#(even more simply it's a cute design element that doesn't mean anything if not giving hector some golden accents)

[beevean]

A random headcanon I have is that Dracula gifted Hector that big golden belt he wears:

His pants are so tight that he doesn't need a belt, but it looks elegant, and by the way it's skewed it's easy to see that it's not for support anyway. It's purely ornamental, which is odd as Hector doesn't seem to be concerned with being elegant.

In PtR, he apparently owns it from the get-go, although we can't see it under the uniform. Isaac doesn't have an equivalent of this.

And apparently, it's valuable enough that Rosaly doesn't dare taking it in fear of judgment from other people:

"The unspent ferry fare for the Nether Rivers... to make up for it…"

"Worn-out and shiny? Thank you for the thought, but they'll think I stole it... I wonder if you don't know the world..."

I believe it was Dracula's gift, an unusual act of generosity. I don't know if he also was the one who pierced Hector's ears (I have multiple ideas for those piercings lol), but this one was him. I can see him trying to pretty his boy up :) giving him such a valuable gift to make him feel loved and special :) distinguishing him from Isaac who has to wear a proper uniform without embellishments :)

And since it would be covered by Hector's full uniform, not many people would see it... only those who would take that uniform off :) or Isaac, if the two lived close :)

There is also something to be said about how Hector is treating this gift, which in this theory symbolizes Dracula's favoritism and fondness, things that Hector used to hold dear but have been now poisoned, as Charon's obol, expecting perhaps to be buried with it (he threw away the vest with the Devil Forgemaster crest, but not this...); and then how he planned to use it to pay Rosaly for her kindness, so unused he is to being loved without recompense. A gift from someone who only saw Hector as a tool, to someone who sees him as a person worthy of love. It's beautiful 💖

[orikoaurora]

10 Types of Aesthetics If You Want to Switch up Your Wardrobe ~Vibes~

1. E-girl

Borrowing its looks from anime, "e-girls" typically have dyed hair (mostly concentrated to the two front sections like Dua Lipa here) and hyper-stylized makeup that exaggerates their eyes and cheeks. Many even draw on tiny hearts or freckles on their faces and pile on the blush to give their cheeks an extra-rosy hue, although there are also those who opt for no or minimal makeup. Hair clips, mesh clothing, choker necklaces, and silver jewelry are some key items to pull off the extremely online vibe, and while gaming culture is part of it, you don't necessarily have to be on World of Warcraft to partake.

2. AngelCore

Angelcore is a contemporary aesthetic inspired by imagery and depictions of angels, and is adjacent to devilcore. The aesthetic is designed to emulate the same unearthly beauty that European angels are described and depicted with, though it can also include non-European angel aesthetics.

3. Soft Girls

It fully leans into bright hair barrettes and pastel colors. The outfits look ultra-romantic and often include pinks and purples, pleated skirts, florals, sweater vests, and cardigans. Some iterations, however, also incorporate edgy contrasting items like chunky boots, black baguette bags, or statement sunglasses, but it can still be "soft" because it's about the overall ~aura~ you're giving off. Click for some soft girl outfit ideas for even more examples.

4. Grunge

Think back to the late '80s and early '90s when bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam reigned and flannels were *the* fashion staple. Marc Jacobs also released a now-iconic grunge collection for Perry Ellis in 1992 that was inspired by the burgeoning music scene coming out of the Pacific Northwest. The fashion result of the aesthetic is loads of mesh, plaid, mixed prints, combat boots, and layered choker necklaces. A guitar or two in the background of a photo doesn't hurt either, like singer beabadoobee here.

5. Cottagecore

Imagine wearing a prairie dress or a breezy nightgown and living in a cute tiny cottage surrounded by a garden you tend to everyday. Sounds like pure bliss, right? The cottage and garden might be a stretch, but at least you can attain the illusion that you own both by wearing a floral or eyelet number reminiscent of The Little House on the Prairie. Brands like Christy Dawn, DÔEN, and Hill House Home (with its viral "Nap Dress") can help you in this department.

6. Art Hoe

This movement originated on Tumblr with the Black and LGBTQ+ community expressing themselves through art and collages.

While the term "hoe" can be controversial, the gender-fluid co-creator of the aesthetic, Mars, explained to The Guardian: “‘Art hoe’ or ‘art ho’ is a term used by me and my co-founder Jam to empower and uplift participants of color in this movement... it's normally a derogatory way to refer to women–especially Black women–as being promiscuous, within the male gaze. Using the term in an arbitrary way diminishes its harmful origin in light of something better.”

The color yellow is often affiliated with this aesthetic as is a vintage-looking outfit that channels nature or art, like this adorable House of Sunny cardigan above.

7. Baddie

This is that look that is made for the IG grid. A tight-fitting dress, full makeup, and designer pieces are giveaways for this aesthetic. Beauty bloggers and the Kardashian/Jenner clan are pros at channeling the vibe, as well as Lori Harvey here with her full Dior ensemble. Like, WOW.

8. Dark Academia

Tweed blazers, sweater vests, and anything that reminds you of prep school or a fancy (and much-too-expensive) East Coast university are staples for this aesthetic. The "dark" wording though simply means the tones of your outfit skew on the darker side and typically include browns and blacks.

9. Light Academia

The same but lighter colors! A very simple explanation, I know. Whites, creams, and beiges are the tones you should wear to get in on this vibe.

10. Fairycore

The beauty of fairycore is that there is no recipe: Each item looks individually crafted because the aesthetic embraces the uniqueness of the wearer, even if there are staple pieces to complete the fairy look. For example, elements of fairycore can be traced back to recent history, long before it hit the internet mainstream (and our social media feeds) in 2021. From young women wearing flower crowns at music festivals to even little girls wearing tutus to school, the spirit of fairycore has always been within us. It’s just seeing a massive resurgence now, especially with fairy-adjacent media like Winx Club.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10