#also the trio of boys not being able to shut up and critiquing her story 😭 was so funny

[causenessus]

i think i hit 30 tags exactly THIS WAS SO GOOD MOLLY

wouldn't it be nice 𓇼 semi e. x reader

1. off balance

warnings: language

an: i dont know when it happened, but this turned into jimmy buffett slander hour. sorry man.

𓇼 sounds like: best of jimmy buffett

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The moments of peace in your days are few and far between. Your coworkers—whom you love dearly— are anything but calm, and the customers they attract are not much better. 

Solitude finds you on your commute to work, when you take a leisurely stroll across the island and see what there is to see. Animals crossing the roads, bathing suits falling down, beachy walks of shame that are somehow worse than normal ones, you’ve seen it all. Some are more appealing than others.

When your solitude is disturbed, for whatever reason, your day is always thrown off balance.

And based on what you just saw, today was going to be a doozy.

Trying to shake the image from your mind, you prepare for the inevitable battle scene taking place behind the blue screened door of the surf shop. The promise of tropical rock music looms over you as you approach, but you see the door left open with no sound coming out.

“Oh thank god.” 

Sure enough, your ears are not bombarded with Jimmy Buffett, meaning Noya and Bokuto haven’t gotten here yet. A moment's reprise before the storm blows in. 

Saeko laughs when she hears you enter, poking her head out from around a shelf. “Any moment without Jimmy is a good moment in my book.” 

“Tell me about it.”

You slip into the back room, glancing at the schedule to see who you would be teaching today. Your slots were pretty empty, which meant you’ll probably be in the store for most of it. Not ideal, but you might get cut early and have the rest of the day off. 

“Oh hey,” You call out, taking advantage of the fact that it’s just the two of you right now. “Do you want to hear something weird that happened to me this morning?”

Before she can even respond, Oikawa’s voice chimes out through the shop, paired with the aggressive slamming of the screen door. 

“I do!”

You join Saeko at the counter and share a knowing look, silently communicating that you’ll talk later.

“What are we talking about?” Oikawa asks with a grin, not even bothering to put his stuff away. He beelines towards the two of you and waits with eager eyes.

“Nothing now. I was only going to tell Saeko.”

“What?” He looks galled at your response. “I thought I was your best friend. Best friends tell each other everything...” He drags the last syllable out for effect, but it does little to sway you.

“Yeah, nice try. Maybe I’ll tell you later.”

“Tell him what?”

The front door slams into the wall once more, the final two rounding out your little cohort. Bokuto and Noya both join you expectantly, always ready for any drop of gossip. 

The three men staring at you briefly resemble hungry dogs, begging at the table for any scraps you’re willing to throw them. 

You and Saeko both laugh at the scene before you, but now that they’re all here, you know better than to try and keep the story to yourself. Bokuto and Noya’s constant persistence and optimism are exhausting to outpace, and you learned a long time ago that there’s nothing they won’t do for some gossip.

Resigning yourself to a very long day after this, you relax against the counter and begin your tale.

You were walking along the interstate as usual, the ocean breeze tickling your neck. Mainland traffic wouldn’t start for another couple hours, so the only people you see are your fellow island coworkers and the occasional seagull. 

“Awful way to start a story.” “There’s no way you’re only telling it now that they showed up. Do you hate me?” “When have you ever not ‘walked to work like normal’? It’s like when you talk about your day and you start with ‘I woke up’.”

“Shut up. Let me finish.”

The whizzing of bike wheels, the chatter of early morning joggers. Small moments of serenity before the chaos of your day. Something you wouldn’t trade for the world. 

The natural landscape is the soundtrack to your morning. Low distant rumbles of waves, wind rustling the palm trees and occasional shrub. A loud, bass boosted stereo- wait.

“So what? It’s probably someone from that wedding party, right?” “No, I thought they left already.” “Man, they were something else. Remember when Bokuto got shot in the eye with one of those squirt guns?” “It still hurts.” “Hah! Weak.”

It’s about as cliche of tourists as they come. The white Jeep, no doors. Surfboards hanging precariously off the back. No consideration for how loud or fast they’re going. An equally loud argument between the driver and the passenger, worryingly distracting. Drifting ever so slightly into the oncoming lane before majorly correcting.

You step to the side, despite being on the sidewalk. You want to get as far away from them as you can. The car zooms past you, but for a split second you catch something.

The sandy blonde tips whipping in the wind. Light brown eyes that pierce through your soul. 

But you blink, and they’re gone.

The four of them sit in front of you, all on the edge of their seats. Waiting for something more.

You pause. There’s nothing else you can say.

“So… then what happened?” Noya’s question tests the silence. 

“Wait. Do you guys not know about Semi?” 

There’s a collective confusion before they all shake their heads. 

You want to scream. Their lack of reaction makes a lot more sense now, but you’re kicking your past self for not telling them about him sooner. 

It’s going to be a long day indeed.

“Okay. We don’t have time to get into… all of that.” You start, face screwing up when the screen door creaks again, alerting you all to the first customers of the day. “But basically, he was my childhood best friend until he moved away and fell off the face of the planet. I thought he was the love of my life and then he never spoke to me again. Little 14 year old me was heartbroken.”

“What?!” “You’re joking.” “And you think he’s back?” “Did he tell you he was coming?” “No dumbass, why would he? She just said they never talked again.”

