#12 years later and as an animation student i now do

[loujestrous325]

THERE'S NO WAY OP JUST SAID THAT. I'M/vpos

i dare you to look at this shot and tell me it does NOT pull you in somewhat

Gah I love how cybug king candy is animated like I can’t put it into words well but it’s so fun and threatening and his design is so cool and I could literally rewatch their lil fight on diet cola mountain a million times in a row it’s so good

^ this parts like my favorite bit of the whole movie I love how he moves and says it’d be more fun to kill you its so aidnwoqpskaja

[leonw4nter]

Sharp Teeth and Sandy Woodland

RE2R!Leon x GN!Reader

!! CONTENT WARNING : Graphic description of bones and muscles making unsettling noises. Don't proceed if you're not comfortable with that!

You knew that something was wrong with your fellow Raccoon City survivor Leon Kennedy when he began exhibiting bizarre behaviors shortly after the government discovered both of you, along with a kid named Sherry and a college student around your age range named Claire. He seemed to be more thirsty than usual, his throat and eyes parched more often than not despite the amount of water he consumes daily. The food served at the temporary housing that the government gave you two wasn’t too bad or dry, for you at least. The rookie cop with you, though, disagreed and expressed dislike for certain starchy and grainy dishes.

“What happened to self-proclaimed “Mr. Not A Picky Eater”?,” you jokingly ask after Leon complained about the potatoes making his mouth feel dehydrated. “You were telling me to suck up those bitter herbs but now you can’t even handle potatoes.”

Leon groaned after finishing an entire bottle of water, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Not sure. I could handle potatoes just fine back then. Probably just adjusting to the temperature differences.”

You nod, taking another forkful of the meal as you watch Leon grimace before shoving another spoonful into his mouth. Swallowing looked a little uncomfortable for him so you assume that he must’ve been coming down with a sore throat or some sort of nasal malady.

“You could use a trip to the doctor, I think you’re going to get a cold.”

“Yeah, probably.”

A day or two after that conversation, Leon came home with a normal check-up result. He asked the doctor if he was coming down with an allergy but after doing the RAST and the skin prick test if he somehow developed allergies during his short stay in Raccoon City, the doctor confirmed that he had no allergies, which concerned both the patient and doctor. He didn’t wish to reveal and explain the sudden speedy growth of body hair and the presence of it in places that it has never grown in before, like the back of his hands and lower back. He kept other bodily changes to himself, not wanting to alert you and bring unwanted attention which would cause some complications with the protection and surveillance that the government placed you two under. Sherry would also somehow be dragged into the mess he’d create if they found out about him and that is the last thing he wanted the 12-year-old to experience; she’d been through enough and officials were being odd regarding her custody.

Months later, you would notice that his blue eyes also reflected back light, like an animal’s eyes; you shot up in the middle of the night, rattled and drenched in sweat after another nightmare. In your dazed state, you reached for a flashlight and the nearest thing that qualified as a weapon at that moment– a bedside clock. Your roommate shot up as well, getting on his feet and on high alert when he heard your screech of terror, ready to defend you and himself from any threat in the dark. You pointed the light source to the source of the thudding noise, the bright beam pointed straight towards the blond’s eyes. Due to the angle of the flashlight relative to your perspective, you easily saw the greenish-yellow orbs glow which you confused for a threat and sent the clock in your hand airborne, aimed towards him. Leon cursed, rubbing his shoulder that was hit as he looked back at you to clear the confusion clouding his mind. You turned the lamp on, trying to make sense of everything that has just happened as you sink to the side of the bed and attempt to level your breathing.

“Are you okay?!” Leon springs into action, forgetting the ache in his shoulder as he walks over to help you try to calm down. “Please tell me what you need, you’re safe now.”

Your gaze averts his eyes, not wanting to relive the fear that overwhelmed you by surprise when they glowed in the dark. You shut them, hanging your head low but still paying attention to Leon’s soothing voice and instructions, counting to 10 and raising your arms over your head as you gradually calmed down.

“Nightmare?” He asked in a soft voice full of concern, pity expressed on his weary features. Many times he had also woken up like this, needing consolation from you while he shook and sobbed in your arms.

You nod, suddenly aware of the sweat you accumulated and Leon’s fever-like temperature. The concern you had shifted, going from trying to regain your bearings to the disquietude for his health.

“Oh my God, Leon, you’re burning! Get in bed, I’m going to try and get your fever down.”

“Fever?” the 21-year-old echoed, fogged. “I’m fine? I don’t have a fever, nothing’s wrong with me. Promise.”

“Please just get in the bed,” you gently pleaded as you helped him get up and walked him to his side, pushing the thoughts regarding his eyes aside.

Not wanting to argue, he follows you and lays down like he’s instructed to do. Taking his dampened sleep shirt off, he chucks it to the side and sits up against the headboard, the solid frame cool against his searing skin. You emerge from the bathroom with cold water in a bowl, a towel drenched inside. Your face is also splashed with water, some hairs sticking to your damp forehead. You walk to his side before wringing the water from the towel then placing the towel on his forehead, checking the time and subtracting by your estimated amount of minutes that has passed since he helped you calm down from the panic attack.

“C’mon, I don’t have a fever,” he carefully reasons, yet he continues to stay still. “I’m always warm, you know that. Don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m strong despite being a rookie ya know.” He throws in that cockiness, smirking to get your worry down.

“You’re not just ‘warm’, you’re burning up. Stop whining, I’m going to sleep beside you so I can monitor your temperature.” You say as you get comfortable beside him, maintaining a respectful distance before you can lazily drape your forearm over your eyes and try to get some sleep again. “Oh, yeah. I’m really sorry about your shoulder, I was terrified and I just did what felt like the most logical thing at the moment.”

He chuckles, clearing his throat before he speaks. “It’s fine, been through worse. Sleep well, we’ll need it.”

Exhaustion claims you, lulling you into another slumber but deep down you know it’s only a matter of time until the images of death and decay flash on your shut eyes then it’s time to wake up with your heart rattling against your rib bones, adrenaline pumped through your veins. Sometime in the middle of the night, your body nears his and coddles against his side where you feel his warmth the most. The feeling of hair brushing against his skin causes his consciousness to toe the line between sleep and waking, vaguely aware of your body near himself. His consciousness crosses the border of sleep and into waking, his lids slowly lifted like the red drapes of movie houses. He takes the towel off of his forehead, carefully placing it back inside the bowl you set on his bedside table. His tired gaze falls on your sleeping form, his person overcome by the feeling to tuck you against his body, huddling up, and resting his head against your chest to hear your heartbeat. The feeling is strong, too strong, and at the realization that he’s trying to quell these bothersome impulses, he whines like a desperate dog.

As quickly as the embarrassing vocalization leaves his lips, he wraps a hand around his own mouth as his cheeks burn pink in shame while he sits up and rethinks every single decision he’s made in life. He looks at you, registering the faint sounds of your breath in sync with the slow rise and fall of your chest as you sleep; he wonders if you’ve always breathed that loud, maybe he should ask tomorrow if you’ve got any difficulty breathing so he can accompany you to the doctor to get it checked. Running his calloused palm down the side of his face, he adjusts himself to properly lay down and try to catch some shut eye before he starts to hear the first bird chirp. He can only hope that you didn’t hear him make that canine noise.

The morning after was definitely awkward, not because of your panic attack but because of you seeing Leon’s eyes reflect light and him thinking that you must’ve heard him whine. Breakfast was silent, save for the clanking of silverware against porcelain and him asking if you’d like some slices of his fruit. Well, your silverware since he opted to use plastic utensils because the silverware left itchy red spots on his large palm. You were trying to piece his eyes glowing together but nothing made sense; only animals have the membrane that causes light to bounce back and the membrane also helps with seeing in the dark. Humans don’t have it and it’s impossible for a human to be having one since we can’t just develop one randomly so Leon’s eyes definitely threw you off. His temperature was still unusually high but he didn’t look or act ill, he ate just fine… as fine as drinking 3 bottles of water in a single hour can get for him. Leon avoided eye contact, ashamed of the fact that you probably see him somewhere near a mutt or a sex-crazed freak who can’t hold his urges back. He can try to convince you but he thinks that he’ll look even more creepy and defensive, making your perception of him worse. The blond decides to wait until you say something about it or a future conversation will lead to this specific topic. In the meantime that you don’t seem ready to speak to him yet, he’ll go to a local grocery store and buy some waxing strips. It’s for them, he’ll say if an agent follows him to the local grocer like he expects one to and wants to know the reason for him buying such a product. He can’t have anyone know that this is for himself, to try and rip out the ridiculous amount of hair growing in the dip of his spine because shaving isn’t doing the job anymore. Maybe even find a nail file to try and blunt the equally speedy growth of his nails so he wouldn’t accidentally scratch himself or you or anyone.

The breaking point came for Leon after three months since the first symptom, a month away from his deployment to a bootcamp to begin his specialized training before being assigned to work under USSTRATCOM. He woke up feeling crusty, his joints sore and achy like he’d ran and ran until the sun took the place of the moon and stars in the sky. He was also coming down with a sore throat– no, not a sore throat but the driest, most dehydrated mouth he’s ever had. He had done nothing all day but locked himself in the empty storage room of your apartment with a bag of different cuts of grilled meat, scarfing them down like he’s never eaten in all 21 years of living. Despite the room having a working bulb, he didn’t want to turn it on because he found it too bright and irritating for his sensitive eyes that were more suited in a dark environment like he’s currently in. With each bite, he felt like he was going crazy and was slowly losing himself, becoming more crazed and desperate to start running barefoot.

You had already given him a weird look after he came back from the store with his food, bolting to the storage room and telling you to not disturb him; you had the feeling that he was feeling a lot more than he was letting on but you let him do what he wanted to do but you were ready to step in if he needed something. He let out a yelp and placed his food back in its container, a hand coming up to rub the spot of his cheek that he accidentally bit. He ran his tongue to soothe the area, tasting a metallic tinge as the muscle made contact with the tiny cut. The wound stung more than it usually did on the occasions that he accidentally bit his cheek so he felt for his teeth if they were truly that sharp to be causing him that much pain; his canines and incisors were pointier than he remembered them to be.

He ran a finger along the edges and poked the pointy tips on the pad of his finger, the edges of his teeth less smooth and more serrated; he knows that this change is recent because he always kept his teeth in good condition and made sure to brush and floss daily, keeping his sugar intake to a limit to prevent cavities. Now that he is not eating, he observed that the gums in the base of his canines were slightly sore but not overly bothersome. His mind is going into overdrive, worried that all these bodily changes were the symptoms of another virus strain’s infection. He wanted to turn himself in to the government so he could stop himself before he lost control of his mind and dared to put you, Sherry, and Claire in harm’s way but he also didn’t want to; he was afraid of what they would do to him, what they would do to you since you’re the one living closest to him. He knows the might of the government, what they wish to do with him if he happens to fall on the side of what they viewed as their enemy. They bombed Raccoon City despite knowing that there could still be survivors who haven’t gotten the chance to get out, what more could they do to a possible lycanthrope under their custody?

“Leon? You okay in there?” your voice comes out from the other side, knocking softly with your ear pressed against the wood of the door. “You haven’t gone out in a while and it's dark out. You’re not locked in there, are you?”

His bones begin to bother him again, aching and draining all his energy. He lays on the floor, taking deep breaths so you wouldn’t hear him growl and yell out of pain.

“‘M fine,” he hisses. “Just… go… I-I’m… fine…”

You barely part your ear from the door when you hear the crackle and pop of bones, eyes widening at how loud and spontaneous the crackling was. A borderline animalistic growl follows suit, now accompanying the nasty cacophony of bones sounding like they were being rearranged and clothes ripping.

“Leon!” you exclaim, palm pounding against the door. “I’m gonna get you out! Hold on!”

You run to your room and open the lowest drawer, taking the storage room key and speeding back to the door that separates Leon from you. To and from your room, the nasty blend of grotesque noises don’t halt and neither does the pained growls, hissing, and whining coming from Leon. Thanking the gods for pitying on you and your roommate, the knob isn’t jammed and easily unlocks with a tilt. You expect a scene of gore to unfold, a deep red adorning the white walls like an abstract painting or pieces of pink flesh that contrasts the brown hardwood floor but you are not greeted by any of those yet the sight before you still made you feel whiplash, your heart pumping fast to push liquid fear into your veins and petrify you on the spot; a large wolf that you estimate to be 6 feet long with light brown eyes stares back at you, its body curled away from yours and is backed into a corner by the wall. The wolf’s fur features a sandy brown foundation with patchy highlights of blond, its coat resembling a sun-dappled forest floor. Drool drips from the side of the beast’s mouth, fangs bared towards you.

Underneath the thick and rich coat, you spot Leon’s coat and pants that have been torn to bits, the fabric indiscernible from its former state as clothing. Too terrified to scream, you simply back off and slap a hand around your mouth, tears obscuring the large wolf in front of you as you try not to think and visualize the worst: Leon in mangled bits inside the canine’s stomach. You turn around and leap atop of furniture, getting your phone to call animal control with a shaky hand. You don’t know how the animal got here and how it ate Leon without making a mess of his flesh and bones despite the snacking it did on your unfortunate friend but you’re desperate to get it out and properly grieve. You turn all light switches you pass by on, trying to blind and irritate the wolf’s vision but it beats you to reaching the room, the beast pouncing on you, and pinning you to the cold hardwood floor as nasty drool drips on your collarbone. You try to kick yourself free and push what felt like a hundred pounds of weight from your legs away, screaming and crying but the wolf doesn’t budge and instead, digs its snout in the right side of your neck and inhales deeply. You truly acknowledge keeping wildlife safe, you really do, but all rational thought escapes you and your brain is focused on surviving so you smack the canine on the side of its head, stunning it for a moment before you crawl to safety.

The discordance of bones cracking, loud whining, and claws scratching the floor once again resumes, freezing you in your spot as you watch the sight a few feet away from your legs. Collapsing on its side, the canine’s body shakes violently as it growls and howls. Bones and muscles reorganizing itself poke lightly through the skin, rippling the fur; inky black pupils constrict into tiny black dots, milky chocolate irises shifting to an amber shade and amber changing to hazel before settling on blue shocks you out of your state of being frozen still, finally reaching your phone and contacting the local animal control to come pick the animal up. After coordinating with officials and telling them about Leon, you share your address and hesitantly hang up the phone. The vile noises finally end, silence coming in to fill the soundless gap before the next disturbance, which prompts you to carefully inch your door open, a tiny gap before fully holding it open.

