#(second one is of course fujos)

[yume-fanfare]

the thing about inazuma eleven is. beloved friend of mine watched it at 18 and really loved it, but he says he kinda lost interest by the time they befriended a dinosaur. but no you don't get itttt he befriends the dinosaur because to a child befriending a dinosaur is the absolute coolest thing in the world. who doesn't want to befriend a dinosaur

[s12e28]

AlCale Fanfiction Recommendations from a Crazy Person (Updating…)

For those who can accept anything.

All the works are from sotdae (솟대). I recommend reading in this order…!

I Don’t Love You (나는 당신을 사랑해지 않는다)

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 2 (R18) • Epilogue (R18)

_

Of course it matters who the Young Master Shield dates! The mere rumor of the Rowoon Empire losing their Moon, their Silver Light, to a lover from a foreign power is already causing an uproar in the nobles’ conference—what more if the citizens caught wind? All the development in post-war stability will be for naught… unless…

“…What is it, Your Majesty?”

“Will you go out with me?”

“Are you crazy?”

If problems can be solved with bigger problems, then scandals can be solved with even bigger scandals.

Alver and Cale fake-date for political reasons. It progresses exactly how you’d expect it to.

_

Beautifully written. The author was able to excellently capture how two of the most calculating bastards would get together in their own special way.

Plot and Dialogue : S-Tier

_

Real Person Can Sue You

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 2 (R18)

_

‘Why would he do something so stupid? He was so rich that additional income didn’t mean anything, and the honor he could lose was endless.’

OR

The one where Cale picks up a strange hobby after everything’s settled down.

_

If ancient Mesopotamia could churn out fanfiction for their local heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu, then who’s to say Rowoon won’t have the same for their beloved Sun and Moon? Anyways, I dub this the “fujo cale fanfic”. It was a very funny unhinged premise, but still.

Plot and Dialogue : S-Tier

_

Hand (손)

Oneshot

_

There’s nothing in the hands of Rowoon’s newly crowned King that Cale desires.

Alver knows this.

And really, it’s not a bad thing at all.

“When you could read love in my eyes, did you think I couldn’t read love in yours?”

_

Well, I thought this was really… the character interpretation… I can see it in canon. Cale sat Alver on the throne because he knows that by then, the other’s number one priority will always be Rowoon. The second that priority wavers, Cale will definitely beat the King back to his senses. Don’t be distracted by useless emotions and focus. It was bittersweet, but the ending was really good. Alcale is real…

Plot and Dialogue: S-Tier

_

Bum of the Governor’s Family (관찰사댁의 한량이 되었다)

Part 1 • Part 2

(I’m not doing it any justice—but basically the title is a parody of the original work. Maybe a more literal translation of the title would be “I Became The Bum Bride of the Governor’s Household” because of 관찰사댁의. Also 한량이 is the more ancient term equivalent for “Slacker” with use dating back to the 900’s Goryeo Dynasty—so just imagine that setting and time period.)

_

A white hand like snow stretched out in front of Alver’s eyes.

“Take it, Your Highness. Then I’ll give you the world.”

The sweetest temptation.

Alver took its hand.

_

Oriental AU. Characteristics of secondary-sex and pheromones, but not necessarily omegaverse. If you’re a fan of Kingmaker Cale, then this one’s for you. Cunning til the end, while it does roughly follow the plot of the original—there are still some moments that will make you go: ah!

Plot and Dialogue: S-tier

_

Love Potion (사랑의 묘약)

Oneshot

_

There lay an empty a glass plate, its previous contents reduced to mere crumbs of sugar.

Funny thing is, apparently one of them had… a love potion!?

“Your Majesty, if you’re in love with me right now, give me a week’s vacation.”

“Well, the potion’s effects only last for three days…”

“Tch. Then three days.”

Alver smiled faintly.

“Young Master Cale, if you’re in love with me right now, please review this budget report.”

_

It was funny how they couldn’t tell who took the love potion. Whatever they felt has always been, in their own definition, love. A very sweet story.

Plot and Dialogue: S-tier

_

Jane

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 (R18)

WARNING: The content of this story may not be suitable for those who are sensitive to: Rape, Adultery, Self-Harm, Blackmail (incest), Graphic descriptions of Death/Murder (infants, toddlers).

Please read with caution.

-

“Don’t call me, I won’t answer.”

“Then how do I catch you?”

Cale, who was inclined against the bedside, smiled brightly. He leaned his red head against the window, long hair flowing down and mixing with the moonlight.

“How can you catch me?”

_

If you can handle the heavy themes listed in the warning, then PLEASE give “Jane” a chance. No words can describe the emotional rollercoaster that was this story. Every description was as vivid as it was jarring. The downwards slope came gradually, but when it got steep—it felt impossible to turn back. For you as a reader, and for them as characters. Think about if Alver and Cale’s usual tacit agreement with each other took a twisted turn. I can guarantee none of what you’re thinking of now could prepare you for this fic.

Plot and Dialogue: SSS-Tier

_

copycat

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 (R18) • Part 6 (R18) • Part 7 (R18) • Part 8 • Part 9

_

Basically LCF if it were the Sci-Fi genre. No excerpt, there are too many incredible parts. Heads up for scientists on steroids instead of mages, advanced AI robots instead of dragons, cyborgs instead of necromancers, and sick eugenicist AI White Star. Give it a read if you’re a fan of rich world building!

Plot and Dialogue: SSS-Tier

_

[psychewritesbs]

Maybe I'll regret sending you this ask but it's like a thorn in my side and I need to get it out because I can't stop thinking about this so here I go 🙇‍♀️

If I don't see the romantic subtext in Gojo and Geto's dynamic, does that mean I'm not really understanding what Gege is telling? I like their dynamic, they're complex characters and so is their dynamic, but not because there is romance there. Of course, if I read and look to see romance there I find it... but I'm looking to interpret it that way. So when I see "the subtext is there", "the dynamic is ambiguous", I start to question my interpretation... I don't know if it's because my reading comprehension has already been attacked when I said their relationship isn't canon. I really tried to see that ambiguity since I started reading the manga but in the end I felt like I was reading too much... that I was actively searching for something that was supposed to be in plain sight.

P.S: I have seen ships with ambiguous dynamics in SNK, HQ, Naruto (NARUSASU, I don't even ship them but I understand 😅) and I never saw this war between shippers and non-shippers...

Nooooo anon 😭. Please, I promise I don't bite too hard.

So, first of all, thanks for sending this. I'm ngl, it makes me sad to think that I might have contributed to someone feeling like I would make you regret asking about something you don't see.

Second, I'm going to make this answer about perception because the purpose of my blog is psych.

Third, as a lead up to the psych stuff, it goes without saying that one of the reasons I don't talk about shipping in jjk is precisely because shipping is highly personal, and a lot of people in this fandom take their interpretations about the story as absolute truths, to the point that they gaslight anyone who doesn't agree with them.

It's like we're all just deploying domain expansions and the one person with the strongest sense of self wins. Right?

But this is a HUGE irony because Gege has gone on record in an interview saying that one of the themes at the core of jjk is that there is no such thing as an ultimate truth where someone is right and someone is wrong.

(source)

And to me this gets at a much larger issue that I taco'bout under the cut.

So this is the thing, right?

If you don't see the subtext in stsg, there are a lot of factors affecting your perception. Gender, sexuality, background, etc etc...

The thing to keep in mind is that you don't see the world as it is...

So I love that second angry anon brought up the idea that someone who is straight would very likely see gjhm as a romantic pairing, because it's true!

This is really complicated because, yes, heteronormativity is at play here, AND that doesn't mean a straight person is being homophobic for not seeing the stsg subtext without putting on pink-colored fujo glasses.

That said, I have seen the jjk dudebros be total dicks because they think that, because they are straight and the target demographic, the only way the story should be perceived is as if most all characters are straight and you are delusional to think otherwise.

