#Japan Open 2020

[coffeenuts]

[figureskatingcostumes]

Satoko Miyahara's free program costume at the 2019 Japan Open and 2019 Cup of China. She skated to Schindler's List, Rachmaninov's Prelude in C-sharp minor and Hatikvah.

(Sources: 1, 2 and 3)

[goldenpinof]

What do you mean dan was abusive towerds us in 2019...? I really didnt feel that way back then(not to mention he was baiscally bearly online back then)

that's the point. he wasn't online to give us content. but he was online to sell us merch. that's one example.

[nyahuaisang]

at least they attempted to fix it unlike ayumu “oh shit my foot got slashed, welp nothing I can do about that, I only have access to water and first aid multiple times over the next few days but I’ll just let it fester as an open wound the entire time”

i'm watching Japan Sinks: 2020 and like it's good, but this dude breaks his glasses and the solution is they just give him the glasses off some other guy. Truly unmatched. Worst solution I've ever seen.

[arsanatomica]

In 2020, I read a post on Tumblr by @gofancyninjaworld I'm having trouble finding the article now, but essentially it said that you should go out and try things, and even if you end up not being a good fit, you would have tried it instead of wishing that you did for an untold length of time.

This post prompted me to purchase a motorcycle.

I then learned to ride the motorcycle by driving and parking lots for an hour every day at night.

Within about 2 weeks I became competent and began exploring small residential streets in my neighborhood. I was very dedicated to doing every neighborhood road and even printed out a map to mark out all of the roads that I did.

I kept adding pieces to the map and then after a couple weeks it became too large and I threw it away.

In summer 2023 I rented a motorbike and the rode 4000 miles through japan. Learning to ride the motorcycle and exploring on it opened up a lot of new areas and interests for me. Buying that motorcycle turned out to be a pivotal turning point in my life.

[kanmom51]

Are you sure?! Sapporo - Episode 8

I know.

I know it's been a bit and a half.

I know it's taken me time to come here and talk about the last episode.

I've been digesting, totally in the feels, and trying to recover.

The photobook, JM's little piece of information regarding his whereabouts night before Jeju and the pic. OMG, that JK marked by JM pic. The more you think about it the crazier it gets. That they actually did that and that the photo made it's way into the book (not to mention us knowing that JM has that pic he took of JK on his phone). All quite a distraction from me working through my thoughts about the episode. A welcomed distraction, but a distraction none the less.

This last episode we got of their Sapporo trip was an emotional rollercoaster. Not only for JK and JM. The level of Joy on the one hand. Seeing them so very happy. And them allowing us to see even more of them and their happiness. Like JM said:

Thinking again about what he said here... and then going back to this:

Yeah, I know he was talking about their Sapporo trip, but you know that this isn't the first time we saw JM wanting to claim his territory.

I know I don't have to point out where JM was pointing where he was going to be writing "Jimin", right?

So, this too is something JM does at home? Just a thought, lol.

And then those two just had to kill me. I know they were both pensive and sad it was all coming to an end, but JM crying, that just devastated me (because It's JM, and JM struggles so with showing himself so vulnerable).

So yes, it has taken me a second to get my wits together and come back and talk a bit with you about what we had in Episode 8.

When I finished watching the episode for the first time I couldn't help but think:

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Well, not really, because we knew it pretty well, but for those that didn't (or wouldn't see it, or denied it, or lived in a delusion that it wasn't happening) it sure is changed.

And then we get JM and JK just crushing down all those TKK rickety houses of cards (see what I did there?) with the photobook. Absolutely priceless!!

Are you sure?! Episode 8

Filled with romance and sentiment and so much feels. Couplie feels.

This episode, is the one, out of all those it followed, to cement for us, the spectators (all spectators, not only Jikookers), that these two are... drumroll... a REAL LIFE long term ever so loving couple.

No huge ear sucking, hickey showing or sunscreen claiming moments. And yet, this episode differs so much from the ones that came before because the whole aura of it was so heavy in "if it looks like a duck and quack like a duck then it's a fucking couple you idiots, just open your eyes".

This is JM and JK just being themselves albeit Sapporo Jikook are innately different due to timing and place - Japan and last trip before enlistment made this so much MORE for the two of them, and we most definitley saw just how much so at the end of this episode.

But this is also the editors doing, with the company's ok, of course, allowing us to see so much MORE. I do believe, that just like with the hickey finding it's way into memories 2020, this episode, the editing of it, was a conscious decision of both Jikook and the company. Jikook being themselves and allowing us to see more of it. More of them. I can assure you there is much we did not get to see, just like there was much we did not see from the previous trips and episodes, but we were allowed to see MORE in episode 8.

And again, it's not about seeing sus moments, because we definitely got a few of those in this episode. We had some in previous episodes as well.

It's about the MOOD.

it's about the editing allowing for more private moments (emotionally private, couplie private, not necessarily what people love to see or think would be the most suspicious ones, the more obvious ones with sexual innuendos), moments that I am sure happened in the other two destinations as well but were edited out.

But there were still things we weren't allowed to see.

Like when a crying JM goes to wake up JK in the morning.

Too personal. Too emotional. Too private.

Beyond the MORE, it was just TOO MUCH.

And yet we did get Jikook just being themselves and us getting to see it. Jikook just BEING. And it was beautiful. It was emotional. It was intimate. It was so very special.

We got to see them react to the first episode of the show. And although this most definitely wouldn't be the first time we got to see them sit down and watch and react to BTS content, that was always within the context of BTS content and with the other members. I can think of one time we got to see them watching their own interactions during the Black Swan shoot.

But even that had them sitting apart and the whole group present.

This was intimate. Just the two with only a red pillow between them (which I am 100% they put there to remind themselves of where, when and what they are doing). JK holding on to that pillow, to prevent hands from straying? I guess it kept them at bay... at times...

So yes. We see JK and JM (oh boy JM) definitely in the feels. And the different editing. Allowing us to see and feel their intimacy.

And with all that, the whole intimate aura surrounding that whole episode we got some cute and some more obvious moments (those moments you can point your finger at and say "there you go", unlike a feeling you get from just watching the two BEING).

We got so so much in this episode.

We got their usual playful flirting.

One example of many:

I mean, really???

The facial expression while saying it, and the mostly lack of reaction from JM as well. No flinching, no "you shouldn't say stuff like that", nope... just this:

This, to me, is not stressing about JK saying this to him but more about it being said for us to hear.

And I'm sorry, but whichever way you look at it, this is not the reaction you would get from a bro who was just told by his bro to strip.

We got more flirting in the car, at the convenience store, at the accommodations, in the hot tub as well. I will get to it all, don't worry, lol.

We got the touchy.

We also have the full combo of flirty playful and touchy:

We got JM telling us 3 times he was taking and took a boyfriend pic.

We got them calling each other pet names.

We got JM talking about his butt and JK's familiarity with it...

We got JK showing off his BF privileges.

We got JK trying to uplift JM's mood.

We got JK telling us all these trips with JM have been the best of his life,

and:

We got JK totally lost, gazing all stary eyed at JM.

Fuck, that was so beautiful!!

I want to go back a second to the clip I shared - what the absolute perfect ending to an absolutely wonderful show. And that little surprise at the end.

Even watching it again now I'm balling my eyes out.

JM rubbing his shaved head... I can't...