It takes you more than a few moments to properly comprehend the sight before you, rubbing your eyes, and pinching yourself to check if you’re really awake and all this is reality; it is and now a small flushed welt is on your left forearm. Leon is on the ground, butt-naked, and laying in a pile of patchy brown and blond fur, some of it sticking on his sweaty skin. He’s unconscious and very unusually pale, posed in the same way as the wolf was before you called. As for the wolf, the wolf is gone; it didn’t leave trashed furniture and more scratched tiles in its wake when it saw itself out. It just disappeared… or turned into Leon instead… or was it the other way around? You pick Leon up (with much difficulty), placing him on his bed before covering his lower half with a blanket and wiping the sweat from his body. Deciding to check up on his vitals, you shine a light through his eyes and relief joins in the adrenaline coursing through your system when they dilate under bright light and return back to a normal size when you take the light away. His pulse is still heightened but they’re in the normal range otherwise. He’s still unconscious but you swear you can see atypically sharpened canines poke out from pale pink parted lips; drool appears to be dried from the side of his mouth, going down into his jaw, just like the wolf’s.

Sitting by his bedside, trying to calm down as you drink a glass of water to recollect and try to process what just happened, you remember all of Leon’s peculiar behaviors prior to now and it all makes sense that Leon could be the wolf– a constantly dry throat, increased gusto for meat, reflective eyes, abnormal speed of hair and nail growth, added strength, and dislike for things with silver. You call back the animal control’s number, telling them that everything’s okay now and that you were simply seeing things, apologizing profusely for wasting time and effort. Setting the phone down, you gaze down on Leon and enumerate the things you’re going to tell him once he wakes up: ask him if he’s a lycan and what you can do to help him now that his life’s changed. In the meantime, you wonder how Leon will fare in the military bootcamp a month from now if this is going to be a regular occurrence. If he’s the wolf. If you’ll accept that he’s a werewolf. If they’ll find out that he’s a werewolf.

NOTE - YOOOO YA GIRL IS NOW ENROLLED IN A NEW SCHOOL RAHH!!! I've taken another step towards my dream of becoming a doctor but at the same time, I'm still a long ways to go but we got this yk!! That aside, I decided to write a werewolf!Leon fic because I remember coming across a fluffy werewolf!Leon fic on AO3 and I rlly loved it so I had to contribute smn to the werewolf!Leon works (that aren't smutty, which is super few). Requests are still open so feel free to continue to drop them :)) I wanna write something angsty next but then I have another fluffy fic idea in my head so the angst will have to wait >:) Anyways, that's it and thank you for reading my fic!!!!!!!!!!! I <333333333333 UUUUUUUUU AND HAPPY PRIDE TO MY QUEER READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The star dividers are from @saradika , the images are made by me (sourced from Pinterest).

[rainiishowers]

heyy, I have a request for the brothers:

so imagine the mc was chosen for the exchange program as a child (like 10-12 years old) and after they leave they don't have contact with the cast for whatever reason.

how would the brothers react to seeing mc again 10 years later when they're all grown up, with their own job, apartment, maybe a partner and stuff?

if you don't feel comfortable doing this request I totally understand, no worries :)

Scenario: MC came to the Devildom as a child exchange student and touched the hearts of all the boys. However, they didn’t stay in contact with any of them after the year was up. 10 years later, guess who calls Lucifer and invites the brothers to come visit them in the human world?

Genre: Fluff

Content: GN! MC (They/Them), partner uses They/Them as well, platonic relationships between brothers and MC, brothers be protective

———

Lucifer

This man was very relieved and extremely happy when MC called him during dinner time, it honestly felt like a weight lifted off his shoulders. Obviously had to try and calm the others down, which did not work at all. Agreed right away to coming to the human world and visiting them, and worked extremely hard to get his brothers in order during the days upcoming to visit.

He nearly teared up upon seeing them again, and these tears only well up again when MC tells the brothers about their new apartment and job. He really did feel like a proud father, even if it was only a year they were in contact, a year can change a lot of things!!

Of course, when the new partner is introduced he, like mostly all of his brothers, immediately grow protective. He’ll do the whole “anything you do to them, I’ll do to you” shtick. Will probably rigorously test their partner with questions and possibly inhumane challenges if MC doesn't stop him

Mammon

The overwhelming amount of emotions this man felt when he heard MC’s voice. He was extremely happy to hear from them again and so glad that they seem to be doing well. He did settle down but was clearly bouncing up and down as the plan for the brothers to visit MC was set up. Despite his own excitement, he helped Lucifer get the brothers in order.

He would not shut up as they arrive in the human world. They met MC at a restaurant and he was superrrr shell shocked to see how MC matured. What do you mean it’s only been 10 years??? What the fuck??? Will be endearingly annoying about how much they have grown.

Of course, makes it extremely clear to the partner that he and his brothers will fuck them up if they ever do anything to hurt MC in any way. Will do a gesture as to say “I’m watching you.” And he will be, along with having his crows do some spying

Leviathan

He will live in denial for like.. a minute before asking Mammon if this is real (Mammon slaps him upside the head gently to prove to him it’s real, he’s not impressed). He also feels some sort of relief, knowing that MC actually did care about them. He also starts thinking about the anime that he can introduce to MC now that they are now an adult, since some of the stuff was way too violent for them when they were younger. Upon meeting them again, he let his tears fall, but they were tears of joy. Levi will not shut up about the DVDs he bought and will ask MC if they bought anything nerdy that he might like. Will demand to see their anime collection if they have one. Of course, when the partner comes into the frame, he starts to think that the partner is the reason they weren't in contact with the brothers, which causes a fit of jealousy that could only be stopped if MC comforts him. Like all of his brothers, will be keeping a close eye on them.

Satan

Is in a moment of disbelief for a second. Did… Is MC really wanting to meet up with them again? He’s a bit surprised too, did they save their contacts for when they grow older? Either way, it’s clear that he’s happy that they will all be able to see MC again.

Impressed and proud when they actually see them again. He’ll voice how proud he is that they matured so much, although does remember times when he got the 10-12 year old MC in on his pranks (because let’s be real, he would). When not many people are paying attention, he’ll ask MC if they wanna pull one (1) prank of Lucifer. (Totally not 7 or 8 pranks)

It doesn’t need to be said again that he would be extremely protective of MC when the partner is introduced, but he is also glad that they found love. May or may not recount embarrassing memories MC had (someone has to shut him up, probably by recounting some of his own embarrassing moments).

Asmodeus

He was waiting for this moment! Will probably be like “I knew our dear MC wouldn’t abandon us!” And probably make the phone call 10x longer than it is with the brothers freaking out.

Like Mammon, a bit shell shocked to see how much 10 years can change a person, which is understandable because in a demon’s life, 10 years is nothing. Asmo is also glad how much information MC took in from the brothers, for example how to do skincare properly. Of course, there are lessons that MC was taught that he would rather them have forgotten Mostly ones taught by Mammon

Is probably one of the only ones not giving their partner a death glare. He’ll say something like “You picked a good one, MC~” If MC or the partner asks of him, he will not flirt, although will throw in a ton of compliments.

Beelzebub

He is over the moon excited. He's so glad that they even want to see them again.. Especially considering what has happened in the past... Oh well, MC has said long ago that he shouldn't dwell on the past, so he should try not to. Over the course of the days leading up to the visit, he gets all the non-perishable foods and other foods that he remembers MC likes and puts them in a container to take with them. Beel actually gives it to Lucifer so he can hide it, so he doesn't accidentally eat it himself. He will give MC the biggest hug when the brothers see them again, forgetting his own strength and needing to be shoved away by MC as a gentle reminder. Beel will marvel at how much MC has grown, asking if they have been staying healthy and listening to their body. They better have, and if they haven't, they will get the biggest puppy dog eyes/frown combo from Beel, who will insist that they eat some of the snacks he brought. Obviously, he can't help but be cautious of this partner, but if MC trusts them, he can trust them as well. He's more imposing then some of his brothers, and he will use that imposing look to make sure that MC isn't harmed.

Belphegor

Has mixed emotions. Obviously very excited that they will get to see MC again, however, he is almost sure that he left a mark on MC's psyche, probably a negative one. Although, the others who attacked them probably did as well. Belphie pushes that aside and focuses on trying to be excited for the visit, trying to "catch up on sleep" (he tries to use this as an excuse to skip RAD). Surprised and gladdened to see MC is doing better. Perhaps they got professional help or there is another cause for it. Although, he still notices that MC is a bit.. cautious around him, seeming to be careful with their words when talking to Belphie and not really keeping eye contact with him. This is understandable. He tries his best to make it lighthearted. He definitely pulls Satan and MC into a few pranks on Lucifer.

Will get all hissy and protective when the partner comes into frame. Will not stop from glaring daggers into their soul. If they prove themselves to be worthy of MC, he won’t give them nightmares but if anything gives him a bad vibe, he’ll give them the most violent nightmares.

[chibivesicle]

Current manga[ish] reading list in no particular order

Neighborhood Story (Gokinjo Monogatari) by Ai Yawaza - I now own up to volume 3 of the English release of the manga. The four volume set is based on what I believe was the 10th Anniversary reprint of the manga in Japan. The French edition also follows the four book format but I think the German sticks to the original seven. I have the original tankobon editions for volumes 1-3 where when you line them up, it creates a long dinner table with the entire cast.

I read the entire manga in the early 2010s via scans and had spent the late 90s to that point praying for an official release after Paradise Kiss was printed by Tokyopop. The series was old enough that in the late 90s early 2000s no one was out there doing the line by line translations that I used to use to read manga. I read all of Wish that way with the original manga and the speech bubble guide. e.g. page 12 panel 5 Overall impressions - this was a white whale for me - I likely bought the original manga when I was sixteen or seventeen based on the art style alone. I would say it falls into your standard dramatic shoujo manga with high school students but the lives of ones in counter-culture, outside the norms of usual expectations. When I read the scans I enjoyed it and while it was nothing mind blowing it is a rewarding read. The various individuals sporting alternative fashions is one of my favorite aspects of it. You have a MC who leans mostly towards mod style (Twiggy from the 1960s) with a strong vintage twist, punk, lolita, generic 90s alternative dude, preppy and your designer brand girl.

I look forward to getting volume 4 and completing the set, just it will be likely 28 years later than I would have wanted. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda - I sprung hard for the recent English hardcover editions. One of my friends lent me her roommates 2 volume tankobon set of this series in 2000, but it too lacked a good translation to find online and read along to it. I watched the anime in 2014 and bought the DVD box set. Of course, I couldn't say no to this classic shoujo manga. I'm through the first three volumes and slowly working my way through it. Seeing that I already watched the anime, nothing in it is overall surprising.

I have noticed that early on the level of gay is pretty high and this current "twist" of Andre getting closer to Oscar is much stronger than I felt in the anime. The entire loss of Rosalie and her fawning over Oscar was a disappointment, also toned down in the anime. There is a lot more questioning with Oscar's character as to who she is, what she desires and how to fit into her world. I really wish it pressed those questions more but alas, I'm really starting to feel the Oscar x Andre pressure ramping up. In the anime I felt like it sort of came out of nowhere and in the manga it is more like - okay Rosalie's crush was cute but real adult relationships need a man. lols. Even with my different opinion on the manga compared to the anime, I cannot stress how owning such a fundamental manga series is. I don't think I'll ever attempt a meta on this - more than enough already exists about this with how long it has been around. Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama - An impulse purchase at The Comic Swap on Allen Street. I'm pretty sure some of the individual volumes of X and other early 2000s manga were on the shelf when I was in university.

I'd heard some good murmurs about this manga and a friend kept recommending it. I can't explain how blown away I was this series. The art style is amazing with little use of screen tones and the emphasis on line art. With the author's previous work for DC and Marvel it shows but in all the good ways as far a composition and again that line art. And we haven't even gotten to the story itself! I have read through volume 3 and the pacing is excellent. It doesn't info dump how magic works and the world building is natural and unforced. It already has brought up great questions about who controls knowledge, disability vs accommodation, dealing with trauma, what is your purpose in life/goals. It has the right amount of whimsy that you feel cozy but at the same time you know when shit is serious.

What I feel the most is that Witch Hat Atelier is intentional with everything in it. It is a carefully constructed story and comes together naturally with a good balance of young pupils and adults. And the character designs! Oh my goodness, I love them all.

The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga - Can't skip my gal Mao Mao. I mean I cosplayed as her back in April because how frequently do you get a pragmatic female lead with deadpan humor and is a scientist who likes plants? I also watched the first season of the anime loving every moment of it and how it really shines with its focus on women navigating a world not made to really benefit them. I decided to read the original light novel instead of the manga based on the light novel. I think by time I finish volume 2 I will have caught up to season 1 and hopefully, pull ahead of the eventual second season which comes in 2025, I think.

Out of all the titles, this one is likely my biggest guilty pleasure as a plant biologist; Mao Mao as a character has a lot of common scientist traits which make her very relatable and fun to see in any sort of media. Her obliviousness to certain things not because she doesn't have an eye for details but because she can't be bothered is realistic but rarely given to a female character in most forms of media regardless of cultural context.

Will I dive into the rest of these series for a meta? I'm honestly not sure. I may do a "quick" review of Gokinjo Monogatari when I complete volume 4 but it isn't the sort of manga that feeds into deep critical analysis. It is a coming of age story about artistic kids and looks cool.

I'd likely be more inclined to tackle Witch Hat Atelier but sometimes I just want to read something and not deep dive into it even if it intellectually feeds my curiosity. My current plan is to catch up on the manga and I'm relying on my county library to read volumes 4-13. If I really like it, I'll probably become a sucker and buy it at some point but I need to be a little more mindful of my manga purchases for the sake of my overflowing bookshelves. I took one of those surveys about how much manga you own and I wasn't expecting to clock in at almost 200 volumes when I've given away/sold/donated them from time to time.

I've got some thoughts on Kekkai Sensen but I'm waiting for the next chapter to drop since it ended on a cliff hanger with that plot twist where the "Count" from previous statements in the manga was not some old frumpy classic Dracula like Blood Breed but instead in a teenage form as Edgar. I liked the twist since I was suspicious of his character but didn't think he might have been the true mastermind of things. But we'd be lazy readers if we'd forgotten that Blood Breeds can easily shapeshift as demonstrated with Girika and Tonio. I will always give her ultimate cougar cred testing out her boy toy before committing to making him a Blood Breed instead of snacking on him.

[magpiking]

The Diary of A Desperate Schoolgirl

ₓ˚. ୭ ◦˚.୭ ˚○◦˚ Magpi's Intro ˚◦○˚ ୧.˚◦ ୧ .˚ₓ

❧ name: Magpi/Em

➺ pronouns: any is fine! idrc.

❧ age: 17

➺ fun fact: I used to have a thing for all things creative, though thats died down as school got tough.

