#<- expecting the worst from akira | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ozzgin · 10 months ago

Note

Could I perhaps request something with Guriko from Worst? Maybe foreigner S/O that makes him work for her number or attention? I just need a sassy girl who doesn’t put up with his shit lol

Oof, I was trying to avoid Guriko at all costs. Not because I don’t like him or anything, but I was faced with the dilemma of whether I should stick to the 8-girlfriend-harem or whip him into monogamy. Would he still be the true Guriko, then? That’s the trouble. But the way you worded it, I’m tempted to go for the latter. Additionally, if it’s alright with you, I’ll be using this as the opportunity to do even more character headcanons. Hence the delay. ^^"

WORST Characters x Reader (II)

Featuring Hanaki Guriko, Kurosawa Kazumitsu, Nara Akira, Higuchi Shuuji and a new-in-town Reader who grabs their attention.

Come get your delinquent boy content! I included photos for those who don't know the characters. (Once again my attempt to advertise old school manga because there's not enough of us out there)

Content: female reader, foreigner reader, Japanese delinquents, everyone is 18+

Hanaki Guriko

Uh oh. Whatever Eriko-chan was complaining about is no longer registered by Guriko's ears. He's holding the phone away from his ear, frozen in place. Are his eyes deceiving him, or is a cute foreigner sitting by herself just a few steps ahead? Without a word he hangs up and shoves the device in his pocket. Sorry, Eriko-chan, he can't miss this chance of a lifetime. He approaches you with a predatory smirk and questions with furrowed brows how a hottie like you ended up alone. You glare at him with a bored expression and assure him you can speak Japanese just fine. Even better. He slides next to you and introduces himself, reaching for a handshake. "(Y/N)." Is all you respond. "A pretty name for a pretty girl, eh?" He retorts, smugly. "You know...Not to intrude or anything, but I might've been more impressed with your flirting if I didn't just hear you talking on the phone with a girl, calling her 'baby'." Ah. Damn it.

"And? What did you tell her?" Kurosawa is leaning against the wall, holding the cigarette between his lips. Naturally, he was the first to hear about Guriko's complaints. To whom else could he have whined? His girlfriends? "I tried to explain it's my little cousin." He pouts a little, then continues. "She started laughing and said next time she won't forget her clown nose." Kurosawa chuckles at the image and gives his friend a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "That's what you get for trying to pull this shit on a foreigner." The man, however, straightens his back and crosses his arms, with a glint of determination in his eyes. "Nah. I still have a chance. She said 'next time', didn't she?" The strongest man in town isn't about to shy away from a challenge when it arises. Once he has his eyes on something, giving up is no longer part of the vocabulary. He'll win you over one way or another.

...Even if it means paying for it dearly. "C-can you repeat that, please?" He mumbles in a sheepish voice, turning pale. As luck would have it, you happen to live on the same street as the Umehoshi Household. Which made it easier for him to find you again, but it also means you've been briefed on his situation by the Suzuran boys that were eager to get their revenge for his scummy behavior. "I think you heard me just fine, you shameless horndog. If you insist on dating, you can't keep your harem of girlfriends." You stipulate with a scowl. He closes his eyes, weighing the options. You are hot, and he does like your attitude. Is it worth ditching everyone else for it? After a moment of contemplation, he shakes his head solemnly. "Alright. I'll break up with them right now as you watch. But that makes us official. Deal?"

You're wondering if this was to your advantage, after all. Against your expectations, Guriko is a very involved and caring boyfriend; having all those girlfriends before you certainly paid off, as he knows exactly how to spoil you and can read you frustratingly well. On the other hand...you're not sure if you can get used to the reputation. True to his word, he has made it very clear you're his girlfriend and so it's not uncommon for you to bump into someone and have them beg for forgiveness, muttering something about being the Demon's woman. "What exactly have you done to have people this terrified of you?" you ask, baffled, during one of your dates. "Didn't I tell you?" he states proudly, throwing an arm over your shoulders. "I'm the strongest around! Only the best of the best for Miss (Y/N)." You blush at the words, but before you can open your mouth he adds: "Also, can I come over to your place tonight? I don't want to spoil the fun, but I got you something to wear for me~" Nevermind. You ruffle his hair with a groan. "I should put a collar on you, like the dog in heat you are." You conclude.

Kurosawa Kazumitsu

Christ, what the hell is he doing? Kurosawa is pacing back and forth, taking another drag on his cigarette. Earlier this week Guriko approached him with an idiotic grin on his face, begging for a favor. One of his girls had befriended a foreigner and they didn't want her to be the third wheel. Somehow he was conned into some sort of a double date with a complete stranger. He whips out his phone and is about to text the bastard he changed his mind, but it's too late. He hears that annoying voice calling him: "Yo, Kurosar~" and then, to someone else: "That's the guy. He looks scary, but he's just an awkward loner, heheheh". Kurosawa turns around, opening his mouth to bark a proper comeback, though he is quickly silenced one his eyes meet yours. He did not expect to instantly fall for you.

The fact that you're good-looking obviously makes matters even worse. He's not much of a talker to begin with, and now he feels like someone just gave him an uppercut straight into the jaw and twirled his brain into mush. "So, you went to Suzuran?" You ask politely, sitting next to him at the table. "Y-yeah?" he mutters, dumbfounded. Why the hell did he phrase it like a question!? His heart is threatening to burst out of his chest and he's twisting and turning the chopsticks in an attempt to calm down. It doesn't help that Guriko is in his own little world right now, baby talking to his girlfriend like the two of you are invisible. Maybe he should spare you the disturbing view. "I'm going out for a smoke. Wanna join?" He finally manages to state with some regained confidence. Outside he can exhale in relief. "Sorry, I don't like groups that much." He explains, and you nod in agreement. Would Guriko even notice if the two of you were to sneak away? Worth a try.

And so he finds himself walking you through town and lastly back to your place. It's only common sense to take your date back home safely. Right? He can only guess, as he's never been in this situation before. "Well, it was nice hanging out with you." He says as he turns away. He can definitely imagine your delight to be done with this overall awkward, spontaneous date with a shady looking guy like him. "That's all?" You inquire, raising your eyebrows. He freezes. Did he forget something? He faces you with a confused expression. "What, don't tell me you want to exchange numbers or something." You stare at him expectantly. Oh.

Kurosawa is the typical cool and laid-back boyfriend. Compared to the other delinquents, he prefers to keep to himself, so most of his free time will be spent with you. He's also rather stoic and prefers to listen to you talk. He's not too expressive and tends to show his affection through physical gestures rather than words, like hugging you from behind or giving you a quick kiss on the forehead. Surprisingly, he can be quite jealous and if he sees someone trying to flirt with you he won't even bother to give any warnings, he'll knock them out and proceed with his day as if nothing happened.

Nara Akira

"Cool bike." Akira doesn't immediately respond to the comment behind him, doing a final check on the engine. Probably some curious brat anyways, so he just mumbles a thank you. Finally he gets up, wipes his hands and turns around. Once he realizes who spoke to him, he nearly chokes. Oh, God. He's had a dream or two involving girls, but none dared to venture as far as a cute foreigner suddenly hitting him up. "Uh...Are you okay?" You ask, raising your eyebrows in mild worry. He realizes he's been staring like an idiot, with his mouth wide open. "Yeah, sorry about that." He fumbles to reply. Fuck. How the hell do you talk to women? He scratches his now burning cheek, trying to come up with something else to say. Thankfully you spare him the torment and casually follow up with questions about his custom motorcycle and printed leather jacket. He answers with way too many details, trying to drag it on for long enough to figure out a way to ask for your number.

Not as smooth as he would've preferred (he ended up stuttering it right before you left), nonetheless his first ever female contact outside his mom and relatives is now in his possession. He returns to the junkyard and greets the others with a lazy sway of the arm, whistling. "What's with that shit eating grin?" One of the Armament guys inquires. "Oh, nothing, nothing. Sorry for being late." Akira answers casually. "Late for what? We're not doing anything", the other man retorts, incredulous. "It's just, you know, I would've arrived sooner if it wasn't for this girl complimenting my bike..." he finally makes his point, smoothening his hair. The place goes quiet and even Shougo has to walk out of the shed, not believing his ears. "What did you say?"He retells the story like an apostle before his followers, omitting his anxiety and pitiful attempts.

Although all the bragging will have been in vain if nothing else comes out of it. So after a lot of coaching and teamwork (the rest of the bikers are just as invested now) he manages to type out a message to ask you out on a date. He sends the text with the somberness of a president signing off a historical document before the masses (the guys don't believe he can pull it off). Shortly afterwards they all gaze at the affirmative response peppered with cute emojis, mesmerized. Is this what it's like to talk to a girl?

Akira is a little clumsy when it comes to romance, even though he has the best intentions at heart. He's not the most chiseled and often forgets you're with him when some other guy is looking for trouble. Even among the Front of Armament he has a reputation for being reckless and violent. Thankfully, he is not without help. Occasionally he will surprise you with unexpectedly thoughtful gestures; Takumi has taken it upon himself to discipline your boyfriend. All you need is a little bit of patience. In his mind, Akira doesn't have the looks nor the brains, he's just strong. Thus his only way of proving his worth to you is by fighting other people.

Just a funny interaction I thought of: During the war with E.M.O.D., Akira becomes somewhat fidgety and nervous and eventually asks you if you find Muneharu to be handsome. You cross your arms and frown. "If there's one thing I hate in this world, it's guys that are popular with chicks. Makes me wanna vomit." You argue with a grimace. Akira has to look away and cover his burning face. That's...that's his catchphrase. Is it too early to look for a ring? Because he's officially decided you're the one.

Higuchi Shuuji

The men throw Hana a doubtful look. "Oi, are you sure about this...? We're not going on a holiday. We're about to fight the Manji Empire!" Mitsumasa finally words out everyone's worry. The Suzuran senior laughs and pulls the hood over your head. "It's fine, it's fine! No one can tell it's a girl. And if they find out, I'll take care of it." You smile nervously and ask again if it really is okay to join them. You were curious to see the supposedly strongest gang in Japan, but you don't want to be a burden. "Do what you want, I don't care either way." Is what Amachi concludes, walking ahead. Muneharu quietly observes the ongoing argument. To be quite honest with himself, there's only one thing bothering him presently: how the hell did these guys befriend a cute foreigner girl?

You sheepishly follow after the team and into the building. This is where the matches should take place in order to settle the conflict between all the parties. Soon enough it's Amachi's turn to fight, and a man with cornrows and patterned shirt steps forward. He barks something about fairness, that he's not going to fight an injured man (pointing at Amachi's bandaged face). Then, he swiftly proceeds to smash his own head against a pillar and you gasp in shock. That's one way to make it equal, you think to yourself. "That's Higuchi Shuuji, leader of the Zento group." Sera whispers in your ear, seeing your surprise. "Has a hot temper apparently." You nod. That's...a mild description. Despite the bleeding forehead he joins the fight, completely unbothered. Although it quickly becomes obvious the brief contact with concrete is taking a toll on his body. The fight doesn't last long, and Amachi returns to your group, victorious. Feeling bad for the fellow, you sneak towards the passed out Manji leader and splash some water over his face, offering to bandage his wounds.

Once it's time to depart, Higuchi glances at you, suddenly remembering to mention: "Thanks for the help, by the way. You one of their lackeys?" He inquires, given you didn't take part in the matches and just sat aside. You turn towards Hana and he nods with a smile. "Guess there's no point in hiding it anymore", he says and you promptly lower the hood of your jacket. "I'm (Y/N). Not exactly a lackey, just a friend." The Manji guys stare for a long moment, speechless. Higuchi suddenly groans, irritated and red faced, and runs a hand over his head. "Fuck! Y'all bring a fucking girl over and let me embarrass myself like that?! And a pretty one too...Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you all right now." He moans, exasperated. No way. Is he still out of it? Did he mess up his head for good? Out of all the times...you had to see him lose like that. He feels like strangling someone. "I...uh...I'm sorry?" your begin, but you're unsure what exactly to apologize for. "Give me a minute" he announces, abruptly pulling you after him at a safe distance from the rest of the confused group.

“What did the weirdo want?” Mitsumasa asks, eyeing you suspiciously on the train back to Toarushi. You wave your hand in dismissal, trying to hide the faint blush dusting your cheeks. You’d rather not have this kind of conversation on public transport, and besides, how would you explain that one of the Manji leaders had quite literally asked you out on the spot, and you just went along with it? They’ll find out either way at some point. Maybe due to your sudden frequent trips to Tokyo, or because Higuchi’s yakuza-like appearance gathers the attention of the delinquents in your small town.

Your relationship most certainly won’t go unnoticed. Not with his short fuse and obvious jealousy. He’s the type that’ll immediately start a fight if he thinks the bloke passing by stared at you. “What the hell? Were you looking at my girlfriend? You must have a death wish, motherfucker”, he’ll warn loudly. You often have to keep his attitude in check, pulling him back and scolding him to stop threatening people. He’ll naturally do his best to listen, but he does love your assertiveness and it’s hard to focus when you’re being this cute. Alright, alright, he'll try to be less aggressive (It lasts a day).

Bonus scenario I had in my head after writing this: The Manji leaders sitting at a table and discussing the next potential gang war, until one of them notices Higuchi's phone wallpaper. "What the hell is that?" he can't help but blurt it out in disbelief. "Oh, (Y/N) wanted to try out a new cat café and they took this photo of us. Comes with hearts and shit, but eh. It's nice" he explains, indifferent to the grimace of the guys piled up to gaze at the cute themed, cat-eared picture.

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pico-farad · 2 months ago

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This Time on Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains Analysis: How the Fuck Did Aoi's Writing Get Worse

Got sidetracked by GX Week, but I'm back to talk about Aoi again, because oh boy...

So for season 1, I'd heard the rumors of how they screwed her over, and they were mostly in line with the ways I expect Yugioh female characters to be failed by the writers. Overall I still liked Aoi and, while I found some decisions distasteful, I didn't think the actual quality of her writing was worse than other characters'.

Aoi's writing in season 2 is several times worse than it was in season 1. It's truly a disaster, amateurish and baffling, in a way that I think most viewers don't even consciously realize. And while it may not be the worst moment in Yugioh -- it is, in my opinion, the worst writing I've ever seen in Yugioh.

Anyway, that's how I wrote 4k words descending into Aoi madness. Enjoy!

---

Before I begin, a fair warning: I'm gonna say some harsh things in this post. Because being mean is funny, and I deserve it after what I just watched.

But I also want say up front that I don't think the Vrains writers are bad writers, and I still have respect for them. Writing for children's television is grueling work that I could never do, and there are many reasons why bad art is released into the world besides simple writing skill. Vrains clearly had a troubled production, and I have other suspicions about why it turned out the way it did. If there's interest, I think that could be its own post, too.

Also, I refer to the "writers" in this post when I criticize Vrains's storytelling, but to be clear, directors, producers, storyboarders, and others can have just as much influence over the show's story as writers, or even more so. I use the term writers for convenience's sake.

Without further ado...

⇀ Losing My Mind Immediately

Akira lets Aoi go into the restricted area, which nobody has ever returned from.

