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translationandbetrayals · 4 years ago

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Satoru Kosaki: a Modern Anime Composer

fading memories

I don’t remember the first time I listened to a Satoru Kosaki composition. I think it might have been in Youtube, probably in a Loquendo or anime related video, and I know for sure that it was before watching any of the anime he actually scored. Nonetheless, I am also sure that I was impacted by them as soon as I became familiar with any of those themes, which wasn’t really hard considering how recurrent they were within the anime and early video-making community. I’m talking 2008-to-2012 kind of old.

The tracks were immediately recognizable and memorable, and while I wasn’t even initially aware they came from anime (I, for some reason, assumed they were public domain compositions, perhaps because of their repeated use), for better or worse, I ended up growing to like them, as funny and engaging. So that was effective.

I would later realize most of the themes I ended up accustomed to came from one source: the Lucky Star soundtrack, plus some of the Haruhi OSTs that might have been used too. Lucky Star is, if someone happens to not know about it, a comedy anime, which aims for mostly a familiar, comfortable ambience that I think gets captured perfectly in its OST. In fact, I think few OSTs come even close to the specific area Lucky Star’s so successfully hits.

Perhaps the exception could be the Azumanga Daioh OST, which might have been an influence based on the fact both works had the same music production company, Lantis, and that the very style of Lucky Star is quite similar as Azumanga’s, even adaptation wise, as both are 4-koma adapted as full-time weekly television slots.

lucky cool star

Now I’ve been talking about Satoru Kosaki scoring work. It is popular and good enough and as I said his work in Lucky Star is longstanding. But if you’re anywhere familiar with Lucky Star as a show you might be wondering about another thing. Who composed that motherflippin’ crazy OP theme? Was it Kosaki? Well yes it was.

There’s also some comparison to Azumanga Daioh, in that it presents a similarly crazed tune, but it also goes nuts in a different direction to Azumanga’s Soramimi Cake. While Soramimi Cake has an olden soul, closer to a folksy euro-japo mesh with nonsensical lyrics (think yodeling+enka), Motteke! Sailor Fuku sounds more like a cocaine driven hardcore edm moe hip-hop meltdown. Now this sounds more like a song that will revolutionize the industry and become a blueprint for following modern anime songs to come. And so it was, basically. After Lucky Star, everyone wanted to have their own deranged cutesy anime themes. And so you can blame Kosaki for your Umaru-chans, Nyarukos, Go! Go! Maniacs, etc.

Something that must be stressed about Kosaki’s theme for Lucky Star is that, on top of being so amazingly crazy and addictive, it was good music too. It was very well arranged and composed, and you should be thankful that he decided to bless us with equally amazing music, and even mentored or accompanied fellow artists that took on a similar approach to anime compositions. And that’s how MONACA enters the picture, as an active music collective of which Kosaki is part, that has had a hand, either by its members, or together as a group, in some of the most remarkable musical productions of recent times, even outside anime. (And like half of these are Hidekazu Tanaka’s... should I make a post about him?)

MONACA! with Kosaki at the middle-left

One of the most defining features of Kosaki’s work is his versatility. I have mostly talked about the Lucky Star music, but that should not be taken as his only reference. He’s able to manage climactic action just as well as the comfortable and funny.

Broadcast episode 12, Live Alive, is to me the actual climax of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I don’t know if the same effect would’ve been accomplished without its signature insert song, now one of the most popular anisongs ever: God Knows, sung by Aya Hirano, who voices Haruhi in the show. It is likely you have listened to God Knows before, after all, it was at one time the most viewed anime related song in Youtube, and its popularity has gone way beyond the -admittedly already popular- source material.

god knows this is good

And this versatility affects not only the scope of his dramatic sensibilities, but also the stylistic elements of his work, which takes on a variety of musical genres. And that is just evident by looking at his anime song work, which even outside of the Lucky Star fusion finds moe-sung ska-punk, soviet-inspired funky metal mashups, hip-hop crossover anthems, PLATINUM DISCO, borderline outsider music, avant-pop delusion, epic rocking tracks, some idol music masterpieces, and of course, classic, straight melancholic J-pop.

This variety in style becomes even clearer when looking at his OST work, which tends to be wildly eclectic, either by his MONACA collaborations (like the soundtracks to Kizumonogatari, Beastars, or the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie), or simply by virtue of his own character, in the various projects he scored individually (such as the aforementioned Haruhi and Lucky Star, or Bakemonogatari).

For example, the Kizumonogatari tracks which he composed include funny elevator jazz, french-spoken bossa, suspenseful ambient music, and sentimental, classical inspired stuff. I also really enjoy the Beastars work he’s done and I take it as proof he hasn’t gone stale, quite the opposite. He seems way more confident now in approaching different, out-there styles and arrangements, while also portraying a somewhat amusing maturity: he sounds to me a lot more like the Kuricorder Pops Orchestra or Oranges & Lemons, through the now classic Kosaki trademark nonetheless. And it’s probably because of his established success that he’s able to indulge in such styles now, while still maintaining his high profile as a popular music composer.

kiss-shot acerola-orion heart-under-blade

Even if you are not very well versed in anime, or even if you don’t like anime at all, but partake in current youth culture, it’s most likely that you’ve heard something made by him. Be it by memes referencing Kosaki’s past works, by the liberal use of his music to accompany mid-level internet content, or by his presence as a composer in some of the most successful and far-reaching anime today, such as Beastars and the Monogatari Series, his work has its footprints all around popular media. And I’m thankful that it happened this way, as he ended up enriching something I dearly know and love: the modern anime music industry.

our lord speaking

Salvador González Turrientes

Sources and recommended additional material:

A summary of Kosaki's first of many appearances in Anisong Station

His second appearance in Anisong Station, in which he talks about Lucky Star

Another Anisong Station episode, featuring Lantis founder Shunji Inoue

Satoru Kosaki’s VGMdb entry, which credits -in English- most of his video game and anime music appearances

The Wikipedia article, duh

The official Monaca profile list, including an archive of his body of work (in Japanese)

#Anime #Japan #personalstory #submission

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latin-dr-robotnik · 5 years ago

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What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces? (ft. beevean)

The following is a project I’ve been cooking for some weeks, trying to find out some reasons behind the general lackluster feeling that surrounds Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces. As you may have spotted already, this is not a solo project, since I’ve had the opportunity to talk about this very same topic with @beevean and she raised quite a couple of interesting points that I’m going to bring up as we go through.

Also, Spanish speakers: you can catch the Spanish version of this post here, it’s probably a more polished experience with additional text.

Long post below, so, bring up a ladder and a boombox, I’ll explain along the way. (there’s also a tl;dr at the bottom if you are that type of person)

Sonic Forces stands as a divisive point in the Sonic fandom, that much we all know, and we are not going to discuss the game’s general quality at all on this post. But we are going to take a solid look at Classic Sonic and, most importantly, its music, since I consider that’s the most clear symptom of a bigger problem with Classic Sonic in general, in this post-Generations Modern Sonic world.

A quick look at Classic Sonic

When Classic Sonic debuted in Sonic Generations (2011) as this new-but-also-old Sonic, gaming as a whole was still being bombarded with this “retro-revival movement” that brought back many classic franchises (like classic Mega Man with MM9 and 10 after a decade since MM8), and SEGA itself was in the middle of that train with the recently released Sonic 4: Episode 1 (2010). While Sonic 4 tried to marry Sonic’s current style with classic level tropes and even Genesis-inspired music in a seamless way (showing Sonic’s physical transition from his Sonic 3 days to Sonic Adventure as a smooth one), this new “Classic Sonic” guy in Generations suffered from a mixed message about his origins: is he Sonic from the past, from an alternate universe, or both? Is his music supposed to sound like arrangements of his classic 16-bits tunes or just modern-sounding remixes like the rest of the soundtrack? The fandom still debates about it to this day.

This all led to the introduction of a character that, although considered a “Sonic” like the other “Modern” one, could not establish his own identity beyond Generations’ anniversary-title plot threads. No unique music style, no unique traits, he was just a simpler Sonic.

Major manifestation of the Classic problem.

Fast-forward some years to November 2017, Sonic Forces’ release date. Besides gameplay, story and character criticisms, the music of Forces turned out to be quite controversial for a part of the fandom. Although I personally consider the Avatar songs as top-tier Sonic music, I share similar concerns as the rest about the rest of the game’s music, specially the Classic Sonic level themes.

With Forces, it seems the composers managed to solve some of Gens’ Classic Sonic music problems, as this time there was a better and more consistent attempt at making Classic’s music sound more at home with the “Genesis days” tunes, but even then the composers fell into other traps that ended up being more damaging to the final product.

Years later after the game’s release, I finally brought up this very same topic during a conversation with beevean (I encourage you that, if you find the following snippets interesting, read the entire conversation), and she had the following thoughts to share as to why Classic Sonic’s music was so... underwhelming:

the classic music in forces is the weakest part of the ost, some tracks are okay while others suck, and the main reason for this is that they hired the wrong people for the job

Okay, that wasn’t a fair cut on my part. She talks a lot more about each and every aspect behind the music, and about the people that composed it, she had the following to say:

Okay, about Forces’ music. First of all, the Classic tracks were handled by two people: Tomoya Ohtani, who also composed pretty much 90% of the OST and has been working solo since 2013 (relevant later), and Naofumi Hataya, one of the two geniuses behind Sonic 2 8-bit’s and Sonic CD’s OSTs (plus some miscellaneous work in Heroes, Colors, Generations, etc.). If you loved tracks like Sky High, Palmtree Panic or Stardust Speedway, you have to thank him.

This is already a reason as to why the Classic music in Forces doesn’t resemble the music in the Genesis games. While I can understand that it would have been impossible to hire Masato Nakamura again, Jun Senoue would have been good for the job, having composed music for Sonic 3 and most importantly Sonic 3D Blast. But apparently Senoue was MIA until 2019, so who knows.

I’d like to point out that Naofumi Hataya’s involvement will play a bigger role later in this post, as we keep searching for what went wrong and we look for a potential solution when adressing Classic Sonic.

Beevean continued with:

There are mainly two problems here:

1) some of the tracks just don’t fit their stage. I already mentioned that Ghost Town sounds way too happy for a city under attack by giant robots. Death Prison sounds vaguely Egyptian and the difference with the original, bass-heavy composition is staggering. Chemical Flow is the most generic thing and would fit everything and nothing, and again comparing it with the original iconic track is just sad. I think the reason Casino Forest and Iron Fortress are my favorite Classic tracks is that they go very well with their respective stages. This is a problem Adventure 2 had as well, associating a particular style to a particular character, and while I think Forces did it better, for me the priority should be fitting a level.

2) Ohtani was once a very versatile composer (the guy could go in one game from Wave Ocean to Crisis City, for example), but since Lost World, the first game in which he had the responsibility of an entire soundtrack, his style quickly became “anime”. Runners’ tracks? “This sounds like an anime opening!”. How do you recognize his only track in TSR? It’s the one that sounds like an anime opening and uses a synth.

And look, I love Ohtani, he has nothing but my respect, and he made some of my absolute favorite tracks in the series. But I do think they’re making him work too much - he’s the best when he can work with at least another person, and has the chance to span a little. I also think his style is incompatible with the Classic music, which was never anime: even at its mellowest in Sonic 1 it always had a little jazzy/new jack swing touch. Basically the only thing they got right in this game is having a wicked bassline :P

It ain’t *only* the composers’ fault

Following beevean’s words, I’d like to add my own take on the problem. You see, I do agree that the composers maybe weren’t up to the task of nailing the classic Genesis tunes’ vibe (Hataya got real close, though), but at the same time I do think they weren’t properly oriented or didn’t have enough time to keep reiterating on the frameworks they were working with. Like beevean said, some of the tracks improve quite a bit after leaving behind that mixed as hell “almost Genesis but not quite” soundfont.

The composers will work on what they were told to make and I have a strong, albeith unconfirmed, feeling that the Classic Sonic composers where asked to “make it sound retro” by someone higher up on the project management chain, and after checking on their progress, simply said “meh, it’s retro enough, no one will notice”.

The “make it sound retro” argument, in my opinion, opens up a big discussion about Sonic music, because there is no easy way to make it “retro” with Sonic. You just can’t pump out a few nostalgic chiptunes and call it a day. Sonic music may have originated back in the 16-bit days of the Sega Genesis, but his identity is so much more than just that Genesis FM sound. I personally believe, similar to another thing beevean point out, that Forces focused too much on sounding “retro enough” instead of fitting each track better to each level theme or even tap into what really made Sonic appealing on the classic days.

This last point is something that SEGA struggled a lot during the past decade, they introduced Classic Sonic as an entity separated from the current Sonic, yet they simply don’t give Classic Sonic enough development as it’s own character. He’s there because he’s there and we don’t know what to expect from him beyond “he represents the good old days”. But not even SEGA itself knows what that means.

So, what really makes up Classic Sonic’s identity?

For me this is the true heart of the post. Knowing full well what makes Classic Sonic should be the key to every project that features him.

There are lots of points to make about Classic Sonic’s identity and how to establish him should he return once again on a 3D Sonic title (not even using the “modern” anymore, and I personally wouldn’t like to see him again on a 3D title for another decade, if ever), but seeing as the main topic of this post has been music, I’m going to focus on what music style makes Classic Sonic shine.

I already said that throwing some generic chiptunes won’t work, but I DO think that Genesis-inspired tunes can still work, should they stick to what made the classics so great.

And what is that? Well, you have several options here: you can choose from more J-Pop and jazzy tunes to some sick R&B and New Jack Swing beats, all the way through to late 80′s Acid House and wacky 90′s Dance music, even cinematic-like scores and ambient sounds.

Personally, I think the heavy R&B (with its fair share of New Jack Swing) influences are a constant throughout Sonic’s first years, and that kind of sound is one that goes well with his cool attitude™. Spring Yard Zone has always been referred to as “16-bit Every Little Step”, while Sonic CD... well, and Sonic 3... well... JAM. Even Masa’s demos of Sonic 2 feature some sick basses that aren’t all that different from what I was thinking (Chemical Plant and Metropolis come to mind). Sonic CD (JP, also the work of Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata) in particular springs up to my mind as the purest representation on everything that Sonic was about on his old days, but “pure” doesn’t necessarily mean “refined”, so I think the Sonic CD style coupled with some more smooth Pop for emotional moments (straight from Nakamura’s school of smoothness) and harder 90′s raves for boss fights (think how iconic Stardust Speedway Bad Future has become) could make up the perfect blend for Classic Sonic to follow in terms of style points, but also considering the general themes of each zone (Wacky Workbench being this Dance-heavy zone was a stroke of genius if you ask me, the same with Spring Yard being a jazzy urbanscape.)

Sonic is a product of the late 80′s and 90′s pop culture, he has the moves of MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, and of course, Michael Jackson (also his shoes). As such, no generic “retro nostalgic” tune will fit with him, unlike many other gaming franchises. By embracing Classic Sonic’s wacky nature gems like Sonic Mania happened, and just like I pointed it out to beevean, if you were there the week that game was first announced, you probably saw how much people were gushing about Studiopolis Act 1 sounding so much like Sonic CD with that funky beat. People instantly knew that was the Classic Sonic music they wanted to hear.

And just to make this section even better, I recently asked beevean about her thoughts on what makes Classic Sonic’s music identity. I now urge you to go and read her full analysis because it’s so deep yet very accessible, as I’ll be collecting just a few parts of her response for this post. Trust me, that post is so useful, go and reblog it now, I’ll wait here.

About Classic Sonic’s music styles, beevean says:

So… which is the style that fits Classic Sonic better?

The big love letter to the Classic series that is Mania used CD as an inspiration, and while Mania’s OST is excellent and one of my favorites… I don’t automatically associate New Jazz Swing with Classic Sonic. Before Mania, it was only in one game, the odd one in the bunch too.

3D Blast is my favorite Genesis soundtrack, and as I said it combines the best of two worlds (plus it’s just full of bangers), but it influenced the next era more than the Classic one. The same could be said for the American OST of CD - and besides, tracks like this are nothing like Sonic anyway.

Sonic 1 is the first one and all, but that mellow style fits that particular game more than Classic as a whole, I think the closest OST to this style was Advance 1, actually - another slow-paced, simple game.

So the choice is narrowed down to the ultra-popular Sonic 2 and the refined Sonic 3 & Knuckles. And I’ll be honest, while I think S3&K has higher “highs” compared to S2… my brain immediately jumps to the latter. When I think of Classic Sonic, I think of Genesis brass (the real deal, not that fake synth they used in Forces), twang basses, a swingy rhythm (too many to choose lol), and tons of energy.

Only one Classic track in Forces came close to this description. The others sound more like either a pale imitation of Sonic 1 or modern tracks with a bad soundfont, and that’s when they’re not a complete insult (no i won’t link to it you know what i’m talking about :V).

Author’s note: it’s been, like, two months and she still refuses to talk about Faded Hills, lol

youtube

Author’s note: sorry, beev.