😭😭

The one thing that gives me strength is knowing that they are there TOGETHER!!!

[saerins]

─── 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

+ sae x f!reader | wc 3.2k | content: angst, insecurities, death

notes: i’m sorry idk how this came about but i was in a mood :’) i promise i love him okay <3 feedback & reblogs appreciated !!

summary: he’s back home, and you recall the times you’d spoken to him. all the calls you made, then all the calls he made, and then all the times it went to voicemail.

you remember every conversation you’ve had with your boyfriend. the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. it’s hard to quantify into numbers since you’d been together for the last five years.

but there’s a few of them that are prominent, that are burned into your mind, engraved onto your brain. the sound of his laugh, for one, that’s always been precious to you, if only for the fact that he doesn’t laugh often.

sae always said you were the only one who could get that out of him, and you’ve kept it close to your heart since.

to the world, he may have seemed rude and off-putting at times, and despite the countless false reports of sae being an asshole to all his girlfriends in private (because the media can never decide who he’s actually with), he’s always been the same itoshi sae to you—the kind of guy who only ever bothers what you think about him because the other people not involved in your relationship don’t matter.

you remember everything he’s ever done for you.

“you know that one day you’ll be mrs. itoshi, right?”

yeah, you definitely remember.

MARCH 2020; [ sae’s fifth day in spain ]

“you miss me, itoshi sae?”

you can feel him rolling his eyes from the other end. “i should just hang up right now.”

“you could, but then you’d miss me even more.”

sae suppresses a grin, even if there’s no one around to see it. you’re right, but he doesn’t say anything.

it was rare for sae to call you at all. but then again, it is the first time you two had been apart since you got together. maybe it isn’t so weird after all.

“how’d practice go today?”

“it’s fine, nothing i couldn’t handle.” of course he’s fine, he’s the youngest on the team and yet it was as though he’d played the longest.

“of course it was fine, mr genius,” you tease, and he smiles because he knows you’re smiling too.

you can’t really remember how the rest of the conversation went. but you only remember this moment because it was the first time you realised that amidst all the times you’d pester him to go on a date with you, amidst all the times you asked him for a kiss, sae could miss you too.

SEPTEMBER 2020; [ sae comes back to japan soon ]

“hey so i was thinking, i’ll meet you at the airport?”

sae hums, “wanna see me that bad, huh?”

“shut up,” you snap at him, hating his quick tongue that so easily gets you flustered. “so i miss my handsome, successful boyfriend, big deal.”

he missed you too.

“am i just arm candy for you, y/n?”

“what? no—”

“too late. i’m offended. bye.”

then he actually hangs up on you.

it takes you half a second to pull up your message thread with him.

itoshi sae, you wanna die or something?

it takes him the same amount of time to respond to you.

y/n l/n, okay, then maybe i’d get some relief from you.

before you can even be actually offended, your phone vibrates again.

miss you too, stupid. see you tomorrow.

you can’t seem to rub the smile off your face.

FEBRUARY 2021; [ first valentines’ apart ]

it takes him three rings to pick up.

“happy valentines’, lover,” you giggle over the phone.

it’s been a few months since your about-to-go-pro soccer player boyfriend had gone back to spain, doing pro soccer player things. you miss him, especially since it’s the first time you guys are spending the romantic occasion apart.

it sucks that you couldn’t even spend new years with him. it’s okay though, you managed to video call him while you spent time with his family.

“think you got the wrong number.”

“itoshi—”

“open the door, smarty pants.”

“w-wait, what? did you send me something?”

you hurry over to your front door, not knowing what to expect. but you definitely didn’t expect sae to be there, in the flesh, sighing when you finally open your door, a pretty bouquet of flowers in his hand.

“what are you doing here?” you’re still shocked from his mere presence.

sae smirks, and you realise just how much you miss him. “think i got the wrong apartment, i was supposed to deliver these to my other girl—”

but you kiss him to shut him up. he’s full of nonsense, and so, so witty, and he’s here.

sae’s always claimed that it was not soccer stealing him from you, it was more the other way around. and he had been joking at the time he said that, but right now he thinks maybe there’s some truth to it.

if there’s anyone capable of having and getting him to willingly relinquish his attention from soccer, it’s you.

JUNE 2021; [ night of sae’s first PR event ]

“someone looks handsome,” you comment as you watch your boyfriend getting ready over the phone.

he has an entire entourage of people over at his hotel—they must be the makeup crew and stylists. his entire team is getting vip treatment for being champions of the league thanks to last week’s game. now, even more brands are trying to sponsor them and you really shouldn’t be surprised over the amount of girls going crazy over your boyfriend.

“and someone should really sleep,” sae pauses for a moment when the man beside him (presumably his stylist, because he’s double checking sae’s suit) asks a quick that your girlfriend?, to which sae says “yes.”

the man winks at you through the video. “lucky girl,” he comments, eyes back on the fabric he’s touching, “the only time i caught him smiling was while he was texting ya.”

you snicker through the phone as you watch sae’s face go beet red before frowning at you.

“he did not.”

his stylist is laughing at his reaction too. “totally did. i thought he was possessed.”

sae grabs the phone and relegates himself to the bathroom, glaring at you through the screen. he’s not mad at you, he’s just embarrassed and you know that. you’ve known him long enough now to tell his cues.

“i hope you know i hate you.”

he’s always all bark and no bite and you’re still laughing at him.

“aw, i hate you too, mr itoshi.”

“stop with the smart mouth before i find another contender for a mrs itoshi.”

you and sae had been staring at each other through the screen up until that point, when sae realised what he just said and has to look away.

“you… think i could be?”

neither you nor sae have ever broached another about the future, and sae has always been generally avoidant about it, which is why it makes you even more surprised that he’s the one who slipped up about it.

after a moment of silence, he sighs, trying to suppress a smile. it tugs at the edges of his lips, not really there but you can feel it.

“you know that one day you’ll be mrs itoshi, right?”

you don’t know that, he doesn’t know that, not until the day has come. but yeah, you really, really want to be.

OCTOBER 2022; [ sae’s birthday ]

“happy birthday, mr. itoshi,” you greet when he picks up the phone.

things had been rocky lately, admittedly. only because you and sae lived worlds apart.

sae is famous now, in both japan and europe, and it’s no surprise because he’s one of the best midfielders anyone has ever seen. his life is now full of the glitz and glam that you’re not even close to familiar with.

and you; you’re just a simple girl living in tokyo, with a normal life and normal friends and normal everything. except for the fact that sometimes people stalk you online because based on theories, you’re his girlfriend.

he was advised against confirming your identity with the press. for a myriad of reasons, apparently. and you’re fine with it, because yeah, you’re aware there are games to be played when you have his status. and it was fine with you, except for times when it’s not.

like how at his previous PR event he had to appear like he was dating some other celebrity. which was fine, but you’d be lying if you said it didn’t suck having to see your boyfriend appear intimate with someone else. even worse when you hear said someone else mention in multiple interviews that she’s always had a huge crush on him.

“thanks, though it kinda sucks today.”

but it’s fine; you’ve been with him long enough to know that sae isn’t the type to hurt you like that. so even if it’s rocky, it doesn’t stop you from loving him.

“why? i thought the guys were bringing you out drinking tonight.”

sae sighs. “that’s exactly why.”

you smile, thinking how sae is still the same sae you’ve always known. “you’ve been playing with them for more than a year now, i think one night out wouldn’t kill you, babe.”

