#THE BEST DOUJIN I READ IN AGES

[zexalisliving]

I'm going to @ you, @darlingasta-not, whenever I come out with a new chapter so you can find it more easily.

You too, @pileofrocksjh.

This chapter is pretty short, but it should be good.

But without further ado, let's dive into the world of my cringy fiction!

Yuma rushed to Kalin’s bookstore, which was located by one of the many Kaibadomes in Domino City, as it was a popular location.

Yuma hurried inside. 

��Hey, Yuma!” Kalin said, upon his entry. 

“KALIN!” Someone said intimidatingly from behind him. 

Kalin turned around swiftly. “Yusei! When did you get here?” he asked. 

“I told you not to be friendly with…Yumes.” he said, almost disgusted by the sound of the name. 

“Oh, sorry Yuse.” Kalin said. He turned back to Yuma. “What do you want, Yumes?” 

Yuma looked around. “Do you got another chapter of Observation No. 39?” he asked. 

Kalin slapped his hand to his forehead and slowly dragged it down. “Yumes… this is the 14th time this week that you’ve come in here and asked about Observation No. 39!” he said. 

“... does that mean you have it?”

“No, Yuma. Art takes time. Come talk to me next week. Me and my business partner S.B should have a new chapter for you then.” Kalin sighed. 

“Aw, sweet!” Yuma skipped over to a nearby bookshelf. He grabbed issue 16 of Double D and brought it to the counter. “I’d like to purchase this book.” he said, like nothing had happened seconds before. “I’ve read every last one before it! It’s such a good story!” he plopped it down. 

“Yumes, my buddy, well not-so-much buddy… you’ve gotta’ cut back on these books. They’re not good for your health when you mass-read them!” Kalin said. 

Yuma rolled his eyes. “I’m hooked on em’, Kalin! I ain’t ever gonna’ stop reading them! They’re my passion, my purpose, my reason for living! I spent my entire life savings–75 cents and all– on my first Doujin called ‘Confessions’, and it changed my life!” 

Yusei glared. Kalin sighed. This happened a lot. Every visit meant a sale. Which was good. But every sale meant an ‘inspirational’ speech on why Yuma liked the books so much. Every visit was the same, with the rare exception that Yuma came in just for a browse of the recent Doujinshi when he wasn’t finished with the one he was on, and even that meant that he would go on and on about “the art, the story, the combination of talent and awesomeness made into a single, prize-worthy book of the ages”. 

Kalin learned how to tune the speeches out. Sometimes he would listen to “Take A Chance” on his headphones while Yuma went about talking, other times he just leaned on the counter out of boredom until he was done. He dozed off sometimes too. 

Yuma paid Kalin the money and skipped out of the store happily. 

Astral emerged from the Emperor’s Key with a shine. “What is that you are holding?” he asked.

“Issue #16 of Double D! I’ve been waiting a whole week for this!” Yuma said, his eyes glistening with happiness. “I am not certain of why you enjoy looking at these pictures. It is quite odd,” Astral stated. 

Yuma held the book up to the sunsetting sky. “You see this, Astral? It’s one of the best things to ever happen to me! It’s like watching a tv show, except you can watch it anywhere!” 

AStral looked at it. “I see…” he said hesitantly. “However, I do not understand your reasoning for choosing such… particular subjects.” 

Yuma lowered the book and blushed. “Cuz it’s fun and… sorta’... nice… to imagine…” 

Astral sighed and closed his eyes. “At least it is not last week’s ‘Zearu’.”    

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just for some context, 'Zearu' is a story I haven't yet published about Yuma and Astral having a son or some weird crap. But Astral really doesn't like Keyshipping, so Double D, or 'Dark Desires' (which really is a real book, you can find it here:

so, yeah... hope you enjoyed it!

[wickermayne]

2024 AO3 Review

Happy New Year!

I wrote a good amount in the year 2024, almost 100k words worth, so I thought I'd do a little review off all the things I wrote last year!

I wrote 6 individual oneshots in 2024...all smut 😅

Bitter Moon: a small oneshot where I was just messing around with a toxic/manipulative Naruto/Hinata dynamic.

An Acquired Taste: a naursaku/sasusaku cuck fic that was a sequel to a oneshot I wrote last year. Naruto teaching Sasuke hot to eat 😺.

Don't Want to Meet Your Daddy: Sometimes I get inspired by music and this is one of those cases! I was listening to Hey Ya! by OutKast. I find the narusakusasu dynamic full of potential angst and this was just a type of display for that.

Drunk in Love: The fluffiest smut I've ever written, and ode to NaruHina's love 🥰

Age is Just a Number: A rewrite of the very first Chicken Ramen chapter I wrote. Written for an anniversary of the Chloe's DILF thread.

Pleasure in his Palms: An adaptation of a doujin I read, just an excuse for some really 'hands on' smut 🤭

In addition to those oneshots, I wrote a collaborative one with BunnyHoodlum, Opal_Chan, and Sessakag that we did in a round robin style called In Naruto's Embrace. It was a lot of fun to write with them!

I also wrote a lot of drabbles over the year for my drabble series, 81 in fact! You can find them plus the rest from the previous year here.

I wrote two new series (though one is only one chapter so far 😅).

One was Hinata Hyuuga, the Housewife That Needed My Help! This is another fic that was based on a doujin I read. It's a modern AU where Naruto ends up working in the countryside where he meets the wife of a rich citizen there...and they need his 'help'. This was pretty challenging to adapt but a lot of fun at the same time, hopefully I can finish it for the upcoming year.

Dreams Money Can't Buy: Another fic based on a doujin lol, this one is an age gap modern au smut fic where Naruto basically uses tinder and matches with his best friends mother 🤭.

Another fic that I really want to finish for 2025, Lips, Tongue, Teeth I started in 2022 (omg) that's an oral fixation compilation series. All NaruHina, and the chapters I posted in 2024 were based on the prompts Mouthwash (I thought I was pretty creative with this one...and filthy too 😈), Pop, Suck, Gag, and Lick. Just 9 more prompts for 2025!

Any finally, last but not least, I wrote 17 chapters of Chicken Ramen for the Pervert's Soul, my compilation oneshot smut series of Naruto and different women. Some characters I used last year were Fem!Sasuke, Sarada, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Hanabi, Hana, Fem!Shikamaru, Fem!Kakashi, and I did a few threesomes too, including Ino & Hinata and Shion & Hinata. If there is any fic that I'm desperate to finish in 2025, it's this one!

Thanks for everyone who read and supported last year, I hope I can keep delivering more fics and chapters for the upcoming year!

[toskarintoast]

Hello I must apologise for the entirely untoasty ask but I have a touhou question: What order did you consume touhou media? I found some guide on reddit that recommends I finish 6 and 7 first then move on to a manga but I wanna know how people who actually know touhou have done it

in my opinion. it depends. on what you want to get out of touhou. at least at first. if you want to play. the mainline games. (they are fun.) then i would recommend. starting with 8. because. it is very forgiving. and. introduces you to many characters well-loved by fans. 6 is pretty antiquated. and 7 is honestly not much better. in that regard. they are still good games. but. 8 doesn’t feel quite as aged.

however. there are a great many ways. to get into touhou. that do not involve playing 20 year old shoot em ups. if that is not something you want to do. for example. while it is good. to have a basic understanding. of what happens in at least the first few games. you could. literally just start reading any of the manga. if you wanted to. the problem is that you really can start anywhere. that’s why everyone has a different answer. personally. i played the games in an arbitrary order. not paying attention to release date. i just played whichever one i wanted to play next. that was the most fun for me. i think my 1cc order ended up being. 8, 10, 7, 13, 16, 6, 18, 15, 17, 14, 12, 19, 11, 4. so far. i plan to play 5 next.

however. if you would like to know. what i consider to be. one of the best introductions to gensokyo. and its residents. i would recommend mystia's izakaya. it is incredibly effective at introducing you. to a large number of characters. locations. and ideologies. over the course of the game. especially if you shell out the $5 or whatever it is. to buy all of the DLCs. also. it's fun. and addictive. there are other fan games. that can serve as decent introductions. depending on the kind of games you like. touhou puppet dance performance shard of dreams extended. is pretty good. if you like pokemon gen 3. and. i know that i will earn the scorn. of certain fans. by saying this. but touhou lostword is really good actually. it is not at all difficult to see all of the (genuinely very good) story and (cute seasonal) events. without spending any money at all. in fact. when it first got released. i was worried that it would shut down. because i thought. there is no way they are going to get anyone to pay money for this. because there aren't any of the obnoxious arbitrary difficulty spikes. that you find in other gacha games. and. getting all of my favorite characters. was honestly really easy. though. if you are prone to spending money on gachas. for no reason. then you should probably stay away from it.

you could even just. go to youtube. and watch every IOSYS flash. with english subtitles. and you'd be a touhou fan by the end of it. there's really no wrong way. to get into it. hell. just go read some yuri doujins. check out vector spectacle. it whips.

hope i could help. remember to toast bread and then eat it. ^_^

[frostfires-blog]

Thanks for your reply to this ask of mine : https://www.tumblr.com/frostfires-blog/768942492027682816/hello-tgcf-lover-i-found-you-from-your-post-of-4?source=share

I have sent the MXTX Ask Game, sorry if the questions is a bit much. 😅

No, I don't think you're hypocritical. I totally get it and can relate to you. It's hard to suddenly love m/m ships from something that we love since young age, when what we love mostly are m/f ships from that series, right?

