#I LEGITIMATELY BELIEVE THAT THE MANGA WOULD BE JUST AS GOOD WITHOUT SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND POORLY DEPICTED SA EVER PUT TO MANGA PANELIN

[bisexualmikisayaka]

i do have to say though as much as i love guts and casca like. i’m not going to pretend their relationship is a perfect one and i’m also Very aware of what guts does to casca post-eclipse. i guess you could be like “he was under the influence of the beast! it wasn’t him!” but that comes too close to the “it wasn’t griffith it was femto!” line of thinking for me. stepping outside of the line of canon, i think it was an incredibly shitty writing choice that compromises their genuine care for one another. there are ways to make their relationship difficult without resorting to “the semi-metaphorical evil monster in me encouraged me to assault my girlfriend and i gave in” - two deeply traumatized people trying to be with one another after the worst experience of their lives is already pretty good plot fuel! and i legitimately hope that it’s brought up at some point when casca is recovered enough to talk about her experiences. it won’t be, but like... idk. i largely ignore discussing it because i don’t see it as an in-character decision for guts, but I’m Aware, Even If The Narrative Really Isn’t. 

[themattress]

Re:Celestia Ludenberg, GOD DAMN IT!

So this happened again over 5 years later, this time on a short video centered around Celeste's character. And while I am glad that we're at a point where damn near every commentator is able to say "No, that's wrong!" since Character Perception Evolution toward her has become widely spread toward what I said also 5 years ago, I also wanted to spare some thought as to why the misunderstandings even occur among people. Whose fault is it?

The answer: half Kazutaka Kodaka's fault and half the people themselves' fault.

I think Kodaka writes Celeste in the original Trigger Happy Havoc game wonderfully. But you know what he didn't write wonderfully? Chapter 3. It started "Chapter 3 syndrome" and why I'd argue it's the best of the lot, that still doesn't make it good. And this sadly extends to how he ended up depicting Celeste's role in it. Beyond leaning way too hard into her not being as competent as she would like to be to the point where the case itself is too easy to solve and thus frustrating to go through for players after the legitimately spooky set-up, there's the matter of the girl behind the facade. We have seen glimpses of Taeko Yasuhiro in the prior chapters and Celeste's FTEs, but now when it really needs to shine through to clarify how twisted yet tragic a character she is, it mainly just comes through in her raging breakdown. Thus while we do also get her humbled acceptance of defeat and her whole parting words that hint at deeper reasons than greed for her turn to villainy and buried affection for her classmates despite trying to get them killed, it's overshadowed for many by how pronounced the crazy side of her was, and so the impression that makes + her lies as she tries to remain in-character as Celeste to the end = the "she's just a fucking psychopath" misinterpretation. Tellingly, the manga, anime and stage show versions all pronounce the true sad reality of Taeko more, and all without losing the fun of her crazy side, so I definitely prefer those here.

But as for how it’s the people themselves' fault? Beyond many of them just being dumb?

Umineko's motto fits perfectly here. Celestia Ludenberg is egocentric, condescending, and all-around off-putting, and that's before she becomes a villain who tells some truly heinous lies and works some insidious manipulations in a plan that leaves two dead and with more intended just to achieve a ridiculous, shallow dream. Her design, voice and manner of speaking are all pleasant, but otherwise, let's be honest - she's a difficult person to love.

However, almost every other character in the game is the same. Chihiro and initially Sayaka aside, all the students have truly glaring personality flaws that can easily turn people off of them...heck, three of them (Byakuya, Toko, and "Junko" once the truth about her is revealed) are even worse than Celeste. But the game still invites you to love them; to learn to love them through FTEs and interactions during trials, to say nothing of School Mode (which btw wasn't in the original Japanese PSP release of the game and is thus an absolute God-send.)

You really do have to love Celeste, or at least want to, in order to be motivated to put in the work of uncovering the truth about her. Makoto gets halfway there, but the rest is on you. Kodaka has been open about that: as the Queen of Liars there is almost always different thoughts and feelings that contradict her words and actions, and you have to actively engage with her as a character in order to sort those out, with the end result being a regular, introverted, socially awkward and somewhat childish teenage girl with no self-esteem who desperately wants to live as what she believes to be a more interesting, important and memorable (even if bitchy) character, and whose fears and insecurities surrounding the environment she was trapped in did more to push her into villainy than the allure of money.

Without love for Celeste, flaws and all, Taeko cannot be seen.

[that-one-dark-smiley]

I'm starting to like, legitimately question my gender again. I thought I was over this, but I read this manga series called "The gender of mona lisa". Let me explain.

It's about a world in which everyone is born without a sex - and without a gender. At the age of 12, they start developing physical traits that correlate with their gender. Some actively choose to become male or female, some don't really know and someday the development just starts.

The protagonist is still genderless at 17/18 years old and the series follows their journey to discovering themselves and finding out what living as male or female is about. The manga does such a good job of showing that nothing is strictly masculine or feminine, that no matter what you look like, you are still the same person. You don't just change because your body changes.

The manga has multiple alternative endings, showing what paths the protagonist may choose while living as male or female. I don't want to spoil too much, but there's a reason they have to choose. I truly believe that no matter what they chose, they are still genderless - just in a different body.

And let me tell you: this manga fucked me up hardcore.

I relate to the protagonist almost 100%. The struggles they have with "choosing a side", their experiments with gender expression to find out who they are, the way they feel pressured to conform while just wanting to be themselves. I found myself thinking "wow, I wish I would be like, completely androgynous when it comes to my body", and feeling so connected to this experience that when I was done, I felt so much that I basically felt nothing.

This messed me up so hard. I was already suspecting that maybe I'm not as male as I thought I was. For a while, actually. Because my connection to gender is mostly, if not fully, through external things instead if what I feel on the inside. I basically feel like nothing when it comes to my gender. But I express myself typically masculine and I associate androgyny a lot with masc bodies.

So to conclude, I feel fucked up because I'm thinking "wow, I sure wish I was completely genderless" and not sure how to deal with that right now. I have never once felt so seen than I did when reading this manga, but it also punched me in the face. Sort of.

[elkian]

Something I noted while reading the manga that's still really interesting to me is how there's no Objectively Completely Good (or Evil) character in Dungeon Meshi. I think it interacts with Kui's really believable character dynamics, too.

Under the cut for major spoilers:

From Laios' party, we have no purely Good person. Laios is often the punchline/stooge/what have you, but he has his positive traits. The party trusts and follows him despite his foibles. Chilchuck is so resistant/bad at emotional communication that he tries to sabotage his own team (to protect them) and ended up divorced without knowing how, and almost dies because he was too embarrassed to admit this. Marcille is a mix of proud and brilliant that causes as many problems as it solves, including the whole Committing An International Felony thing and that's the START of it in some ways. Senshi's willingness to stick to his guns makes him inflexible towards his teammates in ways that can cause issues, like the Mandrake situation or driving Chilchuck to berserk rage in the trap room.

(Sidenote, I've realized Kabru and Laios are foils not just over the monster thing - an unquenchable passion that drives each in their own way - but because of their team leadership styles. Kabru is very personable, but as mentioned in my prev post linked above, Laios is knowledgeable about team synergy and skills. Also considering his interaction in Marcille's nightmare, Laios tries to take his team's emotions seriously, he just isn't always the best at it because he's assuming from himself as a baseline, and that's just not accurate to most non-Falin and non-Senshi interactions. (And even some of those.)

My point is that while charisma is the basis of Kabru's MO, Laios isn't incapable of caring about his team and understanding them, it's not not as obvious because he goes about it in a different way.)

It's been noted before, but both Thistle and the Winged Lion aren't totally evil. Not only are they sympathetic, but they have virtues in their own ways.

Thistle's greatest crime was loving his family too much, and it is a tragedy of literally epic proportions, kicking off the entire series. His methodology is suspect and involving the WL was doomed from the outset, but his intentions were legitimately good. The kingdom's citizens even begin sort of forgiving him or at least trying to accept him at the end of the series, which is really touching. There's a lot of debate over the concept of redemption arcs, and to be frank, I don't think it's possible to redeem Thistle's actions at this point, but that doesn't mean he's narratively required to die in isolation. If anything, that would contradict the communal elements repeated in the narrative. It's the citizens' choice to forgive him, not a requirement. It's not exactly a surprise as the series was closing on a happy ending for all involved (aside from WL ig) at that point, but it's still nice, and it wasn't a lock.

