#It's so good I highly recommend the anime and the manga

[casentine]

Scraps

[canadianlucifer]

While I was reading Blue Exorcist I didn't fully register just how dark the Illuminati arc was, but watching it animated... holy shit.

I could not imagine going through what Izumo has and is going through. And being in the place of any of the other students? Dealing with unkillable regenerating zombies speaking to me in broken up bits saying they want to go home? Having so much pressure to do things most adults wouldn't be able to do? AT 15 YEARS OLD??

I feel like this is the turning point for the series bc it goes from "heehoo funny with epic fights and some character bonding" to "everyone you love is going to die if you don't fight right now. This world is bleak and horrifying under the thin veil we have created and the fate of it rests on your shoulders, all of you."

[lazycranberrydoodles]

boss lady doodle that i started during cringetober but didnt finish (i rewatched way of the househusband yet again.) nya

[isan0rt]

Me, rambling, at 11:15pm: ... And that's how the meaning of Machiavelli's "The Prince" is commonly misinterpreted however Kabru DunMeshi perfectly illustrates the principles Machiavelli discusses in his work-

My spouse, exhausted: maybe it's time for bed.

[monstrsball]

quick everyone watch all six seasons of natsume yuujinchou so you can watch season 7 with me and talk to me about it

[heylookliisten]

if you could go on a date with one singular anime character who would it be and why

spent way longer on this than i should have lol

im not really into anime anymore but honestly, i would have to go with lavi from d.gray-man

d.gray-man is one of the two anime’s i really loved. he’s something called a bookman and the nature of that job requires giving up attachment to those around you to record the worlds history

however, as the anime progresses, lavi begins to change and genuinely begins to feel and build on the relationships with those around him

that being said, i think lavi would treat you so well on a date. he would spend a lot of time making it special and one of a kind because his whole life he never was able to fully have a connection with someone romantically or platonically. he would want this to be one history needed to know about. plus he’s goofy and kind hearted which is exactly my type. all in all lavi is a 100% good guy and cutie so of course i’d go on a date with him

[comicaurora]

hi red!! i'm doing an analysis of sun wukong's (and journey to the west in general's) impact on modern culture for my world mythology final, and for some reason i'm having a hard time finding sources. is there anything you can recommend?

The fact that Journey to the West has contributed an enormous number of tropes to modern media is very clear when the media in question is examined, but I don't know of a specific secondary source that's already done that analysis for you. However, this IS a very good excuse for you to plow through a metric buttload of shonen manga, since the lineage is basically Sun Wukong -> Son Goku -> like a solid third of all shonen action heroes written in the last forty years.

Dragon Ball kicks things off:

Started in 1984 and almost unquestionably the most influential manga ever made. Its first arc features the weird super-strong monkey-kid Son Goku - which is just the japanese pronunciation of the characters of Sun Wukong's name - meeting up with a wacky crew of thinly-veiled expys of the Journey to the West crew, with teen inventor Bulma filling the role of Tripitaka, Oolong the pig-man filling Zhu Bajie's role and Yamcha the desert-based bandit as Sha Wujing.

Hijinks ensue, and while the story drifts pretty far from Journey to the West's original plot, it actually stays pretty solidly referential in weirdly unexpected ways. Several the villains of the week are JttW references, and even the later appearance of three more Saiyans lines up with the surprise reveal of three more Wukong-like mystical apes in the original story.

The connection between Dragon Ball and JttW is very unsubtle and a frequent reference in the chapter covers and supplemental art.

Not every subsequent JttW reference is the result of Dragon Ball popularizing it or anything, since it was already enormously popular, but I think it's pretty hard to extricate Dragon Ball's influence on anime and manga from the original influence of Journey to the West itself.

One way that a distinction can be drawn is in the differences in characterization between Goku and Sun Wukong himself. A lot of the next generation of shonen protagonists were kind of Goku-alikes - pure-hearted dumbasses who only care for the three Fs: Food, Fighting and Friendship.

But the original characterization of Sun Wukong is not really all that similar. He's a trickster, sure, but he's far from a young, friendship-motivated goober. He's profoundly intelligent, pretty much the most well-educated entity on the planet, and routinely brings up that he's centuries older than most of his peers. The Goku-alikes from the later decades of shonen anime are tellingly far-removed from that original characterization. So you get characters based on Goku's cheerful idiocy, but it's just a small subset of the broader influence of Journey to the West on the space of literature.

