#ABSOLUTELY SOME OF PEOPLE SEES THIS AS AN UNDERRATED TOHO CHARACTER

[adm-starblitzsteel-4305]

Can you guys appreciate these cuties?

Quick sketch to Luluvera (left) and Belvera (right).

Based on this:

[flydotnet]

A Legacy and a Half

WHUMPTOBER 2023, DAY 21: “See the chains around my feet.” Vows | Restraints | “Don't move.”

I have a running gag with myself and my CT fanfiction writing, and it's that I actually really like the Toho trio, but absolutely never write them. I think I wrote Hyuga tops thrice before (in TTNW, my 2023 Matsuyama bday fic and a KojiMaki fic from earlier this month), and he's the Toho dude I've written the most. It's kind of bonkers if you think about it.

So I took the opportunity to fix that and fnally write not only something about the Toho Trio, which to me is the siblings of ever of this manga, but also something centered around one of my fav characters!

It's not obvious unless you've talked to me about CT for a while, but Takeshi Sawada is one of my all-time favs from this manga. I've loved him and his relationship to Hyuga as soon as my first watchthrough of CT 2018 and it's not changed since. I find him to be heavily underrated by both the manga itself and the fandom, so I guess it's up to me to put some emphasis back onto why he's such a cool little guy!! He's just so friend-shaped, you know?

As for why this day in particular, I suppose it's the quote that inspired me the idea of "a burden taken to heart", which would've fit Takeshi so well I immediately came up with the fic. "Vows" was the right prompt for this, I think, while "don't move" gave me the whumpy aspect of it. A match made in heaven! Or Toho I guess.

...wow that was lame.

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A Legacy and a Half

Summary: As Toho's next captain, there's a lot Takeshi has to live up to, and so little time to actually get to that level.

Fandom: Captain Tsubasa

Word Count: 1K words

AO3 version available here.

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Every single day, in school or outside, during practice or after it, there is one thing that comes to Takeshi’s mind: as Toho’s future captain, he has so much to live up to.

It’s not that new to him, he supposes. Back when he was in Meiwa FC, he had to do the same thing when Hyuga graduated; and look where it got him. Nitta’s Nankatsu FC won against them in finals, without even being as technical as he was. All he needed was his determination, focus and speed, all the while Takeshi had to play catchup.

Things have changed, since then. Unlike Meiwa, Toho has won a national championship – there is a precedent he needs to uphold and it’s the highest one reachable. Unfortunately, aside from Takeshi himself, most people who got this title will be graduating by the time he takes the helm, and he’ll have to go back to square one with teambuilding and getting back into the groove of things – and what if it’s as bad as it was this year, when he was clearly lost without Hyuga? He won’t even be able to look up to Wakashimazu this time, and it scares him more than just a bit –

“Takeshi, watch out!!” Sorimachi’s voice snaps him back to the pitch.

He barely avoids Hyuga’s tackle by jumping on top of it. The ball stays between his feet, thankfully, but he messes up his landing: his ankle twists at an angle that just doesn’t feel right, sharp pain following suit, and he falls to the ground before. He watches the ball roll away from him, quickly getting caught under Sorimachi’s spikes, while a surge of tears immediately rises in his eyes.

“Shit, Takeshi, are you okay?!” Hyuga screams as he kneels next to him.

He gulps his pain down, hopes the tears go with it, and nods.

“Hmm.”

“That looked painful,” Sorimachi comments as he picks up the ball. “Are you really okay?”

“I should be fine,” Takeshi answers as he gets up – or tries to, at least.

As soon as he puts weight on his ankle, pain jolts through it again, and he loses his balance. Before he can buckle straight to the floor, Hyuga catches him in his arms. The yelp that exits his mouth is a little humiliating, he must admit.

“Don’t move!” His captain immediately yells at him.

“That doesn’t look like fine to me,” Sorimachi adds. “Let me check it out, okay?”

His teammate kneels to the level of his ankle.

“That looks like a sprain to me,” he continues.

When he presses on it, it’s a gentle gesture – but Takeshi screams anyway.

“It’s definitely a sprain, if you ask me.”

In the distance, he can see Wakashimazu walk up to them as well. Oh no, he’s interrupting practice really badly…

“I agree,” Hyuga chimes in, his tone harsh and set in stone. “You don’t look like you can stand back up, Takeshi.”

It’s odd to see Hyuga actually take his little ankle pain into account, especially with such a hard-set frown. With how high his pain tolerance is and how highly he regards Coach Kira’s advice on letting anything stop you, let alone considering other people’s pain. Or maybe it only applies to your opponents? That’d have matched what happened with Misugi.

