#I don't read too much manga but I do aspire to change that

[altruistic-meme]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

hi dear!!! i definitely don't mind AT ALL i love getting questions!!!! i probably have answered this question before, but this is one of those things that's subject to change pretty often as i find new characters and they take over from older ones :] so i will probably never give the exact same answer twice dksvjsdfh

ok ok that said, let me see... in no particular order:

Damianos of Akielos (Book: Captive Prince trilogy) quite literally THE man of all time. THE man of my dreams. he is such a beautifully written character who is so complex and interesting to read!! he is so gentle and caring despite his size, and he has a confidence i can only aspire to.

Neil Josten (Book: All For The Game trilogy) unhinged maniac 🧡 no but genuinely he is such a good main character. everything about him and his narration pulls you in to the story. he is the most unreliable narrator. his perspective is so skewed. also my namesake!!

Nakahara Chuuya (Anime/Series: Bungo Stray Dogs) i may or may not have somewhat of an obsession with him right now. he is literally so pretty that i throw my phone. but also he is so unbearably human in an incredibly tragic way, and he is that way because he actively chooses to be. he is a high ranking member of the mafia and he loves dogs and he promised his dying friend that he would save someone else and he is so loyal and bright. i am going to stop while im ahead bc 90% of my thoughts right now are about Chuuya so i could genuinely go on forever.

Victor Nikiforov (Anime: Yuri!!! ON Ice) he is so sad

Hinata Shoyo (Anime: Haikyuu!!) he is just so fucking BRIGHT!!! unlike Victor, Hinata is the exact opposite of me in almost every sense. it is so hard for me to watch anyone else when he's on the screen. he is just joy and energy incarnate and i want to be his friend so bad.

Spiderman (TV Show/Movie/Comic) this is a cheat because it's just. every iteration of spiderman. i love him. just your friendly neighborhood spiderman!! i have such a soft spot for Miles Morales' spiderman in particular due to the spiderverse movies, but i also really loved all of the live action spiderman movies. and we can't forget the tv show!!!

Prince Wilhelm (Show: Young Royals) fucking babygirl. yet another sad wet cat of a character who i project onto immensely. he is just so complex and interesting and so real and flawed and just. listen. having the weight of the world rest on your shoulders as you struggle with trying to make friends and fight your anxiety and handle your mother all by yourself is something i have dealt with too. i can't put into words all my thoughts about him right now, but rest assured there are More.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (Book: How to Train Your Dragon series) don't get me wrong, i love the movie version of him as well, but they are such different characters. and the book version of Hiccup has an incredibly special place in my heart. httyd is such a comfort read for me, and it was huge for me getting to grow up with Hiccup. he is just a fucking little guy and he goes through so much. but he keeps going. he didn't deserve any of it and he fights so hard to make sure no one else has to go through it like he did. gods i love him.

Charlie Spring (Comic: Heartstopper) same as with Hiccup, i love him in the show as well but to me the characters are so different and i just relate so much more to the comic version of him! he is a mess and i love him and relate to him. i wish i had what he has. i am also so proud of how far he has come!! and he reminds me to be proud of myself, too. also see; sassy motherfucker.

Kenai (Movie: Brother Bear) a strange choice, maybe, but this movie means SO much to me. it is a huge comfort movie. and Kenai, by virtue of being the main character, clearly gets the leg up as the favorite. but it's so amazing seeing him grow as a person (or. well. bear). he's funny, he tries so hard, he wants so much. and he's just a kid!! he learns so much!!

there are definitely some patterns in my favorite characters that i am going to choose not to look too closely at :') i have so many characters i adore. this was so hard ;;;

[matsunoso]

because you’re also Irish and an Osomatsu fan and idk if anyone else in the fandom would get this I want to share my Osomatsu-san if it was set in Ireland headcanons -

- Karamatsu: talks with a fake D4 accent, idolises Ross O’Carroll Kelly, wears chinos and brown brogues, drinks Bulmers

- Osomatsu: big Guinness fan naturally propping up the pub maybe like half doing a crossword and eating a pack of peanuts

- Choromatsu: wanted to get into TCD to live his Normal People lifestyle but ummm didn’t, claims he’s a fluent gaeilgeoir but only knows how to ask to the toilet in Irish

- Ichimatsu: hung out at central bank in the day

- Jyushimatsu: massively into hurling, wears a Kilkenny jersey a lot but isn’t from there

- Todomatsu: also wanted to get into TCD but didn’t basically lives at Brown Thomas

- Chibita: has a strong cork accent, works in a deli in centra/spar/mace

- Todoko: did Irish dancing as a kid but now is an aspiring influencer

hope you enjoy and sorry

OH THIS IS INCREDIBLE literally never in a million years expected to get an ask like this but i loveeeee it. you're so enlightened like this is genuinely magical i wouldn't change a thing.. love cork chibita love ichimatsu at the central bank GAA JYUSHIMATSU SPEAKS TO ME DEEEEEEEPLYYYY

not a concept i ever pondered myself but thinking about it so much now... influencer wannabe todoko doing hauls from dealz and home savers and mr price (cus she usually can't afford hauls from anywhere else) maybe getting to do one of those ads for swappie just once

in the same vein as choromatsu claiming to be a gaeilgeoir but not actually being able to speak it i imagine like. how karamatsu says random words in english to seem #worldly. he does that with irish instead or like deep cut irish slang/phrases that he would not have grown up with at all and gets them wrong half the time.

choromatsu is definitely in forbidden planet like weekly if not daily. goes in there and then brings whatever manga he bought to that clockwork door place up the road and hopes someone asks him what he's reading

struggling to decide who would be a bigger fiend for elfbars out of osomatsu and karamatsu so i'll just leave that thought there

i want one of them to be obsessed with mooju. i don't know which. all of them probably. especially osomatsu and jyushimatsu i think. they could get the strawberry and banana flavours to match their colours.. imagine.. i think ichimatsu likes the cookies and cream flavour but secretly

thinking about jyushimatsu so hard man like the rest probably stick to dublin/whatever suburb of it they live in just cus they seem the sort to not afford to live in the city centre LMAOOO not in a house with 6 adult kids..... but i know jyushimatsu does be getting on the bus/train every week and just disappearing off all over the country for funsies (he's the only one with an autism diagnosis so he's got that sweet sweet free travel card.) like you know how you get those dubliners that are fucking terrified to leave the county or even just the city because "scary culchies ewww boggers" or whatever. todomatsu is definitely one of those maybe choromatsu too (he pretends not to be scared but he is). osomatsu jokes but doesn't actually care. karamatsu pretends to be #cultured and not scared as well but the furthest he's been is like... skerries. nowhere further than the dart or dublin bus goes. ichimatsu is scared even just in dublin and thinks he's gonna get stabbed like all the time so it's all the same to him

