#I've got more to say about Crunchyroll

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

Hey, since Crunchyroll has removed Utena from its catalog just in time for Pride month, here's your reminder that the whole series is free to watch on Youtube! (Thanks to Nozomi Entertainment for being good about keeping up their official hosting.)

Revolutionary Girl Utena (Sub) and (Dub)

Now's a great time to watch a classic queer anime that's shaped the entire genre!

Some warnings below the cut, because it's also tragic and you might not want to go in unaware... It's so worth it though!

Warnings for: assault/abuse, domestic partner violence, sexual assault, homophobia, rape, incest, grooming, pedophilia, suicide, unreality, impalement

If any of these would be a major problem for you, I'd recommend looking up a more specific spoiler/trigger list. Utena is a great show, and is very much bringing all of it up to show how horrible and damaging it can be, but also, it can be a lot for that same reason. :)

[yandere-paramour]

A Long Day

It started with three different kinds of peppers, then the adobo and sazon. Of course, Vivien grew red bell peppers, and the cubanelles were a new but very welcome addition, but the ajices dulces were too specialized. He had to make an unscheduled pit stop at the Supermercado after work but it was worth it.

Vivien chopped, marinated, stirred, and seared. The broth had simmered all day in the Instant Pot and the depth of flavor made him shiver with pleasure. All he needed to do was cook the rice, add the peas, and check that the chicken was cooked through, and then everything would be ready when you got home. You would be able to come in and relax, have a nice hot meal, and spend the evening being showered with attention from your doting, attentive boyfriend. Vivien smiled as he tried a piece of chicken; it was tender and juicy and browned, everything it needed to be.

"My love!" Vivien cried as soon as he heard the door open, "I'm in the kitchen, dinner is almost-"

Vivien's voice trailed off when he caught sight of you. You were in tears, shirt covered in blood, looking miserable. His eyes widened, and after a cursory check to ensure the rice wasn't burning, he rushed to you.

"Darling, what happened? Are you okay?" Vivien worriedly ran his hands over your face and chest, looking for a wound, "Do we need to go to the hospital? Where's the insurance card?"

"I don't need the hospital," You say quietly, "I'm fine. I just had a nosebleed on the train and I didn't have any napkins or anything."

"But you're crying," Vivien said softly, his hands cupping your face, gentle thumbs wiping away your tears, "Something else is bothering you, what is it?"

"I don't want to talk about it... isn't the rice burning? I smell smoke."

Afraid that his perfectly planned dinner was ruined, Vivien shot across the room to see about the rice. It was fine, approaching done, but fine, and he quickly shut it off. The lingering heat would finish it. He had something more important to worry about.

Vivien rushed to the bedroom where he noticed you had snuck off to. You were stripping your blood-stained clothes off, ready to chuck them in the wash, but you knew they were probably ruined.

Vivien came up to you and gently took your hand, trying to get your attention, "Tell me what happened... I want to help, you know I hate seeing you upset."

You sigh, "Just some stupid asshole on the train was laughing at me. He had some fast food napkins but I saw him smirk and stuff them in his pockets so he could watch me suffer. A long fucking day and that was just the icing on the cake."

Incandescent rage burned in Vivien's chest, "That... that's terrible! Did you see what he looked like? Someone needs to teach this guy a lesson."

"Some corporate tech bro jerk. You know the type."

Vivien did know the type; they saw him as little more than the dog shit on their unexpectedly expensive loafers. He also knew they were all virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye, which left little chance of him tracking the asshole down and making him learn a lesson about respect. Vivien grit his teeth, trying to turn his grimace into a smile. If he couldn't get revenge, the least he could do was make his darling partner feel better.

"I'm sorry, love, that's terrible. People like that are the worst. Tell you what," He pulled you slowly into his warm embrace, "I've still got a little bit to do with dinner so why don't you get a nice warm bath, and we can watch something silly while we eat. The SpyxFamily movie is on Crunchyroll now, that sounds good, right?"

You look into your boyfriend's sweet face, the dark roots starting to show underneath his bleached hair giving him a sort of Cruella de Vil look he thought was cool, and feel yourself tearing up again. You knew how angry he was, you could see the rage in his eyes when you talked about your mistreatment, and you didn't miss the way his hands shook. But there was nothing he could do, nothing but do what he was doing now. He was focusing on you, doing his best to quell the raging emotions in him for your sake, and you loved him all the more for it.

"I-I didn't mean to make you upset, if you want to pick the movie you can, I'm sor-" You cut him off with a kiss on the cheek, and he looked confused.

"No, it's okay. I'm okay now. What did you say dinner was again?"

He grinned, kissing your forehead in return, "Asopao de Pollo. It's one of my favorites."

"And sofrito?"

"Of course, my love."

"Sounds great."

[charaznablespeteevee]

Would you share your thoughts on the Gundam you've seen? I added the first one to my list based on your posting about it (mostly the transition Char posting, he sounds like a fascinating character) and am not on Twitter to see your liveposting

Good question!! It seems like you want to know if I'd rec them so I'll answer based on that.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) absolutely I would rec to literally any anime fan. Both because it is a genuinely good anime, but equally because it's like. You know how people say you have to read the Bible to get all the references to the Bible in literature? It's like that. Gundam is one of the Bibles for anime. It's in everything. And you won't realize this until you watch it.

It's also a very good science fiction show just in general. The major characters are all great, the drama is compelling, and while some of the animation has not aged well, the newtype stuff has some super neat effects that are gorgeous to see on a big screen to this day.

It's also super accessible, the full show is available on Crunchyroll or if you don't want to commit watching a 43 episode show the three compilation movies are on Netflix and are a very solid alternative.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) - they got a big budget upgrade so everything is Bigger and More. More robots, more character drama, more romance, better music, and some bizarre segues into how men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Absolutely worth a watch if you liked the original Gundam because it continues to follow a lot of the original characters.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986) - technically "skippable" if you consider 0079, Zeta, and Char's Counterattack a trilogy, which it kind of is. ZZ focuses on an almost entirely new cast of characters and the first half of the show is VERY heavy on the comedy before jumping directly into some of the best anime I've ever seen for the second half. The mood whiplash is kind of divisive among fans. Personally I like it and the characters are great. Worth a watch if you like what you've seen so far.

