#NEW DEMON SLAYER EPISODE CAME OUT

[thisisxli]

(KNY SPOILER WARNING)

Oh my God...??

Im genuinely not ready for the rest to be animated, I was already BAWLING in this episode. Oh my god. AND THE ANIMATION IS SO AMAZINGGGG. They did everyone so good in here

Ufotable sold so fucking good omg, I'm so anxious and excited. Get ready to cry your eyes out!

[lovecite]

Your Choice

Kyojuro Rengoku x y/n (fem reader)

It was the choice for any slayer if they wanted keep their blood line going. They dedicated their life to the cause of demon slaying and thus never had chances to settle and marry. Ever focusing on training and serving for the greater good.

But the more families sent their beloved son's to risk their lives the more they realized that their could be a possibility to the end of family lines. An out cry from the families of slain slayers almost made an end to new recruits. Why send our sons to death? You are not only killing them but you are killing our family!

So upon the idea of many of the higher ups it came down to this. Have the slayers and their family come up with a choice of an arranged marriage.

------This is an idea I thought about for demon slayer. Since it's set in a time of where most families required sons to continue their family bloodline by having children. And of course Zenitsu in the episode when he was trying to marry someone because he was going to "die" lol . So, written kinda choppy and fast so please excuse that! --This one was written by me--

theme song that helped my creative juices flow :

*****Princess Jellyfish - Opening - Just Between Us-******

Other songs that helped me get with it~~

Nonsense- Sabrina Carpenter

One & Only- Oliver Tree

Super Shy- NewJeans

Seven- Jung Kook

Your choice

*****🔥*****

You were sold by your family. They were promised if no slayer claimed you they would still be paid monthly. If a slayer claimed you ,she would be welcomed into the family of what ever slayer and your family again would be taken care of. It was a win win but you were the only loser here. And here your story starts of when you meet Kyojuro Rengoku

"I understand that my father has chosen a wife for me, ma'am. " A voice so loud declared . His very voice shook your core . How could someone be so loud? You were seated behind a white cream colored screen seated like a proper women would. Your head was bowed with a white veil draped over your head hiding your features.

You were dressed in the finest kimono's known to your family. A beautiful green emerald with a hint of yellow flowers. Your gaze focused on the grooves of the mat below you trying to focus your breathing because the drumming from your heart drowned out your hearing. This was it. You were going to finally be married and make your family finally proud.. But of course what that was your only choice.

"Y-yes your father and mother actually meet this way as well. One of the most beautiful of stories. It no wonder why your father fell so hard when she pass-" " Ah I see then most of beautiful women have been chosen for this." The boisterous voice interrupted the older women with a hint of an undertone of being bothered it seemed . Your heart felt uncomfortable in your own chest as you waited for this conversation to end. Every time you heard him it grew tighter and tighter.

You had been rejected once before by a Hashira. You could still remember his face being so pale and those blue eyes being so empty. He had wondered in wanting to be married. As soon as he had seen you he walked away with out another word a red blush faint on his cheeks as he walked ever so fast straight out.

Now it seemed all the other women called you a curse. Some making snarky comments to the head mistress of this compound. "She should be taken out back and sold." " I can't believe a pillar rejected her."

The word of a hashira rejecting her spread like wild fire to the other women. And so you heard the slayers had been told the rumors as well. Why? A man with white hair came to you as well. A scar from ear and over his nose. His eyes is what you remembered the most. So wide open as he searched your gaze. Stating he wanted to see why a stoic man would run off from such a beautiful women. He wanted some gossip to throw in the other man’s face but you had none to give. Which of course made the white haired man angry that he had traveled here and was leaving with no juicy gossip.

But it seemed not all had heeded the warning. Because here you sat on the other side of the white cream paper thin wall. Your to be husband on the other side. You dare not look up for fear of more bad luck.

"oh lord Rengoku just as your father!" the older women cackled at a joke the man had stated. Of course this was nothing new. This type of arrangement. It started when their were low numbers of demon slayers. Most wanting to be sure their blood line was not stopped due to being called for this noble deed. “I am honored my father has chosen me for this task. I must state that I do have a mission to go tomorrow. Will this take long?” He asked. A giggled escaped the women’s mouth. “Lord Rengoku , as you know upon signing the agreement you must stay 1 week with your wife. To be sure a heir is produced.” The older women countered. The man hummed . “My apologizes of course.” He responded. “And we have mapped out the girls cycle to be sure th-”

Your face felt hot within seconds at the women’s response. Of course they had to go into every detail but that did not mean you could not be embarrassed that your monthly’s details would be shared to your husband.

“Oh I understand of course what you are saying. It must be this week.” He stated his tone dialing down slightly in a whisper .

You carefully brought your head up slowly. You did not want to ring a single bell that was attached to the veil. Was it wrong for a women to know what her to be husband to look like? Through the veil you could see past the thin fabric and to the creamy white paper thin wall. A single candle on the other side lite and brought a shadow from the the two figures on the other side of this thin papered wall. The outline of the women who took care of us women looked like a big blob while a much thinner one sat in front of them.

You couldn't help but take in the shadows edges. His hair on top of his head seemed like the designs of a child's drawing of the sun. And he sat so proper up straight like a pin needle. Then the shadows moved. You quickly looked back down to the grooves of the mat below your legs. "I feel as if my heart will pounce out of my chest." blurted your so to be husband. The older women laughed before she pulled the sliding door to the side. Finally.

Would he too run off and leave you here?

You dare not bring your eyes upward until the older women ordered you too. So You sat there eyes focused on the floor. "oh yes. One of the most beautiful women we have here sir. A great pick from you father." the women claimed. You felt a tight grasp on your shoulder as you were pulled upwards from the floor. Your legs felt as If you had stepped on millions of needles due to the length of time you were seated. You let out a gasp as you were forced upward. Nearly falling back down a much more gentler grasp around your waist caught you.

"Do be careful how you step." He whispered . You hadn’t thought he was that close to you but when he spoke you could feel the warmth of his breathe on your cheek. You wanted to see him! Your eyes were covered by the damn veil and you struggled to take off the thin scrap of fabric. You could also feel him trying to swiftly take off the veil as well but the fabrics many layers made it hard.

“My faceless wife what a way to meet you.” He joked. "Oh here . Let me help!” the older women countered. The tug made your head go back awkwardly as she yanked it. You closed your eyes quickly as the fabric glided along your face.

“Father choose well. I approve !” Kyojuro remarked as if he were simply talking about a fabric item.

You stayed still in his grasp around your waist. He pulled you close to his chest your hands resting lightly over him. You could feel his every breathe below your palm. And his heart beating so fast. “I am happy once again we have made a great pairing within the Rengoku family!” The older women claimed as she clasped her hands together.

"I will write my father and give great thanks!” he stated as his firm hand around your waist tighten slightly. Your gaze hyper focused on his nice shaved chin. Your eyes shifted to his shoulders and could make out peaks of yellow blonde and red hair. "Please bring your gaze up to mine so that I may finally greet you." His tone soften when addressing you. He gripped your chin carefully with his thumb and pointer finger. He adjusted your head moving your head slightly back. Your gaze slowly taking in his face starting from his chin and then soon upwards.

You felt your breathing had stopped. His striking orange gaze piercing right through you. His bushy brows so pointed. His hair like the sun. His eyes closed as his head tilted slightly to the right and a smile appeared slowly across his face. "I am Kyojuro of the Rengoku family. My father has chosen well." He added to to his greeting. His eyes slowly opened very wide as they flickered like flames to take in your face. "Your kimono is very beautiful. If that is your favorite color I will buy more for you." He mumbled as his gaze fell down to your outfit. You still could not respond to him.

His expressions never wavering as he spoke. His eyes never breaking eye contact with you. " Do not fear me." He instructed as he allowed for you to catch your footing. His arm slipping back from around your waist and to his side. "This ceremony is very fast. Whatever you feel we should not do tell me." of course. If the slayer had accepted the girl it was as if the wedding had happened and they of course had to consummate the marriage. Thus falling into trying to have the child for the continued blood line this .

You however were told that you did not have a choice. So of course you took a step forward placing your hands over his chest. Never breaking out eye contact you slowly went on your tip toes and placed your lips over his. The flame Hashira seemed to pause. His eye brows almost hiding up into his hair line. His heart under your palms beating faster. You sat yourself back on your heels. "Your name?" he asked softly. "I am...."

Should I do another one 😍😍 or should I continue this story 🙃

[coraniaid]

AU: Kendra returns to Sunnydale when she learns that Drusilla isn't dead.

Having Kendra show up as early as possible to have as much of an impact on the course of S2 as she can:

Buffy isn't the only Slayer who dreams about Drusilla still being alive. It takes Kendra a little while to fly out to California though, so she only gets to Sunnydale some time during the events of Innocence. She tries her best not to say 'I told you so' when she hears about the situation with Angel, and not to let slip that she was worried enough about Buffy that she came here without her Watcher's permission, and to hide how impressed she is by the sight of Buffy with a rocket launcher. She doesn't necessarily do a great job of any of those three things.

As both a literal and metaphorical representative of the "Angel's a vampire, he should die" school of thought, Kendra also argues for Buffy using lethal force to stop the werewolf in Phases (at least before they learn the werewolf is Oz), and is much more sympathetic to Jenny/Janna than Buffy is inclined to be (Kendra doesn't know Jenny at all -- she never even met her in canon -- so she doesn't have any personal sense of betrayal and is mostly confused about why everyone is upset because it doesn't actually make any sense that they are). Neither of these things do much to endear her to Buffy (or to Willow, who gets to be jealous of Buffy spending time with another Slayer a whole season ahead of schedule), but maybe Jenny ends up offering Kendra somewhere to stay while she's in Sunnydale (I think the implication is that she previously stayed at Buffy's house while Joyce was out of town buying art, but she can't do that this time).

Kendra and Jenny bonding as the group's two outcasts also means Kendra is there to save Jenny from Angelus in Passion. (Given that Jenny is staying late at the school to research her spell she probably doesn't have the foresight to ask Kendra to come with her for back-up, but what else is Kendra going to do but keep an eye on her?) Kendra herself still doesn't really approve of re-ensouling Angelus, but thanks to her it happens a few episodes ahead of schedule. With his soul back, Angel speed-runs his Season 3 arc and quickly breaks up with Buffy "for her own good" and heads off to brood fight crime be directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many defence attorneys in LA.

Willow is impressed by Jenny's spell to ensoul Angel -- it's a lot more magic than Jenny had admitted to being able to do before -- but Jenny herself probably doesn't let Willow get involved in the magic (certainly not if Giles is also there to help). They both tell her it's too dangerous. But Willow's old friend Amy is still getting into witchcraft around this time, and maybe Willow starts hanging out with her more now that Buffy and Kendra have gotten over their earlier disagreements about Angel and are patrolling together most nights. ("Really," Buffy tells her friends brightly, while explaining unprompted for the fifth time how incredible it is to go on patrol with another Slayer and how they definitely don't need to try to set her up with Scott Hope or anybody else even though she's single now, "We're just good friends.")

Angel's departure doesn't stop Drusilla from trying to wake Acathla. And since Kendra is already in Sunnydale, Sam Zabuto himself has to bring the sword blessed by the knight who first slew the demon to California. Meeting Kendra's Watcher (and learning more about her lack-of-relationship with her parents) prompts Buffy to come out as a Slayer to her mother (after taking care of Acathla and chasing Dru and Spike out of town). In this new context -- no murder charge, Kendra still alive and there for moral support instead of Spike, no impending world-ending deadline and no reason Buffy can't sit down and explain things properly -- Joyce takes the revelation rather better. (Actually, her mom had already picked up that Buffy had broken up with her older boyfriend and started sneaking out after dark to spend time with a girl Joyce doesn't know and whose existence Buffy seemed to be trying to hide, and that Buffy seems a lot happier and more comfortable in her own skin than she did a month or so ago, so when Buffy starts to tell her she has something important to share Joyce thinks she knows what it is already. It takes Buffy a bit longer to figure that part out for herself.)