BUT YEAH jyushimatsu goes literally everywhere cities towns parishes villages you name it. maybe brings ichimatsu along with him sometimes cus ichi does wanna go & i bet loves the countryside but is too scared by himself and needs someone to hide behind. jyushi goes to sooooo many GAA matches gaelic footballs ok but as you said MASSIVELY INTO HURLING!!!! one of those lads you see walking around with a hurl in hand nearly everywhere he goes.. got that o'neills mála scoile... i know you said he wears a kilkenny jersey a lot which is another INSPIRED idea but i feel in my heart that he has a galway one too just because he loves supermacs. they all love supermacs. i'm projecting now. also jyushi definitely tears up those greenways he'll do the royal canal one and then detour from mullingar to athlone and at the end still be like when are they gonna finish connecting this up to galway :/

sorry i didn't expect to write this long of a reply you've ignited something evil within me i'm going to be thinking about this forever. thank you SO much you have such a wonderful wonderful brain

[artisan-king-morleus]

SIGMA IS KAFKA ASAGIRI

random theory/thought that turned into a rabbit hole, plz read

Not sure if this will get seen and I'm hella sleep deprived rn but a thought occured.

BSD man...

As of rn we don't know who Sigma is or what exactly he is. New official art, as I've seen, has some already guessing his origins and which author he's based off of.

But I have a dumb lil thought/theory.

He's born from "The Book" INSIDE bsd. So what if...

Sigma is Kafka Asagiri?

Why? Where'd this thought come from?

There's a vampire manga series I read in high school that was a journey of the main character (le gasp) but it was "written" by the character himself. As in the "author" of this manga series WAS the main character. (Honestly the author's last name was shortened for his main character but I think it's still relevant) (plus I think it was a novel before manga...? Idk but I've only read the manga)

As I know, it was written as if the another WAS the main character.

My guess is that he wanted his story to feel like it was ACTUALLY written by the MC but still have his story be linked to him when ppl look in libraries and stuff. I've had a similar thought to as my own story does canonically break the 4th wall so to have the MC's name as the AUTHOR adds to the illusion; the immersion. And I remember that THAT was such a cool thing to do when reading this awhile back.

I have no basis for this "Sigma is Kafka Asagiri" but with him kinda being his own character as of rn (not off of an author or even one we know of yet) he severely sticks out compared to EVERYONE.

Author vs Characters

Plus, this just came to me, his ability is basically "I touch you and know what you know" right?

So, as an aspiring author and comicteer and such, I have some words. Over the years id make characters and stories but it quickly became not my own, like it was alive, the things I created. The characters from my pen would move and do things on their own and by watching them, I'd learn of who they are. And as this continued, it really wasn't ME, the author, making these characters do things.

Yes, I do guide the story but I can't tell them to just do things just because; especially if it's not their nature. It's like forcing them to be what they are not. You can make up scenarios to lean them towards a path. I've have to basically "rehire" new characters because the villain I wanted wasn't in front of me like I hoped for. But that not-villian is someone else in the story.

So basically, even tho I'm the creator, I don't know all that happens. I'm even shocked as to what the conclusions are or who someone really is. Sigma being Asagiri's avatar (per say but not like living a fanfic of his own story/not self insert) would open up a hell of a 4th wall discussion. This could elude "The Book" as being BSD itself but I don't think it is.

The book is blank.

The blank pages are a possibility. They could just act as "sticky notes" to insert in a book to make changes later.

We don't know who brought from from that book either. Or if he was in the first place. Possibly just a simple loophole for Sigma=Asagiri.... idk

Ability =Author..?

Possibly BSD story is as we see it now, a trainwreck of bad news and the world ending but he couldn't find a way or change it. As I said, authors vs characters so Sigma was born into that world to change the outcome. Without Sigma, how different would the story be? We don't even know about him until hella later nor what his existence impacted the story before that.

I think he feels a lot like Atsushi because it's that lost MC thing. Cliche as it sounds, it's not a bad start for an MC, to be naive, lost, hopeless, and running until something changes. All they can go is up despite the monsters in their minds trying to drag them down. How different would the story be if Sigma was the MC instead? Would we know too much without actually knowing what it means?

Sigma's ability I think also taps into that "as an author, I only know what my characters tell me" thing. And if Asagiri did create Sigma to change BSD then following the rules of "The Book", he had to have Sigma fit into the world. Thus an ability based off an author (in a 4th wall sense rather then we in that world sense). And Sigma would then be just as clueless and maybe even hopeless as Asagiri would've felt but he's the only hope.

Again Sigma would be an insert just alien enough and blend in enough to maybe make a change. Plus a world of authors and books and abilities, introducing a character without those is like pulling a +4 uno card on us all. (Sneaky lmao)

Random rabbit hole of Σ, ς, σ (Sigma)

Sigma is the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet (Pheonician). Three ways to write it would be uppercase (Σ), lowercase (σ), and final-word position (ς). Sigma origin (šīn) meaning tooth.

I find this funny as Sigma is not of this world and his name basically means "sin". Kinda like he wasn't meant to be here. Or maybe punishing him for "writing/creating" the world of BSD if he's the avatar for Asagiri. Think that's fits with the thought that he made the world but has to suffer the end of that world but his last hope is Sigma.

(I'm bs-ing so hard rn, I'm so sorry 😭)

Plus, I thought this : sigma is used in complicated mathematics and symbols used often in "covariance matrix" which is basically math to map out MULTIDIMENSIONAL SPACES

"Multidimensional matrix". It's how to calculate data across two dimensions.

Using data to go from one place to another much like from inside the story to the auth-

Daemons and Angels

I had watched a Genshin Impact lore/theory video that had talked about some of the cube bosses names came from the Hebrew alphabet. They explained that these cubes correlate to the gods of the land and the elements they represent. These gods also have interesting names too. They have normal names but but the land and history, they go by names of demons from a book called the Ars Goetia.