In general, Journey to the West frequently shows up in very small, bite-sized tropes in other stories. It's less "this is wholly based on Journey to the West" and more "oh, I know where they maybe got this idea/aesthetic/power/weapon/villain of the week from." There are way too many to list, but some of the ones that tend to jump out at me are-

Sneaky characters with monkey motifs:

Tricksy, highly mobile characters who fight with a staff:

Characters afflicted with a magical restraint artifact that allows a much weaker character to stop them from misbehaving:

Specific esoteric weapons, eg. magical fans, rakes, gourds, namedropping The Sword of Seven Stars, etc.

Villains with prominent ox or pig design motifs:

Characters whose primary combat strat is just making Shitloads Of Disposable Copies Of Themselves:

Honestly it just keeps going like this. It's kinda everywhere. Finding the JttW in things is my favorite conspiracy theory rabbit hole because it's 100% harmless and more often than not completely correct.

[shigayokagayama]

What are the biggest losses between the manga and anime? I just finished watching mp100 and I'm curious what the manga has!

ok biggest losses are kind of hard to define because like. anime and manga are two inherently different mediums and there are a good amount of cuts that improve pacing and then a good amount of cuts that people sort of argue over the merit of so im just going to go for biggest differences. i would also highly recommend reading the manga just because it is a pretty different experience tonally along with the minor plot differences and cut scenes + theres a bunch of omakes that both flesh out characters that dont get too much focus and have some really good bits in them. putting the rest of this post under a cut bc i ramble

mogami arc

this one is kind of inescapable i feel like but the anime version of the mogami arc had a LOT of things trimmed for a couple different reasons. season 2 already got an extra episode in order to do the fire scene as a cliffhanger so with the way things shook out the director had to choose between a. cutting a bunch of stuff out of separation arc to make it one episode so mogami arc couid stay three episode or b. cutting a bunch of stuff out of mogami arc so separation arc could stay two episodes. imo they made the right choice, whats even the point of adapting mob psycho if you dont get confession arc right, but some of the cuts to mogami arc will be dearly missed and others will be fought over to the end of time. cuts include:

minori being established as a brat in a video everyones shown and the video being part of how reigen deduces shes possessed (reigen deducing her possession in the manga is generally just a lot better done and after you read the manga the scene in the anime feels so awkward because you know whats missing

the psychics deciding to band together to beat this little girl to death to save themselves and shinra stepping between them to protect her and getting utterly thrashed, not by mogami, but his fellow psychics

reigen trying to convince mob to leave without him and call for help while he distracts him which leads to this

the general mogamiland section lasting a lot longer and being more brutal (notably the stray cat mob feeds getting killed in front of him)

mob getting fucking torn to pieces by spirits during the fight instead of ambiguously dying offscreen

generally would recommend if nothing else reading the manga version of this arc and confession arc because i feel like these are the only two where you lose like. a significant amount of the story and themes from the cuts. speaking of....

2. WHY THE FUCK DID THEY CUT THIS I WILL BE MAD UNTIL I DIE

maybe its just because i reread this arc on its own probably 50 times before the anime came out but this is the only arc where the cuts actively piss me off because there is absolutely no reason they had to do it. they cut a bunch of important shit, left in things that didnt need to be there, and added scenes that contribute literally nothing to the overall point. if they just did any one of those things or combo of two of those things i wouldnt be as mad but it feels like they put a bunch of filler in then speedran the actual story

cut #1 that pisses me off: HOMOPHOBIA?????

THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A HEART IN HIS EYE. WHY DID THEY NOT INCLUDE THIS. THIS IS THE CULMINATION OF TERUS ARC. THIS IS HIM SEEING THE PERSON HE HAS IDOLIZED AND DEIFIED IN HIS HEAD AT THEIR LOWEST AND STILL CHOOSING TO LOVE HIM, AND THROUGH THIS HE IS CAPABLE OF BEING LOVED EVEN THOUGH HES NOT PERFECT BECAUSE NO ONE IS. WHY WOULD YOU CUT THIS?

