#//but very neat to see kubo actually talking about them.

[doomxdriven]

//that moment when kubo actually gives us some kido corps lore

[sboochi]

*rollerblades into your blog carrying two starbucks* so i heard you had thoughts about a rotbtd pjo au? 👀

Okay, buckle up my friends because this is going to be a very confusing, unnecessary, and bizarre trip.

Imagine this. Act I of a hypotetical RotBTD (and more!) PJO!AU.

You know how halfbloods have prophetic dreams or dreams about their past? One day, these dreams get out of control. Demigods at Camp Half-Blood keep having nightmares that sometimes become true, sometimes don't. Of course everyone is freaking out

Because a halfblood's life is never easy, Morpheus/Sandman, the god of dreams who could possibly help them with the problem, disappears

This is where our heroes, Merida, Jack, Rapunzel and Hiccup, get involved: they are assigned a quest to find him and a nice personalized prophecy which mentions The Big Four demigods who will defeat evil (yes I am that subtle)

(I'm still figuring out their backgrounds, so I can't give more details about the Four, sorryyy)

During their journey, we find out that behind the nightmare apocalypse there are Phobos and Deimos (Pitch Black and maybe Drago?), minor gods who want to make the halfbloods powerless so they can't fight for/with their parents anymore

Yadda yadda, character development happens, the four become besties, they beat the bad guys, no more nightmares, you know the drill. The gods even start claiming basically everyone who wasn't, minor gods included. And they lived happily ever after-

EXCEPT. The four (now officially nicknamed The Big Four) are the only people who heard the full prophecy, and they know that the last lines still haven't come true. Cue dramatic cliffhanger

Act II!

Camp Half-Blood is going through a great period: there have never been so many kids and even if the gods don't talk to them that much (they must be very busy, right?), many heroic quests are being received (wow, who knew that the gods owned this many neat weapons and useful items we have to retrieve)

I won't repeat myself, I explained Red Shoes' arc here, just keep in mind that it roughly follows the movie plot

What I didn't mention is that Snow White finds the infamous golden apple the morning she's supposed to begin her quest and meet the F7. Is it a good luck charm from her mother? A trap? A prank? Near the climax she realizes what it actually means, while still searching for her father:

You see, only someone close to Aphrodite, a goddess, could secretly take it, someone like a god

Since gods can't directly intervene in their children's battles, that means that someone is trying to help them... Or warn them

It isn't about the myth, but its name. Apple of Discord (or is it Apple of Strife? Like, the official name, if someone knows please tell me). This person is sending a message: a war between the twelve olympians and the minor deities is going to break out if nothing is done about it

Yeah, turns out that Phobos and Deimos inspired other minor gods to rebel as well

That's why many new halfbloods were claimed, why they were assigned more quests than ever, to get weapons for their parents, to reinforce an army for both sides

Minor gods are tired of being left out and ignored, so are some of their children. Take Hans (from Frozen, not, you know Red Shoes'l), still un-claimed after years. Or Elsa and Jack, born from Boreas. Kubo, son of Nemesis. Agatha, ghost daughter of Hecate who found peace after Hades' son Norman confronted her. Regina (Snow White's stepmother), another daughter of Hecate:

Everytime something bad has happened, a minor god or their kid were involved

What happens next... is still work-in-progress. I have some more thinking to do 😅 I want to have Chaos involved in Act III somehow? Maybe he's the mastermind behind everything, and he was the one who influenced the gods to revolt, with his..... chaotic nature

And sorry for the late reply! I kept adding details to the list and it kinda got out of control

[kuboism]

Bleach Canon Vs. Studio Clown Episode 1

Intro to the series

WARNING: Long read but theres plenty of pictures

The first deviation we’re greeted with is what the anime presents as the arrival of hollows into the human world. With a likely artistic rendition of them forming from the shadows of Hueco Mundo and dripping/bleeding over into the human world like splotches of ink, after which they disappear - unable to be perceived by humans.

A/N: Which, kubos to the anime, is rather neat.

The anime also decided to incorporate the first volume poem which is the thematic beginning and a great establisher of the mood/themes of Bleach, which roughly translates to: 

我らは 姿無きが故に それを畏れ

“We fear that which cannot be seen”

And then they curiously add a line to this poem? 

姿無き故に敬う

”We revere that which cannot be seen"

A/N: Which, initially seems on brand with the spiritualism of that “which is not seen” - the shinigami, DEATH itself if you will. However, unlike the themes of “fear” and “fear of death/the unseen”, “reverence” is not really a theme prevalent or definitive for bleach. Reverence is not particularly reserved for death or death gods, but antagonists with themes of divinity/the Soul King himself, but I digress.

Next off the bully scene has a couple of missing/reworded lines, as well as some of the delivery changed, but overall it’s not significant enough to mention.

I also wish they’d kept Ichigo’s shit yourself scary face from this moment right here, since it really underlines how serious and personally invested Ichigo is in bringing small justice to the souls of the departed, but I can only pray a future remake does include it.

^ I am disappointed in y’all :/

vs.

v Karma delivery, bitch

Then for some reason the next scene is changed significantly:

In the manga, it builds up slowly to Ichigo’s reveal of supernatural abilities with the iconic TM character profile intros (which I can see why weren’t recreated in the anime, but I sure wish they put them in....)

with him spooking the bullies off with the ghost girl right behind him

Versus his scary face doing the job instead.....

It’s a small change, and I can see why it would be opted for - we don’t really know if they even saw the ghost in the first place (then again you could argue that would spook them anyway). There is a tonal difference in the long run though. The manga emphasizes once again *why* ichigo is scolding them in the first place - he sees the people disrespected by them knocking down the vase, he wants them to acknowledge their actions *because* in his mind, there are real victims he knows from it. While in the anime, since the ghost is not yet introduced, it feels more like “you are disrespectful to the dead” in a more generalized way vs. him actually being acquainted with the dead and treating them like the living. 

(Again, not sure why change it so much at all........the suspense and reveal are in the manga just the same.... but ok)

As well as cutting off this small moment where you can see Ichigo’s very human (and cute!) interactions with the ghosts. To him they’re just as real as the living, and he lends them a hand whenever they ask for help.

Also lmfao this 4kids level of censorship.....

It goes on rather faithfully for a while, no significant omissions, then Pierrot decides to randomly replace Yuzu’s lines with Karin??

Manga:

Anime: 

Which is an odd choice, given that not only does Yuzu sense ghosts just fine (albeit at a much lesser level than her family) and that later comes into play with Fishbone & Grandfisher, but Karin literally later admits that she doesn’t even want to acknowledge their presence, so why the change....?

They also cut short Karin’s little talk about Ichigo’s stats, which is a fair change for screentime’s sake, but mentioned for the record.

There’s a bit of a divergence with Yuzu lore, when the manga explicitly states she sees them, but not “clearly”, the anime focuses on her barely sensing them. I guess it doesn’t matter that much in the long run, since she is not that prevalent in the story, but it’s here for the record nonetheless.

Anime: 

vs. 

