#Lum looks so pretty!

[yuseirra]

lum~

[yumedoca]

One of my favorite small AtaLum details ever are the moments where they casually spend time and have fun together. Like, there's no womanizing, no zapping, just them having fun and enjoying themselves while being with the other. May it be them playing games, reading manga, or star/moongazing or just them enjoying shenanigans and little moments together; it is just so damn cute to see them enjoy themselves together like that! They are absolutely precious, they deserve the world X3

[princessmeepa]

Is it me or dose Pink RS and Toxic Princess from the princess’ jewels feel similar

Note the authors in two different webcomics are different, RS has an unhealthy celebrity crush and a Lolita Fetish and while the Princess’ Jewels author Alove is a disgusting human being and she is a pedo.

Both of them are sexy and beautiful Mary Sue girl boss and they show toxic femininity and girls look up to them as role models, for example Pink RS bullies all the nymphs for liking her man meat and Toxic Princess treats men like toys and she forced one of them to join her “Jewelry Box” and she bullies and fat shames her fiancé (because he’s not hot).

They have beautiful art style and cute clothes. 

The Red guy with great personality and he’s a 10, but He’s a simp to the main Mary girl.

Look we got POC with no personality and not treating them like they are real humans and they are there for points (sick)

The only likable characters (don’t know about Toxic Princess’ mother though)

We got toxic relationships like Christian Blue and Pink RS, and Toxic Princess and her poor Jewels.

Sex sense that some how not getting censored or banned from breaking Webtoons rule which is no sexual themes and romanticize abuse and it is on app that is for kids to look at.

Another girl boss like Hera and Yellow queen who are friends with the main girls who are way worse then them.

And again they are the role models of very young girls to up to which it’s bad, because there are no beautiful, sexy and girly female characters in today’s American entertainment and they flat out go to Webtoon, because they have beautiful and sexy female characters on here, so they can look up and they look up Pink RS and Toxic Princess, because they are pretty and didn’t look past their pretty faces to see how awful they are. If you want to look up to any female characters then I would recommend you to watch Japanese anime and read manga, because they have a hand full of amazing writing female characters who are feminine and the opposite of a Mary Sue/Toxic feminine here are the list.

Mitsuri from Demon Slayer

Eve from ROR

Duck/Princess Tutu from Princess Tutu

Nana Komatsu from Nana

Yor Forger from Spy x Family

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon

Najika Kazami from Kitchen Princess

Anise Yamamoto from Kiss of the Rose Princess

Kaede Sayano and Yoruka Hanzawa from Magical Girl Apocalypse

Diamond (I know that she dosen’t have a gender in the manga and anime and I only see her as female) from Land of the Lustrous

Rem from Rezero

Lum from Urusei Yatsura

Ami from Ultra Cute

Kuon Shinzaki from High-Rise Invasion

Yammy (just kidding) is Komi from Komi can’t communicate 

Yumeko Jabami (kinda) from Kakegurui

And many more

[danaty-consolation]

Nagisa Shiowatari, the misconceived character.

Since Nagisa's episode is coming this thursday, is time for me to come out an explain more about his character based on the manga characterization.

This is a way to point out some things that were not seen in the Ova adaptation and how his character is often targeted of being one of the worst love interest and characters in Urusei Yatsura as a whole.

The flaws of their first meeting

Ryu meet Nagisa first as an appearing ghost, who scared her when she was taking a bath and then he disappeared.

If people are calling this meeting problematic, I think they need to read Ranma 1/2, where Ranma's male form meets Akane which is way more problematic even if is an accident.

Also I think there is more of a problem with these three if we put if realistically, after all she is a scared girl and rather than reafirm this elsewhere these three are with her in a vulnerable position, making her feel more alert rather than more relaxed after that scare.

After that we have a more kinda normal meeting, they scare the gang with this joke

and this is when, we get to know that Nagisa is Ryu's fiancée

The thing here, is that Nagisa had probably grown up by the idea of meeting his fianceé since he was a kid or preteen, the thing is he already knew about his compromise Ryu before meeting her...compared to Ryu who just got told just now, add to the point that here Ryu still thinks Nagisa is a girl meanwhile she thinks that Nagisa sees her as a boy.

Meanwhile I think is way more problematic that Ryu's dad hits his daughter while trying to manipulate her with tears just because she say no to Nagisa.

Changing once again into Nagisa, we see how his last wish before fully disappearing is to kiss the person he likes.

Everyone has one last wish, even tho his wish is innocent to him and quite selfish, it really is uncomfortable to Ryu, because she just meet him and she still thinks he is a girl who thinks she is a boy.

Is it a pretty selfish wish? Yes but is his last one, it doesn't make it ok but when you are about to fully disappear you want to do something you wanted to do when you were alive.

It's believable he would want a kiss, we had seen in the last date, how Nozomi wanted a last date with Ataru. The difference here is that Ataru accepts the date to help her move on meanwhile Ryu doesn't want to be obligated to do something she doesn't want.

Nagisa has a romantic look of what fiancés are, he must think that since both like each other (probably a lie by his father) it must be ok for them to kiss. Nagisa thinks that is okay if he kisses Ryu because they are official, probably his father fault since he is cut with the same scissors as Ryu's father so he omitted some important information like consent in both parts.

Here another misunderstanding, Nagisa thinks that she doesn't like him because he is a ghost, a totally understandable fear because he is dead but she is alive. He must think he is repulsive to her because of being a ghost meanwhile Ryu is trying to explain to him that she is a girl.

Also we see how the others know how this will pass if she just kisses him, Ataru and Lum have more experience thanks to the date with Nozomi so is reasonable how they can see it work. After all if they kiss, he will be out of their lives.

Meanwhile, we see how Nagisa's father is an incredible manipulator by his words, trying to guilt trip Ryu in kissing him when Nagisa doesn't have all that thanks to how he exploited his own son's "feminine look" and put him to work rather than taking him to a school, giving him only hope in the romantic love with Ryu's engagement.

In short Nagisa gets told that she was persuaded when it was just her father that knocked her out in a moment of weakness, Nagisa believes it sadly. Since we had seen how he doesn't rebel to his father says and doings, he takes it all at face value.

However when he notices that he cannot kiss her because he is a ghost makes him super sad.

Nevertheless, a sudden legend with a big urchin that Ataru and Mendou even think about how stupid that legend and action sounds

Makes Nagisa had a physical body again and he is so happy, since this means he can kiss Ryu now.

Ryu doesn't want to and Nagisa tries to stop her in the way he was educated by, a very wrong move of course.

However, by his words, we see that he thinks his situation with his physical body is temporarily. He thinks he will become a ghost again so he wants to get his kiss before disappearing completely.

Then here comes the twist, Ryu shows him her breast, still thinking that he thought of her as a boy, this is Ryu big evasive strategy to stop his kiss, showing that she is indeed a girl and Nagisa by knowing that, back off because he may not be interested in her being a girl since in Ryu's mind she thought that he seen her as a boy.

But it backfired.

Since Nagisa shows that he is indeed a boy and sees nothing wrong with kissing her.

Ryu asking the real questions.

Finally, we see once again Nagisa trying to force himself to Ryu because he thinks his time is running out however, Ryu understandingly says that she has not had time to process all this and doesn't want to do it.

But they notice that he doesn't go with his father because he is kinda alive now with a physical body so now it is shown that he can take it actually slow, with no pressure of disappearing.

2. Nagisa's Character before meeting Ryu and the others.

Nagisa's actions and way of acting represent the way he was raised by his father. It was shown how he has always worked for him while accepting his feminine side that his father had always preferred and promoted out since he thinks Nagisa is a girl, Nagisa is the same as Ryu.

Nevertheless, the real difference here is that Ryu made friends with people who knew her real gender and even had a kinda normal live in school where she became more sociable and seen more normal behavior patterns compared to what she lived with her father, compared to Nagisa who never went to school or have people who knew his real gender. The only person with whom he interacted the most besides the clients who thought he was a girl was his father.

He didn't have anyone else to tell him that his methods were forceful or wrong, he only followed what his dad did.

Ryu and Nagisa are victims of their fathers wanting to make them look the opposite gender, to try to manipulate them into thinking they are from the opposite sex.

Nagisa is more passive than Ryu, he accepts what his father says most of the time.

After all he is more obedient to his father compared to Ryu's open vocal rebellion with her father, the only thing when he contradicts his father is when he shows that he knows that he is a boy and doesn't negate that fact. Sure he act, behaves and is emotionally like a woman but even if he acts like that he knows and is comfortable on being a boy.

That is his only rebellion.

3. Nagisa's and Ryu's relationship while living together.

One night's battle is a small arc that is more to the point about Nagisa's personality and his dynamic with Ryu.

The beginning show Nagisa's dream:

A married life with Ryu.

But the reality is quite different

In this one it is presented how Nagisa is a pretty flawed character.

He is really emotional, like a girl but more over the top. He also eats a lot and is a person who wakes up late.

The thing is until now Ryu and Nagisa hadn't had any development romantically or even as friendship, Ryu is not interested in him in that way and doesn't want to kiss him.

