#Yuuko is the real hero of this episode

[pointyhatspointyears]

Brine & Steel (3/?) P.01 (<) - (>)

[stickers-on-a-laptop]

that post had me curious on what i've made so here are all the rarepairs i was the first on (with a 🙋‍♀️ meaning i'm still the only one)

some of these are. crack. btw.

ozaki/miura den-o 🙋‍♀️ <- i think i'm funny

touma/noel lupat <- still amazed i'm the first one

joe gokaiger/ryuunosuke shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- forgot i did this one

takeru/ryuunosuke/genta shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- i stand by this one

sosuke/retsutaka go-onger 🙋‍♀️ <- this one isn't wrangled

gen/seiichiro prince of legend 🙋‍♀️<- this is. basically canon

ayumu/nobutora prince of legend 2 🙋‍♀️ <- real rarepair

misuzu/hikaru ginga 🙋‍♀️ <- WHAT. is this right. did someone delete

naoya/kouta mr unlucky <- first one in the fandom baby

anna/miki mr unlucky 🙋‍♀️ <- does this fandom hate girls??

yanase/kaneda senpai this can't be love <- first one in the fandom

ako/kyouko jetman 🙋‍♀️<- someone who likes jetman more...join?

yoshimi/hosomi ikemeshi 🙋‍♀️ <- rare straight couple

donkiller&donkillerkiller 🙋‍♀️ <- okay guys fix this actually

shinichi&don!kaito 🙋‍♀️ <- this was episode related

akemi/rui changerion 🙋‍♀️ <- not yet wrangled

amu zyuohger/ahim gokaiger 🙋‍♀️ <- start of femfebruary2023

luka gokaiger/mako shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- luka can be like fanon marv

flint zenkaiger/umika lupat 🙋‍♀️ <- they should interact

rinko wizard/sawa build 🙋‍♀️ <- i just like this one for some reason

shizuka kiva/jyuka kabuto 🙋‍♀️ <- NOW MY CANON LMAO

misaki kabuto/naomi den-o 🙋‍♀️ <- misaki needs a girl to kiss

yuuko kyoryuger/chiyoko ooo 🙋‍♀️ <- women in their 30s...

misora build/nico ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- did they interact in outsiders??

amu zyuohger/poppy ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- chou taisen war's fault

medic drive/poppy ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- internet girls.....

tomoko/nadeshiko fourze 🙋‍♀️ <- because i ship yuuki/miu

luka gokaiger/satonaka ooo 🙋‍♀️ <- IMAGINE....

kiriko drive/rinko wizard 🙋‍♀️ <- end of femfebruary2023

hana/ichika high school heroes 🙋‍♀️ <- disappointed in y'all

akira/midou keitai sousakan 7 🙋‍♀️<- i like when girls

hammie kyuuranger&nico ex-aid 🙋‍♀️<- same year girls!!

don!kaito donbros/marvelous gokaiger 🙋‍♀️<- i know whose fault

akka/mayuta/usuba kingoh 🙋‍♀️ <- why is this just me

georgie/atsuko gaia 🙋‍♀️ <- girls? girls!!

yanma&akka kingoh 🙋‍♀️<- episode related

kijima/yukari main role of a bl <- the side couple

reiko gaia/reiko ryuki 🙋‍♀️<- start of femfebruary2024

chucky/rica gaim 🙋‍♀️ <- wut

lady toqger/sela zyuohger 🙋‍♀️<- WATCH THEIR GL!!!

misuzu/mana ginga <- not sure why i was first

miccot/ricca orbgin 🙋‍♀️<- GUYS COME ON

elegance/cleo kingoh 🙋‍♀️ <- wasn't my idea but i liked it

mayuta/the female guard 🙋‍♀️ <- okay understandable

asami/shirasaki at 25:00 <- first in the fandom

daisaku/kyujuro kimiyuki 🙋‍♀️ <- wild (also not wrangled yet)

haruto/ayako/riku soul exchange 🙋‍♀️ <- ot3 baby!!

hakase/kozkoz akibaranger 🙋‍♀️ <- i will yuri your parody

ayumu/yamashita buy your love from a vending machine 🙋‍♀️

boondorio/byoon d 🙋‍♀️ <- HELLO??? CAR YAOI?? JUST ME??

jack/jean towards the future 🙋‍♀️ <- the ultra isn't wrangled btw

neung/kay hotel stars 🙋‍♀️ <- BEST BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS

taishin&takara takara no vidro 🙋‍♀️ <- how is this wrangled

ryoutarou den-o/mei mei-chan's butler 🙋‍♀️ <- i can explain

misugi agito/karasuma blade 🙋‍♀️ <- i can also explain

jesus christ

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 20: The Seventh One Awakens (Review)

Thoughts on the twentieth episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

I quite liked this episode. Probably because of my immense love for the Takaishida brothers. Can you tell from the screenshots? :P

I really liked how desperate Yamato was to save Takeru. It brought more realism to a show that otherwise dodges it. XD;

Velgrmon is a cool-looking digimon and a worthy opponent.

Megadramon totally didn’t appear just to get Leomon out of the way so that our heroes could shine, right? No way. :P

Someone should count how many times Yamato and Takeru said each other’s names this episode. It might be more times than Yuuko Yagami thought about her son the entire series! :P

MetalGreymon’s small, weak, damaged-looking wings allow him to fly? Who knew! Not me.

Toshiko Takenouchi in a blurred cameo! Her head looks ginormous, hahaha. It’s nice that she “chewed out” Sora for being missing for three days, but . . . that’s it? She just let her 11-year-old daughter go out again the very next day - after disappearing for three? I don’t know, reboot, that's . . . lame.

The whole “three days missing” thing is something the writers should have really thought more about. It’s just not realistic that their parents wouldn’t be calling the police and panicking like crazy over their disappearance - especially during a power outage/utter chaos. I give a lot of passes for kids’ shows, but the more it’s brought up, the more it just seems really silly.

Sora: “Koushirou-kun, were you OK?” Koushirou: “What? Well . . . My house is, um . . .” Well, I’m intrigued in his backstory! (Also, Sora’s face when she waits for Koushirou’s answer is SO CUTE. The warmth of this girl is amazing.)

I’m not sure why Koushirou felt the need for them to move when other people were around? Tentomon could easily be someone’s Avatar on the internet. Did Toei forget this is 2020? lol

So Tentomon and the others are in the Network, along with some other evil digimon. Interesting.

WereGarurumon riding - and then surfing - on MetalGreymon’s missile was both cool and silly at the same time, haha.

The highlight of the episode for me: Everything Takaishida. Yamato reaching out for Takeru and, just, every single shot of these brothers. Yes, I barely know Takeru, but I could feel Yamato’s desperation for him and it worked for me. LOOK AT TAKERU’S TINY HAND REACHING FOR YAMATO’S LARGER ONE. <3

Although, when Yamato finally pulled Takeru out, I did think he might’ve flung him too far, LOL. (Yamato benches, bro.) But then Takeru fell into his big brother’s loving arms and OMFG THIS MOMENT WAS SO PRECIOUS, IF YOU FELT NOTHING YOU ARE COMPLETELY DEAD INSIDE BELLA. Possibly my favourite moment of the entire reboot so far. <3

When they were falling from the sky they were basically playing catch with each other and I lol’ed.

In this episode we learned that Takeru’s vocabulary only consists of “onii-chan” and “stop it!”.

OH MY, TAKERU WISHED FOR A WHOLE ANGEL. :D A good-looking one, too. But Angemon’s voice does not suit him, lol. Looks like a prince, croaks like a frog. Dude went from a 10 to a 4 real fast. XD;

Angemon gave his power to WereGarurumon and MetalGreymon to defeat Velgrmon - and then died? This angel is super weak, Takeru, get a refund. :P

YOU HAD ONE JOB, TAKERU, ONE JOB - CATCH THE DAMN DIGI-EGG! orz

The fact that Takeru just met Angemon makes his “death” less impactful than in the OG. But that’s OK, it’s not like kids watching the show know that. So it worked fine . . . for now. I guess Takeru won’t have this trauma hanging over him like in 02 where they suddenly pulled it out in an attempt to give his character depth. :P

Overall, I liked this episode.

I think the Angemon plot could’ve been done better (it seems like in an effort to subvert OG expectations, they neutered themselves), but we’ll see where they end up taking it. I thought for sure Devimon vs. Angemon would go down . . . but now that Angemon is in the process of being “reborn”, I doubt he’d be reborn a second time after defeating Devimon.

Then again, the reboot has definitely repeated things before *cough* Omegamon *cough* so I guess Angemon could die again! :P

[starsrshiney]

So in today’s episode of “Crossover Fanfic ideas that are stuck in my head that I’ll probably never be able to write,” My take on Cardcaptor Deku

Timeline:

Set in Midoriya’s second year in UA, so the class would be 2-A instead of 1-A.

Sakura pulled a partial Clow Reed shortly after the birth of the Glowing Baby (I say partial because she gave Kero and Yue more notice than Clow did, and gave them time to heal from her loss.) (One of the themes I thought of for this was ‘Sakura got real tired of people not telling her what’s going on.’)

Story setup:

Because UA is supposedly a school, Class 2-A takes a field trip to a local museum (local meaning within Musutafu) to learn more about hero history. The teachers took every precaution they could to make it so the league of villians/paranormal liberation front didn’t interfere with this trip. And to be fair, they didn’t.

A new gang of villains did. And by new, I mean “the people in charge hired a bunch of thugs off the street, LoV’s attack on the USJ style.”

So a fight breaks out, Class 2-A vs a bunch of street thugs. The fight goes as well as you’d expect, until one the thugs yells out that he got the thing they came to museum to steal.

Everyone turns to him and sees him holding a very pink book above his head.

Everyone on both sides can’t believe this guy is genuinely stupid enough to yell that out.

The fight then turns into a violent game of keep away/hot potato, both sides trying to get the book. Someone ends up tossing it to Deku, but he barely misses the catch.

And by barely, I mean he grazes it, which is enough for the magic lock to pop open. And with an open book flying in the air, cards get scattered.

Deku tries to pick up the cards, but ends up reading the first one he gets his hands on. “Storm?”

Cue indoor tornado. Cue heroes and villains flying into walls. Cue Sakura Cards flying through the walls.