Char's Counterattack (1988) - caps off the gayass Amuro/Char rivalry and is just an amazing movie in general. Gorgeous visuals, and the final 15 minutes or so are a series of emotional gut-punches the likes of which I've rarely experienced in media. Must watch IMO.

War in the Pocket (1989) - six episode OVA featuring entirely new characters. This is a truly fantastic little series that lets you into the lives of a small handful of likeable characters and how their lives are affected by war. It's Gundam so guess how that goes. I liked it a LOT and recommend it. BONUS: This is a GREAT "starter" Gundam. It's short, it's very good, and you don't need to know anything about Gundam going in. There's a few references to prior lore, but they aren't anything major and a newcomer could easily figure it all out from context.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991) - this is a movie that was originally going to be made into a TV show and it shows, they stuffed far too much into too little time and it suffers for it. So unfortunately this is the first thing on this list I probably wouldn't rec. That said the characters are pretty fun and the ending is very good, so you can do a lot worse if you're bored or a completionist.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993) - this is what I'm watching right now! I'm a little over halfway done with it. This is all new characters and there are some interesting new concepts. For example the first twenty or so episodes were set on Earth so you got some really gorgeous scenery during mobile suit battles that made those scenes really visually distinctive compared to say, a battle in space. That said it's yet to really "pull me in" the way most other Gundam series did. For now I'm still waiting to see if it will do that or not.

Witch From Mercury - I'm assuming everyone knows what this is. It's gay as fuck, what can I say, and it's the entire reason I fell down into this Hell to begin with. 10/10

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10

[keep-on-trying]

Now I've seen first ep of WonderPre in full and, I like it! A lot!

We already got to know the whole precure cast of Iroha, Komugi, Satoru, Daifuku, Mayu and Yuki, and I must say:

I think Yuki will be my fav LOL. Such a cat. Also seems like Mayu is kinda like Kokone and alike in that, she's reaaally shy about making friends, but on that regard Yuki might be good fit for her.

Also, she also has a heart on her backside... No clue of Daifuku. So it seems like there's a special connection with Yuki and Komugi. Could just be design thing as well.

The "battles" are more of a, hmm, how to describe it... more of the Precures trying to calm down the GaruGaru instead of battling them, and considering that they're corrupted animals: it's better this way. Any battling against corrupted animals would give the very wrong message. So I like what they're doing, I just hope it'll end up getting some creative thinking along the way too!

I like the opening song, and I also like the ending song, it reminds me a lot of something else.... KiraPre? I love how much personality there was in the dance choreograph etc. Also it only has Wonderful and Friendy atm, so that makes me think that, despite knowing of rest of the Cures already, it will be a while til they join the group in full.

Anyway, that's all my thoughts for now! I'm excited to see what Precure has to offer this year! Esp. now that Europe is part of Crunchyroll regions too! i hope it can be extended to older seasons too!

Next week: Cure Friendy debut! Let's gooooooooooooooo~

[sssn-neptune-vasilias]

Woke up a couple days ago to see that rwby was off crunchyroll. Woke up today to see that rwby had been deleted from Spotify.

Ended lunch with the announcement that RWBY has a new home at Viz!

Okay, okay. I apologize for whining and crying and doomerposting for the past couple months 🤣 look, I think we were all in a bad spot when RT announced they were closing up shop. I took it really hard. Rwby and RT have been the foundation for MOST of my social interaction for over a decade. I was hurt, and I know a lot of you were too.

But this is GREAT news. This is fantastic news! We've got another shot

Idk what Viz intends to do with rwby. Maybe they'll just give us our final season and wrap up the show with a grand finale? Maybe they'll actually finish the story as was intended with however many volumes there were supposed to be? Maybe they'll start over? Reboot? Who knows!

All I have to say is, I hope Viz treats RWBY right. And by RWBY, I mean RWBY as Monty's passion project, and as RT's baby. I hope RT's old staff get to hop in those recording booths and go RIGHT back to voicing those characters without a recast. I hope Casey gets a phonecall TONIGHT asking if she's down to make the v10 album. I hope all the animators that KNOW this series are considered before anyone else.

RWBY might be saved, but I don't think we can say it's BACK unless the people who've been working on it for a decade get priority in the kitchen that is production. Rwby isn't back if they undo the Bee kiss. Rwby isn't back if the weapons and powers and fight choreography are changed completely. I'm not sayint Viz can't tweak things to suit their needs, but rwby HAS to stay RWBY. I hope viz understands that. And I hope they care about it just as much as we do.

Until we get any more news, I guess all we've got is this high I've been riding since lunch. We're saved. We actually fucking made it. Thanks RoosterTeeth, for making a show worth saving, thanks Viz for giving us a second shot, and thanks Monty... I hope you're proud, man.

[aquamine-amarine]

Shugo Chara! Sequel Manga

I was supposed to make this post shortly after the news broke on 10/3 about the manga getting a sequel, but I got lazy. So it's late. And then it ended up being super long...

I saw the sentence on the cover of Nakayoshi earlier that weekend, and it didn't specify if it would be a sequel manga. It just said something about the issue containing information about a new project. So it could have gone either way, with that sentence being so vague. It was either a sequel manga or anime reboot. I was personally hoping for the latter. When there was a leak about it being a sequel manga I initially dismissed it. There was no concrete source for it, and with my prior knowledge of how this fandom lies I wasn't going to blindly believe something. I remember first joining this fandom way back in 2008, on a SC! forum called Guardian's Wish. Around 2009 when Crunchyroll first started streaming numerous ongoing anime at the time - the second season of SC! being one of them - the girls on Guardian's Wish would talk about how everyone on the Crunchyroll forums were leaking and lying about all kinds of things for SC!, claiming that their leaks were telling them what was to come in the manga, and it was ridiculous stupid shit like Ikuto having a dog Guardian Character. Lol, no. It was very hard to get Japanese raws back then, so leaks were all we had. Most of them were obvious lies. So I've grown to never believe anything the western fandom says. If I don't have a Japanese source for it, it's bullshit. This fandom still doesn't have its manga lore straight after all…

It was around Sunday night on the 1st (which was actually already the 2nd in Japan) that a Japanese Twitter account finally posted more concrete proof - an actual picture of the article in the issue. I had my legit source. It was a sequel manga… and honestly it wasn't what I wanted. I'm probably the only person in this fandom that didn't want a sequel manga. I wanted a faithful anime reboot. I was scared of a sequel manga. I didn't want them to give into pressure from fans and Nakayoshi to make a sequel manga and then have the story be worse than the original manga or have it ruin the ending. That would have disappointed me so much. The ending was perfect, I didn't want them to ruin it.

