#I need to talk about csm so i'll ramble here

[platykool]

Reading chainsaw man is really just putting yourself in so much emotional pain but still you continue to read it and when you think it can't get any worse yeah it can and it hurts so so much but you keep reading it and you hope that that's it the pain is over but then it get even worse again and-

[polandspringz]

I cannot express how much the Hidden Inventory arc has me in a chokehold

I've said it before, I'm not a real fan of JJK. I feel the same way about this series as I do about CSM- I love it artistically, I see the craft put into the manga as an artform itself (through the sequencing of the panels, the decisions in terms of angles) and thematically, I love it. However, I just don't like it because the series is a bit too nihilistic for me, or just a bit too dark for my tastes, and couple that with my constant mixed feelings on MAPPA- not wanting to support them for their working conditions despite the beautiful work they put out- and you get a general gist of why I will say I don't like JJK. I won't get more into the little other things because I did that before and I got a lot of replies on that post, so we'll get back to the point of this post.

However, Hidden Inventory has me in chokehold. And I know exactly why.

As a joke I said to my sister when I finally sat down to force myself to watch it (after I had already tried to watch S2 E1 after it aired and failed, and after I had seen a spoiler on Twitter for the fake-out scene with Geto and Riko), I made the joke "If the thing that gets me into JJK is some yaoi bait between Gojo and Geto then I'll-" and unfortunately, it was Gojo and Geto's arc that made me more interested in JJK. While my yaoi bait thing was a joke, I cannot lie that the angst of Gojo and Geto's dynamic was what made me more interested.

However, what had really been drawing me back into JJK was the choice in music, specifically the new opening. MAPPA keeps hitting it out of the park with their music choices for these adaptions. I'm still not over "Give it Back" and it's visuals being about everything Yuji missed out on/lost while having to pretend to be dead. And now the official Shounen Jump page made a video of Geto and Gojo with the Give it Back song playing and I-

This post is really just me rambling with no point to it, but Tatsuya Kitani's "Where Our Blue is" has been hitting me hard for weeks even before I finally read a translation of the lyrics yesterday. The lyrics talking about "Our Blue", and in the series Gojo demonstrating how the Jujutsu sorcerer's power is represented by "blue" while cursed energy is "red" and then of course Gojo has his "purple" ability. The way that "blue" is often used to describe youth or associated with youth in Japanese culture because of the kanji's use in the word seishun. The visuals of the opening being about all the moments of Gojo and Geto's high school days we don't actually see because we are dropped into the past in media res as everything collapses. We only get to watch the crumbling, the destruction, we don't get those good moments but we still feel it. We still feel how tragic it is this friendship, this relationship being torn to shreds. Feel how deeply these two care for each other, how one goes down a horrible path with no remorse while the other can only watch in horror.

The irony here is that, and I'm sure other people may have expressed this sentiment already, Gege Akutami is that good of a writer that I would have LOVED if JJK was actually completely focused on Gojo and Geto before introducing Yuji and Megumi and Nobara. How in a typical series that we would have started out with this flashback or how Gojo would usually be the main character instead and then the series would be reframed around his mentorship of the characters and trying to fix what was lost by his mistakes, but instead it's not about that. It's a side note, important background information but not the focus. And that just makes it more powerful because it just makes me long for more. It makes me want more of a slow burn, more of it visualized in the text where we see Geto and Gojo meet and be friends and then everything fall apart in the end. But at the same time, we have the iceberg theory with writing. The writing is strong enough that we don't need to actually spend time on any of that, the pain of this loss is expressed even in the short time we spend in this memory of these characters. The subtleties in the writing that only hint at or show glimpses of what we had do enough to establish their friendship before it is ripped apart before the audience's eyes. It's beautiful.

And the opening's lyrics only add to this. The way the song is clearly from Gojo's perspective, the idea of him saying that "their blue still lives", their youth, their memories, their ideology and dreams before everything went wrong, it's still alive. It's still clear. Gojo knows what he must do. Even if no prayer or word could reach Geto, Gojo will keep going. When they went their separate ways, Gojo was too confused and horrified to stop Geto, too attached to turn him in knowing that only death awaited him, he wanted to still believe that they could turn things around. The unvoiced voice says "We'll see each other again, won't we?" I also have felt that the song can also be interpreted to be about Riko who died too soon, specifically whenever I hear the lyrics "To you, who bloomed and fell away as a fruitless flower". And on a personal note, I have always loved the word play in Japanese on the main lyrics, how the singer uses two different phrases although they sound, very, very similar. The "our blue still lives"/[ima demo, ao ga sundeiru] and "Our blue is still clear"/[ima demo, ao wa sundeiru] is the main thing that kept me so latched onto this song even when I was not actually watching the show. Every choice in the lyrics of this song have destroyed me and drawn me back into this series, because it makes me want to believe that things will be fixed and that there is hope, even though I know there is none. The song gives off the feeling of this being the final farewell, of Gojo singing these thoughts even after Geto has died, almost to reassure himself that their blue is still alive, that he will carry on the will. It's wistful, its painful. It's beautiful. I love it.

