#[The Ideal Maki] - Verse

[exo-raskreia]

Thoughts on 261 & More Utahime Potential Ideas

WARNING: MAX COPIUM + MANGA SPOILERS

Ok, I know everyone's been losing it lately. I tried to keep calm when the 261 leaks dropped. I'm very disappointed & shocked as well (Gojo... ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇ‸இﾟ+)ﾟ｡ ).

However... The latest developments have also caused me to ascend to a higher state in Delulu Land & this is my hardest cope yet.

First off, it seems to be implied that Gojo chose to become a monster by killing the higher-ups, thinking that he was finally going as far as (stooping as low as) Geto did for his ideals, but didn't want his students to see. And yet, they wanted to be there with him, not wanting him to carry the burden of becoming a monster alone—they would too by going through with the Horrible Plan™. So, miss me with that "Gojo wanted to die & reunite with his best friend" nonsense. There is too much at stake here & Gojo gave his all for his students and allies. Yuuta is currently risking his life too, for his friends & to carry Gojo's burden (let's go a little easier on him, guys, & Maki too, since she was against this plan; mainly for Yuuta, but still. Hakari looked disturbed too...).

This whole thing's a mess, though. What is Gege doing? Why hype up Gojo only to reveal such a horrible plan? Is he playing with us 'cause he's a sadistic freak or could it be there's something more to it? That he's setting up for something else? I've mentioned this before, but could it be that Gojo is truly meant to return at a crucial moment? When all hope seems lost? As it did feel a bit random to reappear during Todo & Yuuji's fight...

WARNING: Harry Potter spoilers!

Nitta must've stopped any further bleeding from Gojo's brain & Yuuta's body, so he, Shoko, & Amai must be keeping them healed & safe. I wonder if they're keeping an eye on the possibility Gojo could regain consciousness. I once mentioned this in a Tweet, but could Gojo be in a similar state as Harry Potter after getting hit by the Killing Curse, seemingly "dead" but actually in a state of limbo where he had met Dumbledore's soul in a place resembling King's Cross Station?

In Gojo's case, he's at an airport where he met his dead comrades (whether it's actually them or just Gojo dreaming, is uncertain; if he is dreaming, then wouldn't that mean he's still alive?). He's given a choice to metaphorically "board a plane" north or south, to return as someone new or to stay as he is. In the Buddhist-inspired JJK verse, north could mean enlightenment, so will Gojo choose that path, as many have theorized? It's uncertain if going north means choosing to live and/or ascending to a higher state (godhood), & if going south means straight up dying/reincarnating or simply returning to his misunderstood self, but I hope Gojo chooses whichever is best for his return. One that will possibly make him stronger but finally gaining a new perspective that will break the barrier between himself & others? Or maybe weaker but finally able to fight alongside the others (especially if he makes a Binding Vow)?

As such, Gojo's body was healed by both Shoko & Yuuta, & since his head had remained intact & on his body throughout the whole ordeal—which is required for RCT to work—could it be he could regain consciousness at some point with his own RCT? Yuuta only has 5 minutes to fight in Gojo's body but it's unknown what would happen once they are up. There are the risks he could die or stay stuck in Gojo's body, both of which are atrocious. However, in order to survive, could Ui Ui do a soul swap before the 5min mark, if/when Gojo revives? Or could it be both souls would automatically switch back? Either way, if the danger is out of the way, would Shoko then be able to perform the operation again to switch their brains back?

However, do the sorcerers really think they can defeat Sukuna in less than 5mins before Yuuta's back to the operating table? This is so convoluted, so I'm not sure how this would go. 😥

Anyway, I've been delulu theorizing Utahime could really have an important role in the Shinjuku Showdown arc here and here for a while now, whether it's to help in Gojo's revival or something else. Even with this latest shocking development, my ideas still stand.

Once again, neither Utahime, Ijichi, & Gakuganji were present at the strategy meetings in the flashbacks, especially the one with the Horrible Plan™. While Gojo wasn't present either for said plan, he was informed of it later & he commented he didn't intend to lose, so he didn't really care what would happen to his corpse anyway. This could mean that Utahime & the others were later informed too but at that point, it may have been too late to stop it. Maybe that's why Utahime had that somber expression in chapter 222. She knew what could happen and DID NOT agree with it, so while everyone was cheering Gojo on with happy expressions, she wasn't. I wonder if she had expressed her disagreement to Gojo right before meeting up with the others or something, as this other panel still makes me curious.

Gege didn't have to include her here but he did. She looks nervous... I once made a silly post on both GojoHime panels in chapter 222 here.

Anyway, Ijichi wasn't even present which is kind of strange while Gakuganji is typically so serious anyway.

At this point, one's inclined to believe that maybe they really were up to something else. It's too suspicious and obvious that these 4 were not a part of any of the important strategy meetings with the other sorcerers. It seems deliberate on Gege's part. Which is why these new delulu ideas come into play.

MAX COPIUM FROM THIS POINT ON.

Shoko has shocked us all with her very blasé attitude about the Horrible Plan™, that even Gojo said he was hurt annoyed by it. Either she was bottling it all up (she really did seem worried during the battle...), fully trusted Gojo in not losing (but she should've assured him?), or maybe, just maybe, there's a tiny possibility that she's hiding something. Could she have another plan?

Whether she does or not, Shoko is not part of my delulu ideas this time. I'm done. I had mostly brought her up before because of the possibilities & how much others hyped her up for it, but my delusions have always mainly revolved around Utahime. Shoko thankfully did her part already by helping heal Gojo's body & now it's Utahime's turn to take care of the rest.

Sure, Gojo could return on his own through a Binding Vow and/or his own RCT that should be working again, but as I brought up before in my first aforementioned delulu post, what if Utahime boosts his RCT to quicken and strengthen it? Nice and simple, right?

Or, what if Utahime's singing will finally come into play? As I also mentioned before, what if Gojo can hear her in the limbo & will be guided back by her voice? Like the luring of a siren? Will she call him by (first) name? Shrine maidens can summon spirits & gods, so if that applies to the JJK verse, could Utahime perform a ritual to reach & summon Gojo's soul? Especially if he chooses enlightenment? Now, I would hope this wouldn't be a temporary thing...like he returns to help one last time before departing to the heavens in a godhood state or something. Oh, Gege, u better not...

What if her singing does have healing abilities? But even more crazily, what if they're not physical, but spiritual? Could Utahime restore both Gojo's & Yuuta's souls to their bodies? Could she help Yuuta's soul remain safe once the 5mins are up?

For all this to happen, Utahime would have to be in the medical room. Where is she currently? Is she on her way? Is she still out on the battlefield possibly boosting the remaining sorcerers (well, hardly anyone left, tbh)? If she's headed to the medical room with the intent to help Gojo, I imagine it'd shock Shoko & the others. Would they know what she intends or not? Would they think it's possible? Would they try to stop her?