See, I watched anime since childhood and my first anime were One Piece and Detective Conan. Guess the most famous m/m ship from One Piece? ZoSan (Zoro/Sanji) and fyi that ship have inspired real life BL mangaka with that ship's dynamics (including one of my fav BL mangaka). From Conan, it's Kid/Shinichi (for me now, this series have too many het romance, I mean everybody end up with somebody?)

One of my moots asked, how come I don't ship them. And my answer is, sorry those series are my childhood's beloved series. At that time, I still love m/f ships only and don't read any BL/GL media or even ship any same sex characters. So, I just can't see them romantically.

Then as I grew up, I began to love more the dynamics of same sex characters (especially between male ones) compared to het ones.

For your top 3 favorite anime/manga : Naruto, Gintama, & Attack on Titan, I started them because of my friends who love their otps. So, I knew a few people who wrote fanfics and drew fanarts for those ships. They asked me to start those series and asked who are my fav ships. I did and I do have favorite otps from those series.

From Naruto : NaruSasu (one of my fav non-canon ship until now, my friend's no 1 otp), MinaKushi (yes, somehow I love this ship even when they're m/f bcs they're so good together), and HashiMada (old man yaoi, enough said).

From Gintama : GinHiji (love their dynamic, you can't imagine how many doujins they had, also my other friend's no 1 otp), I love Kagura so much, but I don't really ship her with anyone (sorry)

From AoT : Please don't hate me, especially now that I know you love Levi. My fav ship is Levi/Eren (love their dynamic, potential for fics and one of my friend's otp).

See, in BL a few of my fav tropes are age gap and height difference, and we have them both!

Sorry for this long ask. Feel free to ignore them. I hope you don't mind with me (BL lover & multishipper of m/m ships) as one of your fan/ follower. I really do learn a lot from your blog and I love when you wrote something that you're passionate with.

I know I've said I love non-canon m/m ships, but I do love BL media, too, with their canon ships. So, thanks for listed 4 canon m/m ones in your fav ships (HuaLian, WangXian, SasaMiya, MafuYama), it means a lot to me....

P.s. Akatsuki no Yona is also one of my all time fav series ever! So excited that you love them, too.... Oh from this series, I ship Jae Ha/Kija (sorry for this random ship)

Anime/manga recs!

- Haikyuu (amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, some of the most awesome male duos ever)

- SK8 The Infinity (short and amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, you must have at least 1 fav ship after finished this 12 episodes)

- Buddy Daddies (2 hitmen/ 2 room mates/ 2 guys have to take care of little girl, one of my all time fav series ever)

- Bungou Stray Dogs (guys with super power + mafia, mostly male characters, amazing story)

- Death Note (best tragedy ever, great story, can't help but love this doom ship)

- Moriarty the Patriot (one or the best Holmes adaptation ever, amazing cast, love the plot, mostly male characters)

- Idolish7 (great songs, amazing story, for me Idolish7 >>> Oshi no Ko, primarily male characters)

Sorry if you have knew these series and don't like them. Also, sorry again because mostly I love series with primarily male characters (that's where m/m shippers got their fuel)...

No problem! Hi once again! Thanks for your continued support. I posted my answers to the MXTX Ask Game yesterday. Sorry, it took so long; I've been dealing with a lot. I also wanted to apologise for it being so long—I rambled too much again. I hope that my answers met your expectations. Since every MXTX work is exceptional in its own way, it's difficult to compare them. I totally get where there's no unanimous standout in the fandom and everyone has their own favourite.

Yeah, I totally agree. As sad as it is, I'll never be able to ship M/M ships from the shows I watched in my childhood before I became conscious of BL/GL shipping. Thankfully, not many anime fit under that umbrella because most of my formative years were spent obsessing over Naruto and not giving any other anime a chance—embarrassing, I know. For me, Naruto, Bleach, Angel Beats, Charlotte, Ouran High School Host Club, Made In Abyss, and Attack on Titan fall into that bracket. It was actually BNHA that made me start shipping BL pairings. While I don't ship BL/GL ships in those aforementioned series, I can see value in some of the well-founded ones and know if I had started them today, then I would most likely have shipped those pairings wholeheartedly. P.S. I love MinaKushi too. They deserve more screentime! I started Gintama in late 2019/early 2020 as was in my BL phase at the time. So I do like GinHiji, I just slightly prefer the dynamics of GinTsu and GinTaka. I read a lot of GinHiji doujins too lol (they make up pretty much 90% of Gintama doujins available, lmao)... I totally get why people wouldn't ship Kagura with anyone; as for most of the series, she's still young and uninterested in romance. I'm just a fan of the enemies to lovers/rivals to lovers/friends to lovers trope. So I ship her with Sougo since I like their synergy. Though I don't condone people using OkiKagu to sexualise her character pre-time skip.

The great thing about Gintama is that it's quite self-aware; so, they throw bones to practically every group of shippers while they simultaneously avoid verifying anything. So the fandom is much more inclusive than any other shounen fandom. Levi and Eren are my favourite AoT characters, and I used to have a friend who was very into Levi/Eren so I get it. I almost had a phase myself since at first I wasn't a fan of EreMika. However, around late season 3, my best friend had gotten me sold on EreMika and they've really grown on me. I'd like to think that I've matured enough to be amicable about ships. So I wouldn't hate someone who had a different opinion from me so long as they didn't harass me about it. There have been times when my best friend and I have disagreed about ships, but it hasn't come in between our friendship.

Thanks once again for all of the asks you've sent. I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts, and I hope you continue to enjoy them. Admittedly, the content of my blog will gradually shift since Naruto, Gintama, and Attack on Titan are over—so there isn't much content to post about... I'm not artistically talented—so I can't contribute with fanart and animatics—therefore I rely on reposting, editing, and analysing canon content. I'll continue to do my best, though—especially in new fandoms that have currently captivated me. Wow, another Akatsuki no Yona fan! They need to give us season 2—I swear the manga is so good! I don't think Kija x Jaeha is that random. I could see it... I just honestly never put much thought into shipping other than Hak x Yona since I had a long-standing premonition the dragons would die somehow.

As for your recs, I've actually seen many of them lol... So I'll do a quick run-through of my thoughts and ships in each:

➜ Haikyuu is actually my 3rd favourite sports anime. I used to post about it and read a lot of fics back when season 4 was airing. I went to see the movie in cinemas last year too. While I like most of the fan-favourite pairs—KageHina, BokuAka, and KenHina were featured in a Valentine's Day Ship Post I made 3 years ago.

➜ I'm fond of SK8 The Infinity as well and am excited for the upcoming OVA. I ship both RenGa and MatchBlossom! (P.S. Matchblossom is such a good shipname.) The SK8 dub is one of the only anime dubs I like—it's so unhinged.

➜ I watched Buddy Daddies back when it aired. At first, I thought it was a simpler ripoff of SpyxFamily, but it really grew into its own thing towards the end—and I grew to like it more and more. I quite like how concise yet open-ended its ending was. Not everything needs to drag on, you know...

➜ I've seen BSD too... Though I have quite complex, contradicting feelings about it. While the powers and setting are cool, it's one of the only series that has ever consistently confused me. Like, what is the actual plot of the series? What are the characters trying to achieve? Its lack of consistency both intrigues and frustrates me. I feel like my lack of knowledge of classical literature doesn't help either. Since I'm not fond of the art stystyle, Idly don't fangirl over anyone from BSD. Ironically, my favourite ship/duo from the series would probably be Shin Soukoku.

➜ I've only seen half of Death Note. Sadly, my first introduction to the series was that awful live-action movie... So I didn't bother watching the anime for several years...When I finally did start the anime, it was decently good—but I stopped midway since an AoT fic I'd read years before came rushing back to me and had spoilt most of the upcoming plot points for me. So all the tension and stakes were ruined for me.

➜ Moriarty The Patriot is one of my favourite anime series. I really liked that it delved into deep topics like classism, morality, and social justice. Sherliam is one of my favourite BL ships. Hopefully, they'll continue the anime series someday. I don't think I've ever done any posts on the series... But I will if I ever think of something appropriate.

➜ A year or 2 ago, after finishing the Given manga, I was motivated to start a couple of music-centric anime... I typically try out a few episodes of 3-4 shows and then choose between them. I know I ended up going with Kono Oto Tomare and Uta No Prince-sama. So I think the one I ended up not going with might have been Idolish...Or no scratch that I think it might have been Ensemble Stars... I'd have to go watch episode 1 again and see. So I'll have to get back to you on this.

Thanks for all the recommendations though. Sorry, I've seen most of them already. If you were looking for recommendations yourself, then I'd recommend the following (based on what you've said and recommended):

⦁ Link Click/Shiguang Dailiren really toes the line between canon and non-canon well with its main duo—in part due to China's censorship laws. I don't want to spoil anything since it's very suspenseful, but the show falls into the mystery, drama, and time-travel genres. It's available in three languages, and the latest season has introduced even more intriguing characters. (P.S. The music in this show is absolutely amazing.)

⦁ Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions is something I'd recommend to all Moriarty The Patriot fans since its MC is a descendant of both the Holmes and Moriarty bloodlines. It's more episodic and lighter in tone than MTP but no less intriguing.

⦁ Tsurune is sports anime centred around Kyudo—a traditional Japanese form of archery. Just like with Haikyuu and Sk8, it focuses on a lot of M/M duos and rivalries. Its animation is stunning, and the themes it touches on are insightful.

⦁ Owari No Seraph/Seraph of the End is a shounen anime that heavily centres around the ambiguous bond between its two leads—Yuu and Mika. There is an array of other complex relationship dynamics between its other characters as well. Its post-apocalyptic setting, music, and action sequences are somewhat reminiscent of Attack on Titan's earlier seasons, given that both series were animated by Wit Studio.