With the cards scattered, the villians cut their losses and run. The hero students are stopped by Aizawa, who lets them know other Heroes have the place surrounded.

Before he could say anything else, the Sakura book glows again. Kero comes out of the cover. He looks around and immediately says “So I guess secrecy is out of the question this time?”

Some notes:

“Let me guess kid, you read the Windy card and the rest went flying?” “No? I read Storm.”

Midoriya gets a new key/staff that is green has a rabbit like head, as Sakura gave the original star wand to Yuuko in Holic/Tsubasa. Yes, Sakura made this wand for him, like Clow made the pink bird wand for her. (Despite this I do want to keep holic/tsubasa and all the everything surrounding them out of this fic)

Sakura’s not interested in repeating Clow Reed’s issues. She foresaw that people (particularly in the magic community) would try to take/use/abuse the Sakura cards for terrible reasons, and decided that Mido was the best bet in keeping the cards safe from harm/abuse.

After sealing Dream, Mido gets to meet a copy of Sakura’s consciousness within the dream realm through the card. While she doesn’t blame anyone for how her adventures ended up, she did end up growing up to dislike the fact that people around her knew what’s going on and made the conscious decision to not tell her, or just outright made decisions for her without her input (cough clow reed cough eriol cough syaoran in clear card cough.) So she set up this mental double so Mido would have someone he could ask questions and get answers from.

Since the cards were released in a Musutafu museum, Musutafu becomes the city of adventure for the cards.

All of Class 2-A and the UA staff know about Kero and the Sakura cards. This is more people than Kero would like, but it is what it is. Even though Midoriya is named the Cardcaptor, Satou quickly becomes one of Kero’s favorite people.

Kero regularly refers to Bakugou as Bakugaki (explosive brat.)

Kero has regular tea times with Nezu.

But now for the real reason I want to see this written.Card Shenanigans.

Aoyama and Tokoyami getting their dorms’ aesthetics ruined by Shadow and Glow.

Ashido and Uraraka getting framed for the antics of Mist and Float.

Kouda adopting Jump, Dash, and Change without telling anyone, driving Mido and Kero insane trying to find the cards they’re currently sensing.

Satou’s baking getting ruined by Sweet.

Jirou, Voice, and Song. Enough said.

Bakugou being harassed by Bubbles, using soap magic to neutralize his nitro-sweat anytime he tries to be threatening.

Mido and Kero being the only ones to remember Time’s time loops, and finding out Nezu has plans in case something like that happened.

The sheer horror that is Mineta with the Create card.

Class 2-A never getting to go in class because Silent keeps teleporting them out of the room.

Class 2-A shrunk in the dorm thanks to the Little card.

Class 2-A having a shared dream thanks to the Dream card.

UA in general getting harassed by the Sleep card. A few weeks later, the Maze card also targets the entire school.

Fight, Power, Arrow, and Shot  picking fights with either hero students or actual heroes.

[rockthistowninsideout]

Finally getting to watch the new Digimon Adventure series, here are a few thoughts on the first episode:

- I hadn’t cottoned on to the fact that this reboot happened now, in 2020, and not in 1999 up until the point of the actual release. Don’t know why I’d been such a blockhead realising this when the kids had smartphones now and it was all about network.

- Seeing the word “Neuland” (uncharted territory) related to the internet holds a different kind of hilarity for me as a German because our chancellor had called the internet “Neuland” in the year of the lord 2013.

- I was kinda sceptical because I was asking myself, even as the huge Digi nerd that I am, do we really need a remake of the old series, just set in a different year? Well, I’m not entirely convinced but so far it’s refreshing how they’re mixing old characters and new environments.

- I feel you, Yuuko, changing trains in Shibuya is a true hassle.

- So far, the German sub is absolutely in character for them all, but especially for Taichi who grasps nothing Kou is talking about but is on board nonetheless.

- Water and batteries, Kou? No, what you need is toilet paper and flour!

- The Yamanote Line is out of control! Imagine being on your commute to work, minding your own business, waiting till Hamamatsucho to get a seat and then suddenly the trains won’t stop!

- The goggles of power: Taichi, you’re a true hero and leader!

- That’s not what I expected. I thought Koromon was jumping into the real world, not Taichi materializing into the Digital World. Or whatever that cubical place is.

- Not even nine minutes in and the first Digimon is already injured and suffering. Toei, what’s wrong with you? At least he doesn’t have to suffer long but instead gets a majestic ballet dance like digievolution.

- Apart from all new design choices, Toei stays true to their design for virus/evil beings. Makes you immediately want to punch them yourself - the virus I mean.

- It’s kinda unromantic that the Digital World is now the network. I always associate the word with that facebook movie and the common dislike everybody has for fb so maybe that is what Toei was aiming for.

- I also want a new appliance just like that. But not that my tablet turns into a laptop, just that my laptop gets his broken pieces fixed and thoroughly cleaned inside. That would be grand.

- It’s nice but also kinda odd to see that some of the looks haven’t changed and that we still have the pixel art from the late 90s.

- Jesus Christ, the digievolution of the last virus is disgusting.

- Not a fan of the new digievolutin process, Not. A. Fan. But then again it took me a while to get accustomed to the look in tri so let’s not judge too early.

- Last words: The soundtrack is fitting for the new aesthetic but I still miss my anime soundtrack that gets stuck in my head after the second episode and that I want to scream along to every now and then.

- Sure enough, next problem is US military, Toei doesn’t take prisoners at this point. And I like the idea of each episode focusing on one child. But if I interpret the spoilers correctly, we’re already gonna have Omegamon in episode 2 and that’s kinda rushed to me. Omegamon is the last way out, isn’t it?

If anything, the new series just makes me want to rewatch the original very, very badly.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 148

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 49 - “In Top Form! Forever Friends Under the Starry Sky!” Date watched: 29 July 2019 Original air date: 28 January 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/LingrF5? Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

words don’t do this justice

note: I may revise this later if i look back and think of more to say. I probably will, bit i wanted to push this out now for personal reasons.

This is it. The finale. We finally made it! From November to now, Splash Star has been a long road plagued by personal difficulties and stubbornness and some lost sleep along the way, but I made it! And boy do we have a lot to discuss!

The Plot

When we left off, Saki, Mai, Michiru, and Kaoru, were infused with the power of spirits and transformed into Cures Bloom, Egret, Bright, and Windy. Gohyaan mocks their resolve and points out how all life is gone and there’s no light, no wind, nothing. It’s a world of ruin, except for the four of them, and he’s about to fix that. They battle, and as the girls again try to explain why they consider life so valuable, Gohyaan explains his backstory. He is an existence predating the universe, and he doesn’t like the commotion of life, so he wants to go back to the quiet. The girls won’t let that happen, because they have so much to live for. Gohyaan destroys the entire Earth, and thinks this is the end for them, but no! Saki explains how she needs to lead the softball team to victory. Michiru wants to try baking bread, because Saki’s is so delicious. Kaoru wants to draw with Minori and Mai, Choppi wants to live in the Land of Fountains, Flappi wants to confess his feelings, and Mai wants to keep drawing everyone’s smiles. They stand up, gather their power, and all together they perform a brand new four-person finishing attack: Precure Spiral Heart Splash Star!

This is too much for Gohyaan to handle and as the girls proclaim the strength of their hopes and futures, he is blown away.

The spirits of the various fountains and the Fairy Carafe reappear, and they restore everything to its original, beautiful state. We see all six fountains one final time, as the girls stand in front of the Sky Tree as they realize that it’s connected to the World Tree in the Land of Fountains. Princess Filia is fully restored to power, and Korone returns to being a normal, non-talking cat. However, Michiru and Kaoru have exhausted the last of their remaining energy, and they begin to fade away. Saki, Mai, Flaapi, Choppi, Moop, and Foop all cry deeply, not wanting to let their friends go, and even Filia seems sad but unable to do anything. However, a miracle occurs as the spirits of the Land of Greenery flow into the two, and Filia deduces that the spirits themselves want to live with the Michiru and Kaoru. They’re restored to life, and Princess Filia finally returns to her place in the Tree of Life.

At this point the first ending theme begins to play as we get a montage of events: All four girls visiting the Fountain of the Sky at long last, fulfilling that promise. Waving a tearful goodbye to their fairies. Mai and Kaoru drawing in school. The girls sitting on Gourd Rock in the spring. Saki and Michiru baking. And then, the softball tournament. Kaoru and Minori have drawn a picture to support Saki, while Michiru baked some bread in the shape of Saki’s head. Kaya, Miyasako, Kenta, Hitomi, Yuuko, and Mai are all in the stands anticipating the game. Saki looks into the stands and sees Izumida, the former captain, and suddenly gets nervous. She walks out of sight, and Mai walks up to her. They hold hands and Saki comments about how holding hands lets Mai’s energy flow through her, a callback to an earlier episode.

Then Saki walks out onto the field. Next thing we know, we’re treated to a few of Mai’s drawings: Saki holding the championship trophy, indicating they won. Everybody gathered together with Saki: Mai, Michiru, Kaoru, Kenta, Miyasako, Kaya, Hitomi, Yuuko, Izumida, Ms. Shinohara, Saki’s parents, Mai’s parents, Minori, Kazuyua, Korone, and all the fairies. Basically, every major character in the series. How nobody saw the fairies is not answered, and I have to assume it’s actually a photograph that Mai copied but details aside, it’s a great picture.

We zoom out to see Saki and Mai sitting beneath the Sky Tree, closing the sketchbook, and the real credits roll.

The Analysis

I absolutely love every minute of this. Even with the powers of all four spirits, Gohyaan is a formidable opponent, but the girls hold their own and manage to overcome him in the end. What is the power of destruction next to an indestructible will? He underestimates the power, the value, of life, and that is his ultimate undoing. He gets the peace and quiet he wants.... at the cost of his existence. And, indeed, this explains the Uzainaa’s name. It’s derived from “Urusai na”, which means “it’s annoying”. Gohyaan is an existence that predates the universe, and he doesn’t like the commotion created by life. It’s a darkly mundane reason to want to try to destroy everything, and frankly he should find a new hobby, but maybe in the end he learned that life is precious. Doesn’t seem like it, though. Honestly I don’t have much to say about the battle itself. There’s some good scenes, like this part where the cures all flip Gohyaan, but it’s more of an exchange of wills than a physical fight. Both are important aspects, as I’ve commented many times, I just want to note that the physical stuff was done last episode.

