone you like is in front of you, did you actually imagine it?

Iori: I did my best, but being told that troubled me.

Yuki: Aah, so you still don't have a person you like. Then what did you imagine?

Iori: I didn't particularly imagine someone.

Yuki: That's boring.

Iori: Even if you say that....

Yuki: If bringing out a girl's name is difficult, you can just say that it's Mitsuki-kun.

Iori: Ni-Nii-san!?

Yuki: Don't panic (lol). Isn't brotherly love nice? It's beautiful. Or maybe Riku-kun? You two are close, right?

Iori: Whether we are close or not doesn't matter here...!

Yuki: Well, Iori-kun is close with those who need a lot of attention, right? Your love towards your members is great.

Iori: Our relationship is not like yours and Momo-san's....

Yuki: You want to be like us? Then the first step is to send good morning and good night messages to each other.

Iori: We can just say that to each other directly unless we have different jobs that day.

Yuki: Now that you mention it, you all live in dorms, huh? That's perfect then, you can be Re:vale2 from today on.

Iori: That's not necessary.

Yuki: Fufu. Iori fans might hate me if I tease you too much.

Iori: This is the first time someone older than me can make me lose my composure this much....

Yuki: What an honor. Let's move on to the next question. Can you tell us your saddest and happiest moments since you started in the entertainment business?

Iori: Saddest moments... I see. Once, I troubled my members in a live. If I hadn't made that mistake, everyone wouldn't have been so sad that time.

Yuki: Did your members blame you?

Iori: No, no one blamed me.

Yuki: Members are like that. They are always in the same boat.

Iori: You might be right. That day, someone told me. ‘We are idols. Idols' job is to make people smile. Doing it alone might be difficult, but if your members are with you, it's a very easy thing.’

Yuki: That means if there are 7 of you, you become the strongest, right?

Iori: Yes. Rokuya-san taught me that.

Yuki: So it's Nagi-kun. He really watches over everyone. How about Mitsuki-kun? Did he say something to Iori-kun as the big brother?

Iori: He said that it was the first time in his life he was able to comfort me, someone who had never made a mistake. He laughed while hugging me... He is a very kind person.

Yuki: You're so proud of your big brother, aren't you?

Iori: Yes, from the bottom of my heart.

"I hope I can be the night sky that allows those shooting stars to keep shining."

Yuki: How nice, I want a little brother now.

Iori: Are you an only child?

Yuki: I am. I wonder if someone would want to be my little brother.

Iori: You can just cherish Momo-san as if he was your own brother.

Yuki: Momo is more like a pet rather than a brother, isn't he?

Iori: Momo-san will get angry you know....

Yuki: He adores me saying, "Yuki, Yuki!" isn't it cute? He’s like a puppy.

Iori: I can never understand Re:vale's way of expressing their love.

Yuki: Your relationship will either end up like that or it’ll get worse 5 years later.

Iori: That goes for IDOLiSH7 as well?

Yuki: Yeah. I wonder which outcome you guys will end up with?

Iori: Preferably, I hope it doesn't get worse.... We live in dorms and all.

Yuki: You don't want to have separate lives under the same roof, right? I will give you some good tips.

Iori: Is it saying good morning and good night everyday?

Yuki: That, plus eating meals together.

Iori: Eating meals?

Yuki: Yeah. Eating together warms your heart. Try to have meals together whenever you have time.

Iori: I am surprised by how proper your tips are.

Yuki: Isn't that a little rude, Iori-kun? (lol)

Iori: I am sorry, after I overheard you and Momo-san's conversation in the dressing room, I....

Yuki: Is something wrong?

Iori: Seeing you clean Momo-san's ear while lending your knees as his pillow made me a bit, I mean, very surprised.

Yuki: Because we always fool around in front of you, right?

Iori: Your boundaries between joking around and being serious is as difficult as Shinjuku's railway.

Yuki: That's such an interesting metaphor. You're the type who gets lost easily, aren't you.

Iori: Y-You went off topic.

Yuki: Did I? Then let's get back on topic. Can you tell us some of your happiest moments?

Iori: May I mention more than one?

Yuki: You’re more than welcome. Go ahead.

Iori: First is when we won in the male idols division of Black or White.

Yuki: You won against TRIGGER, didn't you? On that day, no matter which one of you had won, no one would complain. Both groups did their very best.

Iori: Yes. When our group’s name was announced, we were so surprised.

Yuki: You’ve become a stronger group since that time.

Iori: You told us to 'climb up here.' I haven't forgotten your words since that time.

Yuki: How threatening. We can't let our guards down now.

Iori: It's just talk. We haven't climbed up to the same stage as yours.

Yuki: That's wrong. The president of Peach-Butt Lovers Club is looking forward to it.

Iori: Just who on earth is it!?

Yuki: You know, don’t you? It's Momo.

Iori: I didn't know...!

Yuki: It's Momo's peach-butt. Pfft (lol).

Iori: So, it's a pun....

Yuki: Sorry, I went off topic again. What's the second moment?

Iori: Yes, it's Nanase-san's return as our center in RESTART POiNTER.

Yuki: That live was so moving. Momo and I watched the MV many times.

Iori: Thank you very much. On that day, I was so charmed by Nanase-san's singing that I had to look back at him. I was so proud, I wanted to say, "Look everyone, he is our center." (2)

Yuki: You really like Riku-kun after all.

Iori: I'm talking about his singing!

Yuki: Fufu, sorry. I also like Riku-kun's wonderful vocal range and singing that reaches comfortably to the ear.

Iori: He is our center after all.

Yuki: My Momo won't lose though.

Iori: Why are we bragging to each other (lol).

Yuki: Ah, you finally laughed. I feel like I can finally open up Iori-kun's heart.

Iori: I am sorry, I can't make a cute conversation...

Yuki: You don't have to apologize. When you make onigiri with Mitsuki-kun and when you laughed at Riku-kun who had cream on his cheek, I know that during those times, that is the real you. You're absolutely cute.

Iori: You really have watched it a lot......

Yuki: I'm confident I can talk about that MV all night. However, we all look forward to seeing IDOLiSH7 leap forward from here on out.

Iori: For our great senpai to say that, it's an honor for us.

Yuki: Isn't it? Okay, I guess it's almost time. Last part of this interview, a message to your fans who will read this book.

Iori: Thank you very much for always supporting IDOLiSH7. I am not good at talking about myself... But I tried my best with the help of my senpai, Yuki-san, hoping I can meet everyone's expectations. IDOLiSH7 will always be the shooting stars that shake your hearts from here on out. I hope I can be the night sky that allows those shooting stars to keep shining.

Special thanks for @ousama-pudding and @huhwhatyak for proofreading and photos!

(1) Yuki says DK here. DK = Danshi Koukousei = High School Boy

(2) OK IORI LITERALLY SAYS 惚れ直し which means "I fell in love with his singing again" MMMH

Thanks for reading!😸

#idolish7 #izumi iori #iori izumi #yuki #photobook interview #SUCH A BIG TSUN #ILYSM💢#yazutranslates

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bloodyredbluerose-blog · 7 years

Text

Saizos confessions Ch III

WORNING: This chapter contains very graphic content, so continue at your own risk. Also if you are a sensitive person, do not , DO NOT read this chapter!

‘What a beautiful morning!' I thought to myself as I was wanting for your arrival. I don't know how but you always manage to find me, even now. I was on the lake side, admiring the view of the crystal water, if I looked closely I could almost see the fish swimming gracefully without a care in the world. The Sun was rising lazily, painfully slowly, to cascade it’s golden rays between the cracks of the mountains. The Red Lake was truly a wonderful sight, I spent a couple of hours just listening to the comforting sound of the silence with my eyes closed.

“It’s time, she is wanting for you at the Caffe Shop!” that sound, that voice I know oh so well, the possibilities to drag her next to me and do the things I want with her were endless, but now it’s not the time for that so I gave myself a mental shake to get rid of those thoughts.

“You are getting better at this little lady” I said with a bored tone, not opening my eyes to see her. She was sitting behind me, but if I turned around and see her , I know that all my control will be broken. It’s funny how she can turn me into butter after all these years.

“Shut your mouth, get your ass up and get going! The sooner you go the sooner you'll come back!” the tone in her voice was inviting, triggering my imagination, not in a good way, in a playful way.

“You are right little lady I’ll go now, but first….” I turned around with the intention to grab her and plant a kiss on her velvet lips but she was already gone. Woman you are tasting my patience! Left all alone again and with nothing to do, I too vanished in thin air and come to see you.