I feel like this fandom has constantly missed the point of this manga with the constant ship wars and cries for a sequel. The story of the Guardian Characters ended in Chapter 48 (Volume 11). Why do you think Volume 12 (the Encore chapters) was such a ship fest? That was them wrapping everything else up. Because they finished the main story with Volume 11. They pretty much say this here in a very old blog post about Chapter 48. They purposely made the manga very fast paced, and they admitted that some things had to be cut because of that, in particular chapters dealing with the other Guardians. Which is why Encore focused on the other characters initially.

I think we, the readers, were never supposed to know what Amu's would-be self is, because that would ruin and contradict the message the Guardian Characters were trying to send - that you can be whatever you want to be. It's a very positive message to send, especially to children. Why would they cancel out this message by immediately having Amu decide what she wants to be? This was always supposed to be left open ended. An answer to a fan question about Hikaru's egg hatching back in a 2010 Q&A session kind of supports my theory that Peach-Pit meant to leave things a little open ended. They said they had initially planned to have Hikaru's Guardian Character be revealed in the final chapter, but decided to leave it up to everyone's imagination instead. So that's why I didn't want a sequel. Clearly the ending of the manga was meant to be open ended, and it wrapped almost everything up perfectly.

And as for the shipping, because of course this is going to be brought up within this stupid fandom… I just laugh to myself whenever people STILL naively wonder who Amu ends up with. Are you kidding me?

First, did you not read my previous paragraph? Romance was not the main point of this manga. The Guardian Characters were. Plot first, romance second.

Second, are you people blind or just still willfully ignorant and unable to accept reality? Did you not actually read the manga? Did you not read the last chapter? Did you not listen to the drama CD of the final chapter? Most people haven't and it's shocking, even among the Japanese fandom, the amount of people who don't know about the drama CD adaption of the final chapter. The panel where they start holding hands at the wedding and Amu is having an internal monologue, reading it you think she's the one that says "one day", but in the drama CD both Amu and Ikuto say that line together. I need no other proof that this is canon. The kanji in their last names were also a dead giveaway, and as for the artbook notes for the final chapter title page…

万里: グランドフィナーレですね. 白い服の2人とブーケ…, というのは最初から決まってました. 12巻でバージョンちがいを描きましたよ.

Banri: It's the grand finale. Two people wearing white clothes and a bouquet​… that was decided from the beginning. The Volume 12 version is drawn differently.

This was planned from the beginning. Obvious to anyone with functioning braincells, of course. And people who actually read the manga and not that awful, filler infested unfaithful train wreck of an anime. That's a different rant. It's no secret that I despise the anime and how it ruined everyone's character development, especially Amu's.

I did always find it rather odd that there were literally no title pages with just Amu and Tadase in them. You can see the artbook scans for the first artbook here and second artbook here. There was either a third person there or it was a group shot with the other Guardians. There were definitely some chapters early on where a Tadamu title page would have made perfect sense given the content of the chapter. But they just… never did it. It was always strange to me since every other shoujo manga in existence loves to troll readers with the love triangle (and Peach-Pit definitely did plenty of that) and usually that includes being on the title pages an equal amount… but not here. Sometimes I wonder if because this was their first shoujo manga, they didn't know what they were doing. Or maybe they were doing it on purpose.

I can't believe I've never talked about this one before, because it was something I noticed back in 2021 when the new editions were first revealed. A juicy little line I saw on the back of the new Volume 2...

元気と勇気をもらえるミラクルファンタジー, あむとイクトの恋も仲間たちとの友情も深まる第2巻.

A miracle fantasy that gives you energy and courage, Amu and Ikuto's love, as well as the friendship between friends, deepens in Volume 2.

I remember thinking... did I read that right?! Is my shitty Japanese working right?! Did they just admit this so blatantly?! It wasn't the word "suki" they used here either, they used "koi". Even with all the new illustrations, especially this one, they're not exactly being subtle about it anymore. I think that covers the shipping now...

Also, the "miracle fantasy" bit is the tagline the manga had when it was serialized in Nakayoshi.

I also really, really did not want a time skip sequel manga, and I am forever reminded of how badly time skips can go whenever I think of the Digimon Adventure 02 ending. They wrote themselves into such a fucking corner with that epilogue the current movies dealing with them as adults are so messy as a result. Not everything can have a nice clean time skip ending like FMA… and of course the shipping elements in SC! would have just made things even messier, further making people forget once again that the point wasn't the romance, it was the Guardian Characters...

So after this announcement I was left wondering, what kind of sequel manga is this going to be? Is it going to be like Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc and take place immediately after the original manga, or is it going to be like Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch Aqua, taking place in the future and being about the main character's children instead? I wanted the former, I was terrified of the latter.

Thank God Peach-Pit immediately came out and said exactly what kind of sequel this is going to be in a post on their pixiv Fanbox - it is going to take place while Amu and the others are in middle school. Hopefully that eases some fears like it did for me. Normally their pixiv Fanbox rules state not to share the information found on their pixiv Fanbox posts, however this particular article is listed as "All Users", and can be viewed by anyone who doesn't have an account or isn't paying for a plan. I think it's safe to share then. Everything else is locked behind a paywall, so I won't talk about those posts.

I honestly don't even know how they plan on continuing the story. I'm still convinced this is just Nakayoshi being greedy and forcing Peach-Pit to do a sequel because Nakayoshi's current cash cow - Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc - is ending soon. And with the success of SC!'s 15th Anniversary celebrations, with constant new merchandise and new illustrations, Nakayoshi knows they can milk this next. This is also why I think an anime reboot is still possible, and that they're just saving that news for much later. You don't spend almost 3 years now making new illustrations and merchandise just to give everyone a sequel manga which doesn't cost nearly as much as an anime adaption to make. Yes it still costs money, because art supplies are needed and publishing companies need to print it. However I imagine an anime reboot costs a lot more, especially if they want to get the original voice actors back, all of which are even more popular than they were back then. And they better get them back, because it would break my heart if they were all replaced. Don't even bother to reboot it then if it's not possible to get the original voice actors back. It just wouldn't be the same. And I only really care about the Guardians and Easter, all the minor characters and parents don't need their original voice actors back. Unless someone retired or passed away, then obviously a replacement has to be selected, and in those cases it's understandable. So again, I'm still hoping for a reboot, and I'm convinced they're just hoarding money in the meantime while they wait for a perfect chance to announce it. There's also the matter with Utau's songs... they definitely need to get the rights for those.

