#wow that took a minute

[certified-boyliker]

Despite what my sister may think, I don't enjoy being a liar, so,

Here is the greatest manga that you've never heard of:

A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School (JP: Youkkai Gakkou No Sensei Hajimemashita)

So, I'm not one to make too many essays or go on and ramble about something online, however, this series is just not popular enough in my opinion.

(everything will be under the cut, don't wanna bother people! and warning, this is long.)

So, what is A Terrifed Teacher At Ghoul School?

Terrified Teach (what I shall be calling it) is a supernatural, slice of life, and comedy manga created by Mai Tanaka. The story revolves around a young man named Haruaki Abe who is a cowardly man obsessed with sailor uniforms (worry not! he really just likes the uniforms and admiring them).

He has dreams of being a teacher, however, at his first teaching job, he ran out withing a short amount of time. He took a year off from finding anymore jobs, until he's approached by the principal of a high school and is asked to be the new Japanese Literature Teacher. He accepts, and is soon whisked away to Hyakki Academy.

Something he doesn't realize is that Hyakki Academy is not a school for humans, rather it is a school for youkai, and features a wide range of youkai that attend and teach at the school. And while he starts working at the school, he also learned that he has anti-youkai powers that can siphon out a youkai's spirit energy.

He spends his time at Hyakki Academy trying to become more confident and hone his anti-youkai powers. He also manages to befriend many of his students and some of the teachers at the school.

I managed to make that description without any spoilers, everything I just explained (minus the befriending) is gone over in the first chapter.

Why are you advertising this manga?

I love this manga! And, there are three main reasons I love it:

The Characters and Relationships

The Arcs and Storylines

The Way Mai Tanaka Writes the Story

And so let's get into these reasons

The Characters and Relationships!

So, we start with probably the biggest factor to comedy and slice of life series, the characters and how they interact with each other.

When it comes to Haruaki, it took a while for anyone to become friendly with him or fond of him. The only people who seemingly got close with him quickly were Maizuka Mamekichi and Koutarou Hijita (though, Hijita was a dick to him at first).

Aside from Haruaki, our major characters include:

Sano Mikoto: A rather sadistic and secretive young man. He dislikes showing affection and tends to be embarrassed when complimenting Haruaki

Mamekichi Maizuka: A cheeky young ma who likes to be carried. He tries to seem very cute and innocent, however, he has a clear dark side, likely due to how his family is.

Hijita Koutarou: He is a lazy person, and dislikes doing any home/classwork. He always tries to find ways to look at girls, however is usually stopped.

Zashiki Beniko: A shut-in who has a way with technology. She likes playing video games and didn't go into class for a long period of time due to playing video games.

Tamao Akisame: A young man who isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. However, with Haruaki's help, he tries to get better at his exams and his understanding of Japanese and literature.

Nyuudou Rensuke: A smart young man, also hides his past and family situation. He tends to be very kind and a bit of a mentor to his classmates, however, he can get angry and violent easily.

Utagawa Kuniko: A kind and sweet young woman. She is also smart, and works with Nyuudou to lead the class. She tries to aid typically the girls in the class in various things

Miki Rintarou: The youkai-studies teacher, and a terrible drunkard. He also hides his family situation and tends to keep himself far from other people.

Hatanaka Izuna: The spookology teacher and discipline teacher. He tries to keep a cool head, however, has a shorter and more explosive fuse than Nyuudou, due to him being a former delinquent.

The Prinicpal: The principal of the school, with a very secretive past. Most of the teachers are unsure why he decided to hire Haruaki in the first place, and has a dislike of some of his staff for destroying his school... various times.

And the list goes on with characters who aren't major throughout the series, but are important in certain arcs and parts.

When it comes to friendships, they tend to be between characters who have known each other for a while or have some sort of connection.

The friendships that the series starts with and develops are:

Sano - Mame: Sano is a person who adores small animals, and especially seems to like tanukis. Sano likes carrying around Mame and hates it whenever someone injures or insults him, being quick to anger.

Hijita - Beniko: Hijita and Beniko are childhood friends, and Hijita is the person who got Beniko into video games and he blames himself for her becoming a shut in.

Sano - Mame - Beniko - Hijita: They often hang out together on this off days. They also scheme together, though Sano tries to leave himself out of it and tries to pull Mame out of it too

Nyuudou - Tamao: They're best friends. Tamao initially wants to be Nyuudou's cat when they grow up, though, he knows Nyuudou would find this stupid.

