#火金

[pinkstarlightcomputer]

Kuo Hsueh-Hu

[moji2]

「底辺」

今は静かに、静かに、静かに、しておくべき時期です。

[ajaxbell]

Full panoramic fancam of Tan Jianci's incredible fanservice singing "一把烟花放完 (After the Fireworks?)" from Winner is King in his Shanghai concert. (Here he's painting the moles on his face that his character has in the show.)

[pheleszev]

Kai y Rei Icons

[anamon-book]

漂泊三人－一茶・放哉・山頭火 金子兜太 飯塚書店 装幀＝しまおからん

[yajolene]

第二世代(金銀版)的御三家。 新年快樂！這是在過年前畫的圖，終於有時間摸電腦放上來給大家看看，可能春節過後才會再繼續畫圖吧😆祝各位假期愉快！

[-ryo-]

Just A Diary: Obedience and Patience-58

11月11日   让我总结一下我们所了解到的情况。 一个来自塞伯坦的外星种族入��了这个世界的地球，发动了数十年的战争。 但现在，战争终于结束了。我们最初所遇见的，便是战败者中的一员。而银色的那个，则是这个派别的首领。正是因为他主动转变了阵营，才终结了这场长达数百万年的内战。 尽管作为曾经敌对的一方，我注意到这些孩子都很喜欢他。只要他出现在农场，他们都会欢喜的环绕在他身边，而那人的金属脸上也会露出完全不同的温和的表情。 Don对这里的一切都很痴迷，Mikey也很容易就融入到这个家庭中。 我想只有Raph和我还存有顾虑。 这次，我们要怎么回家呢？   —— 我觉得回家是我们现在最不需要担心的事，Leo。首先，他们并不完全信任我们，这点我不怪他。其次，对他们来说，战争并没有真正结束。你知道一个氏族头目突然跳反对这个氏族意味着什么吧？他会被打上叛徒的标签，直到杀死他为止。而我们现在就在这个漩涡的…

[a-s-k-cafe]

金沢では普通に出回ってる新紙幣💴

能登にも少しずつ出回ってました😅

お盆休みも終わり本日火曜日から通常営業です🍺

お待ちしておりま〜す🎤

[ww1flyingace]

#mars #praesepe #火星 #プレセペ星団 #金星 #ふたご座 #イマソラ by #fz200 at #Tokyo どこからどこまでがプレセペ星団だか判らないんだけど、撮ってみた

[mementoboni]

ブルーバード (Blue Bird) - いきものがかり (Ikimonogakari)

source of video (link does not work here bc of copyright)

I'm sooooo happy that they played Bluebird in Taiwan as their first overseas performance. This song reminds me of my childhood XD ...and the bluebird movement last month

[kensan2574]

2023/8/26(土)

第49回 金沢まつり花火大会

横浜金沢の夏の風物詩「金沢まつり花火大会」が4年ぶりに開催されました。夏の終わりを飾る”金沢の花火“約3500発。

とてもよかった。いい夜でした。

[pinkstarlightcomputer]

Kuo Hsueh-Hu A Town in Snow (Pittsburgh) 1997 Gouache on paper 46 × 54 cm

[happy-pix-jpn]

【冬支度】

大好きな火雷神社前で♫ 自宅の注連縄用に…と少し持って帰られました。 五條市にて撮影 2022年10月13日

[summary-q]

トレンドまとめ #0059

[isaacsra]

圍城的大小比MP適合把玩一點，但如果MP也出鏡像……應該還是會買吧⋯⋯

#變形金剛 #鏡像世界 #天火 #鏡像天火 #黑天火 #博派 #transformers #transformersiege #transformerstoys #transformersshatteredglass #shatteredglass #skyfire #jetfire #transformersphotography #robots #autobots

[saffronapplemanga]

Tenjou Renka: Kin no Oujo to Hi no Kusushi - 天上恋歌～金の皇女と火の薬師～

HISTORICAL, ADVENTURE

Tenjou Renka ~Kin no Oujo to Hi no Kusushi~ by Aoki Tomo

(6 volumes, ongoing)

JP only - English summary in this post

Links to my other manga posts here

I can't remember where I first saw this, but Tenjou Renka caught my eye a while ago with this cover. Look at it — it's gorgeous. Like I said in my Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch's Life in Mongol post, I've been really getting into historical fiction so this manga looked like something I'd enjoy. I'm currently reading Yona of the Dawn, which Tenjou Renka has some similarities to (ye olde Asia, princess on an adventure, etc.), and I've been having the best time! I plan to give my thoughts on that too, but there's a lot more content with that series and I've been taking my time reading it.