⦁ Windbreaker is a shounen anime centred around a group of delinquents at an all-boys school that have banded together to protect their town and its people from nearby thugs. Its characters and their interactions with one another are really endearing. While the fights aren't as flashy as other battle shounen, the series covers various significant themes and has significant character depth. The character design and character interactions are my favourite part of the series.

Anyways, thanks once again for reading through all my ramblings...

[turtlemagnum]

INTERESTS: writing, music, art in general, anime, games (both video and tabletop), animals, linguistics, mythology/theology, philosophical bullshit, making fun of philosophical bullshit, politics, guns (and other varieties of weapon), tech, vulgarity and misanthropy

writing: i'm a writer!! that's like, what i'm best at at the moment. my Main Project is a fantasy setting that i generally either refer to as Winds of Change (for the whole deal) or Arana (the main continent that i've developed so far). i'm currently developing a game to show it off and make other people as feral about it as i am, so i'm also learning how to make music and draw and such. but, at the moment the only skill i'd consider myself competent in is writing, so i primarily just call myself a writer!!

music: my taste is simultaneously deeply eclectic but also tends towards high amounts of specificity. i would say that my "main" genre is progressive rock and some of its derivatives, but i also love a lot of stuff like funk, soul, a small amount of metal, some IDM, whatever the hell death grips is, some early rap (mostly just NWA since that was what i grew up on), occasional jazz, like 2 indie bands, oldies, and on occasion normal people rock. artists i like include but are not limited to: yes, david bowie, king crimson, jimi hendrix, danny elfman, symphony x, dio, death grips, aphex twin, nwa, nat king cole, marty robbins, lemon demon, tally hall, jethro tull, midas, and masayoshi takanaka. i'm also told i have a nice singing voice, but i'm personally biased against such suppositions.

i like art, if you were to look through my likes (which are NOT VISIBLE ON THE TUMBR) it'd have a good amount of art. what that art is of, i'll leave to your imagination. i'm not great at drawing but i'm getting better!!

i like some varieties of anime and anime adjacent things. i'm not like, one of those anime fans though, y'know. in terms of series i like, i'd say i'm a fan of fist of the north star (i need to pick it up again), cowboy bebop (very controversial, i know(also need to pick it up again)), fullmetal alchemist (good series, one of the few i have finished), jojo (i haven't watched part 6 yet but i read the manga all the way into the end of part 7 just after part 4 had finished airing), early gen pokemon is something i come back to on occasion for mostly nostalgic reasons, i'm getting back into dragon ball (kill me), i liked gunsmith cats (the anime was only 3 episodes, you can watch it on youtube, i need to read the manga though), i somewhat recently read thru the entire original yu-gi-oh manga and was surprised at how good it was, and i read a lot of doujins!

i'm a gamer!!!!!!! i mostly love nintendo shit and PC games, and some series i'm into include zelda (arguably my first game series i was Way Into), fallout (mostly new vegas), elder scrolls (deeply love hate relationship), early pokemon, mario, the first deus ex game, portal, kotor, half life, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., a smattering of indie shit (primarily UTDR stuff), a bit of GTA, thief, pathologic, disco elysium, and MGS. i also like TTRPGs but being Extremely Alone, i'm basically screwed!!

i like animals of basically all varieties. definitely a dog person, though i also love cats.

linguistics is cool but i'm also Fucking Stupid so i haven't really gained much past a fairly surface level knowledge. doesn't stop me from trying!

mythology is cool! philosophy is cool too! to be clear i view the vast majority of it as bullshit and not to be taken seriously, but it's still interesting to think about at least!

like most human beings living in the modern age, i have a lot of very strong political views. however, i don't like to ascribe labels to myself since people generally hear the label and just fill in the blanks of what they already believe and go deaf to everything else you have to say. i feel like my stances should be fairly obvious if you listen to what i have to say, but here's my main deal in regards to this: i like freedom, not in the typical american way that's basically glorified grandstanding with deeply authoritarian tendencies, but in more of a way where i like the idea of people being able to live how they want without a threat of starving and such. i abhor bigotry, though it's very easy to say that i suppose. i try to be open minded and tend towards a live and let live attitude, y'know. i also oppose imperialism and authoritarianism, but i feel as though that should be considered the baseline

huge gun nerd. i've got Gun Autism, babey!!! don't worry, i'm not One Of Those gun people, i mostly just appreciate them from a technical level. i post a lot about guns, so if you don't like that you can either block the tag #turtlegunrant or just not follow!!!!!!!

tech, much like linguistics, is something i like quite a bit but aren't smart enough to Actually Understand. i'm also the variety of tech enthusiast who's a paranoid shithead, so i'm definitely more of a PC guy. i actually fucking hate touch screens, so i hate phones (which i know is rare for somebody born in this century). i love torrenting, piracy, and just generally downloading and archiving shit

[michiruze]

Reading the tags in reblogs and I agree with a LOT of them.

See, back in 2021, I decided to watch more movies that aren't American. Why? Because I feel that I am slowly losing the grip of media and stuff not from the US. So I decided to seek more films made outside of the USA, and do my best to attend film festivals to watch great movies from Asia and Europe, while limiting my American movies diet to Indie movies and stuff like Martin Scorsese films.

I've been listening to more K-Pop and Japanese doujin music too (with the occasional Indonesian pop), just to remind myself that music isn't just limited to US-made pop music.

I've learned enough about the US. It's time for me to learn about the world.

Also because that I had the ugly realization that no matter how much American pop culture you consume, you will still have a hard time adapting to American spaces solely because you weren't born and raised in the USA. I talked about this sort of thing here.

And it had done me good so far, I've become far more positive in liking and reviewing movies, my taste in movies have been re-calibrated. and my palate has become 'less American'.

If you follow my Letterboxd account, you'll notice that all my reviews are in English, even for movies made in Indonesia (where i'm from). Why? Because I really want my followers who are from the US to expand their media palate and watch these movies. I recall Martin Scorsese saying a similar thing back in the 90s about how cinema would be healthier if the US lets non-US movies be accessible to everyone, but I forgot where I found it.

There are great media that awaits them if they step outside of the US bubble! I've seen great movies made outside of the USA that I'm sure that the US will literally deify and mythologize to high heavens if they were made in the USA for US audiences.

And because let's face it, a lot of US media are just downgrades of non-US media that came before them, just with bigger budgets and Hollywood coating.

So...please seek media from outside the US. It doesn't have to be Anime and/or K-Pop (+ K-Drama) if you hate it......try to seek world cinema! You might find what you didn't know that you *needed*, such as Hong Kong martial arts movies, Italian giallo, Japanese coming-of-age movies, Fantasy C-Dramas, Thai BL, Nordic Noir, or Tamil action movies!

Not only you'll find great stuff, but it's also healthier for you because you will be unconsciously learning about other cultures through entertainment. Be less American, learn more about the world! And for Americans, learning more about the world won't make you -less- of an American.

Also this goes without saying but if you see someone who isn't American having no idea of American experiences and perspectives (e.g pop culture knowledge, differing perspectives on other nations and non-US media), kindly don't assume the worst. Ask them and let them speak!

DO NOT LET SOCIAL MEDIA TURN YOU INTO AN AMERICAN

[memorymessage]

because i was in a nostalgic mood the other day, i was watching a compilation of naruto openings. then a naruto retrospective popped up in my recommended, so i watched that as well...

and i must say now, looking back on a series that i haven't been interested in for over a decade, i still stand by the claim that masashi kishimoto and the naruto team were ever-so-slightly purposefully queerbaiting naruto and sasuke (please look at this, i mean- C'MON. like???). from a more objective perspective where i have no stock in this franchise at all anymore... i still genuinely believe that to be the case.

then i remembered my favorite naruto doujin author, and decided to look them up, too. on a nostalgic whim, i read one of the works that i'd never read before—one that i either missed or it got translated long after i became uninterested in naruto... and, holy shit, i actually started crying. one of the best fan pieces for naruto and sasuke i have ever consumed. not even close.

this series meant so much to me, from age 11, all the way until age 18. i'll always have a soft spot for naruto. shame how it ended. somehow worse than the face slap that was GoT season 8. i will never not be convinced that kishimoto wanted to end the series altogether, but maybe the publishers or something insisted on a sequel, so he was forced to make romantic relationships happen towards the end that would produce the second wave of main characters.

the true ending would have been team 7 reuniting as friends, no relationships happening, no timeskip, and no children.

a belated fond farewell to my former beloved hyperfixation

[kixidust]

Vector+Yuma Doujin English translation: I can’t hear chanting

Name: I can’t hear chanting Artist: https://twitter.com/sbmr330  Rating: All ages (Except for language) Ship: Yuma and Vector (Can be read as friendship/platonic) 

SO I decided to translate this doujin. Thank you so much to @doujinscans​ for making this available. This is my first translation project and it was really educational. I have so much more appreciation for translators now. I saw another translator who said that translating Vector’s vectorisms was difficult and it really was, somehow. Crassness in Japanese is just not done the same way as crassness in English lol.  I only have an intermediate understanding of Japanese and had to rely on a lot of research to get through this. I prioritized natural sounding English and vibes over direct translation. I did my best but it’s probably the case that I made some mistakes. If you’ve read the original and think I missed an important aspect in the translation or made a significant error that changes the way things come off, please let me know.  With that, you can read below the cut!