Manga:A

Also this next bit was removed, probably for the sake of pacing (which, totally fair!!), but it’s funny and I love the Kurosaki family so here it is:

It does make the flow a bit better in the manga, since this talk of selling his talents distracts Ichigo and creates an opening for his father to strike, in the anime, the same is done with Ichigo just randomly saying 

and thats where his father attacks him, which isnt really an issue, just kind of funny of how the manga is like:

Ichigo’s distracted by his sisters plotting to sell him out and hence Isshin has his chance to strike back

vs the anime being like:

Ichigo randomly thinks about dinner mid convo about ghosts and thats what distracts him from play-fighting with his dad 

gfdkhlgfdg okayyyy....moving on 

In the manga this scene is interspliced with Ichigo’s inner monologue about the nature of his powers (with hip jargon like “for real” courtesy of Viz ) 

(but my beef with Viz translations are for another day)

Also the line about “He told me more ghosts than ever have been haunting me” has been given to Karin for some reason, probably to make her feel more included in the scene/Ichigos life.

Notably, Isshin’s response is changed from “What?! He talks about stuff like that with you (Yuzu, singular)” to “What?! He talks about stuff like that with you guys?” as well, again probably to include Karin more into the dialogue. (Mmmm ok....)

Minor detail, but Karin’s lines has been changed to more “boyish” speech structure in the Japanese dub, which may seem insignificant, but ...... that is for later. 

.....

This little exchange

 is replaced with: 

Which, seems innocuous adaptation differences, but Yuzu’s lines keep decreasing and it’s a short enough moment to like....include and establish how motherly Yuzu is acting towards Ichigo.....but ok...huh. 

And now we get into the big boy changes.

So, probably for the sake of grounding the supernatural element of the series, the anime decided to skip time to the next morning and introduce the hollow attacks with a news report.

Which.....is an interesting choice. I am assuming this is addressing how the real world perceives the hollow attacks, which Bleach doesn’t put too much effort into addressing, but very soon after this we learn about stuff like memory replacement and other various technology to keep things under wraps so this is either redundant or implying that shinigamis have not been doing their job, which hm......

Next off is the bizarre choice to paint Isshin out of the picture for the night

Not sure why, but ok

Again, where’s the shinigami with their Kikanshinki (memory replacement devices)??? Pierrot where’s the lore coherence......

Anyway, Ichigo goes to replace the girl’s vase, but suprise-surprise she’s gone-zo. Wonder what happened to her.....

(And....again, people vehemently don’t want a reboot when the anime looks like this? )

So Ichigo hears a scream and a hollow scream and follows the sound (Ok?).

Totally random hollows attack. Which Ichigo somehow has never seen so far? Mind you, this isn’t like in the manga, where Fishbone was sent by Aizen specifically after Ichigo to make him aware of it. These are random-ass hollows attacking people, so how come Ichigo suddenly sees them. Ya coulda played it safe Pierrot, and stuck to the book, but we got plot inconsistencies episode one so let’s party.

The girl is, of course, not eaten and they run away.

She trips at the most inconvenient moment. (can ghosts trip? Ghost don’t even have legs in japanese lore and Kubo draws them floating around so okkkkkkkk)

(ok ok, im just being petty, bUT YKNOW)

(convenient tripping on deadass levelled ground is convenient)

(also God I really want that bag Ichigo’s got on his shoulder, it looks so nice)

Random-ass hollow closes in and 

BOOM

Rukia

(Now, if the rest of Bleach and the manga didn’t exist I would like this moment. We get a glimpse into Rukia’s abilities, into shinigami as a concept and we don’t really get to see her slice and dice hollows that much overall so the moment itself is rad in isolation.

Now, unfortunately for Pierrot’s screenwriters, Bleach manga exists and so does it’s lore, which again, would not be inconsistent with each other if the adapation was faithful. Now, Ichigo sees a shinigami, for some reason, for the first time in his 15 years of life. All of a sudden. 

You could argue, that much like in the manga, this is all part of Aizen’s plan TM, but like, she literally leaves right after leaving Ichigo gaping in awe ghfkjgdf. Why’d Aizen give him an appetizer, I really don’t understand how this change is benefitting the narrative in any way. It’s ....dare I say....generic.)

Rukia yeets the hollow

(why is this kid suddenly not wearing shoes?)

and goes off on her merry way, leaving Ichigo shooketh

ALSO RUKIA MA’AM THERES A FUCKING STRAY GHOST RIGHT AT YOUR RIGHT????? ISNT IT YOUR LIKE....JOB.......... TO HELP GHOSTS MOVE ON??? i know killing hollows is the fun part, but like ghjkfdlgfd ??? are you gonna ignore her???

( his fucking face ghfjdkgdlfgfd)

So after this wholeass pointless detour (you’ll see why it’s pointless in a moment)  we timeskip again (the filler is strong in this one. These 6 minutes were worth not coming up with something cohesive and removing scenes that actually make sense ah yes)

Ichigo is in deep thought TM about who tf is the stranger he’d just seen. Likely mulling over the monsters and how this person was able to slay said monsters. Probably thinking how unusual they are.

and as if on cue

the stranger makes their presence once more

(my God these faces gfhgkldfg)

....

Now let’s briefly address what happens in the manga instead.

Instead of the whole timeskip scene with the fight, Ichigo simply returns to his room on the same day, and oddly enough recognizes the species of the butterfly he sees? (nerdy boi! nerdy!! boi!)

rukia arrives much the same

(With the little text emphasizing how he’d never been aware of soul reapers, which is unsurprising given their secrecy, and makes sense in the long run since their first meeting is specifically orchestrated by Aizen. Two species that werent meant to interact brought together by his schemes.)

Back to the anime:

Ichigo pauses to ponder who tf they are and why the fuck they’re there.

and then the anime has the gall to suddenly revert to sticking to the manga, which like.... Ichigo kicks her for no reason? I guess because she isn’t answering? Even though Ichigo knows she has a sword and can wield it? Reckless boy.

Manga Ichigo thinks she’s a burglar, therefore, unsurprisingly, is comfortable kicking her outta his house. It’s a silly moment, but it also shows how accustomed or stupidly brave he is with the supernatural.

In the anime Ichigo asks her who she is instead of all that, and she responds pretty similarly to the manga

AND THE NEXT SCENE IS WHERE IT CLICKS WHY THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO REMOVE ISSHIN FROM THE HOUSE.

(Ichigo and Rukia addressing the pointless filler, this leads nowhere)

Rukia check him out like she’s checking if the oranges on sale dont have mold on them 

slapstick ensues

and Rukia decides to answer his question.

Vs. the manga in which Isshin doesn’t leave his children home alone for some random conference and is actually used very efficient for two reasons:

1) building up on the burglar gag with actually funny slapstick that is based on a previously established joke

2) Instead of Rukia just saying “oh usually people can’t see me”, we get an actual demonstration of it, the reader gets to see “oh Isshin can’t see her - she must be a spiritual entity,” which further clicks with her surprised reaction at him being able to kick her in the first place.

The next scene is the classique Pierrot censorship.

Ghost girl runs away from what I’m assuming is Fishbone.

Aside from not showing her get eaten, the scene is pretty much delivering the same message, 

bUT

BECAUSE OF THE STUPID ASS FILLER WITH THEM MEETING RUKIA BEFORE THIS, I CAN ACCUSE RUKIA OF NEGLIGENCE.

UNLIKE THE MANGA, where Rukia arrives the night before and is specifically seeking Fishbone, therefore having no time to help this girl pass away, 

This vvvvvvv

could have been prevented if SOMEONE DID THEIR FUCKING JOB THE DAY BEFORE VVVVVVV

(I rest my case. Thank you Pierrot for making Rukia either negligent or an idiot. Awesome, And mind you, these changes were unnecessary. The manga’s pacing is fine. They could’ve extended scenes. But nope, had to go for making them meet beforehand.)