Let’s talk Michiru and Kaoru. Officially, they don’t get new designations even with the powers of Moon and Wind, because the idea at the time was still that Precures were only ordinary girls, but I think they deserve to be called Cure Bright and Cure Windy. Their journey is heartbreaking, even if their death was an inevitability and they were given a new lease on life very quickly. They never deserved what they got, but their tragedy is a part of this show I honestly forgot about, and I think it makes it more powerful. I knew Splash Star was an underrated gem but I had forgotten the depths of tragedy the Kiryuus were in, I kind of thought everything was pretty hunky-dory when they got back. Their journey escalates this show to a higher tier in my view, and I’ll have to remember that when making recommendations.

Obviously, they already had powers from being Dark Fall denizens, and getting Cure abilities doesn’t make them innately better, but it’s a great next step for them, epitomizing the journey they’ve undergone from mindless servants of Akudaikaan to friends and sisters who have a network of people who care about and support them, discovering their own interests, and getting to live life. They are every inch heroes in the way that Saki and Mai are and they have been done dirty by the franchise writ large.

The epilogue gives us a lot of things I really wanted. Michiru and Kaoru finally get some casual clothes, and they are really stylish.

Also, we fast forward to spring and see them in spring outfits and Michiru’s outfit is extremely similar to Nagisa’s spring clothes.

I’m happy to see them living normal lives, practicing baking and art and getting to experience life, finally. They seem so happy and I’m sure they have a bright future ahead of them and GOD DAMN IT TOEI WHY DO YOU IGNORE THEM. They were lucky to get Figuarts.

The softball championship game is something else I honestly forgot happened. I commented back in the last softball episode (35 I think) that we would never see Saki lead the team to victory the next year, because the show didn’t get a second season. Well, they took care of that here, and Saki did live up to her promise to Izumida by winning the championship.

In general it’s a lot of tying up loose ends that I really appreciate. Flappi finally confessed his feelings to Choppi and they’re a couple now, Kenta and Miyasako are still going strong as a manzai duo, Yuuko feels inspired by his encouragement even if they don’t seem to be a couple, and... well, the last closure we got on Saki and Kazuya was in the Christmas episode, but that’s just as well because Saki’s only love is Mai. For real though I love that the episode closes out on them being close, and you can choose to interpret their friendship any way you choose. It’s just perfect for this show.

Oh and there’s a little epilogue after the ending theme. On the TV broadcast it was probably a preview for Yes! 5, but we don’t get that here. Instead we get  , some stills of Saki and Mai thanking everybody for watching, and saying that Precure will continue for a long time! And boy, truer words were never spoken.

Next time on precure Daily, I’m going to revisit a little Splash Star something that I forgot to do sooner. After that, I’m going to try to push out a retrospective on the entire Futari wa era, before we change up the formula big time with Yes 5. My goal is to finish Yes 5 by the end of 2019, but if I’m really good I might even be able to start GoGo this year. I don’t want to drag another show out for 8 months, so we’ll see where we end up. I hope to see all of you again soon!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 Zekkouchou Nari!, in the title of the episode.

[medea10]

My Review of The Promised Neverland

[tastefulanime]

Underrated/underappreciated anime recs part 2

The concept of this blog is recommending anime/manga that are LGBT-safe and/or generally not gross so here’s some underappreciated personal faves in no particular order

Planetes (2003-2004)

Length : 26 episodes

Summary : The year is 2075. Ai works in a big space corporation as a debris collector, an underappreciated and underpaid job. There’s not much of a story to this one, it’s a slice of life anime using space exploration as a background to explore the characters, often centered around their motives and inspiration as earthborn people living in space, with a bit of decently developped romance. It can be a little episodic in a way that reminded me of cowboy bebop.

Content warning : asphyxiation (feel free to add if there’s more i can’t really recall)

Dennou Coil (2007)

Length : 26 episodes

Summary : In the near future, virtual reality has become common place. Yuuko is a grade schooler who moves in with her grandma in the technological capital of Daikoku city, where she joins a group of kids aiming to stop a city-wide virus corrupting the cyberspace. It’s a light ‘’kids solve mysteries’’ kind of story with a solid plot. It can get a little serious at times but never really angsty.

Content warning : None that i can think of

Tiger and Bunny (2011)

Length : 25 episodes

Summary : Tiger and Bunny takes place in a pseudo-occidental city where people born with special abilities (called ‘’NEXT’’) can becomes real life superheroes, provided they accept to get filmed by Hero TV, a reality show earning them sponsoring and a good place in the popularity polls. Tiger, a veteran hero past his peak is paired with Barnaby Brooks, a newcomer whose style is the polar opposite of Tiger’s. It’s a nice superhero show with a sprinkle of political conspiracy. Some of the mecha scenes are in CGI but it’s not too ugly.

Content warning : violence, one character is a black gay caricature

[digimon-jp-and-en]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 40

Original title: “The Chosen Ones?! The Children Who Manipulate Angemon!” (選ばれし者！？ エンジェモンを操る少年！ Erabareshi Mono!? Angemon wo Ayatsuru Shounen!) Dub title: “The Bully Pulpit”

Director: Kakudou Hiroyuki (original) Writer: Yamatoya Akatsuki (original), Seth Walther (dub)

--

Comparison

--

In the original, Takuya says that they'll find a way to manage somehow, and Kouji comments that he's acting like he always does; in the dub, Takuya says that he bet everyone wishes they had a cool pair of goggles like his, and Koji sarcastically responds that all the cool kids wear goggles.

--

In the original, Sagittarimon says that they need to give him "everything they own" (migurumi), and Takuya initially mistakes him for saying "costumed performer" (kigurumi); the episode later has Sagittarimon use kigurumi by accident himself.

The dub reverses it to give Sagittarimon a more consistent mistake; he says that they need to give him all their "obsessions", causing Takuya and the others to realize he means "possessions"; he continues to make this mistake for the episode.

--

In the original, Takuya asks Sagittarimon if he works for the Royal Knights, causing Sagittarimon to insist that he works only for himself.

--

Of note is that the four children and Angemon in the English dub are all voiced by Digimon series mainstays:

Katsuharu - Brad MacDonald (Kazu in Tamers)

Teppei - Joshua Seth (Tai in Adventure and Adventure 02)

Chiaki - Tifanie Christun (Yolei in Adventure 02)

Teruo - Brian Donovan (Davis in Adventure 02)

Angemon - Dave Mallow (Angemon in Adventure and Adventure 02)

Respectively, in the Japanese version, they're voiced by, respectively, Itou Kentarou, Tachibana Yuuko, Nakamura Ken, Nakayama Rieko, and Midorikawa Hikaru (all of whom have had some minor roles in other Digimon series).

--

Dub Patamon recognizes that he'll become Angemon someday (original Patamon only calls him "cool").

--

In the original, Katsuharu tells them to stay if they like, but not to order them around; in the dub, he retracts his apology for picking on Tommy.

--

In the original, Takuya says that Tomoki had been acting weird and calls the whole situation a pain, causing Neemon and Patamon to imitate him; in the dub, he says they did all they could and they should just leave it be, Neemon and Patamon comment on Takuya's questionable track record of being right, and Angemon says that the right thing to do is easy to see if they know where to look.

--

Dub Angemon says that Ophanimon called many children to this world not knowing which ones were the ones who were supposed to inherit the Spirits, thus putting them all in danger.

--

Dub Takuya tells Angemon that he could be helping them fight the Royal Knights instead of "babysitting" the four kids.

--

In the original, Bokomon says that in Angemon's eyes, the four kids are a group of friends who have been traveling for half a year, and thus wouldn't want to up and leave so quickly.

In the dub, Koji tells Takuya that if he were told to go home because he were useless, he'd probably try to stay just to prove them wrong, Bokomon says that Takuya would definitely do so after things like complaining, and Takuya calls him out for changing his mind so quickly.

--

In the original, Teppei says that he wants to "settle who's really needed in this world"; in the dub, he says that he and the others want to be the heroes who save the world (as opposed to Tommy's group).

--

In the original, Izumi and Junpei remain silent when Chiaki and Teruo talk about how much more fun they're having (in the dub, they urge them that it's dangerous and that they should leave, causing Teruo to say that Angemon looks out for them).

Original Chiaki says that Katsuharu and Teppei had some repressed anger and that they were able to take it out once they came to the Digital World; dub Chiaki says that Katsuharu takes care of them.

--

Original Katsuharu says that they came to the Digital World so that they wouldn't have to do things like bullying others (referring to the repressed anger comment from Chiaki); dub Katsuharu says that Teppei shouldn't pick a fight with them because there are more in Tommy's group than in theirs.

Dub Katsuharu is significantly more aggressive (angrily telling Tommy that he's weak and hiding behind others) than original Katsuharu (calmly saying that Teppei does have a point, that Tomoki has gotten this far by "hiding behind others as usual", and that he's better going off to the Real World if he's weak) - the context of the phrases are the same, but dub Katsuharu is more scolding and insulting while original Katsuharu treats it like it's some kind of fact.

--

Tomoki says that he's not weak; Tommy says that he's strong and that Katsuharu is the one who's weak by hiding behind Angemon.

--

The original had the five-way split-screen remain a split-screen through the entire evolution sequence; the dub pads it out after the initial section to have everyone's routines separately.

--

In the original, when Bokomon references the Spirits choosing on account of bravery, he specifically singles out Tomoki.

--

In the original, Teppei asks to be friends with Tommy, saying it would be an honor.

[adventure-hearts]

tri. Chapter 5 - Recap, Analysis, Review [part one]

This is me trying to make sense of of a dense, multilayered chapter that for once brough us more answers than questions. My notes got very long and I ended up taking dozens of screen-caps, so I decided to split this post into four segments (one for each part of the movie). You can expect the others soon, over the next few days.

I hope you survive this!

Chapter 5 (Kyousei - Coexistence or Symbiosis, depending on who you ask) starts where we were left off last time: Mystery Man torturing Meiko in order to make Meicoomon snap, and telling her she should not have been born.

