#a3! season autumn and winter

[mishkakagehishka]

I'm saying the part where he cries on Omi's chest and vaguely confesses to his crime and Omi is still like "you're family tho :)" that shit had me crying

[oneesanmarket]

A3!: Sakuya Sakuma - 3rd Performance Spring Troupe & Summer Troupe

Size: 6 cm

Price:5€/10 USD

(Shipping price Not included)

Units Available: 1

(Send us a message or comment if you’re interested)

[taruchisguide]

A3! 7th Anniversary: Revival Token Choices

[A3! 7TH ANNIVERSARY: REVIVAL TOKEN CHOICES]

A visual and text chart of all the cards available in this year's anniversary revival token pool. Earned tokens can be used up until February 14 13:59 JST. Thank you and shout out to An, who helped translate Chikage's SR, Tenma's R, and Reni's SSR titles for me!

Twitter Version Here

↓↓↓ Text version below!  ↓↓↓    

🌸 Spring Troupe Revival Token Cards 🌸

Sakuya Sakuma: The Garden that Bounded the Four Seasons (Act 12 Advancement Campaign), Packing Crimson Tomatoes (YABATAN VEGETABLE), Gentle Oni's Weapon (ONISAN KOCHIRA)

Masumi Usui: Sweet Ripe ☆ Spring Fruit (SUMMER VACATION Collection), Rumored Lady (La Vie En Rose), Promising Young Employee (SPRING SUIT COLLECTION)

Tsuzuru Minagi: Captive Fairy (Fairy in the Bottle), Huggy Bear (Welcome to the Bear Shop), Oriental Note (MY FAVORITE FRAGRANCE)

Itaru Chigasaki: Delinquent Upperclassman Behind the School (Nostalgic Gymnasium zwei), Puppet of Uro (ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTION), Night's Farewell (All aboard!)

Citron: Childhood Friend's Caretaker (SCHOOL UNIFORM COLLECTION), Accessorized with Flowering Dogwood (SUMMER YUKATA COLLECTION), Spirited Arrow (Thus Begins the Horseback Archery)

Chikage Utsuki: Tailor-made (Graceful tailor), One Hundred Gazes (Summer Hyakki Yagyo), Hit the Target! Perfect (Hat Trick)

△△△△△△△

🌻 Summer Troupe Revival Token Cards 🌻

Tenma Sumeragi: Determined Move-in Day (The MANKAI Dorm in Those Days: Spring-Summer Edition), Happy and Joyful Mariachi (To the Person I Want to See, but Can’t), Your Magnificent Self in the Endless Summer (Thinking of You Under the Light Crimson)

Yuki Rurikawa: Audacious×Rocker (69'n' Roll 4ever!), Stockings and Stilettos (FAVORITE SHOES COLLECTION), Rose Quartz Palette (Beautiful eyes)

Muku Sakisaka: Makeup: Ice (Yummy☆Cosmetics), Aquamarine Dream (Beautiful eyes), Curiosity Guide (Jurassic Memoir)

Misumi Ikaruga: Prodigy Top Dancer (Welcome to BURLESQUE), Exhilarating Back Shot (Kiss Shot), The Floral Prince (fairy-tale kingdom)

Kazunari Miyoshi: The Cat's and My Secret (Sunday With a Cat), Wink When the Rain Pauses (In the Sky After the Rain), Dance of Prayer (Dancer of Rituals)

Kumon Hyodo: Jump In! Parkour (3,2,1, START!), Mischievous Fairy (Fairy in the Bottle), Underclassman's Assignment (Nostalgic Gymnasium)

△△△△△△△

🍁 Autumn Troupe Revival Token Cards 🍁

Banri Settsu: The Garden that Bounded the Four Seasons (Act 11 Advancement Campaign), Gaze of the Taiko Player (World's No. 1 Ohina-sama), Delicious Assortment (BOUQUET CREPE)

Juza Hyodo: Novice Photographer (June Tuxedo), Elated Cigar Box (Hyakka Ryouran), A Single Breakthrough Skill (Majestic Magic Teacher)

Taichi Nanao: Smile☆Decoration (Toppings of Your Choice), My Ideal Way to Soak (Midsummer Paradise), Emperor Penguin's Invitation (WHITE WINTER COLLECTION)

Omi Fushimi: Grateful to This Once-In-a-Lifetime Experience (Farewell!), Kitsune Waiter (The Ayakashi Ryokan is Open), Run around the field. (Us Back Then)

Sakyo Furuichi: Seize Your Fate (EnDgame StuDy), Master of the Royal Palace (Beautiful Country), Magical☆Keemun (Magical Toys)

Azami Izumida: The Pleasure of Battle (SURVIVAL STRATEGY), Tub-Washed Laundry Method (WASH & DRY), Unique Sole (FAVORITE SHOES COLLECTION)

△△△△△△△

❄️ Winter Troupe Revival Token Cards ❄️

Tsumugi Tsukioka: Renewed Move-in Day (The MANKAI Dorm in Those Days: Autumn-Winter Edition), Blessed Ribbon Wands (June Promise), The Shirt's a Perfect Match (VELUDO WINTER COLLECTION)

Tasuku Takato: Astride a Noble Steed (Thus Begins the Horseback Archery), Focusing on a Single Point (Hat Trick), Hunter of Justice (Many Many Candy)

Hisoka Mikage: Admired by All the Students in School (Nostalgic Gymnasium), KING・OF・PUMPKIN (AUTUMN HALLOWEEN COLLECTION), Yappy Ventriloquist Pillow (Hyakka Ryouran)

Homare Arisugawa: Sense Ruler (Tarot of Fate), The ABC of a Man who Can (Night Walker), Bubbly and Jittery (NOSTALGIA)

Azuma Yukishiro: Empress Beauty (Heaven's Arcana), Tempting Chocolate (99％ CACAO:HOLIC), Sexy×Rocker (69'n' Roll 4ever!)

Guy: Roses et chocolat (Moment of Bliss), The Ultimate Pair (Graceful tailor), Smart LIVE! (Our 2nd LIVE)

△△△△△△△

🎭 Other Revival Token Cards 🎭

Isuke Matsukawa: No SSR, No SR, The Prince of April 1st (April Fool's 2017)

Ken Sakoda: The Newcomer Host of April 1st (April Fool's 2018), No SR, No R

Yuzo Kashima: The Champion of April 1st (April Fool's 2019), No SR, No R

Tetsuro Iwai: April Fool's Carpenter (April Fool's 2020), No SR, No R

Kaya Mizuno: The Company President of April 1st (April Fool's 2021), No SR, No R

Madoka Ikaruga: Wizard of April First (April Fool's 2022), No SR, No R

Reni Kamikizaka: Us on April 1st (April Fool's 2023), No SR, No R

[friends-to-lovers-tournament]

Friends to Lovers Tournament: Quarterfinals, Match 1

propaganda under the cut!

Makoharu:

They are the first ship that comes to mind when I think of friends to lovers. I know Free! hasn't been popular since 2013, bug I just love them so much... Makoto's devotion to Haru. There's even a movie that flashes back to when they're kids when Makoto says "I love swimming and I love Haruka". Soft...