The full title of Tenjou Renka roughly translates to Heavenly Love Song ~The Princess of Kin and Medicine Man of Fire~. I was excited to read this manga because it seems we have a cool falconer princess with some lovely art! So, how did it do?

Twitter reading thread here. Thoughts after the summary.

***SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE***

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In the first few pages, we see a precession from the country, Kin, making its way to the allied country, Sou. Here we meet our nomadic princess, Aira.

There are rumors that Aira is to wed the prince of Sou... except she herself doesn't know this??? Awaiting the arrival of their allies, Sou greets them with a show of fireworks. Aira, however, runs straight over to one of the fireworks craftsmen and gives him a big old hug... before saying a word to the royals... when she's supposed to be an ambassador of sorts from Kin... and there are talks of her marrying the prince that's literally standing right there... uh...

What are you doing... She said, "I didn't get the chance to thank you! I'll never forget that night!" GIRL, YOU'RE GONNA GET THIS MAN EXECUTED!!! He's gonna get guillotined! He's gonna get the noose!!!!!!!!!!!

We go back in time a few days, and long story short, Aira and company got attacked mid-journey which led her to fall off a cliff and into a river. The fireworks craftsman, Hakurinshi (or as Aira calls him, Rinshi) finds her washed up. He takes her to his hut to treat her and her falcon. When she wakes up and says she needs to meet back up with her brother. Rinshi tells her to follow him so he can show her something. He lights a firework, which Aira had never seen before, and signals her brother to their location. Reunited, Aira turns to thank Rinshi, but he's already gone. Flash forward to the current day, she sees her savior and takes the opportunity to finally thank him... by aggressively hugging him... in that situation. *sigh*

If you see me spell something wrong, no you didn’t. Twitter, where’s my edit button???

Unsurprisingly, this is bad. Rumors start spreading, some Sou royals and citizens are not happy, and Rinshi gets called in by higher-ups to explain himself. Aira has completely fallen for Rinshi but ends up getting scolded by her brother Uju. He tells her to forget it and that Rinshi is from a different country and class. And he FINALLY tells Aira that there were talks of her being wed to the Sou prince, Kouou, but it's been tabled for now. (Why tf was Aira the last person to find this out?!) She's shocked at this information but Uju says that they wouldn't go through with it if she didn't want to. It isn't until she mulls over the new information and what she did at the palace does she realize, "Oh no, I was super rude to the prince and made an awful first impression!" ...UM, DUH?

*Deep breath*

Prince Kouou shows Aira and Uju around and he reveals that he's a two-faced jerk to only Aira just like I expected. (Aira, why didn't you tell your brother that Kouou wasn't to be trusted?! WHY WON'T ANYONE COMMUNICATE???) Apparently, he thinks the marriage is still on and that it doesn't matter what they want. It's their duty to go through with a political marriage if that's what's decided. Aira has to continue doing ambassador/goodwill duties for the next few days at the Sou palace so they'll be in town for a bit longer.

The last bit of volume one has the people of Kin falling ill from poisoned food. Aira is one of the few who hadn't eaten yet and was spared, thus leaving her to take charge and care for the sick. She goes looking for Rinshi for help since he was able to take care of her and her falcon before. What was weird to me was that she asked him to teach her how to care for the sick instead of asking him to come with her to where they all were. Rinshi is the one who said he was coming with to help, and Aira was surprised by this...

Instead of wasting time at his place learning how to play doctor, take him with you dummy!!! Also, the Sou palace knew what happened but they were like, "Oh no, it's getting late and it'll be morning by the time the doctors come to help!" DON'T YOU GUYS HAVE DOCTORS AT THE PALACE??? WHAT??????

The resolution to this section of the story was also annoying. Plus, no one was at risk of dying. They just threw up and felt sick.

Why THE HELL would you, the cook who prepares everyone’s food, including the Kin royals, use some random plant you don’t know??? Fire him immediately. This isn't poisoned food, this is food poisoning smh.

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***END OF SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE***

I usually try to give manga a few volumes, but honestly? I made it halfway through volume 2, skimmed the rest of the volume, and gave up. I'm going to mention minor spoilers here btw.