Anyway, we get to see some actual stakes in the manga

The next scene which is this in the manga 

has two changes to it. Firstly, obviously Isshin being consoled by Yuzu isn’t included since he isn’t home in the anime, and even if he were, I can see why that would be removed, cute as it may be.

And secondly, due to them having met prior Ichigo asks two additional questions:

And Rukia nods at both, which means she acknowledges that she had seen the girl the hollow was after and yet did nothing to help her pass on. 

(Reminder the Bleach anime was in production WAAAAY past the first 4 volumes, which gave a good general idea of the series, which y’know, was fine to adapt as is.

You’ll see these changes add up into becoming inconsistent with further Bleach lore. There’s a reason people call Bleach a hot mess, and I’m afraid Kubo ain’t really it.)

(Volume 14 Note from Kubo where he talks about the anime being announced)

Back to the series

Pet peeve time: Wish the anime was half as expressive as the manga

These scenes are supposed to represent

This panel:

(Nitpicking? Perhaps, but idc)

So uh, this scene is odd

Again, because of the addition of that filler with the hollow

Ichigo has seen her in action

And they even added Rukia trying to convince him 

even though, yknow???

LITerally the previous day???

Anyway  in the manga, where Ichigo has reason to be distrustful of her and her claims since y’know hes never seen her or a shinigami in action, but has enough proof that she’s a ghost bc his dad didn’t see her, he simply dismisses her before she can reply, and instead of just getting angry for being called a pipsqueak

she shows both Ichigo and the audience proof of her spiritual powers by binding Ichigo and forcing him to quietly listen to her explanations.

(To reiterate - Anime Rukia  has to verbally try to convince Ichigo WHO SAW HER FIGHT A HOLLOW THE OTHER DAY that shes no ordinary ghost. And because of that, she has no other reason to use Sai on him other than that shes mad she was called a pipsqueak bc she just tried to verbally convince him shei is a shinigami. When they could just adapt the manga and have her both demonstrate her powers and put him in his place at the same time. Wild.)

Also CRIMINALLY BORING SHOT, WITH CRIMINALLY BORING RUKIA

#NotMyRukia

LOOK AT THE MANGA

LOOK AT HER SMUGLY OWNING ICHIGO’S IGNORANT ASS #FuckYeahRukia

Also the subs may not show it if you’re watching it on Netflix, but anime Rukia says “I am not allowed to lay my hands on humans outside orders,” which like, you ARE LITERALLY DOING THAT. Manga Rukia is fine with bullying Ichigo, but she draws a line at killing him, but man Anime Rukia, you give no fucks about the laws huh.

why so cheerful?

(also Rukia be right tho)

(specifcally compared to hell you could say Soul society is a resftul place lmfao)

Also anime salary man gets to rest in peace, even like, pray and shit

Meanwhile the manga

YEET TO SOUL SOCIETY

(also notice how we’ve been robbed of ichigo’s silly socks

I swear the anime knows how to suck the soul out of the manga 

Get it? Soul! haha ....moving on.)

Really Rukia? One of your jobs?

GUESS YOU WERE OFF DUTY HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I’M SORRY BUT LIKE, SEE HOW POINTLESS THIS FILLER IS UGH!!!)

(Again pet peeve but look at how ugly this screen is COMPARED TO THE MANGA)

(What have they done to you, queen)

(also they never mention the name Konso ( or as Viz calls it here -”soul funeral”, thanks Viz)

Next on, not a pet peeve, but an observation:

Anime Rukia keeps her sketchbook in her kimono

Manga Rukia keeps it at the titty

Yep, which you neglected to do the day before,

she literally says “With the konso I did just a  moment ago” like she used the word before. Like you can contextually get it, but why cut that line out of the dialogue if you don’t change the next line it’s referenced in?

There’s also a dialogue change from the manga’s well, Viz uses “vaporize” which is not a bad choice given the specific wording Kubo uses, but the original says 

昇華 • 滅却

sublimate/convert • extinguish

which is a clever little nod/foreshadowing to the nature of souls in bleach and that they can be “converted” in and out of a hollowfied state. 

While the anime just says “to slay hollows”, and albeit it lacks the little nod the manga has to offer, I can’t see how they’d include it in the anime at that stage so I’m fine with them simplifying it to like, an exorcism.

A better question then Rukia - WHY DIDN’T YOU SEND OFF HER SOUL????

also WAIT THE GIRL IS STILL ALIVE?? she’s dead-dead by this point in the manga.

BULLSHIT !!!  YOU LITERALLY EXPLAIN LATER WHY!! ACTUALLY YOU EXPLAINED EARLIER WHY!!! YOU LITERALLY SAID THIS, 1 MINUTE AGO :

Anyway, Fishbone almost grants her the priviledge of escaping this God-awful anime, but is suddenly stopped?

AND CAN TALK??

wait WHY DOES FISHBONE TALK?? GHFJD isnt this supposed to be  a juicy reveal for later when Ichigo realizes “hey theyre not actual complete monsters - but used to be humans!” Hm, ok.

Also leaves her alone? Damn ok...

Reminder:

Moooving on...

Speaking of the manga, this little moment is missing:

Since there is no pointless filler that would make him ask about the ghost girl therefore exposing Rukia’s slacking off of her duty, Ichigo realizes that there must be a hollow nearby bc in the manga he actually has braincells to spare. 

Also wiping off the Baron’s moustache moment is gone 😢

Missing and dearly missed is also this moment, which consolidates how protective Ichigo is of his family. He only needs to hear Yuzu scream to click that the hollow is nearby and his family is in danger. I feel like anime Ichigo should be even more worried since his sisters are alone but ok??

Also foreshadows their dynamic of Rukia trying to stop his reckless attempts at pushing himself to protect his family, bc yknow....she has her own Kaien trauma to process.

Next off....

This is .... a choice....

They were very eager to give Yuzu’s lines to Karin just a couple of moments ago but now this whole exchange:

Where we see a very pragmatic yet soft side of Karin

She doesn’t know what is happening, and doesn’t expect her brother to fight it - he just wants him to be safe, because she loves her family. At least warn him before it gets to him and hurts him.

is replaced with this:

Yuzu, sweetie, what do you think he can do to achieve that.

I guess at least Anime Ichigo tries to get Rukia to do her job as she looks down on Yuzu in silence. 

But compare it to the manga:

#MyRukia stops by Karin to check for a pulse and reassures Ichigo that his sister is alive.

Manga Ichigo is NUMBER ONE oniichan in town and doesnt have time to call out to a stranger to save his family - HES BEYOND READY TO GO FIGHT, RECKLESS AS IT IS, EVEN THOUGH HIS OWN FAMILY BEGS HIM TO JUST RUN. because he cant let himself be unable to protect them. He cant live with himself if he doesnt try his darnest to protect them.

*elevator music playing as ichigo tries to get rukia’s attention but she fucks off downstairs, but instead of doing shit he just does the worm on the floor*

which I guess is more realistic for a teenage boy, but Ichigo is literally traumatized by being unable to protect a family member. Y’all think a ghost he’s never seen before is gonna stop him? 

