#GET OUT OF JAPAN WE NEED OUR YAOI BACK

[absolutebl]

Top 10 Most Underrated BLs of the last 3 years

(mid year 2021 - end 2023)

This list will not include BLs that ended their run in 2024. I need some distance to know if something is actually underrated (We Are maybe?) or justifiably ignored.

1 I Cannot Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan 2023 Netflix?)

This classic friends-to-lovers BL is everything Japan does best. Angsty. Emo. Aching. Driven by real thirst. Yamato is deeply in love with his childhood bestie, Kakeru, and has been for ages, increasingly unable to hide his ungainly damaging high school need. He wants Kakeru in every way possible and it oozes off of the screen. Kakeru is silly and a little simple, but not frenetic or overly camp about it. He is earnest, and genuinely wants to keep Yamato in his life, which means giving a romance (and gayness) a fair chance. We watch him realize his affection and what form it can take in a truly authentic way. This show was impossibly kind to both of its lead characters and I felt almost honored that I got to watch something so lovely and rare play out on my screen. Full review.

2 My Ride (Thai 2022 Gaga)

Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever pulp to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest, and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi rider in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple. Full review.

3 Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan 2023 Gaga)

A lonely salaryman (+ talented cook) gets accidentally adopted by a college kid (and his little brother). I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the original yaoi (which is very dear to my heart). And they did! Paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.

4 About Youth (Taiwan 2022 Gaga)

A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by real world authenticity and grit. Full review.

5 Step By Step (Thai 2023 Gaga)

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This office romance between a stern boss and sweet subordinate felt more authentic to cubical work than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. That authenticity added tension to the narrative and its characters development (how novel). I also really enjoyed the charming side characters and the brothers' relationship to each other (although I could have done without that brother's side BL). Full review.

6 DNA Says Love You (Taiwan 2022 Gaga)

DNA deserves extra marks for an upbeat approach to a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled with sadness (in the guise of realism). There is a twist, which I found predictable, but knowing what would happen didn't spoil this show. The leads are luminous and engaging, and it’s full of queer found family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. The first few eps are rough going but have patience, it's worth it I promise! The second half is really special and life/love affirming - and the end is big-grin charming. Full review.

7 Unintentional Love Story (Korea 2023 iQIYI)

Of all the BLs on this list, this is probubly the MOST underrated. OMG the plot! Uke forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the PAIN in those gorgeous eyes. Gah. Okay, so: A boy loses his job due to trumped-up corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back, if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya). Full review.

8 Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Your Soul (Thai 2022 iQIYI)

This is a romance between a doctor trying to save his patients and a reaper who is both his enemy and (eventual) lover (basically the genius premise of a gay Doom at Your Service). High concept looks good on you, Thailand. It’s lovely to see KarnNat back on screen together and they are still great, and Karn is just as painfully beautiful as ever. I enjoyed this one more than its ending deserved, and the best I can say is that it’s not strictly HEA but if you’re okay with Life: Love on the Line, you’ll be okay with this BL. It’s set up well, there’s no surprise unpleasantness like HIStory 3: The BL that shall not be named. Full review.

9 Destiny Seeker (Thai 2023 WeTV)

A darn near perfect pulp featuring 3 likable grumpy/sunshine pairings with uncomplicated iterations of enemies to lovers. At least one half of each does a decent amount of pining and there’s good chemistry, classic tropes, and excellent communication rep. It’s fun and full of linguistic jokes. Sublimely cheesy but a good rainy day offering with tons of rewatch potential. (Also WAR PEANUTS!) Full review.

10 Make a Wish (Thai 2023 grey)

A doctor who can see the dead strikes a bargain with a wish-granting irreverent tree angel - naturally they fall in love (from Sammon: Manner of Death & Triage). Stars Fluke Natouch opposite not Ohm, but who cares because Fluke has chemistry with everybody. Once again the Thai afterlife is incredibly bureaucratic but I enjoyed the premise and the unfolding of the story (it’s not predictable but still satisfying and with nice little twist). I like that the doctor is just gay AF - fag hag bestie and made of swagger. The cast is excellent but the comedic stylings are a bit overblown and tonally off. It has sad parts and did make me cry but is ultimately happy with a great sex scene, good smiley kisses, and all the agency.

10 others I rarely see anyone talk about:

Triage - Many would put this at the top of the list, but I don't find it very rewatchable and that weighs a lot in my assessments. Still it is GOOD and very underrated. BL does Groundhog Day featuring a doctor stuck in a time loop who must save a poor little rich boy from death by seducing the stuffing out of him, then PLOT TWIST, poor little rich boy must do the same for doctor! Unfortunately… stuffing keeps leaking. I thought the plot was engaging if a little redundant and occasionally exhausting. The pairs were all well done, low heat but with decent chemistry and the support characters were likable (or unlikeable, as required). My reason it's not in the top 10? If anything, the romance arc detracted and distracted from the main plot, but that doesn't stop this from being a genuinely good show it's just time loop is not a trope I personally enjoy. Review here.

See You After Quarantine? - This under appreciated gem is Taiwan’s answer to Gameboys and is just as charmg and adorable yet still as quintessentially Taiwanese as one might hope. It features a Japanese love interest and the cutest most confused disaster gay. Slow burn because the two have almost no actual screen time together and yet manage some truly amazing chemistry. Honestly how does Taiwan do it?

The Tasty Florida - I don't know, maybe it's Speed nostalgia, but I love this one, classic Korean BL with all those strengths and flaws... but The Prettiest.

You Make Me Dance - it's Korea but somehow they got this one, maybe by featuring mature characters and a real world crisis? Also they both ve hot.

Blueming - at the time it got a lot of attention but it seems to have faded into obscurity under the shod of The 8th Sense and Love of Love's Sack. This was a precurser to both and well worth a watch if you like it when Korea gets a little gritty.

Love Stage!! (Thai version) - I liked this IP alerady more than most. But this is the best of the 4 adaptations, and the first full Thai version of Japanese IP. It's both charming and notable in the industry. Hard to find and that's why it gets so little creddit but I think it's well worth the effort to track down.

Oh! Boarding House - I think most who watched this din't jive with it because it's an ensamble piece witha wicked love traingle. But I really enjoyed it. It felt like the move Kdrama BL that Korea has given us and I like me some Kdramas.

What Zabb Man! - one of the better BLs to come out of Star Hunter in the last few years. I like this pair a lot more than most, and the sides are wicked great. This is probably one of my favorite food themed BLs, actually.

2 Moons The Ambassador - possibly the lowest scoring BL to appear on this list but I just really like the leads. Nothing else is good, but they are kinda awkwardly fantastic. I also like how gay af the seme is.

Stay By My Side - This show was an interesting take on the "ghost boyfriend" trope. About a boy who is tormented by hearing the dead, except when he is around one other boy - desperation+proximity = love. Despite a strong initial premise it ended up mostly being enjoyable for sappy domesticity but nothing more. Still, I always give extra credit for the diabetes-inducing sugar content and rewatch capacity.

Requested by the lovely @l1xyz

FYI: I judge “underrated” on the strength of what I see people talk about (or more precisely not talk about) on social media, MDL reviews, and YouTube watch numbers (when available, as compared to comparable shows from the same country). 

Because of this, statistically, there will always be quite a few BLs that are difficult to get hold of.

Here's my pulls of the Top Underrated BLs prior to 2021. Considering the amount of content generated over the last few years, the pool to draw from is likely about the same.

My Top 10 Most Underrated BLs prior to 2021

Seven Days

Restart after Come Back Home

Wish You

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding

He’s Coming to Me

Oxygen

My Day

Most Peaceful Place

HIStory 2: Right or Wrong

HIStory: Obsessed

I'd throw Great Men Academy in there, but I always dither over whether it actually is a BL.

[annetteblog]

I spent January 1 watching YoI and it’s the best way to start a new year, I guess

So, yes, after all these years I finally watched Yuri on Ice. The biggest thanks to all people, who recommended me to do it, because it was amazing :) 

Now, beware of my incoherent rambling about the characters, the plot, figure skating, Victuri (Victuuri?), LGBTQ+ representation, and Russia, just because I need this 🙃

First of all, I had never thought that one day I would end up having a crush on a Russian man, but here I am, having crush on a Russian 2D man. Victor Nikiforov, how dare you steal my heart like this! He’s some kind of a damn Russian Apollo... So I perfectly understand Yuri’s gay panic in the first couple of episodes 🤣 dude, I feel you.....

What I specifically liked about the characters, it’s their growth. They were not frozen, but gradually developed to become more mature towards the end. Victor becoming less selfish, more compassionate and empathic; Yuri becoming mentally stronger and more confident. And Yurio... he’s such a lovely pirozhochek!!! :D Really, this “I-am-strong-and-independent-grown-up” kid with his love to pirozhki is just 🥰 But yes, he also mentally grew.

For me as a Russian, it was a pleasure to see normal Russian characters in a foreign show. They were talented and nice, wow, that really happened!!! Honestly, I’m so sick of this “bad-drinking-vodka-prison-tatoos-nucklear-weapon-terrible-accent” narrative (I watched Tenet the other day, and I was literally sitting like this 😐 the entire film; they forgot to add a bear for the full picture). And normal Cyrillic! Not perfect or 100% correct, but at least it was readable and understandable, not just a classic American movie with a Russian text, which looks like this - зжэщгардгрвъ шщыралойцы фвзпролдрппппп (yes, I just hit my keyboard). The same applies to the athletes from other countries. Kazakhstan!! Otabek!!!! 

I also needed to pause one of the episodes just to scream at this

Aeroflot (rus - Аэрофлот) is a Russian airline. And yeah, it sucks 😄

But seriously, you can clearly see that they did their research, cared for details and payed attention to things, and I, as a foreign viewer, really appreciated this. I really hope, that one beautiful day shows’ producers start to make characters from different cultures, who are just... you know... ordinary normal people? and not just a bunch of stereotypes?? or necessarily devilish evil just because they are from another country??? 

And now, the ship! 

I’m not really familiar with a lot of anime, and definitely not familiar with genres like yaoi, although I’ve heard about its stereotypes and certain common patterns. Here, however, it was a pleasure to see a same-sex relationship, which was not just a cool fetish for some young straight girls (nothing against young straight girls), but like... an actual relationship? Plus the creators successfully embedded it into the main plot, without shifting the central focus of the show and abandoning the actual sport competitions. 

I really enjoyed the delicate approach to the relationship’s development. Considering the characters’ own path of progress, the relationship they formed were equal and mature. Also their care and clear tenderness towards each other were speaking louder than words.

Sidenote. I had never realized how much I needed a Russian non-straight character in my life until, well, yesterday. Thankfully, I had the Internet since I was around 11, so I spent my teenage years watching a lot of American/ West-European tv-series. LGBTQ+ representation was not something out of the ordinary, it was not a taboo; and it mattered to me, a young girl, who tried to figure out what the F was going on with my own self. But I had never seen a Russian LGBTQ+ fictional character on the screen. Ever. Honestly, I had never payed attention to this fact. Normally I don’t really care about a person’s nationality, so I couldn’t even think that having some queer character, who is Russian, would be somehow important to me. As it turned out yesterday, it was actually important. And, I guess, one of the deeply personal reasons why I liked YoI, was the fact of seeing someone from my own country and my own culture, who was non-straight and being just fine and perfect the way he was. Even though I’m not a struggling young girl anymore. 

Okay, back to the tale, before I become a teary mess again. 

Their relationship was heartwarming to watch. Although there were clearly some sexual undertones, it didn’t end up being just some sexy gay boys. It was definitely about the growth of love, firstly fragile but becoming stronger and more affectionate with time. Their bond became psychologically equal; and they do complement each other, being codependent in the best sense. And it was beautiful. 

However, from what I quickly gathered while reading a few comments, some people still claimed that there was not enough clarity in terms of their relationship?? I have to disagree with this completely. Excuse me, but you don’t exchange matching golden rings in a church with your friend to wear it on your ring finger. You definitely don’t passionately kiss it seconds before an important performance. And you don’t cry your eyes out if your friend suggests you to end your partnership. If you do, I have some news for you, dear 🤡

I honestly can’t figure out what kind of a bigger clarity some people want. If the same plot was shown between a man and a woman, you would get the message from the episode 1. Or at least from that episode, where they were naked making out i mean...... practicing some moves?? wtf it was, honestly, I was too busy laughing 😆 However, seriously, what do you need? Is this really necessary to show an R-rated sex scene for some people just to get it? Lame. 

Sure, YoI was not perfect. Some bits with figure skating were off, and there was some obvious magic going on in terms of homophobia, more specifically - its absence. I mean, I’m not an expert in LGBTQ+ rights in Japan (although I know it’s not  that great), but if a Russian figure skater came out or just had some kind of (publicly known) unidentified close relationship with a same-sex partner, their successful career would be over. And not just Russian, I guess, any figure skater would face similar problems. It’s a very conservative sport. 

But, actually, I was grateful that they showed it the way they did. Fairytale-ish. A show doesn’t have to be realistic to be great. It’s enough if it warms our hearts and gives hope to the brighter future. The real world may be cruel and unjust, but we all need kind and reassuring stories to keep us going. And such story about caring relationship and love is the great example of this. 

Lovely, funny, refreshing, and heartwarming. 

Or, just quoting Victor

vkusno!!! (c) 

😄

I will definitely rewatch it at some points in my life.

and now excuse me, I need to fall into the rabbit hole of fanfiction, haha stupid me

P.S. 

This moment was 

hot

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Rant on the fujoshi/yaoi whatever...

I second all those confo.

Of course there will be "mlm yaoi fetishist" but come on. I'm a yaoi fan since my early teens and let me tell you I'm nearly 40yo. I've seen some cringy shit (and lord knows I love a good cringy yaoi like in my teens, it's like watching American Pie all over again XD) and you can straight away see if it's weird fetish as in eewww hetero-ppl-disgusting eyeroll or just two gay characters. Often the fetishism as you call it comes from very young persons who didn't have yet the time or possibility to process their own orientation. As in, it's new, it's different, I like it, let's go crazy !

We need lgbtq representation, like yesterday. And this is why, my good dudes, fanworks lately have seen a huuuge spike on bi and trans representation. Because it's starting to work ! And as a cishet woman, I'm really happy for this. Why ? Because I like diversity, and it's not because I'm that cishet girl that I can't enjoy works with a lesbian or trans romance ya know ? And I also love a good steamy sex smut, so it's not exclusive or whatever. People need to learn and process that Lgbtq is not inherently sexual, as much as hetero is not inherently romantic. There's plenty of relationships out there. Why do yall think hurt/comfort and sickfics and coffee shop AU have been the shit for years ? Because we crave love and care and gentleness. We also crave representation, to see different things that are maybe or maybe not allowed in our life, our country and so on.

If people still think anything gay is obligatory sexual, it is because of our upbringing and societal norms, especially religious : gay bad brrrrr ! It has been so drilled into us that people forcibly see lgbtq matter as SEX. Newsflash : it's not. Why a hetero work is ok, but not a gay work ? Please, take the time to reflect on this.

I mean, I didn't see anyone dissing Twilight or 50 shades of grey back in the day when those books were at their peak. It was hetero, so it was ok, even though there was quite a lot of problems in there. Give me a gay Twilight that had the same dynamics ? No way it would get famous. Moral guardians would shit a brick.

Yaoi was initially written by women for women, it was an escape from a too-constricting society. It was also a defiance. This genre, in itself, is a lot of things you cannot just put into "FETISHIT BOX DO NOT OPEN". I don't have the will to expand on this, but know that it helped girls and boys alike to escape and find other representations in life where you had to be married before 25yo to not be considered worthless. And Japan isn't the only country like this, thus the wide following, the fanworks and so on. Today when being woke and offended is the new black, some people will go after you telling you it's offensive. But everything is offensive for those guys ! It's wild. Yaoi and their readers is so much more than that. And sometimes, it's just an incredibly bad sex scene or steamy photo of 2 dolls touching their dong (I've yet to see one with the anaconda lol). So what ?

Then again, works with gay pairing are as old as time and were erased as much as possible... I mean, could we maybe speak about Achilles and his good friend Patroclus ? I'd die with laughter on this one, and it's juste the more famous.

Anyway, I could write a fucking book on the subject with plenty of tangents, so don't think that is all I would have to say on this, because the subject is wider than you think. It touches on escape, wishing for something different than what the world has to offer you, feminism, representation, and simply, just enjoyment.

(I don't use fujoshi to describe us because it is a mysoginist slur, even though it had been reclaimed in the last few years. I've been there before, and I don't reclaim it, but more power to you if you do)

Rant ended, I just needed to get it out even if it's not the more articulated. Publish it or not Mod, I send all my love to you because you really need love to put up with crazies like us !

Maybe you should make a list with the dead horse cyclic confos : Culvr, Yaoi, M3lonpan, Is it racist to have a black doll, American hobbyist are mean, European are stupid and so on, shall I pay F&F, Will D0llshe send their dolls. I would have a blast ! But I'm a gremlin, so don't mind me.

~Anonymous

[dappersheep]

Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (3/3)

Ladies and gentlemen, we've arrived at our final destination.

Again before we start, we have our obligatory disclaimers. I do not own the game or its characters, nor do I claim to know the true history and likely fate of this game. I am entitled to the thoughts and opinions written within this post. Feel free to agree or disagree with the points being made.

This post also remains untagged from the main foofan tag. Only my followers will see this.

We are in the third and final stretch, and the checkpoint is past the cut.

Community

So... here we are, fellow Master Attendants.

As consumers of this piece of entertainment media, we are free to enjoy it however we wish. Appreciating what is there, creating something new from what exists, playing the game by the meta or however you want to play it (within your means and at your own risk of course). There's no one true and absolute way to experience the game.

However, just as you can enjoy something, doesn't mean you can't also point out flaws or shortcomings of the media in question. As an active veteran player, I've already pointed out the many gameplay design flaws  already. And I'd be pretty dumb to say that Food Fantasy's writing is perfect. Hell, it has a lot of holes from a worldbuilding consistency standpoint. 

