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Y’know to me, the most heartbreaking thing about Lu Guang looping to save Cheng Xiaoshi isn’t even watching him die over and over.

It’s restarting their relationship from square one.

The biggest tragedy of all this is regardless if he accepts CXS’ death or dives into another photo, the CXS he spent that timeline with is gone. Just for the slim chance of saving him all those years, all that history together has to be erased. Imagine spending five years with someone, going to the same schools, sharing sleepovers and being roommates. Going for late night walks, offering to cook dinner since it’s their turn, being the most vulnerable with you, opening up about their biggest fears and trauma.

And in a blink, you meet them again and they’re asking what’s your favorite color.

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Vanoé: A Love Confession in Sheep's Clothing

People on Twitter where discussing the possibility of Vanoé ever being “canon” and since this was something I was going to work on for the video essay, anyway, I thought why not post about it on tumblr and get people’s feedback, first.

My argument here is fairly simple: I don’t think that Vanoé will be canon-canon (as in Kiss, kiss, fall in love), which is mostly due to the Japanese publishing landscape and my inability to think that anything casually homosexual happening outside of BL/GL genres would actually be confirmed. (I believe in MochiJun, I really do, I just do not believe in Japanese publishers.)

But I think that Noé realizing his love for Vanitas isn’t out of the question.

I’d like to refer back to a previous post I made in which I discussed Noé’s question about “love” and the usage of ai/koi in Japanese language. Put very briefly, I mentioned that there are two words for “love” in Japanese, ai and koi. Whereas ai has an encompassing meaning like romantic love, familial love, friendship love etc. koi is usually exclusively used for romantic love (i.e. love in which sexual desire is involved, for all my allo readers).

In the ball scene, Noé very explicitly enquires about the latter. He doesn’t want Vanitas to give him a run-down on “love” but an explanation on what it feels like to be in love with someone. There is no mistaking that question for anything but Noé bluntly asking Vanitas about clarification on romantic feelings.

Another thing I mentioned in that post that will be important here is how love confessions are usually phrased in Japanese. Yes, yes, “aishiteiru” exists, but people rarely use it and even in media it comes off feeling weirdly…strong. It is often used when translating Western media, as far as I know, but it’s rarely used in media that was originally written/produced in Japanese.

People would just stick to “suki” or “daisuki” which, yes, can be used to tell someone you like them platonically as much as to tell them that you have a major crush on them. It’s often used for comedic purposes, as well and can sometimes be confusing.

And it’s the word Noé uses to tell Vanitas that he “really doesn’t like him”.

In this post I will argue that Noé’s consistent affirmation that he doesn’t like Vanitas is actually just a love confession in reverse. Rather, I’d argue that it’s a clever set-up that will require a payoff in the later course of the story.

As far as I recall, there are three of these “reverse love confessions” coming from Noé. The first one happens right in Chapter 2 when Vanitas presses Noé for the reason why he doesn’t want to work with him.

The scene is a pretty obvious parody of Shōjo manga confessions, or at least scenes in which Shōjo protagonists realize that their feelings are of a romantic nature. I mean, here we have Noé, recalling every single interaction he’s had with Vanitas so far (which, aren’t that many) and in his mind’s eye he flips through Vanitas’ various faces and expressions. It’s MochiJun playing with our expectations and building tension for an amazing punchline. It’s a great set-up of their future relationship, too. This reluctance to be together that somehow turns into an unlikely companionship. (The panel setup always reminds me of the Ganbare, Nakamura-kun cover/meme, if I am being honest.)

Do I think Noé is being delusional here? Kind of. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that he has actually developed a crush on Vanitas and doesn’t know how to place the feeling so he misinterprets it as disgust. (There’s sth weirdly queer about that, but I digress.) Of course, it could be that Noé has actually just misunderstood his fascination with Vanitas as infatuation. But I would believe him here when he says that he doesn’t find Vanitas agreeable to be around and thus would rather keep his distance.

Maybe he is misjudging his own feelings here. But I think he might just be genuine. 

The second time he feels the need to tell Vanitas just how much he doesn’t like him is the Bell Tower Scene, ironically.

The Bell Tower Scene is such a grand turning point in their relationship that it does warrant capital letters. I don’t know how much of a turning point it really is for Vanitas, because, Vanitas, from the very beginning, has wanted to be around Noé. He does argue with him a lot and voice a lot of his irritation with Noé and Noé’s unwavering optimism and naiveté. But there is not anything that would make me believe he genuinely dislikes Noé. 