[qwardivior]

Demon Busters Interlude (1)— Muichirou, Senjurou, and Nezuko!

Next Part>>

<<Previous Part

This took a while but here’s the next installment of the Demon Busters au! This one focuses on Muichirou, Senjurou, and Nezuko. If you aren’t familiar with Demon Busters you can check out the previous part here! In short, this is a modern kny au where people have been dying to demon attacks at alarming rates, so the Demon Slayer Corps went through a massive update and rebrand, now they are called the Demon Busters!

—Lore Dump Incoming!—

In this au Muichirou, Senjurou, and Nezuko are best friends and form an unlikely trio of a demon, a hashira, and a normal kid. The word “normal” is used loosely here since despite coming from a long line of fire hashira, Senjurou Rengoku just can’t seem to get it together. No matter how hard he trained he just couldn’t get a grip on the techniques of fire breathing that have been passed down in his family for generations. As a result, he gave up on it altogether choosing to do what most kids his age do and go to school.

Muichirou and Senjurou were introduced by Kyojuro. They go to the same school, and even though they didn’t seem to get along initially they were able to connect with each other despite the Muichirou’s constant absences and horrible memory. After Senjurou’s brother passed way in the battle with upper moon 3, Senjurou met Nezuko when he was introduced to Tanjirou. He thought Nezuko was strange since she was a Demon Buster despite being a demon herself. It made him wonder, if Nezuko was able to slay demons despite being one what was stopping him from slaying demons? Despite everything, they became fast friends.

If you were to ask these three how they became such close friends in the first place, there would probably be a weird jumble of answers. The truth is, they all met because of Tanjirou in some way. They all knew him, and then they all got to know each other, then one thing led to another and they found themselves hanging out with each other. Muichirou and Nezuko get into all kinds of mischief, demon related or not. Senjurou tries his best to help them but sometimes he just can’t, which is probably why Genya became part of their little group as well. Genya doesn’t come around often, being busy with Demon Busting and all, but there’s never a dull moment when he’s around.

Even though he can’t be around his friends all the time, knowing that they’re there gives Senjurou solace. Before he met them, he felt so lonely all the time. He didn’t really get along with a lot of his classmates at school and talking to his dad was…. Not the best idea. On top of that he couldn’t even get into the Demon Busters. His only true friend was his older brother, (and Ms. Kanroji who came to visit sometimes) but even their friendship didn’t last forever as his death came so suddenly. After he died, Senjurou felt truly alone. Until he met his friends, that is. His brother’s death brought him closer to Muichirou and caused him to meet more people in the Demon Busters. Now, with a life that isn’t perfect, but full of laughter Senjurou isn’t a loner anymore, and he gets a front row seat to the hijinks that ensue in the life of a Demon Buster!

———

Thanks for reading this lore dump! Muichirou, Senjurou, and Nezuko’s friendship is a very important part of this au and they are extremely silly together! Also this isn’t mentioned in the lore dump, but Muichirou is into photography because it helps him with his memory (I’ll tell you more about this later). Thank you guys so much for your support on this silly au! The new episode that came out actually destroyed me since I know what’s about to happen, and this is my way of coping. See you guys in the next one!!

[animesavior]

Clark: “One week ago, Earth faced an alien invasion. You’ve heard different versions of what happened, but we at the Daily Planet have a duty to bring you the truth.” Jimmy: “The truth is that Superman and his cousin [Supergirl] saved us. But they weren’t alone.” Lois: “The people of Metropolis came together to help them, putting aside their differences to protect our home.” Clark: “The invader was defeated, and justice came to those who those who tried to benefit from fear and pain.” Lois: “But even as this brought out the best in many, it brought out the worst in others. And there will always be new threats to face.” Clark: “No one knows what will come next for Metropolis, but there’s one thing we at the Daily Planet know for certain…” Jimmy: “No matter what the future holds…” Lois: “No matter what is thrown at us…” Clark: “We will face it together.” -          My Adventures with Superman (Season 2, Ep. 10)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for the month of July 2024. During these past few weeks, fans got to enjoy the final two episodes of My Adventures with Superman season 2, among other great moments. And as July is the month of San Diego Comic-Con, Toonami viewers got to enjoy some big announcements in regard to several upcoming shows.

During the night of the airing of the penultimate episode of My Adventures with Superman season 2 on July 13-14, #MyAdventuresWithSuperman would trend on the USA on Twitter, while One Piece trended on Tumblr. And during the night of July 20-21, where we saw the season 2 finale of My Adventures with Superman, #Toonami would trend in the US alongside #MyAdventuresWithSuperman and #NarutoShippuden. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr. The night of July 27-28 did not see any trends, as Toonami showcased a MAWS marathon of season 2 during SDCC week.

As for Toonami Rewind, #ToonamiRewind would trend in the US during the broadcasts of July 12, 19, and 26, though on July 19, Sailor Moon and Naruto would also trend in the US, while Naruto also trended on Tumblr. Which isn’t bad, especially considering that on July 26, both the Olympics opening ceremony and Comic-Con were occurring at the same time.

As mentioned, San Diego Comic-Con took place at the end of July, and in case you missed it, Toonami fans got to enjoy several announcements during the convention. The big news was that we got a brand-new show announcement in Rooster Fighter by Shū Sakuratani.

Adult Swim announced that the English dubbed version of Rick and Morty: The Anime will premiere on Thursday August 15 @ midnight EDT/PDT, while the Japanese (with English subtitles) version will air on Toonami on Saturday, August 17 @ midnight.

Also, towards the end of the Rick and Morty panel, Jason DeMarco also revealed that we finally have a release date for Junji Ito’s Uzumaki after several years of delays: September 28, 2024 at 12:30 a.m., following premiere episodes of Rick and Morty: The Anime. Back during Anime Expo 2024, the Uzumaki cast was revealed by Production I.G, with Abby Trott as Kirie Goshima and Robbie Daymond as Shuichi Saito. In addition, Lazarus, the newest work of Shinichiro Watanabe, will be scheduled to premiere in 2025.

Finally, during the Demon Slayer panel on Saturday night, Aniplex announced that Demon Slayer’s third season, the Swordsmith Village arc, will begin airing on Toonami this August 10.

Meanwhile, for those who have been wanting to see more Lycoris Recoil, it’s been announced during the show’s second anniversary program that there are six short films in the works, that will depict the daily lives of Chisato, Takina, and others in the LycoRico cast. While Director Shingo Adachi will return in supervising, each of the six movies will feature different people handling direction and storyboarding, including character designer Imigimuru will be in charge of some of the scripts. A release date is to be announced.

Of course, this won’t be the end of My Adventures with Superman, as DC is hard at work creating the show’s third season, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we’ll have the trending rundown for the first few weeks of August, including the premiere of Demon Slayer's Swordsmith Village arc and the premiere of Rick and Morty: The Anime, out in the coming days, as with other articles and interviews from San Diego Comic-Con coming soon. Until next time, Be sure to register to vote for this year’s elections if you’re eligible and haven’t already, and let’s go Team USA.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

July 12, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#25]

Tweet Counts:

#SailorMoon [2,303 tweets]

July 13-14, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#26]

Tweet Counts:

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [2,539 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#one piece [#8]

July 19, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#17]

#SailorMoon [Trended with #ToonamiRewind]

#Naruto [Trended with #ToonamiRewind]

Tweet Counts:

#SailorMoon [3,307 tweets]

#Naruto [14.3k tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#naruto [#9]

July 20-21, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#7]

#NarutoShippuden [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#8]

July 26, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#2]

Tweet Counts:

#ToonamiRewind [1,552 tweets]

#SailorMoon [4,244 tweets]

#Naruto [8,515 tweets]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to PayPal.Me/DanielLimjoco.

Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[love-sapphirerose]

Yashahime: Awful Sequel

When the first of the information came out that Inuyasha was getting a sequel, everybody was excited but it was a really awful show that was overhyped. It became a failing sequel to the Inuyasha franchise just like Boruto became to the Naruto franchise. It's a show about a hanyo version of kagome and/or rin who inherited the obsessive clingly nature, a hanyo female version of sesshomaru who barely has a personality that doesn't involve slaying and playing the violin, and a weak comic relief shihanyo who inherited her parents worst traits, who are majority of the time always winning fights.

Rushed

Just like with Inuyasha the Final Act, Yashahime was extremely rushed and boring. The Final Act was quickly wrapped up in 1 season as the manga was longer.

2. Constant Copying

In one of kohakuxrin's post there is massive recycling from the previous inuyasha content and especially the final act manga material that wasn't made in the rushed anime. As they

Ex.

1) Mistress Centipede with Mistress Three-Eyes

They're trying to remake the first villain from the past.

2) Hitokon

3) Bone Demon and a Father

4) Cat Demon

5) Meioju

6) Ginka and Kinka

7) Mizuchi and Nuwamatari

8) Nikosen

9) Sayo

10) Yuki and her brother

11) Wakana

12) Kodoku

13) The two onis

14) Snow Panther

15) An incarnation of the main antagonist interested in a member of the dog demon clan

16) Not alone anymore

17) A moth demon destroyed by a hanyo in a mindless state

18) Kao and the bug in the chest

19) Shibugarasus, Toads, Kumogashiras

20) The giant bug with someone within

21) The Rainbow Crystals

- The Silver Crystal was split into the seven Rainbow Crystals so as to seal away Seven Great Yōma. And as Sailor Moon shed a tear for her lover Tuxedo Mask who was mortally wounded, it caused the seven Rainbow Crystals to react and merge into one, forming the Silver Crystal itself. - As Zero shed a tear onto the Sacred Jewel, upon learning the death of Toga whom she was fond of, the seven rainbow pearls came out of it.

22) Chibiusa and the Door of Time

- Chibiusa has a key that leads to the door of time which leads to the future, and she was being hunted by bad guys. - Akuru has a pinwheel that activates the windmill of time opening a path to the future, and he was being hunted by Kirinmaru.

No question in those two because Katsuyuki Sumisawa was involved in the first anime version of Sailor Moon and in the same episodes in which the rainbow crystals assembled and Chibiusa took the Sailor Warriors to the doors of time (episodes 34 and 82).

23) Walking Around Naked

24) Pulling Out A Sword

25) Wondering About Name and Bullying

26) Recycled Moves

In episode 20, 2 lizard yokai attempting to break into the hanyo village look very similar to the two lizard yokai in the original series.

moroha trying to touch rion's ears like kagome with inuyasha's ears.

towa getting mad at homaru and zero for separating her and setsuna like Inuyasha got mad at naraku for separated him and Kikyo.

3. Contrived Powerups

Majority of the time, you would notice that towa, Setsuna, and moroha get these power ups to easily defeat an opponent by emotions or hearing about something.

4. Miroku and Sango's Family

Other than Hisui, they are barely seen.

Miroku spent the majority of the series on a 1000 day training and in the last episodes of the season he was suddenly powerful and taking on the grim butterfly. In episode 22, miroku was easily defeated by zero and had kin'u take his place.

Sango, who was known to be a strong female fighter in the original, was reduced to simply miroku's wife and hisui's, kin'u's, and gyokuto's mother. In the last episode of the final act, sango retired from being a demon slayer but could've come out of retirement to lead the new demon alongside kohaku but instead she's reduced to making mask and supplies. In the last episodes of season 2, sango comes out of retirement to fight with a rushed weapon called the black hiraikotsu.