[captnjacksparrow]

Hello there! You once mentioned in your asks that instead of fanfics in Ao3, you like reading doujins more about SNS. Can I please ask for some recommendations for me to read too?? I'll really appreciate it, Thank youu so muchh~

Hmmm... Okay, Since I’ve been in this fandom for just about a year.... And very recently I got into these doujinshis... My range of recommendations will be very limited. None of them are Ranked. However even among them I have favourites which are boldened.....

Warning : Some of the Doujins might not be suitable for your taste... Characters might do certain stuffs ( ** self-servicing ** ) at age 13 without going all the way IN. It might feel Ped*philic for some... Whereas for me it didn’t. So, You be warned. 

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When the Five-Coloured Rainbow Appears Part 1 (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4) by Emi/10-Rankai

When the Five-Coloured Rainbow Appears Part 2 (Chapter 5, 6)

Romance - 1%

Plot - 99% [ Suggest me something like this, I would read it all day ]

Plotline: Naruto time travels and meets Sasuke’s family before the Massacre... 

Prepare to cry.

Sasuke was like an Adorable Little Bubble in this one... This dj focuses more on the interaction between Naruto and Itachi... rather than NaruSasu.

---------------------

Sudden evening rain hymn (Part 1) by Emi/10-Rankai

Sudden evening rain hymn (Part 2)

It's a wonderful dj Storywise and Artwise... But my only gripe is... Naruto is just... ummm not Naruto in this dj. I don't think he would take light of Sasuke at anytime.

----------------------

Residence of the Sun (1, 2, 3) by Emi/10-Rankai

Residence of the Sun (4)

Another emotional rollercoaster... Sasuke gets amnesia and Naruto helps him recover from that... 

This dj came at around 2006... And it has “Sasuke loved Naruto all along” thingy which made me wonder... “Kishi, Dude??? 2006??? Did you steal it???” lol.

--------------------------

Uchiha becomes a Cat by Yumemata/Nilo/Signal

Has lill bit smut contents...

But it’s 95% comedy and Naruto was extremely adorable here... Nilo actually trolled SasuNaru here in a funny way....

---------------------------

And We... (Part 1) by Yumemata/Nilo/Signal

And We... (Part 2)

Slice of Life, Modern AU love story... Very good plotline about discovering their feelings.

And We.... 100% Chocolate dear to you. (Independent to the above stories). 

The Last panel in the above one is something that happened in my real life. LOL.

----------------------------

Yotsudake by Yumemata/Nilo/Signal

This is the very first dj I’ve read... So, it’s always my favourite....

---------------------------

Very Special by KSL/Shino Okimura

100% Funny... The Plot twist would make you laugh for a good 5 minutes.... Beware, the first page looks like Hentai. But 100% Shonen-ai all along.

--------------------------

Golden Spiral by KSL/Shino Okimura

If there is any dj that represents pureness and innocence of Naruto and Sasuke... then this must be it. I got real emotional towards the end and then KSL with her trademark twist....made it damn funny in a single page. But a soulful dj nonetheless.

Damn, Most of her best works aren't translated into English and I am planning on doing one of it...

--------------------------

The Sairoku by KSL/Shino Okimura

I can’t even believe people made domestic SNS back in 2005 itself and made it sooooo well... Characters are aged 25 I guess and they are married which is refreshing.... It’s funny af. It has two parts attached in the same link... Don’t miss the other one.

And wait for the Rock Paper Scissor twist... Sasuke is soooo funny in it.

Plus also... you’ll know why Sasuke became a.... ummm... see it for yourself... LOLOL. 

Hint:

-------------------------

Adolescent Mania by KSL/Shino Okimura

That Warmth has a Purpose (Sequel to the above one)

This dj is based on the High School OVA, which SP released in the earlier part of Shippuden....

------------------------

Nine Tails tale Prologue by KSL/Shino Okimura

This DJ came out in 2008... It’s about Naruto in a Kyuubi form who never wanted to hurt anyone... but there is one Sharingan user (Madara) who made use of him to do bad things and Naruto ended up hating Humanity..... Oh Wait!!!! Isn’t this what Kishimoto did in Canon manyyyyyy years later???? LMAO... Kishi is proving again that he is a dj stealer....

--------------------------

KSL is my favourite doujinka so far because she is the only one who got Naruto’s features very close to the Author’s version of him.... ((As much I love Emi and Nilo's version of him... but they always gave me some Minato vibes which is... ummm... not the entirety of his character )) 

Naruto’s brash, unruly, unpredictable, cunning, competitive, offensive, flamboyant, exuberant features were usually never explored in other artists’ works... but KSL did it effortlessly & consistently which you can see from the above posters. Kudos to her!!! And as far as I've noticed, she is the only doujinka that was bothered to explore Naruto's backstory in all of her works... Also, her version of Sasuke is clearly mature, no-nonsense, hilariously cute and close to canon (not giving off that uwu innocent uke vibes)... In Short, Both behaves like Guys in her works.

------------------------

Freak by Monstercake2

I lovvveeed it. It’s an SN dj.... The amount of In-Canon-ness is much better than any other dj I’ve came across... I already talked about it here

-------------------------

Melting Snow by Monstercake2

Another SN dj... I can’t believe both of these are from the same artist... Very adorable and at the same time a painful dj... 

“Bakasuke, What are you doing here?!”

Naruto was unbearably cute in this dj throughout... Sasuke was like, “I am done with this idiot... but I can’t stop liking him” throughout.... 1000% In Canon-ness....

There is this fanart I saw in Tumblr which I loved so much so that I ended up saving it.. In that art, Adult N and S were kissing each other where Sasuke pins up his hands on the wall.. The source is here... I am talking about the 19th picture. Never thought that it was drawn by Monstercake....

-----------------------

Beyond (Part 1) by Aisy

Beyond (Part 2) by Aisy

In this dj, Naruto gets amnesia..... And Sasuke deals with it painfully...

----------------------

Trade 1 by Emi/10 Rankai

Trade 2

Echo by Emi/10 Rankai

Omoide Fubuki by Emi/10 Rankai

Insider by Yumemata/Nilo/Signal

-----------------------

NaruSasu Wedding Anthology by KSL, Emi/10 Rankai and many more

NaruSasu BatTen by KSL, Yumemata, Emi and many more

[tribow]

In 2013 ZUN & Twilight Frontier drop the absolute bangers that are Hopeless Masquerade and Double Dealing Character. A lot of characters get more activity through HM, so I expected it to have a huge affect on the fanon going forward.

DDC releases later into the year so I don't have anything to say about those characters for now.

With HM shaking things up, what happens in 2013 for the fanon?

Where the FUCK does this Youmu x Lunasa thing come from? Is there something I'm missing here?

Miko could not be more full of herself.

Many doujins focus on getting Kokoro to learn how to smile properly. She usually ends up smiling correctly without herself noticing.

I didn't see Suika living in the shrine at all this year. Guess everyone accepted she's in the heavens now.

Every year Rinnousuke isn't a massive pervert is a big W.

Kokoro tends to mock Miko by mimicking her mask's expression with her own face.

Mamizou is really self-conscious of her age, even if she's younger she prefers looking older. (okay this was a last year thing but I neglected to mention it)

Eientei is officially just a hospital. The only other context I see it in is Mokou centric love stories.

Whether or not Marisa becomes a magician youkai gets called to question a lot this year.

Shou is becoming less incopetent. People were like, "Oh yeah she wields a spear"

The depiction of Koishi closing her third eye is getting increasingly more violent.

Satori is getting super close to spiraling into her own subconscious out of worry for Koishi.

I thought the concept of Mokou x Mystia would stay in one doujinshi series, but the idea really spread.

KOGASA IS DOING IT, SHE'S SURPRISING PEOPLE LETS GOOOO (she still fails most of the time).

Akyuu appears so much this year. Really appreciate seeing a character that isn't from a game getting a lot of attention.

Tfw no Kosuzu :(

Byakuren and Miko get commonly referred to as Kokoro's mom and dad. (Tojiko aint too happy about that).

This year had some of the best doujins I've read. The plight of the Komeiji sisters was an interesting topic on its own, but the fanbase didn't expect these new developments for sure. Before this year, some fanworks would close the book on Koishi's case and give her some happy ending. However, her act of stealing the mask of hope showed that she wasn't doing any better. She's literally clinging to her last hope of conscious thought.

The fanworks take this information and run a whole mile with it. Koishi & Satori's actions become more desparate, Kokoro becomes this perfect fold to Koishi, and the fanon events that happen post-Hopeless Masquerade are really interesting.

Also, shoutouts to Hirasaka Makoto creating an origin story for the Sunny, Luna, and Star this year. Even with Oriental Sacred Palace completed, they keep making unofficial content for these characters.

[accio-victuuri]

since we're talking about this, sometimes I feel like web didn't feel as much with wangji as xz felt with wwx. idk, xz seemed much more emotionally attached to him (wwx) and cql. did yibo write anything to say his farewells? xz seemed to understand wangxian's connection a bit more profoundly than web. i think yibo was amazing but wasn't he a bit detached?

Hello Anon! I think people mistake Yibo’s few words as a sign of being detached/not caring at all. We can’t all be the ever so eloquent Xiao Zhan who can write reflective essays and say what’s on his mind on interviews like he does. He has a different understanding because he read doujins as a reference lol joke this is me clowning but that doesn’t mean he didn’t connect to LWJ’s role. You can argue that he has to understand him more because he can only say a few lines, so he has to convey it all in the limited space that he can act.

• As for the farewell message, um sorry, but do we just forget that his CQL farewell is the longest he ever did for a drama?