“but they’re freaks.” and sae says that because they’re rowdy, noisy guys and he doesn’t even want to imagine them drunk.

“we both know they’re going to bother you to no end if you don’t go,” you point out, and sae relents. “and if you need an escape when you’re too tired, you could just use my name.”

you break into a grin because you know for a fact that sae uses you as an excuse to his publicist sometimes to not attend events.

“yeah, maybe i’ll tell ‘em the missus is angry,” he jokes, and you find yourself wishing you could hug him right now.

“have fun tonight, okay?” a little hesitance comes to you before you ultimately open your mouth, “i love you.”

sae chuckles, and he can’t even describe the relief that comes to him each time he hears you say those words.

“i love you too.”

DECEMBER 2022; [ the day you break ]

you don’t pick up his call.

when you saw the picture earlier, it’s like you’ve gone numb. and now everyone in the world will see the picture too. but you don’t really care. the images the paparazzi capture will die down after a while. the rumours will take longer.

right now you’re not even sure if your relationship is dead.

but you love him. you still do. and he’s still calling for what seems like the ninetieth time tonight.

this time you pick up.

“what?”

sae flinches on the other line because he’s not used to this coldness. “can i at least explain?”

you sniffle, gritting your teeth to stop your crying. “sure, why don’t you explain why i had to find out from the fucking news that you kissed someone else on your birthday?”

it’s that girl. the same celebrity you’ve seen ogling him and gushing over him and the one who has PR relations with him.

“i promise, she means nothing,” and you can hear the panic in sae’s voice. he sounds apologetic and manic and scared. “look, i-i was drunk, and she kissed me, and i pushed her off right after—”

“then why didn’t you tell me?” you yell back. because you’re sure that’s what happened. you believe him. but it wasn’t the fact that some other girl was so desperate for him that she’d do that, it was the fact that sae kept it from you.

sae can’t answer. he knows it, but he’s struggling to find the words. “i-i didn’t want you to misunderstand,” is all he can manage.

you pause for a while because you’re crying again, and sae can sense it even if you’re silent. he loves you and he’s killing himself for his stupid decisions.

“sae,” you call him, softly. “is that how much you know me?” because after all this time, you’d think he’d know better. you trusted him. a hundred percent. now? you’re not sure.

“please, y/n, i’m sorry, please just- forgive me?” and sae’s not sure how to do this. sae’s never had anyone he cared about this much other than you. you’re the only one and you forever will be. and he’s stupid and clueless outside of soccer but he’s always had you to hold his hand through this, yet now you feel further away from him than ever.

you’re quiet and he’s not sure what to expect. you’re just sniffling on the other side, not saying anything, and for the first time in his life, sae is afraid.

“babe, i—”

“don’t say it, sae,” you sigh, because you don’t want to think that he’s saying it just to appease you.

sae obeys, because he’s scared that just a little nudge would push you right off the edge. “i’m gonna fix this, okay? i’ll tell everyone that—”

“it’s fine,” you interject, your mind in shambles. you’re tired, and you really don’t know what to do about this when it’s so fresh in your heart. “i need to think things through anyway.”

“no- y/n, please, i—”

and for the first time ever, you’re the one who hangs up abruptly. then you turn off your phone because you know sae’s not going to stop but you really just don’t want to to feel bad about not picking up.

you still love him, but you’re just heartbroken right now.

sae stares at his phone after you hang up. he can hear his heart beating out of his chest and his breathing gets shallow. he tries to call you again but it’s not even ringing.

there’s only one thing he knows: he fucked up.

a stupid, stupid mistake which was grave enough to make you doubt everything and you’re right. this was on him for not opening his stupid mouth and just trusting that you’d understand.

for the first time ever, he heard what you sounded like when you’re hurt and he can’t forgive himself. not if he doesn’t do anything about it.

he gives up on trying to call you and pulls up his club’s coach’s contact instead. “sub someone else in for me tomorrow, i won’t be there.”

“what? what are you talking about? we can’t play without our star midfielder! it’s a big match against our home rivals—”

but everything he’s lecturing sae about falls on deaf ears because sae’s already packing his duffel bag and searching for his passport. he doesn’t even bother acknowledging anything before he hangs up, dialing his assistant’s number instead.

“i need to fly back to tokyo. immediately.”

his assistant’s distraught voice is apparent. “wha- um, you have a game tomorrow—”

“i don’t care. i need to fly now. get me a flight or you’re fired.”

“uh, but- um, the private jet’s not available—”

“then get me tickets on a commercial flight. i don’t fucking care about what kind of plane it is.”

yeah, because he only cares about fixing things with you. no one and nothing else, just you.

his assistant sighs because he knows he’s going to get in trouble for aiding sae. “fine, i’ll send you the details soon.”

JANUARY 2023; [ the present ]

it goes straight to voicemail. you still talk.

“you know, i hate you so much for not having a voicemail recording.”

you pause, the tears streaming down your face. you’re staring at your phone, at his instagram, at his last post. something he posted before his flight.

a picture of the both of you in private, in your room. he’s sitting behind you on the bed, his arms around your neck as he kisses your head and you take the picture.

it’s funny because he was forbidden from sharing any sort of those pictures yet he still did it anyway. you stare at the caption.

i love only you

“itoshi sae, how am i going to hear your voice now, huh?”

you’re already full-on crying now, as you have been for the last month.

“itoshi sae! talk to me, answer me!” you’re screaming but no one will ever hear you.

how can sae hear you? you’re unreasonable for expecting that.

“tell me how to reach you,” you wail into the receiver.

you’re painfully aware of what you’re getting now.

“i love you, mr. itoshi.”

there’s no one on the other line who’ll chuckle now. you can’t hear the same fondness in his voice when he says he loves you too. you can’t ever hear him joking with you again.

no more sighs, no more video calls, no more love. no more you know one day you’ll be mrs. itoshi, right?

you hang up and look at the note in your hand; something sae’s assistant passed to you on the day of his funeral.

a few weeks ago, sae asked me to get this for him. i know he wanted you to have this. before he left for tokyo, he told me to get this done for you at all costs. it was only ready a day after he left. i thought you might still like to have this. i’m sorry you have to go through this.

the gold velvet box sits heavy in your hand. it’s all of sae’s commitment to you, feelings for you—it’s all of his resolution in one tiny package and it’s heavy.

you open it, same as the countless times before.

it’s still beautiful. it’s shiny and four carats and princess cut because you were always his princess. inside the band, he has mrs itoshi engraved.

you know one day you’ll be mrs. itoshi, right?

you bring up his messages and play the last audio he sent to you.

“look, i know i fucked up and it was stupid of me to keep it from you. i’m sorry, okay? and i know you don’t want to speak to me right now but i can’t just sit around and do nothing. i love you, so i’m coming back home, and we’ll talk, and then… i promise you, nothing like this will happen again.”

you remember your last words to him and can’t help but to hate yourself. you should’ve told him one last time before you lost your chance.

if you’d just stayed on the line, he wouldn’t have come back. if he didn’t come back, he wouldn’t have gotten into that cab. if he didn’t get into that cab, he wouldn’t have been in that fatal accident in shibuya.

staring at the ring, calling his number, getting no response, visiting his plot and running into rin. and repeat. that’s all life is now.

sometimes you wear the ring to pretend he’s still here. to pretend he’s already proposed and you’re waiting for him to come back from spain.

you’re probably at voicemail #314 now.

mrs itoshi stares at you until you’re crying all over again.

you’ll never hear his voice again. never hear his laugh. never get to hug him, or pick fights with him. you’ll never get to feel his broad shoulders or his strong arms around your body. you won’t get to go home ever again.

you’ll never be mrs itoshi now.