Fuyupoly:

Submission 1:

they're from the winter troupe of the mankai company, and unlike the other troupes they're all adults. that said, they all have varying degrees of trauma and emotional stuntedness. it takes them some time to fully open up to each other bc they're all very cautious of each other's boundaries and don't want to cross any lines which initially led to some issues in the group's formation. over time they've learned to bridge the gap while still being mindful of hard boundaries. at one point they have a discussion about what exactly their relationship is (gay) cuz they were talking about how the other troupes have clearly defined dynamics (spring=family, summer=besties, autumn=rivals & teammates) but they don't,, and homare deadass says they're "people bound by a common destiny" which in and of itself sounds very Gay (like why are you as a man bound to other men by a common destiny), but it goes even further because homare starts spouting WEDDING VOWS: "In sickness and in health, for better or for worse, we shall share our laughter and our tears as those with an intertwined fate... How beautiful we are!" THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE FROM THE GAME AND THE MC EVEN REMARKS "i can already hear wedding bells in the distance..." 

gradually they become closer, in individual sub-units based on who's paired up as co-leads for a play, and as a troupe overall. also two of its members are childhood friends who had a messy 'divorce' in their young adulthood and it took the game breaking its genre to introduce a timeloop for them to finally make up if that means anything to you. one of their troupe songs "precious to us ~bokura no kisetsu" has some pretty beautiful and fruity lines: "The many kindnesses born in me here / Never fail to breathe life into my chest / Even all the pain and bitterness / Have now become dear to me (Ah…Stay with me)", "No matter how many times our season passes / Let us keep living together / Holding our hands, without ever letting go / Let us open up the curtain of tomorrow", "There is no need for words, because once our gazes meet / Joy sparks a light in your eyes", "Our journey, may it be a brilliant one / As our breaths overlap as one"

a lot of their plays has a LOT of homoerotic tension between the two leads too. their first play has tsumugi and tasuku play angels, and it's heavily implied that tasuku's character has an unrequited crush on tsumugi's character. their third play has azuma play a vampire and tasuku play Just Some Guy and it's generally agreed in the fandom to be one of the gayest, if not THE gayest, play A3 has ever written. obviously the vampire thing is very fruity, but there's also how the vampire was longing to bite the human but was holding himself back, and when the vampire left the human in the end, the human was absolutely HEARTBROKEN over it and was swearing they would reunite one day. the stage play of this takes it even further by having the vampire embrace the human from behind and BITE his neck. the fourth play is a watered-down adaptation of Phantom of the Opera where they genderbend Christine into Chris among other things and change the relationship between Chris and the Phantom to one of friendship.... ostensibly so, because there's still a lot of homoerotic undertones in their interactions. i could go on but this should be enough of a sampling taste 

Submission 2:

the writers rlly said "let's take 2 normal guys who are childhood friends and have been into theatre since their school days and have them go through a pre-canon messy divorce, an eccentric poet with a potentially controversial haircut, an amnesiac sleepyhead who can only be awoken with marshmallows but is also somehow extremely athletic despite doing nothing but sleeping and eating marshmallows all day, a man who is so beautiful and mysterious he breaks gender, and a supposed android from a fictional south asian country, and throw them into a blender, oh and for good measure let's throw in some theatre and angst and gay and angst and gay" and the end result was marriage. i mean it took them a lot of awkward fumbling around and conflicts to get there but they got there and thats what matters. ok *technically* in-text they're all rlly good friends and kinda found family BUT they are found family via marriage papers i do not make the rules chief

Submission 3:

The reason why they are so friends-to-lovers to me is because their relationship is founded on quiet and unconditional acceptance of each other—regardless of how flawed they may be or how heavy their burdens and trauma may be. When the troupe first formed (sans Guy who was in another country at the time), they didn’t have any major clashing personalities at the very beginning and generally they were mindful of each other’s boundaries, unlike the other troupes that came before them. However, it’s BECAUSE they were too mindful of said boundaries that it was difficult for them to break down their walls and bond as a team—and there were a LOT of walls to break down, as all of them had varying degrees of emotional baggage and trauma.

In fact, it’s only three plays in that they finally truly start opening up to each other, with Azuma getting the ball rolling by opening up about the deep loneliness that haunted him ever since his childhood. It’s during this conversation that they also discuss what their relationship as a troupe is, because the other troupes have defined their relationship as a team (Spring is family, Summer is best friends, Autumn is rivals & teammates), and Homare goes on to declare that they’re “people bound by a common destiny” and goes on to spew wedding vows: "In sickness and in health, for better or for worse, we shall share our laughter and our tears as those with an intertwined fate... How beautiful we are!" I mean… it can’t get any more obvious than this, really. They are married.

But anyway, Tsumugi says he wants their relationship to be one where while they respect each other’s need for space, they’ll also be there for each other and share their pains and burdens—or in his words: “supporting each other when our burdens become too heavy to bear on our own”—which I think is really sweet because it carries this idea of quiet, unconditional acceptance; they don’t push each other to share more than they’re comfortable with sharing, but with whatever they ARE comfortable with sharing everyone carries the load and pain because pain is easier to bear when you’re not bearing it alone <3 

A later part of the story focuses on Hisoka, a mysterious amnesiac, being terrified of regaining his memories and facing some “sin” from his past that has led to another character, Chikage, trying to take revenge on him. When he confesses this to the rest of the Winter troupe, Homare asks, “How heavy is this sin you bear?” and Azuma suggests, “Perhaps it’s just heavy enough for the five of us to carry together.” (at this point Guy hasn’t joined yet). The stage play adapts this scene into a song called Key to Memory. The key (pun unintended) part is 1:27 where there’s a back-and-forth between Hisoka and the other Winter troupe members (sans Tasuku because he wasn’t in that particular play)

Hisoka: “I’m scared…”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “It’s okay.”

Hisoka: “My unforgivable sin…”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “Let’s carry it together.”

Hisoka: “I might not be me anymore.”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “It’s all right. We understand and we accept you, so let’s go together.”

And it ends with Hisoka singing: “I was afraid to open the door of my locked memories. But if everyone is here, I believe I can do it.”  In both the game and stage play, Hisoka fully regains his memories and reconciles with Chikage (long story). He tells Fuyupoly he can’t go into detail about his past with Chikage because it’s dangerous but he’ll tell them when the time is right, and they accept this saying that no matter what his past is, they know and love him as their Hisoka which obviously is a very sweet thing for friends to say, but it’s also very Marriage-coded to me.

Later, Guy is introduced as an android from Zahra (a fictional South Asian country) and joins the Winter troupe as a temporary member—because he’s stuck in Japan for the foreseeable future—until they find a permanent member to replace him. The other Winter members have a conversation among themselves and agree that regardless of whether he’s really an android or a human they’ll accept Guy for who he is and help him improve his acting, which again harkens back to the idea of ‘unconditional acceptance’. Eventually it’s revealed that Guy is in fact a human who has forgotten his memories of the past and his emotions. He recovers his memories all at once which shocks his system and causes him to pass out. When he wakes up in his room, he finds the rest of the Winter Troupe asleep around the room—which I believe is symbolic of their whole theme of “quiet acceptance”: they don’t want to push Guy to share beyond what he’s comfortable with, but they’re always there to listen to him and share his load if that’s what he wants. He opens up about the memories he recovered, and they don’t treat him with pity like he’s a lost child, but still extend gentle empathy and understanding. They also emphasise that it genuinely doesn’t matter to them whether he’s human or android because he’s Guy first and foremost. It’s at this point that Guy truly lets himself become part of the Winter troupe/Fuyupoly and not just as a temporary stand-in member, because he’s found a place where he’s found himself again and people who will accept who this “himself” is, whether that be an android devoid of emotions or a human brimming with vivid beautiful emotions.

[Mod note: There’s a LOT more but we’re afraid of crashing the post. I (Deli) summarised it the best I can since I’m familiar with A3, but if you want to read the full thing you can check it out on this google doc)

[izumi-fanclub]

A3! Event Story Translation “NEW ERA GARDEN” [Chapter 1]

A meeting is held about the future of the Fleur Award and the new prize.

