#I love my aro ace protag

[the-wandering-navigator]

….. which sketches have I posted here before i disappeared

[atalana]

supergiant you can't keep toying with my heart like this re: aro mel

[queen-tashie]

I saw you have multiple ace characters. Care to talk about them?

I would love to talk about my ace characters!

In Copper Frames, there are three. In my other WIPs like SAS, who knows how many ace people there may be, I'll figure that out as I outline I think, though I'd like to add at least one demisexual person in. I haven't yet represented my own queer identity XD.

Anyway, back to Copper Frames.

The protagonist, Dr. Amelia Roch, is ace aro. She's open to the possibility of a queer platonic relationship, but she's sex repulsed. She's a medical doctor, although she had a microbiology/virology Ph.D. prior to her time as a physician. She's got ADHD like myself (all my protags do, Idk how to write anything else yet haha). She's 52 years old (@elizmanderson thank you for inspiring me to write an older protagonist, older ladies need some love like this). She's an immigrant in the country the story takes place, which is inspired by the Ukrainian side of my heritage, but she's from the Earth-equivalent of Italy.

The deuteragonist, Svitlana, is a trans woman and ace biromantic, and also interested in a queer platonic relationship, if the opportunity presents itself. But because of her abilities, she's an Empathic Psychic, the government has long since signed her into a restrictive contract where she is a direct advisor to the Emperor (genderless), and her leave often has to be authorized first. There's three kinds of Psychics in Copper Frames, Empaths, Clairvoyants, and Mediums. Empaths can sense the emotions of people around them (it's particularly hell-ish when they are in high density places, like the palace in the middle of the biggest city in the country). A supporting character, 22nd Emperor Nadiva Sirota, is ace aro. She's happy alone. She recently became the Emperor when the previous one died of an illness, and she was named heir on his deathbed. Since then, she's made it law to cap the prices of medicine, so greedy companies developing it cannot price gouge the people who need it, whether it's life saving or quality of life medicine. She's taken notice to an incurable and unidentified illness that's infecting people in her country, and she enlists the help of Dr. Roch, along with dozens of other doctors and scientists.

[ganondoodle]

i kinda want to read books again, i havent read any in .. more years than i know to remember but idk how to find anything i like, especially these days (i dont read fanfiction either .. , i tried a few times but it never really caught me q-q)

even when i was young i was somewhat picky (though there are plenty books im sure i finished but just .. dont remember) the last series i think i read was skullduggery pleasant (as i said, its been many years) but dropped it after it got a little 'weird' (in like .. i guess the shonen powerscaling problem, at least thats how it felt back then) and the annoying love interest boy that was seemingly only introduced so protag girl could do what normal girls do tm (i know theres many more books in the series so idk if hes actually more than that but eugh)

funnily enough i only seem to remember the books i loved so much i kept rereading them (the bartimäus trio, though i loved the forth prequel more than the others .. still sad i lost my copy of it in school) or the ones i stopped reading bc something completely threw me out of it-

there was one i literally only remember it was a protagonist (teen?) girl (is that a general common thing for the fantasy genre?) and she was travelling via a ship in that scene, idk if it was a flying one but something was different magical tm i think; and left it or ran away or so and sought shelter from the rain at some point and annoying boy caught up to her and they uuh .. started making out of nowhere?? (im sorry i literally only remember i felt rly uncomfortable and awkward, didnt like the boy, thought they had zero chemistry/felt forced AND i did NOT see it coming, like at all, maybe its my aro/ace/autism .. ness (that i wasnt aware of except being def different for most of my life, haha fun.) but i rememebr feeling like i got flashbanged by what i read, the only actual sentence i (think i) remember was "she felt the weight of his hips shifting onto hers" bc it weirded me out so much and i might just have stopped reading it at that point and never looked back lmao)

another one was one with a setting of having dragons and they were used like horses, also feathered! (though the cover picture, i think, was a big dragon eye surrounded by scales, pretty sure it annoyed me constantly but i might missremember, again its been so long and i went through things my brain wishes it could unlive) and the protagonist worked at a stable or soemthing (also girl? idk), last thing i remember was that all dragons started to go mad and kill themselves .. idk if i read any further