Another thing that makes me annoyed with Nakayoshi and the current state of shoujo manga as a whole is that trash like this gets an anime adaption before SC! gets a reboot?! Holy hell this manga is just so bad. I've been so disappointed with the crap running in Nakayoshi nowadays. Obviously I'm not talking about Cardcaptor Sakura, that's good, but everything else in Nakayoshi (like Vampire Dormitory) is just so bad. Shinkon dakedo Kataomoi does actually look sweet and wholesome, it's a shame there are no translations.

And then there's Chou ka Han ka: Gokudou-sama Afurete Afurete Nakasetai, a manga that used to run in Nakayoshi but it got so fucking raunchy they transferred it to a different more adult magazine. The shit I saw when I skimmed those pages make the shit Peach-Pit got away with in SC! look tame. SC! and Arisa really were one of the last good shoujo manga to run in this magazine… and I still need to get around to reading Sugar Sugar Rune and Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch. I've heard good things about them both.

The stuff running in Nakayoshi today is so bad that they have to bring back old classic stuff, first giving CCS a sequel, then Mermaid Melody, now SC!. In one way, it's a compliment to that classic stuff, finally giving them the recognition they deserve because they really were good. And then on the other hand it's insulting to the new stuff running in the magazine because Nakayoshi is basically saying none of them are good enough to compete with what came before them. I find that kind of sad. Instead of cultivating that new talent they just go back to manga that ended a while ago. And I'm afraid that doing that would just end up ruining everything that was good about those manga. They don't need sequels, what they need instead are faithful anime adaptions that respect the source material this time. That Tokyo Mew Mew reboot was so awful though, and it wasn't faithful to the manga at all.

I'm enjoying Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc though, so thankfully that sequel ended up being fine. At least Clamp's art actually improved a lot from the original manga, which brings me back to what I've been ranting about lately regarding Peach-Pit's art style not looking the same as it did back in 2010 when SC! first ended. I really hope they use this time before the sequel starts to work on their shoujo art style again, and making sure the story is just as good as the original. I really want this to do good because I love this manga, I'm just hesitant to trust Nakayoshi's intentions here. I'm convinced they're just doing this because CCS is ending and they needed something new to milk money from.

Holy shit did this end up being really long. Damn, I had way too much to say about this, hopefully it isn't too much of a confusing mess.

[digitalgate02]

I'm impressed how watching this movie has given me a whole new favorite, because when Rui was first shown, I had a ton of questions about him and Ukkomon -- even though their names weren't revealed.

You know… Something about Watanabe-sensei's art made me wonder a ton of things like "how old is he? "What kind of role will they have in the OG Adventure branch?" and I was definitely excited and happy to see a brand new story of something prior to Taichi and Daisuke's groups. You know, I have to admit that I felt robbed when ▽ put that cold opening invoking the Adv'99 novel short passage talking about the previous group going to the Digital World and the awakening of the Holy Beasts that I would have loved if this whole series was more about Meiko, Maki & Daigo.

Anyway, Rui and Ukkomon were thrown into this world with the premise that they were the first ones. If you know me well enough, this is something I wanted to know from day one, since I learned about the math lore and stuff. I wanted to see who came before Taichi and Daisuke. Kizuna definitely introduced us to Menoa, but her role in the movie… No spoilers here.

I wanted to know more about these new characters with a deep curiosity. Then, in late July 2022 at DigiFes, they just revealed their names and JP's voice actors. And they were two of my favorite VAs. And I was SO DEEP IN SPECULATION that I ended up making a lot of people possibly associate Rui with me when they see him (sorry), especially how for some reason I got one of my grumpy speculated Rui art on the icon for the 大和田ルイ tag on pixiv (sorry again).

I've been so aggressive about wanting to watch this movie and such, believing that my country wouldn't get it because we don't get anything new unless subbed on Crunchyroll yeah, that I was just expecting to watch it via a copy of the movie from my friends with either fansubs or EN subs ripped from the official release. But then… They actually released the movie here. And a lot of people were like "NI YOU HAVE TO GO WATCH THIS MOVIE, YOU'RE LITERALLY PROMOTING IT NONSTOP IF YOU DON'T WATCH THIS WE'LL BE UPSET!" yeah.

The fact that the BR dub was scary in that PV made me afraid that people would make fun of it and turn this movie into a joke. But then they released the dub cast and most of the VAs were back. And the surprise was that one of my favorite BR dub VAs was voicing Rui in it. I watched the movie and really had a different opinion about it. I don't think it was a miscast or inappropriate -- it's just that you can't compare him to a legend like Ogata, man. But I loved the BR dub of that movie SO MUCH.

Anyway… I didn't expect to go full Rui-Ukkomon brainrot before. But now… And watching it again with some friends… I think they just clicked with me so much that I feel like I understand them on an emotional level.

A kid with no friends? A kid and mon who are terrible at communicating and just accidentally mess things up while trying to express how much they love each other? A kid who made friends with the 02 kids and learned that perfection does not exist and that you have to speak with your heart?

Yeah. Those hit me hard. I feel them a lot.

I would say I'm sorry for being so obnoxious and insufferable about them. But I'm not sorry for falling in love with them to the extent that I draw a TON of them nonstop and want to talk about them more, do headcanons, fanfics, and so many other things.

I'm always open to Rui-Ukko gushing and chatting.

And I hope my love for them is positive, encouraging you to find the characters that connect with you on an emotional level.

[acescorazon]

Hiiii not really a question, just wanted to say that I discovered your fics recently on Ao3 and they're all my absolute favourite since then, I'm always looking forward to receiving an email saying that you posted something!!! I just joined Tumblr today and I have no idea how it works ahah but I'm so glad I can follow you there now, because you truly are one of my fav fic writers. Your Buggy is always absolutely perfect and he did not help with my obsession over his character eheh. Anyway, thank you for your good work, and know that the way you write Buggy influences me a lot on how I perceive him and how he acts in my AU (not actually writing anything, just creating little world in my head eheh). Oh and also: it's thanks to you that I now ship Buggy with Mihawk and Crocodile! Since I've only seen the live action, I didn't really know enough about Mihawk and, obviously, nothing about Crocodile; but because of your fics I now ship them SO much. Thanks to you, Buggy has 3 boyfriends in my AU and he's very glad ahah. Anyway, it's a long message for nothing but I guess the most important thing here is: thank you, keep your amazing work <3

I'M ABOUT TO WRITE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS RESPONSE.