The Winged Lion may never have had the capacity to be Objectively Good, as an eldritch being with no basis in humanity or the physical world initially, but the manga takes the time to show the WL bemoaning the loss of followers, the loss of potential "flavors". Although the WL has immense power, that power is -not unlike the Genie in Disney's Aladdin now that I think of it lol- bent to the whims of creatures that WL simply doesn't and will never have the capacity to truly understand. WL also doesn't seem able to interact with the physical world on most levels until the ending, requiring a snowballing of power and the reaving of reality itself before the Winged Lion can really affect the "world", and arguably it can't be the purely physical world at that point in order to be interacted with. The Winged Lion is antagonist and overlord, yes, but also a victim in a sense. Like Thistle, redemption is impossible. Unlike Thistle, forgiveness and cohabitation is also impossible. It's not the WL's fault. I kind of think of the WL as like a bear or other wildlife that has developed such a taste for human food, garbage, etc. that they will keep breaking into houses and dumpsters no matter what. There's no infrastructure available to rehabilitate the WL, to return the Winged Lion to the eldritch plane it once inhabited. Only the WL could choose to do so, I think, and notably doesn't. Still, I can pity the Winged Lion like one does the bear that gets shot for breaking into dumpsters and biting humans in the process.

Anyways, many more examples abound, but it's a fascinating element to an already complex and fascinating story.

[kazarinn]

I'm finishing up the retranslation for Saint Tail's anime right now, so I'm at the stage where I'm thinking about my next few projects, and I've currently at least decided that I want to do something for Megumi Tachikawa's other works as well. Tachikawa is an incredibly amazing writer, and it's such a shame that her work has been so poorly represented in translation; even beyond the fact that a good chunk of her work hasn't even been translated at all, the ones that were translated seem to have been run through the translation equivalent of a meat grinder.

I prioritized Saint Tail both because it's her most famous work and because it's the one that took the most damage (it's definitely pretty disturbing to find out that around half of the plot was translated to suggest the opposite of what it was actually supposed to mean!), but I do want to call attention to Cyber Idol ☆ Mink (localized by Tokyopop as Mink), generally considered to be Saint Tail's spiritual sequel. Unlike with Saint Tail, the Tokyopop release of Mink didn't flip it horizontally, and it doesn't have incomprehensible nonsense lines like "Great Big Deal!!" that Saint Tail's release did, but...well, I think some examples would demonstrate it better.

Here's Tokyopop's version of a spread from chapter 6:

And here's the proof of concept I sent to my group when pitching this series (done very quickly, so definitely not my best work, but probably enough to get the point across), which was translated directly from the Japanese text:

...Huh? That's not even remotely similar! The original scene is meant to draw a clear parallel between Mink's view of the chocolate and her view of herself, and the progression of the scene plays on the ambiguity of whether "あたしじゃなくて" means "this isn't from me" or "this isn't me". The reason Mink is considered to be Saint Tail's spiritual sequel is that it explores similar concepts of self-identity and the feeling of inadequacy compared to an idealized, sanitized self, something Mink is even less subtle about than Saint Tail was at times, but the nuance here seems to have been lost in translation. (In fact, I'm not entirely sure what must have led to the Tokyopop version's interpretation; the Japanese text doesn't resemble what's there at all.)

Which also means that when you get to later parts of the series like this...

(Tokyopop version)

(Our proof of concept retranslation)

In this case, the Tokyopop version roughly corresponds to the Japanese text but interprets it in ways that really don't get the point of this scene very well, ranging from not catching the specific use of "small and tiny" (ちっぽけな) invoking the earlier scene with the chocolate to making too many specific assumptions about Mink and Kyo's feelings that are actually out of character. (Let alone the fact that the way they phrase Mink's lines here really just doesn't convey the sheer level of desperation and emotion at all...)

For instance, it's a very important part of Mink's character that she doesn't have self-awareness about wanting to feel needed; she says 必要としてくれるなら because she legitimately feels like she's useless or has nothing to offer without the help of the WANNA-BE program. This kind of thing is a common trait of Tachikawa protagonists, and while I know many people might think it's not that big of a deal, I think the difference between "wanting attention and thinking your alter ego is cooler" and "having insecurity from believing you'll never be good enough unless you blot out all the undesirable parts of yourself" is big enough to mean something to a lot of people who would be reading this!

In any case, once I'm done with Saint Tail, I do have some other projects I want to prioritize first, since Mink's official translation is at least somewhat readable (kind of a low bar, but...). But I did want to call attention to this for now in case anyone was interested, because while Saint Tail and Mink are far from the only shoujo or magical girl manga from this era to have such poor treatment in localization, I don't think this issue has been well-documented when it comes to Tachikawa's work, and it really does break my heart.

[festivalofthe12]

mannnnnnnn IDK if it's just because I never fully finished the manga myself (sorry everyone;;) but I just. don't. really understand how Akito being just another one of Tohru's friends is supposed to. work. in practice. with Yuki.

Not because Akito is an ~irredeemable person who never earned her redemption~ or whatever. People being good is good!!! If Akito is legitimately a better person now, that's awesome!!! And frankly I love stories where legitimate kindness breaks through to save people who are shitty but also deeply deeply sad!!!!!

But to most of the cast, Akito was a pretty distant enemy. Yes, she'd show up in person now and then to be chilling and mysterious, but her primary source of contention was Being God. The way she ran the family and the rules she set up around it. Other characters might have spent a lot of time seething at her, but mainly to blame her for indirectly causing things to happen in their lives. Apart from a very small number, most have never actually had much experience just... talking to her.

Which is not true for Yuki.

Yuki has spent more time with her than almost anybody. By the end of the manga, she's still probably the person he's spent the most time in contact with, total, over his life. He literally could not get away from being in the same physical space as her.

His reactions to Akito aren't based on him blaming her for what she did to the Sohma family. His reactions to Akito are based on a very simple 'if I can see her, things about about to get very bad very quickly for me personally.'

At that point, it's not even really about whether he blames or forgives her, or what he thinks she 'deserves'. It is an immediate anxiety (let's be real: PTSD) trigger. It's neither conscious nor logical. He spent endless amounts of time waiting with horror for her to show up, unable to know or control when that would happen, and then having that horror fully justified. He was trained on it, endlessly.

I fully believe that Yuki would want to trust Tohru and respect her friendship with Akito and believe that everything has changed and it's all good now. But I just can't see him being him able to actually... act on that. In practice.

He never even really properly got to process it. Ayame did the classic oblivious parent thing of trying to override Yuki's negative emotions with happy ones before he was actually ready to move on. (Not critiquing Ayame; he's just a flawed human being in his own right!) Tohru comforted him and told him he didn't deserve it, and now she's friends with his abuser asking him to say everything's fine. If Kakeru ever fully found out what happened, it was off-screen, and not all that much time before this all went down.

I just. Really think that what Yuki needs is at least some time to just be better and angry, or at the very least openly mourn his lost childhood. And he needs to be able to do that without those constant triggers of anxiety from interacting with Akito. All things being equal, I think it would be for the best if he could just tell Tohru straight-up that he's fine with their friendship and he's not going to intervene but he just does not want to be in the same room with Akito ever again.

And... if I were to stretch this a bit further, and potentially really betray my unfamiliarity with endgame canon........... it is kind of hard for me to imagine Akito being okay with that.

Yes, Akito has changed. But surely she still needs time to grow and learn and figure out her new place in this world? And Yuki deliberately avoiding her would... be a difficult thing to accept. Firstly because she's still getting used to giving up that selfishness (especially towards Yuki), but also because it's a reminder of some of the awful shit she did. Which, if she's a changed person, should make her feel bad. Which again, she isn't qualified to process!!