This is super insane & bordering on headcanon (lol, I warned you), but wouldn't it be amazing if she could have possibly managed to achieve Domain Expansion during her long absence in the manga post-Shibuya? What if it was kept a secret from all? What if as soon as Gojo laid his Six Eyes on her after his unsealing, he knew? What if that's one of the things they were cultivating, planning around, during the time-skip? Could it have offensive abilities involving her voice, like a siren? Like maybe she can make the enemy do her bidding or de-buff them? What if it's the opposite & instead has healing/buffing abilities? Any ally inside it would be in a state of max HP? Now, whether she would use it to actually heal Gojo or in combat, who knows.

I once read a wonderful one-shot fic in which Utahime achieved DE by finally accepting everything about herself, which included her suppressed feelings for Gojo. I know it's fully delulu but do we really know Utahime's full abilities? How is she a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer if she can only buff (unless her CT is seen as good enough to warrant the rank)? Come on, Gege, stop wasting her character potential.

Remember that Sukuna still hasn't been taught about love? Based on Yorozu's version of it, his idea of love is to become vulnerable enough to connect with others & not feel lonely anymore by being defeated in battle; basically, get humbled, lol. He thought only Gojo could teach him how to overcome the barrier between himself & others deemed weak. But how would that be now, if Gojo's possibly in a state of limbo? (Is it another hint to his return?) The only other people that could possibly teach Sukuna are pure-hearted souls like Yuuji or Yuuta, the latter whom has also experienced romantic love. However, Yuuta just "discarded" his humanity by choosing to become a "monster", so Sukuna may throw that in his face. Taunt him & the other sorcerers for going against their ideals to defeat him.

What if it's not one person, but multiple that will teach Sukuna? Nakama power, y'all. What if Utahime could be one of those? She's the most pure-hearted sorcerer besides Yuuji. Her love for her students, helping Gojo whenever he asked despite her "hate" towards him, her not getting that Mei was asking for money to promote her in S2E1 (and Mei didn't even push it as if knowing Uta would never agree), her not being informed about the assassination attempt on Yuuji at the Goodwill Event by Gakuganji & her students (not even by Gojo, who suspected something), & she wasn't even present at the meeting for the brain switch plan...

It's like Utahime is being protected and/or her comrades know that she would never support all this immorality. She's a selfless person, often seen risking her life or attempting to for others in her little screentime. Not to mention that her CT is literally named after a love song. If romantic love were to be addressed at all in this fight, besides Yuuta, could Utahime play a role there? Her giving her all to help Gojo while Gojo had done his all to protect her during his fight with Sukuna? (You know, since it's still too sus that Sukuna doesn't know about her CT... Gojo entrusted Ijichi, the man he trusts the most, to keep Utahime safe for her ritual...)

I've talked about this image before but I may have discovered something interesting: the Angel Number 3612. Gojo's revival could be on the horizon... I elaborate in this post.

(Shoutout to some other amazing theories out there on Utahime's potential in helping Gojo. As a shrine maiden here & here, or even as Buddha's wife here, for example. These are seeming more & more plausible to me now, since Gege mercilessly threw a wrench at us in 261... I'm coping hard).

Having a plan unrelated to Gojo's revival is still possible. One thing I've seen thrown around is what if Utahime & team will try to stop the merger? If we go with the idea that Utahime has healing abilities for spirits, could it be that she could help restore Tengen's soul or something, like at least bring her back to her previous state before Kenjaku took over? Help her regain consciousness if she lost it? (FULL DELULU, I KNOW).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Utahime's only a minor side character, I know that 😮‍💨. Her having such an important role & any other formidable abilities may seem like a reach, but at this point, I need something to hold onto. I don't wanna lose hope like several others have. It's hard but... As long as it's not 100% confirmed that Gojo's dead, then there is still hope... There's still so much we don't know... His choice of north & south is still up in the air, his answer to Geto's old question, his reaction to everything that happened during his time in the Prism Realm, what happened in the Prism Realm, what he did during the one month time-skip... Gege, come on...

The fact Sukuna still doesn't know about Utahime's CT is something I can hold onto, right? I will ride this wave until it crashes onshore.

[lone-prayer]

I just realised I never added my Naoya's Bad Ending Verse to his About. I guess that's a good thing cuz I found a way to make it even sadder more interesting to plot with.

Introducing Kazuya, Naoya's Shadow.

In the manga adaptation of Persona 1, Kazuya is Naoya’s dormant self-hatred, the part of him that blames himself for his twin’s death. Obviously, he antagonises and wants to hurt Naoya because self-hatred is literally the core of his being, and he nearly comes close to killing Naoya at several points in the story.

At one point, he also does this:

…to try and take over Naoya’s body. Luckily, the latter survives through pure strength of will, which convinces Kazuya to merge back with him now that his Self has gained the resolve to continue living, and not run away from the hardships of life.

But this is a verse where Naoya didn’t do that. He succumbed and let his Shadow take over his body, taking Kazuya’s place in the forgotten recesses of his own mind. I’ll also be shifting things around so that this AU aligns with the game’s canon Bad Ending, where one of Naoya’s choices will lead to Maki being trapped in her ideal world forever.

Also have another Shadow, because guess what, Naoya has two.

(Jeez Boy with Earring, how come your mom lets you have two Shadows?)

Ra's nicer though. In both the game and manga adaptation he's the Shadow who judges your will to open up and help others. Be brave enough to do what's right and he'll give you the keys to awaken your party's Ultimate Personas.

He’s also a NEET gamer who’s, in his own words, too lazy to do evil Shadow things because “it sounds like a pain in the ass.” Also he’s as smug as Icarus, being the part of Naoya who remains somewhat of an asocial loner who'd rather stay home and play video games instead of saving the world.

[tricksheart]

JJK verse ( Eiha!! Up ) [ still WIP ]

Takes after Strikers. Akira is a 3rd year but still 17 in this verse. He gets transfer back to Tokyo in the fall, due to his parents working overtime and they don't want Akira all by himself even though Morgana is with him.

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Still lives in LeBlanc with Sojiro and has his powers, just in different ways ( see my other posts for more information about various techniques and weapons Akira has in his possession ). Goes to Tokyo Jujutsu High but is allowed to wear his Shujin or Seven Sisters uniform as the facility don't have a outfit for him to wear at the moment as it takes months for one to come in his size.

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Akira still wears his glasses as usual but doesn't wear them in special occasions, like watching fireworks or using the sauna like in his previous times in Tokyo. He still goes by Kurusu instead of Amano-Suou mainly because once again, he doesn't want anything to do with his parents, even Maya, because they once again shipped him off, this time without Yaldabaoth's / Shido's interference.

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The higherups of the Jujutsu high wanted to keep an eye on the ex-phantom thief and pulled some strings to make sure Akira was kept under a watchful eye ( ironic because he himself has his third eye ability ).

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He thinks Gojo-sensei is cool unlike most of the rest of the school. Mostly cool, relaxed, calm, Akira still has a little bit of rebellious and angry nature to him. Most people tend to avoid him but Akira is able to make friends with Yuji, Yuta, and Toge.

Akira has a major crush on Maki Zenin and he's always shouting out his love for her, even if the actions make him look cringe. He gets second hand embarrassment afterwards when he goes back out of his lovesickness ( usually with Maki accidently beating him up and to snap out of it ). Akira is working on how to deal and keep in check these feelings, as they are something that is new to him.