Hiiiiiiii bbyyy :((( Thank you for writing me something so nice! I really appreciate it!!! Nice comments and asks like these really make my day and i mean that!! Thank you!!! Tumblr is shit (derogatory) but it could be worse, it could be tw- Jk it's not that bad here and i think you'll like it :) Also ofc thank you for the follow :) Thank you for everything really! I could write an essay on Buggy alone but i won't...not today at least kljlsdjksdjlakjsdasdas. nobody asked but i'm obsessed with the idea of Buggy being a brat and or just a little shit in general which is why i often write him the way i do LMAO. He's a funny little guy, and i love him in the live action as much as i love him in the anime/manga but i think he could be a little more pathetic. i do remember seeing the trailer tho and being like "lol" but two seconds later being like..."Idk...WHY'S HE KINDA..." LMAOOOOO. i don't know if you write or draw but if you do, then you should cook something up. ((We support and encourage others in this household.)) also bestie. B E S T IE. Best friend. i ain't telling you how to live your life but if you have access to the Shounen Jump app wherever you live and you got 2.99 (some of us don't, no hate here.) and if you got some time, then i recommend you read a little story called one piece LMAOOOO. I ain't one of those people who will tell you it gets good in ch/ep 80938423984023984023948 lol. i've liked it since the beginning but thats ME. You ain't gotta read or watch all of that shit to know if something's good and if you like it lmao, or at least that's how i feel. anyways it seems like it takes 80 years to get through but that's really only bc of the pacing in the anime lol, it comes out weekly and ofc the animation studio wouldn't want to catch up with the actual manga sooooo they act a lil sily in terms of pacing LMAO. it's still that bitch in my opinion though, but that's my opinion and you can see that it has 1000+ episodes and be like ..."i aint watching all that shit." LMAO FAIR. IT'S GOOD THO. BOTH THE ANIME AND MANGA ARE GOOD!!! and they both have their pros and cons when it comes to consuming them. ANYWAYYYYYYS. yeah if you have like, time, 2.99, And the shounen jump app is available wherever you are (also u can go to like Viz's official website and your shounen jump subscription will carry through there too :) ) THEN I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE PIECE!!! (btw you can read 100 chs A DAY of op or they have other mangas too bby YEEEEEE) or if you have time then i also recommend watching the anime its... it's that bitch, i don't know. If you do end up liking it then netflix can help you take a nice bite out of the series, there's also like funimation/crunchyroll... or... *whispers* there are other...ways...to watch the anime....*whispers* ...are you a cop? LMAOOOOOO.

It's really good though with a whole bunch of lovable characters that the live-action doesn't even begin to be able to get into. you didn't ask, you didn't ask, but me personally, my favorite arc is Alabasta, which is the place they should be going to next season in the live action!! it also introduces one of my favorite little villains: Crocodile!!! idk i love it and i love him LOLLLL which i shouldn't bc he's...he's not a good man but i'm 26 i'm allowed to like toxic anime men, i've earned that right. (also you can like things and criticize them/acknowledge their flaws.) ANYWAYS, ANYWAYS, I'M RAMBLING, but yeah, it's good eating, and i highly suggest you get into the actual series if you liked the live action because the series itself is more in depth. Plus, P L U S, there's more Mihawk, Crocodile, and Buggy content AND THATS A WIN TO ME. lajsldajskdajsdlasjd. it's fun and as an added bonus there's a sense of community and you can always come back here and scream your thoughts to me (and everyone else) if you like it. Like i'm honored by your compliments but nothing i write could ever compare to the actual series itself LOLLLLL.

ANYWAYS THANKS SO MUCH!!!! ILYYYYY!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY, A GOOD WEEK, A GOOD YEAR!!!!!!!!!! MUAH!!!!!

[ace-reviews]

Anime Review: Four Romcoms

Skip and Loafer won this season's poll to see which anime would get reviewed, but I accidentally only set the poll for a day instead of a week and don't really have enough to say about it to fill a full review, so instead I'm going to review all four of the romance anime I watched this season.

Skip and Loafer

Where to Watch: crunchyroll

Basic Premise: over-achieving rural girl moves to tokyo and almost immediately befriends a former child actor

Maybe it's because I'm too old, maybe the stuff that has the manga readers singing this series' praises all over the internet doesn't really kick in until after the part where the anime ends, maybe it's because the mere existence of a trans person that isn't a joke isn't enough for me to automatically declare something a once-in-a-generation masterpiece (though it is definitely always nice), or maybe it just had the bad luck to air in the same season as the beautifully produced adaptation of one of my current favorite manga, but I don't really get what all the fuss is about. It's a good show. I enjoyed it immensely. I do not think it's the greatest high school romance of all time or whatever.

Mitsumi is a great protagonist, she and Shima manage to avoid any of the contrived pitfalls that typically plague high school romcom anime, the supporting cast are all fun and distinctive, and it's got a trans character that isn't a joke and is allowed to have a character other than being the token queer, and every single joke and emotional beat lands as intended. Any issues I have are 100% "me" problems and mainly boil down to my having let my expectations get raised a little bit higher than I probably should have. Definitely check it out. Just, y'know, don't expect anything life-changing.

---

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at LV999

Where to Watch: crunchyroll

Basic Premise: college girl copes with getting dumped by becoming rl friends with her mmo guildmates

I tease, but this is one of those rare cases where the romance between the legal adult and the still-technically-a-child doesn't bother me too much. For one thing, Yamada is 18 so he crosses the "half-your-age-plus-seven" threshold, and for another, he has a job and is living independently so he and Akane are roughly at the same life stage despite one of them being in college and the other being in high school. If anything, it's more an aesthetic choice. Yamada could have been a freshman at her college or not been a student of any kind at all and all that would really change is the outfit he wears sometimes.