Yooo, pathetic. #NotMyIchigo

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Comic buff with a thought, I notice the P5MM art and composition is more striking and closer to p5's art and style than the other manga, which is fine, but kinda... flat. (I find myself thinking there's something missing when I read it, then I look back at P5MM and I notice how there's more clever paneling, imagery, and stylistic choices akin to the games in it (like that one goro panel ya had a rant about) and I realize what's missing) That could be why P5MM is brought up more, just a guess. I dunno how you feel about all that though, I'm curious.

Under the cut cause it gets long cause of pictures:

I am very big on art style and visual presentation. I do actually judge a book by it's cover (manga, game, movie, show, yadda). If I find something pleasing to my eye I'll read it.....even if the contents are trash. Domestic Girlfriend is one, horrible manga (didn't finish, was holding out for Momo, aka best girl, and getting closure for her....then I bounced). Didn't watch the anime (didn't need to I was way ahead in the manga I think), but I know that opening is wasted on it. ldskfjaf Don't invest your time into it, it's not worth it, you would probably learn better morals from P5.......probably. But yeah I found the art style pleasing enough to try it out (I's not amazing by any means, but I like looking at it....or did.....that writing man....dat was bad ;w;).... *waves hands vaguely in air* yeah.

Fun fact, it's why I got into Persona. I happened across an ad for P4 on the PS2 in the Gameinformer magazine, it showed a screenshot from an animated cutscene plus one of the fully body art for the chars and I was like "Yes this is my jam!" (which only doubled down when I read what it was about, and it was a murder mystery and the article also talked up "the mystery of the glasses" which fakldjsalkfs yeah). So yeah it really clicked for me.

Tbh it's why I'm probably going to get back into freaking Bleach, and it's why I got into it and Naruto over One Piece (I don't think I'll ever read ON I'm sorry). Tite Kubo has sexy art what can I say? Can't trust a thing that man writes now but eh. It's also the reason I read a lot of Shojo (and now Yuri) manga, cause their art style is usually what I find very appealing (even if I've read the same gd shojo love story just by a different name for the 1000th time, give me the flowers and sparkly eyes! they are my life blood!)

And I've mentioned I really like Saito's art style. I've (attempted) to color some of his pieces on top of animate some manga frames (most of which I haven't actually published......I...I should....get around to finishing those up....haha...aha....haaaa). I really like his art, it's pleasant. But even with good art, I can still see past it and see what BS it's peddling and it can hamper my enjoyment of it. If I don't look at the context of the scene or the words on the page, I can be down with it. But when I'm reading.......I get annoyed. I balk at anything with Goro. I guffaw whenever Makoto's on screen (cause Saito nails her from P5, she acts useful but really she's useless but the narrative views her as useful it ironically makes her useless......it's the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed >.>). Like Saito really.....gets P5 it seems, down to it's flaws even (tho he can actually make the good parts of P5 shine, or at least parts that P5 failed to execute....execute in a way). But he also makes the flaws.....shine that much harder for me.

Now the Reg manga? it's nothing special art style wise, in fact it starts off VERY wonky, and while still wonky, has gotten a lot....better/cuter (esp Ryu). Not like shojo cute just.......I wanna squish their wittle faces cute (at times when it's not serious).

Like when it comes to Reg Manga these are the two pieces that have appeared in it that I feel kinda hit the P5 mark in terms of style:

(look at Mona, coming into this world like the pustule that he is 8U)

Which isn't much, but it's something. At least Reg's AOA is better looking than the anime. 8U

But I dunno, as the chapters go on, the Mangaka allows for more cuter expressions, and I just like their neat:

(btw I colored that page)

I dunno, it's not as overtly cutsey as Saito:

But they are still charming in a more simple way (without out having them go full chibi), it subtle but it gives it flavor. "Silly why are most, if not all those pics of Ryu and Anne?" I dunno guys maybe you should ask them how their backs are doing, cause they're the ones who are carrying the Reg manga when it comes to this! 8U

Tho I do think the first ch or two of Reg does a better job capturing P5's feel than the rest of the chapters, I think the mangaka is just.....bogged down by exposition and the game's BS that a lot of text on their pages so it almost reads like a novel:

ALots of text, not the most dynamic of framing with the panels. It's kinda eh. I haven't really read the manga past the 2nd dungeon tbh (I mean......as the residential #1 Makoto hater, I think that's fair.....that I'd start to zone out during my least fav dungeon....and then continue zoning out during my 2nd least fav dungeon askfdjaflk)

But during the first two dungeon arcs, I liked how.....bad the PT were at thieving, I liked how green they were. It was obviously a learning process. I also like some of the fight choreo (Saito did the best hand to hand one in the series in P4U's Yu vs Sho....which I actually animated....spoiler.....no I have no released that...my dumbass wants to tempt fate and see if I can redo it in color even tho it took me 4 days non stop to get that animated in just black and white.....but I am a fool so alas 8U). I mean it's not mind blowing, but it was simple and decently thought out, which is more than I feel like we usually get (esp with the anime shows....or at least P4/5's).

But I think what draws me in is....it's lack of P5 style. P5 style has them being still oh so cool despite being new at everything. It's tired me out. P5's how identity is style. It's....style over substance (gonna rile some feathers with that....Cvit(?) vid title). But P5 is overtly stylish, to the point it......weighs on me. Drags me down. Tires me out. I don't think they're cool, I'm bored with it. Ironically, Reg manga lacks that, which......def would make someone (and me usually) give it much of a passing glance. It's very basic I guess. But.....consider me, being in P5 hell, surrounded by all it's nausea inducing stylishness, sees a small break in the hellish hurricane to see.......normalcy. It kinda makes me connect better with the kids (kinda, it's still P5).

They feel like normal kids, trying to do their thing (sometimes trying to look/act cool and failing), and.....it's just the absolute antitheses to P5's brand......and I think that's why I like it. KLFJDSAFLKJA;

Anyway, who knows, maybe when I catch up on Reg in english and re-read MM with the official translation I might change my mind about a few things, or at least how I rank them. But for post length sake, and my sanity sake, I think I should keep the anime and mangas out of the "Which entry do you hate least" post......because I should just make another post where I go into both mangas as well as compare and contrast the anime! :D I'm just delaying some insanity for later haha....

Wait.........I just remember Day Breakers exists......and I liked it....still do....don't have much issue with it. Well shit, that is probably the one entry I hate the least. fklsdjfalkjdfkla;jsL;FJljsfdlskafaj *sobs* nO NO, I committed, and that's just a sad loophole. fdklsajflakfj *sobs* I still need to the game thing, cause let's be honest, the games are where it counts.

So right now my ranking for manga/anime is:

Daybreakers>Reg manga> MM>>>>>>>>>>TV Show Anime and it's OVAs (may the burn in the hell fire from which they spawned)

Oh, one last thing, forgot to put it in but I dunno where to put it now. I like how the manga tones down the pervyness some:

I mean Ryu is a fellow monkey. u_u .......but it's for the best I don't have to see his ape expression. ;w; (iirc the pyramid scene was a lot shorter/faster, but that's by the grace of reading and books rather than animation I suppose).

[littleeyesofpallas]

Since I did just reference this in a previous post, I figure this is worth covering, however brief...