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His Grade as a sorcerer is Semi-Grade 1 and his weapon Grade is Grade 4. Akira is constantly trying to improve both scores but is more worried about his lack in weapon variations.

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Akira's ancestors have been around since the Sengoku period, which is an Imaginary Legend made possible from Nyarlathotep, in which Akira is a cursed vessel ( before, his uncle Tatsuya Suou bore the curse on his hand instead but now Akira has inherited the Eternal Punishment ), just like with Yuji and a few others. Nyarlathotep dictated a poem to Tatsuya Sudou and made him believe that it was a prophecy from Maian aliens. Sudou then conversely passed it to Akira's uncle Jun's dad, Akinari Kashihara, so he could add it to the supposedly mystical tome he was writing, In Lak'ech. In reality, the events in the story were bogus and nonsensical, but were being transformed into reality by Nyarlathotep and his minions in order to cheat his bet with willpower, showing that humanity would ultimately destroy itself.

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Akira agrees to be a sorcerer to make sure his mother doesn't come to harm, otherwise if she dies, the whole world does with her, just like in the Tsumi reality. JJK like with all of the Persona 2 EP events and onwards take place in the Batsu reality. His bad reputation proceeds him, with most other perceiving Akira as a no good thug or player unless they take the time to get to know him like Maki, Toge, Yuji, Yuta, and Gojo sensei.

He thinks Sukuna's mindset, personality, and ideals are laughable and out of touch with the world today, thinking the curse guy is beginning to stagnate, something Akira himself can't stand in the slightest. Doesn't interact that much and when Akira is in the same area as the curse king, treats Sukuna like he's not even there, as if Akira becomes a non-sorcerer in those situations, imaginary wise of course. Corrects Sukuna all the time in asking to call Akira a butterfly instead of a worm, ( in which technically they are the same but you know, velvet room and all that jazz) .

[bxttcrfly-drcxm-blog]

🏪 - Our muses want to buy the same product and there’s only one left in stock - with Yuli

(First Time) Meeting Interaction Scenarios 

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ] 『Huh?』Just as Maki was about to reach for the box of sweet pocky, she noticed in the corner of her eye that someone else was trying to go for it as well. A rather handsome someone at that, Maki wondered if this was fate. She did really want a sweet snack, but at the same time she thought pocky was too good not to be shared.『Do you want that pocky too? How about we share it together?』

[prompt-master]

Would that mean in the Japanese version, Kaito’s training was a less severe method of c*nversion c*mp? And hypothetically in a non-despair verse where they had more time together, how would Shuichi n Maki undo those ideals if they spotted them?

Woah woah how the hell did you get to conversation camps from me saying momotas a lil homophobic?????

[eirikrjs]

I mean, just because a Persona comes from someone it doesn't mean they can't have agency. Heck, back in P1 we had Hypnos and Nyx. Innocent Sin Portable had Kushiel who believed himself to be the real deal instead of just a Persona. Something something multiple selves (the many Makis and the Kazuya subplot from the P1 manga are good analogies, they aren't Personas, but they're still someone's independent different selves). I'm really not well-versed enough in psychology to explain this properly.

Anonymous said:                                                                

They do imply when Kasumi gets her person for realsies Cendrillion is also her twin sister, and Maruki seems to be his person is just that special and unique, since he could alter reality on an individual level before he even awakened to his persona. Basically his is so unique it even defies rules that are common for the average persona user. Like a Persona user can't have a palalce, or that Azathoth manifests with a physical eldritch body and not just a temporary spirit like form

Combine time!

For a refresher, these are in reply to my statement that a persona with agency is not a persona. A persona is something that comes from within, not without; to Jung, the masks we all wear to suit different situations: the mother persona, the worker persona, the friend, etc. Like, my personality shifts when I’m with my grandparents, again with my mother, my friends, etc, but they are still all me. I would not wear the friends mask around my grandparents because they wouldn’t appreciate me cussing or carrying on like we do--it would be “incompatible.”

So that’s what a persona should ideally be. But Megami Tensei personas have always been something more, something clearly supernatural layered on top. Obviously, that’s fine--I just think that they should be consistent, too, since they are a core aspect of the brand. Consistency, “rules,” in any piece of fantastical fiction helps define and set limits for these elements and make them comprehensible for the audience. I think Atlus’ flirtations with expanded definitions for personas puts the integrity of the concept at risk; I crafted a similar concern for demons in Identity Crisis long ago and I think the likes of Dagda and Demeter validated that concern.

But yeah, over the past couple of days @b-reis and I mused about how Hypnos and Nyx are seemingly independent in P1 (see above screenshot), how it’s weird that Yamaoka becomes Nanjo’s persona, and the newer examples. But then I thought, is it really weird that a butler or twin sister can be a persona? Not really, because they are at their core just different personalities to use and those of other, personally significant characters shouldn’t be excluded. 

But if boss Cendrillon, Night Queen Nyx, or Adam Kadmon all exist without/external to the user and exceed the defined limits of a persona, then I think they should be defined as something else entirely to keep consistent. What that could be, I don’t know. It doesn’t have to be Jungian. A demon? Sure, why not? I just think a persona shouldn’t encompass these expanded roles else the entire idea runs the risk of devolving into something murky, ambiguous, and ultimately uninteresting--or to jettison the original characteristics and merely become an imitation of, say, a Stand, as is commonly discussed.

And there have been, what, around 7 main games in both the SMT and Persona series? Both demons and personas are strong, interesting concepts as traditionally defined and have enough depth to survive many more installments as-is. Conceptual limits are only as restrictive as your creativity. Maybe personas were inspired by Stands but if that’s all they turn out to be, what’s the point of the semantic distinction?

[mediioxumate]

@vaciiviity needs to be reeled in.

"I need a reason to not kill anybody today." a whine from Shuichi who's sprawled out on the sofa in the secret room. Everything is moving so slowly, it's boring him to death. He knows that he can't push it but. It's too peaceful. He wants to see the others crack under the stress and pressure. "Amaaaami-kuuuuuuun." he's pouting. Please give attention. [ mastermind verse! ]

“Mm?” Rantaro hums from the table. He’s got plans all laid out, pictures of each classmate, x’s over those that have bitten the dust - including himself, ironically enough. they’ve got a bit of time, the new labs have just been opened - Korekiyo’s and Angie’s in what could only be described as the creepiest part of the building, then Tenko’s out in the courtyard. Even better, Maki finally lost the battle to keep people out of her lab, and there were weapons at the ready now. 

It would be boring, honestly, if they just used some common method, he supposed, but his hope was to get their minds thinking - to see killing as a possibility. Not to mention with Angie leading some kind of weird cult, he’s half ready for them to go haywire and murder those that don’t agree with them, It would go against the playbook, but how gorgeous would that be? A whole group of people murdering for ideals and finding out the game isn’t over! His heart is already racing just thinking about it

That, or the others may feel ostracized enough to kill - just to get back at the group! There are just so many possibilities! None of those can come to fruition, of course, if his boyfriend gets impatient and meddles too soon. 