*Flashback*

Hakkaku

The heck. I thought you were out. You were just snoozing away here?

Yukio

I’m up now.

Hakkaku

What were you up to?

Yukio

Just lying here, I can feel connected to my favorite seasons from the smell of the wind and grass, even the ground’s temperature.

Hakkaku

The seasons, huh? Well, have you decided on a theme for the next shows?

Yukio

Spring Troupe couldn’t decide between medieval Europe or the Japanese Heian period, on the other hand, Summer Troupe’s torn between adventure or sports…

Autumn Troupe was split between spies or mercenaries, Winter Troupe can’t agree whether on rice or fruits.

Hakkaku

What kind of bozo gave the last two choices, seriously. Who did you even ask about this?

Yukio

I told everyone that as long as Hakkaku-san’s the one who’ll write it, they’ll definitely want to do it.

Now we’re all fighting over it.

Hakkaku

All right, let’s mix it up then.

Yukio

Wonder if we should decide the casting through rock-paper-scissors~.

Hakkaku

If you do that, they’ll make a fuss again.

Yukio

…I honestly wish that guy was still with me. I had this role in mind for him…

Hakkaku

You should reconcile with him before things get any more complicated. The longer you let it simmer, the messier it’ll get.

Yukio

Yeah… someday, I’m sure. There’s no one else like Reni for me after all.

*Cut to the present*

Yukio

…

Reni

Oi, Tachibana.

Yukio

Huh? Oh, sorry. I was spacing out.

Reni

Get a grip… You’re in a meeting.

Board Member

It’s fine. I understand enough from what you explained. I agree with the system.

So far, we feel that it’s appropriate for a new Fleur award to be more open in its renewal compared to other Fleur Awards that have been in place up to now.

Reni

Let us work out the details, then.

Board Member

However, we’ve been swarmed with inquiries from all over regarding what'll happen with next year’s Fleur Award.

And it’s impossible to stay silent for long in front of the media.

In order to ease the anxieties of the organizations losing the objectives, how about a progress report on it?

Yukio

That’s right, it’d be good to hear about the plans Reni is working on.

There won’t be a problem with the timing on it, sooner or later the information could leak out on the construction.

Board Member

I agree. I’ll leave it up to you to decide when and how.

Reni

Then let’s arrange an official press release ahead of time.

Yukio

Ah! Reni ?

Yukio

I just thought of something good to report.

Reni

…I have a bad feeling about this.

[ Next ]

[aranarumei]

hi kiri What’s the deal with a3’s timeloop day. you shouldn’t be surprised that I am asking this. okay I love you bye

ok this is actually a pretty simple answer! but i got rambly so here's a readmore.

A3! (which stands for Act! Addict! Actors! <- don’t ask me why it’s this. idk) is a gacha game where you play as the manager, Izumi Tachibana (I’m doing first name, last name here) and you work to revive a dying theater company called Mankai. there’s 3 Acts, each with like, 4 big stories in them. and a bunchhhh of shorter event storiess which imo are crucial to experience. The first 2 acts, along with the interceding events, have been completely localized, and were run on the now-defunct English server. There is, however, an archive—if at any point in time you are ever interested, feel free to shoot me a message. And I’m serious. Even if it’s like two years later. It’s been like almost 3 years since I started going thru a3 and I haven’t even finished act 2. I’m slow

Anyways, Act 1 deals with establishing the company—in its former glory, there used to be four troupes that rotated by season. Izumi’s dad also used to run it, and he disappeared. So that’s why there’s four big stories each act: it’s one per season. In Act 1, each story deals with gathering the members for each season troupe together, and then pulling off their first play. And it also deals with like, the issues all the characters are facing. It is like, within the yumejoshi genre so there’s definitely that vibe of like. wow look at all these pretty boys who are kind of into me!? but I think it’s pretty mild on that point and like. something I enjoy is that I can see Izumi as like. an actual Character as opposed to just a self-insert. Which is nice. but the real selling point for me is that there’s a lot of like, found family and rich character dynamics within the cast. It is even homosexual sometimes.

One thing I find really interesting about a3 is that I think it has really strong character writing and development. And it’s really good at establishing different “moods” across each troupe, which works well in creating dynamics and also because each troupe specializes in something different. So spring is like, the “classic” troupe—they tend to do lots of reinterpretations of classic works, though that’s not exclusively their thing… but anyways. they do like. nice fantastical stories in my opinion. Summer does comedy, autumn does action, and winter does drama. and winter HAS drama.

Now up until winter there’s been some wackiness in a3 but it’s been like, pretty grounded in how it’s played out. and then winter rolls around and. see the issue with winter is that unlike some of the younger members they’re all composed of adults. so they’re bad at talking about their feelings, because instead of just shouting things out loud they will just shut down and like. Leave. I love this about them and I think it’s such a good writing choice.

Enter Tasuku Takato and Tsumugi Tsukioka. Tasuku and Tsumugi used to be like, the best of friends. they acted together and followed their passions together. and then they both auditioned for the God Troupe together, which is this prestigious famous troupe (it’s also evil.) and while tasuku got in and became one of the lead actors, tsumugi failed his audition. This left a deep scar on Tsumugi, who ended up kind of running away from acting as a vocation all together. now, Tasuku quit the God troupe because they were engaging in some shady stuff, and ended up joining Mankai along with Tsumugi, who coincidentally was inspired to try acting again. tsumugi’s been elected the leader of winter troupe, and therefore the person who’s meant to take the lead role in their first play. Tasuku is constantly snapping at him whenever he’s unconfident, and it’s just not great vibes. To top it all off, they’ve been issued a challenge by the God troupe, where they’ll both perform and the audience has to vote on which play they like better. Tsumugi is not really confident he can stand up to them for obvious reasons. Tasuku gets mad at him about it. Tsumugi runs into this weird doll, and the next day, they wake up in a time loop.

See, the thing is, they’re on such a tight deadline for the play, and winter is So Bad at talking about their feelings, that magic is real now. this is somewhat of an oversimplification, but it’s funny to say it like this. Anyways, there are like, seven mysteries in Mankai (have I mentioned they all dorm together! they all do! Each of them has a roommate and they all live in a big dorm that’s connected to their own theater and stage. It’s part of why they’re in such big debt and trouble at the beginning—its really hard to maintain those facilities) and one of them is about this doll that will put you in a time loop unless you become friends. essentially. And this is what happens… eventually they end up talking to each other for real due to the time loop, and each affirms just how much they respect the acting of the other. later on when Tsumugi slips back into being unconfident tasuku is able to resolve his past mistakes, because part of why he was so angry at Tsumugi was also because he was angry at himself for like. not reaching out. And telling him how much he loved him and his acting. Because their styles are very different—tasuku is loud and commanding, and Tsumugi is a more understated and subtle.

A3 is also very very cool in that parts of its plays mirror real life? so like. this play, sympathy for an angel, has two leads: Michael (Tsumugi) and Raphael (Tasuku). In it, Michael becomes interested in this woman on a list of people who are about to die, and ends up visiting the human world. He writes letters to her. His friend, Raphael, warns him against this, saying that he’s foolish for going so far for someone he can’t even meet. And each time he steps into the human world, his own soul gets weaker, and his wings begin to wither. Still, he persists against objections. Eventually, the woman recovers, gets a fiancé, and he returns to heaven. Thinking he’ll just wish for her happiness even with his unrequited love, he looks at the list and finds out that despite recovering, she’s still on the close to death list. Despite the danger to himself, he descends into the human world, and takes her place in a car accident. As he’s dying, his soul about to be obliterated because he’s been in the human world too often, Raphael descends and holds him in his arms. Michael says that he’s happy he got to do something for the person he loves, and he’s happy to be held by his best friend. Raphael says that though he’d called Michael the fool, it was him that truly was one: because he stood by, unable to protect both the person he loves and his best friend. Because he was in love with Michael the whole time of course. And then Michael dies in his arms. Now this makes me weepy as does the accompanying character song but what I really love most about it is like. Raphael’s regrets in that he didn’t protect Michael kind of directly mirror Tasuku’s own regrets in being unable to help Tsumugi when he was going through a tough time? only Tsumugi isn’t dead and so Tasuku has an actual chance to fix things, which is sweet.