And what of things from the community side? Yes, there will be times you'd see content you consider cringe, or something in fanon you don't agree with. Or there happens to be fan theories and fangirling posts you don't like the take of because of X or Y.

And that's fine. If we all happen to play the same way, like the same thing, agree on the same thing and produce the same thing, well, this would be one helluva boring community, wouldn't it?

But what if someone decides the way you're playing the game is wrong and harasses you over it? What happens if someone decides that their interpretation of the game's flavor text and lore is more important than what anyone else thought about it? What happens if someone decides that they're absolutely right, and you and everyone else who disagrees deserves to be bullied out of the fandom?

As much as I want to say we aren't part of the problem why the game is deteriorating, we are unfortunately, part of the reason why the game is as such even if most of the blame is directed towards Funtoy and Elex themselves.

⦁ Whale Authority. Whales will always be part of a gacha game's ecosystem. Without them, the game won't be able to maintain its upkeep costs, moreso  for one that services global regions instead of just one. But when a game decides to cater its decisions of what features should be prioritized and when it should be launched around only its most elite paying players' voices  -even if that influence has since tapered off-, you know there is something wrong with the publisher's management team and priorities.

⦁ Interguild drama. While I did not personally follow any of this, this has certainly been the peak of in-game tension back in the day. Poaching good players from both competitive and smaller guilds, guild mergers that often ended up making the annexed guild/s the equivalent of UK colonized India or Australia, suck-ups chummying up to guild leaders to keep a spot in an active, high ranking guild (for bragging rights!) despite never contributing much to overall damage, and just general dislike of certain players' attitudes. Actions like this have disillusioned many players about their playing experience and the reason why many eventually just lost the motivation to log into FooFan.

⦁ Cheaters. You know very well about the Hacker-teme I've mentioned before, but that was in context of Elex being incompetent with dealing with them. Here, I would like  to point out the players who are desperate to dominate  the playing field for whatever reason to the point that they would resort to cheating the ranks with forceful modifications of the APK. Whether it is to rank high in catacombs weekly, get a top spot in daily disaster damage, or weasel their way into the competitive whale ranks of a major ranking event, these are the people who have no qualms messing with the code to give themselves an easier time with the game. And if they're caught? Some pretend that they've made a mistake, some quickly sell the account to escape the blame, some others just scamper away into the dark and hide in the lower ranks where they can't be found. Others simply don't care and keep cheating until Elex decides to finally ban them... if Elex ever decides their rebates score isn't worth saving the account.

⦁ Ship wars. Ah yes, a staple of drama in any fandom. There doesn't need much explanation to this as we've all had our fair share of running into a battleground in whatever fandom we visit. Someone ships BB52 wholeheartedly? Nope, problematic 'age gaps'. Someone likes Napoleon with Pastel? Someone's bound to misinterpret their bios in order to justify that Napoleon was being abusive. Spaghetti and Borscht? Borscht is minor coded, ship her with Vodka instead. Whiskey and Pizza or Cassata? Cancelled! And I've never heard of the Foe Yay trope or pretend I don't know about it! Rarepairs? Disgusting! No fanon in my canon playground! Turkey and Eggnog? Gasp! How dare you, you pedo-shipper-even-though-you-never-said-you-shipped-them-romantically-but-that-isn't-my-point!

⦁ Character Obsession: Bias. On one hand, you love a character so much. Relate to a character so much. You have thus pulled this character into the folds of your bosom and coo at them like a mother dove and get so minutely triggered if someone so much as makes one disagreeable or joking comment about the character that you fly into an overreactive ballistic rage that would make a Canadian goose honk in fear. You don't care what they are in canon. You don't care about the possibility of mistranslation. What matters is the fanon space you carved out for them to exist in and that's all that matters. The problem with this is when this obsession takes over common sense and social etiquette and it steps into harassment territory. You begin to think: I'm the only one who 'understands' the character. I'm the only one who wishes better for the character, everyone else is out to defame them! Oh wait, you like them too? Do you like them the way *I* like them? No? Maybe if you're my 'friend', I'd let it slide. But to everyone else? No one else has the right to like them as much as I do. No one! Never mind that they're completely fictional- No one hurts my bias because in turn, they're hurting *me*!

⦁ Character Obsession: Anti. On the other hand, you hate a character so much. This character just makes you see so much red. Their smug little smirk just makes your blood boil. Their fictional backstory makes you recoil in disgust. You hate that someone else loves a character you hate so much.  You cannot *believe* that someone could be so daringly stupid to like a problematic character. They must be problematic too then. They must be hiding real life secrets that are problematic! Yes, yes. That's right. That person's a supporter of abuse. That person's into pedophilia. That person is into military lolita fashion that Japan started the trend of but clearly Japan was part of the Axis Powers! And that... that person... that person... is a roleplayer and a yaoi fangirl properly interacting with minors and adults. How dare they...!

⦁ Fan Translations.  Normally it wouldn't be a problem that a group or two or several are translating pieces of the game's lore ahead of the official. But with Elex's very delayed translations and extreme allergic reactions to translating Food Soul bios, people have become dependent on fan-translation groups to get their fix. The problem herein lies... is when the translators get drunk off the power that they are one of a handful in a small community who can magically transcribe the oriental moonrunes into English. The problem starts when the translator starts to have an inclination. The problem starts when the translator loses their professional detachment and start adding in details here and there into the fan translated product that ultimately changes the meaning and direction of the entire story. The problem is also escalated when that translator's embellished product is touted as the truth by their followers. If there was an upcoming character whose backstory is connected to a character they hated (either because of someone or they just don't like the character) and you were hoping to read the fan translation? How would you know that what you get isn't something doctored to the point it's basically fanfiction?

⦁ Social Justice Vigilantism. Sometimes someone does not have a character obsession or need it to be annoying. Sometimes, someone just wants to ring the alarm over something they find 'problematic' in order to police and sanitize the enjoyment of the media for 'everyone'. They no longer really take enjoyment out of a new Food Soul design being leaked, they no longer read the lore just to enjoy what it has to offer. Instead, they nitpick bits and pieces of the design and point it out repeatedly as a reason why the whole thing is bad. They point out bits of the story and inject their interpretations of it without really comprehending what they've read in full and react badly to it. What's worse is that they have no qualms publicly posting their reactions and eagerly and hungrily await those likes and echoes of agreement that they were right.

⦁ Circles of Influence. Everyone has a group they eventually gravitate to in a fandom. It comes with its own pros and cons. Sometimes you join a group because someone you admire is in there, sometimes you join a group because you just want to mingle and see more content. All valid reasons. Arguments can't be avoided in a group, it has to happen... But you have to take care. You have to take care to feel the change in the air of the group. When someone starts pushing people to agree with them. When your most admired people start to feel overly sensitive about certain characters or issues. When you start to feel obligated to spy on other groups outside of this one for 'nonbelievers', 'traitors' and 'heretics' who do not think the way this group does, and that bringing back bits and pieces of gossip as offerings would somehow make you more favored in the eyes of the inner clique or remain inside it. There is a gripping sense of annoyance when that person comes in to complain but you can't do anything about it but nod and agree. There is a pervading sense of fear and apprehension of overstepping an invisible boundary. There is fear that you might be next on the chopping block, after witnessing one of the others being ganged up on and thrown out without a second thought, their name spat upon like they're worth less than dirt. And so reluctant you are to give up what you have with them that when they push you to do something you are reluctant to do, all in the name of 'harmony and justice'... You do it. Even though it would mean offering yourself up to the mob with no salvation, and the stark realization that... [they] never cared about you as a friend.

And we've come to the end of this analysis trilogy. The writing got a little bit strange in this post, but honestly this is the best way I could put it. I'm aware things can and will be more complicated than the bullet points I've written but I'm just one person and I tried very hard to keep details of all the drama that happened in this fandom as vague as possible. Of course, that wouldn't work if you know what I am talking about.

The community is quiet now for the most part, the game is somewhere between limbo and the living plane. Things could be better for us, but I don't really count on it.

I wish I could leave a bit of a moral warning or something. But rather than do that, I just hope this was an entertaining read into one individual's eyes into Food Fantasy and everything that makes it up.

[ice-cream-nekogirl]

Amy Martinez (Character Sheet TV Tropes Style) U-Y

Uncanny Valley Girl: Has the appearance of a conventionally cute and upbeat school girl... who’s killed at least fifteen people to date, knows how to manipulate people and can display a callous, cheerfully psychotic side whenever she’s crossed. 

Undying Loyalty: To her Coven, as they took her in after her parent’s death when Hero Society felt unable to and despite the atrocities and horrors she’s witnessed she’s fiercely protective and devoted to her coven and even sets out back to Japan to connect both the world of Witches and Heroes together so her kind wouldn’t be ostracized or demonized anymore.

Unstoppable Rage: After the culture festival, she goes into one of these and beats her teachers and Midoriya when they attempt to stop her. She’s only stopped when Midoriya starts crying and when Shinsou gives her a sad look and gently talks her down, followed by Cordelia. 

Used To Be a Sweet Kid: Amy’s certainly still capable of being sweet, but she used to be a relatively stable, genuinely happy child who had yet to do anything horrible. In fact, the worst thing she did as a child was steal a bouncehouse so that way Shinsou could have one for his birthday party. In modern times, while she’s gradually improved and her sanity has strengthened, she’s still a troublemaker who performs much more lethal pranks and still participates in murder.

Violently Protective Girlfriend: She knows that Bakugo can take care of himself, but doesn’t stand for Madison taunting him, and beats the HELL out of two other witches who attack and threaten him.

Amy: Get the fuck away from my Katsuki you bitches! 

Vitriolic Best Buds: With Midoriya and Iida mostly. She and Midoriya’s relationship was strained for a time during their first year in UA but slowly started to patch up over the course and while Amy still likes to tease Midoriya, he holds no ill will towards her and they have managed to rebuild their friendship and Amy still adores him despite everything.

She and Iida bicker nearly every single day and Amy pranks him constantly and gives him a hard time every chance she gets, but Iida still cares about Amy and looks after her, and Amy secretly appreciates him, respects him and cares about him enough to adhere to him at times.

Weak But Skilled: Amy’s an EXTREMELY gifted witch and knows how to use her powers and spells very well, but isn’t the most physically powerful girl nor is she as skilled in combat as others are.

We Want Our Jerk Back: Inverted, Amy’s always been something of a jerk but was still a cheerful, supportive and comical friend to her class, but when she leaves the class notes that it didn’t feel right without her and missed her immature sense of humor.

Also shown in the Internship arc where Amy does briefly return to intern with Endeavor along with Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki, only she’s apathetic, bored and downright emotionless and the three boys each make at least one attempt to see if a glimpse of her old self is still in there. With Bakugo outright demanding her to crack a smile or at least laugh or giggle as she always used to in the time he’s known her. 

Weight Woe: Despite what she preaches about body positivity, Amy is actually very self-conscious about her weight which is why she wears considerably more conservative and modest clothing compared to her other female friends. Doesn’t help that she gains weight easily and can even fall into a depression when it becomes very apparent. 

What The Hell Hero?: Midoriya gives her one of these when she acts callously after she and Bakugo are rescued and later during the Culture Festival where Amy refuses to partake in their class dance out of spite towards him. Amy later starts to give herself these when she realizes that she’s gone too far, particularly in having the intent of seriously harming Midoriya during a fight she wins.

Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?: Amy doesn’t have much phobias, but she IS afraid of seagulls for some reason, calling them the ‘devil’. She’s also terrified of cockroaches, centipedes and holes. 

Wicked Witch: She at times acts like this, mostly just to troll her friends and scare them even though she DOES have some of the habits such as the evil cackle, penchant cats and wearing black and even lives in a mansion just outside the city.

Wife Basher-Basher: Amy doesn’t hesitate to threaten to personally murder and torture Endeavor if he ever raises a hand to Todoroki, his mother or any of his children again. 

Wild Card: Amy’s on neither the heroes side or the villains side, but she IS on her coven’s side which means she does as she pleases, shows no obligation to UA or Hero Society and is there primarily for Shinsou’s sake and for the sake of battling other people to show off her powers. This becomes subverted when she develops strong friendships with her classmates, falls in love with Bakugo and makes friends with her classmates, especially Ashlen.

Witch Hunt: Was the victim of one even in Japan as witch hunters broke into her house, destroyed her home, killed her dog, burnt her mother to the stake and lynched her father. She was nearly burnt to the stake herself only for the Pro-Heroes to save her, but because they weren’t willing to care for her with the risk of other witch hunters infiltrating their society as well, Amy was forced to move to America with other witches, but the hunt didn’t stop there as her godmother’s husband was a witch hunter who nearly killed her and her other sisters until they were all killed by the Axemen. Amy states that witch hunters still exist and while the war may never end, that she and her sisters fight back more.

Woman In Black: Just like her sisters, Amy loves to wear black and adorns an all-black Hero Costume.

Woman Scorned: After Amy confesses that she’s in love with Midoriya, he doesn’t think she’s being serious and instead scolds her for her lack of cooperation in the Culture Festival and overall fluctuating attitude. Which leads to a big argument but when he calls her selfish and cruel, Amy completely loses it and challenges him to a fight out of nowhere, in which she lashes out her anger at him by beating him and spewing her now negative feelings towards him as she wins the fight. She gets over this thank goodness but it’s still something she’s not proud of.

Whenever Bakugo breaks up with her, she’s aggressive and cold to him and on worse days she’ll attack him with her telekinesis.

Women Are Wiser: Generally averted as Amy’s actually the least mature girl in Class A, but can display common sense when it’s needed.

Woobie, Destroyer Of Worlds: Amy might be a crazy, spiteful and wicked girl, but was forced to abandoned her best and only friend, including said best friend’s family who loved her like a daughter, and she felt rejected by her own society when they gave her away to strangers, didn’t even bother to check on her even though these strangers ended up indirectly exposing her to even more horrors that further traumatized her the point where she suffered nightmares, bullying from eve other witches and has contemplated suicide. 

Would Hurt a Child: Implied but never shown. Amy notes that with children having superpowers now, that there’s not many lines to cross since their powers can be used to fight back and has no qualms roughing up younger kids should they piss her off. 

Inverted also, Amy has no problems killing adults, nor did she have any issue in beating the shit out of her own teacher. 

But also Averted. Despite Amy claiming that she will hit a child should they piss her off, she’s never actually done it. In fact, even when she disliked Eri, she did absolutely nothing to (physically) harm the girl because she said she’s “not a monster” and couldn’t do anything like that to her. 

However, she DOES hit a younger witch of 10 when she kicks her in the groin and Amy pays back the favor by punching her in the stomach. 

Yandere: She beats the tar out of Midoriya when he accidentally spurns her feelings for him, attacks Uraraka via telekinesis in a fit of jealousy, treats Eri coldly out of jealousy due to Aizawa offering her care and also beats the tar out of him too for not stepping in to take care of her when she lost her family.

In a moment much more Played For Laughs, she threatens and shouts at Bakugo for dumping her for the first time and says that she’ll murder him in his sleep before he thinks he can get away with it. However, Amy DOES relapse into insanity when she thinks that Bakugo doesn’t love her.

Yaoi Fangirl: It’s much less to do with the fetish and more to do with Amy being extremely passionate about gay rights as she squeals whenever she sees a healthy gay couple between two men and was more than happy to help John Henry Moore into getting out there to start dating men again.

Then there’s the fact that she’s written erotic fanfiction about her own friends (much like Tina Belcher) and reveals that she ships Bakugo and Todoroki, Bakugo and Kirishima, Kaminari and Bakugo, Kaminari and Sero, Tokoyami and Shouji, Tokoyami and Kouda, Shinsou and Tokoyami, Midoriya and Kirishima and Shinsou and Monoma and even Shinsou and Kaminari.

You Are Better Than You Think You Are: To her shame, Amy tends to be uplifted when people reassure her, especially from Shinsou, Ashlen and Cordelia. Shinsou often reassures her whenever she thinks she doesn’t belong in Hero Society, and Cordelia gladly tells her that despite what her society did to her, that the coven wouldn’t be complete without her and her sensitive heart. And then Ashlen comes into the picture and appears to love her for all her flaws, as she embraces her imperfections and tells her that she wouldn’t be her best friend if she weren’t the way she is. 

You Can’t Go Home Again: After her parents are killed by witch hunters who infiltrated Japan the pro-heroes were unwilling and unable to watch over and care the young witch, which urges Aizawa to call the coven from New Orleans. And when Cordelia, Fiona and Myrtle arrive to retrieve her and take her to Robichaux Academy, a safe haven in New Orleans, America for young witches such as herself to be her new home. However, they also tell her that she won’t be able to return to her former life in Japan and can’t stay in any contact with Shinsou and his family for not just Amy’s protection but for Shinsou’s protection as well.  Thankfully she IS able to return to Japan, but only as she got older and witches being outed to the world which encouraged Hero Society to be more accepting of witches.

You Got Spunk: She goes with Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki during the Winter internship with Endeavor and because Amy has no filter with the pro-hero, openly disrespects him to the point of threatening him, he is partially amused but impressed by how ballsy she is.

Endeavor: This brat has hellfire in her...

You Never Did That For Me: The minute Amy finds out about Eri’s existence, she’s initially sympathetic... until she hears that the pro-heroes are going to take care of her and that UA is going to adopt her and place her into a more caring environment with responsible adults and older kids who look after her. As it all sinks in, Amy realizes and calls them out for taking in a girl with unstable powers, but didn’t do the same thing for her at all even though she was also a girl with unstable powers, and that instead they gave her away to strangers who did a less than stellar job and her ‘guardians’ exposed her to even more trauma. This is what triggers her into attacking and injuring Midoriya and Aizawa, and then leaving UA for 2 whole months out of anger and hurt. 

You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry: No... you really wouldn’t. Amy even says this word for word at times, or just outright warning others to ‘get the fuck out’ or else she’ll ‘get angry’ and she normally lives up to her warnings as when truly angry, Amy’s powers cause things around her to break and the building to tremble if she’s really pissed off. 