It's later revealed that, probably, the reason he was sulking at the beginning of this scene was because he was angry at Noé for having protected him from Lord Ruthven at the ball. Those feelings are born from Vanitas’ self-loathing, I’d argue, rather than him worrying about Noé, but I would still think that the latter played a part in how fed-up he was with Noé here.

But Noé, on the other hand, has had a hard time wrapping his head around his feelings for Vanitas. Vanitas, to him, is an enigma. Noé doesn’t hide the fact that he hasn’t got a single clue what Vanitas is thinking or what the inner workings of the younger look like. The Masquerade is the momentum that makes Noé reflect on his opinion on Vanitas. He himself says that he put Vanitas on a pedestal, of sorts, and put all his hopes, aspirations and wishes in Vanitas. I’d say you could go so far as to say that Noé even idolized Vanitas as this ideal savior that was going to accomplish everything Noé couldn’t.

But he comes to realize that Vanitas isn’t that. That Vanitas is trying his best to fulfill a goal he set himself even if it means facing self-destruction in the process. He decides not to judge Vanitas by his own standards, to unlearn everything he thought he knew so far and to learn about Vanitas anew.

The Bell Tower Scene is Vanitas forcibly putting up his walls and Noé tearing them down with this strange mixture of force and tenderness. 

Noé disregards Vanitas wish to part with him. He denies it, saying he can do so because he “doesn’t even like” Vanitas. There is no reason for him to act according to Vanitas’ wishes. He doesn’t owe Vanitas anything.

They are two individuals who just happen to be involved in the same mess.

It’s almost cute when Noé looks at Vanitas and what he thinks next is that the man interests him. He doesn’t understand Vanitas at all – but he wants to.

There is this longing desire to solve the riddle that is the man in front of him. (I’m ace, probably aro, so take this with a grain of salt but to me) The Bell Tower Scene is so inherently romantic. It’s Noé choosing to disregard Vanitas’ flaws and to put aside the things he dislikes about him for a second to instead choose to get to know Vanitas. It will take effort, but he chooses to stay with Vanitas and see everything through to the end. It’s Noé being extremely selfish. He is no longer acting on Sensei’s orders but on his own volition.

And he says as much when he quotes Vanitas’ own words.

Is Noé saying he doesn’t like Vanitas here still a lie? Eh. I’d reckon he doesn’t like him all that much yet, still. 

It’s not a matter of Noé disliking Vanitas as a person, I don’t think. It feels a little more like frustration at being unable to wrap his head around this strange person. This frustration that comes with trying and trying and the other party not making it any easier for you.

Vanitas isn’t as open about his feelings as Noé is. He is not opening his heart to the other but keeps him at arm’s length, seemingly only using Noé as his shield, when both the reader and Noé, by now, should know that that is not true. 

And I think Noé is beginning to understand that so much of Vanitas is just an act. I think he’s beginning to understand that he wants to know what – who – Vanitas is beneath all these masks. Because perhaps Noé thinks he might like who he will get to meet at the end of that long, arduous journey.

Noé is gambling. Perhaps he’s being a little childish. He doesn’t like him – yet. But one day he might.

On another day I will talk about how this major turning point in their relationship is literally followed by Noé asking Vanitas about romantic love and then lamenting Vanitas and Jeanne’s relationship and lusting for Vanitas’ blood but – not today. There’s so much to unpack here.

Just this much: The Ball ends with a set-up that is so blunt and ambiguous that MochiJun cannot really do anything with it other than to include its payoff later in the story.

In my previous post I talked about how this sentence doesn’t make much sense if it’s just alluding to Noé falling for either Domi or Jeanne in the future. The buildup isn’t there and nothing in the scene properly suggests that Noé has eyes for anyone but Vanitas during the ball. The scene even goes so far as to refer back to Noé’s resolution that occurred during the Bell Tower scene. He once again acknowledges that he doesn’t understand Vanitas at all. It feels, if anything, like another affirmation that he doesn’t understand – but he wants to.

A/N: The English translation seems to have turned it into “I really don’t understand him at all” or something along those lines when Noé actually just acknowledges that “There are so many things I don’t understand”. It’s more ambiguous and probably doesn’t refer solely to Vanitas but rather to his own lack of knowledge on (romantic) love.

