#Vinland saga stage play

[saturnsedan]

"Miss me, miss me, now you gotta kiss me!"

"GRRRRRRRRAHRAHARGFARF!!"

[canute-saga]

Twitter April/May Dump

I watched the Vinland Saga stage play five times.

In Twitter site, Thorfinn won as the best character from Vinland Saga, followed by Askeladd, Hild, Knut and Einar

Hild is the father

It was Red's birthday, so I felt like drawing Stan

It was also Myre's birthday

I saw a AO3 tag so ednute, I had to

I love my two kings

and my two queens

and my two princesses (Gunhild from Nutty, Snorri from Finny)

I adore the kids I hope they have their own saga...

...and grow up!

And then I decided to re-draw that girlverse doodle. See ya!

[vinsaga]

edit. SOLD - thank you!

---

Selling Vinland saga stage play DVD unopened + preorder card of Canute and Thorfinn!

Contains 2 x DVD + specials

Price: 65e + shipping from Europe

Let me know if you're interested! ^^

[worldclassbadass]

Y'ALL

VINLAND SAGA THEATRE PLAY?!

[marichild]

20 Questions For Fic Writers!

ty for the tag @valleykey <3

how many works do you have on ao3?

listed as 114! I cannot remember how ao3 counts the works but I do have a fic or two on anon and like 3 in a private anon collection.

what’s your total ao3 word count?

673,463. for now anyway

what are your top five fics by kudos?

there are more important things than words between us || 8.8k hits || gyuricky || zerobaseone || canonverse getting together

something that has become absolutely clear || 5.1k hits || karmagisa || assassination classroom || spin on the cave scene

for me, like the real me || 4k hits || karma & gakushuu || assassination classroom || transmasc karma has a crisis

a vinland saga fic that has been been put in priv anon collection awaiting time to be rewritten

what’s the lie? what’s the truth? || 3.9k hits || sequel to cave scene fic, the karmagisa fight scene

what fandoms do you write for?

quite a lot! right now I’m writing mostly for link click, alien stage, and bsd, but I haven’t stopped writing for jjk either! there are assorted miscellaneous fandoms thrown in there, though.

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I do! no specific reason other than I get so excited when people comment on my fic and I just have to say thank you and respond to any thoughts they leave behind. truly, nothing makes me happier than talking about the creative process/choices/thoughts I put into my writing with people who are eager to do so.

what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmmm. I don’t really do unhappy endings but rather ambiguous/open ended ones. if I had to pick out of my recent works, probably the kyouka & lucy idol au which didn’t solve any problems at all, or the lukatill power play fic where…well. I stuck to how blink gone went in canon, so. </3

what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I WRITE MANY HAPPY ENDINGS. honestly it depends on what one perceives to be more positive than the other, so there’s no set answer for this, really.

do you get hate on fics?

shoutout to the guy who managed to be both racist and misogynistic about the main canon couple of the racism bad discrimination bad war bad series. other than that weirdo who jumped me within five minutes of posting my first attack on titan fanfic (which was genuinely so funny tbh), nope, unless I’m just forgetting.

do you write smut?

eh. sometimes. more so than usual these days to be honest.

do you write crossovers?

not really! I do write x aus of y universe, but the only crossover I have ever done so far is the jjk x bsd crossover and that is for the sole purpose of dazai menacing/unsettling gojo.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I’m aware of.

have you ever had a fic translated?

yep, a few times! I’m always so honored like…wow….a translation…

have you ever cowritten a fic before?

technically not, but kavi @blackwaves and I fully wrote both our versions of lukatill power play fic after rambling in dms and wrote it specifically for that purpose lol.