These cube bosses and gods both have angel and demon names but besides them relating to one other by elements, their angel/demon names match up.

72 Daemons of Ars Goetia and 72 Angels of Shem Hamephorash.

(I sounded smart there for a sec but it's difficult to find the specific letters that correlate to these beings. There's 22 letters and 72 d/A's. ????)

Hebrew and Greek meaning

Σ (Greek sigma) came from שׁ (Hebrew sigma letter).

It's been flipped and changed to the one we know of as Σ. Which is Greek number for 18. In Hebrew 21 and pronounced as Shin, literally meaning tooth. The symbol also representing flames and transformation. Much like a forest fire, the ashes give way for the soul to reabsorb and grow anew thus a transformation. With flame and essential rebirth, the yin and yan, this ultimately represents balance.

It's the processing of destruction without the evil and rebuilding without the sorrow. Much like destruction can be seen as a sort of chaotic creation.

The way Shin is written is with 2-3 Vavs.

Vavs is the Hebrew number 6 and it means "hook". This letter has the power to bring things together when they've become separated in creation.

With this in mind...

His ability literally is to get info outta people like "their" truths

Sigma relation to D.N.A ➡️ specific names

One article talks of them being both letters and numbers, they have a correlation to human DNA. The building blocks. Relation to animo acids and how to tell the body how to process with 22 amino acids.

http://blog.cristianacaria.com/2014/11/26/the-72-angels-and-the-power-of-the-hebrew-letters/

⬆️ this article goes on to talk about how when we are all born, 3 letters are somehow assigned to us at birth and they make up a name of that daemon/angel. This explains the article for Socrates I found before this that talks of how it was believed that he was watched over by a daemon/angel. And had essentially helped him "change the world" and himself thru his philosophy.

This surely explains the 22 to 72 math problem earlier. (Daemons and Angels paragraph)

https://www.idler.co.uk/article/socrates-and-the-angels/#:~:text=Angels%20can%20be%20linked%20to,realms%20of%20mortals%20and%20gods.

Sigma (BSD) age meaning?

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SIGMA BEING BORN 3 YEARS AGO HAS TO DO WITH ANYTHING.

3 years could mean 1,095-1,096 days of living roughly so that really doesn't do me any good.

I'm done now

Purely speculation but this is based of like 3 brain cells, my author nerdy ass and artistic standpoint in crafting worlds and shit plus it's like 3 am rn 😭

Edit: it's 5:42 am now

Simple read rather than read all that :

Other manga gave thought that Sigma is the authors character like another other character in BSD.

Dazai Osamu, no longer human

Kafka Asagiri, bungou stray dogs

Sigma, information exchange

Maybe Sigma made to help world of BSD but not like self insert. And Sigma Greek and Hebrew letters mean to tear down and rebuild. A balance between mercy/kindness and justice/truth.

Letters relation to Daemons/angels and how they can lead one to change.

Thank you for your time 🥲

~King.M.

[siriuslysatorusimping]

Hi! I hope you're doing well (despite the Shibuya Sadness 🙃). I've never put in an ask before so sorry if this comes out awkward, but I had to because Another Level is so well written and I'm IN LOVE with the story and Rinko! 😭

1) Will you write an extra about Rinko for when she realized her feelings for Gojo changed? You mentioned Gojo didn't want to say anything at first because Rinko wasn't ready, but those feelings shifted over time. It happened so gradually and naturally. Was it around the time of the mole incident?

2) What do you plan to do when you catch up to the manga? You said you've been wanting to stick as close to canon as possible.

3) Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? Your characters are so fleshed out in both themselves and their relationships and your story is so thought out!

Sorry if that's a lot or you've answered something similar before and I missed it!

💖 Thank you for such a wonderful character and story 💖

Hello!

I am doing okay(mostly). Just a bit emotionally worn out. I found myself forgetting the good times for Rinko and Gojo while writing all the Shibuya angst. It made me lose sight of my end goal for a bit, and I realized I was very unhappy with where that line of thought was taking the story. So, I had to scrap some of what I'd written and spend some time reading the older installments to remind myself that these two idiots are cute and happy together 😭

The next installment has now been rewritten a total of four times, btw.

No need to worry about coming across as awkward, I am also awkward 😅

Thank you for sending this sweet message!!! 💖 It STILL blows my mind that people love Rinko as much as I do. Makes me very happy inside 🥹

I'll put my answers to your questions below the cut!!

If you haven't already, you can read Another Level on AO3 💕

1) OOF. Okay, so. Maybe? I'm planning on writing a bit of a "Story so far" author discussion that'll go into detail about that. I've been working on it for a while, so we'll see if I ever finish it 🙃 I will say that the main reason Gojo couldn't tell her that he loves her is not because she didn't love him back. It was because he knew she wouldn't believe him. We'll see a bit more of that as we go forward.

2) I'm hoping to at least know wtf happens to Gojo before we catch up!! 😅 On the bright side, there's literally a month that isn't covered in the manga once he's released from the Prison Realm, so I'm going to use that to my advantage 😂😂

3) The best advice I can give is just keep writing. It's the only way to improve. Keep writing, get feedback when and where you can, and write about what you want to write about. That always makes it easier. But, don't force yourself to write. Follow that little inspiration fairy wherever it may take you!

The last thing I'll say about that is write something that you enjoy reading, too.

I genuinely enjoy reading Another Level, as conceited as that might sound. And I've tried hard not to post an installment that I don't enjoy reading. So, I think that's what's the most important when it comes to improving and growing over time!

Thank you again for this sweet message!!

[centrally-unplanned]

The Liminal 90's of River's Edge

River’s Edge, a 1993 josei manga by Kyoko Okazaki, is something I picked up primarily due to hearing through the ‘net-vine of its influence on FLCL. Which is clearly there – adrift teens smoking on a bridge?

A smog-belching factory defining the grim normality of the town they live in, whose purpose is commented on to be unknown to the characters?