10 minutes later I found you in the shop, sitting alone at the table with your cellophane in hand. Judging from the look on your face, you were reading something you should not in a public place. Your cappuccino stood beside you, long forgotten and cold by this point. I went to place my order and came back to find you in the same position cheeks slightly flushed and lips patterned enough for me to slowly insert a cold finger between them. I wander what reaction I would manage to coax out of you with this gesture, but I reframed myself from such alluring action , instead I took a seat in front of you, enjoying my black coffee , the cute faces you were making and also enjoying the sweet sounds that were escaping your mouth from time to time. As they say 'All good thing must come to an end' and so did my coffee, I was wondering how much more time you were going to ignore me, I started to grew tired, in a blink I was up and behind you. I let my hands ghost over your exposed shoulders, the simple dress you were wearing leaved nothing to my imagination, it hugged your corves perfectly whit a cute flower pattern and a red ribbon in the middle to accentuate your waist. Cute. I land over and whispered in your ear

“Little ladys should be punished for making such lewd sounds in public! “

“Whaaa…..eeeek. ……where….how…..?”I gave you a low chuckle and returned to my seat in front of you.

“If only you will put away your phone for a few minutes and stop to take in the world around you, you will know!” I saw you turning a few shades of red before you put away your phone and mumbled an apology.

“So little lady, can we continue our story now?”

“To be honest I didn't expect to meet you here…”

“I’ll take my leave then!” just I was leaving your table, you sprung on your feet and grabbed my sleeve.

“Stay!”

“Ok little lady, let us begin. This happens 2 months after we returned to Kai. Life was simple enough, it started to become more of a routine for me and MC. When I wasn’t on a mission we would spend the day together, I’d help her with her daily duties , I’d tease her from time to time then we would stay the night together, you know… a bit of kissing, a bit of sex, a bit of teasing, that’s how life gone for us. She was happy this way, I was happy… One late night I was woke up by a familiar sound, careful not to wake MC , I eased myself from her grip and went outside, after I closed the door to our room Hanzo spoke

“ The elder has summoned you!”

“What is it this time?” I’d asked with a bored tone

“I don’t know…” it was rarely for him not to know things, this cannot be good. I went back inside to get changed, before leaving for my new mission I kneel beside MC and gave her a brief pick on her lips and murmured a low ‘I love you’ got up and started to go to the door again but something was tugging my leg. I looked down and saw MC hand

“Be careful!” it wasn't a plea it was an order.

“You know little lady, night time is…”

“Quiet time, now I’ll stop being so cute and put myself to sleep.” She took the words out of my mouth with a tender, welcoming smile.

“I’ll be back before you know it, little lady! “ with one last kiss on her lips I was gone. As expected Hanzo was waiting for me outside and we arrived at Iga village before sunrise and with no problems. Though the elder was very clear in his orders, I still had a bad feeling about it. The mission was even clearer, go to the woods, find the missing ninjas, bring them back, dead or alive. I didn't knew who they were but if they betrayed the village I was the one who will take their lives.

Soon enough I stumbled upon Yuki’s hide out in the forest, the place racked of death. What the hell had my sister done this time? I approached the door with caution and tried to open it but something was blocking it. A small box maybe, with little effort the door was opened and the sight was…. Well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. My eyes, my stomach and all my internal organs started twitching and turning. In this job I've seen it over and over, a corpse is a corpse . Under the wintry light of the woodland the corpse is utterly still and more than slightly frozen. He's been dead for sometime. Pool of blood that was almost dried and gave the room a sickly-sweet butcher shop odor. They lied like dolls over the wooden floor, limbs at awkward angles some of them missing and heads held in such a way that they cannot be sleeping. These bodies, once the repositories of people as alive as I am, are now abandoned shells left to rot in the open. Some will be consumed by the wildlife and others simply decay, slowly giving up their flesh to the soil and showing their white bones to the sun. Yuki was a woman capable of many things, but this… how can I describe exactly what I was seeing in that moment? Hmmm… rotting, decaying, dead, pallid, icy skin, ebony flesh, pale, grisly, tragic, lifeless, soulless, milky eyes staring blankly, bloody, silent, cruel, cold fingers forever trapped into a defensive fist, dead, masses of decomposing bodies carelessly piled atop each other, left to the flies and birds, heart-wrenching, departed, stiff, bloodless, breathless, cadaverous, haggard, ghastly, defunct bodies. Some of them were dead for at least for a couple of weeks some were fresh and some were flayed. That particular flayed body attract my attention, even in that state I was able to recognise it. Who in the world would be capable of such acction? Flaying was rare amongst ninjas, not even Yuki was able to master the technique perfectly so that excluded her from the equation. “

“Saizo! “

“Yes little lady. “ I looked at you and your face was full of concern and confusion. What could possibility be bothering you this time?

“W-what does flaying m-mmean?”

“Ok little lady, I guess it's not a common thing to hear this days so I’ll explain to you. Being skinned alive also known as "flaying" is first documented as happening around 800 BC, and it is used as a form of torture in just about every century since. While flaying is rarely seen nowadays, that doesn't make the concept any less horrifyingly fascinating. As you might expect, peeling the skin off of an entire human being is kind of a difficult task. Given this knowledge you may find that, when someone flays you, you're in for a bit of prep work first, to make the skinning easier.

Some cultures liked to warm up the skin, to loosen it from the muscles and make it more easy to peel off. Then the torture begins with some very specific and calculated cuts. In general, the first skin to be peeled off is that of the face; after that, your body has to be scored in various places to allow the skin to remove easily in one piece or at least, in as few pieces as possible. This involves relief cutting around the arms and wrists, the chest and neck, and sometimes the feet.

These cuts will not be incredibly deep, but they will extend through all the individual layers of skin, so as to reach the area between your skin and the muscle itself. This means you can expect horrifying amounts of pain. It is said that the sharper the knife used, the less painful it will be, so you'd better hope your torturers do regular maintenance on their blades.

When you are flayed, your skin is literally ripped off, not cut little by little. This ripping motion means that your nerve endings are not severed cleanly; instead, they are torn to shreds, one by one, in a long train of agony. You're going to feel your skin be pulled off your muscles, and you're going to feel your nerve endings dying. In other words, you're going to feel all of it.

Assuming you're hanging upside down, as is often the case, you'll see and feel the blood rushing past your face and onto the ground, and it'll be coming from all over your body. Not exactly a great thing to see as you feel someone peeling the skin off your entire body. When the brain is faced with extreme pain and stress, it begins to release chemicals to counteract these negative feelings. Some of these chemicals are called endorphins, and they help to transmit electrical signals throughout the body. They act similarly to morphine, numbing you and giving you a feeling of happiness. Of course, these feelings probably won't be enough to even slightly counteract the horror and agony of the experience, but at least your brain is trying. In some cases of flaying, people only take an outer layer, and in other cases, they even take some of the flesh underneath the skin, as well. In other words, you had better hope your torturers are doing it right, or else the pain could last much longer than expected. One question some people raise is whether you could survive after being flayed. The answer is that you unequivocally could not. Although it might not seem like it, your skin is one of your vital organs. It keeps out infection, protects your muscles and blood, and acts as an overall barrier between you and the elements. What's more, you can only regrow so much skin so fast, and when you are flayed, much more is taken away than your body can possibly replace. So, exactly how long are you going to stay alive during and after being flayed? Unfortunately, this is rarely a quick death. It's true that some people die from shock or blood loss within hours, and many lose consciousness so they don't have to experience the rest of the pain. But more likely, you'll be awake and aware throughout the entire ordeal, and may last a while even afterwards. There are reports of people surviving hours and even several days after being skinned alive, presumably in excruciating agony the entire time.

In these cases, it is not actually blood loss that proves fatal. If you survive a day of being skinless, infection and hypothermia are going to get to you. Your blood may turn septic, or you may just be unable to keep yourself warm enough to survive. Either way, you'd be better off wishing for a quick death from shock - or just wishing for literally any method of torture other than flaying.”

One look at you made me realize that maybe I shouldn't have said these things to you. Your beautiful face now was wiled eyed, bewildered, hands over mouth, nostrils flaring, blood drained from face, mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish with no sound coming out, still as a statue, ridged as a board, face stuck in an incredulous expression, unblinking stare, shaking head in disbelief, sent reeling backwards, brain desperately scrambling to make sense of it all, rendered speechless, temporarily incapacitated, stood as if paralyzed from the neck up, gibbering nonsense, unable to comprehend what had just occurred, stood as gormlessly as a guppy.

It made me feel bad for doing this to you, I always tend to forget that I’m in an era with less terror and suffering. I need to choose my next words carefully, but what can I say in order to not damage you any more than I already did?

While I was chewing over the situation I could sense you moving, neither you didn't knew what to say from the looks at it. Then you stood up and bowed deeply,

“I-I….. sorry I got to go. Do you think, that is if you …… I mean…” it was almost amusing seeing you stumbled over your words but I know what you intend to say.