I'm making this blog as a way to hold some accountability over my studies. Unfortuantly, as surely many out there have experienced - I'm a classic case of :

"I used to do quite well in school! What happened to me?"

In primary (K-6), I was always a crappy student. In my memory, I often got C's, though now my parents tell me I got a few B's and A's too - but their word cannot be completely trusted. I remember the dread of reports coming back in their A4 yellow envelopes, and how I never wanted to open them because my parents, my family, my extended family even, thought grades were god. And to that line of successful, responsible thrivers of high stress, letting anybody besides intermediate relatives even have an inkling that you were supposedly stupid would mean that they would be less inclined to waste time lending you a helping hand in the future. I suppose, they had no reason to believe otherwise - all values are borne from foul truths somewhere, somehow.

Then, when I reached highschool (Yr7-12), I had the luck to manage making it into a decently academically-prestigious school, filled wih those who all shared in some degree the same sentiment.

The ugly duckling surrounded by swans all it's life had no doubt in its mind that it had the capability to fly.

This is not simply that case where the monkey, fish and bird were examined on how fast they could scale a tree. It is in human nature to wish to excel - a person who has never wanted to better themselves is firstly:

not a happy person

and secondly:

To not want better of yourself is a person with no dream, and a person who says they have no dream is a liar.

And what is this dream? Where did it come from, and how did it form? Surely such intangible impressions are sprung from fragments of what you have seen, heard, of those around you?

The monkey, the fish and the bird do not value climbing the same way as the animal that came respectively before them - but surely they too seek to excel in what matters to them, like the carp to the marlin, the monkey to the ape?

Anyways, in my classic case, maybe I'm meant for something different, something not academic. But I want to be...! "Find what you're meant for" doesn't take into account what I want to be made for. It's not common, but what happens when I put passion into something, and find out that I'm still not enough?

And anyways, even if I'm meant for something else, discovering that can come later, after this year, after my final exams, and during this time, I will continue to hold on to the belief that grades are god until I actually somehow manifest an academic comeback.

In high school, it was revealed to me that my primary school had some messed up way of marking and grading, and those poor scores finally shot up to where I wanted them to be. Where I wanted to be.

And maybe, thats where I got cocky.

Of course, theres a certain pride that comes with passing an exam with flying colours when everybody knows you hadn't been paying attention in class, or studied majorly for. It was my defining trait for a few years, how did I forget all my efforts from primary school? It was an evil sort of pride, one that brought me to the state I am now. Sure, I'm still passing, but from high 90-somethings to straight up 50% is not a good look. In fact, it's something that brings out that sickly cold in my gut, and maybe a sense of sea sickness despite sitting on my bed, on land.

... hubris. That was my hubris, what am I, a character in a play? Why am I going through hamartia??? Someone tell whoever's writing my life story to put the pen down and stop being a wannabe Aristotle, it's lame, and it's not fun.

So, I now see where I went majorly wrong. And of course, I wouldn't spend my time lamenting. And I recognise that I need to actually lock in hard, and theres still a chance for me. As much as school sucks, learning is fun, and honestly, in proper adult life, not many people have time to purely dedicate hours to master new crafts and knowledge.

But here's the problem. I'm so used to doing absolutely nothing, that I keep procrastinating, and probably a bunch more mental blocks keeping me from picking up my pen to study. It kinda physically hurts to switch from doomscrolling to focusing - which is also a warning of sorts, I guess. Doomscrolling actually kills your brain, I swear. My dopamine receptors are utterly fucked. I visited Instagram reels and Youtube shorts maybe a total of 7 times while writing this? It's insane.

I don't actually have any clue on how to run a study blog, so maybe I'm just going to put my to do list's and progress checks here, and maybe some sappy motivational quotes. Anything to keep me going.

[crowleysgirl56]

The year was 1996. Growing up in Australia one of our free to air TV channels (channel 7 specifically) had a kids morning program that would show random cartoons (shout out to anyone who understands when I reference Agro’s Cartoon Connections). One particular morning I woke to a new cartoon. The animation style reminded me of Transformers and its theme song began with a catchy guitar riff.

🎶Fighting evil by moonlight. Winning love by daylight!🎶

Wait. What?! This is certainly something that Ive never seen before. Intrigued I watched with rapt fascination. There was a talking cat and a girl with beautiful long hair who was actually a secret super hero.

Her name was Sailor Moon.

I was 12 years old and completely hooked. I immediately started wearing my hair in pigtails (I was never able to grow my hair long and it was always terribly thin. Oh that hair envy never went away). I fantasied about how I was also a secret moon princess and one day my Tuxedo Mask would find me and whisk me away. I would look for Luna on every corner, but the talking cat never showed up.

I remember crying so hard when Serena and Darian (original English dubbing!) were separated and ached for them to be reunited (gee, funny how those kinds of obsessions never go away. Or just get transferred…). It was only ever season 1 and 2 that aired here and I was lucky that they replayed it at least three times over the years. I remember there was this one tiny shop at my main shopping centre devoted to anime (a rare thing in the 90’s and early 2000’s) where you could buy VHS copies of season 1 and 2. Unfortunately a poor high school student could not afford $36 a tape.

Years later when Sailor Moon Crystal started, the same English dub cast redubbed the entire original series as well. I eventually collected them and watched them all on DVD, and watched all the episodes I never saw (man, Sailor Moon Super S really rambles doesn’t it).

I loved Crystal because I thought the retelling in a more condensed version (without the filler episodes) got us to the point of the arc much quicker. And I like that Usagi and Mamaro didn’t hate each other to begin with.

With the second part of Sailor Moon Cosmos now watched it brings my Sailor Moon journey to an end (well…not quite an end, I never did get around to reading the mangas). But as a 40 year old woman who’s been obsessed with this show since before I was a teenager, I’m always amazed I still love it as much as I do. So whenever anyone ever tells you “this is just a passing fad. You’ll grow out of it” or somehow makes you feel disparaged for loving something so intensely, remember the things you like are for you and you alone and no one can tell you how to go about loving them.

So here’s to my first love. My first obsession. My first hyperfixation. The first couple that I desperately wished could be together, whose love never strayed far from my mind. Thank you for the journey!

[tremendouskoalachild]

i like Barriss Offee well enough but don't enjoy anything she's in and haven't watched or read any of it in like 12 years so. i'd appreciate an update or correction if anyone knowledgeable sees this. but here's my likely very skewed understanding of the situation:

2002's attack of the clones arena scene has many jedi, though most show up for a single shot or so, and they have many different alien designs to make it visually interesting. a lot of them don't do anything (not to distract from the main characters' action and because of the limitations of a greenscreen set, as well as some of the costumes and prosthetics not being well suited to action).

two of these background jedi are green-ish ladies with facial markings and head coverings (is this originally for a practical reason because face paint is more complicated when the character's hairline is visible? i don't know enough about film make-up to guess)

Lucas isn't interested in or simply doesn't have the time to establish lore for random background characters, and movie tie-in material is pumped out quickly to drive hype for the films and make the most out of the films' relevance. the early reference books and pre-aotc novels are not very consistent (remember when Tholothians were canonically just humans wearing funny hats for a while? i remember). Luminara and Barriss are officially humans and Jedi Knights for a bit. Barriss' face markings are connected to Depa Billaba's culture.

Barriss doesn't have an official age for a while but is assumed to be around Anakin's age or a bit older.

the Mirialan species is established in the lore, Barriss and Luminara being members. their tattoos are now a part of Mirialan culture. it is established that Mirialans have a deep cultural respect for the Force and Mirialan Jedi often take other Mirialans on as students.

authors are allowed to play around with the side characters because that won't impact the films. Barriss is established as a talented compassionate healer and is the main character of the MedStar duology (2004).

Barriss is at first planned to be one of the Jedi shown executed during Order 66 but the scene is cancelled, much like Shaak Ti and Luminara.

The Clone Wars 3D animated show (2008) begins development a while after the prequels end and slowly starts overwriting the Clone Wars multimedia project, because it is made with Lucas. an effort is made to keep the two projects consistent but it becomes more and more difficult the longer the show goes on. the show does incorporate some lore or events from prior media, but regularly changes them to fit its plot and characterization.

Ahsoka is the child audience pov character and needs a peer for some storylines. there are no young teen girl Jedi in the films but Barriss is close enough and her design fits well with the tcw aesthetic, which often prefers hairless characters for its animation style, especially in the early seasons. she is changed to be around Ahsoka's age and a Padawan.

Ahsoka and Barriss are established to be close, paralleled from time to time, and the writer of their main arc together later claims he intended a romance between them. (i only got this second hand and haven't fact checked this.). the barrissoka fandom forms.

Barriss disappears from the show, which focuses on different arcs for a few seasons.

Filoni is writing an important arc for Ahsoka, which needs to challenge her emotionally and philosophically as well as physically, and must culminate with her leaving the Jedi in order to be absent during Revenge of the Sith. he decides to bring back Barriss as an adversary, for the emotional drama of being betrayed by a friend.

Barriss is intended to die during this 2012 arc but Filoni ends up sparing her for undisclosed future plans. she gets arrested and imprisoned instead.

her character's previous ending, shown in the original novels as dying in service of the Jedi on Felucia, doesn't seem to work at all anymore. the MedStar duology is extremely dubiously canon at this point. the canon reset is imminent and lucasfilm has more or less stopped pretending all these events are part of the same continuity. wookieepedia editors are in shambles.

the multimedia project is officially declared Legends in 2014, and Barriss doesn't appear in tcw's new canon tie-ins. her characterization now comes only from the show. she doesn't show up in any of the prequel-era projects for years, until the novel Queen's Hope (2022).

Filoni's new canon show Rebels (2014) introduces new adversaries in the form of inquisitors, former Jedi who are now hunting survivors. one of the more prominent villains is a female Mirialan inquisitor. there is rampant fan speculation that this is Barriss. it isn't.

Ahsoka becomes a main part of the show. the fandom keeps hoping for Barriss to reappear with her. she doesn't.

Filoni creates a tcw spin-off focusing on Ahsoka (and Dooku) in 2022. Barriss doesn't appear.

Ahsoka gets her own post-original trilogy show by Filoni in 2023. there is some speculation Barriss could appear, possibly as a mysterious new inquisitor character. she doesn't.

in 2024 there is a new season of the animated tcw spinoff, prominently featuring inquisitors. Barriss is now a main character, picking up a while after the Wrong Jedi arc. it has been something like 12 years since we last saw her.

[bhhstilinski]

Chapter 6

Annabeth studied the numbers listed on the sticky label that was currently perched on her fingers. Under her name, it displayed the words “Bus 3, Group 9.” She slapped the nametag onto her shirt and glanced around for Emi.

Wading through the crowds of seniors pushing toward the front of the room for their own nametags, Annabeth headed back to her seat. Emi was waiting for her in the middle of the row of chairs. Annabeth pulled down the auditorium’s folding seat and joined her friend, assessing the numbers on Emi’s nametag.

“Different bus,” she noted, “and a different group.” Annabeth groaned, disappointed.

“How unlucky are we,” Emi stated rhetorically. She slouched in her own chair and pulled her legs up to her chest so other kids could pass by them. “At least we’ll see each other at meals.”

Annabeth shrugged and examined the nametags stuck to the shirts of the people surrounding her. “I don’t see any other group 9s,” she said.

Emi mirrored her action. “Oh, looks like Grover is in group 12 with me.”

“How many groups are there?” Annabeth asked upon spotting a girl with “Group 14” written on her nametag.

Settling back into her seat, Emi shrugged. “I don’t know. My question is, why do we even have nametags? I mean, you’ve been in school with these people for twelve years already, and I’ve been here for three. We know everyone! Actually, what’s the point of this retreat at all? If we haven’t become friends yet, I don’t think we’re going to now.”

“I thought you were excited about this,” Annabeth pointed out, recalling the many instances of Emi’s passionate raving she had been privy to.

Emi sighed and burrowed further into her chair. “That was when I thought we got to choose who we spent the day with,” she explained, disgruntled. “I don’t feel like doing camp activities with a bunch of idiots I don’t like.”

Annabeth ignored this pessimistic comment. “These must be small groups,” she concluded, still stuck on the large number. She turned around to face the auditorium stage again as the principal climbed the stairs and made his way across.

The principal began to address the senior class, but no one was really paying attention. All around her, Annabeth could hear whispered conversations and questions as people figured out who their groups were. Emi leaned over to Annabeth. “Maybe Percy will be in your group,” she suggested in a hushed tone.

“The chances are slim,” Annabeth responded. “And I don’t care anyway,” she added hastily before Emi could flash her knowing smirk.

Too late. “Three weeks ago you briefly interacted with this boy, and you haven’t stopped thinking about him since,” Emi pointed out.

Annabeth wanted to protest, but she couldn’t dispute the truth. “Whatever,” she said lamely, and leaned back from Emi. She pretended to be intently listening to the principal’s explanation about the bus schedules, but really she was just trying not to look at Emi and give her any satisfaction.

Once the principal was done talking, he dismissed the students, and the entire senior class poured out of the auditorium. They stormed toward the lobby and then out the doors, emerging into the faint light from the sun that was still rising. Buses awaited them, lining the sidewalk in a way that reminded Annabeth of elementary school. Those memories seemed to be resurfacing a lot lately.

She was one of the first to board bus 3, so Annabeth made her way to the back and settled into one of the seats there. She pulled out her phone. The bus ride would take about an hour, so she would need to entertain herself somehow.

The phone screen notified her that she already had a Snapchat message from Emi waiting for her. Annabeth sent a quick picture back. Her face assumed an animated expression as she took the photo and returned to its unemotional exterior a second later. Annabeth noted to herself that it was interesting how easy it was for her to fake a smile. She guessed it was because she’d had plenty of practice.

Annabeth pressed the power button on her phone, and the screen went dark with a click. She glanced around the bus as it filled in with other students, all chattering and laughing despite the early hour. Over her shoulder, Annabeth saw the coveted back row of seats were overflowing with boys fighting over who would get to sit there. Thinking back on it, there was no logic behind the desirability of those seats. One of them was only a half seat, so it was comfortably big enough for just one high schooler. But they had always been everyone’s favorite seats nonetheless.

~ flashback ~

“ANNABETH!” came the shout. Annabeth jumped and glanced around frantically, but she couldn’t find where the voice had come from. She had just climbed the steps into the bus, and the voice sounded like it was inside. “BACK HERE!” it yelled again.

Annabeth proceeded down the aisle of the bus, peering at the back. Just then, Percy popped into the aisle from the very back row. She rushed forward in excitement. “You got the back seat?”