And I'll be honest here, I'm a bi/pan woman. I am also a fujoshi. I've read quite a bit of bl/yaoi, and I think that has influenced why I don't see the romantic subtext without looking for it.

Basically, I've read really long threads by stsg fans that were meant to provide evidence for why they are canon that I was just like "this is all a subjective perception" and that is not to say they are wrong.

More like, YES. I couldn't agree more with you. It's there if you look for it. I am not sure if you saw this, but someone else came through sharing the same sentiment as you.

For me, little details like the battle taking place on December 24th, and Gege recommending bl before, point at a certain ambiguity that Gege might want to create without confirming anything.

It's funny that baity anon said stuff like "Gege is throwing irrelevant breadcrumbs at these shippers" when the same could be said about stsg according to many, many, MANY people.

Who is right? Who is wrong? If a group of people can see it and another can't, who owns the ultimate truth?

If Gege doesn't explicitly say "stsg is the other dynamic that is canonical along with mechamiwa", then who gets to have the authority on how to interpret the story? And who gave them that authority? And why are they ignoring subtext that doesn't suit their agenda?

I'm asking both sides for the sake of being a devil's advocate btw lol.

The thing is, it's all subjective, and there is no such thing as an ultimate truth where someone is right and someone is wrong--what there is is people arriving at conclusions based on their own logic according to who they are.

In the end, we're all looking at jjk through our own subjective lens, which is inevitably made up of many different factors.

That ramble aside, I hate that your reading comprehension was attacked because you can't see what someone else can see. That's just lame af because it tells me this is someone arrogant enough to take their opinion as absolute truth, and insecure enough to make someone else feel bad for questioning their interpretation.

As someone who has been internet-mean and who has wrongfully thought she owned the truth about something in the past, I apologize that someone has made you feel this way.

The reason this is a bigger issue than just shipping is because this issue is prevalent across fandom.

jjk dudebros will have you believe that if someone reads jjk for anything that is not battles is wrong.

Others will gaslight people and call them dumb for being open about how they don't understand how Gege explains certain things.

By the way, Maki is better than Toji according to some, but not to others.

I'm telling you, for jjk being a story about how there is no absolute truth, we sure are attached to our interpretations as being the ultimate truth.

All I know is that I don't want to be part of the problem and that starts with me making space for understanding why someone would disagree with me or think differently than I do.

Here's the last thing I'll say, anon.

If you don't see the stsg subtext as romantic, then you are indeed missing out on a romantic interpretation. If that's not something you're interested in... that's no one's "problem" but yours.

As long as you aren't seeking to minimize someone else's perception, then it's your interpretation and yours alone.

For me, I see this:

And I fucking love this spread because I see deep and intense longing. I get the sense Gojo is looking really hard for any semblance of Geto in this body.

Do you see something romantic? Yes? No?

It doesn't really change anything, does it? It just means someone reads into something you don't see.

The fact that you are questioning whether you are "really understanding" the text "right" tells me you have the humility to look to adjust your perception and be open to other ideas.

There's a difference between saying "I don't see it" and "I don't see it and neither should you because I don't see it, and if you do, you are delusional!"

Which one are you?

Which one will you be moving forward?

Thanks for coming to my TED talk looool.

I went on a raaaaant bahaha.

I just... man... this is the kind of problem that shipping in this fandom creates. As you said... imagine just wanting to mind your own business and someone who ships a certain pairing comes and tells you you are an idiot for not reading the same way as they do. OR viceversa, you're shipping along, minding your own business and someone tells you you are delusional for enjoying a ship.

Come on....

It really is a matter of perception and we're quite literally spamming domain expansions on each other as a way to impose our personal truth on others as absolute. It's really ironic and funny ngl.

This reminds me...

Idk if you've seen any Gundam shows, but at least the ones I've seen, usually the plot revolves around how war and conflict is the result of two sides of the same coin being unwilling to accept a different point of view.

So anyways. As I said in that baity ask... I'm at a point in my life where I'd rather focus on holding the tension of opposites. It's just where I'm at.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts anon!

Don't let others define your perception! If you do, you've already turned your back on the only person whose perception matters most--you.

[vamptones]

I think that the unreasonable fear I have of being pointed at by the public as a degenerate fujo for being an AFAB person who currently writes about gay male characters is gonna set me back a lot when it comes to the publication of my work in the future because I have seen it so often happen to artists and authors in a similar position as me. sadly enough it is impossible to transform myself into an american gay cis male in the early 00s to make my writing more plausible. does this mean my writing will be inherently perceived as a piece of Fetishized Garbage because I do not belong to any of the late mentioned categories?

A few months ago I asked an old friend how could I avoid this from happening in a hypothetical future. I did not want to a pseudo-refrainbow. attacked left and right by the Fujoshi and Bad Rep allegations. What I got as a response was to be secretive about my identity, and not indulge in the Anime Boy Art-making.

I didn't like that answer because, one) I ain't good at keeping my private life private, and as previously stated, I cannot pose as something I'm not. second) I am a true victim of the Anime Boy Drawing Tutorials and I cannot teach myself out of my roots.

the thing is, and the point I'm trying to make is that there really isn't a way that one, as a transmasc person, as a mlm, nblm, whatever, can truly produce content about a community they're essentially a part of, without being pointed at for various crimes such as Not being a Cis-gay, Fujo Fetishist Fuck, and being Cringe Online on the Cringe Website.

This is very obviously not a massive issue, of course. it's even niche. but I'm just a very anxious fuck who cares maybe a little too much about the way both I and my work are perceived as a whole. It got me thinking. I just wanted to ramble it out to the world since there's absolutely No One that wants to hear me talking about this. This is my blog after all.

[piosplayhouse]

Ok ok I finished and I have thoughts. Building on Danielle's fantastic analysis, of course, I am fascinated by how bingqiu mutually fulfill and represent both each other's yaoi escapism and reality. To shen qingqiu, of course, the escapism is obvious. Luo Binghe is quite literally built to be the symbol of the escapist male fantasy, and that he becomes as well for the closeted Shen Qingqiu: he is sqq's yaoi escapism in that being in love with binghe does not necessarily constitute being homosexual to him- the nature of loving binghe is all at once innately heterosexual (the perceived desire to become like binghe (though this is quickly shelved to instead be replaced by the perceived desire to be Binghe's patriarch)), natural ("anyone would open their legs for binghe"), and most importantly, acceptable to greater society (having favorite characters is normal, and it is especially normal as a man to like reading novels with copious straight sex of course!!!). But as Binghe becomes completely, unavoidably real outside of Shen Qingqiu's imagination at the turn of the second act, this escapism quickly flips to realism-- suddenly, bingqiu exist within society again, threatened by a world that does not want to see them together due to their queerness (interpreted as demon/human by literally everyone except sqq who still hasn't gotten over the homosexuality thing). Binghe (and if you want this to get really complicated the implication that he is the power source for the System) himself becomes a societal obstacle that Shen Qingqiu thinks he must escape to reach a nebulous happy ending.

On the contrary, Shen Qingqiu starts as Luo Binghe's reality. Sqq is the high society scorning binghe, an arrow in the wound that is luo binghe's god-given reality, he is the systems and regulations by which luo binghe finds himself legitimatized in and excluded from in equal measure, quite literally the beaten child of a beaten child (by t-shirt's thesis could the bingjiu parallel be classified as girl yaoi by nature of real recognizes real?). Shen Qingqiu is the opposition to Luo Binghe's innate queerness (half demon nature), the force that sees him and rejects him so viciously that it leads to a retribution by which Bingge and the demons become the party in power, the new normal to replicate the old. If yaoi as a genre is rooted inherently in perverting the power dynamics in realistic society, bingjiu has it in spades. Conversely, Shen Qingqiu, heralded by the gift of literal healing cream, becomes the panacea to binghe's reality. In other words, he is the subject of binghe's literal yaoi fantasies. Subconsciously, binghe lusts for the one figure of escapism from the world that is his reality-- the only person quite literally out of place and the only one who offers him unconditional love. The new and strange Shen Qingqiu offers a yaoi escapism to binghe: an oasis from the unforgiving rigidity of the real world, a place where both demons and humans can be either good or bad. Also of course, Shen Qingqiu is his teacher crush who he literally has yaoi fantasies about being a boy wife for. But that's less important than the power that binghe gains from subverting society by making Shen Qingqiu Choose Him. The yaoi escapism offers a place of solace that breeds a different type of power than hate, the comfort of feeling settled in oneself with all of one's rotten desires and flaws (the fujo 腐情, if you may) in a world where you have the capability of connection with no expectation of conformity. That is the peace that yaoi seeks to attain.