(honorable mention to uuh .. dämonenzeit (demon time), was a demon protagonist and it was a little brutal for my taste but when do you get a demon as the main guy, apparently there were two entries and i only read the first one, also lost that copy- Xarors (an OC of mine) first designs were based on the cover of that book and the thing the band 'disturbed' tended to use (the hooded guy with red glowing eyes) i was very original)

maybe all those were super well known ones and i just never knew (grew up without/extremely limited internet and tech in general after all.... the only one i knew was popular and also read all of it and had all parts .. was a certain bad wizard series that should not still be so popular *watches in horror as my niece gets into it and wants nothing but merch for it*) or really bad peepoo baby books, im possibly confusing or mixing some things bc i read quite a few ones with dragons and similar themes, but thats just what i remember/remember feeling like

(maybe i should see if i still have them somewhere and see how much is true of any of this .... though a part of me also doesnt want to)

[mae-i-scribble]

My post on How I Attended and All Guys Mixer picked up a few more notes than I was expecting recently and it reminded me that I've been wanting to talk about how appreciative I am about how the series handles sexuality. I'll only be talking about the manga here bc I haven't seen the live action drama nor do I plan to. But I just think it's really neat that with our 3 male protags we get to see 3 very unique reactions to 1) learning that crossdressing is a thing and 2) how they in turn feel attraction wise.

I'll start off with Asagi as I feel his is the most straightforward in that he just takes everything in stride. Literally nothing phases him. Thanks to that he's the most nonchalant of the group, just chatting up and trying to make friends per usual. He's confused somewhat, but doesn't pay it any mind and just tries to get to know everyone as he would any other new friend. Personally, I can really see an aro/ace argument for Asagi due to the way he's just, completely unaffected and uninterested in the romantic ongoings around him. He compliments the girls and such but even when the manga is going pretty hard pushing its other pairings Asagi and Fuji truly just seem like good friends. I'm not delusional, this is a romance manga that from the get-go clearly has these pairings in mind to all get together romantically, but until it happens I can gaslight myself into believing my aroace truth (is coping so bad).

Going from most chill about everything to 2nd most chill we have Tokiwa. Tokiwa is an interesting case in that he's polite to such a degree that he does his best to mask his initial confusion and shock (to the extent that yknow, a comedy manga will allow). Though it doesn't really work because he is very overwhelmed by the situation at hand. However, I don't think this is attributed to the girls' crossdressing alone in the same way that Hagi can't get over his initial shock of the concept. Tokiwa's chief concern isn't the "weirdness" of it all but the fact that he came here expecting a meet cute with a cute girl and instead is getting a meet cute with someone equally as charming but with none of the reserved attitude we see Suo have while she's fem-presenting. My boy is not worried about gender norms he is worried for his sanity due to the attractive person flirting with him.

Honestly, this panel here implies that he finds masc-presenting Suo even more attractive. The fact that he even tries to reassure himself that because Suo is a woman this situation is less flustering is very interesting. Not that it does anything. Pouring one out for Tokiwa for real. As the manga goes on, Tokiwa gives off the vibe of someone who is comfortable with his sexuality enough that the gender presentation of the person he likes is irrelevant, both are attractive to him in different ways. Again, while Suo's crossdressing is a point of interest in the sense that it's not something he understands or gets intuitively, he doesn't have nearly the same level of crisis as Hagi does. His attraction to Suo is never questioned- rather it seems to be a question of whether or not he thinks Suo is genuine in her flirting.

And our last boy is Hagi, poor beloved Hagi who is having the time of his life trying to figure out that hey, sometimes people don't dress or present stereotypically. It's a rough life for you Hagi. However, his inner conflict is very gripping. I find his reaction and subsequent coming to terms with the idea of crossdressing a very realistic take on the subject much more akin to your average person being introduced to everything for the first time. It never feels mean spirited even if Hagi can be offensive in this thoughts and comments at first- it's born from a place of genuine confusion, both towards himself and towards the girls. Hagi falling in love with Kohaku, while a little to rife with misunderstandings for my taste, I think is a wonderful narrative of how even being straight doesn't mean that there is one way to feel attraction. While Kohaku throws around the idea of him being bi due to him being attracted to Kohaku while she's masc-presenting, Suo best sums it up when she says that it's not about the words or the looks, its about who it's coming from. And given that we haven't seen Hagi struggle with this from anyone else, it's a safe bet to say he likes Kohaku as masc-presenting, not necessarily masc-presenting people or men in general. Attraction as a fluid concept is something most straight romance stories, let alone a comedy based one, seldom bother to explore along the gender spectrum. Hagi's struggle to understand himself and what his attraction to Kohaku means to him personally is such an interesting take that it elevates the entire storyline out of miscommunication hell almost (just almost).

