#why... do sakura look like a background character compared to everyone else...??

[char-lotteral]

I agree with Kishimoto never trying to use the girls. The hate they get is not fair. I used to defend Sakura back in the days because I hoped kishi would do her justice. When shippuden started I WAS SO HAPPY because I thought this was the start of something great for Sakura and the girls but NOOOOO. Every time, Sasuke showed kishi turned her brainless. If you compare Naruto's actions and Sakura's actions to sasuke, you'd see they're completely different. What's up with that weird fake love confession scene 😭? It makes her look like she was manipulating Naru. JEEZ.

Also he literally had badass Tenten and Temari with cool useful abilities and he didn't use them ?! TF ?! Thank god for modern authors who treat their characters with respect :)

okay2 you know how i am with these longass rants so click readmore and brace yourselves

The way I see it, Sakura's character development in shippuden was always one step forward, two steps back. She gets this really badass scene (like her fight with Sasori and those cool ass medical skills) but is then regressed back into a pining girl in love every time Sauce is on screen or Kishi just throws her in the background YET AGAIN.

I love Sakura's abilities actually. Her brute strength, intelligence, vast knowledge and skill as a medic nin. But what I dislike about her character is how kishi handled her feelings for Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura's obsession with Sasuke was so???? huh??? it was so damn toxic and i never once understood why both Nardo and Sak were so obsessed with him. They were a team for one year???? I mean its great that they care about him alot but Sauce's feelings were kinda valid. His freakin clan died. Id go batshit crazy against my own village too. BUT BESIDES THAT. Both Nart and Sakura's Sasuke obsession was so annoying. 80% of shippuden was literally Keeping up with the Uchihas or Naruto yelling SASUKEH. BUT what irks me so much is the fandom's double standards with both Naruto and Sakura. "Oh Sakura shouldve gotten over her Sasuke obsession" but then turn around and call Naruto's obsession cute and gush about how he's so in love with him!!

Hot take but the only reason why sasunaru is "the most developed ship with the most chemistry" is because theyre both male characters.

I guarantee you if Naruto was a girl and SHE would be the one to have this unhealthy obsession who was chasing around Sasuke, the fandom would shit on Naruto just as much. And if Sasuke were a girl, Sauce would be sidelined like the rest of the female cast and Naruto would have another male character to have a "brotherly bond" with, because thats the only bond Kishimoto is actually good at developing. Yey for male characters having all the screentime and cool assets <333

And about that confession scene, I get her intentions. I really do. I understand that she did that in order to bring him home and that she cares about him but honey, w-why?? Why lie to him about your feelings?? Supposed he DID believe her, then what? then what kishi???? huh??? Some of her fans point the blame on Sai or whatever but I personally dont see why that scene was at all necessary. Maybe to establish Naruto's feelings for her wasnt all that serious? or his maturity? idk man. That scene was such a clusterfuck.

In the end her development in The Last and in Boruto was immaculate. She had one of the best glow ups in the old gen and ironically enough, her character wasn't butchered in Boruto. She got badass scenes she was cheated from in shippuden. I also love how she's finally getting the spotlight she deserves. Unlike the other konoha 12 :,)))

Okay onto the next female character that Kishi completely wasted. My baby. My light. 🙈 AAAHHH HINATAA.

I DONT EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN OKAY2 DEEP BREATHS.

Let me just establish this real quick. Hinata's goal was to get stronger because of Naruto, her goal was never to be with Naruto. She wanted to become someone who is worthy enough to stand beside him, someone whom he can consider as an equal, as a partner. She NEVER once said "marrying Naruto-kun is my all time goal UwU" (if youre one of those weirdos who interpret her character that way, youre immediately invalid, go take a hike)

I personally dont have anything against their crushes but to the point of making their personalities revolve around these guys every time theyre onscreen is so fucking frustrating. And with the way he writes their dialogues is so.damn.cringey. Like that one scene in the war arc with Tsunade and Madara

"I mAy bE a WomAn but I aM nOt WeAAKKKK"

BAAHAHAAHHA WHAT?? Everyone else gets coolass monologues and one liners but thats the best you can come up with Kishi?????? Hilarious.

If im being honest. Hinata's character is actually kinda well written. Not well executed. Dear God no. But with the way he set her story, her personality, her chracterization. She's honestly one of the best written female characters on the show. IMO. By Kishi's standards of writing women ofc. She's hands down one of the most complex characters. Her shy personality wasnt out of the blue, it wasnt a cutesy waifu trait. Her abusive upbringing made her that way. Her trauma turned her that way. So yeah, sue her if she looked up to Naruto as an inspiration when everyone else in her family treated her like dust. Shit on her for having Naruto's love light in her dark when her own damn father wouldnt even look her in the eye and her entire clan shunned her because she was "weak." She doesnt owe her family shit so idgaf what they do with the Hyuga clan. Neji and Hanabi aren't included btw

Im not gonna deny that her role in the show was only as the love interest but tbh for a love interest, Im glad her character wasnt so one dimensional. It just pains me SO MUCHHH how fucking wasted she is. Every time she's with Naruto, they always make her into a damsel in distress. They always feel the need to turn Naruto into the heroic prince. How cute.

LIKE THAT ONE SCENE IN THE LAST WHERE SHE'S THROWN IN THE CAGE?? WHY??? LET NARUTO AND HINA FIGHT THAT FREAKING ALIEN GOD TOGETHER. QUIT WITH THE TOXIC MASCULINITY. WE GET IT. NARUTO'S STRONG. GOOD FOR HIM. NOW LETS SEE HINATA THROW HANDS AND PUT NARUTO IN THE CAGE GODAMMIT

Hnggggg dont get me started with her role in Boruto. She's as relevant as a damn houseplant in the manga. They made her into an invisible trophy wife and "the mc's mother" and we all KNOW what happens to the shounen mc's mother once mc is in need of character development :) Quit putting her in the background. Give us that scene where she won against Hanabi DESPITE being retired for years. Give us that scene where she trains Boruto. GIVE US ANY FIGHT SCENE OF HER WHERE HER POTENTIAL ISNT WASTED WTF?¿

Now if you say that Hinata didnt have development. YOURE INVALID. She came from an abusive household, the shyest girl in her class, her insecurities got in the way of her own confidence, had difficulty of standing up for herself now became a loving mother of two, has the guts to kick her husband out of the house(with whom she couldnt even keep eye contact with when she was a kid) became the strongest hyuga, most supportive wife and mother, and has given her kids the comforting childhood she never had as a kid.

She has one of the most beautiful stories in the show and if you think her personality is only Naruto-kun and big boobs, then im sorry that you cant appreciate such a heartwarming story.

And I agree, killing her would honestly make me feel more at ease than continue to see her suffer because of godawful misogynistic writers. But at least let her die in an epic fight. Please. PLEASEE. She got nerfed so bad, i feel a physical pain every time i think about it

Okay what else. I think Ino got pretty good development. Another wasted potential in shippuden but she's doing good for herself in Boruto. I dont know what Temari is up to. They basically made her into another classic angry mom who beats up her husband for comedy trope. Haha very funny and original! Im not sure with her career, im not that invested in the anime.

Tenten??

oh G O D Tenten. The dirtiest of all. Her jokes about her screentime is so mean and i hate that its true ahsjhs. She was the only female character in OG who's goal wanted to be as strong as Tsunade but what did Kishi do to her?? Sidelined. Forgotten. Irrelevant. Like every damn female on the show :D

Konan shouldnt have died. I blame plot armor. I know in my heart that Konan wouldve kicked Obito's ass if it weren't for Kishi's boomer mindset.

Tsunade had so much hype when she was introduced but died down in the war arc. Madara wiped the floor with the kages. Holy shit. Not only that, but yipee! Naruto is there to save the day AGAIN!!!!

AND UGHHHH If the female characters were given proper treatment then maybe MAYBE all the endgame couples wouldve made fucking sense????¿¿¿

I think that ends my rant. Im not sure how the female characters in Boruto are handled. Except maybe Sarada (she's pretty well executed in the manga imo). But arguably they are sooo much better handled in Boruto than how the old gen girls were. And thats because Kishi isnt anywhere near the new gen female cast. I cant formulate a solid opinion with the other new gen female cast since im not entirely invested in the anime. Not ashamed to admit that I only watch it for the sunshine moments and for Hinata :DD

[kamikui]

Onmyoji Movie

HI so I watched the Onmyoji Movie based off of the game last night and . . . . that sure was something!

In all honesty despite the weird path they decided to take, I actually enjoyed the movie. The music and detail in the scenery was amazing, I LOVED the costuming for a lot of the background characters esp in the Demon Realm, and a lot of the easter eggs that were hidden were nice. 

BUT. but. As someone heavily invested in the lore of the game (especially concerning Ibaraki) how they decided to deal with the movie was like. really confusing. It genuinely felt as if NE gave the directors a cast of characters and let them do what they wanted from there w/o any prior knowledge of the game.

(spoilers down below)

Before I really pry into that though, I’ll kinda note some of the characters.

Seimei/Qingming was actually my favorite. I think this is sort of an unpopular opinion right now, but his characterization was so nice even if it sorta leans into the basic drama hero type personality. In the game Seimei is supposed to be you/the player, and not everyone is going to have the same interpretation of him-- and that’s what the movie felt like, a different interpretation. I will say I didn’t really like them making him related to their version of Orochi. I believe the snakes name was Xiangliu? I can’t remember, but I didn’t see the reason in that. 

If anything, keeping him a fox and having a version of Tamamo no Mae popping up to offer advice to help with the situation would’ve been nicer, and that’d keep more of Seimei’s backstory kept in tact-- because asides from him becoming an Onmyoji apprentice at a young age we literally do not know shit about him. And legit I wouldn’t necessarily mind bc it’s a movie, you’re not going to get everyone’s backstory within 2 hrs, but we can’t really get attached to him.

Yao Bikuni/Baini was. Hm. I like her as a character in the movie, but I don’t like where she’s placed as a character in the movie. She’s a Seer? in the game and tbh it should’ve stayed that way, like I honestly can’t see her willingly working for one clan. “But how would she--” In game she is also influenced by Seimei pretty heavily, as in the in game chapters she believed he would be able to kill her. Up until she got manipulated by Orochi, she stuck to his side. With the Stone plot in the movie, if it put him in danger she would be there in order to try and help him, OR, try and pull him to join Orochi if they went that route. And they KINDA tried to hint at it when Seimei “died” with Orochi using her image, but like. come on man. Let Yao be evil for a little bit.