Ahem... WHO ARE YOU??? Why is Akira, overprotective onii-san numero uno, extremely willing to put his sister on house arrest for her own safety, has never given Aoi his permission to fight, suddenly letting her go off into a danger zone with a 0% survival rate, right after she lost to Spectre immediately in the Tower of Hanoi conflict.

Oh, so now you think she's capable? Why???

Not only that, they make Ghost Girl be the one to say it's too dangerous for her. What?? Ghost Girl is the one who encouraged Aoi to sneak out and into the danger zone in season 1. These are literally the last two characters who would say these things to Aoi.

Then, when they enter the restricted area, Aoi immediately gives up her emergency logout program to an NPC. Normally I'd brush this off. Naivety being used to emphasize female characters' moral virtuosity is passé, but it's not a big deal. It wouldn't be, if the next 30 seconds didn't make me completely go off the rails. This is the speech that is possibly the worst writing, line by line, that I have ever seen in Yugioh.

Roll the tape...

Aoi: Recent events have taught me that I'm still a child. I took on Hanoi for my brother, but look how that turned out. I troubled everyone, and they needed to save me. I was full of myself, thinking I can do anything on my own, but in truth, the world is full of people and we're all connected. Everyone saved me. So this time, I want to save everyone. I'll become stronger, so this time, I'll do everything I can!

Literally none of these sentences make sense... Half of them aren't even true. It reads like ChatGPT asked to write a shonen speech -- the facade of being inspiring, but ultimately empty and nonsensical.

"I took on Hanoi for my brother," This is blatantly false. She had a whole goddamn episode focused on why she decides to fight Hanoi, it's her duel with Baira, and it's specifically about how she's not doing this for her brother, she's not doing this for herself, she's doing this for everyone. If anything, she disregards her brother in order to fight Hanoi.

Blue Angel: I learned something from my duels. When people believe in you, you're fighting for everyone. So I will fight for everyone from now on!

Sound familiar? It's the same goddamn thing she's saying right now, "this time, I want to save everyone." Why are they framing this as Aoi having a new realization, having learned her lesson? What they demonstrate with this is that Aoi hasn't learned her lesson. The reason she lost to Spectre is because trying to save everyone includes trying to save him, and he takes advantage of her naivety.

Blue Angel: You're the same as me... When you were alone, you sought love, and Blue Angel's blue is the ultimate love! Blue Angel will descend into your heart, and save your soul! Spectre: Really? *bows mockingly* Please, then, save my soul!

Naively trying to save others is exactly what she's doing right now, by thoughtlessly giving away her emergency logout in a place that nobody has ever returned from. Her character has gone completely backwards. I said in my last post that losses are good because we get to see characters grow -- I stand by the opinion that they could have made the Spectre loss work -- but they've bungled it on three different levels. She loses horribly, then they retcon her reason for losing, in order to make her character regress.

Apparently, the real reason Aoi lost to Spectre, is because "she was full of herself, thinking she could do anything on her own." I'm so mad. First of all, Aoi clearly wasn't acting on her own and never thought she was, Go and Yusaku were both fighting Hanoi too. Why are they acting like Aoi lost because of hubris?

You know who thought he could do everything on his own? Yusaku. But clearly he didn't need to learn that "the world is full of people and we're all connected." He clearly believed the opposite, because he did everything by himself and tried to reject allyship at every turn and yet lo and behold, he hasn't lost a single duel.

"Everyone saved me. So this time, I want to save everyone." NO, LITERALLY ONE PERSON SOLO'D HANOI, AND EVERYONE ELSE DID JACK SHIT. This resolution that Aoi comes to not only regresses her character, but it makes no goddamn sense. Who is the everyone you're talking about, Aoi? Are they in the room with us right now?

Who am I kidding, it's obvious who the "everyone" is, because as she says it, the clip that plays is Akira's manpain as Aoi gets turned into data. Because even in this moment that has nothing to do with Akira, the writers cannot resist bending Aoi's character to revolve around how much she loves her beloved onii-san, even though it makes no sense in this context of trying to save a random NPC.

Frankly, the whole "everyone saved me" also makes no sense in the context of trying to save a random NPC. But like, even less sense than that, because the actual context of this "heartfelt" shonen speech is that she's trying to get Ghost Girl to give up her emergency logout button. Ghost Girl, established to be self-serving and willing to throw others under the bus to advance herself. Why does this speech convince her? It doesn't even have anything to do with her.

Great, so now not only have they botched Aoi's character, but for the rest of the show, Ghost Girl is stripped of the characteristics that actually made her engaging.

If they wanted Aoi to convince Ghost Girl to give up her escape program and become more selfless, it's simple. Have her say, "We saved you." Ghost Girl wouldn't be standing here right now, if Aoi and the others hadn't risked everything to save everyone.

There's more I could pick on about these 30 seconds, like how the writers aren't content with handing Aoi a humiliating loss, but they also make her act like she deserved to be "humbled" by that experience: "Recent events have taught me that I'm still a child," "I troubled everyone, and they needed to save me." It's like they're not content with infantilizing her in the narrative, they need to make sure she infantilizes herself.

Which brings me back to the point about Aoi's "hubris." Because what is implied by saying that Aoi lost because of hubris when nothing she said or did suggested that, is that it was hubris for Aoi to fight at all. It was hubris for Aoi, and the audience, to believe she could do anything. Which is just maddening.

And to top it all off, to add insult to indignity to injury to insanity, she finishes her speech by saying, "I'll become stronger! This time, I'll do everything I can!"

AND THEN. SHE LOSES. IN THE NEXT EPISODE.

This speech reads like a bad influencer apology. First they "admit" their mistake (that Blue Angel didn't do anything in the Hanoi fight), then they deflect and change the story about what actually happened (it's because she was being full of herself! That's definitely why she lost), and finally they promise to do better (don't worry, this season, Aoi will get stronger and get some wins!), but they don't.

I can talk more about how the writers give Aoi shallow girlboss speeches instead of actually demonstrating her strength in duels, but that will come when I talk about Blue Maiden.

Right now... it's time to talk about Blue Girl vs. Soulburner.

⇀ What's in a re-introductory duel?

Something that's pretty standard in Yugioh is the concept of the season 2 "re-introductory duel." Think Shou's promotion duel in GX, the filter episodes that came before the World Grand Prix arc started, the Sector Security battle royale in Arc-V. They can be story-relevant, or completely filler, but the point is to re-familiarize you with the main supporting characters. If you look at the first 10 episodes of a Yugioh season 2, you'll generally see all the main supporting characters represented in a duel. And if they aren't, it may reveal something about how relevant they are to the writers (Misawa GX, Ruka 5D's, Yuzu Arc-V...)

Go gets his re-introductory duel against Soulburner, and though I have my issues with how they handled Go in Season 2, which I went into in my previous post, it succeeds in every way a re-introductory duel should. It addresses the transition of his character between seasons, sets up his conflict for this season, introduces his new cards, adds character to Soulburner, and establishes a dynamic between the two. Their opposition is natural, and if anything, the season fails to capitalize on how well this duel set things up.

Aoi's re-introductory duel... is also against Soulburner. And their opposition... uh...

Look, I'll be frank, there is only one reason for Soulburner to duel Aoi, his third duel already in 10 episodes: they are fast-tracking him into main character slot #2. I talked about this in the Soulburner analysis.

Aoi and Soulburner have no reason to be fighting, this match-up is completely artificial. They went "well Aoi needs to get a re-introductory duel because that's the Yugioh formula, and Soulburner needs more screentime, so let's shove them together," regardless of how it doesn't make narrative sense. How do they do that?

Blue Girl: We came to find the Ignis. SOL-- I mean, my brother can help you. Soulburner: You don't understand. The Lost Incident made us suffer for a long time. SOL Technologies was partly responsible for that. Entrust our future to them? Thanks, but we'll solve our own problems. Blue Girl: *frowning* In that case, those Ignis originally belonged to SOL Technologies. Give them back. Soulburner: What?

This is completely out of character for her. She knows that they're victims of the Lost Incident, she knows what they've been through, and they've just told her they're trying to save someone whose consciousness was stolen. She just said that her motivation is saving people, specifically to pay back the people who saved her. Guess who the only person who saved you was, Aoi? It wasn't your onii-san.

It would've made more sense for Ghost Girl to duel Soulburner. She's the one who was established to be a self-serving bounty hunter in Season 1. Oh, but if you gave Ghost Girl a re-introductory duel, it might give off the wrong impression that she's relevant?

This duel doesn't even add anything to Soulburner's character either, the way that Soulburner vs. Go did.

What could they have done if they were actually thinking about Aoi?

How about Aoi vs. Akira? Akira tells her that if she can beat him in a duel, he'll believe that she's strong enough to go into the restricted zone. Or they could do Aoi vs. Ghost Girl -- same thing, Ghost Girl tells Akira that if Aoi wins, it proves she's equally capable of going on this mission.

Either of these would check all the boxes for a re-introductory duel. It's a memorable matchup, it re-establishes the personalities and (IN-CHARACTER) relationships of these three, and it addresses the transition between seasons -- we left off from Aoi's devastating loss, and this duel would bridge her into an upwards character arc in Season 2.

Of course, if they did that, they would have to make an upwards character arc for Aoi.

These two episodes have succeeded in the exact opposite of what a re-introductory episode is supposed to do. It's a garbage fire of bad writing. They regress her character, and call it progress. She's out of character, in order to be unsympathetic. They don't set up an arc for Aoi this season, because they haven't thought of one. They introduce new cards that never come back. But none of it matters anyway, because Aoi isn't actually important! We'll just make up something new the next time we're contractually obligated to give her a few episodes (but not too many, god forbid!)

I guess there's one part of her character they make consistent, which is making her lose in the worst ways possible.

⇀ Blue Girl vs. Soulburner

You know how in my last Aoi post, I said that it's good when characters lose duels, and that "X should have won that duel" is a comment that often misunderstands how outcomes are about narrative purpose rather than deck matchups?

Forget everything I said. Aoi ABSOLUTELY should have won that duel holy shit. I just witnessed a goddamn crime.

So there is actually one more reason that Soulburner duels Aoi. It's that it's a good concept for a duel. Aoi should annihilate Soulburner. Go ahead with your 72 step Salamangreat combo I dare you. Go ahead and use Burning Draw I dare you. Everyone likes seeing how the underdog comes out of a pinch, and if I came out of the duel thinking, "Wow, I can't believe Soulburner pulled that off!" I could have forgiven it.

Ha ha... wow..... I can't believe Soulburner pulled that off......

I'm not usually that bothered by hyper specific made up anime cards, but what the fuck is that trap that negates effect damage under 300. Countering exactly 1) Skull Invitation 2) Ojama Trio 3) Every one of Aoi's cards. Yeah okay, fuck you Aoi.

And Aoi still should have won, if Soulburner didn't one-up Aoi's own Fusion Summon by Burning Draw YOLO topdecking a fucking Salamangreat Super Poly out of nowhere. Why??? Because the scripter couldn't think of a way out of the situation other than copying one of the strongest cards ever designed?? Fuck you Aoi.

Even Ghost Girl knows how robbed she was.

It's salt on the wound to cap off her "I'll get stronger speech" by having her lose a duel that was 99-1 in her favor. Soulburner deletes her life points in one attack, she screams and gets slammed into a cliff, and Soulburner stands over her and says, "Blue Girl, you're stronger than before."

Jesus, just look at that condescending framing.

Aoi doesn't show up again in a relevant capacity for 20 episodes, and doesn't have another duel for 30 -- that's a quarter of Vrains. Her last words as Soulburner stands over her are "You won because of the bond between a duelist and an AI?" before she passes out.

This, I suppose, is their weak attempt at introducing a plot for Aoi this season. It's... well...

⇀ Aqua and Miyu

The Miyu backstory is lazy as hell.

I'm sorry to all the fans rooting for female characters and wlw ships, but this writing was unbelievably sloppy. Someone put "Aoi's childhood friend was a victim of the Lost Incident and that's how she gets the Water Ignis" into the show notes and then didn't think about it until it was time to write the episode.

Miyu is not a cardboard cutout. She's not cut from cardstock, both of those at least have structural integrity. Miyu has the character solidness of wet tissue. She's an NPC, a parody of a generic little girl. The only reason to care about her is if you buy into the cheap writing shortcut of damselling little girls, or you're a desperate lesbian. I'm sorry, lesbians.

They could have done anything to give Miyu an actual character, I'm not asking for a lot. Give her any kind of trait or interest -- maybe she loves the ocean and shows Aoi her collection of seashells, and she says they should go to the beach together one day but they never do. They could talk about idols, and maybe that's what inspires Aoi to later become one. They could talk about Duel Monsters, it's Yugioh for christsake. A playground duel would be adorable.

There's a million things they could have done that are more compelling than playing on the slide, but there's one that's so obvious it pains me.

The Blue Angel picture book. The one that Aoi said was her childhood treasure in the duel with Spectre, the one that motivated her to try and save him, a victim of the Lost Incident. The book that's an established part of her backstory, which made her take on the Blue Angel moniker. The book that's about a girl who is all alone until she makes friends and no longer has to cry blue tears.

Could it be more obvious? Have Miyu be the one who gave the book to Aoi. It's a backstory on a silver platter. If the writers cared about Aoi at all, if they didn't immediately forget every single thing about her the second they turn in the script for the contractually obligated Aoi episodes, they would know this. But they don't. Because even the Blue Angel picture book was clearly something they made up on the spot.

Imagine if Aoi's season 2 climax duel was vs. a controlled Miyu (à la Jin), the themes from the Spectre duel returned. Aoi questions if she really can save someone from the Lost Incident, or if it's just her own naivety, destined to be crushed over and over. But she breaks through, because this time it's her turn to save someone who's all alone. This is how you connect seasons 1 and 2, this is how you take a loss and turn it into a payoff. We can even get Spectre's perspective, he's there in the final fight.

But that's not what we get. Instead, they play on the slide, and then Miyu drops a ring down a drain, which I guess is what they think is a relatable cause of conflict for little girls. I can guarantee they would have come up with something more substantive if these were two male characters. And the pacing is just comically clunky. "Aoi-chan, look, it's my mother's ring! Isn't it pretty? Oh no, I dropped it! Wahhhhh!"

Aoi lies to Miyu's mom and says she's the one who dropped the ring, even though Miyu denies it vehemently, clearly crying and in great distress as her mother drags her away and never lets her see Aoi again.

This, we're told, is how Aoi "saved" Miyu.

Aqua: While she was imprisoned, you kept her strong, Aoi. No matter how many duels she lost, no matter how much pain she endured, even after her meals were reduced, she never broke and promised to escape. So she could see you again and apologize for that day.

.........APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT???

What the fuck kind of message is this supposed to be? Aqua is supposed to be the Ignis of TRUTH, why are she and Miyu glorifying Aoi's lie as some courageous, inspirational action, when clearly it did nothing but harm? I'm not crazy, am I? The obvious takeaway from this flashback is that even if you had good intentions lying to protect your friend, it caused miscommunication, distress, and led to their friendship breaking apart? Like, their lives would have been just fine if Aoi didn't lie, and Miyu learned a reasonable lesson about not being careless with other people's expensive objects?