Idk idk this feels like a very silly rant to have but I do in fact love this manga more than a reasonable amount and this is definitely one of the top reasons for it. I would love for it to get a bit more attention but I shall settle for rereading it for the 20th time I suppose

[imakemywings]

A+ Library Review: "Loveless" by Alice Oseman

This is not technically the first installment of this, but it is the first time I'm making it A Thing. A+ Library is my new segment where I review books with asexual and/or aromantic characters.

Previous review: The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong

The book description for Loveless is:

Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush - but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she's sure she'll find her person one day. As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia's ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her 'teenage dream' is in sight. But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her.

The character: Georgia Warr, aro/ace

So let's get to it.

TL;DR: Thumbs up from me

Since Loveless centers entirely around the aroace experience, I will not be breaking the review into sections like last time.

Loveless is a coming-of-age story about Georgia's first year at college. It begins with her graduation party out of high school and ends with her establishing plans for her second year of college. It's very slice-of-life, with a focus pretty much exclusively on Georgia's interpersonal relationships and her personal growth.

Oof. Okay. Loveless was at times hard for me to read, and not because it's bad, but because it hit so close to so many of my own experiences at Georgia's age. There were so many times I felt myself going "Oh yeah, I remember that. Yep, there's that phase. Yep, I told myself that story too. Yep, yep, yep."

Just like Georgia, I considered myself someone with "high standards" who would inevitably break the romance and sex barrier when I got to college. This book hit on so many of my own insecurities from that phase, some of which I still struggle with at times, but I will try to be objective about this review nonetheless.

Loveless does a wonderful job of unfurling Georgia's journey, from the start where she considers herself "just like everyone else" but a bit slow on the romance front, to realizing she's Different, through the difficult process of starting to accept that difference as part of her.

Unlike my last review, Loveless earns its found family by showing how Georgia and her friends grow together and apart and back together--with additions. Everyone in Loveless is on their own journey--and at different stages of it. From Pip who's been out as lesbian since she was fifteen and eager for a first girlfriend, to Rooney who's long suspected she's not really straight, to Georgia who's only just grasping the words to describe her experience.

And sometimes they hurt each other! One of the complaints I had about One Last Stop was how all the relationships (protag's mom aside) are entirely fluffy feel-good. Loveless eschews that by showing how friends can hurt each other even when they don't mean to, and how people have competing needs, and how past struggles can impact your present. But in spite of that, it's clear how much all of the main cast grow to care for each other over the course of the book, such that the ending is truly heartwarming.

The prose suits Georgia's voice, which is to say it sounds like an 18/19 year old girl is speaking. That means it's not very eloquent, and it can be blunt and cringy, but in a very believable, realistic way to me.

Georgia's coming of age isn't limited to just her orientation. At the start of the book, she is painfully alien to herself. Georgia doesn't seem to know anything about herself, as if she's spent all her adolescence wrapped in a thick blanket glued to fanfic and refusing to interrogate any of her own feelings--which is probably what happened. It means that she has a very rough time when she enters college. Unlike many such stories, Georgia is not jumping at the bit to be on her own--in the moment when her parents dust off their hands and prepare to leave her with her boxes of stuff in her new dorm, Georgia contemplates begging them not to leave her.

Loveless really captures a sentiment I experienced with asexuality, which was the sense of being left behind by your peers, of feeling childish and immature. Desperate to shake the feeling, Georgia makes an admirable effort at "putting herself out there," doing all kinds of things she doesn't really think she'll like, but wants to give a try, just in case. In some cases, she bombs--but in others, like the Shakespeare Society, she really blossoms. I thought the book makes an excellent picture of a lost young person beginning their adult life with no real idea of who they are, and trying to solve that problem.

Perhaps most painful of all, Loveless captures Georgia's fear of not knowing what her future will look like now that whirlwind love affair-->marriage-->2.5 kids is off the table. It's particularly difficult for her because Georgia so desperately wants that romance--except that for her it's something of a mirage: as soon as it gets close--like when a boy tries to kiss her--all her interest is gone in a flash. Georgia wants to want romance and sex...but she doesn't, really. Even when she's accepted her orientation, she really struggles with what this means for the rest of her life, which also felt very relatable. Partnering up is seen as virtually inevitable, and as the book points out: life is scary! It's way less scary when you have a Person! Therefore, part of Georgia's insecurity and uncertainty focuses a lot on what her future is going to be, and it's not a question she's solved by the end of the book. But it is one she's becoming less afraid of.