(TL;DR) Closing thoughts.

So, what did go wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?

A lack of definition on what Classic Sonic even is about, carried from Generations, made the task of defining his style more difficult.

The composers weren’t up to the task, or they were simply asked to make Classic Sonic “sound retro”, generic sound be damned.

This also means management of the project wasn’t that interested in the Classic portion, or they ran out of time to make it better. This is something that the entire game seemed to have a problem with as well.

The music didn’t fit the stages, and even if it did, Classic’s identity was all over the place. He was there just to be there, and his music suffered from that (compare it to Mania).

Tomoya Ohtani (often credited as the maker of the arguably worst tracks of Classic Sonic in the game) has experienced a shift on his musical style over the last few years that led to his tracks start sounding very similar to each other, this, coupled with the fact he was working on the other 2/3rds of the game’s OST, caused his Classic tracks in particular to suffer.

Classic Sonic’s tracks didn’t take from the 90′s Pop and R&B influences that plagued the old games, and as such, the current Classic Sonic doesn’t have an identity as strong as the original 90′s Sonic. Beevean’s take on this point involves Classic Sonic tracks that feature strong, legit Genesis brass, with twang basses, swingy rhythm and tons of energy.

Once again, I’d like to thank beevean for providing such insightful information and opinions (you can clearly see we both tend to have different takes on what made Sonic back in the 90′s, but in the end agreed to a similar set of requirements to make good Classic music, like basslines and lots of energy), which helped this post a lot more than you can imagine. I wanted to post this back in late January, but the extra time allowed me to keep thinking, searching and listening, while also opened the door to ask beev again about her opinions. This is probably the first “big” article I’ve written this year, and I hope to return soon enough with more.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic music #welp that was a big post #during the last portion something else started picking my attention #the shift in cultural references for sonic starting with adventure #all the cool skater stuff and the like #i might look into that in the future #in the meantime i think my 'make it sound retro' argument could lead somewhere #because i'm sure ohtani and hataya could've made something way better #but something stood on their way #be it time or management i don't know #well that's it folks #thank you for reading

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queen-of-bel · 5 years ago

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Okay, I’ve been talking about writing this up for a while, so I’m finally going to do it.

It’s no surprise to my followers that I’m a hardcore Kandori fan and I wanted to list out the reasons why he’s so interesting to me.

Persona 1, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment spoilers

Above all, Kandori is a very prideful man who focused so much on external accomplishments that he gave himself an identity crisis. He used other people’s achievements to secure his position as president of the Mikage-cho SEBEC branch, and made great strides by taking advantage of illegal dealings through Takeda.

However, he’s always been aware that he can’t take credit for these accomplishments, and he feels a sense of emptiness once he’s at the top. Here’s a snippet from his monologue in Deva Yuga:

Everyone wants something. No matter how small the desire… it gives them the strength to carry on. But… if every desire is fulfilled, what’s left to strive for? When one’s wishes have been granted, the only thing that awaits… is a bottomless solitude; an eternal emptiness…

At this point in his life, he’s absolutely bitter. He’s scared that his life has no meaning. Nanjo even points this out to Kandori by saying:

You despair at your inability to live any other way. It stems from one's anxiety for the future. "I want to risk it… But I can't… If only I could disappear…

Kandori is suffering, but is too prideful to ask for help. After all, why would a young and successful branch president have any reason to be discontent?

As a result, he stews in resentment. Instead of placing the blame on himself, he faults the world around him. This selfishness leads him to hate his surroundings and wish for its destruction.

Evidence of Kandori’s anxiety can also be found in a pretty obscure place. In the 2nd track of the first disc of the Megami Ibunroku Persona OST & Arrange Album, there is a song called Deva Yuga (Arranged Version), where the lyrics are actually supposed to represent Kandori and Maki talking to each other. Here are a few quotes from Kandori that I think are really interesting:

Being alive is a mere illusion.

Why are we born?

Why are we even alive?

No one has the answers.

It's an endless labyrinth for the soul.

The heavy cross that we bear goes by the name of 'karma'.

No one can escape it.

We surrender our bodies to fleeting pleasures and try to forget,

but the eternal doubt still remains, shimmering deep in our souls.

When Kandori talks about no one being able to escape karma, this is proof that he feels that he cannot change his situation. To him, even if he were able to change a situation, there's always going to be another one to have to deal with. This is evident in his conversation with Maki (Kandori's dialogue is bolded):

"I want to change."

"That's a waste of time."

"I can't change..."

"There's no meaning in life, you should know that."

"I don't want to be alone! Someone get me out of here! It's so dark in here!"

"You and I are the same."

Kandori laments that he doesn't know why he's alive and has no reason to live. Maki expresses the desire to change, but Kandori tells her it's a waste of time to try and do that. Maki also expresses her fear of being alone, and that she wants to escape, to which Kandori responds that he feels the same.

So now, we can paint a clear picture of the type of person Kandori is.

Kandori is highly ambitious in the sense that he seeks achievements which publicly make him look good, and he'll do anything it takes to achieve that goal. He thinks that if he were to become successful, he will find that his life has meaning. However, he's self-aware in knowing that he can't actually take credit for his accomplishments and instead of rectifying it, he becomes fiercely in denial-- insisting that life has no meaning at all.

He's gotten to the top, but still feels empty. He's scared that if he tries to do anything else, he won't get the satisfaction he's looking for. He believes that people's futures are predetermined, and if he's destined to feel empty and miserable, then so be it.

Now, this is where things start to get interesting.

We know that the next goal Kandori had was to become God and annihilate humanity.

Obviously, there are some red flags in that logic. Wanting to make the jump from a branch president to God is… extreme. So I think we can safely say that this is where Nyarlathotep began influencing Kandori.

As we see in Persona 2, if Nyarlathotep decides he wants to take advantage of you, then you’re kind of fucked. The only person we’ve seen break free is Jun, but that was because of Jun’s immensely strong desire to protect Maya.

Kandori, on the other hand, had nothing that he felt that strongly about. He had nobody that he cared about, his parents are dead, and he was frustrated at his standing in life.

It’s also been stated that Nyarlathotep is the reason behind the entire Mikage-cho incident. As a result, we can assume that Nyarlathotep came into the picture after Kandori became branch president, but before the development of the DEVA system.

Another thing that points to Nyarlathotep being involved with the development of the Deva system is something Kandori mentions in the chamber of the Deva system.

Nothing else will be hurt. Only mankind will be wiped from this planet.

It’s weird that Kandori would make this distinction. What’s the difference to him if the world disappears or just humanity is destroyed?

This ties back into Nyarlathotep’s bet with Philemon– that humanity will inevitably destroy itself.

Now, of course, there is the argument that Maki also wished for mankind specifically to be destroyed, and she wasn't influenced by Nyarlathotep. But there is an important distinction between Maki and Kandori.

Maki held a grudge against humanity as a whole. Her nihilistic outlook stemmed from jealousy that other people were able to enjoy life while she was stuck in a hospital room. She had a specific reason to want mankind and mankind alone to be destroyed.

Kandori, on the other hand, had no grudge against other people. His nihilistic outlook was simply because he was a miserable person. He wallowed in his own suffering, yet refused to take the blame for any of it. For someone with that level of detachment, it shouldn't matter to him if only humanity was destroyed, or if the entire world was.

If we take a look at the Deva Yuga lyrics again, Kandori says:

"Grief and joy, anger and sadness... it's all an illusion.

Who needs such transience in life? That's why I'm going to…"

So, Kandori isn't frustrated at humanity, he just thinks everything around him is a pain. Emotions are just fleeting uselessness. He doesn't particularly hate mankind, he just has no need for anything in life.

And yet, his plan specifically targeted people, and he was very conscious in making sure nothing else was harmed. This doesn't sound like the Kandori we know so far. This sounds like Nyarlathotep.

When we take all of these points into consideration, I think it's safe to assume that Nyarlathotep became involved with Kandori before the development of the Deva system, and Kandori developed his god complex after that.

I want to stress that I'm not claiming Kandori is an innocent person. He was a shady businessman who ran the Mikage-cho branch like a mafia. But his ego hadn't ascended to a point where he believed he had transcended humanity. I firmly believe that was Nyarlathotep's doing.

Even though his detachment was what led to this whole mess, he ironically formed a genuine connection with Maki throughout the Deva system's development. He certainly bonded with Aki over their nihilistic desires.

In Deva Yuga, he knew that Naoya and the others came to fight him. Aki has the power to take them down easily (I’ll touch more on that later), and yet he sent Aki away.

Aki tells the group "You guys are so aggravating! I won't let you get in my Daddy's way!"

Kandori then counters by saying "...That's enough, Aki. Stay back. Wait in the other room. I'll be with you soon."

The reason for Kandori's reaction is simple– he didn’t want Aki to fight and, more importantly, he didn’t want Maki to become like him. Take a look at what he says after the battle with Naoya:

Maki Sonomura… she needs to discover her true self. If she doesn't, she'll share my fate… Go to her… Don't let her go down that lonely path.

At this point, Kandori is literally dying. He doesn’t have to care about anything, but he uses his last breaths to ask for Maki to be saved. He knows his life is miserable, and doesn’t want her to experience the same thing.

Another time that points to Kandori’s care for Maki is in the Mana Castle.

Mark, Nanjo, Maki, and the optional party member (I’m using Reiji as this example) all express their anger and disgust at what Kandori is planning. Kandori uses Aki to strike down Reiji, Nanjo, and Mark.

Interestingly, he spares Maki, despite her attempt to turn Aki against him by telling Aki that Kandori isn't her real Daddy.

If he truly was a nihilistic god who wants to destroy humanity, shouldn’t he have attacked Maki for speaking against God, too?

So not only is Kandori showing signs of weakness around Maki, he also hints at times that he doesn't totally buy into the authoritarian god complex he touts. He's very insecure, and has doubts about the path he's chosen.

A big indication of these doubts is when he crowd-sourced ideas of the meaning of life from a bunch of random high school kids. He tells Naoya

Boy… I allowed you to come here in order to ask you this: Why do you cling to life?

Kandori has achieved his ultimate goal– to become God. And yet, he still feels the same emptiness he felt when he became the president of the Mikage-cho branch. At this point, he was truly desperate for his life to have any meaning.

Later, Kandori was goaded into fighting by when Nanjo bluntly pointed out all of Kandori's shortcomings. Kandori says his retaliation is punishment for speaking against God, but the next thing he says is very interesting.

Can you defeat me? Can you protect the things you claim are precious? Then prove it before god's throne!

This hints that his true reason for fighting isn't to preserve his ego, but he wants to see what a person can accomplish if they have meaning in life.

However, his mind so jumbled and his logic is contradictory that he can't seem to decide what he wants. He does still have his god complex, and as such, still believes that he can win the battle. When he is faced with the truth, though he is shocked that he lost to a bunch of high school kids:

Ngh… I refuse to accept this! I'm supposed to have transcended man!

However, despite what he says, he is ready to admit defeat. Until Nyarlathotep directly intervenes.

Kandori says that something is forcing itself into him, and Nyarlathotep responds by saying "I shall give you the power you desire." Kandori pleads with Nyarlathotep to stop, but is ignored.

If Kandori truly wanted to win the battle, he wouldn’t have refused Nyarlathotep’s help. However, it’s clear that Kandori was ready to concede to Naoya, despite his initial denial.

Of course, Nyarlathotep says that Kandori desired this power, but we also know that Nyarlathotep is a liar (see the shadow selves in P2). Looking at Kandori's explicit plea to stop, and the fact that Nyarlathotep is forcing himself to fuse with Kandori, it's pretty obvious that Kandori didn't want to continue the fight.

Another time in the game that points to Kandori’s true feelings is when he summons Saurva to fight the group before leaving for Deva Yuga.

Objects of one's desire cannot be easily obtained. But the joy of overcoming obstacles to obtaining them is the highest bliss.

This is very interesting because he admits that achieving your dream isn’t what makes people happy, but the greatest satisfaction occurs when you overcome the obstacles in your path to your dream.

(Side note, this ties in very nicely with P2:IS as a point of why Jun's wish fulfillment isn't a good thing, but that's for another post)

Because he views himself as God, he's not saying this as a piece of advice to the youth. He's stating this as an absolute fact of life. This is something he truly believes in, and also believes that other people should accept as well.

In some sense, it feels like he's trying to do them a favor in some twisted way. Of course, by summoning Saurva, there's a chance that Naoya would die, but remember, Kandori initially had no intention to fight Naoya. Kandori allowed Naoya to reach him in order to ask what he was living for. By giving Naoya the satisfaction of defeating Saurva, it felt like Kandori wanted to give Naoya and his friends a sense of happiness and feeling of accomplishment.

Another time where Kandori shows his contradictory behavior is in the undersea ruins after he is revived by Nyarlathotep.

He tells Maya that Tatsuzou has already headed to Torifune, and says "I'd like to tell you to chase them, but… I'm just a peon… I can't let you return."

In saying this, he implies that he, too, wants Tatsuzou's plans to be stopped.

After the fight, he tells the group to hurry and save themselves. Depending on who is in your party, Nanjo or Eriko will plead Kandori to escape with them, but Kandori fires a warning shot, and says he would rather die.

Clearly, Kandori didn't learn his lesson from his first life. Nanjo commented in Deva Yuga that Kandori despairs at his inability to change the situations that cause him suffering, and Kandori's false belief in the concept of fate was the crux of his downfall.

Despite seeming like an ambitious person, Kandori is actually very weak-willed, and is too scared to make any meaningful changes in his life. This is why he allows himself to be Nyarlathotep's pawn, as Tatsuya notes by saying

Guido is aware of [Nyarlathotep's] existence. But why is he aiding the New World Order…? Can it be he's willing to be a pawn…?

Another thing that hadn't changed between Kandori's lives is his desire to hear another person say something that gives him hope. I already talked about him wanting to see what Naoya and his friends are capable of when they feel they have a reason to live.

Additionally, when he's dying in Deva Yuga, he admits to Nanjo that he had been waiting for somebody to see the true him and say that aloud to him.

Maybe I summoned you here because I wanted to hear someone say it… Hah. I must seem a fool… but I feel remarkably content.

In both the research lab and the undersea ruins, he implies that he feels he can't escape Nyarlathotep's grasp.

When Nanjo questions Kandori's motives, Kandori merely replies by saying

Hmph… "The fate of those who are enchanted by the shadows"... I'll leave it at that…

It's a small comment, but what I find really interesting is the part in quotes. This means that somebody else told this to him. Remember, Kandori's biggest weakness is believing that fate is inescapable.

In case it isn't obvious, this "somebody" is clearly Nyarlathotep. Kandori knows about the existence of the Other Side, and who Nyarlathotep exactly is, so Nyarlathotep is clearly directly involved. Kandori isn't choosing this path of his own volition, but is doing so because somebody took advantage of his weakness and told him that this is what he is destined to do.

This point is reiterated in the undersea ruins when Kandori says

Light has its role… Shadows have their role… That's just how it is...

I think it's pretty obvious that Kandori doesn't feel a desire to fight Tatsuya or Maya, but he doesn't feel that he has the power to refuse the role that Nyarlathotep and the New World Order had demanded of him. This is again apparent after being defeated in the undersea ruins. He tells Tatsuya

Magnificent… But… it is not easy for one embraced by the shadows to escape from its grasp… Can you break the chains of fate?

To which Tatsuya replies:

That's why I came… I'll never let that sadness happen again...

This is what Kandori wanted to hear. Remember, he actually wanted Maya to stop Tatsuzou, but felt that he was fated to prevent her from doing so. Chizuru even points this out herself by saying "You wanted to hear the words… from the boy?" Kandori, probably too caught up in his pride, doesn't explicitly confirm this, but doesn't deny it either. Instead, he apologizes to Chizuru for leading her to her death.

I really liked this part because it shows that Kandori is still capable of caring for others, no matter how far he has gone. He is aware that what he is doing is evil, but he doesn't want to see the people he cares for to be dragged down to his depths.

Clearly Kandori is a very contradictory person. As I stated earlier, he is certainly not a "good" person, and yet, we can't write him off as a bad person either. Maki, who should be the person who hates Kandori the most, becomes upset to hear that Kandori was revived, only to die again. She says that she doesn't believe Kandori was a bad person, and wishes she had the opportunity to meet with him again.

Kandori is really interesting to me because he clearly has a proper moral compass, but once he strayed from that, he feels he is too weak to realign himself. He wants external validation from others, but feels too prideful to follow their lead. Overall, Nanjo said it best-- Kandori is a very pitiful man.

