#The manga ended a year ago and I’ve honestly never talked about it

[the-insanity-of-mojiru]

I heard Bakemono Yawazukushi finished it's English publication, so I highly recommend people go and read it! It's my favorite manga! The art is very nice to look at and the story is very deep (warning: there's body horror).

[ilikekidsshows]

My friend called me impatient for not wanting to wait until miraculous reach the point for Marinette get over her flaws, and I've seen some part of the fandom echoing this sentiment. "People are just impatient". but what they didn't understand is that I'm not impatient, I get a massive burn out for seeing Marinette doing the same thing over and over without feeling slightly guilty or remorse and she also never change, her character is so stagnant that is so boring and annoying. She doesn't even feel what she does is wrong, that's the problem!

Im a fans on DNAngel, manga that need almost 20 years to finally reach its conclusion because the mangaka keep having hiatuses. I'm also long term fans of Detective Conan, manga that still nowhere near the climax and I'm still waiting for it. When I'm a fan of a media, I'd waiting for it no matter how many years it need to reach the end as long as there's thing that worth waiting. Sure Detective Conan case seems to be recycle of the old case, it's always the same case but at least there's progress, the protagonist learn something, actively seeking the way to get out from his problem. Marinette do nothing about it, every single time it's always her whining and crying for whatever but do nothing to change. Protagonist who do nothing but expecting everything to be handed to her in silver plate doesn't worth watching for me.

If I must wait for 100++ episode for an arc to conclude, then at least give me something to root for, something to hype for, even a nice character development would be fine. Not whatever miraculous give me over the years.

Honestly I'm not even going to be surprises if miraculous end with Marinette waking up from her sleep, that all those seasons are just her dream, because it does feels like one.

---

The problem with Miraculous’ pacing is that, even if I believed that the writers were still going to have Marinette learn from her mistakes, which I don’t, stretching out a paper-thin arc through a series with several seasons is going to give this show very little substance. For all the writers bragged about how good they are at spicing up their formula in the London Special, they really aren’t. Marinette is still doing the same things in the last episode of season five that she did at the start of season one. Even after she started dating Adrien, she still kept going behind his back, whining about things that inconvenienced her and acting in a way that was charming nine years ago but has since then grown grating.

For all Astruc claims he’s only used 95% percent of his ideas and he could keep Miraculous going for 12 seasons, I just don’t see the show as being interesting for that long. We keep seeing the same Akumas with less and less interesting motivations, the side characters have been turned into an Adrinette-shipping hive mind and Marinette is still deceitful and self-centered despite being the fully graduated greatest Ladybug ever. Like, maybe things will change now that we’re getting a yet another retool and Marinette and Adrien are actually a couple; Marinette could finally talk to him like a normal person at the end of season five and no one is standing in their way so we could focus on something else with the romance stuff being more of a support plot. Or, season 6 will bring in Adrien’s grandparents to be Adrien’s new controlling guardians and Marinette will go back to sneaking around and scheming to get to spend time with Adrien. The season 6 preview already has her spying on him with binoculars. The more things change the more they stay the same, it seems.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: when you know you’re working with a multiple season timeline for your show, it’s good to include smaller arcs and themes to tackle during a season to give people something to chew on while they wait for bigger developments. Otherwise your audience should only watch the premieres and finales to get anything meaningful. Miraculous’ format is how you get people making lists of actually plot relevant episodes so that they can skip what they perceive to be “filler”. Like, I’m also familiar with Detective Conan and that series, as I recall, is a master of feeding the audience. The cast has gotten so big specifically because the mangaka brought in new characters that he then committed to exploring and developing. Miraculous has five seasons and very few of the characters have been developed. We have Marinette doing the same stuff but more, worse and for less moral reasons. Arguably Cat Noir “learned” to stop flirting with Ladybug but he also stopped being her partner and is just a boring yes-man. His character is just as streamlined as the rest of the cast “You have no interests of your own, support Marinette, nothing else matters”.

Miraculous is like a badly written adult animated comedy. The status quo is maintained by the protagonist causing their own problems by acting like a moron, and being so allergic to self reflection that they won’t change their ways even when told point-blank that they’re the reason for their own misery. Marinette won’t change, because the paper thin plot and setup would collapse the instant she decided to act like an actually responsible hero. She never searched for Hawk Moth for this reason, she never tried to change any of the things causing her grief for this reason. She has more in-universe reason to tell Cat Noir about Hawk Moth than she has to not tell him, but she won’t, because the status quo demands Adrien not know, so she won’t tell Cat Noir either, despite not knowing they’re the same person.

I watched Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden, including some of the anime-only padding. I only skipped the arcs determined to be the most mind-numbing anime-only inclusions that contradicted the rest of the show, like Naruto’s shadow clones going on strike. I watched over 450 episodes, and I could do that, I could stick through that many episodes, because the series was divided into smaller arcs that made me feel like the characters were progressing and accomplishing things even when they didn’t win every arc. The original Naruto series is about as long as Miraculous is so far, and by the point we moved on to Shippuden we’d gotten:

Prologue: Introduction to the cast and their main goals, Naruto finding the first person to truly believe in him

Land of Waves: Naruto and Sasuke form their bond and Naruto finds his "way of the ninja"

Chunin Exams: We get introduced to a bunch of new supportive characters, Sasuke’s damnation arc beginning, and we get introduced to the second Jinchuuriki

Konoha Crush: the heroes fight off an invasion from a neighbour village, we get a proper introduction to the big bad Orochimaru and the death of the Hokage

Search for Tsunade: We get introduced to the Sannin ninjas and their pasts and motivations, we get a new Hokage

Sasuke Recovery Mission: Fleshing out some of the supportive characters, establishing Gaara’s proper redemption after Naruto defeated him in Konoha Crush, completing Sasuke’s damnation arc

I considered making a list like this for Miraculous, but then I realized that most of the developments in Miraculous are either taken back less than a season later, have such a miniscule effect on the grand scheme of things that they feel like nothing, or mostly things done in seasons 4 and 5. Like, the hero team gets put together and torn apart before it can accomplish anything and Chloé's arc just went back and forth until she was temporarily removed (Astruc's already revealed she'll be back again, undoubtedly in the exact same role as before). Alya learning Marinette's identity, Adrinette dating and Gabriel dying are the developments that haven't been walked back, and that's not a very impressive list.

[markbandanawitts]

A Full English Translation of Mine Yoshizaki’s 47 Question QnA 🔥🔥

— Near the end of the 11.5 Guidebook, Yoshizaki sat down for an exclusive interview with Shonen Ace (The magazine that serialized Keroro Gunso), where he answered some personalized questions about himself

I’ve translated all of them along with giving some context to certain media references in this w attached links. he’s talks exactly how you’d expect lmao

Q1: Yoshizaki-sensei, people often seem to think you’re a woman.

I guess it’s because my name reads as “Mine.” When I chose it, I only had the image of Ryuta Mine in my head. But judging by Keroro’s behavior, I think it’s pretty clear I’m not a woman (laugh)

Q2: What was the first manga you bought?

I had my uncle buy me one copy each of Kiteretsu Encyclopedia and Obake Q-Taro. I used to borrow Doraemon from a rental bookstore.

Q3: Do you still have them?

Nah, even if I did, they’d be unreadable by now. I reread them so much they fell apart.

Q4: Do you have a favorite place to read?

I haven’t been reading too much lately, but I love to in a quiet, cozy café.

Q5: Has anything recently made you feel like you’ve been tricked?

Actually, yeah. Not too long ago, a friend took me on a small trip. We hopped on the highway and drove quite a bit, and I had no idea why we were going where we were; but it was fun, so I didn’t think much of it. Later, when I got home and watched the episode of Kamen Rider Hibiki that I’d recorded that morning, I realized the episode was filmed in the exact spot we had visited! My friend hadn’t said a word! It caught me completely off guard, but honestly, it kind of made me pretty happy too.

Q6: Is there a character you look up to?

Oh, definitely Saeki-san (laugh)

Q7: Keroro’s gotten really popular. Anything about that make you happy?

Hearing that everyone involved with Keroro is having fun working on it is what makes me happy.

Q8: On the flip side, anything tough about it?

It seems like working on Keroro is also kind of exhausting (laugh)

Q9: If you could be any character in Keroro, who would you choose?

Maybe Poyon-chan. She seems so nice and fluffy.

Q10: Who would you like to live with?

I’d say the new characters, Alisa-chan and Nevula.

Q11: Why them in particular?

I feel like we could have a nice, quiet time in an old Western-style mansion.

Q12: Is there any invention from Kururu that you’d want?

Oh, definitely that one thing for making Gundam models!

Q13: What’s your favorite part of the manga drawing process?

Definitely when it’s finally completed (laugh)

Q14: What’s the toughest part?

Getting started (laugh)

Q15: What do you think of the illustrations in the first volume of Keroro?

What do I think? Well, it was my best effort seven years ago. There's something beyond just thinking "it's bad." Especially for Keroro, since I challenged myself to break my previous style and start from scratch, so there are definitely some awkward parts in there.

Q16: When do you draw the cover illustrations? At the beginning, in the middle, or at the end?

The inking is random, so it varies every time.

Q17: Do you pay attention to differentiating characters?

Sometimes I intentionally try not to differentiate them visually. I make their personalities distinct, so that can create a sense of difference. I’ve even tried going against silhouette theory a bit, which is directly reflected in characters like Keroro.

Q18: Which is more fun to draw, Keronians or Earthlings?

Keronians’ round eyes are a hassle, and Earthlings have too many lines... It’s a toss-up (laugh)

Q19: What about secondary characters? Which ones are fun to draw?

Every character becomes lively as soon as I draw them, so it's fun. To me, they’re all waiting in line to be drawn!

Q20: Any tips for drawing something you’ve never seen before?

Draw with your eyes closed!

Q21: Do you do anything to improve your drawing skills?

Since I started working, not really. I draw every day, so whatever I’m bad at stays bad, which can be a bit of an issue.

Q22: When creating a manga, do you start with the characters, story, or setting?

The theme. Something that instinctively feels like "that's it!" The rest comes after that.

Q23: When do you come up with story ideas?

I thrash my ideas around, trying to come up with something, and eventually, once I reach the mandatory state of resignation, it comes to me (laugh)

Q24: Which takes more time, storyboarding or drawing?

Storyboarding!

Q25: If you had to sum up the feeling of struggling to come up with storyboards in one word?

Ugh.

Q26: What’s something essential while you work?

Coffee, probably.

Q27: You’ve never taken a break from publishing, but do you ever want to? If so, when?

I always feel like I want to! Every single time, no matter what!

Q28: When do you usually draw your manga—morning, afternoon, or night?

My schedule is all over the place. I live on a 25-26 hour cycle, so when my timing is off, it tends to mess things up for a lot of people. It makes planning pretty difficult too.

Q29: What’s your favorite manga that you’ve drawn so far?

Definitely Keroro Gunso.

Q30: Do you think you’re better suited for one-shot manga or long series?

Considering the amount of ideas on my brain when working on Keroro storyboards, I think I’m better suited for long series.

Q31: Are you currently thinking about your next manga project?

Ideas come and go, honestly. Right now, I’m putting all my effort into Keroro!

Q32: Do you like your own manga?

When it comes to Keroro, I like it without hesitation.

Q33: If you were an editor, what would you tell yourself?

“You can take a three month break if you want.”

Q34: Are you comfortable with drawing manga in front of people?

I’m totally fine with it! But in reality, I usually work alone, holed up in my workspace.

Q35: Do you do anything for your health?

Not really… It’s bad… I feel like I’ve been sending out SOS signals lately (laugh)

Q36: Do you have any stress relief methods?

I never considered myself to be stressed, but recently my eye started twitching, and apparently, that’s a sign of stress. I was kind of surprised when I found that out!

Q31: There are 24 hours in a day, but how many hours would you really want?

48 hours would be great!!

Q38: Is there anything that influences your manga drawing?

I’m most influenced by the general atmosphere of the world around me.