It should be mentioned that one guy in the spring troupe WRITES all of these plays which is deeply funny to me bc it means that 1) he is probably gay and doesn’t know this and 2) he has precognitive abilities regarding the inner psyche of all of his castmates. and that’s a3 timeloop day. some of these a3 characters have me by the throat btw I just get beamed visions of them chatting and introspecting like constantly. I definitely haven’t explained everything but I think this is enough?

[mxddyhero]

A3! characters as LUSH products, because I think about this a lot, actually. Winter troupe: seasonal addition

spring | summer | autumn

[ace-and-the-rpg-horrors]

idk if someone's come up with it before, but what if- PJSK unit swap AU where the characters are in units based on which season they were born in? (inspired by A3's troupes) so they would be as follows:

spring (March, April, May): Kohane, Airi, Minori, Ena, Tsukasa, Saki, Toya

summer (June, July, August): Rui, Nene, An, Ichika, Mizuki

autumn (September, October, November): Emu, Haruka, Honami, Akito

winter (December, January, February): Shizuku, Shiho, Mafuyu Kanade

unfortunately it is not completely balanced as i hoped it would be (spring greatly outnumbering the rest) but ah well. didn't include VS cause it would mean none for spring while winter would get three. so more imbalance

[charismaofobedience]

uu shld explain a3 to me bc pretty please maybe :3 <- has wanted to get into it but it always feels like a Lot

OK OK. a3... ok so explaining basics alone because yeah. it suffers from the enstars problem of 'lowkey long going franchise so there's a fair bit of content' but once you get the basics it gets easier to handle

So. There's this one theater company (mankai company) who's about to close the fuck down because they didn't have any new plays or actors in ages and this guy wants it closed to pay debt BUT! they just recently got their first actor in a long time! young sillyboy sakuya is there and he and the director (izumi, similar to anzu n general mcs who pull the strings behind the scenes of idol franchises) will go and hunt for other actors to join the troupe and help save the company. Shinenigand ensue, they end up with sakuya, babygirl tm, fucking prince from a distant country, npc number 3 and worlds best gamer ever (self proclaimed). in this group we already get the next play writer for the company (tsuzuru, aka the npc number 3) and then we have the first troupe completed: spring troupe aka harugumi

Since we have spring yeah you can guess how it goes. They eventually get people for the other seasons too (spring which granted us the creature behind the clothes, autumn which granted us someone who helps w stage effects and winter which granted us old people yaoi) and we have a vast diversity of characters such as ex gang leader ex yakuza some fucking puppy spy with amnesia ANOTHER spy but made worse triangle milf fucking poet and more! There's also a bird and he talks in the game I think that's important

The anime low-key isn't a bad introduction to the series and if anything I'd say is a p good retelling of the first season! But alas yeah first season only so the final 4 characters added (which complete each troupe to 6 members) aren't shown in anime, but otherwise it's vv good <333 tldr

[icharchivist]

it's a bit early, but happy new year! i'll make sure to properly wish you when the time comes, but I did go through the mankai event now so it felt strange not to say it, haha... i was actually thinking about finishing this event new years eve to be appropriate, but i ended up getting a little sick so. might as well do the events now while ive got the time right? also also!! i started a3 almost exactly 2 years ago on jan 1 2021 so i thought it would be nice to maybe try to start act 2 then? since after this i just have the anniversary event and vday magic (i think i'll do one day princess after ch 5). anyways the actual event. as usual i'll go through my thoughts chronologically.

that first opening scene is so good. citron staring at that charm while sakuyas sleeping… now that’s not really any evidence for citron being a light sleeper but in my heart I just KNOW he is okay. and what great sound design!! like all silence. no backing music. just the sound of sakuyas quiet snores. it sets that mood so well so i really felt that the charm citron was staring at must be really important to him...

oh also i want to say this because i felt soooo smart for doing it. the moment that first scene opened with citron i paused and took some notes bc i wanted to guess who else was in the cg lmaooo. with all the act 1 non-play events, there's exactly 11 events. i'm assuming the anniversary event is special so that cg might have the whole a3 cast or smthing like all the leaders? or even like a cg of matsukawa and izumi or something. that'd be cool. but who knows. but without that, its ten, and then theres 2 per event cg which gets u the 20 members of the troupe. excluding inter-troupe pairings, there's 6 unique combinations of seasons you can make: spring summer, spring autumn, spring winter, summer autumn, summer winter, autumn winter. we've had 8 events so far, and 4 unique combinations have been repeated twice: spring summer (tsuzuru&kazunari + itaru&misumi), autumn winter (sakyo&azuma, taichi&tasuku), spring winter (masumi&tsumugi, sakuya&hisoka), and summer autumn (muku&juza, yuki&banri). there's 4 members who haven't gotten event cgs yet, then: citron, tenma, omi, and homare. and there's exactly 2 unique season combinations left: spring autumn and summer winter. suffice to say that when i noticed that omi and citron were in the same cleaning group, and talked to masumi and juza about their talent show thing, and THEN went to get groceries together... i cheered so hard. calculations for the win.

back to chronological thoughts:

i’ve written this before but juza 🤝 yuki: *sees any situation* how do I make this about banri/tenma (derogatory)

nonetheless juzas conception of banri is sooooo funny to me. like banris super smart and talented and juza is like. he’s a weirdo who will draw a face on his stomach and make it talk by moving his muscles. like that’s sooo specific. and then banri immediately being like. I CAN do it! the moment juzas like. oh. …you can’t? like. actually something is weird about both of you (affectionate)

sakyo: aren’t you all forgetting something very important we have to do before the new year

me, nodding sagely: ah yes. annual performance reviews. *cut to next scene* ohhhh they’re just deep cleaning. I was just like. 100% convinced that they needed to do their annual like evaluations. i don't even do those but it's just one of my first associations with the year end i guess???

anyways when they find that duct taped box w/ yuki mentioning they could sell old props for play funding… I don’t know if it’s ever said outright but considering yukis always talking to sakyo abt like costuming and stuff and they collaborated with that kigurumi punishment I have to wonder if yuki has like. a nonzero amount of info on play budgeting as compared to most of the troupe. kazunari. the 14 year old in your troupe knows more about budget management than you. i mean yukis been selling his clothing etc. on the net so maybe he does know a nonzero amount of this kind of thing with like selling props...

it was so cute to see their street act! they’ve come so far. love the way azuma thinks abt it like “how do I jump in here” and goes “I’m going to cause problems. on purpose.” with making a surprise phone call. citron though oh my gosh. its like. yes. he does know what a year end rush is. and abt travel prices. hes not stupid!! but god the way hes like im gonna wish all the grocery staff happy new year as his excuse for searching for his charm... he knows. what he is doing. same with those travel prices its like. citron can be So Loud but hes also so careful to not say much. i want to pat him on the head. unrelated but i didnt realize azuma called citron his highness? i thought monarchy hater no. 1 citron would dislike that a little more. its also making me think if citron has mentioned hes like a prince / royalty...? since azuma calls him that. but ive got to think he hasn't. still more points to my runaway prince citron theory. omi helping him find the charm was so sweet though! its like. wow. nice. still the way citron literally Does Not Say Anything. crazy of him

citron: …it is a very special gift that I received from someone.

