#Though...it's not gonna be so wholesome when you dive in deeper into the story.

[furin-chwan]

LuTen fic recommendations: a few favorites.

So I spent the last month falling in love with LuTen, Yukten, Tencas, whatever you want to call it. I read through the Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Wong Yukhei | Lucas tag on AO3 in English, then doubled around to google translate all fics in languages that is not English because that is how much whipped I am for this pairing.

In the process, I discovered some gems that broke my heart, some healed my soul, some got me howling in laughters and some made me falling even deeper in love with LuTen.

Now that I’m pretty much up-to-date with the tag, I want to compile a short list of my All-Time-Favorites, Favorites, and Honorable mentions. I’ll try not to talk about the defails, so you don’t get spoiler and can enjoy it to the fullest. (I also want to say, I love reading things with Angst, but I mostly can’t stand if if it’s not Happy End. So there will be a couple that will hurt, as a warning)

This is gonna be lengthy since I ramble a lot! So I’ll keep it to top 3 and a few honorable mentions. They will all be completed works.

First off,

In Shades by the munchking.

This work. I cannot, CANNOT, recommend it enough. I have so much to say about it, but at the same time, I don’t know what really to say. It left me a broken, sobbing mess after reading it. I don’t think I was ever really the same anymore. This is truly one of the best work I have read, across all of the fandoms. There was a recess period where I cannot even think about it because it would hurt in the best way, but it was still too much. I love it with all my heart, so much that I was so sad after reading it, then so mad, then I now just re-read it every other day.

The characters, the world-building, the writings, they are just absolutely unparalleled. There is so much depths to everything, and everytime I read it, I would catch something about the story, the foreshadows, the tiny tibbits of brilliance that I never did before. I have this work always open on my phone browser, just so I can go back and quickly read it whenever the urge hits me. It has everything from angst, fluff, the smexy stuffs, the badass-ness, everything.

While I will quote the whole fic to find a favorite part, since it is that brilliant, I can’t do that hear because that’ll be spoilers, so here’s a snippet:

The trouble with love, Ten thinks, is that it blinds you. It’s the most powerful force in the world, and according to Ten’s first law of motion, objects in love tend to stay in love. Ten really doesn’t want to fight.

If I ever have to pick an absolute favorite Luten fic, it would HAVE to be this. This is bookmarked in my account as “All Time Favorite” tag with a “THIS ONE FUCKED ME UP, FUCK” in the note. So yes.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20926073

Next, we have

Eyes Closed to the Wreckage by caesiumlight

This is the first Luten fic that got an “All Time Favorite” tag from me. I have an immense weakness for Spies/Super Agents AUs and darker-tone AUs in general, so this hits home right on first ball throw. The thrill, the badass-ness, the tension. I live for this (especially when we got SuperM’s concept of suits and gadgets, super agents/spies/soldier looking photoshoots and trailer, I am weak okayy?)

I am in love with how Lucas is written in here. The characterization is well done, and the interactions between characters is also such a feast to dive in. And even though it was in Lucas’ perspective, we still get to see so much of Ten despite everything.

Favorite part

There’s a presence at his side suddenly, and Lucas is pulled into an embrace. Ten cradles him securely with one hand gripping his. He doesn’t say anything, only strokes the back of Lucas’ neck. Lucas shakes harder in relief, breath stuttering, because he doesn’t know if he’d be able to pull himself out of this black hole alone. Ten holds him until he has nothing left, no tears left to soak the bloodied ground.

I have re-read this work five times, and even translated it into Vietnamese. So you know how whipped I for them.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14311836

Then, it’s

I, who was chosen by love, begin to moonwalk by zimriya

I’m a simple fan who likes ABO verse, especially the old school Alpha/Omega pairing (hey, sometimes I just want to read the PWP). Then this work came at me with something completely different and hit me with substance not just style, and I was ended just like that. It breaks the norm for this type of setting, and I loved every second of it.

The ache in here is real, it doesn’t hurt like In Shades, but this one you feel a constant humming of the sweetest type of aches. But then it just... dissipate into this warmth of softness and love and it will be the best thing ever. Ten is also written differently in here than how most would portray him in other works which was interesting refreshing to see.

Even when the setting is not real, their troubles and thoughts still feel real, relatable, and believable, and I think that’s the best thing you can achieve in writing. And while it’s an installment of a larger series, it doesn’t make you feel like you are missing out on information, it feels full like a stand alone piece. (However I do recommend other installments of this series even though they are all in different pairings, Ten and Lucas do make pretty great cameos).