At once, we get another flashback from Meiko's childhood - this time, with a very specific date: Autumn 1999 -- that is, shortly after the events of Digimon Adventure. This has ties with a previous flashback (set in the summer) of Meiko finding Meicoomon in the woods. While the exact time when Meicoomon met Meiko in the human world is still unclear, everything in this chapter points to this meeting happening shortly after August 1-3, that is, after the defeat of Apocalymon.

This flashback shows us two incidents of Meicoomon's past. In the first one, she attacks a group of birds, resulting in loose feathers and a pool of blood, and she soils Meiko's shirt with it. Symbolism aside, it’s unclear what caused the blood: was she hunting or defending herself? Did she “snap” because she was scared, after finding herself away from Meiko? Anyway, this was the first time Meicoomon shown she was capable of being violent.

The second incident is much more serious.

Meiko's father is taking  Meicoomon to the lab to be examined by some Tokyo people. This happens in 1999, when human authorities were trying to make sense of what had happened with the Digimon that summer. Significantly, this seems to suggest that Meiko's father isn't exactly keeping Meicoomon's existence a secret from the authorities; nor does it seem that he’s using his daughter’s Digimon to conduct scientific experiences or anything suspicious.

However, Meicoomon snaps and destroys the lab, injuring Meiko’s father in the process.

We also learn that Himekawa was one of the people who came from Tokyo to see Meicoomon, and her connection to this digimon starts here. This gives us some clues about Maki's age; if in 1999 she was already done with her studies and working for the Agency, so she was at least in her early 20s then. You can do the math yourself, but basically Maki is at least 27 in tri., perhaps older.

Meiko witnesses the incident, in shock. But as soon as shes there, Meicoomon goes back to normal; she’s confused at first, but quickly becomes happy to see Meiko, as if nothing had happened. Maki watches everything with interest. Is this the moment when she realises Meicoomon could play a role in her plans for the Reboot?

Back in the present time, Mystery Man’s plan worked. Meicoomon has gone berserk and is wreaking havoc. The flashback serves to contextualise and explain what’s happening: It seems that what triggers Meicoomon’s transformation is being scared and/or being separated from Meiko -- in other words, Meiko's presence keeps Meicoomon calm and controlled... until now. All this will be explained later in the movie.

Anyway, it’s clear that the distortions Meicoomon is causing are making Mystery Man extremely happy. Digimon start invading the real world, a repetition of both Vamdemon’s invasion and Demon’s invasion.

Meiko calls the transtorned Meicoomon and there’s a tense moment when it seems that she can get Meicoomon to break away from her trance, just like before. Instead, it utterly fails: Meicoomon is confused, screams and agony and finally attacks Meiko. 

Meiko is paralysed and apparently has given up, as she realises that she can no longer reach Meicoomon when she’s in her evil form. As she’s about to get murdered by her own partner, Meiko remembers happy moments they spent together… but fortunately Taichi plays the gallant hero and saves her at the last moment. 

There’s another tense exchange of looks, but it appears that Meicoomon changes her mind about killing her and runs off.

The conclusion from this scene is simple: Meicoomon has snapped so deeply that Meiko can no longer reach her and bring her back to normal; yet, it seems that there’s still something inside her that keeps her from killing Meiko.

Does she? This is the first indication that Meiko’s will to live is perhaps being challenged in Kyousei.  

Takeru recalls Mystery Man’s words about Meicoomon is “the key to destroying” the world - which seems fitting as they’re seeing the Digital World go crazy under her powers. Meanwhile, Meiko is closer to accepting the truth that Meicoomon may be beyond saving at this point.

* 

Speaking of trauma, we find out what’s going on with Maki. After her reunion with Bakumon went wrong, she wanders around with a gun as she watches the destruction and fantasises that this time she will be chosen. 

What does this mean? Now that the Reboot (the plan she spent years working on) has failed, has Maki lost her sanity? Or is she revealing her new plan, a fantasy that a new crisis will give her and Bakumon a second chance to be “chosen”? 

Either way, it doesn’t seem that Maki is acting out of evil intentions or a desire to cause destruction. Raving, she wanders after her partner....

*

Back in the human world, Digimon are causing major problems. Taichi and Hikari’s mother is watching the news on TV and worrying about her kids. She decides to prepare a huge meal for them, her own little contribution to the cause. It seems that tri. Has picked Yuuko as the representative of the children’s families, and her perspective is an important one - especially in a Chapter that focuses so much on the Yagami siblings.

*

With Himekawa missing, nobody is listening to Daigo, who’s worried about the kids being stranded in the Digital World. He decides to take matters into his own hands and meets with Professor Mochizuki, who apparently is no longer invited to speak at the table during important meetings where decisions are being made. You have to wonder if Homeostasis is also behind this - don’t forget Meiko’s father has an emotional investment in this, meaning he’s probably biased towards Meicoomon (if anything, for his daughter’s sake).

Hackmon joins the conversation and finally drops some important answers. 

Homeostasis only agenda is to protect stability. Libra (Meicoomon) is no longer fulfilling her role in that balance and has become to unstable. This was why she was banished (was this why she ended up on the Real World, perhaps after Apocalymon’s demise?).

Finally, with Meiko no longer acting as a balancing force to Meicoomon’s incredible destructive power, the latter is a loose canon and it must be destroyed.

This seems a pretty heartless decision from Homeostasis, but at least it’s consistent with their role in this universe. If you see things from the perspective of “keeping the balance at all costs” this is a reasonable conclusion. Sentiment has no place in Homeostasis’ job.

*

Meanwhile, the Digital World is trying to kill the Chosen Children (and failing miserably at it; but then, after Sora’s improbable survival last Chapter, maybe they’ve all developed inhuman invulnerability). They seek refuge in a cave and try to make sense of what’s happening.

Hikari is the most intuitive member of the team and the one who has a deeper connection with the Digital World, so it’s fitting that she is the first one to sense this and to convey it to the others. Again, this is a side of Hikari’s personality that plays a big role in this movie.

*

Back in the office, Homeostasis has spoken its sentence. Without Meiko’s protection, there’s no hope for Meicoomon.

*

Then we get the scene by the fire, where we get some very subtle, and some very interesting character moments. Everyone’s core personality gets to shine through. For instance, there’s the funny contrast between Mimi’s childlike comment that they could be seeing shooting stars, and Jou’s deadpan pragmatism:

(You can go really meta and pretend this is a reference to “I wish!) 

Yamato has made his decision and is as determined as possible. Remember that he means just that - “stopping”. After all, they all realise that Meicoomon is the source of this mess and she’s causing all these troubles in the real world. But no one is considering destruction at this point. Taichi is asking Koushirou to find a way to get them home, and he’s trying.

The scene then focuses on Meiko, who’s blaming herself because this time she couldn’t stop Meicoomon. The group tries to cheer her up.

There’s a very nice sentiment there. But, remember, at this point the kids aren’t seeing the bigger picture and they still don’t know what we know. They have no idea that this trouble with Meicoomon can’t be solved with good ol’ fashioned friendship, “believing” in each other, or “accepting each other’s faults”.

Still, this scene beautifully explains the wonderful relationship between the partners, from Meiko’s point of view - specificially how they balance each other perfectly and how each duo has its own dynamic. She’s been paying attention to this. Comparing.

But Meiko is reasonably questioning their assumptions. If Meicoomon is so different, how can their relationship compare? Moreover, the partner bonds seem to have been broken beyond repair. Sora reminds Meiko that she’s stopped running and has accepted responsibility for being Meicoomon’s partner.

But now Meiko’s starting to wonder if the fault is actually on her side - she has interpreted these last events as Meicoomon snapping because of her. She’s feeling powerless, thinking that if she was a different type of partner - a different person - this wouldn’t be happening.

This sentence sums a big theme through out this episode (and throughout this series), as multiple characters come back to this difficult question, again and again.

Consider Meiko’s position at this moment: She knows something is wrong with Meicoomon (she’s always had a “problem”) but now she can no longer do anything to make her stop.  Meiko did everything right: She faced the truth, she believed in her partner, she came back for her -- and Meicoomon just tried to murder her. What if she's the problem? What if a more capable partner could have stopped this?

The main point here is this: Meiko’s right to have doubts and to be scared. This isn’t a repetition of her conflict in the previous chapters, because there has been a definit breaking point in her bond with Meicoomon. Meiko isn’t being cowardly or weak, she’s being reasonable before the facts.

[nyerus]

In Regards to Hate: On Victuuri

I don’t know what suddenly happened again but there’s a shitton of hate for Victuuri/Viktuuri(/etc) in the tags lately. People are welcome to feel however they want for a particular ship, but I just wanted to give my two cents by tackling the common complaints I’ve seen. I’ll start from the beginning so I’ll be addressing basically all the arguments against this ship I’ve seen so far. I’ve tried to maintain some sort of order for these, but honestly I just winged it at some point.  A lot of these arguments are also heavily character-based, so keep in mind that I’ll be deconstructing several scenes as well as character motivations as I go.  (As a note, this assumes you’ve seen the whole show. Also, I’m only using canon evidence from the show itself.)

This is like an informal follow-up to my super old post but also not really.

No I’m not avoiding work why would you say that.

WARNING: This is a massive post/wall of text. Grab popcorn.

1.)  “Victor shows up naked at Yuuri’s home and continues to be uncomfortably forward with him.”

First let’s all remember that Yuuri’s family runs an onsen. People are naked in onsens. Very naked. That’s how hot springs generally work. And Yuuri is probably extremely used to nudity, which in and of itself is treated with less shock in Asian culture than it is in most western countries. Not to mention that Victor is unashamedly proud of his body. Also… in hindsight, we sort of understand why Victor was so forward with Yuuri. It’s because the last time they met, Yuuri grinded against him, nearly naked, after pole dancing. Then they proceeded to have this lovely dance together that basically changed Victor’s entire life. Victor genuinely thought that Yuuri remembered at least part of the banquet and just sort of cuts straight to the chase of “hey let’s get to know each other, personally *wink wink*” because he assumes that they’re past formalities by this point. When he sees that Yuuri is super shy and uncomfortable with this, Victor quickly changes gears. From the moment he realizes what Yuuri’s boundaries are, he never oversteps. All physical contact he initiates from then on is reciprocated or welcome (even if Yuuri is bashful about it).

 2.)  “Victor fat-shames Yuuri and never apologizes.”