[kanagenwrites]

So. Tuesday sucked.

We've all had a chance to come down from the "what the fuck" of it all, and we're starting to see the usual circular firing squad. Lots of lib centrists are doing everything they can to throw trans people, minorities, and basically anyone who isn't a finance bro under the bus, as is (very tiresome) tradition after both victories and defeats in the Democratic Party. I will be 42 years old in a few months, so this is far from the first time I've seen it, and sadly, I'm sure it won't be the last. To the lib centrists and those carrying water for them: This never works. Please stop trying it. Trans issues were not a major motivator; I'll get into that below. Sit down, kids, it's time for Auntie Kana's Fireside Dialectics.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of my followers are significantly younger than me. (Imagine that, an audience that skews young on Tumblr.) A lot of you folks probably haven't been following politics for very long, and you've been able to participate in them for even less time than that. For some of you this is probably your first election as an adult, and it kinda feels like everything blew up in your face, doesn't it? I was about your age for 2000, when the election was nakedly stolen by George W. Bush, and not much older for 2004, when despite his disastrous presidency Bush the Younger rode a wave of 9/11-brained racism to the last popular vote victory the GOP had prior to (likely) this year. So I get it. I really do.

If you're living in the USA you have probably had a subpar education in politics and civics. This is largely by design - education is horrendously underfunded and there is a sustained attack on the ability of teachers to even discuss things like the Civil Rights Movement, the legacy of slavery in the United States, the genocide this country was founded on, and so on and so forth. Economic education isn't much better; you very likely got a short lecture on basic supply and demand and an argument-from-authority that "socialism doesn't work." All this combines to leave a lot of folks totally baffled as to how something like this election happens.

But it's pretty simple. It's just material conditions. That's it. What the media isn't telling you (because there's no profit in it, and the media is nothing but a clickbait engine when they aren't open propagandists) is that there has been a massive anti-incumbent wave of elections across the world. How massive? Japan's LDP, which has held power almost uninterrupted since the establishment of Japan's postwar democracy, managed to lose their recent election.

And why are material conditions so shitty? That's a complicated question, but a lot of it is the fact that we had a lengthy period of low inflation followed by a period of extremely high inflation due to the absolutely botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A bag of Doritos used to be 2.50, and now it's like 6 bucks. That's worse than all the inflation (and naked price-gouging, because there's a lot of that going on too) I experienced in my life prior to 2020, squeezed into the space of a year or two. This smacks everyone in the face every time they buy groceries, and while the government and the Federal Reserve were doing everything they could to manage inflation (and understand what a big deal it is for me, the anarcho-communist, to say that the US actually did an extremely fucking good job of doing it, because every other country on Earth had it worse than we did), they did fuck all to actually improve the material conditions people were experiencing. Wages were not keeping up with the cost of living, and price-gouging wasn't being dealt with.

Remember the 600 bucks Joe Biden still owes you? The American electorate sure the fuck does. Invisible backrooms liberal wonkery does not connect, regardless of whether it works or not, but going back on a promise? People remember that shit.

It's a rare incumbent that could win in an environment like this, especially when tied to a track record of doing exactly fucking nothing to actually help people from the perspective of the vast majority of the population. Kamala Harris was not that incumbent. She was a singularly uninspiring candidate who failed to connect with voters so thoroughly that she was on track to lose her home state in the 2020 Democratic primary. Nobody liked her (except a few very eager and very loud fans in the K-Hive), and speaking as someone who lives in California, I am not surprised she ate shit. She was a terrible choice for VP and a terrible choice of successor for Biden, but because Biden('s handlers) insisted on pretending he wasn't obviously declining before our very eyes, Harris, a singularly uninspiring candidate, had three months to build and run a campaign.

And it was still weirdly close.

Now, there's two possibilities: Either she actually ran an amazing campaign and it's incredible that it was even this close, or Trump is just so loathsome that even in a massively anti-incumbent environment he didn't bring anyone new to the table. Given that Trump is on-track to receive less votes this time than he did in 2020, and how many of those votes seem to have been cast for Trump and no one else down-ballot, I think it's more of the latter than the former. Trump brought the usual suspects, while Kamala successfully drove away voters that even Joe fucking Biden and Hillary fucking Clinton were able to bring home. Not on the left, not in minority demographics, but across the board. After all, if things are horrible and you're being promised that "nothing will fundamentally change," (literally an early-presidency quote from Joe Biden, whose agenda Kamala Harris 100% aligned herself with) and keeping in mind that the average American voter is not nearly so plugged into the minutiae and the day to day of politics (as evinced by the sudden peak in google searched for "Did Joe Biden drop out?" on Tuesday), why the fuck would you bother to vote?

Hopefully you have a better idea how we got here now. The question, of course, is where do we go from here? I will probably continue posting about this from time to time, especially if there's interest, but my advice is this:

We are still here. We will be here tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and so on. Plan accordingly.

Things will get fucked up. Things will always get fucked up. That is the nature of things no matter who is running the government. Plan accordingly.

Organize. Develop parallel structures of power and assistance, because the government is likely going to be even more useless to directly assist you than it already was. Our greatest strength is each other, and our ability to care for and help one another.

I have been here before. You will be here again. It always feels like it's the worst thing ever to happen. That never really goes away, but your ability to deal with it, to plan around it, to endure it, and to rise up again on the other side of it and say "No, fuck you" is entirely under your control and within your capabilities. And you will get better at it as you do it. And you are not doing it alone. None of us are.

Do not give up. Do not surrender. This isn't the end, or the beginning of the end, or even the end of the beginning: it just is.

Now go watch a video of a cat doing something cute, or read some smut, or whatever gives you joy. You can't take care of others unless you take care of yourself. That's General Order #1: Take care of yourself.

Solidarity, y'all.

[theunderestimator-3]

The Underestimator Mixtapes - Post Punk Dancefloor

Two hours of mostly-'80s post punk, new wave & funk/disco/jazz-related sounds guaranteed to spin you round like a record.

Available for online streaming on Mixcloud:

https://www.mixcloud.com/the-underestimator/the-underestimator-mixtapes-post-punk-dancefloor/

Download as separate mp3 tracks in a zip file on Mediafire or Mega:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/en6l3od3e3mci8x/THE+UNDERESTIMATOR+MIXTAPES+-+POST+PUNK+DANCEFLOOR.zip/file

[Don’t be alarmed if you are denied access: In case you get the error message “Permission Denied” prompting you to download a copyrighted song via Amazon or sth, you should be aware that this is a Mediafire trick to discourage you from downloading when the uploaded file includes copyrighted material, so they can appear legit in the eyes of the copyright holders. If you close the tab and try a couple of times or more, the link will eventually appear (don’t refresh the mediafire page, it doesn’t work that way, just open the link from the underestimator post to a new tab, then close it and re-open it in a new tab a couple of times or more).]

or

https://mega.nz/file/PuwCSBwJ#m4Ywwi9aRyvsiYZhIPB7YQBaUFrYYl_yJ4CSwFd46X8

Download some more playlists posted on The Underestimator Mixtapes series, here.