FLCL is a hodgepodge of cultural symbols and River’s Edge certainly part of the, uh, hodge. The parallels end there though – River’s Edge is *peak* josei in that it is utterly engulfed in the edgy drama of its high school protagonists. There is no way around the fact that this just isn’t a very good story, when it has plotlines such as boyfriend of Haruna, the main character:

1: cheating on her with her close friend,

2: which they do while doing hard drugs together,

3: resulting her getting knocked up,

4: which her hikikomori sister finds out via reading her diary (the 90’s!)

5: prompting them to get into a *knife fight*, the wounds of which abort the baby

And that is the most tame of these plotlines, trust me. By the time the gay character’s fake-but-she-doesn’t-know-it girlfriend *immolates herself* for attention you are willing to flee to the nearest monastic order to just chill out for life. This manga is 14 chapters y’all, you can finish it in under an hour, there is not enough character screen time to justify this level of drama. Its a classic early-adolescent fiction problem; your first time hearing about sex and death is so cool! So *real*! But once the novelty wears off there are no characters underneath, the shock is a magician’s misdirect so you don’t notice the hollowness behind the curtain.

We also forget how much the digital revolution has changed art in fast-paced, low-cost genres like manga by allowing consistency and polish; Okazaki is an accomplished, well known mangaka and some of these panels are so messy and detail-less:

Which isn’t a criticism per se as this was what the genre looked like at the time, and much of the art is great, but it's just to say overall this isn't a visuals-first affair. It relies on writing that just doesn’t deliver.

------

At least most of the time, because in its overwhelmingly maudlin current are ripples of some really good moments. My standout is when the narrator voice goes poetic, setting up a repeated motif:

Even as it is a bit cheesy this motif still spoke to me, the “flat battlefield”, the power of that phrase the story imbued into it. A fight with no contours to its course, no metrics to measure victory by? You don’t need to experience a knife-fight abortion to get that struggle, my daily mundane life is that (obliquely, through a certain lens at a certain time when the mood is just right/wrong). That is the universal feeling of ennui and social displacement these kinds of stories aim to have empathy for, and that the rest of this story failed to achieve. And credit where it is due – main girl Haruna, who narrates this and through whose eyes most of this story happens, doesn’t really have much drama at all in comparison to her peers. While they do insane shit she just watches and helps where she can from the sidelines, defined by her listlessness as opposed to everyone else’s tragedy. The flat battlefield is exactly the kind of pain someone like Haruna would feel – this arc works.

From the social critic lens, what I think is more notable about this story is what it does not contain. Its universal aspirations are betrayed by how utterly of its time it is. River’s Edge falls into the edgy-punk sphere, but original punk was defined by its targets - The Man, The Establishment, the polluted cityscapes and imprisoned activists, Thatcher’s & Reagan’s right wing triumphalism, original punk knew what it stood against. In the post cold-war, mass-culture era of the 90’s, however, the appeal of those causes faded – how could things so distant and so temporal be the cause of such deep personal ills? It's often said that Japan predicts America’s cultural movements ten years out, but in this case it was right on time – 1993’s River’s Edge flows neatly alongside the 90’s American counterculture void.

But we no longer live in those liminal 90’s, that void between the intensity of the 60’s+ social revolution and today – we now have causes, but they are, ahem, as personal as they are political. Sad edgy teens are no longer sad or edgy – they instead fall somewhere on the Depressed/Oppressed axis, their condition diagnosed. Alienation is now a mental health issue (with treatments, certainly always effective yep yep, criminally underfunded and denied to those who need them), gay teens struggle for acceptance as a political cause. Even if the problems are inwardly focused, the solution can be translocated outward – change media, change language, change executive leadership, only then can the struggle be resolved. It’s the grand cycle of history – the teen edginess is activist again, even if the targets are wildly different.

River’s Edge never mentions the word ‘depression’. No one mentions therapy, or acceptance, or really any solution to their various problems - the problems are experienced internally but exist externally, a world broken only by a vague sense of ‘modernity’, if anything at all. The language in which this state of mind is discussed is now antiquated, a sort of radical acceptance of hopelessness as the natural state of man. Its aspirations to universalism have already been left in the dust of the changing times, an ill-fitting, out-of-fashion way of thinking even as Depression Fics dominates its former niche.

Which is why this otherwise-silly story still spoke to me, as I still resonate with that way of thinking more than anything else in vogue. I keep being told something is out there, but all I ever see is an endless horizon - and I am glad to once again share the view.

------

Anyway, happy 30th anniversary to Smells Like Teen Spirit!

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Ramble#9

My main focus here is on samurai manga…

top 5 samurai manga read this month:

#5. Kurozuka by Baku Yumemakura on story and Takashi Noguchi on art

This is a story that takes samurai, crosses it with vampires and kind of just illustrates how far those two can go, It’s based on real 2 life guys, maybe even considered legends in Japan with a bridge and statue dedicated to them and everything, Yoshitsune Minamoto and Saito Benkei

Basically, the story starts with them trying to escape some pursuers in the mountains and in doing so they end up unwittingly shacking up with a vampire, a lady vampire,,, and shit just gets crazy from there…

Don’t wanna get too into it cause 1 it’s number 5 and 2 tbh the story wasn’t all that outside the romanticism and dark sides of immortality, but what I can say is that the illustration over the eras that pass and how a dude with a sword, a samurai, changes over the millenia was pretty cool to see…

Pretty rad action, decent enough story wrapped up in just 40 chapters, kind of a mid cast but i loved the concept and its illustration..

For all you anime folks it does have a 12 episode anime but I can’t speak on that adaptation and its quality, differences etc. at all.

#4. Gintama by Hideaki Sorachi

Super popular in hella anime and manga circles, in a lot of top 10s n 5s and If you haven’t heard of it well don’t worry the world’s full of information you don't know so continue to enjoy the journey...

Anyways… Gintama… is a story… that unfortunately I can’t speak on too confidently as I haven’t finished but despite a valiant attempt to in one month while reading a bunch of other stuff, I got to 200sumthn out of 709… but yh…

Gintama is set in futuristic japan but still somehow having a shadow of the edo period mixed in, meant to give a new take on the real life events of japan’s borders opening, foreigners coming in and that essentially leading to the downfall of the samurai, except the foreigners here are literal aliens. The story follows a samurai that previously fought in the war to keep japan alien free who’s now a dead beat, sakata gintoki, a young aspiring samurai whose dad died and left him a dojo in a world where swords are banned, shimura shinpachi, and a pretty much orphaned humanoid teen alien named kagura, all just barely scraping by with doing a bunch of very odd jobs.