The Catacombs Arc and the Gévaudan Arc follow but for brevity’s sake, I will fast forward to the café talk Vincent, uh, Vanitas has with Roland Olivier after the Gévaudan Arc ends.

There is absolutely no reason for Noé to be present in this scene. There is no reason for him to overhear Vanitas admit to his self-hatred and self-loathing. “But he is the narrator!” Hush, child, I do not have the time to cover this today. (We are being shown /so many/ scenes in which Noé isn’t physically present. Noé not being at the scene of crime has never stopped MochiJun from showing us certain scenes. Why should this one be different?)

But Noé is there. He overhears their talk and is seemingly affected by Vanitas’ words. It’s an interesting choice on MochiJun’s part that we don’t get any internal monologue here. Noé simply learns about it. He looks surprised, sure, but there is no grand reaction and no attempt of him trying to verbalize his feelings after having overheard this grand revelation about Vanitas as a person. He chases Vanitas home, afterwards, and is there for him. The whole “throwing a blanket on someone affectionately” ironically feels a lot like Vanitas’ love language. But Noé wouldn’t be Noé if he didn’t verbalize his feelings. – and verbalize he does.

He muses about the butterfly effect and how everything could have been so different if Vanitas had not been himself. After learning about Vanitas’ self-hatred he affirms Vanitas’ entire being. It is not a die-hard effort of encouraging Vanitas to love himself. Noé doesn’t go down the road of pressuring Vanitas into dubious positivity and self-love.

But he takes the time to make Vanitas realize that who he is good. That who he is, is enough.

(If that’s not love then I do not know what is.)

Something is worth mentioning here, though. Noé is extremely cautious about not drastically changing the course of their relationship. He keeps their usual bickering and banter in check by reassuring Vanitas that he “still doesn’t like him”. If Noé repeats this, and Vanitas knows this, then nothing has to change. If Noé doesn’t like Vanitas, if they still don’t like each other, then that intimate declaration of Noé’s just now has no Earth-shattering impact. Then nothing has to change.

But something has changed. 

I’m not an Art Major (Japanology and Music, actually) but I think the juxtaposition with the Bell Tower Scene is quite interesting. Even the reverse confession in Chapter 2, if you think about it. Before, when we had these major turning points in their relationship they were physically close. Together in more or less enclosed spaces. But here there is quite a lot of distance between them. And it’s interesting to note that Noé puts it there.

Usually Vanitas is the one who runs and seeks to put distance between himself and whatever distresses him. He seeks escape on the roof. But this time, it’s Noé who leaps onto the roof below as he pours his heart out. Is it to protect himself from this vulnerability? Or is it to make Vanitas more comfortable? Is he trying to hide from the man he is being so intimate with? Or is he giving Vanitas room to escape if he needs to? 

I can’t answer this. I don’t know if I want to.

Noé still doesn’t like Vanitas. He says as much. But this time, it’s a lie. An obvious one.  Like. Look at that cocky grin.

Now he knows what Vanitas’ inside looks like. At the ball, Vanitas had already told him that he has no interest in any person that would ever fall for him.  But now Noé knows that this feeling is born from intense self-hatred. Noé isn’t stupid. Quite the opposite. I think we can all acknowledge how emotionally intelligent Noé is.

He likes Vanitas. He knows that now. Or at least he doesn’t not like him. But he also knows that if he acknowledged that fact verbally he would scare Vanitas off.

And that is the last thing Noé wants to do. He wants to keep Vanitas close. It’s the selfish wish he has, which has been established in the Bell Tower Scene.

We could argue that all this culminates in the “I will never set you free” scene. People have elaborated on this one and have written essays on it and this is already ridiculously long, so I won’t do this here.

But this is Noé promising Vanitas eternity. The tiny glimpse of it they’ll have, anyway. It’s a threat as much as it is an oath.

It is Noé outright admitting what he has been scared to admit to before. He likes Vanitas. Loves him, even. 

Love comes in many forms. And this is one of them. 

But, personally, I think this isn’t the payoff of the reverse love confession as much as it is a checkpoint. Noé said it himself. He wouldn’t come to realize the true meaning behind his heart racing that night until much later.

I have a feeling MochiJun will explicitly tell us when that time has come. For all we know, it might not come until much later. Maybe after Vanitas has died.