#man this ended up being pretty long for a character who only has like.. 30 minutes of screentime across 3 games #persona 1 #persona 2 eternal punishment #takahisa kandori #amelia rambles #my love and life #p1 #p2

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makeste · 6 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 171: Knock Them Dead With Your Sound

Previously on BnHA: Deku and Mirio visited Eri in the hospital. Eri apologized for everything they went through in order to save her, particularly Mirio who lost his powers. Mirio told her it wasn’t her fault and that everyone was just glad she was safe, and they all wanted to see her smiling face. Eri tried to smile but couldn’t quite manage it. Deku racked his brain for ways to cheer her up, and struck on the idea of inviting her to the cultural festival. Aizawa said he’d need to ask the principal but that it could probably be arranged. After Mirio explained the concept, Eri agreed, saying that she wanted to get to know everyone better. We then cut to the police, who were watching a live broadcast of a convenience store robbery and trying to trace its source. The robber, a gentleman thief named -- wait for it -- Gentle, took out six heroes in the blink of an eye and then left without taking any money. He said he wanted his name to be etched into history, and as he met up with his accomplice afterwards, he pondered what his next great exploit should be.

Today on BnHA: We are properly introduced to Gentle and his social media-savvy adoring fan La Brava. Gentle specializes in “chivalrous crimes” that target corruption. However his recent videos haven’t been as popular, in part because Stain and the League of Villains have been stealing his thunder. Back at U.A., word begins to spread about class A’s band performance and dance program. Bakugou overhears some grumps complaining about how cocky 1-A is and how they’re the ones who “start all the conflict.” That evening the kids meet to hash out who will be in charge of what. Jirou needs a drummer, and it turns out Bakugou plays drums, but he’s pissed at the idea of being obligated to provide stress relief for the other departments. As he puts it, “we aren’t getting smacked down by the villains because we enjoy it.” Instead he reframes the whole thing as a battle, and vows to knock U.A. dead with his sound. I mean, whatever works I guess. Meanwhile Gentle reveals to La Brava that he’s planning a new stunt which will surpass anything Stain or the League has done: he plans to invade U.A.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 198 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

lol

LIVING LAWLESS. all about that THUG LIFE

okay so the narrator, whom I assume is Gentle, is talking about people who have left their marks on history

you’re telling me there’s a hero out there simply known as “Brave”? I know we already had a Mr. Brave, and I can tell you right now he has left his mark on absolutely nothing. so that means there’s another guy out there named Brave, so Mr. Brave, your hero name is even lamer than I thought. WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST GO WITH SPLIT END

ooooohh!

oh my god. I want to know everything about all of these guys right the fuck now. particularly Destro. “special abilities liberation army” sounds a lot like a Magneto type “mutant rights” type of thing. there’s an era that we still don’t know much about right after quirks first started appearing on the scene, and it fascinates me and I want to know more about what it was like. because I have some fic ideas about that time period tbh. Destro, I’m definitely making a note of you

so now the narration is talking about how before the present systems were established, the lines between heroes and villains were blurred and it was an age of chaos

honestly this all sounds incredibly badass, like a superpowered wild west

and Gentle seems to agree, saying it was an age of pure freedom

this guy really feels what he’s doing, huh

the gentle, soothing, cuddly criminal. when he’s not out doing Crime, he makes ASMR roleplays in his spare time. “sleep-inducing bank robbery 🌙 (whispered/soft-spoken)”

he’s walking over to La Brava now and she says that their account got deactivated “again”, so she just finished uploading all of their videos to a new account

fucking 2010s manga though, you guys!!

and apparently that narration was from his debut video, which she was rewatching and swooning over just now

so he’s going to finish his cup of tea and then they will get on to today’s filming

oh my fucking god

you don’t understand guys. he’s really a man of the people. he’s on your side! handing out punishments to “those who do not act gentlemanly.” protecting them all from the horrors of expired pudding

oh my god you guys La Brava is the cutest ever I swear to god

how is she so cute though??

she’s frustrated because the jstore robbery video didn’t get that many views

but Gent says they’re not in it for external validation

she’s really mad though because she says it’s been 6 years since he’s been active as “the villain of the media world”

and apparently when Stain came along and went viral he stole all their views

yes but you have to admit they are super compelling though. I miss them, actually. where are they

(ETA: for real, they’ve been way too quiet recently and it’s starting to make me pretty nervous)

did you read that car chase chapter, though. “spectacle” indeed

he says his style is the opposite of that, but nonetheless it can’t be denied that they have momentum

he says all of the 10,000+ comments on their videos concern that violent behavior

are you sure some of the comments aren’t also shipping Toga and Twice. or theorizing what’s up with Tomura’s hands. or talking about how badass Compress’s new metal arm is. honestly they have a lot going for them, man

lmao

WAY TOO MANY JUMP CUTS

I also agree with the guy saying La Brava deserves more of the spotlight. she’s so great

Gent is letting loose with a hearty laugh and says he won’t be discouraged though, and that his next project will surpass even theirs

that is a tall order, sir. Tomura’s most recent act was a great service to humanity. all I’m saying is, you better not hype me up like the last new villain only to let me down, because don’t even get me started on that shitshow

so La Brava is all excited and asking what the next project is, and Gent is responding with a bunch of cryptic bullshit

so I guess we’re going to find out more about the history of heroes and when they became an established thing, huh? I’m 1000% on board with this and I may actually be even more excited for this than for the upcoming class 1-A rave, negl. good job getting this manga back on track, Horikoshi!

(ETA: I’m so thick, he’s clearly just talking about U.A. here lol)

so now we’re cutting back to U.A. and Vlad (who I almost called “Brad” again, it’s been so long) is talking to Aizawa about the cultural fest, and he’s all “so I heard class A is doing a rave huh?”

interestingly, this seems to be one of the rare occasions where Aizawa doesn’t seem to be 100% on board with their hijinks

stfu Aizawa. what’s more admirable than a fucking rave

now we’re cutting to the always adorable children of class A who are excited to plan their festival program

and some shadowy person is coming up to Bakugou and is all “did you hear?”

oh no wait they’re not talking to him, they’re talking to each other about class A right in front of him

um, whoa

y’all trying to start some shit, huh? gonna talk shit about his class when they’re trying to do something fucking nice?? like it’s their fault they keep getting attacked by fucking villains? okay then. hey on an unrelated note, go fuck yourselves

so are these guys just assholes or is this really what the rest of the school in general really thinks? because I can see why they might not exactly have a favorable impression of them, truth be told. Bakugou’s stunts at the sports festival didn’t exactly paint them in the best light. and most likely everyone has made the connection between the kidnapping and Kamino and the student dorms. and probably it’s not much of a secret who the two kids who were caught fighting on Ground Beta after hours were, either. so yeah

but it’s still a dick move to come and do this right in front of him when he’s not bothering you or anything, so fuck you still, and I will come over there and fight you if I have to, don’t think I won’t

fuck. well anyway, while I’m here grumbling and trying to take deep, calming breaths, we’re cutting back to Heights Alliance, and Iida is taking charge of a planning session

first they need to decide on the music, so Jirou is suggesting genres

she says they really should be doing EDM if the intent is to play dance music, but on the other hand everyone seems set on playing instruments. lol it would be funny though if everyone took turns DJing

so she’s asking if anyone in class plays bass or drums, and is met with a dead silence

she says she plays guitar mainly, so her drumming is only so-so. and she says that if she has to teach a beginner how to play drums then one month is not going to be enough time

OH MY GOD

I don’t fully understand what’s happening but ARE YOU IN FACT IMPLYING THAT MY SON KATSUKI KNOWS HOW TO PLAY DRUMS OH MY GOD. KATSUKI ARE YOU GOING TO BE IN A ROCK BAND!?

apparently the answer to that question is YES because class A knows all too well exactly how to manipulate him

MASTER OF PUPPETS I’M PULLING YOUR STRIIIIIINGS

lmao and JUST LIKE THAT

TOO EASY

holy shit. and it seems like he actually does know what he’s doing as well. go figure, he is good at virtually everything after all

well, this is everything I never knew I wanted. good show. excuse me for a moment, I’m gonna go play Song 2 by Blur and wonder what the season 4 OST is gonna be like

now he’s trying to walk away again lol

this is really just an open invitation for someone to come up with a convincing enough reason for him to do it without losing face

although part of me also wonders if maybe he would just rather not be in the spotlight for once. especially after overhearing those JERKFACES from the department of GENERAL JERKS earlier

oh my god Jirou

come on Kacchan don’t you want to be a good person?!

oh shit now he’s going on a tangent

he says nothing’s going to come of it

ahhhhhhhh. I see. so it’s that he’s pissed off at the other departments and doesn’t feel like they deserve class A’s niceness

ahhhh but Jirou looks crushed ;_;

Hagakure is kind of awkwardly being all, “hey, c’mon...”

but Bakugou says that what they’re doing is just “indulging the enemy”

and when exactly did it become Us vs Them though, I wonder. like, if the other classes are the enemy, that implies that your class is Not The Enemy though, yes? aww

oh shit. ohhhhh shit

oh my. and I didn’t even order any Bakugou feels. “yes, we know,” Horikoshi says, holding out the delivery bag. “these are on the house. please accept our gratitude on account of being such a loyal customer”

oh shit you guys. so what do I even do with these. should I meta about them or should I just eat them while they’re still hot

lol, but yeah. “I didn’t ask to be kidnapped. we didn’t ask to be attacked.” people acting like it’s their fault and like they’re enjoying the attention. and maybe once upon a time he did want that, but it’s one thing to fantasize about being famous for being the number one bestest coolest hero, and quite another to wind up actually in the spotlight because you’re the kid who keeps getting attacked by sludge monsters and Villain Leagues. and then people act like you brought it on yourself because you were too cocky. especially when we know that on some level he does blame himself, so it stings all the more

so why should they go out of their way to try to support people like that? it’s almost like they’re apologizing to those assholes, and fuck that

mmm. [munching] so anyway let’s see where this leads

hahaha. what

oh my god this fucking kid

lol. okay so he is on board, then, but just to make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, he is not out to “support” anyone, but rather he is declaring war. via drums. that’s right

well hey, however you need to frame it! at the end of the day he has agreed to help, so!

the other kids seem to be on the same page as me lol

yep. WE’LL TAKE IT

JIROUUUUU

;_____; I LOVE YOU SO MUCH JIROU

and now we’re cutting back to Gent and OH MY GOD

CAN YOU PLEASE. NOT

JESUS CHRIST. CAN THEY NOT JUST HAVE JUST ONE FUCKING THING. LET BAKUGOU DECLARE A DRUM WAR AND LET JIROU SHARE HER MUSIC WITH EVERYONE AND LET ERI HAVE A GOOD “DATE” WITH HER DOTING BIG BROTHER MIRIO AND LET THEM JUST RELAX WITHOUT ANY VILLAIN ANTICS

goddammit. I mean like, Gentle’s idea of villainy would probably be to whip out a violin and challenge them to a classical battle of the bands. but even polite villain antics are really not going to be good for U.A.’s PR at the moment. and this guy films everything he does. and just. we don’t need this sob

BONUS:

everyone this is Agoyamato Tsutsutaka and Togeike Chikuchi. that’s literally all this is. just their names. did we really need to know this lol oh well

#bnha #boku no hero academia #gentle (bnha)#la brava #bakugou katsuki #jirou kyouka #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #so when exactly did bakugou learn to play drums though #it's just kind of handwaved and I accepted it with all my heart because yes good I love it #but did his parents just insist that he learn how to play an instrument #like in an effort to make him more cultured and refined or something #and since he couldn't get out of it he picked the noisiest most aggressive option as a way of getting back at them #and for months their house was constantly filled with loud banging and crashing sounds coming from his room #until one day he 'accidentally' blew up his drum kit #and his parents were overly generous about forgiving him and never made that mistake again #is that basically what happened #I'm just gonna assume yes

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bardicknowledgeblogger · 6 years ago

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My RPG Characters

Alright - so here are the characters I have in any ongoing games (note - none of the games I am in or run are by the book D&D. They have a lot of homebrew stories, settings and gameplay)

I tried to keep things short and sweet, and then started to fail a little bit, so I’ll have the characters below the cut. It’s not SUPER long, but definitely longer than I had intended :/

I probably won’t ever remove characters, even if their games end, just so that if they are brought up there is a standing reference of who they are. I’ll keep it alphabetical though, and add new characters as they are made.

Alexis

Background: A human character from a Dark Fantasy Homebrew campaign. Alexis woke up on the table of some being calling himself The Sculptor, and was told he had died at some point, and that his soul had been pulled from the beyond and put into a carved stone body. He was being asked to fight back strange horrors invading this foreign land - the more he remembered and did, the more like his old self he would become. Before that he had simply been a man who loved life, travelling to meet all he could and write their stories, sing their songs, and experience all that life could offer. A true renaissance man.

Appearance: Currently he’s of course completely made of stone, barring a few cracks and random patches where his “true bodY’ peeks through. Before that, however, he was tall and lean, with light brown skin, bright blue eyes, and sunkissed brown hair that feel in loose waves and curls to about his shoulders. He generally had a bit of stubble on his face but never had a full beard. He always wore the finest things he could find - embroidered silks, handcrafted lace, and finely tooled leathers were all common parts of his wardrobe. He had a few slight scars with grand tales behind them (in reality they were generally caused by his own negligence in highly embarrassing ways, but he’d be damned if he was going to admit it) and the most charming smile you’d ever seen.

Personality: Outgoing and friendly, Alexis made friends easier than enemies. He took up work as a bounty hunter, but regularly would talk with his targets and convince them to turn themselves in without a fight. He made friends in places high and low, and could find something to talk about with nearly anyone. He has a high appreciation for the arts, and thinks it is the duty of all who live to preserve and share the stories, experiences, and creations of those around them. He truly loves life, loves people, and loves discovery.

Ariyna

Background: A Pantoran Character from a Star Wars Homebrew game. Ariyna was a young heiress and only child, growing up in the lap of luxury as her parents served in fairly high political positions (not the she paid that much attention to it). She always dreamed of seeing the galaxy around her but for various reasons was always kept at home by her parents. When she found out they were arranging a marriage for her with an available noble, she took her chance and ran away with the help of a bounty hunter, dragging her poor guard along in the process. Unfortunately, she was almost immediately captured by Sith who sensed great potential within her...

Appearance: Ariyna has soft blue skin with intricate gold markings on her face (one of which looks similar to an upside down lotus flower between her brows, the symbol of her family). Her hair is bright white and falls in very slight waves to her lower back. Her eyes are a soft pink that is so pale it almost appears white. She is incredibly petite, barely coming to 5 feet in height and is small enough that most larger aliens she meets are able to lift her one handed. She strives to wear the most current fashions, leaning into pinks, berry tones, and golds that compliment her best. The best way to think of her is as being “doll-like”

Personality: Ariyna grew up learning to wear different masks depending on her setting. However, at her core she’s selfish and rash, but still cares about others. She will act without thinking, then immediately regret her choices when she sees the consequences of her actions. She doesn’t like others getting hurt, but will let them get hurt before she allows harm to come to herself. She does good things, helps people, and pursues grand goals, but deep inside it’s because she wants the attention and validation from others for doing so. She’s not a good person.... But she knows how to make people think she is. And all in all - she’s scared. She makes choices based on self preservation, and a desire to find somewhere she belongs and feels safe.

Edwina

Background: Human Character from a Bloodborne homebrew game. Edwina joined the church of healing right before Old Yharnam had to be burned due to the scourge of beasts. Was too low down the chain to know much, but had seen enough to suspect the church was responsible, and tried to run away before being conscripted into being a hunter. Has worked her way into the choir where she has been able to learn about great ones, and is actually fairly sympathetic towards them (based on her understanding of them) and has shared dreams with them. Trying to experiment and find ways to use the dreams and the presence of the great ones to counteract beasthood.

Appearance: Pale skin (does not get much sun AT ALL), black curly hair that she haphazardly iles on her head, brown eyes. Likes long sleeves, lots of layers (long tunic, with a vest, and then her robes, and then a coat), fairly average height, slender build with little to know muscle - kinda bony. Currently has some pretty nasty twisted scars along her shoulder, chest and right forearm, and again in her lower legs due to some cultists attacking them with bear traps and nailed planks.

Personality: Very introverted - would love to curl up with a book and tea at home. Very curious and likes to learn things. Will definitely lie and attempt to go where she maybe isn’t supposed, but will also crack under even the slightest amount of pressure. Has a very low threshold for bullshit of any kind. Very inexperienced with ost worldly things (got hit on by her current beau, did not realize what was happening and never would have if he hadn’t specifically explained himself). Very low self esteem that she hides by just not talking. Currently really struggling with the thoughts of being physically intimate now that she has a bunch of nasty scars that she wants to keep hidden.

Fitz (Full name is Fitzgerald, but he hates that)

Background: Fitz is an automaton (magic robot, basically) in a heavily magic based setting where said automatons cannot use magic. Instead he is a skilled tinkerer and craftsman, and makes many fine tools, baubles and decorative pieces, along with an impressive array of mechanical things. One day he did such a good job for one mage, that they decided to enchant him with the ability to do artificy, but only on metal he has gathered and forged himself. Now he has to occasionally travel about for fancy materials that people want him to artifice so he can continue to amass more wealth. Even though it’s super inconvenient. On one such excursion he wound up getting caught in a sort of… compound for discovering the next “architect” - a being who gets to live a life of luxury and get access to untold power, in exchange for keeping the people of the world safe from outside threats. He has to go through a gauntlet of tests, challenges and more to earn this spot, and he is greedily doing everything he can to play the other contestants and get the prize for himself.