That being said I didn’t like the Master & Shikigami bit with those two, or the implied romance they tried to pull with them. Canonically Seimei legit brushes her off and when shes like “ohhh you’ll kill me right” hes like “lol sure” and thats IT. Literally any form of romance that’s tried at Seimei he brushes it off. he’s not into it he’s an amnesiac.

The “Oh if you become my shikigami you won’t become evil” thing was :/ to me as well because again, canonically, even though Seimei is being taunted he can contain the Kitsune part pretty well even when he wasn’t aware he was kitsune. Like I think the part as a kid was a good bit to add since it’s when he’s first being exposed to Onmyoji type stuff, but like. idk idk I couldn’t vibe with that power dynamic while they were trying to hint romance.

Continuing on with Hiromasa/Yuan Boya and Kagura/Shenle, again considering this is a movie, I’m somewhat content with their characters.

I really liked how energetic this Kagura was, and given they weren’t able to do her actual backstory, I liked the one she was given. Her introduction in the movie was really great too-- and compared to Hiromasa I felt they gave her a little more attention? Which like fine, but not so good for Hiro.

They didn’t even. Discuss his archery skills at any point which was disappointing. The most plot relevance he (and honestly Kagura too) had was finding Seimei while trying to arrest him but that’s it. And yes they showed some of his skill while he was fighting Kamaitachi, but that’s the extent of it. AGAIN i’ll consider the fact this was a movie and they didn’t have enough time to fit EVERYTHING in, but since they gave Yao and Seimei so much attention you would think they’d be able to spare some for the other two protagonists in the game. 

Before I leave those two tho I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck happened in the end. Like did hiromasa get promoted in some form? was he given credit for what happened between the demon realm? Why did he separate from Kagura since they got close during the movie? I guess like bc work duties but still. I have no idea tho like i was sitting there not processing a single thing. Regardless I did like Hiro and Kags acting like siblings despite in this canon them not being related (at least it’s never clarified).

Ok so before I dive into the whole mess that is the Cimu/”Ibaraki” character, stuff on side characters.

While I didn’t like the outfits for Sakura(? Momo? Both of them?) or Chocho, I liked the roles that they held as sort of trainers for the rest of Seimeis shikigami. In fact I liked the whole courtyard ordeal in general. I have my own worldbuilding thing that has a similar theme so seeing it being used canonically was pretty nice. I do wish we could’ve seen more SSRs or even SRs though. Like, why couldn’t Aoandon be hanging out in the courtyard to give gossip to Hiro & Kagura? Yamakaze or Shishio hanging out in the forest, or like. bruh even Jikikaeru as the boss in the Showdown considering he runs that in game. 

I did like the fish man! I really did, but literally everything about him could’ve been Jikikaeru, I don’t think it’s that hard to make a frog man. 

Also as mentioned previously it would’ve been nice to see Tamamo make an appearance considering he makes random ones every now and then. The Mujou Brothers could’ve helped the shikigami when they were escaping Seimeis courtyard, Shiranui could’ve been an entertainer while they were traveling through the demon realm, HAKU??? couldve been one of Seimeis shiki?? literally anyone. They have all these misc characters in the background but barely any of them resemble in game characters.

GOD EVEN KOSODENOTE COULDVE BEEN THERE . . . . at the scene where Kagura was messing with jewelry and clothing . . . Koso couldve been the seller. Aobozu could’ve worked at the shrine . . . . I just. Man.

ANYWAYS . . . pulling from that and going into whatever the hell Cimu is. god.

So according to casting, Cimu is supposed to be Ibaraki. But the thing is. There’s only like. 3-4 Elements about Ibaraki that goes into him. Everything else is Shuten which i honestly find pretty funny?? Take away the homophobic jokes and combine the gay coded character into his love interest. Which I mean that’s better than making them brothers but at what cost.

anyways. Cimu previously being an onmyoji but turning evil -> shuten previously being a monk and turning evil. The design of the hand that Cimu uses as transportation -> SP Shutens design where he sits on two hands. Red hair -> shuten. The horns, eye color (minus scleras), arm getting chopped off, and his ambition to grow stronger are really the only parts of Ibaraki that’s in the character-- and even then you could say Shuten has a similar ambition of growing stronger. It’s just so scuffed. 

ALSO IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. literally it doesn’t make sense when you look at the characters.

Why couldn’t they just stick with Kuro Seimei considering the fact that this Ibaraki works with Ootengus and Yuki Onna/The Snow Queen? They could’ve given Seimei a twin brother to work off of this. But like if they really wanted to keep Ibaraki and Shuten, they could’ve made it that Shuten was being manipulated by Orochi and Ibaraki was serving him, because there’s a LOT of shit you could do just with Shuten by himself. Legit no reason to combine the two since they’re BOTH heavily marketed characters. 

Legit like, Shuten being controlled, given Ibaraki’s loyalty to Shuten he would most likely follow him no matter what, and even like. Have a form of Momiji to kind of help out-- probably at a heavy expense of Shuten doing something for her, but still. like i LOVED the snow queen, I loved this interpretation of yuki so I wouldn’t want to get rid of her, but they shouldve went with Seimei 2 instead of “ibaraki”. It’s just so much and it doesn’t make sense. 

Now orochi himself and how that was handled was like. Okay I guess. If anyone was being talked to through their head at the time it should’ve been Yao Bikuni considering she allies with him in canon at one point. but like whatever. I did think the end was neat where Seimei forced him into becoming his shikigami, like I liked that whole process. Otherwise all antagonists were pretty underwhelming.

I also was not fond of the ending where like Seimei just turns away at the broken bridge. Like does this mean the Demon realm is completely cut off now? just fix the bridge. Also does Seimei just fuck off?? I know theres a scene where he’s standing on the roof but. i dont know. 

Regardless the movie was great, I had fun watching it. When ibaraki came in I accidentally paused the movie a couple of times while spamming screenshots. Even tho hes like kinda ugly but that’s ok. There WERE some angles where he was hot as hell but otherwise they did his actor so dirty. The horns were just. God I won’t delve into that bc this post is long as hell BUT. BUT. THE MOVIE WAS GOOD. just not if ure into the lore for the game LMAO.

Ok that’s it for now bye

[atopearth]

Fate/hollow ataraxia Part 3 - Chibi is Justice (Phase 3)

Lmao, I love how Avenger thought the way Bazett died against Assassin was so hilarious. It seems she's pretty numb towards the repetitive resurrections now though. Avenger is right though, Bazett is so violent lmao, she solves everything so practically and violently, it's pretty hilarious, especially when she got impatient at Avenger taking too long to unlock the gate to a Master's (looks like Rin's) house so she just broke in loll. It's pretty cute how Avenger protected her from the milk trap lmao. I wonder if the world Bazett is in, and the world Shirou and them are in aren't connected yet? It seems kinda connected since Shirou and Saber supposedly saw stuff like the house where those randoms died, and they saw the place where Bazett resurrects, but considering the fact that even though they both patrol around at night, yet haven't seen each other, do we need to get through a bit more things for it all to escalate?

I'm not sure if Avenger is the same Avenger that was supposed to be born in Heaven's Feel and whether his story is the same since he just kinda tells Bazett that Angra Mainyu isn't his real name because a friend sacrificed his life to save him, so he kinda just took the friend's name and repaid the world with it, so his hero name is basically honouring his friend whilst he's lost his identity. Anyway, lmao at Bazett telling him her background as if she's sharing her practical work experience lol. Her story in a sense is similar to the Matou since she's from an elite family that retained their unique power but lost influence as an important family, so she kinda tries to prove herself within the Magic Association even though they don't care or like her because their traditions and families are so ingrained, there's no place for anything else to shake the balance. It's funny how Avenger justifies it that he's right that she's technically 30+ (she's 23 lol) because she never really had a childhood so she's been an adult most her life lol.

Ohh so the reason why Shirou could never really "progress" was because of his lack of training. He hasn't done any sort of magic and training in so long! Aww the little kid Saber was watching playing soccer looks like a mini Shirou haha! Lmao when she threw the ball into the goal and everyone was stunned hahaha. HAHAHA, Saber kicked the ball and it broke🤣 so cute how Shirou fixed the ball for them. Wow, they've really upped their game for this fandisk! The battle sequence between Shirou + Saber against Archer was so fluent and cool! I really loved how Shirou was able to think of a pretty good plan of getting Saber to Archer super fast using his last Command Spell, so that she can cut him down right after he shoots his arrow and won't have time to react against her attack. It all looked really good too! I'm also really glad that Shirou was able to use his skills again. It's really been a while! However, when Saber asked if this was really all right, I wasn't really sure. Like, obviously they had no choice since Archer was out to kill them, but at the same time, if Archer was so ready to kill them, there must be something big going on that they're not aware of.

Okay, I legit died laughing when the mini game to defeat Illya and her castle came up lmaooo. It was so hilarious!! The chibi characters are so cute and lmaoo at Saber saying food names when she fights. Legit died when I used Excalibur and she said chashu men/noodles hahahahah, I couldn't concentrate on fighting hahahah. I love how Caster uses Assassin to fight, and it was so funny when Rider rode her Griffon because it looked like some chibi horse hahahaha. I loved the mini game, it was absolutely great. I want to play it again now lmao. Illya losing and then pressing a red button to destroy everything was such a funny finale hahaha. I love seeing the Taiga Dojo Taiga lmao. The quizzes are pretty funny lolll! I love the night quiz where Taiga wants to be the main heroine of Fate so bad lmaooo. Oh, and Sella giving Shirou a storeroom to sleep in was hilarious, poor Shirou🤣 HAHAHA at Sakura getting petrified when Saber told her that Servants don't get fat from eating etc, especially since Sakura tries hard to maintain her weight and everything hahaha. I loved how Rider had to drag the Sakura who turned into a rock away lolll. It was so funny when Sakura called Rider a traitor since she never told her that her body won't change no matter how much they eat🤣🤣 Sakura is so cute, her and Shirou fighting over who should bath first was cute, but when he pushed her in and she started going crazy with her delusions thinking that they were going to bathe together in their swimsuits was just hilarious🤣 Saber being scared of sinking in the water was pretty cute, lmao when she was dashing through the water though hahaha. Never thought she would be able to walk on water because she had the blessing of lake fairies lol. Aww it was so cute how Saber sunk into the water when Shirou said her body shape was nice and everything hahaha. Also lmao at Archer and Lancer invading their little picnic at the poolside and stealing their food lolll. I never really thought about it, but hearing Archer complain/give tips on how Shirou can improve his cooking is kinda cute and funny at the same time since he would know best what he needs to improve on🤣 Anyway, I love it when Saber is such a sore loser that she forces Shirou into competing with her (in this case, swimming) until she wins and is satisfied with her wins hahaha. She's so proud of winning after it all too lmao.