Rolling his eyes fondly, he tears himself away from his plans, at least for the time being. Their time together is brief as to not arise suspicion, and briefer still now that Kaito wants to spend every minute of his day with Shuichi. Improving him. Poor guy must be absolutely blind. 

“You know you can’t, darling,” He lays it on thick, lifting Shuichi up enough to sit on the couch before setting him back in his lap. 

“This one is going to be good, I can feel it!” His fingers find their way into Shuichi’s hair, combing through the strands. “It’ll be worth it, I promise. Just a little longer.”  His other hand wanders down, splaying over Shuichi’s chest. “Angie is going to go this time, I just know it.” He muses quietly. “She’s going to snap, or someone is going to kill her first. Which do you think it’ll be?”

[arecomicsevengood]

A Year Of Reading Acknowledged Masterpieces #2: Saul Steinberg’s The Labyrinth

Maybe my most pointless worry is for how aliens, or whatever civilization comes after us, will struggle to learn anything from the jumble of signals that is this modern moment of our undoing. Our language and its referents cannot be understood without full immersion, and so much of what holds a privileged place in our culture, like religion or celebrity, correlates to daily existence in a confused and unclear manner. I dwell on this theoretical future because my far more pressing worries make art feel useless and decadent. As much as I love work that feels like it’s arrived as an artifact from a parallel universe, like Peter Greenaway’s The Falls or Ben Marcus’s Notable American Women, they only confuse the issue of an easily imagined not-too-distant future where everything recognizable is extinct, and even man’s many gestures at mimetic realism and journalistic explanations appear to the only prevailing consciousness as incomprehensible as the Codex Seraphinus.

It is in the context of this insane existential anxiety that Saul Steinberg’s work functions as a huge relief. Here the big ideas and our idle habits are captured in the same graceful line. It’s beautiful and funny, thoughtfully considered but never belabored. Everything feels like the platonic ideal of ideas being captured in a distilled form; if I were to liken it to music I would cite John Fahey. Fahey had a hit record with a Christmas LP, Steinberg’s work achieved a high circulation due to its placement in The New Yorker. The cartoons in that magazine seem vaguely notorious for being unfunny and inscrutable, at least to a generation that remembers vividly that one Seinfeld episode and was otherwise weaned on the gags in The Far Side. There are people who dismiss Christmas music as a concept as well. While Steinberg’s work definitely lives up to any rep for dry wit, I don’t really view any of it as being gags. Once you remove the expectation that this work is intended to elicit a laugh it becomes pretty easy to see it as just great art, and its placement in a widely-circulated magazine is just a better delivery system to the masses than art galleries are.

Here’s a Steinberg cartoon the New Yorker reprinted a few months back. It’s from a different time period than the stuff in The Labyrinth. It contains a caption, which none of the pieces in The Labyrinth do, though whether or not they did on their first publication is unknown to me.

The Labyrinth is an art book somewhere between a monograph and a sketchbook, edited and ordered for maximum readability as sets of ideas are explored. Many of those ideas are about drawing, and the drawing often feels close to doodling, as many pieces explore what you can do with a single line without removing pen from paper. It is arguably “not comics,” in that there isn’t a story you read from panel to panel, but the relationship to comics is pretty clear. If you are a maker of “avant-garde” or “art” comics, this book would be as informative to your process as reading E.C. Segar’s Popeye* would be for someone who writes Iron Man. Originally published in 1960, it was recently reprinted by NYRB, although not through their comics imprint, which has published artists whose work is prefigured here. Certain drawings seem to outline ideas that would be elaborated on in Pushwagner’s Soft City (drawn in the seventies, and published by NYRB a few years back), and drawings of people playing music, where the sound is rendered as various abstractions, bring to mind stuff in Blutch’s Total Jazz, published by Fantagraphics in 2018, though NYRB handled an English-language version of his book Peplum in 2016. There’s also stuff in the drawing that calls to mind Sasaki Maki’s Ding Dong Circus. All of these works are done by people outside of the U.S., and I can’t really assert with any historical certainty that those people saw the work in question before their own undertakings, though the amount of copies of The New Yorker that are printed make it seem not impossible. It also seems like Steinberg might’ve attained something of a celebrity status enough that potentially photographs of his drawings of women on bathtubs would’ve made it to Life magazine or something. As great as the drawing is, I’m not sure how much of it you would deliberately copy unless you were seeing individual images in isolation. Seeing so much collected in one place the takeaway is how unaffected it all is: It might inspire you to do more sketchbook drawing to see if you can capture the energy of life as effectively as Steinberg did, but you’re certainly not going to capture the verve of his line by studiously redrawing his work.

In terms of intent, Steinberg’s cartoons set a precedent for Jules Feiffer’s Explainers strips, which would run in The Village Voice a few years later. Feiffer, of course, was well-versed in various kinds of comics, having worked in Eisner’s studio, and his avid readership of the earliest comic books is documented in his book The Great Comic-Book Heroes, but there’s not really anything in that stuff suggestive of the sort of observational acuity of the middle-class that you get in his writing, that is present in Steinberg’s work. The depictions of playing music are rendered similarly his depicting to other forms of communication as outgrowth of power dynamics. The drawings of art galleries and artist’s studios exist alongside pieces that seem to primarily document his own drawing process, all of it capturing how much of mankind’s energy is spent choosing to willfully distract itself, how much we throw ourselves into art. In Feiffer you read these self-involved and circular monologues and dialogues of educated neurotics. Steinberg depicts what these people get up to when they’re not talking through their thoughts, but the reader can still intuit the neuroses through posture and gesture, and the depiction of the social settings that create them.

This is done largely without language. If on first publication they were accompanied by typeset lines of dialogue beneath them, those have been excised for posterity. When a selection of drawings of Russia appear, you recognize it by changes in architecture and fashion. Towards the end, however, there are a few pieces that use lettering as part of the landscape of a piece to convey the meaning of the word being used, i.e. a piece where the word “sick” is laid up in bed. The afterword, dating from the time of the first printing, calls these drawings “conceptual art,” a term which would soon after be applied to something else entirely, making this attempt at nomenclature the sort of historical footnote that’s funny to me. These pieces aren’t the best stuff in the work. They have this children’s book illustration quality that nonetheless brings home how beyond language the rest of the book is. It’s a lesson in expression being taught by someone impossibly fluent, a genius condescending to explain himself: I probably would not have come up with this piece’s introductory paragraph, explaining a way into the work, without their precedent. After readers have been shown what humans are, they’re bestowed tools to understand language. These pieces appear at the end because they’re a way out of the labyrinth, out of Steinberg’s system of association between drawings where lines go wild, and back into the world of humdrum communication.

I have read speculation that music’s initial evolutionary purpose involved soothing the young. A mother’s lullaby, like a cat’s purring, is its origin, and both language and instrumental ornamentation followed later. The musicality of Steinberg’s line, as presented here, follows a similar arc, where beginning from a baseline of recognition at shared humanity, and advancing through harmonic extemporizing with each new suite of drawings serving as a piece of counterpoint, becomes both more abstract and more articulate. The end result is something like an ethnography and something like a symphony.