Anyway @shrimpchipsss I really liked your essays

Was enthralled reading @shrimpchipsss essay on realist and escapist yaoi and the ENTIRE time I was like are they gonna say it. Is it going to happen. That Scum Villain is a medium form of both realist and escapist yaoi intertwined in such a way that the realism and escapism are quite literally making yaoi with each other. And then when it happened I literally jumped out of my seat and raised my hands in the air like I just won the lottery or something

[kuronokiseki]

A Few Years Had Passed, the BL Genre has Changed Alot... Yet I Still Love Romantica

But seriously, if you love something, is it necessary to have a reason? xD Can't I love something merely because I want to? Like, you don't need to have a reason to like fried chicken amirite?

Ahem. Anyway. Long post ahead.

First of all, it's merely because of a certain shot.

After seeing this for the first time, I was like "This is going to be one of my faves for sure. I'll enjoy every seconds of it. I believe this is a story that I will never forget. I'll constantly look forward to knowing the two and their story more and more."

Proud to say, this still rings true even now!

I have already listed the reasons why I love them so much, so I won't do it again in this post. But for this time, I'll explain why I still love them even after several years, even after I've transitioned from a teen to an adult which would affect my tastes over time, even after I've seen more BL works... even after knowing that there are things that other BLs managed to pull off better.

Flashbacks to the 2000s which I assume was the golden age of this series, where it was the only "watchable" BL anime back then and Sakurai Takahiro did a phenomenal job in portraying Misaki. Almost all of the fujos in internet would at least have heard of this series, and naturally it was massively beloved that 90% of the fujos would hold it as the no. 1 in their top BL list. However, since it is popular, of course there will be a fraction of people who strongly hate it because of a certain scene. Hence, citing it as the epitome of toxic BL lmao.

But of course, things will constantly change as time passed, just like how it's growing evident that BL is only consumed by cishet women is a huge myth, as queer men themselves have started to voice their love towards the genre as well. And it is also possible for ppl who aren't interested in men to enjoy BL, such as the straight guys, lesbians, and asexuals.

Likewise, BL itself is also evolving - newer ones are more aware about the idea of consent although some may still clueless of how healthy relationships work (relationship is more than just sex!). While this may sound subjective, technically there are more and more quality BL works to consume nowadays. In case you are bored with the slice-of-life BL, there is a plethora of fantasy and horror BL out there to choose, moreso when you're aware of webnovel sites like Syosetu. Isekai BL? They're out there.

And it isn't just from Japan, China and Korea are also capable of producing good BL as well. Even BL is getting praised for the more genuine M/M representation compared to how it's generally done in the West (coughcough performative diversity coughcough).

And it doesn't stop there. The series doesn't even need to have a BL label, the MC can still be gay, and the gay romance can still happen despite the plot not centering around that.

There should be no reason to think that it isn't possible for two men to fall for each other nowadays, the teases shouldn't amount to nothing, which alot of non-BLs were guilty of back then. Well, I'm talking abt series that would tease two male characters together but the creators will allow them to be anything but gay for each other. The only time you'd see them as canon gay is in doujins or fanfics.

Hence, you'd only get canon gay couples from series that have been labelled as BL. Luckily, it's no longer a reasonable thing to do in 2021 onwards.

So, thanks to this new golden era of BL or LGBTQA+ representation, since there are so many quality works to indulge yourself, the Junjou Romantica series is getting outdated. I believe alot of the new generation haven't even heard of it ahahaha. When compared to other BL, I'll admit that Junjou won't even fit to be the best or the worst. I'm not saying that Junjou is bad, but it's simply because there are so many BL works now compared to in 2000s. To the point I bet they would discover Junjou because of sheer luck.

Now, I'll get to the point. Why I still love Romantica through these years? Well, just because there are more and newer BLs, doesn't necessarily mean that it is better. While it's true that there are stuff that other BLs do better such as the plot, the characters, and the art, there's something that Romantica does better than others too, in my opinion. That is, Misaki and Akihiko's dynamic.

I love how Misaki and Akihiko are characters of their own whilst loving each other very much. In many BLs I've seen, the dynamic doesn't feel equal, where the MC is generally too busy to think about the ML most of the time (to those who are unfamiliar, it's referring to the main love interest), whereas the ML serves no other purpose to the story other than being the MC's love interest. In comparison, as the MC, Misaki's POV is always 90% USAGI-SAN USAGI-SAN USAGI-SAN in every chapter although he faces different problems every single time. As for Akihiko, yea he loves Misaki so much but his character arc isn't limited to that. As outdated as the series would be, this aspect of their relationship, will always be timeless to me.

I've grown to love them so much, that I'll get happy from merely seeing them. Yea I do understand that others will get disappointed of the slow and repetitive plot, the bad art, not to mention after waiting for months for the update, spending money to get it... but all I think when looking at new acts is "OMG it's my babies I miss them so much T-T".

So yea, that's it. I don't ask much, I just want to see Misaki and Akihiko, and nothing more.

[bidokja]

I feel like orv ebook coming out revised will also change the webtoon (as in it would probably be based on revised edition instead of original) so ig time to prep myself for being called stupid and fetishizers somewhere down the line by the webtoon readers for dokhyuk and lgbt rep in orv lol

well. i agree that it will probably affect the webtoon, and i honestly think that what singshong is doing with their edits surrounding YJH and KDJ is bad and homophobic.

but i would definitely not go so far to say ORV originally has LGBT rep in it, at least not in any good way. singshong do NOT deserve any pats on the back for how they wrote anything even slightly related to characters being LGBT. literally None of it is good or respectful.

like. while i, personally, do believe KDJ is bisexual, and that there's plenty of things in canon that support that...it's not like that's ever trully canonically confirmed. and it's not just "oh he's bisexual he just doesn't say the Word". we don't even get that level of implicit confirmation, because everything is intentionally vague.

even the whole incident with Fate and "the one he loves most" was arranged so that "the one he loves most" could be interpreted as either the entire KDJC or YJH specifically. and so that the "love" mentioned was never solely or explicitly romantic whatsoever. while it's possible to interpret it as romantic love for YJH, that is not the only possible canon interpretation for it, you feel.

and like. people need to realize that they made it vague like that on purpose. not to give us readers the thematic freedom over the story, but because gaybait like that - where its vague enough for fujos to confidently cling to it AND for homophobes to plausibly deny it AND for LGBT people to start hoping for more - draws in a wider audience. it's the same thing for the relationship between Uriel and Gabriel. it's all intentionally vague, and i promise you that is Not for the benefit of LGBT readers hoping for it to be canon lmao.

and this bait happens in many moments throughout the series. for example, the "Companions of Life and Death" is never explicitly romantic companionship in nature. Midday Tryst is also a form of gaybait just from the name. The bait is also in the form of Jokes (at gay/bi men's expense) about other characters thinking KDJ and YJH are together when they aren't.

moving on from that, the only confirmed trans rep we have is JHY and Nirvana. JHY's identity is handled Horribly, especially at first. her revealed gender identity is treated with confusion at best, as well as outright transphobia multiple times from both KDJ and YJH. it's also transphobic for Nirvana to be a predatory TGNC stereotype, with the way they act towards YJH as well as YJH's reactions.

i don't think i even have to mention like. Anything involving Loki and how extremely and violently transmisogynistic That One Scene was especially.

as much as i - as a bi trans man - like to draw from these negatives and reform them into positives in any fan-works i make, it needs to be said that singshong did not make ORV with LGBT people as a tatget audience, and almost entirely uses negative tropes and gaybait. they do not get credit for simply including LGBT characters when they write them like this. they don't get the benefit of the doubt from me: i don't think for a second that their intent was to make LGBT character for the sake of representation. LGBT characters in ORV are just for bait, for making fun of, and for violence. that's literally it.

like. i know thats a downer. i get it. but the reality is that singshong are not on our side. theyre not our friends. and theyre not do their best while being flawed. there's no effort put in for LGBT people. none.

that being said, of course i still really do like the story and themes of ORV, and of Course i'm still gonna be making a ton of LGBT-centric ORV content. and of course it's not like platonic bonds are any lesser than romantic bonds in real life. but like. these arent real people, theyre characters without agency and who are written by imperfect people. we need to be critical and realistic if we are to responsibly indulge in this series (and Any media). it sucks and it hurts, but we can't just ignore all the bullshit singshong does and go "lgbt rep!!" simply because they include a few LGBT characters.