Appearance: Made of dull gray metal with bits of clockwork and other mechanical parts occasionally peaking out at the joints of his body. A fairly unassuming automaton, and he’s okay with that. His eyes glow a nice blue color, and he wears a loose tunic with a vest and tight trousers that have many loops for tools and pouches for bits. He has a lovely pair of cuffed boots that he wears as well. He is always accompanied by his companion - an artificed bug that holds a number of his most commonly used tools and is able to come when called and produce the proper item. It can’t speak or understand anything else, but that doesn’t stop Fitz from talking to it like it can.

Personality: Fitz is kinda an ass. He prefers to be able to just live a calm and relatively boring life, because he has no desire to incur the dangers that adventuring brings. However not using his artificey skills, now that people know he has them, is becoming more of a difficulty as people harass him about it. So he begrudgingly goes out and collects what he needs and will absolutely complain the whole time. He really doesn’t care about other people and will not hesitate to leave them behind if it’s easier to do so. However he will help them if they provide more benefit to him alive, or if it isn’t too difficult to do so. The biggest thing that can entice him is the promise of the easy life that power and money can bring. It’s not a big enough draw for him to hunt it out, but if the path is laid before him… well he’d be a fool not to follow.

Kati

Background: Her father was a highly respected doctor who worked tirelessly to help people by treating sickness and disease. he was very strict and good, and held high regard for the accepted morals of society. Her mother was a bit more eccentric - she was mortician, and treated death as just another stage of the lifecycle. This allowed Kati to develop an… unusual, and at times unhealthy, interest in death. She was very intelligent, and extremely curious, and she moved into medical research. She studied diseases, how they spread, their symptoms, etc… But began to push the limits of what all “research” entailed. She began allowing patients to die for the sake of documenting the entire cycle of the disease. She stole samples of diseases and took them home, where she would effectively poison others and document what happened to them. Eventually she began soliciting her services as an assassin, using diseases commonplace enough to not be suspicious, but difficult enough to treat that death was all but guaranteed.

Appearance: She is a young woman in her thirties, with olive toned skin and deep brown eyes. She has thick, black curly hair that is almost always worn up. She wears glasses all the time, even though she really only needs them to read or work on delicate, small scale things. She is fairly plain, and is okay with it as she has little interest in relationships (or people in general, for that matter). Her style is mainly about what is comfortable, and is usually loose pants and simple blouses that can have the sleeves rolled up. She does have a few outfits that are tight and dark that she wears when working as an assassin, along with a black cat mask that she uses to cover her face. She is thin, more from poor health choices than anything else, and does not do well with too much physical exertion.

Personality: Very blunt and frequently thought of as cold and uncaring. Mainly just socially awkward and not sure how to engage with people - which is fine, as she doesn’t really care to do much with others anyway. Has little regard for human life and is extremely curious about the concept of what the afterlife may hold. Collects any paraphernalia she can that relates to death and the macabre, including skulls, mummified body parts, etc… Concerned with herself and her own wellbeing first and foremost, but learned enough from her father that she will help others if she has nothing to gain from leaving them (for example, she will not leave a child to die from pnuemonia, if for no other reason than it isn’t interesting and provides her nothing to learn). She will not hesitate to justify death with the pursuit of knowledge, however. Has little care for what others think of her, and has been called things like weird, quirky, ugly, unapproachable, rude, etc… her whole life. Attempts to be minimally polite when required, but rarely succeeds.

Kyllä

Background: Dwarven character from a homebrew-y psuedo gothic fantasy world. Woke up one day in the middle of a city with no memories. A human woman who ran an herbalist shop took her in. She didn’t really fit in, because most of the dwarves rejected her due to her lack of knowledge and reverence for their ways, and everyone else is just a little bit racist. Developed skills for thievery out of boredom and a desire to save for the things she wanted, and now relies on it as a general lifestyle. Primed to take over the potion shop her adopter runs, and was travelling to expand it when she was forcibly made a “reaper” - someone who uses elemtnal magic to defeat dark, demonic beasts infiltrating the world. Now that kind of serves as her primary focus.

Appearance: Short, a bit squat but not as much as many other dwarves (strives to make sure she is light on her feet and can squeeze through small places), fair skinned with slight tanning on cheeks, shoulders, etc... Auburn hair that is wild and unruly. Wears leather and dark clothing with hoods, gloves, face wraps, etc... has a blade that straps along the length of her forearm and can be popped out into a scythe. Uses shadow based magics.

Personality: Loud. Will say what she wants, when she wants - ifshe doesn’t like you, she will absolutely tell you. Enjoys fucking with people, and will use trickery to overcome obstacles when given a choice. Does not like to be looked down on and will go to great lengths to prove you wrong. Does not like the idea of commitment due to intense trust issues, but will not hesitate to indulge herself in whatever way she wants at the time. Prides herself on her ability to seduce just about any woman she comes across.

Petra

Background: Naive faun girl who lives in a tiny town in the middle of a wild forest and has literally never left. Her husband goes out adventuring and stops writing one day. She decides to go after him and experience the wonderful world! Surprise - the world is actually awfully. Cinnamon roll faun girl has a few exestential crisis before finding her husband who had become a revolutionary to try and make the world better before she could ever come see it. (It didn’t work). The world she is from is one where most people can use magic, however faun’s are born with “half” magic. They can bond with someone to give them their half of magic, meaning that between two bonded fauns, one can use magic. She gave her magic to her husband, and so in order to survive on her adventure has taken to collecting a meangerie of magic knicks knacks and items to compensate. Not all of them are good.

Appearance: Very small (smol) - just over 4 ft. Broad, branching antlers. Long wavy pale blonde hair that turns to a rose color at the ends. Very dusky brown skin with white freckles. Deer ears and a tail, as well as soft fluffy fur on her chest, forearms and lower legs. Big blue doe eyes. Wears impractical pretty clothes and an eclectic mix of jewelry (namely a gaudy collar of different gemstones that her husband had sent from a treasure trove - it does NOT match her clothing and is VERY expensive, but it was a gift so it doesn’t come off)

Personality: Cinnamon Roll that has had to witness too much cruelty of the world for her taste. Wants to make things better, but has doubts on her ability to do so. Has struggled with questions like what makes someone good, what is right and wrong, etc... and is still not settled on an answer. However, this challenged naivity has led to the development of the idea that most people are bad, and to assume people are bad until proven otherwise. Takes betrayal like a knife to the heart and can hold a grudge - especially if she thought you were better than that.

Vivian

Background: My longest running character who has ascended into some ridiculous territory. Vivian was basically an Aasimar Cleric. She was descended from a race of near immortal beings with the ability to access different dimensions (an ability that was awoken within her in her mid twenties). She has an angelic companion named Ezekiel who gives her some of her magic abilities and travels with her as both a fighting companion and a romantic partner. She is currently considered a God on 2 different worlds/other dimensions (one of which is basically dead so...)

Appearance: Tall (like... 7ft. tall), lean muscle (she is trained with a sword and shield, hand to hand combat and a crossbow, and wears heavy plate and chain), Sun-Tanned skin, long bright red hair, quite a number of scars (legs are covered in acid-like burn scars, chesst has a magic internal scar that runs along the veins, assortment of smaller scars from other attacks). Was missing right arm which was replaced with a magic prosthetic, but had it... replaced? When she ascended to Godhood (like you do). White angel wings with gold accents. WHEN ON A WORLD SHE IS A GOD OF her scars are replaced with ethereal gold filigree patterns, her hair dissolves at the tips into a sort of galaxy thing and her eyes glow a bit. Gold and White aesthetic.

Personality: Neutral Good - Values what is right and just abov eall else, even if she must kill or lie for it. The good of the many outweighs the desire of the few. Doesn’t believe that anyone is beyond saving, but will not risk others to try and save someone who doesn;t want it. A mediator - will try to find a middle ground of peace if she can before escelating things. Loves to find flowers to braid into hair, will adopt literally any kind of animal (which has included a giant spider in the past) and likes feeling pretty even when covered in heavy armor that can obscure almost her entire being.

#my characters #original character #rpg character #rpg #rolepalying games #oc #vivian #petra #edwina #kyllä

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snkpolls · 6 years ago

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SnK S3E09 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 494 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE EPISODE 486 Responses

Nearly adapted completely verbatim from the manga, overall the episode ranking was very positive this week, with no votes for it being awful. Seems each week keeps getting better and better!

All in all, brilliant episode. 10/10 would watch again, despite giant exploding guts.

It was great, especially what they did with Rod Reiss 120 meters Titan. I feel this was executed better than the manga. Hopefully, WIT Studio continues this way with season 3 and the next seasons of Attack on Titan.

Best episode of the season so far in my opinion! Was about to have a heart attack towards the end tho when I thought they flew over the flashback:(

In my opinion it was the best episode of the season. The animation rivaled levi vs kenny from the first two episodes

Amazing! My fav episode so far. Can't see anything bad this episode, except for that cliffhanger.... RIP Kenny

The animation was like Titan steam, cause it blew my away

Incredible devotion to detail. Best looking episode so far!

This season honestly just keeps getting better and better. The first few eps were a little shocking with the rearrangements and pacing changes, but now I'm back to being a WIT stan.

Easily one of the top 8 episodes of the entire series for me, so far.

HOW ABOUT THAT BARRICADES ORCHESTRAL REARRANGE? 480 Responses

Overall the fandom was positively hyped hearing that new arrangements of Barricades in the background. Now we’re all just asking, “where is the damn ost!?”

I NEED THE OST IN MY POSSESSION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE OH MY GOD. The Barricades remix was incredible?!?!?!?!!?!?

Really good music

the soundtracks were amazing man

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WERE YOUR FAVORITE OVERALL SCENES? 486 Responses

Overall, most voters were stoked to see Rod’s face reveal more than anything. Following closely after that is Historia declaring herself the ruler of the walls, Levi finding Kenny by the collapsed cave and the Survey Corps taking out Rod.

YAASSS! Historia just named herself queen! I loved that part!

One little niggling thing for me is that scene where Eren watches Mikasa lift barrels effortlessly. I liked how the focus on her strength was made obvious by showing a brief glimpse of episode 1 -the time Mikasa was NOT strong enough. It made my heart weep man.

GOD I LOVE THE REISS TITAN. SEEING IT ANIMATED WAS SO FUCKING SICK.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WERE YOUR FAVORITE MC CHARACTER INTERACTIONS? 483 Responses

Eren accidentally inferring that Levi is a tiny, old man was voted most enjoyable scene of the episode, followed closely by Levi regrettably telling Kenny that he’s done for. Historia being firm about her stance with Erwin was another highly voted scene, along with Eren putting his game face back on.

I really liked Historia's characterization in this episode. It was nice to see her standing her ground in front of Erwin and the scene where she defeats her father was the episode's highlight for me.

HOW COOL WAS IT TO SEE THE POV OF A MINDLESS TITAN? 485 Responses

Overall, respondents were pretty stoked to see how a pure titan senses other humans.

YOUR REACTION TO ROD’S TITAN’S FACE REVEAL? 484 Responses

44% of respondents agree that the animation of Rod’s gruesome face was simply “awesome!” 25% were disgusted and 21% saw nothing but nightmare fuel. Ultimately we can all agree WIT really did a good job on this one!

ADORE

It set my gag reflex off like crazy, that shit was so disgusting! IMAGINE THE SMELL.

Finally! Gruesome details like that are an important part of the SnK universe and shouldn't be left out.

I'm glad WIT finally had the guts to go all out with Rod's titan form. It was definitely needed.

As Zackly would say: beautiful

I love that kind of macabre things but holy cannoli, I flinched so hard after seeing it. BIG KUDOS to the guys who animated this, it was a disgusting perfection.

Awesome disgusting & horrifying

If I were one of the soldiers I would've just shit my pants right there

Horrifyingly awesome! Awesomely horrifying?! THERE WAS BOTH RECOIL AND DELIGHT.

Wow it was awesome! It was so good to see first his eyes and then how devastated his face was. He had holes for eyes and the blood was like tears which fits with what Ymir said about mindless titans - that is incredible suffering.

It was absolutely disgusting and everything I was hoping for! Amazing!

Seriously don't get why it has to be so gross

I loved Rod’s Titan. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

Oh cool! Oh god.

WHO DREW IT BETTER - ISAYAMA OR WIT? 484 Responses

While Isayama drew Levi’s wanted poster better in the eyes of the fandom, WIT won the vote for Erwin’s talented left-handed drawing of Rod. We all thought it was beautiful either way!

Erwin actually draws better than me AND I WENT TO DRAWING CLASS FFS

WHOSE GRAVE DO YOU THINK EREN WAS VISITING? 481 Responses

Over half of respondents believe that Eren was visiting Hannes’ grave sometime between the events of Clash and Uprising arcs. 28% believe he was paying respects to a member of the original Levi Squad, while 25% believe it wasn’t anyone notable. Some write in answers had creative ideas:

A brat, I hope he's dead

His hopes and dreams

Can’t be Hannes or Squad Levi because they haven’t had time since the expedition for funerals. I think it’s Marco’s and the funeral was for the Battle of Trost.

I think it was an unnamed soldier's grave, but I was really hoping for it to be Hannes'

No idea, maybe a random soldier from Trost? When they're in titan territory how can they even stop to pick up what's left of bodies? I know they did after they escaped Annie but I never bought it much.

Mine, for this episode has killed me dead

Carla's empty grave.

Marco or some of his other comrades

HOW MUCH DO YOU RELATE TO EREN PUNCHING HIMSELF? 483 Responses

Half of respondents feel like Eren punching himself is a big and relatable mood (or perhaps, some of you relate to wanting to punch him?). 33% sometimes feel this way while 16% apparently never get this frustrated with themselves.

Didn't really like the Eren punching himself bit but he did kinda need it.

i wANT TO HUG MY DEPRESSED SON :(

HOW DID YOU LIKE THOSE THROWBACK FLASHBACKS FROM SEASON 1? 484 Responses

44% of respondents have appreciated seeing the nostalgic look of Season 1 peppered in with the current animation. 27% think that it’s pretty surreal to see the differences put together, and 22% didn’t really care or notice either way.

It was great to remind us about times when everything seemed so simple...

All those flashbacks annoyed me to be honest.

I thought that they should have reanimated it at first, but then I realized it would require more work which takes too much time

It’s so cool to see how much the animation has improved

I miss season 1 character designs

Im crying, missing my thicc lines

WOULD YOU ACCEPT HISTORIA AS YOUR RULER? 485 Responses

The majority of voters would be thrilled to bow down to Historia and accept her rule. 22% wouldn’t mind, while a smaller percentage would rather nope out of that situation.

Historia can rule me anytime, anywhere ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hisu could knock the shit out of me and I'd be thankful, honestly

Historia is bae

If anyone insults Historia i hope Rods titan guts fall on their head.

ROD IS A TINY OLD MAN. IS LEVI A TINY OLD MAN TOO? 483 Responses

41% of voters used this question to pay respects to Eren - who most definitely was shook by the realization that he used the words “tiny” and “old” in front of Levi. No respondents agree that Levi is old but everyone can agree that Levi is tiny.

Tiny old man is bestboi

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE ADDED MOMENT WHERE EREN GAINS CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF AGAIN? 479 Responses

Over half of voters believed the added scene was a good way to show Eren getting back on his feet after his meltdown. 14% agree that it got them hyped up for what’s coming. 10%, however, believe that the moment canceled out his previous behavior and didn’t make a lot of sense.

I liked it and he looked great but it did seem out of nowhere that he got he confidence back so quickly.

Huh? That was added?

It was awesome. I liked that part as it showed Eren's natural self and weaker state. He was relatable.

It felt out of place? Like it came out of nowhere.

Objectively, it was a great step in his character development. I just don't care about him, that's all.

I felt like he didnt really have to gain confidence to do his part, it was very shounen-like but I guess its ok

I wish my crises of confidence were that short

It negated his previous (and/or future) behaviour imo but DAMN SON HE‘S HANDSOME. RIP IN PEPPERONI MY OVARIES.

It's a little bit of hope that'll be crushed in the next arc.

makes me wonder how they’ll change (if at all) his ‘i’m not special, just the son of a special man’ moment later on with keith

WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE HOW TITANS SEEK OUT HUMANS WITH THEIR “6TH SENSE”! HEAT SENSORY! ARE YOU GLAD THAT ISAYAMA FINALLY ANSWERED OUR QUESTION WITH THIS EPISODE? 481 Responses

43% of voters appreciated the added detail, while ⅓ of voters were excited to finally have this sensory detail shown to us! A small percentage were unimpressed.

I think it's not heat, but actual human sensory.