I am also writing a companion comedy fic to their vein/lu guang fic, which is how that universe has been nicknamed the toxic romcomverse. because we low-key lost our minds thinking about how cheng xiaoshi and xia fei would react to vein/lu guang hooking up and it’s genuinely a fucking mess. stay tuned for more bad sex decisions from two puppies who are sulking about things they should not be.

what’s your all time favourite ship?

woah. that is a difficult question. if I were to really choose probably percy/annabeth from pjo or hiccup/astrid from how to train your dragon although I haven’t actually written for either of them. if I were to pick one I have written for. nico/will from pjo or (sorry for the rpf ships) yeonjun/beomgyu (tomorrow x together) and heeseung/jay (enhypen).

what’s the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

uhhh there’s a lot. thinking about it, probably the zb1 kidfic. or the if I stay au. I do want to go back to it eventually; I just don’t have interest in it right now due to a variety of factors.

what are your writing strengths?

I’ve been told my prose and characterization is pretty good! I do take pride in it as much as I question what the hell I’m doing sometimes.

what are your writing weaknesses?

action-based scenes, probably? those are particularly difficult for me. tbh I can think of too many haha

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

as long it’s done well and respectfully? honorifics and such don’t have direct translations and sometimes if a character who speaks a different language is present, that might also work. it really depends on execution for me.

first fandom you wrote for?

winces. during my wattpad days? bts x reader fic. (ironically I am I listening to bts as I write this. specifically the truth untold and filter) on ao3, enhypen! my most recent fic (assuming you’re reading this before I post my femslash february fic) is enhypen, too. nostalgia I guess.

favourite fic you’ve ever written?

careless as could be, a sigchuu character study fic. aka my current baby in the bsd fandom. (I’m cooking more insane shit trust)

the little blue bird that’s lost its voice, a shin/raiden fic (for 86). honestly I’m just fond of the characterization and all there. 86 unlocks a weirdness in me sometimes.

tags!!! all optional btw dw

@obsidianstrawberrymilk @blackwaves @anticidic @monkey-banana41 @bungoustraypups @lesbiansanemi anyone else interested!

[rocktavian]

10 people i'd like to know better!

tagged by @jewblog!

Last song – Strictly speaking it's not the last thing I've listened to, but I wanted to go a bit off script to say that I've gotten into Big Fish Theory by Vince Staples lately. I've tried checking out a few of Vince's albums before and kind of bounced off them, but this time it finally clicked and I'm excited! Super charismatic guy, great flow.

Last book – In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent. Nonfiction book about historical conlangs and how and why people created em. A quick read, but definitely a fun one if you're into the subject matter.

Last movie – My friends and I did a marathon of the 20th-century Alien movies a couple weeks back, and I got tired and tapped out before Resurrection, which means the last movie I've seen is Alien 3. Which, incidentally, was not good. Stick with the first two.

Last TV show – I've been watching Vinland Saga lately! The fights are fun but the parts I really love are when they pull away from the action and instead lean into the ripple effects of how the day-to-day violence and war affects the people just trying to live their lives. Also Canute recently showed up and I'm excited to see what he does bc I remember what the real-world one got up to :b

Sweet/Savory/Spicy – Definitely sweet

Relationship Status – Single

Last thing I googled – "113/29" bc i was using google as a calculator

Looking forward to – My friends and I are planning a few outings and weekend trips that I'm looking forward to in the coming months, but the thing that I'm anticipating most viscerally is when we start getting sunlight in the evenings again. Nowadays when I leave the office there are still traces of green and yellow on the horizon... the sun draws nearer i can taste it...........

Current obsession – I've been playing this video game called Peglin that's basically "what if peggle was a roguelike." Super fun way to kill an hour or so when the mood strikes. I'm also rattling around the idea of making a Baekje mod for Civ 5 but that's still somewhat in the twinkle-in-my-eye stage

and i will pass along the tag to: @siegesquirrel42 @mrn2electricboogaloo @uudistajanne @midcentury-milksteak @gpuzzle @aquaticsasquatch @allhailklisz @oddliestcatch + honorary tag for alf but i saw you got tagged already so i dont want to double up :b

[dropintomanga]

October 2024 - An Amazing Month for Manga

Hey everyone, I've been out and about this whole month because of manga-related events.