“Sure little lady, we will continue this some other time.” I assured you with a kind smile. The next second you were gone ‘Kids these days, always in a hurry’ Left alone once again I decided to return to the Red Lake, at least there was some peace and quiet, so I too, took my leave.

Once out of the shop I navigate by intersection and aromas. Otherwise it would be impossible to know where I am. I move along in the thick crowd, mostly several inches to a foot shorter than everyone else. I can't see the bright shop signs, or the buildings to orient me - only backpacks, coats and hair. I am frequently jostled, but then I don't weigh much more than a child. With the smell of coffee I know I need to turn right next and start to weave my way over. The crowd parts around a newspaper dispenser but I fail and am instead left smooshed up against it for a few moments, my smart cream suit brushing up against the traffic dirtied glass. Unlike a child there is no Mom or Dad to pull me away and instead I must inch sideways until once again I am in the current. I veer into the next street to the aroma of samosas. If I can get close enough I'll buy a few to take home. But I can't see the cart, once again I am adrift in the moving bodies... After a few more agonizing minutes, the labyrinth called city, came to a halt and before me I could see a mass of green land with patches of trees here and there, it's really fascinating how urban environment can be combined with the rural one. As my feet took me closer to the lake, my brain screamed to me to turn around and run like there is no tomorrow. Only one person could gave me this feeling, and she was right there, the one that haunted me in every dream since I was only but a kid, the one that braked all my walls no matter how many times I build them up again...She was the kind of girl that women loved to hate. She was an adult but so young that she still had the exuberance of youth. She had that movie star look, not overly tall and willowy, but more like an action star. Her muscle definition was perfect and she walked with the confidence of someone a decade older. She wasn't just flawless in her bone structure, her skin was like silk over glass and she radiated an intelligent beauty.

When I close enough she sat down and patted her lap, I took her silent invitation and rest my head on her knees.

“Idiot! Now you’ve gone and done it!” the venom in her words was more damaging than any other poison that I had ingested. While her left hand was combing thru my silver hair I took her right one, gave it a kiss and than placed it where my heart used to be, that’s a story for another time.

“ I got carried away, next time I’ll do better.”

“if there is a ‘next time’”

“There will be!”

I pushed myself onto my elbows and kissed her-really kissed her. It was more than just a precursor to sex. There was no war between our mouths. My hips rested lightly beneath hers, not pressed tightly. Our lips moved in soft, perfect harmony with each other. This time it meant something. What that something was, I didn’t know , but I knew that there was a real connection between us. Her hands stroked gently through my hair, my thumb grazing her cheek and it didn’t feel sick or twisted or unnatural. Actually, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. No rush. This time things were slow and earnest. This time I wasn’t looking for an escape. This time it was about her. About me. About honesty and compassion.

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seigyokus · 7 years

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6.2 - Decorum

Idolish Seven - Part 3, Chapter 6.2 For more Part 3 translations, click here!

Translation below the cut!

Yuki: I would never stoop so low as to flatter someone I could barely stomach, just to maintain my position in the industry. And I'm sure Ban wouldn't either. Momo: ....... You said that on purpose just now, didn't you. Yuki: I did. I wanted to believe you were the same, Momo. But I guess I was just forcing my ideals onto you. Yuki: Go ahead, wag your tail and suck up to him. Bet it feels great to sit on that big, fluffy ol' throne you've set out for me. Yuki: Except I won't be anywhere near that. Momo: ....... Staff: Re:vale, you're up next. ......Re:vale? Okazaki Rinto: Y-yes, of course. They'll be out in just a moment. Let's talk about this afterwards, alright? Yuki: There's nothing to talk about. Momo: Yeah...... Okazaki Rinto: I'll make sure you do! For now, concentrate on the work before you. Alright, go get 'em!

Mr. Shimooka: And now, the duo everyone's been waiting for! Re:vale! Audience: Kyaaaaa.....! Audience: Momo-chan! Yuki-san! Mr. Shimooka: Popular as ever, I see! At long last, "NO DOUBT," the theme song for the movie "Mission," will be released their upcoming Best Hits album! Mr. Shimooka: In the five years you two were Re:vale, you guys have sung tons of songs. Which one is your favorite, Yuki-kun? Yuki: Right now, it's "NO DOUBT." The lyrics are good too. Mr. Shimooka: Your newest song, huh! What about you, Momo? What's your favorite Re:vale song? Momo: Huh? Uh, favorite from what? Mr. Shimooka: Ahaha! Your favorite out of all the Re:vale songs! Momo: "We, the Incomplete"....... Wait, never mind! One of ours, right? "SILVER SKY" I guess? That one's chock full of memories from our fifth anniversary! Yuki: ....... Mr. Shimooka: I love that song too! I hope you all look forward to hearing their best album! After all, it's filled with Yuki-kun and Momo-kun's favorite songs! Momo: Yep! Please look forward to it! Mr. Shimooka: Now, let’s have 'em sing for us! Here is Re:vale's "NO DOUBT!"

Takanashi Tsumugi: Alright! Gotta work hard to make up for all the time I was away from the front lines! Midou Torao: ....... Takanashi Tsumugi: Ah....... He's really tall.... Taller than Tamaki-san perhaps? Is he a model? Or someone debuting soon? Midou Torao: Hey. Takanashi Tsumugi: Y-yes? Are you talking to me? Midou Torao: Where's the front desk? Takanashi Tsumugi: If you go from the entrance by the security room, the front desk-- Midou Torao: Ooh, you're pretty cute up close. You've got the figure of a kid, though. Takanashi Tsumugi: Huh? Midou Torao: Forget about the front desk. What's your name? Takanashi Tsumugi: My name? I-I'm Takanashi Production's-- Midou Torao: I don't need your titles. Just tell me what you want me to call you. Inumaru Touma: You dumbass! This ain't the place to be picking up girls!! Midou Torao: Don't get in my way. Inumaru Touma: Sorry about that, Nee-chan! You can ignore him and go! Takanashi Tsumugi: A-alright. If you'll excuse me......! Inumaru Touma: Poor thing. Hell, she was terrified. Midou Torao: ....... She's totally my type. You think she'll fall for me? Inumaru Touma: You're really fucking optimistic, you know that? Midou Torao: I don't have a single pessimistic bone in my body. Never have, ever since I was born.

Yotsuba Tamaki: Sou-chan, did you hear? Apparently we're gonna start doing a radio show soon. Osaka Sougo: I did hear. I was told that the radio show will discuss music news and information. There’s another radio show I listen to, and the people from that show will also be working on this one. I can't wait-- Osaka Sougo: ......! Quick, be my wall! Yotsuba Tamaki: Again!? Fine. Like this? Midou Torao: Get outta my way. Yotsuba Tamaki: --He moved me away, even though I was being a wall!? Midou Torao: Osaka Sougo, correct? Osaka Sougo: ....... Midou Torao: Remember me? We've met countless times at parties. Osaka Sougo: ......I do remember you. Midou Torao-san, if I recall correctly? It has been a while since we last met. Yotsuba Tamaki: Sou-chan, can I stop being a wall? Who is this dude? Midou Torao: Haha. Never crossed my mind that you'd be an idol. Osaka Sougo: I could say the same thing. What brings you to a TV station, Midou-san? Yotsuba Tamaki: Hey, Sou-chan. Who is he? Midou Torao: So, I heard you got disowned. The Osaka Financial Conglomerate played a pivotal role in the modernization of Japan-- I'm sure they're very strict about maintaining their dignity. Midou Torao: You used to be his pride and joy, too.... The president looks a lot older nowadays. Osaka Sougo: ....... Midou Torao: I'm sure that man despises music. After all, it took his younger brother's life and stole you away. Perhaps you should try being a better son to him some time. (1) Yotsuba Tamaki: Hey! Who the hell are you? Midou Torao: Sorry for interrupting, kiddo. Yotsuba Tamaki: I'm not a kid!! Midou Torao: I heard you were brought up in an orphanage. Yotsuba Tamaki: So? What's your point? Midou Torao: Well, you're paired up with someone like him. I'm having a real hard time believing you two can continue on as a duo. Osaka Sougo: ......What exactly do you mean by that? Tamaki-kun is a very kind and considerate boy. There are many things I can learn from him. Osaka Sougo: Of course, there are things I'd like you to learn from him too, Midou-san. For example, answering someone when they ask for your name. Osaka Sougo: Tamaki-kun, allow me to introduce him. This is Midou Torao-san, an old acquaintance of mine. Yotsuba Tamaki: O-okay....... Midou Torao: ......Pleased to meet you. Osaka Sougo: Midou-san. This is Yotsuba Tamaki-kun. He’s a part of MEZZO" with me. I do hope you'll make an effort to be respectful, and please take good care of him. (2) Yotsuba Tamaki: I'm Yotsuba Tamaki. Midou Torao: Hello. Osaka Sougo: Now, if you'll excuse us. We have urgent matters to attend to. ....... Yotsuba Tamaki: ......Sou-chan, are you mad? Osaka Sougo: Mad? I'm not mad at all. Do I look angry? Yotsuba Tamaki: Yeah, you look pissed. Osaka Sougo: I see....... Perhaps I did something rude just now. Yotsuba Tamaki: ....... He said your dad looked a lot older lately, right? Did he get sick? Osaka Sougo: ......I do not know. Yotsuba Tamaki: ....... Osaka Sougo: ......So he despises music? When he's a sponsor for TRIGGER's music show? Osaka Sougo: ......You’re the ones who took my uncle's life away, not music....... Yotsuba Tamaki: Sou-chan.......