Nyuudou - Utagawa: They're both the class representatives and have great chemistry when it comes to them working together.

Hatanaka - Haruaki - Miki: Hatanaka and Miki were friends in high school and they are also the only teachers who aren't afraid of Haruaki and his anti-youkai powers.

Tanaka does an incredible job at showing the relationships between the characters and developing the relationships, especially when it comes to Haruaki and his students, like Sano and Nyuudou. And the way she crafts the characters to fit so perfectly in the series and to make their actions and goals seem so believable and to make the reader wonder about what one character said in an early chapter and make a full arc/set of chapters surrounding it.

2. The Arcs and Storylines

I have had a debate about my sister as to what constitutes as an "arc" compared to "a set of chapters focused on something", so I shall be using my definition as an arc.

To say the exact amount of how many arcs there are would be impossible, but there are a few major ones, so, I'll say there about 5-7 arcs in this series, though, most are just in between/before the very major, plot heavy arcs.

And, like I said in the previous part, many arcs are callbacks to something a character had said in a previous chapter. Not only that, but these arcs and chapters and the characters that are important to the arcs change after them and it's noticeable and realistic.

Also, do not be fooled by the first few chapters of this series, as lighthearted and funny and sweet as they can be, this series will rip your heart out when it comes to some of the major arcs, especially later in the series.

She also makes the arcs make sense and sometimes when referencing back to some of the chapters, she even puts little notes as to which chapter she references to.

3. The Way Mai Tanaka Writes the Story

This was clear and obvious in the last part, but I adore the way Mai Tanaka writes the characters and the story.

When it comes to seeing character change like with Sano or Haruaki, when you re-read the series and see how they acted at the beginning compared to how they act in more recent chapters, there's a clear and obvious development in the way they act to their friends and how they think things through when it comes to different situation.

The way that she foreshadows future arcs is beautiful and it makes the reader think "Oh! I wonder what this means and what will happen here!" especially when you catch on to her foreshadowing and makes you wonder and wonder "What will happen here?!" and "Where will she go with this?!"

As a former BNHA fan and as someone who did this himself, I dislike it when things seem to made up on the fly. Of course, not everything in a series will be meticulously planned out for more authors and artists, that's a hard thing to do. It's not easy planning like 20-30 chapters in the future when you make a scene with some of your characters.

However, an author shouldn't just make things up on the fly for the majority of the series and draw it out longer than one might think it should. And Mai Tanaka does a good job at pacing her series, especially since it is a comedy and slice of life, which one can get away with making it a bit longer than usual than other types of genres, but even so, she made 38 chapters before hitting summer break with her characters. She has paced this story beautifully, and I am all here for it!

Now, I wrote this entire essay with my laptop at too low of health and I have not that much more to say, so I leave you all with this essay, and my suggestion:

Read A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!

[sleepyteamage]

Drew a quick sketch of my friend @demilypyro as Elphelt c:

[svampira]

you could never hurt me

[a-cat-in-toffee]

ideal humanstuck dynamic the most annoying douchebag in the universe and guy who Really doesnt wanna be there

[itswhatyougive]

Izzy, to Frenchie: It is not your place to tell me what does and does not make sense. It is your job to f-f--(choked sob) to follow my fucking orders....!

Frenchie: (holds his hand while he cries)

[leafatlaw]

s3 shassie is quite literally making me mad. What do you mean Shawn instantly believed that Lassie didn’t kill someone? Why did Shawn call Lassie hot ??? Why are they so goddamn touchy ??????

[softyshibu]

This one is going in the scrapbook 📸

(Click for better quality)

[crystalpallette]

get you a girl who can give you everything

this started a long long time ago when I made a joke about how sega should put ringo in more dresses, and then my friend reminded me that oh yeah!! I can do that instead!!! and then one thing led to another and we joked about punk ringo and I drew that too. using ringo like a dressup doll is so cathartic it's kinda crazy

some bonuses (original designs, timelapse) under the cut bc I like these designs!! I might do some more with them!! please disregard the band poster in the first second of the timelapse that's something else!!!