[innovativestruggles]

Extra thoughts on Daisuke x Suzue (Anime and Novel)

I was prompted to write this when a friend asked me several prodding questions on Daizue’s relationship and feminism several days ago. Obviously my friend knew where to hit the right nerve LOL

So I thought about it and I’d like to share my thoughts. I don’t know whether my DaiSuzu followers are still hanging around, but if you see this, then this is for you. This post is very opinionated of course so you may not agree with what I have to say. 

I took the initiative to go back and watch some of the FKBU episodes, and then top it off with the novel. As I mentioned in numerous older posts, the novel is the original and was written sometime in the 1970s. If you can read Japanese, I strongly recommend you grab a copy and read it for yourself. It goes into a lot more depth with regards to Daizue’s relationship and there is a lot more development between the two.

Novel and anime are different yet there are similarities. What I am going to write here is purely about DaiSuzu and because there are only minute differences in their interactions in both novel and anime, I will combine the two elements together. But before I do that, I want to talk a little about Suzue.

Suzue

I absolutely love Suzue’s character - in almost every single aspect. She is strong, clever, independent and defies all odds. Her personality and interests are definitely more pronounced in the anime in terms of strength and defying the odds. She does the hard yard - a mechanic, an engineer, a creator, a pilot, a spy, an intelligence operator - she is a one stop shop and she is not just a pretty face. Then we have her novel counterpart, who shares similar traits that concerns intelligence and independence. She does intelligence and spy work for Daisuke as well, and the only thing that was absent would be her ‘mechanics and gadget development role.’ Given that the book was written in the 70s by a misogynistic piece of shit, I am surprised the author gave Suzue that level of prominence. 

When I saw the promotional materials and then the second episode of FKBU, I was so excited! Finally, a strong female character who has all the ‘male dominated’ traits! I was looking forward to what the anime had to offer her, considering the creators were talking about giving Suzue an ‘important’ role in the anime.  And throughout the series, her character in that sense did not disappointment. She did a lot of work for Daisuke and she was the backbone of everything. She even had to rescue him at times. What an incredible woman.

In comparison, novel Suzue, although a prominent, intelligent character, still had some level of submissiveness to her that screamed ‘I need a man to save me and do things for me’ kind of way. Unsurprising of course being written by an old fashioned man in the 70s. So the anime in a sense was a breath of fresh air.

Then we see the lack of screen time. Although Suzue was just a supporting character, she was quite prominent in the novel. The anime went through all this trouble to create such an incredibly strong female character, but gave her such little screen time. Disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’m just frustrated that it is always the bloody male characters that gets a lot of screen time. I don’t give two fucks about your need for a fanservice or to appease fujos, we need more female characters who are strong, clever, independent, does not need a man to save her, is not overly sexualised and gets plenty of screen time. If it’s not one, it’s another. Can’t they just bloody do it all together? Also, have three main characters, Daisuke, Suzue and Haru ffs.

Feminism & Anime

If you trawl through my blog, there are a lot of posts about women, feminism, misogyny, toxic fandoms and a lot of het ships. Although I do absolutely love my M/M and F/F ships, there is a reason for my interest in anime het ships. I am a social worker who specialises in working with victim/survivors of family/domestic violence and sexual assault (DVSA), and complex trauma. Considering the majority of perpetrators are men, and the majority of victim/survivors are women, it is important to emphasise the need for a healthy and respectful relationship. I enjoy bringing my feminist perspective to film and fiction because they are an extension of society. Film and fiction (including anime and manga) are based on societal perceptions, and characters are still, unfortunately, heavily gendered. 

The anime fandom consists of real people and if you look all over social media, people talk about the characters all the time and their thoughts on them. It comes from somewhere. So when I watch anime, and when I see a male and female character get together in a manner that is healthy and respectful, they get a standing ovation from me. In particular, is when a male character treats his female partner in a way that empowers her or if he abstains from using his male entitlement to demean her. Because in society, there is still a large proportion of men who continues to abuse women in every way possible. If fans are constantly viewing content (yes, even ‘cartoons’) where women are objectified and disrespected comparatively to men, that rigid stereotype is reinforced and ingrained. 

I just want to add a note here that the LGBTQIA+ community do experience DVSA as well and this post does not disregard or invalidate them in any way. The focus of this discussion however, pertains to men, who make up the majority of perpetrators and, women, who are the majority of victim/survivors.

Daisuke and Suzue

I answered an ask sometime ago about why I ship DaiSuzu and although that has not changed, I have given a lot more thought to the reasoning behind it. The one thing I dislike about Suzue is her obsession with Daisuke, both in the novel and anime. It does take away her cool, independent like character, and submit her to the idea that she is nothing without first appeasing a man (Daisuke in this case). I don’t want to put too much dislike into her character in the anime, because we never got to see what her history was like with Daisuke. In the novel, I do see elements as to why she can be a bit obsessive, and that was most likely to do with her being ‘adopted’ and given a second chance. It was her way of showing appreciation. Yet she does have romantic feelings for Daisuke, so in essence, her character was emphasised as a typical lovestruck woman 😒

Again, she was incredibly loyal and forgiving towards Daisuke in the anime, despite his shitty attitude towards her at times. You’re probably wondering, after all that I wrote about feminism, why I would still ship DaiSuzu? In the anime, that comes down to Daisuke’s trauma. It added an extra layer of complexity. Daisuke’s standoffish, cold behaviour towards Suzue was not out of a sense of male entitlement and disrespect towards Suzue being a woman, rather, it was a manifestation of his trauma. Of course, it does not excuse his behaviour, but this is the reason why I really enjoyed watching their relationship. There was a lot of mutual trust going on (which I wrote about), covert appreciation of Suzue’s skills and abilities and Daisuke’s own way of making amends with her. 

In the novel, however, Daisuke does not have a history of any traumatic experiences. His personality was a lot more animated and though he does exhibit some weird behaviour towards Suzue, he does not do it out of male privilege or misogyny. He was just dense (and an idiot).  

Regardless, DaiSuzu’s relationship isn’t just as simple as black and white. There are elements of feminism that intertwines the anime and what I love a lot about Daisuke was that he never put Suzue down, felt intimidated, or tried to make her feel inadequate for being more clever and more intelligent than him. He relied on her knowledge, her skills and her expertise to guide him through his missions, because not only did he trust her with his life, he believed in her skills. He quietly allowed her to do her job without questioning her abilities or intervening.

I won’t discuss how shit the anime was and how much they shat on Suzue’s character by making her Daisuke’s relative, but like I said, I was pretty impressed with the way they turned Suzue into a strong character, and Daisuke’s perception of Suzue as a woman.

And yes, Daisuke doesn’t deserve Queen Suzue. And if you were again to ask me about Daisuke’s true feelings for Suzue? I am pretty damn certain that he loves her to death - in both novel AND anime.