cut #2 I NEED WHOEVER CUT THE DIALOGUE FROM THE FIRST PANEL IN PRISON

the lack of inclusion of the first panels dialogue along with the cuts to the mob and shigeo conversation (WHICH WE WILL GET TO) make me think the person who adapted this arc fundamentally misunderstood what was happening. this line. is. THE POINT. THIS ISNT SOME SEPARATE SCARY THING. THIS IS MOB. HE IS CHOOSING TO DO THIS BECAUSE HE IS SCARED AND ANGRY AND HURT BUT HE IS IN CONTROL OF HIS ACTIONS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

cut #3 HE DOESNT WANT TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS ACTIONS

this entire conversation is so good and i was looking forward to watching it voice acted for so long and its just. gone. for me the "i am shigeo kageyama who are you" reveal felt like a gut punch because the opening being "i knew i would be needed" made me go "oh hes like possessed or his powers are sentient or something" and this conversation was the slow unraveling of my view of these as two separate people and instead as a scared, traumatized teenager who has convinced himself that the parts of himself he hates are something else outside of his control instead of an intrinsic part of who he is because if he's convinced that the parts of him that are able to feel desire and frustration and anger and malice are him then he'll lose all these relationships he's worked so hard to cultivate as his perfect, non confrontational self. and of course that isnt true. all his friends and loved ones are making their way to the center of a damn hurricane because they see he's in distress and want to help him. but he cant see that so he pushes them away. ugh. mob. protagonist of all time.

cut #4 WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THE COMPOSITION OF THIS I CAN LITERALLY SEE HOW THIS WOULD BE ANIMATED IN MY MINDS EYE W

can you imagine how beautiful this would be in motion. just. god.

cut #5 HE WAS TALKING OUT LOUD. REIGEN HEARD ALL THIS

:(

cut #6 the bowling arc

so the scene where reigen takes his shoes off is supposed to be a lot more solemn bc like. taking your shoes off before killing yourself is a trope in japanese media (ive heard it started in media and bled over into real life but i might have it backwards?). reigen knew he was probably going to die. anyway i cant take this scene seriously because of this edit

the bowling arc.

cut #7 WAAAAAAAAAAAA

WAAAAAAAAAAAA *sniff* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

cut #8 homophobia again

rip pensive fruity tea sip

cut #9 mob threw the cake directly in reigens face on purpose

i literally experienced every stage of grief realizing this got changed. why. its so perfect. why would you change this.

3. World Domination arc

so WD arc is in a very interesting place where it had a lot of scenes cut but unlike the other two most of the cut content youre like. yea probably best not to include that. ill start with the good content that got cut then go into the weird content

serizawa got his power drained by toichiro. i am quite sad this scene didnt make it in because its sorta heartbreaking

teru fighting off the claw assassin is shown and we see that teru can both make shadow clones AND hold a barrier while attacking, he seems to be the only esper with this ability!

the reason dimple could tell mob's family was alive is that there was no sense of grudge at the house which would have been left behind by people passing in a violent manner

mob briefly goes unconscious during the start of the toichiro fight and dimple possesses him and says "shit"

dimple possessing mob shoots shibata with a gun

we get mukai lore.

it doesnt make any sense and just raises more questions but we get it.

toichiro has a team of telepaths to recap where everyone is because this arc took an entire calender year to update

literally everyone shows up to fight shimazaki. i cannot stress enough how many people show up to fight shimazaki. it would be faster to list espers who dont show up to fight shimazaki

the middle school delinquents show up and start fighting the claw grunts literally completely out of no where and this is never brought up or referenced ever again

when mob and ritsu get home ritsu says all their stuff is in boxes and they need to hurry and redecorate the house before their parents get home which implies that shou packed the entire households worth of belongings into boxes and hid it somewhere before lighting their house on fire which is such a funny mental image that i cant even be mad at it. loony toons ass plot point.

4. other random interesting cut things

takenaka is just generally more of a bitch during alien arc. "ah i think they took him" remains one of the funniest goddamn panels in the manga

peak

alien arc overall is a lot funnier in the manga, i have a slight preference for the manga version just bc theres a lot of really good bits that didnt make it to anime but the anime version is so heartfelt and nostalgic it makes me happy

between omakes and small things that got cut or changed for the anime teru just feels way more fleshed out in the manga. like. anime teru is a completely different person. its hard to explain if youve never read it.

the all girls school part originally went right before the ghost family stuff and was the beginning of mob's existential crisis about why spirits and people get different treatment but tbh it works well where it is i just wish it werent. like that.

the scene where ritsu and teru shake hands was teru draining ritsus power which he seems to have learned to do from encountering ???%

teru.

ow

thats all i can think of off the top of my head, im sure ill realize i forgot something some time after posting this but. yeah. read the manga its good

[vesperaink]

Friends, my necromancer!Tango/grimreaper!Jimmy, Team Rancher modern with magic apocalypse AU, Graveyard Shift, for @mcytblraufest's Reverse Big Bang is here!