“But, why do you call it a reverse love confession? Why love?” Glad you asked!

Because we already established that “suki” is not limited to platonic feelings. People confess to their crushes with “suki”. If you turned someone down who confessed to you, you could say what Noé said: そんなに好きではありません。

This, paired with Noé asking about romantic love, the ambiguous ending to the ball scene AND Noé thirsting after Vanitas(‘ blood)? Reads like a perfect buildup for a love story. 

However unrequited it might be.

And after all, MochiJun did say that she wanted to write more about love. Maybe she decided to write about more than just one love story.

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Link Click has always been that feminist show with the queer lens for me.

The first season is largely slice-of-life, a poignant close-up of ordinary lives. The majority of episodes would introduce us to complex, realistic women characters: cool, badass, and/or oppressed and tragic because of patriarchal forces (and rancid men). Mothers, little girls, students, women with disabilities, capable employees, small business entrepreneurs—even sapphics.

Through photographs, Cheng Xiaoshi travels back in time to fulfill simple requests by clients. (He and his business partner and roommate, Lu Guang, run the little Time Photo Studio—with help from their landlady and friend, Qiao Ling.) When Cheng Xiaoshi dives back in tome, he often experiences firsthand what these women characters experience, through their bodies. With Lu Guang’s guidance, he grapples with scummy men and gets out of sticky situations. The protagonists are just cis men who casually get it. The entire thing is unlike anything I’ve seen in the realm of anime.

(And I’m glad it’s a donghua instead.)

There’s a deep, endless connection between the protagonists, Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, that can be easily read as queer … but also an intense platonic friendship between men instead (which some watchers have unfortunately weaponized). Or something that doesn’t quite fit into either category. Perhaps it’s an almost-something. Something that is constantly in a process of becoming (but never quite there). Something that maybe even transcends queerplatonism. (Perhaps it doesn’t need to be specified as just one thing.) I think it’s beautiful however you look at it.

(I personally want them to kiss and become an “official” couple, and it would be wonderful—and much-needed!—cannon rep. But even if there weren’t any censorship laws, I think this story doesn’t need them to be explicitly romantically involved.)

The creators said that the two protagonists were written as men because it would’ve been impossible to write the same story with a man and a woman without the pressures of a looming romance. Ultimately, I think that his choice to avoid comphet media expectations gave us something so much richer than a regular stereotypical romance. (They also made the Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua, which is in some ways more romantic than the achillean source novel. There’s very little chance that the queercoding in Link Click—where every detail is meticulously placed—is unintentional.)

In Season 2, I loved the shift in genre from slice of life to thriller. It was a nifty choice. It’s respectful towards Season 1 in that it’s not trying to compete with something that’s already perfect, but instead complements it with something new with a touch of the old. The plot was an absolute mindfuck—but flawless. There was a surprising emphasis in hand-to-hand combat scenes … and they were so good (especially the tag team moments—and the moves by women? incredible). This is coming from someone who usually is never interested in that kind of action. The art of the show is (perhaps intentionally) grungy and rough around the edges. (The character design is incredible, though, and is compared with Devilman Crybaby.) The animation wasn’t always the strong suit, but those fistfights were impeccable, and satisfying. I, too, want to punch misogynists in the face.

While the opening and ending songs are always dark, the background music shifts from a relaxing lo-fi to more suspenseful in Season 2. The OP and ED sequences are truly works of art with narratives of their own (more on that later). The lyrics of each song is entwined with a desperate pining—not unlike that in Banana Fish. The literally rewound sequence (in both visuals and song) in the second OP is devastating to me. So, so beautiful and just a wild choice.

I’m now excited to see another genre shift for Season 3. I hope it’s not the same kind of cat-and-mouse thriller, and it certainly won’t be wholesome slice-of-life. We know now that this show was written further in advance than our wildest imaginings—So perhaps next we’ll have more of a heartfelt narrative as we follow Lu Guang. Something that sweeps us along with a sense of inevitability, unfolding gently.

I hope it has a happy ending.

MAJOR SPOILERS GOING FORWARD (mainly just me being not at all normal about ShiGuang)

I think there was this scene in Season 1 that indicated that Cheng Xiaoshi had feelings for Qiao Ling—Don’t quote me on that, but I expected that to develop in Season 2. I was thrilled to find that the writers seemed to promptly forget all about it instead. (Maybe it was to stave off the gay shippers for the sake of censorship in the first place? Who knows. If anything, we love to see a disaster bisexual.)