“Yes, and I’m saving that one with my backpack, but the fifth graders were threatening to take it if you didn’t show up soon!” Percy responded, pointing at the single-person seat across the aisle from him. As Annabeth approached, he leaned forward and pulled his backpack from the seat into his lap. Annabeth sat down, feeling victorious.

“Wow,” she said with wonder. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here!”

Percy grinned at her happiness. “Best seat on the bus!” he boasted.

As they began their usual end-of-the-day conversation, Annabeth noticed all the other buses had already left the parking lot. She pointed this out to Percy, but before he could comment, the loudspeaker crackled to life. The bus driver’s voice projected throughout the bus.

“During the school year, we are required to perform three fire drills on this bus,” he began, “so today I thought we would do one of those. Now, can I get some fifth-grade volunteers to help the younger kids off the bus?” Hands went up, and the driver selected a few. “If we have a fire, the back half of the bus will go out that emergency exit,” he continued to explain. “You there, will you open that door for me? Just a push and a twist.”

The bus driver gestured to Percy, who looked overjoyed. He jiggled the handle on the back door for a moment before it popped open and he pushed it wide. “I’ve been chosen!” he whispered to Annabeth, eyes crinkling with his exuberant smile.

The fifth-graders chosen as helpers jumped down from the back of the bus first, attempting to look very responsible and mature as they did so, since they were the oldest grade. They turned to help the rest of the kids leave the bus, and Percy motioned for Annabeth to go first. She stepped forward and crouched down, taking the hand of the fifth-grade girl standing in the parking lot to help her make the jump. Once she was on the ground, Annabeth turned around to wait for Percy before proceeding to the “safe area,” which was really just a tree next to the sidewalk.

Percy refused any help from the older students and jumped down himself. He stumbled and fell the moment he hit the ground. He stood and brushed the gravel off of his pants, glancing around furtively. “Everyone saw,” Annabeth said bluntly. He glared at her and they made their way to the tree.

“First one here!” Percy said once they arrived, placing his hand on the trunk to affirm his victory, his embarrassment of a few seconds ago completely forgotten.

Annabeth ignored him. She stood on the grass, watching more kids run over from the bus’s front and back exits. Percy, bored, walked in circles around the tree.

When it was finally time to get back on the bus, Percy and Annabeth ended up near the back of the line. “This is so annoying,” Annabeth remarked. “We’re at the back of the bus! It would make sense for us to get on first.”

As it turned out, there was another reason why being first would’ve been beneficial. When Annabeth arrived back at her seat, she found it occupied. Her backpack had been moved next to Percy’s.

“Hey, you can’t do that!” Percy argued, indignant. “Move, this is her seat!” Before the boy who had taken the seat, who was considerably larger than Percy, could retort, the loudspeaker boomed throughout the bus.

“Everybody sit down,” admonished the bus driver. Percy remained standing, an angry expression on his face, his mouth open like he was about to protest. Annabeth shoved him into his seat before he could say anything. She sat down next to him.

As the driver announced that the fire drill had gone well, Percy turned to Annabeth angrily. “Why would you do that? He stole your seat!”

Annabeth glanced across the aisle at the fifth-grade boy sitting smugly in the seat that had, for a minute, been gloriously hers. She looked back to Percy. “It sucks, but at least we’re still in one of the back seats,” she said, trying to calm him.

“I guess,” Percy conceded, and slouched in the seat. “It is pretty cool that we have this one.”

The bus finally departed the parking lot. Percy was still shooting intermittent glares at the kid enjoying the single seat across from them, but for the most part he and Annabeth talked about their days like normal. Eventually, the stolen seat was vacated as the kid in it disembarked the bus, but Percy didn’t even notice. He was too engrossed in describing to Annabeth his harrowing experience of taking a timed division test that Annabeth neglected to mention she had aced. She also neglected to bring up the fact that the other seat was open, content to remain with Percy.

“Woah, wait,” he said suddenly, halting his story. “Look at how empty the bus is!”

The two of them stood up a bit, clinging to the back of the seat in front of them to remain upright, and peered out at the rest of the bus. Sure enough, it was emptier than it usually was at this point. They thudded back into their seat simultaneously, and Percy turned to face Annabeth excitedly, his math test forgotten. “I have an idea,” he announced.

“Oh, great,” she replied sarcastically. “That could never go wrong.”

“You’ll like this, I promise,” Percy reassured her. He slid to the floor. “Since all these seats are open, we can slide around under them!” With that, he laid down on the floor of the bus and army crawled to the next one. He climbed up onto the seat, crouched on his knees, and looked at Annabeth over the top. “Your turn!”

Annabeth followed his lead of getting onto the floor, but she instead laid down on her back and pushed off against the ground, sliding up to the seat where Percy was waiting. He beamed down at her as her face appeared from under the seat.

“Fun!” she declared, feeling like a spy on a mission. Percy apparently felt the same because the next thing she knew he was sliding under the seat while humming the Mission Impossible theme.

Annabeth joined him under the seat, and they spent the rest of the bus ride feeling like the coolest people in the world to have discovered such a wonderful pastime. She imagined herself embarking on adventures, journeying through tight caves and sneaking through underbrush in wild forests, all with Percy at her side. They were a team of explorers, a pair of outlaws, a duo of spies.

In the end, traversing imaginary worlds with Percy was much more fun than the novelty of the back seat.

~ present day ~

Annabeth wrenched her gaze away from the back seats as the bus began to move, beginning their drive to the camp where the senior retreat was taking place. The boys fighting over the seats seemed to have come to a consensus about who would be sitting there. Annabeth decided the back seat was actually pretty overrated.

The bus picked up speed as it traveled down the road. With her lack of entertainment, Annabeth’s mind wandered. She couldn’t believe she had once laid down on the floors of a school bus without thinking about all the disgusting things that were probably down there. But then, she had always behaved unexpectedly when Percy was involved.

When the bus finally stopped at the wooded camp, Annabeth bounded down the steps. She spotted Emi and made her way through the crowd. Emi twirled her long blonde hair around her finger as she chatted with a muscular, intimidating girl named Clarisse.

“Hey,” said Annabeth, appearing at Emi’s side.

The girls greeted her. “What are you going to do with your free time?” asked Clarisse.

“What?” Annabeth responded, confused.

“Apparently we have two free hours before we get into our groups,” Emi explained.

Clarisse nodded. “We can do the rope swing, the zipline, or rock climbing.”

Annabeth considered the options. “What do you want to do?” she asked Emi.

“I’m rock climbing,” Clarisse offered.

“I want to do the zipline,” said Emi.

Annabeth thought about it. Being clipped onto a rope, high in the air, soaring from one platform to another. It sounded terrifying. “Let’s do it!” she told Emi despite her reservations.

“Perfect!” her friend responded. Before Annabeth could change her mind, a camp counselor led all the seniors to an outdoor amphitheater where they received information about the schedule for the day. They were then pointed in the directions of the various activity options. Annabeth and Emi set out with the group of kids headed to the zipline.

The moment they arrived, they realized they should’ve tried to be at the front of the pack. The line was extremely long and moving at a crawl. As they inched forward, Annabeth became increasingly apprehensive about the obstacle before her.

A tall wooden platform rose up on the grassy hill, overlooking the rest of the camp. A cargo net stretched from the ground at their feet to the top of the platform, where camp counselors stood to assist students with donning their harnesses. A handful of kids were currently climbing the net, making their way to the top, while the rest of the group formed a haphazard line to wait for their turn.

As Annabeth watched, one of the kids on the cargo net reached the top and climbed onto the platform. He pulled a harness over his clothes and was clipped onto the rope. Then he pushed off and flew through the air. The boy took his hands off the rope as he glided, whooping with joy. The zipline seemed impossibly high off the ground. After a few moments, the boy hit the platform on the other end of the zipline. He was unclipped and shouted triumphantly one last time before descending the steps back to the ground, where he was now downhill from the group.

The boy sat down in the grass and watched his friends repeat the experience, each of them enjoying the ride as much as the last. Annabeth found herself growing more and more terrified as kids took their turns and hers came closer.

Finally Annabeth and Emi stood at the bottom of the cargo net, looking up at the platform above. The counselor called for them to climb up. Emi grabbed the net without hesitation, and Annabeth followed a moment later. She hauled herself up the net, wishing there wasn’t a zipline waiting for her on the other side of the climb. Emi reached the platform first, pulling herself over the top. Annabeth clambered over the edge after her. She stood up slowly, willing herself not to look down at the ground far beneath her.

Annabeth and Emi stepped into their harnesses, pulling the straps to tighten them. Emi approached the zipline first. From up on the platform, it seemed like an even longer path to the other end, but Emi didn’t seem to have any qualms. She offered up the loop on her harness, and the counselor clipped her onto the zipline. With a strong kick of her feet, Emi shot off along the rope.

Almost immediately, Emi lifted her hands into the air, shouting with glee. Mentally, Annabeth was backing away from the rope, shutting down. She wanted to climb back down into the crowd of kids below, back to safety. She didn’t want to take the chance and jump onto the zipline, even if she might love it and have a great time. The risk of failing and facing terror was too great.

By now, Emi had reached the other side. “That was amazing!” she called to Annabeth as she was unclipped. “Your turn!”

The counselor manning the zipline clip turned to Annabeth. She couldn’t move. She wanted to back away, but she stood at the edge of the platform. There was nowhere to go but down or forward. Slowly, Annabeth took a step toward the zipline. Then she took another. “Ready?” asked the counselor once she arrived. Annabeth felt herself nodding. Her harness was clipped to the rope. She grabbed the handle with both hands, suddenly aware of what was about to happen. “Go ahead,” the counselor told her.

Annabeth took small steps forward until she was on the edge of the platform. The ground was so far beneath her. She felt dizzy. Her head spun. Annabeth closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and jumped.

The rope caught her, holding her in midair, and she felt herself flying along the zipline. After a moment, Annabeth peeled her eyes open.

The view was incredible. The ground flew by in a blur, Annabeth’s classmates appearing as small, colorful dots. Annabeth’s hair flew out behind her back, her braids swept away from her face by the wind rushing by. It wasn’t scary at all. It was exhilarating.

Once her feet touched the other platform, Annabeth was surprised to feel disappointment settling over her. She wanted the zipline to be longer; she wanted to be soaring over the ground again, feeling carefree and proud of herself.

As she descended from the last step onto the grass once more, Annabeth found Emi waiting for her. “Did you end up having fun?” asked Emi as Annabeth sat on the grass beside her. “I could tell you were nervous, but I thought it would be good for you.”

Annabeth smiled, grateful as always for her friend. “You got me there. It was actually shockingly fun though, once I took that leap. Taking the chance was worth it.”

“You’re welcome,” Emi joked, literally patting herself on the back. “I’m just such an amazing friend.”

“Truly,” Annabeth agreed, but she genuinely meant it.

[warau-okami]

Limiting ideas my students have worked through

Learning a language can be difficult and most people struggle if they start learning later in life. After 15 years of age the brain starts to lose its ability to learn languages. Even knowing this sometimes we beat ourselves up because we think we aren't doing well. Here's some things my students have said and the response I've given them.

'This is taking so long. I'll never be able to speak English well.'

Me: How long did it take you to learn your first language? 10 to 12 years, right? We don't think about that because we are children. Why would it take any less time now?

'I don't know enough words to say what I mean.'

Me: OK, let's learn more words then. Most aspects of language learning are memorization. Take time to learn 30 words a month in 10 months, you'll have increased your fluency level by at least one level.

'I'm not good at reading/writing/speaking/listening.'

Me: That's normal. How do we fix it? You do more of what you are struggling with until you aren't struggling anymore.

'I keep being bored. How can I learn anything when I can't seem to pay attention?'

Me: Take time to learn about something unusual. For example, learn about a weird animal or new technology. If it keeps your attention, you'll remember and look forward to learning.

'I'm not reaching my goals. How can I be successful?'

Me: Ultimately, learning success comes from one thing: motivation. Extrinsic motivation is having motivation from outside of yourself. This can be getting good grades or completing something for someone else. Intrinsic motivation is the motivation that comes from inside of you. No one can motivate you like you can motivate yourself. The most successful students have a strong intrinsic motivation. They will learn things outside of the classroom and stretch themselves regularly. Find your intrinsic motivation, and you will reach your goals quickly.

[quaranmine]

10 Years of Posting Fanfic: A Retrospective

(If you only care about reading my writing from when I was 12, skip to the cut)

I've always enjoyed reading as a kid. I was the kid in class who was reading at a high school level in intermediate school, and the kid who had 8 library books on her desk at a time. Therefore it is no surprise that I quickly realized that I enjoyed writing a lot too.

This post cannot be a look into when I started writing fanfiction though, because frankly I don't remember. Instead, all I have to go off of is the publishing date on my old fanfiction.net profile: December 15, 2013. I'm a little too young for the heyday of Live Journal and other fanfic sites, so ff.net was my first introduction to fanfiction. I also used to use Wattpad now and then, but I never posted anything there. I preferred ff.net, and did not make an AO3 account until 2016.

In middle school and intermediate school, if you asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd tell you I wanted to be a novelist. Of course my actual career went a different direction--I'm now an environmental outreach specialist. But the great news about writing is that it can be done at any time!

Fanfiction.net was also my introduction into the world of fanfic, back when I stumbled onto some Jayfeather Warrior Cats fanfic from a random google search. It took me entirely by suprise to find out that I could actually read more stories about my favorite characters! It was like stumbling into a gold mine. I still remember how thrilled I was. I was instantly hooked, despite being more than a little traumatized by instantly finding a "lemon" and reading about cat sex at probably 11 or 12 years old. Somehow, that did not stop me. I continued to avoid lemons, and developed a huge taste for angst, whump, and hurt/comfort stories. In retrospect, I'm not sure my mom would have viewed reading about torture or suicidal characters as particularly better than smut, but oh well. She never knew.

Throughout middle school and early high school, I was constantly writing. In middle school I had a notebook and used to hand write fanfics and original stories inside. I had two friends who also liked writing, and together we'd spend time developing and editing each other's stories. It's during this time I posted my first stories on FF.net. In high school, my school gave every student a chromebook laptop, and I started writing fanfic in Google Docs on that. I was fearless and had no problems writing angsty anime fanfic in class, on a school-monitored device.

I stopped writing fanfic somewhere in 10th grade, though I never stopped reading it. I stopped writing it primarily because I spent a lot of time writing other things. I was taking college classes. I doing competitive essay writing (I medalled at state) and competitive literary criticism. I was doing art competitions. In 12th grade, I had a job reporting school news to my local newspaper. I wrote op-eds about the environment and dutifully recorded hours of school board meetings to summarize. Then, I was properly off to college, and despite the pandemic hitting a year later I had classes to take online and a part time job outdoors. I had 60 page mock-environmental risk assessments to write. I was too busy to write fiction.