Whoa, I didn't expect the H-scenes in Eclipse, I was so shocked lmao, I had to look behind my shoulder to make sure no one saw me because it was so sudden hahaha! Anyway, I've never been a fan of the Fate H-scenes so yeah, this wasn't any better imo. Lmao, I love how Himuro is so interested in Mitsuzuri's love life and wants to know who her boyfriend is, she's so weirdly obstinate, it's kinda funny🤣 I'll admit that I'm definitely warming up to the trio of Himuro, Makidera and Yukika now haha. It's so stupid yet hilarious how they're so insistent on finding out who Mitsuzuri's dating lol. They've got some crazy dedication haha, legit died when Taiga started thinking Shirou was becoming more and more of a player with all these girls lol. Honestly I know Minori (Mitsuzuri's younger brother) doesn't mean harm, but he really gets out of hand when it comes to his dislike for Shirou. Anyway, I'm glad Himuro dragged him away lol, and with that, I think I kinda like the idea of Minori and Himuro together hahahah. Lmao at the Mitsuzuri dating thing was actually because she was desperately looking for someone to be her boyfriend to win the bet with Rin, so she told her brother to disguise and pretend to be her boyfriend, that is pretty embarrassing hahaha.

LMAO at Archer and Lancer having a fishing battle or something, it's hilarious how petty Archer seems towards Lancer hahaha. Omggg Saegusa can see Kojirou and they're so cute and friendly together!? It's such a random match but I love them. They have such a peaceful atmosphere. LMAOOO when Shirou bluntly asked Illya if he could use her castle dining room for a dinner date and Illya thought it was her and there were like pigeons flying in the background, and then Shirou says for Sakura and she sulks in her chibi sketch form hahahahaha. I nearly died from laughter with that transition.

 Awwww! Sakura in the pink evening dress with ribbons on her hair (kinda like Rin) is so cutee! The dress in itself is kinda ugly tbh but Sakura is adorable. Awww Shirou in a tuxedo is pretty cute too! Anyway, I honestly think it's so sweet of Shirou to have granted Sakura's wish for a fancy dinner like this. Like sure, he really didn't do much besides have the guts to ask Illya for help, but the fact that he remembered her wish and did what he could to grant it was sweet enough. The way Shirou accepts everything about Sakura including all her flaws, and saying all that in his own clumsy way makes my heart so warm. Hearing Illya talk about some memories of Kiritsugu fondly makes me happy that there were at least a few memories they were able to cherish together. Seeing Illya so happy and excited to play and talk with Shirou always makes my heart so warm tbh. The CG of Shirou and Illya sharing a bed together is so heartwarming, I love it. She never got to see Kiritsugu ever again, but at least Illya now has Shirou who will always dote on her and do his best to protect her. Tbh, in the beginning, I really didn't like Illya and always thought there's no way I'll like this murderous little girl, but omg she's invaded my heart so much, I love her, and her relationship with Shirou. Sella and Liz interactions are so funny, I love how Liz is just outing her to Shirou about how Sella is afraid of ghosts lmao. HAHAHA, I loved how Shirou got so scared of whatever he saw in the wine cellar, he ran out and pulled Sella along with him, and described it to her when she told him not to hahaha. The funniest thing was that it was actually Liz with a halberd lmao, that is definitely scary😂 It's interesting to know that Liz is actually the Dress of Heaven to kinda complete Illya, I'm not sure if I forgot that or if it was never mentioned, but now it's kinda understandable why Liz is a guess a bit more different compared to Sella who is basically full maid. Lmao, the more Sella and Liz appear, the more I love them. It was so funny when Liz gave him that possibly 200 years old card that is most likely cursed and then laughed as she left hahahaha. Omgg, it's so funny but I never really thought that Sella, Liz and even Illya drive to and from the castle!! Lmao when Shirou asked Illya if she drove a Bersercar HAHAHA😂😂😂😂 To be fair, that's what I would have assumed😂

Archer saving the kitten stuck on top of a tree and then going on a long ass rant about heroes of justice was hilarious. But, I have to say, the things he said were pretty interesting and right to an extent, especially the idea of heroes stunting the growth of people like this kitten who will start to always think that someone like a hero will save them so they don't need to think about saving themselves. Anyway, now that Gilgamesh isn't in a "serious" game as he says, his silliness and ridiculousness is so much more funny. I love how careless he is to get caught up in crap but be too prideful to ask for help hahahah. And it was so funny when Rider dragged Saber away calling them losers for their masters' affections since Shirou and Sakura are going to the pool together and she doesn't want to interfere even though she probably wants to join lol. Aww Sakura in her swimsuit is cute. Okay, I change my mind, her side angle is hot hahahha. I can understand why Shirou was so stunned hahahah. HAHAHA, I nearly died of laughter when Sakura told Shirou she's not good at backstroke, and he said that would be awesome hahahahaha, he's a pervert🤣🤣 Omg that underwater kiss though! Shirou was being silly as usual, trying too hard to make Sakura happy and staying underwater past his limits, so she gave him "air" through the kiss haha, Shirou is lucky~ LMAO when Rider and Saber popped up at the pool hahahaha. Omg Rider's swimsuit is hot though, I love it. Sakura and Shirou holding hands back home is so adorableeee, I wish their date lasted longer~~ Aww Saber being fascinated by the penguin shaved ice machine is so cute! To be fair, I've always been interested in those too, they're so adorable! I would eat shaved ice just to play with it loll. Well, Bazett's "Noble Phantasm"-like thing is pretty much a cheat if you can negate Saber's Excalibur. But I wonder why everything keeps repeating itself? Oh, and I died when Shirou and Shinji had a "duel" at the harbour LOL, it was so random but hilarious hahahah.

Anyway, yayyy, I'm finally up to the next phase lol! Sure took me a while to finish this one up, I got distracted by so many things hahaha. But yeah, even though I take a long time to get through this game, I honestly really love it whenever I take the time out to read it. The slice of life shenanigans are the best way to brighten up my life lmao, they're all so funny!! I love how this phase really developed Liz and Sella, they're so much more likeable than I initially thought haha. All the swimming pool shenanigans were so funny and nice too. I'm definitely loving Sakura much more than before haha, and Saber has such a special place in my heart now, she's so silly lolll. I really hope to see Rin soon though!

[saku-is-bae]

i’m in my bitch about naruto mood again so here i go.

there are several things that i strongly dislike studio pierrot for, but the one i want to talk about is their treatment of sakura. saw some comments about her on twitter and it got me thinking about how, i think, they were a huge part of casting her character in a really negative light. like kishimoto does part of that on his own with his inability to write female charcters decently, but they managed to make it worse. i’m speaking as someone who fully read the manga and didn’t fully watch the anime. so, i’m speaking as someone who saw sakura purely from how kishimoto portrayed her, not sp. i’m also speaking from memory so feel free to correct me if i misremembering stuff or add if you remember some stuff i missed too.

it’s super wild seeing how sp just straight up changed cannon scenes and made her look bad in the process. the top 2 that come to mind are the confession in the land of iron and that flashback scene in the last arc where naruto and sasuke are sparing for class.

for the land of iron, i recently learned that they had naruto have a panic attack and collapse after she leaves??? but in the manga that never happended, she leaves and he just frustrated/worried about the situation over all; there’s no clutching his chest, falling to ground, and hyperventalating at ALL. there’s literally no reason to include that in there other than to make sakura look heartless and completely overshadow why she did that in first place. the whole land of iron confession, while a bad move on her part, was literally to show that sakura values naruto over sasuke. the whole reason that started was bc 1. sai told sakura that naruto loves her and his promise to her was also causing him pain 2. with akatsuki and sasuke’s shenanigans, naruto’s life was even more clearly in danger especially if he was going to keep chasing sasuke. so what does she do? she confesses to naruto because she thinks it’ll get him to stop pursuing sasuke and the promise he made her will stop causing him pain. what does she do when he calls out her lie? she (recklessly) decides she’s gonna kill sasuke herself and she doesn’t even care to listen about why sasuke may be justified in his pursuits— that’s literally her putting naruto first. but that gets completely erased/overshadowed by sp having naruto react so much more viscerally than he did in the manga and once again sakura looks a lot worse.

the second incident with the flashback takes place at a more team 7 centric moment, primarily focusing on naruto and sasuke. in the flashback it’s sasuke literally beating the shit outta naruto during academy sparing. sasuke’s going overboard and his fangirls are cheering, all except sakura who flinches and is taken aback as she watches the scene unfold. in the anime they replace sakura with hinata and have sakura be one of the cheering girls. now i don’t know if they changed the placement of the flashback in the anime since i saw this scene as a clip, but if they didn’t why did they even include hinata in the scene given that this was a team 7 focused scenario and hinata was unconscious with everyone else? and even if they wanted to include hinata for endgame stuff, why go on to still include sakura cheering for sasuke instead of showing her be concerned as well? even if it’s not the main point of the scene, it literally just reinforces this ‘sakura doesn’t care about naruto’ by portraying her that way in the scene.

there are some other things i didn’t care for too. like sakura apparently punching naruto all the time in the shippuuden anime, but mangawise in shippuuden that happens twice—when she sees him do orioke no jutsu after he returns from training with jiraiya and the second is after defeating pain when she scolds him for putting his life in danger. another one is her parents—kizashi and mebuki are never seen or mentioned in the manga at all; they’re completely filler. so when the rtn movie has her complain to naruto, an orphan, about her parents it’s weird to me, especially when in part one she realized she was out of pocket for insulting naruto’s upbringing when sasuke called her out on it. also, it seems to give people the impression that sakura is a clan kid who had the recourses to have a leg up as a shinobi that she squandered???? but, everything mangawise, especially when you compare her abilities to the actual clan kids, implies that she’s from a civilian background. i could go more into this post is already long and it’s a tangent.

anyway, there are definitely reasons to dislike sakura mangawise, but i wonder how differently she would have been received if the anime didn’t go out of it’s way to portray her more negatively. i’m sure if they were willing to change cannon scenes to make her look bad i doubt they held back in the filler episodes. I also wonder how much better all the female characters in the series would have been if a woman wrote naruto or kishimoto at least had a female editor but thats and rant for another day 🙃.