(*: I’m probably going to talk about Popeye next month. At least one motivating factor behind this series is to get away from the promotional cycle of hype for the new, and look at work worth of being approached almost like items on a syllabus. I hope it doesn’t result in too much writing where I list influenced works to make a case for “historical importance.”)

[mindbinds-blog]

❝ ━━ ✧ VERSE: HOGWARTS: A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC

G E N E R A L .

House: slytherin Age: 16 Blood Status: mixed-blood Affiliation: hogwarts 

M A G I C .

Wand: 14" / yew / dragon heartstring / hard flexibility 

yew wands are among the rarer kinds, and their ideal matches are likewise unusual, and occasionally notorious. the wand of yew is reputed to endow its possessor with the power of life and death, which might, of course, be said of all wands; and yet yew retains a particularly dark and fearsome reputation in the spheres of duelling and all curses. 

the witch or wizard best suited to a yew wand might equally prove a fierce protector of others. wands hewn from these most long-lived trees have been found in the possession of heroes quite as often as of villains. what is certain, in my experience, is that the yew wand never chooses either a mediocre or a timid owner.

dragon heartstring produces wands with the most power. dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. the dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the dark arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord.

Patronus ( based on this list ):  magpie. a relative of the crow, the magpie is considered to be one of the most intelligent animals in the world. also like the crow, they have a bad reputation, but in fact, the magpie is seriously misunderstood. they are very curious creatures and will often fly off with something that they find interesting. magpies are able to sense approaching danger very quickly, making them the perfect patronus!

Best Subject(s): charms / cursing / legilmancy Worst Subjects(s): transfiguration / flying 

T H E  W I Z A R D.

from the moment of his birth shinsou hitoshi has led a difficult life. his father comes from the long shinsou line of pure-bloods but was disowned for marrying his mother, a muggle. if that didn’t make shinsou infamous enough amongst older wizards who know his name and father’s “shame”, it also doesn’t help that both the mysterious arts of parseltongue and legilmancy run in his family. ironically enough the shinsou line is looked down upon more for being ‘sullied’ than their sordid history of death-eaters and blood purists. 

both are fairly misunderstood, though parseltongue the more feared of the two. shinsou has inherited an aptitude for both and is fairly powerful. as legilmancy is often considered an advanced art not taught to the general hogwarts population he is instead tutored by professor aizawa who is a skilled legilman in his own right. legilmancy is often misconstrued as magical telepathy but it involves extracting memories and emotions and the safe-keeping of them. they are often also able to determine whether they are being lied to or not. 

shinsou is, in many ways, a very exemplary slytherin. should he have chosen it he also would have been a great ravenclaw but he often operates more with his cunning and ambition. as many slytherins he has no actual desire to be evil or follow in the footsteps of ancestors. in fact, even amongst other slytherins shinsou is something of a pariah and feared. 

M I S C.

cursing is his favorite school of magic by far followed closely by charms. he has a way with exerting his will through magic that is both incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous. 

he has not had much opportunity to duel or friends who would practice it with him but given the chance he would excel. his spell casting is quick and precise and he eventually will be able to master wordless spells as well, which is a rarer and useful skill. 

his dream is to become an auror. as many expect him to turn completely to the dark arts there aren’t many who take him seriously on this. 

because of his father’s disowned status and his own mixed blood shinsou is denied the estate and wealth that he would have been the rightful heir to. instead a cousin of his will inherit the shinsou grounds when he is of age. 

he has a black cat named maki who he loves very much.

despite knowing that many of his skills are considered “dark” and feared shinsou does little to hide them. he wants to succeed in life and become a famous auror while defying all the stereotypes. 

[rubberduckyrye]

Detestable Character Syndrome: What it is, and why Kokichi is a victim of it.

Hi I’m going to rant about something that’s been kind of bothering me now feel free to ignore it but like…

Kokichi is very clearly a victim of a phenomenon I call “Detestable Character Syndrome.” Now what is DCS, you might ask? Well it’s a bit more complicated than what the “title” of it says.

It’s when the writer of a story writes for a character they don’t like, understand or care for, and punish the character based upon their own moral perspective.

I have said this before, but Kokichi is definitely a victim of this unfortunate writing trap. A creator of the game said they like Kokichi as a character but probably wouldn’t get along with someone like him in real life.

And yes, this counts as DCS.

A writer can absolutely love a character but give that character DCS. There can be many reasons why this happens–but in this case, it’s definitely from personal biased opinions of morality and who the writer(s) think they can get along with in real life.

But at the same time, there are writers who can write these kinds of characters without giving them DCS, so how can we tell that Kokichi is actually a character that is a victim of this phenomenon?

Let’s take a look.

Warning for DR V3 spoilers! All screenshots are from NicoB’s LP btw, give his LP a watch! He’s pretty funny, even though he falls into the trap.

The first clue that Kokichi is suffering from this phenomenon appears in the very first chapter, before the first murder. This scene has many, many clues actually, but we’ll get to that.

And yes, I’m talking about when Kaede pushes the others too far when trying to escape.

Kaede is clearly pushing everyone too hard. Everyone is tired, it’s night time by the time they finally give up, but Kaede can’t see that.

Despite the rest of the cast being thoroughly tired, in pain, and distraught, Kaede keeps trying to push them to continue. This is actually an excellent twist on the “Never giving up” trope because there is a serious danger to that mentality. That you just gotta keep trying until you get it–except that’s not how the real world works. People have limitations and feelings that need to be considered. Kaede was not being considerate of everyone else, and she was failing as a leader of the group.

Which is why Kokichi, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, steps up to knock her down a peg.

And he’s not wrong. It is a form of torture to force people to do something they just physically or mentally can’t accomplish. And this is actually a brilliant start for Kokichi’s character. He flips that “You can do it if you just believe!” trope on it’s head and steps up as a leader. While others might disagree, I believe Kokichi’s ultimate talent really is what he says it is: Being a leader. His actual “organization” might not be impressive, but later on we see Kokichi’s leadership skills shine, though right here it shines the brightest. Because unlike Kaede, he’s got everyone else’s limitations in mind. When he sees his peers suffering, he knows it’s enough. Unlike Kaede, who is too focused on the goal, Kokichi’s focused on everyone else. That’s what makes him such a good leader to be recognized as an “ultimate” leader.

Later on, we’ll see that his talent for leadership continues to be a huge part of his characterization, though quite subtle. However, this is where things immediately start to fall apart for Kokichi as he suffers from DCS, and how the writers write his peers in regards to his character. And yes, Kokichi himself is a well written character–what makes him a victim of DCS specifically, is all other characters cannot begin to understand him, get along with him, or even tolerate his existence. And that’s the problem.

When Kokichi calls Kaede out for pushing the rest of the cast too hard to complete an impossible situation…

He’s called selfish. Granted Tenko’s aggression towards male characters has been well established so this goes under the radar, but it’s a horrible sign for Kokichi’s character. That his character is the subject of the biased morality of his creators. It seems like at first, the writers are going for “Kokichi is right!” and has multiple students admit that they’re suffering. There are characters who fight this mentality, of course, as it’s natural for a high-stress situation for there to be strong opinions.

But then this happens.