The MCYT fandom is what brought back my desire to write. The creativity of this fandom is so astounding, and I'm grateful all the time that I get to see the things everybody creates. Back in 2021, I no longer felt like I just wanted to read. I felt restless again, so I started writing a DSMP story about clingyduo at the disc war finale. I scrapped this, but it set things into motion again. In the summer of 2021 I posted my first two fanfics in years. I received such good feedback. By kudos, NWNF is my most popular fic on the site, and The Babysitting Game is still 4th most popular. I'm super grateful for that, and I'm grateful for everybody here who reads my stories. I still can't really comprehend that I post things that people actually read now. I save so many of your comments to keep for later.

I'll stop reviewing my history of writing here. You guys know the rest. I wrote HC, Evo, ESMP, and Life series oneshots. I wrote my first long fic, and then smashed that record by writing another longer one that I'm less than two chapters away from finishing. It's been a huge amount of fun and the improvements I've made in two years of active writing is super encouraging.

If I've made this much progress in 10 years, who's to say what I could do in 10 more years? I really look forward to it.

Anyway, the sappy stuff aside, who wants to read the story I wrote when I was 12? I'll post it below the cut in its entirety, no matter how much psychic damage it dealt me. It's Doctor Who, because of course it is. It always goes back to Doctor Who with me :)

From the TARDIS Files--A One-Shot Book

by: crazykatz430 <- I used to go by this everywhere

Description: This is a book of drabbles and one shots-nothing long will be found here, and it will not be updated frequently. Chapters will often have more than one short story in it. Rated T because I'm paranoid, don't know about what I'll end up writing in future chapters. All that said, enjoy! EDIT: CANCELLED

Published: 2013-12-15

Words: 1196

Rated: Fiction T - Language: English - Genre: Humor/Adventure -

Characters: 11th Doctor, Clara O. - Reviews: 4 - Follows: 1

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

A/N: Okay, so this is a collection of four short (I mean SHORT) oneshots I wrote, most of them just drabbles. So far, this will be just a fic to update when I write more short oneshots in the freewrites on my English Class.

Disclaimer: I don't own DW but if I did… <- oh the early days back when we were all sticking disclaimers on things but not knowing why

There will be a linbreak for new oneshots, and a cat symbol (crazyKATZ430..it's in the name) for the time skips or point of view changes..

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Without further ado, I present: Geronimo , Uploaded , The Forgotten , and Cemetery Nightmares .

Geronimo

Set: The Wedding of River Song

I don't know what to say. All my secrets, fears and enemies, they've all caught up to me. I've run too far, run for too long.

The prophecy states that silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest and most important question. I do not know what the question is nor do I want to find out, for the silence that falls will be the silence of my death.

I do not want to do die here, at Lake Silencio, Utah, but it is a fixed point. It will always happen no matter how far or long I run from it. I don't want to die alone… don't want to make my love do it.

I have made a plan, one to hopefully save my life and the earth. Everyone will think I am dead, but it will be safer. They'll be safer from me.

Geronimo!

Now I know what to say, the same thing I've always said when adventure and danger and the unknown ensued…

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Uploaded

Set: The wi-fi's first victim ;

"Where am I?" I whispered, scared. "Hello?"

I looked around myself, studying the surroundings. It was all strange to me, I'd n idea where I was.

I felt panic rising in my chest. "I don't know where I am!" I shrieked, becoming ever more terrified. "Somebody, please, help me! Where am I, I don't know where I am!"

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

I raced around the room looking for a way out of what appeared to be someone's bedroom. I gave a cry when I couldn't get out and I subconsciously returned to the computer. "Help me!" I screamed infrustration and fear, my heart racing as panic took over my body. "I don't know where I am!"

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

The wi-fi had taken its first victim.

The uploading had begun.

The Forgotten

Set: hmm… can't remember. Strange.

I was alone in a cold, dark room, no other living thing in sight.

I can't remember what I've forgotten. But if I can't remember what I've forgotten, then how do I know I forgot something?

But I wasn't alone.

How did I know that? There was nothing visible..yet I felt there was another creature in the room.

Sudden pure, unexplainable terror washed over me. I yanked the sleeve of my shirt down and stared at the underside of my arm. One fresh, black tally mark marred my skin.

The panic reached its heighth and I dropped into a defensive postureautomatically. I didn't know why, it felt like I was forgetting something… I was confused and terrified.

A second crisp tally mark appeared on my arm, closely followed by three more. A full set. But why?

Fifteen or more sets of five tally marks were tattooed on my arm.

Wordlessly I pulled down my right sleeve. What I saw there cause me to scream in fright and drop to the ground.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Doctor who?

Silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest question…

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Cemetery Nightmares

Set: New York City, 1950 (set in New York City; however, the

character is British)

The statue had moved. It had really, properly moved!

Eagerly, I lifted my camera to take a picture. "Moving Statues in City Cemetery"? Sounded like a story to me! My editor always thought my stories were rubbish, but I begged to differ. Maybe he's let me print something with proof.

Curiosity killed the cat. This statue could be dangerous, what did I know of it? I smiled as I recalled the second part to the phrase. But satisfaction brought it back. Making up my mind, I held up the camera and clicked a picture.

I waited for it to move again, but it did not. Was it my eyes? No, I'd had two cups of heavily caffeinated tea this morning, you don't start seeing things untill the third day without sleep, I still had a day to go.

I huffed and sighed, closing my eyes. Why must good stories always slip way like this? Or was I just being too impatient?

Either way, I got a shock from when I reopened my eyes. The same stone figure, who seemed to be an angel statue, had moved again, closer to me. I didn't know if I should be happy for more evidence or scared because the hand seemed to be seemed to be reaching out to me…

I blinked again. A small cry escaped my lips as I noted it was closer. Was it all just some sick game? I was the only one in the cemetery though so that option was out of the question. Either way, the expression on the face of the angel now was frightening me. I decided it was best to leave.

I turned to walk back to my car, but on a whim turned to look back again. The statue had moved again, probably 15 meters in a few seconds! I began to tremble. It was like straight out of a horror movie! I just wanted to get away, to get home and out of this creepy place!

Then I made the mistake, my fatal mistake. My eyes began to burn and I blinked, a simple movement. But when I reopened my eyes I stood in a place far more different from where I'd been.

I was somewhere else! It was impossible, the city, cemetery and creepy angel statue were gone too! But where was I? I set out to find someone about what had turned into a nightmare for me. A cemetery nightmare.

The image of an angel becomes an angel.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

One bright red vintage camera lay on the ground, on button switched. The last picture it had taken displayed out from the screen. A seemly harmless picture of an angel statue, taken a minute before the camera's owner was whisked away.

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

A/N: There you go, three short oneshots with a fourth that's twice the size of the others! PLease remember to review and say if it was good or not, and have a wonderful day… now that I've given you some stories of dying people. ( Geronimo had no dying but it was pretty intense if I do say so.) And please forgive me, I'm not British so I may tend to overdo some things…

(narrarator voice: she did not, in fact, ever upload another chapter)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, as soon as I type it up, another's on its way!

[blacknidstang]

Tagged by @juststartingtobebrothersagain 💜

Ask game bellow the cut ✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

1. Are you named after anyone?

Nope. But my nickname, Ashi, is taken from a nursery song if it counts

2. When was the last time you cried?

Actually half an hour ago. I was rereading some part of Franny and Zooey for thousandths time and it always gets me

3. Do you have kids?

No and i never will

4. What sports do you play/have played?

5. Do you use sarcasm?

I have always been pathetic when it comes to sport. However i am both a good runner and swimmer but i only do those recreationally. I can't handle stress of racing. I've tried basketball and volleyball and i have been incredibly tragic like a wet miserable cat.

I try not to because it really creates communication issues especially with added language barriers. With some friends tho, we have shared sarcasm i believe so it works

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Hmmmmm... Their gaze. And whether they notice me or not.

7. What's your eye color?

Dark brown

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Neither exactly? I don't vibe hard with jumpscare horror but i do love bad devastating endings, not in tragic movies but ones that are meant to invoke discomfort.

9. Any talents?

I think i'm a good speaker in person. I have been the constant project presenter since 10th grade till end of my masters. I also think, or hope, tha i have quite an imaginative mind. Also whenever i'm making one of those huge 1000 puzzles i usually can grab one single piece and figure out where it belongs. I used to get mocked for this bc but hey if i take pride in that 😤

10. Where were you born?

Somewhere in middle east.

11. What are your hobbies?

Drawing, writing, hoarding academic papers (especially regarding religion and mythology recently), digging through all sorts of true crimes, unsolved cases, internet mysteries, fucked up cults. Puzzles and riddles, i also used to be so invested in Notpron (an insane & amazing internet puzzle) & i went to level 50 something & am planning to get back too. Also just grabbing internet courses related ro physics, geometry, astronomy for fun, i used to be a theatre kid but it's been some years since ive been a part of.

12. Do you have any pets?

No unfortunately :(

13. How tall are you?

148 cm/4'10 :D

14. Favorite subject in school?

In school it was geometry, biology, art, literature, and english. In my undergrad i took an anthropology course unrelated to my own degree which was the best experience and in my masters my favorite subject waw something i can roughly translate to architecture analysis.

15. Dream job?

I am somewhat having my dream job right now in a game design project with coolest people, but on the other hand i know big industries are literal hellscape when it comes to game and animation so i dont know really. I do wish to later in life go for phd, at one point i was fearing i'd be permanently a student djeujsisi but i think being a researcher/scholar of some sort is kinda awesome.

No pressure here @lilacpaperbird, @nameslikeguns, @stray-with-a-muffler , @hurricanejane, @fathercain1999, @laurasashtray, @sexwithag, and anyone who wants to do this im quite shy with tags

[colleencrossingg]

So this happened.

I apologize for my inactivity, school and work has been absolutely insane. I have been playing New Leaf every day though to get as much as I can before the servers shut down. Yes, this includes exchanging 100 visits with randos on Reddit for unlimited hacked Sanrio items. I decorated the bottom floor of my house, so I’ll post that later. I also started the Beautiful Town ordinance, because I am SICK of watering flowers.

I finished funding for both the Roost and the Dream Suite (with the help of friendly Redditors), so my main focus has been trying to visit others and get to 500 dreams. If you want me to visit, leave your Dream Address!

Things in my personal life are not going as well. My dog passed away yesterday at 6 years old. We have no idea what happened, but it seems as if he had severe organ failure. He was always very sick, even as a puppy, but this was very unusual and he declined very quickly. I don’t want to get into it, but this was the third major health scare in less than 9 months where we thought we’d have to put him down.

I am struggling to get things done because I am having POTS flare ups and I have been dealing with depression-related fatigue. I am trying to keep going, but it is hard. I am also dealing with a lot of stress because of my fiancée, because we might have to move in June so he can start grad school. He is stressing me out with financial talk and trying to convince me to enter a mortgage on a property I’ve never even seen in a city we’ve never been to. The FAFSA delay is screwing us because we don’t know how much in loans we’ll have to take out, so this affects which school he chooses to attend. I also don’t know what I’ll be doing until I can start my MA program. I may try to take Chinese or Vietnamese courses as a nonmetriculated student at the university my fiancée is going to, or I may be ambitious and try to do it at the Ivy League school nearby…

I recently won two awards for my thesis as well as my service to the department I belong to. I am dealing with major impostor syndrome because of this. I don’t feel like I deserve to win, and I even consulted my favorite professor to make sure that he didn’t influence the decision in any way because he is the department chair. I’m not sure if I want to even attend the ceremony because I am dealing with intense body image issues and if anybody tries to take a picture of me, I’ll go insane.

I will try to post occasional updates if I can. Animal Crossing is my main coping mechanism through everything going on. I have so many other games I want to play, but so little time.

I want to try the new Stardew Update, but I have such minimal progress in my main save file. I’m horrible with getting through the Skull Cavern mines, and it’s really holding me back. I haven’t played Stardew in a very long time, so I may just play from a completely different save file and start over.

Another game I’ve been playing more lately is Minecraft. I wouldn’t say it’s been a full-on intense Minecraft phase, but I started a new "Survival" world (I play on Peaceful until it’s not convenient for me - I have been playing for 12 years and beaten the game numerous times, I know what I’m doing!) and I’m trying to exit my comfort zone by building in biomes I would usually skip over.

Sorry for my inactivity, shit is rough right now. I don’t know what else to say. I deal with grief really weird for someone who is extremely mentally ill and emotionally unstable. I’m oddly fine. He died in such a traumatic state, so maybe it’s me knowing that he’s at peace now. I don’t know.

Also this has been me every morning sitting in my office at school high as FUCK listening to Strawberry Switchblade/Rose McDowall and getting absolutely nothing done. I have absolutely cooked my Spotify Wrapped and it’s not even April.

Ok I’ll update you in another month. 🫡

[aldercaps]

There isn't really a point to this post. I just needed to put these words outside of myself, to give it somewhere to go.

going under a readmore because I had a lot to say apparently (this is not a happy post, nor does it have a satisfying ending)

Toby was a defacto birthday gift to my eleven-year-old self, after I had pestered my parents for over a year on getting a kitten. He was the first cat that was truly "mine", in that I was his favourite person and he held the dearest place in my heart. He turned ten years old this year, in March, which was also the year anniversary of when I last saw him.

He's doing well, last I heard, living with one of my mum's friends, who I don't know. My memory of last year is bad enough that I couldn't remember that it had been march when I saw him last, I thought I'd had more time. I didn't get to see him off, mum dropped him off when I was in class. I hadn't lived with him since 2021, when I moved out into my first flat. I wanted to take him with me, but it is almost impossible to find student housing that is pet friendly, and so I said goodbye to him (temporarily) as my mother's new boyfriend moved in. When my mother decided to move with her boyfriend to the other side of the country to an inner city apartment, she told me she wouldn't be taking Toby with her. I scrambled to find someone I knew that would take him in, just for the rest of 2022 until I could take him with me, but I couldn't manage it. I haven't seen him since march last year, wasn't able to come with my mum to say goodbye. It's taken me so many tries to try and write a post like this but I haven't managed to without being overcome with emotion.

When I was in high school mum always insisted that I take Toby with me when I move, since he was so attached to me and I was the one most willing to put up with his antics. He would play ambush with me, hiding in the dark shadows around the house in the evenings, waiting to jump out at me when I least expected it. He remains the only cat I've ever had that enthusiastically enjoyed belly rubs, and would stretch out on his back over my lap for them. We would play a game where, most days an hour before dinner, he would come into my room, and yell at me until I looked at him. Then, he would walk out of the room and wait for me just outside. Then, he would walk with me downstairs (if I paused he would pause, and jump up to headbutt my hand) to the kitchen where the cat kibble was kept, and do a running leap onto his stool to signify that he wanted dinner now, please.