[arkus-rhapsode]

My Hero Academia Chapter 211 Review

Ummm, Early chapter this week. But were on break next week soooo... I guess this is fine. (Note: there has been an edit made to this review to respectfully not spread any misinformation) 

So w e oddly start this chapter with a little character background from Monoma. Apparently he always wanted to be a hero, but due to the fact that his quirk can only copy others, he will have to depend on others which is not what an active hero should have to do. I actually really like this cause its something we ever got from any other 1-B student, the motivation behind their path. It always made them feel a bit more shallow, so I appreciate Monoma getting a scene like this.

Also he now compares himself to Shinsou. How the two are the same is the fact that their heroic aspiration were denied based on their quirk. The difference though is Monoma still made it into the hero program and not Shinsou.

Now this scene, of Monomaa saying that doing unhero like things to those who are more gifted is okay, is likely reflective on the fact that being a hero is also a popularity contest in this world. To stand out and inspire, you’ve gotta be the best, and sometimes to do that, you do some things you might not be proud of. And with a mentality like that, its easy to see why someone like Stain is so pissed at society when it churns out heroes that will willing do un-heroic things. But then you can’t blame Monoma and Shinsou who are just trying to do their best, but given their genetic lottery they have to work harder than most.

But enough of this flashback, we need to cut back to the present where Deku is slowly losing control.

So Deku’s new black energy is emerging from his arm and Deku is quite literally fighting back against is. Monoma wonders if this is a new power to which I’m gonna save my thoughts on this till later.

Yeah Deku, its almost like the plot decided to fuck you over for the sake of this twist that I’m pretty sure no one wanted and that we could just keep to the usual flow of this arc, but no, we had to veer off in this direction because-Okay okay, I’ll save that for later too. I should really speed this up.

So its turns out that black stuff isn’t actually lightning, but more tendrils. Yeah cause that’s what One for All needed, tentacle hentai. Actually with theses black tendrils, now every fan fic writer who made a Deku as Venom AU (yes those exist) has just been justified.

Anyway, Deku releases what looks to be a beam of energy (I honestly can’t tell) and fires it off at Monoma who Deku at least warns to run.

Okay so, first off, good job Monoma. I’m glas we did make a joke out of Monoma being arrogant enough to think he could handle this. Second, what the fuck is wrong with class 1-A. I’m not saying they should act like they just watched a puppy get shot, but their classmate literally seems to be destroying everything. Now you could say that Todoroki did the same thing when he cranked up the heat, but the difference is that fire is a part of Todoroki’s quirk. Black tendrils has never been apart of his power. I know that not every kid in a classroom has to know or care about all their classmates, but I’d be concerned.

Third thing, So it seems OfA really is sentient as its jittering and moving around like it has some sort of self awareness. And finally, Yup. Can’t control your power. After we had come such a long way, you somehow are forced back to square one. I’ll talk about it later as the darkness begins to overflow.

Gotta feel bad for 1-B who just came here for an exercise, now they might die by black energy.

We see the darkness start sticking to objects (wow it really is Venom) and hoists Deku into the air. Yeah, I don’t now is this is something a user of one for all cold do, but boy its a little goofy. Uraraka and Shinsou seems to be the only people who now gives a shit about how this darkness is surging.

We now see this darkness is actually fighting against Deku, smashing him into a wall. All Might, makes a good fucking call and wants Aizawa and Vlad to shut this down. Which I’m sure Aizawa is perfectly fine with. Vlad has also had like no lines this round, like I’d love to hear his commentary.

(Yes, I realize there is an eye looking thing in the darkness, but it took me so long to find that I’m honestly might not even be sure that it is an eye.)

This scene... Breaks my heart. This in a nutshell was why I’m so opposed to this twist. After 200 chapters, Deku finally, FINALLY, doesn’t have to worry about hurting himself. He can now catchup with everyone else and it was finally time to show it off, but now. Now its fighting back. One for All is literally making him lose control when there should be no reason for him to. Has Deku master One for All? No. So there was still a chance things would go wrong, but not like this. Why? did it have to be the moment when finally the first year is coming to an end does One for All show that Deku is still not ready.

And Deku’s reaction to this is perfect for this. He’s not thinking about how he should be strong enough to resist this, showing he grew to arrogant and this is teaching him a lesson. No, Deku is sad. He’s upset that after all this time people didn’t have to worry for him. He was now strong enough to fight like Bakugou and strong enough to make 1-B actually consider him a threat, but now... Now he’s lost control.

Now it is possible that this is do to quirk singularity a topic that I’m doing a post on later, but in short it was brought up about like 50 chapters ago and its when a quirk becomes something that humans can’t control anymore. But again, talking about that later.

I’ve heard the possibility that, this darkness is actually One for All in a sentient state. Much like the previously mentioned before quirk singularity. That this is like genes being passed down so long and growing complex enough to the point that they are no longer controllable. Now there have been plenty of theories that have come out about this, but out of all of them, in general they likely relate to this. The darkness is literally fighting back against Deku as sign of his lack of more than 20% control and thus the quirk seems to quite literally be swallowing him whole. It feels like if this is the case, then Horikoshi realized that he made it so Deku was now fully protected from damaging himself thanks to his quirk. But he could just make it seem like Deku was just arbitrarily growing stronger without having any difficulty, so he developed a way for Deku to quite literally fight himself in his struggle. It was no longer limb destruction, Deku is literally fighting so that he has the right to use this quirk to its fullest extent.

If that is the case, I can’t say I agree with it. Look, I’m sure anyone could say that this doesn’t bother them. That this makes it so Deku and One for All are like Naruto and the Nine-tails, Ichigo and the hollow, Asta and the demon, etc. And those aren’t things I’m opposed to and are things that I enjoyed. But this isn’t the same. The monster inside that gives you more power worked for those series because that was their power system and world allowed for that. But MHA, quirks are more similar to Goku and Luffy. Their abilities are what is to be heightened and their second release: Super saiyan and gear two, are derivative of their competence of their biology and their power. And Deku was like that. He has a quirk that has nine generations worth of power in it and to use that power he had to learn how to take more in. His super saiyan was him at one million percent. It would destroy his body, but for a time he could use all that power. But I guess this new problem has occurred and we’ll have to see where it goes.

Anyway, the chapter isn’t done as Uraraka floats up to him.

So Uraraka is holding down darkness Deku and calls out to Shinsou and that’s where our chapter ends. Now, if people remember my FT reiewing days, they’re probably to call this a BS ship moment that defies reality and serves to pander a single fanbase. Well, no. Cause that’s not what this is. Uraraka is doing what a hero should do. She’s trying to save someone in danger, and this isn’t presented as this overtly romantic moment like say Sakura hugging curse mark sasuke, no this is actual danger that isn’t stopping so Uraraka is at risk of getting hurt here.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t take this romantically, I mean there is a lot of evidence that the two like eachother, I’m just trying to say, power of love, isn’t what’s stopping this madness, hell its evident that Uraraka needs Shinsou and his power to try and stop it. So this trope is still being done, but there is some logical weight to the solution.

Post Chapter Follow Up: So I wanna first say, this chapter is really short. Like its about 13 pages and it has very, very little dialogue. I did almost felt like I was reading a Bleach Chapter, but in fairness, this had a lot more detailing and was clearly used more as a way to show the sheer scale and weight of what the hell this thing is. Plus more detailed art, so I don’t thing the bleach comparison is entirely fair.

I am disappointed with the page count, given the break next week, I would’ve really appreciated we ended on more of bang than this. All its done is left me wanting more, but not in a very good way.

In terms of negatives, this chapter has pretty much confirmed team Deku vs team Monoma has gone off rails and that our conflict is going to actually be how do we solve this darkness. Last week, I talked about my thoughts on why I’m not a fan of that as this seems like a transparent way to make deku lose as well as seems to imply that Horikoshi had no real intent on making this fight actually work with their combatants. This not only makes this exercise feel like it will ultimately be pointless, but as I said, it screws Deku out of getting to go plus ultra while everyone else got to show how far they’ve come.

One could say that seems like bias and that the point was to get shinsou to help with the vestiges, but that doesn’t fully work cause there had to be other ways than this to make it so Sjhinsou would have to work. I mean, this was that same problem I had with the overhaul arc at the end. It was gong fine until Ryukyu dropped in with a powerup for Overhaul and then deku had to use Eri like a power-up and it just became a cluster fuck. I’m not against twists mind you, all arcs need them, the one he did with Gentle was great in my opinion, but these twists overall hurt the story cause the story was going great up till now and we’ve entered cluster fuck land.

Now look, I’m not gonna let my own opinions impede my objective view point. This twist was built up to. As we saw with the mark on Deku’s hand as he used One for All in his sleep. The fact his quirk has been feeling funny, and the fact that All Might seemed curious about this. So I can not in all good conscious call this a bad twist, but it is still one I don’t agree with.

Other positives are definitely the characterization. Aside from us getting Uraraka getting to act like a savor, we get some great development for Monoma. My only issue would have to be the timing of it. He doesn’t do much this chapter. You’d think that this would’ve been used before Deku went all darkness on us.

So what will the final verdict be. Initially I was thinking of giving this a below average, but maybe because the more chew on to this, and the more I see others reactions to this, it seems this hits that uncomfortable spot of being up to the reader to tell if they liked it or hated it. And those are always hard because there is a fair amount of good and nothing I can call really bad, but that good really isn’t enough on its own so there is an enjoyment factor that can’t be accounted for. Kinda like Aquaman. So where do I stand on this? well I have to be honest with myself as this is my review and I gotta say.