To be continued....

Translator notes/comments:

thank u @kuriiii for proofreading!!!!

(1) 親孝行 = filial piety. "A virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. Being a filial son meant complete obedience to one's parents during their lifetime and--as they grew older--taking the best possible care of them." (thanks wikipedia) (2) boi do i h8 keigo, lmk if i messed anything up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As usual, if you see any mistakes/mistranslations/etc, please message me!

Thank you for reading!!

#アイドリッシュセブン #Idolish7 #story3:text #story3:tl #translation

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hopeymchope · 7 years

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Yuno? No, you don’t know: Part 1

(Yes, puns. Sorry?)

“My bad!”

It’s weird to me how so much of the artwork/cosplay/text posts I see of Yuno Gasai on Tumblr seem to portray/discuss a character that is at odds with the one I know from reading the manga and watching the anime so many times. Maybe I’m just getting a different interpretation somehow, but... I think I actually have a lot of evidence to back up the version I know and love.

So: HELLO, YOU! Welcome to the first in an informal series of character-study essays where I try to explain to the rest of the world and fandom why I think they’re getting Yuno Gasai totally wrong.

The first one is probably the most common mistake. It’s bolded below, and it’s the central thesis of this first post.

Yuno is the so-called “Yandere Queen,” but note that the Yandere label largely applies to any time anyone threatens Yuki’s life or safety. THIS is the primary trigger that sets her off, with the secondary trigger being “if you repeatedly and overtly try to tear her apart from Yuki by making her seem evil or dishonorable, she will eventually raise your death flag.” The first trigger can easily earn you instant death, but the second trigger takes quite a while to launch. You have to repeatedly attempt to ruin her life before she’ll decide “Well shit, guess I have to kill him/her.”

I could back the above statements up, but that’s not what this post is about. Instead, it’s about answering this question: What about the jealousy that the Yandere trope often exemplifies? Does Yuno threaten everyone who flirts with/shows interest in Yuki or vice versa?

Weirdly, a simple google search of her name would tell you “Yes, of course! Yuno tries to murder/actively murders anyone who even looks at her Yuki!”

Aaahhh. no. That’s the point of my post today.

Yuno does not attack or kill anyone who is attracted to Yuki or whom Yuki is attracted to. It’s just not true.

This is entirely false, and I can prove it using every available example of anyone hitting on Yuki or vice-versa throughout the show/manga.

More character analysis and plenty of animated gifs past the cut.

1) The first character in-panel/on-screen to fit this mold is Tsusbaki, a.k.a. Sixth. Yuno is a startled and displeased to see Tsubaki hit on Yuki in episode four, “Hand-Written,” but it isn’t until she realizes that Tsubaki is actively trying to tell Yuki that Yuno should be ditched that she starts threatening Tsubaki’s life... from a distance. And even then, when Yuno starts making threats, Yuki is like “Jesus Yuno, chill out” and her response is basically to shrug and be like “Fine, okay. But I’m watching you, Sixth.” It barely takes any effort from Yuki to make her just kind of shrug her own concerns off!

In fact, when does Yuno finally flip out on and attack Tsubaki? After Tsubaki reveals her entire plan like a damn Bond villain in episode five, “Voice Memo,” wherein Tsubaki exposes that she only asked them to help her and only tried to be sweet with Yuki so she could ingratiate herself and then kill them both. This naturally trips Yuno’s primary trigger (never threaten Yuki’s life), and she promptly goes medieval on Tsubaki’s ass.

Yuno SMAAAAASH!

2) The first character in continuity (though we don’t learn this story until episode 18, “Crossed Lines”) to fit this mold is Moe Wakaba. This takes place prior to Yuki and Yuno really having much of a relationship, but after the infamous “promise” that made Yuno view him as her only hope of escape from a miserable life. In the flashback ep, we learn about how, when Yuki wants to tell Moe Wakaba how much he likes her, Yuno dresses up in the (iconic!) ridiculous pink bunny suit. Then, while disguised as this unnerving mascot, does her best to block all attempts for Yuki to give over his love letter or for the pair to hold hands.

“Denied!”

In the end, however, Yuki prevails and delivers his admission of feelings to Moe. Despite this, Yuno leaves Wakaba unharmed and even lets her keep the love letter! Yuno just goes home and acts dejected about the experience but ultimately relieved that Wakaba appeared uninterested in return from what she could see.

3) Aru Akise is a big one for many fans. The slash addicts love this guy. He is, of course, the smooth gay detective boy who thinks Yuki is a hottie. The way he initially hits on Yuki in front of everyone doesn’t even earn a reaction from Yuno at all (although later on, she does call Aru a “perv” for immediately caressing Yuki’s face upon their first meeting).

Things move fast in the two-parter where Akise is introduced (episodes 8 and 9). Akise tries to rescue Yuki by bluffing and doing a 50/50 gamble; when Yuno realizes that he’s lyiing, she tackles him and tries to stab him for... what? Is it because of his interest in Yuki? No, she specifically tells him it’s because he was gambling with Yuki’s life. However, when he deflects her attack, she backs down. And when he tries to convince Yuno that he’s there to help by information her that he genuinely cares about protecting Yuki because his feelings for Yuki, are, in fact, lovey-dovey; and Yuno’s only reaction is a befuddled “What? Hold on a minute!” And that’s it.

In fact, it gets better! A couple of days later we see her greet this smooth gay sleuth politely and with open arms when he breaks into her goddamn house in episode 10, “Family Plan.” After all, Yuki vouches for him and he did set her and Yuki up on a pretty sweet date, so she is totally cool with him now in spite of his feelings for Yuki AND his B&E crime! THAT’S HOW LITTLE SHE CARES ABOUT HIS FEELINGS FOR YUKI. (Sadly, this would be the pinnacle of their friendship for other reasons; please refer to the second trigger for more information.)

And oh yeah, I’ve got more.

In the infamous episode 22, when Yuno and Yuki go to talk to Aru and Yuno is fully anticipating a betrayal from the guy after her unfortunate run-in with him in the prior episode... she doesn’t even try to kill him! She actively tries to keep him alive, which is pretty damn shocking in the situation. First she goes after him by stabbing him in the appendix region (the same area that she will later stab herself in this very same episode, noting that she purposefully aimed for a non-serious wound). The second time she attacks, she uses a stungun.

“High-speed stunneeerrr-aw crap.”

Non-lethal attacks only for the entire first round of someone that’s been trying to ruin her relationship with Yuki for the past eight or nine episodes, holy shit. I just realized this one, myself! Of course, when Aru lays out his entire plan to turn Yuki against her and then see her dead, ALL BETS ARE OFF.

4) Should I even mention Ai, who openly speaks of Yuki’s cuteness and how she likes flirting with him when she pops up in episode 15, “Dual Cell Phones”? No reaction from Yuno to any of that.

My point is that... despite all the artwork and photo collages of cosplay that portray Yuno as someone who will kill any man or woman that goes after her man, there’s shockingly little evidence to back this up.

I mean, come on. Yuno herself doesn’t even understand this widespread belief.

“Huh... yeah... no, I don’t get it.”

What evidence IS there to support the idea that Yuno would attack anyone who threatens her relationship with Yuki? Is there any?

Not a ton, but let’s look at the flip side.

1) She does, in fact, look pretty pissed whenever someone else is either interested in Yuki or vice-versa. She looks particularly cheesed off whenever it’s Yuki showing the interest rather than the other way around. I mean... she doesn’t necessarily act on this rage of hers, but her facial expressions sure seem serious even if she makes no effort to back them up.

"Her name is Moe?! How unbelievably trite!”

2) Yuno is shown to get a rage-induced adrenaline rush whenever someone else kisses Yuki. The thing is, on the only two times that this ever happens, Yuno has already decided to kill the person who enrages her because they previously tripped one of the two triggers I noted at the start; the kiss is beside the point, because she wanted to kill those people regardless of any lip-locks.

3) The biggest moment to support this notion comes when she puts her knife to Hinata’s throat towards the end of “Blocking Calls” (episode 9).

“Lemme borrow your neck for a second.”