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Akito twisted it around in her head to where Yuki really was her friend. Like they were in this together and Akito didn't always handle it well but at the end of the day, they're the only two who can really understand each other. Because Akito really didn't have that, either. (Kureno being... idk man he always seemed more like a guardian, or at least older brother figure than someone who was 'in the trenches' so to speak with her.)

Either way, it'd all place Tohru in such a deeply complicated position. Akito is hurting badly and needs Tohru to be on her side if no-one else is, because to be fair, that's not all wrong? (Kureno has always been there, but Tohru is her saviour.) But she can't really do that if she's enforcing Yuki's boundaries for him. I feel like Akito would really want Tohru to tell her that she's forgiven and that everything's good now, and if she hesitated even a little, it wouldn't go well. Because Akito only knows how to understand two things: obedience and manipulation. So having others set healthy boundaries - and dealing with the resulting feelings of rejection and shame and guilt - is something she still has to learn how to do.

It just sounds. A bit like a clusterfuck tbh. A clusterfuck that could, eventually, turn out okay!!!!!! But one that would take a LONG time and continued process of reflection and self-awareness (and, ideally, HEAVY THERAPY, but of course we all know nobody in the Fruits Basket universe ever gets that, so). Obviously like that's the happy ending and we don't need to extend it out for four more volumes of like 'Yuki and Akito undergo cbt separately via Tohru's infinite patience' lmfao but. Idk. It just seems to imply a lot in that happy ending that has not really set up by the story to be all that easy.

Unless I'm completely wrong and the last volume or two does in fact set this up perfectly. In which case never mind!!!!!!!!!!

[skeleton-with-a-bow]

Rant on Happy Sugar life

(This includes spoilers for the first 4 episodes of the Anime)

Before you keep read, this post is about pedophila, if you haven’t watch HSL and that’s a triggering topic for you then please scroll.

Happy sugar life has a lot of potential, but (and I can’t believe i’m saying this) there are way to many pedophiles, I knew the main character was going to be one, but most of the characters are predators.

After I found out Shio‘s mom was 33 I dropped the series, I understand that pedophilia is a real thing that so many people deal with (I’ve gone through it myself when I was 10) but I highly doubt you just happen to encounter that many kid-lovers without actively looking for them, maybe it’s different in Japan but goddamn!

There are (and I counted), five pedophiles in this anime alone, and two of them are main characters that you see regularly.

This anime could be the best thing ever and I just have to bare through it, but I legitimately feel like I’m going to be put on some type of registry if I keep watching this Pedo Convention.

I have literally read fucking Metamorphosis and felt less odd reading that then I have watching this, it’s not even disgust I’m feeling, it’s just frustration, this story would have been so fucking good in they got rid of Taiyō, the manger, and that stupid ugly looking teacher, there was literally no point of making the teacher a character? Why would they add that? They could have used Shōko or Sumire for his purpose.

I’ll probably give it another shot later down the road, it’s definitely up my alley, maybe the manga is better, who knows.

[soul-dwelling]

Also I wonder if there was a change in ff, not just in a surface story way but theme way, atleast partly, because I guess it could have been just a red hereing to insinuate that the evangelist is some eldritch alien dimmensional hopper with all the stuff with the bugs and other stars that dont really make sense with the "rhe enemy is humanity itself thing", but maybe the plot was about culutral imperialism but got chaged because of too much controverssy, thats why the invasion paralels?

As I’ll say in another post, this feels like it was Ohkubo wanting to satirize religion: “Oh, these religions have their weird creation myths full of paradoxes and stuff that makes no sense? Then my indictment against religion, Fire Force, will make its own creation myth that is so batshit crazy that it out-does the nonsense of religions overall!” 

It feels weirdly immature, just Ohkubo’s goal to dunk on believers. And I say this as an agnostic: I am critical of beliefs and organized religion--but I also can make my own opinions around them by looking at the evidence myself without criticizing the need people have to believe in something, or to not believe because you don’t need beliefs to compel yourself to be a decent person. 

That is what I think when you bring up the “theme way”: none of these creation myth details (the eldritch aliens, the dimensions, the bugs, the other stars) have to correlate with each other--it’s a creation myth, just make shit up. You’re Timon in The Lion King saying the sky is just full of fireflies, it makes sense to you, you get to move on. That is Ohkubo’s approach: this shit won’t make sense anyway, stop being a Yuu and be a Vulcan. 

It also is like X-Files, mixing together different content from various belief systems, conspiracy theories, ancient monsters, and some legitimate science: bugs are aliens, there are other dimensions, stars used to be planets, and so on. 

“The enemy is humanity itself”: I’ll bring this up in Ohkubo’s paradoxically puritanical stance on sex, but there is such misanthropy in this work. 

(I got to find the source again, but Ohkubo had said he was indeed a misanthrope. Maybe it was sarcasm in his end-of-volume notes?)

For all of how Shinra inspires people at the end, this is a pretty cynical story that thinks humans are awful. (If our world leads to the Fire Force world, the implication that stuff like the nuclear bombing of Japan and stuff like 9/11 led to this world seems gross--it’s taking real-life horrors to fuel his fiction, not in a way to comment about what led to those horrors but just shock value and edginess without meaning.) 

Even the “cultural imperialism” angle seems muddled. 

We have Benimaru and others resisting what is portrayed as a Euro-centric Christo-centric indoctrination of Japan. 

We end the manga with the pre-Soul Eater world. Now Akitaru and others are using Japanese naming conventions (family name first, personal name last), and by the time we get to Soul Eater the rest of the world seems to be in Lord Death’s image--and all speaking Japanese. 

There is something odd here, as if the story is placing Japan as having become the superpower of the world. It’s no longer America and the English language as the dominant force--thanks to the world being reborn starting in Japan thanks to Shinra, Japan is on top. 

This should be a re-staging of the opening to this manga: we started with this multicultural Japan but one in which a western religion and western conventions had pushed out Japanese cultural practices. We can show an actual multiculturalism that is not erasure but presence of all…and instead it weirdly feels like it is Japanese domination over everything else? 

That should be a meaningful satire to criticize westerners thinking they control everything--but it comes off to me anyway as just “the shoe is on the other foot now”: there isn’t observation for how Japan as the global leader would be good and bad, it is presented as just what it is, no reflection on the ramifications of this. It isn’t a taking down of the US or western nations or Christianity for awful things they have done; it’s just something that happens to explain why all the people in Death City speak Japanese--a question almost no one cared to ask because it’s a manga made in Japan, of course the characters in your story all speak Japanese, who cares.

[creatureshrieks]

Okay so here's some basics about how I'm gonna handle Adriana because her lore is so, so ass.

Her father is from Japan and immigrated to Brazil where he met her mother, keeping that. He's a mangaka, as per the lore states. Adriana was spoiled by her father and grew up idolizing him. They were incredibly close, though the family's poor status and lack of money + the hopes of her parents turned her into a very intense perfectionist. They wanted a better life for her and, in turn, she wanted a better life for them. So she tries hard for them, too. Gets into a prestigious school and heavily focuses on science, math, computers and robotics. She even joins a programming and robotics club. Adriana is decently popular in school, she's pretty and smart. She's charismatic and good at getting people to listen to her. Then, of course, due to the expenses for the school, her family gets poorer, his manga fails. Adriana puts her skills to use and designs a website, gets ads coming in. Convinces people to write the website for her while she takes in the cash. It helps, a little, but her father is still reclusive. Something is wrong with him, off. But Adriana just thinks it's the money troubles. Not that he's been getting terrible visions, whispers. Not that he's drawing what she asks for.

and then he vanishes without a trace, destroying all of his work, save for the manga dedicated to the Skull Merchant. And that shakes Adriana up. She adored her father and all she has left of him is a final, incomplete manuscript. There must be a reason this one was saved, that THIS is what he left her with. So she pours herself over it, trying to find what about it was so important and special. And then she gets dreams, too. About the comic. About her father. She thinks this is the secret her father had (The Entity visits her too, feed into her issues of abandonment and her own delusions). She still ends up falling behind that boy in her school, stalking him and trying to find out weaknesses, but I'm not... having her just do nothing in the end. She does attack him at some point. She doesn't kill him, but she wants to hurt him. He didn't deserve that first spot and she needs him to know that. She's better than him and she deserved it. I do believe the Entity had a hand in her becoming the legitimate Skull Merchant, preying on her abandonment while also boosting the blood lust she already had in her. I'm also saying that Tome: Ascension doesn't exist because that's ungodly fucking stupid. She's a self-made billionaire woman that literally hunts people because she thinks it's fun. The Tome reads stupid, sounds stupid, and is just overall not enjoyable. I know the vibes they wanted from SM and it just does not read through at ALL. Adriana also likes anime and video games. That's basically canon and I'm keeping it. She does it in her spare time - but she also is very much a business woman too. Very rich, very powerful, and definitely would dip into lots of black market deals outside of just plain murder. She likes to hunt people, she likes the power it gives her. She's egotistical, violent, spiteful. She's a massive perfectionist, but she also reads manga and watches anime and k-dramas and all kinds of things. Putting her age and PROBABLY 25 because it mentions in her lore Adriana started killing in her early 20s and it only lasted a few years. She's not that old. At the oldest I could picture 27.

also this is her default/canon outfit for me because her default is fucking stupid and if she's basing herself off her father's manga, I think he'd probably design something more akin to this. So this is what she wears.