Either way, this show is just a lot of fun. The cast is great, it's got the cutest old man character in the history of either old men or characters, almost every single joke lands, and it's vague enough about the mechanics of it's fake MMO (which is apparently based on an actual MMO that I've never played or heard of) that I didn't have to spend any time being distracted by nitpicks like an absurdly high level cap or a weirdly empty hotbar.

If a hole was left in your heart by the revelation that Recovery of an MMO Junkie was directed by a piece of shit, this could be the show to fill it.

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Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible

Where to Watch: hidive

Basic Premise: girl pokes gentle fun at almost-supernaturally unassuming boy

This is technically a Winter 2023 anime, but it got hit by COVID delays so it didn't finish up until this season. This ended up doing it no favors, because although the overall production quality remained solid from beginning to end, it suddenly had to compete with another romcom with a similar premise that was better in pretty much every single respect.

That being said, this is still a very cute anime based on a very cute manga that deserves much more attention that it got. On the scale of "cute girl teases lame boy into liking her" anime, this is very solidly on the Teasing Master Takagi-san side of family friendliness, and is mainly a "nice people being nice to each other" type of iyashikei anime that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but is quite enjoyable if it is.

My only mark against it is that even though Shiraishi's whole thing is that he's supposed to be the mobbest of mob characters, the actual mob characters don't have eyes, so he's still very clearly a Main Character, which is like. C'mon, guys. You had one job.

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Dangers In My Heart

Where to Watch: hidive

Basic Premise: anxious loner gets dragged out of his shell by the most popular girl in his class

This is the series that I so cleverly alluded to twice already in this review. It's based on my favorite romance manga since Fruits Basket. It's got nearly the same basic premise as Kubo-san but executed far better in every single area it could be. I finished every episode with a huge grin and a warm heart.

Some viewers may have been put off by the description and opening scene that made it seem like it was about a kid planning to murder his classmates, but it's made clear very early on that the kid is just being 14. There isn't even any bullying--just a shy, awkward kid who is more or less left alone because his classmates figure he wants to be, and the latent murderer bit is dropped entirely by the end of episode 3.

I went into the anime as a manga fan with high expectations and every single one of them was met and then surpassed. It's getting a second season in January and I could not be more excited. If you watch nothing else on this list, watch Dangers In My Heart.

[zurajanaizurakoda]

Which EP that make your into ginzura ?!

I know who you are, and you know you don't want to hear this. There wasn't any episode, I first watched the series almost ten years ago and distanced myself from it because it was making me physically sick worrying about characters. I remember looking for Ginzura and not finding anything but not being particularly attached to it. Like I didn't really see g*nhiji so I figured Ginzura had at least as much reason?

I thought the most interesting relationship was between Gin and Kagura (NOT sexually or romantically, I was just fascinated by them.

When I saw that the series was all on Crunchyroll (as far as I knew except the love potion arc which I wasn't a fan of in the manga so I decided to watch the series and see how it ended. Got obsessed again. It seems like I latched on to Katsura more that time, although I remember liking him the first time through. Finally I decided to find the second movie, which I remembered liking. I was enjoying it, and then it got to the scene on the balcony where Katsura talks about the last time he saw Gin, and I was fucking run over by a 50-ton freight train of feelings. I've never had a ship hit that fast. When he started choking up it was suddenly clear that the outfit wasn't a popularity joke, Katsura was literally shattered by losing Gin. He'd lost his entire family and his Sensei and his cause and everything he'd ever cared about and he'd persisted, but losing Gin broke him. And it struck me just how miserable he was in the movie, and how no one seemed to care. Kagura flatly states that he went insane because Gin disappeared, and they go back to talking about everything else like that wasn't important. Gin makes a half joke about murdering him and goes back to worrying about Gengai. This is runaway Kotarou, his literal claim to fame is running away. He escapes all the time, even from the inescapable prison, even when he was a screwdriver. And he just sat there and let the execution happen because he was so broken down. And of course, Kagura says he talked about destroying the world, but all he talks about, both with Kondo and Gin, is how much he wants to help the world. He hates the world but he just wants to help, so badly. And he was breaking down and Gin saw the Blight guy and left Katsura and probably forgot him as soon as he was out of sight. Then during the final battle, Katsura makes the long, impassioned speech about how every single one of them is there to support Gin. If Gin hears the speech, he literally does not react at all. I wondered if this was the Katsura who had mourned Gin for ten years. Everyone else forgot Gin, but for Katsura he lost his best friend and suffered for it for a decade. Here he is finally able to do something for the person he cares about more than everything. And again, how happy would he be if Gin just took a second to acknowledge him?

And it's been the same ever since. His introduction is based on how much he values Gin, how he was willing to dirty his hands to get him back. But he accepts Gin's decision, even if he doesn't like it, and he tries to influence Gin but he never endangers him again. His next major appearance, he says the Harusame is too big for his entire organization, but when Gin says he's going, Katsura goes with him without hesitation "I'm your left hand" isn't just an idle term, he makes an enemy he's already stated he doesn't think he can defeat if it will help Gin. In Benizakura he tells Takasugi he rearranged his core beliefs based on how strong he sees Gin as. I could keep going. The constant standbys. Wanting to be in the Cartesian Arc., In the soul-switch arc he literally is willing to fight for Hijikata because Hijikata in Gin's body took him seriously and offered him a job. When he saved Gin from Nobunobu (Which again, Gin literally never acknowledges, Katsura spends most of his time talking about Gin and Gin spends the whole time playing support for Hijikata. Katsura gets his rawest line in the series, about how when you're near death you just want to be with people you care about. This reframes his asking Gin to commit seppuku with him. When he lost all hope, his one wish was to be near Gintoki when he died. Meanwhile, in the Farewell Shinsengumi arc, he doesn't get to see Gin. It doesn't even appear that Gin bothered to talk to him about Utsuro until Matako and Nobume bring it up. Gin literally fucking renamed him and it changed how his friends treated him for the rest of his life. When he stayed in the ship in The Very Final. I don't see much Ginzura in the series, but if Katsura isn't in love with Gintoki it's still obvious that a good chunk of his sanity revolves around his relationship with Gin. I truly believe there's more support for his romantic feelings for Gin than his romantic feelings for Ikumatsu, and I truly believe he cares about her and I can even see them ending up together but you cannot possibly convince me that their main bond is based around his understanding how hard it is to lose the one you love to the cause. And every time I see Katsura I want to throw a supportive Gin at him, even for a minute, even for a single panel, and it never happens. So I write.