But wait there's more--go read chasing crimson written by @aliferous-ly, beta'd by @dibs2win, my fantastic team for aufest. If you love enemies to lovers, unlikely partnerships, and the power of soul-bound magic weapon contracts, this hilarious + dramatic 22.9k fic kicks off from this comic!

chasing crimson

Jimmy Solidarity works for the esteemed god of Death, reaping lost souls and taking care of unsavory characters. He's recently finished his training, and is determined to do well on his first solo mission. Perhaps this "Tango" would be a good start. Only, the god of Death disappeared years ago, and Necromancer Tango Tek's long since discovered a way around dying. He can't say he enjoys Jimmy swinging through and killing him where he stands, though.

Thank you to my team for being as feral about this AU as I am, and kicking everything about it up to 110. I had so much developing this world with them!

Thanks to @onawhimsicot for helping me with the comic's dialogue, fixing my composition woes with "just add more smoke," and encouraging me to complete it in full color! Check out Cadence's aufest fic, I take it back (ill follow till I fly or till im dead), a Cult of the Lamb AU about follower!Tango and Lamb!Zedaph, the meaning of devotion, silly experiments, eldritch transformations, and...the most platonic slowburn ever?

Lastly, thank you to the aufest team for another wonderful event! I had a blast again, and was giggling kicking my feet at everyone's reactions during claims, I loved every single one of them. Graveyard Shift is definitely an AU I'm coming back to. As always, my askbox is open if you'd like to chat, and I'd love to be tagged if anyone makes anything <3

Timelapse / AU art chatter under the cut!

While Graveyard Shift is the amalgamation of many of my interests, the main premise for this AU is loosely inspired by the webcomic, I'm the Grim Reaper, in both its apocalypse themes and its aesthetics! Not a required read, but highly recommend if you enjoy this au, as well as the anime and manga, Soul Eater!

I came up with a lot of AUs for this event but necromancer!Tango and reaper!Jimmy have been rattling around in my brain in separate AUs since before I started brainstorming for aufest. So I smashed them together, naturally.

(Unfortunately I didn't record all of my process, but most of it is here! CW for flashing; song is Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene by Hozier)

I could go on forever about concept art and character design if anyone's curious but here's some fun bonus details about this comic:

Originally, Tango's outfit was going to be more like his Dungeon Master outfit but I wanted the setting to be more modern and Jimmy stole the fantasy cloak vibe from him already lol

Jimmy's entrance of lightning is my nod to the Life Series final death sound

The scarf Jimmy's wearing is designed to be a boneyard shawl

The panel of strange text reads "Protection Three" in Galactic :)

+ The name "Graveyard Shift" was thrown at me by Cadence in like 3 seconds flat after i spent 2 days agonizing over a name for this au LOL

[merakiui]

mera!

i heard you’re back into azul after the skully take over!

i have an azul magical girl thought i thought you’d like hehe >:)

hear me out..

azul x darling in place of kuro sensi and irina in the shed scene… HEHEHE azul’s tentacles sprouting out of no where and latching into darling and massaging her out of no where! oh no!

maybe it’s magical girl darling who’s pulled into the school’s supply shed in gym in a surprise attack!!

maybe he’s apologizing profusely telling darling how he can’t control it (if he’s unmasked) when he knows full well that he’s mastered control of his other limbs at the ripe age of 3 under the sea.

or if he’s masked up, his tentacles sliding under her pretty hero costume as he mockingly comments how tense she is. “of course she is with his tentacles poking and prodding her everywhere!!

https://youtu.be/IhlkokQHaxU?si=s1kpez0sCx_jcYGn

(scene in question in case you haven’t seen assassination classroom, HIGHLY RECOMMEND)

maybe they go further than azul mischievous tentacles intensely massaging her back and shoulders and they decided (“on their own” he says in a tizzy) that she needs a more thorough massage then before and know just the spot to hit.

one time when in vacay i was trying to get a massage but i fell asleep on the beach hours before and got sun poisoning 😣😣 hope darling’s massage goes well lol!!

loved the skully posts 💕

- phantom anon

AAAAAAA ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM MENTION IN 2024?!?!?!??! I LOVED THAT ANIME SO MUCH WHEN IT WAS AIRING WAAAAA!!!!! Floyb's VA actually voices Karma,,, hehehe. Do with that information as you please (assassin Floyb and koro-sensei tako...... do you see the vision!!!!)