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 20 thoughts

oh man! i really loved this episode. no aliens, no overarching plot, just some silly shenanigans and yeah, some murder, but in a far more lighthearted fashion than in other cases. filler episodes i love you soooo much <3

from the beginning, i thought the prompt sounded really good... shoutout to people who work in sideshows and other touring entertainment industries, y’all are real for that 

we open with some kids laughing under a full moon… nothing could be scarier… except SOMEONE WATCHING THEM!

and whoever it is, they are approaching the pool with feet out. where are their parents to safeguard them from stranger danger, i ask into my screen!

OH he is the dad!! what was once scary has now turned heartwarming. he splashes about in the pool with them and says they need to get ready for bed. aww. 

BUT NOW SOMEONE IS WATCHING HIM IN THE POOL!! NOOO the heartwarming session HAS BEEN CANCELLED... is he being EATEN???

(as he is killed, the camera shows a van with the words “alligator man” on it... at first i'm thinking that the alligator man was the creature who just Ate this guy, but turns out the father WAS alligator man, so named for his skin condition. rest in peace mister alligator, the world is a worse place for ur loss)

and now the agents are looking into his murder :(

(also, in the opening credits, we see that one of the guest stars is named “the enigma”... I’ll have to look into their work)

mulder says there have been a lot of murders in this fashion over the last 28 years, and they have been going all over the country!!! it seems to involve some sort of round bite mark. must be time to go investigate.

they roll up the the alligator man's funeral. honestly it is sad! and we see that the widow slash mother of the kids is a bearded lady and she is absolutely serving but this is a very sorrow-filled moment for them all

and interrupting the moment in which his community remembers the warmth he brought to their town, his casket starts moving… and someone emerges from the ground… and stabs himself in the chest with a spike???? HUH???

so the deceased was an escape artist but was forced into the sideshow circuit because of his skin condition… scully says she didn’t know sideshows were still a thing… which is honestly fair because it is a very vintage sort of entertainment. and they have a Not So Great history.

BUT if the people who live in this town in the summer are all traveling performers.. and if they have been touring for years... and the murders go on for years… hmm, it seems things are starting to add up

mulder notices a drawing of a creature on the menu of the restaurant they are sitting in, and he asks who drew it. why, the sheriff says, it's the artist named hepcat, of course! cut to him tending to his freaky mermaid. he describes his scary maze business as “a tabernacle of terror” 

mulder asks what the drawing on the menu was, and i was thinking, hmm, looks like the fiji mermaid, and hepcat says it is the fiji mermaid, and mulder doesn't seem to recognize it?? i assume this is one of those situations where he acts like he doesn't know what is going on to get more information because i feel like that is Exactly the sort of thing he has read about at length. like i had him pegged as a guy who could write a dissertation on the subject at the drop of a hat. so i think he's lying but narrative wise it isn't fully revealed. 

scully: “what’s the fiji mermaid?” hepcat: “it’s the fiji mermaid!” <- thanks this clears up a lot <3

mulder is acting surprised to hear that the top half of the fiji mermaid was a monkey, which i again assume to be an act? but he says that the tracks at the murder look monkey-ish. so perhaps there is a correlation...? between the very active murder case and that time PT barnum sewed a monkey and a fish together? hey, the dots aren't connecting for me, but i don't work for the fbi so what do i know

they go to get a place to stay and the guy operating the rental place, a kind and verbose fellow with dwarfism named mr. nutt, gives them their keys. and mulder asks if had worked in the circus, (and since everyone they have met so far has in fact done so, i feel that this was a fair question, but maybe i also deserved what follows), and mr. nutt really lays into him about making judgements, and maybe some people with dwarfism want to manage hotels...

and as all of this goes down scully just observes. wow. she let him flounder. lmao.

the man carrying their bags is named lanny, and he has a conjoined twin sort of situation, it's not entirely clear- but he says mr. nutt got him to work there because he believed it was undignified to work in the circus. hmm.

back to hepcat at his studio… listening to some groovy music... and something crawls in his window… looking like the fiji mermaid. and it BITES him.

next morning. mulder going for a jog. in a sweatshirt and sweatpants in florida heat. what in the hell was he thinking??? let’s analyze that while a man chomping a fish emerges from the river. we receive no real clarification on what is going on in either of their minds.

scully in bed. alerted to a murder by lanny. still in a robe. we get a shot of her chest and also lanny's brother that felt mutually uncomfortable. SMH no rest for her!