There were a few things that struck me as odd, like Pip's claim she had never "fully connected" with friends who aren't Latina, a sentiment echoed by Sonil's refusal to accept his asexuality until he met other Indian people who also used the label...obviously there are certain things that friends who don't share your racial or cultural background may not fully understand, but the idea that you can't connect with anyone who doesn't share your same racial make-up is...uncomfortable, I think. But these remarks pass quickly.

Additionally, the way Rooney and Georgia berate themselves for "experimenting" comes off unnecessarily harsh to me...part of dating is learning whether you're compatible with that person. And yeah--sometimes that means figuring out if you are or are not attracted to them, or their gender more broadly. There's nothing inherently wrong with starting to date someone you're not sure you're into, and then realizing you aren't.

The book also beats Georgia's fanfic reading to death a little, in my view. It gets mentioned way more than it needs to, and citing specific ships and tropes a) is going to date the book like hell; and b) is irritatingly obtuse to anyone who doesn't know what "Stucky" or "flower shop AU" is.

If you're deep into the ace/aro online community, this book may come off as retreading a lot of well-trod ground for you. There's nothing especially ground-breaking in it. But if you're not so connected, or you're new to the aro/ace community, or you just want a book that still-coming-out you needed, I think this is a great pick.

Next review: The Bruising of Qilwa (TBP)

[goatpaste]

YOOOO, you a Silent Hill fan too??? I honestly love Silent Hill (well, except homecoming and the movies, with the 3rd game being my fav of all time), but if I had a quarter for everytime I find a Jojo fan who also happens to be a Silent Hill fan, I would have 2 quarters.

With that being sad, if you are still doing pride drawings, an aro/ace heather mason.

WOO YAY i love Heather sm, forever the best Silent Hill protag, none better

personally i LOVE the movies, especially the first one i think its great and kinda does the first games story better in a lot of ways. the second one is just fun i think the game is a better telling lol. personally i really only dislike Silent Hill 2 out of the whole series and even then i like stuff in it like the music and monster designs lol

but 3 is forever truly the champion of the Silent Hill Franchise to meeee

Buy your local Bi trans Man a Kofi!

[friend-of-a-cat]

Does anyone else get aroace vibes from the Persona 3 protagonist, or is that just me?

Not to perpetuate the “I don’t care about anything or anyone” stereotype that ace and/or aro characters usually fall into, because I hate that as much as the next person, but… I don’t know. He just FEELS aroace. Or at least ace. I have no idea why.

Not that he’s necessarily unfeeling, by the way - I’m playing him as quite the opposite, actually (he’s more reserved and quiet than anything else). It just feels like people typically read him as someone who’s cold and uncaring (at least for part of the game), and I know that I, for one, am sick of aro and/or ace characters being only depicted as such, so my headcanon has nothing to do with that.

To be fair I do have a LOT of headcanons for each Persona protag that don’t really fit into the usual headcanons people have for them. The way I view the Persona 5 protag is completely different to how I’ve seen him be depicted in official or fan media, for example (I played him way more introverted than he probably actually is). I feel like I have to make a post about it in the future, honestly. I love those little guys and gals and I could talk about them for hours.

[detektyv]

art tag | twt

hii i put everything on this blog. i love freak men. games, toku, horror etc. potentially nsfw posts. 18+ only

asks + dms are open dont be afraid to send stuff im sillay

full about below

kordian/kord | he/him/wolf | PL+ENG OK |

bi aro + trans biohazard wolf guy

i like video games, tokusatsu, giant weapons, unorthodox experiments, middle aged men, 2008, detectives, and creatures. my gender is guy but basically if you gave a wolf the man gender

games: i like the rgg games with the judgment series being my fav. but other series include; resident evil, ace attorney, zero escape, the evil within, silent hill, fortnite etc. i also grew up on 00s games with cute critters as the protag which are like part of my personality forever

other: i like movies (the matrix, the thing, saw are some of my favs), digimon, pokemon, hamtaro, tamagotchi, initial d, berserk, 00s eurodance

[harukirai]

Were you kidding when you said that Terra was supposed to have a girlfriend?