Q39: How would you describe the feeling of racing through Okutama on your bike?

Yahoo!

Q40: Anything that’s stuck with you or left a strong impression recently?

The insurance commercial with soccer commentator Matsuki has really stuck with me… As for things, I’m obsessed with the NSF100 motorcycle— I want it so bad!

Q41: A memorable quote that’s stuck with you?

“Ramen is long and delicious!” (I have literally no idea what he’s referencing here my bad guys)

Q42: Since getting your cat, Mac, has your life changed?

My lifestyle hasn’t really changed, but it feels like my heart’s OS has been upgraded by about three versions!

Q46: Do you like traveling?

I like it, but I haven’t gone anywhere recently. If I could, I’d love to go with all my friends.

Q43: What’s the most wasteful thing you’ve ever spent royalties on?

Royalties, huh... (laugh) The other day, I saw a Keroro bath towel in a UFO catcher machine, and I had to get it. I ended up blowing ¥2,000* and still didn’t win it. I wonder if my royalties will cover that…

*this is like $14 😭

Q45: What are the things you love the most?

The Earth, my wife, and Mac (my cat).

Q46: What’s the most shocking thing you’ve experienced?

When I first moved to Tokyo, I saw an elementary school kid at Yotsuya Station wearing a backpack and smoking a cigarette. I thought, “Wow, Tokyo’s scary. Maybe I should just go home.” But I’m glad I didn’t because I became a manga artist (laugh)

Q47: What does drawing manga mean to you?

It’s about making people happy. That concept hasn’t changed since I was a kid making hand-drawn manga for my friends in elementary school.

Anddd heres my impressively terrible scans of those pages just in case anyone wanted the source

[pikahlua]

Winner Stage-Left, or: Did you know any MHA character’s position in the frame is a spoiler?

(Subtitle: Who’s gonna stop me from converting other old Discord conversations into meta? You? YOU? Doubtful.)

Honestly it’s just embarrassing that I haven’t made this post yet.

I’ve talked before about horizontal and vertical design on the faces of MHA characters, but there’s another visual trick that’s ever-so-present in MHA--nay, in all of shounen manga and anime--that deserves at least a cursory discussion. Ever since I was a wee tyke, I noticed an odd tendency in anime to always place the winner of a fight (or...children’s card game) on the right of the screen. I never thought anything of it for a long time, but a few years ago a friend mentioned something about it to me in passing. This friend was very unfamiliar with anime but had somehow heard something about this phenomenon and its potential origins. Naturally, I had to look into it.

The research I did wasn’t as conclusive as I would have liked, but I did discover something about the topic. What I discovered was that in traditional forms of Japanese theater such as kabuki and noh, stage-left is considered a superior position to stage-right. Someone of a superior ranking to the other would stand stage-left. Sometimes this “superiority” would be as simple as social ranking or whatever.

But then you have various anime with confrontation via martial arts or sports or fights where "stage-left" can take on a different meaning.

As we explore this concept as presented in MHA, I would like to start with this back cover of tankoban #33.

For clarity’s sake, note that Izuku is looking towards the right of the page while Katsuki is looking to the left side. Stage-left is determined by looking to the left of an actor when they stand on stage and face the audience (in other words, from the audience’s perspective, stage-left is to the right). Izuku and Katsuki in the above page are facing each other, and so on-screen Izuku would be standing stage-right and Katsuki would be standing stage-left.

But what does it all mean?

(It means Katsuki is the hero in this moment.)

I wrote above that in anime confrontations "stage-left" can take on a new meaning. Specifically, the concept of what "superior ranking" is can be played with. We end up with the story’s hero often being stage-left. Or sometimes this positioning is broadcasting who will be the winner of the match. Go watch an older anime like Dragonball Z or Yugioh and take note of each match-up: who is standing on the left and who is on the right? Then guess who wins the match. The statistics are pretty clear on this: stage-left is most often (if not always) the winner.

But in many of these older anime, the positioning of the characters remains the same for the entire match. That’s not the case with MHA; Horikoshi loves to change up who is standing where throughout a match (or dialogue, if you will), so it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening when positions get swapped around.

With regards to the above image and the events of Deku vs Class 1-A, consider who is positioned where and when. Just think about these images:

Here in chapter 319, Izuku is stage-left. The depiction is supposed to prime us to believe he is stronger than Class 1-A, which technically he is--in a contest of each individual’s strength.

But then if you read chapter 320, you'll find that once the action starts, Class 1-A is almost always standing stage-left of Izuku, specifically when they're trying to talk him down.

The whole ice ramp chase sequence in chapter 321 shows Izuku fleeing towards stage-right while the others are stage-left and chase after him.

And then you have this moment, where Iida passes Izuku just to get more stage-right of him. This is an interesting way to play with the “winner” side of the stage. In order to save Izuku, Iida is elevating him from the self-destructive “Symbol of Peace" back into Izuku Midoriya their classmate. Izuku, their friend and one piece of class 1-A, is meant to be the “hero” they wish to save, not the loner Deku whom Izuku tried to become.

And then we get to think about what this staging means in the apology.

Katsuki stands stage-left, which we’d expect him to do as the forecast "winner." But this is such an interesting take on staging because Katsuki is essentially debasing himself by bowing to Izuku with his apology--but it’s in order to win, in order to get Izuku back, in order to achieve his goal of saving Izuku. It's almost paradoxical, but it's basically broadcasting to us the reading audience whom we should be cheering for: Katsuki.

This isn’t the first time MHA has played with positioning like this. The sports festival is one of my favorite examples. If you look at how the anime depicts the match-ups and who wins each match, the matches can be listed in stage-right vs stage-left format (bold names are the winners):

Midoriya vs Shinsou Todoroki vs Sero Kaminari vs Ibara Iida vs Hatsume Ashido vs Aoyama Yaoyorozu vs Tokoyami Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu (draw) Uraraka vs Bakugou

Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima (arm-wrestle tiebreaker)

Midoriya vs Todoroki Ibara vs Iida Ashido vs Tokoyami Kirishima vs Bakugou

Iida vs Todoroki Tokoyami vs Bakugou

Bakugou vs Todoroki

And if we take a closer look at the anomalous stage-right winners:

Midoriya vs Shinsou ends with Midoriya's victory, but Shinsou is portrayed as the hero we should sympathize with in the end. Thus, he wins the attention of Aizawa and the audience enough to give him a shot at the hero course, which fulfills his original goal in competing.

Todoroki vs Sero ends with Todoroki's victory, but the end is perceived by Midoriya as "sad," and the audience ends up cheering for Sero when it's all over. Todoroki is still a captive of his hatred for his father, and in that sense he is the loser.

Iida vs Hatsume ends with Iida's win on a technicality. Hatsume clearly has control over the entire match and only loses because she wants to, and even then only after she presents all the gadgets she wanted to, which achieves her goal in competing.

Ashido vs Aoyama can be considered an outlier with Ashido's win until we remember Aoyama as the unwitting traitor may have actually wanted to lose? Either that or this fight is meant as a joke to subvert our expectations because of Mineta's call to see Ashido's underwear at the start. Either way, even if Ashido starts on stage-right, she actually swings her way over to stage-left for her surprise victory at the end.

And then we have Bakugou vs Todoroki, which actually becomes Todoroki vs Bakugou as soon as the story makes it clear to us that Torodoki is wavering on whether or not he'll use his fire. Bakugou switches over to stage-left before the end, and the final non-clash keeps him there, even if that's not how he wants things to play out (he certainly would have a hard time considering himself the “winner.”)

Another one worth rewatching while keeping this positioning phenomenon in mind is absolutely “Deku vs Kacchan, Part 2.” Holy shit, they swap places so damn often, and it's always about what they're saying or doing in the moment.

What’s wild is how in the manga, this sequence is played with Katsuki stage-right...

...but in the anime he’s played as stage-left.

And just think about how that affects the portrayal. In the manga version, is Katsuki being portrayed as a victim who needs saving by hero (stage-left) Izuku? Is Katsuki’s despair the trial for the hero to overcome? In the anime version, is Katsuki’s anxiety meant to be relatable and sympathetic for the audience? Is Izuku’s ignorance of Katsuki’s true feelings the obstacle for hero (stage-left) Katsuki to overcome?

Stage-left is even played with when the boys are airing their grievances! Whoever is speaking gets to occupy the hero spot:

And of course there’s my favorite example from this face-off: the ending where stage-right Katsuki, refusing to lose, grabs Izuku's sleeve and forcefully switches them around to pin Izuku from stage-left.

We have a winner!

These examples, of course, are not the entire list. Read the chapters or watch the episode and count how many times they swap places. It puts that whole sequence in the anime where the camera swoops around the boys as they clash in the sky into a whole new perspective (like the story-boarders just gave up on all the position swaps and pulled out the 3-D graphics in protest.)

So give it a shot next time you read/watch MHA and see if you notice these positions. I obviously pay the most attention to the ones with Izuku and Katsuki (their stage positions get played around with a lot). Consider the first anime opening when they're drawn in one positioning as kids but swap when they hit middle school. And the creek flashback scene? Izuku offers his hand to Katsuki from stage-left. And in the PLW arc? Izuku vs Tomura in the sky? Izuku starts out stage-left, but they swap when Izuku goes feral and Katsuki starts panicking. Katsuki saves Izuku by traveling from stage-left. In the final panel of chapter 285, we see Katsuki still positioned stage-left as he’s stabbed, which highlights his heroism.

Oh, and here’s the new part I’m adding that wasn’t in the Discord conversation that spawned this meta: Katsuki vs TomurAFO. I just find it so telling wherever Katsuki is positioned.

Chapter 359: Katsuki is portrayed as stage-left.

Chapter 360: Katsuki is forced stage-right by TomurAFO...

...but the heroes pluck Katsuki back into stage-left...

...where he stays.

Chapter 362: Katsuki attacks from stage-left and continues to circle around TomurAFO to stage-left.

Katsuki is depicted as stage-left as he meets All Might’s vestige...

...but as soon as he expresses his desire for an autograph, he unexpectedly moves to stage-right...

...and takes a fatal blow.

Talk about a visual plot twist!

(I also happen to think Tomura’s positioning throughout this arc is very curious, and I will continue to pay attention to it.)

Have fun with the new lens!

[fumiyami]

how do you feel about the ending of MHA?(If you've seen it) I've seen a handful of mixed reviews on it

MHA FINAL CHAPTER SPOILERS! (CHAPTER 430)

I honestly don’t know how I feel about it since there are good things that came with the ending (like no ships being made canon so that the fandom doesn’t burst into flames and fights each other over “bkdk is canon now!” “izuocha is canon now!” lol)

but I think the ending seemed a tad bit rushed possibly? since there are some things that was either left like not completed or that we never saw like I feel like it would’ve been cool to have more depth go into oboro shirakumo’s plotline

and apparently Horikoshi said that we’d see izuku’s dad and we never did? which like I get since it was so many years ago and plans change and like izuku’s dad hasn’t been involved in the story at all so he really holds no value to any of it so I get that!

but I also do like the ending for its realistic stuff since it showed how the war affected the students and heroes and such and how even if izuku is the main character he’s not going to magically get one for all back and become the number 1 hero and I think bakugo learning to write with his left hand due to injuries on the other? (I have no idea with this one, i’ve been a bakugo slanderer since day 1 and I don’t pay attention to him)

we did get some fumikage crumbs which I liked! like talking to hawks, him being on an ad thingy as a pro hero, more of him being a pro hero

WAIT speaking of hawks! I saw someone say they would’ve liked to see all of his thoughts and feelings going into becoming the HPSC president and why he exactly chose that role for himself

AND this wasn’t a requirement but I would’ve wanted to see like yuga aoyama’s journey after UA and what he exactly done in life and how it all turned out!