Just got back to beijing, (i’m) reluctant to part. 4 months of filming has ended. This is the first time I really acted in a period drama. Those who acted in a period drama during summer are made of iron warriors! There are times where I panic due to lack of lines for my character. Haha... I also saw huge mosquitoes biting me. From Mr. Bloated to an expert who can get rid of bloating. Lots of unexpected situations that needs solutions. Production crew that felt like family, it must have been tough!!! I don’t want to forget every small little things that happened in the future! I hope the sacrifice you all did for me will pay off... Red heart Goodbye, Lan Wangji, The Untamed.

( translation credit.)

• And you know what, let’s forget about his actual words. The way he sang Bu Wang. Hello? Do we just forget it? Tell me you don’t feel like crying when you hear that.

• Also this feature broadcasted for CQL’s Japan airing about LWJ. Where he talks about almost having a breakdown in group scenes and because he had no lines. He was afraid he was gonna ruin it. I don’t know about you, but i think that when you are detached from a role — you won’t care. He really wanted bring LWJ to life the best way he can.

• I also don’t wanna age here, cause being old or young is really not a qualifier. but. He was 20 y/o. He had to play the role of the peerless HGJ at that age. wow.

• his different understanding of wangxian is not really a point against him. well atleast to me. I was really heart broken to learn that he thought LWJ only realized he loved WWX after his death. like. wtf. That made everything hurt so much more.

To me, there really is no competition in this. It’s not fair to even compare. It’s like the endless debate of who is the better CQL fan? The ones who read the novel and watched the show vs the ones who just watched it. In this case, GG is the novel reader. Web is the one who read the drama script only. It doesn’t matter. They all gave their best to portray the character they were given. 🙏🏼

[vianna-orchidia]

[Doujin] [ReiKao] Hitsugi ni Himawari - Bara ni Sazanami

I'm sharing my scans of yuhazu's reikao doujinshi! This artist is one of my best favorite that I broke my promise not to buy anymore doujin orz 

Hitsugi ni Himawari | Bara ni Sazanami (sequel) It's vampire/priest AU. Safe for all age.

Please note that I don't include translation for this doujin.

Don't forget to check out the artist's pixiv (https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/323565) and twitter (https://twitter.com/yhzz_). They have a serialization going on! It's a reincarnated villainess trope manga (https://mangadex.org/title/44580/i-won-t-become-a-villainess-i-m-just-a-normal-duke-s-daughter) The folder is not password protected. Feel free to download and read them.

However, please do not reupload or reshare the link! Direct your friends to this post instead. DO NOT openly share the scans. I’m breaking the law by making this post, so if the scans are leaked (much worse, reach the artist’s ears), I will take down this post. Reblog to spread the love. Reikao content needs to increase!!!!!

[ato-matsuri]

On Agartha

Been a while since I’ve written a long text post, most of all one about Fate. It honestly inspires a lot of rambling in me, after all. But I don’t think, this time, it’s due to its good writing, the emotions it makes me feel, or anything good. This, my friend, is about Agartha. I should probably prelude that this contains a metric shit ton of Agartha spoilers. If you haven’t seen Agartha, and you’re actually wanting to see the story -- scroll past. But, having played through Agartha completely and rested on the story for a bit, I think I want to repeat what everyone else has for ages lol.

Agartha, on paper, is incredible. A subterranean world built off fantastical story off fantastical story, made by a woman known for her ability to weave story after story, within stories, on the fly, and from a database of every possible Arabian Nights tale. Where the fear Scheherazade has due to Shahryar's endless abuse and fearmongering has stretched even to men as a whole due to literal years of having to survive Shahryar. Where the only leaders were queens, where the only rebellion force was a man so horrifically corrupt that he'd easily fall for the tricks she played. Her intent -- to reveal magecraft forever, removing any power magecraft has, saving her from ever having to fight and face kings -- and die -- ever again. That... sounds pretty good when I describe it that way, huh? Now if only it were executed with any modicum of sense.

From the beginning, Agartha's writing struck me as remarkably odd. It was like I was watching someone desperately try to emulate Nasu's writing style -- but had absolutely no idea what made Nasu's writing so good. Its exposition dumps, rather than being interesting, ended up being thoroughly boring -- as they focused on the mundane, like the fact that moss glows to light up the landscape -- instead of the magical implications of a world like Agartha even existing to begin with. Albeit, with the mystery of Agartha at that time, we can safely assume that there wasn't much to focus on, but then why spend so damned long talking about this stuff?

The worldbuilding, while passable, feels fairly flawed in execution. The idea of a world made the way Agartha was could've made for some interesting commentary about the way men treated (and still do treat) women in modern society, but Agartha not only misses the point, but tumbles head-over-ass into the uncanny valley and makes the whole thing sound like a continent-wide BDSM session. There's barely any actual subtle or well-done symbolism to showcase misogyny in this way -- and while hyperbole can serve a good point at times, the hyperbole combined with the strangely sexual writing of these segments makes it feel less like commentary and more like a badly-done doujin.

For example -- El Dorado was as simple as it gets. Men are slaves/breeding machines/whatever. The whole 'breeding machine' thing is played off extensively, even with Penth -- a minor at this stage, mind you -- comments on using the protagonists as such breeding machines. I'll come back to this later, because this serves as another point.

Ys was a fucking cool concept -- a world ruled entirely by rampant consumerism and chaos. Men, in this world, are still second-class citizens, pretty much the playthings of the women around them. I say that Ys is the best kingdom comparatively, as it was at least more bearable than its other kingdoms, but it still felt weirdly sexual in its writing tone. Of course, following tone, Dahut (who I'll get back to later) smashes men constantly, and is very keen on fucking Guda as well, following a trend. It's played for comedy, mostly, but it's still uncomfortable as all hell. Even so, I note it's more bearable because it's a very slightly more subtle take on the whole 'misogyny' allegory -- these people are using men for basically whatever they want, and tossing them away after. I'd compare it to a few true crime cases of people who murdered, or assaulted women for no good reason at all, purely out of a want that was either denied (for good reason), or that the want itself was to inflict harm. While the allegory still does feel unintentional here, it's at least slightly less unintentional. It was probably mostly just by accident due to Agartha's generally uncomfortable writing style, but the allegory here feels a little more potent when it's not so blatantly a BDSM fic.

I hate the Nightless City, despite it again being a cool concept. A 'utopia' where speaking out at all means death -- where men are in concept free citizens, but in practice fall victim to the law if they look at someone funny. Again, in concept, great allegory. The law does not treat men and women the same -- and while it differs depending on the case which is preferred, the vast majority of the time, women are pretty much shafted by the legal system (see Brock Turner), especially in very conservative areas. Cases can be made for both genders being shafted, of course -- but for the purpose of this allegory, picking out the prejudices of the legal system against gender is a fair critique. But, like everything else Agartha does, these neat ideas fall flat in practice.

They barely touch at all on the allegory, and nobody seems to even realize it in the cast, making me further believe the allegories aren't intentional at all. In due fact, it's as if the writer didn't even realize that this could be read as an allegory. The men's plights make some sense, as they were yoinked out of nowhere into a world that hates them. But the Servants and Guda don't think about it at all past the 'wow men are slaves that sucks' -- barely even considering that this could be an allegory the world's creator made due to their own horrific circumstances. They do point this out, but to my knowledge, it's very late -- when Scheherazade's called on her bluff, only then is it ever mentioned, and only in passing at that. If anything, the fact they point this out so close to the ending makes the ending itself that much more insulting. But before I get to the ending, I think there's something else about Agartha that sets the scene for just how awful it is -- and that's the way the characters are written, and the dialogue that comes of it. For this, I'll split it up into the characters who portray this the most. I'll even describe their personalities in Agartha's context.

Guda: Crouching pervert, hidden Mash stan. A few non-sequiturs of Guda complimenting Mash despite the mood being completely broken by it. Guda's incapable of taking a situation seriously in Agartha, even when the world's basically due to be changed forever. They keep cracking jokes, creeping on Astolfo/d'Eon, and other such things even when people are literally dying all around him. For that matter, I clearly recall the scene where -- for no real reason -- Guda just changes gears with Mash in tow, and starts trying to decipher d'Eon's gender. There's absolutely no real context to this, nor any reason for Guda to do this. Further noted is the fact Guda has worked with d'Eon before, and should've probably realized d'Eon's situation by this point. The Nasuverse has always been a bit, er, behind on gender norms and such, but it's so prevalent in any scene with d'Eon it hurts -- especially in that particular scene.

Astolfo: Oddly enough, the most tolerable person here (sans one other person). Agartha's refusal to take itself seriously works remarkably well for Astolfo. And while Astolfo isn't exactly written well here either, the fact that Astolfo's always been a bit loopy makes them seem, well, more in character. They're responsible for some of the funnier moments in Agartha, with their input composing approximately 3/4 of the, like, seven or eight funny moments in Agartha proper. Even so, Astolfo's appearance sometimes hurts Agartha as much as they help it, probably since Astolfo is a bit of the reason Agartha won't take itself seriously.

d'Eon: Deserved fucking better. The previously mentioned scene was the worst offender by far in my eyes, with it coming out of fucking nowhere. d'Eon's paired with Astolfo as a buddy and fighting partner, which itself could've made for good material -- instead, d'Eon is constantly dragged into Astolfo's fanservice-y gimmicks, and d'Eon themselves are pretty often creeped on by Guda. I'd go out on a limb to say that d'Eon's implied dislike of gendered clothing (see the maid outfit) made their scenes wearing such outfits far more uncomfortable, especially with how distinctly sexual the Agartha humour is. I just hated it.