==============================================

ULQUIORRA: ――只今戻りました藍染様

I'm home, Lord Aizen 

AIZEN: おかえり ウルキオラ ヤミー

Welcome home, ULQUIORRA, YAMMY

“Tadaima“ is the phrase you say when entering your own occupied home, and “Okaeri“ is the phrase you say when welcoming someone home.  They don’t literally mean the same as “I'm home” and “Welcome home” word for word (they’re both shortened from longer formal phrases) but they function the same in the common context.  What doesn’t  come across here is that this isn’t a casual exchange, it has this weird pretense of, like, playing house, almost?

I don’t know how to explain it since there really isn’t a good English equivalent, since we don’t really have as much super formal speech as the Japanese.  There is just something a little out of place about the way it’s being used here, because this isn’t really within the realms of it’s normal, grounded and casual real world usage.  The idea that Aizen has designated this place as “Home” creates a certain mood about the way this scene ends the chapter, and colors the scene change itself as a very distinctly dark and moody kind of shift.

It’s definitely lost in translation, but to be fair to the translators, I don’t really know how I’d go about trying to communicate something this subtle, because any attempt to explain it immediately robs it of that very subtly.  Language is hard, guys...

==============================================

さあ戌果を聞かせてくれ

Come now, let me know the result(s)

我等二十の同胞の前で

In front of your compatriots of we 20

It’s a curious remark to make, and seemed to sum up the odds the heroes would be facing.  We had just learned that by Hitsugaya’s estimation “10 Vastlord” would be enough to topple Soul Society.  And so that idea that potentially twice that many were already under Aizen’s command was a big threat, and set up the arc as if it would be a guessing game of which background characters would eventually be revealed as any of the 10 necessary power houses to defeat Soul Society...  But as we all know that’s not a hook that ever actually got used...

But also, a key word here being, 

Curiously Aizen seems to count himself among Ulquiorra’s “countrymen” or “compatriots” suggesting he’s not talking about the Arrancar specifically but just the forces of Los Noches.  There are 17 silhouettes, so with Aizen, Gin, and Tousen that makes 20 other than Yammy and Ulquiorra themselves.  But they’re the one’s being spoken to (what I assume is collectively) so obviously it doesn’t count Ulq, but I assume it also doesn’t count Yammy.

Alternatively I’m overthinking that detail and it’s just that there are a few shadowy blobs missing and Aizen really does mean 20 Arrancar.  In which case the phrase could be translated as “Brethren” or “Brothers” more effectively.

Either way it creates a very distinct tone of familial or factional unity, which ironically gets immediately bucked when Grimmjow starts mouthing off the very next chapter as the scene continues.  I think that’s very intentional though, and not just Kubo’s often shaky writing; I think he means for this whole sense of unity and organization framing the Arrancar to feel fake or forced.  It’s Aizen playing house with all this, the Arrancar are all just in it for themselves and as Hollows have a kind of natural resistance to Aizen bringing in this very Soul Society-like social/military structure.  It’s a neat detail to this early world building Kubo had to do to set up the new arc...

But while we’re here, let’s actually do a headcount real quick...

Ulquiorra and Yammy are of course already introduced going into Chapter 198, and Chapter 197 ended on the “20 brethren” line.

In 198 Grimmjow is named for the first time, and in the background we see DiRoy and Shawlong with him, who get named in the next chapter.

Since the attack happens almost immediately after this, and I think it’s safe to assume Grimmjow’s gang wasn’t made in the intervening hours, Nakeem, Edrad, and Yylfordt are presumably among The 20.

But also seen in 198 are 3 unnamed (and indeed never to be seen again) Arrancar

And with them, a very early design of Tier Harribel.

So, the above pictured are all the Arrancar we know of, up to that point, and we won’t count Ulq and Yammy, but that’s still half “The 20″ right there.

But let’s take this a step further, just for laughs...

We know Aisslinger Wernarr is loitering around somewhere, and he was first seen along with DiRoy way back in Chapter 25, plus later databooks will establish that he is Arrancar #17.

We later find out the Privaron were the previous Espada, replaced by the current ones, that adds Dordonii, Cirucci, and Gantenbain to the count.

Looking ahead a ways.... When Zomarri moves to finish off Rukia after her fight with Aaronierro, he mentions that Aaronierro is the “last of the original Espada” which should logically also place him among The 20.  It should also make him older than the rest of the Espada who presumably were born afterwards and not born first then powered up after the fact...

But here’s where things get tangled... this means that Yammy, Ulquiorra, Grimmjow and Tier are all part of a second set of Espada, because Dordonii, Cirucci, Gantenbain and Aaroniero make up the original generation. (I’m not getting into 102 or 100, covered in the LNs)  But Kubo establishes later that Grimmjow was once Arrancar #12 before becoming #6.  If that’s so, then presumably all the Espada have a birth number prior to their Espada rank.

So, if the only Arrancar are in the room, (and if we just assume Aizen & crew don’t count) then they are implicitly the 20 oldest surviving Arrancar.  Then based on numbers, as Kubo would eventually give us through databooks and the manga itself, most of 11-30 are accounted for, and we know based on the fact that they all appeared alive and not as part of some flashback or references to the deceased, that they were alive during this scene...

In fact, only #19, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30, were never assigned to a character.  But that means we’ve only got 6 slots in The 20.  Even if we assume the other 6 implied original Espada died when being replaced, leaving only 103, 105, 107, and 9, that’s still 8 Arrancar either visibly in this scene or implicitly present at the scene that can’t fit into the mere 6 empty slots we’ve got.

This also implies that anyone not in that 20 count were “born” as Arrancar inbetween this scene and their first appearance.  Most notably problematic in that is Nnoitra, Tesra, Szayelaporro, Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka, all of whom show up in an indistinctly placed flashback.  And even more contradictory than what’s already tangled here...

Tesra was actually given a number, and he’s Arrancar #50, which means that in between the scene with “The 20″ and Nnoitra’s flashback the other ~20+ Arrancar had to be made first AND THEN the whole drama in the flashback.

Also, when Wonderweiss is born he’s #77, and Nnoitra is present at that scene already in his cobra/spoon hood, rather than the regular high collar he wears in his flashback.

All of which means that Nel was only out there in the desert in baby form for like, a week or two, tops? (I have a whole other giant theory on what she was supposed to be, but that rant will have to wait for another time...)

Anyway, I know it’s really just sort of obvious that Kubo didn’t pay any attention to, or plan any kind of continuity between the start and end of the Arrancar arc, so it seems silly to go to all this trouble just to come to a very obvious conclusion, but I figured that so long as I got this all here in front of me I might as well show the work on that equation for once.

============================================== 

Also, before we end, a notable detail in this scene: It’s the first time we see Aizen’s fortress of Los Noches, although it hasn’t been named yet.  And although it has tiled floors and Aizen’s big blocky throne atop a sheer wall, the Arrancar appear to be situated on a naturally occurring rocky surface like a cliff.  And the establishing shots here and elsewhere seem to suggest an open air structure, rather than an enclosed building like what Ichigo & co. would eventually invade.

On the one hand this may have just been a change in design on Kubo’s part, as much of the Arrancar as seen in these early phases would later be changed and tweaked, but it’s also possible that this is showing that Los Noches was only recently constructed, basically being built entirely from the ground up in the course of the month or two between Aizen’s retreat into Hueco Mundo with the Menos Grande at the end of the Soul Society arc and the eventual storm of the completed fortress.