Althrough it is proved that Nagisa is protective of her and doesn't like Ataru trying to make a move on Ryu.

The thing here is, that Nagisa is gullible, he is straightforward to convince because that is his personality and he doesn't know Ryu that well yet. He only meet her recently compared to Ataru and the others.

Nagisa wants to be in Ryu's good side, he wants to know her more but Ryu is pretty stubborn and closes herself because of how they meet and since she sees this as a way to rebel to what her father imposed her, being romantically involved by Nagisa.

That is why when Ryu friends tell him this

He believes in them and feels much better, knowing that he finally has a chance to be on her good side.

And when it shows that Ryu gets interested in him in some way, her father comes out and ruins it by pulling them into a uncomfortable situation.

[brucebocchi]

Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 2: #20-11

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here.

Let's get right into it.

20. Helck

I watched Helck’s first season for its entire half-year run, and I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about it. I’d heard amazing things from people who’d read the manga, and it had a hot start, but the pacing slowed to such a crawl after a while that it kind of felt like they stretched out the story just so they could make another season.

Helck, an enormous and impossibly jolly human warrior, enters a tournament to decide the successor to the throne of the recently-slain Demon King. Demons and humans had been at war for some time, so Vermilio, an adorably fiery elite lord of the castle, is naturally wary of him. Helck is naturally powerful, talented, and affable, so he easily breezes his way through the tournament in hilarious fashion, despite Vermilio’s best efforts at sabotage. Before the finals can take place, though, an immortal army sent by the human forces arrive to attack the demon realm, and Helck and Vermilio are teleported to the far edge of the realm.

The season largely covers Helck and Vermilio’s trek back to the demon kingdom, as well as the demons’ struggles against the mysterious warriors as they attempt to figure out just what the hell the humans are plotting.  Vermilio remains leery of Helck, regardless of all he’s done for her, but it becomes further evident that Helck is harboring a very dark past, and eventually we get a lengthy arc where he sits down and explains it to Vermilio in flashback. There is, as you’d expect, plenty of tragedy there, and you’d like to see it resolved, but things just seem to keep getting worse.

There are powerful messages in there about toxic positivity and fighting the urge to shoulder one’s burdens alone, but they don’t become fully apparent until late in the season. Everything until then, at least after the teleportation, is… fine. I had higher hopes for this one, but it just feels like it’s missing something, and I can’t put my finger on what. It looks fine, the voice acting is good (the GOAT Katsuyuki Konishi is typically very good as Helck), the action is decent, it’s all… fine. The pacing just feels glacial at times, to the point where if I hadn’t been watching it weekly I might have bounced off of it.

Of course, the season ended with what appears to be the endgame on the horizon, so for all I know there’s still a lot more to come, but the story beats feel so familiar that I get the feeling it could be resolved with, like, a movie. I hope I’m wrong, because there are clearly some major emotional payoffs yet to come, and I’m still curious to see how it gets there. I may have to pick up the manga to find out if it’ll be worth any more of my time.

19. Urusei Yatsura (2022), second cour

Fresh off of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s possible series finale, David Production’s modern take on Rumiko Takahashi’s legendary comedy manga hummed along nicely into 2023. The cast continues to expand as the new version introduces characters like Ten, Ryunosuke, and Tobimaro to further raise the level of shenanigans inherent to Urusei Yatsura.

Lum Invader has been a sex symbol for pretty much as long as anime has had sex symbols, but the reboot’s second cour focuses a bit more on the side of her personality that makes her so iconic, and which I consider essential to several of my favorite female anime characters: Lum’s kind of a psychotic asshole. Her schemes to wring more attention and affection out of Ataru border on sociopathic at times, and she’s honestly so real for that. Her mortal frenemy, Ran, was introduced close to the end of the first cour, and there is still no shortage of sabotage attempts in the second, but we quickly come to learn that Ran’s undying vendetta is mostly because Lum has been a selfish, lying piece of shit since they were kids. God bless her.

Ataru continues to not be much better, serial philanderer that he is, as he continues to be surrounded by other hot crazy ladies who aren’t his not-fiancee. Mendo’s younger sister, Ryoko, is a real highlight in the 2023 run as a result of her escalating penchant for Looney Tunes-esque slapstick violence. The settings of Ataru’s and Lum’s respective worlds take more focus as well, between Ataru’s high school hijinks and Ten’s galactic mail-order mishaps, and the two often collide in hilarious fashion.

I still adore the look of this one. Character models have been cleaned up and simplified to a sort of retro-modern look while still being instantly recognizable to anyone already familiar with them. Everything is awash in an eye-popping Day-Glo color palette. Backgrounds and pop-in gags are often adorned with Ben Day dots to maintain the retro comic look. This doesn’t quite look like the manga, nor does it resemble the original 80s anime, but this is unmistakably a Rumiko Takahashi product. It almost looks like it could have come out at any point in time.

I’m only holding this back in the rankings because it’s the weaker half of a season that straddled the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, but the season as a whole is excellent. It is an essential watch for fans of comedy anime, especially considering so many tried-and-true anime gags effectively originated with Urusei Yatsura (it’s worth mentioning that Lum is largely considered the first-ever tsundere in anime and manga). Season 2 is imminent and I cannot fucking wait. Maybe I’ll even read the manga.

18. Tomo-chan is a Girl!

This is basically Monthly Girls’ No-jock-i-kun. Very simple premise: Tomboyish high schooler gets the hots for her childhood friend who is dense as fuck and forgets most of the time that she’s even a girl. Hilarity ensues and romance progresses glacially.

The voice performances are what really carry this one. Rie Takahashi is golden as the titular Tomo Aizawa, and this was the first entry in an MVP-caliber resume for her in 2023 that was so stacked that I still haven’t gotten to her best role yet. Rina Hidaka nails the conniving, misanthropic nature of Misuzu Gundo in a far cry from her turn as Emul the bunny in Shangri-La Frontier later in the year. The American-born idol Sally Amaki is a revelation as the airheaded gaijin Carol Olston, whom she also voices in the English dub. Even Carol’s mom speaks broken Japanese with a noticeable American accent, which is one of my favorite gags in the whole show.

Outside of the voice acting, nothing is particularly special about this show. Which is fine! There's nothing wrong with a solid 7/10 romcom; junk food is still food. It’s cute, it’s funny, it hits all the right beats, but nothing particularly stands out. Misuzu and eventually Carol give Tomo advice to try to woo her bestie Jun, while Misuzu is usually also playing Jun against that same advice so that it usually works and backfires at the same time. It’s all a game, and she plays both sides so she can always come out on top.

If I have a complaint about this show, it’s that it just… ends. I went back and read the manga, and unfortunately that issue is not the anime’s fault. If anything, it did a phenomenal job of fitting eight volumes of a 4-koma into a single season, and that’s always how it was supposed to go. I watched and read a ton of slice-of-life romance anime and manga this year, as it turns out, and the ones that really hit for me are usually the ones that take their time with the central relationship once it actually starts, rather than treat that big event as the climax, or worse, the finale of the story. Stuff like Kaguya-sama, Horimiya, Sweat and Soap, and even Wotakoi (though I have my own problems with that one) treat their central relationships as a step, not the goal.  At the same time, for plenty of others, the fun is in the chase, and they just run out of time, and Tomo-chan is the latter. We got what we wanted, and we had fun getting there. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Also good god, Tomo’s mom. The second those genes kicked in for Tomo, Jun was doomed.

17. The Eminence in Shadow, second cour and season 2

The Eminence in Shadow is the smartest piece of stupid media I've seen in a minute. It so perfectly skewers dime-a-dozen chuunibyo isekai trash while still cannonballing into a McDuckian swimming pool of the stuff. It nearly overwhelms you with lore; the series abounds with rich backstories, centuries-old power struggles, palace intrigue, shadowy conspiracies, the artificially accelerated march of progress, long-simmering revenge plots, looming economic catastrophe, and love dodecahedrons. And the most compelling thing about all of it is that none of it fucking matters.

Cid Kagenou spent his teenage years in modern Japan trying to become the coolest badass dark antihero who ever lived, but he quickly reaches his limits in our boring normal world so he rides the isekai truck into a world with actual, like, magic and shit. He spends his new childhood leveling up and rescuing elf girls, all the while regaling them with his “wisdom” in the form of a bunch of horseshit he made up based on all the light novels he used to read. Turns out that he’s entirely too genre savvy; this new world is apparently so contrived that every single thing he told them ended up entirely true.

So now Cid’s a teenager by day and shadowy vigilante by night (under the apt moniker “Shadow”), with an underground legion of hot deadly babes at his disinterested beck and call. All he genuinely cares about is looking and acting like the coolest motherfucker a socially inept 12 year old boy can think of, and in his downtime actively trying to be a forgettable mob character. And I do mean that that is all he cares about; when I say none of the wheels within wheels happening in the background actually matter, I mean that Cid is completely and totally unaware of any of it. 