Final Verdict: 5/10

This is something you need to experience yourself to really tell if you enjoy this twist or not

There is some good action and good character development

The pacing feels rushed and there isn’t enough time to fully show this off satisfyingly

I do like the ending

[jounetsulovers]

Top 11 Inazuma Characters

Tagged by @blueberry-pastel! Thank you so much. <3

11. Senguuji Yamato.

For all my talk about the villains of Inazuma, it feels fitting to have some kind of rep on that list, even though he’s more of the final rival than anything else. The first season of Go holds a special place in my heart, and I think Yamato is an especially fun and thematically appropriate final boss. His Avatar his cool, his relationship with his dad warms my heart, his design is nice, and the way he’s animated, especially when using King Fire, always looks really nice! He’s my go-to goalie in the Go games, and on that basis alone it didn’t feel right to have a list without him.

10. Raimon Natsumi.

Natsumi was my favorite manager for a long, long time, and there’s a lot of things to absolutely love about her. Her arc, tracing from the beginning of the original series to the very end, where she slowly lets her defenses down and engages earnestly with soccer and the team. Her extremely sweet friendships with all of the managers. Her relationship with her dad, which is an often-underlooked but no less important part of the entire story. The little background details, and how we learn throughout the Chrono Stone games that she’s become the chairman of Raimon after Fifth Sector collapses. Her recent appearance in Orion had me grinning the entire time. For sheer character growth, it’s hard to compete with her.

9. Kidou Yuuto.

Somehow, Kidou Yuuto exists, and the show is better for it. If someone were to ask me who had the best and most complete character arc, I’d point to Kidou without question. He’s the complete package: great and memorable character design, strong personality, growth, excellent moves, great character dynamics, downright iconic scenes. His backstory and everything involving his and Haruna’s family makes me cry every time, no matter what format it’s in. From enemy to rival to best, best friend, Kidou Yuuto is stellar character work on the part of Level-5.

8. Teres Tolue.

The anime does not do Teres Tolue justice. For all the brief but excellent scenes he does have, they are nothing compared to the wonderful scenes he gets in the third Inazuma game. This is a shoutout to the defender who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even at the cost of sounding callous. Who cracks jokes at the worst of times, but also has a heart of gold. Whose confidence is genuinely matched by excellent work on the defense line. Liocott Island is full of captains with big personalities and sad backstories, and it’s a shame Teres seems to often be left out of the conversation, because he was my favorite back in 2012 and now, finally getting to play the games in full, he’s even better than I remembered.

7. Yamana Akane.

If the anime did not do justice to Teres, they did an absolute disservice to Yamana Akane. Much like Teres, she has wonderful moments in the anime. But they are limited, and do not capture the true delight that is her personality. Everything she is, she’s even more in the games, and I genuinely think she has the best one-liners in perhaps the entire series. Even if she isn’t the deepest manager, she’s the one that makes me smile the most. She’s funny, she’s creative, she’s bold and not afraid to speak about the things she likes. Yamana Akane, best manager.

6. Saginuma Osamu.

Saginuma Osamu is a character that exists in a constant duality. He’s a terrifying, imposing presence as Desarm, but also an admirable rival. He’s absolutely unmatched on the soccer field, with the technical know-how and talent to easily slide into three positions on the field, but also one of the hardest-working characters in the entire series. He’s also a huge, huge dork while at the same time being inspiring to his team when he’s in the captain role. He was my favorite Aliea captain, and continues to be my favorite kid to come out of Sun Garden. I’d personally choose him as the greatest rival in all of Inazuma, as he perfectly captures the thin, thin line between serious and ridiculous the series so eloquently toes.

5. Kira Hitomiko.

Best coach, hands down. Not the most skilled, or the nicest, or the one with the best teams or most effective coach. But the best one. She’s complicated, and maybe her apology at the end of Season 2 doesn’t begin to make up for the bad calls she made. But the fact she’s allowed to make those bad calls... the fact that she’s part of a larger, extremely sad and complicated backstory that almost feels like it should come from a drama, and not a sports anime... the fact that she spends a lifetime of penance for it, actually doing the hard work of trying to do right by her own mistakes and continue to watch over Sun Garden... Man, I love Hitomiko. Ares didn’t even begin to do her justice.

4. Amagi Daichi.

Amagi Daichi, best defender. Enough said.

...Okay, no, there’s more than that. I love everything about Amagi, from his character design, to his moves, to his personality and how much he brings a strong, brotherly presence to the team. I love his dynamic with Hikaru, and with the other third years, and how much he cares for his friends in general. But I think I love his story most of all, because it’s extremely relatable. It’s simple, but effective, and the presentation of his flashback--the sound design, the visuals, hell, even the editing--is some of the best Inazuma’s ever done. Episode 33 of Go is my favorite episode of Inazuma Eleven. Amagi Daichi, best defender.

3. Giris and Meia.

Is this cheating? I don’t think so. Giris and Meia are two characters that demand to be taken and analyzed as a pair, and, well, you don’t really see them apart, ever. They are my pick for the most terrifying and interesting rivals in all of Inazuma, for their unique combination of memorable visual aesthetic combined with the encroaching fridge horror that is the true nature of the SSC. Two kids, whose entire aesthetic revolves around young love and death in all aspects: their avatars, their signature move, even the soccer team uniform, which could easily be reworked into something for a period piece. And yet, they’re also overdramatic. They get distracted by each other to the point where they forget to finish trash-talking the opposing team. They dance on the soccer field to summon their avatars. They’re ridiculous and tragic in equal amounts, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them, or the Second Stage Children, since I watched Chrono Stone.

2. Megane Kakeru.

Not only is Megane one of the funniest characters in the series. Not only is he one of the most important and yet underappreciated side characters in the franchise. Megane Kakeru is the perfect example of the profound impact Endou has on everyone he comes in contact with, and here’s why: Megane Kakeru is a coward. That’s a fact established in episode one. He talks a big game, but as soon as Teikoku gets serious, he runs off in tears. And even if the anime will never let him live that fact down (seriously), he never runs from another match again. Without him, Raimon’s victory streak would have ended with Shuuyo Meito. With him, we see a self-centered nerd come out of his shell, and genuinely grow to love the game of soccer, even as he knows he isn’t cut out to play and cannot match the skill level of his peers. Even while he’s terrified, he still steps out onto the field against Zeus when his teammates are injured. He stands against Aliea, even as other teammates find the situation hopeless. In season 3, his easy out, what does he do? He joins the team as a manager. He supports the Resistance numerous times in Go, both in the anime and in the games. Even as the chips are down, Megane Kakeru does not run, because he loves the game just as much as everyone else. He’s got a protagonist’s heart. I just love this kid.

And now, some honorable mentions, because there’s far too many to list:

I initially intended to have a member of the Earth Eleven on this list, but I genuinely could not decided between Morimura Konoha, Kusaka Ryuuji, and Nozaki Sakura, so I decided in fairness to not pick any, as an omission would be doing a disservice to them. The same could be said for several Protocol Omega members. Senguuji Daigo and Saryuu Evan are excellent villains and I love them, even if one is significantly more developed than the other. Matsukaze Tenma is one of my favorite protagonists of all time, and I love him a lot. Edgar Valtinas would have taken Teres’ spot if I didn’t choose him, and it was a very close choice. Kudou Fuyuka and Seto Midori were also this close to taking one of the manager slots. Fei Rune and Nanobana Kinako bring me unending joy and tears in equal measure. Domon Asuka, Sangoku Taichi, and Mahoro Tadashi are wonderful side characters whom deserve more love than they get, and I don’t think anyone is surprised to know how much I love Kousaka Yukie. I am deeply enjoying Ares and Orion’s characters, but considering their story has yet to finish, it did not seem fair to include them on the list, so for now they’re relegated to this one. But I adore Haizaki Ryouhei, Kozoumaru Sasuke, and Goujin Tetsunosuke. Zanark Avalonic should just be on every list ever because he is the best.

1. Nishiki Ryouma.

No character in Inazuma can make me smile like Nishiki Ryouma does. No character brings me quite as much joy as Nishiki Ryouma does. He is not the deepest, nor the strongest, nor the user of my favorite hissatsu or owner of my favorite Avatar. But he’s the complete package: relatable, funny, courageous, and even inspiring in his own goofy way. I love his passion, and how he tries not to sweat the little things, and that he isn’t afraid to do things in the name of trying, no matter how ridiculous he may seem. He has a large heart that is open to the world around him, and even for his enemies. He has stellar moves, a genuinely awesome aesthetic, and a smile that’s infectious. I knew pretty early on in my watch of Go he’d be a favorite, and every time since my love for him has grown more and more. I can’t even explain in adequate enough terms why I love him so much--I just do!

Not directly tagging anyone, but if you haven’t done it, DO IT. You know who you are.

[ryodan]

Every team 7 ship VS NaruHina

To the clique that argued with me in the saltiest of ways, I dedicate to you my first ever anti nh post. I hope you think twice about telling people to kill themselves over your self insert and stop being a pimple on society’s ass.

Let’s start with the one that gets on your tits the most

Naruhina VS Narusaku (The Heaven and The Earth), alternatively titled : stop being angry he liked the hot chick and stop pretending Sakura isnt kushinas parallel

Whenever you feel the need to drag Sakura remember your origin story, @Lunaneko14. Don’t forget your years of defending SS to ride on it’s back lest ns happens

Your ship was here, while the ns fandom had this..no amount of sakura bitterness will change that, @mythicalheartbeat 

Ya boy that she was gorgeous from before team 7’s creation

Before you call Sakura selfish while gratifying Hintata, @fallingforkonoha, remember your void eyed princess entered a fight Tsunade knew not to interfere in knowing she can’t do anything to confess her feelings (at the perfect timing too, really) saying this about herself

A sentiment that continued until her almost final appearance in the manga she took up less than 1% of, as she took a moment to appreciate Narutos, big capable hands in front of her dead cousin . hand holding in front of lavish scenery is so sweet

VS Sakura, the selfish monster  who went in knowing she might get hurt, for him, because she cared greatly about his physical and emotional safety

Remember all those times Hinata just cared so much about his dreams, all those times she was there when he needed her

I love how she always believed in him, unlike Sakura. What a bitch, remember that comment she made in chapter 3 out of 700? Awful.

This QUEEN vs this BITCH, amirite @blackotaku97?

You know whats better than stealing someones ninja way, walmart naruto with a nuclear mushroom cloud of a head? Supporting your precious peoples ninja ways and finding your own.