When Grimmjow returns from Karakura town alone, Aizen’s throne room has already changed noticeably: The rocks have been cleared from in front of his throne, there are new walls and broad pillars where there used to be just narrow rods and draped cloth.  Also the vague shadowy backdrop that seemed to imply an open sky is gone, and there is now a ceiling, plus nearby structures clearly establish that the throne room is indoors now.

[gunnerpalace]

Have you seen the vid 'Shonen Anime's Biggest Problem' by Reality Punch Studios? Bleach is briefly mentioned in it and the guy basically says that Kubo did a great job with the plot and characters during the Soul Society arc, but then later failed with all the other arcs after it. Thoughts?

I haven’t, but that’s pretty accurate. This is long, but fuck it, I want people to see it.

Karakura I: Great! Minor flaws, e.g., Ichigo leaving Rukia to fight Shrieker while he escorted Karin, rather than having the clearly less-than-combat effective Rukia do so, and learn about Ichigo; not covering a whole month of their time together (including Ichigo’s birthday); ultimately dispensing with Tatsuki’s importance to the plot; could have probably stood to be about twice as long to show more of Ichigo and Rukia’s early relationship and flesh out relations with the nakama more. 

Soul Society: Great! No real flaws until the end, e.g., you just killed off Central 46 and had a great upheaval in the power structure of the to-date main antagonists; this was the perfect time to have some exposition on them (e.g., who the other two Great Noble Houses are, what their role in Central 46/Soul Society is aside from being strong, etc.); good pacing, dramatic, memorable and contained fights, even for supporting characters (e.g., Uryuu vs. Mayuri, Renji vs. Byakuya).

Karakura II/Arrancar: Not so great! So, Ichigo’s just spent his summer break, what, moping over “the Hollow?” Why does everything in this series revolve around no one (Kisuke, Isshin, Juushirou, Yamamoto, etc.) telling Ichigo what the fuck is going on and just solving the problem? One of the only times I can remember an authority figure just saying “We’re here to do X because Y,” is Toushirou in this arc, so good for him? The fights against the Arrancar are when Bleach started to go bad with F I G H T S  N O B O D Y  C A R E S  A B O U T  ™ because they don’t involve the protagonists. Grimmjow was an effectively introduced villain even though he’s really just Kenpachi + Zangetsu (”Shirosaki”). The moments with him, Ichigo, and Rukia were good. The Visored were neat but were ultimately a waste. Most damningly of all, Orihime didn’t learn a goddamn thing from going to an alternate dimension and watching Ichigo almost die over and over to save Rukia.

Hueco Mundo/Fake Karakura+: Really bad! When FNCA became a real problem. Just all kinds of shit that didn’t matter and wasn’t satisfying. The entire premise of them being there was stupid, as was the entire structure of the war. Aizen’s grand scheme turned out to be a bunch of bullshit. Overall just a terrible inversion of the Soul Society arc featuring a bunch of poorly-realized villains that were way overhyped. (Also, the final demonstration of the worthlessness of the Visored!) Our protagonists had to be rescued for the plot to continue on stupidly. (This can work, e.g. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, but this isn’t the way to do it.) An unsatisfying conclusion that explained nothing about why what happened, had.

Lost Substitute Shinigami: Garbage. Okay, this arc has some great character-building for Ichigo and Rukia, and Xcution have memorable designs. I like Riruka. Ginjou, Giriko, and Tsukishima are really hateable villains. I like Ikumi. But. But. Fullbring is dumb and makes no sense, or needed to be introduced much earlier. The story of the substitute Shinigami is dumb and doesn’t fit well with what we know. The contrivances necessary to make Bleach work like a horror manga are ridiculous and just make the adults around Ichigo (e.g., Isshin, Ryuuken, Kisuke, Yoruichi, Shinji, et al.) look like fucking negligent assholes at the same time as Ikumi is telling Ichigo to trust adults. Also, the way the time skip was handled was that it wasn’t. It literally never gets addressed outside of about a dozen panels. It speaks to my heart but it wasn’t well-executed (hah!) at all.

Thousand-Year Blood War: Total shitshow where everything is on fire. The Sternritter were awful and utterly lacking in interest. (They’re all amoral psychopathic murderers, whoo!) FNCA go on forever, nobody does anything of importance, Ichigo and Rukia barely appear for large sections of it, and nothing sensible or satisfying happens except for an explanation of Ichigo’s powers that, while making a kind of sense, still doesn’t really explain anything. Don’t get me started on the ending, that requires War and Peace to fully deconstruct with how it doesn’t fit any of what came before.

If Kubo was just going to stop the manga, he should’ve stopped it after Soul Society arc. He couldn’t, because Aizen was still on the run, but if Aizen had been taken out there, it would’ve been okay. Open-ended, maybe an epilogue panel or page of Rukia putting on civilian clothes to see Ichigo again. Cool.

If he was going to stop after the Aizen saga, he should’ve done that. Again, an open ending. You could maybe have an epilogue of Ichigo thinking he sees Rukia out of the corner of his eyes over time. Whatever.

But no, this guy had a plan. Bleach is kinda like The X-Files, in that there’s a bunch of episodes, and then an overarching plot arc, except instead of being episodic, it’s archic; a bunch of small arcs under a larger one. The larger arc is that Soul Society, and existence itself, is fucked up. The smaller arcs are about what passes for “mundane” or “the usual” within this fucked up existence.

That alone probably answers your question, but I’m me, so I’m going to continue on to talk about what I want to talk about.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS BLEACH ACTUALLY ABOUT?

Let me explain my theory of what Bleach was supposed to be about, before Kubo got bogged down in thinking he was Tolkien II Turbo DBZ edition and got his series cancelled with his fuckery.

There’s this interesting video about how, in The Matrix, Neo isn’t “the One,” but rather, Smith is.

The Architect tells Neo that he’s the sixth “Anomaly” which resets the Matrix. Their arrival is expected and anticipated. Smith, unwittingly “created” by Neo, is what causes this particular iteration of the Matrix to end very differently than the previous five.

Okay, what the fuck does this have to do with Bleach?

Check it out: Ichigo (and Rukia) is (are) the One. That is to say: they’re Smith. The planned outcomes, the “Anomalies,” were Aizen and Yhwach.

They would go about their plans, get up to the Royal Realm, and then be summarily murdered by Zero Division and turned into the new Soul King, as a Soul King only lasts a certain amount of time and needs periodic replacement. (Check how old and busted the current one is.) This is why Zero Division gave zero fucks about whatever happened down below: it not only didn’t matter to their outcomes, it was necessary. (Kind of like Soul Society requires suffering to work properly.)

There’s evidence of this in Sajin and his grandfather. Their existence is never explained, but Clifford the Big Red Dog says “The world’s ‘bearer’ will simply change. We won’t change. No matter who holds the world. All we can do is lay low.” This is strikingly similar to The Merovingian and his motley crew of exiled programs from previous iterations of the Matrix: they are remnants of a bygone age, after successive resets.

What resets Soul Society (or possibly reality) is swapping Soul Kings.

Now what fucks everything up and makes this time different is the existence of Ichigo and Rukia. Ichigo is directly created by the fuckery of Aizen and Yhwach, much like Agent Smith was turned into Smith. The existence of Yhwach’s descendants, plus Aizen’s machinations, produces an unplanned-for feature. Something new. He’s easy to explain.

But Ichigo isn’t alone. He would’ve never gotten anywhere without Rukia. And Rukia is harder to explain.