Columbus: I can't fucking believe I'm saying this, but Columbus was the funniest character in Agartha. And I don't even think that was intentional. Something about how unabashedly horrible he was caught me completely off guard -- I thought he'd end up sort of like Napoleon at a glance, someone whose Spirit Origin was completely changed due to Europe's collective worship of the dude -- but holy FUCK was I wrong. Something about the hilariously cursed faces Columbus pulls, combined with his loud-and-proud irredeemable evilness, made him a blast to watch -- and an even bigger blast to beat the shit out of. His, uh, toothy grin still cracks me up even a few weeks after playing it.

Penthesilea: One of a very large amount of people who really deserved better. She barely ever shows up -- and when she does, she voices her desire to turn Guda and co. into a breeding machine/slave (recall she's like. 16?), and pretty much throws the whole 'reasonable-ish zerk' thing out the window instantly, because Agartha decided to forego decent writing in favour of 'funny berserker hates achilles haha brrrrrr,' therefore losing pretty much all the characterization they could've given her. The lack of 'alternate views' that show her in greater detail make this far worse, which I'll go into later.

Dahut: God, wasted potential out the asshole! A woman who made an entire world that fucked around and needlessly consumed stuff, she's the epitome of such a belief. But that's all she is. I'd be able to forgive this awful writing if Scheherazade, who 'implanted' Drake onto Dahut, was a bad writer -- but she's fucking Scheherazade! Dahut's a completely flat character, who constantly tries to bed (and kill) Guda, and generally likes the idea of needless consumption. That's literally it. Again, could be explained if Dahut had difficulty keeping control of Drake's body and conscience -- but this isn't explored either! She's just a walking, talking missed opportunity.

Wu: God, look at her design. Do I even need to say more?! She falls under the same problem that the other rulers do -- shallow characterization, no opportunities to flesh them out, etc.

Scheherazade: She could've been so fucking amazing. Scheherazade's story is one ripe with interpretations the Fate series so loves to utilize -- and on paper, her character is amazing. It'd only be natural for someone like Schez to be this deeply traumatized after so many days on death's door -- not many could really get through that okay. The incredible storyteller who fears death, kings, and unconsciously, men as a whole -- creating Agartha as a subtle way of ensuring none of them harm her while she prepares her ultimate plan of revealing magecraft to the entire world. However, as with the other Agartha characters, she becomes cripplingly one-note. Bringing her fear of death above all else, she comes off as an unreasonable asshole, constantly freaking out about death and preserving exclusively herself to a fault. While one could argue it's partially due to a Pillar's influence, Phenex doesn't seem to have a hold on her at all -- it's a basic alliance, and nothing more, as the ending shows us. It just leaves her as a one-note death avoider, with no other character traits at all. I'd go into further detail, but I'm saving that for later.

Fergus: God fucking damnit, man. A literal child version of Fergus, who the entire cast constantly expects to sexually harass every woman in sight. He's a one-note flanderization of Fergus, just without the one character trait Agartha gave Fergus. It just makes him... boring, a character whose only character trait is his refusal to hit a woman. Like... Come on. The fact the entire team is so sure this literal child will start trying to hit on women is just uncomfortable to witness, and the fact he slowly starts gaining these traits feels less like him 'meeting his fate' as Fergus, and more like Agartha wants an excuse to sexually harass more of the cast.

The Fucking Ending I'm giving this its own category, because of just how much of a punch to the face it was. In short -- the plan to reveal magecraft is revealed, more jokes are made, bla bla bla. Agartha can't keep a serious mood at all. ...But the final few scenes take it to a whole other extreme.

Wu Zetian comes out of nowhere despite being squashed by Megalos earlier, stuffing Phenex into a pit of her weird water shit, placing Phenex in a state of 'life and death.' Child Fergus then sac's his own Spirit Origin to summon Fergus inside himself(???), thus gaining the power of Caladbolg to weaken Phenex enough for the player to destroy. ...However, Child Fergus just summoned Fergus inside his own body. So, what happens when you put Agartha!Fergus, a one-note sexual harasser, into the body of a child? You get the final scene of Agartha. For some reason, I guess you need more help from others to take out Phenex. To this end, Fergus decides to convince Schez to join their side. I'd like you to recall that FGO!Scheherazade is implied to have the trauma of Shahryar's abuse, sexual and physical, burned into her memory -- not just the whole death thing. In every form of the story, Shahryar abuses her in such a fashion almost nightly. It's to the point where Schez' first line of defence, and much of her skills, are as much oriented around storytelling as they are charm and seduction (moreso the former than the latter, albeit), because her defence mechanism was that as much as it was storytelling, to keep her abuser happy. This is a part of why Agartha is the way it is -- to keep such men away from her. Hell, there's not a single King in sight, save technically Fergus, and Chaldea's d'Eon and Astolfo. Fergus knows this. Hell, he heard this being called out. He's well aware how terrified she is. So, what does he do?

SEXUALLY HARASS HER. He claims she has to live to have kids. That men and women have to live to have kids. He claims that she should live, because he'd smash her. ...Now, that's insulting enough -- moreso, that it's played dead serious. Nobody even as much as calls him on such a shitty persuasion tactic, and nobody even mentions how awful it is to sexually harass a woman who'd been sexually assaulted at best for the better part of almost three straight years. AND IT. FUCKING. WORKS.

SCHEHERAZADE. IS IMPLIED. TO BE INTO IT.

And because of this, she's swayed to join the heroes and seal Phenex away for good -- giggling about how Fergus' worldview was partially correct even as she fades away. The epilogue features Fergus, sexually harassing Scheherazade ON SIGHT -- calling out 'tits on my 12:00' or whatever, as Scheherazade darts off. However, Schez isn't avoiding him due to trauma. She's avoiding it because, while she's into it, she doesn't want to 'die' so fast. This fucking ending highlights among the biggest issues with this damned Singularity. Even Blavatsky coming out of fucking nowhere to Deus Ex Machina a grail and help into Guda's hands -- despite seemingly being slaughtered by Columbus in a (admittedly a bit funny) way to get the base of the Resistance -- means nothing to me compared to the blatant slaughter of two characters at once. Fergus is a total horndog even outside of Agartha's reach, but he even notes he respects his partners' consent, and doesn't overstep his bounds if he makes them uncomfortable. Scheherazade isn't exactly trusting in the slightest, least of all in Agartha - she barely even begins trusting Guda due to Guda treating her with actual respect. Even then, she isn't actively prostrating herself for Guda in that sense, very likely due to the fact that's more of a defence mechanism to her rather than something she'd enjoy, due to extreme trauma. Albeit, Fate writing does leave the possibility in the air for Guda specifically, but that's very likely just due to Guda being Guda and being careful to treat her properly and help her than anything else (and also the whole 'self insert harem' thing, I guess, but that's a hell of a lot easier to ignore esp in contrast to Agartha) And yet, we see that epilogue, that butchers both of them in one fell swoop so badly that I almost ended up hating both of them. Agartha's biggest problem is that it tried to be deep and intriguing, while having the writing quality of the goddamned Valentine's events. It picked all the right characters to have an incredibly intriguing storyline, and fell flat because the author decided that playing sexual harassment, d'Eon's everything, and even the most serious scenes for comedy was more important than telling a story even half as meaningful as the chapters before it. Lo and behold -- to my knowledge, Minase wrote it. Of course he did. He chose the best, the most interesting characters he could find, and made them so fucking one-note that the story lost all its charm in moments. He chose to emulate Nasu without understanding what made Nasu's writing so good. He chose to make Agartha a laugh fest despite simultaneously trying to make it 'deep.' He chose to fall head-over-ass over a possibly interesting allegory into misogyny and fall right into sexualizing it to the point of feeling like a femdom BDSM fic. And go figure the only character he did decently was Christopher fucking Columbus. I have a hatred for Agartha I can't reasonably place anywhere else. Prillya was just as shitty, but I ignored it, because Prillya itself wasn't great, so of course the crossover sucks too. Valentine's events written by him weren't great, but whatever, it's a Valentine's event. Septem, written by someone else, was similarly not great. But it wasn't insulting. It simply wasn't great, and had a lot of wasted potential. But its ending wasn't out of character to the point of being insulting. Its story didn't make incredible mythological and historical figures too infuriating to like anymore. It didn't almost ruin entire Fate characters for me. Not the way Agartha did. I should probably contextualize that Scheherazade is among my favourite mythological figures. I introduced myself to her through Magi (lmao) due to further research into the base stories -- as well as a favourite Magic: The Gathering card, Shahrazad, which forced you to play a game within your game, like how Arabian Nights featured stories within stories.