A common argument that gets thrown around : Hinata was ALWAYS there for him

Sorry, I must have missed her in Narutos speech of the people who saved him from his loneliness and pain

I really like how she sees him miserable and doesn’t help him it’s the epitome of always there

Most of all, you nasty trash can excuse of a human being, I want you to get your head out of your asshole for just 3 seconds and accept that this happened

You can’t change what’s been set in stone

No amount of yapping with a filler movie can change the past. But you know what? Bitches  bark and yap, that’s no surprise

No amount of yapping about the twin lions fist, a head branch hyuga jutsu being hinatas own changes facts, @commanderkurama

My fav part of the pain arc was when Naruto never asked Hinata about her confession, or her safety. I also particularly like Narutos first ever hug that someone else initiated

Drag Sakura all you want but remember when you were here after 2013

Narusakus had this before 2007

Remember that while your self insert was fainting and going on suicide missions

Sakura and Naruto had already built a relationship based on mutual support, respect, love and equal footing (weather platonic or romantic, love is love). A relationship where they both believed in each other, supported each other, had each others back, laughed with each other, cried with each other, had actual chemistry with each other. Remember that the next time you whine about people loving this ship instead of your talked about the weather and clothes ship in an entire movie dedicated to them couple.

Sakura supports your faves so much that no wonder you want to debunk her heroine status and reduce her to a side supporting character that matches your background fav

Hiding her tears so she doesn’t hurt him!11! reminds me of that time she fake confessed to keep him,  kakashi and the rest of the world safe even if at the cost of killing her beloved one to save him from falling into deeper darkness. Sakura is so selfish, no wonder everyone in Japan hates NS

Know your place, Linda. Keep your scumbag-kun and the girl 2ch calls Hinabuta (quick Japanese crash course, that means hinapig), I like my Naruto and Sakura-chan just fine.

SasuSaku (The Hawk and The Cherry Blossom), alternatively titled: You rode on my back for years because your ship wouldn’t have had a hope in high hell if it were not for these two

Lunaneko, I think someone told me you said we try to compete with your shit ship.

It’s hard hearing you over making ship history

While Naruto was busy ignoring Hinatas general existence because she has the presence of the trash can in the sasusaku confession scene Sasuke (a boy who’s been thirsted after fresh from mikotos womb was already flustered and blushing towards sakura

You know what development is? Starting off with an irritable boy with 6 years worth of survivor guilt and manipulation weighing on his shoulders, saying something incredibly ignorant that rightfully pisses him the fuck off but still having him worry enough about you to stay with you to ensure your safety even at the risk of elimination

Aside from giving naruto his first hug, she gave sasuke his in years. Apparently Linkin park was so affected by human touch that he opened up to her about something he’s been repressing and isolating himself over for years. Going so far as stating ‘At that time, I was crying’ and even explaining his entire stance in the story ‘I am avenger’

Development is going from this look

To this look

From this

To this

And that wink too. There’s more chemistry in that wink than the entire NH movie

Remember that time Sakura helped Sasuke develop from a boy who had a childhood trauma based fear of stronger opponents with blood lust to a boy who fought Orochimaru bravely and grew 10x times in a single scene? All while she developed herself? And grew from an agreeable sasuke fangirl to a respected team mate? Y’all wanna compare the war hand hold scene to this? The war scene could have had potential if it ended better lmao

Why was he fighting?

Protecting her seems like an odd concept to you? Sasuke can’t relate :/ Naruto aint even wanna walk hinata home what joke is this

Remember that time Sasuke almost killed a guy in the forest of death? No, not broke Zakus arm

Sasuke was willing to kill for Sakura and I hope you know sasuke’s stance on killing. Where’s Naruto having this much care for hinata I don’t see it my competition is really lagging in this ‘race’

Remember that irritable boy? This boy crawling to her for comfort is a boy who grew alongside her, naruhina who?

You know what she did? She stayed up all night tending to her team mates, falling for konoha. Theres a fine line between cheating your crush at the risk of your team and staying up all night in a place titled the forest of death tending to their wounds at a mere bud age of 12

Wait no, bud who? She bloomed, all thanks to being inspired by the holy trinity (whos front and center? Louder for the people in the back, this is inspiration not just wanting to be with someone) and her own determination to protect her loved ones

Mutual development? Fuck me up. Here is an emotional maturation moment for BOTH of them

I love all of these mutual nh moments in the manga, all 0.0005 of them

She gave rise to a gentle protective side of him, so much so that he has used polite Japanese speaking to her before. The databook even states he saw her as someone he needed to protect. people ship ships for that special spark.The only spark hinata ever got was her wet dream from holding narutos hand, which she awoke from when she tripped on rock-kun

Naruto can’t tell apart true love from ramen? Canon Naruto can’t relate

I love that panel of jealous Naruto it’s great, oh wait its not him

Compete with Nh over what, blackotaku? Where is your naruto @ hinata speech I must need new glasses

Your bitch ass tried using you’re annoying as an argument and it’s so funny because imagine thinking he’s coming from a place of hate after he was willing to consciously give up his revenge for her safety and him saying what he said in their first encounter with a smile after pretending he didn’t remember their first meeting

Followed by this, the moment Japanese fans hailed the most emotional of part 1

You wish you were ss lmao, you wish you made it to 44 volumes out of 72

Compete with nh? On what? Getting stronger for your loved ones?

Chemistry?

Mutual support?

Their feelings are connected, their kid is the physical manifestation of their love not the screw that keeps them together..Her husband is travelling through space and time to keep them and the entire world safe. Naruto is 2 meters away, out there with a limitless bay of chakra unable to get clones to do his work for him.. anti-sakura-pro-hinata, at least when sasuke came home after 6 years of much harder work..he had dinner with his family. Maybe it’s because his daughter was raised well and it was pleasant being around someone who isn’t a brat.

Being intuitive to each other?

Oh lmao remember how Sakura was the only person who against all odds knew sasuke would leave the village?

Angst to keep it interesting?

Call me when Gaiden isn’t one of Kishimotos best selling works.  Call me when your ship actually wants to spend time with each other.

Where Narutos ultimate expression of love at? Is is sleeping on the couch? Boruto novel states sasusaku is having so much sex that sakuras skin is glossing, meanwhile naruto has erectile dysfunction and a shriveled dick by age 32

Sit down, there is not much competition. We keep the SS Japanese penguins, the Jump Fiesta sign attraction, the popularity, the ambitious kid and the moments, the canon selfless love only for the purpose of saving your lover and you keep the canon selfish love for the purpose of a confession  and the banana who wishes its father dies and the mom who just cried.

But remember who made you

SasuNaru (Yin and Yang), alternatively titled:  having black hair isn’t enough to make naruto obsessed.

The garbage can @anti-sakura-pro-hinata blog that attempted to call Sasuke trash because her fictional boyfriend was obsessed with him seems to forget Sasuke didn’t ask for it. Naruto needed a pep talk from fillermaru and fillerkura to chase after hinata yet chased after sasuke, even begged authorities to not kill him purely because he is his ‘friend’ for 3 years. He trained with him in mind, a fact so obvious that Kakashi pointed out Sasuke is the driving force behind Narutos training. Sasuke, and the image he had of team 7 in his mind. An image so important to him that the thought of it being tarnished by Sasukes absence made him have a panic attack.

He went after sasuke to save his best friend and for them all to be happy and smiling together, im sorry he didn’t include Hinata in his fantasies but Team 7 is kind of booked..we only have room for neo sanins, vip people and connected hearts here. If youre jealous your self insert doesn’t matter,, I don’t know, make up fanfiction where she appears in more than 38 pages of the manga

#parallels 

Hinata is canonically narutos most important person!11!! where? Must be on fight on top of the moon land. Be happy Naruto went rampant when his seal was weak, Konoha was destroyed, Jirayah was murdered, Kakashi was killed, Tsunade was hurt and then Hinatas ass decided to risk him chakra depletion, death and losing himself. But remember who made him go rampant with a strong seal at the slight mention of a name

The boy he wanted the acknowledgement of the most because he admired him so much that being like him was his goal

Yet when he got it was still like ‘later, emo asshole. Just get your shit together first.’

Why? Because he loved his friend so much that understanding him and fighting (literally fighting) the fated hatred in his heart mattered more to him than the ego he wanted stroked since age 7

What does that mean? I don’t know man. They trained together, laughed together, rivaled each other, were petty to each other and before they knew it they were inseparable. Back then and always

@remedialaction, come after sasuke because your self insert isn’t noticing the shy girl hes friendzoned later. A huge part of Narutos development was heavily tied to Sasuke, lets not ignore the fact that sasuke being a good team mate who put the 3 man cell idea into his head before Kakashi even told them about team work is the reason why they even became ninjas

Remove and erase Sasukes victim status, his entire arc, motivations, fate and position in the story because he is in the way of a ship when he isn’t the only reason Narutos dick was alive for Hinata

But no Sasuke is a bad person, no matter what the narrative and facts are because nardo is obsessed with him

Praise hinata for her naruto-kun became my goal speech when you acknowledge

‘I knew you were always alone. I felt better knowing there was someone like me..i wanted to hang out with you. It just made me happy! But I couldn’t..i was jealous of how skilled you were, so I turned you into a rival. I wanted to be just like you. I started with nothing but I finally made a connection. We went on missions as team 7, and I kept chasing you, wanting to be just as strong, just as cool. Im really glad I met you!’

Bring sasuke down and praise hakuna hintatas for saying the same thing. ‘Naruto kun saved me’ vs ‘Thanks to you I found salvation’

And weep over how sad your ship looks like next to two arms connected by love (platonic or not love is love), fate, tears and literal blood.

But no, what is yin and yang, light and shadows, love and hate, 2 lonely people watching over each other because ‘finally someone understands my solitude’ as a dynamic in comparison to meek girl and loud guy who could have voiced his attraction eons ago?! It’s funny, even with the canon context of SNS being indra and ashuras chakra incarnate and a brotherly bond, it still works better and is a hella lot more interesting than NH

The scenes showing Naruto and Sasukes iconic team work have more chemistry than naruhinas entire manga time, movie time, filler time and hell even fan art and fan fiction time. I know you're jealous because sasuke is well loved, but show some respect to Borutos mother.

 Kakasaku (Hot and hotter), alternatively titled: Get your head out of your ass

Kakasaku is pedophilia!!