okay, examining the scene of the murder. mulder notices some blood on a little window and WHY DID HE TOUCH THE BLOOD NASTY!!!! NASTY!!!

they deduce that to fit in the window, the suspect would have to be a contortionist…. and they walk out to see a contortionist. it’s the spike guy that so disrespectfully ruined the funeral!!

he puts a nail up his nose in front them. and mulder pulls the nail out. probably to get some blood. not an easy watch still.

we learn here that the guy with the puzzle tattoos who was eating the fish in the river earlier is called “The Conundrum”, and the spike guy slash contortionist is dr. blockhead

dr. blockhead gives the conundrum a bunch of crickets and he gulps them up; then he offers crickets to the agents and scully TAKES one, says thanks, eats it, and leaves LMAOOO????? never let them guess your next move....

mulder is staring at her trying to figure out if he is in love with a woman that just ate a cricket and if this is something she does regularly and JUST KIDDING!!! she didn't eat it silly!!! she "reveals" the lil cricket behind mulder’s ear awww... her uncle was a magician <3

(he also does a lil slight of hand trick and pulls out the bloody nail, saying "everyone's uncle was an amateur magician", which i am sure they can bond over at a later date)

scully goes to a museum that says "freaks free, everyone else leave a donation" and she puts in some money… publicly declared non-freak 

this guy at the museum is touching her. don’t care for that. but I like that he knows lots of random information. and he won’t show his whole face, we as the audience only see him through mirrors. very cool framing device.

he says he will take her back and show her something of barnum’s for another $5 and sworn secrecy. good luck bucko; last time she was told to keep a secret (affair baby) the SECOND she was reunited with mulder the tea had been spilled LMAOOO. he hands her a paper featuring jim jim the dog faced boy, who, dare i say it, seems to be a king.

he leads her into the back rooms… scary. but her trench coat is serving though

okay, deep in the back is a trunk. and it’s empty and opens an exit door. NOOO she was scammed! it’s all part of the hustle. 

(well, that is what i THOUGHT, at least, until she realizes it leads to the sheriff's house, and things are adding up...)

mulder sees something crawling about. it’s the guy who owns the rental space, mr. nutt, under scully's trailer! he asks why he is under there and mr. nutt says he is NOT being creepy. mulder flirts with the man and he runs away LMAO... weaponized bisexuality 

agents are in the trailer having a nerd off and it’s not clear who is winning and there is romantic tension. sheriff hamilton used to be jim jim the dog faced boy???? what a reveal!!!

we are watching them watch the sheriff dig a hole during a full moon. average agent bonding activities. he buried something in the ground and goes inside. 

they are in his yard digging up what he was just digging and mulder has taken his earlier roasting to heart and says “we’re being highly discriminatory here” and clarifies that’s no reason to suspect him of being a werewolf and it’s like well. i don’t know that we both thought he was a werewolf. they pause to consider the moral weight of their actions then keep going.

uh oh! sheriff catches them!!! not a good look being caught digging something up. “We’re exhuming… your potato” is the best line that usually quick-tongued mulder could come up with, which had me losing my MIND and i proceeded to write a very long keysmash to express my amusement

“may I ask why?” (she starts monologing about serial killers taking positions in law enforcement and needing to monitor him as as suspect, and it’s convincing) (he cuts in: “we found out you used to be a dog-faced boy” STOP THIS IS SOOOO FUNNY) and she looks soooooo guilty!!

he doesn’t deny it and says he started balding on his head which put him out of a job. fair enough, gotta pay the bills.

next genius dialogue exchange: “that doesn’t explain the potato” “I got some warts on my hand” “...that doesn’t quite explain the potato” 

(i kept having to pause in rapid succession to write these lines down because i was laughing SO hard)

has anyone thought that maybe a man wants to bury a potato in his yard in peace…. like that’s how we get more potatoes…

“to get rid of warts you rub a sliced potato on your hand and bury it under a full moon” <- new life hack just dropped!!

nooooooo the conundrum is chasing the dog… dog escaped. everyone is pleased. he brings a check to mr. nutt and it’s rent!! king of paying his bills on time. but dog is still barking... NOOOOO MERMAID ATTACK ON MR. NUTT!!!