Omg the shed scene....... after the recent manga update I am even more insane about his tentacles. OTL villain tako giving his magical girl a massage that is borderline erotic.......... waaaa powerless in his grasp, so all you can do is grit your teeth and try not to moan because WOW he is surprisingly good at easing the tension in your shoulders and rubbing out any knots in your back...... and ohhh where is that one tentacle going,,, the one prodding between your thighs!!! >_< you'd call him a pervert if you could get the word out, but all that really slips out are gasps and little breathy moans,,, and Azul just insists he has no control over this!!! Really, he'd stop this at once if he could (lie)!!

Hitting that perfect spot inside you and you're trying to threaten him (you'll cook each of those tentacles of his into takoyaki, you swear!!!!), but the tentacle pistoning in and out of you is melting all coherent thoughts.... massage so good both inside and outside that you're stumbling out of the supply shed in a daze,, sucker marks printed all over your body. 👁 👁 next time you see that stupid villain you're killing him dead!!!! >:( (or maybe not... that "massage" keeps you up at night with all kinds of thoughts. <3)

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

is there a way to experience arknights that doesn't involve playing a gacha game? i kinda wanna see what it's deal is the girls in it are really hot

Yes there is!

There’s an online tool that lets you read the visual novel story sections: https://akgcc.github.io/cc/story.html. It lets you read the main story, event side stories, operator records (mini stories focused on specific operators), it even has modules (upgrades to operators that cost a lot of resources but also give you a short story blurb when you unlock them). It usually takes a bit for new stuff to get added, so it can’t really let you read along with the current ongoing events (unless you can read Chinese, the CN server is 6 months ahead of the global server and I think the story reader gets updates for their stories but I haven’t checked, it might just be the ones on global).

There are 2 8-episode seasons of an Arknights anime covering the first 2 parts of the main story. They’re called “Arknights: Prelude to Dawn” and “Arknights: Perish in Frost”

There are a handful of official manhua covering various groups of characters, including one for the main characters at Rhine Lab (American science company with a lot of well meaning characters working for a flawed corporation with ethics issues) and one for Blacksteel (the mercenary group with Franka, Liskarm, Jessica, and Vanilla, who I’ve been posting a lot about. The new event side story is about Jessica so that’s why. The mangadex fan translations of this one were tagged as “girls love” and then the official translation made it even gayer, highly recommend for foxgirl dragon girl yuri). As well as a few others. There’s even the mostly lighthearted Rhodes Island test kitchen series about different operators making different foods from their cultures and backgrounds and stuff, it’s very cute. Official translations are here https://www.arknights.global/comic but for the ones that haven’t been fully translated you can usually find them fan translated on mangadex.

Speaking of mangadex, there are also 2 other comic/manga/manhua things you can read. There is the light hearted 4 panel series “Arknights Operators!” that has short, usually comedic, comics about various operators and their lives on the Rhodes Island land ship. I don’t think it’s explicitly canon (it has a gag about Hoshiguma bumping into door frames bc she’s so tall, but her “canon height” is 5’11” [no one likes the canon heights]) but it’s pretty fun and cute.

And what I think is the last thing I have the mention is the Arknights anthology manga series. It’s explicitly non-canon as the comics are all made by guest artists, but it is officially published by Arknights. It was only published in Japanese but scanlators have translated a large portion of it and it’s very good.

[lilyofthevalleyys]

just wanna say i have wind breaker brain rot right now (the manga)

10/10!! highly recommend reading/watching it!

i’m hoping that i can find the manga but i dont have high hopes. some merch maybe? the chance is probably really low too though :/

more photos under the cut! + me talking about them

also i really want suo’s earrings but they’re impractical so i probably can’t get them 😭 maybe next time 😔

also please tap on the photo for higher quality!

also x2, there blood in the second photo, not a lot but just a warning!

LOOK AT THEM

i haven’t watched the anime on my phone to screenshot yet so i don’t have any good pics but KIRYUU <33 he’s the longish haired person. can you tell he’s my favourite. and Nirei being best supporting character <33

i had mixed feelings about kiryuu at first cuz i was uncertain about his vibe BUT HES AMAZING

kaji is a favourite too!!! his headphones, lollipop and hoodie is so iconic. i also love his parallel to sakura! sakura has someone to ask advice for who’s similar to him :))

introducing the four kings of furin/bofurin!