Hisui could've continued to learn under miroku while being a demon slayer despite kin'u being a monk first. Sango, who was the original owner of the hiraikotsu, should have been the one to inspire hisui to be a demon slayer instead of kohaku. The hiraikotsu doesn't have the abilities it achieved in the final act.

The creators of yashahime decided in season 2 to give hisui feelings for setsuna, making it offiical in episode 48, to make it opposite of riku and towa since hisui is a full blooded human riku is a incarnation of a full blooded yokai.

Kin'u and Gyokuto, who appeared the least in the show, only appear to make a character shine. sango, who is a skilled fighter, didn't even train kin'u and gyokuto in combat as the only thing they do is throw sutras and powders. The creators didn't put any thought into their character designs as kin'u and gyokuto should've had different hairstyles and lengths from each other as the only difference in kin'u's hair was the small ponytail and gyokuto's hair didn't change at all. While kin'u's attire did change, the difference between gyokuto's attire from childhood was her apron and woven sandals.

They could've appeared more in the series and developed their personalities and abilities.

And when shippo appeared again especially in episode 48, kin'u and gyokuto reverted back to their personalities when they were little children.

5. Kohaku and the Demon Slayers

kohaku's face looks like iruka from the naruto franchise. Despite opposite character designs and weapons, rokuta and nansuke barely have personalities and don't even have backstories

How could the demon slayers, especially kohaku and hisui, not know setsuna was a hanyo after seeing her abilities and sensing her aura.

Kohaku and the Demon Slayers really don't think things through sometimes and aren't very bright.

Ex. Nikosen was poisoning a mountain and instead of thinking of other ways to defeat him, the only way they thought to defeat him in their minds was to burn the mountain.

6. Secrets

It seems to me nobody wants to talk about the past.

Despite living in the modern era for 10 years, the higurashi family never mentioned or seen pictures of kagome to towa until she was about to leave for the feudal era.

kaede never told kohaku, hisui, and the other demon slayers that setsuna was a hanyo or was sesshomaru's daughter. After 10 years of not seeing setsuna, kaede never once told her about sesshomaru, rin, or towa and even when she returned she still didn't explain. It only took 21 episodes for kaede to tell towa about rin and even then it was quick information about how they lived together for many years and she disappeared shortly after she and setsuna were born.

kaede never even told moroha about inuyasha and kagome.

I wonder why nobody especially miroku and sango told kohaku about towa and setsuna being sesshomaru and rin's daughters and not even a letter.

Even when kohaku found out about towa and setsuna being sesshomaru's daughters, he only mentioned something to them in episodes 5 and 31.

When miroku first met towa, he was informed that she was setsuna's older sister and instead of telling her about their parents he just stood there silently.

When the higurashi family realized that moroha is kagome's daughter, they never told her information about her and inuyasha and tried to fix this in season 2 especially in episode 28.

7. Underage Pairings

The creators of yashahime really don't care about the sick relationships.

sesshomaru and rin, knew her ever since she was 7-8 years old.

riku and towa, he knew her before she was born

homaru and tamano, kidnapped and tried to force her to love him.

moroha flirting with bokuseno.

I don't have an opinion on hisui/setsuna or hisui/aiya.

8. Rushed and Failed Backstories

They really didn't think much into the childhoods.

In episode 15, towa and setsuna were taken away and placed in a forest for 4 years and moroha was sent away to the koga and ayame by hachiemon.

In towa's childhood after being separated from setsuna, there's not much known as we see her meet sota, have a weight set and trophies to explain her life, a flashback of a pinky promise, and they gave of these rushed memories in episode 36 like they gave kagome rushed memories in the final act.

With setsuna, her being taken away from the burned forest, being accepted into the hidden hanyo village, training under 2 orders, defeated 2 lizard yokai, flash forward 6 years later, a recycled flashback from episode 3, returning to the hanyo village, a quick copy and pasted of episodes 51 and 52 except the soldiers are yokai, and leaving the hanyo village.

With moroha, a quick flashback of her last training day with yawaragi, battling a recycled character kodoku, being sold to jyubei, battling the birds of paradise, and giving quick images of her as a baby in episode 39.

9. Contrived Emotional Moments

The scenes that are supposed to be emotional are bland, rushed, and cringe-worthy.

Ex.

sota and towa's relationship wasn't sad for me as in season 1 and 2 they had very little interactions and were forced.

Ex. in episode 4, sota and towa talking and saying goodbye and in season 2 sota and towa meeting again and goodbye again after he tells he will always see her as his own blood daughter as they transform appearance when they first met.

A female wolf yokai named yawaragi was mentioned in episode 14, appeared as a small cameo at the end of episode 15, and official debut. She has a few flashbacks, a quick fight, then they tried to give us this emotional dying scene of her with moroha but i'm not attached to the character and everything goes back like nothing ever happened except for a new ability.

towa and setsuna tearfully hugging each other and apologizing when setsuna regains her memories.

riku tearfully killing zero.

moroha reuniting with Inuyasha and kagome while towa and setsuna, which is weird for her, tearfully watched.

moroha keeping the black pearl with the beni.

towa and mei's moments plus the final goodbye.

riku confessions of love to towa especially before everyone battles the grim butterfly and him dying.

Inuyasha, kagome, and moroha having a family moment on the bone-eater's well.

rin hugging towa and setsuna while sesshomaru and jaken having a conversation while 2 other families watched them.

towa and Setsuna hugging moroha in their new attires.

towa confronting a disguised riku in jyubei's shop.

moroha hugging Inuyasha and kagome before leaving their home.

Basically episode 48 was one of the worst episodes in the entire two seasons.

10. Terrible Characters

Majority of the yashahime series characters were boring and confusing.

Ex.

In season 1, she looked more like she was the big bad of the series than Kirinmaru, who didn't even act like the villain.

Zero possessed much more of a threat to our main characters, as she is responsible for the forest fire that separated Towa and Setsuna and indirectly separated Moroha from Inuyasha and kagome. She's done various other things, blackmailing Sesshomaru by cursing Rin. She feels very much that she had the same level of connection that she had that the same connection Naraku did with Inuyasha.

zero's back story as well seemed uninteresting and confusing, having feelings towards Toga, and when he dies her love for him drives her to kill his descendants. She could have become more interesting as the series progressed. If the rainbow pearls sealed away her emotions, then why is zero taking revenge on toga's descendants and got angry at sesshomaru's mother.

But that was not the case, as when season 2 aired, is when Zero started to run down downhill by gathering the rainbow pearls, for revenge, kidnapping towa, and basically holding rin's life hostage, and it all ends in episodes 36 and 37.

To start with, Setsuna learns from Rin that she must save Zero to stop the curse from killing her. Really wished we knew that before. Thanks, Rin, which leads into the next episode.

At this point, Zero has been emotionally torturing Towa for the entire night by reminding her of her sadness and suffering, and is pretty much trying to get Towa angry enough so that she can kill her, and in doing so kill Rin. She's almost successful when Setsuna shows up, shows Towa the dream butterfly, and suddenly Towa loses all the anger she has towards zero in a matter of seconds.

towa then thanks zero for what she's done and it is really annoying. zero prepares to kill herself and Setsuna cuts the thread of fate tying Zero to Toga and she removes the curse from Rin and commits suicide by Riku.

All of these in a matter of minutes, they make Zero, this threatening and uninteresting villain and rendered her more pathetic. They had to give her a redemption arc when she's been the most villainous character in this sequel. Kirinmaru felt more like an obstacle the same way Koga was in Inuyasha. But this, this was so dumb, and when I was watching episode 36 and heard what Rin said, I knew what this was leading into but it was so much worse when Towa thanked her for it. She really didn't need to thank the person who separated her from her twin sister and tried multiple times to kill her, sister, and rin because it's just wrong.

The creators of yashahime couldn't even give zero an actual conclusion that fitted with her character, and she's forgiven so easily. You didn't see Inuyasha thanking Naraku for setting him and Kikyo against each other and killing Kikyo, Sango thanking naraku for killing her village and controlling her kohaku, and miroku thanking naraku for cursing his bloodline. Could you imagine how messed up that would have been?

11. Timeline Error and Wrong Ages

The story takes place after 18 years after the final act but they keep getting the timeline wrong.

In episode 3, kaede said the bone-eater's well stopped working after 15 years.

In episode 39, kagome said she hasn't seen her family in 14 years.

Despite the yashahime creators making jaken and the tree of ages saying that rin is supposedly 18, she is really 15.

The true creator, Rumiko Takahashi, explained in databooks that rin is 7-8 years old in the beginning, sota is 8-9 years old, and kohaku is 11 years old.

In the 3 year time skip at the end of the final act rin is 11, sota is 11-12, and kohaku is 14.

4 years later when towa, setsuna, moroha were born, rin would be 15, sota would be 15-16, and kohaku is 18.

When they were 4 years old, Rin was 19, sota was 19-20, and kohaku was 22.

10 years later in the present as they are 14 years old, rin is 29 not 32, sota is 29-30, and kohaku is 32.

The reason the creators tried to age sota and rin up is because they forgot.

12. Copied Information

If you watched yashahime, you would immediately notice the constant copy and pasting from the original series and the final act. They're trying to do this to bring back memorable feelings to the new series.

Ex.

Even though the rainbow pearls were created from the sacred jewel and have its essence, as they just copied lesser powerful versions of it.

towa, setsuna, and moroha fighting mistress three eyes to remember the fight between inuyasha and kagome with mistress centipede.

setsuna not wanting to be a hanyo is a reference of sesshomaru disliking hanyo.

towa being controlled by the hitokon like the little boy, but how did it appear in the modern era without being seen.

setsuna remembering mei thanking her is to remember rin smiling at sesshomaru.

moroha appearing in the room naked without shame just like inuyasha.

grandpa higurashi giving moroha, who had a weird look on her face, a kappa foot just like he gave kagome, who also had a weird on her face, a kappa foot as well.

13. Sesshomaru

Personally, I've never really liked sesshomaru as just like miroku, jaken, sango, especially shippo and kagome. As in yashahime, sesshomaru became bland and terrible.

Out of all of the characters whose personalities and motives changed from the original series, The one who got it the worse was Sesshomaru. Despite him not being on screen for very long in the first season and the currently ongoing second season, he's barely said anything. To be fair, Sesshomaru wasn't having full-blown conversations with everyone, but he at least has some conversations with other characters. Here he barely says anything.

He's also not very emotional, which was the same in the original series, but with what has happened in the second season of Yashahime, you'd think the writers would give him some kind of emotional moments not the sick ones of sesshomaru holding rin when the curse was placed on her in episode 27 and it being taken off her in episode 37.

In season 1, sesshomaru has barely appeared and mostly made short cameos and flashbacks.

Ex. In episode 18, sesshomaru only appeared for a short time to quickly fight kirinmaru, orders jaken to not say anything then they leave.

The plot for him is really bad and doesn't make any sense, sesshomaru takes towa and setsuna shortly after they're born, stay away from them and refuses to help them when they were 4 years because homura and zero, who he can easily defeat, who kill them herself and kill rin, who said she would rather die than let them be sacrificed for her sake, but changed his mind when they were 14 years old. And sesshomaru idiotically listened to jaken sealing into the tree of ages and sealing inuyasha and kagome away into the black pearl because they thought they would go after zero and killer which would also kill rin, even though they would find another way to save her.

Even though, sesshomaru secretly gave setsuna items and tasks over the 6 years she's lived in the hidden hanyo village, he's a terrible father as he doesn't tell them anything, basically an absent father, left towa and setsuna to face kirinmaru and setsuna was killed, completely left the task of setsuna saving rin to her and didn't do anything as kohaku and sota were more fathers to them instead of himself.