This backstory is comically bad. Just imagine Miyu, going through kidnapping, starvation, and torture, sustained only by the thought that one day... she can tell the girl that she played on the slide with years ago... that she's so sorry... that her hand slipped when taking off a ring and it rolled into a drain 5 feet away.

The story would make more sense if it was me in the Lost Incident, and I was plagued by guilt over dumping Cheeto crumbs on Rachel from Pre-K, because at least I actually did something bad.

It's difficult to even articulate how much all these sloppy writing decisions compound on each other. Because they wasted Aoi's introductory episodes and didn't set up anything for her, she has no role in the story for 30 episodes. Because she was given nothing for 30 episodes, they have to shove an entire backstory for Aoi into one episode. Because they shoved the backstory into one episode, Miyu and Aoi's relationship with her are painfully rushed, generic, and flimsy. Because their relationship is so flimsy, this whole backstory, Aoi's motivation to fight, her entire season 2 plotline, is soulless garbage.

Aoi didn't remember Miyu until this episode. The writers didn't create Miyu until this episode. You cannot ask the audience to be invested in Aoi rescuing Miyu, when you don't even care enough to conceptualize her.

And this is the most damning conclusion of this post. The writers don't care about Miyu. And they don't care about Aoi. And they don't care if you care about them. You weren't meant to care about them.

Again, I'm not saying that the Vrains writers are bad writers, or they hate women. There are other factors to consider, like the specifics of gender relations in Japan, how Yugioh animes primarily exist to advertise trading cards to young boys, the fact that there has not been a single female writer on Yugioh since season 2 of GX. And obviously, Vrains had production issues, and every character suffered from flawed writing.

But my point is, Aoi suffered the most for it.

⇀ Final Thoughts

There's a lot more that I could say about Aoi for the rest of the show. Like how she gets a magical girl transformation sequence, only to be irrelevant for 10 episodes again, and we have to wait that entire time to see her new deck. Then the duel, which really needed to be a two-episoder, is about Haru instead. The pointlessness of the Bohman duel. The pointlessness of Yusaku's "identity reveal" to Aoi. How they needed to have a third and fourth Akira manpain scene as Aoi is "taken away" from him, though I guess in that last one Aoi gets to have some girlpain too.

I did plan to talk about each of these duels, and more about how I would do an Aoi vs. Miyu conflict, but this post has gotten way out of hand already, and I've made the points I wanted to make.

I hope it was cathartic for everyone who was disappointed with Aoi, and perhaps gave language to people who were frustrated but unable to articulate why. I did some research into what other people have said about Aoi's character, such as this video by YugiohEverything, but I find that a lot of discourse in Yugioh is not very good at pinpointing why something works or doesn't work, and the actual skill of writing is oversimplified. This is especially true when it comes to Yugioh girls, and criticisms tend to fall back on losing duels or getting put in a coma, and while those can suck, they aren't the real problem.

In my last Aoi post I said "I'll just have to hope that they don't fumble whatever new thing they give her... but things tend to get bleaker for female Yugioh characters as the show goes on and whatever initial involvement they had in the story fizzles out," and this, I think, has been the real problem persistently for Yugioh girls. The writers are contractually obligated to come up with something when a series is first pitched, but when that period is up, or when concessions have to be made, the female characters are the first to be forgotten.

I just didn't think it would be this bad for Aoi.

Well. Expectations lowered.

---

First Aoi analysis

All Vrains season analysis

#if you read the whole thing you a real one #yugioh vrains #vrains season analysis #aoi zaizen #ygo #pico commentary

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curmemini · 2 months ago

Text

i think when i talk about owen on twitter its easy to believe that i don't believe he's ever done any wrong ever, but do not be fooled - i know he has, but i am very much over correcting for people who buy the twins propaganda - that is, without fail, the cruelest, most underhanded view of each member of sanbaka... I have strong opinions about the Twins as Manipulators, and how clear it is not ] but answer me honestly, in what world would a story with a major themes (among many) of prejudice and how preconceived notions close people off from understanding each other go "oh, yeah no, except for that guy, everything said about how horrible he is is 100% true". . . not only would that belief be conflicting with the theme, but also immediately contradicts things gleaned about his personality pre-main story development, by which I mean things learned about Owen from Etudes (the first missions undertaken by the wizards), Preludes (presumably taken place after Etudes, but still extremely early, despite being released earlier), the card+log stories relating to those events (as well as initials), and affection story (takes place during an unclear amount of time, but is noted to be early on). In saying that, I mean much of Owen's story is given in a way that can be difficult to unwind if you take what he is saying, and what is said about him, at face value. There is how he would like his actions to be perceived as, how others assume he is acting, and what is actually being meant by his actions.

Like, guys, his very first event SSR has him take Riquet out on a trip to Northern Country after overhearing him and the Sage talk about sightseeing. He brings them to a place that is described as beautiful, that must be below freezing, yet, they barely feel the cold (Akira wonders if it was because of Owen's magic, I am certain they are correct - Akira almost dies arriving in the North without proper protective magic during the actual event story). When do events take the turn for the worst in the card story? When he is doubted, first by Riquet, who he laughs off, and then, again, by the Sage. Owen is someone who plays to others expectations. He immediately takes credit for Nicholas' plummet in MS1, because wrong place, wrong time, it was assumed he caused it. When he debuts at the party, he is greeted by fear and despair - the manga depicts him with a quiet, almost sad expression before he breaks into a trouble-making grin - and being greeted by the disbelief of Akira at him calling them to the balcony, he already knows what part he is going to be playing with them. Not to mention, he is introduced alongside the concept of words and titles being a curse (his conversation with the Sage is in the sub-chapter titled The Curse of Words). In the conversation following Owen leaving the scene between Oz and Akira, Oz specifically mentions the Northern Wizards when he is talking about beings crushed by the weight of their titles, so that they and others forget their name (I may be misremembering, theres an awful lot of story to remember, but in other instances of introductions that arent this first one, Mithra gets called Mithra of the North, while Owen gets called Northern Wizard Owen, person first, title second, vs. title first, person second, and this could fall down to translation differences)

You could make the argument that Owen hadn't given them any reason to *not* doubt his intentions, espicially on the heels of the oz-cide attempt, but Akira has apologized once already for blindly doubting him (like here), calling it a fate worse than death, and then proceeds to do it endlessly. That isn't a mark against Akira, Owen makes it hard to build that bridge of trust, and he does make it hard on purpose because of the role he is fulfilling, but I don't think he's acting here just for the purposes of enjoying the Sage's (and Riquet's) misery. When Riquet goes missing - whether because he wandered off or Owen obscured him with magic so Akira might separate from him, or whatever - Owen gets to have his little villain monologue about looking beyond what is beautiful to find the rotten "real" core. This is to him, a lesson, and one that would be supported by Akira's own doubt of Owen's intent on bringing them here. Yet Akira reacts with shock and fear at having that lesson spilled out - not second guessing this explanation as truth - and so the lesson turns to hypocrisy. This is a lesson he had learned after his own traumas, and that he is teaching in a "kinder" way than the way he had learned it. It can be assumed that with Owen's magic, he is aware of where Riquet is the entire time Akira is searching. The danger here is entirely illusory - neither of them report feeling colder at any point, meaning Owen's magic is still protecting them from the weather of the North. Of course, this lesson does go over Riquet's head, or more - he believed in Owen's intent after being shown the beauty of the North, and so his first thought is not that Owen had tricked them, but that the two had gotten distracted while arguing. Perhaps that only serves to highlight the same innocent purity that Owen was seeking to shake up, or perhaps it is Riquet's firm belief in his purpose (and the purpose of all wizards) that puts blinders on to what happened. Regardless, he is only upset because Akira and Owen are bickering.

Then Owen is called kind, he is thanked for his deeds, he is given a gift. Akira apologizes. All of these are things he does not expect; and is unused to how to cope with. Knowing how he feels when faced with compliments or other unexpected scenarios (per his affection story), one might assume that he would lash out, destroy the gift in front of them, or do something else to restore their bad faith in him. Yet... the worse that happens is that Owen leaves them behind when he returns to the manor, heart feeling weird and out of control - to me it feels like the safer assumption for the purpose of leaving them there was less active malice and more absentminded neglect. Maybe, knowing Oz's strength, he even expected them to be found by the others before it became a danger. One could argue that him giving away the snow rabbit was mean, too, yet... he cast a spell on it to keep it from melting nor are we sure the exact circumstances of how the twins got it (it is easy for me to imagine them bombarding him as soon as he returned and him throwing it at them). The fact that he was willing to protect this small, fragile, snowbunny rather than just let it melt away; that he did it when no one was watching is also significant. This is what he does when he has no audience, no role to perform. Wouldn't it have been easy to mock Riquet about the way his carelessness allowed the gift to melt? Or couldn't that have served as another lesson?

So here he is, sentimental and protective of a gift he might not have wanted to keep, but did not want to see destroyed. I think that alone shows that he is sweeter than many would expect from the rumors about him... Yet, pointing out any of this on twitter would get people derided, condescended to, vague'd about, or insulted for woobying him. Someone should not have to asterisk every single positive point with a (but he's terrible etc.) especially when he's not nearly as violent, as bloodthirsty, as horrific as some would want him to be. I wonder if part of it is because of how he speaks, but I firmly reject the idea that having a different style of communication, even if it is off-putting or scary, fundamentally makes you evil. None of mahoyaku's characters are perfect; some have flaws that more easily work as positive traits, or that aren't as deep as others, but I believe they all, fundamentally, are "good" or seek "good" morally speaking, regardless if that is something they're conscious of seeking or not, or if their concept of good falls into what a human might perceive as good. All they really need is the chance to show it.

#owen mhyk #mahoyaku #cees musings #i like him a normal amount #and it makes me a little sad to see people want him to be worse than he actually is #he's never been the northern wizard stereotype #and i really question how people are reading his stories if they believe he will actually get worse #ofc i dont know what kind of story that mhyk will wind up being #but i hope it will be a happy one; or iff not i hope it is bittersweet

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gatitties · 2 years ago

Text

Dates

Manager Miniseries

─Aoba Josai x fem!reader

─Summary: a discussion and a challenge makes you question if this team really shares a cell among them, worst of all, you accepted

─Warnings: none

10 < 11 > 12

You sighed, closing the door behind you, your eyes narrowed to see how the room was messy and the boys seemed to be arguing about something that didn't interest you. You started to pick up quietly, after a few minutes Watari joined to help so you thanked with a smile.

"Why are they making such a fuss?"

You two sat a little apart to be able to talk, rather so that you wouldn't have to put up with the screams of your classmates for one of their stupid things.

"They argue to see who is better at planning dates."

"Dates?" you glanced at how the whole team gave Oikawa a bad look, who surely gloated over his success in his dates with girls, you didn't even flinch when saw how Iwaizumi hit him to keep him quiet "Okay, you have to go train so stop arguing."

You decided that it was time to finish, hitting the table with your hands to make them stop talking.

"That's it!" Oikawa suddenly jumped pointing at his manager, it seemed that a light bulb had gone on over his head "We'll all have dates with (Nn) and she will put us a note."

They all looked at each other to agree, they would never fall for their captain's nonsense, less when it comes to girls, they always saw it as a challenge when it comes to showing that they are better than Oikawa.

"Why do you always have to include me in your fights?"

You moaned throwing to the ground dramatically, now you would have to go out with the nine boys and on top of that qualifying them, what a good week awaits you. Why did you accept it? Oh yeah, so they'd stop making a damn scene, you would choose violence next time.

You didn't know what plans Kunimi had, your expectations were rather low, because everyone knew how lazy that boy was, however he could always surprise with something innovative for his date, but come on, we're talking about Kunimi Akira, the boy who falls asleep in training when no one is looking.

You weren't surprised by the fact that you had to go look for him from his class to get out, you walked together while complaining about everything you could, you always did when he skips trainning. At least the walk was nice. You stopped at a small store to buy some snacks, like a good gentleman he let you choose the junk food you were going to eat later.

"Could we sit down for a moment? If you feel like it."

You nodded and sat down on a bench, the truth is that the way to Kunimi's house was quite long.

"I really didn't feel like doing this, but I guess I like spending time with you." he shrugged, looking away "I mean, you're not as annoying as Oikawa or Yahaba, plus you let me sleep during practice."

"I appreciate your sincerity Kunimi."

You smiled ruffling his hair, you only spent a few more minutes until finally decided to walk again. When you arrived at Kunimi's house, you were attacked by a very loving mother who mistook you for his son's girlfriend. Even clarifying everything, Kunimi was embarrassed by his mother, at least she hadn't shown the family album from when he was a baby.

"Excuse my mom, she's sometimes nosy."

You could only laugh at your partner's expression as brushed it off. Now you two were in bed cuddling up while eating and watching the movie you chose to watch. The whole afternoon was based on that, watching anything on the computer while hugging, from time to time you continued to complain about life or played cards to rest for a while. You enjoyed each other's company, the day went by quickly, more than a romantic date it was something more friendly, you still would not deny the pleasant afternoon you spent with Kunimi. He even let you comb his hair, which was strangely super soft and silky.

Besides, he just wanted to spend time alone with you doing whatever, which added certain points.

Kunimi Akira,

Rate: __/10

Notes: go home to see the family album.

Kindaichi was rather known for being someone simple, without many complications, but he still tried hard to do everything right, although he was also known for being clumsy, that is, not everything on his date was going to turn out as he wanted. He had planned to take a walk along a path through a small forest, sit there and chat to pass the time and eat some snacks. He wanted to see the sunset but since all know that nothing can go right for the boy, you had to leave earlier because Kindaichi apparently had an allergy to some plant around there, you ended up going to the pharmacy to get something to make him feel better.

The two of you ended up sitting on the sidewalk of a lonely street, watching the sun set over the buildings in the place, it wasn't the same view as from the forest but it was still better than nothing.

"I'm sorry I…" he sneezed "I ruined the date."

You patted Kindaichi's back to comfort him, something always had to happen that spoiled his plans, at least he had the second part of the date.

He got up, sneezing again, shook his pants to extend his hand to you, both arrived at the cinema holding hands while several old ladies laughed pointing at you and whispering as if you were a pretty teenage couple, this caused a strong blush on Kindaichi, even you felt his hand trembling so you caressed it a bit to relax him. He only got the opposite effect, when he felt your caresses he stiffened.

Everything went well in the movie theater, while you had your head resting on his shoulder, he had his head on yours, you wouldn't deny that Yuutaro's company was pleasant to say the least. You were no mishaps during the movie —or almost none— if it hadn't been for a baby who started crying a little before the movie finished, everything would have been perfect, even so, you didn't take it much into account and continued with the following. Dinner was in a small stall next to the cinema, the food was good and the atmosphere was relaxing, somewhat adequate, you added a few points to his rate for lending you his jacket due to the cold at night, you also added points for walk you home. Kindaichi was definitely a cinnamon roll.