Oh, right, he needs to convince people that, like Hyuga, he can carry on as if nothing happened.

“I-it’s fine, I swear! I can just, I don’t know, take a painkiller and continue!” He stutters a bit, but it sounds genuine enough. (It is genuine, he just doesn’t quite believe he could pull what he’s talking about. He’s no Hyuga, after all).

Wakashimazu stops right in front of him, his expression just as hard-set.

“If you need to take something for the pain, then it’s already too late.”

“B-but, I…”

“No buts, Takeshi. If you sprained it, you sprained it.”

“It’s not such a big deal, right?”

Both of his friends communicate with a single exchange of gazes.

“It’s not like you to be this unreasonable,” Wakashimazu comments first.

“Yeah, he’s right. What’s gotten into you?”

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Takeshi realizes the only thing he’s got left is to actually open up about all of the doubt stew he’s been cooking for the past few weeks. It may make him feel better after he’s done, because frankly told, he’s been at a bit of a loss ever since he fully grasped how much it’d mean to succeed Hyuga and Wakashimazu as successful captains of the greatest middle school team in all of Japan (ex aequo, but that’s beside the point).

“Well, if I want to be a good captain for the team next, I need to be like Captain, right? I need to be strong and like I can get through anything! I’m sure Captain can pull through a sprain, right?”

When he expectantly looks at Hyuga, all he finds is… disgust? Is that it?

“What the fuck’s goin’ on through your head, Takeshi?”

“What?”

“That sounds fuckin’ bonkers! Yeah, I can pull through an injury, I guess, but even I know it’s stupid as shit to do!”

Oh. That’s definitely not what he was expecting to hear from him, that’s for sure…

“It’s a thing you do as a last resort, not as a necessary step! And, like, I know that’s unreasonable, I don’t like havin’ to do this, let alone see my guys do that.” He sighs. “Not to mention, if you want to follow a good example, I ain’t the one you should be lookin’ up to. You’ve got better right in front of ya, idiot.”

Wakashimazu chuckles.

“That’s a bit harsh to yourself, Captain,” he says, amused, before he goes back to being serious. “But he’s right, Takeshi. There are things you shouldn’t be copying from either of us. Pulling through an injury unless you really have to is part of those.”

“I-if you say so…”

“You really have that much doubt about your worth as captain, Takeshi?” Hyuga asks, so gently it doesn’t even sound like him.

“…yes.”

“Don’t. You’re the only one who can do this and I’m not takin’ no for an answer.”

“But, Captain… What if I’m not good enough.”

“Don’t worry this much about it, Takeshi,” Wakashimazu tells him in a calm, assured tone. “Focus on doing what you think is right.”

He nods along.

“But for now, let’s get that thing examined. That sounds like a better use.”

“…it does,” he finally smiles.

[ramajmedia]

10 Movie Monsters From The '90s That Looked Too Hilarious To Be Scary

Whether they exist in nature or in our minds, monsters remind us of our place in the world. Some of these creatures distance themselves from civilization, whereas others lurk nearby. For years, films have given shape to our fear of the unnatural. Xenomorphs changed how we think of aliens. David Cronenberg's The Fly showed how we make our own monsters. And dinosaurs were no longer a fantasy in Jurassic Park. But for every successful-looking monster, there are ones who undermine their own fearfulness. With a focus on the '90s, here are ten monsters that looked too hilarious to be scary.

RELATED: 10 Best Monster Movies Of All Time, Ranked

10 Watchers II: The Monster

Dean Koontz's novel Watchers spawned a 1988 film of the same name. In the movie's first sequel, another mutated beast is in hot pursuit of a genius golden retriever. Watchers II was made on an even smaller budget than its predecessor. This means the monster looks worse. Dreadful, in all honesty. It's hard to accurately describe what he looks like, but imagine a life-sized anteater made of wax. Then leave him under a low-heat lamp for a few hours. The mediocre costume design absolutely hampers the monster's scare factor in Watchers II. Not that the first movie's was much better.

9 Tremors 2 — Aftershocks: Shriekers

The Graboids in the Tremors franchise are giant, carnivorous sandworms. And thanks to Amalgamated Dynamics, these animatronic invertebrates look pretty good for the era. It's in the sequels, however, where things look dicey. The Graboids apparently evolve like Pokémon — in the 1996 sequel Tremors 2: Aftershocks, the worms abandon the subterranean lifestyle. Their second life cycle stage is the Shrieker, a terrestrial and limbless critter with a built-in heat sensor. A Shrieker is tougher to contend with than a Graboid, but it looks like a mutated, featherless turkey. You'll run from them, yet you'll feel silly for doing so.