me: …guy?

and later w/ citron: never mind. but there is someone in my country who I would like to see again.

me: …guy?

oh but i'm not glossing over the fact that citron has three younger brothers who he's convinced don't want to see him again. runaway prince im telling u. also thats so sad wtf. the citron and omi cg was cute tho! i kind of liked how little this event did in terms of revealing too much like... citron lets a couple of details slip but doesn't really say much at all. which makes sense for his character i think!! man what a great event in terms of making me excited for act 2, though... i hope it comes up when guy shows up!! not to be like. i want to see citron cry. but i want him to get a little emotional yknow. reveal some of ur feelings i want u to be comforted.

i thought a lot of duos for the talent show ep were so cute! like hisoka and homare with homare being like. ill get u special marshmallows even, so do something with me. idk how to express it properly but i feel like in this event especially u can really feel how much joy homare gets by like. simply spending time with hisoka? made me remember their play event. and shakespeare?? In ENGLISH???? im obsessing over this. was it much ado about nothing? what play would be best for them… i haven't read enough shakespeare to make a definitive decision, unfortunately... my personal vote is for othello. homare knows shakespeare in english bc he’s a fan but hisoka… if he’s proficient in english. hm. hmm. more points to him being some kind of assassin/spy/foreign agent thing. like chikage was also overseas probably doing some assassin/spy business for a while, wasn’t he… im watching you.

also tasuku and tsumugi with their pantomiming and the way when itaru compliments him tasuku is IMMEDIATELY like "oh im nothing compared to tsumugi though" like wow. its kind of so nice hearing this out loud bc its like. oh right. this is what they were yelling at each other about in act 1. and then masumi and juza's bartending act. with the rainbow cocktail. masumi and juza, pointing at a3: I know what you are. packing peanuts was my guess for what was inside the box so im glad it was at least like a daruma doll lol. and juza got his sweets! the lil bonus with the ppl staying in the dorm to celebrate the new year was so cute too tho. like when misumi mentioned the triangular carrots.

tenma: d—did you say carrots? why did arisu have to leave me now…

me: tenma and homare friends??? homare eats tenma’s carrots (which he. doesnt like?) for him??? i need to see this. well i'm pretty confident they're gonna be the duo for vday magic so I'm quite excited, haha. oh also in the new years text chat!! is homares screen name alice? i think thats cute. anyways what a sweet event! it didnt leave me feeling anything toooo emotional but it made me REALLY excited for act 2 bc i feel like that's where the real payoff is gonna be yknow? so it was cool in a different way.

AAH HEY HEY HEY! HERE YOU ARE! I needed to be done with the event to properly tackle this ask, thank you for waiting.

First of, thank you for the good wishes <333 Happy New year to you too if we don't get around to say it on the day itself. And saying it because you went through the a3 event makes total sense ahaha

And it's such a good plan with timing! I'd be nice if you manage to reach act 2 by then, i think it's supposed to start late February in the timeline so, at this rhythm you can get in synch with the story as it goes! (and good plan for ODP since it IS set right after chap 5 originally).

ANYWAY WAHOO ALWAYS NICE READING YOUR THOUGHTs, LET'S GO!

And oh god yeah, i can totally picture your HC about Citron being a light sleeper. As for the charm oh man… oh man.

and oh my GOD. THAT'S SO CLEVER HOLY SHIT. i would never have figured it out meanwhile you kept track of all of this!! that's so impressive holy shit!!! your calculation is IMPRESSIVE HERE.

ALHDLKDFJFDLKFD Juza and Yuki, together in being so damn tired of their leader (affectionly but also derogatory)

AND HELPPP I FORGOT ABOUT THIS SCENE. Juza's conception of Banri is truly the funniest, i love that about those two. And the fact Banri can totally catch the bait is what's even funnier. And they were both idiots (and they were both idiots!)

ohmygod you're really set up to be a fellow acting addict now that your first thought was "annual performance review" this is so funny.

And you're totally right about Yuki i think. I don't recall them ever mentioning it directly, but considering how much he's fighting with Sakyo about budget and how often Yuki wins, considering Sakyo isn't exactly the kind to go KINDLY on something just because someone would insult him, it figures Yuki is arguing with proper arguments when it comes to budget. Like, both arguing why he needs expensive material (how it would reflect on the company and all) AND on how to manage the budget to justify it. as you said, Yuki sells clothes online so he's probably the best equiped about it. Which is really impressive, the 14yo is the one the most adjusted to discuss budget with the yakuza. Love that about him.

ohmygod right the street acts are always a nice way to show how they changed. And Azuma <3333 my mister problem. But yes totally agree about everything Citron there (that isn't confirming or unconfirming theory at least). he's very considerate and very smart, his only issue is the grasp on the language, but aside from that? he knows stuff. And sometimes when he acts stupid, that's exactly what it is. an act. He knows when to not say much. For Citron, he never mentioned anything about his past to anyone, but you might want to read the Citron&Muku crossbackstage from the "Others" tab. It's called "Sir Citron's Secret" and probably would give fuel to your theories. (while you're on that tab do look at the Homare&Sakyo one just because it's one of the funniest on the list). As it though, aside from whatever he tells Muku and how serious he is about it, he hasn't really come into details about it to anyone at all, aside from hating the monarchy. So Azuma calling him His Highness is indeed strange. I feel like Azuma definitely got Vibes from Citron (which is mhmmmm considering Azuma is a really good people reader), and it seems that Citron hasn't found in his heart a way to tell Azuma to knock it off. Or perhaps Citron is more annoyed at the idea of ACTING like Royalty (so, with the royal roles he gets), than he is being refered as such? all the more mhmmm things about his behavior for sure.

Omi is so so sweet and so nice yessss and Citron was so interesting this event. I love when the mask falls around Citron for a bit. He remains mysterious in his own way, but it's always fascinating to approach. God the charm. I have many thoughts about the charm. That i will not elaborate on. But so many thoughts.

And god yeah, the sibling situation. It's so sad. Regardless of the details it also does explain why he wants the Spring Troupe to be a family this much and why he ends up caring about his troupesmates so much. (and Muku, who's one of the charas outside of his troupe Citron has a lot of affection for. Re: their crossbackstage)

And yeah i agree, this event was really good for Citron's development without ruining the mystery for now. It's also really a good event to go back to when you do know, it's so fascinating. BUT HELP "I WANT TO SEE CITRON CRY" I SEE YOU. I hope act 2 lives up to your expectations <3

god you pointing out that Homare has so much joy being with Hisoka. Yes you're totally correct. Like, he may complains at time and Hisoka can be so rude but Homare enjoys spending time with him so much. I do love that he bribed him into it though. Homare, of course, is just like that, talking in English and in French and whatever. For Hisoka…. Yeah it sure is shady isn't it. Like wow okay mister amnesia how did you get that.

Tsumu and Tasu being on this vibe was so good. I love how it shows just how complicit they are. And Tasuku gets to be more and more communicative of his feelings. It is, after all, the thing he had to learn, since it's because he didn't know how to talk to his troupesmate, especially Tsumugi, that things went wrong, and he's been learning and it's sweet. THE RAINBOW OMMENT HELPPP.