But surly that would attract them to animals and so heat sensory can't be the ENTIRE process of detecting humans.

H E A T P A T H S

I'm pretty sure titan vision was 'souls' seen with PATHS and not heat detection or else titan would eat animals, at least that's what I thought when watching that scene

That still doesn't answer how and why titans differentiate between humans and other living things.

I knew it, but one question. Why do they need eyes if they got a sixth sense? Is the 6th sense an insurance if their eyes failed them? The 6th sense could be the work of PATHs lol...nah most likely heat detection.

P A T H S

We don’t know if it was heat sensory, but it was good.

DID THE RISE OF QUEEN HISTORIA MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS? 482 Responses

Nearly half of respondents got what they expected overall, while about 40% had their expectations exceeded. Just under 10% of voters weren’t very impressed with the way it was adapted. Overall, the love for Historia is very real.

Game of thrones "Mhysa" soundtrack just kept playing in my head when she proclaimed herself as the queen to the citizens. It was REALLY well done, I loved every minute of her scenes

Underwhelmed is a strong word. I think the scene in the manga was stronger, but the anime was still pretty good. The battle was absolutely great, I just feel her final declaration carried a bit more panache in the manga.

It was very okay

Historia really rocked. She is the true badass of this arc.

I was expecting a little more intense music, but yeah, that was fine the way they did it though.

Not a fan of the moment in the Manga, it felt shoehorned imo. Masterful adaptation, however

This is on me because the scene was done great but I wasn't as hyped as I thought I'd be which upset me because I've been waiting to see this for years.

THE SEIYUUS FOR ZEKE, REINER AND BERTOLT WERE REVEALED TO BE IN THE NEXT EPISODE. HOW HYPED ARE YOU TO SEE THEM? 483 Responses

The vast majority of the fandom are excited to see Reiner and Bertolt come back to the screen along with their warchief, Zeke!

Gimme that warriors next episode!

I can't wait for next episode to see my babies Reiner and Berutoto ;__; Miss them

I love Pieck and hope she shows up next wieck.

I want Zeke already

ACKERDUO PARALLELS! HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM SLICING AND DICING UP ROD’S GLAZED HAM TITAN IN UNISON? 481 Responses

The majority of voters were hyped to see Mikasa and Levi slicing up flesh. 23% were just happy for any parallels given some of the other things that were cut or minced up this season. A smaller percentage didn’t really care.

Ackerbrilliant!!

It amuses me how Ackermanns to Isayama are a different race of humans haha.

Ackerduo? More like Ackerdivas.

The Ackermans are such an eye-candy

Always a pleasure to see them in action 👌💯

imagine being that chill freefalling through the sky

as expected of Mikasa, don't care about Levi

I only care about Levi

HOW MANY OF YOU HAD HEART ATTACKS WHEN YOU THOUGHT KENNY’S FLASHBACKS WERE ONLY GOING TO HAPPEN IN A SPAN OF 10 SECONDS? 473 Responses

The vast majority of respondents were fooled for a few moments while watching the episode this week, worried that Levi and Kenny’s entire backstory got shoved into just a few moments. The preview eased our worries quickly enough though, thankfully! Many commenters weren’t fooled for a second, though:

I knew it was just a teaser for next episode, not worried at all

Eh, I wasn't fooled by that, just a little confused. Nice addition to the scene though!

I wasn't ready for it to be in this episode! And yeah I began to panick like "they're not going to show us just that, right??" Still, I'm not ready to see the whole flashback thing next episode... ��😭

I expected the flashbacks the next episode because of the episode titles.

I had a feeling that they were going to dedicate an episode or at least part of an episode to Kenny's flashbacks

I knew there was no way they'd do that, the thought never crossed my mind

I was more interested in seeing how they'd play out other important parts from them. They chose some great highlights to have people wondering what the deal with Kenny's past is while also making the transition into the full flashback feel less abrupt than in the manga, where I felt I had missed a chapter in between at first.

That thought never actually occurred to me. Pretty obvious that it was set-up for the next episode.

There's been too many heart-attack moments already. I've been reduced to a fandom grandma who sips her tea and says "Don't get your knickers in a twist, wait for it...

HOW DO YOU THINK THE STORY WOULD HAVE CHANGED IF EREN HAD BEEN EATEN IN THE CAVE? 206 Responses

You guys had some pretty interesting responses! Most people agree the story would have been effectively over and Paradis wiped out. We can't publish all of the responses, but here were some which stood out (or made us laugh):

Drastically! The people of Paradis would have their minds wiped, except for Mikasa and Levi. Historia would become a slave to the First King's "hide behind the walls" ideology. The SC would be disbanded and Erwin executed. So the whole island would be doomed when Marley invade again, and take Historia with the Founding Titan power away.

Pieck kills everyone

All the walldians would have died since there would be no way for the Survey Corps to take the Founding Titan and Attack Titan back from Historia or Rod Reiss and when the marleyans would have inevitably attacked, the walldians would have been erased from the face of the earth. Perhaps by an atomic bomb.

Levi for main protagonist!

Historia would have been controlled by the will of the First King and mind-wiped everyone. But not all things are lost. Levi and Mikasa would still be there, having all of their memories intact. Kenny and his squad would also still be alive, but Kenny would still not have much to live for anymore. Mikasa and Historia would have had a huge confrontation, with Mikasa almost killing Historia for eating Eren, but in the end, she can't bring over herself to kill her because Eren is ""alive"" within Historia now. Mikasa's liege to Eren will be slowly turning into a desire to protect Historia at all cost.

Erwin will be alive / Kenny will be alive / Berth will be alive / Sasha will be alive / Marlow will be alive / Moblit will be alive / Hanji will have their left eye / Zackly will be down with his shit machine

That's actually a great idea. Knowing where the author decided to take the plot, it wouldn't have worked, of course, but I would've loved to see the rest of the 104th taking over the story after Eren's death.

No future manbun eren :(

Historia might have more controll over the ability, If she becomes queen then the scouts will lose their hope for humanity. Mikasa will most likely be.... A little upset... Overall this question is difficult to answer because it creates a Senario with multiple different senarios within it. For example will historia become queen or remain in the scouts? It's just too difficult because of the different potential timelines created from this alternate event.

Zeke upon landing on Paradis: Where's Ereh?

I have never thought about that tbh. I guess we'd have no story at all, since the cycle of Titan inheritance would have not been broken and life would go back to as it was before the "story" started. Though Maria knows what Isayama had prepared for us in the upcoming manga chapters

they wouldve sold his organs on the black market

Oh wow, I never really thought of that. If Rod ate him then the story would probably end then and there because of the memory wipe (but a rebellion led by the Ackermans?? The possibilities are endless!). If Historia ate him then *maybe* she wouldn't do the memory wipe. It's interesting to speculate. The fate of the Survey Corps would come into question and that would become the focus of the story.

yea im not gonna write an alternate fanfiction for you

WHAT SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 483 Responses

34% of voters are most looking forward to Levi and Kenny’s final heartbreaking exchange. 26% are excited to see Kenny’s backstory and his friendship with Uri unfold. 20% specifically are looking forward to Kenny and Uri’s first meeting. Where’s baby Levi!?

I'm not ready for Kenny's flashbacks next episode!! We're going to see small Levi and Kuchel and... I'm already crying 😭😭

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH URIKEN MY FRAGILE GAY HEART WILL NOT SURVIVE THE NEXT EPISIDE ASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM

I want the WHOLE backstory of Kenny taking care of Levi IMMEDIATELY!!!

NEXT EPISODE MY MAN WILL DIE!! I CAN’T DO THISSSSS

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Beautiful animation, but I hope the next ep fills me with feels. I feel incredibly lackluster about Historia and her characterization this arc.

I always wondered in the manga how titan Rod didn't splatter his intestines on the Walls even without a skin. Like, it felt all too much clean, so anime made sense and a bit of splatter never hurt nobody! But with that scene, why WIT censors things like Levi killing humans??? They quite contradict themselves lol

Storyboards were handled by the man who storyboarded End of Eva and the Rebuilds, huh? Certainly paid off. I don't think his input was limited to storyboarding either, while easy to miss the first time around, Rod's agonized scream as he dies after Historia sees his memories is pretty disturbing and haunting. Very good stuff.

I'm sure that a lot of people will write about the battle against the Rod's titan and about Historia, so I will skip it. I have really nothing to add here except the fact that I really loved how strong, brave and mature Historia was in this episode.

Historia taking down her father gave me so many feels! I can't wait to see her get crowned and then punch Levi, he had such a heartwarming smile!

Historia is sooo fucking badass. I love Eren so much God bless his soul.

Erwin looked fucking great this episode.

Something about the anime didn't quite hit the mark, particularly in regards to the scene of Eren noticing the 3 kids and Armin giving him the pep talk. It's practically panel for panel, but the feel was just different somehow.

IT WAS A-MAZING! WE GOT THE SCENE WITH EREN INSULTING LEVI BY ACCIDENT (tho I was a bit disappointed that Levi didnt look as pissed as in the manga), WE GOT REALLY CREEPY UGLY ROD TITAN FACE, WE GOT KENNY AND LEVI MEETING, A SUPER COOL SEQUENCE OF EREN RUNNING TO GIVE ROD TITAN EXPLOSIVE CANDY, ARMIN WAS THERE, HISTORIA LOOKED COOL, ERWIN'S BLESSED ART SKILLS, IT HAD SO MANY GOOD STUFF

This episode was perfect in every way, except for Rod Reiss' giant fucking stomach just squelching onto the wall- yech!!! For a series with man eating monsters as its premise, nothing has ever made me feel as horrifyingly disgusted as that scene did. *shudder*

Seeing the serum bowl in the episode gave me chills OH MY GOOOOD I'M NOT MENTALLY READY FOR WHAT IS COMING

Historia was so good in this ep and the animation for the rod reiss titan was KILLER. WIT outdid themselves with that adaptation

RETURN TO SHIGANSHINA IS SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST TASTE IT. I'VE SUFFERED THROUGH THIS ARC, NOW GIVE IT TO ME WIT. GIVE ME MY CHILDREN.

No additional thoughts but thanks for making this survey every week :p

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 430 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again on Tuesday!

#snk poll #snk polls #snk spoilers #snk s3

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doshmanziari · 6 years ago

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Videogame Music Albums!

Hello, everyone. I thought it would be fun to guide you through the albums of videogame soundtracks I’ve gotten over the years. The aren’t very many, but I’ve always been selective about stuff I buy. Videogame soundtracks tend to be pretty expensive, anyway, when you factor in shipping costs.

So, going from the top, left to right, we have:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Ico

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

Guilty Gear XX Sound Alive

Einhander

Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest: The Best

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Shinobi

Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest: The Best 2

Final Fantasy Tactics

Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII

Above, you can see the back of each album’s case.

Symphony of the Night’s booklet is kind of unremarkable (I don’t know how to read Japanese, so the couple of pages of liner notes are useless to me). The majority of its pages are sheet music for “Nocturne in the Moonlight”, the theme that plays during the game’s establishing text crawl. I owned Symphony’s soundtrack before the game itself. Ocarina of Time’s features four pieces of official artwork, and you can fold the booklet to choose one for the front cover. For some reason, the booklet’s creases are perforated. It’s barely hanging together. This was the first videogame album I owned -- probably in 1999.

Not a CD I ever listened to much. At sixteen tracks, with five of those tracks being under a minute in length, it’s also fairly short for a Playstation 2 soundtrack. I ordered it after hearing “Castle in the Mist” on an internet radio station for videogame music. The CD has a grainy, brown-toned reproduction of Ico’s Japanese cover, and it looks great.

Five stickers, for the world’s sole Rygar fanatic! Besides these, there’s a thin booklet that has some colorful concept art and promotional renderings. Rygar: The Legendary Adventure came out around a time when there was a mini-revival of series that hadn’t seen any life in a while (Shinobi is one such series and game), and it made a big impact on me with its music and environments. When it wants to be about action, it’s fairly boring, and even bad. When it wants to impress you with vistas, it’s as powerful as it ever was. I’m less enthusiastic about the music now. My favorite track, improbably, is “The 3 Legendary Warriors”, a short synth-string piece intended for a cutscene.

Guilty Gear XX Sound Alive, an album of live performances of Guilty Gear music, is the odd one out here. I’m... not quite sure why I ever ordered it, and it absolutely is not something I’d listen to now. The cover depicts the band’s performers as skeletons with hair, because I guess that’s a thing you just do if you’re in a metal band. Both of the Dragon Quest compilations have pretty unremarkable graphic design -- some sort of line-up of protagonists on top of a boring stony texture -- and bare-minimum booklets. It’s all music I still enjoy, even with the knowledge that the soundtracks’ composer, Koichi Sugiyama, has disgusting politics. Shinobi’s booklet, which is black and white except for the front and back covers, has some notes in Japanese and sheet music for its first track. It’s not much to look at; bit unfortunate, when the game has some great concept art that could’ve been used, maybe with minimal coloration. Good soundtrack! It’s half of why I played the game as much as I did.

Fantastic game, soundtrack, and album design. The front cover simply reusing the Japanese release’s front cover (replaced by something bland for the US release) is a huge point in its favor by default. The case’s back and half of the booklet are dedicated to beautiful, atmospheric CG renderings of the Einhänder ship and antagonistic machines. I actually hadn’t played the game until last year, but I was compelled to order the soundtrack back in... probably 2004 after, like Ico, hearing one of its tracks on an internet radio station.

This was a joint album release that followed Castlevania: Curse of Darkness’ 2005 release on the PS2. Easily the best booklets of any videogame album I own -- attractive page borders, nicely colored font, multiple pages dedicated to Ayami Kojima’s art -- with the only downside being that all of the liner notes are, of course, in Japanese (as far as I know, they remain untranslated to English). Each album has two CDs: Lament of Innocence’s are blue, while Curse of Darkness’ are red. Every surface gives you something to look at. Lament of Innocence’s album is particularly notable for including a bunch of unused tracks on its second disc, plus several arrangements from Aria of Sorrow.

Besides Symphony of the Night, my most cherished item of the bunch. As you can see in the first picture, some of the plastic nubs that would normally keep the CDs in place have snapped off. Everything else is in a fine condition. The booklet is short and minimal, and includes a concurrent photo of Sakimoto and Iwata, which is cool. There’s also a fold-out showing the game’s classes. I really like that the actual case for the discs fits into a cardboard sleeve. The cardboard has little multicolored bits of other materials in its grain. I’ve only played maybe an hour of Final Fantasy Tactics, but I love its soundtrack.

Piano arrangement albums for Final Fantasy have been a thing for a while now, and XII’s took so long to manifest -- around six years -- that most people, myself included, assumed it was never going to happen. For comparison, Final Fantasy X’s piano album came out less than a year after the game. It seems like Square-Enix wanted to leave the whole thing behind. There isn’t much to say about the album design or booklet -- it’s a lot of dusty purple-brown -- except that the latter his some nice photos of Sakimoto and Casey Ormand, the arranger and performer; also, likely because Ormand is a native English-speaker, some brief liner notes from him are included in English.

OSTs which are not included here:

Killer Cuts: A fun arranged album that came with copies of Killer Instinct. Either I gave it to someone or I have it in a box somewhere.

Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX: No idea where this is, and I don’t care.

Silent Hill 2: Lent to a friend during undergrad, and never seen again!

#Videogame music #game music #game soundtrack

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yoongihime · 7 years ago

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Cheeky Bunny

Hybrid!AU: Leopard!OC x Bunny!Kook Length: 4.1K (lol is this even a drabble anymore?) Genre: The Most Fluffy Fluff Type: Disney Drabbles ☞REQUEST HERE☜ Recommended OST: (x) Request By: @/kimtrain:“Don’t underestimate the importance of body language." love youuuu MJ so so much (a/n): IDK OKAY? I REALLY IDK WHY IM SO SOFT. But anyways I this is so frickin fluffy idk anymore (read: I screamed a lot and wanted to smash my keyboard) and any comments are always appreciated, my inbox is open for you lovelies.

Summary: You’re a predator and he’s the prey, so what happens when the tables finally turn for our dearest bunny?

“(y/n), you’re fucking drooling.” Taehyung lands a particularly hard pat against the nape of your neck, immediately eliciting a hiss from you and a chuckle from him; your attention now regrettably snagged away from your little crush.

“You brat, that's not a good enough reason to grab my nape,” you hiss, your hands rubbing against the tender flesh. As felines, the neck area is off limits, it’s too intimate and oddly sensitive due to the period where parents would grab their litter my the scruff. So you find it absolutely necessary to repay to favor with a hard smack against his abdomen with your tail, causing a growl to bubble inside the lion-hybrid’s chest, his sunny demeanor evaporating and lips peeling back in act of dominance.

“Oh hush,” you dismiss, rolling your eyes and petting the thick fur of your tail, “You’re honestly acting childish, what are you? A big domestic cat?”