The creator of yashahime could've made janis or kaname kururugi canon in the series and giving them a story of how they came to permanently live the feudal era, or a new female character with a background but instead they disgustingly chose rin, a girl he knew since she was 7-8 and mostly treated like a daughter.

In Yashahime, sesshomaru is a terrible husband as he doesn't see rin as an equal and majority of the time still has the father-daughter dynamic and treats her like a pet.

Ex. shortly after towa and setsuna, sesshomaru didn't say a word to rin and took the twins without a single explanation to anyone other than a rite of courage and cowardice, commanded her to follow him and stay like a dog especially in episodes 46 and 47 when he commanded her watch him battle kirinmaru, and even in episode 48 when he still ordered him to follow him. The only time sesshomaru is ordered around is in episode 35 by rin.

In season 2, sesshomaru majority of the time just stands and watches things happen for plot, even when he's in the grim butterfly, in a coma, and letting others such as towa, setsuna, and moroha to do the work.

For an example, In Inuyasha, the final act, when they are in the underworld and Kohaku tells him that Rin isn't breathing. Sesshomaru shows genuine fear and concern, which I believe is the only time he acts this way. Then when he learns that Tenseiga can't revive her, he blames himself for it and says that nothing was worth losing her. It's one of the most powerful moments for Sesshomaru and shows just how far he's come. Whether you see Sesshomaru care towards Rin as Fatherly or not, this scene shows just how much he cares for her.

Let's compare that to in Yashahime.

After Sesshomaru kills the dream butterfly, it causes the Silver scale curse to spread more quickly, which will eventually kill Rin. She's pretty much dying in front of him, and he has no way to stop it himself. So how does he act?

He says nothing, even when she talks to him and he keeps the same face.

sesshomaru separated moroha from inuyasha and kagome for 14 years and the one who gets scolded for badmouthing him was inuyasha, who was rightfully so, and he was instantly forgiven, kagome saying 'i'm sure he had his reasons', sat inuyasha, and scolded him for blaming towa and setsuna, even though he wasn't. setsuna also shouldm't have to apologize on sesshomaru's behalf.

He later kills the dream butterfly to motivate Setsuna to be able to use her Yukari no Tachikiri, which nearly causes Rin to die because of him and finally, he doesn't go and save Towa when she is being tortured all night by Zero and Nanahoshi by his minature galaxy.

It feels like they were trying to frame it as Sesshomaru could be genuinely working with Kirinmaru, but in doing so, they make him look like he's the worst father of the year. And with how long this mystery dragged out, it didn't make Sesshomaru look any better.

It definitely it's completely different writing when it comes to Sesshomaru in both series, with Inuyasha, Rumiko wrote him a clear goal and a conclusion. In Yashahime, they're trying to one-up the audience with their mystery and are unintentionally wreaking his entire character.

14. Not Naming Characters

Despite new characters such as moe higurashi, mei higurashi, and aiya receiving names there are lot of characters that still don't have names such as sesshomaru's mother, weasel man, gokoku village headman, northern demon slayers leader, the granny, the lady, the muscle, the ninja, and so many others.

Despite knowing that his name is toga, they still refer to him as the great dog demon.

15. Nerfed

Just like Boruto and Dragon Ball Super, the power scaling doesn't make any sense. In Super, beerus, who is a god, is fighting goku, who turned into a super saiyan god, after a period of time transforms back into a simple super saiyan but doesn't make any sense that he can still can fight beerus, they tried to explain away this through beerus but it doesn't work. In Boruto, there have been many multiple fights where the older generations are nerfed to make the younger generation shine like when jugo hit konohamaru and he couldn't move for a few days but when jugo hit boruto he easily recovered, when karin had to become weak with her chakra chain in order for sarada to be strong, or when in the time travel arc with urashiki that sasuke was constantly weak in order for a genin naruto, boruto, and jiraiya to shine. It also happens in more sequels like in yashahime.

Ex.

kirinmaru, who is equal to toga, can receive massive injuries from towa and setsuna, hanyos, and moroha, a shihanyo.

Zero, who possessed all of her 7 rainbow pearls that contain her immense yokai power that can summon an even greater demonic power that is far too strong and dangerous to even exist and the essence of the sacred jewel, can easily be killed by a feral towa.

The grim comet/grim butterfly, that has vast amounts of demon energy that it took toga, kirinmaru, sesshomaru, and inuyasha to defeat small fragments of it, was being completely held back by miroku and kagome, not even combined can match midoriko and kikyo.

towa creating the twin azure dragon wave but not sesshomaru.

16. UnInteresting Fights

Majority of the fights are boring and rushed.

Ex.

In season 1, you would notice that more than half the fights are recycled from the final act manga and the original series.

towa battling the human boys.

totetsu battles against miroku, hisui, towa, and setsuna.

totetsu and riku battling each other.

In season 2, the fights are stale and lack originality.

towa and setsuna battling rock fiends.

riku and rion battling kirinmaru.

osamu battling riku and towa.

Ex. In the final fight against kirinmaru and sesshomaru, the fighting moves sesshomaru uses are recycled from his fight against magatsuhi.

17. Bland Characters

Most of the yashahime characters lack character and are boring.

Ex.

Despite Raita and Futa having their parents killed by different species, different abilities, and opposite appearances, they're basically the same as one said something and the other agrees and repeats what the other said, they say 'take this' and attack. Raita and Futa's appearances didn't put much thought into them and when they're older the difference they get is armor.

With Mei Higurashi, we're told about her personality from towa but she's annoying and reminds me of kagome and rin when she wants to run into dangerous situations to resolve problems, bossy, and whiny.

Moe Higurashi rarely has a personality as the naive overly cheerful person that reminds us of ms. higurashi and her appearance looks like a light brown haired kagome and the only thing we know about her is that she's a traveling violinist.

takechiyo wasn't much of a character as is a less annoying version of shippo and a boring background story with his twin brother.

18. Sudden Recovery

In the original, inuyasha sustained damages from powerful and mst of them took him a while to heal but in yashahime mostly everyone, including towa, setsuna, and moroha, heals instantly from their injures even hisui.

It feels like when characters are facing powerful enemies they instantly get up without a scratch despite having injuries. I know they're hanyos from a powerful dog demon but it's contrived.

Ex. setsuna becomes injured after being restrained by mistress three eyes but quickly recovered to defeat her.

towa was weak after being released from hitokon's control but instantly recovered when setsuna wanted to remove the hitokon from mei's face.

miroku battled gaga gozen and was instantly defeated and weakened but instantly recovered when he battled setsuna.

In episode 18, towa, setsuna, and moroha battled kirinmaru and easily lost but instantly recovered.

19. Plot

The plot was really stupid and to be dramatic.

Ex.

In season 1, ever since episode 2 when towa and setsuna separated, they constantly remind us for drama by memories and/or through other people in episodes 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 20, especially episodes 8, 10, and 14.

placing a seal on setsuna and her main weapon to keep her demon blood in check but during the series she's never fully tries to master it, only a small piece of it known as the blood blade. they made setsuna have a seal but not towa, that's not fair.

Throughout season 2, everyone was saying that towa needed to fight with a demon weapon and not something made by humans but at the last episodes she's fighting with the kikujmonji, a weapon made from humans.

moroha getting through mount musubi's barriers.

In episode 17, setsuna, who doesn't even know anything about sesshomaru and the dog demon clan, suddenly knows the dog demon clan is capable of discovering demonic energies from a distance with their unusually sharpened sense of smell but in episode 23 she questions her clan.

In episode 24, riku stabbing kirinmaru, who had his guard down, to weakened him for towa, setsuna, and moroha and towa stabbing kirinmaru.

In episode 24, setsuna dying so towa and moroha can instantly power up.

In episode 38, towa, setsuna, and moroha attacking kirinmaru and sesshomaru taking kirinmaru's attack and sending them into the black pearl.

In episode 39, kirinmaru showing up and demanding sesshomaru to come out before battling inuyasha, kagome, and moroha.

osamu kirin, who barely appeared in the series, was suddenly the villain of the last episodes of season 2.

riku and rion battling kirinmaru and later riku, who was heavily injured, easily taking rion away from kirinmaru.

In episode 47, towa dying so rion can face fear who ended up dying again anyway.

It doesn't make any sense, Rin was stuck in the tree for 4 before the silver scale curse slowly started to spread but suddenly when the dream butterfly was killed it spread all over her body within a few episodes.

20. Rushed Abilities

The abilities within the yashahime series are quickly inherited and lackluster.

Ex. towa instantly receives the energy blade after meeting the mistress three eyes.

towa receiving the azure dragon wave.

after myoga explains inuyasha's tessaiga absorbing demon energy, towa instantly receives the skill to absorb demon energy with her energy blade.

moroha receiving the crimson backlash wave.

towa receiving twin azure dragon wave.

In the original, the tenseiga was able to revive people once with no time limit as it revived goshinki and rin but in yashahime they decided to give it a stupid 1 hour time limit.

setsuna quickly mastering the yukari no tachikiri after 2 incidents with sea snake woman and mayonaka.

towa instantly mastering the zanseiken.

setsuna instantly achieving vermilion bird ambush.

moroha instantly mastered the bow she received from her parents.

21. Background Characters

The creators of yashahime really didn't put any thought into what to do with the characters.

Ex. The higurashi family basically didn't do anything as in episode 2 they were just get kidnapped and standing there and in episode 3 when towa, setsuna, and moroha were interacting with each other, all they did was silently standing there and didn't speak to them.

With shiori, they barely changed anything about her appearance except she now wears woven sandals and different hairpins and worst short as she doesn't and let's little children fight for her.

With koga and ayame, they only make a very small non-speaking cameo at the end of episode 15 and don't even have children of their own.

22. Hairstyles

The creators of yashahime really didn't put much thought into most hairstyles such as takechiyo, kikunosuke, kin'u, gyokuto, rion, and futa have the same styles.

23. Bad Animation

In episodes of season 1 and 2, you can see multiple terrible animation mistakes.

Ex. Setsuna flying away from towa and moroha.

zero laying on the ground and rin coming out from her slumber when zero died.

[otomesakura20]

The Infinity Castle

6th installment of my InuHaru in the Demon Slayer universe.❤️

So this project is the reason I didn’t post a new one yesterday. The background was ( and I knew it was going to take forever.😮‍💨) time consuming lol. The Infinity Castle is not a easy thing to draw and I’m sure artists and animators that animated that part in the last episode of the current season for Kimetsu no yaiba had a time putting it together I give mad props to lol. But I still attempted it because I thought it would be fun and something I’ve never drawn before.😁 Also I really wanted to do this project. It came out so good.🥹🥲 Now as I said this is based on the last episode of the current season for Demon Slayer but I have to admit I haven’t watched yet or read the manga at all but I’m patiently waiting for the episodes to drop on Netflix and I hope to get the manga some day. I did unfortunately see spoilers on social media.🥲 Kind of ruins it for me lol but oh well. Anyway the last scene of the final episode gave me inspiration to do another InuHaru project and I plan to add the background music on Facebook, Instagram, and if I can find it on tumblr. So if you want to hear the epic ending music with this project feel free to swing by and see it. Also this is not the end for this as I plan to keep coming up with new ideas for this series.😁 I also have to add that Muzan’s final battle location looks so much more amazing then Naraku’s. I absolutely hate spiders so I wasn’t a fan of his final battle place lol.

[animebw]

Short Reflection: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a masterpiece and I kind of hate it.