Anything he does or says to drive the plot is either incidental or accidental. He spouts off some nonsense he heard in a video game once, and his cadre of elf baddies and beastgirls takes it as gospel en route to exposing a millennium-old conspiracy. He parrots a really cool line he heard ten minutes ago and a beautiful woman he just saved takes it as inspiration to turn her life around. It’s kind of like in Mashle, funnily enough; where Mash will go “I don’t know what’s going on, but you were being mean to my friend so I’m gonna beat the shit out of you,” Cid is more like “No clue what this is about, but that’s a really badass looking villain, so I’m gonna say some epic shit and do a big explosion.” And then he fucks off to go eat a burger or something, not knowing or caring that he just unraveled a prophesied master plot to destroy the global power balance.

The episodes that aired in 2023 largely revolve around the lovely Princess Rose, smitten with both Cid and Shadow (not knowing they’re the same guy), pledging fealty to Shadow Garden after failing to foil a coup d’etat. At the same time as her training, Cid is busy with a vampire something-or-other and then tries to make some coin for himself by teaming up with an assassin hellbent on revenge to create a credit crisis. The conspiracy later drags Rose back into the palace, where Cid sees a new opportunity. Every single one of these things has very specific reasons for happening, and everyone involved has a rich backstory and clear motivations to carry out their parts of the ever-evolving plots.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to watch a bunch of hot ladies and a guy in a black cloak with one glowing red eye do some sick action stunts to bad guys with silly names, and this show delivers that in spades. This feels like a throwback in the best and worst ways. The Eminence in Shadow is stupid, and it is brilliant.

16. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, season 2

Mushoku Tensei is a tough anime to talk about. On one hand, it is one of the most gorgeous anime series ever put on television: Almost consistently movie-quality sakuga, lush background art, and a breathtaking score come together to form an immersive world unlike many I’ve seen in any medium. On the other, it forces some very unpleasant conversations about reincarnation in anime, particularly ones like this where a grown man is reincarnated as a child while retaining his mental age and is surrounded by potential love interests closer in age to his new body. What doesn’t help is that in his previous life in our world, the man who would reincarnate as Rudeus Greyrat was a socially isolated hentai addict, and much of his journey centers around him unlearning those proclivities in unfortunate and often damaging ways. If you can handle that, Mushoku Tensei is a rewarding watch, but if that’s beyond the pale to you, I don't blame you in the slightest.

However, even if you’ve been able to stomach all of the questionable shit in the first season, I'm sorry to say that the second season’s first cour doesn’t do much for the “bro I promise he gets better bro” crowd. The first cour covers the Quagmire and Academy arcs, which follow Rudeus’ struggle with being effectively abandoned by the only person to show him any physical affection in either life. The knock-on effect sees him retreating into an antisocial shell and developing, and I am deadly serious here, a seemingly incurable case of erectile dysfunction.

The first few episodes surround Rudeus growing into a young man, making a name for himself as a wandering adventurer in hopes that talk of his name will spread to his missing family and friends. At the urging of the god with a direct line to him (still unexplained), he enrolls in a magic university to investigate the calamity that flung his loved ones to the corners of the realm. There he finds an old friend in the figure-obsessed young prince who saved his life in the previous season, a girl from his previous world who seems to have also been transported to this one, and most crucially, his old childhood friend Sylphiette, hiding in plain sight with new hair and a sick pair of shades as a retainer to a scheming princess enrolled in the school.

Mushoku Tensei's initial season was at its best in its quieter moments, and those abound in season 2’s first cour. It's really lovely seeing him connect once again with Sylphie purely for who she is, even though for all Rudy knows he’s talking to a twinky dude named Fitz who makes him feel weird things. We get our amazing action animation early on, and things settle down quite a bit from there as Rudeus navigates all of these interpersonal relationships, old and (seemingly) new.

And while, yes, this version of Rudeus is a far cry from the drooling, grinning pervert he was in his first ten years of reincarnation, his improvement as a human being is not a straight line. He unfortunately takes more steps backwards than forward. The things he says in a drunken rage about his party member Sara (who inadvertently revealed his ED) are awful and undeserved, he literally ties up and gropes a pair of beast girls from his class (he has apparent reasons for both of those things, but come on), and he “frees” a young dwarven slave to take on as an apprentice. That last one seems admirable on its face, but uh. He went with the flow in a god damned slave market and still paid a slaver.  

I'm not excusing those things, nor absolving Rudeus as a character; I'm simply saying they happen this season. Mushoku Tensei, for better or for worse, depicts gnarly subject matter as it is while neither glorifying it nor moralizing about it. It trusts you to make your own judgments, and if your verdict is “I can’t watch this show,” that is perfectly valid. If you can stomach watching through its worst moments and compartmentalize the uncomfortable aspects of it, Mushoku Tensei remains one of the best-looking and -sounding pieces of animation out there, and the part of its second season that aired in 2023 has an exceptional emotional payoff. Otherwise, I'll be talking about Frieren much later.

15. Spy x Family, season 2

The most succinct praise I can give season 2 is also the most backhanded: Well, it’s more Spy x Family.

I want to be clear that there is no shade inherent to that comment; the first season of Spy x Family was excellent! It was a stylish, beautifully animated, appropriately hilarious adaptation of a fantastic manga that did it justice in almost every regard; the second season didn’t need to move heaven and earth to try to one-up it. It wasn’t broken, so Wit and CloverWorks didn’t fix it. It’s still the blend of domestic slice-of-life hijinks, tense cold-war intrigue, and heart-pounding action it’s always been. Even the production music is largely the same, and that’s not a complaint, because SxF’s production music fuckin' slaps.

A lot of anime-onlys rightfully complained that Yor’s plot relevance seemed to fall off a cliff in the back half of season 1, so they have been eating GOOD this time out, as season 2’s (ostensible) first cour puts her directly in the spotlight. The Yor Cour, if you will. The season opened on a hilariously spot-on adaptation of my favorite Yor-centric chapter of the manga (the “bullet in the ass” one) and quickly moved on to a nearly perfect interpretation of the cruise arc that sees her protecting a government asset from a legion of assassins. 

If you wanted to see more of Yor in her second life as the contract killer, Thorn Princess, this season was a meal and a half for you. Having her beset on all sides by an eccentric rogues’ gallery, with Anya fully aware and trying her damnedest to keep Loid from finding out what’s actually going on, is Spy x Family at its best. The tension constantly ramps up as the ship approaches its target, and Anya’s attempts at distracting Loid usually go sideways because, well, she’s Anya. Blood splatters, laughs are had, and Loid continues to struggle with both fatherhood and acting like his growing affection for his ragtag “fake” family is just “for the mission.” 

Outside of the cruise, season 2 maintains the series’ usual episodic pace, which can be a little jarring before and after the cruise arc, but that’s SxF for you. Shit can pop off at unexpected moments, and having read ahead in the manga, I’m excited to see the next time that happens. For now, though, things can feel kinda static from time to time, but the Forger family and the extended cast are always pleasant to just hang out with for a while.

And now to wait for the movie to come out in the west.

14. Undead Unluck

Up until this past Winter season, I primed myself on a lot of the more-hyped anime by reading the manga ahead of time. I knew that Undead Unluck is one of the bigger Shonen Jump manga out there, but this debut kind of crept up on me. I went in blind, got drawn in by the premise, and then got quickly overwhelmed with a wild amount of lore.

Fuuko, a young woman seemingly afflicted with a curse, is saddled with a brash, enormous man who cannot die after he foils her suicide attempt and is then himself grievously injured. Don’t worry, he got better. It turns out that he’s roughly 200 years old and has a completely cracked healing factor, while she brings terrible misfortune to anyone who touches her skin. They are both Negators, people with the ability to reverse or ignore the laws of nature: Fuuko’s ability is Unluck, causing tragedy for those close to her, while the man is Undead, exactly what it says on the tin. The man, who cannot remember his own name, believes their meeting to be kismet: If she can bring death to her loved ones, he vows to woo her so she can deliver the death he’s sought for so long. I promise this is a comedy.

Fuuko and Andy (whom she named as shorthand for the Japanese pronunciation of “undead”) foil a series of assassination attempts by other Negators, and take their spots as part of the Union eliminating threats to the universe. They team with an eclectic group, whom we’re still getting to know as of the end of the first cour, as they trot the globe to complete quests given to them by a mysterious (and seemingly nefarious) talking book lest the universe incur penalties for their failure.

The power system among Negators is one of the most inventive I've seen, with each one able to cancel out a specific element of the natural order of the world, and it’s a blast learning how each new one works. Andy in particular is wild; because he can regenerate himself so quickly, his weapon of specialty is his own body, never hesitating to use his own fingertips as bullets and his own gushing blood as a propulsion mechanism. He also has no compunction towards taking on the worst of Fuuko’s Unluck ability, often sacrificing himself to get hit by lightning or falling debris to deal damage to an enemy. Every new Negator power introduced adds a new wrinkle to the way this world works and the different shapes its action can take. Others can freeze matter into suspended animation, force people to act opposite their own intentions, or even subvert someone’s entire belief system. I cannot wait to see what else is in store.