No, not exactly, idr cause the last time i fund any articles about ff6 was like 10 years ago now its hard to find stuff now, but my older cousin is a massive ff fan since childhood and he is the one i got most of my info from since whenever there was a new interview or ultimania or book he was the first one to update me even though in this instance it was ten years ago and even he couldnt find this interview anymore but yeah he also remember an interview with kitase about it.

Eiter way the team left it for the player interpetation since terra is one of the few ff protags with no official love interest. Also there was that one half flirt line to celes which set the fandom on fire for awhile back then(also it was a half joke thingy like the barret date wgich i have allot to say about but i dont wanna set the fandom on fire)

Also i think i forgot to mention in my original post but in the end i think she is aro ace/very demi.(in the final cut)

(also this whole controversy happened when the gba version was released cause i think the translation was a bit different from the snes version so it sparked the controversy but as you imagine this was a long ass time ago)

*i played it first on the gba era in english(one of the few ff i played first in english since i couldnt wait a half a year to get the japanese version, also on gba its harder to read kanji since mine wasnt backlit) and my older cousin (played the jp version on ps1&sf&gba- he was the one who got me into final fantasy) so i had a chat with him to confirm this memory and he said he also thought the game implied her being either lesbian or asexual.

Im in midst of replaying the older titles in honor of the pixel remaster(but i play the ps1 versions cause its prettier 👁️👄👁️)

So ill do an update sometime when ill finish(also idk if they re translated the pixel remasters or no so my posts will be faithful to the original)

Also sorry for my bad english i suck at expressing myself via writing in all languages.

But yeah ive sent my cousin on the quest to find this iterview in the deep japanese web so good luck to us😂(i have a very severe adhd so sorry if its all over the place i tried to be the clearest i can)

*edit also- speaking wise my japanese is good enough to play games, but i suck at kanji so if there is no furigana i need to use kanji apps/ dictionarys (im mixed and wasnt born in japan so all my language abilities are through family since i live in a country that theres not many japanese mixed/asian mixed at all)

So when ill get a new pc i would rework the posts again+ gather all the links& translations ( i really wanted to take screenshotsfrom the games and edit translations and do a big post but its still on the way since i cant make it work on my phone properly but yeah its in the works for a while now i was just pissed on the huge backlash 16 got bec it had a gay kiss(idk if online but in local jrpgs groups this shit was everywhere)

So i just took all the notes i was collecting for a while and posted it in a very low quality post but yeah it was a vent post to the void mostly😂

[rubye402]

I have been made aware that it's Ace Day. Here are some good Aro and/or Ace representations in recent things I've watched:

(Ace rep) Sucker for Love.

Technically the sequel that's planned, and also what the gif above is, but to my knowledge only the demo is out right now.

From what the demo is though, we have a POC Lesbian Asexual and it really doesn't make a big deal of having that kind of protag to the point where you could tell it was for any brownie points. In fact I argue that you could tell the dev really took the time to caring. (One line is literally "Girl...... Pretty...!" Which anyone will tell you "Oh yeah that is 1000% what it feels like as a gay." /pos)

Anyways, at the very least I do recommend the first game too, because while we follow a white male protag, his goal that he would end the world over was literally "I wanna smooch this game's version of Cthulhu." No I'm not kidding. This game, even with blood and slight body horror, is fucking hilarious. Plus the dev made the first for their wife. Which is fucking cute as hell.

(Ace and AroAce rep) In Stars and Time.

WARNING! This one tackles a LOT of heavy subjects. I can't think of the full list of content warnings but be warned this one gets a LOT darker. BUT!!! Dear GOD even the snippets I've seen is a BEAUTIFUL game.

If you wanna see a preview of what's to come I would watch JelloApocolyse's edited video of his friends going through the beginning parts, because they edit the final parts of that video to spoil basically NOTHING about the finale, Jello says as much in the comments. And of course, given those guys are AMAZING voice actors, they're hilarious while also giving a ton of heart to these characters.

But the game itself?

20 bucks on Steam.

That's it.

Oh yeah, the Main character is He/They, Gay, and Ace, and one of their friends is AroAce. If you can't tell by it being basically my last point, REALLY not the focus of the game at all, instead it's more about the bonds and love you have for friends even through something you can't control.

Anyways if you guys have more games to share, go ahead and share away!

[scarletlotus182]

Just finished ZZ Gundam~!