someone with bloody hands bursts into scully’s room and she must have her gun right by her pillow, and she gets it so fast, but it’s just lanny, saying he found mr. nutt dead... they truly hate to see a hard working entrepreneur in the field of hospitality winning 

the pin at the scene looked like something from dr. blockhead, so they go to his house to investigate and he is full of hooks. i made a noise like whAUUUWAUUHWAUH and mulder is looking intensely at what's going on there. blockhead goes on some cultural appropriation bs. um sir this is weird timing bur you are under arrest.

he gets out of the handcuffs- contortionist and escape artist! but the sheriff catches him by the hooks. what a KING! shoutout to this sheriff, formerly jim jim the dog faced boy, can we add him to the team? skinner are you hiring?  

just as our agents apprehend their suspect, we see that the mermaid creature is in the room with lanny!!! but... he isn't hurt?

OMG the twin inside him IS THE MERMAID??

lanny confesses to this when he asks how it would be possible to turn his "brother" in without turning himself in...and he thinks the mermaid fellow hates him and is looking for another brother which is so SAD but he says he’ll come back

is anyone concerned about the twin crawling out of lanny? well, mulder knows he isn't the man in charge here: “scully, you’re the medical expert… I believe you” yessir it's good to remember that!

the mermaid brother appears to have run off into the "tabernacle of terror" and mulder trying to hold a little evil mermaid at gunpoint is SO comical

their asses are lost in the maze!!! scully pulls a gun on a rubber skeleton that fell from the ceiling!

she's trapped in a mirror room to serve infinite looks in all directions, and it looks like mermaid baby is caught... she fires.. but it hits the mirror!! baby mermaid brother escaped!!!

at this moment, mulder slides through a trapdoor... and it was SO funny pls tell me there's a gif set of that somewhere because i need it...

baby on the loose... bad news!!! conundrum is being eaten by the baby twin…. but what if he eats him FIRST, i ask myself, and received an answer in the form of baby being gone and conundrum rubbing his stomach!!!! yassss!!! diva down!!!

the next morning, while everyone is searching for mermaid brother, we learn lanny died that evening of a condition related to alcoholism. we learn this while dr. blockhead and the conundrum are getting ready to leave.

and dr. blockhead's going on about the future, and how nature needs freaks, and in the 21st century everyone will look perfect… "just like him" (points to Mulder majestically posing by a trailer) LMAOOOOOO “imagine going through your whole life looking like that!!!” <- yeah it must be really hard....... /s

at last, conundrum and blockhead are taking off into the great unknown... scully points out he doesn't look too good…. CONUNDRUM TALKS???? “probably something I ate", he says. LMAOOO his voice is sooo normal 😭😭😭

this episode had me laughing. we really had it all: exhuming a potato, scully's valiant attempts at lying, mulder hitting on a guy, lessons in ableism and judgement, a man who eats crickets and fish, flirting over case details, a dog, scully doing magic, mulder running in the florida heat dressed like it was a new england winter. truly i have nothing that could be added.

and did i have a secret evil mermaid twin on my list of probably monsters of the week? no, i cannot say that i did! was it the most compelling or scary of creatures? not really! but i was filled with whimsy. cannibalism saved the day. an excellent episode, and a perfect contrast to earlier in the season when scully was literally About To Die and i was crying a lot over the whole thing. ah, the duality of TV shows!

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

I received some FANTASTIC news on Tuesday, so i had to draw a May to celebrate! I also wanted to use this as a chance to solidify my May design a bit more, doubling down on those glasses and giving him polydactlism! also an older style frock coat, and rounder figure!

[tj-crochets]

Finished the quick flannel quilt for my uncle’s cat! It is far from the prettiest or most well made quilt I’ve ever made but it’s warm, it’s cozy, and it’s done (and also it’s for a cat lol)

[sneeb-canons]

The entirety of the events in CCCC take place over the 1 hour and 48 minute runtime of CCCC

They be speedrunning trauma

Headcanon #189

[feathers-silly-rambles]

I am so random-

Dont get me wrong, I dont think she hurts him. At least not this much, but its fun to make him suffer so until their dynamic is explained, I will be going with 'Lilith ouches him almost daily' entirely because its fun to me.

[sukiluvvs]

Wip!! Tempted to do line art right now but ik I'll probably mess everything up then...

[thedailyvio]

Day 151

[strawberry-peach]

I'm still not over him nor this character of his like holy fuck man