Lost In Music (Sister Sledge cover) – The Fall (1993)

Adolescent Sex – Japan (1978)

Heart Of Song – Josef K (1981)

Do The Du (Casse) – A Certain Ratio (1980)

We Got Soul - Big Boys (1982)

Shoot You Down – APB (1981)

Tear You Apart – She Wants Revenge (2005)

OBCT –Sleaford Mods (2020)

Heart & Soul - Joy Division (1980)

Optimo – Liquid Liquid (1983)

Same Beat – Marine (1982)

(secret track)

UFO – ESG (1981)

Wipeout Beat – Alan Vega (1983)

Nerve – Shriekback (1984)

Funky Stuff (Kool & The Gang cover) – Lizzy Mercier Descloux (1982)

The Comb – The Waitresses (1978)

You Fascinate Me – The Offs (1980)

Crosseyed & Painless – Talking Heads (1980)

Overpowered By Funk – The Clash (1982)

Black Arabs – Black Arabs (1979)

You’Re My Kind Of Climate – Rig Rig & Panic (1982)

Black Leather - Nightmares In Wax (1985)

Love Song – Simple Minds (1981)

Bostich – Yello (1981)

Der Mussolini – DAF (1981)

Some Aspects – Chain Of Command (1983)

The Night Watch – The Bellewether Syndicate (2012)

50:50 – Sad Lovers & Giants (1984)

I Found That Essence Rare – Gang Of Four (1979)

Super – NEU! (1973)

(Cover photo: dancing in the early-'80s at Duke’s in Austin, Texas, by Ben Desoto).

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Harry and Meghan travel all the time away from those kids. Those kids are not used to seeing their parents. Harry disappearing for weeks on end won’t bother them one bit.

Hey, if you don't mind, can you do a summary of all the times they left the children that we know of and how long?

I Know Harry had an Invictus event very soon after Archie's birth, and I saw someone mention a hunting trip to Germany, Meghan at the US open, polo at Archie's birthday, TQ's funeral, etc

Ask from July 25th

I believe the Germany hunting trip was in 2017. Supposedly that's when Meghan got all pissy about it and made Harry give up the antique guns Philip gave him. Also, the Archie's birthday/polo clash wasn't a travel event; the polo match was just down the highway from Montecito, so I'm not counting that one.

So this is only the travel that we know about. I'm sure there's plenty of other travel that we don't know about. This also does not include the date nights and overnights in L.A. Basically, for me to include it in this list, they had to have left the state of California.

May 2019: Harry travels to The Hague for Invictus Games. It's supposed to be a two-day trip but he shortens it to one day.

May 2019: Harry travels to Italy for Sentebale polo fundraiser. He's gone at least overnight.

July 2019: Harry travels to Italy for Google Camp to give a speech on the climate crisis. A couple of days.

September 2019: Meghan travels to NYC for the US Open. Not sure how long she's gone, probably just a couple of days.

September 2019: Harry travels to Amsterdam to launch Travalyst. It's jsut one or two days.

October 2019: Harry goes to Angola and Botswana, while Meghan stays in Johannesburg wtih Archie. One or two days.

November 2019: Harry travels to Japan for rugby. It's just a couple of days.

January 2020: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for Sandringham Summit. Archie stays in Canada with friends. They're here for about a week. Meghan flees after the Megxit statement drops.* Harry attends Sandringham Summit alone but Meghan offers to call in.

*There's a rumor that Meghan didn't flee on her own, but that she was deported. According to this rumor, The Queen summoned Meghan to BP, Meghan ignored it and went to a private engagement instead (this one), The Queen was incandescent with rage, the RPOs tracked Meghan down, took her to the airport and physically put her on the plane back to Canada. There's a variation of that rumor (a spin-off, if one will) where instead of The Queen summoning Meghan for an audience, The Queen tasked Meghan with an engagement, Meghan refused to go, then The Queen ordered Meghan to leave and RPOs put her on a plane. Regardless of the variation, supposedly this deportation is what Harry is referring to with "they know what they did" when he's demanded apologies from the BRF.

March 2020: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for Megxit farewell tour. Archie stays behind in Canada with "friends." They're gone about a week and flee back to Canada after the Commonwealth Service because of COVID concerns.

April 2021: Harry travels to the UK for Prince Philip's funeral. He's gone about a week (he has to quarantine for 5 days before the funeral due to COVID protocols). Meghan stays home in CA with Archie.

September 2021: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for the Global Vax Live concert and make it a mini-fauxyal tour. This is a few days long.

November 2021: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for a Veterans Day gala on the USS Intrepid.

March 2022: Harry travels to Texas. He's papped at Stockyards Rodeo. No idea how long his trip his, maybe a couple of days.

April 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to The Hague for Invictus Games. They have a layover in London and try to see The Queen at Windsor Castle. They're away for about 2 weeks , maybe a little less than that.

May 2022: Meghan travels to Texas to support the Uvalde community. It's maybe a two-day trip.

June 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee. While there are still photographs that suggest the kids were with them this time, there's plausible gossip from Britain that the kids actually weren't there because no one actually saw them. I'm including this one here to hedge bets.

July 2022: Harry and Meghan are in NYC again for Mandela Day. It's at least a 2-day trip.

August 2022: Harry travels to Africa to host US officials and conservationists for a few days in his role as President of African Parks.

September 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to the UK for a fauxyal tour. It's just supposed to be a few days, but they end up getting stuck in Britain for about 3 weeks when The Queen dies due to royal mourning and her funeral.

December 2022: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for Meghan to receive the RFK Ripple of Hope award from Kerry Kennedy. It's a couple of days. There's scalding tea that the couple were downright frosty to each other when they weren't on camera.

May 2023: Harry travels to the UK for Charles's coronation. It's not even an overnight trip.

June 2023: Harry travels to the UK for a hearing in one of his lawsuits. It's a few days.

May 2023: Meghan, Harry, and Doria travel to NYC for Meghan to get an award. It's a couple of days. They get "chased" by paparazzi. It's a few days.

August 2023: Harry travels to Japan for a conference and to Singapore for a charity polo match. He's gone a few days.

September 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to Germany for the Dusseldorf 2023 Invictus Games. They're away for at least a week. Meghan comes late because she just had to get the kids milkshakes first. (Yeah, everyone WTFs it.)

October 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to the Caribbean to relax at a Soho House beach resort. I think they were there about a week.

October 2023: Harry goes to Texas to attend F1.

October 2023: Harry and Meghan travel to NYC for some kind of panel summit thing with Carson Daly. It's a couple of days.

January 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Jamaica for the Bob Marley movie premiere. Meghan supposedly leaves CA while Harry is receiving his award from John Travolta and he flies out to meet her. (There are rumors that Meghan is spotted being very friendly with a man not her husband before Harry arrives.)

February 2024: Harry travels to the UK to see Charles after the public announcement of his cancer diagnosis. It's an overnight trip. He's gone from CA for about 3 days.

February 2024: Harry travels to Las Vegas for a thing, something that's part of the Superbowl celebrations. (I think he went straight from London to Vegas.)

February 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Canada for a Vancouver Invictus Games kickoff thing. It's a 4 day event.

March 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Texas. They go to Austin and San Antonio for charity visits. It's related to Meghan's panel appearance at South X Southwest.