[the-fujoshi-thesis]

"That Japanese women, free of male interference and influence, should seek to create a fantasy world populated by beautiful boys who fall in love not with beautiful girls but with each other is certainly interesting. However, the expectation that in an ideal world women would prefer to fantasize about love between men and women is itself a patriarchal or at least a heterosexist assumption."

Mark McLelland (2000) "No Climax, No Point, No Meaning? Japanese Women's Boy-Love Sites on the Internet"

Though this text is nearly 21 years old, it was one of the only ones which explicitly went into the differences between the genre we today call BL and gei komi. Apart from that though this quote at the end was really illuminating on some issues leftists and left-leaning people on Tumblr and Twitter have.

At this late hour my brain isn't working properly anymore but the sentiment of 'women who read BL are fetishizers' goes completely counter to the second part of the quote above. Many left-leaning people on here would certainly agree that that quote is somewhat true, though how do the fujoshi haters justify believing in both at the same time?

Part of the answer is probably the prevalence on T/T of the extreme sides of identity politics where you're not allowed to create and consume content that does not exactly align with your own identity. That's one of the reasons why fujoshi haters cry about heterosexual women reading m/m content because those women are actually only allowed to read f/m content (of course bisexuality is completely forgotten here).

(Also that's another reason for the radfem infested anti fujoshi people to sometimes hate on queer, the word and the people, as well, because a queer person would be allowed to read queer media but that encompasses too many people and too much media. And the radfems cannot have that.)

They also divorce those two opposing statements from each other by narrowing down and redefining what they mean by the woman part of 'woman who fetishizes'. It's the fujos who are fetishizers. Why are they the fetishizers? Because they're fujos. They read yaoiiiiiiii.

Hmmm. I smell the racism.

You ask them what the difference between yaoi/BL and slash fiction is and they start with anecdotes from a decade ago and cite "problematic" elements, except "problematic" elements existed and still persist in slash as well so are all slash shippers fujoshi now too? Or do you need to be of a certain Japanese persuasion to be called that?

What about gei komi/bara? This same text goes into great length to discuss recurring narrative and stylistic choices in gei komi (extreme power differences, 'the penis as a weapon', brutality and sadism) that would make any given gei komi manga a hundred times more problematic than a random BL manga. But gei komi is for homosexual men so it's actually alright. Either because you are actually allowed to read fucked up stuff if you have enough identity points or men are just excused from criticism for some reason in fandom spaces.

Maybe because they don't make for good targets? Maybe you think women are just easier to influence and to form to your ideal version of a proper woman?

Maybe I'm smelling some misogyny here.

But anyway, those were some fleeting thoughts I had after finishing that text while white supremacists had occupied the US Capitol building.

[deltaengineering]

Bummer Anime 2018 Part 2: shoujo to the rescue

It got better, mostly because it could hardly get worse. That doesn’t mean it was a smooth ride, of course. I would like to state, for the record, that I’m not trying to be the funny guy who hates everything here; the season’s just that unusually bad. As before, the source for the ad copy at the end of each block is this.

Asobi Asobase

What: A bunch of assholes play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

✅ It’s another exuberant comedy, and unlike Chio-chan, I can’t catch this one on the execution: It has the technical chops and honestly good comedic timing.

❌❌ Initially wants to make you believe it’s a pleasant cute girls doing cute things show, but what it actually is is a brutally annoying and ugly explosion in the reactionface factory. Since the production values are there, it’s rather too good at that.

❌❌ I was trying to compare it to something, and the best I could come up with was rage comics. Yeah, it’s anime rage comics. It’s that bad.

❌❌ I would feel more benevolent towards it if it were shorter, but at full length its high energy screaming based assault is mostly just tiresome.

♎ This is one of those rare shows where even I will say your mileage may vary. It’s really good at what it does, but I hate everything it does. Hooray for the subversion, but at the end of the day you’re still annoying and ugly.

ANN sez: “It's this exact mix of stupid crassness and innocent naiveté that I think truly defines high-school life, and Asobi Asobase nails it perfectly. “

Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria

What: A smartphone with a light novel protagonist attached time travels to the bronze age, establishes a incest-fascist harem regime with the power of Wikipedia.

❌❌ read the synopsis again please

❌❌ there’s more idiocy than that, believe it or not (ex.: smartphone hotline to his actual imouto, for the feels), but I haven’t got all day.

❌❌ Basing your isekai shit on “history” (i.e., a LN author’s idiotic idea of history) instead of an MMO or whatever only serves to piss me off even more.

❌❌ Actually not better than Isekai Smartphone, which makes it one of the worst anime episodes I have ever seen. Congratulations. The only thing it has over Death March is that it doesn’t spend 80% of the time in menus, but it makes menus look pretty good so it’s a wash.

ANN brainfarts: “Yuuto also seems to be limiting his phone searches to historically accurate things as well, which shows that he's really thinking about the fact that he's in the past – no one's inventing the rocket here, they're just learning to grind grain and use the phalanx formation for battles.”

Phantom in the Twilight

What: Chinese girl travels to London, inadvertently inherits her great-grandma’s vampire harem. 

✅ Step 1 of every otome harem appraisal is determining how much of a wet blanket the protagonist is; Ton here is pretty spunky and even gets to kick some ass, so well done on that.

✅ Some of the right kind of nonsense for my taste, stuff like chav goblins and Jiangshi with miniguns is always appreciated.

✅ Random shows ending up with bizarre minimal techno soundtracks is still something that I approve of.

❌ Still not the glorious kind of nonsense that Dance With Devils had, nor the disregard of actual romance in favor of comedy that Dame x Prince exhibited. It’s an otome-ass otome harem and that’s not inspiring confidence for the long term.

❌ Looks cheap, and that won’t be getting any better.

ANN sez: “The fantasy worldbuilding here also felt far more sturdy than in many similar shows; this isn't a world where the Good Fantasy Guys fight the Bad Fantasy Guys, this is a world where creatures like goblins and spriggans and werewolves all exist, all possess their own cultures and priorities, and uneasily rub shoulders with each other.”

Jashin-chan Dropkick

What: Demon snake girl wants to murder the chuuni gothloli that summoned her, gets owned right back.

❌❌ It’s the second coming of Dokuro-chan, with every punchline being torture. Quite literally for the characters, and consequently for the audience as well.

❌❌ Needless to say, the entire cast (there’s some additional supernatural babes, none of which make much of an impression) are jerks and the show being wantonly mean-spirited towards them does not cancel that out. 

❌ Somehow the second anime about eating reptile ass in recent memory. But Maidragon, as lame as it was, wasn’t as terrible as this. Jashin-chan won’t get into insipid family feels any time soon, but the alternative is worse.

ANN sez: “If this is your taste in humor, it may be worth giving a second episode to see if it starts pulling that off.”

Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes

What: Handsome genius antique dealer appraises old pottery and his assistant’s soul.

✅ I have to admit that if you somehow decided to make a otome version of Sherlock without anything so crass as murder, this is how you’d do it. It works.

✅ The leading pair has simple but effective chemistry.

✅ The studio behind it has mostly done porn OVAs before, which is the kind of meta-humor I can get behind.

❌ Based on a series of novels, so naturally the talkytalk gets out of hand.

❌ Doesn’t have the highest budget, tries to make up for it with rainbow-colored garishness. Not a dealbreaker but it could get tiresome.

ANN sez: “While Yagashira cuts a handsome figure as the bishonen, Aoi has more of an ordinary appearance – perhaps deliberately so, since I suspect that the source novels were originally aimed at female audiences.”

Shinya! Tensai Bakabon

What: Showa-era gag manga gets on air again after decades, repeatedly points out how hilarious that is.

❌ Beat-for-beat the same first episode concept as Osomatsu-san.

❌ The main difference is that Bakabon is more willing to look old as fuck, but when they arrive at the non-ruse look at the end of the episode, it’s the same as the non-ruse look that Osomatsu-san ended up at the end of its own first episode.