Yuno and Yuki argue earlier in the episode about Yuki’s insistence that he can still be friends with Hinata, and Yuno’s counterpoint that, well, she did try to kill you almost all night. Yuno does threaten Hinata with her knife and even openly says that “If you start to like this girl, where does that leave me? So I’ve gotta kill her.” However, this is the only time she ever acts like this, and I think Yuki’s willingness to forgive Hinata’s attempt to kill him is probably a big reason she freaks out. To say nothing of the fact that Hinata tripped trigger #1.

Okay, that’s enough of this. My point is pretty obvious: With the exception of her speech about having to kill Hinata, there’s really nothing that actively supports the idea that Yuno will kill or maim anyone who looks at the object of her affection. That’s just not in the character, even though loads and loads of photo collages, cosplay pieces, and fan art seem to think otherwise for some reason.

I kind of suspect that many of these folks are fans of the “Yandere” concept more than Yuno Gasai herself, who doesn’t actually adhere to every single tenet of the trope.

#yuno gasai #future diary #the future diary #mirai nikki #character analysis #yuno gasai character analysis

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ogiga99 · 7 years

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Guess who’s back in the world of BlazBlue!!!

So I just finished playing Central Fiction’s story mode and HOOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP was that a ride. It was so good I was in tears at certain points. However it was not perfect. After playing it I just have to get out my thoughts about the game out. So here are my ramblings about everything in no particular order.

1. Obviously I miss the dub. While I did get used to the Japanese voices and they were certainly capable of handling all the drama well, the story will forever feel weaker than it could have been in dubbed form. I think the comedy suffered the most because unlike the previous games I never broke out into a full blown laughing fit, even for the Gag Reels.

2. I loved the sub-scenario system. BlazBlue has always struggled with how to present its story in a complete package. CT and CS had individual character stories followed by a True Ending which did give every character a lot of focus but at the cost of us having no single timeline of events, forcing us to try and piece together what is ultimately canon. CP ditched individual scenarios and instead had three routes to spread the focus around but this led to a lot of conflicting or repeated events that had the same problem as the previous games. CF’s system is the ultimate compromise. It has one single path that leaves no room for conflicting material but with diverging points that focus on the various subplots mostly separate from Ragna. If they ever make a new BlazBlue game I hope they keep this system.

3. The events equivalent to Act I of arcade mode went on a bit too long. Ultimately we don’t learn that much from it and all the characters have regressed in their development so we don’t gain anything from them. It was an interesting plot point but it wasn’t necessary.

4. Conversely, Acts II and III went by way too quickly, being pretty much just Ragna’s arcade runs. While later events do treat things as if all the arcade events of other characters happened offscreen (several characters mention meeting Izanami and know to search for Noel) it seems strange to have them all glossed over. Act III in particular suffers because the “Noel witch hunt” that drives it was basically a non-issue. Kagura and Kokonoe find and hide her immediately and she never has a breakdown from everyone trying to kill her. Seemingly important events like Amane reviving Takamagahara (which just gets a token mention during his final conversation with Ragna), Hibiki being willing to turn against Kagura for his desire and Tsubaki learning Hakumen is Jin are ignored. What we got after that was great but I don’t see why we couldn’t have had a few more sub-scenarios about that stuff.

5. I’m impressed with how well they managed to handle the defeats of so many villains (with the exception of Relius who just leaves without consequence and Nu who gets easily memory wiped). Nine, Arakune, Azrael, Izanami, Hazama and finally Terumi all have dramatic and satisfying defeats that don’t feel forced. Before release I was expecting Hazama to simply end up in the background and be held as reserve for a sequel villain once he separated from Terumi but what we got was so much better (granted he’s not dead since he’s almost certainly going to be in Bloodedge Experience sequels). In particular Terumi’s was really satisfying after everything that he’s done.

6. I’m really glad with how the Litchi/Arakune and Bullet/Tager subplots turned out. Despite the game’s focus on Ragna they were both given ample time to play out to their fullest. Litchi finally can move on from her self-destructive mission and Bang was the one to defeat Arakune (like I always envisioned it) to spare Litchi from such hardship (further proof why he is the best character). While Tager doesn’t regain his memories, Bullet can find closure and move on, proving she’s truly grown since she was a rookie. Both endings are bittersweet but they are done really well.

7. I’m not sure how to feel about how well Naoto’s inclusion was handled. On the one hand his role in the climax was perfect, having just one job that doesn’t overstep his importance. On the other hand, I’m disappointed with how little we actually learn about him. Apparently he has been hopping between parallel worlds multiple times to find Raquel but we don’t know how he ended up doing that. We also don’t get any answers to the major questions about him (why is he so similar to Ragna and why does he overwrite Ragna’s existence, what is the relationship between Rachel and Raquel, why does Naoto have that symbol on his chest etc.). I can only hope BE gets some kind of sequel because as is I am unsatisfied.

8. Es was utterly wasted in this game. She probably has less than 30 minutes of screen time in total and doesn’t actually accomplish anything with it. Before release I went on and on about how there are so many questions regarding how she can be here (namely she couldn’t have the Murakumo and the Azure Eyes at the same time and she can’t be outside the Phantom Field while she is the Embryo Storage) and the game answers none of them. Apparently this Es was “created by the Azure” but what does that mean? Is this a different Es that was made with the XBlaze one as a template and if so why was Es specifically chosen? Es mentions her loved ones several times (although she never specifies names outside of victory quotes) so clearly she has the XBlaze memories in some way but how does that work with her very different origin? Why does she perfectly remember her past in story mode but seems unaware of it in her victory quotes with her being confused about search terms in her memories? If it is an Es from post-XBlaze then what happened to the XBlaze world? Was it a “possibility” like the Bloodedge Experience world that disappeared? Was it from the same timeline as the Prime Field War? Should the fact that Es remains the Guardian of the Azure at the end be a good thing or is she being separated from Touya and the others for the sake of her duty. But the worst part of all is that not once in story or her arcade mode does she meet Nine and Celica. The majority of XBlaze: Lost Memories is about Watashi (Nine) and Imouto (Celica) become friends with Nobody (Es) and the ending clearly hints that they will meet again. At the very least there should have been a sub-scenario where Nine ends up in front of the Azure Gate for some reason (like Mu and Naoto did early on) and the two meet again but as enemies. It wouldn’t need to go anywhere, just have Nine doubt herself a little because she would have to fight against another one of her loved ones (which was the focus of her fight with Ragna and her death) or something like that. Heck even seeing Es’s silhouette when Nine mentions her loved ones would be something. It honestly seems like Mori had no idea what to do with Es so he just threw her in with no regard for continuity and it is easily the weakest part of the story.

9. Aside from the Es stuff I did enjoy that there were a lot of references to the side materials since I’m a lore nut. I love how Makoto reminds Es and Naoto of their respective Yuki’s. Hearing more details about Tomonori and seeing Kajun in the ending were great. I was absolutely ecstatic when Nine sees Celica as Imouto during her fight with Ragna, FINALLY being the 100% undeniable truth that the Mercury sisters are the characters in LM. That said, I could have done with just a few more, particularly on the XBlaze side. We should have gotten some reference to Nine using the Phantom Field or had her use the XBlaze in her left eye. Nine’s Overdrive being Burning Red highly suggested that we would see her using the Crimson Grimoire from Remix Heart, which last we saw was with Hazama. Ragna or Naoto should have triggered some memories of Touya in Es (at the very least he needed one namedrop) but most of this is just nitpicking.

10. ALL THE RAGNAXRACHEL SHIPPING!!! After CP had almost no new support since it focused so much on Ragna’s relationship with Celica, this game was the jackpot for the best ship in the series. With the disappearance of Celica and Noel fully accepting her position as Ragna’s sister, the path was clear for Rachel alone. We got great things like Rachel pushing herself to the point where she is close to disappearing just to help Ragna, Ragna being the maddest he has ever been after seeing Hazama torturing Rachel (as in so made he nearly became the Black Beast) and that FREAKING ANIMATED HUG, which was one of the most heart wrenching moments in the game. And of course there is the ending, with Rachel going off to find Ragna again no matter what hell she has to go through despite not even remembering who he is and even leaving her hair ribbons tied around his sword. Just DDDDAAAAWWWW!!!!

11. Speaking of the ending, even aside from the Rachel stuff it was pretty much perfect. It completed Ragna, Noel and especially Jin’s development masterfully and was just the right amount of bittersweet. Every characters epilogue was so fitting. Lambda living as a Sister with Noel is just too cute and I’m glad Naoto got the closure of finding Raquel. Pretty much everything that needed to be resolved was resolved.