MOMOSE, the zojo king (the guy with a hood and sweater paws) we don’t know much about him yet (i hope we get more) but i just like him so he’s a favourite! so my top three are kiryuu, kaji and momose, in no particular order

tsubakino, the jikoku king (the one in the second frame)! the way the whole town just accepts them!! and their crush is treated like any other normal crush! they’re so older sibling vibe i love them so much

hiragi, the tamon king (the one in the third frame)! the dad of the group and the one who pops those stomachache pills/tablets like it’s nothing. tbf having to deal with the leader of furin, who legit yells into the broadcast mic thing, isn’t easy 😭

mizuki, the komoku king (the guy in the first frame)! nothing much is known about him either but he’s seems serious and is the strategy person of furin. also he takes off his glasses when he fights which is just really cool

also i realise i haven’t said this but the one with dual colored hair (kinda like todoroki shouto) is the main character of the manga, sakura, who’s goal is to be at the top of furin! he’s got ✨ trauma ✨ but he’s slowly learning to accept and rely on people :)) he also blushes at any kind of romance (and also when he’s shy or embarrassed), even hand holding. i don’t know how he’s gonna date people honestly

and of course, the leader/representative of furin, hajime umemiya! he’s really just like an elementary school kid, as Suo says. hes the sunshine character who you wouldn’t wanna piss off. he’s also the one who united furin with the four kings when they used to be a dog-eat-dog kind of school, so major respect to him!

(the next one contains a bit of spoiler on suo?? idk but just a warning. it’s more of a mini analysis)

a more formal introduction of suo and nirei, sakura’s vice captains and the supporting characters! nirei is good with people and collects information on people in his notebook. he’s the sunshine in the trio, and the other two are the sunshine protectors! suo is a joker, but don’t let that kind face get to you. he’s like the main instigator of most of the (harmless) shit that goes down in 1-1. he’s also mysterious with little information about him. oh and he doesn’t eat?? not in front of other people at least. i really wanna know his backstory tbh

but also:

suo. hes mostly easygoing with a smile on his face all the time. but also freaking scary when pissed off like if someone was looking at me like that i’d run and never look back. yes sakura is right, that’s not the face of someone who’s kind, not in this case. i’ll make a post psycho analysing him later

but he takes fourth on my favourite character list! then tsubakino, umemiya, nirei, hiragi, tsugeura, kusumi, suzuri, choji, togame, the twins etc. the list goes on.

point is: wind breaker is great and i highly recommend reading/watching it.

thats all! imma go make a post analysing suo later, because seriously he’s so mysterious. thanks for reading!

[arkus-rhapsode]

Manga Recommendation: Tower Dungeon

So looks like Arkus Rhapsode is here to recommend another fantasy manga after the last one. So this time we're going for a bit of a different flavor with the series Tower Dungeon by by Tsutomu Nihei who you may know as the creator of Blame! and Knights of Sidonia.

Now I've known about this series for a bit even though it is relatively new. Having only started last year in Monthly Shonen Sirius. But I remember its announcement from people like Manga Mogul and hearing Makoto Yukimura (Author of the incredible Vinland Saga) recommending it. Now I always loved Sword and sorcery so I was gonna read it eventually, but it just wasn't translated. However, now being able to read the available chapters, I can say this is a very different type of fantasy series.

The premise is very basic: An evil sorcerer has killed a nation's king and kidnapped a Princess and now the royal knights need to ascend the "Dragon Tower" to save her. One battalion has conscripted a young man named Yuva for assisting troops medically has found he has impressive strength. Now Yuva must strengthen himself for the journey ahead as they explore the deadly tower.

Now like all simple premise stories, the real strength is in execution. And unlike the other fantasy series I've talked about before which have bucked the trend of "RPG fantasy" be leaning more into a traditionalist fantasy stories a la Tolkien, this goes for the more realist fantasy of something like Berserk or Dark Souls.

The world of Tower Dungeon may have things like magic and dragons, but it is a dingy, dirty, and lacks any frills. Knights wear heavy armor and people are covered in blood and scars from their adventures.

The mighty Dragon Tower itself? The most iconic thing about this series and the basis of the adventure? Looks like this. This isn't an opulent tower, this is a massive imposing structure where monsters dwell.