❌  So guess what, constantly takes potshots at Osomatsu-san, despite being a blatant ripoff of it.

❌❌ When it doesn’t reference Things You Know (if you’re a middle-aged Japanese salaryman), it references its own sorry showa-era gag manga self.

❌❌ I didn’t even like Osomatsu-san but this is an embarrassment.

♎ On the bright side, not as likely to provide fujos with incest shipping material. I fully expect to be proven painfully wrong on this.

ANN sez: Nothing. Way too Japanese for them, I suppose. 

Angolmois - Genkou Kassenki

What: Historical action show wherein a bunch of misfits in medieval Japan fight the Mongols.

✅ Fairly decent action and animation thereof.

✅ Characters seem alright for this sort of thing. Maybe a bit too tryhard violent for my tastes, but that’s still within acceptable parameters.

❌❌ The looks are ruined in postproduction. I could live with the heavyhanded color correction, but what really kills it is the same omnipresent static paper texture over every single shot. It’s bad when it doesn’t change between shots but it’s devastating when it doesn’t move along with zooms and pans, which this show has a lot of.

❌❌ Seriously, I haven’t seen anything as senselessly destroyed by a single AfterEffects layer since Garo: Vanishing Line’s Parkinsonscam, but at least that only affected impact frames. Here it’s literally every frame. Delete that PNG you damn fools.

❌ So yeah, it’s okay-ish but that’s not enough to survive one boneheaded executive decision that’s impossible to ignore. It just comes out as a net negative.

ANN sez: “From its beautifully animated, choreographed, and directed fight scenes to its generally dynamic compositions and keen understanding of visual economy, Angolmois is a visually stunning production.”

Lord of Vermilion - Guren no Ou

What: Tokyo gets enveloped in red mist which raptures most of the population and turns the rest into JRPG characters. They start fighting, we promise.

❌ Has the shape of an obvious Persona clone, but isn’t one; it’s actually based on an arcade CCG. So the source material isn’t very classy to begin with.

❌❌ Haphazardly thrown together so it’s hard to care about anything, especially not the characters.

❌❌ Opens with a flashforward to the climax, so we know this will just end up as overdesigned dudes and dudettes having allegedly epic battles that the show can’t afford to make look good, but can afford to make very red. Thanks for the heads up, I guess.

❌ So it’s quite bad, and not even funny-bad like Caligula was.

ANN sez: “There are always a few action shows like this every season, and they're always entirely overshadowed by that season's versions of shows like My Hero Academia and Banana Fish”

Grand Blue

What: City slicker moves to a beach town expecting to end up in Amanchu; ends up in Animal House instead.

❌❌ Say it with me: Every punchline is the protagonist making a shocked face at dumb meatheads doing something stupid.

♎ For something that I feel like I should hate every second of, I actually didn’t hate it all that much. I even thought it was mostly sort of enjoyable. I don’t really know what exactly does it but I can offer some ideas:

✅ While the punchlines (well, punchline) may be bad, the jokes themselves aren’t. This is a real sitcom with larger-scale comedic setups than you usually see in anime, jokes build upon each other and keep escalating.

✅ Sleazy fratboy humor about partying hard and drinking like an idiot isn’t very profound, but rare at least in anime. And it’s amusing that the overall conceit is that it’s preventing iyashikei from taking place. Novelty counts for something. 

✅ Manages to build awkward comedic situations about buff dudes with their dicks out without resorting to the same old gay panic jokes. Just regular panic, no homo.

✅ Makes a good Friday beach bum combo with Harukana Receive, which incidentally also got better by embracing its more prurient side.

ANN sez: “If Grand Blue Dreaming has a major Achilles heel, its that it isn't self-aware enough to recognize when a joke has run its course. ”

Happy Sugar Life

What: Yandere sociopath adopts a preteen girl (from a parking lot). It’s cute, only not.

✅ Is fully aware that everyone in this show is an asshole and is honestly trying for subversive. At least on the surface.

✅ Goes all on on the imagery, which works. At least on the surface.

❌❌ Simply exploiting the contrast between cuteness and insanity got old about a decade ago; this cranks up the presentation on both sides but doesn’t really add anything new.

❌❌ About as mean-spirited and unpleasant as Mahou Shoujo Site, while having even less to say. 

❌ Doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere; it’s just going to be the main character pwning other people that are just as flamboyantly fucked up as she is, but not as good at it. Starting with a flashforward to the (very edgy, of course) ending like Lord of Vermilion doesn’t help either. And even if they end up rusemanning what is implied there it won’t be much better.

ANN sez: “Happy Sugar Life was on my list of most-anticipated anime this season because its combination of disparate elements seemed so utterly perverse that I was curious to see how they could possibly fit together.“

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

What: Girls slowwalk in an academy for stage arts by day, get into metaphorical superbattles by night.

✅✅ What can I say, it’s Love Live x Marimite with a glossy coating of Ikuhara-style operatics. A total deltabait concept if I’ve ever seen one.

✅ Clones the storytelling approach of Ikuhara but not many of his specific directing mannerisms; Since I’m tired of the latter but a sucker for the former, this is a good thing.

✅ In a similar vein, this trades Ikuhara’s functional ciphers for actual characters and his enigmatic arthouse plots for something that obviously makes sense. 

✅ How gay? So gay.

❌ Has the opposite problem of Grand Blue: This is a show that should blow me away, but doesn’t. In fact, if it didn’t bring the big damn musical theater complete with one of the best and most appropriate henshins I’ve ever seen near the end, I’d say it was fairly lame.

❌ Probably has something to do with that in the course of casualizing Ikuhara, the “real” world ended up too bland and the characters too generic. I get that it’s for contrast, but it can be done far better (see Yorimoi for an example).

✅ In any case, it still seems easily worth watching even if it’s not as good as it could be. Maybe it’ll even get better.

ANN sez: “All I can say for certain is that it comes completely out of nowhere, and that it raises all kinds of questions about what kind of series this is going to be.“

Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san

What: Impoverished ghost hunter checks into a haunted hot spring and interacts with the harem that happens to live there.

❌ As generic a 90s ecchi harem comedy as they come; my correspondents tell me that this is extremely reminiscent of Love Hina. Shockingly it’s actually based on a 2016 manga, but you wouldn’t be able to tell.

❌ As such, an abundance of accidental boobplants and other saucy accidents makes up the bulk of what’s going on this show.

✅ The main ghost girl is fairly cute; The main dude is also relatively bearable and has at least one good joke in his backstory (which I won’t spoil), so the core dynamic is surprisingly fine. If the rest of the harem weren’t there, this wouldn’t be such a bad setup. 

❌ Features those dastardly breast-hiding light rays, reportedly even in the AT-X version. This doesn’t affect a large part of the show (the majority is more like the cap above), but boobies are probably still the only reason anyone cares about any of this.

♎ Certainly not good, but the lame shit of yore is not what I’m going to spend energy getting mad at in 2018. The 24 minutes I’m ever going to spend with it felt more nostalgic than anything.

ANN sez: “Ninja girl Sagiri comes off the worst from the situation, with nearly all of her dialogue spent promising to beat the crap out of anyone who doesn't measure up to her moral code. I imagine there must be more to her and the rest of the supporting cast than what we've seen so far, but at the moment they seem an awful lot like stock characters.”

Sirius the Jaeger

What: A broody werewolf and his team of assorted bad dudes hunt vampires in 30s Tokyo.

✅✅ Looks ace, this is an action show with deluxe everything. It better, because being directed by Masahiro Ando is pretty much the start and end of this show’s unique selling points.

✅ Interwar Tokyo with a bit of a gothick twist is a cool setting, and this show can afford to portray it properly.

❌ Seriously though... edgy vampires and edgier werewolves. Come on, son.

❌ Just like Banana Fish, this is a highly polished implementation of something that fundamentally isn’t very interesting to me.