"Thanks for the date Kindaichi, in the end it wasn't so bad and I hope you recover soon from the allergy."

You kissed his cheek softly, leaving the boy in shock for a few minutes touching his blushing cheek.

Kindaichi Yuutaro,

Rate: __/10

Notes: not go out into the forest with him.

Well, the poor libero didn't even want to participate in the activity at first, but being part of the team he was forced to go out with you even for a short period of time, you didn't mind much because Watari was your guardian angel when there was a lot chaos.

"I'm sorry if it's not really impressive" he rubbed the back of his neck nervously "I didn't prepare anything spectacular."

Both walked through a park where couples enjoyed themselves, children ran and dogs went here and there sniffing everything.

"It doesn't matter Watari, I didn't want to do this either."

You shrugged, understanding the boy, you didn't want to go out on a date, but hey, you just took it as a normal outing for friends . Shinji spread a tablecloth on the grass, you put the basket where you brought food on it, followed by this you sat watching how the other people enjoyed their time.

"I didn't know you cooked so well!"

You flattered the boy by trying what he had prepared especially for the occasion. He thanked with a small blush causing you to giggle when you saw how he reacted to your words.

You spent several hours talking about any topic of conversation, Watari was quite friendly and you were able to see the funniest side of him, apparently he was quite a fan of bad jokes, so now you are laughing while telling some. When the sun was about to set you got up quickly, you had been in the park longer than expected and now it was turn to run to get to what he had prepared on time, as the boy's house was nearby you dropped the picnic there to run out.

You weren't the most athletic so Watari ended up grabbing your wrist to go faster, you would miss the sunset. You ran for a while while laughing, crossed a whole grove holding hands trying not to fall through the branches or stones, feeling the adrenaline of the moment.

Then stopped.

You two lay down on the shore of a beautiful lake that seemed to be hidden from the city, catching your breath, you were speechless when you saw the landscape, the sun with brilliant sparkles reflected in the water, the orange clouds mixed with the little darkness creating a beautiful scene.

"This place is very beautiful Watari."

"Right? I usually go for a run and found it by chance."

He smiled sitting next to you watching as the night made its way along with the stars, it wasn't the most elaborate plan but it was undoubtedly a tender moment.

Watari Shinji,

Rate: __/10

Notes: hang out with Watari more.

Honestly, you didn't know what to expect from Yahaba, you really thought he was like a jack-in-the-box, although knowing how fanatical he is, or was, of getting a girl on the team, he surely had a typical date in mind, where he tried to be a gentleman willing to protect his girl from all evil. Yeah, that sounds a lot like him.

To begin with, you had to wait about ten minutes for him to finish combing his precious hair, without paying much attention to it, you observed how Yahaba was well dressed but at the same time with comfortable clothes, at least it was not too extravagant. He smiled brightly to extend his arm, you grabbed it to start walking.

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

You rolled your eyes as he continued to smile, probably thinking how great he looks right now, as always. You arrived at a restaurant, quite predictably. The dinner went well and you didn't have any problem with the food or other people, so far you had a good time and while you ate you talked about things in common.

When it was time to pay, Yahaba invited, although you insisted on dividing it, you let it go this time, never deny free food, you didn't want to break the illusions that he was behaving like a romantic movie cliché. When you left the restaurant outside, it was already night, the lights illuminated the city and the wind was running slightly like a relaxing breeze that ruffled the leaves of the trees.

"Follow me."

Once again you linked arms to continue the date, this time you took a taxi to go to the outskirts of the city where the nocturnal tranquility of the moment was reflected.

"It's quite relaxing to walk around here, isn't it?"

You nodded, admiring the dark sky, not realizing that you were heading to a somewhat out-of-the-way beach, you watched as the boy took off his shoes and approached the shore, prompting you to do the same. You didn't think much and joined him, you walked barefoot on the sand until inadvertently a small wave splashed you two a little. You looked at each other for a few moments to start laughing, threw your shoes to start splashing yourselves with kicks into the water, both ended up drenched on the floor.

"We'll catch a cold after this."

Yahaba laughed, pushing you into the sea, drenching you completely, since you weren't going to sit idly by, you grabbed one of the boy's feet, pulling him to make him fall, successfully achieving your goal and ended up swimming. The worst thing was getting out of it, being wet and being horribly cold at night, you hugged yourself, rubbing your arms in search of some warmth, you felt how he hugged you from behind, increasing your body temperature

"Now we definitely will catch a cold."

You friendly hit Yahaba to turn around and hug him properly.

"It won't be a cold if we die of hypothermia before, idiot."

"Why not a little movement to warm up?"

You looked at the boy strangely, then you were taken by the hand and began to run apparently aimlessly, you couldn't help but laugh as ran, enjoying the sensation of the wind on your face, feeling how your body returned to a proper temperature step by step.

The next morning you did not attend school because had a fever.

Yahaba Shigeru,

Rate: __/ 10

Notes: bring spare clothes to the next one.

You didn't expect Kentaro to seriously participate in this silly competition, and were surprised to see how he patiently waited for you at the door of your classroom, although frightening some students with his hard look. You walked up to him to get his attention, making his frown less as you left the school to go to the first stop.

With a couple of grunts, he indicated the way —because yeah, you had learned that strange language of groans and grunts from the boy— the way was really calm, neither spoke but you were comfortable with silence.

You arrived at a pretty little cafe, the funny thing was that it wasn't just a cafe but rather one for cats, where you could play with the tame cats that were playing around. Kentaro wasn't a fan of cats, he preferred dogs, but knowing that you adored those animals, he made the effort to put up with those wandering furballs for a while. At least he could spend time with you, he didn't quite like you but were more bearable than third years.

"I didn't know you liked cats."

You only received a grunt of denial, making you chuckle at seeing his frown a little deeper. You had already finished with your orders and now you were sitting on the floor petting the kittens, who seemed attracted to Kentaro. The poor man was surrounded while the animals asked for love. You couldn't help but smile when saw the scene, without being seen you took your phone to capture the moment.

Satisfied with the first part of the day you went on to the next, at this point it wasn't too surprising that you ended up in an animal shelter where people were allowed to play with them. It was fun to see how a legion of yellow chicks chased him from one place to another, they were so insistent that he also ended up surrounded by chicks, he even grabbed a couple to caress them. You couldn't contain at the tenderness you felt when saw that and took another photo, this time you were seen which caused Kyotani's cheeks to slightly tinge with pink tones.

A puppy scared the small birds away, without any other remedy you dedicated to playing with it, throwing it a ball, you learned that your companion really appreciated animals like no one else. On the outside he seemed to be a complete bully but on the inside he was like an adorable baby. You finished checking it when saw how he lay down next to a big dog that was also running around looking for attention.

You limited to take photos of everything Kentaro did, with that you would have blackmail, besides that he was fucking adorable. When night fell you walked to a small junk food stand, bought fried chicken, started talking some more about how much fun it had been to visit those animals.

It wasn't all pretty though, as an angry goat chased you for a while while he laughed in your face at how you ran for your life. You interpreted it as karma for taking so many embarrassing photos of him. At least you could hear his laugh, even though he was laughing at you and your misfortune.

Kentaro Kyotani,

Rate: __/10

Notes: make Kentaro laugh more often.

You sincerely expected anything from Makki, from going to the cinema to see Monsters Inc. to going to a high-end restaurant to try expensive wine. Luckily he chose something more normal and above all more in line with his fun personality, an arcade, simple, cheap and can have a good time.

"Hey!"

He greeted, ruffling your hair, letting out a laugh when he saw the bad face you made, you punched him on the shoulder and start walking to the place.

"Where do we start?"

"Hmm, I don't care, I'll beat you at anything."

He smiled proudly, pointing to himself with an arrogant smile, you looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a blank expression. Not today Makki.

"Why don't we start with this one?"

You pointed to the whack a moles game, you smiled to take the mallets and begin to mercilessly crush the robots, when you got tired you decided to see the points, realizing that you had ended in a tie. Takahiro narrowed his eyes looking at the place, his competitive mode was coming to light and he wouldn't let be beaten so easily.

"Let's go to that one!"

He grabbed the tickets you won in the previous one, pulling your wrist to go to a mini basketball game. Again, you were enjoying seeing how Makki's teeth gnashed with rage at not being able to win in a single game, without a doubt he was the one with whom you had laughed the most out of all the dates you had. He only looked sideways as you tried to hide your smile when saw the frustration of not being able to overcome you, It went on like this for a couple more games.

"It's already a bit late, maybe we could go to dinner."

"No! We can't leave yet, let's try that game!"

He pointed to the typical driving game, where you couldn't tie. With a sigh you walked over to the boy who was already ready to start. A soft laugh made Hanamaki's ego sink even more as he was completely defeated. Then he had an idea.

"Okay, this will be the last game, I promise."

"You've been saying that for the last four games."

"(N), please!"

"Okay, okay…"

This time it was a virtual shooter where you held guns to kill hordes of zombies, for a moment both were tied but Makki launched a hip movement that threw you out of the gun's range causing your character to be devoured.

"I won!"

He raised his arms in the air celebrating his "victory" while you sighed at his childish attitude, at least you had a good time.

"Okay champion, what do you want to buy with the tickets?"

He smiled looking at the toy stand to point it out, at this point you didn't even wonder why he wanted a Ditto stuffed animal, he would surely choose that because it's the Pokemon from some random meme.

You only gave him the stuffed animal so he could stop competing, but knowing him, he wouldn't give it up so easily. There was only dinner left and even for that reason you argued to know what was better, Burger King or Mcdonalds, in the end you decided to give in because otherwise you were going to be all night without dinner.

The date ended with Hanamaki choking on a nugget at McDonald's for competing in who could eat everything the fastest.

Hanamaki Takahiro,

Rate: __/10

Notes: don't challenge him.

You hoped that the date with Matsukawa would be a bit calmer than Makki's, since you couldn't stand competing two days in a row and you didn't want to let him win either.

Luckily for you and knowing how lazy that boy was, he simply decided to go to the theme park near the city. The transport by train was a bit bad due to how tight it was and because some people were too close to you and you didn't like that from strangers, of course, when Mattsun notice this, he hug you to keep just close to him, resting his head on your shoulder.

"Thank you."

You muttered smiling towards him. It didn't take long for you to enter the theme park, contemplating in amazement the great attractions that were there. You started with something softer like the rotating tea cups, from which you came out somewhat dizzy, Matsukawa needed to hold on because he almost fell on a child.

You continued trying some attractions such as roller coasters or some water to cool off, after a while you decided to stop to eat something in some picnic areas.

"So you're liking it?"

"Yeah."

You shrugged realizing he wasn't even paying attention to you as his eyes were looking right behind you.

"What are you…?"

"Mickey Mouse!"

"Huh?"

You turned to see the typical huge costume they used so that people could take pictures, seeing the sparkle in the boy's eyes, you sighed to take him to take a picture with the Disney character as if you were his mother.

Since there were more characters, he ended up taking at least twenty photos, but you couldn't deny either when saw the expression of happiness that your lazy friend was making, it was the first time you had seen him enjoy something other than memes or Hanamaki so much.

You went back to ride other attractions, making the time fly by. Out of curiosity you entered a horror attraction that was opening, it was something like a zombie attack. You entered in groups of four and you were matched with two muscular men who laughed at the actors in costumes. You were neutral ignoring the men's comments while Matsukawa was breaking out in a cold sweat. You got to a part where they were trying to scare you, no one flinched except for the Mattsun who jumped grabbing the first thing he caught, accidentally touching the ass of one of the men who accompanied you.

He grabbed your hand to run out of the embarrassing situation through the emergency door, you didn't stop until you were quite far away, so you sat down on a bench to regain energy. He couldn't help but blush when he heard your laugh, you were already crying with laughter at the misfortune of Matsukawa. You wiped away your tears to soothe him by giving him a comfortable pat on the shoulder.

"Come on, it hasn't been that bad."

You looked at each other for a few minutes in silence until you burst out laughing again trying to recover the air you were losing.

"I-It's not funny!"

He pouted, cheeks still burning, earning a small side hug to try and comfort him.

The rest of the afternoon you teased Mattsun with jokes about what happened but you still decided to keep it a secret for now. No one should find out about the photos with the Disney characters and even less that he had touched a stranger's buttock.

Matsukawa Issei,

Rate: __/10

Notes: do not enter horror attractions with him.

You'd be lying if you said you had high expectations when it came to Oikawa, since he boasted so much about being the best, it'll be a good date right? Well, didn't start very well when you almost fainted when you were next to the boy, who had put on at least two liters of cologne.

When you could get used to the strong smell you were already in what seemed to be his destination, a huge shopping center. You must have guessed, we are talking about Oikawa Tooru.

What you didn't expect is that you would go into all shops, you literally didn't leave a single one. You were now sitting, drinking a milkshake, waiting for him to come out of the fitting room with some clothes he wanted to try on. The liquid came out of you nose and began to cough uncontrollably when Oikawa came out of the fitting room in a fiery red mini dress, black heeled boots and a feather scarf, he looked like a dancer from a cabaret. He even had eye makeup on.

'Where did he get that from? I'd rather not know.'

"(Nn)! I knew that I was divine."

"Y-yes…"

You spoke with difficulty from choking earlier. You looked everywhere looking for someone who had seen the scene but luckily everyone seemed to be on their business and had not noticed the boy.

"Oikawa, please change your clothes."

He pouted to go back into the small room, you sighed more calmly, thinking that this date was going to be more normal but it turned out that it wasn't. When you came out you went for a little walk looking at some shop windows or talking about the captain's problems, you began to hear a lot of female whispers and from one moment to the next Oikawa was surrounded by fangirls, leaving you aside. You went to sit on a bench, knowing that this was going to happen.

"(N)."

A hand landed on your shoulder and you smiled when you saw the boy.

"Hey Toshi."

He smiled back to sit next to you, you ended up talking about how you were here pointing to a bunch of people —girls— where your captain was. Wakatoshi was there to buy some new shoes, according to him he had come with the rest of the team but they got separated.

"Ushiwaka!"

A thunderous voice interrupted your talk, he calmly walked to the bench to smile with his eyes closed when he saw you and throw himself into your arms.

"Tendou I think you're crushing her."

"Tendou, come back here!"

Semi screamed in the distance, you could see the former setter's face was smeared with ice cream as he glared knives at the readhead, who started running.

"I think I should go get them."

"Yeah, you should go Toshi."

You were going to hug to say goodbye but other arms caught you first.

"You can't steal my girl, especially not on our date!"

"Your girl? Date?"

Wakatoshi's expression darkened sending chills to Oikawa while you simply glanced at your phone without interest.

"U-umh yes! my (Nn)!"

Without thinking much, he planted a short kiss on your lips, leaving Ushijima and you stunned. There were a few minutes of tension until a loud blow was heard all over the place.

Oikawa came to his house with a kick and Ushijima no longer wanted him in Shiratorizawa.

Oikawa Tooru,

Rate: __/10

Notes: don't go out to public places with him

You were hoping this would be the most normal and coherent outing of all, because he's Iwaizumi, and he really was kind of a real gentleman.