“Just because you are naturally a solitary breed does not excuse you from social norms, (y/n).” Taehyung firmly states, his ears twitching in his messy mop of golden hair. An involuntarily side effect of annoyance.

Well shit, you gone and pissed him off. Again.

“Fine, fine. I’m sorry,” you murmur, your steely blue eyes turning downcast and fluffy white ears laying low in a form of regret. You’re not exactly good with other creatures, since it’s in your nature to want to be prickly and sarcastic, but more often than not you come off as rude or completely awkward. You could say you were born this way. Taehyung lets you brew in your regret for approximately five seconds until the switch it flipped and he’s back to his grossly capricious self.

“Alright, alright that's enough serious talk to last another month, how about we go grab some lunch?” Taehyung suggests, his hand already pulling you closer to his body and his arm wrapping around your form, causing a smile to blossom on your face, taking comfort in his forgiveness. To the entire school you two are the perfect pair, despite the fact that your relationship with Taehyung is completely platonic, the student body seems drawn to the aura you two give off. Taehyung is the ever carefree feline, The Popular Kid everyone gets along with, from the wolves to the fawns, they’re all his loving admirers. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, there’s you. You’re the icy princess, the rare snow leopard hybrid, with your piercing electric blue eyes and smokey grey hair, you’re the moon to Taehyung’s vibrant sun. It’s quite obvious that people are afraid to approach you, even the biggest predators in the school have difficulty holding a conversation, let alone the domestic creatures. As a cruel twist of fate, the object of your affections, the reason the sun rises and the moon cries, is-

“Hey, bunny!” Taehyung greets the retreating boy, his long strides coming to a halt as he turns to look at the two of you. His tail twitches, the fluffy black ball bouncing where he can’t, bunny ears popping up to match and he turns around with a nervous smile tugging the edges of his lips.

“Jungkook!” You half-yell, causing the boy to flinch in his spot, “Do you want to go have lunch with us?”

“I-I err,” Jungkook begins, his composure already melting by the degree from your attention, “I have a meeting to get to,” he practically spits out and bolts out of the room, causing you to freeze in your tracks, your spirits broken once again.

“H-he he did it again.” You sigh the sentence out, as if the harsh exhale would also expel your disappointment. Collapsing back into the chair, you let Taehyung blatantly laugh at your distress as you sulk in the bitter rejection. Jeon Jungkook, the resident film major and bunny hybrid, is your unrequited crush of two years. It’s not his fault that he’s uncomfortable around you, it’s only natural after all, but the boy goes through such great lengths to avoid you to the point where you’ve convinced yourself-

“He hates me.” You deliver the final blow, the statement cutting deeper into your bruised ego.

“He’s just intimidated, the poor kid is a bunny (y/n), and you look at him like you want to gobble him up.” Taehyung winks, making you groan and place your head none too gently on the surface of the table.

“It’s not intentional,” you bemoan, “he just looks so… sweet.”

“There you go again, stop using adjectives that describes food to talk about him! Delicious, irresistible and delectable are absolutely off limits too,” Taehyung lectures, “unless you’re describing me of course.” Taehyung notes your lack of response with an empathetic pat to your back,

“It’s easy (y/n), just relax a little.”

“What difference would that make?”

“You my dear, underestimate the importance of body language,” he insinuates with a wag of his eyebrows.

Almost as reflex, your tail whips out to punch him once again, but Taehyung is done with your antics and grabs the plush fur, causing you to hiss in surprise,

“Okay, okay let’s get you lunch before you claw my face off.”

“(y/n) and Jungkook, you’ll be partners for the upcoming project.”

It’s quiet. The ensuing silence is borderline comedic in it’s magnitude, sharp enough to cut and thick enough to suffocate, so much so that your professor tilts her chin down, her scrutinizing stare piercing through her -5.75 prescription glasses and her voice shattering the eerily tranquil lack of noise,

“I believe I am to take the silence as an affirmative?”

Jungkook fidgets in his seat, his nervous energy radiating off him in tangible waves that suffocates the air surrounding you, despite the fact that he is seated three rows away. When his back straightens and his lungs fill with more air than the usual capacity, you choke out a response before he could light your reputation along with his into fine-grained embers.

“Yes, m’am.”

His incredulity is apparent, even if you can’t see those precious eyes widen in front of you, he makes his vexation clear as day though the twitch of his ears and the occasional half turns he performs every few minutes to stare blankly at you. As the hours tick by, you begin to get restless. It’s not his fault, or yours for that matter, your senses are simply on high alert from the sheer amount of movement he’s making, his fear soaking into your skin, triggering your instincts to hunt.

As the thin thread of your self control begin to deteriorate, the bell rings, effectively snapping you out of your frenzy. Students begin to shuffle out of the room, along with the professor for her next lecture, but your hairs are still standing on end and you take longer than usual to gather your laptop and array of stationary into your backpack. When the grumbles about said hellish assignments fade, another sound perks you up from your packing, the sound of Jungkook’s sneakers squeaking to a stop in front of your desk. Silence gathers gradually, building up under his gaze until you’re drowning in it and have to look away with a clearing of your throat—

“So when do you want to meet up to do the project?” You zip up your backpack, settling it onto your shoulders and rising from your seat without meeting his gaze. Jungkook swallows, his resolve crumbling when you stand up because you’re that much closer to him and his pounding heart. He wanted to say that sentence, wanted to arrange a time and maybe get you to smile at him again today, but it’s impossible to concentrate when every cell of his being is screaming at him to run. So when your eyes meet his, the orbs chatoyant and inquisitive, he blurts out the first phrase that comes to mind which happens to be-

“I can do it.” He states it like a fact, like he is telling you that the sun rises east and sets west.

Curse that stupid fight or flight response.

“W-what?” you splutter, your limited patience finally running out. It’s one thing to harbor personal feelings towards you but another completely to bash on your work ethic, so your body chooses the choice that he so easily abandoned: Fight.

“Listen Jungkook, I’m going to hope that you didn’t mean that just now and try again. So you really don’t like me, I get it. You’ve made that more than clear to me, so I don’t know why I keep trying like this.”

A sigh.

Jungkook is at a loss, his mouth opening only to close once again, the only consistency being the frown between this eyebrows and the strange twitching of his ears; his body as uncooperative as ever in this imperative moment.

“Maybe dislike is a bit too tepid,” your face sour, “maybe you even hate me.”

Your finger shoot up to hush him at his sudden look of panic.

Wow, your heart hurt.

Stupid, stupid bunny.

“Don’t worry I’m not going to pounce on you just because of your personal feelings,” you explain, but your claws are extended, “but I will not hesitate to do so when you’re bashing on my honesty and work ethic like this. Now, I’m open to work together during lunch and I have a free period for sixth. Come find me or whatever.”

Your ego is so bruised by this point you stumble haphazardly towards the end of row and closer to the neon exit sign, your escape. Fingertips brushing the metal doorknob, you’re pulled back by a strong grip on your wrist, and of course it’s Jungkook. He’s panting, as if those measly steps towards you required immense effort and if you weren’t so caught in your own bitterness you would have noticed the rose tinted hue coloring his cheeks and the faraway look residing in his eyes when you turned to meet his gaze.

“I-I don’t hate you.” Jungkook pleads, his eyes sincere and you hate how your heart leaps out of your chest at those three words. Not exactly an ‘I love you’ but at least that’s some progress.

“Please give me another chance, (y/n).”

Your anger wants to say no, to cut him off and drown in your own self pity, but his hold tethers you to reality and releases you from your childish emotions. Maybe it’s your stubborn ambition that wants to see him try his best, to pine for you as you have for him or maybe it’s the way your name rolls of his tongue, smooth like a melody, that convinces you to agree,

“Okay.”

“You’re here again today, bunny!” Taehyung greets Jungkook who looks up from his notebook to smile at the lion hybrid as he drapes his legs over the bench across from you. For the past week, Jungkook has been sitting with you at lunch and even near you during classes, his presence rivaling Taehyung’s during your days on campus.

You’ve gotten quite smitten with the boy, but your wounded pride refuses to accept that any of his precious displays of affection could mean anything more than friendship. Yes, the way his hand brushed yours as he picked up his assignment has nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to touch you, but didn’t know how to or the constant smile that appears on his face when he makes you laugh is most obviously one of curtesy for your sake. It has to be. You’d sooner believed that the boy would like you (let alone love you) than if he goes and tattoo ‘I <3 (y/n)’ on his forehead.

Yet the reality is indeed the opposite for the lovestruck bunny. You’re his poison and his cure, a step loving you is just a another step towards realizing how incredibly little of an impression he has in your eyes. To say Jungkook is frustrated by how lukewarm your reactions are to his efforts would be an understatement of enormous proportions; for goodness sake he swears you were not like this last week. So what gives? Oh right, him and his loose reflexes that’s what happened. At the verge of giving up, Jungkook looks pleadingly towards the golden boy across the table, his eyes conveying what his speech can’t.

Taehyung knew it was going to happen sooner or later, that poor bunny is reaching his breaking point. He’s not saying that this is Jungkook’s fault (because let’s face it you’re denser than a steel wall when it comes to romance, especially once you’ve been jaded by it), but he’s not going to say that the bunny is innocent in this either. So when those round, clear eyes turn his way as he was munching on his cheeseburger, Taehyung swallows thickly, knowing exactly what the brunette is asking of him.

“Hey (y/n), can you so get me a soda?” Taehyung interrupts your scribbling, your eyes looking from him to his half filled water bottle with apprehension.

“You have drink right there?” you question, clearly confused by his need for another beverage.

“Please? I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow, I’m really thirsty.” Taehyung pleads, his large hands coming to frame his face in a V and his eyes blinking rapidly in an attempt to act cute. Damn him and his beautiful face, if it was anyone else they would look like a Class 1 idiot, but Taehyung somehow pulls the stunt off with grace. You immediately cringe at the display but laughter blooms from your chest nonetheless,

“Okay, okay I’m going. No need to threaten me Tae.”

As you shuffle away, Taehyung turns his attention to the Jungkook. The boy was staring after you with so much longing Tae considering smacking the lovesick grin right off his face.

“So Jungkook,” Taehyung begins, causing those doe eyes to meet his scrutinizing ones, “maybe its just me, but I think you like my best friend.”

Jungkook splutters on the water he was sipping, his chest having up and down to ease the burning of his lungs.

“I- err ..yeah.” Jungkook’s noncommittal response drifts from his lips, if admitting it to Taehyung as difficult, how the hell was he going to say that to you? He grasps his chocolate brown locks messing up the already fluffy strands,

“But she doesn’t notice at all! I’ve been trying so hard.” Jungkook groans, his frustrations overwhelming his shyness for the time being.

“Listen, bunny. You’re going to have to try a lot harder than that for that girl to understand. She likes you too you know?” Taehyung says through a mouthful of fries, causing Jungkook’s ears to perk with interest but his face remains pouty and sad on the surface of the table.

“I’ve been trying so hard though, Tae. Compared to before at least.” Jungkook sulks.

“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong, my boy! She had hope before you went and shot all of that down and now her emotions are in Grade A lockdown prison called Denial. Unless you want to spell it out and tell her straightforwardly she’s not going to register any of it.”

Jungkook groans, his ears drooping with realization.

“So what do you suggests I do?”

Taehyung’s devilish smile is rather unsettling but Jungkook trusts the lion to not fail him and he draws closer for Tae to whisper into his soft ears.

You come back to a rather strange scene: Jungkook blushing profusely as Taehyung pinches his ear, cackling and whispering something into them only for the two of them to answer with guilty Nothing’s when prompted.

Finger quivering, you take in a deep breath before pressing the little doorbell. It elicits a light, soft sound inside the household, probably because bunny hybrids are sensitive to noises. You hear multiple thumps from the inside, no doubt the siblings Jungkook told you about, and three seconds later the boy himself appears in front of you. He looks amazing today as always, his brown locks ruffled and black ears sitting attentively on top along with a huge cream-colored sweater that he fills out all too well, completed by distressed jeans that seem to be screaming for air from his muscular thighs. As if he’s vocalizing your thoughts—

“You look beautiful today.” Jungkook compliments with a blush, his cheeks turning rosy and a cough is forced out of his chest as a way to avoid your eyes.

Only curtesy (y/n). He’s being polite. You chant mentally, not daring to search for any hidden meanings behind his words. Your body is a bit more honest with the way your ears seem to stand on end, and a dust of rose also makes an appearance across your features.

“Thank you,” you manage to reply, “you’re not so bad yourself.”

He seems to be encouraged by that, taking you by the hand and tugging you upstairs towards his room with some utterance of how his parents are away on a trip and that’s why he has to babysit the kids. His comments flow into one ear and out the other because all you process are your heartbeats ringing in your ears and the way his hand completely envelope yours.

God what is this boy trying to pull today? you mentally yell, praying that he won’t be able to feel your racing pulse through your adjoined hands.

“This is my room.” He announces, hand still firmly holding on to yours despite the fact that the two of you arrived at your destination.

It’s as if you’re seeing an extension of Jungkook between the rows of black and white film photos on the wall, the neat and tiny desk, as well as his color coded figurines down to his deep navy blue sheets that smells just like him.

“You’re so neat.” you breathe out, not knowing what to say when you’re so immersed in his scent you’re practically dizzy from the pheromones.

You pull away from his hold, not looking back to notice his pout and sitting down in his office chair, as far away from him as possible.

“Let’s get to work then!” You suggest, and he nods pulling another chair right next to yours, and leaning over to turn on the desk lamp. At this angle he’s close enough for your lips to brush his nape, the temptations making your canines ache. All too soon he leans back, his smile innocent and you had to exert all your self control not to groan in frustration.

You and Jungkook.

In his room, immersed in his scent.

With about two inches of space in between.

Yep, this was going to be the longest day of your life.

This has to be the most productive you’ve been in your entire life. Maybe it’s because this project is worth more than half your grade, or maybe it has something to do with the need to distract your mind from the bunny sitting next to you. You’re busy drawing up the next draft when—

“Kookie?”

“Oh my god it’s a mini Jungkook!” You exclaim before your mind realized what you were saying, but the tiny little boy at the door was too adorable to dismiss with just a glance. He’s simply too precious, with his short grey ears and round eyes, you barely held yourself back enough to scoop him up in your arms. Jungkook laughs at the wonder displayed on your face, a little jealous that his little brother would be able to steal your heart so easily when he couldn’t.

“Yes Jeonghyun?” Jungkook rushes to his little brother’s side, but the little boy only eyes you with apprehension as he pulls his older brother closer.

“Okay, okay don’t cry.” Jungkook soothes him, lifting him easily in his arms and walking away with him, but not before you spot the unmistakable glare the little bunny is throwing your way.

Great, his entire family hates me, you sigh, the thought more disturbing to you than you would have imagined.

“Hello? Earth to (y/n)?”

You blink, realizing that Jungkook has been trying to get your attention.

“Are you okay?” He prompts, his face a bit to close for your liking so you nod your head, not trusting your voice quite yet.

“C’mon I know you well enough to know when you’re sulking (y/n),” Jungkook places both hands on your cheeks, causing your eyes to widen, “What’s wrong?”

“Would your entire family be scared of me?” You whisper the question because even to you it sounds ridiculous and childish. Jungkook is surprised by the hurt in your voice, but it makes him realize how vulnerable you are right now, with your heart on your sleeve and tears pricking your eyes. You’re simply too soft, delicate enough for him to strengthen his resolve and pick you up princess style, plopping onto his bed with you snuggled tight on his lap.

“Jungkook—“ You tense in surprise, trapped on his legs with his chin resting on your right shoulder and his arms the lock to your makeshift prison.

“Of course not, (y/n). I’m not scared one bit.” Jungkook declares, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. To emphasize his point, his hands intertwine with yours, fingers grasping yours tight and his face nuzzles deeper into the crook of your neck, his nose skimming your sensitive nape, eliciting an involuntary pleased sigh from you.

“Jungkook, stop.” You plead, but your voice is much too weak and your body melts further into his hold. Why is he so strong for such a bunny? You never realized how broad he was until this moment, with your body so easily wrapped up into a harmless little bundle on his lap.

“Don’t wanna.” He protest, the childish tint to his voice only making you blush harder.

“You’re supposed to do this with someone you like.” You protest, but you’re as soft as dough in his grip at his point.

“You’re so dense you know that?” He pauses, beaming at you and you open your mouth to counter when he saying takes the chance to attack,

“I like you, you dummy.”

As if the crushing embarrassment crashed down on him all at once, he burrows his face back into your neck, letting you precess the words all by yourself, eyes glazed over and dreamy. It’s not until he begins to laugh that you snap back into reality,

“(y/n) why are you making that noise, it sounds like you’re choking on your meows.”

You completely heat up at that, burning much to hot to be suffocated on his lap.

“It’s called chuffing you dumb bunny,” you defend your self, cheeks overheating at this point,

“and it means I like you too.”

The pair of you soak in the moment until you hear Jungkook’s gentle musings, “Ah Jeonghyun is going to be even more upset,” he says as he kisses your temple, you’re so distracted from the feeling of his lips on your skin that you don’t even question it, but he graciously explains, “he’s a little jealous of you.”