Now Aizen says “The ‘true’ power of the Hougyoku is to read the minds of those around it and make manifest of what it finds there. […] You don’t understand? I’m saying that all of the ‘miracles’ that have occurred surrounding Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia, and Urahara Kisuke thus far were manifested by the Hougyoku’s will.“ He goes on to say "And then I, armed with a hypothesis about the Hougyoku’s abilities, sent Kuchiki Rukia in the direction of Kurosaki Ichigo. Of course, there are limits to its abilities. The Hougyoku manifests what’s in the minds of those around it. But this will not happen unless the subject inherently possesses the power to fulfill their desire. By that token, this could also be called the ‘power that guides people toward their desires.’ … But living creatures are strange, they are made in such a way that they can actualize only what their minuscule minds wish for.”

First, notice how utterly fucking pissed Isshin is. Nothing else makes him remotely this upset. Nothing to do with Grand Fisher or Yhwach makes him even fractionally this agitated.

Now, stop and think for a moment. Does what Aizen said actually make sense? The Hougyoku does what those around it want, but it can only do so through what they are capable of. He also says that the Hougyoku has begun to understand his will… only just prior to explaining all this. Why does Aizen think he was previously outside of the Hougyoku’s influence?

Kisuke’s incomplete Hougyoku was hanging out in Rukia for a long time; presumably, out of anyone, it understood her will best. Aizen sent Rukia to Ichigo? No. Rukia wanted to go to Ichigo, and Aizen was the means to facilitate that, which coincidentally accorded with his desires too. Aizen is confusing cause and effect here through his own hubris.

How did Rukia know of Ichigo? Well, you could say she was looking for someone like Kaien. But there are inevitably many people like Kaien in the world and it could’ve guided her to any one of them. It took her to the only person who could do something about the world, which Rukia saw as fundamentally unjust. But how would the Hougyoku know about Ichigo? From reading Aizen’s mind? Maybe, but can it understand things like genealogy and ghost genetic engineering? It’s much simpler to say that it saw their connection.

I’m not going to relitigate all the material in Bleach which asserts that Ichigo and Rukia are connected and fated to meet one another, like the Sand and the Rotator chapters. But it’s out there, and the Hougyoku knew, so it put them together and warped everything around it to make that happen; to execute Rukia’s will, not Aizen’s.

My feeling is that Rukia and Ichigo form a single unit for the purposes of reality-disruption. They are the Pair, rather than Smith’s the One. Surprise, this is why Kisuke leaves it to them when he thinks he’s gonna die. He’s like the Oracle. Or something, this analogy is getting a bit loose.

Also, Ichigo’s whole thing is power, and Rukia’s whole thing is control. You might say they’re like a power source and a regulator. Water and a water wheel. Sand and a rotator.

So, much like Smith, they were going to change the outcome of their iteration in a way that couldn’t have been foreseen.

Then Kubo got his series cancelled because he spent too long drawing Doctor Juggalo fighting a giant hand, and Sword Hobo fighting Imagination Boy and Thor, so none of that happened.

tl;dr Kubo’s inability to stop himself from fucking with unimportant characters and unimportant plots, i.e., getting bogged down in the minutiae, is exactly what killed Bleach, along with trying to be too clever by half with things like Hueco Mundo as inverted Soul Society. Dude lost the plot and couldn’t see his own damn forest for the trees.

[myopinioniswrong]

Anime Review - Regalia: The Tree Sacred Stars

 Warning: The following Review may contain spoilers.

 This is a re-post of a review originally posted January 29th 2017

 Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars was surprising in a good way, however that doesn’t really change it from what it is, although it does make it more tolerable.

Info

 Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars which I will henceforth refer to as just Regalia is an original anime series backed by studio Actas, which sounds exciting cause ‘Girls und Panzer’ but unfortunately the result isn’t nearly as good as 'GuP’ was. It first aired on the 7th of July 2016 and didn’t end till November 24th of the same year lasting for 13 episodes.

Story

 Regalia is a show about aliens who come to earth but they look exactly like humans and then some of these aliens can transform into mechas and be piloted by another alien that they are paired with except for the protagonists which are a pair of an alien mecha and a human pilot.

 Now Regelia sounds like a generic mecha anime, it even takes place in a monarchy like a lot of mechs tend to. However the aliens and pilots are all girls and they’re also all moe which makes for a rather interesting combo of genres here.

 Now the story goes that currently a new empire is ruling but there use to be an old empire, the remains of the old empire are its old queen, the queens little sister, the butler of the house and a mysterious young person, I say person because even now I have no idea what gender this person is, I’ll just go with boy for simplicity sake but note that I can not confirm ‘his’ gender.

 Now early on we learn that member of the old empire like the mysterious boy named Johann and the butler like dude Jonathan Marshall use a small sphere object in order to summon a mecha for them to pilot without the need of an alien to do it for them.

 The old empire starts its attack on the new empire with the goal of reclaiming what they lost and so the queen finds out that her big sister has actually been an alien this whole time and can turn into a mecha and the two fight back against the old empire.

 We also meet other aliens who are there to help and support our protagonist and also those aliens that are there to work against them.

 The story is about as generic as you can get for a mecha but the cute girls do help it a lot in terms of enjoyment, it’s easy to just look at all the cute girls and be happy with that.

 Which brings me to a common criticism I see towards Regalia which is that the fights in it aren’t very good, now first of all most of the people I saw with this complaint were not very far in and I’d say the last few fights are actually really solid but even without that it all has to do with expectations.

 Most people who watch mecha anime are expected there to be some cool fight scenes, because mecha. However I feel like while this is an anime with mechs in it and a generic mech like story set up it it doesn’t do very many mecha things aside from the set up and of course having fights.

 It’s main draw is the cute girls and at times I feel like I’m watching a more generic moe show, it’s very rare that it actually goes full slice of life nothing happens kinda stuff, but it defiantly has a weird blend of that with mecha that causes it to just kinda be cute girls doing cute things and for some reason mechas are there.

 Overall though I like this, this was able to make me actually enjoy a mech anime since more often than not I dislike them with this and Evangelion being the exceptions to that.

 (Note: I’m not comparing this to Evangelion, those two are so far apart from each other in so many ways, it’s just that both are different enough for normal mechas to make me enjoy them, but for very different reasons)

PLACEHOLDER

Presentation

 The shows animation is nothing special, it’s about what I expected and doesn’t really do anything neat or cool looking, the transformations into mechs happen within a sphere so you don’t actually see it happen they just go from alien loli to alien mech in an instant. Oh yer all the ones who can become mechs are Lolis minus one who’s a dude and even then his stuck in his mech state and also can’t move, so he’s basically dead but not really. 

 The voice acting is actually really good and that’s cause this shows got a lot of talent behind it with people like Sakura Ayane, Touyama Nao, and Yurika Kubo. The others are also great but I’m just giving you an example of what kinda talent we got here and also my super bias comes into play because Yurika Kubo. But despite the great voice acting it’s not exactly memorable or special, none of the characters have voice tweaks or anything super interesting to say, I don’t remember how anyone sounded and that’s at no vault of the voice actors it’s just how it is. Which is a flaw of the show as a whole though. 

 The opening and ending theme are also super forgettable so I can’t even talk about them since I don’t remember them at all. The background music is also a mess of stuff I don’t really remember. 