April 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Miami for a series of polo matches. Maybe it's a week?

May 2024: Harry travels to the UK to attend the service of thanksgiving for Invictus Games's 10th anniversary. It's an overnight trip. Meghan meets him at the airport after the service.

May 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Nigeria for a fauxyal tour. I believe it was a 5-day trip.

August 2024: Harry and Meghan travel to Colombia for another fauyxal tour. It's another 4-5 day trip.

I'm sure I've forgotten some.

So this is 34 37 trips in 5 years without their children. Assuming:

An average of 4 days away per trip for 30 34 trips (understanding that some were longer, others were shorter so it should balance out)

12 days for The Hague Invictus Games (includes the Windsor drop-in)

10 days for Dusseldorf Invictus Games

21 days for September 2022

They were away about 163 179 days that we know of. Just for comparison's sake, the average American school year is 180 days. And remember, this does not include overnights in L.A./Beverly Hills, of which I suspect there's quite a lot of because it's at least a 90-minute drive (without traffic) to Montecito*. Not to mention that Harry has hotel rooms somewhere in California and he may or may not have a BetterUp corporate apartment up in San Francisco. I'm guessing if we were to guesstimate how often one or both of them is staying the night elsewhere in California, we'd probably see numbers double this.

*I'm also adding my own personal bias here; if I have to drive more than an hour at night, I'm getting a hotel room. Granted, the Sussexes do have drivers so they're not exactly in the same boat, but given all the rumors about Meghan having rooms at The Beverly Hills Hotel and Harry having a whole floor of a hotel permanently reserved, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that they do have a lot of overnights away from the kids in LA.

Now just for giggles, let's count how many times Harry and Meghan traveled with their kids:

Summer 2019 summer of private flights all over Europe despite Archie being too young to fly to Balmoral.

October 2019 - to South Africa

June 2022 - to London for the Platinum Jubilee

July 2022 - to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for July 4th (pap photos of Archie at a parade; no Lili)

December 2023 - to Costa Rica (blurry pap photos, plus a People PR article)

To be clear, I'm not begrudging the fact that the Sussexes travel for work. A lot of parents travel for work, and a lot of parents travel more than this per year for work. A lot of parents travel for 'me time'. Parents gotta do what parents gotta do to feed their kids and take care of themselves to take care of their kids.

What I'm instead commenting on (and snarking about) is how much Harry and Meghan have attacked the Cambridges/Waleses for spending time with their kids, how Harry attacked Charles for being unavailable during Harry's childhood, and how much PR Meghan has put out about how she's the best mom to ever mother and her whole life revolves around her kids; their actions aren't matching up to their words, which makes the stories they do share about the kids seem hollow and unreal.

Edit: Remembered some!

[milkstoner]

Malleus is 178, and if the story of Twisted Wonderland is set in 2020, he was born in 1842, you know, the very middle of the 19th century. In the human history of the west, we associate those times with progress and revolutions in art (impressionism in france), science (darwin), geopolitics (japan opening its borders)… these are the first hundred years of the mass society, modernity, in constant expansion. There was a conscious shift in paradigms. Everything started happening so fast.

Malleus’ birth must have symbolized those same values for the fey of the night. It was probably a miracle to the people, seeing as it was confirmed a dragon egg hatches with the help of its parent’s love. Because of reasons that haven’t been confirmed yet (many speculate Lilia drained his magic for a few hundred years), the little prince is born and he will bring a new era when the time comes. It seems the pressure is on for Malleus to act older than he is. As such, it’s no surprise that Malleus will prematurely refer to himself as a king, as evidenced in one of his magic3 lines as well as one of his dorm card homescreen lines. Lilia also refers to him as a king in the Savanaclaw localization.

His physicality doesn’t help; I don’t need to remind you that Malleus already is regarded as one of the most powerful mages ever. In a voiceline, Malleus says that to be a leader, all you need to do is show your power. He and many others seem to associate power with maturity… but I see Malleus’ as modernity, constant change, which, in the wake of the mass society during the 17th century, is young. He still has many many years to live and his strength will only be greater. This is not yet his prime. But that sheer power is inherited from a family tree which is ancient and whose roots are his very veins. The wrath of Maleficent when she cursed Aurora is Malleus’ heartbeat. If historiography can’t convey myths and legends and tales accurately, Malleus’ hands, his wings, his eyes will remind all of the Thorn Fairy’s former glory.

But if the constant fandom jokes about Malleus being a manchild are anything to go by, we all know he is mentally a boy. He is young, you know, he is a paradox and an anachronism; his psychology evokes the constant anxiety and fear of judgement of the middle ages, the misery, the catacombs, the plague, it seems like we are at the very start of the concept of civilization, entire peoples are decimated by illness, and this goes on for a thousand years. Malleus is jaded, bored, he is far too powerful and everything is so dull, the days blend together and he insists he is a grown man and he needs no patronizing, he sees those around him as babies, but the middle ages are decay and artistically stunted, much like Malleus’ mind, because he doesn’t want to lose, he’s afraid, and when you are a child everything you feel is so vivid and intense and you feel like everyday is the end of the world.

So to answer the question; is Malleus young or old? The lines are blurred. He doesn’t know anymore.

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Iconic things brazilians did during the Olympics so far, from the top of my head:

During the 2024 opening ceremony we were one of the few countries that had a boat all for themselves;

Brazilians in Paris dancing and singing "HOJE PARIS VAI VIRAR BAILE" ("today Paris will be a party");

Once again, brazilians dancing and singing to funk music in Paris the exact same way we do over here;

A brazilian teen was giving an interview, and while at it, mentioned the Israel soccer team. Two pro-Israel people from behind him started telling him to "stop talking about politics", when all the kid was saying was that the Israel team did well during the beginning. Kid then started shouting "FREE PALESTINE" while jumping and celebrating;

During street skate, brazilians were cheering for the girls to fall off their skates, shouting "CAI, CAI, CAI" ("fall, fall, fall"). Rayssa Leal, the brazilian skatist, ended up with a bronze medal;

I didn't follow the 2020 Olympics but this is the second Olympics in a row that we brazilians all agree failed to deliver a good opening ceremony like we did;

Brazilians in the 2016 Olympics started cheering for the judge/referee during a boxing match between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Why? Because the guy was the single brazilian out there. Anything he did made people start cheering for him ("JUIZ, JUIZ, JUIZ");

Brazilians shouting "LET'S GO, POKEMON" during the 2016 Olympics as a way for cheering for Japan during their soccer match against Sweden;

Once again during 2016 because I don't remember anything from the 2020 Olympics: Brazilians shouting "ZIKA VÍRUS", "DENGUE" and "CHIKUNGUNYA", three illnesses transmited by a single mosquito, at a soccer player who made a joke about protecting herself from mosquitoes, fearing she would get sick. The joke was not received well, as you could have imagined.

Anyways, please feel free to add things brazilians did during the Olympics. If you are not from the Global North also feel free to add stuff your own country did, and don't forget to cheer for the palestinian athletes!

[jiraisupportgroup]

is it okay to be jirai kei if you can't afford the clothes and your parents won't buy them for you does that make you a fake jirai?

♡ short answer ♡

Jirai kei isn’t about the clothes themselves; it’s a community based in accepting & de-stigmatizing mental illness / mental health struggles.