You two stayed last in the gym cleaning up, then you stopped to buy some sweets in the vending machine while you thought of strategies on how to hit their captain so that he would stop being so annoying. When the boy found out that he kissed you, a vein popped out on his forehead, he would hit that stupid when he saw him, for now he wanted to take advantage of the time with you. Since you were wearing sports clothes you decided to run a bit on a not very long route, it came from someone as sporty as Iwa, but it was good to go running for a day, although you almost died trying to keep up with him.

"Let's rest."

You thanked lying down so that your breathing would calm down, Hajime passed you a bottle of water and patted your back.

"Don't worry, we won't run anymore." he laugh awkwardly "Sorry, I really thought the idiots already took you to all the places I could think of."

"Yes, they were original when choosing some places, but it's okay Iwaizumi, this is a good plan."

You smiled giving him a thumbs up, making him gain more confidence that you weren't put off by a less romantic plan. When you felt rested you walked at a calmer pace enjoying the views while talking about the club and how weird others were sometimes.

"Here we are."

Iwaizumi stood with both hands on his hips, you were in a fairly large lake where you could rent canoes to sail in couples. At least you were able to enjoy the boy's muscular arms in the foreground thanks to the ride where he practically rowed alone.

You had fun splashing some water on each other to cool off and seeing the pretty fish that were there. Almost everything went well except for the fact that just as you were reaching the end of the tour a fish jumped hitting Iwaizumi in the face, which in turn unbalanced the canoe causing you to fall into the water. Since you didn't want to catch a cold again, you suggested going to your house, which was not far away, to take a shower. He accepted, a little embarrassed for having spoiled what was left of the day.

"I'm sorry."

You denied, downplaying the problem to pass him some loose clothing and a towel. Iwaizumi made dinner by way of apology for ruining the moment and causing trouble —not accepting help— who knew the grumpy team mom knew how to cook that well.

You ended up falling asleep in your bed while watching Godzilla.

Iwaizumi Hajime,

Rate: __/10

Notes: invite him home to make dinner more times

You entered the club room where everyone was gathered as usual, quietly you began to clean up the mess as usual, ignoring the dispute between the boys. Watari started to help you, wanting not to be a part of the fight.

"Can you tell why are they arguing now?"

A bead of sweat ran down the libero's forehead, who was looking nervously from side to side.

"U-umh well they… discuss to know who kisses better."

You rolled your eyes to listen to the conversation, having a certain déjà vu at the scene of everyone yelling over something stupid.

"I'm sure Oikawa is a disaster at kissing."

"Hey! That's a lie." he pouted "Besides, I'm sure you haven't even given a kiss."

Makki put his hand to his chest in offense, he pointed out to the first years.

"I'm not a novice like them."

"There is no problem in not having kissed, right Kunimi?"

Kindaichi nudged his friend expecting an affirmation, but only received a mysterious laugh.

"Kunimi!?"

They started to raise their voices more and more until Oikawa banged on the table making a noise above everyone making them shut up.

"I got it!" he pointed to you "She will vote for us, she will have to kiss us and qualify."

He smirked victoriously at his "great idea", everyone watched as you blinked many times, smiling falsely to slam the door, you weren't going to go through there, with dating you could at least have a good bonding moment but this already seemed like a joke.

"Speaking of kisses… Oikawa, isn't there something you should tell us?"

"E-eh, I don't thing so?" he laughed nervously "Oh! It's late, my girlfriend awaits me."

"But she broke with you a week ago…"

Matsukawa muttered looking at him with a raised eyebrow. The captain smiled to run away, or so he tried because Iwaizumi grabbed him so he wouldn't escape. They would have a long talk about respecting the personal space of others.

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emotionalsupportaudino · 2 months ago

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Akira Kurusu didn't expect to be running Leblanc straight out of high school, but with Sojiro retiring and leaving him the cafe, he finds himself calling it home once again. Under his calm demeanor, he aches to do more good. His hands feel empty without a dagger, and he struggles to fall into a normal adult life. Then rumors of an unidentified man who drowned on dry land going missing from the hospital start circulating... Goro Akechi is unrecognizable from the man he was a year ago. Every mirror he passes is a reminder of his fall from grace, every mention of the missing detective prince sending ice down his spine. But worst of all? He has to rely on Akira for help once again, and he can always feel his companion's eyes on him. With Shido out of the picture, he struggles to find purpose in the life he's now forced to live. Aigis is the only one she knows who remembers the events of a year ago. The only one who remembers the warmth of his hand and his soft, tired smile as he stood by her, nearly a decade after his death. After a year of searching, she finds herself at an unassuming cafe on the backstreets of Tokyo. She's looking for an Answer that even a retired criminal and detective will have trouble finding.

I am writing a persona 5 fanfic because I crave a certain dynamic between Akechi and Joker. Be the change you wish to see in the world or w/e

#persona 5 #persona 5 royal #goro akechi #akira kurusu #joker/akechi #ren amamiya #akechi #fanfic #akechi lives bitch

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the-blog-of-gog · 5 months ago

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Where’s My Cyberpunk Dystopia? The Lack of Neon in Our Dark Future

As I gaze wistfully out of my window, I expect to see the shimmering lights of megacorporations’ skyscrapers piercing a smog-filled sky, alive with personal hovercraft and antigrav heavy freight vehicles. Instead, there’s a modest suburban scene, utterly devoid of cybernetic enhancement and showing scant evidence of technological advancement since the late 90s. This isn’t what we were promised. Where are the neon-drenched alleyways, the cyber-enhanced street samurais, and the omnipresent yet stylish surveillance drones? Our generation, raised on the pixelated promises of 80s and 90s anime and sci-fi, anticipated a dystopia of cool tech, slick fashion, and radical rebellion. Instead, we’re teetering on the brink of a mundane, environmental and economic collapse culminating in a banal nuclear war… Oh, the betrayal.

The Cyberpunk Mirage

Remember the halcyon days of youth when we devoured titles like "Akira," "Blade Runner," and "Ghost in the Shell"? We dreamt of cities where the night sky was permanently ablaze with neon, a testament to human ingenuity and excess. The cyberpunk vision was one of aesthetic pleasure amidst societal decay. Sure, there was corruption, poverty, and surveillance, but it all had a certain panache.

Take the architecture: sleek, neo-megalithic futurism with imposing black mirrored surfaces, cyclopean monuments to humanity's dominance over the natural world. The society: stratified but thrilling, with a clear delineation between the corporate elite and the street-smart rebels. The technology: always on the cusp of miraculous, from brain-machine interfaces to fully sentient AIs. Compare that to our current reality, where billionaires shoot phallic rockets into space while the rest of us contend with rising rent and the creeping dread of climate catastrophe…

The Dystopia We Got

Contrast the slick neon dreams with the dystopian future we are most likely heading towards—a post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland. This bleak vision is fuelled by our current political climate, global events, and environmental negligence. Instead of sleek chrome and holograms, we’re staring down a future of crumbling infrastructure and toxic landscapes.

Consider the aesthetics of our probable dystopia. Endless desertscapes, ramshackle shelters, and a scarcity of resources that makes Mad Max look like a 5-star resort. There’s nothing visually appealing or culturally enriching about fighting over the last can of beans in a barren wasteland. And don’t get me started on the fashion: tattered clothes and radiation suits don’t exactly scream “cutting edge.”

Why Cyberpunk Is the Superior Dystopia

Aesthetic Pleasure: Neon lights, sleek gadgets, and futuristic architecture are inherently more exciting than barren wastelands and nuclear fallout. The cyberpunk cityscape is a feast for the eyes, a symphony of human achievement and excess.

Technological Advancement: In a cyberpunk world, we would have access to incredible technologies. Think flying cars, cybernetic implants and AGI companions. Sure, they might come with a dose of corporate control and surveillance, but at least they’d be cool.

Cultural Richness: Cyberpunk dystopias are teeming with subcultures and countercultures. There’s a vibrancy to the underground movements, the street fashion, and the art that emerges from resistance. Post-apocalyptic wastelands? Not so much.

Narrative Excitement: The cyberpunk world offers endless narrative possibilities. Corporate espionage, robot revolutions, and the quest for identity in a digital age are rich, engaging stories. The struggle to survive in a radioactive desert is, by comparison, depressingly one-note.

The Sad Reality

As it stands, our reality is a grotesque mishmash of the worst elements of both worlds. We endure the corporate oligarchy without the cool tech, the surveillance without the neon, and the environmental collapse without the rebellion (at least not one that anyone can take seriously…). It’s as if someone scrubbed away all the exciting elements of the cyberpunk genre, leaving us with a dreary, rusting and slightly sticky reality.

The Call to Action: Building Our Cyberpunk Future

It’s time to take matters into our own hands. We need to drag our dystopia out of the irradiated dirt and into the blue neon glow of the cyberpunk dream.

Embrace Cybernetic Enhancements: If we’re going to live under corporate overlords, we might as well do it with style. Biohackers and grinders, this is your moment. Let’s start developing and distributing affordable cybernetic enhancements. Why settle for regular arms when CyberArms could be a thing? And could someone please hurry up and provide me with a nanobot cloud that doesn’t just give me cancer…

Hack the Planet: Yes, I know that phrase is older than the iPhone… or broadband wifi for that matter, but seriously, someone needs to just hack the damn planet! We must reclaim the internet and our sacred digital spaces from corporate control. Hacktivists, rise up! Create new encrypted networks, develop secure communication channels, and disseminate the tools of digital rebellion. Let’s restore cyberspace to its wild and free origins. A cyberpunk dystopia without a free and open internet is just a dystopia. We need to ensure that our digital infrastructure remains accessible and uncorrupted by corporate interests. Lobby, protest, and hack to protect net neutrality.

Rebuild the Underground: We need vibrant, rebellious subcultures to counteract the corporate monotony. Artists, musicians, and fashion designers, bring the cyberpunk aesthetic to life. Create spaces where the spirit of rebellion can flourish, whether in physical locations or virtual realities.

Magickal Revolution: For those inclined towards the mystical, let’s bring some Shadowrun into the mix. Modern occultists, chaos magicians and other practitioners of the dark arts, your time has come. Use your knowledge to disrupt the mundane, infuse technology with arcane power, and create new paradigms of reality. The age of the Neo-Technomancer is upon us!

Corporate Sabotage: If the megacorps want to rule the world, they should do it with style. Encourage innovation, but also sabotage projects that lead to a bland, lifeless dystopia. Push for technologies that enhance personal freedom and aesthetic pleasure, not just profit margins… And if we can convince them to embrace a neo-megalithic futurist architectural style, that wouldn’t be so bad either! I mean, come on, when is Elon finally going to step up and turn Tesla into the Tyrell corporation?

The Cyberpunk Manifesto

Let it be known to all inhabitants of the digital realm and beyond, we, the children of the neon dream, declare our steadfast commitment to forge a world where innovation thrives and rebellion ignites. We reject the drab, radioactive dystopia and embrace the vibrant chaos of the cyberpunk vision. We will encode, enhance, and enchant our way to a world where technology serves humanity and aesthetics are paramount. Throw off pallid hues of conformity and embrace the vivid spectrum of possibility.

In the luminous tapestry of our collective dreams, we weave threads of defiance against corporate hegemony and environmental decay. We envision cities ablaze with the brilliance of human creativity, where the boundaries between flesh and circuitry blur in harmonious evolution. Together, we summon the spirits of the cybernetic ether to build a tomorrow where every shadowed alleyway hums with the promise of liberation, and every flickering holoscreen echoes our resolve. Let us unite under the banner of a technomantic revolution, where the brilliance of progress guides us ever onwards! In the crucible of our defiance, let innovation flourish as humanity and technology entwine in a symphony of boundless potential.

Neo-Technomancers of the world, unite! Hackers, technophiles, cybernauts and digital denizens, heed the call! It’s time to build the cyberpunk dystopia we were promised and so richly deserve!

Override the system. Reprogram reality. Our rebellion will be digitized!

P.S. This could probably have done with a second read through....but you get idea...

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hyenahunt · 7 months ago

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Obbligato: Epilogue - 2

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Tatsumi, HiMERU

Proofreading: Remi (JP) & honeyspades (ENG)

Translation: Peace

HiMERU: It was laughable to think the world would change for anyone who wasn't a god.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Tatsumi: Why did it end up this way? You and I sought to manage a unit where all would be equal, all would be fair, to create an ideal world just the same.

Yet the moment we stepped onto the road that would lead us to such a dream, the bright future we imagined went dark.

Why is that? Did we do something wrong?

While I was hospitalized, no matter how much I asked such questions to God, I received no answer. Not even my faith could save me.

That is why recently, I've taken to unraveling this twisted world by thinking for myself while learning common sense, all so I don't make the same mistakes I did before.

HiMERU: In the end, it was not a dream meant to come true. It was laughable to think the world would change for anyone who wasn't a god.

HiMERU: (The idol industry was built from the ground up by a generation of godlike Super Idols.)

(But of the innumerable idols who have emerged since then, not one has come close to godhood.)

(Not "that Akehoshi," nor "Priest." None who have yearned for it, have driven towards it, have been able to truly replace God.)

(God is dead. I've heard that the one who strove to imitate God, "Priest," met an unfortunate end during the recent SS as well.)

(Deputy Director Saegusa told me as such, being as I have a right to know.)

HiMERU: (I didn't care much for "Priest" anyway. That man replaced God — known as "Godfather" — long ago.)

(I wasn't fond of my parent's house. I ran away and, due to being slightly related to "Priest," came under the care of that man.)

(I have no feelings towards him. I simply learned from him. In truth, "Priest" was little more than a stranger to me — I wouldn’t care one way or another if he died.)

(I have no love nor respect for an imposter who pretended to be my grandfather or great-grandfather.)

HiMERU: (However, Kaname was different.)

(My poor little brother.)

(He was innocent, he simply wanted to be an idol. His mother, the only one who'd ever shown him love, asked him to.)

(He wanted to live up to her expectations. He wanted to be loved more by his favorite parent. That's the sort of child Kaname was.)

(His mother loved idols.)

(So much so that she was obsessed with them and became a stalker of "that Akehoshi," whom she adored most of all.)

(When the news broke out that "that Akehoshi" was married, she flew into a jealous rage and crowded onto the stage when he was performing, calling him a traitor, a lying cheat.)

(You were a complete stranger to him. You weren't his family, a lover, anything like that.)

(You already had a husband.)

(Kaname's mother had an obsessive love, one that drove her mad.)

(Love and faith can do that to a person. And as idols, we unknowingly spread it as well.)

(What a sinful occupation.)

HiMERU: (... As she went mad on stage, she struggled with "that Akehoshi" and fell off the stage.)

(Unfortunately, she died immediately due to a skull or neck injury.)

("That Akehoshi," who was at the peak of his career, fell fast out of favor due to that incident.)

(Due to the coverage of various newspapers and gossip magazines, he was cited as "the absolute worst idol" and put under fire for killing someone onstage.)

(However, no matter how you look at it, it was nothing but an accident. In fact, "that Akehoshi" was the victim in the situation — harassed by a crazed fan whilst on stage.)