Adriana is also incredibly smart and speaks multiple languages. At home she spoke Japanese and Portuguese, but she also eventually learned English and Korean as she prefers to understand/handle business herself without need for a translator if she can help it.

[palant1r]

This is a really interesting addition, and I think you're putting out some very good analysis here! I think we're talking about slightly different things, but your thing is definitely a thing I wanna talk about.

When I talk about the difference between how Soichiro and Matsuda treat guns, I'm not really referring to the circumstances under which they think violence is legitimate or how they adhere to the law. What I'm talking about is far more basic: gun safety. We can debate all day about whether or not Matsuda's actions in the warehouse were over the top or just. The fact is, he knew what he was doing. He aimed a gun at Light and pulled the trigger with intent to kill. He knew and accepted the likely result of his actions. Meanwhile, when Soichiro aimed his gun at Light and pulled the trigger, he did so fully intending that Light would survive. Within the logic of Death Note itself, he was right to believe this — it wouldn't necessarily be accurate to hold it against Soichiro's character, or judge him based on whether or not that would be safe in the real world. But I think that judging him by real-world standards, namely that it is extremely unsafe to point a gun loaded with blanks at someone and ESPECIALLY pull the trigger, opens up an interesting dichotomy, because it makes Soichiro someone who believes that his ideals will be reflected in the consequences of his actions regardless of what his actions are. I freely admit that this analysis is not operating under the core assumptions of Death Note canon, and I'm being nitpicky. The reason I say I'd trust Matsuda more with gun safety isn't because he's less willing to use a gun than Soichiro — that's obviously untrue. It's because he'll only point a gun at someone he's willing to watch die.

But I think you're opening up a very interesting venue of analysis re: Soichiro, Matsuda and guns — namely, how they relate to lawful authority. I think you're spot-on that Soichiro believes that a firearm is a responsibility endowed to him as an officer of the law, and it really reflects his ideals that he won't use a gun when he's no longer in the NPA. Soichiro believes in a legitimate framework of authority supported by the institution he works for, and he uses that lens to determine what force it is acceptable for him to exercise.

When we look at Matsuda through that lens, we run across something that makes it hard to judge him by the same standard. See, in Death Note canon, the rule of law starts to break down over the timeskip. It's implied that the Japanese police, except for the task force, are basically complicit in Kira's actions. After all, Takada believed Light without question when he said the police wanted to help Kira, and as a reporter basically exclusively reporting on Kira she would certainly know what the general attitudes towards Kira were within the government. Mikami, a government employee, is able to show his face on TV blatantly supporting Kira with no professional repercussions, so it's fair to say that Kira sympathy is at least acceptable if not encouraged in the prosecutors' office. We know that many world leaders are complicit in if not supportive of Kira's actions. I would hazard a guess that the Task Force was keeping their actions secret from the NPA at large — if they weren't, a lot of things stop making much sense.

So where does that leave the task force when it comes to the legitimate exercise of deadly force? Who determines what is lawful and just? That becomes a lot less clear-cut as the manga continues. There is no longer a legitimate framework of institutional authority because of Kira. If the task force were to adhere to the same framework of the rule of law that Soichiro did pre-timeskip, they'd end up as Kira supporters.

Matsuda shooting Light is certainly vigilante justice, because at that point the task force and SPK are basically vigilantes. They are operating to ensure justice in a way that would not be accepted by law enforcement authority of the time. The SPK in particular are textually operating outside the law, and it's their leader that Matsuda ends up saving.

I could argue that Matsuda's actions aren't actually particularly divergent from what a law enforcement officer would do in that situation. I could also argue that the whole concept of determining the legitimacy of the use of violent force by what's acceptable to police is a dangerous fallacy. But I don't think that really matters here, because I don't think Matsuda was really acting as a police officer in that moment. He was acting as a very hurt man faced with a friend who led someone he admired to his death — a serial killer that was actively trying to kill again.

Also, L, oh my God. The way he's holding that gun, it was probably pointed at his thigh. Violating yet ANOTHER basic rule of gun safety. If Matsuda's the character I trust most with a gun, L is the one I trust LEAST, between that and the whole blank plan. I don't know why the hell he thought giving Light a gun would be a good idea, either. I think L's nonchalance about guns is certainly interesting. He clearly sees them as a tool, not for their intended purpose, but because what they represent and threaten can be used in his manipulative little games. A big brain wouldn't save him from a misfire that shoots him in the dick, though

a ramble re: guns and death note

something that's really fascinating to me, and something that i think reflects the creators' lack of knowledge/research rather than intentional characterization, is like. okay, so, Soichiro's whole Thing is that he believes that the power to kill is inherently evil and corrupting. But he also uses a gun at several points in canon. He points a gun at the TV people, he points a gun at his own son, he uses a gun in the raid. And like. That's part of why, even in a death note AU where blanks actually work like they do IRL and light gets his fuckin eye blown out, I think Soichiro would go along with L's plan without considering that it might result in serious injury. Because someone who is willing to point a gun at other people in a combat situation yet simultaneously believes the power to kill is evil and that they could never kill someone is someone with a fundamentally unbalanced view of the world. I don't think this dichotomy is intentional, but I think it reflects Light's own self-delusion in a really interesting way. Soichiro believes very strongly that killing is wrong, and yet he repeatedly puts himself in a position where he could easily end someone's life and is...pretty careless about it, tbh. Like, PSA: if you never want to kill someone, NEVER POINT A GUN AT ANOTHER PERSON.

It's an interesting dichotomy between Soichiro and Matsuda as well, I think. Like, Soichiro seems to be operating under the assumption that his intention with a firearm is going to be reflected in the results. In canon, this is never challenged, but it should go without saying that this is NOT a good way to think about guns. Meanwhile Matsuda knows exactly what he's doing and the risks he's dealing with — he knew damn well shooting Light could kill him, that was his whole goal. So we get this interesting contrast between two people who have pointed guns at Light. Ironically, though Matsuda is far more willing to kill people with a gun than Soichiro is, I would trust Matsuda with gun safety far more.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I really love Chuuya because of how strong he really is.

Chuuya's one of my favourite bsd characters, if not my actual favourite. I knew going into the series that he was popular and that I'd probably like him but I had no idea just how much I would. A large part of that is because his character kind of turns the idea of strength on its head - especially in Stormbringer.

In both of Chuuya's introduction scenes (manga and Fifteen), we meet a character who appears deceptively straightforward at first glance - he's loud, vulgar, eager to fight and use violence to solve problems. And yet, in each scene, we're drawn to something deeper about him - in the manga, it's his mysterious shared history with Dazai (an equally mysterious character at that point), and in Fifteen, it's his quest to find Arahabaki for some unknown reason.

Pretty soon, you're drawn into learning about a character who was experimented on, has an ability so strong and destructive it was believed to be a literal god, has no memories before the age of seven, is so powerful in his corrupted state that no one else stands a chance, and has been in a position of leadership in not just one but two illegal organizations.

And yet, ask anyone about him, both in-universe and out, and some of the first things that get mentioned are his loyalty and selflessness.