People have already gone over this but as a competitive figure skater, Yuuri could not afford to be at the weight he was in episode one. It was dangerous, plain and simple. As someone who works in the medical field, I can’t understate how big of an impact weight has on joints in something like figure skating. Especially given how jumps are a major part of every routine, and landing those at a reasonable weight itself is rough on joints. (Not to mention, getting height for your jumps would also be more difficult.) As for people who’ll no doubt say “but Yuuri managed to do all the jumps in Victor’s FS perfectly at that weight”: no, he probably didn’t. We know from established canon that at that point, Yuuri could not yet reliably land a Quad Flip—which was the second jump in Victor’s FS. So even with just that information we can safely infer that Yuuri probably turned the Quads into Triples (or even Doubles). When Yuuko praised him on his perfect copy of the routine, she was probably telling him how he nailed the choreography as a whole—which in itself was hellishly difficult.

Victor is not the only person who points out Yuuri’s weight, as it’s Minako who first criticizes him for it. It’s not just an aesthetic thing. More so than his weight, Yuuri is out of shape. (He’s not able to run as far as he later is, etc.) And Yuuri himself knows this—he starts working out even before Victor shows up in Japan. Victor urging Yuuri to lose the weight is not abusive or fat-shaming, it’s just him giving Yuuri professional advice. Is it tactless and a little mean? Yeah it definitely is, but Victor is sometimes extremely blunt. More on this below.

 3.)  “Victor calls Yuuri ‘little piggy’ which is mean.”

I can’t really argue with ya there in that it was kind of mean. But just to clarify, the phrase he uses is “Kobuta-chan” which is oddly endearing and less “little piggy” and more “piglet” which has a different connotation entirely. Also the nickname is obviously not random because Yuuri’s favorite dish is a Pork Cutlet Bowl (which was the main culprit behind his weight gain). Like, that was the entire joke. It was based on katsudon. That was the whole point.

But anyway, Victor used the nickname for like one episode. Between episode two and three. After that he only ever refers to Yuuri by his given name, nothing else. It didn’t hurt Yuuri’s feelings, either, and we know Victor cared about Yuuri’s weight only in terms of figure skating.

Victor can be an asshole sometimes, and that much is true. But he’s not ever intentionally cruel for the sake of being hurtful.

 4.)  “There’s an inherent power imbalance because Yuuri’s idolized Victor for so long and now Victor is his coach.”

One of the major points of their entire relationship is the balance of power between them. First let’s examine the Victor-->Yuuri dynamic. At no point in time does Victor think of Yuuri as anything less than an equal. He never talks down to him, never belittles him, never makes him feel weak or lesser. Nor does Victor ever abuse Yuuri’s self-esteem issues; instead helping Yuuri seeing that he’s worth so much more than he realizes. He never uses his “power” over Yuuri to get his way like he probably easily could have. He knows that Yuuri’s idolized him for years, but he’s Victor Nikiforov. Everyone idolizes him. He’s a goddamn living legend, a Russian hero. Honestly, when this show first started, I was worried we’d get a weird hero-worship based relationship and the very thought of that made me super uncomfortable, but that entire trope was so masterfully subverted. In fact, Victor’s been pining over him for months before the two of them meet in earnest. Victor is enamored with Yuuri both as person and as a skater. It wasn’t just a really elaborate booty call. He was incredibly impressed with Yuuri’s skill and decided that he could help him, all the while trying to find his own inspiration again. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

Now the Yuuri-->Victor dynamic is a little more complex because it takes Yuuri time to get over his hero-worship stage. But he does. He completely does, and that’s a very important milestone in their relationship. By the end of episode four, he’s stopped seeing Victor as this God-like being and instead starts seeing him as a person. The change in their dynamic is instantly clear. Yuuri becomes a hundred times more comfortable around Victor as soon as he realizes that Victor—another human being with human fears like aging and male pattern baldness—is someone who’s going to meet him in the middle. (Interestingly, after the beach scene in episode 4, Yuuri uses more informal language with Victor instead, like how he does with his family. Beforehand, he always used very polite language only. This is a little bit lost in translation, but is actually really important. It shows how comfortable he’s become around Victor.) Yuuri’s infatuation turns into real love because he’s found someone who is patient with him, who doesn’t intrude upon his heart or his feelings, but pushes him to be better every day. And it’s important to note here that Yuuri never allows Victor to think of him of anything less than an equal. He calls Victor out on his bullshit, especially showcased in episode seven, where he yells at Victor in the parking garage and later when he roasts Victor in his head for the entire first half of his Free Skate. “Victor no baka!” is an important line, guys.

Victor and Yuuri are both consenting adults and Yuuri’s career does not depend on Victor. He can very well drop Victor and get a new coach if he wanted. (Let’s remember that he’s Japan’s #1 Figure Skater—there will be no shortage of people ready to be his coach, regardless of when it is in the season. And funnily enough, they would all probably be more qualified to do this than Victor is.) Yuuri is under zero obligations here.

 5.)  “Their relationship moved unrealistically fast with little development.”

See, the problem with a 12-episode anime that isn’t actually about their relationship but about Yuuri’s Figure Skating career is that we’re not going to get very much screentime for relationship development. After all, it’s a sports anime and not a romance. We need to read between the lines a lot because even when the writers want to give us more, they simply cannot (e.g. how they wanted to give us the beach date scene but couldn’t, and had to stick those stills in the ED instead). Victor and Yuuri’s relationship did not move at some whirlwind pace that people make it out to be. There’s like an eight month gap between when Victor shows up in Hasetsu and when they get engaged in Barcelona. Granted, it’s not a whole lot of time, but I know people who’ve gotten married in faaaaaarrr less time than that. But for those eight months (most of which we are NOT privy to, because it takes place off-screen), the two of them are together every day. There’s going to be a lot of development happening there, and we see clear evidence of it. For example, the two of them are EXTREMELY comfortable with physical contact from episode six onwards. Let’s take a moment to remember what happened in the previous episode. Yes, that lip balm scene. But also? Yuuri’s speech on live television. Between episodes 5 and 6 there’s about a month and a half gap where the two of them have gotten very comfortable with each other, probably aware that there’s mutual attraction. Their relationship is actually moving at a reasonable pace, all things considered. And honestly? Every relationship is different. It depends on the people involved in that relationship and how comfortable they feel with how it’s progressing. It’s not like there’s some guidelines like “must attain quota of 17 lunch dates before frick fracking” or something. No one gets to dictate the terms of someone else’s relationship. That’s silly.

 6.)  “It’s abusive for Victor to stipulate that they’ll only get married if Yuuri’s wins gold.”

Look, we know that Victor is very clearly romantically interested in Yuuri and had no real intention to cockblock(/weddingblock) himself. If anything, he meant it as a motivation for Yuuri to do his best and also in a teasing manner. It’s a way of Victor showing how much faith he has in Yuuri, that he’ll snag that gold medal. (After all, what Yuuri asks of him is his full faith and support in him, and this is another way of Victor taking that request to heart. He doesn’t even entertain the idea of Yuuri losing—in his head, Yuuri’s going to win, plain and simple.) Yuuri’s shock to the announcement was due to the fact that he was just put on the spot in front of his competitors, all who want to win too—not that he was uncomfortable at Victor’s “ultimatum.” If that were the case, the rings would not be treated with such attention and importance in the following episodes. Yuuri very clearly holds their rings in high regard, emotionally speaking.

 7.)  “They’re not actually engaged.”

Listen, I’m very close with a few of my friends but I’ve never bought 800€ gold wedding rings to be exchanged in front of a famous basilica with a choir singing in the background following a romantic shopping date. Yuuri says that they’re good luck charms (“omamori” actually, which are a bit more than just good luck charms in Japan—but like a spell or a wish, too; though traditionally they are a specific type of amulet) to thank Victor for everything, but Yuuri very specifically chose those rings and chose to give it to Victor in front of a church. Where people get married. He could have done it anywhere, casually, like outside the shop or back in their hotel room. But he decided to do it there, blushing the entire time. It means Yuuri was very aware of what he was doing and what he WANTED, even if he was too afraid to say it aloud. And Yuuri is very much the type of person who would be afraid to straight-up propose to Victor because of his own self-esteem issues and also the fact that he isn’t sure of Victor’s plans post-GPF. Yuuri is not good with his words, but he is far clearer with his actions. It’s a key facet of his personality. Here, by giving Victor a gold ring in front of a church, he’s made his intentions known in a very Yuuri-like way. And Victor understood. He has always let Yuuri set the pace in the relationship, he never pushes too hard, so him “accepting” Yuuri’s “good luck charm” is him meeting Yuuri in the middle. And when he slips the other ring on Yuuri’s finger, Yuuri is clearly surprised. He’s overjoyed when he smiles back at Victor because he knows that Victor wants to be with him.

But okay, fine. Let’s leave that. Let’s go to the scene in the restaurant where Victor says in PLAIN WORDS that they’re engaged. He literally says the words “engagement rings.” It’s even partly in English so it can’t be mistaken for anything else. Yuuri freaks out when Phichit announces that they got married because, well, they didn’t get married. But Yuuri never, ever denies their engagement. (Neither does Victor, of course. No one does, in the show.)

Also an interesting point I have to bring up: Yurio. He asks Victor at the beach why he’s “so damn happy to be looking after that damn pig”—meaning Yuuri, of course. Looking after him??? What, like just bros??? For like, the rest of their lives??? Just in a totally bro way??? Clearly not. The entire conversation at the beach was Yurio being super pissed off that this could possibly mean that both Victor and Yuuri meant to retire after this season and would run off to get married and settle down. We see how much both Victor and Yuuri mean to Yurio, so he’s very clearly upset at the idea that he might never see either of them on the ice again after this. (And he’s basically like “well fine if you’re going to leave then just leave already” because #AngstyTeen.)

I also feel like a lot of these doubts stem from the fact that the way a western audience perceives such a relationship is inherently different than a Japanese audience. But in a lot of Japanese shows (and Asian shows in general), even when there’s a heterosexual couple, there is often no inherent declaration of love or on-screen kiss. Same goes for other forms of media. Many times they will imply that the two characters are together and then do something like a time-skip showing them with their kids or having dinner together at their home/a fancy restaurant, further implying that they’re married. And you know what? In these situations, no one ever questions the legitimacy of that het couple’s relationship. I know many people are scared of being queerbaited—and I’ll be honest, there’s a part of me deep down that always lives in fear of this because of how often we’ve been scorned—but I want everyone to keep in mind these cultural differences. (Furthermore, as someone living in South Asia right now and who watches Asian shows, I can re-iterate that things like on-screen kisses are SUPER rare (yes, between het couples). They’re on the level of being scandalous and not so long ago, they were literally illegal here.) 