I actually liked the idea of izuku becoming a teacher in UA because he’s teaching the next generation everything he knows and being a hero that way even if he’s not out fighting which is so cool!

this might be an unpopular opinion but I liked mr aizawa’s new hair! sure it’s so unflattering but “hair holds memories” and i’m sure it’s a sign of letting go of the grief from oboro and turning a new page and whatnot even if he doesn’t fully forget about oboro like when it showed aizawa and present mic (WHATS HIS REAL NAME?🫃HIZASHI YAMADA?) visiting his grave and all

I think seeing the actual new hero rankings now with the class A kids being all grown up and the big 3 (I know they mentioned Mirio being high up) and hearing like their voices and stuff (I know this is a manga and we can’t actually hear what they sound like now but let me have this I want to see if my son’s voice has changed at all)

but yeah honestly I have no idea what to think of the final chapter! If I were Horikoshi I would’ve made fumikage the number 1, and make him better then everyone😼

ALSO. I WANNA SEE WHO DARK CRYSTAL IS! THEY WERE MENTIONED ONCE SOMEWHERE AS A PRO HERO FUMIKAGE LIKES BUT WHO ARE THEY? WE NEED CRYSTAL CONTENT

(the MHA creators mentioned a project on the 5th of August that’s not the whole final chapter so i’m excited for that! if it’s a whole lot of Bakugo I’m gonna gouge my eyes out /j)

[tenrousei-kuroi]

I did read Angel Sanctuary! I never finished it, though. I remember that what got me to start was the author’s art style. Her characters are so pretty!

I’m not familiar with A Cruel God Reigns, but by your description, it’s right up my alley (also, with a brief search, I see it has a very traditional style from the 90s/00s mangas that I find very nostalgic). I’ll definitely take a look into it.

As for the Black brothers, I think I discovered the ship around 2017-18, so there was a fairly good amount of work by then, but Blackcest has definitely grown a lot in the past couple of years. I’ve not read many James/Regulus works, mostly because many have a 'cleansed', fanon version of both – which also applies to the Marauders as a whole – and I have very picky views of Regulus’ characterization (my boy canonically had his own fan board of Voldemort 😭 and as far as we know, he never fully – or at all – quit his bigotry, yet in many works, his Slytherin friends and himself diverge completely from this).

But I do think Sirius/Regulus will remain somewhat popular for a long time. The Black family seems to have an appeal within the fandom that I don’t see as much with other families, such as the Lestranges, for example. Also, the idea of two good-looking, rich boys in a complicated family is intriguing (or at least I hope so; if not, you’ll see me signing up to your mailing list). On that note, I'm still hoping for the day Rodolphus/Rabastan gets popular lol

Anyway, thank you for the link, and I'm looking forward fest postings (ngl, I'm pretty confident in my abilities to recognize your writing style in anon fests. Sometimes I read a title and I think "this looks like a title ten would use". Is it a little stalker-ish of me? Maybe 😅).

Yeah Moto Hagio’s a bit more old school, she was most prolific in the seventies and eighties, and her art shows it. I could be misremembering but I believe her work “Sunroom” is typically credited as the first boy/boy manga kiss. And she’s one of the pioneers of the modern boy’s love genre. Real “culture award winning” sort of author.

Jegulus fics are hilarious to me and there’s a reason I call my stuff James/Regulus when I tag it, because that portmanteau has become its own thing. Whenever I read a Jegulus fic in my brain I’m thinking, “you know you can just write Timotheé Chalamet RPF, right? He’s not gonna’ come for you” 😂 And honestly that fanon “style” is bleeding over hard into the Sirius/Regulus section.

No shade, I’m glad people are having fun. Makes it harder for me to find the kinds of fics I like but I’ll survive lol. There’s just a larger selection now. And popular as it all is, I do truly feel people will move on. Because it’s less an attachment to the characters and more to these seriously altered fantasy versions of them, which can be easily grafted onto the next popular thing.

If you had told fifteen year-old me my weird incest and incest-adjacent pairings where two of the three characters aren’t even alive in canon would one day be as common as they are now I’d’ve thought you were high 😂 yet here we are.

I’ve dabbled a bit in Rodolphus/Rabastan but they always end up coming out so similar to my Sirius and Regulus that I don’t like it. I’ve kind of tabled the pairing until I can force myself to be a bit more creative with them. People already put up with all my Sirius/Regulus nonsense being basically the same, I don’t need to be grafting their dynamic onto other pairings 🤣🤣

When I pick prompts for fests I always try to ignore the promoter names until after I’ve chosen, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, roughly 80% end up being yours anyway. Talk about wavelengths.

And let’s blame 2009 LiveJournal for my pretentious and easily-spotted titles, shall we? Specifically a Sirius/Regulus fic from forever ago called “A Thousand Years Good Wine” which basically flipped something in my brain and I haven’t been able to title anything like a normal human since.

That was a stellar fic, by the way. And if anyone ever ever ever finds it back for me I’ll…I don’t know…write them a 100k commission of their choice or engrave their name on my tombstone or something because that fic is LOST beyond belief and it causes me literal pain sometimes lol.

I’m feeling rather inspired today so I might spend my Saturday night plinking away at one of my fics. Odds are it probably won’t be the one that’s due in three weeks but we can always hope TT.TT

[oksullen]

I SAW U ON MY NOTIFS OMG ITS BEEN SO LONG HOW ARE YOU??

I don’t know why I just saw this omg!! I’ve been good :) I’ve been working a lot and busy with classes and just everything else life has to offer 😂

Willow is almost 2 years old now!! and she’s gotten so big and she’s been much more well behaved too!!

I’ve been on and off Tumblr and usually just go on to read some stuff on my favorite fandoms which surprisingly there isn’t a lot of the things im looking for!! I’ve really taking a liking to My Hero Academia but specifically 3 characters- Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Stain which there is like NO new content on them!! I haven’t finished the anime yet since im more of a manga reader than an anime watcher 😔

but more on Best Jeanist- I have become addicted to his character 😭 I’ve rebranded some of my usernames to him and I have a collection of merchandise of him on my shelf!! It started as a joke but it’s not a joke anymore!! same with Stain and Edgeshot, but most of my money has gone to Best Jeanist. I’m so sad there’s not much content on him, I say I’ll just write my own but that isn’t true- LOL but that’s ok, I can just use my free time to think of silly little scenarios of him in my head!!

Here’s a picture of my current anime collection, it’s slightly outdated but you get the idea:

Not pictured is a couple One Piece things since I’ve really started to like One Piece again and a couple plushies including a plushie of Shinsuke Kita from Haikyuu because he will always be my favorite (and Tsukishima too!! remember when my user was kaleshima!!)

I’ve always been taking a liking to making an OC and just my oc overall!! She’s mainly a MHA oc with a freaky blood/guts/gore manipulation power (it’s kind dark but I think it’s cool) and omg she’s taken up so much of my time and brain space, I feel like I’ve done more in depth creation of her than of myself 😂 I’ve also been buying a lot of art commissions of her!! I’ll attach a few images below, but I like talking about her so much that if I end up coming back here I might do some writing for her since I’d love someone or some place to talk about her :) all credits to the locket artists, I don’t think any of them have Tumblr though-: (the first image is her with Best Jeanist and the last is her with Stain!!)

I also have gotten into JJK but im still new to it, only watching the first couple episodes and reading the leaks 😭 which is a GREAT way to start omg

Also, don’t you love it when old hyper fixations come back??!??! yeah, that’s me right now with Mortal Kombat!! I’ve been a fan for almost 10 years now and the new game is so good!! and the characters omg… they made them so good 😍 thankfully Tumblr has a lot on them!!

but other than some things coming and going there hasn’t been a lot of new stuff in my life but compared to last year my mood and health has been so much better which is a win in my eyes, plus im starting to like a new guy which is good because I got my heart absolutely shattered little over a year ago and I swear I thought I was never going to recover, but recovery is possible and I give myself a lot of credit for the things I’ve done despite life seemingly staying the same.

I hope to move out of my parents house soon and continue my education further and my social life and all that but ik that won’t happen until a few years which seems like forever but seeing how 2023 has gone by so fast, I have a feeling it’s going to come quicker than it seems

I always say I want to come back to writing on this app and honestly I am in need of a new hobby because yeah listening to music is great but it doesn’t get you far!! which by the way, also a hyper fixation, bands and music and all that- I am really big into Nirvana right now and plan on dressing up as the lead singer Kurt Cobain for Halloween- which is funny I am dressing up because for the first time I have no plans for Halloween!! I’ll probably just bake some goodies and watch scary movies. How is Halloween celebrated where you are, if at all? American culture is so funny- and it’s funny because America doesn’t have much culture, it’s just one big melting pot which makes it unique

Speaking of music, my favorite artists are probably Nirvana (which is a band) and so is Radiohead, Weezer, The Smiths, Ghost, and Korn (which are rock/metal bands, I really recommend them if you’re into that!!) but I also really like Melanie Martinez, Lana Del Rey, Mitski, Alex G, and a couple other solo artists (fun fact, I went to many concerts over the summer including Melanie and Weezer- they were so good!!) what kind of music do you listen to? any you recommend?!

Half way typing this too, I thought of the idea of coming back to Tumblr to write not just drabbles on my current hyper fixations but maybe some life advice and psychology stuff, I have a way with words and advice and all that even though I am considered “to young to know all this” but I see it as both good and bad having an old soul at a young age- and not to say I am a little child either, but I haven’t even been on this earth for 20 years yet, soon enough though

That all being said, I feel like a huge chapter of my life is coming to a wrap up soon and I am excited to start the new one!! I’ve been on this app forever even though I technically shouldn’t have had Tumblr as a pre-teen but hey, we all start somewhere!!

How have you been? Anything new and exciting? Or maybe something you’ve learned? I’ve been trying to learn new hobbies and I’ve started to really dig into what I want to do as a career since I have to really decided soon (I am doing community college right now which is a free 2-3 year schooling opportunity to earn credits before you go off and study a minor or major- not sure if you have that where you live and if you do it’s still probably different)

Anyways I want to study business and business management since I have taken a liking to running/leading an organization/group and coming up with marketing ideas for various groups I spend my time in- including theatre!! I have a local theatre group I work in backstage and I am the stage manager this year which is great since I want to going into management

It’s “late” where I am- actually it’s just 9:30 but I go to bed early especially when I have things to do the next day 😔 I’ll probably just use the excuse I am tired to run to Starbucks and spend my money like I always do. I really have become addicted to Starbucks and it’s only going to worsen as “Capitalism Christmas” comes next

Holidays are so silly to me too, I don’t really enjoy them because they’ve always seemed to cheesy and not like they “advertise” but I hope to make the best of it this year, even if it just ends up being me working that day and then coming home to my dog. What Holidays do you enjoy? Any certain traditions or events you’re looking forward to?

I’ve written down most of my thoughts and this has been the most I’ve written in ages!! Maybe I should answer more asks from now on to get myself into the writing kick!! 😂

I hope you’ve been well and I hope we can talk more soon!! I totally just remembered we have each other on discord too!! I changed my user to @bestkaleist (Best Jeanist reference) so if you’re confused as to who that is, it’s me!!

wishing you all the well!! 🥬

[the-bloodrose-gemstone]

 Before I go to bed, I want to talk about something. Some of y’all may’ve noticed that I’ve been posting more art over the past week. And like, it’s honestly because of some things that have happened over the past year. Firstly; I’ve gotten back into collecting comics and manga. It was a pursuit I stopped at the behest of my ex-spouse back in... oh I wanna say 2017? “You aren’t even reading them anymore.” Which is kind of correct, because I had shifted my focus from being a reader to being a collector. I’m back to being a reader because I’m being more narrow minded in my focus of what I’m buying. Primarily whatever funky shit catches my attention. Anyway point is. I started getting back into comics and surrounding myself with beautiful art. I’ll be putting the rest of this under the cut.

I’ve also watched many of my illustration friends work and post work and thought it was extremely cool. I even picked up some art books from artists whose work I admire, like Gerald Brom and Yoshitaka Amano. While their art styles are both extremely technical and detailed, and at a level beyond the scope that I personally want to achieve, I still admire and find their work inspirational. Amano’s work in particular, because when I have the time and mental energy I adore playing Final Fantasy 6. It’s just so gorgeous, even though it’s rendered in smooth pixel form.