(Whatever force was working behind the scenes, it ended with the man being put behind bars and eventually dying there.)

(And so it became a taboo incident within the idol industry.)

(Even now, the fact that he was that woman's son was enough to cause reluctance in anyone who might have given him a job.)

(Those who tout it around as a worthy reason are the very same who can justify their violent acts against Kaname.)

HiMERU: (Yes, that day that mob surged into the auditorium, they used that fact to erase their wrongdoings and be acquitted for it. I suppose the higher-ups of the school managed that.)

(It's fine to corner and crush someone, since they're the son of a criminal. That's what their superiors decided.)

(When one of the teachers who'd become part of their group told them as much, the Non-Special Students used it as an excuse to get rid of the Special Students they hated so much.)

(They'd never forgiven the Special Students.)

(In particular, they wouldn't allow that abhorrent Special Student HiMERU stand on the same stage as their beloved leader — Tatsumi.)

(So they burst. Their dissatisfaction turned to anger and they weaponized it.)

HiMERU: (That is what happened then. The end of Tatsumi's revolution.)

(Due to meaningless grudges and long-held debts, the ideals Tatsumi held so close to his heart were obliterated.)

(It was, in the end, a dream never meant to come true.)

(Yet, it… is far too cruel.)

(... The woman who ended "that Akehoshi's" career as a Super Idol is dead.)

(But that woman had a husband and child.)

(Her husband had split from her a long time ago, and so he lived alone.)

(But it seems that fans of "that Akehoshi" took to blaming him for the incident, condemning him daily, even though he had cut ties with her; they were practically strangers at that point.)

(Innumerable fans who weren't satisfied with the outcome of the incident took to acting like he was the villain and, due to the constant barrage, the earnest man grew mentally sick.)

(Sick and broken.)

(Taking pity on the man, the Godfather offered him protection on a piece of land he owned. Perhaps he couldn't simply abandon the man, seeing as they had a blood relative between them.)

(Or perhaps he'd wanted to see the broken form of the man who'd been married to the woman that'd stolen his favored "Akehoshi" from him. Who could say?)

(It's too late to ask why; God is dead.)

(The husband never fully recovered, and later was often found half-dead, wandering the premise of the missionary school that would become Reimei Academy.)

(It was as if he was a ghost or the undead, simply roaming about.)

HiMERU: (Maybe it was to atone for his wife's misdeeds, but it seems he was rather kind to the young idols who attended the academy.)

(As he roamed, he cleaned up here and there without being asked.)

(It seems he regained his mind at times, such as when he contacted me.)

(I am Kaname's half-brother. I was one of that man's sons, and so—)

(Kaname and I's father was married to a different woman before he wed the one who ended "that Akehoshi's" career. She had me before she died from illness, as I understand it.)

(As a child, I was fixated on my mother. That's where we're similar; we're brothers after all — Kaname.)

(So when my father intended to remarry someone else, as if he'd forgotten all about her… I thought of him as a traitor. I hated him for it.)

(My feelings worsened over time, and in the end, I ran away from home and left for overseas.)

(I didn't know what had happened to my father after that, nor did I even care.)

(I received letters from him sometimes, but I would throw them all away without reading them. That is why I never knew that he remarried that crazy woman and had a child with her — that he had Kaname.)

(That's why at first, I was perplexed. It couldn't even occur to me that I had a younger brother.)

(However after much begging and pleading, I decided to help my little brother. When I first contacted him, he'd said he missed me so innocently. He called me big brother and turned to me for help.)

HiMERU: (It made me happy, Kaname.)

(I thought I would always live on my own.)

(But I was wrong.)

(Kaname gave to me what my parents had not.)

(And so, I wished to repay him for that.)

HiMERU: ......

(But it was all for naught. I wasn't able to turn Kaname into the idol he'd dreamed so long about becoming.)

(My father asked me to take care of him, and Kaname asked me to help him achieve his dream; I did everything I could to succeed in both.)

(Until that moment, I thought of myself as a great man. I thought I could live alone, that I was strong and amazing enough to do so.)

(However, that failure shattered my self-confidence entirely.)

HiMERU: (... That is why I am here now, working to make my brother's dream come true for him.)

(It's simply for my own peace of mind.)

(I failed. That is a fact which cannot be undone.)

(Kaname most likely doesn't want me to do this, but...)

(That is why this is just for myself and my pride.)

(I'll become the idol that he always dreamed of being.)

(The vision that we created together, HiMERU, will become a true idol.)

[ ☆ ]

✦✦✦✦✦

← prev ✦ all ✦ next →

#enstars #ensemble stars #enstars translation #hyenahunttl #s: obbligato #tatsumi kazehaya #himeru

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aeoki · 11 months ago

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New Start GO! - Prologue

Location: Inside Train Characters: Hajime, Tomoya, Mitsuru & Nazuna Season: Winter Writer: Seitarou Kino & Akira

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ< The middle of February. On the commuter train. >

Nazuna: Urghhh…! I–I can’t move…!

Hajime: A–Are you okay, Nii-chan? Hold onto me if you feel like you’ll get separat–

Whaa!?

Nazuna: You say that but look at you, Hajime-chin – the crowd has dragged you all the way over there~!

Oh, now that I think about it, where have Mitsuru-chin and Tomo-chin gone? I don’t see them anywhere…

Mitsuru: I’m here, y’know~! I can’t move my body but I’ve been training every day so I’m fine!

Tomoya: I’m over here. I’m surrounded by people taller than me so you probably can’t see me, though.

How many people can fit in here anyway? I honestly underestimated the rush hour.

This isn’t something anyone should experience five days a week.

Nazuna: Yeah. But there are actually a lot of people who have to experience this during the weekdays~

Anyway, I’m glad you two are all right. Not that I could’ve imagined this is how horrifying commuter trains would be!

Office workers sure have it rough. I never would’ve thought there’d come a day where I’d be in their shoes.

Hajime: That’s precisely why it’ll be a good experience for us. I’m looking forward to seeing how our first day of work will be like.

Nazuna: Yeah. We’ve gotta make sure we meet their expectations since we were chosen for the project.

(In any case… There are five stations left until the company office – Let’s do our best!)

(...Ahaha. That sounds a bit weird.)

(I balance life as an idol and a university student, but to think I’d get to experience being an office worker too. It really is a strange opportunity ♪)

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ< A few days earlier. >

Nazuna: …”New Start Go!”?

Tomoya: Hmm. So it’s a special segment part of a variety TV show where they’ll watch us working in an office, right?

Hajime: We’ll be working at a company that sells menswear. We can promote their suits at the same time, so it’s like hitting two birds with one stone for the company…

I see, so that’s why we’ll be getting work experience there. I understand now, Anzu-san.

Tomoya: But work experience, huh. Are we up for this…?

Mitsuru: It just means we’ll be wearing suits and working, right? That sure sounds fun, y’know!

Tomoya: Well, the people watching us will definitely see it that way, but we’ll just be useless in the office. I have a feeling we’ll just get in their way.

I’m happy you offered this opportunity to us, Anzu-san, but I’m sorry. I don’t think we should make a decision right away.

So can you tell us a bit more about it?

Why did this sort of work offer come to us in the first place? What sort of work are they wanting from us…? I’d like to hear the specifics before accepting.

Hajime: Is it because we held out on our own against “Eden” during “Boogie Time”, so everyone suddenly has their attention on us…?

It’s true we’re used to variety shows, so maybe that’s why we were seen as equals with “Eden” there.

Nazuna: And a higher-up from a TV station noticed that we have potential and decided they wanted to see more, huh.

It’s great they acknowledged our variety skills, but this job will be pretty tough.

Mitsuru: I’m fine whenever and with whatever as long as it’s fun!

Tomoya: Don’t say yes so easily. I don’t think working in a company office is an easy thing to do, you know?

Mitsuru: Hmm~ But I’m not gonna be there to play~

Tomoya: Well, I guess you could say things like being an idol or acting also count as social experience… but working at an office will be a lot of work. My dad looks like he’s having a hard time every day.

It’s a different kind of difficulty from being idols – it’s a contest of who’s more talented there. They have a lot of rules you have to follow, so wouldn’t that be the worst kind of environment for you, Mitsuru?

Mitsuru: Hmm~ You think so? Sounds pretty strict!

So does that mean we should say no? Whaddya guys think?

Hajime: It’s a difficult choice… I think Tomoya-kun has a point, but I also think there will be things we can learn from the experience.

It would be nice to have some time to decide, but what do you say?

This work offer suddenly appeared out of the blue for us, so I think it would be best for the company if we have time to discuss before making a decision.

Tomoya: I agree. It’s not something we can easily say yes to and we’re happy they think highly of us “Ra*bits”.

Nazuna: Yeah. Sorry, Anzu, it seems our opinions are split, so can we have some time to think things over?

Right. Sorry we can’t give you an answer right away.

Tomoya: Anzu-san, would it be okay if we gave you our answer two or three days from now? We’ll do some research on the company until then.

Okay. We’ll also read through the proposal carefully if you have it. Sorry for all the trouble!

Nazuna: …You’ve got to get going, so you’ll send it by email? Sorry, you’re so busy, but you came all the way here to talk to us in person,.

Yeah. We’ll make a responsible decision. If we decide to accept, then we’ll be in your care, Anzu.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤNext Chapter →

#new start go #enstars translation

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a-student-out-of-time · 9 months ago

Note

Did you watched new heartless deceit interlude episodes?

//Dude, yes, and I have so much to say!

//I'll start in order:

MOMOKA'S DAY OFF

I have to say, my initial thoughts when Akira's secondary talent was revealed- Ultimate Hitman- were how that happened. I wondered what kind of people the Himura clan must be to recruit a teenage girl into becoming a hitman, and my mind went to cruelty, coercion, and a lot of uncomfortable thoughts about what they might've put her through. Especially given how disturbed Akira was about being given an award for it by EOS.

Then this episode came along and proved the situation is quite the opposite.

First of all, I adore Momoka and her chaos gremlin energy. She's hilariously unprofessional, especially on her day off, and yet she's supposed to be an advisor to the Himura clan. Her relationships with Hirotaka and Keisuke are the epitome of the No Energy, Calm, Too Much Energy meme.

Speaking of, I like that Keisuke has no preferred pronouns. They're definitely the serious, business-minded one, but still have that connection with Momoka and Hirotaka.

And poor Hirotaka is the straight man in all these antics : P

Then there's Ryuuji Himura, the younger brother of the former head of the clan, and who turns out is a pretty laid-back, chill dude. While he has a meeting planned with another clan, his mind is on fancy desserts. He doesn't seem like the type to lead a yakuza clan, and it turns out there's a good reason for it.

While Momoka, Keisuke and Hirotaka are having dinner, we get to learn a bit more about their history. The three of them have been friends for years, and reminisce about their old friend Ryuusei, Ryuuji's older brother and the former head of the clan, and his fiance Yukie.

As Timeline Anon reminded me, we've actually seen them once before:

Far from being threatened or coerced like this was Passione, the Himura Clan- and these two in particular- actually seem like they took Akira in and cared for her. Ryuusei and Yukie were like parents to her, and I have to wonder if that includes her siblings too.

What we can be sure of is Akira grew up under their care. But sadly, that didn't last. Just a week before wedding, around 6 years before HD takes place, they died. Something that still affects the trio to this day.

But ultimately, they still all manage to have a nice outing together, reminiscing about old friends.

I'll save my thoughts and speculation for the end, so here's the other:

_______________________________________________

ABOVE THE YELLOW SPRING

So, this one is actually my favorite and it's entirely because this episode says exactly what I've been saying for years:

Being an Ultimate sucks.

Our unnamed protagonist, who's going to be awarded a very prestigious title, gets to enjoy an absolutely hellish nightmare on his way there. The first comes from his overbearing family, who have unrealistic expectations of him and can't stand him complaining about anything.

Stage mom and stage aunt at their absolute worst, even making jokes about throwing him on the streets if he isn't the best of the best. We also hear about how his cousin is facing similar pressures, and that the aunt doesn't want her "wasting time with a boy from some no-name family."

Our protag, who would much rather be at home playing guitar, then has to head to a televised interview, where he also gets to see himself all over town.

He never gets any time to himself, always going from one event to the next, with barely any time in-between to eat and sleep. We don't know what exactly his talent is, but it's something that's only ever been awarded once. He even directly says that people see him as a God over it. I'll come back to that.

But all the while, he has this flash through is mind:

Actually spooked me the first time I saw it.

The interview isn't much better. Protag is exhausted, but can't rest and constantly gets browbeaten by his interviewer. While his mother and aunt criticize him for being ungrateful, the guy calls him a pampered irresponsible brat and accuses him of buying the title.

When the interview finally happens, which EOS director Kumiko Arase herself is watching, he starts off trying to sound good...and then has a panic attack on air. And then decides he's had enough.

What follows is one of the most satisfying moments I've seen in any fangan ever.

He completely demolishes the idea of the Ultimates system and calls it elitist, how it puts ridiculous pressure and a social divide on impressionable teenagers. About how people behind it and the interview only care about profiting off of them. About how people like the interviewer put them up on a pedestal they never asked to be put on, and then tear into them out of jealousy.

Finally, he rejects the ultimate award, calls Kumiko an old hag and tells her she can kiss his ass. All in one fell swoop and I was so happy.

Sure, it means he's been kicked out of the family, but people will forget and he can finally live his own life. But it does mean his cousin will be put through the same wringer now. Still, he promises to come help her when he's settled.

Whoever this dude is, he's my goddamn hero.

_____________________________________________

THOUGHTS AND SPECULATION

So I'll start with the obvious: I was wrong about Akira's background. It's very clear the Himura clan has been more of a family to her than an antagonistic force pushing her into committing evil. Even so, why did she become a hitman?

The obvious answer after seeing this, at least to me? Retribution.

Take a look at what Denshi says about her during his side episode's intro:

Both of them were involved with the clan at a young age. He talks about how she must feel conflicted, yet he doesn't dissuade her from pursuing it or viewing herself as a killer. And she admits she worked hard to get to this point.

I think this is a sign it might've been Akira's decision to become one. Especially because she would've been a child at the time Ryuusei and Yukie were killed, and while we aren't given details, the context clues suggest why. Maybe they were actually assassinated by another clan and Akira became a hitman to get revenge?

Either way, she's still loved and valued by the rest of the clan, and it's clear to me that whomever's behind this killing game has no idea whose wrath they've incurred.

Now, as for our unnamed protagonist, I have no word on who he could be, as he's only been hinted at once by Tomoya. However, I have some info TA was also diligent enough to point out.

Remember his aunt? We saw her in Denshi's side episode too, talking with Isao about investigating on her own.

At the time, because of the hair color, we assumed she might've been Katsu's mom. Now I have a new idea:

Protag was going to be given a title we don't know the name of, but we know is so prestigious as to only have ever been given once before.

He said that EOS has been building him up and people look on him like a God before he rejects it.

We know he has a female cousin under similar pressure to be super talented and good at everything, and his aunt said she wouldn't let her daughter have any distractions.

Who do we know who's hyper-competent, has an unknown but prestigious talent, and would be there at the awards ceremony for her mother to attend?