[ashtoberr]

Pls ramble about the csm self insert i think she looks neat (and i love rambling)

[pulls up a chair and projector] oh anon im so glad you asked you have made my afternoon >:3 Have a sketch of her for you

There is a ton of lore i have stocked up on her so here is a taster:

Her name's Ashuta, translates to "subspecies" because she's a vampire. BEFORE EVERYONE CALLS ME CRINGE AND RUNS AWAY this is because of vampires in another work by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Goodbye, Eri). It inspired me so I wanted one in CSM.

General Biology of Vampires (inspired by Goodbye Eri) -She can pass as a human to humans, but devils can smell something non-human about her. - She can tolerate sunlight but it irritates her skin so shetypically wears long sleeves outoors. - She can heal from injuries that don't kill her using blood, like a fiend. - She can (and does) die, but regenerates within a few days without any memories. The only way to kill her for good is to decapitate her and burn the body and head. - She can feed on human or devil blood. She can eat human food, but it's not of nutritional value to her and she more just eats socially or because she likes something. - She can also differentiate between devils/humans by smell, but it blurs between human vs nonhuman and she can't differentiate between devils/fiends/hybrids. - No supernatural "powers" aside from the physical durability/nigh immortality. 

------ I haven't decided how she becomes a vampire yet, but I'm thinking she was used as a sacrifice to the vampire devil or tried to make a deal with him. It got fucked up and she's a vampire now. Vampires will be considered mostly extinct in the present day due to governmental control & putting them down.

After her conversion, she hunted devils to feed on until Makima found her from there and recruited her to Special Division 4. She befriends some of its members, especially Aki, and develops feelings for him.

She has a diary and notes containing important information to herself about who she is in case she dies. She keeps this information on her and gives a copy of her notes as well as the location of her diary to Aki for him to give to her if needed. 

Initially, she doesn't give a shit about dying because she'll just come back, but as she makes good memories with her friends, she wants to keep living so she can keep the memories of everything in her head. Because of her state, she takes tons of pictures of things in hopes of recording everything.

I have a whole plan of what happens to her up until the end of Part 1, still thinking of what I'll do with her for Part 2.

But yes feel free to ask more i fucking love talking about her

[ella390-the-potato]

Manga vs Anime

Anime adaptations always excite me. I mean it excites many of us. To be able to see your favorite character move and talk. To see those epic scenes come to life with epic soundtracks. For the most part, I'm not too fussy when it comes to anime. I'm also not super critical when they leave stuff out or make (minor) changes.

I've been watching Chainsaw Man, and it's been great so far. But there was something that I felt was missing at times. So I went back after last week's episode and looked back at those early manga chapters.

And it was then I realized. The manga had a rawness that was not showing on screen. So I thought back to other (recent) anime. Things like Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen. Even something like Haikyuu or Gintama. And in those anime, I didn't feel like something was missing after watching them. So I went through the list of manga I've read and I realized there were actually other anime that left me also feeling like how I do about CSM. Naming the popular ones, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, and Magi. Even Daiya no Ace. (We are only talking about animation here, not how the stories are adapted.) And I think the reason is that those manga are very detailed. They leave you with a detailed image about certain scenes.

Let's take the scene below from CSM manga:

You can see the intensity of the building exploding. The size looks huge. The windows all shattering. It feels like utter carnage

Now here's the corresponding scene from the anime:

It lacks that feeling of havoc. Let's take another scene from the manga:

Denji looks like utter shit. I can see that. It evokes an emotion from me that I just don't get from the anime scene below:

It doesn't have the rawness, grittiness or darkness that I get from the manga. (Not the best words to describe what I mean, but that's all my brain could come up with.)

When scenes are animated, it kinda cleans the image up. Or well gets simplified. And it's understandable why. It's a moving scene. It doesn't need to be so detailed. To include all the finer details would require too much time, effort, and money. It's just not needed or worth it.

One of the first things I ever realized when I first started watching anime adaptations, was how hair generally looked nicer in manga. And it was due to the simplification that it would loose texture or ‘flowiness’ in anime.

But take a look at this scene from Jujutsu Kaisen manga:

And I'm sure a lot of you have seen this from the anime:

In this instance I get the same feel and emotion from both.

By the way I'm not criticizing or trashing CSM. I'm only using CSM as an example. I think those scenes with Power's back story for instance was very well done. In fact maybe even better than the manga. The emotions on her face made me feel something more than I did in the manga. It's just something every now and then that doesn’t hit. An anime that comes to mind now is Vinland Saga. There were moments that were simply amazing, but every once in a while it was a little, flat. I also understand in manga they have to convey something to you in a short amount of time. So a lot of effort gets put into each panel to create the necessary emotion or atmosphere. Things in black and white also create a different look.

I know all this but I just feel a bit annoyed. You can't fault the anime, but you sometimes don't get the emotion you get from the manga. I mean sure, I'll watch and enjoy the anime. But in the back of my mind I'll have this other image and emotion. 

Anyway I've rambled long enough. Basically it sucks that my brain is doing this to me. But I suppose the good thing is, it doesn't stop me from watching it.