Some scattered thoughts on the finale and on the show itself

Final episode was a solid 7/10. It felt a lot like they were trying to capture the magic that was in the final confrontation between Char and Amuro in the original MSG but didn't have nearly the same build up. And I feel like that's a huge shame because Haman herself has had a massive buildup as a villain and was FANTASTIC, Judau, also a great protagonist. I fucking love Judau and Haman as our main figures! But they really just didn't have much chemistry, imo.

I like that the finale tried to wrap up a lot and put a neat little bow on things rather than just immediately end after the bad guys' hq exploded (though it was great in MSG) but it felt like a lot of context was missing. Still, it was all worth it to see Kamille recovered and earn his happy ending. I did also like that the ZZ Gundam carried the will of all the people lost in the show AND Zeta, I was so happy to see Four again :' )

---

Overall, I liked ZZ a lot, and I'm glad I stuck with it. It certainly wasn't perfect and while there's things about it I liked more than other gundam series, I don't think I'd place it above Zeta. It kind of rubs me the wrong way the way that puru and puru two get discarded and how quickly everyone moves on from it. Especially because Puru, imo, was the best character in the show. Yeah she was a brat and really annoying sometimes but we also got to see her grow and struggle with her programming. I get it's part of the message but it's really sad to me that none of the cyber newtypes ever managed to recover and all met horribly tragic endings.

I find Judau to be a really fun protagonist too who strikes a bit of a middle ground between Amuro and Kamille's maturity and growth throughout the series. But something that never stopped bugging me was how kind of one-track minded he was and how he always manages to brush people off, especially those that care about him. Maybe it really is because he's the youngest protag yet but there were some parts that just got me really frustrated with the writing.

I also felt the Roux/Judau pairing comes in out of nowhere. Really, Judau kinda shows no interest in anyone and to me I feel like he could be read as aro/ace.

Still, as far as ships go my opinions are 1. Roux/Elle 2. Judau/Elle 3. Haman/Me 4. Maybe a hot take- Beecha/Iino

and that's all the messy thoughts I have on ZZ after finishing it

[cmrosens]

If you want some weirdcore eldritch horror described as:

"Like Encanto but with more gore"

"As if Austen and Lovecraft had a baby and Taika Waititi was the godfather"

"Deepens from off-kilter to genuinely sinister to fairly seriously f'dup - I loved it"

"So good I bought it twice."

Then come for the small town, stay for the horrors. The first book is ace/aro with other rainbow flavours and polyam vibes, a lot of mental health stuff, and a taxidermy toy called Gerald. THE CROWS opens its doors to all who respect its/his/her historic, haunted rooms, and the house's avatar is excited to meet you.

In THIRTEENTH, meet the pansexual disaster man who is dtf literally anything, but be careful: he's a "step on me Maggie" neoliberal arsehole, allergic to therapy for his many family issues, and the antihero/straight up messy villain protag of Book 3, THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD.

If you liked the movie Glorious (2022), and you wished it was a guy who'd actually prefer to fuck a monster AND end the world at the same time, I gotchu. Check out the original post for the pre-order links for that one.

Grab the box set of the novels, novellas and short stories so far - all for just £6.99 instead of the £18.00-ish you'd have to pay for them all individually.

Preorder Links for THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD

Glorious (2022) meets The Brothers Karamazov (if you look at it sideways and squint a bit):

selfish pan polyam eldritch playboy (called Wes) who might end the world

family conflict with central warring triad

generational trauma

bloody murder

apocalyptic death cult

(For other Amazon stores, change .co.uk to your own ending - .com, .de, .jp, .au, etc)

[the-wandering-navigator]

Queen, lord of my heart, oh my god, the redraw of HatD is taking so long. 

[morallygay]

🟩⬜️⬛️ Animes for aro/ace people - Part 2 ⬛️⬜️🟪

The list was getting a bit too long so I decided to make a different post.

~if you see this post as a reblog, make sure to go to the original post, chances are I edited and updated it! ;)

part 1 here

“Yofukashi No Uta” / “Call Of The Night” (13 episodes)🔻

The protagonist wants to become a vampire, but for that to happen you need to be bitten by a vampire you are in love with, and he’s aro (can be both seen as aroallo or acespec). It’s not canon canon in-universe, but like, it’s canon, that’s literally what the plot is about. It has awkward wording/takes coming from the characters sometimes but it got the spirit. I haven’t finished the manga but I’ve been told that the character’s aromance is not invalidated to the end, and the story is precisely about how he doesn’t need to be “fixed”. The show tackles amatonormativity and the value of platonic relationships :). If you can’t handle or don’t like sensual/sexual stuff though, know that it’s omnipresent.