The first cour’s pacing is a little off, and Andy's behavior towards Fuuko in the first couple episodes is nothing short of gross (I promise that eases up), but you can see the show finding its footing as it goes on. Shonen Jump series don’t last for nearly 200 chapters and counting by accident, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

13. NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a

Those of us who played Yoko Taro’s 2017 masterpiece approached the announcement of an anime adaptation with some trepidation: So much of what made Nier Automata so outstanding and so beloved is that much of the delivery of its narrative is inherent to the fact that it’s a video game. How can a video game known for pushing against the fourth wall of the unique elements of its very medium be faithfully adapted as an anime?

The choice of studio was also concerning: Though A-1 has produced a ridiculous number of excellent series (and some aggressively mid ones that were nonetheless very successful), its track record with video game adaptations has been far less than stellar. The latter three films in the Persona 3 adaptations were solid if uneven, and the Valkyria Chronicles anime seems to have been well-received, but the same can’t be said of A-1’s takes on Ace Attorney, Persona 4 Golden, or Persona 5. Regardless, Yoko himself was heavily involved in the anime’s production, so if they could keep on budget and schedule, Nier Automata would have a fighting chance.

And while there indeed ended up being massive and likely unpredictable production delays, I'd say they’ve done almost as good of a job as they could have so far. While the first cour mainly covers Automata’s A and B routes, it does much more than just play that part of the story straight; it also takes the time to incorporate other elements of the Nier canon. A surprising amount of time is dedicated to the canon introduced in the YoRHa stage play (and by extension the Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga); Lily and the android resistance are woven directly into the narrative far beyond the vague overtures the game makes in their direction. Ver 1.1a also ties the history of the original Nier into the story at unexpected and intriguing (and in my case, tear inducing) moments. 

Unfortunately, it’s still too soon to assess this series in its entirety. While too many people who played Nier Automata stopped after route A or B, there is still much more of this story to come. There was some very sloppy CGI integration in the first episode when it aired, but far from enough to put me off the series. For now, it’s a treat for Nier fans, but I’m not sure whether I can recommend it yet to people who are unfamiliar with the source material.

Until the anime is completed, go play Nier Automata. It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

12. Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-

This was a late 2022 theatrical release, but it didn’t see western release until this year and was split into a four-episode mini-season for streaming, so I'm counting it for this year. You can deal with it.

I got completely obsessed with Kaguya-sama early this year, and in record time. I binged the anime and the manga in the span of a couple weeks and irreversibly fell in love. I say with no reservation that it is the best romantic comedy, in any medium, of the 21st century. It nails both the romance and the comedy in equal measure; the characters are perfectly realized right down to the supporting cast, the dynamics between them are carefully considered and consistent with their personalities regardless of circumstance, and every emotional and comedic beat hits exactly as it’s meant to. There is a constant momentum moving the greater plot along, even in the smaller moments, and seismic shifts take over before you’ve even noticed they’re happening.

It’s rare for romcom manga adaptations to stay on the air long enough to actually reach the romantic payoff, and Kaguya-sama fucking nailed it in season 3. Well, we’re pretty sure it did; the central conceit of the psycho-romantic warfare between Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane is that they’re both chronic overthinkers and won’t accept any romantic undertones or overtures in any form but an explicit confession. So while the finish to season 3 is everything we wanted as an audience, these two dorks still sense a margin for error. Regardless, that would have been a perfectly acceptable place to end the anime.

HOWEVER, the Ice Queen Kaguya arc that follows in the manga is iconic, and A-1 was absolutely right to adapt it. Although Shirogane is ready to move forward with the relationship that (he’s pretty sure) they’ve both wanted for a long time, Kaguya has a crisis of personality and inadvertently reverts to the dead-eyed, emotionally walled-off version of herself he’d initially met, well before either of them had realized they’d fallen in love with one another. The interstitial omake preceding this arc in the manga has Aka Akasaka warning the reader that in order to counteract the massive emotional payoff that just happened, the ensuing chapters would get very, very silly.

And of course, hijinks do indeed ensue; this is Kaguya-sama, after all. But before you realize it, the story is neck deep in Jungian psychology as self-doubt begins to plague Kaguya and Miyuki and they struggle with the faces they think they need to put on for the other and whether their “real” selves even deserve to be loved by the person they idolize. It gets heavy! I cried every time I watched it! And that first time was in a damn movie theater!

I’m much more comfortable appraising First Kiss as a mini-season than as a movie, because frankly, it doesn’t work as a movie. The animation, while maintaining the series’ standard of excellence, isn’t a single degree better than what aired on television, which can be disappointing upon a visit to the theater. The pacing is also off for a feature film; the common knock upon theatrical release was that it felt like four episodes stitched together (it even has the omake-style interludes between scenes, like the show). The arc also focuses very heavily on Kaguya and Miyuki specifically, so the ensemble cast I mentioned earlier does have to take a backseat. Splitting this up for streaming and televised release was the right move here.

Season 3 would have been a very good ending for this series if it never got picked up for the movie. If it doesn’t get picked up for a proper fourth season, this is the perfect place for it to end. The manga has now been adapted up to just past the halfway point, and the next best stopping point would have to wait until a possible, like, fifth season. And that arc in question, while it does have some iconic moments, is very uneven. If this is all we’re getting, we’ve gotten plenty already, and I am satisfied.

If you've watched the first three seasons of Kaguya-sama, you owe it to yourself to watch The First Kiss That Never Ends. It is nearly everything you could ask for. Also, read the manga if you haven’t already. It’s genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever read.

11. The Apothecary Diaries

This one is basically House M.D. set in the Ming Dynasty, and it fucks.

Maomao, an apothecary raised in a pleasure district near the palace of a fictional East Asian empire, is shanghaied (pun intended) into menial work in said palace. She hears tell of a supposed curse plaguing the emperor’s newborn children and the concubines that birthed them, quickly deduces that it may be poisoning, and discreetly leaves a message for the ailing new mothers. She’s found out by an impossibly beautiful young administrator named Jinshi, who quickly deduces that she’s one of the few literate peons in the rear palace, and he puts her to work in the pavilion of the concubine that heeded her advice.

With her knowledge of, resistance to, and slightly masochistic infatuation with various poisons, Maomao slots right in as an attendant and poison tester to one of the emperor’s embattled concubines. Often at Jinshi’s urging (even though she immediately gets the ick at his habitual flirting), Maomao finds herself investigating deaths, mysterious ailments, and strange behaviors, on top of the foreign world of palace politics. Though she’s a deeply jaded person who only seems to care for her special interests, Maomao is incredibly perceptive and often able to suss out the finer details others miss.

Surprisingly, this one is a really breezy watch, and much funnier than you might expect. For all its lush environs, slowly-mounting intrigue, and often stunning cinematography, The Apothecary Diaries isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it. The dialogue is snappy, quick gags abound in a familiar single-panel chibi style you wouldn’t expect in a setting like this, and Komi-esque cat ears spontaneously pop up from Maomao's head whenever her interest is piqued. Interactions between Maomao and Jinshi are always a hoot, and you can pretty quickly figure out where it’s going, although Maomao can’t because she’s still pretty sure Jinshi is a eunuch.

As she does in virtually every role in her dozen-plus years as a seiyuu, Aoi Yuuki crushes it in the starring role. She really nails the disaffected cynicism that animates most of Maomao’s internal monologue and sarcastic dialogue, as well as her hair-trigger glee when presented with her personal interests in food and drink, medicinal herbs, and of course, poison. Yuuki is an indispensable element in ensemble casts like One Punch Man, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Wotakoi, and the aforementioned KamiKatsu (as well as others I don’t plan on watching like My Hero Academia, Rent-a-Girlfriend, and The Seven Deadly Sins), so it’s especially nice to hear her in a spotlight role outside of the odd Madoka Magica, spider isekai, or Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

There are a handful of anime on this list that will be continuing or returning in January, and second only to my #1 anime this year, this is the one I’m most excited to see more of. At time of writing, the show appears to be shifting in a new direction, and I’m hoping to see it take less of an episodic pace.

Part 3 is on the way! I'm going to split my top ten into two more posts, because I ended up writing... a lot more than I'd expected.

[expirisims]

Snooping Around

With Kip still in desperate need of attention and Lori at work, I decided to cruise around town in search of someone to interact with Kip. Looks like Kasey is still rocking those bad tattoos!

What's this? Jill was visiting one of the empty apartments and there's a townie performing there? Does that townie live there? I had to stick around a couple of minutes.

OMG, she does! With another townie too! I LOVE that even the townies in Sims 3 truly have their own lives! Sir! I know I don't play you, but would you PLEASE refrain from tossing flaming batons INSIDE of that apartment I built!!

So Andrew has two of his own children, and he's got Lawerence Lum living with him...How long until Angela moves in with her twins...

I couldn't go onto the next household without checking the situation in the Blue apartment. Remi will likely be moving out soon as she's engaged, but they have three or four dogs...Where exactly am I going to put a crib for Ivy's baby? She's getting pretty close to full term!