I’ve also been working on pixel art in general as a way to destress after work, as well as producing my own tokens to sorta fill out my monday game where the art provided for the adventure path just doesn’t have the unique creature I need. It isn’t something I wanted to do beyond pursuing my own hobby interests. I find it extremely relaxing and calming to draw pixel art, much like how other people build mini figs for their TTRPG games. About a week or so ago, I saw an absolutely gorgeous pixel art picture of a woman coming out of a pond and I was just... stunned by what the artist did. I don’t know the resolution or anything but it was, like many other great pixel art pieces I’ve seen, a gorgeous fucking thing to behold. And it struck a chord with me. I realized that pixel art isn’t just about sprites. Sprites are certainly a cool part of it. But the medium can do more than I was allowing myself to do with it. And for awhile I was like “eh it’s fine. I don’t... have to do anything amazing. This is just a hobby.” And then I watched the video “Sekiro’s Parry and Other Pursuits of Perfection.” by Jacob Geller. In it, Geller discusses how playing Sekiro and mastering it led him to wanting to pick up piano playing again, even though he wasn’t intending on composing his own music. He just wanted to get that feeling of playing a perfect note again. I thought it was kind of cheesy but also lowkey? Despite Geller making fun of himself by pointing out how it was typical of a video essayist to veer off track of the original point to talk about a personal anecdote, it was also kind of impactful on me.  As y’all may’ve noticed, I’ve also been playing Sekiro too and while his enjoyment comes largely from knowing what to do next and executing it perfectly like sheet music, my take away from this game is actually different. I enjoy this extremely punishing video game not because I know the timing or whatever, but because I enjoy the challenge of learning something new. I’ve been toying off and on for... quite frankly about as long as I’ve been writing with doing traditional art. I have never considered myself a good illustrator. But, that’s okay. I don’t need to be. I can accept that I am an amateur artist. But I do find that I crave learning a new skill and mastering it. I was going to get better at pixel art. So, with all of these things happening, I made a resolution - I was going to produce a 64 x 64 pixel image myself by the end of the year, one of the largest canvases I’ve ever been comfortable doing shit on. Then I dove into a pixel art tutorial and ended up doing a 100 x 64 pixel image following the steps. But.... a lot of it didn’t look right. I found myself frustrated by my inability to get the landscape to look the way I wanted it to. The mountains were... mountain-shaped and passable. But the image I was referencing had clouds with rim lighting and I did not understand how it was working. My brain couldn’t grok it, so I removed it. There was also a person in the foreground who was sillouhetted. I ended up removing that person and instead focusing on the little wizard tower. Which came out.... mostly fine, except for again the lighting. I very quickly realized that my rudimentary understanding of lighting and shapes needed to be honed. I can’t afford a tablet right now, because I’m actually between jobs (Hello I quit my job and my last day is tomorrow!) and I also don’t really want one because I work more comfortably using a mouse with the kind of art I do. But I can afford a sketchbook, pens, and paper. So, I think what I’m going to do is fill these 100 sheets with sketches. And I’m going to have fun doing it. And I’m going to learn shit. So that maybe by the end of the year I’ll produce an original 64 by 64 pixel image. It’s also been relaxing to have an additional creative outlet aside from writing, because right now I’m kind of suffering from an extremely bad case of writer’s block and I’m having a hard time breaking it. Anyway, it’s late and I actually have work in the morning and this already took me about forty minutes to write so I’m going to bed. I hope y’all enjoyed this personal essay. 

[carriagelamp]

This month I managed to read a few Classic Children's Novels that I've been meaning to get around to for years, so it was very satisfying to finally have them checked off my list!

Early Man: Junior Novelization

This is a novelization of the Aardman film, in which you learn about the secret neolithic origins of football/soccer, in which a timid, bumbling clan of Stone Age cavemen find themselves being overwhelmed by an all powerful Bronze Age empire… a Bronze Age empire that loves football. The only way to save their valley will be for the cavemen to somehow learn this strange new sport and beat the Bronze Age champions.

I really enjoy this movie and I often enjoy a novelization, so I thought I’d see how this one was. And it was… fine. It pretty well expresses the movie in simple language, with no shocks and surprises — though it was Americanized which always gets my goat. If something is written in British English just leave the damn thing in British English, especially if one of the key concepts is football/soccer, it just becomes jarring to “soccer” when the whole movie refers to it as “football” smh

Elmer and the Dragon // The Dragons of Blueland

I read the first book of this trilogy — My Father’s Dragon — a couple months ago because of the Netflix film and quite enjoyed it. These next two books were… fine. The first felt quite fresh and interesting and charming, in which a young boy called Elmer ventures to Wild Island to try to save a baby dragon that’s been imprisoned by the animals there. These next two are a direct continuation of that adventure, but honestly just feel more like additional chapters more than anything, they don’t really stand on their own. In Elmer and the Dragon, Elmer and the baby dragon escape Wild Island and end up having a little adventure with some birds who have a strange mystery on their island. In The Dragons of Blueland, Elmer is called back by the baby dragon to help save his family who are being hunted and are trapped in a cave. 

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 3

I adore this series, and I’ve talked about it at length before. I can’t believe that this book almost entirely took place in the past and never resolved the cliffhanger from the end of book two, but it just as me desperate to get my hands on the fourth book. The way all the different layers of the past are gradually being woven together to not only give answers but to actually raise more questions is really well done and makes it really satisfying to track how all these different characters connect to each other, and who knows what, and what events happened before and after other events…

I Think Our Son Is Gay

Just a very cute little manga about a housewife who suspects that her son may be gay. The son hasn’t come out yet, and is doing his best to try to cover it up, though he is sweet and very easy to read and not a terribly good liar. This is just the cutest slice of life — the mother accepts her son completely and is supporting him from the background until he’s ready to come out himself.

Julián Is A Mermaid

A lovely and loving picture book about a little boy who is completely enthralled by mermaids. He does his best to get dressed up as one, making a horrible mess in the process. However, when his abuela finds him and the mess, rather than being upset, she helps him perfect his costume and encourages him to do the things that make him feel happy and excited. All about self-love and passions and how children might express themselves in different ways.

I find some books like this can occasionally feel less like fun stories a child would enjoy and more like a lecture directed at adults who are already familiar with the topic, but this one is a perfect balance. It has a message to share, but the art is wonderful and dynamic, and the story is one a child could enjoy and relate to.

My Dress-Up Darling v1

I’ve had a hard month, so my brother bought me the first book of this as a happy day present because he thought it was funny. It definitely was and I think I’ll pick up the next book, it made me giggle out loud.

This story is about a boy who is learning the art of making traditional hina dolls from his dollmaker grandfather. While he loves the work, and is excited to be ready to work on more than just the clothing, he feels like a misfit for this unusual passion. Things change though when he finds his sewing skills suddenly being called for by a classmate who has her own odd passion -- a video game character that she desperately wants to cosplay. It's very cute, very silly, and is absolutely chock full of fanservice if you enjoy some gratuitous, silly sexiness along with romcom.

Nick and Charlie

Like many people I’ve been enjoying the Heartstopper graphic novel series, and finally picked up this little novella that Oseman had written years ago about a snapshot into Nick and Charlie’s relationship. This novella takes place in the lead up to Nick going off to university — Nick’s excited and Charlie’s anxiety over being left behind or forgotten is at an all time high. It was a very sweet and very quick read, I enjoyed settling down with it.

The Secret of Platform 13

I’ve often heard this book called a clear inspiration behind Harry Potter and have always meant to read it — well, now I finally have! I really enjoyed The Secret of Platform 13 and would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a book that reads like good, old-school, children’s low fantasy. I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a fantasy novel that gave me quite this feeling in a long time.

There is a magical world kept hidden safely away from the mundane world, where humans and magical beings are able to live together in safe and happy harmony. Every few years though, a door between the worlds open for a few days, giving a chance for people to crossover. During one of these moments, the newly born prince is brought over… and kidnapped, disappearing into the mundane world and unable to be rescued before the closing of the door. The magical kingdom waits many anxious years for the door to open once more, so that an intrepid rescue party can be sent out to save the lost, kidnapped prince…

Shaun the Sheep: The Flock Factor // The Beast of Soggy Moor

I really love these little Shaun the Sheep novels, between the art and the silly, cute writing style they really capture all the great things about the show. I had read a few of them a couple years back, and decided to finish off the series.

These books are all about Shaun, the de facto leader of the farm’s sheep flock, who is always coming up with schemes and plots and pranks. Along with him is the rather bumbling sheep flock, always ready for some mischief, Bitzer the overworked sheepdog who is just trying to keep order, and the completely clueless Farmer who manages to get into just as much trouble as his flock.

Stuart Little // The Trumpet of the Swan

I got onto an E. B White kick at the end of the winter holidays, because I have read Charlotte’s Web a hundred times, but haven’t read his other two children’s novels. I will say, I can see why it’s Charlotte’s Web that has really stood the test of time while the other two have become a bit more of a footnote. Both were enjoyable reads, but I wouldn’t bother recommending either unless someone really wanted a classic children’s novel to read.

The Trumpet of the Swan is about a trumpeter swan who is born without a voice. Determined to find ways to communicate, Louis goes through a variety of adventures, in which he befriends a human boy, learns how to print, is gifted a trumpet, gets employed at a summer camp, and even saves his love from a zoo. There’s some bits I really like, but then there’s other bits that don’t quite sit right, especially towards the end. It’s a mixed bag in my opinion.

Stuart Little I found particularly disappointing, especially because I assumed it would be like the film that came out in the aughts. Instead, Stuart Little is more episodic than possessing an overarching story, in which the mouse Stuart, born to a human family, goes through a series of odd misadventures that a mouse can get into. Once again, I found the ending weird… E. B. White just has a kind of weird fixation about love and I don’t love how it’s expressed in these children’s books. It feels out of place and frankly uninteresting. Honestly, I’d rather just rewatch the movie.

[idontblushsrry]

Love Language|| Jujutsu Kaisen

“I wanna be fluent in your love language. Learning your love language.” 

A/N: If you didn’t guess from the tagline this is inspired by the song love language by Kehlani. I’ll probably do more of these with different shows and what not because why not. If I missed anyone lmk and I can make a part 2. Also please tag spoilers appropriately esp for manga readers, that being said spoilers for the prequel? manga on Yuuta’s part.

Characters: Itadori, Fushiguro, Kugisaki, Maki, Inumaki, Okkotsu, Gojo, Nanami, Sukuna

Warnings: said it b4 but spoiler warnings in general but esp on Yuuji, Yuuta, and Maki’s parts

Plot synopsis: The 5 love languages; physical affection, quality time, words of affirmation, gift giving and acts of service, and how each jujutsu kaisen character shows their love and affection for you. Ft. a gender neutral reader!

Word count: 2352

Itadori Yuuji

Love Language: Quality time and physical affection

Ok listen-

So for physical affection, Yuuji’s just that kind of person

He is all about giving to you

He’s holding hands with you if you’re ever walking anywhere, and if you’re not a hand holder pls pls pls let him hold your pinky he likes the reassurance

No but seriously he loves to hold you like yall could be walking in completely opposite directions and he’ll try to find some way to hold onto you until the very last second

And even then he’s all ‘:( babe imy’

‘Yuuji we just talked 2 minutes ago’

Another way he shows his love is through quality time

I think for him this is the biggest thing overall, esp as a jujutsu sorcerer bcus you never know yk but also because you’re important to him

Like remember how he literally went to occult club so that he could get out of school in time to go visit his grandpa...ye :(

He also loves finding dumb touristy things to do with you while in Tokyo or anywhere yall go together on a mission 

If you get together before he died and came back then that time he had to spend away from you literally killed him

Like my mans was goin THROUGH it

He almost considered spoiling Gojo’s secret

When he sees you again, he’s not gonna let go for like a solid day

Fushiguro Megumi

Love Language: acts of service and words of affirmation

This boy loves you so much

He loves to tell you all the things he loves about you when you’re alone

But he’s a little awkward with his words sometimes, hence where acts of service come in

He’ll immediately offer to hold your things, run to help you train or study, and if you’re cold? He’s fully prepared to never see his jacket again

Also he can’t cook but he’s fully prepared to suffer hearing Sukuna and suffering through Yuuji’s antics if it means he can learn how to make your favorite food

He also will surprise you by making you a playlist of all the songs that you’ve had stuck in your head and sends it to you randomly out of the blue one day like ‘thought you might like this’

However the best of both worlds is when he leaves you little notes throughout the day or sends you texts asking if you need anything or just encouraging you to keep going 

Negl he’s lowkey the president of the Y/N support club bcus-

You need anything? It’s yours

Cravings? Sad? Angry? What do you need bby, I’ve got it for you

Also he’s totally the type to be like you need help fuckin this person up? 