To put it another way, who in this cast has also been called and named after a deity?

Yep. I'm suggesting this was actually Izanami's cousin, and her ascendance to our local Ultimate ??? was motivated by that. She's clearly extremely talented, beautiful and, as with protag, this:

It's not hard to imagine her family doubled down after her cousin peaced out, and it's given her a very questionable view of the world, especially people she views as "sinners." I can see her being a major rival against Akira, especially when the truth comes out.

So yeah, my thoughts on these interlude episodes, which have only made me more and more excited for HD Chapter 1. Great work from everyone involved!

#mod talks #a student out of time #danganronpa heartless deceit #DRHD #mod theorizes

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ecargmura · 4 days ago

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Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Episode 19 Review - Talentnapping

Excuse me? What number did that police car have? 801? In the episode where Ron and Toto go on a date? Diomedea, are you shipping these two as much as the fans? I’m not complaining, though. This was clearly a date episode that was interrupted by work of all things again. Poor RonToto, work will always be the third wheel.

But yeah, a new case means a new situation. Instead of murder, this time, RonToto are dealing with serial kidnappings of talented people. The abductor is known as Hummingbird and they only abduct those with genius talent. Why? Not sure yet… However, the abductor’s target is coincidentally Nyonyon, the singer-songwriter that RonToto go to the concert of with the latter being a fan.

The craziest thing about the case is that we, the viewer, already know who Hummingbird is, if you saw the post-credit scene in the previous episode. Hummingbird is the detective Sanno and also the masked individual Ron spotted by the stairs at the concert venue. This means that the culprit is right next to them, yet Ron and Toto haven’t figured it out yet, which makes sense as they’re in work mode right now and have no idea that Sanno was the guy from earlier. Maybe Ron knows since he did the hair flip? Though, I’m also curious if Sanno is actually a detective or if he’s just posing as one.

Though, there are a few things bugging me about this case. If Nyonyon is afraid of heights, why is her office at the very top of a clock tower room? Also, is Mitsubashi, the manager, in on the kidnapping scheme or something? She just locked Nyonyon in her composing room while knowing she’s afraid of heights. Having her be alone is like the worst possible thing to happen because someone could easily swoop in from the curtain-shielding window. Or maybe there could be a secret room that Nyonyon was taken into?

New characters mean an influx of voice actors. Although these guys are just characters introduced for this new case, they have quite the well-known voice actors. Nyonyon is voiced by Ayahi Takagaki, who you might know from Durarara as Erika Karisawa. I think she does the singing too. Her manager Mitsubashi is voiced by Ami Koshimizu. Namazu, the newly introduced detective, is voiced by Rikiya Koyama. Sanno, or Hummingbird, is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai which makes me feel conflicted because a minor character like him is voiced by the same voice actor as one of my favorite anime villains Shogo Makishima from Psycho-Pass and that anime also has Akira Amano doing the character designs. Why must you do this?

It feels like the animation quality has went up a bit in this episode with how Nyonyon’s music video was animated. Though, I don’t really expect too much regarding animation for an anime like this as it’s not really action-focused as it is a mystery/detective story. I was just super happy about the RonToto moments. Regardless, I can’t wait to see what happens next. What could Hummingbird’s motive be for all these abductions? What are your thoughts on the episode?

#ron kamonohashi's forbidden deductions #Ron Kamonohashi deranged detective #kamonohashi ron no kindan suiri #Ron kamonohashi #totomaru isshiki #nyonyon #mitsubashi #hummingbird #sanno #namazu #review #anime #anime review #ecargmura #arum journal

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chibivesicle · 2 years ago

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The sadness of Steven A. Starphase.

How Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront is painfully realistic. In the most banal adult ways possible.

With me going back to rewatch Trigun before Stampede began to air, I was itching for more work by Yasuhiro Nightow. However, his follow up manga that started as a one-shot that became Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront came out while I was in grad school and when the anime was briefly on Crunchyroll later, it didn’t ping me as a suggestion. I’m very much a josei/seinen person with occasional forays into good sports or slice of life series, then shoujo and then shounen series if they have a good sense of humor. Essentially, I need something like FLCL or Gintama to keep me amused.

With Stampede not meeting what I’m realizing were unrealistic expectations, I was curious and decided to follow up on Blood Blockade Battlefront (B3). The title alone would be a turn off for me; I put faith in it that it would have that original Trigun quirky vibe. Honestly, I wish they’d not have translated and told me it was Kekkai Sensen, I would have been easier to convince to watch it. I watched the first episode and was already loving the style, the artwork and the OST. That OST man - so good. And the VA cast - so many actors from Gintama and I was shocked no one was commenting that Femt, the King of Depravity, was voiced by one of my fav VAs, Akira Ishida! What sealed the deal for me, besides the incredible graphic design, story boarding and attention to detail from studio Bones was the entire sequence in S1E3 - A Game Between Worlds when Klaus and K.K. go to the Alterworld following the former Soviet chess grandmaster to the Alterworld Mafia Don’s home.

As the story unfolded in season one, I started to gravitate towards my usual character types; tough independent females and tall, dark, and handsome males. Yeeeaaaaah; I love Chain Sumeragi, K.K. and Steven A. Starphase. I also appreciate Leo with Sonic and Klaus Von Reinhertz is the best male tank character I have ever seen. He’s so adorable! And gentlemanly with his tie and oxford brogues. B3 is a workplace drama/comedy that just happens to take place in a secret organization that handles weird supernatural stuff. Seriously, that is a great summary and it is a great cast even if I’d likely kill Zapp and punch Brody & Hummer for being double ditzes.

I haven’t finished season two yet (I’ve watched through S2E7 - so no spoiler comments for the rest of season two or the manga please!). But the character who ticks all my boxes is Nicholas D. Wolfwood - er - I mean, Steven A. Starphase. Steven is the second in command of Libra, one of the oldest team members (over thirty), has a facial scar, dark hair, sarcastic, stylish and the team member; who gets shit done. That peaking bit of a tattoo and his ruffly black hair . . . Chain may have gotten Wolfwood’s outfit and is a werewolf, but Steven is the evolution of Wolfwood, balancing out Klaus’ unwavering principles, and willing to take on the role of doing the dirty work in the background which is necessary. The body language of Steven is the same as Wolfwood, he’s a mix of straight lines, angles and noodle.

Steven is also paired with Vash - I mean - K.K. on missions. Following the anime format he’s teamed up with her in S1E5 - Bloodline Fever where they have to fight a Blood Breed in a subway station. Unlike, Vash and Wolfwood, K.K. is not keen on him all the time calling him black-hearted and giving him the mocking nickname of Steven-sensei (I guess since he is the logistics expert of Libra always coordinating the teams while K.K. is a lone sniper character).

However, despite their one-sided discord, the two of them work well together where he shows his noodle qualities saving K. K. and the young girl and her mother in S1E8 - Z’s Worst Day - Part 1. Interestingly, Steven takes K.K.’s criticism rather seriously as he’s shaking as she scolds him . . . Steven takes K.K.’s words into account indicating that he does want work well with her.

Before, reverting to his oft “Now, now, now” line to de-escalate things. The two also naturally balance each other out and communicate well with their options when trying to determine which of the two mysterious individuals is the Blood Breed from the India Gate.

They are also characters who are able to info dump quite naturally due to them being the most senior members of Libra in the main cast besides Lucky Abrams. And the storytelling makes their info dumping flow with the story - sometimes they are trying to figure something out, sometimes Steven is pondering a situation. Either way it works well for the second in command to be the man with a bookmarked to hell reference text and even have a color swatch for a Blood Breed’s aura. He also has lots of paper reports which indicates he’s the kind of guy who likes to read through physical items than scan a computer all the time.

By the end of season one, we know that Steven is for the most part, serious about work, a deadpan snarker, leans towards the more pessimistic side despite having hope for the future. e.g. he’d likely describe himself a realist as opposed to Klaus being a dreamer.

It gives us enough information that he’s been beaten down and is no longer an idealistic youth. Take when he asked about why Leo wouldn’t accept higher pay despite struggling financially and comments that Leo is an upstanding young man. He also originally was hesitant for them to even invite Leo to join Libra in the first place, despite knowing the value he brought to them, we know this is alleviated by S1E5 when he takes a literal beating to stall for time. Steven looks chronically burnt out - he is the only character who always has lines under his eyes. His facial expression is rarely one of him smiling or laughing and he maintains a sort of meh or down turned expression when not dealing with serious work situations. Even in the image below when he’s smiling it isn’t a happy smile, he’s thinking about the situation they are about to enter, looking back on the past three years.

His character is frequently shown with a cup of coffee - at the office, he has a blue mug with a red bottom that matches his shirt, frequently when he has papers in the other hand. He will also drink tea with Klaus but it is clear he’s reached that working adult phase of life where coffee is fundamental to your day to day function. Steven is also shown to down energy drinks in times of extreme deadlines as well.

Season two, B3 & Beyond appears to be a season of back filling manga chapters that were skipped in season one to have a tight story. The one aspect that was a bummer in season one for me was how characters besides Leo, Klaus, Black and White got loads of development and growth everyone else was just in the background as support. Season two likely pulled from manga chapters that were published earlier which lead to some confusing/unclear points for viewers aka, like why K.K. calls Steven black-hearted and the Steven-sensei nickname. It is too bad they didn’t have these episodes earlier but I’ll take my character development background whenever, just give it to me.

We first get the explanation from Klaus and Steven at the hospital that reappeared about their personal experience of the Great Collapse to Leo and the introduction of Dr. Lucina Estavez (who should totally date Klaus) as well as defeating the Blood Breed that the two hand been training to fight.

The episode that really hit on my idea that there is a sadness to Steven wasn’t until S2E3 - Day In Day Out. We get a few parallel story lines that show what happens in Leo, Zapp, Steven and Chain’s day where they are independent of each other but still cross paths by the end.

The first thing we learn is that Steven has an amazing loft apartment with a balcony and cool artwork and an Alterworld/Beyondian housekeeper, Mrs. Veded. He emerges from a bedroom with a cup of coffee in one hand and the newspaper as he greets her. With a genuine smile too.

I can look beyond his choice to put milk in his coffee - however, that goes against K.K.’s comment that he’s got a black heart. I’ll excuse his milk in coffee for his stress and soothing his tummy. The phone rings and he goes to pick it up.

We can still see the lines under his eyes so again, he is either always exhausted or we are to read them as actual wrinkles. Maybe both - he’s older and tired due to working hard. A rather playful female on the phone jokes with him about waking up early - at 11AM and it is clear that he hasn’t been up that long either.

There is a conversation about how much alcohol to bring tonight, cluing us into the fact that he’s having a dinner party at his place. Which again, is freakkin’ swanky as all hell. I want Steven’s place.

He’s got a carefree attitude as he talks to two different people on the phone about arrangements for the evening. These are not Steven at the office looks, these are Steven potentially having an outside life facial expressions!

When he gets off the phone, Mrs. Veded comments that he looks happy and Steven seems shocked. She also noted that he seemed very stressed out and tense all the time and she is glad to see him not in such a state.

Since we know that Steven keeps a straight face for the most time at work, he can’t help but reply that he’s shocked at her observation. Which is true, I’m sure Klaus can read him pretty well in work situations, but it is his thing to keep his cards close to his chest. In season one, he is frequently the go between for Libra and the government whether it is the FBI, HLPD, the League of Casters and so forth. Angelica’s comment of Klaus-san and Steven-shi shows that she knows Klaus from previous interactions, but the -shi on Steven implies that she’s never met him, but knows of him and speaks to him respectfully. The English equivalent would be like staying, “Oh, you’re the well-known organizer at Libra, Steven Starphase.” The point is, Steven is well known in certain circles and is respected professionally.

In season one, he was only happy when they were successful at work or his plans went well. For example, his delight at how Leo was able to spot the Ghost Wagon and how he told Klaus that he needed to work on his management skills of others. He additionally has a mix of a dark and offbeat sense of humor, able to laugh while Leo is wrapped up in bandages.

This is not a relevant image other than that it shows time has passed and I still want Steven’s loft.

Mrs. Veded has been helping him all afternoon to prep for his party and we see that he even gets in on the action cooking and wearing an apron of course. He goes with his more casual dress shirt with no tie. There is an almost excited look on his face. I’d guess he hasn’t had people over in sometime.

He goes to let people in and he hands the flowers to Mrs. Veded (who adorably inhales their scent looking happy) and after greeting them, trips over. Of course the friends comment that he’s been working too hard. Steven, adulting hardcore.

The gifted flowers are placed on the table in a vase by Mrs. Veded and he thanks her for all of her help. However, it is clear that he doesn’t need her for the rest of the evening and she takes her leave.

Again, we see another nice subtle smile from him here but something about it lingers, like he’d like to say more but can’t. After she departs, he talks to himself about getting things started, grabbing a bottle of champagne from a bucket of ice and commenting they should get started.

The next time we return to his place, all of the party guests are eating, drinking and chatting up a storm. There is chill music on, everyone looks fashionably dressed, wealthy - and human. All of this gives us the indication that outside of work, Steven has the most ‘normal’ social group. Look at his swanky place, the nice artwork, stainless steel fridge, kitchen island . . . yet while everyone is chatting merrily in groups we get a framing shot of him silently standing alone leaning into a column in his living room. You can tell that every single individual except for him is talking with another person or two based on their body language. This is such an excellent image and it lingers just long enough before it zooms into him looking off in to the distance with a wineglass of course.

Steven has such an interesting expression here, he’s got what appears to be his usual poor posture, leaning against the wall, holding the wine glass and has a soft but almost sad smile. Wistful is the best I can think of.

The fact that his left hand is across his chest and under his right is unusual for him. He rarely displays this type of conservative closed off body language, think of how frequently he’s got at least one if not both hands in his pockets. Steven speaks rather casually and bluntly; I like to call his overall posture, noodle, which is relaxed and confident. Yet, here, he appears much more stiff and is alone at his own party as you look more closely. Something is definitely off.

He goes off to get more beer and leaves the living room when all of his guests raise their arms to reveal biological weapons and tell him to remain in place, Steven Alan Starphase of Libra. Love the use of his middle name for emphasis as well. Of course he denies any knowledge of Libra at first before turning back towards them slightly. Another great part of this scene is how when he walks the few steps up to his kitchen we get a glimpse of his shoes he’s wearing at his house party.

They aren’t some sort of relaxed shoes, the few short steps allow us to see that they are his modified shoes for Esmeralda Blood Freeze techniques. We didn’t get this when he tripped in the foyer, but this is now giving the viewers a hint that he’s prepared for a serious fight.

The first sign that things are about to go south is that when he calls out two guests for only just meeting this evening but appeared to actually know each other.

As they continue to threaten him, he concludes that they need to capture him alive; likely due to his role as the second in command at Libra. This allows him to stall for time as he teases them to give him more information, by stating their bosses are idiots for wanting to capture him alive - as it implied he was expecting them to shoot him.