He's a hugely contradictory character. He's fascinating.

He will demolish his enemies and will kill people but does so in the interest of protecting family, who he intensely cares for. He's got a hair trigger temper and will vow revenge but also has the capacity to forgive once he comes to understand a person. He's impulsive and prefers to punch his way out of issues but is clever and adaptable on his feet and is easily able to read and keep up with Dazai (I feel like people forget this sometimes). He doesn't trust easily but when he does give his trust it's practically unbreakable.

He's a mafia executive - and a good one - but is also so selfless that it's actually a point brought up by the other characters time and time again. Adam makes a note of it right away. Mori utilizes this by bargaining the Sheep member's lives and sending the Flags to monitor him. Detective Murase thinks he's 'different' somehow and tries to bring him out of the darkness.

He also has twice now (that we've seen) completely sidelined Dazai's expectations which is both hilarious and fascinating.

In Fifteen, Dazai expects that Chuuya is the same as anyone else using violence to solve their problems - trying to find Arahabaki for the power and control it'd give him. Instead, Chuuya is actually just looking for answers on himself; he doubts his humanity and god this is such a legitimately horrifying scene in the novel - he's literally drawn without a face. He makes himself vulnerable in fights because he doesn't feel like a human being and thinks that only when he's on the brink of dying will he actually care enough to use his full strength. That's absolutely horrifying.

In Stormbringer, Dazai and Adam rush to intercept Chuuya before he kills N, which Dazai fully expected him to try, except... he wasn't going to do that at all. There was nothing to intercept. The death of Chuuya's friends was a far worse crime to him than being personally tortured; even though throughout that scene he was telling himself over and over to endure it, endure it, endure it; even though he didn't completely know why he still tried (I think this, more than anything else in the novel, broke me. It's just... that's been his whole life, man. Just endure everything. Endure, endure, endure. He was a kid...).

In fact, just about the only completely self-centered goal Chuuya has had in this series is finding answers on Arahabaki - everything else was motivated by other people. And even then, when given a choice between finding the truth and saving the city in Stormbringer - he chooses to save the city (once again, doing something Dazai wasn't completely sure he'd do).

And throughout all this, he still has the capacity for things like looking out for his subordinates, learning to understand others, or finding humour in others' actions. His friendship with Adam was basically the core of Stormbringer, even though he really did not want to like him at first. He came to understand Verlaine and felt for him even though the man murdered the first real friends he'd ever had. He's visibly concerned and worried whenever Dazai gets hurt. He checks on Akutagawa and notices when he's having a rough day. He joins in on stupid shenanigans with his subordinates in the drama cds (including acting out a random lady dropping her lemons on the ground which are actually bombs to blow up the ADA with).

It's just such a cool way to design a character because you start with the same kind of assumptions that the Sheep had - that he's god-like powerful and is the strength he has as the muscle of the mafia and the soukoku duo. And then the audience and the characters come to know him, and in turn come to value his resilience and emotional strength - that capacity to keep valuing things like humanity and living, in spite of the hell he's had to deal with.

He really is the strongest ability user.

[maddgicalgirl]

Paracosm Resources <3

Need help bringing your paracosm to life? Try these free resources!

⚠️ Updates always pending! Suggestions always welcome! Feel free to message me any tips or questions <3 ⚠️

(Cont. below cut, or with real time updates on this google doc!)

Art Programs

FireAlpaca - 2D Art Program, Animation. Where I make most of my digital art, and paint the frames for my animations :) It is free to use, and easy to learn and use! It can make basic animations as well, such as gifs. It requires download.

Krita - 2D Art Program. Professional, free digital paint software :) I have not used it before, though I have heard good things.

GIMP - 2D Art Program, Photo Manipulation. It's free to use, but I do not like it/recommend it highly. But! If FireAlpaca and Krita don't float your stoat, try Gimp! For 2D art, but also able to emulate Photoshop to a degree ^^

Inkscape - 2D Art Program. Free to use digital illustration software. Makes 2D art :)

Of course, who can forget classics like good old MS Paint, and the new and exciting 3D MS Paint, which can both be used to create some really neat things! Classic MS Paint is available here in browser form! If you need that. I just think it's neat!

Art AI

Petalica Paint - Coloring Software. An in browser, watercolor manga style coloring software, which can (almost) effortlessly color in any of your line art pieces! I've played around with it for my Thorn illustration style piece, and enjoyed it! It is free to use, and can take user input to make the colorations more precise.

ArtBreeder - 3D Realism Software. Using Artbreeder, you can create lifelike images of your paras, planets, or potentially even fursona, using the intricate AI they let you work with for free! A premium version exists, but most functions are fully usable without - though I recommend donating ^^ You can randomly generate, or prune and shape what you make until its perfect! Slow to use and get the hang of, but very worth it! Artbreeder is also pioneering an intriguing animation software to go alongside their product! Browser based.

3D Software

Blender - 3D Modeling, Animation. The best (in my opinion) free 3D modelling software.

MagicaVoxel - 3D Pixel Art. Free to use! Could be interesting :)

MikuMikuDance - 3D Rigging. Anime style rigging and animation software, free to use, and certified internet artefact! Has stood the test of time, and is still used and loved today. Can support ports of many kinds of assets, including, I believe, those from Blender, and of course those that are downloaded. DA has a bunch of old MMD communities you can raid for assets!

Animaze - Face Rigger. Use 3D models and a webcam to watch your paras talk! Models can be made in Blender, downloaded online, or even from CHARAT V, CHARAT GENESIS sister app!

Character Creators

CHARAT GENESIS - 2D Character Creator. Browser based anime style character creator, with multiple crops and poses, and infinitely customizable options. It is legitimately insane. Has a 3D function called CHARAT V which can apparently convert characters made in CHARAT GENESIS into 3D models compatible with Face Rig and Animaze!

V-Katsu - 3D Character Creator. Free on steam! Anime style, intensive character creator, by the same people who made Koikatsu, and Koikatsu Party, two amazingly detailed 3D hentai makers. While V-Katsu is a SFW VTuber maker, if you're looking for NSFW anime content, you could always spend roughly $70 on the full NSFW versions. V-Katsu requires a translation mod (free online as well) which you have to install, or the ability to read Kanji <3 Works with VR tech.

V-Roid Studios - 3D Character Creator. Free on steam! Anime style, fairly in depth character creator, that allows for some degree of digital 3D hand sculpting, particularly with their amazing hair engine, to get your paras looks perfect!

And, of course, Picrew has thousands of character creators of various styles and quality uploaded by the artists who made them! Also, honestly I think we as a society should embrace making dinky chibis in Gacha Life. IDK why everyone is mean to the gacha kids, like we weren't all cringe at some point,

World Design

HomeStyler - 3D and 2D Room Designer. Make a model of an interior for a home or building, using real 1:1 furniture of IRL brands! Apparently this is free to use, though there is a premium version, and  it offers 3D and 2D models.

Map to World - 3D Planet Maker. Turn your fantasy world into a 3D model of the planet. Put maps directly on, or design the surface and textures of your world. Takes a lot of getting used to, but it is AMAZING. Free to use, and browser based!

PlanetMaker - 3D Planet Maker. Make a customized 3D planet! Free to use browser site! I have never used this, but I would love to mess around with it sometime! Allows you to add orbital rings, change textures, and more at the click of a mouse.

If on sale, I also recommend snagging a copy of the Sims, particularly 3 or 4, for character creation and world design. Maybe not the best gameplay without mods, but it's also a load of fun, and very easy to add custom content to! Minecraft also. But you just need Minecraft, in general. Beyond its ability to fairly faithfully recreate structures from your paracosms, it's just Good.

Game Creators

Maybe you wanna turn your paracosm into a cool game idk, just thought I'd put these here!

Construct 3 - 2D Game Creator. Beginner level game making :) Drag-and-drop if/then style programming.

GameSalad - Codeless 2D Game Creator. Drag and drop style/no coding, beginner friendly. Free version available!

Solpeo - 2D Game Creator. HTML5 based game engine for 2D and isometric game development. Some programming knowledge needed. Platforms supported: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9+. Free version available.