VERY HILARIOUS, and so far largely a gag manga but it flips the serious switch very well and what I really like about it is that unlike a lot of other samurai mcs and characters, these guys, especially the central mc of the trio, sakata gintoki, have zero ambition, but constantly stress and fight to the death with swords to rubber chickens to protect their simple way of life. This is exemplified by the words shinpachi’s dying father left him in the very first chapter “Even if there comes a time when you must throw away your sword, never throw away the sword you have resting in your soul.”

I know it builds into an amazing story where almost every character they ever interact with pitches in and I'm probably underselling like crazy but if you want something samurai but samurai like you've never seen, check it out, I hear it’s worth the time and so far that’s proving to be so over the top gags and all.

Anime peps the anime is complete with 201 episodes.

#3. Sengoku Youko by Satoshi Mizukami (mangaka of spirit circle, Lucifer and the biscuit hammer and more)

Technically not a samurai story, leaning more into fantasy but it's in that era and a ronin is in the main cast so bite me and my list ig…

Anyways this is an epic that somehow does an incredible extensive story in 100 chapters and it's not too surprising given the mangaka (seriously check out spirit circle, i’ll never stop talking about it, my favourite manga ever at just 46 chapters and Lucifer at the biscuit hammer which is pretty up there as well, which finally got an anime adaptation this year with 65 chapters).

The story follows a demon named Tama trying to bring peace to the world traveling the land with a human named Jinka who's trying to become a demon and hates humans, but because of his love for demons does whatever Tama tells him to. Further than the usual “what is strength?” question that you could say the way of the sword tends to boil down to, this story looks at the question of “what is a human?”, as the duo run into other humans and demons with their own perspectives and characteristics.

Unfortunately it’s pretty hard to sell it more without getting excited and blabbing it all but brilliant story (admittedly with a little bit of a choppy start), great cast and cast dynamic, dope action, average but fitting art, highly recommended.

Side note, this had one of the coolest, if not THE coolest dragon depictions and fights I've ever seen in manga.

#2. Ichigeki aka one hit kill by Jiro Matsumoto

This was honestly an unexpected banger, as in, my firm philosophy is that by definition the average manga is average so you gotta just be thankful for bangers when they come but even so, especially for how short it was I was blown away.

The basic premise is that some peasants are brought in from the countryside to get some quick training in the sword and used as a throwaway one time hit squad but after they survive and show some promise, they're trained more seriously and sent on increasingly important but increasingly dangerous missions.

What I really love is how this story really highlights the caste system of the time, sounds weird to say but a lot of samurai manga mainly focus on the samurai class and up which I think paints this picture that some people just chose to pick up swords and others didn't, when really for the most part a lot of that was predetermined by birth. There were organized schools that only accepted certain families and it was only in extreme off chance cases that a peasant could even get their hands on a sword much less get formal training.

But yh, story and pacing was great and would even call it phenomenal (especially relative to the length), brilliant cast and cast dynamic, really loved the way the peasants viewed themselves and were viewed by others over time as they became more established, great action and pretty dope art, absolute banger in only 49 chapters, highly recommend.

#1. Kozure Ookami aka Lone wolf and cub by Kazuo Koike on story and Goseki Kojima on art

This is a actually apparently a classic samurai epic and when I say epic I'm not using it loosely just to say it's good which it is, but when I say epic I mean to think along the lines of the Iliad or dante’s inferno.

The story follows a famed samurai, ogami itto, official executioner appointed by the shogun (really big fukn deal), framed, defamed and now turned assassin traveling the land on the path of revenge with his son daigoro.

Now if you're familiar with epics you'll know they're quite long and tbh when I started I was a bit confused like why is this dude out here carrying out assassinations with an infant? and is every chapter just gonna be him killing randoms? do I really need to know the name and history of EVERY prefecture like fr???? (really reminded me of that one chapter of the Iliad where they just listed everybody and their moms from athens)

A little bit of a slow start for me especially as the mc was just super stoic, the ideal samurai if you will but it's through that we see his character and what a true bushi/samurai is. Through any danger and challenge he sees his duty through to the end. Even the decision not to kill in the face of certain death. Wildly enough his kid is not a prop at all as watching his father over time he picks up his habits and has his own adventures.

The action isn't the smoothest but it perfectly captures that old samurai flick vibe, phenomenal aesthetic that becomes even more exceptional in the final few arcs and some of the greatest dialogue around the meaning of Bushido I've ever seen. A small example I'll give is in a duel he has with another fallen samurai, he’s asked what the right thing to do would be when caught in an ambush. Standing by his lord’s side and defending them or leaving his lord’s side to take the initiative in battle, both with equal chances of success.

It's 142 chapters but because almost every chapter, especially early on, is isolated and almost feels like a movie, it can be a bit of a rough read but definitely worth it. (actually started last year and read the second half this month).

hm: tenkaichi, elusive samurai, gantz:e, sengoku strays

top 5 samurai manga before this year

#5. Gamaran by Yousuke Nakamaru

I almost want to say hunter x hunter but for samurai but the only real similarity is the mc trying to find his dad + in this he's trying to kill him cause they basically pulled an itachi and killed his squad.

I love this manga but again number 5 so I'm not trying get too into it plus it's really for the most part a battle tourney, nothing against tourneys but fight fi*azP_Qzght fight gets a litlle tired over the years yk?

Now why this is top5 is that along with really great art I really loved the detail put into the choreography and technique of the fights, as in alot of times sword fights, if they're not basically pokemon battles can be bland despite the contextual meaning and weight of it all. Like it's hard to really differentiate one swordsman from another midfight because outside of their stances they all just look like they're swinging swords pretty much the same way and on occasion shouting random stuff, especially in manga, but maybe that’s just me idk… But gamaran takes the time to illustrate the characteristics of each style, strengths, weaknesses, body motions, etc, to really give almost every fight a real definitive feel

solid story despite what I said about tourneys, great art, pretty dope cast, amazing action and only 194 chapters

There’s also an ongoing sequel called Gamaran: Shura but that only has 25 chapters so far and hasn’t really gotten anywhere yet

4. Sidooh by Tsutomu Takahashi

This story follows two brothers whose mother dies in front of them as kids, leaving them with the last words "It is the fate of the weak to die", giving them an obsession with strength that leads them to claw their way up into the ranks of society

Really great pacing, great story and amazing aesthetic, an interesting art style that's a bit inky for lack of a better word but goes really well with sword strokes and stuff like that + some of the hardest drip I've ever seen on folks in that period and some of the meanest stare downs I’ve ever seen.