BUT YESS The preparation for New Year are so sweet. And DLKFJDLKFJFD THE CARROTS. THAT DYNAMIC. But yeah it's pretty much this, Tenma doesn't like carrot, Homare wants him to eat carrots, but as long as Tenma doesn't want to Homare will eat them for him. It's adorable isn't it. AND THE NEW YEAR CHAT YESS IT'S SO SWEET. Homare's name is indeed Alice on here (since his last name is Arisugawa = Arisu, which is pronounced Alice. It's also sweet considering Hisoka always calls him "Arisu" only. also i think it's really cute like, the duo Alice In Wonderland and Sleeping Prince (canon nickname Homare use on Hisoka). They're adorable.)

BUT YEAHHH this event was great. A good lighthearted event for NY and just. so soft all around. I love those guys so much.

And indeed building up some act 2 things which are going to be fun to explore. Looking forward to see you experience it all, since you do have a keen eye at picking stuff up ;DDD

thank you once again for sharing all of this with me. It was a blast to read through and relive, and reminded me of quite a few things (esp since you're entering the territory of material-i-only-read-once, compared to almost everything before that i read a few dozen times ahah). So that's going to be a blast to relive for me as well ;D

thank you so much once again, and happy new year if we don't see each other again before the 1st ;D

Take care <33

[mishkakagehishka]

What is A3! ???

It is a mobage!!! It has an anime adaptation and a lotta musicals, too, but it's mainly a game :) sadly, the english server shut down last year (rip, and the trans+localisation was SO good too).

The protag/player character is Izumi Tachibana (though you can change her first name), who acts as the director of a theatre company ^_^ the theatre company was nearing bankrupcy at the start of the game and only had the incompetent manager (who is such a dear) and one actor. Two, technically, but the other one was a bird. The bird was more skilled, also. Basically the play they put on stunk and it was their last chance to get some money to get their debts in order, our protag was the only person who saw it, though. But she was very inspired by it, and when the (stay with me) yakuza guys came round to bulldoze the theatre, she essentially said she'll improve the company and pay back the debt. (She has no experience as a director.)

Anyway. The story is separated into seasons, with each one following one troupe, but with a general overarching storyline that ties them together (getting the Fleur award, making the company survive the year, and so on). It's really fun, it's all about found family and striving towards your dreams and the characters growing as people and growing their relationships, it's really such a good story, I love it with all my heart.

Spring, summer, autumn and winter troupes in left-right, top-bottom order :] actually i wanna go into detail gimmie a second

So, as I said, there's the four troupes: spring focuses on traditional fairy-tales and fantasy plays, summer on slapstick comedy, autumn is all about action and winter about soft and subtle serious plays. For example, their debut plays were

Spring: a Romeo and Juliet where RomiJuli were actually besties, and also Juliet was Julius because none of them could play girls

Summer: a 1001 nights adaptation where Scheherezade was telling the story to Ali Baba, but when she had to leave to be wed to the king, he used the genie to wish it away. It was actually really funny, i should rewatch it sometimes

(Digression but the plays were like. You do rehearsals and then unlock the play which is a lil 5min video of their chibis walking on the stage with props and animations and speech bubbles, it's cute)

Autumn: mafiosi have to team up despite their horrid relationship to eachother and in the process learn to work together (which perfectly parallels the way the leads actually evolved their relationship off the stage)

Winter: a story about an angel falling in love with a dying human </3

In the spring troupe you have Sakuya, the leader who loves acting and the Original Actor who Izumi saw on stage. He was bad, but really loved it, and that's what made her want to help. Masumi is like a teen heartthrob in his school, but he's apathetic and doesn't really care about anything, except for Izumi who he has a massive crush on. With time, you figure out he's just projecting his lack of parental attention on her. Tsuzuru is their scriptwriter, who is the straight man to Citron's boke, he's a college student who begs to do scriptwriting for the company, but he hyperfocuses on them, writes until he literally drops and worries everyone. Speaking of Citron, he's a foreigner from a country called Citronia, he says he's an exchange student. I think the truth is revealed in winter year 2, but i didn't finish autumn year 2 before the server ended so </3 Itaru is the king of gap, he's a businessman by day, and hardcore gamer by night. Chikage is the year 2 newcomer, can't say much about him, but I'll say more when I get to "the story: the details". Again, I wanna make this detailed :) for Year 1 Spring, the theme was acting, none of them except Sakuya (and Citron?) wanted to act. Tsuzuru wanted to write scripts, Masumi was just following Izumi, Itaru wanted free board, and that made their acting suck because they were all out of sync. Their story follows the characters finding their passion and learning to work together.

Summer's leader is Tenma, who is a famous TV actor, but terrible on-stage because he gets stage-fright. Yuki is the company's costume designer and maker, foul-mouthed, but hiding a sensitive side. Muku is a sweetheart who's very shy and self-depreciative, but wants to be "a prince" (he loves shoujo manga) (when Tsuzuru gave them their script, he said he went to read 1001 nights and called it "just like shoujo"). Misumi fucking LOVES triangles. His name is written as 三角 which means triangle. I can't figure him out, though, he seems like a cheerful and naive young man, but there's a sadness in him, it gets explored in later stories. Kazunari, love of my life, is a college student who is very cheery and happy-go-lucky and super extroverted. And it's an act. He runs the company website. Kumon is also a Year 2 character, so I don't know much about him, but he seems a sweetheart. Idolises his brother (Juza from Autumn). Summer troupe could NOT work together at first. Yuki and Tenma were at eachother's throats all the time. They still are, but less maliciously now. Their story follows them learning to work together, and bounce off eachother, and overcoming their insecurities.

Autumn troupe are my faves. Their leader is Banri, and the "second" guy is Juza. (Now, I forgot to mention, but in Year 1 the main two leads were the leader and "second" guy, which is to say the two whose relationships were the most fucked and needed the most work - in spring this was Sakuya and Masumi, and in Summer it was Tenma and Yuki). I cannot explain one without the other. Juza looks like a delinquent, he's scary, he does get into fights,,,, but mostly in self-defence as beating his ass is seen as a status symbol and he doesn't wanna fight. He wants to act, but he's really bad at it. Banri wants to kick his ass so fucking bad he trails him to the auditions, auditions with him and then decides he'll kick his ass at acting if he can't fight him with fists. Banri is a prodigy, he's good at every fucking thing. I can't say anything on Taichi so as to not spoil. Autumn is a bit dramatic. There's a rival company that we find out about in this season. He needs a hug, though, poor thing could never get an acting gig despite wanting to act so bad. Now, remember when I mentioned the yakuza? Sakyo is the guy they owe money to. He is now working on their finances. Scary old man. Azami is a year 2 character, I haven't finished reading Autumn, so I know nothing, but he's Sakyo's boss' (yes) kid, i hear. And their make-up artist. Omi is the mother hen, but he had a dramatic past as a biker before changing his ways. Malewife central, I love him so much. Autumn's deal was coming to terms with their pasts, accepting themselves and for some it was also about personal growth.

Winter's got the SocietyTM themes. The main two are Tsumugi and Tasuku. Tasuku is an athlete!! A fitness nut!!!!! He used to act for the rival company. Tsumugi is the leader, who works as a tutor :] and loves flower language. They are childhood friends, also. Homare is a poet who is vvvvvvv autistic-coded, he has low (or no?) empathy and can't read people. He talks about feeling like an alien or robot often, but it's not treated as something that needs fixing, even though he's sad about it. Hisoka is the Sleepy CharacterTM who also has amnesia. I will have to tell you more about him in story: the details, tho it will have spoilers. Azuma is the elegant, mature adult TM TM TM TM and he is so.... i can't even describe him. Ethereal. He is looked down upon for his job. I can't remember if saying what it is was a spoiler or not, I think he hid it tho. And about Guy, the newcomer, i know NOTHING. He is also from Citronia (and why Citron's truth is revealed in year 2 winter), but I don't know anything about it. I don't know how to describe what Winter was about. Interpersonal relationships and having understanding for one another. There was a time loop.