Yuri Fangirl: Much like it’s stated above, Amy also grows very excited and happy when she sees a healthy lesbian couple and also likes to pair her friend Mallory with Coco due to their strong friendship. Amy also adores the Steven Universe cartoon because of the prevalent lesbian relationships in it, and was disappointed when she found out Yuri! On Ice didn’t have actual yuri.

[drunk-snail]

Hijack Week June 2019 Day 6 : Mythological Creatures AU

Summary : In my bathtub lives a young man with white hair. He has been living for a short time, he only comes out very rarely, the air alters him and if he does not quickly return to the bath, he risks fainting or perhaps even dying... Why is he staying in my bathtub? Well, to put it simply: He's an octopus man.

We met one month ago, one evening, which logically would be more like the morning, after midnight, I had wanted to go swimming. It was summer, so there were a lot of people in the daytime and I'm not a fan of people, you could say I'm a little antisocial, and that's fine with me. But even during the evening the lagoon was infested with no one equipped with lamps and others on their boat in the middle of a search. I didn't understand why, for me, it was either drunk people who acted like jerks or the crab fishing that takes place at this time of year. And after looking for a moment for a quiet place surrounded by vegetation where you couldn't even see the inhabitants anymore, I found it. The upper part of his body was out of the water, clinging with one hand to a rock, so I hadn't seen anything in particular, except for a man seriously injured in his left arm who was losing consciousness. Then when he came out, it was a surprise. He looked like a human, until I saw the beginning of his thighs where eight huge, long tentacles, four for each, replaced his legs. He hadn't tried anything, he was just too exhausted to try anything, I don't even think he was actually conscious, so bandaging his arm with my shirt and bringing him to my car was pretty simple. I mean, simple, it's a very big word. It was just necessary to avoid all his assholes who chased him, to carry him without making his condition worse, and to hold a slippery body is not an easy thing, and especially to get him back in the car. Why did I do that? I was. . . Panicked. And I was afraid for him. If they had found him, they would probably have killed him or else they would have wanted to study him, lock him in a small cage when hundreds of eyes are watching him no matter what he does and when seeing him alive would not be interesting anymore, they would open his body to see how he works. Why would you want to deprive a creature of its freedom? Just in the name of science? It was and will be without me. When I got home, I hurried to put him in my bathtub and heal him, as his tentacles had also been damaged, and then put a little water on the bottom so that he would not dry out. The questions about what he was were spinning in my head, but before that, I wanted to make sure he felt comfortable. I didn't know if tap water was good for him, logically yes, but I didn't know what to do at the time so I just took as many empty coke bottles as I could, that I kept in reserve, which I was supposed to fill with water originally, threw them in the car and went to fill them with sea water. When I come home, we had our first face-to-face meeting. . . . An exchange that was. . . a little brutal. We were both terrified, me by this mystical creature, naked, who was moving and that I didn't know, except from the monstergirl fanart on the internet, and him by a member of the species who had attacked him, in addition to being in a place that he didn't know. Our first reflex was to back away, going up to the wall and then he started to attack. My reflexes were sharp, I had narrowly avoided his. . . His. . . Leg. However, it was my poor door that was hit hard, exploding suddenly. It didn't take me long to run away from the room with a scream. I'm a very. . . Brave person, I guess you could say. But I didn't particularly want to end up like my door. He had also followed me, walking on the ceiling, and tried to hit me, and although slipping to the ground, this time his blow was likely to hit me, he too picked himself up as he screamed in pain as he held a tentacle. The idiot had reopened his wounds. Once again, I don't know what had gotten into me, but I dropped the runing away to go see him and heal him again, after reassuring him and building his confidence, although I had taken a sticky slap, less strong than I expected, probably due to his condition, to bring him closer. After a few seconds, he let himself be carried out, held back from the moans of pain and finally returned to the bathtub now filled with sea water, without taking his eyes off me. That night, neither of us slept for a second.. My main reason was to make sure that his condition did not regress, the other was a mixture of fear and excitement. He was fascinating. The next few days were a little. . . . difficult. The food, the hygiene needs, not to mention the fact that I had a job nearby. I had found him at the end of my holidays so I had three days left to try to explain some things that would make our lives easier before I left home all morning. I didn't want to imprison him, just wait for him to heal completely before giving him his freedom back, so I was a little afraid that he would try to leave the house and get caught outside, but apart from visiting the house, leaving traces on the floor and ceiling, he never tried to leave. He was well aware of the danger waiting for him outside. The communication was also hard, he seemed to understand me, but he didn't speak. I thought that was normal, you could say he came from the marine world, so the probability that we would have the same language would have been surprising. At least, that's what he had led me to believe during the first two weeks of his cohabitation. He spoke and in several dialects! He had a native language, unknown to the human race, but knew about ten of them who had spent a good part of his adolescence learning them and had quickly explained that the humans’ world fascinated him and a mermaid friend, even if much less since that night. Which was more or less understandable. His name was Jack, one of the few things I knew about him, had not been able to resist coming to the citizens he thought were friendly, but as soon as the tentacles showed, there was panic. If we were in Japan, I could have been very scared. Maybe. Although we had become a little sympathetic over the time he was healing, we avoid communicating too much, even looking at himself, I think he regretted having made so much noise and caused problems, but I was afraid to want to study him too much, to flood him with questions and to talk to him. Maybe one day when we would be a little more comfortable, we'll exchange more. Then when he was completely cured, that is, at the end of the month, I took him away to give him his promised freedom, but when he saw the watched and infested beach of hunter-fishermen, this idea was forgotten for the time being. Apart from Toothless, I had no close friends, and I watched the news very rarely, but after a trip on youtube, I learned that Jack was nicknamed “Casper the octopus boy" probably in comparison to the species of the same name, and he was popular with all fanatics of strange facts and mystical creatures. And although some people shouted “fake" in the comments and forums dedicated to him, the majority believed in it and had the firm intention of seeking it. Although I was lucky not to be noticed, it was the shit anyway. In the end, Jack was going to live indefinitely in my bathtub.                                                                        ~ ~ ~ The story is inspired by a manga / anime yaoi “Orenchi No Furo Jijou" if you want to laugh, go see it's just great. (a little short though) Thanks to my boyfriend for the trad ♡ 

[hetalia-text-messages]

My Pride Story

Trigger warning: Mentions of self-harm and suicide.

This is hard to talk about, but here I go.

I started middle school in August of 2012 after a horrible two years. In 2010 I had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and anxiety. In 2011, I was diagnosed with depression. I contemplated suicide daily and planned so many things. I wrote my note. Obviously I ended up not going through with it, thank god I’m here today.

My reason? Bullying. So much bullying. I had no friends after I lost my only one in 2008. She moved away without telling me. No friends made me an easy target, I suppose. No one could protect me or tell people to leave me alone.

I didn’t care about anything. I was an emotionless, hollow shell. I didn’t smile or laugh, or find anything stimulating. No hobbies. School was just hell. I passed everything, but it all moved so slowly. That’s also how I moved; slowly. Just trying to get through each day.

Loser, idiot, slut, whore, creeper, worthless, waste of space, I was called everything you can think of. We were ELEVEN. Kids can be horrible. I’m not sure everyone realizes that. It’s a problem.

“Kill yourself.” That was one I heard a lot. I turned to self-harming, but only twice. I didn’t like it. I still heard those two words every day. I came so close to listening multiple times. But I didn’t do it.

Back to middle school. I was quiet and painfully shy, but I made my first friend in years within two days. Her name was Sarah, but I now know him as Allen. He had been homeschooled until that year, so I helped him.

My second friend was Emma. There were so many students in my gym class, two people would have to SHARE lockers. Guess who I shared my locker with? She showed me her passion for writing and drawing, which reminded me of my old passion that had burned out. I picked up a pencil again and worked.

I drew and drew, and we traded pictures at sleepovers. “What should I draw?” Emma would ask. “Draw Tamama!” I shouted. We went back and forth until we got tired and her playlist full of Passenger and TØP ran out. We slept in the same bed. We were so close, people thought we were sisters.

It was seventh grade when I realized people saying that made me feel hurt.

Now, I didn’t really know anything about the LGBT+ Community. Hell, I hardly knew what it meant to be gay. I was ten when I first saw shonen-ai (which I mistakenly referred to as “yaoi” for many years), and I just thought “aw cute” and moved on. No one ever taught me about those things.

All my past crushes had been boys who never returned the feelings, so it confused me when I felt like that for a girl. I thought it was wrong, because I viewed Emma as a good little Christian girl who would never sin. I wasn’t religious, so I didn’t know how correct or incorrect I was.

One day she asked me who my crush was when I was at a club meeting. I couldn’t lie to my best friend, so I decided to tell her to wait until I got home. I locked myself in my room and just dropped hints for a while, getting more and more frustrated as she got more and more confused. I finally said “Emma” but she thought I was talking about another Emma. I was typing the words so hard as my hands shook.

“It’s YOU!”

“What?”

If you guys want some dramatic confession from her and us living happily ever after, too bad. That’s not what happened, life sucks. Get over it.

Emma is straight as a board, while I’m straight as a board broken in half with nails sticking out of it.

In 2014, I was starting to get a grasp on sexuality. Around the same time, I was given a warning by, guess who, Emma.

“Hey, Anna? I know you get into fandoms easily and become obsessed with them, so please don’t watch this anime called Hetalia. Okay?”

“Okay, I won’t.”

LIES!

I became intrigued after reading her crackfic. I needed to learn more. Stupid me accidentally saw World series first, then Axis Powers.

Then I realized there was a dub the whole time.

I like dub, shh.

Holy crap who is this adorable boy?! Japan, huh? Cool. Then who’s that cute boy? Russia. And-fuck it, they’re all attractive.

I think the first thing I wrote was USUK, since I finally had shipping down. It was called Libertea, and It SUCKED. I deleted it, so you can’t find it. The second thing I wrote was FrUK crack, which is still available. Not linking it, go find it yourself.

So I’m browsing the tumblr as usual when I saw a blog called aph-texts. Then I saw aph-texts-from-nordics. They were hilarious, and a thought came to mind.

“Holy shit, I wanna do that!”

So I stole borrowed the concept like an asshole a good person and made a couple on my main blog. When they blew up, I realized I had something. Boom, this blog was born.

As a plus, I realized who I was. A bisexual teenage girl. Things were looking great, until some people found out about that. They didn’t bug me, but they bugged Emma.

“Did you hear Anna is bi? Oh my god, does that make you bi too?”

This is why I keep my sexuality a secret. Not for me, for my friends. I’m not ashamed, I rocked that gay pride parade float our GSA Club made. It was nice to know who I was.

Except I didn’t know who I was.

I felt what I discovered was called “gender dysphoria”. I was always a bit of a tomboy, but suddenly things made sense. But I pushed it to the back of my mind and pretended it didn’t exist.

In 2017, I realized I was actually pansexual. I don’t give a shit what your gender is, I’ll love you anyways. After that, I realized I was asexual all this time. Again, things made sense. I was disgusted at the thought of sex, and the one time I tried to watch porn made me sick. But you do you.

I combined the two and made panromantic asexual, which is where I stand to this day. Something still wasn’t right, though. The gender dysphoria had grown until I couldn’t ignore it anymore, and this time I accepted it in early 2018.

I was a trans male.

I am a trans male!

Things were complete!

Haha, no. Did you really think it would be that easy?

I may go by Aaron Desmond and use he/him pronouns and have short hair, but that is hardly scratching the surface. Every day I see my breasts and get angry and sad. I need to pick up the binder I secretly ordered.

My friend Mark doesn’t approve. He’ll always see me as a girl, and find my sexuality wrong. “How can people not like sex?” Well, I just don’t. He’s going away for a while with no internet, so it gives me time to think about where our friendship will end up.

There’s still so many questions on what do do next. Bind? Top surgery? Testosterone? Bottom surgery? Packer (eh probably not)? How do I do any of this?

Emma tells me I can pass as a boy, but it seems a lot of people disagree. My voice gives it away. It was always kinda deep for a girl’s, but not deep enough.

HOLY SHIT I SOUND LIKE HARUHI FROM OHSHC

There’s really not much else to say, this is where I currently stand.

Sarah, now a boy named Allen. Emma, a girl I’m still deeply in love with no matter how much I deny it. Mark, a boy that couldn’t understand or respect me. My followers, who still support and love me.

And that’s my story that went on for way too long.

Happy Pride Month.

[4nime6-blog]

Cool Hip Anime!

Anime

Large sparkling eyes, brightly coloured frizzy hair, obscure nose and high facial expression reminds us connected with only one factor.

Anime

Can you do you know what the item is?

If your response is actually Anime, then STOP, to see an otaku's brain!

Cartoons (pronounced: "Ah-nee-may") will be a form of animation typically from Okazaki, japan. They have got their own style this means you will show that in peculiar and wonderful ways. Cartoons also has its very own sense associated with comedy along with has a unique thought processes. It can get actually strong and serious, as well as it could truly be silliest (like: "Lucky Star", "Kill Me Baby") in addition to craziest (like: "Death Note", "Gintama") thing a person have ever before seen. Many Anime demonstrates are centered on popular mangas (Japanese Comics), just putting any not much more life into these people. Cartoons often covers far more serious issues than normal cartoons. In the united states, cartoons tend to be considered a form regarding enjoyment meant for youngsters. In Okazaki , japan, people involving all ages (no, not necessarily newborn babies! ) see anime. Most shows and flicks are centred for youngsters, teenager or young older people, but you can also get many cartoons that are made with regard to older crowd even business people and housewives!

The phrase "Anime" is the close pronunciation connected with "animation" within Japanese, exactly where this expression references just about all animation. Outside the house Japan, cartoons is applied to refer specifically toon from Japan or Western disseminated animation style usually characterized by colourful visuals, attractive characters and fantastical designs. Japanese animation commenced inside 20th century. Katsudo Shashin is claimed for you to be the first Japan animation. The 1923 Fantastic Kanto earthquake triggered wide-spread destruction including demolition associated with earliest Anime Companies as well as anime works; departing Kouchi's Namakura Gatana because the most well-known surviving animation. The 1st cartoons television series was Otogi Manga Calendar aired by 1961 to 1964.

This introduction to anime ended up being in category four while I watched "City Hunter" in a T. Sixth v. channel, Animax. Though I could see anime (as a make a difference of fact the particular multiple of anime is usually anime) like "Doraemon", "Shinchan", "Avatar-The last airbender", "Summer Days and nights with Coo", "AstroBoy", "Dragon Ball-Z", "Naruto" in the past just before yet I did definitely not recognize the profound perception regarding anime as this was dubbed throughout Hindi (rather I would point out "contaminated" instead of "dubbed" by means of old, ridiculous man noises in Hindi who also would break unnecessary, slap-stick jokes deviating viewers through the plot and also terrain you in a hotch-potch of indianised anime). My very own sister ( three yrs young than me even though I actually refuse to confess she is older when compared with me) took weird curiosity in Japanese anime similar to " Tears to Tiara" and "Stigma of typically the Wind" aired in Animax: that we thought strange from that time while the "patriotic inertia" will stop me from receiving something but Indian products. I got first repelled by often the proven fact that all the words casts have been in Japoneses and to understand history I had to consider difficulty of reading the actual Subtitles in english and had to help correlate the particular speech using the video proven; regarding which great deal involving attention seemed to be required. That was impossible personally in order to do both those exhaustion tasks at the very same time, so I delivered to my old Capital t. V. channels: Cartoon Community, Nickolodeans, Hungama, Pogo, Come back and Jetix.

After some sort of very long hiatus, in type seven, My spouse and i again started out experimenting our skills with understanding anime which often converted out to be a new success, when I 1st delighted in anime including "Hayate the Combat Butler" along with "Fairy Tail". Also! This kind of sweet poison! Following a total hectic day time in school, expenses, floating around classes, art in addition to audio classes, and full various other heck lot of routines; I waited only to be able to settle-back and relax for you to watch these kinds of anime. From that time, nothing was of importance to me; not also my parents, close friends as well as teachers. In that online realms of pleasure My partner and i could equipment my failures and sufferings as effortlessly as I got obtained in successes. Nothing irritated me, except when We were required to attend phone telephone calls or to wide open entrance, if any guests will come when the anime indicates were ongoing. However, cartoons hardly did affect this studies as after seeing two hour long plan, I suffered from PARTS (Post Anime Depression Syndrome) that I suffered typically the sense of guilt of wasting moment that has been more intensified through my very own mother's rebuke (I wish to describe this circumstance as "Kata Ghaye nuun-er Chheta") and this also guilt might propel my family to review harder, concentrate and also perform for longer hours this also occurred as daily schedule in my opinion; so I can easily get the best of most connected with the students be that researching or swimming or even any different work.

Hence to all parents, I actually would like to ask for allowing your kids to help watch anime because it proved helpful out for me (maybe I use strange wirings within my human brain! ). Enjoying anime would help an individual to hone your fictional, vocabulary and analytical expertise. More importantly, it would certainly serve as a enormous source of entertainment, at the very least way beyond the little league of daily Indian soap.

Understanding the culture associated with origins is very crucial to realize the plan, be it Japanese cartoons, Korean language Aeni webtoons, China's Manhua Anime or Us sitcoms (which I endured after i was novice inside observing anime). If anyone have watched virtually any cartoons, you will probably discover that often the characters respond differently along with things throughout general (like properties, vehicles, eating etc. ) are usually bit different from everything you used to. Probably the actual most readily evident distinctions between Japanese computer animation in addition to others is the a muslim everywhere huge eyes (bigger in comparison with nose), brightly girl locks, some well-endowed character types as well as exaggerated emotional movement and also gestures are regular regarding anime. Being hand-drawn, cartoons is separated coming from actuality providing an best path intended for escapism directly into which followers can involve themselves having relative simplicity. The production of cartoons focusses less on the particular cartoon movement and considerably more on the realistic look involving settings like "The Yard of Words".