Obviously this is all my opinion. If you really want to discuss it that's fine, but if you just want to tell me how wrong I am I'm aware my opinions are very different from most of the fandom. When I say you can't convince me it's because I'm stubborn as fuck and I suffer from cognitive rigidity, not because I think I'm the smartest person on the internet. Just assume you're right

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Most sports anime have a much bigger recurring cast, since they tend to be structured as tournaments between school sports teams, so you’ll have the main cast team, and then a bunch of other schools’ teams. And the main cast will have their “best friend” pairs and then each newly introduced school team will have a whole team but also at least one main duo who will sort of be bigger characters than the rest of their team and pretty much represent them. Sk8 meanwhile has a much smaller cast than most sports anime, so they get a lot more focus, and it’s not a tournament structure or taking place in school. The only other sports anime I’d say even comes close to the amount of gay Sk8 exudes is Free!, and even then Sk8 still has that scene which the official Crunchyroll Dubs YouTube channel labeled “Langa Has “The Talk” With His Mom” so. How else are we supposed to read that

Wait scratch that about Free! being the only sports anime anywhere near as gay as Sk8, that’s factually incorrect because I just remembered Yuri on Ice exists. But still

Ohhh right, Yuri on Ice!!! You know, I still haven't watched it but again, I think I've absorbed some of it by some kind of anime cultural osmosis. That one is... actually explicitly gay though, instead of just having undertones. Like outright there was a kiss scene right? That really sweet one where Victor kind of runs at Yuri and hugs him and they fall onto the ice? They got married too, or something? There's rings, I know that much. It was a big deal; I remember when people were freaking out about it when it was airing. :D

But yeah it makes sense they were able to focus a bit more on relationship development with a smaller cast in Sk8. I did not know that's what they called that clip; that's hilarious. I can't wait for season 2. I don't know what's going to happen but I miss these goofs.

I haven't seen Free either! Darn! But again, I recognize it from its popularity. What else do I know... Kuroko no Basket (I know very little about this one tbh), Haikyuu (volleyball! so many people at my high school were obsessed with it), and I see Blue Lock a lot right now. I have no desire to watch it atm but a certain mutual makes memes sometimes that make me laugh all the harder with no context. Looks wild.

[imnobodyuknow]

Nyanpasu!

Well, you'll never believe this (unless you're an anime nerd like me) -- as soon as I finished watching the first season of Spy x Family, I decided to jump to something else I've been a fan of for quite some time: The sweet slice-of-life anime, Non Non Biyori!

More specifically, its third season: Non Non Biyori Nonstop!

That was the only season available on Crunchyroll, sadly. 😒 If anyone knows where I can watch the first two seasons, I'd be much obliged if you could fill me in!

Luckily, it's the kind of anime whose seasons (and even episodes) you can watch out of order without missing any context, for the most part. Mark my words, I'll watch the first two seasons at some point, but for now, here are my thoughts on the third season of this lovable anime with adorable characters living in the Japanese countryside:

...Oh, right! A brief description first. Non Non Biyori is about a group of schoolchildren living the country life in the fictional countryside village of Asahigaoka. The meaning of the title, "Non Non Biyori," has never been established by the show's creator, but according to the observant people out there in internet land, it could be a combination of the words "Nonbiri," which means "live carefree," and "Biyori," which means "weather." (Oddly enough, I once thought it translated to "Day After Day," and I have no idea where I got that from. 😅) As someone whose fluency in Japanese is limited to the simplest of words, I can't say who's right or wrong, but I like the idea of the title meaning something like, "Weather for Living Carefree." 😊

All right, on to the reviewin'!

In terms of beautiful scenery (which is often shown for several seconds at a time with the sounds of nature, which helps the viewer take it in):

In terms of gorgeous (if simple) character art and animation:

In terms of fun, pleasant music:

In terms of cute and hilarious interactions between characters:

In terms of portraying the carefree, fun-loving nature of children:

In terms of decency:

(There's a bit of light language here and there, but when it comes to anime, I'll take what I get.)

And finally, in terms of reminding viewers of the innocence (and shenanigans) of childhood, the beauty of nature, and the joys of country living:

So, while this may not be the type of anime you'd go to if you're looking for fast-paced action, intense emotion, or a deep plotline, one can't help but admire the simplicity and innocence found in it. If you need a break from the craziness and crudeness one usually finds in anime, this is definitely the one to go to. Not too eventful, but not too boring, either. 👍

My one complaint is that no English dub of the show exists. I know it's a challenge to create an anime dub that works well, but if Spy x Family could pull it off with a little girl like Anya, I can see it potentially working if someone ever felt like giving it a try. I can't be the only one who wants to hear an English-speaking Renge Miyauchi, can I?

But for now, I guess we'll have to settle for just imagining it. Which is actually a pretty fun challenge, I've found. 😄

[jazzforthecaptain]

I was around while Free! was super popular on tumblr, but couldn't join in at the time. I found it after subscribing to Crunchyroll and have been watching it over break. Omg, I get it.

I mean I'm a Haikyuu!! girlie, and I got into Prince of Tennis back in college - always love me a good team sport anime. I was already going to like Free! but the quality of the storytelling and the animation surprised me. I love how while it leans into some tropes of the subgenre, it bucks others. Most of the time I find myself drawn to a couple characters. The rest are typically comfortable tropes, there to fill space and provide a familiar arc of relationships. Free! may be the first of its subgenre that invested me in the entire ensemble cast. The interpersonal dynamics are fascinating, and over time it seems like everyone's developing their own relationships with each other. Plus, I mean, Rei. Rei. I expected a certain cerebral statistician trope from him when he came in with his glasses and his precision head math. What I've got instead is this deeply enthusiastic soul who waxes poetic about the beauty of the sport and is still bad at swimming because he's so new to it - but getting better! He's a good teammate and is attentive and supportive to everyone. Rei's earnest enthusiasm is why I'm here typing this right now. He's infectious. He's me. But Haru's struggle to find his reason for swimming competitively is relatable, as well as his struggle to articulate what he wants and needs and be understood. Makoto's the calm, devoted friend I'd like to be, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and loving and supporting people where they're at. And Nagisa is the facilitator friend with the Force of Nature personality that can get anyone on board to do anything. The fascinating thing is, they all have gotten moments to better explain why they function like this in their friend group, as well as moments when they fail and moments when we see what they're hiding, and I believe we'll get more. It elevates basic roles in a sports anime into something richer and compelling.