And then a bit more on the details of the story!!! Listen.

Listen.

You start playing A3! and, sure, it's a bit out there with the yakuza and the debt and acting parrot. But it's not that unrealistic. It's just goofy. Spring has a normal story, it's two high schoolers with absent family, a college kid, a salaryman/gamer and a foreign guy who speaks with a thick accent unless he's acting. It's goofy, but it's down-to-earth. They fight and can't figure out how to act normally bc half of them don't care and they all have terrible chemistry. One of them sleeps on the stage. They have an impromptu sleepover. They bond. It's so cute and it works and their play was a success and now they have people wanting to join!!

Summer troupe is also very normal, very goofy. A TV star (high schooler) getting called a hammy hack-actor and a loser by a middle schooler, a guy who loves shoujo manga so bad, a college kid who's always hitting on every girl he sees and a guy who collects triangles and also has been living in the dorms without anybody knowing for years. Weird on the triangle guy, but sure. They fight, they go camping, they bare themselves to eachother, they figure out how to work together. The play is a success, more people want to join!!

Autumn!!! A buncha bad boys with bad pasts, some with bad presents. Banri and Juza get handcuffed together. They have to be roomies. Juza snores so fucking loudly.

- SPOILER -

They get betrayed by one of their own?!?!?! But he regrets it and he feels so bad because he realised this company cares more about him than the one that sent him. He doesn't wanna go back. And they accept him

- SPOILER END -

And they write essays about their pasts and learn to see eachother as people and they bond and their play is a success and more people want to join <3

And then Winter. I don't remember much of it. Tsumugi and Tasuku have a tense relationship because they were friends, but Tsumugi gave up on acting. In order to fix this, the universe sticks them in a time loop that only they are aware of, until they talk it the fuck out. Homare wishes he could read people's emotions better so he finds an emotions loupe. It lets him read people's minds and it helps solve a very huge dilemma in the troupe's interpersonal conflicts. He then promptly puts it away and ends hoping he'll one day be able to read people without it, too. I think there's also something about a secret locked room but~~~ i forgot that. Anyway. This is the one where they go against their ultra-powerful rival company. And the play is a success, and the company is saved from bankrupcy!!!!! By just a bit. They're on a zero. Sakyo is still cinching their belts.

And then it gets extra fucked up. Hisoka's amnesia. Is connected to Chikage in year 2. Now this is straight up SPOILERS for this and the paragraph below so feel free to skip this, but it's like. Wahooo funny actors lovely. And then there's the assassin subplot. Chikage and Hisoka were in the same assassin group. Hisoka was presumed dead. Chikage, I think, was there to finish the job. He kidnaps Izumi at some point and threatens her life.

DESPITE IT ALL. A3! the found family ICON. Accept him as one of their own and tell him he, too, has a place in their company, he, too, can find a better life. Just because the usual improvement was "My family is negligent" to "Now my friends are my family" or "i'm gonna kick your ass" to "oh this acting shit kinda goes hard", doesn't mean his can't be "i will literally kill everyone because i am an assassin" to "oh, okay, acting"

Anyway, I love A3!. Yaycupcake has translations for the main story to Act 12 (so, three years) as well as event, side, and conversation stories. The animation in the anime is eh, but it's worth watching. There's a cute manga. They have a strip where Izumi has to work at a girls' company for a bit and Muku's shoujo-inspired thoughts are "omg what if she gets swept off her feet by a masculine knight girl and they fall in love <3333" and absolutely ruins Masumi's life (who thought his ""relationship"" with her will be safe because there are no men there)

[gayforjuza]

which a3 character are you

question 15 (final question)

[taruchisguide]

Taruchi's Guide 2023 List

Anniversary:  • 6th Anniversary: Invitation from 0  • Revival Token Choices

Troupe:  • Moon Traveler (Spring 10th)  • Journey to the West (Summer 10th)  • MY WORST WEDDING (Autumn 10th)  • Nomadic Bartender (Winter 10th)

Seasonal:  • Wizards’ Tea Party  • Tarot Festival  • Onsen Village of Hell  • Wizards’ Dinner Party!  • Ayakashi Summer Festival  • memory of toys  • Ah, to the One I Yearn For  • Xmas PARK CARNIVAL

Spotlight:  • Hanasaki High & Ouka High  • Wolf vs Ginsenkai & Mahjong Club  • Same Age Group & Dandelion Bouquet Group & Zahra Group  • Tsukushi High School & St. Flora  • (Secret) Ikaruga Brothers & Hyodo Brothers & Under the Moon

Revival:  • May 2023  • October 2023  • December 2023

Campaign: • Act 3.5 Event: NEW ERA GARDEN

Collaboration:  • Sanrio Character × A3!

[friends-to-lovers-tournament]

Friends to Lovers Tournament: Round 2, Side A, Match 4

propaganda under the cut!

Fuyupoly:

Submission 1:

they're from the winter troupe of the mankai company, and unlike the other troupes they're all adults. that said, they all have varying degrees of trauma and emotional stuntedness. it takes them some time to fully open up to each other bc they're all very cautious of each other's boundaries and don't want to cross any lines which initially led to some issues in the group's formation. over time they've learned to bridge the gap while still being mindful of hard boundaries. at one point they have a discussion about what exactly their relationship is (gay) cuz they were talking about how the other troupes have clearly defined dynamics (spring=family, summer=besties, autumn=rivals & teammates) but they don't,, and homare deadass says they're "people bound by a common destiny" which in and of itself sounds very Gay (like why are you as a man bound to other men by a common destiny), but it goes even further because homare starts spouting WEDDING VOWS: "In sickness and in health, for better or for worse, we shall share our laughter and our tears as those with an intertwined fate... How beautiful we are!" THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE FROM THE GAME AND THE MC EVEN REMARKS "i can already hear wedding bells in the distance..." 

gradually they become closer, in individual sub-units based on who's paired up as co-leads for a play, and as a troupe overall. also two of its members are childhood friends who had a messy 'divorce' in their young adulthood and it took the game breaking its genre to introduce a timeloop for them to finally make up if that means anything to you. one of their troupe songs "precious to us ~bokura no kisetsu" has some pretty beautiful and fruity lines: "The many kindnesses born in me here / Never fail to breathe life into my chest / Even all the pain and bitterness / Have now become dear to me (Ah…Stay with me)", "No matter how many times our season passes / Let us keep living together / Holding our hands, without ever letting go / Let us open up the curtain of tomorrow", "There is no need for words, because once our gazes meet / Joy sparks a light in your eyes", "Our journey, may it be a brilliant one / As our breaths overlap as one"

a lot of their plays has a LOT of homoerotic tension between the two leads too. their first play has tsumugi and tasuku play angels, and it's heavily implied that tasuku's character has an unrequited crush on tsumugi's character. their third play has azuma play a vampire and tasuku play Just Some Guy and it's generally agreed in the fandom to be one of the gayest, if not THE gayest, play A3 has ever written. obviously the vampire thing is very fruity, but there's also how the vampire was longing to bite the human but was holding himself back, and when the vampire left the human in the end, the human was absolutely HEARTBROKEN over it and was swearing they would reunite one day. the stage play of this takes it even further by having the vampire embrace the human from behind and BITE his neck. the fourth play is a watered-down adaptation of Phantom of the Opera where they genderbend Christine into Chris among other things and change the relationship between Chris and the Phantom to one of friendship.... ostensibly so, because there's still a lot of homoerotic undertones in their interactions. i could go on but this should be enough of a sampling taste 