It’s bad!11! because my subjective opinion said so!11!

Not as bad as nh

People ship adult Kakasaku for a whole lot more meaningful stuff than a self insert ship

Kakashi never looked down on her since shippuuden. He acknowledged her strength and how far shes come from being the whiny 12 year old he used to teach. He always knew by part two that she’d be great and he respected her a lot. He saw her kind heart and praised her for it and for her selfless love. They grew to become fellow comrades in the war who had equal respect for each other. What can y’all say about NH? This is a joke.

I want to stay in my lane, but the lanes converge when you make ugly personal attacks at people and insult ships and characters to elevate your own shit show. Drag Team 7 into your ugliness again and I expose your insecure ass.

Y’all can’t touch this aesthetic. Come at these kids when Naruto doesn’t remember them when he’s eating a bento (Something special made by someone you love-sarada) made by his wife.

Special thanks to @uzumakura for tht good ns wank, @sakuraharunos for that good sns wank, @chiwawha for her opinion on ks and me for my patience 

[xb-squaredx]

Sakura Haruno: Naruto’s Worst Missed Opportunity

The Naruto manga and anime may be over, but there’s still plenty to talk about in regards to the series. One of the series’ greatest strengths was its large cast of interesting characters, but one character in particular stands out as a massive missed opportunity. I’d like to go over in-depth why I believe that the author, Masashi Kishimoto, really dropped the ball in regards to the main heroine of the series, Sakura Haruno. I’ll assume anyone reading this has read/watched the series in full, but even so, here’s your spoiler warning. See you below the break.

I can break things down into about three key points that flow into each other, at each turn revealing that Kishimoto makes Sakura feel like more and more of an afterthought as time goes on. Let’s begin.

I. Plot Impact

Sakura is a main character in the story, but oddly she rarely has much impact on the plot. More often than not, Sakura feels like a wallflower who is content to be in the background while everyone else is doing something to drive either the plot or their own arcs forward. Look at the rest of her teammates and how they drive the plot forward, for instance.

Naruto, being the title character, has a huge impact on the plot. His goal to become Hokage is what makes the story. Outside of that, having the Nine Tailed Fox sealed within him results in the main antagonists taking personal interest in him later on. Almost every story arc in the series is about him growing stronger or developing in some way, and as the story goes on, we see his lineage is also pretty important, and he is eventually cast as a “Child of Prophecy” whose actions will shape the world for generations to come.

As for Sasuke, being the main rival and deuteuragonist of the series, he’s also a pretty big deal. The sole survivor of the Uchia Clan Massacre, his drive for revenge fuels his overall character arc, and as time goes on, the Uchiha Clan’s significance to the overall mythology of the show becomes incredibly important. Throughout the plot Sasuke is used as a pawn by several villains, and his own actions in the climax of the series are arguably the only thing that keeps the villains from winning. Throughout the series, his rivalry with Naruto is often compared to several infamous rivalries in-universe, their ultimate clash being built up constantly.

Onto their mentor, Kakashi Hatake. The son of a famous shinobi, and seen by many as one of the Leaf Village’s best, Kakashi is a constant source of strength throughout the series, as an ally or mentor. As time goes on, we learn more of Kakashi’s past and how much it ties into the present, namely the death of his teammate Rin and Kakashi’s own relationship with Obito Uchiha, who is eventually revealed to be one of the main antagonists. In the end of the series, his relationship with Obito carries as much weight as Naruto and Sasuke’s rivalry and his actions influence the climax in a very tangible way.

Sakura…had no real outstanding goals at the start of the series to drive her, and her own family has next to no impact in the plot itself. Her parents are never seen in the manga proper, only popping up in an anime movie, but the “Haruno clan” if it exists, is never shown to be that important to the Leaf Village, and thus the story. She is absent from many arcs in the series, and though she later learns medical ninjutsu under Tsunade and becomes quite proficient at it, it doesn’t really drive her goals forward. Her backstory, unlike the rest of her teammates, is largely “normal” and free from any real tragedy. Naruto was isolated his entire life, an orphan that everyone hated. Sasuke lives with intense survivor’s guilt and the trauma of seeing his beloved older brother murdering his clan. Kakashi, over time, lost everyone he ever cared about, while seeing countless deaths throughout the last great ninja war before the series began. Sakura…was bullied because she had a big forehead. One of these things doesn’t look like the other~

Kishimoto has mentioned in interviews here or there that Sakura, alongside Rock Lee, was meant to be a representative of “human weakness.” Now, there are tons of ways to read into that, but I think Kishimoto just intended for her to be the “normal” one of the group. The one that wasn’t weighed down by emotional baggage or superpowerful genetics that dive their every action. She could have been a character the audience could more easily relate to, but the sad fact is her character feels more like an afterthought compared to her team mates. She’s boring, barely a character and at least at the start she’s quite one-dimentional; the love-struck tween who can only think about boys.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t affect the plot as it moves forward, and in an action-heavy series like Naruto that basically means that as long as she participates in fights, she has some kind of tangible effect on the plot…except Kishimoto often seems to forget she’s there. If we count the times she engages in actual important conflicts, they fit on one hand and the gaps between them are massive. Her first real fights occur in the Chunin Exams, first against the Sound Ninja trio in the Forest of Death, then her tournament match with Ino Yamanaka. From that point, we wait until after the first “half” of the series ends and enters into a timeskip of almost three years (when the anime started calling itself Naruto Shippuden). Her fight with Sasori at the beginning of Part II is a big deal, admittedly, as she not only takes out a significant antagonist, but also gains useful intel from him. However, she then sits out the vast majority of the show’s conflicts until the final arc of the series, and at that point it feels like she’s there only out of some obligation on Kishimoto’s part, and it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, narratively. At that point she had fallen so far down the power creep scale, she shouldn’t have made any actual difference in the fight, and yet there she was…

That is not to say there aren’t some reasons for why she doesn’t participate in some plotlines, to be fair. Eventually studying to become a medical ninja, she takes on more of a support role, and in a military setting like the ninja world, the medic is extremely important. She doesn’t get to do much in the Invasion of Pain arc because she’s too busy trying to care for the countless wounded, for example. Storylines like the Search for Tsunade arc also don’t quite need her, though it would have been nice to at least imply she was training or something in the meantime. But on the whole, you could cut her out of the show and not really change much of anything. And a lot of this is due to supposed character development that never really materializes.

II. Character Development

I want to preface this by saying that Sakura DOES receive development as the series goes on, and the Sakura we see at the end isn’t the one we see at the beginning of the story. The problem comes in how inconsistently she develops, and as a result there are several huge character moments that never really get the payoff they promise.

The two biggest moments where Sakura is given the shaft by Kishimoto occur with some pretty big gaps in-between each other. The first, and arguably most iconic scene for Sakura, comes during her fight with the three Sound ninjas in the Chunin Exams. Forced to care for a comatose Naruto and Sasuke, she’s already got the deck stacked against her. She’s easily restrained by one of the enemy ninja, who grabs her hair. Mocking Sakura for putting more time into her appearance than her ninja training, Sakura realizes just how far she’s fallen behind her teammates and with regained resolve, she makes a final stand. Chopping her hair off, she puts up the best fight she can, and while it’s a powerful moment, the impact is lessened when, for the next few arcs, she’s content to stay in the background once more. She’s knocked out of the Chunin Exams after the Double KO with Ino, and despite Naruto and Sasuke being shown training afterward, she never seems to make good on her efforts to get stronger. And it’s not like she didn’t have several opportunities to showcase improved strength, but she remains a wallflower…at least until the timeskip. At that point, it does seem like she’s grown stronger and more mature. She gets along far better with Naruto, and freely speaks her mind now, no longer relying on that “Inner Sakura” running gag of saying one thing and thinking another. Her third major fight, teaming up with the Sand Elder Chiyo against Sasori seems to deliver on her promise to get stronger…only for her to be sidelined again for several arcs.

In the aftermath of the Five Kage Summit arc, Sakura’s second moment of potential growth occurs as her and Naruto attempt to track down Sasuke once again. Here Sakura finally becomes aware not only of Naruto’s own feelings for her, but of the burden she’s placed on him by asking him to bring Sasuke back to the village. She attempts to make things right by proclaiming her love for Naruto, and that she feels nothing for Sasuke anymore, but he easily sees through the lie. She then decides that she must take Sasuke out before he can hurt anyone else, going so far as to knock out her friends when they attempt to stop her. But when she has ample opportunity to take Sasuke out, she hesitates. That alone is frustrating, if somewhat understandable, but following this she’s easily overpowered by him, despite Sasuke being severely weakened and nearly blind at this point. She proceeds to be rescued not once but twice by Kakashi and Naruto. 

What could have been a cathartic moment where she calls Sasuke out on his actions and moves past her feelings for him instead is a moment where all of her actions accomplished nothing and she becomes another damsel to be saved. It feels like she takes a few steps forward and then several steps backward at any given moment. Of course, this moment ties into the final area where Kishimoto fails Sakura as a writer: her “relationship” with Sasuke.

III. Sakura and Sasuke

(NOTE: This is an edit, but still pretty apt description of their relationship)

One of the first things we learn about Sakura as a character is that she loves Sasuke, and for a good while, “Sasuke-kun!” is about half of her dialogue. That said, she’s not alone here; almost every female in the series not named Hinata show at least some interest in Sasuke, so as far as a defining feature, it’s hardly unique. Throughout the series Sakura’s feelings grow in intensity, influencing her actions later on. However throughout the hundreds of chapters, the countless episodes of the anime and all the various multimedia installments, I don’t think there’s ever been a concrete reason why Sakura loves Sasuke. It’s clear she finds him attractive, but that’s about it. In fact, the early chapters make it clear that she knows next to nothing about Sasuke and he in return finds her annoying. Throughout the series he is aloof at best and downright cruel at worst, never doing anything that should inspire any fondness in her heart. Perhaps if Kishimoto established this as an unhealthy relationship this would be deliberate, we could have Sakura eventually coming to terms with that, but this realization never comes. Considering they have a happily-ever-after ending in the series’ epilogue, it doesn’t seem to be the author’s intent to show the relationship as invalid, unhealthy or unrealistic.

(So...that’s supposed to be endearing....?)