The particular beginning and credit sequences connected with most anime are combined with Japanese rock or take song which maybe related to the anime series, simply by popular bands. "Nanairo Namida" by Tomato n' Pinus radiata of anime "Beelzebub" along with "Just Awake" of cartoons "Hunter X Hunter" are a few of my favourite anime tunes, which you may try out.

Since there are several sorts of cartoons, one will need to classify these individuals with different genres, some associated with them are generally: Action, Audio, Mecha, Experience, Mystery, Bishounen, Yuri, Yaoi, Akuma, Seinen, Shoujo, Shounen, Kodomo, Piece of Existence and a lot of more. Whether you're the die-hard anime fan (like me generally labelled seeing that "otaku"), a casual watcher, the interested onlooker or perhaps commoner from non-anime website: cartoons genres shall supply you actually with some simple knowledge which help you in order to venture the cartoons planet with ease and joy.

I am going to be able to share some remarkable rates of anime which will etch my heart usually are:

• Motoko Kusanagi regarding "Ghost in the Shell a couple of: Innocence"

"We weep to get blood of a pet although not for the our blood of a species of fish. Endowed are those with any tone. "

• Shinchi Akiyama of "Liar Game"

"People SHOULD be doubted. Many people get me wrong this specific concept. Doubting people is simply a part of getting for you to know them. Just what quite a few people call "trust" is absolutely just giving up about wanting to understand others in addition to that extremely act is definitely far more serious than questioning. It is actually 'apathy'. "

• Hachiman Hikigaya of "My Teen Passionate Comedy SNAFU"

"If simple truth is cruel

Then

Lie needs to be kind

Then

Kindness need to be lie"

You can observe anime with T. /. by opting-in to Animax, Aniplus, AnimeCental, TV Tokyo or online on internet sites like animehaven. to help, kissanime, Funimation. com, Netflix, Crunchyroll. com, hulu, Vimeo and so forth.

ENJOY WATCHING CARTOONS!

[stuck-in-jelly]

Day 11: Quirkless and Space

She will be honest when she first applied to this program it was for the money. JAXA had many benefits and Uraraka is known to take any opportunity she can get her hands on.

But honestly now looking at all her co-workers as they relaxed her heart fluttered with pride, she was a part of the crew and they've done do much.

Deku, the boy who started off just interning is now one of the most respected Candidates, his English is still faltering but he's been getting better. Seeing such improvement inspires her and his enthusiasm for space exploration and research had lit a new flame within in her and within many of the other candidates.

She has started training harder and working to love this job. Then Aizawa entered the room, on instinct everyone lined up respectfully

"Good afternoon Aizawa!" Aizawa waved them off

"Calm down I'm not here hound you. This time. We have a guest coming over today. She is interested in the program and I want to see of she has what it takes." He took careful strides along the lines up kids.

"You are to be respectful," he glared at Kaminari, known for flirting too much.

"Professional" a glare at Kirishima known for getting chummy with people he's met a minute ago

"And calm" oh he was looking Uraraka. Her face flushed and she nodded. She knows she is known to get easily flustered but is it really that bad?

"Good. Now that we have that cleared please welcome Momo Yaoyorozu" he moved aside and the doors opened revealing a stern looking tall woman, her hair tied back in a tight pony tail and glasses perched on the rim of her nose.

They all barely had time to grasp that. The Yaoyorozu's own this place!! Is that their daughter? Respectfully they all bowed greating her

"Ms. Yaoyorozu it is my honor to introduce the candidates for your parents program." He turned and started listening them in order

"Iida Tenya: he is strong and very handy with machinery," Iida bowed humbling

"Katsuki Bakugou: behavioral issues but good luck finding a better pilot in this region of Japan" Bakugou 'tsked' waving her off tapping his foot impatiently,

"Midoriya Izuku: don't let his nervous demeanor fool you he is passionate and strong," Midoryia let out a small 'hello' as he fumbled with his hands

"Todoroki Shouto: a genuies with aerodynamics his father works here if you recall," Todoroki nodded at her respectfully

"Asui Tsuyu: adapt in all angles she is a jack of all trades and smart," Tsuyu muttered a 'Its my pleasure'

"Jiro Kyoka: our tech wiz she works a lot with our communication systems and has made break throughs," Jirou waving smiling nervously

"Ojiro Mashirao: there is a lot more to him than people give him credit he is smart and analytical," Ojiro bowed slightly nervous

"Kaminari Denki: also works in communications he mainly helps test and supervise," Kaminari winked only to get knudged but Kirishima

"Kirishima : Our another handy man he works with the metals and other materials used when crafting a ship." Kirshima smiled body 'Nice to meet you- ma'am'

"And last but not least Uraraka Ochaco: she has a fighting spirit and has proved more than cable of being a great piolt"

She didn't expect those words she flush keeping her head bowed

Yaoyorozu spoke her steady voice coming into play at last "Its nice to meet you all I'm excited to see you all at work"

In unision the group responded "Thank You" Aizawa nodded

"I have other matters to attend to Ms. Yaoyorozu, you may pick a guide from this group. Once she has selected everyone get back to work"

"Yes sir!"

With that he made his leave and the girl turned back to the group all still lined up waiting for her word.

Bakugou groaned "I'm not a part of this. See you fucks later" he stormed off not sparing a glance at the girl

"Bakugou! Don't be like that" Kirishima got out of line as well to chase after and scold him before yelling back a apology

"I'd love to be your guide Ms. Yaoyorozu however I must admit me and Todoroki are currently working on very sensitive engines and I'd prefer if you were not around in such a high risk environment" Todoroki nodded to Iida's words

"Excuse us" Todoroki turned and left with Iida trailing behind

"Well I can assist you mad-" Kaminari was quickly smacked across the head

"He can't help either. Me, him, and Ojiro are working with some electrical currents and he PROMISED today was the day he'd stop being lazy" Jirou looked to the girl and bowed respectfully

"You are free to observe us though" with that she dragged the playboy and Ojiro followed thanking Yaoyorozu for her time.

Tsuyu stood up straight "I'll be honest I'm not a good guide. I trust Midoryia and Ochaco to help you. If you need me I'll be in the testing room" She skipped off.

It was just Deku and Uraraka now, they both didn't have pressing matters. They awaited her response

"Umm I'll be honest I think I'd fell more comfortable with a female guide. No offense, Midoryia was it?" Midoryia nodded politely

"None taken! I hope you enjoy your visit" with that he left secretly egear to go challenge Bakugou.

Once he left it went silent between the two

"Haha, w-welcome! You already known my name and um I-" Aizawa's words ring through hervhead 'calm'.

Taking a breath Uraraka stood straight

"Welcome to the Candidate's area of JAXA. Here we all specialize in the future of Space Exploration and many of us strive to become Astronauts one day and help technology all around the world"

Yaoyorozu's face changed, her eyes sparkled with curiosity. Grasping her composure she lead Yaoyorozu around to the different sectors and soon Yaoyorozu bounced ahead her excitement clear as she asked questions and pointed and gushed about the things she knew which was mostly everything.

As the tour went on Uraruka found herself less tense and joking with the originally intimidating looking woman

"Funny story: when Kaminari starting working here on his first day alone he got electrocuted 10 times! He needed to go to the infirmary after the 11th shock but man he can sure take his hits! Bakugou calls him Dunce Face because on the last shock he pulled a real silly face"

Yaoyorozu giggled lightly and took off her glasses "I was so nervous to come here. I put on these to impress everyone but you all seem so casual and look like you're having fun"

Uraraka smiled at that "I think you'll fit in just fine here" then she had an idea

"Here let me show you something" without thinking she grabbed the taller girls hand and dragged her down the corridor.

A right a few more doors down, left and the door straight ahead.

Uraraka pulled out her ID and scanned it on the doors system. A soft click and the doors opened, Yaoyorozu gasped as she took in the scenery. A mock scape shuttle encased in a giant tube-like structure

"This is were we test zero gravity. I can't say if it accurate but it sure is fun"

Yaoyorozu stepped let out a soft laugh "Its amazing"

"...want to try it out?" She could get in trouble for this.

If anyone found out she could be suspended. Before she knew it she was adjusting a vest on Yaoyorozu and guiding her into the shuttle.

With a few clicks of the buttons they slowly begin to float, Yaoy gasped pulling down the hem of her skirt flushing but quickly taking in the view

"This is amazing"

Uraruka beamed and air swimmer towards her

"It is! Its like swimming but harder. Here hold my hand" she hesitated for a moment before grabbing on.

Uraruka guided her up and down the ship showing how how to use momentum and objects, she even showed her the treadmills.

But soon the education was done and Uraraka was showing off, showing how easily she could glide around Yaoyarzro

"You look like a space mermaid. Like if Ponyo was in space. It's adorable"

Adorable.

Uraruka blushed at that, she hasn't had this much fun in a while. Without thinking she grabbed onto her wrist and hoisted herself towards the woman

"And you look like a astronaut Sōsuke" she hasn't realized but they were in the same iconic pose in that movie.

It would have been cinematic if gravity didn't suddenly turn back on and they didn't fall back on the ground luckily lined with cushions. The intercom went on

"Ms. Uraraka. I expected you to be more professional than this" Mr. Aizawa! She scrambled up face beat red

"Sir! I am so sorry! I was just-"

"Exit the shuttle and we'll talk"

Oh boy. She tense and turned back to Yaoyorozu and reached out her hand

"I'm so sorry about that I-"

"No no I should have known better. I will talk to him and try to get my parents to give you less punishment." She squeezed their hands together.

And still joint they walked out. Aizawa stodd in the front of the door, arms crossed and with a scowl.

Yaoyorozu stepped forward "Mr. Aizawa before you say-"

"You're in"

"What?!"

"I'll talk to your parents. They should be pleased to know you navigate zero gravity well and hardly needed to ask questions on the basics of the technology here"

Uraruka sighed feeling relieved, "Ah thank you Aizawa"

"Don't thank me yet. You are banned from the anti gravity shuttle for 2 weeks. You will do mainly desk work for allowing a civilian without proper supervision inside of government propriety"

And there it was. Punishment. "Yes Mr. Aizawa"

"Dismissed" he turned and walked away just as quickly as he came. Once the doors closed the two laughed

"C-congratulations welcome to the team Yaoyorozu!"

She smiled, "Just call me Momo I know my families name is a handful"

"Alright Momo, can't wait to work with you"

[grundalucious075-blog]

Fragments and Sparks: My Writing Origin Story

We're gonna break tradition a little and skip some parts at the beginning.

We're gonna skip my mom meeting my dad and eventually marrying him.

We're gonna skip the miscarriage she had with his child.

We're gonna skip the day I was born, and my formative years as a smaller-than-average child who loved to tell stories, even winning first place in a local children's writing competition with my illustrated "book", Zorn the Unicorn and Meal the Seal.

Instead, we're gonna skip to late 2007, being the weird kid who always started a week later than everyone else. When small arguments between my parents started to rapidly become explosive and toxic. When my bad luck of being an easy target for bullies started to come to a climax. When I turned to physical fights and scraps to make them stop with no real success, only injuries that were no longer hidden.

When I needed escapism the most.

I was already drawing: I was drawing Kingdom Hearts fanart (RokuNami and SoRiku were my main OTPs, at the time). I soon found myself with an urge I haven't felt in nearly seven years:

I wanted to tell a story.

I wanted to tell a love story.

But I was afraid to write fanfiction. I was worried that it wouldn't be good, that the characters would be too OOC (out of character), and that everyone would hate it. Not to mention the major hurdle of the toxic lesson of "don't try something new if you think you're gonna suck at it. It's best to always try if you know you're gonna succeed in every way possible" didn't make things easy. But I still wanted to write. So what was a smol bean like myself to do?

I created my own characters: Adam and Turk.

I created my own setting: a small, fictional city in Japan.

I created my own plotlines, my own antagonist and motives, my own story flow.

Soon, a year has passed, and Adam and Turk were all I wrote about.

They were my children. My lovely, simple, gay children. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I had a small binder filled with the stories about the two I printed, a folder with the countless illustrations I made, and a whole gallery on deviantART dedicated to the two. The stories and art never really got much attention, despite the amount of groups I submitted to...in fact, not a lot of mine got noticed except for a Pokemon SoulSilver Nuzlocke story I ran in 2010-2011 (completely in text, known as a Writtenlocke).

I was a little upset, I'm not going to lie. It felt like nobody wanted amything to do with my stories, and I usually got very little to no feedback. But, I had two things that kept me going:

I met my best friend shortly after the second semester started. I was drawing a cute picture of Adam and Turk (the latter kissing the former on the cheek, whishing him a good dau at work). A cute blonde girl noticed it and, with a gasp that rivaled Pinkie Pie, said "Oh my god, you like Yaoi? I LIKE YAOI TOO! You're my best friend now!"

And just like that, I had a best friend who also liked to write. I would try to illustrate her work, and she would help me with my writing. We encouraged each other. Even to this day, long after the horrible days of high school, long after she helped me discover I was bisexual, and long after our friendship blossommed into romance that was killed by a poor descion on my part, I value that time, and I truly miss them.

The second was that I discovered how happy I was. Even with my mother's attitude becoming increasingly toxic and abusive (especially after I told her I was bisexual), I found my happiest moments spent late at night, writing, drawing, playing music, listening to YouTube videos, and chatting with friends on deviantART. I loved the feeling. It lead to an epiphany about what I wanted to do with my life: to create.

It was vague, and admittedly, not well thought out. I was never very good at picking a "sensible" career path.

My mother seemed to agree. She had different ideas in mind that I don't wanna delve into too much, so I'll just say that my current full-time employment at a bagel deli is not only less-than-ideal, but also her getting the last laugh.

We're gonna skip some more bits to save some time and feels; mainly the parts about us getting evicted from our home, my mother's abuse and manipulation coming to an intense climax, and being forced into a college and life plan I had no real say in. Not for the first nor last time, I was shattered. I lost the will to create. Adam and Turk were nothing but fleeting, rose-colored high school memories. I felt empty.

I wanted to die.

One night, I was up very late. I had classes the next morning, but I didn't care. I was idling around on an ancient laptop that my mom got for me (after literal MONTHS of begging) when an idea struck me. I wanted to write something magical. Something with adventure and fighting! Something that still had romance.

In March 2013, I started writing a series of stories that finally convinced me that I wanted to become a writer.

That series, is my beloved KoB.

I've faced a lot of hurdles that I'll discuss another time. My passion has waxed and waned as often as the moon, but writing, in some form, is still a large part of my life...and something that will always make me happy.

So now...here I am. In the dwindling hours before 2018 ends, and 2019 begins. Just looking back at it all makes me feel a certain kind of way--even with all the stuff I left out. The fact that, even though it's all been for one project, I've stuck to this stupid, silly fantasy set in the mid 2010s for over five years, is more than proof to me that this is where I belong.

This is a part of who I am.

And soon...2019 will be a part of that as well.

Happy New Year, everyone! We're all great! We all deserve love and recognition! Let's all work to make this year one of the best of our lives!

Aaaaand even if this year doesn't turn out so great, than it'll still be an important chapter in my life...and in everyone else's.

GRUNDY OUT!

[absolutebl]

Do you have any recent recommendations for JBL TaiwanBL and KBL? Been rewatching only bls from 2021 2022 and I feel like I'm out of the loop for the more recent ones.

Maybe something from this year or late last year?

Great JBL, TaBL, and KBL from 2023 & first half 2024

asker added:

Genre = mostly anything. But pls avoid homophobic trauma (like Jazz for Two).

Fair. Okay here we go!

2023 Recs!

I picked mostly 9s and 10s for you with a few 8s I felt specifically might suit your taste.

I Cannot Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai

Japan Netflix

This classic friends-to-lovers BL is everything Japan does best. Angsty. Emo. Aching. Driven by real thirst. Yamato is deeply in love with his childhood bestie, Kakeru, and has been for ages, unable to hide his ungainly damaging high school need. He wants Kakeru in every way possible and it oozes off of the screen. Kakeru is silly and a little simple, but not frenetic or overly camp about it. He is earnest, and genuinely wants to keep Yamato in his life which means giving a romance (and gayness) a fair chance. We watch him realize his affection and what form it can take in a truly authentic way. This show was impossibly kind to both of its lead characters and I felt almost honored that I got to watch something so lovely and rare play out on my screen.

Our Dating Sim

Korea Viki

This is a perfect short form KBL, an office set reunion romance featuring geeks that really suits 8 eps with no fluff and no chaff. Just comforting and yummy. I adored every aspect from the casting to the pristinely simple premise to the quietly smooth execution. Sure it’s low stakes, but that makes it high domesticity and extremely warm and gentle. This is a fuzzy blanket of a story - a cozy BL. It lives in my rewatch pile and you know what’s best about it? Every single episode is in that pile. There’s no skipping with this one, it might be good natured and calmly sweet but it’s tight and the pacing is excellent.

I don't hand out 10/10 often (over 700 BLs watched, stil don't hvae 10 10/10s yet), these both got that from me in 2023. I consider both of them perfect BLs.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan Gaga

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that part is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan.

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku

Japan Gaga

A lonely salaryman (+ talented cook) gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the original yaoi (which is very dear to my heart). And they did! Paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.

Jun and Jun

Korea Viki

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Others boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy (sometimes even raunchy) script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. With tons of rewatch potential (especially the last few eps), my only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else.

Love Tractor

Korea iQIYI

Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed, just all my favorite tropes. This show was basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home and I’m not even slightly mad about that. But (and you knew there was a “but” comg) something about the cringe of the final 2 eps and the impermanence of the ending (both of which highlight the fact that ultimately these 2 are I’ll-suited: too different and too far apart) left me with the feeling that they probably won’t last as a couple. However, in this case, rare for me, I forgive it this finale for my love of the rest.