I got a chance to check out Kodansha House, the pop-up experience that was in my home of NYC. And it was everything I hoped for. There was a lot of display of art from series like Akira, Initial D, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Witch Hat Atelier, The Flowers of Evil, and Blue Period.

Not only that, there were goodies on sale, a bubble tea pop-up, 2 Initial D: Arcade Stage cabinets, a manga library full of Kodansha titles to read, and a 2nd floor for events with free concessions.

I got a chance to watch the Blue Lock: Episode Nagi movie to celebrate the launch of the manga spinoff in the U.S.. It's a nice change of perspective and it definitely pleased fans of Reo Mikage x Seishiro Nagi. The English voice for Yoichi Isagi, Ricco Fajardo, was also in attendance and did a Q&A about what he loves about Blue Lock and voice acting in general.

Before New York Comic-Con happened, I went to the Anitomo Manga Matsuri at the 53rd Street New York Public library and attended a manga publishers panel. Representatives from Viz Media, Yen Press, Square Enix and Kodansha all recommended titles worth reading in shonen, shojo, LGBT+, horror, series with anime tie-ins, and Spring 2025 picks. There's a lot of titles worth reading and I can't name all of them here. But popular titles like The Summer Hikaru Died, The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't Really a Guy at All, Kagurabachi, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Blue Lock: Episode Nagi, The Apothecary Diaries, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, and Dragon and Chameleon were featured.

There was some online commentary about The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity being listed as a shojo (it's published in a shonen magazine) and someone at the panel did raise a point about a neglected manga genre that still hasn't received its great moment yet (I might get to this in a future post). All in all, I enjoyed the intimacy of this panel as there wasn't a large crowd and everyone immediately felt the energy of talking about manga with experts that know it well.

And while I didn't go to New York Comic-Con, I did hear that anime and manga was front and center still despite major comic publishers not being at the event. A lot of the buzz came from Japanese-related businesses, so it's nice to hear.

Finally, I got a chance to see Makoto Yukimura of Vinland Saga fame. What a guy. I remember when Vinland Saga was first licensed here in 2013, not many people gave it a chance. Kodansha USA representatives at the time said the manga was struggling sales-wise and were relying on buzz to get new volumes published. Then an anime adaptation finally came 14 years after the Japanese manga debut and fans finally saw how great the series was. Yukimura was very chill and hilarious. He said he strives to be like Thorfinn as best he can. I got a chance to tell him that my favorite character is Hild an I'm looking forward to seeing how Yukimura ends the manga because the endgame is not too far.

Anyway, October was fun. I hope there's more Kodansha House events in the future in other places. Other North American metropolitan areas deserve a pop-up experience like Kodansha provided. It's an intimate setting for a community of fans that continue to demand the best from manga publishing folks. Everyone looked to have a great time, whether it was riding Kaneda's famous bike to dressing up as a Titan lording over a town to playing Initial D to reading manga.

I'll say this - despite manga sales not as high as they once were during COVID, manga is here to stay. We're still in a golden age of manga here. Enjoy it while we still can!

[itoendme]

i wanna go see the vinland saga stage play later this month but tickets are 11000¥ and im broke

[daisyachain]

There’s a certain thing I’m going to call ‘catharsis’ (not quite the right word) you can feel when experiencing a story, which is when the plot moves in a direction that you didn’t consciously predict or expect, but that retroactively makes everything that came before it make more sense and have more meaning. Not necessarily a plot twist, the movement doesn’t have to be a shock, a significant disturbance, or necessarily relevant to the core story, it just has to be a move that I personally didn’t think would happen or wasn’t aware was a possibility.

With definitions out of the way:

Person of Interest If-Then-Else and YHWH: great, some of the best television you’ll ever watch, looking through the Machine’s eyes and the absurd tangle of probabilities and trying to get the right people into the right places reframes everything up until that point not as the inscrutable godcomputer but as a young woman dealing with the worst scenarios day after day just to up the %survival of people who don’t matter by a fraction, who doesn’t know if she is doing the right thing or can even judge right, who does it anyway. The hero of our story.