♡ absolutely unreasonably long answer ♡

(Disclaimer: I am not Japanese nor do I speak Japanese. All of this is what I’ve gathered from other people on the internet in my own research when I was first looking into jirai-kei. I could very well be wrong or just talking out of my ass here - I would take my word with a grain of salt.)

Jirai Kei was loosely formed in 2019-2020. It is primarily based out of Kabukicho which is generally considered the red light district Japan, although the Japanese government is trying to change this.

Kabukicho used to be mostly known for soaplands & host clubs & bars & concept cafes - generally more adult or night-life activities. It still is home to these kinds of places, but before the Olympic Games held in 2021, the Japanese government wanted to clean it up and make the area more presentable to foreigners. Starting around 2017-2018 (from what I can tell) they started adding things like movie theaters, bowling alleys, just overall more general-audience attractions to the area to try and make it more consumable. This did start changing the image of the area; it was now seen more as a cool place to hang out - especially for those who were old enough to participate in the host clubs etc. The downside of this is that although it was seen as a cooler area to hang out & it’s image was more positive - there were still plenty of adult or night-life centered things there & many “catch-guys”. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it did kind of make a perfect storm.

Since Kabukicho was starting to be seen more as a cool hang-out spot, a lot more younger teenagers started wanting to go there. And especially once the pandemic hit and most places were closed down (while many establishments in Kabukicho chose to stay open) the sentiment of “I hate where I am right now, my life here sucks, I want to go to Kabukicho where things seem like fun” got even stronger.

This led to an influx of runaway teenagers going to Kabukicho. Additionally, a lot of runaways in Kabukicho were very fed up with their living situations (hence, why they chose to run away in the first place) and mental health during the pandemic was not great anyway since there was a pandemic going on obviously that’s going to negatively affect people’s mental health. Even further: in 2022, Japan lowered the age of adulthood from 20 to 18, so even more & younger people could participate in the nightlife scene. Again, not necessarily a bad thing; however, it meant a lot of the runaways going to Kabukicho with little money, poor mental health, and generally not knowing what they want to do with their lives were now surrounded by catch guys & night-life workers. Night-life workers make a lot of money. A lot of these kids needed money to support themselves, especially if they didn’t want to go back to their hometowns.

Now, am I saying all adult work is bad or all jirai’s were adult workers - no absolutely not. However, this environment is what kind of started the ball rolling.

Alright so we have set the scene now wtf is jirai kei.

Jirai kei stems directly from the derogatory term “jirai onna” literal translation “landmine woman”. This is a term pretty much used to say “that woman is going to pop off” (like a landmine) & was leveled towards any woman with mood swings, intense emotions, poor coping mechanisms, etc. Keeping in mind that Japan does not have a great medical or social infrastructure for dealing with mental health - and that many people’s mental health was greatly impacted by the pandemic - it is not surprising that a lot of people were in this position. In western circles I’ve seen people tie this really heavily to BPD specifically - but the term isn’t specific to bpd - it’s really anyone who has an emotional outburst, or that the people using the term derogatorily think would have one.

So a lot of people decided to reclaim this term & spin it to be their own thing. Kind of saying “yeah, so what? I am a landmine. My mental struggles are real. They are my reality. And if you don’t like that or think that’s ‘wrong’ fuck you. I’m not going to sugarcoat myself for your comfort”. Additionally the idea was also used as push-back for the societal views around mental illness. They’re pretty much signaling “being mentally ill or facing mental struggles does not mean we are bad people, it does not mean we don’t deserve love, and we should not have to hide our mental struggles or go through these things on our own”.

So if it’s a subculture based around accepting and fighting for mental health, where does the fashion come in?

Most of the fashion you’ll see in jirai kei tags are girly kei, dark girly, ryousangata (loose translation: mass production), or extensions of larme kei (another Japanese fashion which is really similar to girly kei but slightly different). Why is that?

These fashions are generally mass produced & easily available in Japan. Think about Liz Lisa and MA*RS for example. These are BIG brands. They’re not niche or hard to find. Additionally, the style is very popular. Ryousangata is considered SO mass produced that “everyone looks the same” (it’s actually quite popular amongst fans of boy groups). It’s not like a strange or niche or overly special style in Japan.

Especially not in Kabukicho, a lot of people working at concept cafes & the like would wear these types of styles because they’re easy to get, easy to style, and super overly adorable. The fashion also works GREAT for runaways in Kabukicho. They’re capsule wardrobes you can make like 10 outfits with 5 pieces of clothing so it works really well if you’re living out of a suitcase. Also it’s a pretty inexpensive, easy to obtain & super cute so it’s very appealing to these teenagers.

From what I can tell these fashions were most popular in Kabukicho and spread out from there, which is why you’ll see a lot of people say that if you’re dressing in these styles people will assume you work at a con cafe or other night-life-adjacent work, but the style has gotten much more popular over 2023-2024 so this doesn’t seem to necessarily be the case anymore.

However, since these styles were associated (albeit not exclusively) with Kabukicho & con cafés, etc, and because a lot of people in this area were drained from types of jobs or runaways & living in a culture where they’re told they should not talk about or show their negative emotions - the term “jirai onna” would be used against many people in these fashions.

Now, again, this term was not exclusively used for everyone dressed in this style, and not everyone dressed in these styles was considered that, but the link is definitely there. Jirai Kei is not completely removed from dark girly or ryousangata, but it is definitely more nuanced than “jirai kei is dark girly+”, that’s just not the case. Especially now that jirai subcul is much more popular - and a lot of the fashions you’ll see in jirai subcultures are barely girly kei / dark girly / ryousangata, if at all. I’ve seen jirai subcul people wearing just t-shirts and shorts.

However; especially in western societies, a lot of people falsely associate jirai kei with dark girly WAY too heavily. My best guess is because we don’t see ryousangata regularly. A lot of people have only seen the style in a “jirai kei” context. They are related to each other, jirai kei does have links to dark girly, but the fashion style itself is not necessarily “jirai kei”. It’s a common style in Japan - it’s not a common style in other parts of the world - so people mashed the two together in one concept because they don’t know otherwise.

This is where a LOT of discourse in the Jirai Kei community stems from - I’m not going to go too deep into it because everyone gets extremely mad about it & im not trying to open that can of worms and spill it all over the table.

I’m sure you’ve seen posts mentioning “fashion landmines” and “lifestyle landmines”. “Fashion landmines” being people who just like dark girly or ryousangata and mistakenly identify the fashion itself as “jirai kei”, and “lifestyle landmines” being people who hold to the values of accepting and raising awareness of mental illness / struggles that was the movement which started the reclamation of the term “jirai onna” to begin with.

Tldr they don’t like each other and people get really mean about it.

All of this being said: Essentially, yes. Dark girly and ryousangata and girly kei are related to Jirai Kei, but no, you do not have to have the clothes to be a part of the community. The clothes are secondary (and honestly optional) to the community’s values.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk lmao

[arsanatomica]

In 2020, I read a post on Tumblr by @gofancyninjaworld I'm having trouble finding the article now, but essentially it said that you should go out and try things, and even if you end up not being a good fit, you would have tried it instead of wishing that you did for an untold length of time.

This post prompted me to purchase a motorcycle.

I then learned to ride the motorcycle by driving it in parking lots for an hour every night.