8 Guyver: The Zoanoids

Based on the manga of the same name, The Guyver is an underrated actioner. In the film, a martial artist becomes the titular hero after coming into contact with an alien artifact called the Unit. He and his love interest are eventually hunted down by a corporation — consisting of monsters called Zoanoids — seeking out the device. With its relatively small budget, The Guyver did an honorable job with the special effects and costumes. That being said, the Zoanoids lack their manga counterparts' menacing miens. They also bear a striking resemblance to the creature designs in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

RELATED: 10 Stephen King Stories That Would Be Impossible To Bring To The Big Screen

7 Anaconda: The Anaconda

When making the sequel to Anaconda — Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid — production gave the snakes a facelift. They found that real anacondas had silly-looking heads. Or as stated on the DVD for Blood Orchid — "bizarre and comical." There is merit to their reasoning. Looking closely, there is something quite off about an anaconda's face. It might be the eyes. The Jennifer Lopez movie from 1997 overstated the snake's facade. Every time the anaconda gapes its mouth, it looks like it's laughing. And in turn, the viewers laugh, too.

6 Godzilla 2000: Orga

Orga is one Godzilla-verse foe who doesn't get talked about enough. And there's a reason why. In Toho's 1999 entry in the long-running franchise, defending Japan from Godzilla is now a top priority. Godzilla 2000 features a race of aliens looking to clone the enormous titular beast. With only a sample of DNA, the aliens merge and become a kaiju called Orga. Orga's head resembling that of TriStar's Godzilla is deliberate, by the way. This monster disappoints because it's a lumbering, muddled mess. Orga frankly better suits an '80s Alien ripoff than a Godzilla movie. There is just nothing artful about Orga's design.

5 An American Werewolf in Paris: The Werewolves

John Landis' classic An American Werewolf in London boasts some astounding special effects. Everything was hands-on and tangible. But the same can't be said for its 1997 sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris. This being the nineties, there was a growing shift in movies laden with CGI. That's not to say computer-aided visuals are outright bad. In the right hands, they can surely wow. The problem here is the werewolves are so artificial-looking. Audiences know what a traditional werewolf should look like, and this is not it. Rather, these wolves look like they'd be more comfortable in a PS1 RPG.

RELATED: 10 Things That Make No Sense In Teen Wolf

4 The Boneyard: The Poodle

You wouldn't think a demonic poodle would be scary. And you're right, it's definitely not. Alas, The Boneyard gives us a very big one. In this 1991 straight-to-video horror, a mortuary becomes the battleground between good and evil. Three mummified bodies brought there turn out to be ancient demons who can only be sated with human flesh. Unfortunately for the film's characters, one of the demons possesses an innocent poodle. The result is so ludicrous that one of the actors cracks up at the sight. Nevertheless, The Boneyard is a fun time because it doesn't take itself all that seriously.

3 Troll II: The Goblins

Troll II is one of those movies whose reputation precedes it. Everyone knows it's awful, and no one expects it to be frightening. People celebrate its atrociousness. For those who haven't experienced this movie, Troll II follows a family who's moved into a town called Nilbog. As it turns out, Nilbog is full of goblins (not trolls). The weird thing about these goblins is they're vegetarians. Yet they want to turn the family into vegetables so they can eat them. The goblins themselves are the complete opposite of intimidating. They merely amble about in their costumes and masks, which looks like they were purchased at a discount Halloween store.

RELATED: 10 Hilariously Bad Horror Movies on Netflix

2 Stephen King's It: The Spider

Tim Curry gave a memorable performance as the eponymous creature in Stephen King's It. In the miniseries' conclusion, however, It — or Pennywise — takes on the form of a spider-like monster. Remembering that the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's novel was made for television, one has to forgive the so-so visual effects. The creature moves in the most ungainly manner, and when one examines its face more closely, they'll see what looks like a starfish with eyes. The standoff between It and the Losers' Club should be tense. Instead, any potential for dread has been sapped by a giant, goofy spider.

1 Sleepwalkers: The Werecats

In Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, a teenager gets involved with a pair of shapeshifting werecats. A mother and her son, to be exact. These day-walking energy vampires specifically feed on virginal humans. And for some odd reason, they have a major aversion to actual cats. Although the story isn't all that impressive, the main problem with this original Stephen King movie is the visual effects. The cat monsters' transformations are achieved through morphing. Think Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video. While it may have seemed advanced in 1992, the antagonists look dated now when transitioning from human to werecat.

NEXT: 10 Best Horror Films That Use Practical Effects

source https://screenrant.com/movie-monsters-90s-funny-looking/