[the-bar-sinister]

Ungentlemanly (2933 words) by thesavagesabretooth Chapters: 1/1

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Mendou Shutarou/Miyake Shinobu Characters: Mendou Shutarou, Miyake Shinobu Additional Tags: Fluff, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Underage Drinking, Romance, During Canon, POV Miyake Shinobu, Miyake Shinobu-centric

Summary: Shinobu finds herself having dinner with Shutaro alone at his house while the rest of the Mendou family is on vacation. Shutaro offers her a drink from his father's collection, and he shows another side of himself.

-

In the little over a year that Shinobu's relationship with Ataru got rockier, and that overly pretty harlot from space showed up, Shutaro and her had gotten a lot closer. They'd started dating months ago, and somehow found themselves on double date after double date with Lum and Ataru all that time—a number of them taking her to Shutaro's incredibly opulent home. But in the time since Shinobu had known Shutaro Mendou she'd never seen the manor so empty.

It always had a bustling staff, or his sister sneaking about, or his parents 'ohoho'ing about their latest scheme—but today it was as silent as a tomb save for the occasional glimpse of a staff member out of the corner of her eye.

Her heart was racing. His parents were out with a good portion of the staff, leaving her and him alone. 

A man and a woman alone in his beautiful, quiet house. Together.

He'd invited her over for dinner, claiming boredom with most of the household absent. They'd gone on some wild vacation to India apparently, and Shutaro had stayed behind so that he wouldn't miss school. Though privately Shinobu thought it might also be about keeping an eye on Ataru and Lum. It would be a simple meal, he'd promised, since the staff was so reduced.

It had been absolutely opulent, anyway. They'd started on far sides of his enormous table, like some kind of joke in a movie, but had ended up sitting side by side after they'd gotten sick of shouting down the table at once another.

She was nursing the dessert course when she finally let her shoulder rest against his with a gentle flush. Ataru and Lum weren't here right now—were they? Shinobu couldn't help her little grin as she popped the fork in her mouth again and glanced up at Shutaro for what felt like the hundredth time. 

He had such a classical, and noble look to him; the pinnacle of what a handsome Japanese man was meant to look like. Sharp cheekbones and jaw, but a soft chin and delicate mouth. A high brow with arching eyebrows, and large, almost luminous dark eyes. His thick, dark hair was always kept neat as a pin, swept back from his temples. He looked like a cut out from some kind of military modeling magazine.

Of course, that was only when he wasn't moving. The image of perfection was shattered any time he got excited; whether flustered, angry, or eager. Then his hair would go askew and his delicate mouth would twist up into some absurd, intense expression that lit up his whole face.

Shinobu knew it wasn't exactly the most proper thing in the world—but she had to admit she liked that part of him more than she'd admit. Those moments when he lost some of that handsome composure were almost exciting—and he was just as handsome, even if he was also kind of ridiculous.

Maybe it was one of the things that made him feel more approachable?

He caught her eye as she looked at him, and smiled-– one of his delicate, composed smiles. "I hope dessert was to your liking."

"It was delicious, I don't think I've ever had anything half as good in any of the cafes around here!"

"I'd be surprised if you had. My mother brought some of her staff over from France, including a master baker." The smile remained on his face. Proud. Subtle. And then it changed. It grew wider. "Would you like to join me for one more course? Since it's a special occasion."

Her question about his mother's time in France died almost immediately as the rest of it sunk in. She turned to face him, careful not to bump her chest against his arm, and grinned widely. "One more course? I'm getting kinda full but, well. I'm a sucker for temptation?" 

"This one shouldn't be too heavy." Shutaro chuckled and stood. He offered her his hand in a quite gentlemanly way to help her stand, but she could read the smile on his face now. Mischief. 

That thrill of attraction fluttered in her stomach as she grabbed his hand and stood in a smooth motion before smoothing out her skirt. 

Mischief—the same sort his sister always got up to, or sparkled in his dad's eyes—was very much alive with Shutaro. She bit her lip to keep from grinning too wide. "I'm trusting you." 

"Why Miss Shinobu, you almost sound like I'm not trustworthy." He kept her hand in his as he led her from the huge dining room, through the long, mazelike corridors of the house.

"I've met your little sister, Shutaro," Shinobu drawled as she squeezed his hand a little tighter. "I know how far you can usually trust your family."

She couldn't help but tease a little bit, but honestly she trusted him a lot. They'd been through some crazy shit together by now, hadn't they? Only a year and they'd dealt with alien replicators, time travel and alternate futures, dream demons and more…and Shutaro, even with his wandering eye to Lum, was more than trustworthy.

She felt herself flushing again and walked closer, close enough that her chest brushed his arm.

Her answer seemed to amuse him, and he lifted his chin, brushing his fingers through his dark hair with his free hand as he escorted her. "Comparing me to my sister. Tch. Haven't I always been a perfect gentleman to you?"

Shutaro stopped before a door along one side of the hall, not so much unremarkable— a door with a gold handle and inlaid carvings could never be unremarkable— more that it was to Shinobu indistinguishable from all the other remarkable doors in the house.

She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder with a curious huff. "Well…You have been. Mostly. Except for that time at the beach with Lum, or that time you ran around possessed by a demon and saying nasty things about the girls in our class." 

Shutaro turned rather red and a few hairs fell into his face, which he promptly pushed away. 

"Well, you certainly can't hold having been possessed by a demon against me!" He coughed, and moved to open the door. "A-at any rate, here we are."

The door opened onto what appeared to be a lavish parlor or drawing room. It was huge; high walls done up in sleek and polished mahogany and bookcases filled with books Shinobu could barely even read the names of with the sheer number of languages on display. A rug clearly made from a literal, actual polar bear sat before a large fireplace flanked on either side by military uniforms on mannequins bearing gas masks and caps. Firearms hung from hooks—exotic and deadly looking polearms and knives dangling above paintings of the open sky and hanging model airplanes from the ceiling.

A fucking plane propeller and the nose of an old zero fighter jutted out over the fireplace itself. It was like the armies and air forces of the world vomited in the most classy way possible across a palatial drawing room straight out of a girl's manga.

Shinobu almost missed the large racks of exotic alcohol nestled between the bookcases, but that was exactly where Shutaro headed.

"Here we are," he repeated as he stood, admiring the cabinet. "The perfect thing to finish off a lovely dinner together."

Shinobu shook herself out of her surprise at the room to look at him. 

"T–the gun?" Briefly, a scene straight out of their English class's literature segment flashed through her mind. 'The Most Dangerous Game'.

But that really was more Ryoko's kind of 'after dinner treat'. She shook her head and quickly corrected. "--- I mean the alcohol?" 

Shutaro laughed, he'd apparently taken it as a joke, and he gestured at the wide array of liquors. "The alcohol, yes! It's traditional to end a good meal with a good drink."

Technically speaking both of them were well under the Japanese drinking age of 20, but that was the kind of law that almost everyone ignored anyway. And certainly not the kind of law that anyone as wealthy or powerful as the Mendou family paid any kind of attention to.

Really, when you got as powerful as the Mendou's laws were kind of a guideline rather than a strict rule. Besides, she had drinks even at home on occasion, during celebrations or swiped from her father's cabinet. Cheap sake and beer ferreted away every now and again when she wanted to feel like a rebel with the limited amount of freedom she could manage before she got another lecture about respectability.

She smiled widely. "Well, if it's traditional, I'm hardly going to say no." 

"I had hoped that would be your answer." He let her hand drop finally, and ran his fingers over the brightly colored and labeled bottles. "What do you think, sake, or something more exotic?"

"It's not every day I get the chance to have something exotic," Shinobu laughed. "and I think I've had enough of my dad's cheap sake by now." 

"Your taste is too good for your circumstances, Miss Shinobu. It does you credit." He winked at her teasingly. "How about a whisky? Straight from Ireland."

Shinobu felt her face heating up. It wasn't the first time he affectionately teased her about her taste outstripping her circumstances—but it flustered her damn near every time. "Straight from Ireland? What's it made out of?" 

"Malted barley grain. This one was given to my father by a particular English millionaire in his military club. Whisky's what all the English and American businessmen drink." He got down the bottle– it's label looked quite faded and aged, and it bore a cracked wax seal. "It tastes quite different than sake."

"Malted barley grain," Shinobu mused as she stared at the bottle. It looked old—it was clearly old. This was something that'd go for the price of—she had no idea. Maybe an apartment for a month, knowing the Mendou family. Or more. "It does, huh? And he won't notice a little bit of it missing?" 

He waved his hand, smiling brightly, that same mischievous smile. "If he was here, he'd offer it to you himself, I'm sure of it."

She had no idea whether that was true or not. Mr. Mendou… could be pretty odd.

He'd either offer it heartilly, or he'd dangle it at the end of a deadly obstacle course as the 'prize' for making it through unscathed. The capriciousness of the Mendou family could NOT be understated.

Still Shinobu grinned widely. "Alright then. I'm for it! Let's try it, Shutaro!"