It's a weird position to be in, I admit. My opinions of the first season of JJK weren't very intense: I liked it a lot, despite my many criticisms, and that was that. Just another mega-popular shonen elevated by a top-tier smorgasboard of action scenes and some truly excellent ass-kicking action girls. It certainly didn't feel like a show that would ever be worth expending as much thought as I've been doing the past couple months over the course of the Shibuya Incident. But somewhere between the first season's release and Jujutsu Kaisen becoming the third-biggest anime on the planet behind Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer, my feelings started curdling, so subtly that I barely even noticed until the second season came out and dragged them up to the surface. I love Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, I hate Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, it's one of the most triumphant and one of the most existentially depressing anime I've ever watched. It is, for better and worse, the most important anime of the 2023. And it's gonna take a very long time for me to fully parse out why.

From the outside, you might be thinking, "Gee, what did this show do to shake your opinions up so violently? It must've really gone in a different direction that completely upended what it's even about." But no. Quite the opposite, in fact; the Shibuya Incident arc that dominates season 2 after a brief flashback story is about as straightforward an arc as you can imagine. It's a single, massive, sprawling brawl across the streets of Shibuya, sorcerers and curses duking it out all over the map with the fate of golden boy Satoru Gojo on the line. It's nothing but fight after fight after fight after fight with increasingly broken superpowers and collateral damage, escalating to absurd degrees and never letting off the gas. Yes, there's a lot of consequential stuff that happens in this arc, but on a moment to moment basis it's as pure an action experience as anime has ever accomplished. No complex political factions, no deep symbolism or themes, just the sheer chaos of watching a city come undone under the collective onslaught of this superhuman war.

And it fucking rules.

The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen was already a marvel in the action department, don't get me wrong. But under the new direction of Shouta Goshozono, who's been responsible for some of the absolute best-directed anime episodes in recent years, that experience has gone absolutely nuclear. Every episode is astonishing in a different way, every fight pulls out some new animation technique that completely changes the timbre of the action, every scene is directed so uniquely and specifically that it's impossible to forget. As good as season 1's action was, it favored consistency over creativity and didn't really get to flex the true insanity that these curses and cursed powers are capable of. But season 2 fully embraces every animator's individual quirks and lets them run absolutely buckwild with it. Yuji's bathroom brawl with Choso is a searing cyberpunk-tinged smackdown. Sukuna's long-awaited return is a kaleidoscopic nightmare that feels pulled straight from a particularly nihilistic episode of Mob Psycho 100. Megumi's big spoileriffic fight paint the streets in surreal chaos reminiscent of early Masaaki Yuasa. And almost every single episode has this level of hyper-specific visual panache put into it. It is, without hyperbole, one of the most jaw-dropping achievements in anime spectacle of all time

And that's just the action scenes! That's not even counting how goddamn amazing this show looks outside of combat now! If you go back and watch season 1, it tended to play things really safe visually when it wasn't kicking up a fight. Conversation scenes and down moments are mostly functional-but-boring collections of shots that get the job done without leaving much of an impression. But with Goshozono at the helm, every single moment, from the most explosive showdowns to the simplest character-building conversations, is infused with life. Off-kilter camera angles imbue every line of dialogue with infinitely more meaning. The editing constantly catches you off guard in the best ways with how it draws your focus through a scene. There's some of the loveliest loosey-goosey comedic chibi animation I've seen in a long time. Every scene is distinct, every scene pops, every scene feels like its own unique entity in this mesmerising arthouse collage of styles and talents crashing together in somehow perfect harmony. I can think of very few shows in recent years that have looked this incredible and this experimental on such a consistent basis.

Which is wild enough on its own, but there's an additional level to this: Jujutsu Kaisen is pulling out all these experimental, ecclectic techniques in a mainstream shonen anime. And that just never happens. Mainstream shonen shooting for broad appeal never play things this risky and outside-the-box with their visual presentation. Sure, most of them look good with all the money pouring into them, but they also look, well, like Jujutsu Kaisen season 1. They're polished and pretty with all the edges sanded off and nary a risk taken, content that being flashy and detailed can make up for a standard visual palette. But JJK season 2 has taken the kind of aesthetic you'd normally see in underground cult classics from offbeat animators too rebellious to fit into the industry machine and translated it to the widest audience imaginable. It's introduced genuine artistry to this playing field, marrying the mainstream and the hipster and making it look like child's play. It's pushed the visual boundaries of mainstream shonen far beyond what they used to be, expanding what the most popular genre of anime can look like on a level I don't think we're fully prepared for. Imagine how many future adaptations will take cues from the course this season has charted. Imagine how creative, how experimental, the future of shonen anime might be thanks to JJK. That's a cause for celebration no matter how you look at it.

And yet.

And yet, there's a question I've been unable to stop thinking about ever since the Shibuya Incident really got underway: if it weren't for the masterpiece production... would I even like this arc?

And unfortunately, I think I know the answer.

Let's be brutally honest for a moment: Jujutsu Kaisen's biggest problem is, has been, and always will be that this show does not know how to goddamn focus. It's constantly introducing and throwing out plot points at seemingly random intervals, changing tracks and abandoning story threads before they're fully realized, even outright contradicting itself on a whim on multiple occasions. Hey, remember those two normal friends Yuji had back in the very first episode who he seemed to have a good relationship with and liked hanging out with? Well, JJK hopes you don't, because they completely vanished after the first episode and Yuji never so much as mentions them again, as if they never existed in the first place. Then it feels like it's setting up a classic shonen power trio with Megumi and Nobara, except then Yuji dies and has to hide his resurrection for another eight episodes so they never really develop as a group dynamic. Plus there was building up Junpei as a new friend-turned-antagonist only for him to get axed right off the bat, though at least that one tried to make some kind of thematic sense so it's not as egregious. But when you take a bird's-eye view of the whole unfolding story, it really becomes apparent how many times Jujutsu Kaisen will stop dead in its tracks, say "actually nevermind," and completely change direction, leaving whatever it was in the middle of developing to wither and die.

And if that was a problem in season 1, then good fucking god does season 2 push it into absurdity. There's a genuinely excellent five-episode prequel arc that finally gives a sense of stakes and thematic weight to one of the show's most central relationships... only to reveal mere episodes later that one of those people is already dead, and all the potential story threads that could've sprung from the seeds planted by Hidden Inventory are stamped out before they've even got a chance to bloom. One of the dead characters from that flashback arc is brought back in absurdly convoluted way and set on a collision course with the character from the present they have the most connection to, setting up a confrontation with real emotional weight for both participants... except then he just dies again without it ever mattering. There's an out-of-nowhere romantic subplot that only starts mattering when one participant is already on the verge of death and only matters to the other when she's mourning his loss despite them never having shared a scene before. Not to mention a major fucking character death that comes so out of nowhere it's genuinely hard to emotionally wrap your head around it and is possibly undone literally minutes later because???

Look, being chaotic and messy doesn't have to be a death knell, especially for shonen. So much of what made Hunter x Hunter work so well is leaning into the sheer messiness of its world and characters, letting them push each other in bizarre, risky directions that a more traditional story structure might not have the guts to pull off. But this doesn't feel like intentional chaos, it feels like Gege Akutani just doesn't know what kind of story they're trying to tell, changing their mind every other episode and undoing whatever plot threads they were starting to set up because they realized they weren't interested in continuing them. And it absolutely murders the emotional throughline of this show. Every potentially interesting, meaningful idea it brings up has a 50/50 chance of being hastily written out of the plot the second the author gets bored, leaving all that investment feeling wasted and pointless. At some point, it becomes hard to emotionally engage with anything the show tries to pull; why bother taking the risk when there's no guarantee it's even going to be paid off, let alone paid off well?

And the longer I sit with that feeling, the more it pricks at a far more frustrating question: why Jujutsu Kaisen? Why was this story, out of all the potential options, the one chosen for a once-in-a-decade animator's wet dream? Why were mostly flat antagonists like Mahito and Sukuna given spectacular enough fight scenes to sell their menace in a way the writing itself barely accomplishes? Why was Miwa and Mechamaru's half-finished sketch of a romantic subplot deserving of enough evocative, wrenching filmmaking to almost manage an emotional response in spite of its utter lack of development? Why spend all this time, effort, and crushing human misery polishing a deeply flawed story to a mirror shine instead of giving an already good story the royal treatment it actually deserves? Why is this worth dragging Mappa's animators through the fires of hell for? I mean, not that any show would be worth the apocalyptically bad working conditions Mappa's corporate masters force on their employees to fatten their own bank accounts- seriously, can we figure out how to unionize the anime industry already?- but with all the horror stories coming out of this mismanaged production, it's hard not to look at the end result and wonder: Really? This is what we've decided to bleed so many people dry for?

Of course, that question's also fairly rhetorical. I know the reason Jujutsu Kaisen gets this kind of treatment when plenty of far more deserving shows have to settle for scraps: because it's a shonen. And shonen will always be favored by the moneymaking powers that be as long as the people making those decisions are traditionalist old men who don't see women and girls as a viable demographic. We're finally coming out of years-long drought for shoujo and josei anime, a stretch of time when almost no works targeted at women and girls were given anything above a shoestring budget and C-tier production schedule, and yet shonen has never once failed to be given all the tools it needs to devour the competition. Trite, treacly mush like Demon Slayer is given enough polish to become an era-defining blockbuster while the possibility of a Yona of the Dawn season 2 becomes an increasingly painful impossibility. And Mappa itself, a studio that first made a name for itself by winning the hearts and wallets of women and queer audiences with Yuri on Ice, has put the sequel film to that cultural phenomenon on indefinite hiatus as it grinds its animators into dust churning out shonen adaptation after shonen adaptation. Because even the biggest smash hit imaginable, the show that made this studio a household name in the first place, doesn't matter if it doesn't cater to the only audience that the industry really seems to care about.

It's all of this I can't help but think about as I watch Jujutsu Kaisen top itself over and over again. In every mind-blowing fight scene, in every stunning display of cinematic brilliance, in every skill and talent the animators pour on screen, I see the countless other, more deserving shows that could've been something special with just a fraction of this support. Just this season alone, we had I'm in Love With the Villainness and Shy, two female-forward anime with far more compelling ideas and stories that could've been genuine hits if they hadn't been flopped out with the most cardboard productions imaginable from studios that just didn't have the time or energy to do them justice. Imagine if just a few of the people pouring their souls into prettying up Supernatural Boys Punch Demons Version 347 were able to offer their talents to those shows instead. Imagine if a beloved shoujo, yuri, or BL manga getting slapped with a bargain-bin production inspired as much outrage as a shonen adaptation having only a small handful of animation cuts below spectacular (Yes, I still remember how stupid the Chainsaw Man anime discourse got). Imagine if this industry favored stories for women even half as much as it valued stories for men. Hell, I'd even be partly satisfied if blockbuster shonen anime just stopped treating their female casts so abysmally. And JJK used to be one of the few to manage that! What the hell happened between that first season and now, Gege? Nobara deserved better, god dammit!

This is the contradiction of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. It's a masterclass of artistry that raises the bar for animated action everywhere, given to a story that doesn't deserve the honor of bearing it. It's a showcase of the most talented people working in this industry today, all putting their best efforts in to the least interesting project they could be providing their talents to. It's a mediocre franchise elevated to spectacular heights at the cost of potentially reaching even higher with a more worthy source material. It's all this industry's imagination and all its laziness, all its ambition and all its cowardice, rolled into a single shining exemplar of anime's infinite possibility that doubles as a condemnation of its priorities. And I've spent this entire season laughing with glee at at the heights it's reached while I feel my enthusiasm for the overall show slowly bleed away. Never before have I been left so in awe of what this medium is able to accomplish, yet simultaneously so exhausted by its unwillingness to spread that effort evenly.