When I was about 12-13 I took to the idea of training him, and after a couple of years of sporadic practise I could pat a chair or surface in the house if he was in the room, and he would do an enthusiastic running leap onto it, and of course received either a treat or bounteous pats as a reward.

He was my heart animal, and I love him so deeply. I try to console myself that he's living the high life as a single cat in a loving household, which he always preferred (enjoying the company of humans much more than other cats), but I think the not knowing is what gets me. The last photo of the four is the most recent photo I have of him, courtesy of my mother, from November last year. My sister told me that after I moved out he would walk into my old room and cry for minutes on end, or look for me throughout the house for weeks afterwards. I visited him as often as I could, once every two weeks or so, but I never felt properly welcome there with my mum's boyfriend there, since we never got on well at all. Later last year my sister said something that i think sums up the situation well: "I can't believe we lost our childhood home and our cats for some guy mum broke up with two months after she moved." Mum still has Cassie, and I can't blame her for making decisions that she thought would add to her happiness, but I don't know if I will ever get over losing Toby like that. He was one of my reasons to keep living through the worst years of my worst mental health, my light in the darkness. He was a constant I didn't know I needed until I lost it. The grief I've felt after losing him is something that has confirmed to me how much I need a companion animal in my life, and the past two years of not living with an animal of any kind has really cemented that for me.

Anyway. if you got this far, give your pets a kiss or a scritch for me, and tell them you love them.

[allseeinganalyst]

Sailor Moon Crystal (Season 1) Review

Let me tell you a story...

The year was 2011 (oh dear gods, that was 12 years ago HELP ME), and this Analyst was but a baby, burgeoning weeb. A mere 17 years old, set to turn 18 in November of that year. I'd just finished high school (grade 10) and was off to complete what my state refers to as college - In reality, years 11-12 of high school, just at a different institution, because I don't know, take it up with the state government.

I was still fairly new to being a weeb - I'd only gotten into anime midway into 2009, and for all that time, I'd had a friend who acted like my "supplier" - Bringing me a 2GB USB stick to school each day, loaded with .RMVB video files of whatever anime he wanted me to watch next. Honestly the setup was a little strange, in retrospect, and he was ODDLY secretive and gatekeepy about it, treating it like this special thing between us and... The more I think about it, the odder it gets but ANYWAY...

That "supplier" friend had since moved away (I shit you not, he was trying to get into a Japanese Exchange Student program, again, I shit you not). So had my best friend. All other friends I had had popped off to another college. I was alone, at a new school, with no friends. It's 2011 - i'm still a year away from meeting the love of my life, what little social life I had is crippled, my closest friend is gone, and the supplier of Japanese-Cartoons-That-Brought-Me-A-LOT-of-Joy-And-Pissed-Off-My-Mum-For-Some-Reason is currently trying to actually transform his life into one of said cartoons, complete with Japanese High School - Again, I am not kidding.

This left your not-so-dashing Analyst with no one to share a fanboy moment with, no one to give him the next show that he could get into, no one to argue about who the Best Girl™ was... Just a single weeb, alone.

This was 2011 - At this point, anime was slowly seeping into the mainstream scene, but we were a long way off the "grade schoolers declaring "My Hero Academia is my comfort show" stage, and where I am is slower than most places at catching up to mainstream pop culture anyway.

I did have a couple of things going for me. I had the websites where my "supplier" had used to download all that fansubbed anime, and I had what I would currently do unholy, unspeakable things to get back... Time.

So what was this Junior Weeb Analyst to do? I cast my mind back to some of the things that led me to get into anime in the first place. I thought back to many, many cartoons on before-school shows like "Cheez TV", that only later did I realize were indeed anime.

And so, with a mindset forming that "to appreciate what we have, we must understand where it came from" (something I still hold as true to this day), I set myself off on what I - melodramatically, but consistently - refereed to as my "tour". I vowed to return to the shows that had led me here, and see them as they were meant to be seen.

(That meant in subtitled Japanese of course - The Sub vs Dub debate was alive and well back in those days, and this idiot analyst was firmly on the "Sub" side. I've grown a lot since then, and also I think that debated ended by mid 2013 as dub quality had MUCH improved. Now most anime I watch is in dub.)

I watched a LOT of shows on that tour. Dragon Ball Z, Cardcaptor Sakura, even a decent hunk of the original Pokemon (in JAPANESE)... And among those shows, and perhaps the one that took me the longest to get through but also left itself with a special place in my heart, I watched Sailor Moon.

I've GOT to get better at cutting to the point during these introductions...

It's funny how, over a decade later, things have a way of repeating in the most unexpected of ways. Of course, I'm not alone anymore - I have a wonderful partner who I met in 2012, and we've been together for all this time. I meet almost weekly for Discord calls with my best friends. I have a full time job and a steady income - Things couldn't be further from the days when I took that "tour" and yet...

As my previous review might have indicated, I've been tackling some personal stuff lately. To say the landscape has changed from those days is like saying that the ocean is damp. Bogged down by negative fandom interactions and a deluge of toxic and ever-prevelant socaial media-fuelled opinions, it's only recently that I've gone: "fuck it, I'm taking a break" - Cutting out a that online loudness left me in a quiet space where for once I could just... Enjoy things again.

So, replacing pirated .RMVB files with Blu-Ray disks, and the chance to really "get into something" again, where did my thoughts to turn? Well, I found myself thinking of that old "tour". And whilst that had been about a return to the path that led me where I was, I decided I wanted to watch something that could represent the present-and-future. And wouldn't you know it, thanks to some advertising for an upcoming movie, I remembered that, sitting on my shelf, buried amongst the "I swear I'll get to this someday" series, was the perfect series for that exact purpose.

A remake of Sailor Moon:

Sailor Moon Crystal

Phew! Okay! We've finally arrived at the actual POINT.

My formative years as a weeb had already left me with a soft spot for Magical Girl anime - You've just read all about my journey to watch Sailor Moon - So when a truer-to-the-manga anime adaptation was released in 2014, of course I knew about it. I recall watching maybe 3-4 episodes of it, in Japanese, before dropping it for reasons I don't recall, but I'm sure made sense at the time. I've always been meaning to get around to it, and seeing that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie was coming out this year was really a kick in the rear to go and watch the damn show.

As of 04/04/2023, I have now fully completed the first season, and thus, decided to write up my review - I'll state again for anyone that happens to be reading this for some reason (and if you're still with me, congratulations, you made it through my rambling, Granpa Simpson-esqu introduction - Now run because dear god, it doesn't end there, save yourself.) - I write these reviews and thoughts down as a mental health exercise, to put my thoughts somewhere that I can revisit them. I act as though I'm speaking to an audience, but the only real intended reader here is me. Still - if you ARE reading this, I state that these are only my opinions. They're not objective in any way. If you disagree, that's fine, feel free to tell me even, but I'm not out here to change anyone's mind.

Having finally got all that out of the way, lets yell "MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!", change into our Sailor Uniforms and dive into it. Spoilers ahead!

Many smarter, more well known, better read and well respected reviewers and analysts of media have said that a piece of media should be judged on it's own merits, and not compared to previous adaptations, original source material, or other related pieces of media.

That's good, solid advice, which I agree with and am now about to throw out the window, because this review is going to compare Crystal to the original Sailor Moon anime A LOT.

The thing is, I don't think I can be fully fair to Crystal WITHOUT the comparison, and the reason I think that is fairly straightforward:

Sailor Moon Crystal is not intended as someone's first entry into Sailor Moon.

(Again. Purely my opinion. Disagree with me if you like.)

Let me explain:

I am not unfamiliar with Sailor Moon, as you might have guessed. Whilst I have only watched the original anime series (and it's associated movies), I am aware of the original Manga, I'm aware that Crystal is trueER to that text than the first anime, I'm even aware in a cursory capacity of the live action TV and stage shows.

And I think this knowledge is somewhat assumed for viewers heading into Crystal because, without it - It can feel very rushed. See, fans of the Manga have read the manga, they know what happens. So if they're watching it because they want to see a manga adaptation, well, they're heading into it fully armed with that knowledge.

Similarly, a fan of the original anime like myself is most likely watching this because "OOOOH, NEW SAILOR MOON" and it's reputation as being truer to the manga. We're heading into it for the sake of seeing the characters, setting and plots we know and love.

Someone who has no prior knowledge of Sailor Moon would not head into this anime with any of that, and thus, would be caught off guard by it's rapid, almost too fast, pacing, multiple character introductions, lack of characterization and in some cases, no real explanation for a number of things. I would imagine that Crystal would not be an especially incredible, or in some cases, even good experience for that person.

Crystal is for the fans. The fans who know what's coming. In the first three episodes, Crystal rapid-fire introduces characters, not just limited to Usagi/Sailor Moon and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask. We get Ami/Sailor Mercury in the second episode, Rei/Sailor Mars in the third, a major confrontation with long-standing original anime starter villain Jadite in the fourth, before we're hit with Makoto/Sailor Jupiter in the fifth.

Fans of the original anime will remember that that sequence of events, taking place over five episodes in Crystal, took some 20+ episodes in the original. And between those FOUR major events, we had countless episodes of one-shot characters, monsters, Usagi being a crybaby and refusing to do anything, Rei being a bit of a bitch, Mamoru throwing roses and then leaving because "MY JOB HERE IS DONE!" and Queen Beryl waving her hands ominously over a crystal ball and babbling about "energy" so much that the word starts to sound weird.

For fans of the original anime, we've see that, and everything that involves, both good and bad, is already known to us. We don't want to see that again - Just give us the other Senshi already! We want to see Mercury, and Mars and Jupiter and Venus. We want to see the confrontation with Queen Beryl and Metalia and the showdown in the arctic and Usagi and Mamoru hooking up and all of that stuff, and that is what Crystal delivers, in short order, one event after another. There’s very little “filler” even in the more modern sense of the word (I talked a bit about “filler” in my last review). Basically every scene serves the purpose of advancing the plot to the next “touch point”, which does unfortunately cut out a lot of the less dramatic, but still enjoyable stuff.

Crystal is best taken with prior Sailor Moon knowledge, which means you mentally fill in a lot of gaps that the anime itself would otherwise leave you with. Having virtually no filler means things move almost too fast, and sadly, in that rush, some really great character moments are lost (perhaps most disappointingly, the same-sex relationship between villains Zoisite and Kunzite is completely gone, although as compensation, Crystal does show more of Usagi's bisexual side and hints toward her fleeting crush on Rei - We'll talk more about this later).

To be fair to Crystal, to prevent it being weighed down too heavily by these issues, I will compare it to the original anime, and see how it shakes out when taken with the knowledge that a viewing of the original 200 episodes brings. That’s how I went into the series, and that has an inextricable influence on how I enjoyed it.

Let’s get this out of the way…

Crystal is not as pretty as the original anime.

It’s not even remotely close.

I hate to start by criticizing Crystal right off the bat, but it has to be said.

The original Sailor Moon anime was produced in 1992. It was made at a time before the widespread use of CGI and digital colouring. It’s an adaptation of a Shojo manga, and was primarily drawn, coloured and animated by hand. It’s pretty, soft, girly and pastel and HOLY FUCK IS IT BEAUTIFUL.

Look at this.

Like, god-the-fuck damn it. Look at these.

Look at that last one (side note, what the hell are you doing Mamoru?). If you were to remove Usagi and Tuxedo Mask from the image, you'd be left with something I've seen tagged on tumblr as "Pastel Liminal". There are plenty more. In fact, I could just whack in one of my DVD's of the original anime, set my computer to screenshot at random intervals, and you'd see nearly infinite examples.

The original Sailor Moon anime was lightning in a bottle. It was produced at a time where things were produced by more analog means for the most part. It was adapting a source material that already had a gentle, soft and pastel theme to it. It's drenched in the fashion and style of the early 90's/Late 80's. All of these factors combine to create a piece of media where the best examples look like genuine works of art, and even the worst, most off model in between frames still carry a unique, warm and nostalgic charm.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the visuals of Vaporwave - a musical genre built on evoking feelings of nostalgia and popular culture - share much of the same color pallet as any random episode of '92 Sailor Moon. I think there's something unique about pink pastels, soft coloring and imagery from the 80's/90's. And people have noticed this. The feelings of liminality and atmosphere are present all throughout Sailor Moon - To an even greater degree than things like The Simpsons.

There are enough screencaps of Sailor Moon on people's

A E S T H E T I C

blogs on pinterest and tumblr and the-horror-site-that-I-escaped-and-will-not-name that if we combined them all together, I honestly believe we could recreate whole episodes of the anime.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT SOME SCREENSHOTS FROM CRYSTAL.

Now. Not a single one of these is BAD. I actually avoided any screencaps that were off model or "QUALITY.MEME" style or anything. They are crisp, clean, vibrant... And not especially distinct from any other anime of today.

(And yes I'm aware that much of the same argument could be said for multiple older anime vs new anime, that's not the point I am making.)

Look at the backgrounds. Compare them to the original anime. Neither is bad, but you can not deny that the original is dripping in that "Aesthetic", and it always will be, whilst Crystal will always just be "yeah, decent 2010's anime". In 20 years from now, there won't be any more blogs devoted to Crystal's aesthetic than there are for any other anime, and to a degree that kinda sucks.

Does it detract from the experience? Not really - But the comparison has to be made. Plenty of people watch Sailor Moon these days for it's retro-nostalgic vibes and if that's what you're looking for, those are not present in Crystal.

And...Yeah the Cell-Shaded CGI. I don't actually really mind it - I quite like cell-shaded CGI - but it sure is a bummer to see the Transformation sequence use that. Of all the time they could have used it, they chose to use it on the iconic transformation scenes.

Hand drawn animation isn't the only thing that's missing from some of the most important scenes. Let's talk about the soundtrack.

I'm not musically talented, so I'm not inclined to talk about music too much. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but I don't feel qualified to say too many things about it.

(I'm not artistically talented either, but for over a decade, I have been in a serious relationship with a very talented artist who lives in the same house as me, so I picked up a few things and feel that I can at least offer an opinion on the art)

To save me repeating myself, I'll just say that the soundtrack to the original '92 anime is almost as iconic as it's art. The upbeat guitars and violins and trumpets and pianos and god-knows-what else that played throughout that series are a big part of it's identity.

Crystal does have it's own musical identity. It's a bit... blander in parts...

(there's this one recurring piece that tends to play during epic or emotional moments that, thanks to my oh-so-wonderful partner, I can't hear as anything other than that awful "Where are you Christmas" meme song).