12. The ending also had great cliffhangers that felt natural. Relius is still out there trying to complete Ignis, Hazama is unaccounted for (again probably will be the one we saw in the end of BE2), Carl hasn’t saved Ada yet but has taken a major step towards being a new villain as Relius Jr,, Azrael is still alive, merely sealed, Tsubaki has apparently become some kind of new Hakumen (although I doubt she has the Susano’o Unit since Hakumen and Trinity sealed it in the depths of the Boundary), the aforementioned Rachel journey and of course the post-credits scene with Ragna’s sword missing from the grave (implying he might still be alive) and the text hinting at Alpha-1.

And that’s pretty much it for my thoughts at the moment. Despite some complaints I am overall really happy with this game and glad I can finally get back into the discussion.

#blazblue central fiction #blazblue #Central Fiction

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pokefan531 · 4 years

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Yuki’s Story Chapter 89 - Yuki’s Spying

Chapter 89 A month later, Yuki and Minoru are hanging out at the game room after school with Leon and Oka. Yuki: I've been getting better grades since the embarrassment. My average went from around 80% to 90%. Minoru: Having study hall really helps. Yuki: Yeah. Oka: So how is it like to be a normal average school girl here? Yuki: It's been fine. I get to do more things and less worry about the whole popularity thing. Oka: So even after you made that speech, you're still unpopular? Yuki: Not really. I'm still get some attention. It's just that I haven't attend anything special lately. Besides, Team Phase still got their attention. Leon: How? Yuki: They're been doing things I haven't done. They have shown that they do charity events and donate money, or what I think is make believe. Minoru: Remember that they got connections with the principle, and having such events like that will make them look better. Oka: Wow. I can't believe you found out that the principle really helps them out. Yuki: Oh yes. I would like to do after school events again, but it's almost winter season, and I kinda want to take a look around the school on my own time. Just for a discovery if I happen to find one. Leon: I see. Minoru: Have you tried Aki and Ren's Cafe club? Leon: I haven't yet. Oka: Me to. Yuki: After we play the next round, we will go there. They continue playing games in there, and later, they arrive to the cafe. Aki: Hey guys! Yuki: Hey girls! Ren: We're serving more thing on our menu. Minoru: Nice. Yuki sees the three guys and walks to them. Rukio: Hey Yuki! Yuki: Hey guys! She sits on a table with them. Kaito: Anything in your mind? Yuki: Yes I do. You've been seeing what Team Phase has been doing lately? Nako: Well, they made an charity event last week and it was their second time. Kaito: Yeah. Do you guys think they really are doing charity work? Rukio: Nah. I don't buy it. Yuki: Yep. You are right in my mind. Nako: Do you have any plans? Yuki: Well, I do know where their warehouse is. I want to sneak a way in to listen to their meeting. Rukio: Well, isn't that risky? Yuki: I've done that once during my suspension. That's how I found out their schemes. You guys could come and help. I know their passcode to get in already. Nako: Smart girl. Although, I don't want to get caught. Yuki: You don't have to go inside. We'll do that tomorrow. We just gonna leave right away when school's over and you guys can be in my car. Kaito: Your new car for your birthday? Yuki: Yes. You guys get to be in my sports car and dream about it. We'll park far from the warehouse. Rukio: Cool. We're in. The next day after school, Yuki drives and left the parking lot near the school and later arrive near the warehouse. She parked a bit far. Yuki: All right boys, let's do our plan. They all got out, and closed the doors. They are dressed with ninja outfits. Yuki: Nako and Rukio, look at any road to see if any of you see a white car coming. Nako: Ok. They both went to be in a hiding position and both watch one part of the road. Yuki: Kaito, we're going it. They both are running to the warehouse. Kaito: You sure they don't have cameras? Yuki: I looked around once and they don't have them. They went by the door. Yuki: Here it goes. She puts all the codes on the pad and the door opens. Yuki: Let's go. They went it and lock the door. Both went inside the big area and starts finding a hiding spot. Yuki's phone made a chime and starts seeing a text. Yuki: Nako sees the white car coming! Kaito: All right. Yuki: Make sure your phone is complete silence. Yuki hides in one of the boxes and covers herself inside and looks at the small hole to see. Kaito hides in one of the corners that is unlit, and hides behind the fat pipes. Outside, Nako and Rukio went elsewhere in the same area to be unseen. Nako: They made it. Rukio: Good. So now what do we do? Nako: She's gonna send us her private stream. We could wait by the car. She give me the keys. Rukio: Cool. Inside the warehouse, Yuki sees Team Phase coming in. Hiroshi: We got some money from the kids today. Kaname: Yep. Those fools really believe we got contact with hospitals and schools. Hiroshi: Yeah, and we can split the money into six. For us and the principle. A while later, they have an important plan. Lila: Since we got a couple of plans, let's pick who's our next target to pick on. Mizuro: Will it be one of Yuki's friends? Hiroshi: Yes. Mizuro: Then I want it to be on Retasu. She took our files before. Kaname: I still am against Rin. She smacked me twice. Lila: Remember it can't be Minoru. Yuki would kill us. Hiroshi: Right. It's no secret we're picking on Yuki. Touko: Yeah, but most of her friends aren't kind to us. I want it to be on one of her teammates, Lia. Oh, maybe also that geeky girl. What's her name? The shy one. Lila: Eru. I don't think she's ever done anything wrong to us. She's just an awkward girl who doesn't talk, so we'll leave her out. Touko: What about Minoru's friends? Lila: The blond and the brunette? Maybe. Kaname: I think we should check out what Rin is doing. Hiroshi: So what we gathered is Rin and Retasu, and maybe few of her other friends. At least a few of them have gone against us. Mizuro: Oh yes! Hiroshi: Besides that plan, we still close to rule the entire school. So far, we have all the information for all students from the files. We got them digitally, and the only thing left is information for the staffs and all the blueprints that the school has. That way, we will have full control and we can play make believe all we want, and all of their personal secrets will be uncovered. Touko: Oh yeah! Lila: Totally! Hiroshi: Yeah. Let's go get food. We're starving. Kaname: Sure! They are leaving, and Yuki is texting Nako and Rukio. A minute after Team Phase left the building, Yuki and Kaito left their hiding spots and meet up by the door. Kaito: Wow. What a meeting. Did our friends see them leave yet? Yuki: Rukio just texted me they saw the car leaving. Kaito: Good. They left the building, and went inside the car. Yuki: Good job guys. I saved the stream and we can eat on a buffet near my job place. Rukio: Awesome! Nako: I'm starving. They left the parking spot and flee. The next day, Yuki went to her homeroom and sees Eru with her new robot toy. It is a human figure colored in lavender and controls it with her phone. Yuki: Wow. She takes a look at it while everyone is around watching it. Yuki: Eru. Did you built that? Eru: Actually, I programmed it, and made the design. She presses a button and have the toy wave to her classmates. Rin: So cool! Leo: It's pretty cute. Eru: Thanks. Yuki: Is that for a school project? Eru: I actually wanted to volunteer a science fair next week. I want to show everyone that I have talents for programming. Yuki: Cool. Can it do jump flip? Eru: Sure. She presses the button and the toy does a jump flip. The kids starts clapping. Minoru: Wow. You sure are gonna make the science fair a great show. Eru: Yeah. I...I can't wait. Kaname is also around Eru, and listens what she says. She then leaves the classroom and finds Hiroshi. Kaname: Hiroshi! Hiroshi: Did you got something? Kaname: Yes. Eru is showing off her new robot toy for the science fair next week. Hiroshi: Hmm... We got events coming up. Neither of us are attending to science fair. Kaname: But won't that take away our attention? Hiroshi: We got ideas. We're doing fortune telling event this friday. Kaname: Oh yeah. We shouldn't be worried. Meanwhile, Yuki talks to Minoru about yesterday. Minoru: So they're still gonna do their thing. Yuki: Yep. They got parts of the school's files, so they know our information. Minoru: Us? Yuki: Every kid in school. Minoru: Unbelievable. What are we gonna do? Yuki: We'll just stay normal for now. I'm not sure what's next, but I'm gonna warn our friends because they are gonna target one of them at a time. Minoru: Oh boy. Later during lunch, Eru is playing around with her robot toy. Leon: Can you make it fight? Eru: I put up fighting techniques while programming it. She presses the button, and starts doing fighting moves. Her friends are happy to see it in action. Minoru: Wow. What got you into programming? Eru: I play a lot of video games and I wanted to make my own games. I studied programming for couple of years, and this toy proved my skills. Yuki: That's awesome. Rin: So, what is Team Phase gonna do to us? Yuki: Let's just say they're gonna pick some of us. Leon: Oh. That's unsurprising. Minoru: We know that was coming. Yuki: Yeah, but this is serious. They can come up any moment and do some other trick on us, like exposing my...bear. Rin: Right. The next day, Team Phase are doing a fortune teller event by the main entrance of school. Touko and Mizuro are on their seats, having a glowing crystal ball. Kyanna comes in and went by Touko. Touko: Welcome to the Dual Fortune Telling event. We can see information about you with just a globe. Kyanna: Okay. Just tell me what you know about me. Touko: All right. Under the seat, she puts her left foot on a button and triggers the light of the crystal ball. Touko: Behold, the information is coming to my mind. She lets go of the button from her foot, and both wear a witch hat with wigs to hide the wireless earbud. In the other room, Kaname tells Touko about Kyanna's information from school's information. Touko: Kyanna D. You're a Virgo. You moved to Japan since the beginning of junior high, loves attending sporting events, strong grades on history, weak at language arts, and is a very passionate person on her goals. You are likely gonna get grade point average of around 3. Kyanna: Wow! How did you guys do this?! You know about my grades and stuff. Touko: We got really great crystal balls and we both went strong with our spirits. Kyanna: Cool. I'm so happy to hear my happy future! She runs out with excitement. Minoru comes up and went by Mizuro. Mizuro: Minoru? What are you doing here? Minoru: Well...I wanted to try this out. I see Kyanna was happy. Mizuro: Okay. I'll do yours. Mizuro's earbuds are connected with Lila from the other room. Lila: What are you doing? Should we let you do Minoru?! Wouldn't he tell Yuki about this? Mizuro breathes really big. Mizoru: We gotta what we gotta do. Let's see. A crystal ball is lit, and Mizuro waves her arms on it. Mizuro: Bring me the information from this boy. The crystal ball becomes unlit. Mizuro: Minoru Tamara. You're a Piscis. You started out rough in this school. The teacher was really mean to you that you switched to other class with Yuki. You are really good at math and graphic designing, weak at language arts, a really nice person, and is well know for being Yuki's boyfriend who helped you to be more respected. You will soon be granted with gpa of around 3. Minoru: Okay... He walks away. Mizuro: Well, we can't keep away from them. Right, Touko? Touko: It's our job to be natural! Minoru runs to Yuki by the back of the school Minoru: Yuki! They're doing fortune telling events. I tried to see what they're doing. They know about my information about myself in here from freshmen to senior! Yuki: I knew it. They're using our school information. Minoru: They're using crystal balls and it's only light inside. Yuki: Wow. I'll take a look by far. Meanwhile, Touko is doing Eru. Touko: Eru Hibika. You're a Cancer. You moved here last year because you got picked on from your last school, and you're really strong at mathematics and programming, weak at socializing, wants to make video games, and a really nice girl who wishes she has more experience with others. I sense in the future, you're gonna fill those experience and you are gonna be happy. Eru: I see. Yuki comes and looks at the event with lines. Yuki: Yep. That's what got them attention. They really did it. Few of their friends comes to Yuki. Leo: Hey Yuki! They know about my background story from freshmen, and I'm gonna get a GPA of 2.5! Kyanna: Well, I'm gonna get 3. They know what class subject I'm good at, and least good at. Lia: Was it language arts? Kyanna: Yes. I'm not 100 percent on the Japanese language though. Lia: Me to, but my weakest subject is history, and they know! Leo: How did they got that magic? Kyanna: You should try it, Yuki! Yuki: I don't want to. They start hearing people chanting Yuki. Yuki! Yuki! Yuki! Yuki looks at Touko and Mizuro with people around, chanting. Minoru: Do you have a choice? Yuki: No. I'll go. Kyanna: She says she's coming! People are cheering for her to come. Touko: Finally! Mizuro: Here goes. Yuki: I see you got some, quite amount of audience. Mizuro: Are you sure you want to do this? Yuki: Go ahead. Mizuro lits the crystal ball. Mizuro: I request to bring the information on Yuki to my mind. The ball starts turning off. Mizuro: Okay. Yuki Koriyama, you're a Virgo. You got really great talent since you came here as a freshmen, and started that popularity. You are great at gym and sports, weak at history, often performs sporting events, and really helped many people here. I also know that you can be a troublemaker. You got suspensions, detentions, and fights. In the future, you're going to live in a happy life. Yuki: ...I don't believe it. You know my grades? Mizuro: I see you're currently on GPA of 2.6. Yuki: I'll get to the bottom of this. Touko: On what? Yuki: This whole thing. Knowing our grades and all. Mizuro: Hey! We're just fortune tellers today. Yuki: And next time you both will be cupids the next day. Yuki leaves. Mizuro: Hey! That's a great idea! Touko: How are we supposed to be cupids then? Yuki walks to Minoru. Yuki: It's definitely the school's papers. Minoru: Yep. Later during lunch, Shirou is waiting at the wall for Rin to come. Suddently, he sees Kaname coming next to him. Kaname: Rin's pretty late, isn't she? Shirou: No. I just got here. Kaname: I know Rin's supposed to meet you. Shirou: And that's none of your business. Kaname: Hey! I'm not butting in. I'm just here to ask you out. It will be just you and me. Shirou: Could you hand with your buddies instead? Kaname: No. I'm just in love with you. That's all. Shirou: Gross. I'm dating Rin, creep. Kaname: She doesn't have to know. Shirou: Get out! Kaname: Let's make out! Shirou: NO! Kaname gets really close to him, and Rin suddenly appears, seeing Kaname getting too close to Shirou. She tries to kiss him, and Shirou pushes her away. Rin: What happened?! Shirou: Rin! That freak was trying to kiss me and acting so weird! Rin: You're okay? Not hurt? Shirou: No, but I'm creeped out! Rin: HOW COULD YOU! Kaname: He's trying to kiss me, and threw me down to the ground. Rin: Stop lying! I know how much of a evil person you are! Kaname: Well. I was trying ot get you jealous, but you both are fools! Rin looks at Shirou. Rin: Can you hold my lunchbox? Shirou: Sure. Rin: Thanks. She starts running to Kaname and pushes her to the ground and starts fighting. Kaname: AHHHH!! Rin scratches her. Rin: HOW DARE YOU TRIED TO RUIN OUR RELATIONSHIP?!?! A while later, Team Phase are at the student room. Kaname enters, with a messy look on her hair and clothes, and few scratches. Hiroshi: Woah. Looks like the plan didn't turn out well? Kaname: Rin has a hidden angry kitty personality on the inside! Touko: I believe that. Hiroshi: Well, we're still gonna pick on each one by one. It may be risky, but we also need to make the plan more elaborate. Kaname: Thanks for the tip. I'll just eat my lunch then. They continue having lunch.