The New Employee

Korea Viki

So good, SO QUEER, so soft, a near pitch perfect office BL with conflict derived from that setting. Also found family and a lesbian bestie. Sweet & innocent (and out) Seung Hyun scores the office internship of his dreams. On his first day at work he gets into it with his cool reserved (and also v gay) boss. As you do. Frankly? This is what I wanted from this new crop of office set KBLs ALL ALONG. Rainbow rice cakes forever! Directed by queer activist Kim Jho Gwang Soo (Just Friends?) partly set in the same neighbourhood as the To My Star house. Gotta love WATCHA (Semantic Error, Light on Me).

Unintentional Love Story

Korea iQIYI

OMG the plot, forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the eyes EMOTING at us in PAIN A boy who just lost his job due to faked corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was lumous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya). I’m not sure on rewatchability, and it didn’t whip me into a verbal frenzy the way some KBLs do, but it still gets a solid 9/10 for those damn eyes alone.

A Breeze of Love

Korea iQIYI

Tsundere insomniac grump reunited with his sunshine jock ex (human sleeping pill) who now hates him. Basketball is also involved. While the simplicity of a reunion plot makes this more cohesive than most KBLs, it is a tad stiff and slow, never managing to lift itself out of "pretty and pretty enjoyable" - I liked it but I don’t think I’m going to remember much about it. 

Bon Appetit

Korea iQIYI

Romance between an office worker the man from his past next door who cooks well. It was very sweet and cute tale of food as love in the All the Liquors family of KBL. I’m not wild about it, I did enjoy it, I was happy to have it show up on my dash, but ultimately it will simply become one of the KBL crowd.

Why R U?

(Korean adaptation of Thai original) iQIYI

Korea decided to remake, of all possible Thai BLs, Why RU? And that is exactly what we got: a short form, clean & pretty, slightly confusing, uneven chemistry, all the same tropes KBL that kind of cliff-noted the original but with none of the heat or complex relationship dynamics. I just … what world is this? Because it is BOTH bizarro land, and EXACTLY what I expected. How do I rate it? In the end I have to go back to simple questions: did I like it, would I rewatch it, and would I recommend it? Yes. Probably. And probably not. What the actual hell?

It did, however win my best kiss of 2023 which is why it's on this list.

Stay By My Side

Taiwan Viki

I wanted to pick SOMETHING from Taiwan but my other two options both had lots of trauma in them. So I'm going with this one.

This show was an interesting take on the "ghost boyfriend" trope. About a boy who is tormented by hearing the dead, except when he is around one other boy - desperation+proximity = love. Unfortunately, the story was erratic and waffled about. While the leads turned in solid performances and the sappy domesticity was off the charts, it never really had the strength of the narrative convictions such a strong concept should have supplied. Highly rewatchable and enjoyable for that sappy domesticity but not a whole lot more. Still I always give extra credit for the diabetes-inducing sugar content and rewatch capacity.

And some suggestions from 2024

I'm only suggesting stuff that has finished it's run and isn't currently airing.

Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka

Japan Gaga

The promise of this show, younger cook courts older divorced office worker, should have been my catnip. I mean if someone pitched this to me in an elevator I would have downloaded it by the second storey. Unfortunately, it did not exactly fulfill that promise, not in the way I'd hoped. Did I still enjoy the ride, yes, but I feel just a little let down.

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu

Japan Gaga

Kindly Ryota goes to uni and ends up rooming with his former childhood bestie, Kazuhito. Kazuhito doesn’t have a girlfriend for, as it turns out, cute roommate reasons. Same director as Old Fashion Cupcake, the framing is gorgeous and it is a stylish piece. As a friends to lovers cohabitation narrative this was a classic 2000s sweet yaoi. I enjoy that kind of tradition out of Japan even if it (and the characters) come off as a little slow as a result. Still, it's nice to get a traditional BL out of Japan that is satisfying, not slapstick, AND did not hurt us.

[eldaryanightmare]

I played only for them, i needed fullbodies for reference(it’s not like i really need shoes for yaoi, but now i can decide if i want them), leaving here because maybe someone else wants to use boys. Their height might be off, because i forgot to care about it when resizing, but it’s not like i’ll just draw them standing stil... I'll probably play out of my curiosity for Nathaniel lower parts, but that’s probably it. 

I missed castiel poster because it didn't appear. I'm fine with talking to ghosts in invisible space but that. That was actually important. I will need to do replay to get it... AHAHA no way i'll do replay. I can with all my AP, but nope.  Playing this was such a pain after trying out Sweet Elite demo. At this point i am actually glad my boy didn't make it into game. But you all, if you really want to play MCL, i suggest waiting a bit. There is chance they will make changes in AP system. ...that is after those desperate players put all their money into game! :*

Or nothing will change, if there are enough crazy rich people who pay.

If i want to spend my money on something, i rather buy those two a coffee(click them, there are links to ko-fi on pages)

Einfrost Rann Credits were first thing i checked when i saw beta, and i still see people going around chino that, chino this. She even mentioned that there will be credit page, and many still didn’t find it(also, go there and hover erwin and noemi with your cursor)

Oh, and that decor artist gashi here

There are more artist, but google them by yourself. Art is the only thing i enjoyed, but i still feel like it’s a waste that they draw in chino style.

Well also here are some of my feelings on MCL UL

(Screenshot from game You left me,  it’s about losing someone and it’s sad, i cried, but maybe it’s because had Lys on my mind while playing)

Maybe they changed some dialogues, but what was seen, can’t be unseen, my poor Lys :___;

(Screenshot from Starlit flowers, it’s fantasy yuri)

It’s also supposed to be free game, but it’s kind of not anymore from what i see.

(Screenshot from one night, hot springs about transgender woman at hot springs in japan)

That AP system. Well, many of us wanted changes when we were losing so much AP searching for someone, but that, really, how is that making anyone happy D:

(Screenshot from the shadows that run alongside our car, just two people talking in car during zombie apocalypse )

So i guess i’ll just observe Morgan and Alexy on youtube.  Because...

(Screenshots from i woke up next to you again, it’s about addiction and hell, it was creepy. And short.)

...to part away! Time for last stage of grief :C I guess i’m getting back to my “log into game during events and change avatar twice a year”.

While i’m still waiting for moonlight lovers i have bad feelings.

I put those other games here because they are great, free and short, why don’t you play some for a change after this whole mess? 

[recentanimenews]

Anime in America Podcast: Full Episode 4 Transcript

  Hi, you may have noticed that this week's Anime in America podcast is all about the 18+ topic of Hentai. *Takes a long drag of a Virginia Slim*. Well, buckle up, because this is the full transcript! 

  The Anime in America series is available on crunchyroll.com, animeinamerica.com, and wherever you listen to podcasts. 

    EPISODE 4: YES I DO, HENTAI TOO

Guest: Jacob Grady

  Disclaimer: The following program contains graphic material and language not suitable for audience members under the age of 18. Discretion is advised.

  [Lofi music]

  Just like with most things in anime in america, hentai got its start with Osamu Tezuka. In the twilight of Mushi Production’s years, having already sold the anime that would be localized as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion to NBC, Mushi produced a series of three animated films called “Animerama,” A Thousand and One Nights, Cleopatra, and Belladonna of Sadness which were commercial failures that likely contributed to the studio shuttering its doors in 1973. All the same, they were revolutionary for their time as “adult” animation, riding on the heels of Japan’s wave of live action “pink” sexploitatoin films gaining popularity during the same period.

  While there are surviving animated hentai from as early as 1932 such as “Suzumifune” the content was illegal in Japan during that period. Imagine their surprise, seeing Japan now. The Animerama films were legally produced for theatrical release and popular consumption containing nudity, erotic themes, and even rape during a period where anime was in its infancy, with Mushi and Toei competing to produce almost exclusively child appropriate programming.

  I’m Yedoye Travis, and this is hentai in America.

  [Lofi music]

  So, back to America. Animerama’s second film Cleopatra was licensed by the American Studio Xanadu and released for limited theatrical screenings. While the movie itself contains erotic themes and a LOT of topless women, Xanadu promoted the film as “porno,” localizing the title as Cleopatra: Queen of Sex. Very creative. It hit theaters April 24th 1972, missing the being “The first X rated animated film to be released in America” by just six days to the American film Fritz the Cat… or that would be the case if Xanadu had actually submitted their film to the MCAA for an official rating. They’d self-assigned the film an X rating, which I don’t think is allowed. I don’t think that’s… I don’t think that’s legal. But they did it to push the pornogapraphy angle.

  This ended up backfiring as many customers demanded their money back when they realized they were watching a serious film. An actual movie.

  Speaking of which, this seems like a good opportunity to talk a little bit about umm… why? Why hentai? Why- why is it a thing? Anime originally crossed the Pacific out of a need for cheap animation to fill air time on America’s growing menu of TV channels. The demand for porn will always exist but, if you’ll excuse the turn of phrase, we didn’t exactly have any holes that needed filling. Especially after America’s sexual revolution, our proud nation has become one of the biggest porn producers in the world. Unsurprisingly...

  Grady: For me, Western pornography it’s like, almost like corney, in a way. What I don’t like about Western pornography is it’s very rarely a realistic scenario. You know, it’s always like “pizza delivery guy comes over and you know ‘Oh! It’s my dick in the box!’” or something like that, and then- as opposed to like a relationship developing and some sort of scenario happening based on that. So the appeal of hentai for me is that I get to invest myself in the story and take part in the story and feel for the characters more than I would in a Western pornography. And it’s very rare for any Western adult material to take that route, where they’re actually creating a plot or a story, and I wish more did because I think that that would be very appealing to a lot of people. 

  That was Jacob Grady. He’ll become important later.

  To add to his, um, his point. Just as anime has found a popular appeal for its unique aesthetic and storytelling, the case is also true for the um… for the not safe for work stuff. Where the U.S. has more of a clear cut separation between what is porngrpahic and what is not, Japan is more of a sliding scale. What would normally be considered pornographic material to an American audience can exist within the context of a greater narrative. I’ll give you an example. So Yasuomi Umetsu’s Kite and Mezzo Forte [trailer for Mezzo Forte plays] were both originally released in the U.S. as grim, high production OVAs [Original Video Animations] featuring battles between assassins, an evil drug ring, and a protagonist overcoming intense childhood trauma. And they all became cult classics in the anime community. [trailer ends]

  Later on, both got new Director’s Cut releases that included sex scenes you might find under the “hardcore” tab on certain websites that SHALL NOT be named. PornHub. They were hentai the whole time, but made a name for themselves purely on the production and the story. Whi[laughing]- Which is crazy. Imagine that in American… uh, well, anything. The safe for work cut of Kite is on Crunchyroll right now, actually. So you can check it out and tell me it’s not incredible. And this is just the stuff that involves actual sex. There’s a whole genre of “ecchi” and “eros” content that has sexual themes without including actual sex or even nudity. So while Kite may be an outlier based on the raw quality of its production alongside the, umm, intensity of its adult content, it is not exactly an outlier for the amount of story surrounding the sex. Many hentai have very involved plots spanning from comedy to tragedy, featuring scenarios and characters much more sophisticated than a pizza delivery or a plumbing problem.

  When people are telling you they watch hentai for the plot, they… might not be lying. As much as it pains me to say. They might be- I mean they still could be, I don’t know. But the plot definitely exists.

  It’s also a much more respected art form in Japan, even outside of contextless black and white photography. Studio SHAFT, one of the most respected and stylistic studios with one of the most ridiculous names in this context, built their reputation entirely on their immediately recognizable visual style. This was an intentional move by founder Hiroshi Wakao who built the studio’s trademark on the work of director Akiyuki Shinbo, who SHAFT hired almost directly out of making hentai under the pseudonym Jyuhachi Minamizawa. SHAFT has Shinbo’s touch all of its work to make sure they keep with his avante garde style. Shinbo himself was also the impetus behind the creation of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

  [Clip from a Puella Magi Madoka Magica commercial plays]

  Many hentai have found considerable acclaim for their artist’s merit alone or as genre pieces within the genres of romance, science fiction, and even horror. And we will be touching on a few titles as we go.

  [Lofi music]

  It wouldn’t be for another 14 years that the first real hentai would make its way to American shores in 1986. Although hentai manga had already been around for a while at this point, no American publishers had bitten quite yet. Localization was still the realm of major studios and broadcast networks, although the proliferation of VHS would allow smaller companies to get into the game with direct video release. The first American license of a manga, First Comic’s release of Lone Wolf and Cub wouldn’t be ‘til the next year. 

  Instead, the first hentai release in America would be a direct-to-video VHS release of the second ever erotic OVA made in Japan, Cream Lemon. Why the second? I dunno. The first was called Lolita Anime and I’ll leave it at that. Excalibur Films dubbed and localized 3 episodes of the 16-part miniseries and released them into the area behind that black curtain that says “18+” in comic shops and video stores across America under the bizarrely chosen title “The Brothers Grime,” hopefully not to be confused with the children’s anime “Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics” that came out the next year. The literal next year.

  In 1990 the first hentai comic would make its way to comic store shelves in the extremely questionable publication “Anime Shower Special” which was basically a magazine that cut shower scenes out of hundreds of different manga that I am pretty sure it did not have the license or permission to use. It’s Canadian publisher, IANVS, would later become part of Protoculture Inc., which produced one of the earliest anime magazines, Protoculture Addicts. Protoculture would then be acquired by Anime News Network in 2005 so I guess you could say they technically got into hentai. Technically. 

  And that’s not me shaming them or anything like that, just about every company in anime has touched hentai at some point. Central Park Media had Anime 18, Manga 18, and Be Beautiful Manga labels to print hentai anime, manga, and yaoi manga respectively. Media Blasters got their start with hentai, their first title being Rei-Lan: Orchid Emblem and later created Kitty Media to manage their 18+ products. Then there was ADV’s SoftCel Pictures and RightStuf’s hentai label Critical Mass which is just a visual that… that the imagination takes care of, I’d say.

  Legitimate companies dealing in hentai was a big risk, both when it came to American promiscuity laws and the popular misconception that all anime is cartoon pornography. So, there’s that. America’s uh, kinda fucked up. Here’s an example: In 1999, Jesus Castillo, a clerk at Keith's Comics in Dallas, was accused of promoting obscenity for selling an issue of the Demon Beast Invasion manga to an undercover officer. He was fined $4,000 and sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation after the original six-month prison sentence was suspended, which is insane. First of all, the heft of that sentence; but second of all, the levity we have with what we perceive as sexual crimes. It’s a very confusing balance of things. But, you know, it’s 1999 I guess. 

  So why risk their reputation? I mean, the obvious answer why everyone risks their reputation in America: uh, because it’s profitable. Kitty Media’s president John Sirabella claimed that, by 1998, 30-40% of anime’s total revenue in the U.S. came from hentai. 40%! And it was cheap. It was, it was super cheap. You know, you don’t exactly market pornography with billboards or commercials or expensive activations. So they were spending almost nothing on advertising, but hentai VHS and DVD were among their first products to sell out on the dealers floor at anime conventions every time. 

  So moving on, in 1993 hentai finally made history in the U.S. Central Park Media’s Anime 18 division [Legend of the Overfiend trailer begins] dubbed and released the now infamous Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend in limited theaters on March 11th, [Tailer ends] making it the first animated film to receive the MPAA’s NC-17 rating which had just replaced their old X rating three years earlier in 1990. The film would reach a legendary cult status among porn, science fiction, and horror fans alike. It was also umm, a lot of Americans’ first introduction to umm… [whispered] tentacles. You know- you know tentacles. You’re familiar. The squid? [Whispering ends]

  Okay. 

  [Lofi music]

  This is unfortunately the part where we talk about tentacles...

  To understand tentacles I gotta tell you a little bit about um, about censorship law. This is a, yeah, this is a legal matter. I don’t know what else to tell you, I don’t know how else to prepare you for this. It’s a, it’s a legal matter, so bear with me. I will start by saying tentacles have a long history in Japanese pornography. You may be familiar with the famous “The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife” woodblock print featuring a lady and an octopus doing the thing. It was created around 1814 by none other than legendary Japanese artist Hokusai… you know, the guy who drew that wave that you see everywhere, on all the Uniqlo tee shirts? You know the one. Hokusai’s Wave. If you Google those words, you’ll find it. Anyway, they were far from mainstream but let’s just say they existed in the popular subconscious.

  So, when it comes to porn, Japan had and has some pretty specific guidelines requiring what is off-limits. They put a lot less emphasis on scenario and the content of scenes, and instead they focus on the appearance of genitalia. I’m sure you’re familiar, you know they got the whole pixelated mosaic over the, over the junk and the jingles and the jangles, and pretty much anything else goes. This is in stark contrast to America where seeing those parts is basically the point of adult material, but scenario and content of scenes can sometimes get you in trouble. The one where we run into problems most is portrayal of minors. Obviously. That’s uh, obviously it’s fucked up. Japan, on the other hand, has the same age of consent as us but umm… [sigh], man, oo boy, they do not follow that in hentai. I will say no more than that. This has of course led to a very unique relationship between hentai publishers and their American licensors. Some weird conversations, it gets weird.

  Often American versions of hentai are LESS censored than those in Japan, with the American distributor receiving the cut before the mosaics are added so you see the original art in all its glory. But then they might have to go in and uh, change some other things, like umm… you know, age. Obviously. A character’s age in anime can be kinda ambiguous sometimes, so they usually get away with changing a reference to class to a reference to like a “college” course, but you know, sometimes scenes would have to be cut out if it didn’t convincingly look like two adults. Which it unfortunately does. Frequently. 

  Okay, so back to tentacles. The whole censorship thing is a problem in the hentai industry that many young innovators have tried to work around, often using objects reminiscent of uh… of- of the pe- the penis as substitutes. Along came an enterprising creator named Toshio Maeda. His solution to the uh, to the censorship problem was of course, as we have set up for the past couple paragraphs: tentacles. They were alive, they moved around, but they were not dicks. It feels weird to talk about porn this much and not say the word “dick.” I don’t- why am I using so many euphemisms? I’m just gonna say dick, wherever it feels appropriate. 