But other times it does suitably convey majesty and grandeur to the scene's its playing over. The transformations may lack the rock-styled guitars of the original, but they have this new piece that sounds very magical and epic for Sailor Moon, and for the other senshi, they actually do bring back in the harder beats. Sailor Mars' first transformation goes particularly hard.

There's another piece of music I just have to talk about

The opening theme, "Moon Pride" is a fantastic piece of music, with some great visuals included. I particularly like how it's not only partially sung as if "in character" by the bands members as the Sailor Senshi, (I originally thought it was the senshi's Japanese VAs, but apparently not) but certain lyrics carry a specific "flavor" relating to that senshi - "Jupiter" and "Venus" singing lines about how "Love hits like a flash of lightning".

The tune and lyrics are extremely upbeat as well, singing of the power of girls ("girl power" being something that's extremely important to Sailor Moon) and how they have the power to accomplish their goals. It even incorporates the "Make Up!" phrase used by the senshi in their transformation, and ends on "La La Pretty Guardian SAILOR MOON" - A line that sounds clumsy when I write it down, but really does work in sung form (plus, I will always give props to a show incorporating it's title into the lyrics).

It's such a great song. It's a great opening visually too - Lots of wonderfully arch typically "anime opening" stereotypes in all the right ways, like Queen Beryl gesturing menacingly while the Four Heavenly Kings whiz in to pose with her and the specter of Queen Metalia rising up behind them...

It's honestly fantastic and a great choice for the series.

It's too bad I hate it.

It's not the fault of the song. It's just impossible for it to stack up against Moonlight Densetsu.

This is why we shouldn't compare things so directly, because shit like this happens.

Moonlight Densetsu (or, Moonlight Legend translated into English) is an iconic piece of anime music in it's own right, and it's connection to Sailor Moon is inseparable. Go ahead, go look it up. You want to, now that I've mentioned it. Better yet, I'll save you the trouble. Go on and listen to those iconic chimes at the opening before the guitar and the piano kick in....

Even the original english dub, with as many nonsense changes as it made, and at a time where it was common to record a whole new song for dubbed a anime's OP, kept the actual tune and music - It just replaced the lyrics (with very catchy, if somewhat inaccurate ones I might add... "Never running from a real fight"...)

And of course, the Japanese lyrics - evocative of a love song between Usagi and Mamoru - are catchy, charming and beautiful, evoking that same feeling as the anime's visuals provide. That tone, that aesthetic, and these days, that nostalgia. But it doesn't end at just the Japanese version...

The funny thing is, that even in today's day and age, with access to dubs of equal, if not superior quality to the original language, and most opening themes left untouched... if you start this tune up at any convention, you'll probably every weeb in hearing radius chime in with:

"~Fighting evil by moonlight~!"

Those english lyrics are just as iconic as their Japanese originators. The same opening theme, done two different ways, completely iconic in both the East and West parts of the world.

In preparation for writing this bit of the post, I asked myself to find the most iconic anime openings. The kind that everyone can sing along to at a convention. I found plenty - so I asked myself, what's one that everyone can sing along to in both English and Japanese.

See, everyone can jump in for something like the opening for "Attack on Titan" or frantically try to dance along to Motteke Sailor Fuku (Lucky Star's intensely energetic opening theme) for Japanese songs, and almost anyone past a certain age on the street can probably sing along to the absolutely legendary english opening for the original Pokemon anime...

But there's probably only one opening I know where everyone is able to get on the same tune, singing about the same show, in the same way in both English and Japanese.

And that's Moonlight Densetsu.

A remake is a remake, and it shouldn't need to rely on nostalgia, or try to win points by including whats already been done.

But there's an exception to every rule and god-damn should Crystal have used that piece of music.

It didn't even have to be the opening. Play it in the background as Usagi vanquishes Queen Metalia.

It's SO iconic to Sailor Moon that nothing, not even Moon Pride could replace it.

The fact that Crystal doesn't use Moonlight Densetsu genuinely detracts from the experience for me. It doesn't ruin it, but it's definitely a missed opportunity. I've heard they've so far not used it, and my fingers are crossed they'll work it into the finale movies somehow, because I would just love to hear it one more time in a modern context.

Alright - I feel I've rambled enough on the negatives. By now, I've made it clear... Crystal is not a replacement for the original '92 anime.

Lets talk about what it does get right.

If I've sounded negative up till now, it's only because I genuinely have a lot of love for Sailor Moon that I almost hold it to a higher standard than a lot of other anime series. If this were a remake of almost any other 90's anime, I wouldn't have that much to say - either for or against. I've fallen into the trap before where people think I hate something because I've been talking for 100 years about its flaws and missteps and I have to explain that no wait, this is actually one of my favorite things...

I've always been the kind of guy that takes a very deep interest in what I love. Goes with the autism I suppose. When you look into something that deeply, you see its flaws as clearly as you see its merits, and quite often, the flaws are easier to talk about.

I could talk about the flaws in the original Sailor Moon anime too. I could talk about how it's got 200 episodes, and yet, I think a count exists where only 50ish of those episodes are plot relevant, and a further 10-or-so of those could be whittled down to "X got a new power up/attack/transformation"

I could talk about how the anime relied on stock footage to absurd levels, fights often coming down to watching the same animations a couple of times before they play the usual stock "Usagi defeats/purifies/vaporizes/love-bombs the bad guy" clip.

I could talk about how, when you have to stretch some fairly straightforward characters out over that many episodes, you wind up pulling out a lot more of those characters negative traits for the sake of inventing some kind of drama to drive some kind of plot along, in the worst cases making some characters borderline unlikable.

Or, I could talk about how Crystal AVOIDS those problems like the fucking plague.

Well. Not all of them, obviously. But it is here, in the character department we see our first marked improvement.

While the rapid pace of Crystal does leave some characters in the dust - a lot of them on the villain side of things - one thing it does help with is there's no need to invent "drama of the week" between the girls. There's no need to have Usagi and Rei bitching at each other because the boy-of-the-episode isn't paying them attention or to cram in a "someone's got a crush on X, and the other Senshi are going to spy and stick their nose in her business because OOOOOH ROMANCE". There's no need for a weird, shitty subplot where Rei dates Mamoru.

While the characters don't feel as fleshed out as in the original, that actually works when you see their relationships. They first form a friend group based on their shared destiny, and then, once they recover their past-life memories, solidify their bonds based on that.

And you can call this cheep and lazy, and maybe it is, but I can't help but think that it just WORKS for them. When the original had so much bickering and insults without showing as many moments of genuine care between the Senshi, it's just damn refreshing to see them unambiguously care so much for one-another. I know they did in the original too, but here, it's so much faster and tighter that it really comes off better.

To varying degrees, all of the Senshi are affected by this "tighter" (or perhaps "faster") pacing, but none more so than the titular character herself, Sailor Moon. AKA, the klutzy crybaby, Usagi Tsukino.

Usagi is a character that is very much the face of the series in every conceivable way. Aside from being the titular Sailor Moon, her visual appearance is iconic, to the point that even non-anime fans could probably identify her as "Sailor Moon" if you show them a picture, and even today, as the older generations of anime fans and weebs are replaced by a whole new breed of both dedicated and casual fans, most of them will still know who Usagi is. Her iconic "odango" (Bun/Dumpling) hairstyle is still homaged and parodied today, even in western cartoons:

(I'll spare you my endless rants on Star vs The Forces of Evil...)

Usagi's characterization is similarly iconic, helped by the fact that she herself narrates the opening to many of the numerous episodes of the original series with an honest description of herself. The translation varies from fansubs to the modern official dub, but the gist of it is always:

"I’m Usagi Tsukino and I’m a 14 year old middle school student. I’m a bit of a klutz… and kind of a crybaby. One day, a cat named Luna gave me a special brooch that transformed me into a guardian in a sailor uniform and told me I had to fight bad guys! Boy, does that ever make me nervous. But, I’m sure it will all work out fine!"

Right off the bat, this establishes Usagi's personality. She's emotional, ditzy, but optimistic. Over the course of all the series it's established firmly and consistently that she's a dreamer and an utterly hopeless romantic. She gets bad grades, overindulges in food and sweets, doesn't study, but also has an overflowing amount of love for just about everyone, especially her friends, and her kind-heartedness is always centered.

Thing is, with the original '92 anime being 200 episodes long, with a lot of those being filler, where they needed to have a plot driven by characters without being allowed to do anything to drastically change those characters, they needed to fall back on Usagi's basic characterization for day-to-day episodes. There are a LOT of scenes of her just being kind of....

Well, I don't want to say "useless" but...

Usagi's slacker tendencies were highlighted, along with her selfishness and hedonism. She'll drag her friends along to things they don't want to do, borrow their stuff, and is generally kind of treated with a sense of being a load by them a lot of the time. All of these are consistent traits across all adaptations, but the '92 anime practically spotlights them. She often needs to be coerced or pressured into actually transforming into Sailor Moon and doing something, and even when she did, she more often-than-not relied on a well timed rose from Tuxedo Mask and an attack from another Senshi before she broke out the finishing move. In my younger days, when I attended more conventions and hung around with other anime fans, it was pretty common for them to express a kind of distaste for her as a heroine.

It's not that the original anime didn't have it's moments of highlighting that, y'know, Usagi is a true all-loving heroine with determination, dedication and a love for her friends that would net her the most dramatic power up scenes if the show were a Shounen anime, but they tended to be reserved for the plot relevant episodes, and as mentioned, the original anime is 3/4ths filler, so we get a lot of selfish, crybaby Usagi.

Crystal, on the other hand, moves at a speed so intense that only astronauts trained in special machines by NASA can withstand the sheer g-force it generates. Seriously, it feels like the plot took a leaf out of Usagi's book and overslept, forcing it to charge forward like:

This does something interesting to Usagi as a character. While we're shown enough of her at school to know that, yes, she gets bad grades, scores awfully on tests, and is an absent minded klutz who'd rather slack off and visit the arcade than do anything related to actual school, it also shows Usagi:

Genuinely reaching out to Ami and befriending her, wanting to bring her out of her shell and let the overworked girl have some fun.

Defending Rei from some women who are blaming her for circumstances beyond her control. (Crystal also famously restores the scene where they meet because Usagi follows her off the bus, hearts in her eyes and all. Usagi's implied bisexuality is restored and it's obvious she's got some kind of crush on Rei.)

Complimenting Makoto on basically everything: her cooking, earrings and her perfume, giving the girl a much needed ego boost.

Borderline worshiping Minako (as Sailor V) and then genuinely looking up to her once she meets her as Sailor Venus.

(Also. this is just fanboy bullshit, but Crystal makes Sailor Venus' transformation use ribbons, much like Usagi's, and given that Venus outright states she's the original leader of the Senshi, and her "in the name of Venus" speach sounds very similar to Usagi's "in the name of the moon" spiel, I like to believe that Usagi is subconsciously basing her Sailor Moon act on the memories she has of her former guardian.)

The result is that Usagi's friendship with the other senshi feels very genuine. They do a little teasing of her, of course, but are also extremely loving toward her, a feeling that only grows as they regain their past memories and remember her both as their sacred Princess and their middle-school friend. There's a very sweet scene where they all sit around her and help her fix her hair up, stuff that really shows that these girls are true companions and a proper team, not a misfit group of conflicting personalities.

There's also a scene toward the very end where, after Sailor Moon is compromised in the final battle, all of the Senshi draw the strength to keep fighting to the bitter end by remembering Usagi, which is punctuated by actual clips of things she's said to them. It's a bit clumsy (Jupiter's memory is the scene of Usagi talking about her earrings and perfume...) but the fact that it is all footage we've seen before makes it believable.

She's also far more proactive and direct. While she does wail and cry a couple of times at the monsters, other times she actually just swallows her fear and charges forward to save her friends. There's an incredible moment where, confronted by a group of zombified people, without so much as a single "SAVE ME, TUXEDO MASK!", Usagi transforms and purifies all of the zombies with her finisher, before actively moving to seek out the source of the the corruption. It's an awesome moment.

Her moments of "uselessness" in battle are also given a facelift. Given that Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask himself is far more active and involved in battles. Instead of crying out of fear and cowidance, Usagi is usually taken out of the fight by her hopeless romantic nature being taken advantage of. She's either hit with some revelation or otherwise emotionally compromised. Usually by putting Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru in danger.

Indeed, Crystal really emphasis Usagi's emotions in a way that makes her feel very fragile and vulnerable at times. She's instantly taken with Tuxedo Mask, and when she later uncovers his identity (or rather, he reveals it to her), she becomes caught up in their love, to the point where, once he's taken from her by the Dark Kingdom, she struggles to fight back against him. There's many scenes where it's simply those two, and although they don't fight, they don't need to, because the act of seeing her true love (and the anime establishes very quickly that yes, Mamoru is her true, destined lover) on a side that isn't hers is enough to paralyze her. On the other side of that coin, when he's not in opposition to her, Usagi really doesn't let anything slow her down, and genuinely is ready to get into a fight for the sake of bringing Mamoru back.

The ending, which finally puts them back on the same side, allows him to be her emotional support as she battles it out with Queen Metalia in the final confrontation, again plays up Usagi's emotions, this time drawing strength from her love for Mamoru and her friends, allowing her to finally banish the evil. It's not dissimilar to how the original series ended it's first season - Although the fact that we do see scenes of the Earth being reduced to chaos and nothingness by Queen Metalia does make a very interesting backdrop.

i feel like I'm rambling here, so I want to sum it up - Crystal manages to make Usagi a far more proactive and engaging force in the narrative, without taking away the "crybaby and a klutz" part of her. The focus on her vulnerability shows why she needs her friends and her love, but on the other hand, we're also shown that, when she does have that, there's not a lot she can't do, and she more than possesses the strength to take action.

As for the others...

Like I said, everyone fares a bit differently. I've ranted a bit too long about Usagi because, in my opinion, she's the one who mostly gained good things out of the pacing, losing a lot of what she was commonly derided for in the original setting, but the other characters are slightly more of a mixed bag.

My bishie boy Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask get a lot more to do very quickly, compared to the original series. His search for the Legendary Silver Crystal™ is mentioned a lot, and he kicks off one episodes problems by declaring it publicly. His identity is also not really kept a secret, and we're shown Mamoru wearing the tux on many occasions without the cape, hat or mask.

His relationship with Usagi is... Well, it's there. Because of the compressed nature of the series, he runs into Usagi a fair bit less than he did in the original, and thus a lot of their banter is gone. While Usagi falls for him very quickly, he's at least shown to care about her, and once their identities are revealed and they start to recover their past lives memories, they do feel very in love.' Because of the compressed nature of the series, he runs into Usagi a fair bit less than he did in the original, and thus a lot of their banter is gone. While Usagi falls for him very quickly, he's at least shown to care about her, and once their identities are revealed and they start to recover their past lives memories, they do feel very in love. The few times we get to see them together outside of them being in mortal peril are very sweet.