Next Chapter: The Lookout Yuki and her friends are in the lookout to check what Team Phase are up to. They know that they are gonna pick each of them one by one. Who's gonna be their target in the next chapter? Tune in next time!

#yukisstory

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 6 years

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SSSS.Gridman 3 - 4 | Double Decker 5 - 6 | Golden Kamuy 15 - 16 | Zombieland Saga 4 - 5 | Merc Storia 3 - 4

Gridman 3

Samurai Calibur is literally what pulled me back into the show – after all, he’s an indicator that despite this show’s serious demeanour, it is campy at heart. So it’s great to see him have a big role, even if he has to look stupid to do so.

Uh…by the way, kaiju (Anti?). What’s so cool about Wolverine blades? I mean, Wolverine himself has healing factor to back that up, but you’re just a kaiju…

That star explosion! There’s the Trigger we know and love!

“A kaiju that eats breakfast with me.”

I always love how anime deal with isolation through framing and other visual techniques. In this case, it’s Utsumi and Rikka in two mirrors of different shapes.

“…over, right?” I thought, as Utsumi said, “…disbanded.” – Close enough.

Literally everyone in this show has blue eyes. It’s striking, but it’s a bit much…? I personally like a mix of eye colours for characters, especially those eyes which seem to have flecks of different colours in them. Not that I’ve ever had an excuse to give any character I’ve created eyes like that (since it’s easier to describe single-coloured eyes), but it would be nice to have an opportunity to. Update: Apparently it’s a homage to something. A Transformers thing, actually.

This ED…hmm, it kinda looks like the Sarazanmai ads I’ve seen around lately. Just without the stylised background people and with Akane and Rikka.

Double Decker 5

“The Derick Special!” – Welp, aside from forgetting the E in “potatoes”, they got the spelling right, LOL.

I wonder if Kirill’s sister looks anything like him?

…Hmm. I noticed the license plate on that blue car has BNY. Maybe it stands for “bunny” or “Barnaby”?

*Kirill headbutts Doug* - Well…uh, that’s one way to use your head…

“My first partner died.” – Wait, but if that’s (Doug’s first partner) not Derick…then who is it??? The one before Derick? Update: Yep, I was right.

I just realised the motorbike (? car?) Max rides has her name on the license plate. At least in the ED it does.

It seems like the next episode is a breather ep…hmm.

Golden Kamuy 15

Kibushi is number 8 on this page.