Ao no Flag—do I even have to say it.

MAG4 entire season—the characters lurking in the background of the plot finally take centre stage, take action, create consequences, the stakes of the final season are paid off by having all characters do insane things because they believe they’re already lost while everyone else is still saveable.

XFI but only the Rictor arc—the peripheral nobody c-lister character known for moping, complaining, quitting, and bailing gets a few arcs where he’s a whip-smart, socially canny man who does take responsibility if only so he can pass it on to literally anyone else. XForce Rictor is peak, but the conceit of the powerless guy being the only real hero works well with a character whose main trait is running away. With nowhere to go, he has to turn around and fight.

The Wire final episode—everyone is revealed to have played musical chairs, but I would not have guessed who ends up in whose spot

Vinland saga end of the prologue—I didn’t think it was going to happen like that, and the reason I didn’t think so was because that was exactly how I wanted it to happen

[creamyroll]

Tagged By ~ @dththkd <3 ILLY

Last Song - Daddy's Girl : ONI INC.

Fav Color - Green!

Last Book/Manga - Vinland Saga

Last Movie - 1408

Last Thing I Searched - Strade BTD

Relationship Status - In a Talking Stage

Last TV Show - The Midnight Gospel

Sweet/Savory/Spicy - Sweet!!

Current Obsession - Boyfriend to Death,,,,still. Oops

Looking Forward To - Hosting A Torture Porn Livestream:)) it's been in the talks for a moment but there isn't a date set

Everyone I know who don't mind being tagged has been tagged!!:D Ily guys feel free to play

[saturnsedan]

sorting through my billion screenshots of them standing next to each other

[phoenotopia]

2020 October Update

So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...

This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.

VISIT STEAM LINK

...

So what didn't go so well?

1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.

2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.

3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(

Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.

Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.

There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.

Some good things did happen...

We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.

The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.

So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted. 

But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.

I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!

The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Fan Support

While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!

Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.

Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.

A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!

Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!

A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.

Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here... 

A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!

POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?

A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O

The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.

And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D

A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.

UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.

Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!

Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!

And it wasn't only artists bearing the banner. I'd like to give a big shoutout to everyone in all the game's little communities (from the reddit to the discords to this tumblr). I've seen this community help newcomers with gameplay and walkthrough advice, discussions, updating the wiki, and so on. It does bring a smile to my face. Thank you everyone!

[kyidyl]

Ok so I wrote this post once and it got eaten before I could finish it and then I started the Vinland arc and I wanted to wait till I finished that before I wrote it because @systlin​ I know I only mentioned the dig in the modern bit, but you’re about to get some Bonus Content (TM).  

Anyway, in AC: Valhalla (AKA: Ass Creed Pillage England) they show a dig in the modern outside of the animus scenes and the question of accuracy came up on Systlin’s stream the other day so here we are.  I even took pictures! Yes, pictures, with my phone, because I play on console and couldn’t figure out how to send myself screenies. I’m going to blame it on covid-related brain cell loss. :P That orange hue is not my phone, it’s the game, it’s a plot thing.  

First up, we have this: 

100% accurate, every dig is contractually obligated to have one of those shitty plastic chairs and at least one person will bring a cloth folding chair (me.  I’m that one person.) to a dig.  

Ok, so here’s a wider shot of the dig: 

Not bad, TBH.  Table for finds, random jumble of equipment, tarp for covering the hole when not in use.  The lights aren’t a thing, but none of us are doing a dig during a world-ending electromagnetic storm either.  I can’t see a spoil heap (the dirt we’ve dug up and screened already), but I wasn’t looking for one.  Usually the stuff won’t be so close to the dig itself, and there’s no screen, but that’s less of a thing in a burial dig so it’s fine.  