(I know their relationship has always been... controversial, so I won't dwell too much on it. These type of things are fairly common for anime in general, so it's something you need to just accept if you plan on watching a lot of it)

He does seem to take on the "useless" traits that Usagi lost though. My boy here borders on being a full on damsel in distress sometimes. His rose throwing was corny in the original anime, but it was usually effective. Here, there's not a rose in sight, leaving him either as an observer, or as normal, albiet sharply dressed, man who's quite out of his depth against monsters... BUT as an unabashed and unashamed lover of Damsels in Distress, I hardly mind that.

Sailor Mercury/Ami is one of the ones who got more of the short end of the stick from the pacing and rapid nature of the show. She's established, as per usual, as the super smart genius with some genuinely sweet moments of Usagi helping her out of her shell. However, because the show introduces the other senshi so rapidly, she rarely gets a chance to stand out with her genius. She does smart-stuff, sure, we always see her on the computer and the like, but rarely do we actually see her express that genius in any way other than pinpointing an enemy's weakness by scanning it with her goggles or something. Granted she did a lot of that in the '92 anime too, but at least then there were episodes that showed her studying or taking tests and a couple of times where she needed to use her intelligence against the monster of the week.

It's not like the show "does her dirty" or anything, Mercury has always failed to stand out compared to the others, owing to her more down-to-earth personality and seriousness, in both the '92 series and Crystal. Part of that in both instances is because after we meet her we're very quickly (or in Crystal's case, immediately) introduced to...

Sailor Mars/Rei has always been a tad on the polarizing side. She either tends to be a fan's favorite or they hate her outright. Rei is fiery and outspoken, and in my opinion, after Usagi, she's the one who benefits the most from Crystal's fast pacing.

The '92 anime had Rei as far more confrontational and borderline bitchy. She clashed with Usagi so much, outright challenging her leadership at least once, that it was hard to believe they were friends. Although she did always come through for Usagi at the end, the status quo meant she'd be right back to digging at her the next episode.

Crystal has Rei instead under immense pressure right from the start, justifying her stand-offish behavior, and has Usagi defend her from a group of mothers who wanted to blame a number of disappearances on Rei's psychic power, after which Rei becomes very open to her. She's still serious, and she still gets one-or-two digs in at Usagi being a lazy glutton, but she comes across as far friendlier. Her psychic powers mean she takes to being a Sailor Senshi pretty much straight away, and she's usually the one to go on the offensive in battles. While that "mean-streak" gave her a notable characterization in the original series, here we get to see a kinder, and gentler side to her. She gets plenty of dialogue that indicates she's taking the job seriously, but also that she wants whats best for Usagi. It's a sharp contrast to the girl that tried to steal her boyfriend in the original series.

(Speaking of, considering the series restores her semi-crush on Rei, you have to wonder if Usagi's type is just "dark haired, vaguely mysterious and teases me on occasion")

Jupiter is pretty "middle of the road" here. Crystal takes away her recurring joke of comparing every boy to her "sempai", but it doesn't really add anything more to her character. We get to see more of how, despite being big and strong, she's quite feminine, but beyond that, she doesn't really do anything to make herself stand out. Her character here is neither an improvement, nor a deterioration.

Honestly, Jupiter was one of my favourites in the original, so I really thought I'd have more to say, but I just don't. She's fine.

Sailor Venus/Minako has the unfortunate title of being the final Senshi introduced formally (No. We're not counting her appearances as Sailor V. This post is too long already for me to talk about that). As a result she gets... very little time to shine as a character. Minako especially loses all of her quirks and goofy traits from the original, though we do get to see something else as a result. She's very rarely seen doing anything other than her duties as a Sailor Guardian. Compared to the other senshi, this means that it comes off less as Minako transforming into Sailor Venus to fight evil, and more as Sailor Venus disguising herself as Minako. She explicitly has most of her memories restored right from when we meet her, and thus fully embraces the role of "Leader of the Sailor Guardians", knowing more about their enemy than the others, and helping them along with revelations.

Also - there's this beyond-stupid bit where she claims she's the Moon Princess for an episode or so... It's vaguely implied to be a bluff (for some reason), but even so, it's fantastically stupid and accomplishes very little.

(Not going to talk about the cats or other more minor characters because... well quite frankly this post has gone on for way too long already)

Finally that brings us to the villains.

Yeah look... Fans of the original portrayal of the Four Heavenly Kings are out of luck here.

The '92 anime had a habit of using one king at a time to unleash some monsters, but baring Jadite, all of them developed some pretty distinctive personalities in that time. From Nephrite's arc of falling in love with a human, to Zoisite and Kunsite's explicitly gay and genuinely affectionate relationship, 3 out of 4 of them got pretty memorable scenes and personalities.

Not so for Crystal...

*sigh*

Yeah, all of them are pretty generically "evil" in this version. They really, really do not stand apart from each other.

It's all the more disappointing as this series goes with the "each king is the destined lover of one of the Sailor Guardians" idea that has been around for a while. I'm not sure if this was ever in the original manga, but it's been something that's been known to fans for basically forever.

Sadly though, the anime does very little with that. Honestly, it's only worth mentioning because in this version, the senshi are able to turn them back to the side of good... after which time Queen Beryl/Metalia destroys them and they turn into the little gems they're named after as if they're straight out of fucking Steven Universe.

I know the limited episode count and nature of being truer to the Manga wouldn't allow anything like the original anime, but would it have killed them to show Kunsite and Zoisite with their arms around each other? Or better yet, if they wanted to do the "destined to be with the Sailor Senshi" thing, give us some one on one scenes with each pair?

Queen Beryl does get a bit more character though. (Hence why I used her picture up there). We get to see flashes of her past, as a princess of earth, hopelessly in love with Endymion, and is actually the one who tried to strike down both him and Princess Serenity in the past. She also has plans to pull a Starscream on Queen Metalia, and goes into battle herself a couple of times. It's a consolation prize for the disappointing turnout of the four kings.

OVERALL

This review has really gotten out of hand. I feel like I spent too long talking about the original series and the blundered onto the Crystal stuff really haphazardly.

To wrap it up, I'll repeat that I don't believe Sailor Moon Crystal should be anyone's first introduction to Sailor Moon. It needs to be approached with prior knowledge and familiarity, lest a lot of what makes the series special feel instead rushed and half-baked. Because, that really is what makes a lot of it good, at least to me. Seeing things happen at a faster pace, with a lot of the unpleasant aspects of characters removed is a breath of fresh air when your standard experience amounted to over 100 episodes of filler.

It's a good show. It's a fun show. It's a show that I, as a fan of Sailor Moon, enjoyed...

...And despite the length of this review, it's one I can't really give an opinion on yet because you see... Unlike the original, there is no filler arc about a tree and the aliens who want it to grow. Season 1 of Crystal ends with Rei receiving a premonition of a black, upside down crescent moon, and a mysterious pink haired child falling out of the sky..

As of writing, I am over halfway through "season 2", which has both countered and enhanced some of my above points, so I want to stop there before I say too much more. I'm going to try and review each "season" on its own.

I suspect from here on in, given that I've said my piece about how it compares to the original, the next reviews shall be a bit shorter, or at the very least, will have less of me rambling about how not using Moonlight Densetsu is a crime against nature.

Either way, if you have stuck with me, or read this entire post for whatever reason, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd like to thank you for taking the time. I feel good having gotten this all off my chest, and I look forward to writing up another one.

But now, I must go!

The Analyst has vanished in a swish of his cape, leaving behind nothing but a single rose.

[i0-0na]

Entry 6: First Week

Date: 08.04.2024

A week finally completed!! I spent some time to myself, and it feels like the dust setting in and things have fallen into place. To be honest, I did start feeling a little homesick at this point and I was feeling kind of lonely. Whenever I went outside, I don’t know why but I felt as if people were staring at me (not everyone, but it definitely felt like it).

Thankfully one of my closest friends in uni was also going on the same student exchange programme as me (Dom). He arrived on 2nd April 2024, so we decided to meet in Akihabara the next day. I was so happy to see him because it meant that I now had a friend near to me. When we met up, we went around visiting multiple stores, we literally tired ourselves out so much lol.

Before the day ended, we decided to find somewhere to eat. The café we decided to eat at just so happened to be the one me and my mum ate at all those years ago, when I was just 12 years old, on my first ever trip to Japan. The food was good I had a hibiscus tea and I think I ordered the same food order as my mum all those years ago, matcha cake. Very tasty. Dom order Spaghetti.

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The next day was when we were meeting the student exchange team, and other exchange students for the first time. To be honest I was quite excited to meet everyone in person! One of the students in the year above me who went on student exchange the year before to Tokyo, told me about how much she loved it and the people she met there so needless to say I was also a little hyped 😼.

It was a good meeting overall, we got a tour of the campus and then introduced ourselves to each other, then exchanged phone numbers and Instagram’s. In total, including myself, there was a total of 8 people on the student exchange, so far at least. Apparently, they said there were some arriving later so~

Afterwards some of us (on the course) were brought to the animation department and I was introduced to some of the core members of staff, including a graduate student called Stephen who was going to help translate all of our lectures for us (thx Stephen~). We had to take photos as well and for some reason I could not stop laughing ꉂ(≧▽≦) . Each time I went to smile I felt my face uncontrollably twitching to release the giggles which were caged inside my mouth.  The laughter spread to everyone in the room, so ridiculous ahahaha, I’m chuckling as I type even hahaha!! The reason for the slight chaos, was because as we did the group poses, I just kept alternating between ✌️ and 👍 gestures, and because of my iconic nature everyone decided to follow suit. It became quite comical. There were two other exchange students who would be studying animation with me, Dom and Matthijs.

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With the induction day over, there was only one major thing for me to do now is to get registered at my local government office. It took a couple days to do this because, to be honest, I got lost trying to find the building… When I did though, I had to come in the next day to get my stuff printed, because they couldn’t print stuff on Sundays. I did all the filing for the documents on the day I was there anyways, so it was a quick process the next day! If you live in Japan, you need to get registered with 14 days of your arrival otherwise you could be faced with deportation (๑ ˊ͈ ᐞ ˋ͈ )” . Later that day, after the government office I wanted to explore more of the Hachioji prefecture, which was good because I found a Don Quijote. It’s like this store which sells everything, I’m being honest it literally sells like everything. From toys, to alcohol, lawn mowers, food, clothes, Vivienne Westwood and other designer brands, I literally could go on forever lol. What I found though were these really popular lashes in the gyaru community called Dolly Wink, it was super cuttteeee!!

As a final point Sakura season was kind of late in Japan, so it was supposed to finish its blossoming before I arrived but thankfully its just started to blossom now! Its so pretty (sparkles) It reminds me of home in a way. On my path to primary/high school there is the road I take full of cherry blossom on both sides and each time it turned spring I felt like I was in a shoujou or high school anime lol

Either way that’s all for now, I’m so excited to actually start uni! Oh and another thing, university here is kind of similar to American unis, from what I heard in America you have to sign up to all your classes you want/need to attend, otherwise if you don’t, you end up spending a year under the course but taking 0 lessons. It seems it’s the same concept in Japan as well. Scary~ So I’ve been given a list of classes to sign up to so I’m going to think about what classes I want to do.

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I hope the workload will be okay though lololol.

Bbyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~~~~~~~

-Iona

Song Listening to: if u think i’m pretty – Artemas

[z-h-i-e]

New Year Fanfic Asks (3/5)

11. Would you like to try any new fanfic genres or tropes this year?

It will be difficult to find something I haven’t done. However, there are many things I have written in the key of two Imladris Advisers, that I have not tried out with the Bling Kings, so perhaps that.

12. Will you change anything about the way you edit or rewrite this year?

Nope, I’ll still be a chaotic buttercup who posts in the middle of the night and sometimes has someone look over my shoulder and make suggestions while I’m writing, but unless there’s a ‘use a beta’ notation, these stories get posted as they are, we die like Men of Gondor, and then like fifteen years later I’ll do a revision and correct the additional typos then.

13. Aside from fanfic, are there any other fan works you’d like to try creating? Fanart, or fanvids, gifsets, or podfic? 

I’ve done fanart, will probably do more. (As of last year, I have publicly displayed artwork with one of those fancy engraved nameplates and the description of the work attached to the wall next to it, so I think more art will happen in more than one way.) Videos, unsure. I unearthed some old animations I did for the fandom a long while ago; if you’re in a discord with me you may have seen those shares. Unlikely on gifsets. Podfic – I’m working through logistics.  I do a fair amount of live reading, and I have a good microphone (with pretty colors) now, so I really should. I need people to poke me about those. 

14. Have you ever lost large chunks of your work in the past, due to not backing up your work? Will you change your methods this year?

The year was…well, it had to be either 2002 or 2003. I’m working part time, and I carry my disks with me (yes disks) that have fanfics on them. And I’ve got a few of them, including the one with the original Little Balrog with me at work.  And a student worker picked them up from the desk and set them onto the desensitiser unit–the one that demagnetizes things.  And I immediately said, ‘Well, you just ruined all of my disks,’ and we had a lesson on why one does not move things that are not theirs, and why they absolutely put nothing but books on the desensitizer (we had a different unit for the VHS tapes, because it could mess those up, too).  So I did rewrite Little Balrog, and it turned out a little different, there’s a whole part in the beginning with Elrond, Erestor, and Glorfindel having a long discussion that I just skipped rewriting.  However, that means I have been a backup the backup of the backup person since then – I have so many flash drives of everything, and paper copies, and copies in the cloud, and I don’t trust technology since then, so it’s been a good 20 year run of tech not failing.  Now, whether I can FIND the flashdrive, the disk, the CD… >.> They’re around here somewhere… I also did a fair amount of sending fics to Yahoo!Groups and then not archiving them, so that is what I’m working on, is getting things archived on AO3. 

15. Do you foresee any personal or professional obstacles this year, that would keep you from creating fanworks? 

Yeah, I’m currently trying to make a huge decision between staying in the librarian & professor camp or shifting into management. Pros and cons to both.  I have about 11 years left in my plans of how long I anticipate working before retirement (I have been in the workforce since 1995; 40 years of working seems like a fair amount in my opinion). I waffle on this on a daily basis, whether I want to continue what I’m doing for the duration, or to try one more adventure. Strangely enough, I think the latter would actually mean more free time, because what I do now is work a full time job plus a part time job, and that can be 60 or more hours a week, especially during midterms and finals.