“Bat man”…? Like the superhero?

I can’t believe I actually don’t mind the Blingee fire at this moment in the season…urgh. Why did I just say that? I might regret it later…

Oh my gosh…woodcock birds are adorable!

Inkarmat likes Cikapasi’s cover story? Even the bit about…boob-grabbing…?

I like the technique where it appears Nagakura and Toshizou have deaged. It really gives the scene emotional impact and emphasises the fact this episode is called “Let’s Talk About the Past”.

Zombieland Saga 4

I always imagine Lily’s voice to be extremely high pitched. So high pitched, it’s almost silly…but maybe that’s just what happens when I turn off the volume and try to imagine their voices that way.

Chatsumi means “tea picking”. As in picking tea leaves.

Bikubiku just means Junko is trembling from fear. She probably has a fear of heights…

Hey wait, I thought slapping Saganship Z on people who aren’t zombies is called “administering medicine”…

The CGI…I don’t think it’s entirely hideous, but it’s still vaguely obvious.

Marutchi/Tamatchi -> Yes, it’s another Tamagotchi joke from Saki.

Merc Storia 3

Oh my goodness…this (the queen) is the fairy I got hyped for way back when this show first had its ED showcased! She’s basically the anime version of a Shirley Barber fairy! She’s gorgeous!

Princess, didn’t the tale of Excalibur teach you not to pull swords from stones?

There are a lot of princesses in this, to the point where it makes me feel like a kid again. Then again, all good anime makes me giggly like a kid. Not to mention this actually is aimed at kids…

Who’s a healer, Merc? Jamo? (Yeah, yeah, I’m kidding, but seriously, get Merc to do a better indication of who she’s talking about.)

Oh, how did I not think of this? Yuu’s name is Yuu because he’s you, geddit? The player character?...Okay, stop booing…

Seriously, all the fairies, regardless of their gender, are gorgeous…! Except the bartender and the butler. The bartender looks like Tank from Brave Beats and the butler’s just an old guy. The background characters are only decent looking, too, but I’m talking about (most of) the main characters here. The princess is kinda cute, but not enough to awaken a moe instinct in me, y’know?

I didn’t notice this until now, but Paristos has pointy ears…hmm.

Wait, that was a dude fairy??? The black one, i.e. “one that knows the land”??? Update: Sorry. I listened to his voice and then realised…that is a dude. Sorry. He even kind of sounds like Ume…Update 2: A-hah! That’s why The One That Knows the Land (that is literally what he’s credited as) sounded familiar. It was Junichi Suwabe! Update 3: His name is in the next ep, it’s Zephrodai.

SSSS.Gridman 4

I noticed Akane has a Surume card. It’s probably a pun on Suika (Watermelon) cards. Apparently the pun is that tapping the card on and off is like water swishing (sui sui), hence the name. Update: It would be also nice to say they were a pun on Hong Kong’s Octopus cards, but the visuals on the cards are all wrong…

See? They’re (Namiko and Hass) using their phones like normal kids. So why didn’t Rikka remember to use her phone last ep?

Rumour has it Borr is a dude, which makes the fact he’s questioning why girls like older guys make a lot more sense. Then again, you could just headcanon him as a lesbian instead. I’m not going to stop you from thinking that way if you do.

Honest to stars above, this feels like Kiznaiver Round 2. I didn’t mind Kiznaiver but though it could be better. The drama felt a little too…melodramatic, y’know?

See? This episode just proves Calibur is best boi…until further notice, when they introduce that other Neon Genesis bishonen for real.

So if Borr -> Buster Borr, Max -> Tracto Max and Samurai Calibur -> Calibur, then Sky Vitter…either Sky or Vit. I already know the answer is “Vit” because I saw it on the wiki, but it makes a bit more sense now. Anyways, I was wondering…what happened to the 3 dudes from Arcadia? Max is the strongest, eh? So many questions, not enough time, y’know???

Double Decker! 6

“Good Noodles”, LOL.

The line that appears when the subs say “Let’s take this to our car” actually says something along the lines of, “For the moment, let’s take this to our car, shall we?”

Interestingly, the word “guinea pig” (as in, the “we’re being tested on” sort) translates directly – you can read the word morumotto (guinea pig) in the text.

Maybe I’m not familiar with terms aside from keiji/keibu etc. for policemen, but I’ve never seen a policeman being referred to as “omeguri-san”…

If we’re talking about noticing things…a post for this episode already spoilt for me that “Kirill now has a brother”, although I don’t know whether that comment was made in jest/deception or not. Also, that “sister” sure didn’t have any…er, secondary reproductive characteristics on the torso, to put it lightly.

Reminder, dear cowatchers: Doug is…kind of…an asshole.

*Milla’s disappearance involves getting on one of those double decker buses you see around Lisvaletta* - Welp, that puts another meaning to the name “Double Decker”, eh?

Apple Bieber (LOL) is so tsundere when people actually call him “Doctor”, haha.

Holy sisters, Batman! Milla even sounds like a man. I may be terrible at identifying voice actors from their voices alone, but heck if I can’t tell this “Milla” is a man! (The voice of “Milla” sounds familiar…who is it, though? I’ll skip forward and check. Update: Okay, it’s a name I don’t recognise, but it is a dude! The VA’s name is Yuki Fujiwara. But now that that’s established…I like Valery (sic…?) already. He’s definitely my type~.)

Soooooooooo…yeah. Kirill really does have a brother. Sorry for the spoilers.

Golden Kamuy 16

…Wait, so he’s (Shiraishi) actually getting captured this time?

I find it interesting there is a Japanese equivalent to “Kamuy” which means “residence of the gods”, to translate it somewhat loosely.

Shiraishi had such stupid faces in everyone’s heads…LOL.

I find Tsurumi wearing a proper outfit coloured like the 7th division (albeit more Chinese-looking) kinda strange. Tsurumi suits red more, methinks.

Opium, eh? I assume this talk about poppies and England has something to do with the Opium Wars.

Arisaka’s probably as bad as Brook from One Piece…at least, when it comes to skull jokes in the OP manga. Or like a group of dads having a meeting.

Nikaidou’s so petty…LOL. But it is a good idea to weaponise a fake leg – I mean, Toshizou could have the same advantage if he put a sword in his cane…but I think Toshizou thinks too highly of his Izuminokami Kanesada to do such a thing.

I laughed pretty hard when I learnt Ogata is meant to be part of the 27th. Probably because it wasn’t much of a coincidence in the first place.

Zombieland Saga 5

Wowee, what just happened to Tatsumi’s leg??? “The second you let your guard down, it can all fall apart!” – I think he was talking more about his leg rather than competitive baseball…Update: I swore the ball went through his leg. If you didn’t interpret it the same way, then…sorry.

So I heard you like KFC. Well, we’ll just grab Saga’s equivalent to KFC so you can have chicken in your anime while you eat chicken…or something like that…?

Shouldn’t that be “principles of Drive-In Tori”?

The fish eyecatch seems to involve a Karatsu-kun-chi…according to the banner in the back.

Google Translate tells me “Bonjour, Saga jeune” means something to the effect of “Hello, Saga youngster.”

They really like their live-action segments on this show, huh?

Seriously, which of these girls does Ookoba-san remember??? Is he the driver from episode 1’s Truck-kun? Update: It’s Junko, so that makes sense. If it were Policeman A recognising Junko, Ai or Sakura…we’d be in trouble.

I forgot why they were panicking, but then I remembered…they didn’t have their makeup on. Ah.

Eh? You’re kidding…the Gatalympics is legit!

Yugiri literally poledanced on that rope! Yipe, that’s stiff competition…

What is Tae eating in these in-between scenes, anyway…?

I believe I cannnnnn…*music cuts immediately* Fall…So much for the “I Believe I Can Fly” parody…

Merc Storia 4

Gah, that necklace looks like a Sims gem…

Okay, if I figured out what the next country is it won’t be so interesting. It’s the “country of the clan of few people”.

You can see Salodeah in the ED…and Fruedling (sp???)…but there are some other characters you don’t see in these fairy episodes. Now I’d like to meet the lady riding the spider and the blonde guy (you see them in the same screenshot). You can also see the dog girl from the animal in the ED (I forgot her name though, LOL). I’d also like to see the angel country…

I just realised the next ep previews are called Merc Yokoku (Next Ep Preview) Storia…hmm.

#simulcast commentary #merc storia #merc storia: the apathetic boy and the girl in a bottle #zombieland saga #Merc Storia: Mukiryoku Shonen to Bin no Naka no Shoujo #Golden Kamuy #SSSS.Gridman #double decker #Double Decker! Doug and Kirill #Chesarka watches Merc Storia #Chesarka watches ZLS #Chesarka watches GK #Chesarka watches SSSS.Gridman #Chesarka watches Double Decker!

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