However, unlike some grim dark or edgy fantasies, this world isn't indulgent in its darkness. The violence and death are never cool or cheap. They are simply the way the world is. Even when magic exists, the world is still like Medieval Europe and all the "joys" that come from it.

The people as well are similar. These aren't romanticized or polished fantasy archetypes that often come with the idea of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure, these feel like average joes plucked off the streets having to do a job. If you are say a fan of something like Chainsaw Man, this sort of post modern emphasis on people acting like regular weirdos and not some "anime characters." And I think that is something quite nice that even in a fantastical world, we can see our regular selves in them.

But that's just the story, what about the art? Well if you've noticed this series does have a very minimalist style. Something similar to that of Land of the Lustrous or Chainsaw Man. These almost scratchy and not the most detailed designs that make use of their simplicity to create this very unique atmosphere.

Creature designs themselves are less fantastical and more grody. Feeling as if they come from an off shoot of man rather than some majestic beast. Right down to the cat people.

This series is still new and sadly hasn't been officially translated yet. I've had to use mangadex to read this, so my heart goes out to the translator team. I can understand that this may be a niche that's not for everyone, but its something that feels like such a good sign for fantasy as a genre. A genre that I think has somewhat been stagnated in popular belief with the greater emphasis on Urban Action manga and the reliance on escapist fantasy anime like isekai. To see a more dirty but down to earth take on the premise, I highly recommend it.

[theriverbeyond]

what series scratch the same "itch" as TLT for you? Recently finished the trilogy and feel empty and have found nothing to fill the void in my chest (lol) that TLT had in the weeks I was reading it. I have already experienced homestuck, when thhey cry, and most of the other "big names" of similar media. Any format works as long as its good. I like morally grey characters (Ianthe), well written female leads, character driven narratives and lesbians (in that order.

1. Princess Floralinda and the forty-flight tower (by Tamsyn Muir. excellent audio book narrated by Moira Quirk, same voice actor as TLT)

2. All of Tamsyn Muir's other novellas and short stories (The magician's apprentice, The house that did 16 loops of time, undercover, chew, the deepwater bride, etc)

Next up is entirely my personal and extremely picky and subjective preferences of brain zing, ranked in order of me remembering them

Chainsaw man manga (i read this 5x back to back when I first got into it in 2021. part 1 is complete, part 2 is still updating. part 1 can be experienced as a complete work. the anime is very good but the first episode is not as good as everything after it)

This is how we lose the time war book (feels sorta like fanfiction but the prose is gorgeous)

Interview with the vampire tv show (it's fun, it's camp, there are a lot of gay and bisexual people making really terrible decisions and being very hot)

Gurren Lagann anime (my favorite anime of all time. the women characters are not good, as is typical of many animes. the bathhouse episode can be skipped in its entierty without losing any plot. the overall story is really good and gives me that zing)

Arcane tv show (i watched this in full once and every since have just watched a caitvi + jinx whump clipshow but it did give me that zing. i do not care about the men)

Fullmetal alchemist manga or FMA brotherhood (really good and at this point a classic. royai is the queerplatonic campal blueprint i will not be taking critique at this time)

Revolutionary girl utena anime (watch the sub, do not watch the dub, the dub didn't make them gay. it's really good but heavy TWs and also it is paced like a 90's anime so: slow with a fair amount of filler, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences)

I have complicated feelings about Baru Cormerant and recommend reading up on content warnings if things like violent homophobia and very intimate portrayals of being a colonized subject are things that would upset you. It felt a little too personal to my life for me to like... think it was "fun" or whatever like it felt uncomfortably personal (and also subjectively I didn't super enjoy the pacing of the latter 2 books) but it did make me feel a lot of things and think a lot of thoughts. if the blurb sounds like something you are interested in then I recomend giving it a shot and then you can decide what you think of it yourself

Ancillary justice book (liked this one a lot, but havent felt motivated to read the sequel)

Other fun Studio Trigger animes such as Promare, Cyberpunk 2077, Kill la Kill

Nausicaa and the valley of the wind manga (the movie is good but the manga spanned 10 years, is gorgeously rendered, and goes MUCH more in depth especially wrt climate philosophy and such)

Slay the Princess video game (on steam but also I got into it just by watching letsplays online. It's really good and REALLY interesting, i love how it uses the visual novel format to its story advantage to pull of some incredibly cool story twists. Highly recomend!)