Also before yall started dating, Fushiguro was a mess

He was constantly asking to spar with you and go on missions, basically anything he could do to be near you  

End of the day, Fushiguro loves you and makes sure you know it whether it’s through his actions or his words

Kugisaki Nobara

Love Language: physical affection

So, she’s not the best with words, she tries but like someone help her bcus she is LOST

Like when she had a crush on you she was like “c’mere dumbass i wanna give you a hug”

In fact, she still is like “c’mere” but now you are dating :)

She loves you though and at first she doesn’t really know how to show it 

But one day you both come home from training and you just look at each other like ‘yeah today sucks’ and yall both just held each other for the rest of the day 

After that, she decided that she wants to do that with you but like always

She’s holding your hand, kissing your cheek when you go shopping, etc. etc.

She really loves to cling to you because she always has this fear that maybe one day you’ll get killed or just disappear so she figures might as well hold onto you for as long as we’ve got

After missions, she’s running up to you and if you aren’t prepared for the tackle, you’re probably gonna fall

On dates too, like if you guys have to meet up for a date, she’s tackling you

On the subject of dates...

She doesn’t mind PDA, and while she might hold your hand or arm so that you don’t get separated

She also doesn’t mind wiping food off your face and eating it, only to then kiss the spot on your face the food was previously at

She will split her shopping load between the two of you, however she will be slightly pouty if she’s carrying more than you (she then cheers up when she realizes she can do more shopping to “balance” the two of you)

In private she’s very cuddly and kissy which honestly isn’t that bad until it gets hot

At which point she’ll just say turn on the ac or convince you to walk around in a tank top (or something like it) so that she can continue holding you

Tbh she prefers the big spoon, but if she’s ever upset you let her be the little spoon >:(

All in all a very loving girlfriend who tries her best to show how much she loves you by glomping you at any given moment. 

Zenin Maki

Love language: acts of service and quality time

So you’re telling me that Maki wouldn’t immediately go out of her way to make sure her and her s/o can spend as much time together as possible?????

Like she’s super observant (which can cause her to be a bit harsh, see Yuuta) but she can always tell what’s bothering you

So if you’re upset that you haven’t been spending enough time together due to her being out on missions or otherwise busy she’s immediately running to finish her stuff and spend time with you.

((She’s very sorry, but on the bright side she brought your favorites!))

Maki is also an acts of service type

This mostly ties in with her kind of direct action way of thinking

She thinks she’s slick but you can always see her sneaking around to do small things like grabbing your laundry for you and folding it

She’s very much like if you love someone, you gotta prove it

Overall, dates with her are very intimate and personal to the two of you

Like she’ll take you to a frog pond you landed in during a fight once

Or you’ll take her to a street fair that serves this exclusive food that Maki mentioned wanting to try 

However, Maki shows her love through quality time and acts of service and while she does receive love from these to a degree, she is very much a words of affirmation gal

She’s not insecure in her day to day life but she has her moments, everyone does

Sometimes, she’ll feel like shit and a failure and all she wants is for you to say that she’s doing amazing and that she’s a great girlfriend.

Inumaki Toge

Love language: Physical affection

Because of his curse, he can’t exactly express how he feels about you through words

He does text you frequently throughout the day (I’ll have to do a hc abt that someday)

But he’d prefer not to be on his phone to communicate if you’re right in front of him

So he does the next best thing and just smothers you in physical affection

He loves kissing you the most

Like he could spend hours just kissing you if you let him (please let him)

But in public, he gets if you’re not a big fan of pda he’s willing to tone it down as long as he gets kisses later in private

He’d still prefer it if you held his hand or linked pinkies maintaining touch in some way

Also, unrelated, but it means so much to him if you try to understand his sushi language

He knows realistically the foundation of any relationship is communication so already he’s at a disadvantage because of his curse 

But if he sees you like take notes after he says something or start to need him to text you to translate, his heart is swelling

Like ‘omg this person loves me enough to learn a whole new language <333′

Another tangent but before you were together he was struggling so muchhhh

Like how does one express their feelings for someone without words?

If you’re Inumaki, you buy some flowers and text said person to meet you at a cafe

It took an embarrassingly long time for you to realize it was a date, but once you did, you ever so gently linked pinkies with Toge

Okkotsu Yuuta

Love language: words. of. affirmation. 

He’s literally so sensitive please tell him you love him regularly

In return he’ll be sure to tell you how much he loves you too

He knows that he can’t really be there for you as much as he’d like but he likes to let you know that he’s thinking of you

Doesn’t matter the time, if you call, he’s answering

If he doesn’t he’ll cry he’ll immediately call you back and is apologizing for missing your call

You assure him it’s no big deal but the man has his volume turned all the way up and changed your ringtone to one specific for you by the time you’ve even said hey

Aside from that, he really is sensitive

He’s been through a lot especially with Rika as well as growing up alone and bullied 

So for him, it’s everything to hear that you like having him around and don’t think he’s too much or anything like that

Of course, he gets better with time, trusting you and having the confidence in himself to not need constant assurance

That being said, if you ever just whisper in his ear, “I love you, Yuuta.”

That’s not your boyfriend, that’s a puddle of love on the floor

(Maki, Panda, and Inumaki had a field day when they saw him, Fushiguro now questions if Yuuta really is a respectable 2nd year.)

Gojo Satoru

Love language: gift giving and quality time

So Gojo doesn’t exactly get to spend a ton of time

Between missions, him beefing with higher ups, and you and him playing parent the baby sorcerers yall don’t exactly get time to go out much

In which case Gojo tends to default to two options:

He’ll either go the extra mile to try and spend time with you 

Whether that be an at home date where he tries and fails to surprise you with a home cooked meal

Or a date out at a restaurant or cafe (which you tend to visit after his home cooking efforts)

OR he’ll bring you various souvenirs from his missions

He loves to spoil you, and if he could he’d probably bring you back a whole store’s worth of stuff

But alas, airport security regulations

Anyways, he loves to spoil you especially if he can spoil you with sweets because it benefits him in two ways 

He treasures all the time you spend together, and he does try to overcompensate for his absence with gifts

Despite your assurances, it’s kind of a guilty pleasure at this point (just let him, trying to argue just goads him on further)

He doesn’t only buy you small things, he enjoys buying you outfits

And he especially likes seeing you in them 

Kento Nanami

Love Language: acts of service

Y’all remember the episode where he killed that curse that was bothering that baker lady?? Yea that

He’s literally such an acts of service boyfriend it’s not even funny

Before you got together, he would memorize your coffee order and bring you a cup pretty much everyday like clockwork

Now that you’re togehter, he wakes up before you so h=that when you wake up there’s the smell of coffee throughout the house

When you come out of you’re shared bedroom and he’s just scrooling through his phone like “mornin’”

Of course you already made the bed and ironed his clothes because relationships are give and take

And then when you leave for your jobs in the morning, he kisses you and holds the door open for you

He’ll draw a bath for you if he gets home before you, if you let him join or not is up to you

Also, if you ever get sick, he’s actually the best

Like he isn’t the best cook but he can heat up soup and tea

He’ll run to the store while you’re asleep and when you wake up, there’s like a whole tray of food in front of you and he’s like ‘it’s important to eat and drink so your body can heal’

And when you inevitably fall asleep after eating and taking medicine at his insistence, he tucks you in and clears away the dishes, exiting with little more than a kiss to your head

Ryoumen Sukuna

Love Language: gift giving and acts of service

So like Sukuna never says he loves you...ever

But he does notice if someone or something’s making you uncomfortable, and if so, said entity’s head will be presented to you later that day

You also just so happen to be the only person he can tolerate being around him for longer than 20 seconds

He also loves to give you jewelry, he likes seeing you adorned in something from him

He also isn’t gonna just handle all your problems for you, he will push you to become stronger by training with you 

He’ll also expect this energy to be reciprocated, as long as you’re pushing yourself to be better, he’s content with that

(He wants to see you grow because he’s scared that if he ever gets caught lackin one day you’ll end up dead)

He’ll never tell you or admit it, but Sukuna truly does care for you and hold you in a regard that he doesn’t have for others

So be grateful jkjk

[jasontoddiefor]

Tyki Mikk is a Clone and I can (almost) prove it

Tyki Mikk is undoubtedly a fan favorite and yet we don’t really know a lot about him. For a character that was created with the purpose of being handsome (cf. D.Gray-Man Manga Volume 5, page 150), he carries a lot of baggage and has a rather unclear past. A theory that has haunted me since I read chapter 198 and has only grown in strength with the most recent arc is that Tyki is in fact a clone of Nea. As far fetched as this seems at start, there is quite a bit of evidence supporting this theory.

1) Tyki’s visible similarity to Nea (and Mana)

One of the first things Wisely remarks on when he meets Tyki is his similarity to “a certain man” (Chapter 187).

This similarity is picked up twice more in the manga. When Allen meets Nea for the first time (cf. chapter 198), he mistakes him for Tyki at first.

And it is brought up a third time by Nea himself in chapter 225 when he says:

To which Tyki, or rather Joyd, has this wonderful reaction:

But more on that guy specifically later. Point being right here is that three different characters, or four if you want to count Road and Wisely separately, acknowledge that Tyki resembles Nea a lot, down to the man himself. How does that saying go again? Once An Accident, Twice A Coincidence, Three Times A Pattern? This is something that repeatedly gets brought up again. And this is without going into detail on how much Tyki resembles not only Nea, but said man’s identical twin as well. Just look at that dashing long hair!

And take this from chapter 158 as well

Pretty long haired boy Mana is nothing new as of chapter 218 and 219:

Another interesting point here is that Tyki is the exact same height as the Earl in human form! They’re both 188cm tall. Nea, on the other hand, is listed at being 177cm. This could just be that Nea unfortunately ended up as the shorter twin, or, we take into consideration what Mana tells Allen/Red in chapter 238:

He remembers being seventeen, which means that he and Nea probably weren’t done growing yet when the “Earl” corrupted Mana. (It also kind of makes everything about Nea more hilarious if you realize he’s just seventeen.) Tyki, however, is 26 when we first meet him and should be around 27 now. He is an actual adult and not bound to hit another growth spurt.

But to summarize the first argument: Tyki looks uncannily similar to Nea and Mana and the manga keeps pointing it out so we can assume this resemblance is important.

2) Cloning is possible in canon

Now the second point is just here to point out that we know cloning to be possible. Funnily, Tyki’s resemblance to Nea gets pointed out just before the Alma Arc, which very much deals with the concept of reincarnation – only there we have the brains of deceased Exorcists transplanted into youthful bodies.

However, it’s not as if something like DNA hasn’t been mentioned before. Specifically, it has been called “Helix of life” by no other than maybe-former-Bookman but definitely First-Nea-host Past!Allen in chapter 221:

So let’s assume that, in the aftermath of Nea’s “death”, PastA didn’t just wait around for Nea to wake again, but tried to find a vessel for him. Messing around with this helix, and whatever other dubious science and magic this world had to offer, and created a new body to host Nea. Except he failed, and the result is Tyki.

But if that is so, shouldn’t Tyki remember anything about that? Good question. Time for some more shady weird stuff about Tyki.