  I’m gonna paraphrase from an interview with Maeda in 2002. [Music play throughout] Quote: “At that time pre-Urotsukidoji, it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a sensual scene. So, I just created a creature. His tentacle is not a penis as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, ‘this is not a penis; this is just a part of the creature.’ You know, the creatures, they don’t have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene – not illegal.” 

  Umm… some points were made. The gender thing I feel like is probably… actually, y’know, y’know, that probably, that probably lines up, actually. Depends on how sentient you believe animals are. I guess PETA would disagree. There is- they have a sex, not necessarily a gender, I guess. Huh. Well, look at me learning.

  [Lofi music]

  Okay, as far as I can tell, the first manga to actually get an official license and distribution in the U.S. was, much like Overfiend, a hell of an introduction. Prepare yourselves as I speak this next sentence. Bondage Fairies was released by Antarctic Press under their Venus Press imprint in 1994, following the adventures of Pfil and Pamela, a lesbian fairy couple who act as sort of, uh forest police making sure animals don’t… break the forest law? Where Urotsukidoji introduced many Americans to a multitude of new uses for tentacles, Bondage Fairies was a first introduction for many as well, and I hate having to say these two words next to each other, insect beastiality. Also obviously bondage. I don’t know if that was clear in the title.

  The ‘90s also saw the first eroge making their way to the U.S., a very popular genre of video games in Japan featuring sexually explicit images, often featuring “visual novel” style gameplay where you navigate through different dialogue choices to reach a number of different branching narrative paths, often to pursue a uh, “happy ending” with one of a number of different female characters, usually with a larger overall narrative. If this is news to you, then you might be surprised to learn you’re already a fan of some of them. Eroge are a pretty common source material for mainstream anime actually, usually with the sexually explicit content removed, obviously. Popular examples are YU-NO, Doukyuusei, Rumbling Hearts, and ummm, yes, the entire Fate franchise. Although that shouldn’t have been hard to guess after the uh, mana transfer scene...

  Anyway, the hentai industry was going pretty strong in the ‘90s although that fact was not, it was, you know- it was kept under wraps. A lot of legitimate anime publishers had their hentai labels happily printing, but didn’t exactly want to brag about what proportion of their profits came from porn. Nothing good can last forever, though, because in the mid 2000s when the bubble burst, anime companies started going bankrupt and their hentai licenses along with them.

  SoftCel Pictures, which was spun off from ADV, then closed down in 2005 with many of their titles being acquired by RightStuf’s Critical Mass. Central Park Media followed in 2009, many of its licenses getting split between Critical Mass and Kitty Media. The manga side was even worse. Most hentai publishers were about as small an operation as you can imagine. One example, Icarus Publishing, was responsible for the longest running manga anthology in the U.S., called AG. And he did that all by himself. When he fell ill in 2010 he just couldn’t keep it going anymore and he closed down.

  The field was narrowing, which was really bad for anyone looking to support the industry because piracy is a lot worse in hentai and all other varieties of porn, because it’s hard to get popular advocacy or any sort of regulatory agency on your side when you’re working with stuff that people pretend doesn’t exist. You know, like what do you look like in a courtroom, just arguing for porn? You know? In the ‘90’s, of course. We’re… [exasperated] moderately more sex-positive these days. I guess. 

  [Lofi music]

  Now all this was until one man changed everything...

  Grady: My name is Jacob. I created Fakku while I was in college, it was originally like a fan website, sort of like [how] Crunchyroll originated. And from that we were able to build an audience and prove that there was a market for this type of content outside of Japan. Because before we started doing it officially, there’d been only a few poor attempts to publish hentai legally outside of Japan. I know of all of them, but almost no one does. Because you know, they, that’s how under the radar it was. So with Fakku, we were able to show our partners in Japan and the publishers and the artists most importantly, “hey, you know there’s people willing to support the stuff you’re creating. Manga, anime, comics, games now, we have, but you’re ignoring the market outside of Japan.” And you may have seen scenarios where like a Japanese publisher might block all foreign IP addresses from viewing their website, because they’re like “oh, foreigners are pirates! They’re scum of the Earth, they’re awful.” That was, that was something that we had to deal with early on, to convince these publishers “hey, no. It’s because you forced the market to this- we just want to read your comics, we just want to watch your anime. We just want to fap to this and fap to that; but because you weren’t providing it, you know, people had to find it any way they could. And if you were to provide a means for them to support officially, we think that people would be willing to do that.” So that’s the argument that we made to the publishers when we first signed our first partners, and it’s been going great ever since [Laughs]. 

  The same year Crunchyroll made the switch to a legitimate anime streaming service, Jacob started up his pirate hentai streaming site Fakku, just one of many pirate pages of the era. He’d spend his days going to school and working at a grocery store stocking vegetables thinking about what he’d like the site to look like, and he would spend long nights coding. Just coding. Think about how much coding that goes into all the porn you watch these days. The site kept growing and traffic increased until Jacob started using his student loans to pay for their server cost. It actually got so bad he almost had to shut the site down, but when he relayed this to his followers the community stepped up and donated until he was able to keep the operation running.

  Using Crunchyroll as a model, Jacob made early attempts to go legitimate. After building up a large user base, he started reaching out to the license holders of his sites’ content to see if he could buy legitimate rights, but they never replied. Eventually he would leave college to start working at Bioware and step away from Fakku, handing the operations down to his team. It’s hard to say where his relationship with the site may have gone from there, but everything changed when Jacob received a cease and desist letter from the oldest hentai publisher in Japan, Wanimagazine.

  Grady: So originally they reached out to us. So when I first went to Japan and started talking to publishers, you know obviously we were completely upfront with the history of Fakku, what we were doing, and where we came from. And they were all on board with it, which was cool. Because at first, you know the first meeting I had I think we, I was invited out there by this big Japanese publisher, and I was just like “man, are they just going to like, arrest me?” But you know, I went out there and I explained my thoughts and they were like “okay, let’s do it.” And I’m like “umm, really?” And they’re like “yeah, let’s do it.” And they signed us our first licenses, and one of the first things I said was “okay, but you gotta understand. America like, we don’t do that censorship stuff, so like all those black bars and mosaics and giant glowing penises and stuff that they have in Japan, like we’ve gotta get rid of that. Is that possible? Can you get us uncensored stuff?” And they’re like “yeah. We can get you uncensored stuff.” And I was like “REALLY?!” And they’re like “yeah.” And it turns out that with the censorship, it’s actually all produced completely uncensored originally, and the publishers will then go and add varying levels of censorship, those black bars, those mosaics, depending on the medium that the comic or anime is being distributed from, because there’s different laws in Japan. So if it’s sold online it will have some level of censorship, if it’s sold in paper it’ll have a different level, and then if it’s sold internationally it’ll have no censorship at all. So they were on board with no censorship, and I was like “okay, awesome,” but like I hate DRM, right? Like I want to be able to download the comics, read them on my iPad, read them on my phone, read them on whatever, I was like “can we get a deal with no DRM requirements at all?” And they were like “okay,” and I was like “what the fuck? Really?!”

  Interviewer: Damn!

  Grady: Yeah, so like I ended up leaving Japan with honestly the best publishing deal probably any company has ever gotten.”

  After they had seen the size of the Fakku community, Wanimagazine surprised Jacob with how receptive they were to the idea of working with him, even allowing a slow transition from pirate site to legitimacy rather than cutting out all his pirated content immediately. In 2014, Jacob made the announcement Fakku was going legit.

  Grady: They were totally on board with it, obviously. Because it was like the both of best worlds. When we started removing fan content there were people who were upset, because, you know, it’s hard to convince someone to pay for something that they’ve never paid for before. Like hentai? Like, no one had ever been saying “that thing you’ve been fapping to, those thousands of things you downloaded on to your computer, those are actually like worth money. Like that’s, like some artist created that and he’s like trying to get by in Japan, he’s trying to make a living, he’s trying to survive, and like that thing is his livelihood. So you should pay for that.” So that was an early difficulty for us, to convince people to pay for this stuff.

  It was a predictably rocky transition, but Jacob was right on the mark. Once fans knew they had a way to officially source hentai, they were willing to pay up to support the creators… and that was what Jacob really wanted.  

Grady: I think that one of the most powerful things about Fakku is our brand. Like I’ve always tried to position it as not a porn company, which sounds weird, but it’s always been important to me to not you know be running a porn company for a few reasons, but like really we wanted to create a brand that was more of a lifestyle brand, where it’s like people want to support you know whatever Fakku’s doing, and right now it happens to be a lot of hentai manga. But you know we also recently as of just a year ago started publishing our first games. And then we got into anime. And then we’re getting into original Western comics. So we’re publishing a few artists from outside of Japan, and having them create original chapters for Fakku, and adult chapters. And then we’re bringing those to Japan and saying “hey, we work with this artist. They want to have their book published in Japan, is that something we can do?” So we’re like almost reverse publishing, you know Western artists in Japan, which is cool. So we’re doing a lot of crazy things. 

  Jacob did something no one in the industry had done before, pulling hentai out of the dark shadows to build a real community. Fakku isn’t the 18+ print of an official brand, Fakku is the brand. Jacob didn’t treat being a fan of hentai as anything to be ashamed of, but something to celebrate as a community, and the fandom responded. There is a fandom. Need I remind you, there is a fandom. For hentai. And all things anime. Fakku has active social media, hosts convention panels with special guests, industry parties with DJs like Anamanaguchi, art shows, and even custom skateboards. Fakku’s kinda a lifestyle brand that, it turns out, many people are proud to represent… even if it’s in the form of a- of an ahegao t-shirt.

  He also never stopped branching out. Since going official, Jacob set up a streaming agreement with Kitty Media, the lone survivor of hentai publishers after the bubble burst and the final resting place of many licenses acquired from its fallen brethren. He also worked to acquire licenses to older visual novel ero games and Fakku even published the first ero guro manga in the west… and that, if you don’t know is like umm… it’s like a portmanteau of erotic and grotesque and umm… my description of the matter ends there. You got Google for that.

  Jacob even launched a sub-label for non-pornographic manga called Denpa Books, which I guess is a huge departure from every other company that’s ever done this, and he used that to print niche licenses like the acclaimed Kaiji and ero adjacent works such as Inside Mari, Super Dimensional Love Gun, and even Maeda’s Legend of the Overfiend manga. 

  Since going legit, Fakku has become massive. 

  Grady: Like we’ve published ourselves over 1,000 manga artists. We now work with I think seven or eight hentai manga publishers in Japan. Pretty much everyone, we work with in some manner. 

  So despite all my hesitance to engage in uh, in hentai consumption in general, and across the board, I will say that there is a legitimate audience for it, and you know, whatever is your thing is your thing. And if that’s your thing, there’s a place to consume it, and there’s a rich history behind it. Surprisingly. It’s not just tentacles for tentacles’ sake. It’s a thing that makes sense, unfortunately. You almost wish it didn’t. But it does. It does. 

  So with that, in conclusion, I leave you… with this: just you know, just like the things you like, and umm maybe, I dunno, for whatever reason do some research and look into why you like those things and why they exist. 

  This has been Anime in America. I’m your host, Yedoye Travis. Tune into the next one. 

  Goodbye!

  [Lofi music]

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  This episode is hosted by me, Yedoye Travis and you can find me on Instagram at ProfessorDoye, or Twitter @YedoyeOT. Researched and written by Peter Fobian, edited by Chris Lightbody, and produced by me, Braith Miller, Peter Fobian, and Jesse Gouldsbury. Additional research and writing by Mamoudou N’Diaye. 

  By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[gaylenightingale]

Ever Us --A-Un stories

Story Title:  Ever Us—A-Un

 Summary:  Inucest!  Yaoi. AU From my “Ever Us” universe, it’s 1869 and it’s bedtime for the twins.   

Chap 1 Inuyasha ended his Robin Hood adventure mentioning A-Un had been a secret spy and had infiltrated the Castletown in a deep cover investigation.  Prompt for chap 1:  From Chap 9 Ever Us-Robin Hood, A Bedtime Story (on Fanfiction)

Chap 2 is a response to a Tumblr prompt How did Sesshomaru met A-Un?  With the bonus for Ryuu lovers- Ryuu’s first Veterinary case and how he learned he could talk to animals

Disclaimer:  I do not own Inuyasha.  I do not make any money from writing fanfiction.

Author:  Gayle Nightingale  

Category/Genre: Inuyasha/Romance/family/

Content tags: Yaoi, Inucest, InuSess A bedtime story with a Robin Hood flare

Rating: T

Time:  AU.  Several years prior to my last story “Ever Us”; specifically 1869 in Japan at the castle in the Western Lands.

  Chapter 1. A-Un, the dragon spy

It is 1868.  The Takahashis are living at the Western castle in Japan.   They have been mates for almost 300 years.  Both Sesshomaru and Inuyasha have been practicing physicians for almost 100 years.   Their opinions are highly valued.  They are consulted frequently from all corners of the realm.  For this reason Sesshomaru has been traveling.   Inuyasha decided that one of them had to stay and work at the clinic in the castle and keep watch over their pups.   Keiko is 14. Kenichi is nearly 11.  Ryuu is eight and one half and Suteiibun is six and one half. Yuki and Kyo are over two and one half.   Here is a reminder of our timeline to the current date.

Timeline for Ever Us

 1500 - Kagome returns to the Feudal era and she and Inuyasha marry

1503- Sesshomaru marries Rin

1560s – Both women die.  Sesshomaru goes to Inuyasha and comforts him.

1570 – Sesshomaru and Inuyasha mate

1770 – Keiko is born   Ever Us—Keiko, the blessing

1792 – The marital fight of the century –Large Tsunami

1793 – Kenichi is born

1808- Ryuu is born

1822 – Steven\Suteiibun is born

1850- Kyo and Yuki are born

1868- Robin Hood tale  

 Bold—fairy tale

Normal- story

 “At the end of the Robin Hood story, I told you that I would tell you the story of how A-Un had become Prince Sesshomaru’s pet.   Well then, this is the story.   It started many years before the Robin Hood adventure when Prince Sesshomaru was five years old or even younger.”

 “Father was a little kid like us?” Kyo’s eyes were wide open in amazement.

 Just then Sesshomaru walked in the twin’s room and sat next to Inuyasha.   “I was, but we try to keep that a secret,” he winked at the twins as he turned to his mate.   The older dogs rubbed noses and then resumed the bedtime routine.  Lately Sesshomaru had made a point of staying home for longer periods of time.   Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had discussed the situation when he returned from the last trip and both realized they needed each other.  

 The key to this mission according to A-Un’s boss was to infiltrate the dog castle and get to know the dog demon and his progeny.   The dragons were considering brokering a treaty with the dogs but previous experiences had them leery.     A-Un ducked as he wandered through the trees on his way to the country side.    “Too bad we don’t have tape to record things in this century,” he said out loud.   “Time travel makes you appreciate so many of the advances that we’ve made.   I could have brought a tape recorder but the last spy left the Velcro and the humans claimed they invented it so…”

 The two headed dragon made his way to the castle town and assumed a smaller size.   ‘It’ll be less threatening.’  He thought.

  ‘How will I get noticed?’ A-Un thought as he shrunk himself to a three foot size.  ‘I could fly but they might try and shoot me down.’  A-Un looked about him and noticed a small farm and a small boy playing in the field.   ‘Maybe he will be my friend.   But will he get me to the prince and the king?’    

A-Un watched the boy for several hours.  The child played by himself.   He talked to himself.   “I wish I had a friend,” he said.

 ‘That’s my clue,’ the dragon walked forward.   He decided he would cry that way it would seem like he was lost.

 It worked.

 The boy saw him.

 But, instead of coming to him, the boy ran into the house yelling at the top of his lungs for his momma.

 ‘Bad move!  We’ve got to run!”   A-Un ran fast.

 The next farm A-Un found no children so he continued on.  Unfortunately the farmer’s young wife had seen him. She ran to get her husband in the field.

 The next farm A-Un was seen by three preteen children who all started screaming at the top of their lungs.   He ran again.

 At the next farm, he watched a farmer and his wife feed the chickens and goats.   His stomach rumbled.  ‘Oh my, I’m hungry.   I’ll just find a field and eat some grass.’  

 Five minutes’ walk from the chickens and the goats A-Un came upon a green grass clearing.   Its first impression was the field was a lush green blanket.   As he got closer he realized that it was tall grass.  In his three foot size the grass came up to his shoulders.    If he lowered his head he would be virtually invisible to anyone chasing him.   A-Un made his way to the center of the green meadow nibbling on grass along the way.   When he arrived at the center he slowly moved around.   He didn’t notice anyone following him so he devoted himself to eating the luscious grass.   Closer to the ground he noticed some sweet clover.   He considered sweet clover as the best treat.

 As A-Un put his head down to graze, he didn’t notice the men downwind from him.    They had been following him since the first house and now were going to try and capture him.    Dragons had not seen in the dog kingdom since Sounga was defeated by King Inu Taisho’s grandfather.    If they caught this one and took it to the king they would get prize money.

 A-Un ate his fill and lay down to take a nap in the tall grass.   He often slept with one head under the other which gave the image of a one headed animal.

 That very same day King Inu Taisho and Prince Sesshomaru had been out in the kingdom practicing changing into their demon forms.    King Inu Taisho was a large dog demon with long white fur.  His true size was larger than an elephant.    Prince Sesshomaru was still very young and had only transformed a few times.   Each time he had transformed in the castle a wall was destroyed so the king had decided to take a field trip.    They had practiced transforming all day and by this time the prince was able to switch to his three foot size with no problems.   They had been working on flying as well and were overhead when they saw the men creeping up on the small animal.   From the sky A-Un looked like a deer and King Inu Taisho decided it would be good to add hunting to today’s lesson.

 The prince was a bit worn out from transforming so often but had kept his fatigue from his father, after all royals are not supposed to show weakness, or at least that’s what tutor Jaken had told him.  Still he was becoming more and more tired the more they flew and he couldn’t wait to land. They did not see the peasants.

  The royal dog demons landed upwind from the sleeping dragon.   Their scents drifted down wind over the dragon.  He awoke and surveyed the situation.