You make a noise of acknowledgement, your brain overridden by your heart and its giddy thumps.

“It’s okay I like him more than you anyways.” You teasingly tell Jungkook, causing the bunny to flip you over on his lap so that you’re straddling him. Preparing yourself for a retort, your mind completely blanks when he surprises you with a kiss instead of a reply. He’s as sweet as you assumed in your daydreams, his lips gentle and hesitant against yours. Sugar melting on your tongue, you instantly crave more of him, his scent, his taste. True to your nature, you let out in impatient whine, having none of his gentleness when all you want to do is taste him properly. You pull him closer by the baby hairs on his nape, giggling slightly as he lets out a keen of surprise when you nip at his bottom lip and soothes it with your tongue.

“Serves you right, bunny.” You taunt, mirth filling your eyes and laughter ringing until he shuts you up with another kiss, his finishing statement making you splutter with shock—

“I love you, kitten.”

“So what do you suggest I do?”

Taehyung’s devilish smile is rather unsettling but Jungkook trusts the lion to not fail him and he draws closer for Tae to whisper into his soft ears.

“She really loves it when people call her kitten, why don’t you try that?”

“Wha—“

“Trust me.”

“What are you guys whispering about?”

“Nothing!”

#btswriters #bangtan-bookclub #kkreationsnet #sfwbangtan #kreativewritersnet #bts #jungkook fluff #jungkook scenarios #jeon jungkook #hybrid!au #kookie #oh man all this fluff #IM GETTING ALL OF Y'ALL SO FAT WITH ALL OF THIS LOL #IM GONNA GHOST FOR FINALS SOOOO #MIGHT AS WELL #IM NOT POSTING AT 3AM FOR ONCE AHAH #PLEASE LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

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captainfawful · 7 years ago

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It’s the end of the year, know what that means? It’s time for my second annual “Nobody Cares” Awards! Click the post if you’re super bored and have nothing better to do!

So.... 2017′s been a year, huh? Personally, it hasn’t been as bad as 2016 for me, but it was definitely.... A different kind of shitty, I guess. But hey! There were a lot of games that came out this year; many of which were really damn good. I’ve sorta been enjoying the whole mass writing thing, so I plan on this being more writing than last time. Get ready for my 9 paragraph essay on why I think Nier: Automata was the most overrated game of the year! (Just kidding, I would never make you suffer through that. God forbid I anger that fanbase.) I also tried coming up with different categories, so I don’t end up completely ripping off Giant Bomb (at least at the time of writing I haven’t, for all I know they could have the same categories as me and I’ll eat my words). That said, Best Music will always stay, without question. Now let’s start the show!

Best Title Screen

Persona 5

Atlus are geniuses. They kept churning out Persona 4 remakes, adaptions, and spinoffs like there was no tomorrow. It went so far that many people, including myself, were convinced Atlus was focused entirely on milking this cow. A few teasers came and went, and my thoughts of 5 just being “Persona 4: 2″ had not waned one bit. Then they showed the first real trailer. The trailer that would end up being the games opening music video. It was at that point that I realized “Oh wait, I actually had no reason to doubt them at all.” Everything about that trailer showed me the error of my ways, and convinced me that Persona had not lost its’ edge one bit. The game simply oozes style and creativity, and I believe the title screen to Persona 5 is a perfect representation of that style. I have more to say about this game later on in the Top 10, but I’ll say for now that the opening movie and the title screen give off an amazing first impression.

Runners Up:

Nidhogg 2

Sonic Mania

Best Game To Watch

Yakuza 0

I’m not a big fan of Beat-Em-Ups, Brawlers, Hack-N-Slash, Character Action Games, whatever you want to call them. I often find them repetitive and kinda boring. I’m not saying they’re bad or anything, I can totally see why people enjoy them. They’re just not for me. That’s one of the lesser reasons I believe Nier: Automata was one of the most overrated games of this year. My point is, I never got into the Yakuza series for that reason. A couple of my friends would tell me the ridiculous or silly things that happened in the games, and I was interested, but never enough to actually give one enough of a shot. When Yakuza 0 came out, I remember seeing it on a Giant Bomb Unprofessional Fridays, where Mary Kish played the first 45 minutes or so, including a karaoke song. That’s when I got hooked. I knew that Yakuza had a ton of weird sidequests, and over the top action, but I never knew that it also had legitimately good drama. I was fascinated by how good the cutscenes were. A little while later, Giant Bomb East did a playthrough of the whole game, and I watched every second. The quirkyness of the series is obviously a big selling point, but the amazingly well done cutscenes were what tipped me over into becoming a Yakuza fan. That being said, if I had to play the entire game on my own, I don’t think I would have finished it.

Runners Up:

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds

My Summer Car

Best Music

Pyre

This one’s a surprise. I went into 2017, and got a lot of the way through 2017, thinking there would be no way Persona 5 wouldn’t have the best soundtrack of the year. Pyre’s soundtrack is really great. Darren Korb has a knack for making fantastic music, but the real reason I ended up liking Pyre’s OST more isn’t just because the songs are good, but also because of how they’re implemented. The game is structured mostly like a visual novel, with character portraits standing over their dialogue box when they talk. Depending on the character currently speaking, the instrumentation goes through very slight changes. If a larger character starts talking, the drums and/or bass become more prominent. If a more calm or quiet character starts talking, the song goes into a more acoustic arrangement, so on and so forth. Also, there’s a thrash metal song that is hype as fuck. That being said, while it’s not in the runners up, SteamWorld Dig 2 has the best music track of the year.

Runners Up:

Persona 5

Sonic Mania

Best Hand Drawn Animation

Cuphead

Here’s a trend I hope keeps up. It seems like this year brought more hand drawn games than years past, many of which look spectacular. Cuphead was first shown in.... 2014 I believe? It was just a random clip in an Xbox One Indie games compilation shown off at Gamescom, and it made a huge impression from just a couple seconds. The animation quality is flawless, and the attention to detail is extremely deep. They replicate that 1930′s cartoon style perfectly, on their very first shot.

Runners Up:

Sundered

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

Best Bat-Wielding Motherfucker

Goro Majima (Yakuza 0)

What else needs to be said? There’s almost nothing more fun than smashing the shit out of things with a baseball bat. Granted, Majima doesn’t smash a lot of things, but more often people; luckily, I never was one for semantics!

Runner’s Up:

Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)

Chloe Price (Life is Strange: Before the Storm)

Coming Soon

Listen, Iconoclasts is coming out in less than a month. That’s reason enough to be excited for 2018. On top of that, we have Dragon Ball FighterZ, Griftlands, Ni No Kuni II, Full Metal Furies, Wonder Wickets, and maybe Crackdown 3 also coming in the first quarter. However, there’s not a ton of 100% confirmed 2018 releases. Games like Valkyria Chronicles 4, Wargroove, Megaman 11, Indivisible, UFO 50, and mother fucking Spelunky 2 are all games that are allegedly coming out next year, but I have a feeling most of those will end up pushed back. Also, I can’t wait to see the glorious train wreck that will inevitably be Detroit: Become Human.

And maybe Mother 4 (name pending) will come out this year? Probably not. But here’s hoping!

And now.... The Top 10!

#10: What Remains of Edith Finch

I’ll cut straight to the point: Edith Finch is my favorite walking simulator (or as some might call it, stroll-playing game) I’ve ever played. Perhaps I’m a bit biased, as my personal favorite movie is Big Fish, which was definitely a source of inspiration for this game. I will say, however. that Edith Finch’s ending is nowhere near as good as Big Fish’s.

#9: Pyre

#8: Gorogoa

#7: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

You know what I love? The combat in XCOM. You know what I hate? All of the base building garbage in XCOM. Mario + Rabbids puts a few interesting spins on XCOM’s combat, while also removing all of the boring bullshit in between. While there are several issues I have with the game, like not being able to take Mario out of the party, overall Ubisoft did a very good job creating this very... bizarre crossover. Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever had a hatred for Rabbids. I think they’re fine. In fact, if I had a source of income when I was 16 and Rayman Raving Rabbids came out, I would probably own a piece of Rabbid merchandise right now.

#6: Sonic Mania

Sonic Mania is pure fan-service, and I am a fan. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot when Mania was originally announced. As you know, Sonic hasn’t had the... Best reputation. Especially when they say they’re going back to his roots, Sega always manages to screw up one way or another. I’m not even that big a fan of Sonic Colors! So while I was into the way the game looked, I was still very skeptical. The more I learned about the game, however, the more interested I became. Finding out Christian Whitehead was front running the development, Tee Lopes providing the music, and seeing posts from people pointing out little in-jokes and references from the original trailer, all of this made me more and more excited. I figured even if the game wasn’t that fun, it would still be worth it to see all the little details they added to it. I got the game, loaded it up, and the intro began playing. I got shivers all over from the pure joy of that opening cutscene. Maybe this will actually be good? Shortly after, I got to the first Special Stage, where everything went all 3d. Okay, this game is kinda good. I played it a little more, and found myself in a boss fight where I had to play a round of Puyo Puyo against Dr. Robotnik. This game is amazing. While the Puyo fight was definitely the highlight of my excitement, but the rest of it didn’t fall off too far. Sonic Mania is an experience that I don’t think can be recaptured; a sequel would be fun, but I really doubt it could affect me the same way this game did.

#5: Horizon Zero Dawn

#4: Persona 5

Persona 5 had the potential to be my game of the year. The aesthetics, style, music, color schemes, story revolving around punks and rebellion, creating a group of master thieves, and potentially off heists are all things that very much resonate with me. So what happened? What caused this game that should have turned into an all time favorite end up being a “I guess 4 is a good enough spot”? First of all, too many of the game’s segments go on for way too long. The dungeon designs are poor, with uninteresting puzzles that get extremely repetitive. Unlike Persona 3 and 4, however, this game does not get the excuse of randomly generated rooms as an excuse (despite how bad an excuse that may be.) Most of the later dungeons just straight up drag near the end, with a couple of them not having save areas for oddly long stretches of time. It felt like they just needlessly extended the dungeons to double the length of what should have been a 30-40 hour JRPG. I thought the characters overall were interesting enough, but their confidant links felt kind of same-y. The story didn’t feel nearly as important as in the previous games, and the big twists were either confusing, full of plot holes, or needed a half hour for the game to explain itself to you. But, at the end of the day, it’s still a Persona game. It may not be the best Persona game, in fact I would probably say it’s the fourth best (behind 3, 2, and of course 4) but overall Persona 5 managed to deliver an enjoyable experience.

#3: SteamWorld Dig 2

#2: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

#1: Super Mario Odyssey

I’ve been trying for weeks to write up a big thing about why I love Super Mario Odyssey so much. And really, there’s not a whole lot to it. It is a joyous game. My entire time spent with it was fun, and I constantly had a smile on my face. Much like the intro to Sonic Mania, the Festival segment of Odyssey also gave me shivers from how happy it made me feel. And really, isn’t that what we need most in 2017? The biggest gripe I have about this game is that there isn’t enough of it. I would have liked to see a few more worlds, or have a bit more variety so there’s not, say, two water levels or two jungle levels. Which is a much better problem to have than with Persona 5, where I thought there was too much of that game. Hell, I played a lot more of it after the end credits, which is something I very rarely ever do. Overall, Odyssey is a splendid game that excels in almost everything it does, and makes the exploration of each world something I actively want to do. Odyssey, ya see?

Hey, hi! You made it to the bottom! If you read all that, or even a little of it, then you have my appreciation! Hell, even managing to scroll past all that to get down here deserves a pat on the back in and of itself. Well, that just about wraps up my pointless little awards ceremony. Due to the influx of big important games to play, plus some personal issues that ate up too much of my time, I didn’t make much progress in beating Kingdom Hearts II.8, or the Zelda games I missed out on. Oh well, there’s always next year? There’s always a next year. Even after humanity collapses in on itself (soon-ish?), there will always be a next year.Hope you all had a good holiday, and have a better 2018! Toodles!

#dont reblog pls #long post #very rare personal post???

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aidoru-ojisan · 7 years ago

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Hey, now that majority of the Anime of Summer 2017 have been released I guess it’s finally time for me to give all of you my thoughts on the Anime that I have watched this season, I will also be giving an overall rating based on the first episodes and if it’s worth watching or not! Now let’s start!

MB Oji-san’s thoughts on Summer 2017 Anime

1. Action Heroine Cheer Fruits: So apparently this series focuses on a group of... I believe middle school students, try gaining more visitors to their small home town by creating their own action hero group, which is a popular trend in their year... The series does have quite a simple concept and the character designs are quite nice, a cute girls doing cute things show that has actual goals, kinda reminds me of Sakura Quest with the concept of bringing visitors to a small town in the country but lacks the all the amazing things it has, it’s something easy to watch but nothing fantastic, 6/10 (Try at least 3 episodes if you want to give it a shot) *Update: Dropped, I have better things to do rather than watch a sub-par show about a group of girls becoming a live action hero group. Would have probably enjoyed this if I was still a kid

2. Ballroom e Youkoso: I’ve seen this series jokingly called, “The Straight Yuri on Ice!!” that got a bit of a chuckle from me, but knowing that I was never a big fan of any form of dancing I knew that this series would have to do a lot to get me invested to keep watching it, and surprisingly it did, aside from the designs of Haikyuu! the soundtrack and animation of this show is pretty great and I find it quite amazing that our MC who was questioning himself about his future managed to gain such a great passion of ballroom dancing just from watching his now current tutor doing the art himself during a competition, not to mention all the girls in this show seem really cute (especially the one voice by Sakura Ayane) 8/10 (I highly recommend this show, one of the best of this season but do the three episode rule also if you find yourself losing interest afterwards)

3. Battle Girl High School - Apparently this is a mix of idol and cute girls fight monsters to save the planet series? Well this show has plenty of cute girls, yet the designs are kinda weak (that one girl that looks like Miria from Cinderella Girls always bugs me tbh) the plot is nothing too special, would be something you can get from some random Anime phone game, which this Anime originated from, but tbh some scenes are cute and I did follow this series closely because one of the girls are voiced by Ozora Akari’s seiyuu so... this show might not be for everyone but watch if it if you want to watch cute girls doing cute things while saving the world 6/10 (3 episode rule) *Want to drop, but cannot due to Akari’s VA voicing one of the girls

4. Centaur no Nayami - Here we have this season’s monster girl series... and honestly I find it a bit lacking compared to Winter’s Demi-chan... sure this series may have some Yuri undertones and cute girls but I find this world’s underlining politics and evolution system a bit unsettling... which is apparently connected to the story of our main cast later on but it seems just so oppressive despite the series’ cute SOL look, it’s good though and if you like cute monster girls go ahead and watch it 7/10 (3 episode rule at best)

5. Fate/Apocrypha - Astolfo, Modred, and Jeanne D’Arc, that should be enough for you to watch this Fate series 8.5/10 (Go ahead and watch it, no need to watch all the Fate series, you still should but this is set in an alternate universe) *Update, Changing the score to a 7, not even Astolfo can save this series

6. Hajimete no Gal - the goddamn MC of this series does not deserve Yukana... despite the stereotypes of gyarus, she’s a sweet girl who’s way out of the dude’s league and you almost want to punch him for all the stupid things he does later in the series 6.7/10 (3 episode rule, or watch if you’re a harem ecchi fan) *Want to drop but can’t, I want to see if Yukana dumps the MC’s sorry idiotic ass

7. Hina Logi ~from Luck & Logic~ - This spin-off of the Lock & Logic series has got to be one of the Animes of Summer 2017 that has impressed me the most, despite having a much more moe style compared to the original series, Hina Logi’s OP animated with paper cut-outs was honestly SUPER IMPRESSIVE, it has got to be my fave OP animation of this season. Not to mention the action scenes are impressive as well, the character designs are nothing to write home and this show does have it’s own share of fan service but it’s honestly pretty fun! 7.5/10 (Watch the original Luck & Logic if you wish to view this one, the original is pretty good would rate it the same score as Hina Logi)

8. Isekai Shokudou - honestly one of the best looking shows this season, despite not having too much of a fantasic plot, you can call this series “the fantasy version of Shokugeki no Soma without foodgasms” well sexual ones at least, but just a simple laid back series about a regular restaurant owner serving customers from another world with his cute fantasy world coworkers 8/10 (highly recommend, watch if you want a nice looking laid back series)

9. Kakegurui - man the ugly facial expressions... the stakes of the gambling games... the GREAT OP but s**tty ED... the fan service... this is actually a really good series tbh 7.8/10 (I recommend it, watch it if you want a well animated series with some nice psychological moments and high stakes)