“Shimanami Tasogare” / “Our Dreams At Dusk” (4 volumes)🔻

An LGBTQ+ manga with multiple kinds of representation, including an AAA battery (character who is agender/nonbinary and aroace). Canon and they said the word! Although they didn’t differentiate between aromantic and asexual; in my translation they used ‘asexual’ and meant it as aromantic as well I assume.

“Death Note” (37 episodes)🔻🔹

Another big one but I’ll assume you don’t know about it so, basically: So misogynistic it’s gay. But also so homophobic it’s aroace. And since it’s a psychological thriller, romance is virtually nonexistent, except for a side character annoying girl who is in LOVE with the protagonist. Protagonist who does not show any interest whatsoever in romance/sex. He’s a serial killer but #diversity win I guess. I have admittedly only read the manga once when I was 12 so I may not remember these things accurately.

“Mob Psycho 100” (37 episodes + 2 OVAs)🔹

A must watch regardless. But in this context, a show about life wisdom and connection in the most fundamental human way, which makes it a very platonic show. Because of the nature of the relationships between the protagonist and the other main cast (master/‘parental’ figure, brother, intergenerational friendship), there is literally not even the place for shipping, apart from like the 1 friend his age. And these platonic relationships, oh boy, are they explored and developed and heartwarming. The protagonist has an idealized crush on a girl and that’s the only romantic element there is, and it’s handled maturely and to carry the same main themes I mentioned earlier; it’s absolutely not there for the sake of being romanticized.

! Mp100 is a phenomenal show in many ways, queer representation is not one of them. it is very much incredibly cishet. warning for transmisogynistic humor.

“Gintama” (367 episodes + specials and movies, but don't worry 'bout it)🔹

Genre: comedy. Gintama really is such a platonic show and I mean that as the highest compliment from an aspec person. If you’re looking for actual found family and other wholesome unconventional types of relationships you should know gintama is always there for you. Everything I said about mp100 just above is valid here too. Literally I don't know how to properly express how to me this show is about the celebration of platonic bonds! I literally made this meme, it's to this extent. An anime to bring up if someone pretends life (or fiction) without romance is pointless or less meaningful or whatever. And I'm not the only one who headcanons/interprets Gintoki (the protag) as aro(allo) <3.

warning: unsurprisingly for a comedy from the 2000s there is some offensive/insensitive queerphobic humour but it's (usually…) in a "they're a little confused but they got the spirit" way. Most importantly it's always humanizing. Like, the main characters would call me a slur while fighting alongside me for my rights. The LGBTQ+ community (me) has forgiven gintama.

It's unanimously beloved for a reason too, and aro ppl have all the more reason to vibe, so I recommend it in general; and don't think about the amount of episodes because I did at first and eventually I found myself devastated there were only like 50 left.

“Kimi No Sekai Ni Koi Wa Nai” / “Is Love The Answer?” (1 volume)🔻

Another manga. It is a queer manga specifically about aromance and asexuality, following an aroace character (touch repulsed) and their experience of comphet and general compallo, feeling alienated, and then learning about this identity, finding queer community and accepting herself. It delves into the topics of labels and identity, acknowledging and embracing fluidity, vagueness, and spectrums. It actually presents specific aspec microidentities I’ve never seen acknowledged anywhere else in fiction, much less explored. It made me feel like crying and kicking my legs with glee. I won’t go say everything it talks about but I truly recommend it for anyone, not just aspec people; in general but especially if you want to learn more about the world of aspec identities. (Also not that any are reading this but I recommend it to exclusionists. Like idk how you can read this and not feel it evident that aspec people are queer)

The same author also did a manga called “Mine-kun Is Asexual” prior to this one, and wrote other things on the topics of romance, sexuality and gender identity :)

“Koisenu Futari” (="two people who can't fall in love" idk the official engish translation if there is one) (8 episodes)🔻

This is a japanese drama. I have broadened the original topic of these posts a bit but I realized that with the microscopic amount of representation we have, why would I intentionally deprive people from knowing about the existence of this show? It is specifically about aromance and asexuality, and follows 2 aroace people who decide to live together and form a queerplatonic relationship. There are many other elements to the story and it touches upon multiple aspects of the aspec experience (lol aspects aspec), starting obviously with allonormativity and amatonormativity. Also our 2 main characters are both fully aroace but the show does make the distinction between aromantic and asexual, and shows a alloromantic asexual character at one point just for that clarification.