 A peasant rose, nocked an arrow, and let it fly, but his aim was poor.  Instead of aiming for the dragon it overshoot the dragon and it flew toward the prince who was still in his dog form.   A-Un heard the shrill pitch of the arrow in flight and realized it was going to hit the small dog.   He leaped in the path of the arrow, his scales deflecting the arrow and averting the arrow from its stray path.  

 The royals looked up when they heard the arrow whizzing through the air but Sesshomaru was too tired to move.  King Inu Taisho was too far from his son to save him.  He started running toward Sesshomaru but realized he wouldn’t make in time when he saw the two headed dragon leap in the air and purposely deflect the arrow.  He watched as the dragon fell back to earth with a thud.   Rushing to the dragon’s side he realized that this creature was sentient and had saved the prince’s life.

 The dragon lay on the ground panting.  Although he diverted the arrow from hitting the small dog his ribs were bruised.  ‘Wow, sure messed up this mission.  Just hope I can have a moment alone and I can time travel out of here.   At least that young dog is ok.’

 The king transformed to his humanoid form and ordered the peasants to stop their attack.  Then he bent over A-Un and examined the injured animal.

 “Steady boys, I mean you no ill will.   I am King Inu Taisho.   You have done me a great service today.  You have saved Prince Sesshomaru from certain death.   You have earned the King’s favor.

 A-Un blinked.  They turned their heads and blinked at each other.  They looked back to the king and blinked again.  Raising slowly from the ground the dragon bowed its necks to the king. It searched for the prince, but was unable to see the young lord as he was napping in the grass where he landed.   You see he was VERY tired.

 A-Un tilted both head as though asking a question to the king.   The king observed the dragon and followed where it was looking and suddenly realized it was searching for Prince Sesshomaru.

“Come with me friend dragon.   My prince is over here.  I imagine he is resting.”

 Following the king through the green field he stopped to look as the king picked up the sleeping child.  “Can you fly?”

 The dragon nodded.

 “Then follow me.”

 That is how A-Un met King Inu Taisho and Prince Sesshomaru.

 Inuyasha stopped the story and looked over his children.   The twins were asleep.   Motioning to the others that it was time to leave Inuyasha and Sesshomaru stood and headed to the door.   Once they were outside the door Ryuu stopped them.

 “Dad, is there more to the story?”

 Inuyasha’s ears flickered as he moved toward his son.  “I suppose there could be more.   I guess we’ll leave it open.   Perhaps your father can tell you how he really met A-Un.   The story I told tonight was just a tale, a spin-off of the Robin Hood story.”

 Sesshomaru grabbed Ryuu’s shoulders and forced him to look into his eyes.  “Why don’t you spend time with A-Un?   I’m sure he has another version of the story.  Then you can tell us a bed time story.”

  Ever Us—A-Un, part 2

 Primary Cast:  Ryuu, A-Un

 Ryuu meandered into the courtyard and waved at the castle gate guards.   They nodded and returned to their duties.  As he walked by the fountain he admired the jets of water spraying into the large fountain base.   This was such a nice place.   He sat by the fountain and allowed his fingers to play in the water.  It was cool and refreshing.

 ‘I bet A-Un would like a drink, ’Ryuu thought.  He arose; walking with a purpose to the great horse barn that the two-headed dragon shared was Jinenji and A-Un.

 The barn was two stories. The horses, Jinenji and A-Un lived on the first floor.  The second floor was hay storage, a great place to hide from their parents and Jaken’s favorite napping site.  Ryuu smiled as he recalled several pranks they had played on their uncle, his favorite—how many straws can you put in the imp’s nose or mouth and not wake him—So far he lead the gang with eleven.   Honestly he wasn’t sure how many more he could get in the imp’s mouth and nose. He pondered.

 The castle horses whined a greeting to the young Takahashi.   Ryuu had taken to horse riding almost as easily as to swimming. It was though he could feel their intentions; when to hold on tight, when to brace for a jump, whether to lean forward, or to lean back.   He really never thought about it but he supposed he was communicating with them. The last horse in the stall stomped his foot, gaining Ryuu’s attention.

 “What can I do for you, Charger?”  Ryuu turned to look at the great warrior horse.

 The stable guard noticed the interaction and came to the Prince’s side.

 “Charger seems to be limping but none of us can see anything.  My Prince, do you know what’s ails him?”

 Ryuu eyed the great stallion.  The stallion dropped his head once.

 ‘I believe he asked me to help him,’ Ryuu puzzled.  ‘Did Charger just talk to my mind?’  Curious Ryuu formulated a thought and broadcasted it directly at the stallion.

 ‘You don’t have to yell. I just need you to get the rock or whatever out of my hoof.’

 Ryuu jumped back in shock. The stable guard took a defensive position in front of the young Prince. “What is it Prince Ryuu? I can whistle for Captain Kenichi immediately.”  The guard raised his two fingers to his lips and inhaled deeply to whistle.

 Ryuu raised a hand and stopped him.   “It’s ok.   I just tripped.  That’s all.   I think Charger wants the rock out of his hoof.”

 Now the guard jumped. “Charger wants what?”

 “There is a rock or something lodged in Charger’s hoof.”

 The stable guard looked from the prince to the horse and back several time.  The horse nodded.  The stable guard opened the stall and looked at the stallion’s hoof.

 ‘The right front,’ Charger said.

 “The right front,” Ryuu repeated, although it was the first time the guard heard it.

 Switching to the right front hoof, the guard lifted the hoof and examined the surface.  There in the sole was an abscess that was fluctuant to touch.

 “You are right!  Prince Ryuu, would you get the hoof knife for me?   It’s over on the shelf.   It seems Charger has a something imbedded in his sole and we need to incise it here and let it drain.   Would you like to help?”

 ‘Please my Prince,’ bowed the stallion.

 ‘As you wish,’ Ryuu replied, still very amazed he could understand the horse. He nodded to the guard as he walked to the shelf.  Ryuu grabbed the knife and after sterilizing it with a hot flame brought it to the stable guard.  

 “I’ll hold the hoof. Just make a small cut over that bump, do you understand?”

 “Won’t it hurt?”  Ryuu was worried.

 ‘I’ll hold still,’ Charger replied.

 “I’ve got his hoof,” the stable guard replied.  “He’ll be glad to get rid of the pain.   It’ll be okay.”

 Reassured by both the stable guard and the horse Ryuu dropped the point of the knife into the bump. Purulent material poured from the wound.

 ‘Aaaaaah—what a relief,’ Charger sighed.

 “Good job, My Prince.   Charger seems very content.  Now you need to push on the abscess to make sure it’s all clear.  This part may hurt but it’s necessary.”

 ‘Charger, you are doing well.  Hold still a little bit longer.  I need to clear the abscess.’ Ryuu told the stallion.

 The horse snorted.

 Ryuu pushed on the abscess and a thorn and more pus made their way to the surface.  After assuring the abscess was clear Ryuu flushed the wound with water.

 “Well done Prince Ryuu. Charger and I thank you.”  The stable guard lowered the hoof gently to the floor of the stable and patted the stallion’s flank.  “And you, Charger, deserve a juicy apple for holding so still. Can’t get over how well you held still,” the guard continued to talk to himself as he walked to the apple bucket to get the horse his treat.

 Charger nosed Ryuu. Ryuu hugged the horse’s neck.

The stable hand returned with an apple for Charger and one for Ryuu.  

The horse took the apple with his lips and backed into his stall to savor his treat.

Ryuu handled his apple and pocketed it as he walked further into the barn.    In the last portion of the barn Jinenji’s belongings; his tea set and checkered table cloth, a large ceramic washing basin and a bed of hay, occupied the left side and A-Un occupied the right.   Today the two headed dragon was curled like a feline, napping.  

 Ryuu wondered how long Ryuu had been sleeping and if it was okay to wake him when he noticed A-Un’s feet moving as though he was chasing after something.  The right dragon’s head snorted and the left moaned as though they had just missed catching the elusive prey.

 ‘A, you missed it,’ came a voice.

 ‘I missed it?  You missed it too,’ came the annoyed reply.

 “Missed what?” Ryuu responded.

 The dragon awoke and stared.

 “Hi A-Un,” Ryuu waved. “Want to go for a walk with me? The water in the fountain is nice and cold.”

 The dragon nodded eagerly and rose, stretching luxuriously.

 “Come.  Follow me,” Ryuu waved.

 The dragon lumbered after the young prince.

 As they left the barn the horses whined and bid the two a good day.

 In the sunlight of the castle grounds A-Un stretched their necks and looked about.  Content that all was in its place and its Masters were safe, they followed Ryuu to the courtyard fountain.

 “Have a drink, A-Un,” Ryuu offered.

 The right dragon head bent to have a sip.  Content that it was indeed as good as Ryuu had suggested the right head drank.   In time it removed its muzzle, water dripping and allowed the left dragon head a chance to drink.

 ‘So good!’ A spoke to Un.

 “I knew you would like it,” Ryuu nodded.

 ‘Can you understand us, little one?’ The dragon stared and blinked in amazement.

 ‘Guess so,’ Ryuu thought. ‘Just happened today with the horses.   I think I might be able to understand animals.’

 A-Un stared.

 Ryuu stared back.   ‘Why? Is that bad?’

 The dragon blinked again and then roared in delight.

 Castle guards came running from all over the castle grounds, weapons ready.

 “Stop everyone!” Ryuu called out.   “I’m okay. A-Un is just excited.   We’re going for a flight.  Tell Father and Dad we’ll be right back.”

 The prince mounted the dragon and took off.

 ————————

The royal couple rolled over in bed to see Ryuu and A-Un fly by.  They rolled back over, Inuyasha on top.

 “Don’t you dare stop now!” The inuhanyou commanded.

 His nose reassured him all was well so Sesshomaru grabbed his mate’s hips tightly and replied, “As you wish, my mate.”

 Moans, groans, and other sensational sounds continued.

  -------------------------

Ryuu and A-Un flew out of Castletown toward the remote forest of Japan.  Within ten minutes they had found a lovely meadow with flowers.

 Ryuu slid off A-Un and stood in front of them.

 ‘You didn’t answer. Is it bad that I can understand you?’

 ‘No, it is wonderful!’ A cried out.

‘No, it is marvelous!’ Un spoke at the same time.

 Then the two started speaking over each other as their excitement exploded.

 Within minutes of listening to the cacophony of sound Ryuu started laughing.  He bent over his knees and braced his belly.  Tears rolled down his cheeks.

 Soon the dragon stopped speaking and stared at the prince.

 As Ryuu calmed down he stared back.

 The meadow was quiet except for a cricket and a lone bird.

 ‘Don’t suppose you could talk one at a time please,’ Ryuu pondered.  ‘Now I think I understand why Dad can’t understand us kids when we all talk at the same time.’  Ryuu cleared his airways and looked pointedly at A-Un’s right head.  ‘You start.’

 A, the right head, bowed slightly and introduced itself.   ‘I am “A”. Mistress Rin named us.   She explained that in her native tongue “A” represents the beginning and “Un” the end of all things. I am the first.’

 The other head nodded. ‘And I am “Un”.     It has been eons since anyone could understand or speak to us.  Forgive us Master Ryuu for talking over each other.  We are just excited!’

 ‘I just learned that I could speak to animals today,’ Ryuu volunteered.  ‘Tell me more.’

 So A-Un spoke to Ryuu nearly all afternoon; about their home in the barn and the wonderful being that shared it with them, about Mistress Rin and how much they missed her, about their favorite foods and how much they loved to fly.  They mentioned how glad they were that their Father and Dad had become friends because they thought it was silly to not love your brother. After all they loved each other and they didn’t have a choice in the mater.  Several times they talked over each other and Ryuu just smiled.   Eventually they exhausted of topics and Ryuu got a chance to ask questions.

 ‘Dad tells us bedtime stories.   Last night he made up a story about you.’

 ‘Really?   Was it exciting?’ A asked.

 ‘Very.   You saved Father’s life.’ Ryuu nodded.

 ‘If we could only return the favor,’ Un sighed.

 ‘What do you mean?’ Ryuu queried.

 ‘What my brother means, Dear Prince, is that we owe a life debt to your father.   If it weren’t for him we would be dead.’

 ‘I still don’t understand.’ Ryuu contemplated the statement.

 ‘Years ago, when we were young our mother hatched us in the wilds of the dragon country.   We looked as we look today, a two-headed creature.   Our mother cared for us until we were teens but as with all dragons she kicked us out of the nest so she could hatch her next child.    We wandered the wilds, fending as we could; a rabbit here, a cabbage or melon there.   Mostly we found that we like grasses.   As a youngling we were very awkward. A would want to go to the right. I would want to go to the left.   We weren’t very good at flying either.   I guess you could call us dorks.’ Un laughed nervously as he reflected on their young life.

 A picked up the narrative. ‘We wandered into the inhabited area of dragon country.  At first we were excited to see others of our kind.  But then we noticed they were yelling and growling at us.   We bowed and kneeled and offered our best submissive poses but that made them even madder.  Suddenly they all turned as someone of significance walked into their midst.   Next thing I remember they were running at us with pitch forks and maces!’

 ‘It was scary!’ Un added.

 ‘We ran away as fast as we could but they caught up and started beating on us.   Our skin is tough.  It eventually was damaged and our organs inside as well.  It really hurt.   Eventually they tired of beating us but by then we were defeated, crying, and ready to die.’ A ruminated.

 Un cuddled against his brother’s cheek. ‘We were lying there in a pool of our blood, heaving to breathe, our ribs broken and lungs collapsed when along came Lord Sesshomaru.’

 A’s face lightened up. ‘He started to pass us by when Un whimpered.   I guess the sound intrigued our Lord and he turned.   I don’t know.  My face was beaten so badly my eyes were swollen shut.  But Un could see him.’

 ‘I did see him, brother. He was the most beautiful being I had ever seen.   He was wearing white and had a sword at his hip.  You look like him, Ryuu.  Such an exquisite creature.’  Silence followed as Un appeared lost in thought.

 ‘Dummy, wake up. Finish the story,’ A knocked his brother in the head.

 ‘Well, you think he’s good-looking too,’ Un pouted then looking at Ryuu he added.  ‘Your father said, “If you live, you may have the privilege of being my companion.”

 ‘We felt hope for the first time since we had been kicked out of our mother’s nest.   We both decided we wanted to live.  But we were afraid he would leave us.  So Un whimpered again.’  A looked gratefully to his brother.  

 ‘When Lord Sesshomaru heard my second whimper he sat down on a rock and watched over us.   I know his presence scared away the buzzards and other scavenger animals.  He appeared to be in deep thought as he sat there watching us.   I wanted to get better so we could follow him.  A did too.   We focused our power on healing and in two days we attempted to stand.   We wobbled a bit but soon enough we followed our noses to some grass and water.   Our lord followed us.  After we had our fill we started following him and we have ever since.’

 “Wow!” Ryuu verbalized out loud.

 The dragon heads chuckled.

 ‘I knew Father was cool but he really did save your life.  I can’t wait to tell everyone.’

 ‘Maybe you could keep it a secret just a little longer…’ Un asked.  ‘There’s a practical joke we’d still like to pull on Jaken before he finds out we aren’t just a “dumb pack animal.”

 A snorted.

 ‘Oh, let me in on it…’ Ryuu begged.

 -------------

 That evening at bedtime Sesshomaru offered Ryuu an opportunity to tell them a bedtime story about A-Un.

 Knowing he couldn’t lie to his father, Ryuu decided the truth would work for now.  “Father, I suspect A-Un has many great stories, but he hasn’t told all of them to me yet.  But I’m sure it thinks you are the best!”

 Kenichi automatically agreed with that and soon the room was full of young Takahashis praising their sire.

 Inuyasha shook his head and laughed.

 “Yeh, Yeh, Yeh.  And they have a crush on you too!”

 Ryuu just shrugged his shoulders.  “I think you wonderful too Daddy.” And he hugged Inuyasha’s waist.  

 The room of young Takahashis joined the huggers in a dog pile while also praising their puppy-eared parent.

 In time Inuyasha threw off the dog pile, “Alright you guys!  Enough delaying.  Time for bed.”  Sesshomaru grabbed his hand and pulled him to his side.

 “Good night children. Sleep well.”  Sesshomaru lead Inuyasha to their bedroom.

 Ryuu whispered to the others.   “Tomorrow, we are going to pull the best ever prank on Uncle Jaken.  Are you with me?”

 Keiko, Kenichi, Steven, Kyo, and Yuki nodded.   It was going to be legendary!

 Hugs and Kisses.  

 Goodnight

[yaoimila]

The Dark Prince Yaoi Webcomic

The DARK PRINCE WEBCOMIC http://yaoimila.com

Faunication

The gorgeous faun Kali became famous with a traveling carnival in the human world and wrote a memoir that will offend the prudish nobility.

Kali has sex with men and women without preference. When he falls in love with the carnival master Richard he accepts it with his entire heart, but he soon finds out that humans aren’t as versatile as his kind. Richard denies feeling the erotic energy between them. Can Kali teach him the faun way of love?

Written in the style of a salacious 18th century memoir, the first third of this book is pure faunication and rest is the love story between Kali and Richard. This is a complete novel, not a series, with a guaranteed HEA.  Yamila Abraham’s longest work to date at 70,000 words!  

Read it on your computers or devices now!  Free on Kindle Unlimited!  

Click your country to grab it now! Kindle USA, Kindle UK, Kindle Canada, Kindle Australia, Kindle Germany, Kindle Spain, Kindle Italy, Kindle France, Kindle Japan, Kindle Mexico, Kindle India, Kindle Netherlands, or Kindle Brazil!

Mega Excerpt ~

1 Cousin

Since I’m writing this book for humans, I won’t say how old I was when I had sex with my cousin.  What fauns consider play was usually pantomiming lovemaking, even when we’re barely beyond middle school.

My cousin George was the same age as I, and we’d both inherited the attractive traits of our lineage. He had white ringlets of hair, vivid blue eyes, and lips so red you’d think he’d colored them with berry juice.