In the end, Jujutsu Kaisen is both the greatest success and the greatest failure imaginable. As a showcase of animated spectacle from the industry's most talented up-and-comers, it's a landmark achievement that will rightly go down in history. As a continuation of Jujutsu Kaisen, it's a death knell for this story ever being worth more than the sum of its parts. And as a representation of where this industry currently stands, it just leaves me sad, tired, and hollow. It will be a long time before we get a show as singular and staggering as this again. I just hope next time, all this talent and effort goes toward a story that can actually do something meaningful with it. Until then, though, I give JJK Season 2 a score of:

7.5/10

[a-iya]

Hiii ＼(ﾟ∀ﾟ)／

Sooo what do you think about the Haikyuu! Movie without knowing anime? 😀

(I'm sending this ask to discuss our impressions in the comments (and recommend this series a bit haha)

Have a nice day ♡

hiiii!! i didn't realize this was going to become a full-on essay so 💀 apologies in advance for the long-windedness. i don't blame you if you don't feel like reading all the way through lmao (there is a tl;dr at the end if that's the case)

my sister actually got into haikyuu after S1 (pretty much a decade ago at this point 😭) so i've at least known about it and understood the gist of it for a while now. i myself didn't get into anime until a few years ago though! so i've been slowly building up my watch catalog. normally i like funny animes so haikyuu definitely fits the criteria, but due to the fact that 1) it's a sports anime 2) i have very little interest in sports and 3) there would be a LOT of episodes to catch up on, it's just been sitting in my to-watch list for years lmaooo

as i started to follow more people on tumblr, i also started to see more haikyuu content, so i recognized some characters just by their appearance (hinata [obviously], but also kenma, kageyama, and atsumu miya [the guy with the undercut, who i don't remember seeing in the movie]). but anyway, my sister had been saying she wanted to watch the movie once it came out. and over the weekend, i happened to see a lot of people posting about going to watch the movie so i told her we should go! and so we did!

the movie was so hilarious and i thoroughly enjoyed watching!! the rivalry between the 2 teams was sooo funny. i knew i was going to like the movie, but it did end up being a little bit fast-paced for me cause i basically dived in with like. 0.4 background,,,, like ya girl was strUGgLinG trying to keep up. but that's no one's fault but my own 😔 i was kind of hoping it'd be like the demon slayer mugen train movie (which is actually what got me into anime! but that's besides the point). where the premise would be simple enough that you wouldn't need that much context before watching. i knew the movie would basically be just one really long volleyball game so i figured it would be fine... alas, i was wrong 😭 i don't know the rules of the game or any of the characters/their positions so it was all i could do to just watch and try to understand everything as it was happening ;-;

another thing i wanna mention is that now that i've long since graduated from my "beginner weeb" phase and become a full-on weeb, i'm familiar with a lot of voices and voice actors so it's difficult for me to see new characters and their voice actors (that i already know from somewhere else) as one entity 🤔 i'm not sure if that makes a lot of sense ><

for example: the whole time we were watching the movie, i felt like kenma sounded a lot like yuki kaji (who voices shoto [mha] and eren [aot])?? but also didn't at the same time. it was bothering me the whole 2 hours but i looked it up after it was over and i was right 😩

i also immediately recognized kuro as gojo [jjk]/hawks [mha]/greed [fma]; so kuro wasn't even kuro to me, he was just a volleyball au gojo with a completely different look 😭 i feel like that kind of gets in the way of my viewing experience personally, because i couldn't pause and think about where i know this voice from (like i usually do when i start a new anime). but it bOThERs mE because it's like on the tip of my tongue and my mind caNnOT rEST until i confirm my suspicions 😩

anyway, going in, the only people i knew about were like. hinata and kageyama... and it was surface-level knowledge at best. but i've seen kenma around enough where i recognized his character design so i thought i might like him. and he ended up being super cute!! i loved him, but i also really loved kuro (he is very handsome 🥰) and the tall glasses guy from karasuno. he was funny as fuck. but i'm definitely interested in watching the show to see what other lovable goofs the story has to offer. i'm always on the hunt for more blorbos

tl;dr basically i loved the movie, i thought it was really funny; now i have to actually watch the show so i can really enjoy the experience the movie had to offer. the production was honestly great. my sister wants me to get caught up so we can watch it again while it's still in theaters lmao. we'll have to see about that... the first 2 seasons are 25 eps each and then there are at least a few more seasons (even if they are less eps) after that 💀 when i got into mha last year, i was able to blast through 6 seasons within a week,,, but that costed me 3 full days worth of binge-watching and several work nights to catch up 😩 idk if i can do that again

thank you for the ask and interacting with me 🥺🫶 i know your day just started so i hope it goes well!! have a nice rest of the week also <3

[bogkeep]

last year i wrote my opinions on all the movies i watched on my Very Long Flights to australia, since long flights are a great opportunity to watch some movies i probably wouldn't have bothered to seek out otherwise. here's the stuff i watched this time around

the first 13 episodes of rurouni kenshin: okay so back when i watched demon slayer for the first time i asked around like "does anyone know any other Good Sword Animes. i'm in a big mood for Sword Anime" and a friend told me that they were going to tell me about THE sword anime, but with a BIG caveat. and the caveat was such that i went "ah yeah maybe i won't look into that one". i've since heard more about this series and been very curious about the story, because it sounds like My Shit. i figured in-flight entertainment is probably one of the more ethical ways to watch it, and i have confirmed that it is indeed My Shit. extremely skilled swordsman torn between his bloody past and a new life? he can win any fight, but at the cost of his soul? yeah. yeah. will say that the subtitles left in a lot of japanese terms and words that i think i would've greatly benefited to know the meaning of - like i figured it out from context eventually, but yeah. so Now I Know. at least my curiosity is sated.

the new wonka movie - it was Fine! i appreciated the sincere efforts of whimsy and trying to stick to a roald dahl-esque tone, though in hindsight it's ENTIRELY too magical and sugary sweet (hah). could definitely have done without the fatphobia - something that is very present in the source material, so i shouldn't have been surprised that it features in the prequel, too... it just made me go "nooo noooOooooo don't do that uuughhh noooooooooooooooooooo" a lot. honestly, as far as vibes go, this movie reminded me the most of the first f*ntastical beasts movie (you know, the one that came out in 2016, when we were still young and innocent) - like, decently charming, very cgi.

the old willy wonka movie - i had never seen this one before, and it provided me a lot of context for the New movie :') now THIS really hits the Unhinged Dangerous vibes the new movie lacked. easily the best played willy wonka. a grand old time. i <3 practical effects.

3/4ths of the barbie movie rewatch - is the barbie movie still fun to watch, even after a year of Essays and Takes? i think so. i was in a practical effects mood and had less than two hours left of my flight. like, it's The Barbie Movie. it will never be That Deep because it cannot escape its corporate mainstreamness, but i love the actual play-pretend whimsy and exorbitant amount of pink paint and funky outfits.

killers of the flower moon - i'd considered watching this on my previous flight, i had heard of the movie and put it on my to-watch list, but the THREE HOURS AND TWENTY SIX MINUTES runtime scared me off. not because i didn't have time (my flights were 12 hours and 7,5 hours respectively), but because i knew it was gonna be Heavy and Depressing and you gotta have the right mood for three hours of That. both of my flights had the exact same entertainment catalogues i gave it a try first thing on flight #2, knowing i don't have to finish it if i don't want. it was very good but oh boy heavy and depressing was correct! really good buildup of dread and despair as the web of murder closes in like water circling the sink. very good period piece, and everything i've read about it after indicates that martin scorsese worked very closely with the osage people to create this movie.

the lego movie rewatch - this is one of my favourite movies that i've seen many times but haven't in a while, and after the Three Hours And Twenty Six Minutes of indigenous people getting poisoned and murdered i REALLY needed something light-hearted. i was also severely sleep deprived at this point. all this to say that i was almost overwhelmed by how fun this movie is and kept tearing up at almost every scene. it's just such a good time!!!! my critique of this movie has always been that it has two tropes that annoy me - the "highly competent girl is reduced to an assistant for the clueless 'chosen one' dude" and "person who has changed their name goes back to use their ~*real name*~ because it's more valid than whatever they picked" - that only annoy me because of how prevalent they used to be at the time when this movie came out. in isolation, the story works really well and i still like it so so much. everything is awesome!!!!!!

anyway those are my movie thoughts

[princessamahle]

Name: Amahle Dingila

Age: 20

Hair color: Black and blue

Occupation: Demon Slayer and frost hashira

Combat Style: frost breathing

Relative(s: father Motsamai

unamed mother

the youngest out of four sisters

eye color: teal

height: 5'6

Birthday: December 1

Race: Human

place of origin: lesotho

ethnicity: Basotho

Amahle Dingila is a demon slayer corps member rank of a hashira. She has come to japan after reports of demons scattering internationally by muzan kibutsuji to a landlocked country in lesotho. He visited the country to possibly find traces of the blue spider lilies due to lesotho's many rare plants. When he couldn't find it he started to examine the country as a whole and saw many black civilians. he was disgusted by their way of living but thought to have a few civilians as guinea pigs for turning into demons as he saw they were a hardworking group of individuals trying to survive the harsh winters. once news of demons broke out in the country, many basotho tribes tried to stay vigilant of their now invested country. The monarchy got involved and tried to find direct solutions of the problem. Until Amahle's father, prince Motsamai traveled to japan for a solution. he came across Sakonji Urokodaki who taught him the techniques of water breathing. He created his own breathing style from water breathing and turn it to frost breathing. He took final selection and stayed a slayer for a couple of years. When he felt ready he asked permission by Ubuyashiki Family heir of that time to head home to protect his people and train them to become slayers of their own. The establishment was good for decades until Motsamai was married and had children of his own. All daughters. None of them was interested in learning frost breathing except his youngest daughter Amahle. Who was very close to her father. She traveled back and fourth to japan with him to learn all about it. And the slayer corps. She met all of her dad's slay partners. Including sakonji urokodaki Jigoro Kuwajima and shinjuro rengoku. Shinjuro thought the child was so adorable and well behaved he saw her as a daughter of his own and offer to arrange a marriage between his son kyojuro and Amahle for a stronger clan between frost breathers and flame breathers. She met a young kyojuro who was so loyal to his father he didn't care whether he loved the girl or not. So he treated her like a princess which annoyed Amahle greatly. Unfornately, when Amahle was 12 years old, demons raided her parents palace back home in lesotho. Everyone was murdered in her family and all she could see was a woman carrying a biwa who'd smile at the child gracefully. She never forgot the woman's face. Word got out about the child's traumatizing episode and unfortunately due to her age she had to go into hiding for her safety and wait till she's of age to become heir. Amahle stayed with Sakonji urokodaki after he got word from the crows that a fellow hashira of his had been murdered. He came for Amahle and took her back to raise and continue her training with him while in healing she met a young giyu and sabito who saw her like a little sister. They went off to final selection as she was still in training. A year later when she was fully recovered and ready she took final selection where she met her childhood friend kyojuro. They both succeeded together and became official demon slayers. overtime they grew up and slaying together and became more stronger than ever before. However kyojuro still felt it was his duty to protect his future wife even if she didn't need it. A year after Kyojuro became a hashira, Amahle moved up to hashira along with mitsuri kanroji. A tsuguko that kyojuro had been training under his wing. They became the best of friends quickly due to interest. She got to meet giyu again while being in the same rank with him but she notice he seemed more on edge. she knew their close friend sabito had died over the years but saw he was more on edge about something else. But she didn't question it. Amahle has earned her title as hashira after hardwork and experience. But despite her talents she has a very goofy personality. sabito gave her humor while being raised with urokodaki. As he felt a little girl herself shouldn't live a life in such misery. This explains why her chemistry with mitsuri works so well. She also has a slight crush on sanemi shinazugawa who is also a hashira.