3) The Missing Years

In chapter 202, while the Earl is resting, Tyki talks to Road. I don’t speak Japanese, so I can’t verify which translation is more accurate, but I’ve found these two:

Now the official German one also goes with a similar translation as the second one here, implying that Tyki has been with the Earl for ten years. In any case, the fact that this decade at all gets mentioned is quite odd because it doesn’t match up with what we know of Mana travelling with Allen. Cross calls Allen a “ten-year-old brat” (chapter 208) when he looks after him. So between Mana travelling with Allen and current canon, only 6 years have passed – what are up with the other 4 that are supposedly within this decade? We don’t have a definite age for how old Allen was when he met Mana, but I’d say around 7 or older. That’s still not enough to fill out the decade they speak about here.

Now, presuming that it does in fact refer to Tyki staying with the Earl for that time, we’re either left with assuming that the Earl acted as a separate entity as we see in 218, or that Tyki’s memories are just flat out wrong.

4) Tyki Mikk’s Canon-Typical Ignorance AKA The Baby of The Family

The more often Tyki appears, the more we see how much he actually doesn’t know about the going-ons of the war, or even himself. This goes back as far as the Ark Arc in chapter 130 with the Earl pointing out that:

So this form is apparently something that all Noah of Pleasure can take on, a sort of second stage of awakening. Still, it feels significant that Tyki separates his life so much into “black” and “white”, “Noah” and “human”, going as far as suppressing a part of his Noah. It puts him in direct opposition to Skinn, who was more or less entirely consumed by his Noah memories. Though, perhaps this is also just a narrative ploy because a character with the ability to chose is, frankly speaking, fuck off overpowered and the only reason why Tyki isn’t constantly leveling battlefields is probably that he just doesn’t know how to apply himself.

Regardless, Tyki’s ignorance also becomes visible in chapter 187 again when he wonders about his Noah name:

Nobody else reacts like he does, even though the other Noah haven’t been awake as long as he has and also should have retained the same memory damage as Joyd after Nea’s murder spree. Yet Tyki feels a little like the baby of the family, still learning and growing while everyone else is already in the know, which can’t be too far from the truth if we look at chapter 225:

Wisely and Road definitely know that something went down and kept it from Tyki for so long for reasons. So besides Allen learning the truth sometime in the future, Tyki is also heading towards some kind of realization – and honestly, what better than the fact that the man who enjoys his freedom and roam so much, was artificially created?

Road could have manipulated his subconsciousness, his memories. It’s a miracle really that the Earl hadn’t had a breakdown around Tyki already given how much he looks like Nea. And if Tyki really awoke as a Noa a decade ago, then eh would have been right the age Nea was when he died. The Earl should have reacted in one way or another.

Other small details that don’t add up is a) the claim that Tyki and Sheril are actual brothers. They have different last names, which would imply that they are perhaps rather half siblings, sharing one parent, or maybe they just aren’t related at all in the first place. The other thing is that Nea recognizing Tyki’s face immediately after confronting Mana about his changed appearance just adds even more suspicion.

5) TLDR

Tyki is either a clone or something else messy went down because there’s no way that there’s a natural Nea and Mana copy running around who also just so happens to be a Noah. No way.

Thanks for coming to my  TED talk I’m never writing meta again this was a nightmare to post.

[caesarclowningaround]

Fanfic Writer 20 Questions!

I was tagged by the lovely @lumiereandcogsworth​!! Thanks dearie!! :D

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 146 and counting!

2. what’s your total ao3 word count? 596,943

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they? A lot. Too many to name all of them here.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

The Broken Doll - my Grandmaster/Loki fix-it fic

A Word - a barisi fic

Runts Make Petty Kings - my Loki/Jane Foster epic space adventures fic, which I’m still pretty proud of

Plus One - another barisi fic

Let’s Hope This Goes Swimmingly - and another barisi fic

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not? I try to! Especially lately I’ve been trying to make it a habit to respond. Sometimes I don’t because either I simply don’t know what to say or I see the comment, but don’t have the energy to respond and i promise myself i will later but then i forget LOL

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I’ve written a few really angsty endings in my time, but maaaaaan Violet Skies really has to take the cake. Like, the ending was so angsty, I decided to write two sequels just so the story didn’t end on that note 😂 No other fic has ever compelled me to do that before

7. do you write crossovers? Bitch, that’s all I write 95% of the time these days! XD I’ve only written 2 non-crossover fics in the past year. Yes, i know I have a problem

8. have you ever received hate on a fic? I have, but it’s very rare and frankly only one particular time popped into my head from the past 5 years. There are benefits to writing niche crack crossover fics hardly anybody reads i guess

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind? YEEEEEP idk, go look at the tags on my E-rated fics and find out 😏

10. have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes, one of my older fics was uploaded to a website I had never heard of without my permission and honestly, I have no idea what happened after I filed my complaint

11. have you ever had a fic translated? Yep! My two Star Wars merman fics Horizon and Submerge were translated into Russian with my permission :D

12. have you ever co-written a fic before? Not really. I’ve had detailed discussions about ideas that I later wrote into fic or was written into fic by the person I was talking with, but nothing officially collaborated on

13. what’s your all-time favorite ship? (LA) Jafar/Prince Adam. not to sound like a narcissist, but it’s such a me ship. Cuz I started shipping it under very specific circumstances that I, personally, was going through and provided a very personal, safe space during a time I was still getting over being in a less than kind larger fandom. It’s a culmination of pieces of other fandoms I’ve been in over the years and am still in. I’m very protective of it, but I also get very excited when other people show interest. If you’re interested, please tell me! Please write and draw them! I need more people in this dinghy of a ship XD

14. what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Probably my Jafar/Adam Absolute Boyfriend/I’m Your Man AU. I started writing it around the time I’m Your Man premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and Dan Stevens was doing a lot of promo for it and naturally it got me thinking about robot boyfriend!Adam which reminded me of that manga I read years ago. I would love to finish this AU someday. There’s a lot of fun ideas I put into it and I like what I wrote so far. But I reached a point with the fic where I didn’t know where I wanted to take it and I’ve been stumped ever since

15. what are your writing strengths? I’ve been told I’m good at writing angst and world building. And smut. Apparently I’m very good at writing smut lol

16. what are your writing weaknesses? Sometimes I’ll word things weirdly because I tend to write as my brain is thinking and y’know sometimes we don’t think in complete sentences or we think in concepts and those concepts don’t translate into a full sentence as easily as you picture it. It’s why I feel like my descriptions can get choppy. Also, I think I use unnecessary conjunctions and sequencers too much

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? I think it’s fine as long as it’s done well and not over-used

18. what was the first fandom you ever wrote for? Pokémon. i was 6 and i wrote self-insert fic. it was very bad but i remember being very proud of myself for using the word “sighed”

19. what’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written? Violet Skies. I put so much into that fic. I got through some pretty dark times with that fic at my back. I don’t know if it’s my best fic, but it’s the one I put the most love into, which is saying a lot because (as sappy as this sounds) I try to write all my fics with love. I try to put my energy into writing characters and ideas that I love, or else what’s the point? write for love

20. who do you tag? Only if you want to <3 @pigsinablanketfort @zebsfloppyears @thatpratdragonlady @xavantina @loflight501 aaaand anybody else who wants to do it can consider themselves tagged!! :D

[chireikiden]

Almost a year ago, when Gensokyo of Humans ended, I talked about doing a little retrospective post on it. Never did, but Ashiyama’s new manga finally reminded me of it. So here you go: a bunch of emotional, kinda stream-of-consciousness rambling, mostly about the emotional things I like and not the practical critiques I also have. Memory being what it is, the former have far overshadowed the latter, anyway.

HEAVY SPOILERS FOR GENSOKYO OF HUMANS. GO READ IT, YOU. Also CW for neurological disease, and the depression and suicidal thoughts of fictional characters.

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

I’ve said it a couple times, and it sounds a bit corny, but it’s the way it feels to me: translating especially emotional content feels like you have to almost physically take in the emotion of reading it, and try to pass it into the translation as undiminished as possible. Reasonable enough so far. And of course, this means that you have to take it in as honestly as possible, dwell on it through the whole process of actually translating it without letting it shrink from the first reaction you as a reader had, and kinda push it to its strongest at the moment you’re writing the line, as the weird translation equivalent of method acting or something. Then potentially keep revisiting it as you proofread, typeset and all that. For this reason, translating emotional stuff (that I’m invested in, anyway) is a way more intense experience to me - in a good way - and leaves a stronger mark than simply reading it. I can’t say I do much original creative writing, but I bet there’s some similarities.

Anyway. Plenty of doujins have done this, but out of SCoOW so far, mainly just Azuma Aya’s Shinigami and Gensokyo of Humans - the latter far more so, and at length. And it follows that though I also liked the art, the writing (though it had its oddities), the Gensokyo lore and whatnot, when prodded about GoH, my first impulse is to start rambling about the emotion. Which is what I’ve done in this post, for like an hour or two.

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

Akyuu’s problems – both the new crisis in Gensokyo of Humans and her situation in general - are caused by the supernatural, but still extremely human, in a way that is evocative both on a general level and for all too many people’s personal experiences. I have lost a close relative to Alzheimer’s (which other people have also brought up in relation to GoH), though never went through it myself of course, and certain parallels are obvious: dementia and memory loss are brought up from the start, but the absolute worst of Akyuu’s despair coincides with when she stops recognizing the faces of the people closest to her. It’s subtle enough that you could even miss it on a quick read, but the page in chapter 13 when we see (and Akyuu sees) that this even includes Kosuzu begins the emotional climax, and is one of the most loaded in the series. It’s a weird subject, because we see it from the person’s own perspective, but for reasons of selection bias, most readers with experience have only seen it from the outside; but it still stings.

However, from Akyuu’s perspective, the mental deterioration itself is not what causes her the most struggle: it’s the feeling that her only value as a person, and the only value people see in her, is what she produces and the status that she brings to whoever can claim possession of her. When she can no longer write, they immediately move on to thinking about the practicalities of her death. Something something capitalist experience, but anyhow: “I’m not afraid of death. I was afraid of ending up like this. Of realizing none of it matters.” On a factual level, she’s known her fate since she was young, but the bad thing wasn’t living that way: it was having to feel like not only had she lived that way all along, now she had nothing left to do but to die worthless. She’s also spent most of the story wanting nothing more than to see her friends, but now when she finally does, what she sees when she looks at Kosuzu is only the final proof that all hope is truly lost.

I’m very consciously not using words like “realize” above: Akyuu can’t “realize” she has no worth, because obviously, she does. I’m 100% one of those people who couldn’t care less about “power of love” stories as a kid, but as an adult, is absolutely moved to tears by them. And I think it’s 100% clear in GoH that this would’ve been resolved far more like a regular incident if Akyuu'd had Kosuzu (and Reimu and Marisa) by her side from the start. Much of the first half is about both parties just trying to meet, hoping or knowing that this would solve everything, but of course one of the biggest plunges in Akyuu’s morale comes around the halfway point when Kosuzu does reach her, only to be physically torn away. Eventually her isolation starts becoming self-imposed. And it’s not merely about solving “the problem”, anyway, because the actual problem in the story is ultimately way, way secondary to the emotional snowballing it causes in Akyuu. The content of Akyuu’s life is in the people she cares about and who care about her, not just her work, and being deprived of them is what really brings her to the edge.

The emotional core of GoH is, in the end, about being plunged into the depths of despair, your biggest regret that you couldn’t have died sooner, and being pulled up by those who love you - very literally, yeah, in a maybe-cliche-but-I-literally-don’t-care underwater scene. And it’s the power of love not in the form of some magic beam, but literally caring about Akyuu more than she, at that darkest point in her life, cares about herself. For that reason, even though you could take the vast majority of GoH and say it’s a “dark, depressing story”, and I don’t blame anyone who’s been put off by that and decided not to read it, read as a whole, it completely turns around into an uplifting one. And here it’s definitely true that the light wouldn’t be near as bright if it weren’t for all the darkness before it. At the time it came out, I was more invested in seeing GoH have a happy ending than in any other Touhou story.