Stencyl - Codeless 2D Game Creator. Drag and drop style building/no coding skills needed. Has editable templates!

Scratch - 2D Game Creator. Very easy to use and totally free, though relatively basic!

Unity - 3D, 2D, and VR Game Creator. Make games with 3D software. Import your own assets (Blender compatible) or download free options, or buy the rights to models. Works for 3D and 2D games. Free version available, and now works with VR tech!

Unreal Engine - 3D Game Creator. Extremely advanced 3D game developer. Highly customizable. Free to use!

Twine - Text-based Game Creator. Use a map to make a branching paths text-based story game. Free to use.

Squiffy - Text-based Game Creator. have used Squiffy and it can make some really, truly incredible things. Can take a while to pick up, and learn how to use to its full potential. Free to use! Has an online and offline library of player creations you can get inspiration from!

Quest - Text-based Game Creator. I've never used this, but it seems cool! Use it to make interactive text-based DND game adventures in browser.

Ren'Py - Visual Novel Creator. Visual novel engine, that is well acclaimed, and of course, free to use!

Companion AI

Replika - 3D Companion.

Kajiwoto - Chatbot Companion. Customizable, learning AI you can shape into a personality. Communicates via Discord like chat box.

Organization

Toyhou.se - Character Gallery. A customizable library where you can upload all of your paras and characters for the public to view! Free to use, but requires a premium member to invite you!

Refsheet - Character Gallery. I haven't used it before, but I've heard good things, and that it's a suitable alternative to toyhou.se if you can't get an invite!

Notebook.AI - Character Gallery. I haven't used it before, but I've heard good things, and that it's a suitable alternative to toyhou.se if you can't get an invite!

World Anvil - World Building Toolset. Like character galleries, but for worlds and their lore :)

Scabard - World Building Toolset. Aimed at DnD campaigners, but I reckon it'll be useful for many!

YARPS - World Building Toolset. More focused around story and lore than Scabard or World Anvil, and looks beautiful! Still in its prototype stage, however.

Pinterest - Photo Organizer. Look at, collect, and sort images into boards. Personalizes your feed based on that, and is free to use and join! However, unlike their myriad of wonderful recipes, DIY tutorials, and the likes - a lot of the images are uploaded by second parties and not credited, so be careful reuploading anything you find! Also great for finding outfits and art inspo for your paras!

Generators

Fantasy Name Generator - Name Generators. Does what it says on the tin! Generates fantasy names. Is a lovely website, run by a purportedly lovely woman.

Fantasy Map Generator - Map Generator. Randomly generates a fictional map, which you can view in 2D or 3D.

Donjon RPG Generator - Multiple Generators. Can make maps, weapons, items, etc.

Seventh Sanctum - Multiple Generators. One of my favorites from high school! Does all kinds of things - the standard items, spells, and names - but also prompts, backstories, characters, and even comedy generators!

ShindanMaker - Multiple Generators. User created and uploaded, any kind of generator you can imagine, of varying complexity. And when I say any generator? I mean ANY generator.

Audio

Audacity - Record and Edit Audio. What can't Audacity do? I love Audacity to death. At surface level, it records audio. I've used it to record voices for my paras, and get audio for animations and games I've worked on. I cannot recommend it enough. Comprehensive editing, and with some investigation, it can do so, so much more than just record simple dialogue.

FL Studios - Compose. Compose music with an unlimited free trial. Upgrades available for purchase!

Indie Game Music - Royalty Free Music Library. Free to use Indie Game Music. What it says on the box!

AudioJungle - Royalty Free Music and Audio Library. Thousands of free to use audio clips!

Online Piano - Someone could use this, for recording, or just messing around. I've seen plenty of paras who play piano, this could just be used for fun!

Online Guitar - Same reasons as above, but this site looks kinda sketchy. Use at your own risk or reward! Audio

For real, if you ever need music, sound effects, or really any MP3 clips that can be used without infringing on copyright laws, just search 'royalty free' (music/audio/insert thing here) same applies for photos! Make sure the source is reputable, however.

Tutorials

W3Schools - Coding. Learn the basics of coding, for free, online!

Miscellaneous

Debut Video Capture - Screen Recorder. Record game footage and let's plays for free! Professional and home versions. I see a few of our community members have paras who run YouTube channels, and I thought these might help! It could be a nice way to connect your parames. YouTube quality <3

Pixton - Comic Maker. Comic making website. I have no experience with this at all, but some may find it useful!

Picfont - Image Editor. Puts customizable text on an image. I used these for @paraesthetics paracosm header edits <3 It has a premium version (???) but the free version has all functions, but it crashes regularly (honestly seems timed :/) but once you get it down, it's a very quick process, and you won't have to worry about that at all.

Itch.io - Publishing. You can publish your self made games here :)

Korsakow - ??? Described as, "The Future of Storytelling" and is apparently a way to create interactive films. I *just* found out about this, but thought I should include it for someone who may know how to use and appreciate it! Free? Unknown, at the moment.

Tips and Tricks

Animation Done Easy

Our forefather's of internet animation used MS Paint, Windows Movie Maker, and Audacity. All of these, or their equivalents, are free on standard computers. I, personally, use FireAlpaca - which works just as well, if not better, than MS Paint for animation - but takes longer, and definitely lacks that retro feeling. I also use my trackpad to draw and animate everything, so its doable, but probably not totally comfortable, to animate like this for most people :)

⚠️ Updates always pending! Suggestions always welcome! Feel free to message me any tips or questions <3 ⚠️

[thatdarnblogagain]

Shuumatsu No Valyrie: A bittersweet masterpiece?

It goes without saying that I like a good martial arts or action movie, manga, anime, comic or book. Anything that has some nice fights in it is probably going to get my attention. One manga that sparked my interest was Shuumatsu No Valkyrie or Record of Ragnarok as it is called in the west. This manga has some of the most beautiful art you will ever see to date, with a thoroughly engrossing but simple plot, capped off with unique characters. But let me show you how simple that story is.

The gods want to destroy humans but are forced into a tournament to decide the fate of the latter when Brunhilde, a valkyrie who seeks to seemingly protect humanity intervenes. She lays down a challenge! Humans versus gods in fights to the death. What ensues is a whirlwind of nail biting fights with huge stakes as every loss puts one side either closer to relenting on their will to destroy the other or for said other to be annihilated. And from there, no punches are pulled by the authors, Fukui Takumi, Umemura Shinya and Ajichika or the story’s combatants.

(All of these fights were insane but do not get attached to any of the fighters.)

That sets the tone for the series. As amazing as the characters are, and believe me, they all are pretty amazing, this is a gladiator type of series. Two fighters enter and one leaves. It is a tournament arc but akin to Mortal Kombat as if you lose, you die as well as the idea of one side possibly losing their way of life if the other wins but in this case that is just losing their lives all together. There is no mercy here, despite the sometimes comedic tones the characters can have. Every fight so far has had a death of one of the fighters, whether human or god.

Now you may think that humans versus gods sounds like a mismatch but the authors make sure that the former are insanely strong to the point that superhuman is an understatement. It should also be added that the characters are technically being pulled from death so they are actually dead humans coming back to life but still, seeing them possibly die is nonetheless harsh. Ever more amplified by the inclusion of a technique that grants them power boosts when a Valkyrie pairs with them. Which means if a human dies, so does the Valkyrie they were paired with. Yeah, the stakes are high!

(The list of fighters are history lesson all on its own.)

Also! This manga does not just make up random characters. No these are people from history and gods from lore or religion. Jesus shows up at one point, I kid you not. Not as a fighter mind you but the fact he is present is insane. You see characters such as Adam, the first man instead fighting or Jack the Ripper fighting in the manga! Yes Jack the Ripper! Heck Lu Bu shows up and throws some hands! Against THOR!!!! If you enjoy a nice look at legends and myths, this manga is easy to enjoy.

Fighters pull off techniques that would be impossible for any other human but themselves such a swordsman deflecting strikes that are near the speed of light or another human so strong that his body needs special limiters or he will grow to insane proportions. But even then, it is not enough sometimes.

(4 versus 1...seems fair.)