But he finds her mildly annoying due to her bubbly personality. However he can't bring himself to hate her seeing she's not just a pretty face with a sword. As he finds her breathing style and agility amazing. He also sees a colder side to her attacking demons that makes him quite attracted to her. Tengen sees her as a celebrity due to her background in royalty and admires her as a slayer. He asks her constantly if she gets access to diamonds as lesotho is famous for their resources of diamonds. His wife suma has a mild crush on her. Gyomei sees her as a child of war as he was notified by her tragic background. But does respect her as a slayer. shinobu understands her feelings completely as Amahle tries to hide her feelings using her kind bubbly personality. Muichiro sees her as a big sister trope as she adores his company and sibling like personality. obanai doesn't talk much to her unless its about kanroji. But he also sees she is a respectable slayer. Amahle is a loyal slayer and will continue to support her cause in approving the extinction of demons. Her only concern is that when it is all over, will she go back to lesotho?

[nightofsky101]

Top 20 Animes of 2022

Sorry I skipped last year. Trust me I was watching I just didn’t feel motivated to make another list. However this time I am, but little longer. That’s right it’s 20 now. Plus I added my reasons too. Enjoy.

1. Dance Dance Danseur

Captivating characters, beautiful animation and intriguing story. I really fell in love with this one I went far as to read the manga translation AFTER episode one and continued while the anime was airing. I love how Jumpei over came the toxic masculinity to pursue ballet. His love for ballet really is inspiring. You can see the joy in his eyes. Plus I love Jumpei and Natsuki’s chemistry there’s more of them in the manga. I really do wish the manga would get serialized here in the USA and for Mappa to do another season.

2. Sasaki and Miyano

Cute sweet wholesome BL love story I LOVE MY BABIES. If I had to pick a favorite couple of the year it would be Sasaki and Miyano. AAAHHH I couldn’t stop smiling watching this anime it’s good for the soul. Even if you’re not into BL this is the most safest to watch. The anime version of Heartstoppers.

3. My Dress Up Darling

Cute fun wholesome and sweet romance blooming in front of you. Marine is such a joy no doubt my best girl. Goujo’s passion for hinadoll is inspiring. The animation is so pretty especially when they smile. This really did made me proud to be an anime fan. I can’t wait for more of Marine and Goujo.

4. Blue Lock

Out of the ordinary sports anime with some wild and intense animation. Forget about friendship and team work. It’s all about being an egoist survival of the best striker. I really love the characters. BTW I was watching this before the World Cup started and during it really was life imitating anime. Until Japan lost to Croatia. Root for them next World Cup. I can’t wait for more I probably will reading the manga.

5. Demon Slayer Season 2

I laughed cried and screamed. This season was full of emotions plus I felt like I was watching a movie. I love Tanjiro’s growth this season, Uzui was a badass he really is so cool. Nezuko was amazing. Daki and Gyutaro got me heartbroken. Zenitsu and Inosuke were unstoppable everyone really had a fantastic moment.

6. My Hero Academia Season 6

A whole lot better than season 5. A few nip picks here, but it didn’t bother me too much. I really did enjoy this first half. The voice acting was phenomenal and I was just so happy to see my favorite parts of the manga finally animated. Deku is a beast, Bakugou got me screaming, Shouto I want to hug him. I super excited for the next arc.

7. Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie

Cute and funny anime to watch. The moments with Shikimori, Izumi and their friends made me love this anime more. Who said a girl can’t be cute and handsome. BTW Hachimitsu is my spirit animal I love her.

8. Raven of the Inner Palace

The magic in this anime was pretty. The characters were fascinating, I love the Chines setting. Shouxue bring peace to the dead was uplifting. Plus I love Shouxue development she deserves the friends she has made.

9. Urusei Yatsura

The return of the original waifu Lum. I only watch a few episodes of the original anime they were pretty funny and the remake so far is fun to watch. I can see why Lum is so lovable.

10. Love Live Superstar Season 2

Between this one and Nijigasaki I like Superstar’s story more. Plus the series has broken some Love Live traditions. Liella really is a group you should be watching. Magaret and Lanzhu from Nijigasaki are queens. Love Live keeps on innovating new barriers.

11. Attack on Titan Final Part 3

Had me on the edge of my seat. Eren is a freaking beast I couldn’t believe this season it was shock after shock. I can’t imagine how this is going to end. I can’t handle anymore deaths.

12. Kaguya sama Love is War Season 3

Cute and super funny season. Ishigami had me proud like a mama. Miyuki and Chika’s rap was the best. Kaguya finally admitting to herself she loves Miyuki was so sweet.

13. Tokyo Mew Mew New

Another well done remake. I did watch a few episodes of the original anime when I was a kid. So this was kind of nostalgic to me. The girls are so cute I can’t wait to see more of the remake.

14. Mob Psycho 100 Final

A great ending to Mob. After 3 season it really was a joy and emotional journey to watch Mob Psycho 100. I will miss the crazy animation and deep story so much. Thank you Mob for everything a classic that will always be remembered.

15. More than a married couple, but not lovers

To me this was the vanilla version of Domestic Girlfriends. No step sisters, just a love triangle between a guy, his childhood friend and his marriage partner. So many funny and sweet moments. I do ship Jirou and Akari more.

16. Chainsaw Man

Wild and crazy anime to watch. It felt like I was watching a fever dream. I will be honest it didn’t get me hyped as the manga fans expected. But it was great to watch. It’s only the beginning though I do hope it gets another season.

17. Spy x Family

Funny cute and little suspenseful. It did felt like the Loid and Anya show though I do wish we got to see more of Yor’s assassin work too. The heart warming family moments really did touch my hear. Again family doesn’t always have to mean by blood.

18. Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting

Another cute and wholesome anime. Kirishima acted more like a big brother to Yaeka who knew a killer yakuza could have a heart. Family doesn’t always have to mean blood.

19. I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss

Another otome isekai, but it did felt rushed I wished it was more slowed paced. I love Aileen and Claude’s relationship they are so cute. At least they had a happy ending.

20. Shine Post

Such an underrated idol anime. Probably because Love Live was airing around the same time. Love seeing each girl’s reason for being an idol and how much they want to achieve their dream. BTW Rio has the best voice.

HAPPY NEW YEAR SEE YOU IN 2023 !!!!!

[mjtheartist04]

FR can't watch Demon Slayer like a normal person anymore 😭😭 I started the new season [WHICH OMG CRIED SO HARD DAWGG] and anytime Genya was on screen I just got so excited all of the sudden and pointed at my computer like: "LOOK THATS MY POOKIES POOKIE!!!"🫵🫵🫵

OKENSJSBSJSNS YES!!!! YOU FINALLY WATCHED IT!!!

NAWW ME N MY SISTER CRIED TOOO😭 THAT LAST EPISODE WAS BEAUTIFUL. The animation….THE MUSIC EJENEKEKSNSN

IM SO HAPPY YOU GOT TO WATCH IT!!!🥹 now we got this new season coming up and I’m not prepared AT ALL!but I’m so excited!😭

“Look that’s my pookies pookie” GORRLLLL GOT ME GIGGLINGGGGG🤭💜 I BE FR YELLING OUT POOKIE EVERYTIME HE CAME ON SCREEN!

I saw that hagnezuka caught your eye👀😏 (your kanamori on the side😂)

[coraniaid]

I really think Season 7 would have worked so much better if Kennedy was a Slayer from the start, not a Potential.

The show is already very clear that Kennedy is, narratively, the most important of the Potentials. She gets almost as much speaking time in Season 7 as all the other Potentials combined (as well as having far more speaking time and appearing in more episodes than Kendra ever did in Season 2).  She's the only one who has any meaningful connection to any other character in the show (except for, maybe, Amanda and Dawn).  The writing already positions her as the main voice of opposition to Buffy within the group -- she's already the one most likely to question what Buffy's doing and suggest she could do better -- so why not formalize that?  Put her on a more equal footing with Buffy to start with.  Make it credible that Kennedy really could take charge and ignore Buffy entirely. Make Kennedy the Slayer who was called when Buffy died at the end of "The Gift".  

Yes, I know that the official canon is that no Slayer was called when Buffy died for a second time because Faith was the "active" Slayer at this point, but I think it's important to note that that was only something the writers came up with between Season 5 and 6.  It didn't have to be that way: there's nothing at all in the show's lore to suggest it's canon before then, and in fact people in the show openly talk about Buffy's death possibly activating a new Slayer even after her first death in "Prophecy Girl". And even in Season 6, I don't think we're told definitively that a new Slayer wasn't called (and wouldn't a new Slayer explain why the Watcher's Council aren't around this season?).  If you look online, the writers were even being vague about Kendra's death calling a new Slayer during the Season 2/Season 3 gap: none of how this works was ever planned out in detail in advance.  More importantly, it's pretty central to the show's mythology that Buffy is "the" Slayer and "the" Chosen One, and it's honestly a pretty silly bit of worldbuilding to accidentally retcon that she was actually only the "real" Slayer for 12 episodes (or even for 56, if you further retcon that Willow's resurrection spell somehow made Buffy the unique active Slayer again).

The idea of Buffy's second death not calling a new Slayer was a mistake, in my opinion.  Yes, I get that they didn't want another Slayer showing up in Sunnydale in Season 6.  That wasn't part of the story that season was trying to tell.  But why would she have to?  The world's a big place, and until the last few episodes there's nothing particularly apocalyptic happening in Sunnydale that season.  Why couldn't you just have the new Slayer off somewhere else, minding her own business?  (In fact, if Faith is the only "active" Slayer, then not resurrecting Buffy means condemning the world to no new Slayer at all until Faith dies, which -- given where she is -- probably wouldn't happen for years if not decades.  It's much better, I think, for Buffy's friends to bring her back because they miss her than because the world objectively needs her to continue the Slayer line and the only other Slayer is serving time in prison for murder.)

And imagine how Season 7 plays out with Kennedy as a Slayer from the start.  The focus of a lot of the second half of the season is on Buffy teaching the Potentials how to fight, which is perfectly fine as a bit of symbolism and helps set up the events of “Chosen” but doesn't really make much sense in-universe.  Potentials just aren't meant to fight vampires. There's never been any indication in the show before this that that was a good idea.  "She alone can stand against the demons" and so on, not "she and a bunch of other people who don't have superpowers yet".  But make Kennedy a young Slayer -- one who's been prepared 'properly' by the Watchers' Council, taught to follow their rules and procedures, the way Kendra was, but who still lacks much practical experience -- and make the focus of the second half of the season be Buffy  (and Faith) trying to teach her what that means ... doesn't that work a lot better?

(And sure, I'd bring the rest of Potentials in a few episodes before “Chosen”, I'd still end the season the same way -- but we really didn't need to see quite as much of them, did we?  Let Robin and Kennedy be the big two new characters this season -- let them represent our links to the past and future of the Slayer line -- and don't let the show get overwhelmed by so many other new faces.)

Also, this would let my inner world-building-obsessed pedant stop asking how old Kennedy is meant to be, given that Season 3's “Helpless” establishes that every Slayer undergoes the Cruciamentum on their eighteenth birthday (something that can logically only happen if every Slayer is called at seventeen or younger).  Which is not at all a good reason in itself, but ... look, it does irritate me, I'd be lying if I said it didn't.  Why does this season include “Help”, an episode highlighting how weird it would be for any of the now adult cast to have a romantic relationship with a high school student, only to then pair WIllow off with a girl who -- by the established rules of the show's own world-building -- has to be younger than eighteen?  I mean, the answer is that the show largely pretends Kennedy is older than that, or doesn't address her age at all, but this does contradict what we're told in “Helpless”.