Next, a shot of the table with the artefacts on it: 

Again, not bad as far as accuracy goes.  Most people don’t realize this, but archaeologists use trowels MUCH more than pretty much any other tool.  We tend not to use brushes bc they can damage delicate things.  We don’t use hammers, not as far as I’ve seen anyway.  The tools between the brushes and the trowel are accurate, too.  TBH I have no idea what they’re called but they’re basically tiny trowels for really delicate stuff (I used them almost exclusively when I was excavating a kid.).  The state of preservation of the artifacts is also pretty damned accurate, as is the inclusion of a DSLR.  We take lots of pictures.  The tags aren’t accurate, but I’ll get back to that in a hot second.  Also I literally have one of these plastic tables in the basement on which I was doing artefact processing for *months* so like....accurate lol.  

Ok, the dig itself: 

So this is a good place to mention that I’m specifically trained as a bioarchaeologist (even tho I’ve spent more time digging up other stuff.), which means that I specifically am trained to deal with human remains and other biological stuff.  Primarily humans tho.  Excavations of burials and excavations of, for example, a home, are handled very differently.  So you see those stakes with the string? That’s...accurate, but not to a burial.  We don’t need ‘em because you just go to the edges of the burial.  When you don’t do a burial, then you mark the sides of the hole with stakes and string, so they’d also be on the surface not in the pit.  

The partial excavation is accurate, but probably not on purpose by Ubisoft.  See, arch generally try to stick to the philosophy of the most info you can get for the least amount of destruction of the site.  Because Shawn’s goal here is to gain access to Eivor’s body for the animus and not necessarily to lift the body out of the ground, it’s accurate that he hasn’t excavated her entirely.  It’s also possible that ubisoft left the pelvis covered bc the game lets you choose your gender (Yes, I know that sex != gender, but in the context of Ubisoft’s game creation, I could see them obscuring all references to a canon sex OR gender for Eivor.). 

I’m not like an expert or anything on viking burials so I can’t speak to the contents of the burial, but the fact that they included grave goods at all is accurate.  

Another feature here that was interesting to me was the stepped sides of the grave.  Because *that’s how we dig*, lol.  It’s not how we dig burials, because burials are dug in stages (expose the remains, dig around the remains, dig under the remains, and lift the remains out.), but here’s a picture of one of the holes at my current dig: 

Note the string along the top of the hole...

Anyway, the stepped sides shows me that they definitely DID put some effort into designing the dig, but like...it kinda falls into “he’s confused but he’s got the spirit” territory.  

The last comment I have about the dig is about the little tags.  We don’t tag things and label them like that because we take and draw a lot of pictures of the hole and we tag things in the pictures later, not in the hole itself.  However, I think that the tags are a good way of indicating to the audience in the game that Shawn is being meticulous bc it’s not like we’re gonna see his paperwork later.  So there you go...the AC: Valhalla dig through the eyes of an actual archaeologist.  

Now, bonus Vinland content:

THIS IS GONNA CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR AC: VALHALLA.  

For those who don’t know, the Norse visited the Americas several times on several different occasions.  Generally speaking, when their explorations appear in the popular consciousness, they can be divided into two locations: Vinland and L’anse aux Meadows.  Vinland may actually refer to several different settlements and their locations aren’t precisely known (although there are several guesses based on the descriptions in the sagas.), but L’anse aux Meadows is an actual site in Newfoundland that is an active dig (fun fact: one of my profs during my masters spends his summers there sometimes bc a buddy of his is in charge of the dig.) and you can go visit it if you want.  Popularly though people tend to refer to Vinland as one settlement, and its location is unknown.  

So the Vinland saga ends with you getting an apple of Eden from Gorm Kjotveyson when you murder him for being a bastard.  You also see the doorway to an Isu temple that he’s dug up.  Eivor gives this apple to the native people that you trade with over the course of the story.  These people are a local Mohawk tribe.  And, specifically, they are the tribe that protagonist of Assassin’s Creed 3 - Ratonhnhake:ton - is born into.  They guard the apple they get from Eivor and it eventually ends up in  Ratonhnhake:ton ‘s possession.  His dad is a Templar (Haytham Kenway, the son of Edward Kenway - the protag of AC:4 pirates.  Not to be confused with Hytham, the baby Hidden One in AC: Valhalla.), and if I remember correctly Connor is conceived in the temple that Gorm dug up. Anyway regardless, his people still live in the area and because we know where  Ratonhnhake:ton was born, we know where Vinland is within the AC universe.  Turin, New York.  