I was said to be as handsome as he, but I wasn’t sure.  Older relatives doted on me, claiming I would one day grow up to be a gorgeous faun lord, but that’s what aunts and uncles did.  I didn’t trust their opinions.

Still, I was suitable enough for George, and, neither of us having any siblings, we adopted each other. We played the way human children often do in the early grades of school.  After that we both suffered confusing lust and had only each other to experiment with.  It’s not as though we were in love, because we were too young to understand such things, but puberty brought upon the burgeoning desires common to all fauns.  

Our game was to pretend to be married, and we’d rub against each other on the soft grass behind our grandfather’s barn.  Over the years our grinding became more purposeful.  He was my first kiss, my first taste of another’s tongue, and I was his.

And it should have been something meaningful, thinking back, but we were like horny deviant siblings more than boyfriends.

One day our wriggling caused his cock to come out of the side of his loincloth.    When he didn’t cover up, I cupped his testicles in my hand and rubbed, making him squirm with his eyes closed and his red lips opened wide.

Right after that game my member popped free from the loincloth too.  My cousin wasn’t forward enough to grope me, so we just continued mashing our pelvises against each other until I had my first squirting orgasm in front of him.  

It was a peculiar thing because we were very young. Still, George had seen a cock spit that way before when the adults were playing their own games.  Fauns usually seek privacy for sex, but need often outweighs modesty.  What Faun child hadn’t witnessed two of our people furiously humping in a dark corner of the market?  Every teen saw carnal acts enough times to know how to imitate them, which was what George and I were doing.

After our members could no longer be restrained by our clothes, it wasn’t long before the game got serious.  We became fully naked one day, kissing, groping, and writhing our hot bodies together. My cock pressed against his anus, and, while still not really knowing what I was doing, I pushed the tip of it in.

George winced in pain and we both decided we needed lubricant.  I don’t remember if I stole it from my step-father or if he got it from his home.  The next time we played I worked my organ inside of him, and though he claimed it hurt, he begged me not to stop.  We had our first real fuck after a decade of play.  His cock erupted with seed as I took him, likely his first orgasm.  I came within his snug passage, thrusting as gently as I could.  

George could have just as easily been a female as I had no preference.  And humans may fear the disastrous ramifications over such play if he were, but faun women are only fertile once a year.  

I realized how fertility cycles affected our culture after I came to live with humans.  Of course fathers lock away daughters who might get pregnant at any time of the year.  For faun women, sex was most often recreation without consequences.  If you went to my village, you’d see that the women are equal to the men in expressing their desires.  

Once we discovered real sex, we did it five times that day.  Sometimes I was inside him, and sometimes he was inside me.  That first time, when we were sated to the point of paralysis, I rolled off him not bothering to cover my shiny wet cock.  He put his head on my shoulder, leaving his small erection and beautiful blushing ass uncovered.  We finally understood.  This was what all the fuss was about.  We’d unraveled that intimate knowledge we’d been fumbling towards all that time.

And again, I warn the human readers; we were quite some years below the age of marriage.  That’s the way of my people, because desire rages in our blood as soon as we’re old enough for our cocks to get stiff.

If fauns are meant to be as chaste as humans are, and I argue that we are not, how would we ever know it?

Consider our decadent schools.  

2 Mr. Renherld

My beloved Richard has read my first chapter and laughed with joy.  He lauds my talent as an amateur author. I hope I shall continue to live up to his standards.  He is most patient, reading of my childhood long before I knew him.  

I hope you will be patient as well, dear reader, for my goal is not only to recount the success of the Grand Motley Carnival, or of the stage careers Richard and I had after the carnival’s demise, but to acclimate you in depth with the world of the fauns.

Have patience, and I promise you shall learn of the great romance that happened between Richard and I starting in chapter 16.

***

I can’t speak for every faun school, I only know of my five room compound in Schaletar.  If what went on in this facility was unusual, I’ve had no sign of it.  

Playing the way my cousin and I did was forbidden at school where we were supposed to focus on our lessons. When I was in the rooms for the early grades, this was hardly an issue.  Trouble started here and there in the middle grades and then became a grand struggle in the final grades.  

Once I reached that room which held the last four grades I saw all the boundaries I’d known get broken. When the teacher’s back turned, a last-year female student flashed her tit to a boy beside her who gingerly reached over to play with her nipple.  A girl near me rubbed her hoof against the ass of the boy in front of her, the boy angling in his seat to let her hard toes reach under.  Two faun girls who had to share a desk would masturbate each other, getting caught when the more buxom of the pair would whimper with orgasm. And I saw that boys could play with one another just as freely, pinching an ass as one walked down the aisle between our desks or exchanging hand jobs before the teacher arrived in the morning. Students hadn’t a care if classmates saw their activities, no, in fact they loved to exhibit, and the last-years  masturbated openly as they watched.

I’d always heard your world changes when you reach the last room of the school.  It had, and marvelously.  I felt like an adult now, privy to all the delights proper grown-ups knew.  I was keen to participate with either a girl or a boy.  The punishments made me hesitate.

Our teacher for the last four years of school was Mr. Renherld, a bachelor aged forty-five. Fauns almost never stay unwed into adulthood because a sexual partner was direly required.  For Renherld, teacher of the last-years, a spouse was unnecessary.  I learned fast enough he took privileges with the students under the guise of punishment and was never vulnerable to any reprisal.

Renherld was tall, lean, with a sharp nose and chin and with spectacles hiding his cruel eyes.  He had the costume of a respectable teacher, the black cap and gown they all wore, but the wicked expressions of his face broadcasted diabolical perversion.  He loved his thick wooden paddle, but it was his spindly fingers with bulging joints that most often came against a nubile student’s flesh.  His black mane of hair made him look sinister, but also reminded one he was a dandy obsessed with his appearance in his youth.  

He’d taught my mother her last years of schooling.  Before she died, she spoke of him tenderly, with her eyes glistening.  I inherited the man fifteen years removed from her experience.  He was still a dandy despite the creases beside his eyes, but one who’s cruelty had amplified with age; whose creativity had grown harrowing.  

I tell you without exaggeration that this sharpened teacher captivated every student he taught.  He had an air of authority which you rarely associated with carnality.  In his class we not only saw unrepentant lust from an adult, but were blessed to be the subject of it.  He was the first grown-up most fauns in our village had had sex with.  It became a rite of passage, common to most all of us, which was why handsome men were always assigned to teach the last-years.

Do I mislead you into thinking him to be a romantic seducer?  A gentle initiator of licentious delights?  Wipe these notions from your mind.  Renherld was a punisher who might have had no intention of granting pleasure. After being subject to his brand of detention you were always sore, and not always sated.

The girl who whimpered her orgasm in the back of the class room had to come to the front.  Without being asked, she bent over the teacher’s desk, hoisted her skirt up, and pulled her panties down delicately furred legs. My eyes drank in her glorious pale ass and the dewy hair in the crevice below it.  I blushed, also, because I didn’t yet realize a teacher would condone such exhibition.

Renherld produced his forbidding wooden paddle and squashed both of the girl’s plump ass cheeks beneath a brutal strike.  Her yelp made me jolt in my seat.  

“One!” the class said in unison.

Renherld spanked again.

“Two!” the class said.

He beat her ass to a glorious pink with five reverberating cracks of the paddle.  I could hear the pitiful girl sobbing where she bent over his desk.  

After the fifth blow, he clattered down the paddle and rubbed her ass flesh with the knobby fingers of his hand.  This made my eyes bulge.  He told her to think better of what she’d done and not to misbehave again, all while fondling her.  And the girl did nothing but quiver with her thighs and reddened ass cheeks beneath his hand.

Then she was allowed to right her clothes and return to her seat.  She stuck her tongue out to one boy in playful defiance to her punishment as she passed.

This was how our school was, dear humans.  Nearly mature teenagers forced to expose themselves to the whole class, their bare asses spanked and then groped!  For me the punishment was just as sexual as whatever crime we were accused of.

I’m speaking of my first year in this notorious room, and me and the rest my grade were still inhibited. This included George, who no longer played with me.  Our games ended soon after we fucked because he was eager to show other older children he was wise to sex.  I didn’t explore as he did because secrets in my home made me timid beyond my family members. The last time I tried to sleep with George he said he was through playing games with a child.  

(This led to a rift between us that lasted until adulthood.  Then one day we spoke to each other like old friends in the market and reminisced fondly about our mutual deflowering.  These days he’s married to a kind wife, has a soldering trade in the workshop of his home, and twin babies.)

George entered the same grade as me and became just as sheepish in the bold new surroundings. We observed, we enjoyed what we saw, but we were the newest class and not brave enough to take part.  We hadn’t any fear of Renherld as yet because it was said he never initiated the first-years.

I would quickly learn this was no longer true.

3 The Bully

I finished an exam early and was allowed to go outside to the water pump for a drink.  A senior boy followed me and pulled my tail.  I looked at him, not defensive, because the tug of a tail wasn’t seen as aggressive.

“So you’re Madio’s son, is that right?  Kali?” said the older student, who was taller than me and already filled with the muscles of a man.  I tried to hide the desire in my eyes as I met his gaze.

“Yep,” I said, despite actually being sired by someone else.  Madio was the stepfather who reared me after my mother’s death.  I wiped my mouth with forced nonchalance.

“I bet you’ve had a man inside you.”  He had a sideways smile when he said it.

I smiled with embarrassment in return.  “Sure I have.”

“Know why I know?”

I shook my head.  

He leaned close to my face, making me feel threatened.  “Because your mom’s dead, and your dad never got a new one, never goes out to the town. He stays up in that big house of yours doing nothing.”

I became confused.

“Pretty thing that you are, Kali, I bet you’re who he’s fucking to get by.”

I scoffed with my heart racing.  

He grabbed me by my arm. “Oh, come on.  Admit it.”

“You don’t know shit!”

He turned away with an angry grin.  At this point he might have punched me.  I was hoping he really meant it when he called me pretty.  Our kind often channeled our anger into sex.

He licked his lip, giving me a sign things wouldn't veer toward violence.  “I don’t care if you admit it or not.  If your ass is broken in, then you’ll handle my dick easy.  None of the other boys’ll take it cause they say it's too big.”

I almost went dizzy with how much blood rushed to my cock.  Even if he was an asshole, he was a gorgeous asshole.  I was already craving the strength of his large arms around my body.  And I couldn’t help myself.  I reached out and cupped his groin.

The boy opened his legs and let me get a feel.  Yes, he was huge.  Long and thick, with a hot cap that pulsed through the fabric of his loincloth.  I nudged the tip out of the side of his garment and wet my finger on his slit.

When I looked up at him my eyes had to be shining.  “I can take it.”

The confirmation made him grab me and give me a kiss.  His body was hard and hot enough to warm me through our clothes.  He got his tongue between my lips and worked my mouth with smoldering skill.  I felt a tingling rush over my skin, my legs growing weak, my head getting dizzy. This was the first time I felt the surge of energy someone passionate could cause me.  It was hollow of any tender emotion, but still thrilling.  

But another teacher caught us and reported us to Renherld.  It was time for school to let out.  He yelled in front of the class that we would both have our bare asses spanked on Monday.  

“And you, first-year,” Renherld said with a suspicious grin, “you’ll get the worst of it!”

The older boy didn’t care. Me?  I was horrified and aroused.  My nipples perked under the sheer white tunic I wore making chafing peaks as I walked.

Besides having us fret all weekend, Mr. Renherld gave us write-up slips to take home before we left. Whenever you were punished at school, you had to inform your parent and get them to sign off on a slip.  This way you’d be punished twice for the same crime.

I didn’t mind this part. My step-father was exactly what the older boy described:  he never remarried after my mother’s death, never went to town, and had no occupation. He stayed in the large home which belonged to my grandparents living meagerly off an inheritance.  

I knew it would please him to have an excuse to punish me.  

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[void-king-of-swingttv]

Here’s an old thing I wrote a while back as a plot bunny that kinda died.

Why we did it

It was a normal day at Shithole High as my friends and I sat as our table at lunch, today’s meal of… some kind of meat or something (mine was currently having a staredown with the person sitting behind me) flying over our heads like a slimy Fourth of July fireworks show. In a normal school, a teacher would be all over this stuff, stopping it and doling out detentions by the handful. But this was my school. Teachers couldn’t care less about just about anything short of a stabbing. Not that it happened before, and I dare you to find a legal document that says otherwise. The current supervisor was sitting by an open window, lit cigarette between his fingers, puffing like a broken car.

So it was just the same old routine at Shithole High.

Okay that wasn’t it’s actual name, but it may as well have been, and because I’m just telling you how we took over the world, I can call anyone anything I want.

So where was I?... Oh yes, that fateful conversation.

”He said what?” My friend to the right said, and shall henceforth be called Timothy. He was the joker of the group, and is the most perverted man to walk the earth. Yes, I said is. This question was directed at quite possibly the most energetic person in this, or any galaxy, who shall be called Grove. “It’s true, he said he was running for president is 2020. It’s ridiculous.” If you have any knowledge of that year, or the preceding years, you probably know what she’s talking about. If not, she’s talking about a rap star becoming the Commander in Chief. Yeah.

“Pointless, and unneeded.” the third in my septuplet of friends plugged in. She was soft spoken, angry all the time, and one of the exchange students the school received from Japan. Her name was Yukki, but due to the hairstyle she always had, we called her Cousin It. She didn’t mind. “Makes good news.”

“That’s not the point!” Timothy said, making excited hand gestures while speaking. “The point is that the government is getting lenient to the point of lazy. Literally anyone can run for president these days, and they just let them.” “The problem is nobody cares anymore.” Said my brother. Okay, we’re not actually brothers, but we may as well be from how long we’ve been friends. “People are just happy that they can make money, and put food on the table. They don’t care who runs things they have no say in.” he said in his unplaceable tone of voice. Really, even to this day, I can’t tell how he feels from his voice until he reaches a breaking point, and really turns it up to eleven. A nice guy generally, and loves complimenting women on just about anything. He just can’t tell when a girl likes him when she’s practically falling over for him. His name is now and forever, Ray.

“That’s everyone on earth, Ray.” Our friend, with the nickname Dren, which I am aware just spells nerd in reverse, but she asked me to call her that in the book, so shut up and deal with it. She was a happy little geek, with a love for anime and Yaoi. And if you Google that shit, I will find you and break your keyboard across your hands.

I told you not to Google it! No, you will not forget it!

So, continuing from that little snag in narrative, the conversation, they looked to the last two of the group: myself, and my girlfriend. Yes, she is your current Empress. No, she was not always taller than me. She used to be about a foot shorter than me. Calm, brilliant, beautiful, and a mouth like a drunken sailor, I was lucky to have her back then, and I’m lucky to have her now. Oh, my Misery...

...Sorry, I drifted off for a second. She just looked at them and gave her usual response of a shrug and a look that said “It’s-physically-impossible-for-me-to-care-any- less-than-I-do-now” and looked at me for my opinion. I just grinned, and then the fate of the world was decided.

“I think we could run things better than just about anyone. Now or ever.”

...What? Were you expecting some great tragedy that led to us ruling the world? No, we did it on our own time because we wanted to. It’s not my fault that I was right when I said that.

So, after a quick giggle, and a few bites of my friend’s packed lunch (The one on my tray was now trying to grab me by the nose), we all just froze. We came to the same realization at the same time. And the real fun began. Dren started us off. “So, theoretically, how would you take over the world?” Timothy answered first. “I would just wipe out everything, and rebuild society on top of it.” It was a simple plan. Short, sweet, and to the point. Not extremely good in the long run, but effective. Grove was next with her basic strategy. “Hostile takeover. Leave everything, just capture it all.” Not as simple, but equally effective. And as a plus, society doesn’t have to start over afterwards. Yukki’s only word on the subject was an infuriating, “Magic.”

I can’t stand when the only response people will give about something that falls into the category of ‘unknown’, is a simple ‘magic’. No, that’s not how it works. We live in a world where cause has effect, A is equal to A, and things don’t happen because so. Every question has an answer, and we will find them. Why else do you think we turned the moon into a giant research facility?

Back on subject, Ray was next with his conquering plan. “A quiet, diplomatic style. It’ll take longer, but I’ll win the people, and the world.” Complex, challenging, high risk, but even higher reward. Just like him: win by not pissing anyone off. He would always do his best not to make anyone mad. Now, he loves doing it. Now it was my turn to plan.

“Quietly fund terrorist groups to cause as much trouble as possible. Then repeatedly quash them, winning the adoration of the people. Then, once there is enough chaos in the world, and the people are willing to accept their security in exchange for their freedom, I will accept the power, and forever end chaos and strife in the world.” And as you can tell, it worked.

I can tell that some of you are understandably upset at this. But if I can offer a counterargument: It was 6000 years ago. Well 6398 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 22 hours, and 53 seconds ago. Your sort of late to the “Get pissed at the current Galactic Emperor” party. Besides, we haven't had a war of any kind in almost 5,000 years.  

After I said my plan, they all gave me a look that said ‘You’ve-been-planning-this-for-a-while-haven't-you?’ and to that I say ‘Maybe’. So with that, Misery put her two cents into the machine and turned the dial. “Whatever works, really.” The tried and true ‘Do-whatever-needs-to-be-done’ tactic. Proven to work by dictators throughout history. If you plan on saying otherwise, look at the various dictators of the Silver Ages, and tell me that at least one of them planned to be put in the big boy chair at some point.

That was when things got serious. I put on my business face and addressed the group. “Okay, let’s get down to it. We can take the world anytime we want, can’t we?” They nodded. “Then let’s do it. Let’s take over the world.” I got some incredulous looks for a minute, before they all broke out in grins that would make ol’ Mr Grinch’s hair curl, and raised their glasses high. Well, lifted their milk cartons above their heads. “A world without war!”

“Without hate!”

“Without suffering!”

“Without danger!”

“Without sickness!”

“Without sadness!”

I simply raised my fist.

“Without pain.”