I feel like I am forgetting things that made my brain zing. My childhood special interest was CATS the musical (stage play and 1998 recorded production) and i definitely got brain zing from that but I don't think it has a lot of taste overlaps with tlt. this post really went off the rails but in my defense, it is after midnight

[generouskittentidalwave]

OKAY LISTEN

I absolutely LOVE the Pluto manga, not only does it give more Astro boy content as a whole but the anime adaption looks incredibly promising! AND I'M HYPED

BUT

The ONE, the ONE SINGLE thing that bugs me that I see some fans of Pluto do when describing Pluto is that it is Astro for adults, or that Astro is the kiddie version of Pluto AND AS A FAN OF BOTH MAKES ME WANT TO START TYING PEOPLE'S ARMS INTO PRETZEL KNOTS.

Not only because Astro boy came out FIRST as Pluto is a version of ASTRO BOY not the other way around, but because PLUTO took a dark part in the ASTRO BOY STORY and expanded on it in it's own unique and creative way, ASTRO AND PLUTO ARE BOTH DARK, BOTH ARE INCREDIBLY DARK, NEITHER ONE IS MORE "DARKER" THAN THE OTHER

There is so much darkness and tragedy in the original Astro boy series, but the difference between Astro and Pluto is that despite the tragedy Astro boy focuses a lot more on the positives of life, being able to live a happy life despite some of the negativity that surrounds you. That doesn't make it so it is less dark or more "for kids". Rather, it gives a sense of realism and hope, that you can live happy even if the world can be dark sometimes. And even though Pluto focuses on the more darker aspects of Tezuka's story, it has that same message of hope, Dr Oshay said it himself in the Pluto manga.

SO, THEY ARE BOTH EQUALLY GOOD AND EQUALLY DARK BUT THE MESSAGE OF POSITIVITY AND HEARTFELT AND HOPE AND FAMILY IS A HUGE ASPECT OF THE STORY. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LOOKING INTO ASTRO BOY JUST AS MUCH AS I RECOMMEND YOU GIVE PLUTO A SHOT.

AND IF I HEAR *ONE* MORE PERSON SAY ONE IS DARKER THAN THE OTHER I *WILL* BE IN YOUR WALLS.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hello! Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language-...

Soo... I'm kinda new in fandom (I watched full AoT in April 2024) but I wanna know more abt Eruri. I read all page in shipping wiki about Eruri and some of smartpass au (but... Not much). But I'm Still unsure. Is there anything you would recommend to read from official/canonical things? Idk-... I JUST WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING ABT ERURI😭😭😭

I'd like ANY recommendations, it would really help me 👉🏼👈🏼

Thanks!!!

Hello and a very warm, if belated, welcome to the Eruri fandom!  Your English is perfect, no need to apologise at all.  The good news is that there is a HUGE archive of Eruri meta and information here on tumblr that fans have created over the years.  A lot of it is old now, because it was written at the time the manga was being published, but that doesn’t make it any less relevant, quite the opposite in fact! There is a treasure trove of canon information and analysis here that some newer fans may not be aware of.  I have an old Eruri Starter Pack post and also a Meta Rec post, some of the blogs recommended here are no longer active but it’s well worth browsing through their archives.  

My own meta is tagged Eruri Relationship,  Erwin Meta,  Levi Meta. Other people’s meta that I’ve reblogged is tagged Amazing Meta.   @tsuki-no-ura is the most active meta blogger on tumblr these days.  They are incredibly generous, patient and insightful with their translation skills. Diving into their blog is endlessly fascinating and educational. @momtaku’s blog is still one of the most comprehensive in the fandom and all her posts are tagged and organised.  @yusekni translated a lot of the supplementary material such as the Smartpass stories, guidebooks and fan Q&A’s.  Don’t miss the Smartpass Erwin and Levi Up Close interviews (part 1 / part 2). @ningen-suki also shared a lot of great information from the Japanese side of the fandom. @erbeansandravioli’s Eruri Receipts post is very old now, but it’s still a great source. 

If you haven’t already read the SnK and ACWNR mangas, read them now! Erwin and Levi’s relationship has so much more depth and nuance than in the anime.  I can also highly recommend reading the official Answers book and Character Encyclopaedia which include key information from Isayama himself about Erwin and Levi’s characters, motivations and relationship.

Hopefully that will keep you occupied for a while! If you're looking for anything in particular, or you've got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask ♡