Even in Fate outside of Agartha, I liked her. Her design didn't make much sense to me considering her character, but whatever, I didn't need to think too hard of it. It's just a design, and despite my hatred of Penth's design, I still love Penth as a character, so I can handle Schez. But Agartha painted her in such a way that all the subtlety and interesting parts of Schez went completely out the window. No longer was there any hidden references to the aftereffects of her life beyond 'i dun wan die,' and there was hardly an ounce of sympathy or kindness in her bones at all. While her being an anti-hero made some sense, especially as she was only a normal person with far above-average storytelling prowess, there was a point when she stopped being a 'good, but terrified person' and started being a complete asshole. And Agartha was that time. If it weren't for her Interlude, which redeemed her considerably, and Ooku, which did wonders for her character despite being written by Minase (as I believe Nasu was overseeing him at that point), I very likely would've never gone for her at all, despite my love of the myth. In Conclusion This rant is just to say that Agartha is bad. Horrific. Insulting, even. At every step where it could've been good, it tumbled head-over-ass into the most insulting, uncomfortable shit you could imagine. It failed to take itself seriously, and paced itself like a comedy event, but simultaneously acted as if it expected its audience to take it seriously. Like a clown brigade deciding to take on Les Mis, it loses all of its punch when every few lines is interrupted by a jab at Fergus, sexual harassment, or something that comes close to being cool before suddenly turning into a badly-timed joke, or suddenly becoming laden with dialogue so sexual it feels straight out of a porno. It's aggravating, awful, and with only brief reprieves of bareable comedy in between long, long lengths of hellish text and awful characterization. The only good part was the gameplay -- which, laden with interesting mechanics not seen elsewhere, was legitimately fun. My take? Avoid all Agartha cutscenes and plot, and just play the gameplay. The gameplay's fun, and if enjoyed on its own, would probably make for a far better experience than observing the story surrounding it. But good gameplay doesn't make up for a horrible story, especially in a game where plot is as important as it is in F/GO. Agartha's a pile of shit in my eyes, but that's ultimately only my opinion, and nothing more. If others have an opinion counter to mine, that's completely fine -- and don't let this analysis ruin your fun with Agartha if you enjoyed its plot. To be frank, I'd be happy if you enjoyed it where I could not. And if you think my takes are misinformed, or if I missed a spot (or overreacted to a spot), that's what the reblogs and comments are for! I'm definitely not the kind of dude who has the final say in matters like this -- this is only what I picked up. Thank you for reading!

[ryqoshay]

OTP Ask Meme (Impatient Edition) YuuAyuSetsu

And yet again, I know the point of these things is to wait for followers to Ask questions from the list, but reading though this one got me thinking too much. About all of my flagships. And I wanted to answer all of the questions. And not wait for a handful to maybe be asked.

So again, credit again goes to @lonelypond​ for this version coming across my dash. Reblog that version if you want to do this thing correctly.

Also, just because I’ve already answered these here, I’ve expanded on some for various reasons and left others short if I believe the reasons are obvious. So if you still want to do the whole interactive thing, you can still ask for clarification or whatever.

And finally, there will be spoilers ahead for Tri-Arame, both for scenes I’ve written and posted, as well as some that remain in my Notes and WIP Warehouse. I’ll try to remember to link to the chapters mentioned.

1. Who wakes up first?

Ayumu. The comfort of sleeping next to or between her girlfriends has caused her internal clock to be uncanny in its accuracy, such that she no longer needs an alarm, as depicted in Early and Bright. Yuu doesn’t need an alarm either, as if the smell of cooking breakfast or brewing coffee isn’t enough to wake her, Ayumu will do so eventually. Setsuna will wake up sometime after Ayumu and before Yuu.

2. Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

Yuu is always happy to spend a little longer in bed, if for no other reason than to cuddle with whoever is there with her.

3. Who takes longer getting ready?

One could argue Setsuna, but that would primarily be because Ayumu is taking her time enjoying styling her hair.

4. When they can’t sleep, what do they do?

Probably watch anime.

5. Who falls asleep while watching a movie?

Ayumu, especially if she is comfortable and warm in between Setuna and Yuu. Yuu might fall asleep depending on the genre of movie.

6. Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a small affectionate smile?

Depends on the night’s sleeping arrangement, though more likely Yuu or Ayumu.

7. Who comes up with the cheesy pick-up lines?

Yuu intentionally. Setsuna less intentionally as she honestly thinks quoting some anime or manga line is cool; neither Yuu nor Ayumu are willing to dissuade her as they find it adorable.

8. Who gets extremely competitive playing Mario Kart?

Yuu and Setsuna like to make just about anything into a friendly competition. As of Betting For Play, they start including little requests winner gets to make of the loser. Ayumu joins the fun from time to time but is nowhere near as competitive as the other two.

9. Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling?

Setsuna, if she is focused on talking about anime/manga/idols/etc with Yuu or Ayumu.

10. Who sets the other’s ringtone to something loud and obnoxious behind their back?

Yuu

11. Who rearranges the bookshelf/DVD shelf in alphabetical order?

Setsuna likes her doujin collection organized properly so she can quickly find her favorites when she wants to reread them again.

12. Who does the hands-over-the-eyes “Guess Who” thing?

Yuu. I can see Setsuna doing so after she is more comfortable with her girlfriends.

13. Who points out a dog when they see one?

Setsuna

14. Who’s prone to road rage?

Setsuna, but only if Ayumu and/or Yuu are passengers with her; her desire to protect those she loves kicks in. If she is alone in the car, she might grumble a bit but it won't ruin her day.

15. Who’s prone to wearing socks indoor (or to sleep)?

Ayumu, and possibly Setsuna. We've seen barefoot sleeping Yuu in canon.

16. Who reminds the other to put on sunscreen before going to the beach (or pool)?

Ayumu

17. Who carries all the important documents while traveling?

Ayumu

18. Who gets the window seat?

Probably Setsua. Then Yuu and Ayumu get to enjoy watching her excitement from the view.

19. Who puts their cold hands/feet on the other?

Yuu intentionally. Setsuna unintentionally.

20. What do they argue about the most?

Less an argument, more a heartfelt disagreement, but they all maintain a concern about doing their fair share or that they’re somehow holding the other back or whatever. The other two then have to reassure them they’re doing fine.

21. Who’s clumsier?

Setsuna. Ayumu to a lesser degree.

22. Who texts more often?

Yuu and Setsuna

23. Who is better with kids?

Setsuna is best at keeping kids entertained and happy, with a story or a song or other sort of performance. Ayumu is best at tending to the kids’ needs, like feeding and calming them down when they’re upset or applying first aid. This isn’t all to say Yuu is bad with kids, just that the other two are better.

24. Who’s the better cook?

Ayumu, by far and away. Yuu is capable of the stereotypical bachelor level of cooking. Setsuna is prone to extreme experimentation, but if supervised by someone like Ayumu, she is capable of producing something edible.

25. Who mistakes salt for sugar?

Setsuna.

26. Who puts the fork in the microwave?

Possibly Setsuna

27. Who cooks at 2 in the morning?

Either Yuu or Setsuna

28. Who lets the microwave play the loud beeping sound at 1 a.m.?

Yuu, though she would be quite apologetic about if it woke anyone up.

29. Who licks the spoon when they’re baking brownies?

All of them.

30. Who likes doing the dishes?

Ayumu and Yuu are fond of doing them together. Setsuna is happy to take one of their places as she falls into the routines of the other two.

31. Who has bigger cravings? What are they?

I would say Yuu for idols, but I believe Setsuna matches or possibly exceeds her. Setsuna for anime and manga and doujin, in addition to idols of course. Ayumu initially just for Yuu, but then later for both Yuu and Setsuna. For food? Yuu and Ayumu have a canon fondness for Kope Pan and I imagine they pull Setuna into this desire over time.

32. Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

Ayumu

33. How do they eat ice cream? What’s their favorite flavors?

They each get different flavors with the express intent of trying some of the others. Not sure about favorite flavors yet.

34. Do they go on dates? What are they like?

Absolutely. Ayumu prefers peaceful walks in parks or window shopping in the mall. Yuu also likes those things, though more because it is time spent with Ayumu, and eventually Setsuna, than for the activity itself. Once introduced to idols, she keeps track of local performance schedules and insists they go regularly. Setsuna loves hitting up the comic and game shops and has reservations for Comiket as soon as they’re available. She also loves the idol Lives, obviously.

35. What do they smell when they smell Amortentia?

Yuu smells the slightly gasoline-like smell of the dye Ayumu helps her use, the pyrotechnics used on stage during certain performances, and Tamagoyaki. Setsuna smells the sweat produced while performing under the heat of a spotlight, tabasco chilies, and the lingering scent of Yuu and Ayumu left on Ayumu’s bed. Ayumu smells the fabric softener the Takasaki family used for their laundry, Yuu’s hair, and Setsuna’s hair.

Tamagoyaki is the sweet, rolled egg omelet we see Ayumu feed Yuu in an early chapter of SIFA, or possibly Ayumu’s Bond Episode, I forget. Either way, I like the idea of that being a simple dish Ayumu learned to make at a young age and got Yuu hooked on her version of it over the years.

For Setsuna, I wanted to be more subtle with the tabasco thing, so I could hint at it instead of stating it directly. Thus, I looked up the ingredients for Tabasco… and what do you know, it’s made from tabasco chilies, which themselves are named after the state of Tabasco in Mexico. So yeah, a brand named after its main ingredient, which is named after the region where it is grown. No getting away from the name there.

Also, yes, Ayumu gets two hair entries, one for each girlfriend. I don’t care if it’s cheating or a cop out or whatever. I love the headcanon that she is obsessed with hair, so of course how it smells would be something that resonates with her. And she would absolutely be able to tell the difference between Yuu and Setsuna in a blind scent test.

36. Which one is the secret snuggler?

Setsuna is decidedly the most “needy” in her snuggles, though Ayumu can have her moments. Yuu loves all forms of physical contact, but that really isn’t much of a secret to anyone.

37. Which one offers their jacket to the other when they complain they feel cold?

Setsuna, with her desire to be heroic and cool. And Yuu, having grown up with Ayumu who gets cold.

38. Who reaches for the other one’s hand while driving?

Ayumu

39. Who leaves little notes in the other one’s lunch?

Ayumu. (Bonus: What does it say?) Cute, little affirmations of her love for her girlfriends.