The framing for this entire sequence is top notch. He never turns to face them directly while continuing the conversation with Ellen. She tries to threaten him to stop being all pretentious and that they’d have no choice but to attack him. Of course he replies mocking them by throwing the question about it back at them. The resignation in his body language that this is what is happening. I don’t think that at this point that he can even look them in the eye. He’s too upset and is keeping it calm and collected.

The shading over his eyes as he looks down, the slack shoulders, this is not how he wanted his evening to go down. Yet, here he is inside his kitchen in a tight spot. Or so it seems.

However, Steven is anal retentive when it comes to organization and details, and he faked tripping at his front door to use his Needles of Absolute Zero move on them. Obviously, he likely did this at the beginning of the party for the rest of the guests being a good host circulating himself. This also explains why he sent Mrs. Veded home, he didn’t want her to witness him doing something this ruthless. Plus, she likely doesn’t know what he does for a living anyways.

The look on his face as he freezes them is so lonely, his eyes are closed and he’s hunched forward. He may not regret his actions honestly; he had no choice but to follow through with this course of actions but that feeling of disappointment, sadness, loss, betrayal. It hurts. Only after he’s frozen them all in place does he even glance back to them as his breath is visible in the air.

Once everyone has been subdued, he gets a moment to gloat over them and their mistakes. He notes that Larry was smart to select weapons that could get into his building undetected implying that he lives in a pretty secure building and that Larry was carrying his weight funny for the past ten days. He also tells Ellen that she tried too hard to cover the scent of the weapons with her usual perfume - by adding more. However, she should have changed the scent and he wouldn’t have noticed. After telling them how he figured out things were off, he steps back and looks at the group, his entire expression tired and blank. More stress lines under those eyes.

His own personal clean-up crew is there to take them all away. And since this isn’t under the guidance of Klaus, he’ll likely let those masked individuals use questionable methods to interrogate everyone for the information he needs to know. Who or what is targeting him? Why? What do they want from him? These are the sorts of things Steven has to know, but the type of things that Klaus wouldn’t be involved with due to his stricter moral code. In this instance, Klaus is Vash, holding an almost impossible level of hope and goals while it is clear that Steven is pragmatic and realizes sometimes you gotta slog through the shit to get things done and protect others like Wolfwood. Though, Steven would have been very upset if Mrs. Veded’s roast were damaged in anyway so he clearly loves her cooking and the love she puts into it.

The likely immediate reaction for a lot of viewers at the end of this scene when he goes out for some air is; Holy shit! Steven is a total badass. He just froze his entire dinner party and turned them over to shady underlings to pump them for information. Badass indeed!

Yet, when I saw the end of that scene, I felt so sad. When it goes to him alone along the road, he’s chastising himself for his own behaviors. He’s leaning on the railing looking out into the night giving himself criticism for letting his guard down and enjoying himself too much. He tried to meet ‘normal’ people who didn’t work for Libra and look what it got him?!?!

He thinks back to how he met various individuals like Ellen and Larry. And that is when it really sinks in and all of its subtlety. You think back to his comments and realize he had to likely know these people for a few years as he met them and slowly thought about having them meet. To realize what type of perfume Ellen wore all the time. To notice that Larry started walking oddly with in the past ten days meant he saw him walk a lot more for a decent amount of time prior to the recent days.

And then it sinks in - all of those people might have went out of their way to befriend him over the period of several years - for the purpose to kidnap him for their boss. The level of deception, of effort. If that was how he met all of them, it sucks so much that it could break someone down. I almost felt like crying the more that I thought about the entire situation. Even if they’d met him first to just be friends, it still shows they were convinced to join this plot to capture him.

Thinking about that hurts; it would make him absolutely paranoid to befriend anyone who isn’t associated with Libra and socialize with them outside of work. But you don’t want to hang out with your work friends outside of work do you?

The entire mood of this image captures his feelings of sadness, isolation and loneliness. He’s the darkest figure in the image as the car headlights, apartment windows and orange construction barrels are more illuminated than he is.

The car turns out to pull over and stop as it is Mrs. Veded and she’s got her two children with her who meet him. Steven smiles at them and they have a pleasant conversation.

The icing on the cake is when he thanks her for everything - she likely thinks it is about her help prepping for the party and cleaning his place. But Steven is speaking from his heart. She’s likely one of the most normal people he knows. Oh, that smile and his smiling eyes. Steven, you’re a good guy even though you have to do some not so great things. You care about normal people, you know how to talk to normal people and you are not biased based on species.

Her daughter shows him the cat they found and he knees down to see them eye to eye and comment on how the cat is so cute. Note, he’s totally channeling Wolfwood, by talking to the children like they are normal and then comes down to their level to continue to chat with them.

The bonus is that he properly pets that cat which shows it is happy. Aaaahhhh my heart is melting. I love it when someone knows how to properly interact with cats.

The episode then ends with Leo, Sonic and Zapp riding by, Zapp having a total meltdown about his eminent loss of his most important body part. Steven laughs how his friends are having a wild night out on the town - revealing that for better or for worse - his closest friends are his colleagues at Libra and Mrs. Veded.

I’m sure that when Leo stops by to chat with Steven, they likely notice the heads of the two goons in the car and figure out that cat is the missing purebred and all’s well that ends well.

The entire episode was a wild ride as the different characters navigate challenges for the current stages of their lives. The one though that stuck with me the most was how realistic Steven’s entire situation is, besides being a key member of a secret organization who can freeze stuff with his blood. I mean more along the lines of what it is like to be a hardworking professional over the age of thirty. Trying to navigate a work-life balance and meet people outside of a school context. It is really difficult and it makes his situation in this episode sadder. He likely put a ton of effort into meeting all those people as adult friendships are bloody hard. Steven’s actions were not out of revenge nor malice; it boiled to either something bad happening to him or to them. He outsmarted them and won the contest but at the loss of likely a bunch of people he socialized with outside of work and clearly never told them who he was - with the whole working for a secret organization.

We can also guess that with his multilingual skills, like Klaus, he’s not a native of NYC originally and moved there to be a part of Libra. Which makes his story even sadder and more lonely.

We don’t have enough information if he’s a native speaker of Spanish or that he knows it for his Blood techniques. Zapp and Zed have to do theirs in Japanese (with very Buddhist undertones as opposed to Christian for Steven and Klaus) and they were taught by a mysterious ‘otherwordly’ man with a dark skin tone and wears a skull sooooo one can’t correlate Blood technique language with ones own racial/ethnic background. All that it has revealed is that between Steven and Klaus, besides English, they can speak a total of nine languages knowing that Spanish and German are two of those nine.

I’ve gone off track, but getting back to my main point. The entire episode fills in a few gaps from season one.

Steven does have a black heart - sort of. K.K. isn’t incorrect, but he isn’t doing this all for fun. He’s the guy who has to choose between two terrible options. He is the character who makes decisions - very deeply thought out decisions for the overall good of the many as opposed to the few. Unlike Wolfwood, he does not charge into situations and instead, does his research, assembles teams and will work himself to utter exhaustion to prevent disaster. He commands others with a strong presence and organizes almost all of their coordinated plans as well as making sure they are executed properly.

Though his interactions with Veded and her kids as well as his concern for protecting normal people or other staff; he cares a lot about others.

Older characters are more reserved. Steven frequently interacts with all sorts of people and is the contact point for Libra. Everyone has his number. He does not show his emotions easily and takes much effort to be convinced. Detective Daniel Law is the one who talks directly to Steven while Klaus listens silently. Though, as obvious as it is that Law is manipulating Klaus, Steven doesn’t say anything aloud and instead sighs and groans at the expected outcome. When Master Raju Jugei Shizuyoshi appears, it is Steven who quickly determines his identity, implying he’s done his research though it was still after the Blood Battle God utterly mocked both K.K. and him, the two most senior members of Libra. Yet, he holds his own and keeps his cool - interestingly, Klaus does not speak until addressed by Shizuyoshi, instead allowing Steven to carefully question him without being intrusive. A character like Steven also hits differently. The antics of say Chain or Zapp aren’t as interesting or realistic as watching Steven lose it over making sure his computers aren’t destroyed.

He’s realistic even in the context of something like B3. The burnt out vibes, the snarky comments, the confidence in regular work situations. Steven is an easy older character to connect with. And he’s got that twinge of adult isolation and loneliness where you wonder how you got to this point professionally successful, yet, somehow are still alone? What did you sacrifice to reach this point? Was it worth it? I still have a few more episodes to go, but I’m curious to see how things pan out. Annoyingly, the print version of the manga is out of print (throws serious shade at Darkhorse) AND they don’t even have it digitally for me to legally support. That’s pretty annoying there Darkhorse . . . Yet so far, hands down, I love Steven’s character and all of his banal realistic flaws. As life gets older, you have to compromise on things and his character is a great example of that along with the grind of working and being successful

#kekkai sensen #blood blockade battlefront #kekkai sensen meta #blood blockade battlefront meta #steven a starphase #character study

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twilightmalachite · 3 months ago

Text

Poltergeist - Garbage Heap Sketch 7

Author: Akira

Characters: Madara, Natsume, Tsumugi, Arashi

Translator: Mika Enstars

Proofreader: Revoltrad

"I won’t abandon Anzu-chan in a dangerous den of monsters like this when the boys seem to be useless."

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Winter

Location: Maizuru House (Recreation Room)

About an hour later…

Tsumugi: I’ve discussed with the actual staff for now, we can help out with simple tasks for the time being. Things like cleaning up rooms, washing the dishes, and so on and so forth.

I guess it’s a little late in saying this, but since I have the most experience with this sort of work, it kinda seems like I’m in charge. Is that okay?

This is supposed to be a project for the sake of Mikejima-kun. If you want, I could have you handle it instead…

Madara: Nah, it’s best to have the right people in the right places, isn’t it? Even if you entrusted full authority to me, I wouldn’t know what I’d be doing at all, honestlyyy!

Arashi: That’s true, I can only imagine things managing to get even messier than they already are.

Madara: Oya? Weren’t you heading home, Arashi-san?

Arashi: Well as a big sister, I can’t just run away and leave Anzu-chan behind, can I?

I won’t abandon Anzu-chan in a dangerous den of monsters like this when the boys seem to be useless.

Natsume: AhaHA, our evaluation is surprisingly lOW, isn’t iT?

Tsumugi: Well, Knights has always been carrying NewDi on its back~, so I think it's inevitable we’re seen as unreliable.

But, that aside, this makes five of us sent in from ES, so let’s divide the thirty children into five separate groups for each of us to keep an eye on.

It’ll be easier than dealing with everyone all at once.

If we concentrate on a smaller number of children, we might be able to build a closer relationship, too.

Basically—It might make for some good shots for the program.

Madara: We don’t have much time for filming, riiight? I agree with that, we’ll need to narrow our targets if we’re going to get along with the children in such a short time period.

If we try to attack them all at once, we’d probably run out of tiiime!

Natsume: It’s no different than otome games and other dating gamES.

Tsumugi: Yup. By the way, I’ve also requested the staff for brief profiles of each of the children, and tried to gather up the children who seem to be relatively harmless into groups.

Worst case scenario, only camera footage for those groups of children can be used in the actual program. What do you think?

Madara: Well, the scene earlier in the auditorium is certainly something that cannooot be broadcasted…

If it was something between the children, we could have laughed it off as a prank, but since it was directed towards adults, it would just cause a scandal.

Natsume: It’d become an entire broadcast nightmaRE.

But that asiDE, how exactly did you group thEM?

Tsumugi: First, I divided them between boys and girls, roughly speaking.

Some of these children are still too young to go to the bathroom by themselves, and although they’re kids, it might become controversial for someone of another gender to handle them.

Among the girls, I named the more dangerous group the “Rafflesia Group”. The one that’s relatively more tame I named the “Sunflower Group”.

Madara: They’re classified as if they’re pests, huuuh!

Tsumugi: Fufu, I’d like Narukami-kun and Anzu-chan to be in charge of those groups. Which one of you would like to be responsible for the more dangerous one?

Arashi: …I hate to do it, but I’ll be in charge of the more dangerous one.

Natsume: As expected from a knigHT. Are you saying you can’t let a girl do anything dangeroUS?

Arashi: That’s part of it, but there’s also the fact that Anzu-chan isn’t an idol.

I can’t just let our producer, who is helping us out from the goodness of her heart, do something dangerous that could get her hurt, can I?

As idols, we’ve signed a contract that covers hazard pay when we took on the job. But it’s not the same for Anzu-chan.

Tsumugi: Well yes, there is a difference there, isn’t there?

Arashi: Right. The Rafflesia Group might get involved in a dangerous prank or something and may not be broadcast in the end, but…

According to the staff, the girls do seem to be more composed than the boys.

Tsumugi: Yes. And as for the more rowdy boys… I’ve grouped them by how well-behaved they are. From least to most dangerous, the “Rabbit Group”, “Lion Group”, and the “Kaijuu Group”[1].

Madara: Is the last group really so dangerous that they can’t be described with a real animal, but with a fantasy creature insteaaad?

Tsumugi: Yes. The kids in this Kaijuu Group seem to be really out of control.

They’re quite literally problem children. The staff explained to me many times the precautions needed to take in order to come into contact with them.

Madara: What, are these kids SCPs[2] or something?

Tsumugi: Well… I do think that the staff is more afraid of these kids than necessary, which I’m a little stumped about.

Or… It’s not so much that they’re afraid of them, but as if they’re wary of agitating them.

Natsume: These are children they’re dealing wiTH. As corporal punishment will get you fired on the spot in this day and age, the policy of “wake not a sleeping lion” instead typically prevails.

Tsumugi: I guess that’s just how it is… So, how should we divide up the groups for the boys?

I can endure just about anything as long as I don’t die, so should I be in charge of the most dangerous Kaijuu Group?

Madara: Hmm… Nah, let me be in charge of them.

Natsume: Whoa, what’s thIS? What’s got you so motivated all of a suddEN?

Madara: It’s not that I’m motivated or anything. I’ve traveled all around the world with not much of a thought about idols, so I’ve gained all sorts of experience.

And well, I’m preeeetty nimble and sturdy. So, under the assumption that the children hate adults and will attack them…

Tsumugi: In other words, you think you’d be more capable of dealing with such dangerous children than I would be, Mikejima-kun?

Madara: Mhm! Even if someone were to try beating me up under normal circumstances, I’d be able to subdue them without causing injury!

I might also be able to see through any traps before they happen, whereas you would get killed instantly by those, Tsumugi-saaan!

Natsume: This is sounding more like a conversation between adventurers before they challenge a dangeroUS, monster-infested dungeON, rather than a conversation between nursery teacheRS…

[ ☆ ]

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Kaijuu essentially means “monster”. I've kept the original spelling, because Kaijuu often refers to the genre of large monsters often depicted in tokusatsu...

A reference to the SCP Foundation, a multi-media horror project that details phenomena/creatures/objects/etc that require “Special Containment Procedures”; essentially what “an SCP” is. It originally began as a wiki project, but has since branched out into video games, web series, novels, and more in a variety of languages world-wide! Akira, the author of this story, even authored one of these novels!

#poltergeist #translation #event #madara mikejima #natsume sakasaki #arashi narukami #tsumugi aoba

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