Again, considering what we learn about Rantaro’s paranoia later, this can easily be an instance of characters clashing, but it isn’t. It’s the unfortunate start of a downward spiral for the writers and Kokichi’s character verses his peers. Kokichi may have made a mischievous expression when saying they should look for another option, but he never once implied that was what he meant. That they should “kill each other” instead. He even seems surprised that Rantaro immediately jumped to that conclusion. Then Tenko jumps on board with Rantaro’s statement immediately assuming the worst from Kokichi without any reason to believe Kokichi meant “We should kill each other.”

Even if he had meant to imply as such, it is obviously a manipulative lie. To see who he has to worry about. Who is paranoid, who is scared, and who is most likely to kill. Whether he meant it as Rantaro interpreted it or not, this is a huge red flag that Kokichi’s character is doomed from a writer’s standpoint.

The writers can’t see his kind of character being likeable in the real world–so no person would ever be able to get along with him, right?

And it just gets worse from here. And we’re not even out of the first scene yet.

Kokichi is being nice here. He’s offering bubble gum. Is it condescending? Maybe a little. We can’t tell without hearing Kokichi’s voice, and all we get to hear is his little “Neeheehee” laugh. A hint of mischief, perhaps, but he might as well be genuinely offering bubble gum as a peace offering to calm Tenko down, and considering he claims to be a pacifist later and prefers to solve disputes in his gang with games, this seems pretty genuine–and she threatens him instead of once considering it.

Again, Tenko is just being aggressive because he’s a guy, right? That’s what you probably assume at first, especially since they’re in such a stressful situation. It’s only natural that Kokichi butts heads with some characters.

But when it’s all characters, you know something’s just not right here.

Immediately, Kaito steps up to tell Kaede it’s not her fault–well, to be blunt, it is her fault. She’s playing the trope of the “ideal” leader, but leaders like her are more harmful than productive. Again, while this isn’t directed at Kokichi, this is still a part of the spiral downwards. Where the writers could have suggested Kokichi is an actual, capable leader, they immediately flip it on it’s head to suggest that Kaede was not wrong in her carelessness and that anyone who “complained” and blamed her was at fault. It goes under the radar since Kaito is talking about more than just Kokichi, but the writers are very clearly setting it up that Kokichi is going to be considered antagonistic for being a much better leader than Kaede and standing up to her when he realizes that she’s being careless of her followers.

Remember, Kokichi is the Ultimate Supreme Leader, and already, his leadership skills are being dismissed and questioned. Instead of letting Kaede realize she actually was being a terrible leader, the writers are pushing her to dismiss Kokichi’s words as just antagonistic nonsense. Unfortunately, everything Kokichi does will forever be seen this way, as well, by all members of the cast.

And then Shuichi reinforces this idea.

And this is when those red flags becomes evidence. I know Shuichi is trying to comfort Kaede, but he’s also being genuine. He thinks Kokichi’s words were nonsense, despite the fact that several others in the group were hurting, mentally and physically.

And he’s supposed to be the Ultimate Detective. He should have seen the pain the others were going through immediately. Even before Kokichi stood up to Kaede. This is crucial because Shuichi later on picks up on emotional changes rather quickly, aside from special instances that so happen to deal with Kokichi.

In short, Shuichi only notices emotional changes in others when Kokichi is not somehow involved. Unless it’s Kokichi causing the emotional shift in someone, and even then, Shuichi just so happens to miss positive impacts Kokichi has. He only calls out the times Kokichi negatively steers someone’s emotions and completely ignores it or dismisses it when Kokichi actually does something that positively affects someone’s character. And yes, I’m talking about Himiko’s character development at the end of the third chapter. But honestly, if I combed through every chapter to find these inconsistencies, I think tumblr would eat me. So I think I’ll just get a move on and get my point across. I feel as if this one scene alone pretty much has, but there are still more things I want to nail into this coffin before I am satisfied.

Finally, we can move on from this scene, at any rate.

But this continues to the next day in chapter 1, so we’re still not even out of the first chapter yet, and the writers are already dooming Kokichi’s character to DCS.

Kokichi’s first lines of the following day are, seemingly, words of concern for Kaede. Whether it be genuine, or more likely, a ruse to get on the topic of Kaede’s epic fail of being a leader, it still leads on to the others immediately blaming Kokichi for the events of the night prior.

If you look back to when Kokichi actually stood up to Kaede, you’ll see he’s frustrated, yes–but I’d say he never outright admits that he blamed Kaede for not noticing she was pushing them too hard. (Unlike Maki who bluntly says she blamed Kaede.) Being a real leader is hard, after all–so if his concern is genuine, then this shift to blame Kokichi and put all of the blame on Kokichi is especially heinous from a writer’s perspective.

If Kokichi’s concern isn’t genuine, then he’s calling attention to the frustrated feelings from everyone the night prior–maybe including himself as well–and saying that outright blaming Kaede was wrong of them. If his concern wasn’t genuine, it at least was a call out to the event because unresolved feelings among the group are there. Unresolved feelings can and will divide the group, and the only logical explanation that Kokichi would even bring up how mean everyone was to Kaede is to get the group to discuss their feelings openly.

It doesn’t make sense that he would draw attention to it just to mock everyone and Kaede or cause a break in the group. Especially when he knows he’s the one who stood up to her. He’s definitely one of the smartest characters in this cast, and if it was only in his interest to screw around with the rest of the cast, he knew it would immediately backfire onto him.

… Though, maybe he wanted that, to prove a point. That this group of people are willing to push the blame onto someone else rather than take responsibility for it. This does lead into a discussion where Kaede admits that she was in the wrong and apologizes for it, and Kokichi’s first reaction to this, is…

It was clear his goal was to get these feelings among the group resolved, regardless if he actually cares for the well being of Kaede and the others as a whole. Again, a shining example of his subtle but powerful skill as a leader. He knew exactly what to do and say to get the group back on the same page.

And even though he’s blamed again…

It only solidifies his skills and intentions further. Again, those emotions from the night prior couldn’t stay unresolved, and he made sure that they weren’t. He even admits that here–except yet again, he is dismissed as just lying. The cast around Kokichi is already showing signs of distrust and resentment towards Kokichi and really, there’s no real good reason for it other than he lies a lot.

And from here on out, that’s how the cookie crumbles–none of the characters come to understand or even remotely like Kokichi, and immediately assume the worst of him. Even in Kokichi’s free time events, the protagonist is left annoyed and confused by Kokichi rather than getting a full understanding for his character and personality.

That speaks volumes about this issue. Where other free time events end with the protagonist actually feeling closer to the other character, Kokichi is a character they barely change perspective on. There are a few exceptions, however any character that is seen with a decent relationship with Kokichi are seen as naive, stupid, or vulgar.

Kokichi isn’t the “Komaeda” of the bunch like players might immediately assume, and thus a lot of the mistreatment, dismissal, and negligent behaviors the rest of the characters display for Kokichi gets brushed off like it doesn’t matter because he’s “the Komaeda” of the V3 cast. The writers think he deserves the mistreatment because he is a person they themselves wouldn’t ever get along with. Because of that, he must be an unlikable person/character who needs to be choked (twice), hit, ignored, had serious head injuries neglected, and turned against in order to be redeemable/liked as a character. After all, it’d be super frustrating for a lot of people if the “bad character” didn’t get their punishments, right?