“Last Gender” (3 volumes)🔻

Similar to Shimanami Tasogare; it’s an LGBTQ+ manga. This one is centered around a sex bar which 'accepts anyone of any gender or sexuality'. It has an aroallo character, a lithromantic character, and a character who, to my understanding, would be the closest labelled as greyromantic and greysexual. That’s just for the aspec characters but there are other, particularily underrepresented, identities and kinds of people in this manga, like a pansexual person, a bigender person, polyamorous people, or ‘simply’ a gnc woman.

content warning: it’s sexually explicit. I mean the setting is literally a sex bar.

[milkbreadtoast]

Your ouran thoughts are so *chef's kiss* thank you for pointing out the whole haruhi gender thing bc as a trans person myself it always rubbed me the wrong way too how it got treated

🥹🥹🥹THANK U FOR READING MY OURAN THOUGHTS... this is 1 of the first animes ive ever watched so its rly formative/influential for me and ive rewatched it several times over the yrs and noticed more things and watched my opinions of the show and charas grow and change... Haruhi is 1 of my first encounters(actually i think the first) w a nonbinary chara in media and I love everything about their chara and the way they were written (and I love the whole concept of them being the protag of a shoujo harem anime despite being nonbinary and very aro/ace... a host who woos girls at that)... I especially love the way she doesnt change herself for anyone, keeps being authentically herself the entire anime in a way that touches and changes the rest of the cast too... like 1 little detail that symbolizes this well is the personal pronouns they use in jp... Altho they tried using "ore" a few times causing tamaki to freak out (HE SHOULDVE LET HER😒).. the main personal pronoun they use is "jibun"(lit: self, oneself), and it's a gender neutral pronoun... and importantly, they consistently use "jibun", whether it's before becoming a host(in middle school, when passing/being seen as a "girl"), as a host(while passing/being seen as a "boy"), and just out in daily life... Just as she doesnt change herself or act differently in all those contexts, and is just authentically herself, regardless of how people see her... and consistent with her belief that gender and outward appearance doesn't matter, it's one's personality/who they are underneath that does...

Haruhi and Tamaki form strong narrative parallels to each other because they both suddenly came into the lives of all the other host club members, were able to see them for who they really are (and not just the facade they put on for others), and just by being their genuine selves, touch and impact them deeply, even alter the course of their lives (some more than others, like tamaki for kyouya and haruhi being the first 1 to be able to differentiate the twins)..... And this is why I think it's... unfortunate that Tamaki was written the way he was, as so close-minded in his views on gender(and sexuality), bc 1 of the core traits of his character is being otherwise open minded and extremely empathetic... the dichotomy of his chara is despite being a "vain idiot" obsessed w looks and himself, he still shows this surprising depth and ability to read others... And of course I don't think it's surprising at all for him to have these transphobic and homophobic views, given he's a teen with a rich sheltered upbringing and all, so it was prob just. Sigh. ingrained in him bc thats how he was raised but.... narratively, with the way his character is otherwise so open (and bro is literally bi too😭) it really is unfortunate... Like his openmindedness is 1 of the strongpoints of his character (like how he wasn't put off at all when he saw Kyouya's "true face"...) And I think it goes against his nature, so I hope that once he gets older he starts to listen to the trans/nb/gnc ppl in his life and change his views... LIKE HARUHI... WHICH IS WHY ITS SO STRANGE. That he never once listens to them abt their gender the entire series... and he cares abt her sm YET doesnt listen and repeatedly, stubbornly tells her shes wrong and that she needs to be more feminine.... ugh. Yeah it's painful... And then with the way the manga ends with haruhi marrying tamaki and having babies and growing her hair out and becoming more feminine, as if it was all just a phase... *Agonized* ...Tbh I really do think. That this is the product of the (presumably cis) author not knowing enough abt the trans(/queer/lgbt) experience to know what to do with the amazing, nonconforming characters they created... I really do feel like if Ouran was an anime made today, and the author was more informed about LGBT issues and experiences, Tamaki could've been written differently and maybe more accepting and open toward's Haruhi's views on gender... Sigh... Anyway rip. Tfw a work so virulently transphobic and homophobic and a product of its time can also have some of the most compelling trans and gay characters and have sm poignant scenes that stand the test of time... Ouran my problematic beloved 🥲🥹