40. Who is the most affectionate?

Yuu is the most open about it with Setsuna coming in a close second, but only after she is more comfortable in knowing she isn’t impressing herself too much on the others. Ayumu loves her physical affection, but is more reserved in initiating it; more sensual intimacy on the other hand…

41. Who is the big spoon/little spoon?

After a few weeks of rotation and figuring things out, they settle on Yuu being the big spoon to Ayumu while Setsuna snuggles into Ayumu’s chest, as first portrayed in Late Return Night. If, however, Yuu and Ayumu exhaust Setsuna during intimate activities, leaving her passed out between them, again, Yuu will roll her toward Ayumu and be her big spoon instead, like in Betting For Play.

42. What is their favorite feature of their partner?

If asked, Ayumu would probably say she loves Yuu’s gentle, supportive smile and Setsuna’s heart-igniting, passionate smile. However, if actions speak louder than words, her girlfriends’ hair might be considered her favorite feature. Yuu loves Ayumu’s adorable blush when she is teased and the fire in Setsuna’s eyes when she performs. Setsuna loves Ayumu’s braided bun, enough to want to emulate it sometimes, and Yuu’s excited expression as she cheers from the audience.

43. What is the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

For Yuu? Honestly, not much, in either case. She had little desire to rush anything and was happy to take it all at a casual pace. Not much changed for Ayumu either when she realized she loved Yuu as they were already spending a ton of time together anyway. However, upon realizing she had feelings for Setsuna, she resolved to finally move past her jealousy over the bond Setsuna had formed with Yuu; how successful she is with this is part of her character development in TA. Setsuna tried to walk away from the other two when she realized her feelings for them were stronger than just friendship and she was afraid of coming between them. They pulled her back in. And she let them.

44. What are their nicknames for each other?

Currently, I only have Yuu not using any honorific with Ayumu, as opposed to -chan she uses was her peers and juniors, and eventually her seniors after they’ve all graduated. I figure she has been referring to Ayumu as such for so long that changing, even to add -chan, would feel strange, even if she constantly calls Ayumu cute, making the honorific fitting in that regard. Setsuna uses -san with everyone, even her girlfriends and Ayumu uses -chan in a similar manner to Yuu, though with Yuu as well.

I have seen other authors use the alternate reading of the kanji for Ayumu’s name and have her girlfriend call her Pomu. I’ve also seen Setsuna shortened to Setsu, as Ai does in the anime. And while I am not opposed to someday adopting either or both of these to my own writings, I am awaiting what may or may not be revealed in the second season of the anime before I finalize how the trio refers to one another. Even if that means major retcons to what I’ve already written; just add them to the list…

45. Who worries the most? Over what?

Probably Ayumu. However, as mentioned above, all three worry about contributing enough to the relationship. Prior to officially dating, Ayumu and Setsuna worried that they were getting in the way of the other being a happy couple with Yuu, as revealed in Change Overnight.

46. Who initiates kisses?

Yuu, as mentioned above, is quite happy to initiate physical affection of all sorts, both in public and in private. Setsuna is more willing to initiate hugs and welcome home kisses, though is more hesitant with other types of kisses. Ayumu is similar to Setsuna but swaps for good morning kisses as the type she is more comfortable initiating.

47. Who says I love you first? How did it happen?

Yuu drops the more casual version quite often, and with just about everyone she is remotely close to. She probably starts adding the more serious version occasionally, with just Ayumu and Setsuna, as she feels their bonds have strengthened to that point. Setsuna is not quite as liberal with the casual version as Yuu, but definitely uses it more with Yuu and Ayumu. She probably doesn’t use the more serious version until after they’ve made their relationship official. Ayumu realizes she hasn’t said it at all, not even the casual version, prior to them dating, and decides it’s high time to start, as revealed in Change Overnight.

48. Who tells their friends/family about their relationship first?

They probably tell their friends at the same time. For family, I would imagine Yuu has no problems saying something right away. Ayumu likely isn’t far behind. Setsuna… I’m still working through my thoughts on her family, to be honest.

49. What do they do when they’re away from each other?

In When One’s Away, Ayumu started a practice to send one of Yuu’s sleepshirts and one of her own stuffed animals with Setsuna when she goes out on tour. She also has a set of wireless charging mounts that allow the three to share a conference call so they can see and hear each other before falling asleep at night. If Yuu is the one away, swap her shirt for one of Setsuna’s. If Ayumu is away, she would swap her own stuffed animal for one of Setsuna’s. This is to make sure no one feels completely left out, since it is rare that the three would be separated completely and more often only one would be away at any given time.

50. Who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Setsuna and Ayumu.

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails in the Sky: The 3rd

I had a twelve hour marathon session to finish it yesterday, why no, I don’t have a social life, why do you ask?

What an ending!

That horrible thing happened where I find a final boss really hard and then I look up the game afterwards and everyone’s going on about how easy it was and I’m like :/

I’m not good at video games

I can’t believe the game starts with Kevin SPOILING THE END OF CARNELIA, damnit it Kevin, I never read it because I missed some chapters in FC and was planning on reading it when I replayed

I read it in the garden. It’s pretty good 

I love the doors thing so much. The main plot was like... fine, as an excuse to have a game, but I would honestly have bought this if it were nothing but just a bunch of these little vignettes. Shows how good the characters are

Really enjoyed Schera and Estelle’s Moon Doors, and the Star Doors about Olivier, Julia, the one at the banquet, Zin’s (surprsingly, as I’ve always found him kinda dull), the Ravens (MY BOYS), Campanella breaking the fourth wall, and Bleublanc. 

I hated all of the minigames except the quiz. I like quizzes

I did not finish the Nightmare Arena. I kept a save if I ever feel like going back and trying, but I probably won’t

Special mention: Fucking hell Star Door 15 do I have to say more

I figured that at most it was going to be an abusive, or maybe negligent parents thing, not... 

I take back my previous comments about not caring for Renne

I resent the��‘win x battles’ doors because I’m the kind of player who skips encounters whenever possible, so I ended up having to grind in Abyss for hours - and the reward is very little, really >:(

I guess I have shipping opinions now?

Joshua and Estelle are still good and I like them very much

Kevin and Ries as friends, thanks

I had kind of jokingly been shipping Maybelle and Lila already, but Star Door 9 has made me militant

Am I the only person who ships Kloe and Josette a little? It would be cute!

The game pushes Olivier and Schera, which I don’t hate but like. She’s way too good for him. Her Moon Door kind of made me like her with Aina, actually, more than anything else  

Speaking of Olivier, I don’t necessarily ship him with Mueller, but one thing I noticed about them that I thought was very sweet is that despite Mueller’s usual frustration at Olivier’s flirtations, he doesn’t seem to take any issue with Olivier calling him ‘love’. It’s a nice, subtle indication that there is mutual affection there, really. I don’t know. It made me smile

I like Mueller and Julia together as well. Except for the fact that their names sound awful next to each other

They had a lot of time to hang out on the bench...

So, uh. Tita and Agate. Why. Like, in the first two games it was very much a pseudo-sibling relationship, and then we meet Erika who seems pretty convinced it’s something far... worse, and you know what? That’s understandable. If I had a thirteen year old daughter and I’d been informed that in my absence she had become close friends with an adult man I didn’t know, I would be pretty damn concerned

But Anelace?!? Who knows Agate and knows he’s a good person and still seems to think their relationship is romantic?!? And she’s supportive!?!

‘She just has a dark sense of humour’ I whisper into my paper bag

I mean, not to Age Gap Discourse, but no. Bad. What the hell. She’s unambiguously a child

The saving grace is that, at the very least, it seems like this is just everyone else’s misunderstanding of the situation. Which is good, because I really, really like Agate and wouldn’t want to have to start despising him (perhaps a case could be made for Tita having a crush. As far as I’m concerned, that’s perfectly fine - as long as it isn’t reciprocated)

Anyway rant over

It’s so weird how every chapter is pretty short and supplemented by doors, except 6 which takes approximately 15 years

I do like how blatantly Falcom was wringing every last bit of usage possible out of all the old assets 

I started yelling GILBERT everytime he appeared, god he’s such a loser I LOVE him

I loved being able to play as Richard so much. He’s genuinely my favourite antagonist in the whole series so far. He just had the most interesting motivations to me (and I’m a huge sucker for redemptions)

I wish it had been clearer that I wouldn’t be able to do a team reshuffle for the final boss, because I took my four best characters (Kevin, Estelle, Joshua and Richard) and made them Team Leaders, with the intention of then using them all together for the final fight. Which I of course couldn’t do. So I got stuck with underequipped glass cannon Tita in that final arena. Remarkably, she survived

I didn’t tear up at the end you can’t prove it

So Crossbell is of course next, but after a few hours of messing around with translation patches and corrupted zip files and that one doujin website where you can buy it but it’s all in Japanese, I have come to the conclusion that I’m not going to be able to play it unless we get an official localisation 

But what I have found is a Let’s Play! Which is definitely not ideal, but it’s that or no Crossbell at all for me. So my plan is that I’ll watch that, and also play the first two Cold Steel games concurrently, as I’m told that’s okay. Should all be interesting 

[magicalgirlagency]

Hi! I've been wanting to watch/read cardcaptor Sakura but I heard it was creepy with a bunch of age gap bullshit. Do you know if I should avoid it?

Well, CCS isn't a cesspool of pain and despair and the child characters aren't scandalously sexualized, but in my honest opinion, it's best that you avoid it.

Like, I used to think this series was the coolest, but the whole age gap bullshit has made it age like milk to me.

And that's not even mentioning that CLAMP has started their career by making yaoi doujins. Blecch. You guys know how I am with yaoi material.