That’s the point of this huge rant, though.

Kokichi, because the writers can’t understand why anyone would like or get along with a person like him, suffers from the biased morality of his creators, and why fans of him like myself are so frustrated. It’s frustrating to see a relatively harmless person/character get so harshly abused by the cast and the writers when Komaeda, the actual antagonistic character of the DR2 cast, is treated better and he tried to kill people.

So yeah. I think the creators definitely liked Kokichi as a character–but because they didn’t like him as a human, he needlessly suffers as a person and as a character.

And the fact that this phenomenon happens so early on in the game’s narrative is frustrating and telling that this is definitely the case.

[maskslain]

tagged: @haruumaki and @inventorbeauty

tagging: steal it

repost, don’t reblog

Name: Maki Harukawa Nicknames: Harumaki, Maki Roll, Miss Assassin Orientation: Bisexual Preferred pet names: N/A. She’s too shy. Relationship status: Heavily verse dependent, but defaults to single for main verse.

Favorite canon ship: Unironically, Maki x Kaito. Favorite non-canon ships: Saihara and Maki, cause... I love their friendship and I think they’re cute together, 

A quick note on shipping: Maki inherently is distrusting. She doesn’t know what to do with kindness or people wanting to be with her. She has many issues, both personal and forced upon her. She won’t open up to anyone easily. Even her closest friends need to push, for her to vent to them. Maki needs lots of reassurance. She needs someone who sees her walls, and gets through them. She needs someone that understands she’s terrified of what she can’t handle.

Opinion on true love: She doesn’t believe it’s impossible, but she doesn’t believe she deserves it. Opinion on love at first sight: Sounds fake, feels fake. How ‘romantic’ are they: Maki’s quite shy, but she’d like to take care of her significant other. She can cook and bake. She prefers simple care giving.

ideal physical traits: Maki’s cute all around, just look at her. ideal personality traits: She’s incredibly selfless, to a dangerous extent. She’d quite literally die for you, if it was necessary. She’s delicate and caring too. Unattractive physical traits: She has a ton of scars, mostly hidden by her clothes. Unattractive personality traits: Her self depreciation is several mountains high. She simply cannot put down her self disgust. Maki can consistently be emotionally unavailable too. She’s prone to breaking too.

ideal date: She’s not picky. Any time spent with someone she cherishes is more than enough for her. She’s likely to let them pick dates. Do they have a type?: See quick note on shipping.

Average relationship length: Maki’s with someone as long as they want her.

preferred nonsexual intimacy: Cuddling, once she grows used to physical contact with that person.

Commitment level: Maki’s 10000% dedicated to the person she falls in love with. Opinion of public affection: She’s shy. She won’t initiate public affection, 99% of the time. She will, however, accept small displays. Hand holding or hugging.

Past relationships: N/A.

[lone-prayer]

HC - Bad Ending Verse Details

Just completed Kazuya / Shadow Naoya's about page! I didn't add everything about this AU's canon divergences since his biography was getting pretty long already and I wanted his page to make sense even for those who haven't played Persona 1.

So here's some more details about Naoya and his Shadow in this verse!

Firstly, the Naoya in this AU ('Twodou' for short) is not the same morally upright Naoya in my main verse. Persona 1 features some basic moral choices in the game which you can answer successfully to unlock your party's Ultimate Personas. Twodou failed literally all of them, which essentially makes him a cowardly teen who will abandon others and jump to beating up a 'monster' to save his own skin. He's also going along with the party only because he feels obligated to, and is ambivalent about whether the world is worth saving.

As a result, they also fail to get the game's Good Ending as Mai refuses to hand the compact over and the party takes it from her by force. After beating Kandori and finding the Real Maki, Ideal Maki is then dragged back into her Ideal World by Mai. Kazuya does manage to steal Aki's mirror compact before she is erased, using it to re-enter the Ideal World.

Kazuya's attitude proceeds to bite him in the ass when the party confronts a masked Ideal Maki in her hospital bed and Mai in the Lost Forest, meeting with Setsuko along the way. Kazuya essentially gives Nanjo's 'if you want to commit suicide do it already' speech without the 'we'll always be your friends and remember you' part, which leads to the Ideal Maki falling into despair and merging with Pandora there and then.

In the middle of the fight, the Ideal World starts deteriorating and Mai recognises this as the Real Maki having returned to the Sea of Souls. Kazuya manages to drag the party back to safety to the real world, but they watch in horror as the mirror they just exited shatters, along with the remains of the DEVA System.

Blaming Kazuya for the loss of both Naoya and Maki, the party is quick to shun him. But they decide not to tell Naoya's parents — how could they possibly tell a couple their son is dead and there's another part of his psyche piloting his body? The rest of their school years are spent in a tense silence, which is mostly overlooked in the aftermath of rebuilding the town.

Kazuya does feel very guilty about having to leave both Maki and her mother behind. This guilty conscience is partly why he chose to become a doctor, but the real Naoya genuinely wanting to be in the medical profession helped a lot too.

Like his Self, Kazuya does have frequent dreams about his past and meeting his other Shadow Selves. Because of this, he knows that, by taking over the human's body, he did condemn Twodou to limbo. He's trying to convince himself he doesn't feel some twang of not-quite-guilt over that.

[bollywoodirect]

Tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Saab the maestro of qawwali and sufi music on his 20th death anniversary

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997), was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. He possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".

Born in Faisalabad, Khan had his first public performance at the age of 16, at his father's chelum. He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan and the US. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

Khan is often credited as one of the progenitors of "world music". Widely acclaimed for his spiritual charisma and distinctive exuberance, he was one of the first and most important artists to popularise Qawwali, then considered an "arcane religious tradition", to Western audiences. His powerful vocal presentations, which could last up to 10 hours, brought forth a craze for his music all over Europe. Alexandra A. Seno of Asiaweek wrote:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice was otherworldly. For 25 years, his mystical songs transfixed millions. It was not long enough ... He performed qawwali, which means wise or philosophical utterance, as nobody else of his generation did. His vocal range, talent for improvisation and sheer intensity were unsurpassed.

Jeff Buckley cited Khan as a major influence, saying of him "He's my Elvis", and performing the first few minutes of Khan's hit "Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai" (including vocals) at live concerts. Many other artists have also cited Khan as an influence, such as Grammy-nominated Pakistani-American Nadia Ali, Zayn Malik, Peter Gabriel, A. R. Rahman, Sheila Chandra, and Alim Qasimov. Author and neuroscientist Sam Harris cited Khan as one of his favourite musicians of all time.

Paul Williams picked a concert performance by Khan for inclusion in his 2000 book The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: a 'top-40' list, in which he devotes a chapter each to what he considers the top 40 artistic achievements of the 20th century in any field (including art, movies, music, fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction). The Derek Trucks Band covers Khan's songs on two of their studio albums. Their 2002 album Joyful Noise includes a cover of "Maki Madni", which features a guest performance by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's nephew. 2005's Songlines includes a medley of two of Khan's songs, "Sahib Teri Bandi" and "Maki Madni". This medley first appeared on the band's live album Live at Georgia Theatre, which was released in 2004.