In Season 1, we saw an emotionally intimate, split-screen moment between Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi in bed (separated by both space and time). They are then contrasted against an (heavily implied) older domestic sapphic couple running a noodle business. With Qiao Ling, they certainly form a family. But you can tell—as several other characters repeatedly point out—these two men are especially “important” to each other.

It’s driven home really well, too—Everytime something happened to Lu Guang, I would instantly worry about how losing him might affect Cheng Xiaoshi, and vice versa. Their worlds revolve around each other.

And so, in Season 2: Cheng Xiaoshi knowing Lu Guang’s phone password, the tackle (the entire fandom went feral), the domestic memories Cheng Xiaoshi cried over, Cheng Xiaoshi exclaiming the more familiar “Guang!” in a moment of concern, and the way Lu Guang SCREAMED when Cheng Xiaoshi was shot (chills!). A shot Cheng Xiaoshi asking Lu Guang to not overexert himself.

The way Cheng Xiaoshi is impulsive about time travel until it comes to Lu Guang’s sake, and Lu Guang is so cautious … until it comes to Cheng Xiaoshi’s life. The man literally is ripping time/space apart to make sure he doesn’t lose Cheng Xiaoshi. (The “one gay man vs the fabric of space and time” Season 3 trailer memes have been both funny and distressing in these trying times.)

The OP (where they reach for each other, star-crossed) and ED (where they are compared to a man who loses his wife and invents time traveling to bring her back). The countless shots (the gorgeous rotating arc pans!) of the two as mirror images of one another, with colours, outfits, narrative, even identical wounds. Like passing ships in the night. If anything, the new season is so much gayer than I expected. I loved it.

The word “time”, written as ShiGuang, appears both in the title of the anime (Shiguang Dailiren, —Time Agents) and their photo studio (Shiguang Zhaoxiang Guan). To my delight, it’s also grown to become their ship name. The wordplay is just another way that the donghua is written in layers upon layers, but at it’s core it’s about two people who are inexplicably linked through space and time—except we don’t know if it’s by choice or fate (or both). But there’s always a fragility that permeates it, the uneasy feeling that the connection—or link—is as fleeting as the clap used to create it.

If that isn’t an epic, heart-wrenching romance, I’m not sure what is.

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"I've seen him a million times"

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eepyy shiguang cause i need to feel normal again after the new op

+ a bingo card i need to get out there before s3 actually comes out one week one week one week one weekkkhkkhj rb w ur cards btw lmk

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You know, is the yingdu arc even necessary? Like link click……link click please I don’t think we need this. My health isn’t built for this, take it back. I don’t want it. You’re doing too much like it’s giving extra.

It’s giving you fucking hate me😀

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So like…do we all agree Ekko is the best character? Like you can have your favorites mines Vi but can we all come together and say Ekko is the most goated, most reasonable and most consistent character of this entire show?

He’s just that guy.

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I finished arcane s2 yall. Arcane was jayvik all along. The plot was always jayvik I never even shipped a jayvik. I had caitvi tunnel vision for the longest time I had no other ship. Until Viktor started talking about “affection” holding them together like 🤨

Bro the arcane finale has me so gagged. Like everyone’s either mad or sobbing at this ending but my brain just couldn’t compute half of what happened. Not in a good or bad way I’m so confused I’m gonna have to watch so many video essays.

My overall opinions on arcane s2 is similar to how I feel about the second half of Death Note. Objectively yeah the first 25 eps are peak but a lot of ppl act as if Death Note went to shit in its final stretch. When yeah it downgraded but it’s still great. I definitely think this season hit me harder than s1 like I was on the verge of tears several times. All the stuff surrounding Vander hurt my everything.

I’m not in the fandom so I didn’t have too much expectations going in. I’m not writing think pieces about the politics going on between Piltover and Zaun (though I am very perplexed by its “resolution”). Haven’t even rewatched s1 in two years I’m just a casual viewer guys.

I don’t think this season is as bad as some things I’ve heard ppl say. Again it’s like a Death Note situation, I think comparing it to its previous self makes it seem worse. But like even my least fav ep of this series is still a pretty good episode of television. Definitely visual wise, shoutout to all the animators this season looked unreal. Buying that artbook when I can fr.