Turin isn’t coastal, but given AC’s map compression for the sake of gaming and the location of the temple in the far northwest of the Vinland map, it’s close enough.  It’s also within the range of proposed locations for Vinland, so there ya go.  I actually have other interesting stuff about Vinland stories that I know, but this post is stupid long so I’m gonna leave it off, lol.  

[hazukashi-yui]

The Summer Season is starting so I am going to continue with what I will be watching this season. I am still reviewing titles so I might add additional anime later. Also, give me recommendations if you're watching something I’m not. 

Summer 2019 Anime

Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e

During a civil war between the north and the south,  the outnumbered Northerners used dark magical arts to create monstrous super-soldiers. After the war ended the sacred beasts must learn to live a peaceful life or be hunted by monster hunters.

Tejina-senpai  

The MC is required to join a club and stumbles upon Tejina-senpai practicing magic. However, Tejina-senpai has stage fright while performing in front of an audience. Which creates interesting situations. 

Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai.

One day on an adventuring job deep in the forest Dale finds a little devil girl. Unable to live her there to waste away, Dale brings her home as his adoptive daughter. This looks so adorable!!! 

Joshikousei no Mudazukai

Out of boredom, Tanaka decided to give her classmates nicknames based on their traits. Pretty standard slice of life following three girls. 

Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.

Starting with the question “ What's one thing you want to do before you die? “ one girl answers “sex” and with that one word it pushes each of these girls, with different backgrounds and personalities, onto their own clumsy, funny, painful, and emotional paths toward adulthood. 

Enen no Shouboutai

Shinra Kusakabe, who gained the nickname Devil's Footprints for his ability to ignite his feet at will, joins the Special Fire Force Company 8 which composes of other flames users as they work to extinguish any Infernals they encounter. This is from the same creator as Soul Eater so I am excited. 

Lord El-Melloi II Sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note

When Lord El-Melloi II, gets asked to claim his inheritance over Adra Castle, he travels there with his apprentice Gray to do so. But they are not the only ones called that way. I’m not a fan of the fates series but the art and voice cast got me interested. 

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2

Second season!!! If you haven’t watched the first season you should if you like cute romance. 

Bem

Bem, Bela, and Belo, are youkai who fight for justice. They live among humans and protect them from evil youkai. The three find themselves ostracized from both humans and other youkai, but the three continue to fight in hopes of one day becoming humans themselves. Everything about the pv makes me think this is going to be really good. 

Kochouki: Wakaki Nobunaga

Following the life of Oda Nobunaga. I love historical dramas. 

Vinland Saga

Thorfinn, the son of one of the Vikings' greatest warriors, spends his childhood in a battlefield enhancing his skills in his adventure to redeem his most-desired revenge after his father was murdered. HYPE

Given

Ritsuka Uenoyama started to feel that playing the guitar and playing basketball, both of which he liked very much, was becoming boring, Then he meets Mafuyu Sato. After hearing Mafuyu sing it leaves a deep impression on him. I love music based anime plus with the added shounen ai what could go wrong. 

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II

Second Season of DanMachi. 

———————————————————————————- 

Ongoing from Spring 2019

Carole and Tuesday

Kimetsu No Yaiba

Fruits Basket 2019

Not as long this time (lazy) So far these are the shows I will be following this season. As always feel free to share any recommendations or tell me what you rare watching. I will try to be active with reblogging these shows when I watch them. Thank you for all reading through all of this.  (´• ω •`) ♡

[awkwardbsd]

Seasonal Anime “Pet” - Bungou Stray Dogs Connection (Double Chuuya)

When watching the new seasonal anime “Pet”, I was confused yet intrigued. Lately, I’ve been into the psychological genre, and this anime ticked the boxes. But this anime had a weird connection, and I don’t mean the fact that they’re both based of seinen manga dealing with the supernatural and mystery. The two main characters are portrayed by Kishou Taniyama and Keisuke Ueda both play Chuuya Nakahara!