So many female characters fall into a trapping of becoming nothing but a love interest, their sole relevance being that of a trophy, an object to be fought over. Naruto likes Sakura, and that at least somewhat fuels his rivalry with Sasuke and, maybe subconsciously, his desire to be Hokage, as an example, though I’d say Sakura does pull away from that a bit. She is more than just a love interest for Naruto or Sasuke (or Rock Lee….); overtime, she becomes a confident, talented medical ninja and accomplishes a goal of becoming stronger. But the problem here is that all of her accomplishments and goals seem to be, more or less, to build up to the goal of getting Sasuke’s heart. She wants to get stronger so he’ll notice her, and later on, so she can bring him back to the Leaf Village when he defects. When she was younger she grew her hair out because she had heard that Sasuke liked girls with long hair. Half the time when she gets involved in the plot, it’s for Sasuke’s sake. It’s all about Sasuke, but the series is unable to make this love feel genuine. In a series rife with flashbacks, there isn’t ONE moment that shows us why Sasuke is so deserving of her love, nor do we get any real indication that Sasuke likes her all that much compared to all the other girls who fawn over him. It’s saying something that someone like Karin, a woman who takes her love for Sasuke to creepy, obsessive lengths, actually got a flashback later on that established just when she fell for him. Sakura didn’t get that and she married the guy!

I rag on this so much because it feels like this one-sided “romance” stole away such potential for Sakura as a character. Her ultimate fate in the story’s epilogue is playing housewife while Sasuke is out wandering the world, keeping it safe from unforeseen threats as a way of redemption, while Naruto has ascended to the role of Hokage. Sakura ends up in the background, even as an adult. She attained her goal, to marry a man who shows no affection towards her and is always gone, and despite undergoing training from one of the most respected ninja in the world, what does Sakura have to show for it in the end? With her own skills she could easily become a high-ranked ninja or medic of the highest caliber, but we don’t get to see any of that. I’m aware there are a large amount of side-stories that have been written/animated after the series ended, intended to fill in some gaps between the series’ climax and epilogue, but from what I’ve dug through, Sakura doesn’t do much of note.

That sums up Sakura’s journey pretty nicely, really. While there are a handful of strong moments and hints of true potential, Sakura feels like a secondary character awkwardly attached to major events every so often. Her effect on the plot is minimal in comparison to the other three main characters, with several large gaps between the small amounts of action she’s allowed to take part in, her development is in constant flux, and her relationship with Sasuke is a plot tumor that overshadows many other possible plotlines she could have gone down. I wouldn’t call Sakura the worst written character in Naruto, or the most forgettable one, but she is by far the biggest disappointment for me overall. With the Boruto manga and anime now hitting it big, I can only hope her daughter Sarada doesn’t share the same fate.

[recentanimenews]

Is the Saga Over? 5 Burning Questions from the Zombie Land Saga Finale

It’s hard to believe that only three months ago, we wandered into the mysterious world of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA with pretty much no idea what to expect. Twelve episodes later, the anime world has Franchouchou fever, and Saga Prefecture has received a major bump in interest—both in the world of the show and in reality.

But the finale, while tying up Sakura’s personal journey of self-discovery and showing us Franchouchou at its best, ended up raising more questions than it answered. The final few moments seemed to hint at a second season, but at the time of this writing, one has not been announced.

Could it be that the saga isn’t over yet, and these last twelve episodes were simply laying the groundwork for a bigger story to come? We don’t know, but what we do know is that the Zombie Land Saga finale has us asking some big questions:

Will Franchouchou’s veterans give the game away?

One question always loomed large at the back of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA: wouldn’t famous people stand out in Franchouchou? It’s one thing to bring in a schoolgirl or a Meiji-era courtesan, but video and photos actually exist of three of our idols during their lifetimes. You could write off a random doppelganger on the street as a coincidence—but doesn’t it get suspicious when three entertainers under one slightly sketchy banner all just happen to look, act, and sound like three dead entertainers?

  As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones to think so.

Okoba-san, the intrepid Sagazine reporter who’s been stalking the background of the series, now has photographic proof that No.3, No.4, and No.6 are (sorry) dead ringers for the long-deceased Ai Mizuno, Junko Konno, and Lily Hoshikawa. Not only that, this was the literal last shot of the series. We’re not sure what’s to come (if anything), but Franchouchou attempting to do shows while someone tries to uncover Kotaro’s plans seems dangerous. Like, at least four or five solid episodes dangerous.

And speaking of Kotaro’s plan…

What exactly is Kotaro’s plan?

Kotaro reminds us (and Franchouchou) that their quest to revitalize Saga has only just begun. That said… we don’t actually know how he intends to go about doing so. In the real world, the success of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA means an increase in tourism, especially for historical sites and businesses featured prominently in the show. But what about in the show itself?

A recent installment of our own Anime vs. Real Life column pointed out that Kotaro may be in cahoots with Xu Fu, a legendary Qin dynasty monk who traveled to Japan in search of herbs that would grant eternal youth. If the episode 11 scene is to be believed, Xu Fu rocked up in Saga, opened a bar, and formed a working relationship with Franchouchou’s intrepid manager. Considering we also got a clear shot of the bar owner at the end of episode 12, it feels as though he’s important—whether or not he’s really Xu Fu.

That said, think back to episode 4. Kotaro was fixated on forming a relationship with a pharmaceutical company. Granted, he’s sent the girls to a chicken restaurant, a heavy metal concert, and an extreme games competition, so there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to his choices. But now that we have reason to believe he’s drinking buddies with an ancient Chinese medic with the key to eternal life, that attempted business deal doesn’t seem all that weird anymore.

This is all well and good, but what exactly is Kotaro aiming for? Does he want to make Saga immortal? Does he want to use Franchouchou as the poster girls for a zombifying drug to show everyone that being a zombie is pretty great actually? Or is he (as usual) one step ahead of us?

And again, speaking of Kotaro…

What’s this about a high school crush?

  Seriously, you can’t just tell us that Kotaro had an unspoken schoolboy crush on Sakura ten years ago and pretend we don’t need to know more.

It was always fairly evident that Sakura was the odd one out. She had idol aspirations, sure, but she didn’t have any actual cred. Ai was in an idol group. Junko was an idol herself. Lily was a TV actress, which nowadays (especially in Japan) means developing music and dancing skills, too. As a courtesan, Yugiri would be trained in singing, dancing, written and graphic arts, and at least one instrument. Saki may not have training as an entertainer, but she had legendary leadership skills. And Tae… well, Tae is just legendary.

But Sakura had nothing but the aspiration to be an idol—an aspiration that didn’t even pan out, thanks to an ill-timed truck. It always seemed odd that a random schoolgirl with dreams of being an idol would somehow end up at the center of Kotaro’s undead supergroup.

Our brief flashback, which shows Kotaro (then Inui-kun) quietly crossing paths with Sakura, gives us a lot more information. He knew how much she loved idols, and he would have known her strengths and weaknesses. But this opens up a whole other set of questions. Yes, she was exactly what the group needed to unite and grow strong. But how much of the decision to bring Sakura back was for the sake of Saga, how much was to give her a second chance… and how much was based in just getting to see her again?

What’s Yugiri’s deal?

Compared to the rest of the zombie idols, Yugiri seems to be taking zombie life—and life in the future—fairly calmly. Most of us assumed that being a courtesan meant nothing could surprise her anymore, or that she’d at least trained to never let herself appear to be on the back foot.

But with everything that’s happened in the last 12 episodes, it’s feeling less and less likely that Yugiri’s poise is solely a product of training. She takes an extreme degree of interest in the welfare of the group, and goes out of her way to have words with both Kotaro and Sakura in particular. She’s one of the few who never questions whether Kotaro’s judgment is sound (unless it's directly to him), and throws herself into the idea of being a zombie idol wholeheartedly—a motivation often lost thanks to her enthusiasm being hilariously anachronistic. Plus, the aforementioned potential Xu Fu owes her a favor.

So, is there more to Yugiri than meets the eye? There would almost have to be, considering she’s one of only two Franchouchou members we haven’t seen a backstory for. We don’t even know how she died (though the scar around her neck inspires a theory or two). How much of her calm is from her training, how much is from the opium she’s probably got in that pipe, and how much is from some sort of unknown deal or agreement she’s got offscreen?

What about Tae?

Ah, the Legendary Tae Yamada. Even before we knew she was voiced by literal anime princess Kotono Mitsuishi, we loved her. She’s funny and surprisingly endearing. But she’s also remained largely an enigma; if anything, she’s become more of one over the course of the series.

Unlike the rest of Franchouchou, she hasn’t had an “awakening” despite being in just as many inspiring performances as the rest of the group. Instead, she seems to be becoming human again a little at a time, thanks to the efforts of the group (and Sakura in particular). She can follow basic directions, she clearly has feelings for the other group members, and she’s started to verbalize to at least some degree. Heck, she’s on point with choreography, too. She may not have outgrown her oral fixation, but she’s absolutely growing as a character, with a real personality starting to come through.

According to the official ZOMBIE LAND SAGA website, Tae died at the age of 29, making her older than the rest of the group by a range of 10-17 years. (Physically, of course, not chronologically; we still don’t have a date of death for her.) We don’t know what she did in life, what skill sets she once had (if any), or why Kotato insists that she is legendary simply for being herself. Could it be that, as with Sakura, Kotaro has some bond with her that made him want to resurrect her?

Beyond that, what’s prevented her from responding to Franchouchou’s activities at the same speed as everyone else? Is she a failed experiment who can’t wake up, thanks to a difference in how she died or what means were used to resurrect her? Or is she simply taking longer just because that’s how she is? If the latter is the case, will she remember her time with Franchouchou if and when she wakes up, or will she lose it all like Sakura did in episode 11? Does her status as No. 0 mark her as “Patient Zero?” Could she be closer to the center of Kotaro’s plan than we know?

Or is she just Tae Yamada, a lovable zombie who likes eating squid and chewing on her friends’ faces? Only time will tell… maybe.

The finale of ZOMBIE LAND SAGA seems to hint at more to come. But, much like being a member of Franchouchou, we won’t have answers until the people in charge reveal their secrets. For now, though, you can rewatch all of the series and see what you can pick up on a second viewing!

Do you have any theories on the questions raised in the finale? Are there any questions we've missed? Let’s talk them out in the comments!

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  Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, Sartorial Geek by Jordandene, We Are Cult, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com