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Petit chatton ^^

Literally the man ever

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I’m rusty but I’m doing this for Cory if tumblr cares

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IM NORMAL I SWEAR JUST WOO TWERKING ON LIVE YUP IM NORMALLL

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I’ve only known Ateez for a couple months but I think all Wooyoung antis should be thrown into a volcano.

These idols only show us what they want fans to see, we don’t know them personally. But I really see Wooyoung as very genuine, he’s always spoken his truth upfront and defended those he cares about. I just know if he wasn’t an idol he’d be on twitter CLOCKING bitches.

He said you can spew rumours all you want but let’s make it clear I ain’t no conservative 😒

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I swear the big 4 companies are fighting for a VIP section in hell.

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Look I don’t stan zb1 (mostly cuz their music just wasn’t my thing but I do like the members) but haobin reminds me so much of 2019-2020 clips of woosan.

That’s all imma say 😁

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I think a problem too many fans have is that they believe they know a member of a group more than other members. This leads to solo stans which, for Ateez, idek how they exist. I’ve noticed San has the most but that’s a given considering he’s arguably the most popular member rn. It’s a hard pill to swallow but these idols are not your friends, you only know what they show us.

Like the whole debacle of San not smiling at the awards show and some ppl getting riled up at the other members telling him to smile bc he may seem intimidating. Yes I also believe he shouldn’t be compelled to smile. But the members didn’t say that with bad intentions and knowing k-media, they’re looking out for him. And even if San takes it to heart, his frustration won’t be at his members. Ppl made a big deal out of something so minor it’s ridiculous. This is a grown man please.

Or disliking a member for literally no reason. Like how are you a Wooyoung bias and then you’ll talk shit about Yeosang? Do you not understand Woo would fight you, biting included, if you said that to his face? That’s his best friend he will hate you, they will all hate you. This goes for shitting on any member.

Because guess what? That member you dislike, your bias will pick them over you in a heartbeat. That is a fact no matter how much Ateez cares for their fans.

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Joyeux Anniversaire! 🎂🎉

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hey so um I'm trying to get into ateez and you are probably the best person to ask about this ^-^; soo where do I start I first heard bouncy and a few hours ago ice on my teeth and now I'm desperate to get more into them (?) It's my first time being so invested in kpop in general so don't get mad at my lack of knowledge about them, also do the shows they went on as a guest and non music entertainment they made like just them interacting is on like... youtube or do I actually start from a particular order I should watch?

I’m lowkey honored you asked me this considering I also really got into kpop a few months ago. Ateez was the first and only group I’ve really gotten obsessed with. My ult group perhaps so this inbox note is like looking at September me LMAO.

Personally, I recommend to begin with watching this 2024 guide so you’ll get acquainted with the individual members, Ateez’s history and learn basic/cool things about their past and personality. https://youtu.be/jtcG0Wi5P1k?si=gsWg2m4dUnPaab1V

Then I would watch all their music videos starting from their debut mv Pirate King and work my way up from there. That’s what I did at least. After that, make your way to Spotify and delve into their discography from 2018-latest release.

There’s so much Ateez content that I myself haven’t gotten to either. But some videos that I think a beginner atiny MUST watch is:

-Their Kingdom performances

-KQ fellaz performance videos

-Wooyoung’s Artist of the Month

-Wanteez episodes (which are basically Ateez being put in different scenarios for comedy. There’s one where they’re on anesthesia, another where they’re drunk, testing friendship etc.)

-Solo projects they’ve done like San’s Imagine Dragons cover, Mingi’s Tunnel MV, Wooyoung’s dance cover of Logic 1-800, Hongjoong’s cover of Numb, Yunho’s original song Be Alright. And so much more.

-Any Coachella vids. Unfortunately there isn’t an official one on YouTube so TikToks and fancams will have to do

-Their MAMA and MMA performances

-Killing Voice

There’s a lot more obviously but I think from here you can build off into your own rabbit hole. They are a group that have canon lore and a storyline going on in their videos that is kinda complicated. But there enough lore vids and masterlists on tumblr to help you. And their albums come in 3 versions, A-Diary-Z. The diary versions coming with more explanations on what’s going in their storyline.

I hope I was somewhat helpful and I’m super glad you’re getting into them :)