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

Yeah, I’m still going. And this post is still only about Akyuu’s side of the story, not, say, Tea Store Girl who has her own problems to deal with, and who also ties into other stuff about Akyuu I won’t have space for here.

The last three chapters are narratively in a difficult spot, coming after the emotional climax of the story and basically being an extended bit of cleanup for the practical side - and I’m not gonna claim the execution is flawless. The whole twin-memory thing is hazy enough, both in-universe and to the reader at this point, that the way it “will be resolved this way, probably” also ends up feeling kinda half-hearted. And at the time of reading, I was emotionally disappointed with Tea Store Girl's final handling in general. But more on that later, if I end up rambling about her too.

But besides indulging the whole lore and literature aspect that Ashiyama loves so much - a slight case of split attention on the doujin’s part, someone might say, but at least I like that stuff too - and being a fun little story in its own right, the three chapters of what you’d usually consider epilogue or falling action serve a vital purpose related to the emotional aspect above: obviously there’s still the baggage of the rest of the story to deal with, and the overall somber tone is still there, but we are shown that the instant Akyuu, Kosuzu, Reimu, Marisa and Tea Store Girl are together, they have the answer to the incident, and the focus shifts to them working together on a kind of zany scheme. All those horrible things from just a chapter ago seem like a distant memory that could almost have been a different manga, and I’m going to claim that means it’s working.

Furthermore, though the actual scheme is about practical clean-up - fixing the memory problem, convincing people that Akyuu is fine now - the chapters’ greater purpose is to solve the true problem mentioned: Akyuu’s feelings. While being around her friends has immediately made her feel better, the deeper, honestly rather “rational” cause behind her worries hasn’t really been fixed. But the few chapters of extra time give her, and the reader, time to absorb both the fact that people do care about her, and that as Akyuu herself points out, she’s been really blind to her relationship with her “servants”. The Humans of “Gensokyo of Humans” aren’t really any of our main characters, but the many unnamed ones around them, and while it would be silly to blame Akyuu too much for feeling offended when people seem a little too mercenary about her death, these are people who have not only taken care of her for her entire life, but whose own lives are very much tied to hers, and who have no choice but to feel concern about the practicalities of Akyuu’s death while also grieving it. It’s maybe a little glossed over, could’ve been shown better, and emotionally I can’t really blame people who felt disappointed that the servants didn’t get some kind of narrative “comeuppance” in the end, but I do think they’re missing the point. Akyuu’s earlier perspective of the cruel, self-serving servants isn’t meant to be any more objective than her view of her own worthlessness.

The bigger problem behind Akyuu’s feelings, her being the Child of Miare with a limited lifespan, isn’t anything the characters can fix, and that might end up making the whole story feel like a bit of a delaying the inevitable, Pyrrhic victory kind of thing. Other than ZUN making a kind of half-meta joke in Who’s Who that Akyuu might end up living way longer due to medical advances, which the end of GoH also jokingly alludes to, this is true. However, besides some platitudes about how that is true for all of us yadda yadda, I think it’s incredibly important that Kosuzu has managed to convince Akyuu that even if every life, or book, will inevitably end... it’s still worth it to the last.

...And immediately after Kosuzu says that she’ll be reading this book to the end, after everything Akyuu has thought and felt during the story, she goes out to give this speech no one can convince me wasn’t improvised. And it’s maybe slightly corny. But at this point, it's earned.

I have thoughts about Gensokyo of Humans.

[telehxhtrash]

I tend to see a lot of people say that Togashi will leave things uncertain and ambiguous in between Killua and Gon, and while it’s a possibility, I honestly don’t think it’s the most likely thing to happen, and if it did, ambiguous wouldn’t be the correct term to call it.

People often say that Togashi likes to play with ambiguity when it comes to queer matters. Yes, Togashi likes to play with gender. We get to see that through Kite, Pitou and Kalluto in HxH (although its arguable because Kite is definitely not cis). But when Togashi decides that a character is queer, or that there is a relationship going on between two characters, he doesn’t leave it ambiguous.

Togashi has created queer characters in 3 of his main works : Yu Yu Hakusho, Level E and Hunter x Hunter. And everytime he created those characters, he made damn sure that everyone knew that these characters were queer. No room for any sort of ambiguity.

The first examples I have are from Yu Yu Hakusho, with a character named Miyuki, and the other is from Level E, with a character named Kyoko Mikihisa.

For these two characters, Togashi made it so that they emphasized themselves that they were trans. It’s painted extremely clearly, that they were born in the wrong body. There’s literally no room for any sort of ambiguity here.

Togashi could’ve easily kept things ambiguous. There are plenty of ways he could’ve done it, keeping the character’s gender confusing. But he didn’t. He made it EXTRA clear that these characters were trans. This is mostly why I genuinely don’t believe you can describe Togashi’s queer rep as “ambiguous”. Because when the characters tell you themselves that they are, it’s canon. It’s not ambiguous.

Now, sometimes, Togashi likes to play it more subtle. He doesn’t make his characters say “I’m gay” or “I’m trans”, but he finds another way to say it.

In YYH, Togashi wrote a gay character : Itsuki. And he’s canonically gay, because when talking about another man, Sensui, he mentions that he sees him as a lover.

It’s subtle. It’s not ambiguous.

Same thing for Alluka, Alluka never comes on screen and says “I’m a trans girl !”. The reason we know that Alluka is canonically a trans girl is because the Zoldycks insist on misgendering her, while Killua emphasizes that she’s a girl.

And once again, it’s subtle. Not ambiguous. Even though I’ve seen a lot of redditors say that “Alluka’s gender is ambiguous”, Togashi is literally doing his utmost to highlight subtly that yes, Alluka is a trans girl.

But subtlety is not canon’s enemy. Not everything has to be painted clearly for it to be canon. Sometimes, you just have to piece every little clue together yourself. Just because the word “trans” is never canonically stated in HxH concerning Alluka, it doesn’t make her any less of a trans girl. Because as the audience, we UNDERSTOOD from the subtext and from the clash in gendering that she is trans.

So, yes, Togashi likes to be subtle. But subtlety doesn’t make things any less canon.

I’m drifting a bit to non-queer matters, but I also want to talk about two relationships in Togashi’s work that were canonically romantic, but subtle.

The first is Meruem and Komugi. It’s canon that the nature of their relationship was romantic. They never did couple-y things, or even kissed. But it doesn’t make the nature of their relationship ambiguous. Because it was once again, subtle, but drowning in subtext that Togashi deliberately put there.

Togashi paralleled Killua saying that him dying with Gon would be a shinjuu (lover’s suicide), only for it to not happen in the end - but Togashi wanted to throw that word in. So we could have it at the back of our heads. Because when Meruem and Komugi died, it was a shinjuu. It was two lovers dying by the same method with the belief that they’d be united in the afterlife. Meruem only cared about spending his last moments playing with Komugi. They both said that they were only born to experience this moment, of being in pure bliss as they die together. When Komugi replies to Meruem and says that she’ll join him in death, she uses an old phrasing used to accept marriages proposals. They died holding hands.

It was subtle, but canon. Because of all these clues and all the subtext Togashi planted, it is undeniable that their relationship was romantic. And they never kissed, never said “i love you”, but we still know : and that’s the beauty of subtlety.

Because yes, romance can be subtle AND canon.

Another example of a canon romantic relationship that was never officialized by a kiss : Keiko and Yusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho. Correct me if I’m wrong, but while they kissed in the anime, they never kiss in the manga.

But a relationship doesn’t need to be canonized by a kiss. I’ve never seen/read YYH, but while I was doing research, I read that their relationship grew naturally over the course of the manga. That they grew together, were affectionate with each other, but never told each other the nature of their feelings. Until one specific moment towards the end of the manga where this happens:

All of this came naturally. No big confession, just a confirmation of what they both felt. And no kiss either ! No hand holding, no true “romantic” actions, either before or after that chapter. Just feelings. I’m quoting one of the post I used as reference, but “On one hand it's beautiful to finally hear it, but on the other, it's not even surprising. You find yourself caught off guard by how easily you're willing to accept that these two have felt this way throughout the entire series.”

And while it’s subtle, because you’d expect at least a kiss or something, it’s canon and undeniable that their relationship is romantic. It’s clear that the two of them are in love, even if they never kissed. Because it was clear from the beginning that this was where their relationship was going : all the building up to that one moment where they both basically tell each other “oh yeah, btw, i love you”. A simple confirmation of what they both knew, and of what we as readers knew too.

I guess my point is that Togashi can insist on the nature of his characters and relationships. He insisted that Miyuki, Mikihisa and Alluka were trans. But sometimes he also likes to be subtle, and not put everything plainly. But the subtlety doesn’t discredit its the canon legitimacy.

Now, onto what it means for Killua and Gon. 

I emphasized that Togashi liked to highlight when his characters are queer. There are absolutely NO DOUBTS that Miyuki and Alluka are trans girls, Mikihisa a trans man and that Itsuki was gay. It’s in canon. But they were all brought up differently, and it was either confirmed by them saying it themselves or by the context and subtext surrounding their queer identity.

But Togashi never left it ambiguous. We always had canon confirmation that they were queer. What I’m saying is, there’s a very, very high probability that Killua is gay and in love with Gon. We’ve seen it in the incredible amount of subtext deliberately placed by Togashi. And like I said, Togashi never left the nature of his queer characters ambiguous. So it’s highly likely that Togashi will confirm in canon at some point that Killua is gay. 

Now, while it’s likely Togashi will canonize Killua being queer plainly by either him saying it or subtext (just like Alluka), it doesn’t mean that his relationship with Gon will be canonized plainly too.

I mentioned earlier that Komugi/Meruem and Keiko/Yusuke’s relationships were subtle, while undeniably romantic. So maybe this will be the case for Killua and Gon’s relationship too. It looks like Togashi’s style for writing romance is show, not tell, thus making it a possibility that it’ll be the same for Killua and Gon.

But I can assert with 100% certainty that Togashi will NOT leave their relationship ambiguous. Maybe it’ll be subtle, but NOT ambiguous. Just like Meruem/Komugi and Yusuke/Keiko.

Killua and Gon’s relationship is the backbone of HxH, and it’s very clear that Togashi’s intent from the beginning of the story was to canonize it as a love story. When Togashi wrote Killua, he incorporated elements of Tanabata, a legend about two lovers, in his story, and made Tanabata his birthday. Togashi queer coded Killua from the beginning, and I honestly doubt that he would never canonize it, when it was his intent to queer code him from the beginning. He made the both of them have an extremely deep relationship, being each other’s most important person. Combine this with all the subtext, and yeah, it’s pretty clear that HxH is a love story.

So yes, Togashi wouldn’t leave ambiguous something he planned from the beginning of the story. Especially since HxH is his first chance at writing a manga and being able to do everything he wants with it. Especially when Togashi’s gay manga got turned down 30 years ago.

I mentioned Togashi never leaving stuff ambiguous, but rather either putting it plainly or more subtly. And honestly, I’m thinking it’s going to be a mix of both for Killua and Gon. A mix of subtlety and undeniable proof of the romantic nature of their relationship. Exactly like Yusuke and Keiko’s relationship. 

I feel like Killua and Gon’s relationship perfectly mirrors Yusuke and Keiko’s, and I can totally picture it following the same patterns. By having their relationship grow even deeper as they reunite, with no explicit romantic gestures, just deep, deep feelings. Until ultimately, they both confirm it one way or another. 

I could literally picture Gon turning to Killua, telling him out of the blue something they’ll do when they get married, Killua being confused but Gon saying something like “Well, I wanna get married to you Killua. Don’t you want to?” and Killua almost choking but saying that yeah, he’d like that. Plain and simple. No romantic gesture. No kiss, no hand holding, no feelings confession under the stars. Just a mutual assessment of what they both already knew.