It's complete with 269 chapter but only 250 are translated to English, if you've been listening for awhile this is where I usually say fuck the french cause they usually have more manga chapters translated than others in general but hate is lame and all I need to do is step up and translate shit myself if I really want to yk so yh, sorry France, all my hate towards you will solely because of colonialism and especially what you've done to Haiti. fuck France and fuck imperialism

3. Vagabond by tajehiko inoue ( mangaka of slam dunk and real)

This is something I'm always hesitant to mention because it's so good but is almost certainly never going to be completed and there's so much other great works to see but this is a definitive work of art and it'd be criminal to leave it off the list.

This story is based on the life of miyamoto musashi, a legendary swordsman, legendary, as his feats for a self taught peasant are just incredible, in real life this eventually culminated in him founding his own sword school, the Niten ichi Ryu (roughly translated to two heavens as one) but the manga doesn't really get to that bit.

Probably by far the greatest art in this list, Inoue is a master of the craft, and the investigation of the way of the sword and what it means to be unrivaled under heaven via musashi's travels and encounters with other known legends like the yagyu and itto ryu is truly enlightening.

Brilliant characters and character dynamics, stunning art that can never be understated, brilliant dialogue, very engaging fights, just an all round brilliant manga…

Besides the fact that a chapter hasn't come out in about 7yrs… I cry… 327 chapters out and translated if you can handle it…

2. Shigurui aka death frenzy by Takayuki Yamaguchi

This was only 84 chapters but in case the name didn't give it away it gets pretty wild

The story revolves around the participants in the first fight of a deathmatch tournament, one being blind and limp while the other only has one arm. We're shown the events that led to them being chosen to fight and what they continue to swing their swords for in spite of their condition, and both having started out as students of the same sword school.

Lots of tragedy packed in here, lots of gore, very clean art, pretty dope fights, solid cast, and a brilliant story that really illustrates the sometimes unbecoming struggle that is being samurai.

1. Blade of the immortal by Hiroaki Samura

bro... just trust me on this one....

I Know this is about manga but 3 Anime movies I gotta mention are: sword of the stranger, Lupin the IIIrd: The Blood Spray of Goemon Ishikawa and ninja scroll

listen in to hear my top 5 swordsmen

[lyllyan-weiss]

LONG Character Survey: Lyllyan Weiss

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Lyllyan Aster Weiss

NICKNAME: Lyl, Lily, Lil' Lily.

AGE: 21

BIRTHDAY: 11th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon (November 10th)

ETHNIC GROUP: Auri|Xaela (In Eorzea)/ Human (Out of World)

NATIONALITY: Eorzean (In Eorzea)/American (Out of World)

LANGUAGES: Eorzean, Draconic, basically anything due to the echo.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: She is Bi. Swings both ways. She loves all.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Depending on the different routes on the story, she will be either single or taken.

CLASS: Jack-of-all-trades

•Knows everything and knows how to play everything.

• Favors caster classes above everything else.

HOMETOWN / AREA: N/A

CURRENT HOMETOWN / AREA: Shirogane is where her apartment is, but she sees Ishgard as her home that she spends her time in, and then the Crystarium had became home to her as well.

PROFESSION: Scion, Adventurer, Full time hero in both her world and Eorzea. In her world she is a waitress and an artist/animator.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Right now it is Brown with Light brown Highlights

EYES: Purple (Right), Green (Left)

NOSE: Small and Sharp

LIPS: Small and full

COMPLEXION: Pale but fair.

BLEMISHES: None.

SCARS: In Eorzea, her scars are battle scars that is more aligned on her back. They do not show up when she is in her world.

TATOOS: The Scion Tatoo on the part where the neck and back meet.

HEIGHT: 5'0

WEIGHT: 130lb (Eorzea)/ 150lb (Her World)

BUILD: Short, Thin and fit.

FEATURES: None really.

ALLERGIES: Rolanberries in Eorzea, Strawberries in her world.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: Long hair with a half braid in the back in Eorzea. In her world she has short hair that stops in the middle of her neck.

USUAL FACE LOOK: Warm color Eye shadow applied lightly to the eyes and a very nude color for lipstick in Eorzea. In her world, she hardly puts make up on, but usually has dark circles due to being tired all the time.

USUAL CLOTHING: Depending on her mood, she'll go very modest, or wearing a bikini with thigh boots. In her world, she is always modest with usually a t-shirt and sweats.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEARS: Bugs (Mainly Arachnids, spiders are the worst.) Antilions that hide in the sands. Losing her love ones. Becoming Sin Eater. Being alone. Falling.

ASPIRATIONS: Explore all of the worlds she could go to, but also to make animations that can change the world.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, happy go lucky, Compassionate, tries to take care of everyone, protective, loving, friendly, trusting.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn enough to push past her limits, usually getting her hurt. She so selfless that she tends to forget about taking care of herself. She can be too trusting of others that she often gets hurt in the end. She usually bottles her problems with the worry of being a burden to others. Very emotional driven (Just ask Ser Zephirin).

ZODIAC: Scorpio.

TEMPERAMENT: Artistic and Motherly

SOUL TYPE(S): The Priest, The Artisan, The Server.

ANIMALS: Cat

VICE HABIT(S): From the definition that I read, her faults are that she feels like anything bad that happens to her or her friends are her fault, and that she sometimes Envy others. But her hobbies that she enjoys are reading, triple triad, drawing, and writing.

FAITH: The Twelve. Even in her world she believes in the Twelve.

GHOSTS?: Definitely

AFTERLIFE?: I hope there is one.

REINCARNATION?: Well so far that we know, reincarnation is a thing, right?

ALIENS?: I doubt the world was made for one type of civilization, plus multiple worlds. Yes.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Uh...Alphinaud does politics for me.

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: Just trying to survive, man. Stable, I guess.