Several human fighters have died in pretty depressing ways with one of my favorite characters literally being decapitated in front of his parents after losing. I legitimately have shed tears for most of the dead fighters, maybe except two but that is because he went out so manly that tears might have been a disservice to him. And all the characters have gone out pretty manly but his was just a whole other level. The other characters was just a straight up villain.

But my favorite character’s death was further amplified by his mother’s wailing in the next chapter which crushed me even more than when he was killed. But that is beauty of this manga. It imposes on you that ever floating stake of humanity’s destruction. It brings you the highest of highs when humanity wins but then makes you question if the next fight will see a crushing defeat for them in return.

I read the first fight and was cheering for the action and loved every panel but when it got to the ending I was thoroughly reminded this was a fight to the death as one fighter was left headless and armless. That is an image that is just haunting. This is a manga where victory can be snatched away in an instant and what seems like a certain win is never that simple. Every blow that is exchanged could shape the history of the humans for either a long and prosperous one or a very short one.

(This chapter after the end one fight in particular was painful.)

Now what makes this even harder as a reader is that I like quite a few of the gods too. This is thanks to the authors’ backstories for each fighter. Everyone gets a deep dive analysis which makes you relate to them quite a bit. Even the vilest of villains on the human team somehow becomes sympathetic but so is the same for the most on innocent of gods on the other team.

There is really no way to explain except just turning things on their heads as you find yourself wondering if you should root for a murderer fighting for humanity or a heroic demigod fighting for the gods. It is a well crafted narrative that makes you worry for the fate of the fighters whether human or gods because a character you once hated can become quite a tragic figure, who you do not want to see die.

(No idea how, but I had sympathy for this character after the backstory given.)

Bottom Line:

(Loki pretty much said what I was thinking after that first fight.)

Would I recommend this manga? Yes. Highly. But I also put the disclaimer that if you do not enjoy knowing that no one is safe from death and that your favorite character could die then I would say give this a pass. I am personally dreading upcoming fights because there are characters there that I do not want to lose...like most of them but that is not the case as this manga shown.

This is a labor of love and you can see it in every detail and the time it takes for reach chapter to be released. It is a painful but refreshing read for anyone who wants to check it out.

Pros:

.Amazing story.

.Amazing Art.

.Amazing Characters.

.Tournament Arc!

.Nice mix of myths and history.

Cons:

.Getting attached can be a painful idea.

.Can be depressing

[fille-de-skroa]

I made this post simply to express how funny (and silly) it can sound, when some people diabolize Naruto like if he always were a horrible, disgusting and evil person when all he’s trying to do is to help people. I understand that some people view Naruto as a flawed protagonist, but this kid is fundamentally full of good intentions, and it just surprise me a lot when some people ignore this. And, well... my post is supposed to be a joke. You probably didn’t think it was funny, and I agree that I must be least funny person in the world, but it’s still a joke…

Yeah, the political side of Naruto is really important, and I agree that a lot of the intrigues of the show had a political subtext. But I don’t think it’s the core of the manga. While it might be hard to talk about Naruto without mentionnant the political part, the part of the manga that touched people the most is the fact that Naruto tried to befriend the antagonists. He choose to talk to them and tried to solve the problem in a more pacific way, to connect his feelings with his enemy’s feelings. The political side of Naruto, while being important, isn’t what makes Naruto… Naruto. It’s a show that talk about bonds and feelings before talking about politics. And that’s pretty normal, because his cible is teenagers, not young adults. And teenagers are usually more sensible on the friendship & determination side of shonen manga, rather than it’s more political side.

For the Neji thing, to me it always seemed like Naruto wanted to say "You were going to change the Hyuga… with me". And it makes more sense like that. Naruto choosing to change the way the Hyuga Clan work once he became Hokage wouldn’t be as powerful as the Hokage and a slave working together to re-build the Clan. It always were like this with Naruto, he doesn’t make everything alone.

Naruto’s character is also about change, expect he wants to change the World in a different way. It’s just that he didn’t make major and extreme changes like Sasuke. Even the little thing he did show that… Like, the fact that he befriended Kurama, who is literally the personnification of hatred. Naruto wants to become his own kind of shinobi. A shinobi that talk with his opponents, cry when he needs to, and believes in the values of forgiveness. He also had his reasons to hate Konoha and the Shinobi System, and even if his hatred is still present, he choose to believe in his dreams and to learn to forgive, because some people were there for him when he needed them. (Some people=Iruka and Sasuke). He rejects the status quo, because he refuses to do like every other shinobi, and kill mindlessly the people he had to fight.

He didn’t indoctrinate neither Nagato or Sasuke, he made them change their mind, which is really different. His goal, like stated earlier, is to create a peaceful world where everyone can work together. Nagato and Sasuke both saw that the Shinobi System was flawed, and due ti their respective traumas, their actions to fight against the system became extremist, and even if they wanted to create a peaceful world too, their way of doing were wrong. Nagato wanted to use fear and despair to create his new world. And Sasuke could’ve done the same mistake his brother did: killing for the sake of peace, because "the end justify the means", in a way to keep control over the population. It was legitimate of Naruto to stop them, and to make them understand to killing more people won’t solve anything.

But if Naruto didn’t genially cared about Sasuke… Then what’s the point of all of this? Why would he go so far to bring him back, when everybody wants him to give up on him, including Sakura and Kakashi? Also, I agree that he projects onto the people he met, but that’s the point of Naruto’s character: the empathy.

Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship is practically the subject of the manga. I’ve read the manga a lot of time, wondering how their bond worked, and trying to see how I could interpret their interactions with each other… And I deeply believe that there’s no way Naruto and Sasuke don’t profoundly love each other. I see why you (I mean, you, people in general, not you personally) would believe that Naruto is a selfish brat who wants nothing more than attention and someone to projects onto without caring about him as a person… But to me, all of their deep moments, their conversations, their bond… It was genuine. They both knew each other, how the other was, and how they worked together as a team. It wasn’t a one-sided relationship, it’s the opposite. I don’t think Naruto like his vision of who Sasuke is. He’s the only one that accepted him as he his, and didn’t try to persuade him to stay in Konoha after the War. Because ke knew that Sasuke had come back home either way, and that as long as Sasuke was safe, it would be okay.

The narrative shows that each time Sasuke took revenge on someone (Itachi or Danzo), he either regrets it later or hurt someone else in the process (Karin with Danzo). It shows that his revenge, based on hatred and despair, will not make him happy in the end. So yes, taking revenge isn’t good for him. And his intentions when killing Itachi and Danzo were never to change the world, it was about getting justice to his clan. But in the end, it’s sad, but it won’t bring his family back. The least he can do now is to make sure what happened to the Uchiha Clan won’t happen in the future… But killing isn’t a solution, because it just increase the hatred and the desire of revenge.

Again, sorry it must be really messy… 😓

What Naruto says:"I want to become Hokage dattebayo!!"

What some Naruto-antis hear: "I want to become a military dictator and I’ve supported the shinobi system since I’m 7 years old and I will lie to everybody regarding my choices and goals because I’m a gross Konoha ninja who love slavery and I don’t give a damn about my friends especially Sasuke I only want to help people so I’d feel like the good guy of the story even though I only care about myself muhaHAHA—"

[robbyrobinson]

Episode 4 of Komi Can't Communicate (Review)

This just goes to show how toxic simping can get. So, I love Komi Can't Communicate and would even go so far as to call it a "masterpiece" from its beautiful animation; likable characters with some depths; its wholesomeness, etc. But episode 4 is something else. Somehow we went from wholesome humor to DDLC in terms of disturb factor.

The first segment of the episode was good just being about Yadano's daily attempts to beat her "archrival" Komi with the latter having no idea that she was even in a challenge. Yadano's probably my favorite side character due to her over-the-top competitive drive.

The second half...oh boy. So, we have Tadano basically talking about how he was friends with the most beautiful girl in the school...and then, oh shit, he gets jumped. I legitimately thought that he probably died at that moment.

Yamai Ren...sigh...this character. While I still love the show and admire it for its take on social anxiety and offers some ways on how to deal with it, Yamai is the one thing that almost keeps the show from being a "masterpiece" in my eyes. How my thought process was when watching the episode.