PLACEHOLDER

Characters

Yui & Rena

 Yuinshiel Astoria, or just Yui is the protagonist and queen of the new empire despite still being a school girl. Also despite being a schoolgirl someone ask for her measurements while she’s giving a briefing to the nations and guess what, she actually says them, however we as the audience don’t get to hear what they are. 

 Yui is a human girl and she has one of the loli aliens living with her, she however thinks that Rena, the loli alien, is her older sister. 

 Older sister because Rena being the alien that she is was born looking like a loli and thus stays that way for her entire life. It seems to be that the aliens are just born at whatever age and keep that body appearance and size for there entire lives. 

 So when Rena come down to earth and Yui’s mum took her in and made the two sisters she didn’t know that Rena would not physically grow in any way and she died before finding this out.

 This leads to the classic Rena is the older sister but she’s small and Yui is the older looking and much more mature and dependable but younger sister that a lot of anime likes to do since K-On did it and that was popular. 

 I have no gripes with K-On but seriously guys it’s over done now and it doesn’t even change anything, like in this its just a throw away thing they do once and then it never really matters again if she’s younger or older. 

 In K-On it had reason and purpose and actually affected events and how things played out, okay, enough ranting. 

 Overall I actually like Yui enough, she’s nothing special really. She looks nice but her voice acting isn’t anything special and overall she doesn’t do much, at multiple points in the show she fails to be able to do anything without Rena.

 At one point when Rena has to go away she basically is forced to do nothing but hide and whenever Rena loses control (because she’s bonding with a human and not another alien) Yui is never able to regain control of the mecha or stop herself from the danger she’s in from being stuck inside, instead Rena will either wake back up or the alternate Rena with red hair will come in and deus ex it. Funny thing she’s actually called deus ex, or was it just deus, either way it’s funny. 

PLACEHOLDER

Tia & Sara

 Tia and Sara Kleis are two aliens that are bonded, Tia is the loli who becomes a mech and Sara is the pilot. Sara is also the best because Yurika Kubo. 

 I really enjoy Sara and Tia for one very obvious reason, they’re freaking adorable. The two work off each other very well which makes sense since they’re actually sisters and look very similar, they do have a third I sister however she was captured and put under the control of Johann. Tia and Sara came to earth in search of Rena and Kei (the other loli alien) they find Rena rather early and once they meet up then Tia/Sara and Rena/Yui always fight together as a team.

 Pretty obvious at this point that the three loli aliens are the three sacred stars mentioned in the title of the show, for a majority of the show Rena and Tia have no idea about this power and even if they did they wouldn’t be able to activate it without Kei.

 Tia and Sara are a little bit of comedic value, they of course have there importance and when they need to they can fight just as well as the others but they have the most silly moments, some slapstick and are just off in the background messing around sometimes.

 Like when everyone finds the alien dude who is stuck as a mech and can’t move, Yui and Rena are off talking to his wife who is explaining how he ended up like that and then as we hear her explain we get a shot of Tia and Sara playing around on the mech and Tia sliding down one of the arms. 

 Either way these two are cute and when they need to they can defiantly fight along with the rest of them, I like them a lot. 

PLACEHOLDER

Kei & Ingrid

 So who is this Kei, well she’s the third alien loli that’s also a mech. She’s actually under control of Johann but in a different way to Tia and Sara’s sister, Kei is under his control without having to be chained into her mech form without a pilot. It’s not fully explained what it is that caused this we just know that Kei is hooked up to a machine and Johann runs an experiment on her in order to gain control of her, he goes directly against what anyone thought he was going to do in order to do this and as a result Kei’s older sister (who I think is also a human pilot) Ingrid is forced to follow Johanns orders. For a majority of the first half of the show Kei doesn’t say much as she’s actually just a lifeless shell of her former self, during this time Ingrid also doesn’t say much but she definitely does more talking then Kei who might as well not be there for how little she does in some episodes. However after a battle of Johann and Kei/Ingrid vs. Tia/Sara and Yui/Rena which is one of the best fights in the series spanning quite a few episodes, Ingrid is able to get Tia and Rena to enter some kind of separate realm and then due to there connection to Kei. Them being the three sacred stars and all, allows them to break her out of the mind control right before she’s about to shoot Ingrid. Which by the way was actually an extremely powerful moment, I almost cried during it because Kei hold the gun at Ingrid and before she’s about to do it a tear rolls down her check because the real Kei trapped inside doesn’t want to do this, a very powerful moment. I will say it would of been more powerful if she had actually done it and then had to spend the rest of the series dealing with that fact but I digress. Once broken out of Johann’s control and it coming to light that he was the real mastermind the whole time and despite Ingrid being the queen of the old empire she never actually wanted to overthrow Yui and was fine to just find a new role in society as it was. Ingrid is actually a really deep and a cool character, she has so much guilt and responsibility on her shoulders and with the help from the others and the real Kei she finally starts to try and be happy again. Also this is a good to mention that a side character named Retsu has her very faith in a god restored at the sight of Kei. It’s a really weird but funny scene and I like the idea of Kei being so adorable that Retsu goes from being an atheist to a believer in some god. Either way Ingrid looks way older than Sara or Yui so she actually almost looks like a mum to Kei, these two are really cute together regardless and have some of the most powerful moments together, plus with the three alien Lolis assembled they get to all form together like the power rangers and form a mega mech which they use to win the final battle, but that also involved some confusing BS with deus. PLACEHOLDER

Johann

Then we have Johann, who at the start doesn’t seem like the main villain. Marshall clearly seems to be in a higher position and we know Ingrid is the queen of the old republic, it’s really not right until Kei is freed that we fully learn what has been going on this whole time. It’s actually a pretty good twist and later on there’s like multiple Johann that show up, like one dies and then another shows up and he jumps off and a cliff but then there are like 10 of him. Me and my friend who I watched this with has a series “ahhhhh” twist reaction and I liked that it was able to that, as I said this show was really surprising it’s defiantly exceeded my reputation. So at first we think the enemy is the old republic but it’s really just a cover up that Johann is using in order to be able to act out his schemes in the background without seeming like the main leader and also hide behind the idea that it’s just the old empire wanting its power back. I gotta say I do feel bad for Marshal, he died pretty early on being killed in his fight with Rena/Yui however he made it clear that he died happy cause he was helping Ingrid and the old empire with its ultimate goal however in the end he was only following Johann’s orders just though Ingrid since he had absolute control of her. He died fighting for what he believed in which was whatever Ingrid wanted, however he just needed up being a pawn in Johann’s game and overall didn’t really do anything for either side. Although I will note that Johann has a weird mech, in the final battle when he enters his final form the mech has a very long and phallic object in a very specific place and it’s also what the girls hit and destroy in order to defeat, just gonna say… It’s weird. PLACEHOLDER

Enjoyment

Overall despite Regalia being a mess in its genre and kinda shooting itself in the foot by being a mecha anime that panders to a very different kind of audience I actually enjoyed it a lot. The story is extremely generic and the presentation is nothing special outside of the voice acting but the characters are fun and I enjoyed my time with the show. When it comes down to it, if I’m able to enjoy a show and have a good time watching it despite it flaws then that’s pretty good. After all I sat through the whole show and for the most part had a good time, I watched it with a friend which may of made it more fun and thus is adding some extra bias but overall I don’t think it’s affecting the score too much since I did actually enjoy watching it and not just the events surrounding the watching of it. Plus my real bias comes from Yurika Kubo being in the cast and I did have a hella good time watching it since I was with a friend.