A couple of minutes later and she was on the drawing room couch with him sitting quite close to her. Each of them were part way through a crystal glass filled with a generous measure of honey colored liquid poured over perfectly clear cubes of ice.

Shutaro had been right. It was very different than sake.

For one thing it was a hell of a lot stronger.

She'd actually coughed a few times when she'd first taken a sip, the sharp and heavy taste of it thick on her tongue as she fell against Shutaro. But after a few sips—and a mental note not to sip too fast—she was getting the hang of it.

The sharp biting burn of the alcohol, the heady and almost warm taste of it—it was actually pretty fantastic. 

"...huh." she murmured as she rested her head against his shoulder. "This stuff's not half bad." 

Shutaro had unbuttoned his jacket, and he extended his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer as he sipped his drink. His cheeks were already a little bit rosier, and he hadn't bothered to push away the stray lock of hair in his face. "I've been thinking I have a bit of a taste for it."

Was she just as flushed as he was? She probably was. The drink was certainly hitting hard, and she felt warm and buzzy in her chest as she snuggled closer under his arm with a little sound that almost sounded like a purr.

"Uh oh, me too—it's probably not going to be an easy one to get more of, though." 

"Well, the rarity makes it sweeter, certainly," he chuckled— a warm, rather gravelly sound. "But I might like to sample other varieties. Sometimes something apparently common surprises you with its quality."

Shinobu felt another thrum of warmth, looking up at him with a lopsided edge to her smile. "You find something like that recently? Outside of the liquor store, I mean."

Sometimes something apparently common surprises you with its quality—she couldn't help but think of herself, maybe. 'Everyday, average Shinobu Miyake of Tomobiki-cho', living in her average house with her average parents—yet.

He took another long sip of his whisky before he put the glass down on the end table beside him. All at once Shinobu found herself face to face, reflected in his large, luminous dark eyes as he cupped her cheek with his slim fingers.

"Shinobu. Please tell me that I've told you before how beautiful you are."

Her fingers curled against the cool crystal glass as she leaned her chin into his hands. Her dark, chocolate colored hair fell over his fingers as she swallowed her sip of whiskey with a shy edge to her grin. "You've told me a few times—but I do like hearing it again…" 

Shutaro stroked his thumb over her jaw, looking at her with one of his intense expressions. "You're as beautiful as the moon on water, Shinobu. As beautiful as the fields in summer."

Shinobu's face heated up as she nuzzled her face against his thumb. "Shutaro…I…" She squeaked , before she pressed herself closer on impulse. "You've sure got a way with words, ya know." 

"Have I? I feel lost for them when I look at you." His fingers trailed down her jaw and over her neck, sending a ticklish sensation– or something like it– blooming through her.

She let the feeling roll through her—the alcohol making it easier to push back her flustered embarrassment at being so close to her own boyfriend, enough that she let that ticklish warmth pool inside her as she looked into his eyes.

"You make me sound like a greater treasure than even that whiskey, Shutaro," she murmured. "Funny—I'm often at a loss for words when I look at you, too." 

"Then let's abandon words!" The soft edges of his finely manicured nails traced her throat. "Let me be ungentlemanly with you for a moment– only for a moment!"

Shinobu knew she wasn't just flushed anymore—she was vibrant. A vibrant crimson that felt like a glow through her body as her heart skipped a beat. "....ah…ah…"

'Let's abandon words and be ungentlemanly'. The impeccable gentleman Shutaro Mendou was willing to throw that veneer of respectability aside to embrace her, to show her that he didn't think she was plain or forgettable.

She was as beautiful as the moon on water, or the fields in summer—she was a treasure, as much as his dark and shimmering eyes were a treasure in her own heart. He was a gentleman—a refined and respectable man on the surface. But she could bring this part of him out, couldn't she? She would be happy to let him be ungentlemanly—for a fleeting moment or an eternity.

She swallowed thickly, before she nodded. "Please, Shutaro, only for a moment—or as long as you want." 

He didn't wait for her to say any more; didn't need her to say any more. Shutaro pulled her close to him, closer than he ever had, until there seemed to be no more room between their bodies, and he pressed his lips against hers, too, capturing her in a deep kiss that tasted like the same whisky that had precipitated it.

It was closer than she'd ever gotten with him. Even in their moments of hidden intimacy—they hadn't ever gotten close enough to feel one another's bodies quite like this. She snuggled closer, practically in his lap as she parted her lips to deepen the kiss. 

His tongue intruded on her mouth almost immediately, a hungry aggressor. Shutaro hadn't lied when he said he'd abandon 'gentlemanly'-- there was nothing cordial about the kiss he gave her, or where he put his hands.

There was a thrill to it, a tingle through her body the moment his hands made contact with her body. She shivered against him, arching her body and pressing closer as she accepted the aggressive kiss, trying to match it with her own.

It was possessive, wasn't it? Ungentlemanly, a little feral—hot. It was fucking hot.

Drunk and keyed up as she was, it was easy to ignore the little voice in her head as it murmured in distress about what tomorrow would bring. How would she feel about this, breasts pressed to Shutaro's chest and hips against his lap as she kissed him brazenly while drunk on his father's booze, when she sobered up in the morning and realized just how absolutely impolite and improper she'd been? If her parents found out she'd be dead. 

But that was tomorrow, and tomorrow was far away, further it seemed than the moon, when what was close was the heat of Shutaro's body, the press of his lips and the smell of his subtle cologne. 

The ice melted in their forgotten drinks.

[brainicusrotticus]

Got any Vace headcanons you feel like sharing? 👀

oooo boy i’m definitely digging through my brain to put some to paper now!

touch starvation

• he’s touch starved. like, this probably isn’t even a headcanon, you can’t look at that man and tell me he’s not

• he has a lot of general physical contact when it comes to training.

• but friendly, kind touch? like a hug from a friend or a joking shoulder squeeze?

• he’s always held himself apart from the other soldiers, a bit. especially when they started looking up to him. he needed respect, not affection.

• but he’s also touch-averse.

• there’s a gentleness that kind touch brings out in you

• and he is afraid of it

• for this reason, he naturally tends to lead with his left arm, the metallic one. it keeps other people’s warmth distant, and leaves them with the impression of him as something cold, hard, and made for function

• it’s just easier that way

• (but not better.)

people pleasing

• he used to be a people pleaser.

• it’s an easy habit to develop, when you’ve got abandonment issues and would do anything to get the parent who stayed to stop

• and he wasn’t strong enough to fight back, anyway

• if he got the impression that someone would even bother to look at him twice, he would practically build his whole personality towards them

• he’d pick up shared hobbies even if he hated them

• shared likes and dislikes, attitudes, world views…

• he just turned himself into a mirror, because that’s what he thought he was supposed to do

• this is what led to rex bullying him

• it’s pretty easy to see when someone’s doing this, and even easier to think it’s just them being fake, or mocking you

• after he broke rex’s arm, he stopped

• but he swung like a pendulum in the complete opposite direction

• he started intentionally scaring people off, because they never did him any fucking good

• he’d intentionally become everything they disliked if someone tried to get close

• for a while, it was a total personality shift, too

• he’d make his whole life about making them want nothing to do with him

• as he got older, he became more of a person for himself, though he still tends to mix and match quirks and interests to shrug people off

xenos

• he actually didn’t hate xenos when helios first landed

• he was wary of them, but he found them… interesting

• one of his first days out of the colony walls, he came across a hopeye that was just hanging out, making cute hopeye noises

• vace made sure there was no one around who could even possibly see this

• and then tried to pet it

• but the helios? didn’t really have animals

• so vace? didn’t really know how to handle animals

• and he startled the poor thing, which chomped down on his hand (metallic one) and then bolted

• it didn’t hurt, but it did fuck up one of the finger joints a little, and he had to fix it in engineering

• (but he did fix it himself, because he wasn’t admitting to anyone what happened)

• he admits that to solane one day, after they’ve grown close

• and solane is trying so hard to be proud of him for sharing this, because it’s hard for vace to admit anything

• but he also just desperately wants to tell vace that he’s a dumbass, of course it bit him

• (and is also so glad it was the metal hand. he’s read about rabies. he hasn’t seen anything similar on vertumna, but…)

snow

• vace doesn’t like the cold

• it makes him put on layers, it makes the metal on his arm feel weird, the parts it connects to ache… anytime he has to go into a room where the AC is kept running, he’s grumpy

• but he also used to watch a weird amount of winter holiday movies as a kid

• (he once got lum with a home alone style trap, when lum was a teenager)

• so he’s always found something kind of magical about snow

• but real snow is freezing

• (supposedly)

• (he’s never actually seen any)

• his favorite vertumna season is quiet

• sometimes, when he goes out of the colony during the snows, he just finds a quiet spot to stand and let it fall on him. it reminds him a little of stars

alcohol

• he doesn’t like alcohol. the flavor is awful, and his augment makes him a heavyweight. so trying to actually get drunk isn’t even worth it.