During episode: Oh, she has a crush on Komi? Oh, puppy love, that's cute.

Few minutes into the episode: She...she's really obsessive. Alright, well...Wait, is she licking Komi's strand of hair? I feel like I'm going to be sick...The show has such good animation! Why'd they have to visualize that...?

Middle of the episode: She kidnapped Tadano. Are those pictures of herself and Komi all over the room? Oh...oh no.

I am serious; I was legitimately concerned for Komi in this episode. That if it was within her power, Yamai would pull some Silence of the Lambs shit on Komi and have her in a hole for a few days before making a skin suit from her and dancing in it. Someone get Keanu Reeves and Dominic Toretto to keep her under watch.

So, yes, Yamai freakin' kidnapped Tadano if there was ever any more reason to believe that Yamai is insane.

Just...Yamai. I am legitimately terrified of her. Never since Shion Sonozaki from Higurashi had I had these feelings of unease. If you were to tell me that she was an escaped mental patient who jabbed a plastic fork into one of her handlers' arms, I would believe you.

So, she gets to spend a lot of time with her beloved Komi, having "conversations" with her...completely ignorant that Komi never spoke once, and asked her if she wanted to come over for hamburgers. After a cute moment of Komi imagining Tadano was there to give her support, she appears to agree...which leads to Yamai overreacting. Najimi suggests that they go to Yamai's house, and the yandere has a "perverted image of Komi lying in her bed." But before she can make that happen, she had to get rid of Tadano.

And then the episode becomes even darker with Yamai asking Tadano whether he liked the sea or the mountains. Okay, so she doesn't gut him and wears his skin to get closer to Komi, but this girl is so beyond messed up, that if you rewrote the scenes, you can make a genuine creepypasta based on it. She not only kidnapped the Chadano, but she was going to dispose of him too.

Najimi and Komi arrive and Yamai goes to make some tea telling them to not open the closet door. To which Najimi, being the MVP they are, opening it anyway, but misunderstood it as being some kind of foreplay. Yamai arrives with two sharpened chopsticks (a knife in the manga) and brutally vivisects him by calling him an average piece of shit among other sharp criticisms.

She intimidates Komi with the chopsticks, but the Queen simply shakes her head and unties Tadano. Yamai tries to keep her from leaving by claiming that she did all of this for Komi's sake, but she could fuck off with that claim because she does not know Komi as much as she thought she did. Without even having to verbally chew her out, Komi writes on some paper and says she would decide her own friends for herself.

The worst part about this abominable character is the fact that she is not punished for her actions because she did commit two legitimate crimes: kidnapping and attempted murder. So she gets depressed over Komi rejecting her. Is that it? Not being friends with Komi is a greater punishment than being tossed into jail or whatsoever the law found appropriate? Not being friends is enough to make Yamai realize she had been a terrible character? Okay.

But it does lead to some more great scenes with Komi and Tadano: Komi, having remembered everything from yesterday down to the letter, asks Tadano if he truly wanted to remain friends with her due to the events fearing that more could happen to Tadano that she may be unable to stop. Tadano rejects the notion and reaffirms their friendship by quoting what she said yesterday.

Komi, while I understand you want friends, please maybe consider putting a restraining order on this girl because what makes you think she doesn't do anything that drastic again? But, of course, she does forgive Yamai and makes her a part of her entourage.

Looking into the manga, Yamai only gets worse the more she appeared with one instance happening sometime after the school became aware of Tadano and Komi dating. She overreacts to the fact that she was not holding hands with her Goddess and skips a week of school. She vents her frustrations to her clique of friends, only to throw them the hell out when she got a message from Komi that she was coming over to talk. Worse, she spots some Sleepy Sleepy Time pills and contemplates putting them into Komi's cup of tea. God only knows what she intended to do with Komi once she was unconscious.

I understand that she is supposed to be an intentionally hateable character with few redeeming traits, but there is a certain craft when it comes to making unlikeable characters that I feel Yamai fails at. Like the drug thing was the tipping point with how far they were willing to make her as hated as she is now. It was not funny in the least and only cements that Yamai exists to be that annoying perv of a character even when she does have some decent moments where she can be charitable when it has nothing to do with the center of her obsession.

Really, it is because of her presence in the episode that I didn't see virtually anything in it that was funny aside from Najimi freaking out about being alone with Komi since they could not translate whatever Komi was trying to say. Yamai's face turning into a kabuki mask for a moment was also slightly humorous.

While the episode is not my favorite, at the least, there are some good moments. It progresses Komi's development as a character by her putting her foot down to basically give a "fuck you" to Yamai for her attempts at trying to control who she was friends with. And really, if anything, this furthers her bond with Tadano because Tadano insists on remaining her friends regardless of what that would entail. So...in a way, Yamai helped strengthen their relationship. Which is something that she would not want to accept.

On a lesser note, I do recommend reading the dark fic "The Sea or the Mountains" by andreabandrea: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15217121. It takes a more serious look where Tadano is diagnosed with PTSD from his encounter with Yamai to the point of practically becoming sick whenever he was around her, and Yamai receives a more prompt punishment than in the episode along with additionally expanding on her character.

Rating

[rayshippouuchiha]

To be fair to kishi - god can't believe that's how I started this sentence- I actually adore Hinata? Like The Last aside, when Hinata meets him before his match with Neji to give him a cream for his bruises and wish him luck? I fucking melted. She's great, I love her and I cried when she stood in front of him to protect him from Pain, completely understand why Naruto would also quietly adore her. And during the fourth war during that one moment where he's psychologically on the backfoot and she holds his hand and gives him courage? Brilliant ship. I'm so on board. I ship it like fedex. It sails itself. Completely in love with their love.

I mean don't get me wrong understand people who love Sasuke x Naruto, they're very soulmate coded and Kishimoto literally said despite having previously based it on his relationship with his brothers while writing, that he thought all the doujinshis were very good and had no problems with his fans making them or shipping the two. So like, not sure why everyone hates him for not making that couple canon and sticking Naruto and Sasuke with het pairings. Like I get the Sasuke side to an extent because seriously why DID Sakura like him? But other than that, it's a mainstream shounen manga that started in 1999 it was bracingly unlikely that SasuNaru would be canon outside of subtext so not sure why people are like *clenches fist* "Kishimoto." about it. There are things besides the ships to be justifiably annoyed at him for... like his timeline of events.

Anyway these are just some thoughts I had because I've seen a lot of posts lately (not just on your blog) that bitch Kishimoto out for not making that pairing canon and I was honestly very happy and glad when Naruhina became canon as twee or predictable as some might think of it.

I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding between a lot of people in fandom over the issue of SasuNaru and how actual members of fandom generally feel about it outside of a fandom/venting/freeform type of space.

The vast majority of fandom on the SasuNaru side absolutely knew that the chances of the ship going legitimately canon at the time were basically nonexistent. We were and still are very aware of the general climate in the manga/anime community towards canon queer couples in mainstream shounen. Especially canon MLM couples that can't be routinely used as a source of fan service for male viewers.

The vast majority of fandom saw NaruHina coming. It was obvious. And, objectively, it's a cute ship. I've got no hate for it or people who like it. If you were thrilled it went canon that's fine, more power to you. Doesn't mean I have to like, enjoy, or rejoice over it.

(SasuSakura is a different issue that I have different thoughts and emotions about but I still don't have any hate for those who do ship it.)

Just, there's this growing misunderstanding in fandom that you can't be disappointed with the direction a piece of media went without completely understanding why it went that way. Like, somehow, fully understanding the circumstances behind the narrative choices should completely negate your personal thoughts/emotions towards those choices.

And that's just not, in general, how emotions or fandom experiences work.

I can be critical of Kishimoto for a number of issues with his writing, and I routinely am, and I can also be fully aware of the environment and climate in which he wrote them. When you have critical thinking skills those two things don't have to cancel out.

I can shake my digital fist at the sky and moan about how Kishimoto didn't make SasuNaru a canon romance while understanding the deeper issues involved.

And since I'm not spewing hate towards others in the fandom or harassing Kishimoto himself I've done nothing wrong.