But honestly, I’m saying all this to try and be objective, but I’m not in Togashi’s head. Togashi could also very much go absolutely crazy and make Killua and Gon share a kiss, hold hands, affirm their love out loud, Because it’s his first chance at being free to do what he wants with his manga. And because he’s been wanting to draw a gay manga for a while, he might want to emphasize that HxH is queer.

Especially when it seems like Togashi likes to incorporate shoujo elements in his work.

And as @/sincerelysamedt mentioned in her wonderful post, queer relationships are often dismissed as platonic in media, and that it’s important to overplay it to canonize it efficiently. And Togashi is probably aware of this. Hence Killua’s stuttering, blushing, the constant gay poetic lines Gon tells Killua about how he’s so glad he met him, Killua’s inner monologues comparing Gon to light itself, multiple characters highlighting their mutual love, a date under the stars where they mutually affirm their want to stay together and travel the world while they both blush.........Togashi didn’t have to go THIS hard, but he did.

These panels highlight the difference between the subtle relationships I talked about above. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Togashi represented Yusuke or Keiko having internal monologues about how they wanted to stay with the other forever or poetically comparing each other to light. It proves that while Togashi likes to play it subtle, he's also not afraid to put extremely cliché shoujo tropes and heartfelt moments in his narrative too. Maybe he’s aware that internalized homophobia might pose a problem to the narrative he’s trying to convey, and thus he might be enclined to overplay it. 

When you keep in mind that Togashi most likely wrote Killua and Gon with the intent of making their relationship a love story, you can see that he’s never really written with the intent of being ambiguous or even subtle, providing us with multiple intense scenes of mutual devotion. And that’s one thing that’s leading me to believe he wouldn’t shy away from delivering highly emotional scenes that would canonize their mutual love. Because their relationship has never truly been portrayed as subtle, or ambiguous, it’s just.... developing.

So yeah, it could go either way ! Either Togashi will decide to paint it subtly like every relationship he’s painted in the past, or he’ll either decide to go all out and maybe show us an extremely heartfelt confession under the stars, maybe even an on-screen kiss (the latter option being highly likely considering all the very emotional scenes between them we’ve already had) - (EDIT : i wrote a post on why i believe there’ll be an explicit confession if you want to read it !)

But one thing is certain : it will never stay ambiguous, because Togashi has never painted any of his queer characters or the relationships between his characters as ambiguous, Subtle, yes. Ambiguous, no. 

[citrus-cactus]

10 characters, 10 fandoms (obscure takes & slightly furry edition)

I was tagged by @tangledupblue and @reliablejoukido approximately forever ago! I’ve actually done this meme two times previously, but there are always more characters to talk about (that cannot be true forever, but we’ll say it’s true for now). So let’s get to it!

Also, I don't feel like tagging this one, but please feel free to do this if you want to! I always love to hear about peoples' favorite characters <3

1. Iago (Disney’s Aladdin)

I… I… I don't have any excuses, I just think he’s neat, ok?! There has always been something about the sarcastic talking animal sidekick trope that speaks to me, even though I can’t explain why. He’s just such a angry, self-centered, fun little guy, and he has a real character arc that runs through all of the 90s animated media! Love his role in the TV series, and I also love that he went off with Aladdin’s dad at the end of King of Thieves. For better or worse, he’s my favorite Disney character, period!

2. Bad Bird/Karamaru (Samurai Pizza Cats/Kyatto Ninden Teyandee)

SPC is a show from the mid-90s era of dubs, and it’s generally beloved for taking a rather loose approach to its translation of the original source material. Bad Bird is yet another bird-type henchman, a rival to the "star" character, a bit of a punching bag, and also not-really-all-that-evil. I uh… I guess I have a type? *shifty eyes*

3. Jose Carioca

Oh sh*t I lied, I do actually have ANOTHER favorite Disney character! Who is a bird!! I honestly don’t know why I have such an attachment to Jose. Three Caballeros was something I ONLY watched at my grandma’s house as a wee one, so I do have some very specific childhood memories of it, and little me always thought this charming parrot was the best part. I have never seen anything he featured in that didn’t originate in the 1940s (yeah, I slept on the DuckTales reunion because I don't have cable or Disney+), but I’ve heard he has (had?) his own long-running comic book series in Brazil. I’ve always wanted to see one of those!

I uh… I definitely have a type. Who knew?? ^^;

4. Ryouga Hibiki (Ranma 1/2)

Ok look. I came into Ranma 1/2 in a pretty weird way: looking it up obsessively on the late 90s Internet, falling in love with character descriptions, screenshots and promo art, and reading fanfiction before I was able to watch or read ANY significant portions of the source material. Ryouga was always kind of my favorite back then, and he still is now (even though I have only seen a few of the OVAs and read about half of the manga). He’s just. He’s such an idiot (affectionate). But he's a great rival, a dog person, has Feelings but is incredibly awkward, and generally means well.

5. Ben Wyatt (Parks and Rec)

Live action? GASP! Just… Ben Wyatt is a MOOD. The entire ensemble cast of P&R is amazing, but it’s incredible how much Adam Scott and Rob Lowe brought to the table. I am very normal about Ben, Cones of Dunshire, and the Letters to Cleo shirt (I am not).

6. Lily Aldrin (How I Met Your Mother)

While I will watch Alyson Hannigan act in pretty much anything, HIMYM is a total comfort show for me, and Lily is just *chef’s kiss.* Don’t really have much more to say than that!

7. Lum(?) (Urusei Yatsura)

UY has such a HUGE ensemble cast with tons of interdependencies, you practically can’t isolate one character without at least three others tagging along. You also can’t think too hard about them, because they are all idiots (affectionate) (there is definitely a distinction to make between characterization being good and characterization being deep). Lum is... not my favorite character (that might actually be the manga version of Mendo?), but she's such a dang icon, plus she’s the one I've tried to draw the most, so that… counts?? Much like Ranma 1/2, I also have to factor in all the years I spent wanting to experience UY. Amazingly enough, I've seen more of it than Ranma at this point!

Currently wishing I could watch the reboot too, because the manga characterization/version of events might actually be getting their day in the sun? :D

8. Bentley (Sly Cooper)

Oof. OOF. Why did I do this to myself. The Sly Cooper series is a 3D platforming series from the PS2 era of video games. Penelope from Sly 3 might be my favorite character conceptually (she brings something really fun to the table, and geek girls FTW!), but her being The Fave is hampered by the fact that she only appears in the one game (What's that? Sly 4? Sorry, don't know what you're talking about). Sly 2 is hands-down my favorite entry in the franchise, and while he’s really difficult to play as, Bentley’s development across the original trilogy is… ghhh. IT’S SO GOOD, as are his friendships with Sly and Murray. Bentley!!! (I still love you though Penelope, you got done so dirty).

9. Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

I don’t believe I’ve watched/played/read any TMNT property that is younger than a third-grader at this point. But Donnie’s the Smart One, and he is Purple. ‘Nuff said!!

OK so. Birds and smart turtles. We're learning more about what my types are all the time...

10. Daisuke Jigen (Lupin III)

I have not seen much Lupin III. But Jigen is cool <3

(I also like hats).

[farlynthordens]

Is Gen gay-coded or just an entertainer? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ random thoughts/observations about his speech in Japanese

Warnings: LONG. mentions of gendered language and homophobic characterizations

The concept of “role language” is super important in Japanese fiction, because how a character talks can tell you a lot about their personality. Unfortunately, it’s often lost in translation because languages like English don’t have the ability to play around with formality levels, pronouns, etc as much.

Ever since I first watched the dcst anime like a year and a half ago, I’ve had no idea if Gen is intended to be the “gay friend” character or just the “quirky famous guy,” or maybe both? I figured that writing out my thoughts might be interesting for some people! Take everything with a grain of salt tho since I’m not a native speaker

1. Backwards speech

I want to first cover backwards speech (localized as pig latin in the English manga) because this used to confuse the fuck out of me. It felt like a quirky teen thing or internet slang, but it’s actually [zuuja-go] (“jazz” written backwards + “language”) which originated in the 40s-50s.

It was revived primarily by male TV stars and comedians in the 80s-90s, and to this day zuuja-go is regarded as a type of [entertainment industry-specific language]. However, it’s hardly used anymore. It’s kinda weird then that Gen, who’s too young to have lived in the revival period, would use zuuja-go, but my guess is that it’s a funny and somewhat original way to show his “popular entertainer” background. I personally don’t know any other characters who use it as regularly.

2. Choice of pronoun + speech patterns

Gen ends nearly every sentence with ~ne, ~yo ne, ~yo, or ~sa, or otherwise no particle at all. Questions almost never have an ending emphasis particle, putting the rise in intonation on the final word (the standard is to end with ~ka, ~no ka, etc). He also always contracts the verb ending ~te shimau into ~chau/jau (Senku always uses the contracted form too, but a more boyish derivative (chimau). It probably sounds crazy but trust me). There’s more I could list, but these are the most notable points lol

This kind of speech pattern is associated with teen girls/young women, so when it’s applied to a perceived male character, it’s used to indicate that they’re an “effeminate man”. In most cases, “effeminate” = gay/trans (yeah it’s shitty and outdated thinking). It’s also been applied to male characters who are idols or internet stars, possibly as a dig at their masculinity or making fun of their attempt to appeal to female audiences.

One example of the latter is Pyotr from Carole & Tuesday, who’s their universe’s equivalent of an Instagram celebrity. His sentence structure is almost identical to Gen’s, with the girlishness turned up to 11 because of the very high pitched, nasal-y voice given to him in the show. More on this later.

We also can’t forget how he calls everyone -chan. It’s diminutive and cute, but literally no one uses -chan that much. Even in fiction, female characters normally use it for female friends or children, and guys almost never use it except for children and maybe certain girls they’re close with. It’s definitely the most exaggerated cutesy trait he has. “Effeminate male” characters often address others - regardless of gender - with diminutive honorifics or cute nicknames even when not necessarily appropriate, so this is just gay-coded behavior from what I can tell lmao

One thing that’s different about Gen compared to other characters with the same "effeminate male” speech pattern (that I can recall, at least) is his pronoun. He uses the masculine “ore”, like Senku, Chrome, and most of the other young male characters. In text, his “ore” is even in kanji (俺) like theirs. Had it been written in hiragana or katakana, it would have given more of a casual or stylish vibe. Just as a sidenote, this is also why his name itself is written in mixed hiragana/katakana instead of kanji! It’s a typical thing for Japanese celebrities to do with their names to seem cool.

Anyway, characters who are meant to be portrayed as “effeminate men” will almost always use watashi or atashi, the standard “female” pronouns, or at least “boku” which is generally male-aligned but softer than “ore” (Pyotr uses boku, as an example).

Pronoun usage is way more nuanced in real life, but for fictional characters, it tends to be broken down into these kinds of stereotypes based on Tokyo-dialect Japanese.

He also is missing some other key points in his speech pattern that would more clearly identify him as gay/trans-coded, like using the feminine ~kashira (”I wonder...”) instead of ~kana.

3. Voice acting in the show

I love Gen’s Jpn voice honestly, but it does play into the “effeminate man” stereotype a little. His voice is a bit higher pitched than the other guys and somewhat nasal-y, which are both common traits of this stereotype when used with the speech patterns I talked about above. The way certain syllables are stressed also highlights his feminine speech pattern. However, he’s comparably tame to “effeminate” characters in other series. For example, his Jpn voice actor does raise the pitch of his natural voice for Gen, but it’s not a falsetto imo. It’s pretty common for male voice actors to do falsettos for “effeminate” characters.

Gen also doesn’t fall under a lot of the tropes that plague many gay/trans-coded characters and quirky celebrity types - such as being a “diva” or uncomfortably flirtatious - which tend to get amplified in voice acting.

---

This stuff combined with my previous post about his clothes makes me wonder even more about what was intended for his character. There’s a lot about him that is notably “feminine” without him leaning too hard into gay stereotype territory. And it’s just like, why did you do that.

If you survived reading this far, I’d love to hear your thoughts<3