(*And a slight spoiler here for the video game Final Fantasy X, to help me illustrate my point about cultural differences (I’ve seen other people mention this and am essentially using it myself, but cannot remember specific blogs—sorry!): in the English/International release of the game, the main female character Yuna tells her love interest (the main male character, Tidus) “I love you” at the end. HOWEVER, in the original Japanese version, Yuna says “thank you.” The phrase “I love you” is never uttered in that entire game, yet Yuna and Tidus’ relationship is never questioned. Not once.)

I know we want explicit confirmation and I know why that’s important (and that it’s also important to discuss this and demand better from creators) but let’s not outright dismiss what we got so far. But ah, we could spend years talking about this one thing and others have already done it, so I’ll finally move on.

 8.)  “They have so many communication issues.”

I agree with “they have communication issues” but not the “so many” part.  People against this pairing seem to be under the impression that they constantly miscommunicate and I have no idea where that stems from. They’ve had two big failures in communications (episode 7’s garage scene and episode 11’s hotel room scene) and sometimes they may not be on the same page in terms of their relationship, but they actually do remarkably well. Remarkable because both of them are both actually quite terrible at communication in general. I’m going to heavily break down both of those aforementioned scenes so we can discuss what exactly happened.

We know that Victor has never had any serious relationship in his life. He admits himself that for the last twenty years, he’s basically ignored both life and love. So he has very little experience in comforting someone else—because he’s just never had to do something like that. He doesn’t know how to handle Yuuri’s anxiety because it’s not a problem he is familiar with, and while he knows that Yuuri has anxiety, it’s never manifested this intensely before. So it’s no wonder he’s at a loss for what to do. He does what he can: making sure Yuuri gets a little bit of sleep, advising that he not to any jumps during warm-up, not berating him when he does those jumps anyway and instead being calm and supportive, and taking Yuuri away from other people when he sees it’s detrimental. When nothing, absolutely nothing seems to work, Victor becomes desperate. He decides to try something out of left field that will hopefully jerk Yuuri out of his self-destructive state. And thus the infamous “if you miss the podium I’ll take responsibility and resign as your coach” speech. And I want to point out that Victor very specifically says “I’ll take responsibility.” As in, “I’ll attribute it to myself.” While this is actually somewhat noble of Victor to avoid ever placing blame on Yuuri directly, it actually only makes matters worse. This is because we know that what Yuuri’s primarily afraid of is not messing up, but messing up and having it reflect badly on Victor. He cannot bear the thought of people talking ill about Victor—someone he loves very dearly—and while Victor was trying to be as gentle as possible while, well, shattering Yuuri’s heart, it ends up backfiring doubly because of this. 

The last thing Yuuri wants is to drag Victor’s name through the mud and the idea that Victor would do that himself, if Yuuri messes up, is horrible. Never mind the very idea that Victor would leave. (Though, of course, Victor actually never says this either—only that he’d resign as Yuuri’s coach, not that he would straight-up leave Yuuri; though since Yuuri doesn’t know the full extent of Victor’s feelings for him, he assumes that Victor quitting as his coach would also include him leaving Hasetsu altogether.) And of course, Victor doesn’t mean any of this. This is probably how he was motivated by his coaches (and seeing as he’s new to coaching, he’s probably taking ques from them) so he figures, hey, since nothing else is working, maybe shocking Yuuri out of his funk will do the trick. It absolutely does not do the trick and Yuuri ends up bawling his eyes out—but not at the prospect of Victor leaving. No, he’s furious that Victor would say something like that. Victor backs down IMMEDIATELY. He doesn’t try to justify himself, he doesn’t try to give any sort of explanation or defend himself. He just apologizes because he knows he fucked up. This is more than most people do in an argument. And not only does Victor apologize, he takes this to heart. He never, ever pulls something like this again. He actively changes his behavior. This is so important. 

And now, since neither of them are very good with words, their official “make up” doesn’t happen there, even if Yuuri wasn’t actively mad at Victor after the fact. But he didn’t know how to express that and Victor probably felt like he was walking on eggshells at that point so he smartly kept his mouth shut. Still, Yuuri knows its important to communicate that he isn’t angry at him. So what does he do? The head boop. It’s a clear throwback to episode 4—the scene that showed that Yuuri was coming out of his shell and impulsively acted upon realizing that Victor was a normal, human person with his own fears and insecurities. And this is Yuuri’s way of essentially rubbing that in, in an affectionate way. Saying “You’re an idiot, but you’re my idiot.” (By the way, this is the final step of Yuuri letting go of his idolization of Victor and fully coming to see him as a normal guy with his own shortcomings.) And if Victor had any doubts of Yuuri forgiving him, Yuuri does the Quad Flip at the end of his routine to signify that yes, you’re forgiven (and also I will surpass your wildest imagination, among other things). They didn’t have to implicitly say “I’m sorry”/”I forgive you”/etc. It was all made crystal clear in the one way they always communicate freely in: skating.

Coming to episode 11…. Yuuri, being the nervous ball of anxiety he is, often has moments of intense self-doubt. Often times he thinks “what does Victor see in me” throughout the show and is quick to become disappointed in himself. This is what happens in episode 11. Yuuri doesn’t do as well as he wanted to in his Free Skate, causing his anxiety to kick up to 100. But Yuuri doesn’t say anything about it. He doesn’t tell Victor what he’s feeling or what he’s afraid of. So Victor has no way of understanding what’s going through Yuuri’s head and reassuring him that everything will be just fine, regardless. After his own lackluster performance, Yuuri sees that Victor is watching other skaters and assumes that Victor wants to go back to skating. And sure, while it does sort of spark that competitive spirit in Victor, his only concern at the moment is Yuuri. But Yuuri completely misunderstand Victor’s appreciation of other skater’s performances and jumps to conclusions because that’s what anxiety does. It takes an otherwise innocuous situation and twists it until you can only think of the worst-case scenario. To Yuuri, this is Victor leaving him behind to go back to Russia. And this is where it becomes a sort of double-whammy. 

Despite his moments of confidence and delight at being the one who “stole Victor away from the world,” Yuuri suffers from an immense amount of self-doubt that tells him “you aren’t good enough.” He feels like he’s keeping Victor from doing something that he loves (skating) and after that lukewarm performance, he figures that maybe he’s not worth Victor’s time, coaching-wise. And he loves Victor enough to not want to hold him back anymore, either. He feels like he’s a burden and thus should cut Victor free and let him go. And after all, didn’t Victor say it was until the Grand Prix Finals anyway? But moreover, what Yuuri does at the end of episode 11 is a defensive tactic. He’s terrified at the prospect of Victor leaving him, yet he feels backed into a corner, so he decides to put distance between them in order to protect himself. (Remember Victor’s line from episode 10 about how when athletes feel pressured into a corner, they sometimes act unexpectedly? Foreshadowing.) Yuuri is giving Victor a way out, should he want it. It’s Yuuri’s way of minimizing the pain he thinks is inevitable. 

But what Yuuri here doesn’t understand is that Victor is fully invested in their relationship. Victor’s shock makes this completely evident. He never for a moment entertained the idea of parting from Yuuri, especially not now. He just lived under the assumption that once the Grand Prix was over, they’d go onto Nationals and Worlds and so on. Victor had NO IDEA the turmoil that’s been plaguing Yuuri this entire time (who has honestly spent much of the show afraid that his time with Victor is limited—and that’s another reason the rings were so important to Yuuri; they were genuinely a wish he made of keeping them together). For Victor, skating doesn’t hold the same joy it once did for him. Without Yuuri there, it feels lackluster; he’s tired of feeling alone. I will argue that yes, Victor’s competitive spark was re-ignited by Yurio (and also Yuuri) breaking his world record, but Victor clearly values his relationship with Yuuri more than he does his skating. 

Now, we don’t get to see the rest of what happens in that scene but they at least got to the point where they put it on hold until after the Finals—because it was obviously important that Yuuri focus on that, first and foremost. And what happens at the finals? At lot of things, really. The most important thing is that Yuuri’s Free Skate is his way of communicating to Victor what he feels. His skating says “do you see how much I love you?” and Victor—with tears in his eyes—understands. They communicate a lot through skating; that was the entire point of the Quad Flip as I mentioned before. It was a conversation between them. But now I’m veering off into poetic territory, so I’ll bring it back. Yuuri realizes here that he doesn’t want either his career or his relationship to end there. In the end, they not only decide to keep going—together—but also apparently have to redo whatever their initial plans were and move to St. Petersburg together because they can’t bear to be apart—and that much is confirmed canon.

Do they still have issues to work out after this? Absolutely. There will no doubt be more things that come up if we get more seasons. But Rome was not built in a day, people. And to expect a perfect relationship with zero miscommunication ever is highly unrealistic. That’s unhealthy. Even couples who have been married for decades and are on the same page regarding everything still have their squabbles now and then. You’re not always going to understand what your partner feels/thinks in a given moment unless you have telepathy, and you’re going to disagree over things. That’s just how it works. The most interesting part of Victor and Yuuri’s relationship is how genuine it feels, for these reasons.

 ***Now mentioning two additional points that are not strictly about Victuuri, but YoI as a whole***

9.)  “Other shows have done representation better.”

I know other shows like No. 6 and Shin Sekai Yori (which are both based on pre-existing novels and not original works like Yuri!!! on Ice) have done things like show explicit kissing between two same-sex characters and should not be forgotten or dismissed, but “better” is a really subjective word. (*Spoiler alert*) In neither of those two shows do you get a queer couple that is happy and together by the end of the show. In No. 6, Shion and Nezumi part ways and we are never explicitly told if/when they reunite and if/when they officially get together. In Shin Sekai Yori, Shun is killed off and Satoru marries Saki, instead. (Though this in itself is not horrible, per se, the “Bury Your Gays” trope is so prevalent that I personally couldn’t help but grind my teeth at it.) However at the end of Yuri!!! on Ice, Victor and Yuuri are both alive, happy, engaged, and looking forward to a future together. Take this to mean what you will. Some people value an explicit romance even if it ends in tragedy more, but personally I prefer when my same-sex couples are alive and happy together for once.