If that were all, it would be enough. But this series has gorgeous, gorgeous animation. The swimming sequences are detailed and stylized. They're beautiful, clearly meant to be part of the feeling behind the story, and it shows. The facial animation is incredible. I really love how Free! does silent exchanges between characters, particularly Makoto and Haru. Their expressions are alive. And the show has a stronger sense of place than much of the sports anime I've watched. I feel like I could map some of this out if I went back and looked through it.

This isn't to say Free! is some peak tier anime. One of the main cast inexplicably has shark teeth. We got a shopping episode with a swim gear montage for no reason other than to show how much Rei really likes rainbows and butterflies. We spend a lot of time looking at very elaborately detailed back muscles, lol. I'm sure the swimming factoids aren't 100% accurate and there's plenty of Swimming Is SRS BSNS moments. But that's the silly stuff that makes me love team sports anime.

The longer I watch this, the more I enjoy it. If you like Haikyuu!! but haven't given Free! a watch yet, you might want to.

[poxei]

hii i got some stuff at your table at fanime and wanted to say that I really love your art and merch!! I was rly taking in how well designed everything was (i esp love the graphic design on your pins and stickers) and i wanted to ask how you got into/how long you have been tabling at conventions? i want to get into it too but im overwhelmed with keeping track of all the applications, merch making, etc--do you have any tips for beginners that you wish you knew when u started?

Thanks so much!! I'm glad to hear you like what you got from me! and that you appreciate the effort I put into graphic design :'D

I'll answer your question below the cut since it got kind of long

My first time tabling was in September 2018 at Crunchyroll Expo! I only did 4 cons pre-2020, the last of them being Crunchyroll Expo 2019, so I tabled for exactly a year before the pandemic started. Then I stopped for two years and started doing cons again in May 2022 at Fanime. I've got at least 3 more cons planned for this year including my first AX 😳 But my last con as of right now is Fanime 2023, so I've been tabling for a little over two years.

Tabling was really overwhelming the first time I did it too, but I mooched off of a friend's table so at least I didn't have to worry about getting the table. It's really helpful if you have a friend who's willing to share their knowledge with you, but if you don't, you kind of have to learn how to table the hard way... I also have a bunch of friends who started tabling around the same time, so we all helped each other by sharing resources, tips, and manufacturers. I strongly recommend getting a buddy! Especially if you ever plan to travel to a convention to table, having a friend go with you takes off so much stress.

When you're first applying, I would suggest finding a convention or free-admission art market close to you (doesn't matter the size of the convention/market), or a big con where you're almost guaranteed to make your money back like AX, ANYC, or Fanime (though it's gonna be tough to get into these because of all the competition). Don't worry about tracking the apps for every single con, just pick a few deadlines to track. I think for your first con it's best to cut down on travel/lodging costs as much as possible because you never know how much you'll make back.

As for making merch, I wouldn't worry about making so much all at once. Well, maybe you have to produce a lot for your first con. But after that I just try to add at least one new thing for each con, even if it's just a sticker, so I slowly build up a catalogue that way. For my first con, I just printed zine pieces and illustrations that I already had, and the only new thing I drew was buttons.

For more specific questions, the blog @howtobeaconartist helped me so much in the beginning! You can also ask me off-anon, and I can try to help, but I can't guarantee that I can be of help.

[sheepiemc]

this is so not important but i feel like i need to tell other people (especially if people have had similar experiences with me about this maybe it will help??)

so i bought one of the obey me teddy bears from Crunchyroll right

they were on pre-order like 2 years ago and they wouldn't be fulfilled till the following year - all good, this concept i understood

then, between when the pre-orders were placed and when the items were supposed to be fulfilled, Crunchyroll revamped their store - they are allowed to do that, make their processing easier, sure

with the change, they said some things that were pre-order would be delayed - fine, understandable, these things take time

when i pre-order shit, i put it out of mind so that when i get it, its like a fun lil surprise so im not worse for wear about it

about a year passes and i rmbr that i pre-ordered this teddy bear bc i think i saw someone on tumblr or twitter say they got theirs so i check to see if i ever got an confirmation email that it was sent (this is when i find out about the site and delays) so it says "pre-order items would be delayed 2-3 months after the initial shipping estimation - i figure its only when i was supposed to get the item so I'll check back in 3 months

i forget about it again and am reminded in decemeber when i receive the miss em doll that i preordered, that came from Japan..... I'm thinking wtf is going on with crunchyroll

so fast forward to this month - its 5 months after when the items were supposed to be sent. i scour the website trying to find anything that will tell me when this god damn teddy is supposed to be sent to me and i come up with nothing - they don't exist in the pre-order delayed items list and i still haven't received an email so i decide to send an inquiry to crunchy roll - i'm very respectful if not a little frustrated and in the email i'm like "i don't want my money back i just want the bear please"

its the busy season so they're like "it'll take some time to get a response" - fine i've waited this long already whats a few more days.

when i do get a response, i get this, which is basically what i could already glean from the rest of the website - nothing specific about MY order

i coulda left it at this - fine, im just annoying, it'll come when it comes.............. but it's not in the pre-order delay list and if it is a delayed pre-order item it should be there......... so i send them a message back......

not too rude, right? i think i'm just trying to be helpful.

THEN THEEEN

i check the teddy bear listing on their website and realize something...

BITCH!!! THAT SAYS IN-STOCK!!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!

so i think maybe it's a mistake - they wouldn't straight up LIE to me about the shipment, right??? so i send a follow up message

so i did my good deed for the day, now I'll just wait for them to be in stock and then ill get this silly little bear that i ordered like almost 2 years ago now

and wouldn't you know

i get this email like an hour ago

it shipped out yesterday

they really fuckin lied to me huh

honestly i have to laugh, the whole situation is so silly and all this for one (1) orange bear 😆 but it's about the principal!!!!

one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone doesn't tell me something i should know without me asking!!!! if i was never annoying about this bear, i probably never would've gotten it!

i hope this prompts them to check and see if there are any other pre-order they left unfulfilled when they actually have the item in stock

tbh this isn't even enough for me to not buy from them anymore lol

did anyone else buy the bear(s) from Crunchyroll? did u get it no problem? am i special?