Kishou Taniyama plays him in the anime while Keisuke Ueda plays him on-stage!

Before you jump on into this anime, I will warn that the themes are a little heavy with violence and psychological themes being present.

Synopsis from MAL: There are people who can get into people's minds and control their memories. This power is used to eradicate mysteries and cases or worse, to assassinate. The potential of said power is strong enough that it is able to destroy people's minds, however, it can backfire and eat up ones own heart. To counter it, chains are used to lock and protect each other's weak and dangerous hearts. From one's growing fear and disdain, they're consequently called as a "Pet."

I’m gonna call it now and say the two main characters are strongly hinted to be into one another (it’s only the first episode but the first episode and previews lay this relationship on THICK). Chuuya x Chuuya seems a little weird though.

What else can I say? I haven’t read the source material (and can’t find it without coming across other “types” of manga due to the word Pet being the title). The studio that did this is known for Golden Kamuy and that’s about it. TK who sang the OP for Tokyo Ghoul took care of the OP for this anime too.

Feel free to check it out!

This rivals Yuuto Uemura (Atsushi) playing a cold bandit and Kensho Ono (Akutagawa) playing a sheltered prince in Vinland Saga which I also suggest checking out.

[deltaengineering]

Summer Anime 2019 Part 2: let’s play cops & vikings

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou

❓ 💩

💩 This saves the backstory for later, but rest assured it is very much a 💩. It particularly loves RPG stats because how else could you tell that someone’s awesome.

💩💩 It’s also particularly in the Shield Hero vein, i.e. written by someone who got their lunch money stolen a couple of times too many and is now getting revenge by annoying the shit out of me with shitty self-insert fiction.

💩💩 While powering up in the darkness the dude gets white hair and GUN’s so I think it’s safe to say that this is featuring Donte from the Devil May Cry series. 

💩 There’s some bits of the ol’ THIS CHAIR suffering monologues. Which Higurashi ripped off from Tsukihime, then got ripped off by Re: Zero and now every Web Novel hack thinks it’s très deep.

💩💩 I was about to say that it’s visually whatever (i.e., mostly too dark to make out how bad it looks), but then the CG monsters appeared and OH BOY.

Cop Craft

❓ A portal to the fairy dimension opened and now we have FAIRY CRIME. A loose cannon cop with nothing to lose gets paired up with a haughty fairy princess to get to the bottom of FAIRY CRIME.

✅ If this all sounds vaguely familiar, yeah it’s the FMP guy writing a love letter to 80s buddy cop movies. It has absolutely all the clichees of that genre, but since it’s not a genre I see every day that’s okay and in fact a little bit novel again. I did not watch Bright.

✅ It’s pretty competent at it too, the leads have good chemistry and the tone is good. It’s more serious than something like Red Heat, I’d compare it more to Lethal Weapon.

♎ Directed by Shin Itagaki, who does a competent job with the first episode but is known to be involved with production disasters lately. There’s already signs of slight jank and I hope this doesn’t fall apart really quickly.

Ensemble Stars!

❓ Nondescript girl enters idol school, which happens to be full of hunky boys. Things happen and she joins a movement to seize the means of stage production.

❌ The first half of this episode is just dreadfully dull, generic and features one of the most annoying genkiboys ever on top of it. And going by the old rule that if idol shows must have a producer it has to be a memorable one, Ensemble Stars scores a big fat zero because that girl is a void.

✅ However, then it turns out that this is also a fighting shounen somehow, because part of idol curriculum is hitting each other with guitars. Not to mention that we then reveal that there’s a revolution brewing because the system is corrupt and rigged.

♎ So yeah, there’s some shit going on in this show and it’s quite amusing. I’m just somehow not convinced that it’s more than window dressing because the basics are so bad. 