SOCIO POLITICAL POSITION: Uh... Alphinaud???

EDUCATION LEVEL: Lyllyan herself has had up to some college in her own world. In Eorzea, she has an understanding of Aether and well has learned all the classes, so being able to pick up something new, she can learn fairly quick.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Captain Carebear (Mykel Weiss)

MOTHER: She doesn't have the ability to go to Eorzea so her name is Lynn Weiss.

Siblings: Lucas Weiss(Rafien Dalarain(Deactivated)), Nathaniel Weiss(Random Guy (deactivated)), Olivia Weiss (Never been to Eorzea).

EXTENDED FAMILY: Grandmother(Nana)(Deceased), Granfather(Poppy), Fortemps Family (Rest in Peace Haucherfaunt).

NAME MEANING(S): Lyllyan is based off of the Lily flower. Aster is based off of the Aster flower, and then Weiss is a name given to those with white hair or pale complexion.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION: Um...Ascian? Amourotine?

FAVORITES.

BOOK: If its Manga, It's Rurouni Kenshin. Books would be the 'Septimus Heap' series by Angie Sage.

MOVIE/PLAY: Movie would be 'Wizard of Oz'. Favorite Play would be 'Hamilton'.

5 SONGS:

•'Seasonal Feathers' by Len and Rin Kagamine

•'Drakkar' by Distrion and Electro-Light

•'Light it Up' by Robin Hustin and TobiMorrow (feat. Jex)

•'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes

•'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran

DEITY: Thaliak

HOLIDAY: Valentione

MONTH: November/ 6th Astral Moon

SEASON: Spring

PLACE: Rak'Tika Greatwoods

WEATHER: Rain

SOUND: Ocean waves.

SCENT(S): Cherry Blossom, sweet.

TASTE(S): Favorite food is Bacon so....also likes sweet things.

FEEL(S): Fuzzy blankets, warm cloth, soft.

ANIMALS: She loves all animals! If she had to narrow it down, it would be Cats, Pandas, and Chocobos. Does Pokemon count?

NUMBER: 8 but screw Construct 8

COLORS: Purple, light green, light blue.

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Drawing.

BAD AT: Math. She used to bring her homework to Eorzea to have Alphinaud and Urianger help her.

TURN ONS: Oooo. Funny, kind, calm, generous, but also romantic.

TURN OFFS: Selfish, rude ass hoe, and killing my friends.

HOBBIES: Singing, Drawing, Reading, Exploring, Triple Triad.

TROPES: Mother Hen.

AESTHETIC TAGS: Chocolate and Caramel. Honey. Lavender and Leaves. I think that's how this works???

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): Scions of the Dawn. It consist of Dad and myself.

ALT FC(S): None.

OLDER FC(S): We did have an FC on Gilgamesh called Lionheart with the Tag FF8. It was one that we had started the game when we got out of beta, but moved to different server/data center.

YOUNGER FC(S): *Confused Au Ra noises*

VOICE CLAIM(S): ??????

GENDERBENT FC(S): *Even more confused Au Ra noises*

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: IF YOU COULD WRITE YOUR CHARACTER YOUR WAY IN THEIR OWN MOVIE, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED, WHAT STYLE WOULD IT BE FILMED IN, AND WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?

•So, I'm already making a comic that I want to make as an animation for the story of FFXIV with my character and her friends. This character was specifically built for FFXIV, but it has a twist. Kinda like a Sword Art Online ordeal, but instead of Millions of people playing are stuck in the world, it's just like 100, but they aren't stuck, in fact they are just chosen to go between their world and Eorzea. If they die, they don't actually die, but respawn, even in their own world, but they feel how they die and the only way for them to die in any shape or form is by natural cause like old age or sickness. This would be a 2D animation in the anime style and be a multi episode series with multiple seasons. I even though about branching out to go certain routes so that Lyllyan can end up with all my favorite characters. I would call it Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn.

Q2: WHAT WOULD THEIR SOUNDTRACK/SCORE SOUND LIKE?

•With it being a Final Fantasy story, it would have Final Fantasy Music.

Q3: WHY DID YOU START WRITING THIS CHARACTER?

•Lyllyan Weiss was made to represent me and she still does, but also inspires me to be more like my courageous heroic self. Because of this, I have been able to do things like crossing a bridge that's in bad shape to get to the other side without the fear of falling, just to get back to my mom who went to the other side on a trip we had.

Q4: WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?

•She is literally me.

Q5: DESCRIBE THE BIGGEST THING YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

•Just like me, she is stubborn and hard working, but there are times she pushes herself way too much. She hesitates to ask for help, not because she doesn't trust the people around her, but more of trying to not burden them. Others wish she would open up to them and also rest when she can. Raha has to literally force her to rest, and she nearly gets herself killed against the first battle with Rahjit because she kept getting back up to fight even when the others beg her to stop.

Q6: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN COMMON WITH YOUR MUSE?

•Almost everything. Major thing is that she doesn't look like me, but also I know when to quit.

Q7: HOW DOES YOUR MUSE FEEL ABOUT YOU?

• I feel like if Lyllyan and I were to meet in person, we'd get along just fine. We would play video games all day long if we could.

Q8: WHAT CHARACTERS DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE INTERESTING INTERACTIONS WITH?

•OH BOI HERE WE GOOO

- Leveilleur Twins: Alphinaud and Alisaie are very close to Lyllyan. Alphinaud used to pull Lyllyan out of class to have her hurry up and go through the story, now its chill and play ace attorney. Alphinaud, depending on what route is taken, is definitely in love with Lyllyan and is constantly teased about it by everyone. Alisaie is like a sister to Lyllyan. They have had many nights where the pulled 24 hours playing Sims. Alisaie is who Lyllyan tries to protect the most between the two. She's also the reason why Lyllyan is now Bi. Lyllyan absolutely adores her and if the route is taken, they end up being the cutest couple.

-Leon D'hart: An Alt character that I made that depending on the story and route, he is also Lyllyan's Lover. He is a character made by Square Enix to be the Warrior of Light replacement if Lyllyan did not succeed in preventing herself becoming a light warden. His story with her is a bunch of trial and tribulations, but in the end they do end up married.