Submission 2:

the writers rlly said "let's take 2 normal guys who are childhood friends and have been into theatre since their school days and have them go through a pre-canon messy divorce, an eccentric poet with a potentially controversial haircut, an amnesiac sleepyhead who can only be awoken with marshmallows but is also somehow extremely athletic despite doing nothing but sleeping and eating marshmallows all day, a man who is so beautiful and mysterious he breaks gender, and a supposed android from a fictional south asian country, and throw them into a blender, oh and for good measure let's throw in some theatre and angst and gay and angst and gay" and the end result was marriage. i mean it took them a lot of awkward fumbling around and conflicts to get there but they got there and thats what matters. ok *technically* in-text they're all rlly good friends and kinda found family BUT they are found family via marriage papers i do not make the rules chief

Submission 3:

The reason why they are so friends-to-lovers to me is because their relationship is founded on quiet and unconditional acceptance of each other—regardless of how flawed they may be or how heavy their burdens and trauma may be. When the troupe first formed (sans Guy who was in another country at the time), they didn’t have any major clashing personalities at the very beginning and generally they were mindful of each other’s boundaries, unlike the other troupes that came before them. However, it’s BECAUSE they were too mindful of said boundaries that it was difficult for them to break down their walls and bond as a team—and there were a LOT of walls to break down, as all of them had varying degrees of emotional baggage and trauma.

In fact, it’s only three plays in that they finally truly start opening up to each other, with Azuma getting the ball rolling by opening up about the deep loneliness that haunted him ever since his childhood. It’s during this conversation that they also discuss what their relationship as a troupe is, because the other troupes have defined their relationship as a team (Spring is family, Summer is best friends, Autumn is rivals & teammates), and Homare goes on to declare that they’re “people bound by a common destiny” and goes on to spew wedding vows: "In sickness and in health, for better or for worse, we shall share our laughter and our tears as those with an intertwined fate... How beautiful we are!" I mean… it can’t get any more obvious than this, really. They are married.

But anyway, Tsumugi says he wants their relationship to be one where while they respect each other’s need for space, they’ll also be there for each other and share their pains and burdens—or in his words: “supporting each other when our burdens become too heavy to bear on our own”—which I think is really sweet because it carries this idea of quiet, unconditional acceptance; they don’t push each other to share more than they’re comfortable with sharing, but with whatever they ARE comfortable with sharing everyone carries the load and pain because pain is easier to bear when you’re not bearing it alone <3 

A later part of the story focuses on Hisoka, a mysterious amnesiac, being terrified of regaining his memories and facing some “sin” from his past that has led to another character, Chikage, trying to take revenge on him. When he confesses this to the rest of the Winter troupe, Homare asks, “How heavy is this sin you bear?” and Azuma suggests, “Perhaps it’s just heavy enough for the five of us to carry together.” (at this point Guy hasn’t joined yet). The stage play adapts this scene into a song called Key to Memory. The key (pun unintended) part is 1:27 where there’s a back-and-forth between Hisoka and the other Winter troupe members (sans Tasuku because he wasn’t in that particular play)

Hisoka: “I’m scared…”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “It’s okay.”

Hisoka: “My unforgivable sin…”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “Let’s carry it together.”

Hisoka: “I might not be me anymore.”

Tsumugi, Homare, Azuma: “It’s all right. We understand and we accept you, so let’s go together.”

And it ends with Hisoka singing: “I was afraid to open the door of my locked memories. But if everyone is here, I believe I can do it.”  In both the game and stage play, Hisoka fully regains his memories and reconciles with Chikage (long story). He tells Fuyupoly he can’t go into detail about his past with Chikage because it’s dangerous but he’ll tell them when the time is right, and they accept this saying that no matter what his past is, they know and love him as their Hisoka which obviously is a very sweet thing for friends to say, but it’s also very Marriage-coded to me.

Later, Guy is introduced as an android from Zahra (a fictional South Asian country) and joins the Winter troupe as a temporary member—because he’s stuck in Japan for the foreseeable future—until they find a permanent member to replace him. The other Winter members have a conversation among themselves and agree that regardless of whether he’s really an android or a human they’ll accept Guy for who he is and help him improve his acting, which again harkens back to the idea of ‘unconditional acceptance’. Eventually it’s revealed that Guy is in fact a human who has forgotten his memories of the past and his emotions. He recovers his memories all at once which shocks his system and causes him to pass out. When he wakes up in his room, he finds the rest of the Winter Troupe asleep around the room—which I believe is symbolic of their whole theme of “quiet acceptance”: they don’t want to push Guy to share beyond what he’s comfortable with, but they’re always there to listen to him and share his load if that’s what he wants. He opens up about the memories he recovered, and they don’t treat him with pity like he’s a lost child, but still extend gentle empathy and understanding. They also emphasise that it genuinely doesn’t matter to them whether he’s human or android because he’s Guy first and foremost. It’s at this point that Guy truly lets himself become part of the Winter troupe/Fuyupoly and not just as a temporary stand-in member, because he’s found a place where he’s found himself again and people who will accept who this “himself” is, whether that be an android devoid of emotions or a human brimming with vivid beautiful emotions.[Mod note: There’s a LOT more but we’re afraid of crashing the post. I (Deli) summarised it the best I can since I’m familiar with A3, but if you want to read the full thing you can check it out on this google doc)

Sourin:

okay so i have a picture to crack explain the sourin supremacy

but i also have legitimate reasons lmao

1. sousuke and rin both GET what it's like to want something so bad but not be able to achieve it. they know each other's pain so well, and they know just how much effort the other person puts into swimming. AND THAT MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING STRENGTHENS THEIR BOND SO MUCH!!! this is also the reason why they are each others' comfort person because the other just GETS it, no need for any explanations

2. they're passionate as fuck about the same thing (swimming) and they help each other train harder and swim better,,, like get you a couple with the same obsessions as you!!!

3. THEY SWAM A RELAY TOGETHER and that means a lot in swimming because IT'S BASICALLY SMTH A TEAM DOES WHEN THEY HAVE ABSOLUTE TRUST IN EACH OTHER AND THEY DEPEND ON EACH OTHER AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND IT'S BASICALLY THE SWIMMING ANIME EQUIVALENT OF I LOVE YOU

4. when sousuke told rin about the shoulder injury he was literally so devastated because his love couldn't follow his passions anymore,, AND WHEN SOUSUKE RECOVERED FROM THE SURGERY RIN LEGIT CRIED HAPPY TEARS!!! and sousuke was always there for rin w/e he had a slump bc he compared himself too much to haru and others,,, like gods they care so much for each other

5. sousuke is the earth and rin is the fire,,, AND RIN LIGHTS A FIRE IN SOUSUKE WHILE SOUSUKE GROUNDS RIN LIKE PLEASE THE MOTIFS ARE LITERALLY RIGHT THERE EVEN IN THEIR COLOUR SCHEMES (teal + maroon) 

in short: sourin supremacy because these two bois are so perfect for each other"

[wolfchild48]

Chiharu Sawashiro & Kento Hama (Voice Newtype Vol. 77 2020)

Chiharu Sawashiro & Kento Hama (Voice Newtype Vol. 77 2020)

沢城千春 & 濱 健人 The anime of “A3!” Season Autumn & Winter will start broadcasting from October. We asked Chiharu Sawashiro, who plays the role of Banri Settsu, the leader of the Autumn Troupe, and Kento Hama, who plays Taichi Nanao, the mood maker of the Autumn Troupe, about their thoughts on the work and characters. How did you feel about re-acting the story of the Autumn Troupe in the anime?…