A couple part stood out to me, but this is one of my faves for sure:

like Yukhei didn’t worm his way in close to him like some sort of overgrown, over-dimpled weed, with bad manners and bad Mandarin and even worse ideas about personal space and how friends with benefits were even supposed to work. Like Yukhei wasn’t what he saw when he woke up more often than not, or the last thing in his sight before he fell asleep. Like he wasn’t the one who brought Ten coffee how he liked it and humored all his little issues with any and all fruits; taught him tiny bits of Cantonese like it was second nature and then turned around and acted like he was the worst at languages.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839893

That’s my top three most memorables! Now, here are some honorable mentions:

Stories no one believes in yet by umiwomitai

A very cute AU with good balance of humor, fluffs, and feelings. It is well written and I’d come back to this for a pick-me-up kind of moment.

“See, I may not look like Einstein, but I’m not stupid either. Xuxi is my dog, and you, though you might behave like one, are not a dog. Answer my question now,” he kicks the man in the thigh as he says so, earning a puppy look that makes him want to sigh in despair. What had he done to deserve this?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19724677

I Regular by umiwomitai

This work is fascinating to me, it touches upon really interesting subjects (unlearning prejudices and biases) and has subtle but great the world-building. What stood out in this work for me is the great and believable character development. It’s definitely an emotional ride, but it’s a full filling one.

In the bright fake yellow light, Lucas’s hair appear more blond than brown and Ten wonders if it would feel just the same as his if he ran his hands through it. If it would hurt if he pulled. If it would curl back into place if he tried to style it differently.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24288823

The Cure to Insomnia by Daydreamgirl

Softest thing ever. Seriously whenever I’m sad or hurt from reading too much angst, this heals me. It’s very wholesome too. Very much recommended.

Lucas immediately looked away from his phone and looked up at Ten. Ten was satisfied. He was sure Kun usually had to call Lucas three times to get him away from the phone.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461449

signs of my vitamin U deficiency by sugarcoats

Fun, cute, smexy time with fruit-phobia Ten and personal trainer Lucas, there was a banana bj involved what more do I need to say.

Can’t quote anything from this one because I thought the summary is enough to hook you.

In which Ten is afraid of fruits and Lucas, his nutritionist, finds it worrisome but adorable.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694945

the art of sales and falling in love by actuallyshua

Good old cat-and-dog style banter. Super charming writing. Bonus point with office AUs. It’s fun, it’s charming, it’s a gem.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20132332

And that’s it, my friends. That is my list of recommendations for LuTen.

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. If there’s any work you love that I haven’t mentioend the price, please don’t hesitate to let me know through asks, comments/mentions, or dms. Please check out the fics above and give them much love and support from us!

P.s: I didn’t mention in the list, it’s just because I assume everyone who knows LuTen have read through that series multiple time. If you haven’t, please do yourself a favor and go read it.

[thejpfdude-blog]

A Closer Look At... Tamako Market/Tamako Love Story

Heyo and welcome to a brand new series that hopefully actually becomes a series called “A Closer Look At...”! The goal of this series is to write reviews on anime series and for me to get a closer idea of why I love/hate a show. I’m still sort of tinkering with how I want to structure this, but for now I’m gonna do a standard rundown of the basic categories, you know stuff like Animation/Art, Characters, Story, Enjoyment, and Final Thoughts (that’s a basic category right?). So yeah, let’s kick off this double special with the first show on this list. But first, a WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TAMAKO MARKET AND TAMAKO LOVE STORY. You’ve been warned.

Tamako Market

First, a question for those of you in the audience. Raise your hand if you thought that Tamako Market would be my highest rated show I’ve watched this year, a show I rate higher than Bakemonogatari and Madoka Magica. Now put your hands down you liars.

Yeah, what a world. This show was many things: a show I’ve been told to trudge through to get to its movie sequel; a show I’ve been told is one of the worst Kyoto Animation works; a show I’ve been holding off on for a while. And here we are: writing a review for it so I can exclaim its praises. For those of you that don’t know about this show, Tamako Market is about the life of Tamako Kitashirakawa, a girl in a family of mochi bakers living her life in a shopping district with her friends. Shenanigans ensue when she runs into a bird named Dera who is looking for a bride for his country’s prince. Dera ends up eating too much mochi, becomes too fat, and cannot return to his faraway home. And thus the story begins.

Animation/Art

I mean it’s Kyoto Animation. That’s all that really needs to be said for this category.

But let me try to dive in deeper. The animation is great: I didn’t notice any inconsistencies with it, other than some weird CG in one of the episodes with the people in the market. Nice to have a show that doesn’t distract from the story with its inconsistent character models.

The character design itself isn’t anything amazing: most of the characters look liked they could have come from a different KyoAni show: Choi and Azusa from K-On was a similarity that really stuck out to me. I didn’t have a problem with it for the most part though: they were still really good looking and the stark similarities were few and far in between.

Color design-wise, the show used bright colors that popped, which reflected the overall tone of the show: happy and bright. Not to mention it helped create the carnival-like atmosphere that I think they tried to portray the shopping district as. Well, not try, more like did. Because it worked.