• but he refuses to avoid it

• he thinks it’s the only way to prove he’s not as weak as his father

• to stare the same temptation dead in the eyes, and refuse to give in

• and—he doesn’t. he doesn’t experience the change in brain chemicals, doesn’t become dependent on it.

• that doesn’t mean it’s healthy, though. especially not mentally. he’s still letting that ghost haunt him, control him

• and it takes a few years for that to finally get a mention in therapy with congruence. and even when she explains that to him, it doesn’t really… take.

• but congruence and sol share records, when necessary for the good of a patient.

• so eventually, sol sits vace down. in his office, in an appointment, completely professional setting.

• and he lays it all out for him.

• you see, alcoholism is partially influenced by genes. and if vace’s dad had the genes for it, it’s possible vace does too. but the way vace’s augment works, it’s harder for things to affect him. it would take a genuine, concerted effort to get him addicted to something. like, medical intervention.

• but if he ever has children… they might get the genes.

• but it’s not the be-all end-all. it’s also influenced by environment. strongly by the examples they see as they grow.

• and if one of his kids sees his attitude, that alcohol avoidance is some challenge to be conquered, and adopts the same attitude, without the same augment…

• vace stops drinking, then

• it does take a while, because it’s kind of habit at this point. if there’s alcohol, drink it. suffer through the nasty taste. prove you’re better. he doesnt even usually consciously decide to drink.

• but he does get there.

chronic pain

• it’s his arm

• it’s hard to hurt him in a way that leaves a permanent mark

• so to damage his arm to the point that it comes off, or needs to be removed?

• that fucks shit up

• and it was weird to him, for a long time

• he’s not super used to feeling pain, not on a scale similar to other people. he doesn’t know if his pain tolerance is high because he can take harder hits, or if he genuinely feels pain differently.

• (it’s a bit of both, really. he is harder to damage, but pain isn’t nerves being damaged. it’s nerves saying “hey, something dangerous is happening”. but, what is considered “dangerous” to his body is a different level. and that’s the level his nerves are used to. if someone else were given his augment later in life? it would take a while for the nervous system to adjust. and that while would suck.)

• but, chronic pain? it’s his nerves trying to say hey this is wrong, we should fix this, but no one listens because really, there’s not a whole lot more to do?

• phantom pain, too. it’s hard to rewire that, once the path has been made.

• but pain medication?

• well… chemical-altering substances don’t affect him nearly as easily. so they don’t help.

• he just… brute forces his way through it. refuses to let it affect his day to day life.

• he doesn’t let himself have “bad days”.

• which really just means he overexerts himself until something happens that makes him take it easy.

• (for a while, it’s rhett coming up with an excuse. or implementing a rotating system for soldiers to have a week off)

• eventually, therapy helps him start to change that mindset, too

thank you so much for sending this ask! i enjoyed digging around in my skull and pulling out headcanons like potatos, lovingly and obsessively cradling them like a goblin. i’m sure i’ll have more to share, once ive crawled into their burrows and lured them out with… i don’t know, tea? cubes of sugar? apple slices? something.

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S05E19 - The Cook, The Chief, The Cop, and His Lover - Part D

How dare you, sir, he comes from a good family.

lol I know it's a roll but when you freeze it it's like a move from The Matrix.

*offended that's-my-partner-you-threw-a-knife-at look*

Meat cleaver. Shit's getting real. Not on the face!

I really liked the choreography on this fight scene but it's not exactly for screenshots. Nicely directed, nicely shot, it's also clear that the guest actor, Curtis Lum, has martial arts training. We see a "clash of fighting styles", John Reardon is also good here and from what I've seen in his filmography (the titles that I know anyway) I believe that he has majorly missed on doing roles like these when he was younger (which in my opinion he should have gone more for instead of, say, Hallmark), aside from his role in Tron Legacy (which I've watched) and something called Son of the Dragon?

Their fight also has some comedic elements, which makes it suitable for this show. Filming a fight like we're on John Wick obviously wouldn't do (assuming they could even do something like that, which for many reasons I believe that they can't).

Do you think he'll let you put it on real quick?

I almost forgot I could put gifs in this. Anyway, tumblr makes it extremely hard to find what I want. But this is so funny.

"If you're done acting stupid, we're going to arrest you now."

Charlie is so used to Rex taking down the criminals that he told him good job when he was the one that did all the work this time.

One complaint. I needed Charlie to actually seem like he came out of a fight and not like he just caught a wild fist on accident.

Oof, do not tell Kurt how much money he would have earned if he could wait it out for 20 months. And without killing anyone. It's definitely not for everyone.

That's actually true.

Ancient history.

Now, that's just unreasonable.

Yes, you two will have to go through that very difficult conversation.

If they'd told me they'd whump the fuck out of Charlie next season, I wouldn't have whined for them giving us nothing in this one.

*crickets*

Oh, really, Joe Donovan?

Well, a year is too long.

Okay, Joe. You're the one who sends them undercover, though.

Episodes 18 and 19 are filled with comedic moments. I consider the last four episodes of the season pretty good. I'm truly glad that they seemed to have kept the order the episodes were originally put in (judging by John Reardon's facial hair or lack thereof, the only episodes that could have switched were 17 and 18, but I think that, given that Charlie's old case is set up in 15-16, it's logical that it would follow in 17, and there is no argument that 20 was supposed to be the season finale).

The reason that Joe and Vanessa stopped dating is the lamest excuse I've seen for two people who are supposedly truly interested in each other.

Anyway, now I want Thai food.

[sumerianlanguage]

I might regret asking, hence anon, but would you be so kind as to give your interpretation of this, please?

𒃌 𒈣𒊭𒈝 𒌨

Hi! Without any context, a short stretch of cuneiform like this is pretty difficult to translate, but here's my best shot.

𒃌 ngalga is "advice, consideration, planning". I'd read 𒈣𒊭𒈝 as ma2-sha-lum - there's a different sign combo, 𒈠𒁺𒈝 ma2-sha4-lum, that means "a drinking vessel", but here we have a different sha sign. I don't know of any phrases that use 𒈣𒊭 in combination. There's another word, magilum 𒈣𒄄𒈝, that refers to a specific type of boat (e.g. here), so I'd hazard a guess that mashalum is "a Mashalum boat" (ma being "boat").

𒌨 can have any of several readings, but is most often ur or tesh2. At the end of a phrase like this, I'd think it's a verb - ur can mean "to tremble", but the two nouns ("advice" and "Mashalum boat") have no visible case endings and there's no visible verb conjugation, which means ur couldn't appear like that in a sensible sentence. Tesh2 is "to be ashamed, to bring together, unify", but again getting the conjugation to look like this is difficult - maybe Ngalga[a] mashalum tesh "I unified the Mashalum boats in consideration", with an implied locative on ngalga?

Alternatively, maybe this is a sentence fragment without a verb - just a string of nouns could be something like "advice, Mashalum boat, dog (ur)" or "advice, Mashalum boat, shame (tesh)". But these wouldn't really "mean" anything as there's no verb to hold them together.

If you're the anon asker, or have any additional thoughts/suggestions, please let me know if I landed anywhere close!

[yumedoca]

About time I posted my work for my own challenge, so here it is: my art for the 'Urusei Yatsura DTIYS challenge'!! 💗

[ikemengoessbrrrrr]

This part of the ending 1 Urusei Yatsura (2022) - tokyo shandy rendezvous always be my fav

The colours are fun and pretty too look at!

And the male singer in the background as a back up is perfect! I LOVE IT VERY MUCH

The visual with Lum and Ataru with the heart beat so *chef kiss sgsgshshh

...

AND YEA FINE! ITS ALSO BECAUSE SO MUCH ATARU IN THIS PART. LOOK AT HIM WALKING!

[deusexlachina]

Cheeseaged Exocolonist Year 19 2/2: Cement my power by letting people fuck

The finale to my perfect life, in which I reconcile Tangent and Dys, civilization and nature, human and Gardener. And rule over all of it with an iron fist.

CW for discussion of ecofascism. The villains are pretty foul.

My first act as governor is to immediately fire Seeq for attempting to bribe themselves. I install Marzipan in their place. She jokes that she intends to be leader of the opposition, which is funny, because this is a one-party state.

She is actually not joking; the ending confirms that she leads the opposition. I can only assume that her insincere levity is to make herself look nonthreatening; the last politician to oppose me, Lum, was last seen dragged off by soldiers. He is never mentioned again in this visual novel.

On my inauguration, the council advised that I spend individual time with everyone. Naturally, I do this in the form of barista therapy, because Tangent needs it and so does Dys. I warn Dys about the dangers of drugs, which he dismisses, presumably because I am telling him this while giving him drugs. Just because I'm a hypocrite doesn't mean it's not good advice.

In between these sessions, Instance comes in to vent about Tangent facing too much pressure, perhaps because she is queen-consort of the most powerful human on this planet. I tell her not to push Tangent too hard. This reduces Helped Tangent even more. This has no mechanical effect, because Tangent doesn't even have enough time to be a supervillain. But it's still sweet to see Instance realize the error of her ways and stop pushing Tangent too hard. Before she kills all non-terrestrial life on the planet.