And it doesn't have to. There's an easy fix. I'm not saying that the show shouldn't have had Willow and Kennedy get together. I like Kennedy as a character. I just think she'd make a lot more sense -- both as a character in her own right, and in terms of her place in the broader narrative -- if she was a Slayer from the moment we met her.

[enigmatist17]

The basis for this idea:

Cordy and Wesley are the reincarnations of the bank robbery woman and the bookseller from the episode Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. Angel didn't let the Thesulac demon take over the hotel, killing it after running everyone out, and Judy and Denver sort of guide him onto his path as a Champion way before he does canonically. They died in battle a few years apart, and Angel threw himself into his work of protecting L.A./being its Master, and Whistler is sent to help Angel reconnect with humanity because all he's done is mourn them for about 20 years :(

---

Los Angeles. You see it at night and it shines; a beacon. People are drawn to it. People and other things. They come for all sorts of reasons. My reason? It began with a girl in a hotel, and a guy who owned a bookshop.

---

"So, this is where the great Protector of L.A. likes to hang out on his off-time? Pathetic man, really pathetic."

"Who are you?"

"Name's Whistler, an agent of the Powers That Be." The standoff that had been going on in the lobby of a, quite frankly, beautiful hotel ended when Whistler pulled out a cigarette, lighting it with a hum. He didn't seem to mind the vampire across the room who was glaring daggers his way, a cup of now cool blood forgotten in his hand as Angel sized up the strange man. Whistler was clearly not human, but Angel couldn't smell any of the underlying hatred that lingered in most with ill intent, so his initial guard lowered slightly.

"What do you want?" Setting his mug down, Angel watches the demon circle around the expansive lobby with a click of his tongue, eyeing the stairs until Angel clears his throat.

"I've got a mission for ya, or well, They do."

"I already have one." Angel deadpanned, pointing to some files on the desk in front of him. "I protect this city, pretty sure that's a good thing for these Powers or whatever."

"Oh, they're grateful, don't get me wrong, but this is a two-part mission. Say, got any snacks?" Angel blinked as he finally emerged from around the former check-in desk, crossing his arms with a slight frown.

"...no."

"Ah, shame. Anyways, you've noticed a lull in evil baddies going after the helpless, right? That would be due to the new Slayer and the Hellmouth she's about to move to in about, uh, a week." Whistler pulled out a small notepad and nodded at whatever he'd written down, Angel just watched with a glare. "That's where you're going, big guy, and the Powers even scored you a whole ass mansion that you own as of two days ago."

"No."

"The hell you mean no?"

"I'm not leaving my city at the word of some weird guy I've never seen before, who apparently works for some higher power, just because I've not been running around as much recently." There was now a low growl that normally sent annoying people away, but Whistler just seemed amused. "If I leave, the city will-"

"Be fine for a little while; I'm not sayin' you need to leave forever, big man. You've got people who can help out while you're gone, and I think a new locale will do ya good! When was the last time you even tried to go beyond the city? I'm assumin' wh-"

"Say their names and I'll rip your throat out." The snarl Angel let out just about echoed around the hotel, and Whistler took a step back with a slightly soft expression. "I am the Master of this city, I don't just leave."

"Sunnydale is two hours away, and if ya want, I'll see to gettin' a good portal installed so you can zip over anytime." Angel's glare deepened as Whistler held his gaze with the vampire, clearly more and more disgruntled with this stranger. "I was hopin' to save this card, but there is one other thing Sunnydale has for ya, if you go."

"What?"

"A chance to see some old friends again." Angel raised an eyebrow as his anger changed to suspicion, Whistler giving the first serious look since his arrival. "Can't say much else, but it'll be worth it."

"...I'll check things out, no promises I'll stay and help." Angel isn't sure why the words that came out of his mouth were so far removed from what he wanted to say, but they felt almost...right.

They ring in the back of his mind as Angel gathers the leaders of various demon clans for a meeting, stating he will be gone for a short time, and that he wasn't leaving his city for good. There is some apprehension as the leaders talk amongst themselves, but ultimately, their trust and loyalty in the vampire who had run L.A. and kept it safe for both human and demonkind the best could won out. No one was going to be stupid enough to try and challenge his claim, stories of the last poor idiots who had tried five years ago still circulating to tourists who come to L.A. with stupid dreams.

They always end up leaving, no one stupid enough to try and mess with Angelus.

Angel finally heads to Sunnydale a week after the new Slayer arrives, nearly calling the entire thing off when the familiar prickle of family travels up his spine.

Even b e t t e r

It does help to see the home these Powers had gotten him, a mansion overlooking the town in relatively good condition, as he pulls into the driveway and parks by the house. He doesn't linger long before heading into Sunnydale to scope the place out; Angel is surprised to see so many graveyards for a relatively small amount of residents.

Hellmouths were weird.

Angel is very impressed by the sewer system that wound under what had to be most of the town. He maps out a good chunk before he stumbles across a section that leads toward what had to be the Aurelian court, wisely retreating for what little of the evening was left.

Hm, what a strange town.

---

Angel meets the Slayer quite by accident, and to say it was awkward is an understatement. He had saved a young man from becoming bait for the Slayer, escorting the annoying kid who wouldn't stop talking despite trying to sneak away to a nearby hatch when a blonde woman and brown-haired man ran right into them.

"Jesse! You're alive!" The man gapes as the teen behind Angel runs around him, tackling the other teen in a tight hug.

"Barely man! H-Holy shit, we need to get out of here before more of those vampire freaks show up!"

"You mean like the one with you?" The Slayer moves faster than Angel can open his mouth, slamming him against a wall with a strake pressing right over his heart.

"Wait, he saved me!" The kid, Jesse he thinks, sprints over with a panicked look on his face, the Slayer raising an eyebrow. "The dude saved me before I became bait, please don't kill him!"

"I'll have to save all three of you if you don't go now, scouts are already honing in on all the yelling, and they don't like you or me." Angel cursed as he looked back the way he'd come. "Take your friends and go; you've got a minute, maybe less."

"Come on Buffy, let's bail." The other teen urged, and Angel let out an unnecessary breath when the stake was pulled away.

"Follow us, and you're dust."

"Believe me, Slayer, I've no such desire." With a hum of his preternatural speed, he's gone before she can turn back to say something in response, making sure the three humans escaped into the sunlight before making his own way out of harm's way. Angel hadn't come across too many Slayers in his time, but he was sure none of them had dressed like they were ready to hit the runway, a chuckle escaping his lips as he emerged near his temporary home. While she may have been able to run, Angel knew the Slayer would be back in the fray that evening, hoping she and her Watcher had figured out what the Harvest meant.

The idiot kid he'd saved earlier was with the Slayer and her Watcher when the Master made his move via a proxy, along with the other male from before and a redhead who nearly screamed when Angel emerged from the shadows just out of staking range.

"Hey hey, it's the guy!" The teen he rescued grinned, and the Watcher raised his weapon as the Slayer did the same. "Are you going to help us?"

"Depends on the Slayer." He can hear faint chanting from inside the bar they stood outside of, the blonde crossing her arms after a moment.

"My name is Buffy, and if you're here to help, I'll take it." It was all Angel needed, giving a sharp nod before motioning to the bar.

"Let's get to work, they're about to start feeding."

Buffy was young, but what she lacked in precision, she made up for in ingenuity at using the environment to her advantage as she took out vampires left and right. Angel spent more time making sure her friends and civilians didn't end up as snack food, striking one vampire who had cornered a terrified woman near one of the exits.

"Oh thank you thank you!" The battle that was petering out behind Angel faded away as he stared at the woman who was hugging him tight, the stake in his hand falling to the floor with a clatter. "I thought I was going to die."

"I-" Words are stuck in his throat when she pulls back, a familiar face framed by long brunette hair giving the vampire a smile before she fully pulls back, running for the door to get away from the fighting. Every part of him is screaming to go after her, to see this woman again and dare to touch her, but Buffy needs his help, so he helps make sure every vampire is dead as she fights the leader.

Angel is gone after Buffy defeats the Master's Vessel, leaving the small group confused yet grateful for his aid. It took him a very long time to fall asleep that day, and memories he'd carefully blocked from his mind flooded his subconscious.

---

1972

---

"Judy, if I find my Daemon Rituale Romanum Tome on the roof again, I'm going to curse every dress you own!"

"You'd never do that, you like me too much!" Angel smiles as he descends the stairs just after dusk, watching two bickering humans pacing around an expansive lobby of the hotel they all owned.

"This book is incredibly fragile and costs more than all those shampoos you like to collect." Denver Rickopache scoffed, adjusting his glasses as he cradled the book like a newborn babe.

"It's a book, and I did have it under the umbrella you know." Judy Kovacs rolled her eyes, feathered brown hair bouncing as she crossed her arms with a smile. "Happy?"

"This time," Denver grumbled, eyes flickering up to catch sight of Angel grinning at the pair of them. "What?"

"Nothing, just enjoying my morning drama." The vampire chuckled as he finally headed over to the duo, one arm open so Judy could hug his side. "Morning."

"Morning, we got some fresh O-positive in the fridge for you, and drink up because you're going to need it!"

"What's on the agenda for today?" Angel listened to Denver recite what they knew about their latest case, grabbing eggs and bacon to cook while nursing his blood. It had taken the two of them three years, but Angel had grown to enjoy food again alongside his blood, rolling his eyes when Denver stole a slice of bacon. Judy was at least nice enough to add a second plate beside his with a smile, getting some extra eggs he always added for her to enjoy no matter the time of day.

"So, what do you think? Easy case or what?" Angel smiled as they all settled around the kitchen table, sipping his blood with a shrug.

"Sounds like it to me."

---

Judy is smiling at him when Angel awakens that night, and for the first time in years, he weeps.

[wenumsmol]

Hashira Training Arc last episode commentary

My thoughts aren't in chronological order. Sorry, not sorry.

So I finally just finished watching Demon Slayer Hashira training arc.

Ubuyashiki gang gang, suicide squad, peace be with you, went out like a G. He said "You want to kill me? That's funny, face the wall while I blow your mind." Then fucked up MJ's pimp suit. Wifey said, "I'mma stick beside him." Kids are like "MY DADDY SAID." Fr they were singing creepy like the little girls jumping rope in the Freddy Krueger movies. I like that shit. twinkle twinkle little star. We're gonna Ubu ya SHIKI.

What's up with Zenitsu? When loud mfrs get quiet it's about to be some shit. He got some bad news but idk what tf it was. What I'm sure of is that it'll make his ass fight nastier because he's got angst fuel.

Gyoumei dance TOO nice. Big daddy came swangin'. Straight ball sweat, tears, and WORK.

Inosuke just wanted to eat his food bro. You not supposed to take food away from hungry animals. I thought we all knew this? That smile was dangerous. "Oh, so you wanna FUCK?!"

Did Lord Tengen get put in the basement too? I can't stop thinkin' about him and his wives chillin' in a love pile then falling through the floor butt ass nekkid. Ass, titties, king kong willie wonka SKY FALLIN'. That's flashy fr.

Tanjiro is about to go god mode on some "let there be light" shit, bustin' a move just like his daddy before him. Cha cha real smooth. I like it, Picasso.

They put the demon eater in the basement like he's not about to feast. Genya is about to chow demon cheeks and cut the fuck up with his boom stick. Our baby is JUICING.

Lady Tamayo ten toes down. Honorable mommy fr. She said she's gonna make MJ face the man in the mirror for real.

Rengoku, papa, I love you <3.