-G'raha Tia/Crystal Exarch: The main story Lyllyan's Lover. Great friend to start out and tears were shed when he sealed himself into the tower. He really kept Lyllyan guessing when he was Exarch. When Emet-Selch kidnapped him, Lyllyan was hellbent on getting him back. Now she visits him at the first everyday bring stuff from Eorzea for him, and even occasionally stuff from her world. He is her world as she is to him.

-The Scions: Thancred and Lyllyan are like Big brother, Little sister. He protects her, and scolds her as such. They may act like they hate each other, but the moment either gets hurt, the other is at their sides. Though rumor has it that Thancred had feelings for Lyllyan. Y'shtola is close to Lyllyan, but is usually not around often. Shtola usually is often around to keep an eye on Lyllyan's aether since her amount is quite high compared to the others and her fellow Warriors of Light. Urianger is someone who used to hardly talk to Lyllyan, but started opening up more after the years. He had watched her grow from 15 moons to now 21 as the others, but they seem to be more special to him. Lyllyan swore to protect him if anything ever happened especially after he asked her her thoughts on his new attire. Tataru is a precious angel and if anyone was to hurt her, Lyllyan would kill everyone and then herself. Ryne, even though she is not a scion, she is a scion. Ryne worries about Lyllyan, but is often in awe of her. Lyllyan and Thancred adopted her, and she's ended up calling Lyllyan mom on many occasions.

-Ser Aymeric: Depending on the route, he would be Lyllyan's Lover and he tries to protect her when he can, be it politics or in war. He has a dream to journey with her, and though he can't do so with Lylyan Weiss the Au Ra, there is nothing saying he can't make a character and become a Warrior of Light himself and travel with Sakura Yue(Lyllyan's Alt).

-Zenos Yae Galvus: So this guy commits Seppuku and then shows up at Lyllyan's job as her new Bartender. They end up becoming friends through the job, and the fact that Zenos is bored out of his mind that he can't go kill people,but finding out later that he is back makes Square Enix themselves worried about this guy.

-Estinien: Lyllyan had adopted him as her Edgy Son. He hates it. He reminds her that he is older than him, and she retorts about beating him as a Lalafel. He usually starts brooding after that on a high building that usually takes Alphinaud and Ser Aymeric to get him down.

•I'm only stopping this cause there are so many more characters!!!

Q9:WHAT GIVES YOU INSPIRATION TO WRITE YOUR MUSE?

•Music and Playing Final Fantasy. Mainly XIV, but others do count too, but also reading all the other fanfiction and comics about final fantasy XIV.

Q10: HOW LONG DID THIS TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?

About...4 hours? Maybe more? My hands definitely hurt from all the typing! XD

============

Tagged by @amandafullmetal

Tagging @ladyramora @ranier-layarte @scholarlostintime @fabledtactician

[kuriquinn]

Hi! I have been reading your fics for like a year now and i absolutely love them. Just one question though and I hope you don't take it the wrong way. Why do you make Sakura a bad cook in your fics? I mean i have read that you would like to stick to canon as much as possible. Cause Sakura was never shown to be a bad cook in the manga and even in the epilogue novels. That's why it was a draw between Sakura and Ino during the cooking showdown in Konoha Hiden. Her bad cooking is just an SP joke.

Mostly it’s a personal headcanon. I like making characters that have one or two flaws to keep them human.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my version of Sakura is very mature and sassy and always understanding and kind of exaggerated. I made her into the heroine I would like to read about or watch on tv, and I could do that because we barely see her very much after the end of the manga. But as a writer, I also know that characters without flaws are very often labeled as Mary Sues and quickly lose the interest of the readers (if they don’t get criticized outright).

So even though Sakura has become this total badass, I try to give her some traits to keep her from being perfect (and which I think make sense based on hints from the manga and anime). Like, she still has a temper, and while I don’t exaggerate it the same was SP does and have her knocking out anyone who pisses her off (i.e. Naruto or Sai), it still rears up occasionally.

Her lack of culinary talent it another one (and for some reason this one really pisses people off and I don’t know why…maybe they see it as some kind of assault on her womanhood or something? I dunno…but it’s so ingrained in my headcanon by now I refuse to change it).

I got the idea from when Sakura was making soldier pellets for Naruto that were chock full of nutrients but utterly horrible tasting. Also, I read something once about a character (can’t remember what fandom) where this woman was a brilliant chemist, loved to cook…and was utterly horrible at it. Like she just liked the chemistry and health applications of cooking but for the life of her couldn’t make things taste good. I even know people like that in real life who do a lot of cooking but just make everything kind of tasteless.

So that kind of became my headcanon for Sakura, which I thought goes hand in hand with her antidote making abilities: medicine doesn’t have to taste good it just has to work. And I also like the idea of her being too busy improving herself and getting stronger growing up, and then running the hospital, to be spending a lot of time cooking. It’s an effort to keep her from relegated to the kitchen, so to speak, which Kishimoto (and most male Japanese writers) have a tendency to do.

Even Hinata, who was to be be head of the Hyuuga and became this hero who saved the moon with Naruto…she’s basically Suzy Homemaker in the new series. And while that works for her character (she literally spent the anime aspiring to be with Naruto and Kishimoto barely gave her any other goals), Sakura didn’t just want to end up with Sasuke, she wanted to be better so she could stand beside her teammates in times of trouble.

You’re not going to get much training done if you’re spending your days learning to cook (and take it from someone who was in charge of feeding my whole family from the age of 14 when my mother went back to work, being able to cook well takes A LOT of practice.) It’s not just throwing some instant noodles together, it’s the prep and getting ingredients that are right and the actual cook time, the clean up time, the putting the leftovers together…and when you do that alone with no help, you can easily be in the kitchen for 2-3 hours a day (and in my experience the better the cook, the messier the cook, the longer the clean-up…).

So when you’re in a field like medicine like Sakura is, it’s unlikely you’re not going to spend a lot of time in your kitchen, especially if you’re also busy training as a shinobi, going on missions, trying to get the love of your life to get his head out of his ass and come home, etc.

Ergo, my Sakura may be able to cook, but she doesn’t do it well. So while raising Sarada she provided fully nutritional meals to her daughter like a good mom should…but they were sort of bland and tasteless. And until Kishimoto himself tells me she is some sort of Julia Child genius in the kitchen, I won’t be changing it.