Having narrowly achieved 90 Friendship with Vace, he texts me that he's going to go to therapy and apologize to Rex for bullying him for being a furry, redeeming himself a literal month before the end of the game.

At the end of the year, the Gardeners amass a vast army of animals and genetically-engineered monsters, with the intent of wiping out humanity if we cannot reach an accord. A responsible leader would prepare either for war or for negotiation. However, I am drunk on my own power, so I decide to spend the final month of the game reconciling my wife and brother-in-law.

They share that they've missed each other and felt terrible. Tangent recommends an antidepressant implant. Dys refuses, because I have taught him well and he says no to drugs. Then he sips his second cocktail of the night.

Having reconciled a decade-long grudge by plying each party with drugs until they are intoxicated enough to talk about their feelings, I am now in a good headspace to negotiate on behalf of humanity. The negotiations go smoothly until Nocticulent demands that we stop fucking.

I know my people will not stand for this. How will Tammy engage in her favourite pasttime of being pregnant? How will Rex be able to sire a wave of children like a furry Ghengis Khan? As leader, I step forward and renegotiate. This requires a social, mental and physical check, each of which I complete effortlessly because I have a fidget spinner and am stimming constantly, unnerving Nocticulent, who must be unsure if this is some kind of alien sorcery.

Nocticulent is impressed with me, because I have learned a lot "in ten years." I do not correct him that I am trapped in a timeloop, with the combined knowledge of countless lifetimes. He cites my learning as a sign of human potential and thus cause for peace. He does not say whether this decision was informed by my godlike powers or by my wife being a supervillain who can turn his own plagues against him to destroy him at the genetic level. You decide.

Grateful that I have ended the war, and, more importantly, preserved the right to fuck, my people rejoice, and bow to me as I rule this planet for my long life. I have it all: power, women, fulfillment.

And my mom is finally proud of me.

[fricchead]

FOCKING GORGEOUS OMGGGG

Urusei Yatsura - Teenage Love

This is a collab with the amazing artist @ikemengoessbrrrrr, because we are obsessed with these two.

[theflowerofthecommonwealth]

How do you think the companions would react to stubbing their pinkie toe on something? Who cries? Who screams or swears (fuck, shite, etc)? Who just bite their lip and walks away, trying to walk it off? So on and so forth.

Gosh dangit, I hate this when it happens to me, it hurts way more than it should!

Nick Valentine: Bangs his foot quite often often on his desk or chair, but the pain never gets easier. He curses the Institute under his breath for programming him to feel pain and for the vivid memories of old Nick banging his toe while also working at his desk. It’s especially frustrating when he’s working intensely on case that’s been bugging him and this is what interrupts him.

Piper Wright: Was running around her office trying to get her latest paper printed out in time for the morning, but she passes a little too close to her printer press and there’s a bang loud enough to wake up Nat and all her neighbors. The reporter drops all her papers and lets them scatter on the floor, hopping to her chair while she hisses with the pain. She gets a now awake Nat to bring her an ice pack and a Nuka Cola to help distract her from her throbbing toe.

Codsworth: He doesn’t have feet. (Remembers that cursed YouTube video with Codsworth with legs) Oh God help me, I need to bleach my eyes.

Preston Garvey: Was helping around Sanctuary with little repairs when he gets too close to a workbench, resulting in him crouching over and grabbing his foot while trying to muffle his curses as there are children settlers around. It may hurt like hell, but he’s still gotta be a good role model for the kids to look up to. (I love this guy)

Curie: She was drooping with exhaustion and walking around half awake the clinic she was helping at, long overdue for a break. Just when she was about to walk off to finally have a rest, an evil wall corner makes contact with her toes and she falls over with a pained cry, shaking out her foot. Everyone within a mile radius is running over to offer their hands to help the poor overworked woman back up and onto a sofa for a much deserved nap.

Cait: She doesn't care who is around or where she currently is, every swear word in the book is leaving her mouth as Cait punches whatever happens to be nearby in frustration. Preston has to run over and help her hobble away so she’s no longer frightening the settlers and their children.

Deacon HAS to play it cool when he smashes his toe on a stone coffin the the Railroad HQ because he just finished bugging Carrington and this mistake will ruin the joke and give everyone a reason to poke fun at him. He waddles out of HQ like a penguin, waiting until he far away to start yowling like a wounded cat.

Danse: Bangs it on the corner of a wall almost immediately after exiting his Power Armor. His entire face goes all scrunchy and red as he bites back a yowl of pain, forcing himself to hobble to the nearest chair. If anyone is around to ask if he is alright, Danse will responded with a very strained “Yes.” and a nod.

Hancock: Straight up asks the table why they gotta do him dirty like that and attack his favorite toe. He’s pretty sure that he’s the one who purchased said table and gave it a good home when it was about to be turned into fire scrap, so for it to suddenly turn on him was completely uncalled for backstab.

MacCready: Does a silent scream while he cradled his injured foot and hops around on the other. He gets all tight faced and looks like he is just really constipated with how he waddles around tight cheeked, he’s really hoping no one walks by for awhile until he can regain himself. For the rest of the day, he has a little furrow to his brow.

X6: One would assume he didn’t feel any pain as he walks on without taking much notice to the fact that he just smashed his toe into a bed frame hard enough to break it. But he’s actually dying and screaming internally the whole time, and if you could see his eyes it would be a window straight into his pained stricken soul.

Strong: Was lumbering around a settlement and passing by a log. He glares intensely down at the log with pure rage and fury in his face, exclaiming “Strong smash puny wood!” The super mutant proceeds to kick said log until it’s a bunch of tiny splinters on the ground, then he has to go to Sole for help because he got a bunch of them logged into his fingers.

Moral Of The Story: Don’t EVER look up Codsworth with legs. (Seriously, don't)

[officialinuyasha]

Yashahime Manga Volume 2 - Bonus Interview with Rumiko Takahashi and Takashi Shiina

The long-awaited interview with Rumiko Takahashi, legendary creator of Inuyasha, and Takashi Shiina, who pens Yashahime, continues! How was it reading Takahashi's manga for the first time? Shiina: I read Urusei Yatsura in middle school when it was first serialized, and I thought, "This is the start of something big!" It was set in a fantasy manga world, but the characters were modeled after real people. I was surprised that they seemed like they were really there. I thought, "If you can make these characters seem real, imagine the potential for other manga!" That's how Takahashi's work became the catalyst for me to enter the manga world. That's how great an impact she made on me. What do you mean, "it seemed like they were really there"? Shiina: The characters in manga up till then would express themselves directly and pretty much mean what they said. That was the norm, especially with kids' manga. But when Takahashi came onto the scene, her characters' speech had subtext. Previously, characters lacked dimension and nuance. Her portrayal of multi- dimensional characters was a leap forward. Plus, her stories were slapstick comedies. Those two elements in one manga really surprised me. Takahashi, were you conscious of this innovation when drawing your manga? Takahashi: I didn't think about it at all. I've always just wanted to have fun drawing manga and hoped that my audience would laugh along. I love shonen manga, and I was reading a lot of that at the time. What Shiina is describing is something I learned from a variety of sources. I think when I began working professionally, I'd been stockpiling inspiration from manga and novels. Those were the elements I wanted to put into my work, and I guess everything just clicked into place.

^ Lum and Ataru from Urusei Yatsura, the manga that inspired Shiina. Takahashi, what was the first manga by Shiina that you read? Takahashi: I read his four-panel joke manga Shiina Department Store. When the series began in Sunday, I thought to myself, "It looks so effortless. How can it be so good when he isn't a veteran manga artist?" I wondered what he had worked on before to get to that level. When Ghost Sweeper Mikami began, I really enjoyed its momentum. Shiiina's work still has that energy. I can tell he puts a lot of thought into his characters. His manga are such a pleasure to read. Those were my first impressions of him.

^ From the short story "Pocket Knight," included in Shiina Department Store, one of Shiina's first works.

Do you think it was the near-professional quality of his work that led you to believe that his first series was effortless? Takahashi: That's right. It just appeared one day in Sunday without any fanfare. I remember reading it uncritically. He was so young yet so professional. Shiina: (LOL). Takahashi herself appeared in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. How did that happen? Shiina: Well, I asked her if I could put her in the manga. (LOL) I wanted to have a 1970s vibe when I flashed back to Mikami's boss's younger days-like a time-travel story. At that time, Narita International Airport was still being built, and the Shinjuku skyscrapers didn't exist. But those details alone would have been boring, so I wanted to add in some of Sunday's history. I told Takahashi that I wanted to include a scene about the moment Urusei Yatsura was born. I asked her permission, and then I went ahead with it. She got mad at me afterwards though. (LOL) Takahashi: He asked me for permission, and I said, "Sure." I let him take care of the rest. (LOL). I think it's another interesting feature of Shiina's storytelling style.

^ Rumiko Takahashi appears from Ghost Sweeper Mikami vol. 37 on. It's totally her!