✅ I’d still take it over Fanana Bish because this doesn’t seem to take itself so bloody seriously and is far more comfortable with just being moody action schlock. It’s also less showoffy, believe it or not. What else are you going to watch? Sirius the Jaeger is what you’re going to watch. Sorry.

ANN sez: They only have a preview from Anime Expo, and that boils down to “The second episode is where things start to get interesting.“ I sure hope so.

Well, we got a few acceptable shows in if nothing else, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which ones those are. I’m cutting my losses here, see you in three months for a hopefully more bountiful season.

[icharchivist]

Was there a lot of drama in the dgm fandom in 2008? All I can remember is the ship wars

Heyooo!

Okay my bad I mixed up the dates I meant 2009 dkjhfdf but -

Disclaimer, I was 14, I was both in the French and the English fandom of dgm - in the French fandom, I was in a general forum with a lot of guys and lots of theorizing, and in the English one I was in a roleplay community mostly focusing on the Noah Family, which wasn’t talking as much in detail about the show. I was distant to shipping, I wasn’t a shipper, but I knew a lot of shipping community in the RP community.Also disclaimer, I was staning the Noah and I h a t e d Lenalee. (I come a long way.)And, I lived the Alma’s arc. 

I will put it under cuts because man the memories, but here you go.

Notice though that at least where I was, I never experienced actual harrassment (the closest was probably the shithead of the French fandoms but I enter in details about it under cut). Honestly when comparing to some stuff in recent fandom history, it wasn’t...... The worst thing ever, but it was still a ride.

Take care ;O

-Shipwars. Shipwars everywhere. 

In English fandoms, it was especially the usual shipwar you see. Like “guh who would ship THIS ship when you can ship THIS ship” and the usual. Since the characters of the show are mostly guys, Lenalee was seen as a threat by shipping community who hated on her because she got in the way of the ships.  Shipping any ship with Lenalee was considered bad on the mlm shippers side.

In the French fandom, as I said, I was mostly with dudes, and especially dudes who were veryyy not into mlm. (They were repeating on the forum that girls liked mlm because it “humiliated guys”, that was a Good Time :)))))) ). Even bringing up the possibility of it being gay was causing an uproar among the guys who would call you out for being perverted that way. Note tho that I personally didn’t ship anything back then. One or two girls I knew did, and they were being clashed hard.

Guys usually shipped Allen/Lenalee or Allen/Road and they would argue about it (I remember mostly calling Allen/Lenalee boring) but it was rarely the focus of the conversations, it remained a lot of theories.

Leading to the new point:

-The Alma Arc Came Out. (SPOILERS ABOUT THE ALMA ARC AHEAD)

It was a weird time. I saw a lot of people complain on both fandom that it was rushed and coming out of nowhere (while...... it didn’t). Note also that we were having a chapter every months or every two months at this point, after all the rest of the manga was weekly. And if you don’t know dgm (well check it out and check the alma arc pls) Alma is Kanda’s canon love interest, a character who's a guy, or so presenting as such/using masculine pronoums, and revealed to be Kanda’s soulmate, his lover from a past life in which Alma was a woman. (There are debates about how to refer to Alma’s gender nowadays, but back then, everyone stuck to “he” because that was what the most pushed forward for the few months of publications and his past life stayed blurry since Kanda and Alma barely remember it. It’s relevent, i promise.)

Shipping fandoms, especially people who shipped Kanda with any of the guys, were s o upset. Because they considered Alma came out of nowhere and that it wasn’t the ship they wanted with Kanda. There was uproar against it. It calmed down with the years, and people started to love Alma (thanks god, Alma is bae).

I personally was completely destroyed by this arc and loved those two right away, so I was really good with the manga’s storyline.

So, remember when I said the French fandom I was into hated the even possibility of mlm stuff?  Ye. They didn’t like it. Like istg, suddenly the DGM subject of that forum got really quiet. When, before the reveal, some people pointed out Alma and Kanda seemed really close, the guys were shutting them down, calling them perverts or Fujo (glad to see fandom never change /s) and saying stuff like we were ruining a perfectly good story and we were stupid. 

Aaaand when Alma was revealed to be Kanda’s soulmate (who was a character we were hinted at since the second arc of the manga and people theorized about a lot), the guys went upset. Either that Hoshino was a “fujo” and it was to be expected and that it was the least interesting development possible for Kanda (did i mention they all loved Kanda?? Oh the mighty have fallen. Kanda was like, The Alpha Male for them, and this arc came to an end with Kanda showing vulnerability and love for another guy, the thing those guys were always saying was the most humiliating thing for a man. I didn’t forget.). 

The fandom on this forum grew a lot quiet after it, except for a few guys who were cool with it or guys who went “well Kanda doesn’t actually love Alma since he loved only the Past life so it’s not gay” (and fuck this. that’s so much bad faith lmao), but istg that was a riot to witness.

(I say it again, I don’t intend to debate about Alma’s gender right now, and I completely understand the debate over it nowadays, and it’s just as important to discuss about it. NonCis!Alma is still something important and therefore the relationship with Kanda is a huge thing. I just want to emphasize on the fact that straight guys who didn’t want to think about gender fucking rioted because the manga presented Alma as Kanda’s male love interest, and if you don’t know anything about Gender theory, this is what you stop at - and those Guys had none of it.)

-Allen was considered boring// 14th Debates

That was something from both Noah side I was into and the French fandom mostly, of people considering Allen being annoying/Boring. Characters like Kanda were much more appreciated (Lavi kinda fell into the background with the arcs that came out at this point, although he was still very loved in the English fandom). 

So, there were a lot of theories to “make Allen more interesting” which were mostly debates to have him join the Noah for good by becoming the 14th. There were people arguing a lot about that, and the few people who actually liked Allen were kinda upset about it.

There was of course a lot of theorizing on the 14th, and the two commons theories were “Allen will join the Noah as the 14th” or “Allen will become the 14th and, Road and Tyki and they’ll create their own third side”. 

So let’s say those people were annoyed when the 14th appeared and told he wanted to become Millenium Earl instead of Adam. Oops. 

Mostly I know there was a lot of disappointment about Nea’s introduction and the fact that it’s more a case of “Nea will remplace Allen” instead of “Allen will become a Noah”. A lot of the guys from the forum I mentioned weren’t too happy with that development, and complained about it a lot (and the further infos on Nea didn’t please them much. The latest theory group I mentioned tho were overjoyed when Tyki and Road came to free Allen though).

-Noah VS Exorcist Wars

I suppose it’s more a question of preference there, but at least in the RP community I was into, and lowkey in the French fandom, there were tons of arguing depending on which side you were rooting for. Both sides could get extremely rude and mean to each other, and it could result in the fandom with an obvious bias on who people were cheering for.

There were very few people cheering for a 3rd side (I was mostly Noah but leaning to 3rd Side, nowadays I can’t even feel myself in any sides,i’m just “please take care of those children” side), and this was usually the neutral part of the fandom.

Honestly, on me who wasn’t a shipper, and mostly on non-shipping groups? This was our shipping wars. That was what people were getting angry at. Who you were siding with.

-Lenalee Hate, which doesn’t exist in this fandom anymore right? /s

I plead guilty there because I was totally among those ones, and that’s probably why i’m so upset when I still see it nowadays. 

People hated on Lenalee for a brunch of reasons, either because she was in the middle of their ships, or because she was considered “useless” and “whiney”. The complains about her violent attitude only came a lot later tbh??  I know I didn’t like her among other reasons for that, and because a lot of characters liked her and it made me upset, and a lot of people were like that tbh. 

She got shit then, she still gets shit now. Back then though I remember at least in Roleplay community that Lenalee was always the punchline of a joke, and people roleplaying Lenalee could have a hard time with people being rude to them.

That’s honestly the most that I can remember, and honestly it was probably just the communities I was into, but I especially remember the end of the Alma Arc with the Dudebros. Like I think on tumblr we tend to forget fandoms weren’t always that opened with this kind of stuff, and that regardless of how people regard the Alma’s arc nowadays, it was huge back then. 