Within about 2 weeks I became competent and began exploring small residential streets in my neighborhood. I was very dedicated to doing every neighborhood road and even printed out a map to mark out all of the roads that I did.

I kept adding pieces to the map and then after a couple weeks it became too large and I threw it away.

In summer 2023 I rented a motorbike and the rode 4000 miles through japan. Learning to ride the motorcycle and exploring on it opened up a lot of new areas and interests for me. Buying that motorcycle turned out to be a pivotal turning point in my life.

[crawlthesky]

DIGIMON ADVENTURE  Screencaps

source: Blu-ray rip resolution: 1440x1080 file type: .jpg (batch-converted from .png) image count / file size: Overall: 39,184 screencaps / 28.1GB Individual: see the read more Bonus: Blu-ray Extras ♥ zip Digivices ♥ zip Tags/Crests ♥ zip Other ♥ zip

♥ Recapped entirely from the US Discotek release. (The Japanese blu-ray was done way back here.) ♥ Movie 1 / Digimon Adventure Movie can be found here. ♥ Movie 2 / Bokura no War Game can be found here. ♥ Previous season posts: Adventure 02, Tamers, Frontier, Savers, Xros Wars, Xros Wars: 7 Death Generals, Xros Wars: Young Hunters, Appmon, Adventure (2020), Ghost Game. Franchise master post over here. ♥ If you have any problems with the download links, let me know, and I'll toss you an alternate link or split them smaller or something. ♥ Have fun making a buttload of icons or edits or whatever.

Creditless Opening → 262 screencaps / 192MB Creditless Ending 1 → 79 screencaps / 68MB Creditless Ending 2 → 99 screencaps / 79MB Digimon Analyzer → 358 screencaps / 286MB Evolution Sequences → 1,012 screencaps / 647MB Eyecatch → 23 screencaps / 19MB Title Cards → 180 screencaps / 134MB

01: Adrift? The Island of Adventure! → 936 screencaps / 719MB 02: Explosive Evolution! Greymon → 656 screencaps / 500MB 03: The Blue Wolf! Garurumon → 800 screencaps / 619MB 04: Scorching Heat! Birdramon → 599 screencaps / 463MB 05: Electric Shock! Kabuterimon → 675 screencaps / 500MB 06: Palmon's Furious Evolution! → 952 screencaps / 693MB 07: Roar! Ikkakumon → 678 screencaps / 503MB 08: Devimon, Emissary of Darkness! → 678 screencaps / 478MB 09: Clash! The Freezing Digimon → 813 screencaps / 601MB 10: Centarumon the Protector! → 716 screencaps / 553MB 11: The Dancing Ghosts! Bakemon → 838 screencaps / 595MB 12: Adventure! Patamon and Me → 618 screencaps / 469MB 13: Angemon Awakens! → 677 screencaps / 496MB 14: Departure to a New Continent! → 544 screencaps / 404MB 15: Etemon's Grand Entrance of Evil → 708 screencaps / 534MB 16: Dark Evolution! SkullGreymon → 681 screencaps / 507MB 17: Cockatrimon, Ship Captain of Illusions! → 610 screencaps / 462MB 18: The Fairy! Piccolomon → 606 screencaps / 449MB 19: Nanomon of the Labyrinth! → 486 screencaps / 373MB 20: Perfect Evolution! MetalGreymon → 663 screencaps / 491MB 21: Koromon and the Great Clash in Tokyo! → 572 screencaps / 384MB 22: The Whispering Little Devil, PicoDevimon → 687 screencaps / 523MB 23: My Friend! WereGarurumon → 688 screencaps / 508MB 24: Break Through! AtlurKabuterimon → 791 screencaps / 556MB 25: The Sleeping Tyrant! TonosomaGekomon → 654 screencaps / 490MB 26: Shining Wings! Garudamon → 606 screencaps / 453MB 27: Vamdemon and the Castle of Darkness → 710 screencaps / 507MB

28: The Chase! Hurry to Japan → 694 screencaps / 500MB 29: Mammon and the Great Clash at Hikarigaoka! → 607 screencaps / 457MB 30: The Digimon's Great Tokyo Crossing!! → 668 screencaps / 512MB 31: Raremon! Attack on Tokyo Bay → 777 screencaps / 538MB 32: Tokyo Tower is Hot! DeathMeramon → 703 screencaps / 507MB 33: Pump and Gotsu are Shibuya-style Digimon → 595 screencaps / 421MB 34: The Bond of Destiny! Tailmon → 693 screencaps / 474MB 35: The Fairy of Odaiba! Lilimon Blooms → 602 screencaps / 427MB 36: Break Through the Barrier! Zudomon Spark! → 867 screencaps / 613MB 37: Perfect Levels' All-Out Strike! Sparkling Angewomon → 718 screencaps / 508MB 38: Revival! The Demon Lord, VenomVamdemon → 647 screencaps / 483MB 39: Two Ultimate Evolutions! Banish the Darkness!! → 663 screencaps / 492MB 40: The Four Kings of the Evil Mountain! The Dark Masters → 682 screencaps / 497MB 41: The Savage King of the Sea! MetalSeadramon → 618 screencaps / 469MB 42: Whamon and the Silent Sea Bottom → 598 screencaps / 436MB 43: A Dangerous Game! Pinocchimon → 756 screencaps / 595MB 44: Jyureimon and the Forest of Doubts → 633 screencaps / 501MB 45: Clash of the Ultimates! WarGreymon VS MetalGarurumon → 828 screencaps / 645MB 46: MetalEtemon's Payback → 676 screencaps / 541MB 47: Oh Wind! Oh Light! SaberLeomon → 725 screencaps / 557MB 48: Orders to Bomb! Mugendramon → 594 screencaps / 436MB 49: Farewell, Numemon → 655 screencaps / 477/MB 50: Battle Between Women! LadyDevimon → 552 screencaps / 401MB 51: Piemon, The Clown From Hell → 688 screencaps / 483MB 52: The Holy Swordsman! HolyAngemon → 814 screencaps / 585MB 53: The Final Dark Digimon → 622 screencaps / 415MB 54: A New World → 569 screencaps / 409MB

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Loving all the baseball stuff in Ultraman: Rising so far. Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui referenced in the beginning, the double meaning of "I stopped believing in Giants a long time ago," the coincidence of protagonist Ken Sato playing for the same MLB team that Shohei Ohtani signed with last year...

Let's talk about Sato's career batting average though. .420??? In our world, Ty Cobb has the record for highest career batting average with .366. Nobody in MLB has even cracked .400 in a single season since the forties. Baseball is unusual among team sports in that one dominant player can only do so much for his team (see the Los Angeles Angels' many mediocre seasons when they had both Ohtani and Mike Trout), but his ego's well-justified. (Also, it seems like he's only been Ultraman for a few months, but his need to keep his identity secret has added weight here; his achievements would definitely come into question if people found out he was a superhero.) 624 stolen bases would also place him 14th on the all-time list; not as mind-bogglingly impressive, but it's a counting stat and it seems like he has plenty of years left to play.

The line about having never won a World Series is interesting. Possibly the film is set before the Dodgers' championship in 2020, or Sato just joined them afterwards. The only hints about the year we've been given so far are that Matsui was still playing in Japan in the opening (his last season there was 2002) and the main action takes place 20 years later. Or: the film is set in a world where kaiju have been attacking for decades and I shouldn't be taking this part of it so seriously.