And just to say it: even though other shows have been more explicit about homosexual or otherwise queer relationships, not all of them have handled it with the same level of respect they do with heterosexual relationships. More below.

10.)  “Yuri on Ice doesn’t address homophobia, and thus Victor and Yuuri’s relationship is unrealistic.”

I for one am exhausted. Exhausted because so many shows featuring queer characters inadvertently turns into a struggle due to those characters’ identities. It becomes a part of the plotline (and often is the whole plotline) and while I think it’s incredibly important that we do have stories like this—because they’re especially important for young people who are finding themselves—it’s also important that we showcase a world in which equality exists and a character’s sexual orientation does not encompass their entire story; and in which they are allowed to have story arcs about literally anything else like their heterosexual counterparts. I was dreading this happening in YoI following the kiss, to be frank. I didn’t want to tune into the next episode and see homophobia of any sort. YoI was like a safe haven for me and so many others—a blanket you could wrap around yourself and find hope that one day, yes, the world will really be like that. It seems so wonderful and simple and liberating. I didn’t have to watch this show with a dark feeling in my gut, angry at the world. I could watch it feeling happy and light for once. I am so grateful that Yuuri and Victor’s relationship is treated the same way as a heterosexual relationship would be. No one makes snide comments, no one doubts their legitimacy, it’s never the butt of a joke, none of that nonsense occurs here. Normalizing same-sex relationships is an important step, especially when such a relationship aired for all to see in a country where gay marriage is not yet legal. (And also the fact that the relationship features an interracial couple who both come from conservative counties.)

There are no doubt a ton of things I’ve missed here and I’m not going to get into things like “YoI has poor animation” and “YoI didn’t deserve all the awards it got” because that’s not the point of this post—and this post is monstrous enough. Everyone, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But once you make your opinion public, you are inviting discussion. You can’t spout hate against something other people love and not expect to be challenged.

I know I’ve basically been preaching to the choir with this post, and thank you to everyone who’ve taken the time to read this or skim this. Hopefully it helps you organize your own thoughts. For dissenters who’ve read this post, thank you as well and I hope we can have some interesting discussions regarding Victuuri and Yuri!!! on Ice as a whole.

TLDR; Victor and Yuuri’s relationship is not picture-perfect, but that’s what makes it all the more compelling. It feels real and genuine because these characters feel real and genuine—flaws and all. If anyone has anything they want me to address specifically, please drop an ask or a message!

[fizzingwizard]

Continuation of this...!

This episode killed me. I SPEAK TO YOU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Part two commence!

k so Taichi rolled high on Persuasion and managed to not only shake Yamato’s insider info out of him, he also got him to go along with the plan. At this point I was full expecting Omegamon. I mean, on the one hand, I was like, “Omegamon this early? Before Ultimate/Mega? [dub names deal with it] Can’t be!” But I mean..

... everything was hinting at it. xD

Taichi, who knows exactly Nothing, is going to go along with this dangerous plan because he believes in his partner. By the way, Taichi’s VA, Sanpei Yuuko, is also the voice of Boruto. I posted about it a while ago while scratching my head why I was doing so, given that I’ve never seen Naruto, let alone Boruto. But something about Sanpei Yuuko’s name piqued my interest. By coincidence, today I decided to rewatch another fav of mine, Eureka 7... AND SANPEI YUUKO IS THE VOICE OF RENTON. That’s where I know her from. And there’s this scene early on in E7 where they talk about believing and how if you believe in something too much it can cause disasters...

So that’s what I was thinking about when Taichi-with-Sanpei-Yuuko’s-voice said this x’D But, never fear, it’s too early in the show to crush our dreams, Digimon is a step behind E7 in that way bahahaha

For the first time, Taichi and Yamato’s hearts meet. Yamato even gives the Determined Eyes.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE

The boys get their Teamwork on!!

... good heavens

So in the end... it’s neither another evolution nor a Jogress. Yamato’s dangerous tactic is a close-range attack. Which is, admittedly, pretty dangerous. And it’s the kind of thing that never got mentioned in Adventure! The battle scenes are pretty sweet!

BOOM! The haystack is defeated! But WAIT...

... there are still 34 seconds (and like 10 min of air time) left! Koushirou’s like “Are you guys KIDDING me do you know how quickly we’ll be canceled if we end the episode NOW!?!? What you don’t want to WORK or something!?!?”

Somehow the missile is launched anyway! They weren’t kidding when they named this ep after Our War Game!

Oh and by the way it’s headed for Tokyo. Because OF COURSE IT IS.

Haystackmon evolve into... Googly-eyedmon!

So this ep’s big bad is almost like a Big Bad. He doesn’t talk and he has no prior development, but the level of Tension around him is high enough for this to be a boss battle for real. Not to mention his look is way more along the line of a Mega or even Jogress type. ALREADY. Again, this is episode two. Our boys have brought out all their big guns and some we didn’t even know about. WHAT’S LEFT. Evolution, right? RIGHT!?!?!

I said this last time but no really, these Digimon are totally lifted from Takahashi Kazuki’s scrapbook, mwahahaha

Taichi and Yamato don’t have a play here and Koushirou’s yelling at them to do something before they all get blown up. Suddenly a runaway train doesn’t feel like such a big deal!

Always look cool, even when getting your butt kicked. - Rule number 2 of Fight Club, by Yagami Taichi (he was immediately kicked out for mentioning Fight Club)

Koushirou does not care about his own imminent death. He’s just sad his new boyfriend is gonna die before they even have their first date.

“You promised we’d roast s’mores together!”

Episode two and poor Koushirou already feels helpless in spite of being the only one who knows anything. SOMEONE GET THIS BOY TO THE DIGITAL WORLD.

I wish they’d really let him yobisute... they’re in elementary school... let Koushirou yobisute 2020!!

Then a feather drifts through the sky, landing in the palm of a certain girl...

... and a certain boy. I suppose his window must be open. Imagine if it were closed X’D

I am so excite?? Hikari and Takeru already?? This show is COMMITTED to doing things differently. I am kind of weirded out by it but also really interested to see where they go with the story.

AS IF THAT WEREN’T MIRACULOUS ENOUGH...

Holy crap... I had just decided “lol, no way would they bring out Omegamon in episode two, even with how fast things are moving in this show that’s just too major a trump card to play this early on... no way...”

AND THE SHOW WAS LIKE...

“LOL FIZZ WE GOTCHA GOOD!”

... well-played, show. well-played

So... episode two... and in ep three we’ll have a Jogress for sure and probably some angels! And who know what else! This is definitely a rollercoaster... I’m not sure this is good for my old gramma’s heart, maybe I should start taking blood pressure meds xD Only kids are strong enough for this level of epic!

One thing I am noticing that I don’t much care for is the scenery. They’re in the digital plane rather than the digital world, and it’s kind of boring. I suppose they did it for budget reasons. I remember people complaining about the scenery in Adventure, though - which I always enjoyed, even if it wasn’t the most amazing scenery. I think it was a step up from this.

A last note, it’s only two eps in, so I’ve decided to be as positive as I can in these reviews, which I’m doing purely for my own enjoyment. That being said, I don’t have that much I dislike anyway, so it’s not hard. Going forward, I do hope that the level of action doesn’t stay at this peak level, one because it’s just exhausting, and two because I may know the characters well, but I want to get to know them again! And I want the kids of today to get to know them as characters and not just action heroes. But again, it’s much too early to worry about that being an issue. I don’t know how long this show is supposed to last, if it’ll be the usual length of a Digimon season or more like a reboot OVA. If the later, then I’ll be concerned, but if the former then we’ve got plenty of time. The other characters haven’t even been introduced yet. So all in all I am enjoying this a lot, it’s just plain fun.

[weebrecs]

Recommended Magical Creature Animes

Black Butler (8/10): This series includes three seasons and a few movies. This series features the young Ceil Phantomhive who is the young master of the Phantomhive manor. He is also the Queen’s guard dog (as in the Queen of England) *I personally recommend watching this in English Dub even though dubs usually make me cringe, but I like the English accents and this one isn’t a terrible dub* Ceil is searching for the culprits behind the murder of his parents and the burning of his estate with the help of a demon that he has contracted with named Sebastian who is disguising himself as ‘one hell of a butler’. Comedy, Action, Action

Blue Exorcist (8/10)- Humans fear satan who is recognizable by his blue flames, but one day he falls in love with a human woman. Together they have children together, but Satan has to return to his own world. The twin boys Yukio and Rin appear to be normal except for the fact that Rin is engulfed in Satan’s blue flames. An exorcist finds the twin’s mother dying and promises to take care of the boys and seal away Rin’s blue flames. However, one day Rin’s blue flames are set free, and now the two sons of Satan are ready for their training as exorcists. (there is also a second season currently airing) Action, Comedy

Bungou Stray Dogs (10/10)- After being thrown out by his orphanage due to a strange tiger that is mysteriously ‘following’ him Atsushi saves a suicide enthusiast and supernatural detective named Dazai. Through a series of events Atsushi meets the rest of the supernatural detectives each with their own powers/gifts that earns them a spot on the detective force, and he learns more about himself and the tiger. Action, Comedy, Mystery

Dance with Devils (7/10)- Uta no Prince-sama meets supernatural is the wild ride that Dance with Devils will take it’s unsuspecting viewers on with singing dogs included. Ritsuka a regular student suddenly is called into the Student Counsel room and instantly befriended by all the hot guys of the student counsel. However, she soon learns that they are all different magical beings and that they are all searching for a mysterious magical book known as the grimoire. Romance, Mystery, Singing

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (9/10)- In order to discover the truth about her death a ghost named Yuuko started a Paranormal Investigations Club in a school that was built over the place where she mysteriously died in the basement. A hope to shed some light on the truth of what really happened to Yuuko occurs when Teiichi joins the club and is able to actually see Yuuko. However, Yuuko isn’t the only spirit stalking the halls of the school, and in order to figure out the truth the Paranormal Investigation Club (which also includes Yuuko’s relative) must get to the bottom of this case in order to help Yuuko move on. Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Tragedy 