Everyone kinda fell out of the fandom in the following time since it’s when the big hiatus started to appear, leading to the 3 years haitus in 2012 (?). Between the Alma Arc and then, the fandom really died down and people moved on on most parts. 

On tumblr, at least when the manga restarted, a lot of people who used to be in that Old Fandom had tried to not reproduce shipwars/hatred stuff all that much. I wouldn’t say we’re out of problems though, of course, and there are still some... casual issues. (like when the last chapter came out on Mangastream the comments were flooded with slurs because people considered the chapter “too gay”, and I even saw back some of the old “Allen is boring, let him be remplaced by Nea already” fight. me.)

So that’s about it i think? kdjhjkdfh

Take care!

[psychewritesbs]

Confession: I saw you talking about jjk ships and giiiirl I started to feel bad lol. I used to really enjoy various jjk ships but after unpleasant experiences and among other things I saw out there, this whole thing just left a bad taste in me. It become very common to attack people's reading comprehension or even call them homophobic in discussions about canon, but the thing is if it's not explicitly in the story or said by Gege, then people are arguing about personal interpretations based on personal perspectives or personal preferences.

I love stsg. I think it's a canon romantic couple? No. I think their relationship is at least ambiguous? No, (but at this point I am judging from my own experience, I have a best friend and she's the person who understands me best but I can assure you that there are no romantic feelings). If I put on my shipper glasses, I think stsg can be more than best friends? Yeah. If I look for it and I find it . Also, based on my personal preferences, they have what it takes for me to like a ship lol.

The same with itafushi, I love this pair, and it hurts me that it is not appreciated enough (if you want to talk about them I will read it with pleasure). Of course I don't think there's anything romantic there, even if Megumi's answer to Aoi's question raised doubts after Aoi clarified that it doesn't matter if Megumi prefers boys or something. The desire to save each other from the beginning and the mutual understanding even if they have only known each other for a short time is wonderful. Sukuna even adds more flavor to this ship.

Anyway, discussions about whether a ship is canon or not are useless because the only canon ships can be counted on the fingers of one hand and they aren't even the popular ones. Also Gege said that he didn't think there was romance for any character except maybe Miwa with Mechamaru and we already know how it ended.

Nooooo wait 😭. Why did you feel bad tho?

I have to agree tho. One of the reasons I don't talk about jjk ships is BECAUSE of past experiences that were very unpleasant. I have also seen moots get bullied over talking about their ships.

It's almost like talking about ANY ship in jjk means you are opening yourself up for others to come shit on what you love. It doesn't matter who you ship either!

"You like yutamaki? Well I hate your guts because I'm team nobamaki!"

"How dare you?! yutarika is the only correct answer!"

"You like stsg? Well you're a delusional fujo!"

"If you like gjhm you are stupid, homophobic and support heteronormativity!"

So noisy...

But like... THIS:

"people are arguing about personal interpretations based on personal perspectives or personal preferences"

More under the cut...

I'm going to go ahead and quote Jung because, similar to what you said "we don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are" 💯.

Also, everything else you said here 👏.

After second angry anon's ask came through, I wondered whether I should take the anon option off, but the rest of your ask is GOLD, and I know that people (in general) can't say what you said without suffering the consequences of having made such a statement. So anon option stays 👍.

To that point, I never saw anything remotely romantic until I read a really good fan fiction about stsg. That's why I don't care to get involved in an "are they canon" conversation. It doesn't matter because, if I put on the pink-colored fujo glasses, I can see it and that's enough for me.

I am also not interested in going to a stsg fan and telling them their interpretation is delusional because obviously they see something I don't see without the pink-colored fujo glasses. I am not interested in negating their experience either.

The thing I didn't say in my answer to baity anon is that baity anon is not prepared to have a conversation about how "the show really... acknowledges that fans like various relationships so it feeds them these irrelevant crumbs" also includes stsg according to other people.

SO WHO OWNS THE TRUTH?!

If Gege himself said the only canon romantic pairing is mechamiwa, the question is, who owns the truth about any of the other pairings and the subtext involved?

And why does someone get to be the authority on what is and isn't authorial intent if Gege has not made an explicit comment about it--to the point that they insult others' intelligence and reading comprehension?

As you said...

"people are arguing about personal interpretations based on personal perspectives or personal preferences"

The problem is that people think that their interpretations are the ultimate truth, and that anyone who doesn't agree with them is wrong.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!

[harocat]

ameliarigby replied to your post: ameliarigby replied to your post: ...

That’s fine. But I am very happy to see that Japanese fans take victuuri quite seriously, like you said they actually tweet about the lack of rings and even the absence of JJ in the podium picture. It just gives me a sense that they see them as a real couple not just a fantasy or anything like that. Perhaps this is why some of them are very disappointed about the whole wttm thing, they want real substance not fanservice. They have enough of it.

They definitely take it seriously and think of them as a legitimate couple. Obviously not every fan is the same, and there are some outliers who, just like in Western fandom, think they aren’t really canon, but they’re a small minority (contrary to what certain translators say). Japanese fandom is well aware that YOI is not a standard fujo bait show, but is something much more legitimate in its presentation of the m/m relationship. 

There’s this weird tendency to act like Japanese fandom doesn’t get this, and I think a lot of it comes from the words of one person who people trusted just because she ‘speaks Japanese and has Japanese friends’, but by now I think people should be well aware that person isn’t really trustworthy. 

There’s a reason Jfandom didn’t need confirmation that it was a kiss. 

Of course they know what sells or else they will not use victuuri as the cover of the manga when they barely make an appearance. This is a conspiracy theory so don't take it too seriously. But some fans are actually furious about that. Right now I just hope those fanartists do not quit fandom :-( I came across with a Jp twitter user who at first put "I do not satisfy with the bonus manga" in bio and then they changed it with "I want full ver of duetto and Yuuri's FS" and after the release

I wouldn’t think too much of the manga cover. Remember that there’s no way to buy the manga separately and no one even knew what the cover was going to look like until they got their blu-rays yesterday and today. They just threw the BD art on it because it’s what the manga is for, I imagine. The Yurio art on there with them is super old promo art. 

Basically the cover of the manga is irrelevant to selling it so I don’t think what they slapped on it it was much of a decision. 

But they are absolutely right in that it was 100% a bad marketing decision to not put on a full version of duetto, which is what a large portion of fans wanted, and what was the most plot and character relevant. And really, YOI is so popular, there’s absolutely zero reason they could not have had both WTTM and Duetto. A lot of less popular shows have entire OVAs. 

If something like this pushes a fanartist out, I imagine they might have been losing interest already anyway?

(Random but I do hope that Japanese fandom knows about the ring censorship thing and is sympathetic to MAPPA about that now. I can’t imagine they don’t.)

ameliarigby: Of manga they say "I don't know what to say anymore". From that and that frustrating anon you came across yesterday(?) I call tell many are disappointed with their decision. I am sorry if I have said too much on this because I am also frustrated with the creators' decision. Why pull fanservice when you have a healthy gay relationship? I just don't understand anymore

WTtM was originally supposed to be in the show. As we know, it was on the Oh! Skatra OST, so I don’t mind that they animated it for the BD. What I mind is that we also didn’t get the full Duetto skate. 

As for the Otabek stuff, I think YOI staff didn’t really expect him to be very popular. They were not at all prepared for him to arguably be the fourth most popular character in the series in Japan (maybe over here too IDK). Merchandise didn’t feature him, he had very little screentime, etc. 

So I think the first thing combined with the second led to the creation of the WTtM manga and skate, but they also way overestimated the popularity of those things. They forgot that despite the fact that a lot of fans wanted more Otabek and Yurio, the majority of Jfandom is invested in Victor and Yuuri.

Japanese blurays cost 70 bucks a piece, and for that manga, you had to buy all six of them. For all of the extras on the final volume (outside of the live-action skating centered ones) to literally only cater to one of the three main characters. No wonder people are mad.