In 2004, a tribute band called Brooklyn Qawwali Party (formerly Brook's Qawwali Party) was formed in New York City by percussionist Brook Martinez to perform the music of Khan. The 13-piece group still performs mostly instrumental jazz versions of Khan's qawwalis, using the instruments conventionally associated with jazz rather than those associated with qawwali.

In 2004, a tribute band called Brooklyn Qawwali Party (formerly Brook's Qawwali Party) was formed in New York City by percussionist Brook Martinez to perform the music of Khan. The 13-piece group still performs mostly instrumental jazz versions of Khan's qawwalis, using the instruments conventionally associated with jazz rather than those associated with qawwali.

In 2007, electronic music producer and performer Gaudi, after being granted access to back catalogue recordings from Rehmat Gramophone House (Khan's former label in Pakistan), released an album of entirely new songs composed around existing vocals. The album, 'Dub Qawwali', was released by Six Degrees Records. It received huge critical acclaim internationally, reaching no. 2 in the iTunes US Chart, no. 4 in the UK and was the no. 1 seller in Amazon.com's Electronic Music section for a period. It also earned Gaudi a nomination for the BBC's World Music Awards 2008.

On 13 October 2015, Google celebrated Khan's 67th birthday with a doodle on its homepage for India, Pakistan, Japan among other countries calling him the person "who opened the world's ears to the rich, hypnotic sounds of the Sufis". “Thanks to his legendary voice, Khan helped bring "world music" to the world," said Google.

In February 2016, a rough mix of song recorded by Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998 called "Circle of the Noose" was leaked to the internet. Guitarist Dave Navarro described the song saying "It's pop in the sense of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, hook. I really love it and we use a loop of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It's really nice. The best way I can describe it is it's like pepped- up '60s folk with '90s ideals, but I would hate to label it as folk because it's not, it moves."

Photo Courtesy- Imprints and Images of Indian Film Music

Like बॉलीवुड डायरेक्ट Bollywoodirect

[bxttcrfly-drcxm-blog]

「Who needs April Fools day when one of your friends is an April Fool’s joke?」

[flockofdoves]

i have more yp ships than this but this is like .. the ideal Canon setup:

onoda, imaizumi, and naruko are all together (this im Ok with qpp too it depends)

imaizumis also dating sugimoto and theyre just ... gay and embarrassing

onoda and manami have .. such a complicated thing going on for a while but they definitely like each other and Eventually somehow stop being weird about it and actually get together

manami also may or may not have a weird thing going on with midousuji??? onoda might join in on that eventually too Who Knows

manami and miyahara like maybe have a few weird leftover feelings but nothing ever comes out of it

aya and miki are absolutely together, miyahara can join them if she wants if they somehow ever really interacted

aoyagi and teshima are Married

teshima maybe used to have a thing with/mutual crushes with ashikiba but its just . Awkward now (in a verse where they do get together again it has to be through aoyagi and aoyagi/ashikiba has to happen first)

izumida and shinkai are In Love.....

shinkai and fukutomi have liked each other for ages ... they may or may not be together but they love each other a lot

arakita ....... is Complicated....... she doesnt like people often but when she does its just . Really Intense Dedication and she Dies .... absolutely head over heels for fukutomi all throughout high school, fukutomi liked her back too and i Guess they could be together?? but realistically theyre just ... both really oblivious to the other and never say anything (until..)

when arakita goes to college its the same story all over again with kinjou except kinjous Not as oblivious and maybe arakitas getting better at this and is tired after what happened in high school so they Actually get together

fukutomi maybe kinda vaguely crushed on kinjou in high school but knew nothing would come out of it after everything. when she hears arakita and kinjou are dating shes gets kinda sad and tries to get over arakita but she cant really stop thinking about Both of them,,, idk if its during college or after but Some Time after high school she maybe spends some time with them and arakita and kinjou talk it over and they all get together

kinjou may or may not have ever had a romantic thing with makishima and tadokoro?? they love them both a lot though but idk.. like if they do its when they were younger and its kinda Casual

tadokoro and makishima are absolutely Married though

on a similar note makishima and toudou are also In Love....

tado and toudou really only started to get to know each other bc they both were dating maki but then they started to realize they have a lot in common and start liking each other too?? and then all three of them get Polyam Married

tadotoumaki and shinizu are both Married but tadokoro and shinkai have a kind of casual thing going on too ... its cute

danchiku and kaburagi are Teen Married ,,, they aspire to be like aoyagi and teshima with their relationship

im getting into more ambiguous territory that im not sure on my thoughts on But:

komari and midousuji have .... Something??? i dont think theyre actually together but just .. everyone on kyofushi probably thinks they are

mizuta gets crushes so easily ,,,, they def have had crushes on both midousuji and ishigaki

ashikiba and naruko ........ the best crack ship

koga can have something with teshima and aoyagi maybe

i ...... hate  machimiya so so much and its for the best if i think of him as straight but  also ... unfortunately i cant ignore that ibitani has a huge crush on him ..... ibitani has bad taste and who knows if its mutual ... i dont like to think about th

[the-luminary-of-stars]

HC MEME  ✹  romance

name: Kaito Momota

nickname: None

gender: Male

romantic orientation: Straight.

preferred pet names: He doesn’t have a preferred pet name, as long as it isn’t cutsey.

relationship status: Single.

favorite canon / fandom ship: ...I admit that I do like it with Maki.

favorite crossover ship: *shrugie*

opinion on true love: I don’t think he holds opinions such a true love close to heart or anything, it’s just about believing in the one you love to him. That’s all there is to it.

opinion on love at first sight: I don’t think he believes in it, but not for a conscious decision. He just doesn’t think about it as it hasn’t happened to him.

how ‘romantic’ are they?: Not very, I mean even in canon he seemed completely obvious to how Maki felt. So I take from that he doesn’t think much. One of his lines, after Maki has expressed interest in him, is to ask Shuichi if he and her was making out while he was gone. At best he probably think about relationships as more of a “they are together” than anything deeper.

ideal physical traits: He doesn’t have any in particular I’d think.

ideal personality traits: Confident people, as long as someone is confident in what they believe that is a plus to him.

unattractive physical traits: Ghost/occult aesthetics is a no-deal to him really.

unattractive personality traits: People that give up, who doesn’t trust others or believe in ghosts. The two former gets on his nerves and the later is just...freaky to him.

ideal date: Going exploring something unknown or just...mountain climbing. As long as it involves getting out there and leaving a footprint on the world.

do they have a type?: No, not really.

average relationship length: Nonexistent. (...i’d count the sorta canon ship, but does it count if one person isn’t aware it’s going on?)

preferred non-sexual intimacy: Simply talking and hanging out as friends, you’d find it unlikely for him to treat his romantic partner different than his sidekicks.

commitment level: As dedicated as he’d be to his sidekicks.

opinion of public affection: He’d be okay with it, but find it...weird to get used to.

past relationships?: None/One (depending on verse and pov)

tagged by: ‘Stole’ it from @wheresyourhope​. tagging: anyone that wants to.