It doesn't make sense. The setup for the drama doesn't make any damn sense. I can't even be mad at Aira, at least not completely, because I blame her family/handlers for not teaching her ANYTHING before sending her off to be an ambassador and putting her in these situations! Literally, her handmaiden was teaching her things about the Sou royals she should've already known while they were at the Sou palace... Like... excuse me? I also don't like how there are info dumps.

Aira's handmaiden is teaching her info about Sou AFTER she just did a ceremonial thing at the palace. You should have taught her this stuff before!

We do find out that Aira's tribe recently won independence 8 years ago, so they're kind of "new royalty" but they should still know to tell her to watch herself in Sou. If there was some Sou custom they weren't familiar with that she messed up, or was awkward because she wasn't a princess from birth/comes from a more "primitive" country, then okay. But that's not what's happening here. I mean, even if you weren't promised to the prince, YOU'RE A PRINCESS WHO'S AN AMBASSADOR IN AN ALLIED COUNTRY!!! You didn't even greet the prince and king!!!!!!!!! That's just Manners 101!

And I’m a nobody!

I don't want to compare to Yona of the Dawn, but it's a little hard not to. I'm very early on in Yona of the Dawn (mid vol 5) but even then we see that while Yona is extremely naive, scared, and sheltered, she's not stupid. And in her case, she wasn't prepared for the events that resulted in her life being turned upside down. For Yona, it came out of nowhere. But for Aira, they planned to go to Sou. They knew this was happening. She should have been more prepared to do her duties as the princess of Kin, yet she fumbled it within seconds of her arrival at the palace. It doesn't make her funny or charming. It just makes her look dumb.

There are some parts that DO make sense. Aira being able to stand her ground adds up because she comes from a nomadic tribe.

Action scenes!

A lot of people in Sou, both noble and peasant, call the people of Kin savages/barbarians. Some nobles ask ignorant questions like, "I heard your people live in caves? Is that true? What, you can move your homes? How strange." And honestly, that's realistic. I cannot tell you how many times I've been asked if my family lives in tents and rides camels to school/work.

The start of the show here is Rinshi, hands down. He's known as the local weirdo who collects random plants and rocks and the like.

Mood, tbh. Throwback to my Yotsuba&! post about how me and my friend drove all the way from Tokyo to the Sea of Japan just to go rock collecting.

In reality, he's just a quiet guy with unbound curiosity. He wants to travel and see new things, learn new things, and collect new things so he can learn about those too. Rinshi wears tinted glasses to protect his eyes from light damage, which happens to a lot of craftsmen. But they’re are an unusual thing that no one's ever seen before and just adds to his "weird" status. I swear this man is ahead of his time.

Dreaming of all the cool stuff out there in the big wide world. I'm rooting for you buddy.

He also just seems like a genuinely sweet guy and would make for an awesome male lead!

The author, Aoki, clearly has a great love for Chinese history. This isn't even their first manga with this setting. On Aoki's Twitter, you can see all the research they do. They even get recreated armor/clothing to take reference photos!

Mad respect.

Remember kids, reference is important!

Tenjou Renka is amazing for seeing historical clothing and settings, as well as culture. However, I feel like these things take priority over the actual story.

We love well-researched historical fiction!

I was curious to see what other readers thought of the story, and while unsurprisingly there were people who really enjoyed it, some reviewers share my sentiment.

This reviewer is basically saying how Aira doesn't realize her own position/the situation she's in and just causes so many problems.

This person says that the girls feel immature/juvenile and it's a real shame because the historical aspects are well-researched.

But yeah, this was a title I was excited to get into, but it just left me frustrated and disappointed. I mean, listen — a foreign princess betrothed to the prince falls in love with a local weirdo and they both want to travel the world and learn new things? It’s so frustrating because this manga has the recipe… Tenjou Renka had so much potential, but the contrived drama annoyed the hell out of me. So much didn't make sense or could have been avoided, and that really soured any good it had. I can see a lot of people enjoying this, but unfortunately, it's just not working out for me. I would like to flip through the later volumes if only for the clothing and setting design.

Not even best boy Rinshi can make me keep reading. I hope you collect all the stuff your heart desires.

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If there's any Japanese-only manga you want me to check out, let me know! No promises, I'll only read what I'm interested in, but I'll take suggestions into consideration. Preferably, shorter manga or newer manga with a few volumes out since I like to take breaks from longer series I'm reading :)