♎ Even if it turns out to be Revue Starlight (which it won’t), that one was well made enough to beat Ikuhara at his own game. Ensemble Stars doesn’t have the money or the style.

Hakata Mentai! Pirikarako-chan

❓ A super short mascot anime where a cute girl sprays cod roe everywhere, with sensibilities straight from 1964.

❌ ...

Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasuka? / Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

❓ Highschooler is surrounded by girls, gets a pantygram from some unknown party. Turns out they’re all horny. Hijinks ensue?

❌ This is just a basic-ass ecchi harem all around. I don’t think it needs much more explanation. Except...

❌ For some reason, it seems to attempt to treat its pantsu and boob shenanigans with the intellectual aspirations of a Monogatari or Oregairu. Needless to say, that causes it to fail on both sides.

♎ Basic shit for basic bitches, but I’ve seen worse in the genre. It’s less pretentious than e,g, Monogatari but also lacks the style. Or any style, for that matter.

Kochoki - Wakaki Nobunaga

❓ Before Oda Nobunaga became a warlord and recurring anime character, he apparently was a smart teen with a propensity to not wear shirts.

♎ This is about as good as an anime about a teen Nobunaga getting up to Tom Sawyer adventures while not wearing a shirt could probably be. Which is to say, it’s not as terrible as it sounds.

✅ In particular, the character writing is decent. I can imagine that this can actually pull of drawing a throughline from these silly adventures to the Nobunaga we know and don’t want to see any more of in fiction ever.

♎ Yeah, it’s basically alright-ish but you really, really have to care about these Sengoku clowns to get anything out of it. I still don’t.

Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]

❓ It’s Danganronpa, only about a bunch of streamers, LPers and speedrunners stuck in an MMO. Because 2019.

♎ Why not a turd? Well, isekai is so rigid as a genre that something that isn’t about some dude getting hax & harem barely seems to count anymore.

♎ Still, this setup is so brazenly shameless and idiotic that I can’t help but respect the hustle.

✅ There’s some neat SHAFT-y visuals going on here, reminiscent of how Reincarnated as a Slime tried to pretend to not be the most boring thing ever.

❌ Kenjiro Tsuda is entirely wasted as the least threatening Monoalpaca ever. Please don’t give the guy comedic roles. The rest of the characters are very bland, which is not a good thing in a genre that thrives on its outsized personalities.

❌❌ I just realized I didn’t give this any double Xs, which it definitely deserves. Just look at this shit. The only upside is of course that this is SO dumb it could be the next Caligula or something.

Re Stage! Dream Days

❓ School idols. MIDDLE school idols. In the middle school idol club.

♎ This is another basically competent show that also doesn’t really feature anything to set it apart. They took a mobile game about middle school idols and animated it.

♎ Well okay, I have to admit that for a show about middle schoolers it features more yuri undertones than usual, and shows like this usually feature quite a bit of that.

♎ But yeah, apart from that... seems watchable but nothing special. Looks alright, characters are alright, everything’s just fine. But you have to be a REAL afficionado of the genre to bother.

Vinland Saga

❓ VIKINGS BRUH

✅ Not gonna lie, I was negatively predisposed towards this show because the manga is very popular with the intersection of MANIME idiots and viking-adjacent metalheads. So while this does feature some sick & gnarly viking fights right away, overall it’s more about people sitting around in Iceland being cold and miserable.

❌ So about these sick & gnarly viking fights though? Sorry to report they look very subpar, with a ton of floaty CG and not much of a point to them.

✅ Apart from that, it’s looking pretty good. Nothing really flashy, but I think Wit’s house look works pretty well here. Better than in Titans at least.

♎ That said... I don’t really find people being cold and miserable in Iceland all that compelling either. I understand that this is a huge saga that goes places, but that doesn’t get me all hyped right now. This is one of those times where I’d say this show is (probably?) good and a recommendation, but it’s not really something I feel compelled to watch because it would have to be outright brilliant to overcome my apathy towards the subject.