10. Katsugeki Touken Ranbu - Ufotable + Samurais??????.... it’s OK 7.5/10 (3 episode rule at best)

11. Knight's & Magic - Honestly I feel like this series is being over hyped, I don’t know if it’s because the main character that was formerly just a working programmer mecha otaku who is reincarnated as a pretty boy voiced by Megumin’s seiyuu or good ol’ Chu Chu Yeah! fhana singing the OP (tbh I kinda feel the opening to be one of her weaker songs but eh that’s me) but I can hand it to this series for having well animated robot fight scenes and monsters, I’m kind of a hipster so I hate over hyped series but as a reviewer I will not let this effect the score I’ll be giving it 7.5/10 (I recommend it to people who want a pretty good looking isekai series with some badass looking mechas)

12. Koi to Uso - Despite the character designs of this series seeming a bit wacky sometimes, the coloring of this series is absolutely beautiful, and can I just say the concept of government arranged marriages to counter Japan’s declining child birth rate and Lilina was enough to get me to read all the released chapters of the Manga? Heads up, Yusuke is best girl 8/10 (highly recommend if you’re into good romance with some drama)

13. Made in Abyss - Such simplistic character designs yet unique... such a wonderful soundtrack that I was only wishing it could be Post-Rock... wonderful world building of a world so beautiful... this show is also apparently super dark so as a Metal fan... beauty within the darkness is greatly appreciated 9/10 (HIGHLY RECOMMEND but warning, the source of this series shows that the Anime can get SUPER DARK in later episodes so I’ll be giving you a heads up just in case you can’t stomach it, one of my fave Animes of 2017 next to Tsuki ga Kirei)

14. New Game!! - OVERRATED but... nice Yuri vibes, fan service, cute characters and scenes eh 7.5/10 (watch if you have seen the 1st season)

15. Princess Principal - I just can’t get over the character design choice of this series... moe despite being a serious edgy steam punk spy series... well edgy moe series like Yuuki Yuuna are masterpieces so I won’t let it bug me too much, the OST and scenery of this series is great 7.8/10 (watch if you want cute girls doing edgy spy stuff)

16. Tenshi no 3P! - lolis and some loner teenage dude make music, the ED is pretty Metal but god... dude gonna go to jail 6.5/10 (eh 3 episode rule unless you like lolis go for it) *Update: Dropped! I don’t care for the “Metal that’s always used in Anime” ED, I’m not watching this obvious as f**k Lolibait

17. Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou - this has an old anime vibes, which isn’t a negative statement, it’s positive, simply an Anime about a dude who wants to live in his high school's dorms so that he wouldn’t be a burden to his uncle and his family ever since losing his parents and residing in their house, sadly said dorm is burned down in a fire and he ends up living in a supernatural apartment and finding out he has powers to help others, a really nice laid back series the soundtrack choice can suck at times and the character design and coloring is nothing special but I can feel heart in this series 7.5/10 (3 episode rule at best)

18. Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - this series impresses me, not only with the great coloring and each character have unique individual designs, just the usage of quotes from writers of great and the concept of the students in the school these series takes place in with only the superior classes only truly mattering is a bit cliched but interesting 7.8/10 (3 episode rule at best)

19. Aho-Girl - Funny as heck and short, always making for a good laugh and the fan service in this show merely makes me laugh compared to being aroused, love the voice choices for A-Kun and Yoshiko, reminds me of Yusuke and Futaba from P5 8/10 (highly recommend if you want to laugh)

20. Netsuzou Trap -NTR-: Only 10 minutes or less per episode???? DISAPPOINTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well this series already makes me feel conflicted despite being Yuri but damn the Anime ain’t nothing special aside from that 7/10 (uh want Yuri which is super rare, watch it but the NTR element will make you question yourself)

21. Tsurezure Children - Nice, short good romance comedy Anime, makes your heart skip a beat while laughing 8/10 (watch if you want a good short romcom series)

22. Gamers! - I honestly wonder how the studio got all the rights to use all those game refrences, suprisingly is quite a good watch despite the MC being kind of a wimp 7/10 (Watch if you like a different formula to the “club” genre)

23. Teekyu S9 - Time for more wacky Teekyu stuff 6.5/10 (uh you should pretty watch all 8 previous seasons if you want to watch this)

24. Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni. - tbh a decent isekai series, not too much of that generic crap and every action the characters do feels meaningful 7/10 (Watch if you want something that’s a mix of serious and comedy isekai)

THOUGHTS ON CONTINUING SHOWS

Aikatsu Stars - Koharu’s back and that’s all I need 7/10 (honestly I see the writers are pulling a “Love Live!” writers move and might make all the future episodes way too similar to the 1st series, which sucks since Stars! felt pretty OK despite the low ratings)

Re:Creators - Overrated, that’s all, this show is getting boring, the girl from the Eroge is saving this show 7/10

Shingeki no Bamahaut: Virgin Soul - Still good, I’m just wondering if Nina will be OK, cause I don’t want anything bad happening to her 8/10

Boku no Hero Academia - I love Ochako, that is all 8.5/10

Sakura Quest - the new OP and ED are “meh” compared to the first ones but the 2nd cour seems pretty good and it was pleasant to hear fluent Spanish in an Anime of all places 8/10

Sagrada Rest - DROPPED, but it’s OK, JJBA Part 5 will come after this boring ass show too ded for me/10

#I think a few shows have yet to be aired but here you go~#anime #review #list #mb oji-san's rants

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egle0702 · 8 years ago

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[TRANS] Bazaar June 2017 Park Hyungsik Interview

BORN TO BE WILD

Park Hyungsik calmly walked into the Hawaiian nature where sun, wind, fog, and sudden showers changed one another in unparalleled fashion like special effects. A full-fledged 26-year-old actor, who is slowly discovering the taste of acting, without a touch of fear or hesitation explored the unfamiliar world. The diverse Park Hyungsik’s prism that radiates between an innocent boyish face and a wild manly appearance. ----By Editor Kim Areum

When we met Park Hyungsik for the first time at the Honolulu Airport in Hawaii, he was completely covered in black, hiding behind a hat and a mask. The Hawaiian daylight was sweltering hot after spending a sleepless night aboard the plane. After some time of driving over the sauna-like asphalt, right when we got closer to the ocean, it felt like the cool breeze has finally shown its true colors and greeted us with a warm “welcome.” It was perhaps two hours after landing. When we met Park Hyungsik again at the Waikiki Beach, he wore red shorts and a white t-shirt with flaming red flowers on it. With his cap backwards, he defended his seat at the very front of a 15-seat mini bus with a certain boyish expression on his face. The person who likes ramyeon, enjoys computer games, and definitely adds spicy jalapenos into his spaghetti.

After having watched him closely for three days, we could say that actor Park Hyungsik is somewhat similar to a kitten that magically appears out of nowhere once someone starts shaking something fluttery. Shall we say he has a talent to arouse his surroundings by concentrating on the most trivial matters even when he is contemplating somewhere far away, out of his territory? This 26-year-old actor, with the eyes full of life and curiosity, would literally glue his face to the car window and stare for a while whenever unfamiliar yet recognizable aspects of nature would unfold in front of us. I can still see vividly clear his cute and innocent gestures when sea water gushed out like a mist in between rough rocks where they say you can see the humpback whales, or when we met the so-called Fire bird* that, according to the local legend, brought fire to Hawaii. His voice full of awe and admiration is still there in the recording when during the interview a small bird flew in the terrace and he was so enthusiastically curious about it. The improvised brilliant moments before arranged directing, when he simply reacted to the Hawaiian nature around him the way his body and mind instinctively told him to, are caught on camera, too.

As we gradually moved towards the east side of the Waikiki Beach in a small bus; sun, fog, wind, and sudden showers quickly changed one another. Park Hyungsik was naturally committed to anything, as he gladly went into whatever was to come next. When he ignored the huge waves coming from afar, boldly dashed forward splashing around, and comfortably lied down on crunchy sand, I suddenly thought that this was in line with the way of life and the general attitude of this person, who has recently displayed a lot of commendable acting on TV. It was unstoppable and natural. That evening Park Hyungsik, dressed in an azure blue Hawaiian shirt with red flamingos, downed three or four lean champagne glasses full of wine. As he usually doesn’t eat anything before the shoot, that night he quickly emptied a large plate full of a mountain of pasta. With his cheeks moderately flushed, we were able to have an unintentional interview with drinks.

The flight from Seoul to Hawaii takes over 10 hours, how did you spend it? I watched all the movies I haven’t seen before. I almost had no chance to watch anything for a year because I filmed Hwarang for 6 months and Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon for 5 months. There were a lot of movies I missed in the cinema, so I watched three or four titles on the plane. I really like Jo Jung-suk’s sly acting so I watched My Annoying Brother, and also La La Land. Don’t you get goose bumps when you hear the melody of the OST that Ryan Gosling played on a piano? It’s not anything flashy, but it somehow brings a lump to your throat. I regretted I quit learning piano when I was younger. My mother is a piano teacher, and she would hit my hands whenever I made a mistake. Now when I think about it, there was not much to it, if I had swallowed it down, I would be able now to at least play chords on a keyboard (laughs).

I think you should be rather lighthearted lately. Didn’t the recently completed Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon smash all the previous JTBC dramas and break the viewership rating record? I heard you started out on this one with quite a lot of pressure and apprehension. At the first script reading, the director and the writer sat right next to me, and Park Boyoung sat at the table across from me, so I couldn’t just stay nervous. I think that not only the writer, but everyone must’ve been somewhat doubtful about me at first. No matter how you look at it, it was my first lead role, and there was no way they could’ve inspected me beforehand, so it is only natural if they felt that way. It first started with “You’ll do okay,” or “I think you’ll do fine.” But after the drama wrap-up party, we went to Bali all together and I was really touched when the writer told me “thank you.” It felt like she wrote the script knowing me very well, and it was a drama where I could bring out a lot of things hidden within me. “Ah, so this is acting! Up until now I’ve been only imitating things,” was what I thought. I was really happy going to the filming site, it was always exciting. “How much fun would it be today?” I felt like this. (laugh) Especially when we were lying on a sofa with Bongsoon (Park Boyoung), and I confessed with “Please look at me, please love me,” that moment it was just “me.”

When we check out the behind the scenes videos, the laughter is never ending. The chemistry between the actors was so good it was hard to say where ad-libs ended. And also, didn’t the main couple eventually realize their happiness in love? It spurred a mass of sweet hashtags like #PuppyCouple, #CherryBlossomKiss, #KissingMaster, and so on. It seems that for this drama, you’ve walked down the petal road, so are there any hardships that you could recall? There was a scene on the rooftop where I had to get in the right mood, imagining there was a bomb left next to the person I love. We had had filmed many other scenes by that time and my body was tired, so as I tried acting I could feel I was short of strength. We did the first take, but I was so angry with myself, I couldn’t catch the genuine emotion we wanted so bad. But director Lee Hyungmin understood how I felt. “You don’t like it? If you still feel like it’s not it, let’s keep on shooting,” he said and I answered “I think I have felt my limits. I apologize for lacking so much.” But the next day the director suggested we try shooting that scene from yesterday again. I was really surprised because we had such a packed schedule. The director really trusted me and cared for me. I am very thankful.

Actually, it feels like you have not been affected by the acting skills dispute that constantly follows idol actors. Didn’t favorable comments like “the discovery of Park Hyungsik” stack one by one after each drama from Nine, What Happens to My Family?, Heirs, to High Society and Hwarang? Thankfully, my personal character does not really know such concepts as “embarrassment” or “shame.” The same applies to the instances when I stand on stage or act. At first my roles were really short and fleeting cameos, and in 2012 I had small roles in dramas I Remember You and Dummy Mommy. I was really excited just to have several lines. I had my share of poor acting in the series you didn’t mention in your question, but not that many people have seen my performance there, so they don’t know. When you think of it, it’s a relief. (laugh)

I’ve heard that you usually diligently check malicious comments online, is there a reason to it? Sometimes really sharp comments appear in between the malicious ones. When I read a comment where someone realistically points out some negative aspect I have noticed myself, I get a reassurance that people also think like that. Then I try to fix that negative aspect. I think that one day I can also turn towards a road downhill. So I’m the type who whips himself on purpose. Because I want to be calm and composed even if I have to go through bad times.

I found a rare video on YouTube. Someone collected Park Hyungsik’s videos from the Baby Soldier days up until now and made a 6-minute edit of the evolution of your appearance. Even though you debuted when you were 19, it’s like your face has changed since then. When I started filming for High Society in 2015, I began to look at what I eat. Before that, I had always been on a TV with a bloated face (laugh). I ate only chicken breast and salad, and as I exercised my baby fat and the swelling disappeared at once. With a sharper jaw line and the absence of thick cheeks even my eyes seemed to have grown bigger. I was surprised, too. When I looked at what my faced used to be like, I couldn’t drop the maintenance myself ever since (laugh).

You have just recently nested in a new agency, UAA. I think there is a lot of interest and expectation regarding your next work. Is there a role you would like to try out? Lately it’s been my biggest concern. After having entered a new company, I think I’m at the crossroads, where I am wondering what should be my first choice for the next filming. What should I display? Shall I show what I am good at? Or shall I take a risk in a completely new challenge? I have always chosen the challenge before, but now there is fear and worry. However, I want to try out another challenge again. Eventually, wouldn’t I meet a character I would love? I want to try out a psychopath role or a bully character with an overflowing sense of macho. I always express a human being as “cosmos.” You don’t know what might come out of that person. There is a general frame, but there are a lot of different sides within one person, and I think that each them has a different category. Since it’s important how you snatch and draw it all out, I want to work with the people who can recognize my potential.

“I really yearn for such art and people who have different emotions and expressiveness, and use that to move, touch, and inspire others.”

I heard your blood type is AB. Don’t people have some sort of expectation (?) about this blood type? What kind of person is Park Hyungsik? Ahn Minhyuk’s character from Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon is somewhat similar to me in a way that we’re both simple human beings who don’t hold grudges and don’t take everything too seriously. I’m a bit odd of a person. I also have a lot of completely different sides. You might think I would be quiet, but if I go to some unfamiliar place, I will like even dangerous things, and I might have fun like crazy. (laugh) When we went to Bali this time, I enjoyed jet skiing, fly boarding and other sea sports to the point my entire body was aching. And I usually tend to imagine the most trivial things. I like fantasy and sc-fi, and if there’s a new game released, I don’t get satisfied until I download it all and try it out. I’m a game “otaku.” (laugh) I also enjoy reading webtoons, and there’s this webtoon “Rebirth Man” (부활남) among the pieces that I read. It’s an action noir manga with the premise where the main character definitely dies, but after three days he comes back to life over and over again. Wouldn’t it be interesting to make a TV series or a movie out of it? If that happens, I would love to play the lead. I also like the webtoon “Lookism,” but the writer Park Taejun has already mentioned in variety shows Park Bogum or Ahn Jaehong as the actors he would pick for the lead characters. So I gave up on that (laugh). The main character’s name is similar to mine, so I had a little hope. The name of that webtoon character is Park Hyungseok. (laugh)

How do you fill in the “occupation” box in the immigration card when you go abroad or when you register on a website? I just write down “artist.” Actually, if you say “artist,” you can’t know exactly what kind of work that person is doing. You don’t know if the person is drawing something or making music or anything else. I really yearn for such art and people who have different emotions and expressiveness, and use that to move, touch, and inspire others. Admiring a painting for a long while just looking at it, getting goose bumps by watching a musical, crying while watching a movie or listening to some music – I really like all these kinds of things, so I think that’s why I keep on pursing art.

Last winter, when Park Seojoon did an interview with Bazaar, he said this: “Hyungsik quite innocently says things like “Hyung! I love you!” I think he expresses his gratitude this way, but I was somewhat baffled at first. If he would say “I love you,” I would answer awkwardly “Eh? Uh-huh, me too.” How do you use the word “love?” My motto is that we should live loving each other. Ever since I was little I found it odd if people were curt and didn’t express their feelings well. Why don’t people say “I love you” often? I always say “I love you” to the people I like. I sometimes leave “I love you” messages in the Hwarang team’s chat room. And then the “Me too” replies start coming. The words “I love you” are contagious. If I start using this expression, the others also assimilate it little by little. Perhaps it’s because I grew in a home that was overflowing with love, but even up till now I can naturally say things like “Father, I love you. Hyung, I love you.”

Does that power of expression activate when you’re dating, too? Of course. I say it to the person I love a lot, too. If you don’t say it, no one can know what’s inside. (laugh)

What’s your ideal type like? Someone who gets along with me well. Someone who looks lovely no matter what they do, someone with whom a sweet conversation always continues. However, lately with the ideals growing bit by bit, my standards also needlessly keep on getting higher. I find people like Amanda Seyfried or Emma Stone very charming (laugh). Either way, I can also find my person if I go outside and meet other people, but I think it has come down to this because I only think and don’t do anything.

*Hawaiian gallinule

Scans: SIKARISMA

Kor-Eng: Egle0702

MAY BE TAKEN OUT WITH PROPER CREDITS!

#Park Hyungsik #Bazaar #Park Hyungsik Bazaar #Bazaar magazine #park hyungsik interview #translation #박형식

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