Fruits Basket (8/10)- Through a series of unfortunate events Tooru is homeless and refuses to inform her family or friends of her situation. However, after a landslide crushes the tent that she was camped out in she’s invited to live with the most popular boy in school and his family. When she moved in with him she discovered that his family weren’t normal. Instead they were the animals of the zodiac and if they were hugged my someone of the opposite gender than they would transform into their animal form. Comedy, Romance, Mystery

Karin (7/10)- Karin isn’t like other vampires that’s for sure. She enjoys daylight, don’t like drinking blood. In fact she has a problem: her body actually produces too much blood to he point that she will get random nosebleeds. Only through getting rid of her excess blood can she feel better/normal. Romance

Owari no Seraph (10/10)- This consists of two seasons and tells the story of Mika and Yuu who are two orphans that were torn apart by destiny when they were children. Now as teenager they are trying to overcome everything to get back to each other. In this world the vampires rule over the humans, but now the humans have found a way to fight back. Through the use of demon weapons they can counter the vampires. Action, Revenge, Thriller

Sanakarea (8/10)- Rea the daughter of the student director falls to her death one day, but is suddenly resurrected as a zombie. The reason for this is Chihiro who LOVES zombies and is trying to bring his dead cat back to life. However, now he has a real zombie on his hands. Now that she is free from her father, Rea is ready to live her life. Romance, Slice of Life

Sex Pistols (10/10)- This one might be a little confusing without reading some of the manga, but they do a good job reviewing the basic supernatural element framework after the first episode so if you are lost be sure to watch after the credits! This collection of OVAs starts telling the story of Norio who suddenly learns that he is no longer human, but a returner to ancestry. Meaning that his soul is not in the shape of a monkey like most humans. In this sense he is suddenly thrown to the beasts. His high school is full of snakes, bears, and leopards (oh my). Shounen ai, Romance, Comedy, Drama

The Devil is a Part Timer (9/10)- In the heat of battle Satan and The Hero Emilia are thrown through a portal into our world. And of course the only way to survive in this world is to get a job so that you have money. So Satan gets a job at the local fast food joint. His righthand man in battle acts as a house hand and holds down the fort (in a manner of speaking). Meanwhile, magical creatures come to kill satan when they think he is weak in the human world, but Satan is determined to return to his world and conquer all. Comedy, Action

Vampire Knight (9/10)- This has two seasons, but I’m only going to recommend the first season because I don’t know what happened with the second season. It was horrible (4/10). Anyway the first season was very interesting. It stared Yuuki the daughter of the director of the school that had both day and night students. The day students are humans, and the night students are all vampires. Yuuki and Zero help ensure that the day and night students remain separate and safe. Yuuki has a crush on the leader of the vampires Kaname, and he seems to have a strange attachment to her as well. However, like the sun and moon they can only meet for a brief instant. Plus, Zero also has heart set on Yuuki. Romance, Action

[eineful-blog]

Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

Ever since the advancement of technology in the animation community, many animators have queried to create films as realistic as possible while others would embed a little twist in their films to signify unique qualities. This differentness can vary in many different forms that can become culprits for defying the ‘Law of Metaphysical Irregularity’ which is defined as normal laws in physics do not apply in their ‘world'. These obstructions in normal laws of physics have become a social norm in terms of television whether it would be in movies, comics, anime or cartoons you see every day. I've come to learn that regardless of how realistic a show could possibly be; there's always a character or one episode defying the laws of physics. These irregularities can be anything such as ‘differential gravitation’ which is when someone or something jumps, they are rendered airborne for an extended period of time and doesn't fall down instantaneously as they would in the real world. For example in My Hero Academia, we have a character named Ochako Uraraka who’s quirk is called zero gravity. She has the ability to manipulate gravity by rendering an object weightless with the touch of her pinky finger and is cancelable by closing her fingers collectively.  

In this video, Ochako’s quirk is analyzed in a series of short clips presenting her quirk usage. Whether it is to lighten up her clothing, materials around her, or assist in training. The consequence of using her quirk is; heavy nausea. She attempts to lessen nausea in order to use her powers better. Ochako’s quirk challenges ‘Newton's law of gravitation’ creating an opposite force to cause something to lose its force of gravity (2), a simple touch from her pinky finger is enough. In scientific theory, she is reversing gravity for her ‘hero’ work.  However, this theory of reversing gravity is a hypothesis scientist have yet to investigate. The closest we have to this ‘gravity reverse’ is ‘Zero-G’ meaning zero acceleration or g-force (2). Her abilities can be comparable to a black hole. 

In Sakura Trick, we witness our heroines on a school balcony. Haruka, the brunette, nearly slips off in her effort to leap to the other side. She is rescued by the other girl, Yu, who catches her via her legs, flipping in the air, and both landing face first but safely on the other side of the building patio. This scene contains two scientific principles being defied;  the 'law of gravitation' and 'temporal variability' because as both girls are transferred from one patio to another in the air, time slows down and is dragged on for emphasis as Yu saves Haruka from a deadly fall. However, in the real world if you fall in that kind of manner you kind-of just fall onto the ground and the rate of how you fall is dependent on your mass and force. Yu's spinning also defies the Tennis Racket Theorem: occurring when the rotation axis is along the object’s it's long or short axis with the ratio depending on the shape of the target. These girls were basically weightless as they were just simply floating in the air with no center point of gravity. 

From the anime series Nichijou, we see are two main characters Mio and Yuuko, the blue and brown haired girl, at a vending machine station. They were fooling around with the machines and got caught by the neighborhood cop. He requested permission to check their bags to see if they stole anything from the machines using a fake bill and a string. In the process of getting their bags searched, Mio freaks out. There are items she's attempting to hide. The police officer discovers her manga manuscripts and she has a sudden charge of adrenaline. She uppercuts the officer with sharp force prompting him to throw all of her papers and disperse in the air. She attempts to retrieve all her expositions by vaulting up in the air and whirling around seizing them one by one and descending gracefully on the ground with no disruption to her center gravity and stability. Mio demonstrates her strong force by flipping Yuuko over (as if she was a tennis racquet) for her last page. Mio opposes the law of ‘Temporal Variability’  which is defined as  ‘time is not fixed, it is either sped up or reduced to intensify a specific scene or movement’(1). In her motions time slows down as she punches the cop and when she is attempting to catch all the papers. This example of movement is clearly and impossible for an individual nor a well-trained stuntman can replicate in real time. In fact, something like this can only be made with special effects, drawn, green-screen, or in the rendering of an animation.  

   Challenging the traditional laws of physics, in any form of media, is shifting a widely received concept amongst media makers to keep their audience intrigued. However, when a physical principle is infringed it is impossible to replicate in the real world which gives it a sprinkle of uniqueness that keeps us in tune and entertained with whatever we watch.

Work Cited: 

1) https://www.cs.utah.edu/~duongsaa/more_htm/jk_100animeRules.htm

2) http://amasci.com/amateur/gravcam.html

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: The Hook - "WorldEnd" and "Tsukigakirei"

While doing coverage of upcoming spring titles, there were two that caught our eye in the news room -- for very different reasons. The sweet, subtle original project Tsukigakirei grabbed our attention with a promising cast and crew, while WorldEnd... well... caught our attention with the sheer length of its original light novel title.

  Both are available now to watch, so it's time to see how they stack up. What's the hook that keeps us on board now that there's more than news bytes? Let's find out.

  What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?

Shortened to SukaSuka in Japanese and WorldEnd in English, this new anime is (shocking, we know) based on a popular light novel. The action takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where anthromorphic animals and monsters reign supreme and the "disfeatured" -- humans or human-looking creatures -- are shunned. Willem Kmetsch, a rare human, rescues a blue-haired disfeatured girl named Chtholly from being harassed in the streets, and the two go on an Aladdin-esque trip through the wonders of the city. After their jaunt, she disappears, asking that he forget about her.

  This will prove to be hard, as he takes a job at a military storehouse guarding a collection of weapons and she just happens to be there. Not only her... but also his old troll associate Nygglatho (who looks like a busty maid and talks like Kikuko Inoue) and a gaggle of little girls. And the storehouse looks more like living quarters than the warehouse.

  The Hook: Well, you've probably guessed it. Chtholly and the girls are the weapons, and he'll be looking after them. What they can do and why they needs watching over is yet to be seen.

  But there's another hook if you wait 'til after the credits. Willem may look like your average light novel late teens hero, but he's older. Much, much older.

  Who is it for: If you're 100% done with light novel adaptations, this may not change your mind. But if you like post-apocalyptic stories with a dash of fantasy, it's definitely a bit of fun. The very beginning of the first episode offers what looks to be the ending of the story, and there's a lot to chew on just within those handful of seconds. How we get from wacky magical orphanage antics to airship battles (and a red-haired Chtholly) is going to be quite a trip.

  If you want to read more about that opening scene and what it could mean for the rest of the series, check out Peter Fobian's Head Space feature on WorldEnd.

  WorldEnd airs Tuesdays at 9 AM PDT.

  Tsukigakirei

  Tsukigakirei (official translation "As the moon, so beautiful.") is an original piece by Yuuko Kakihara, who's worked in the past on Kids on the Slope, Chihayafuru, and Orange. This show begins as a sweet coming-of-age/romance for a group of third-year middle schoolers. In particular we focus on the track runner Akane, who is heavily afflicted with social anxiety, and Kotaro, a quiet budding author. Both are uncomfortable in public, with Kotaro retreating into his books and Akane communicating primarily via LINE.

  The Hook: The two meet in an awkward situation, but that awkwardness doesn't preclude their desire to see more of each other. The exchange of LINE names is treated with extreme reverence. But after seeing Akane's reliance on the app, it doesn't seem corny at all. The series will likely be one of emotional bumps rather than visceral shocks.

  Who is it for: Anyone who wants a little chill in their anime-watching. Giant robots destroying planets and magical girls breaking your heart (or vice-versa these days) are fun, but it's also nice to settle in with a very intimate, very quiet story.

  If you'd like to learn more about the real-world influences on this series, check out Wilhelm Donko's two-part "Anime vs. Real Life" feature on Tsukigakirei (part 1, part 2).

  Tsukigakirei airs Thursdays at 9:30 AM PDT.

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  Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com