Overall, the art/animation of the show is a solid 5/5 stars. Sasuga KyoAni.

Characters

Let me start this off by saying I loved all of the characters in this show. Yes, even Dera. Before I started watching Tamako Market I was warned of the “annoying bird” and told that he ruined the dynamic of the show. To be honest though, I think that without him I wouldn’t have enjoyed this show as much. He acted as sort of the butt monkey (err butt bird) for the others and the jokes, which made him less annoying in my eyes. Plus adding him to the cast of “happy” characters prevented a Flying Witch situation where everybody was too happy, something I like to call the “/r/wholesomememes conundrum” (if you don’t know the Wholesome Memes subreddit is filled with people making happy comments and no negativity or even sarcasm, and it creeps me out a lot). 

Other than that, yeah the other characters were nice. Tamako was your standard genki girl, Mochizou was cute AF in a good way (and I related to his struggles), Kanna was low-key best girl, and Midori was all right I guess. Then there are the people in the shopping district, who all had their own little quirks with them. Individually they didn’t offer much, but putting them together really helped create the feeling of being in a shopping market, in sort of a village setting. Them helping Tamako with all of her stuff reminds me of that saying: it takes a village to raise a child (or something like that). Characters are super important for me, and for this show they were a solid 5/5 stars. Good on ya KyoAni.

Story

If there’s one thing that this show fell flat in, it’s this category. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I didn’t mind it at all. This was a slice-of-life show, so the story doesn’t have to be amazingly original or creative, it just has to flow in a decent way so that I can enjoy it. I know for most people it was pretty boring, and that’s kinda true in a sense. The whole storyline of the show is that Dera is finding a bride for his prince, but that kinda doesn’t get prioritized until the last few episodes when they introduce Choi as a character and then when the prince comes to visit. Those last 2 or 3 episodes were for me the weakest in the show, only because it was heavily focused on that plotline. I enjoyed Tamako Market for the shopping market shenanigans, so it was kinda boring with the whole “wow Tamako is a princess??” stuff. And the ending of it seemed... anticlimactic: when the prince already knew she wasn’t the princess but went with the whole procedures anyway, it kinda gave those last 2 episodes no point. Even with that though, it was still a super fun watch, so I don’t fault it too much. Overall 3/5 stars on the story: it was all right for the first few episodes but the whole princess storyline was a bit out there.

Overall Enjoyment

I mean yeah it was a really fun show. I wouldn’t say it would be fun for everyone, but it just hit all of the right notes for me, and I really had a good time with it. A 5/5 stars for enjoyment.

Final Thoughts

So overall, Tamako Market was a pretty fun watch, complete with KyoAni visuals and good characters. Though the story is sometimes meh, it works out overall and became one of my favorite shows. A 9/10 show for me, would recommend to those of you who enjoy slice-of-life shows.

Tamako Love Story

“Haha, you thought it was over? No sir, there’s more.”

That’s what I assume KyoAni said to the anime community when this movie was announced. Because there was absolutely no indication that a sequel movie about LOVE would come out, given how dense Tamako was towards the crushes of both Mochizou and Midori (though the second one is more understandable). But what a great surprise, as this movie ended up becoming more popular than its prequel series. In fact, the movie is how I ended up getting into the show in the first place. So yeah, I was pretty excited to see how it was given I enjoyed the show so much.

Note that most of what I said about the show above is still the same in the movie, so I’ll just be talking about the story and overall enjoyment of the show.

Story

If you didn’t know the plot of Tamako LOVE STORY, then let me tell you. It’s about the LOVE STORY between Tamako and Mochizou. Simple as that. Though even with its simple premise, it executes it super well. The movie kicks off with Mochizou wanting to tell Tamako that he plans to go to Tokyo for college. Stuff escalates as he tells her this plus confesses to her, to which Tamako goes into love shock as she runs away and spends the next few days not knowing what to do. It’s cute stuff, really. But then she decides yes I do love this boy, so she runs off to the train station to catch up with him and confesses via the cup telephones that they used to communicate. And then the movie ends. Yeah, that’s my biggest complaint with this movie: like many anime romances, it ends with the confession, and the actual couple-y things don’t happen. Like come on man, I want some nice vanilla romance in my life.

To be fair, though, it was still really cute to see how Tamako handled her feelings and the whole process in which she accepted them. And I was still pretty dang happy when she confessed (though a bit confused and angry at first when the credits rolled). Overall, though I wanted to see more time between the two as a couple, I can’t complain too much considering it was what the title says: a nice love story. A nice 5/5 stars on the story: simple but well-executed.

Overall Enjoyment

Well what do you think? I think 5/5 stars, would re-watch multiple times.

Final Thoughts

This movie was a joy to the eyeballs, and to the brain as well. Writing about this movie makes me want to go watch it again, and that I will. 10/10 would recommend (but please watch Tamako Market first: it actually is pretty important).