The quiet cacophony of questions is hushed when the customers come around the bend, smiling politely. You all straighten up, trying and failing to look like you were not violently gossiping. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” one of them starts with a laugh, “but could you show us where the wax is?”

Bokuto takes the offer, ushering them all away from the counter. You’re about to sit back at the stool before you realize Noya’s already there, plugging in his phone with an evil grin.

“Noya, no-” “Please, we just got here.” “My ears will start bleeding if I hear stupid Jimmy Buffett one more time…”

The complaints fall on deaf ears as he sits and scrolls through his phone, swiping and forming a queue. “All I’m saying is that he has a lot of advice on love!” He looks up, beaming.

A nice sentiment, but one that falls short as the opening chords of its five o’clock somewhere start to play through the speakers.

Your face deadpans to his. “Your advice is for me to drink away my pain?”

He simply shrugs. “There are worse ways to spend a day.”

“It is literally 9 in the morning.”

“But it’s five o’clock somewhere.” He replies, shit eating grin plastered on his face. You groan in disbelief, not sure how you fell for that. 

He and the others cackle as you turn tail, disappearing into the back room once more. There are some packages that need sorting and you figure it’ll be a nice break from the chaos up front.

You busy yourself with your task, making sure to voice your discontent everytime a new song comes on. Despite the music, you find yourself in a comfortable quiet, catching bits of conversation from the front. The occasional passing by of people on the beach, a few coming in to say hi.

“Do you think it really was him?”

The intrusion makes you jump, not noticing Bokuto leaning in the doorway. As you look over your shoulder, you catch him looking at you curiously.

You pivot, neglecting the boxes. You’re not the closest with Bokuto, but his expression makes you think he’s being sincere. You decide to trust him. 

“I honestly don’t know. It was so fast, and it feels really unlikely, but my gut is telling me it was.”

The admission leaves you a little shaken, suddenly faced with the reality now that you’ve voiced it. It really did look like him. That thought shouldn’t terrify you as much as it does. 

“But I don’t even know if it’ll matter.” You brush it off, turning your attention to the boxes again. “He hasn’t reached out so I doubt he’s here for me, and it’s not likely that I’ll see him around.”

“You said he left you heartbroken.” Bokuto shifts, almost uncomfortably, as he walks into the room and past you, going for his board. “Do you still have feelings for him?”

You can’t fight the laugh that comes out at that. The question has been posed to you since you met Semi, so you’ve gotten very good at the song and dance that comes next.

“He was a silly childhood crush.” You start, picking up the sorted boxes and waiting for him to catch up, walking to the front together. “I’d be happy to see him for old times sake, but it’s not like he’s a long lost lover. Not really.”

Bokuto hums in understanding. “Well, I hope you get what you’re hoping for! Seeing him again or not.” He gives you a beam of a smile before slipping out the side door, a child’s cheer coming from the other side and the boisterous laugh that follows.

“He’s in a good mood.” Saeko comments, now sitting alone at the counter. Noya disappeared somewhere, but the music persists.

“When is he not?”

“Fair enough.” She softly laughs, standing to offer you the stool. “Can you sit for a second? I need to make some calls.”

You nod, dropping the box to the floor and taking her place. Working the counter is the least interesting job in the shop, so it’s no surprise when your mind starts to wander.

Would seeing Semi be the worst thing in the world? You’re confident the childhood feelings are well and over with, but there is still a little bit of resentment about how he left things. You should have known better than to expect him to keep a promise like that, but you were also kids. Maybe a little bit of grace is necessary.

Fiddling with the bracelets on your arm, you start to absentmindedly hum along to the song currently playing in the shop. Tropical paradise be damned, he knows how to make an earworm.

“Since when do you like Buffett?”

Your fingers freeze in their movements, recognizing the casual lilt from days long ago. Dragging your gaze up from where they were focused on the counter, you come face to face with familiar light brown eyes. 

The ones you realize have been quietly haunting your dreams ever since that night, many summers ago.

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[monkey-network]

Eizouken v. Ratatouille: Dawn of the Creative Drive

WARNING: This critique will contain spoilers for Eizouken episodes 1-4 and the film Ratatouille. Also this is long. And yes, I had to make this or else I would’ve exploded. Enjoy.

Youtube’s TheRealJims made a video review of pixar’s Ratatouille not long ago, check it out by the way, and one thing about it caught me deep. He described Ratatouille as “a progressive kind of film, not in the political sense, but a very forward looking movie.” This line stuck with me as I begun to watch Keep Your Hands Off the Eizouken, an anime about a high schooler, inspired as a child, working her way to create anime with her friends. It wasn’t until episode 4 where mind threads started to knot, where that line about the pixar flic started to click with this anime in a way I’ve never thought of before. As such, I found that these two have a great thematic link, a connected warp between the creative minds of adults and children. Eizouken and Ratatouille do the remarkable in giving us the bouts and beauties to having a creative, “progressive” drive, and I wanted to explore how they stack up differently and similarly. And with that,,,,

The Ignition

The beginning scene of Eizouken where Midori see her inspiring anime for the first time is personally my favorite moment of the anime so far, borderline perfect. Like Remy, we already see her have this extrinsic passion for drawing once she arrives at her jungle gym of a newfound home; crude as they look, we see her seedling talent in jotting the details of her world onto paper. It’s then when she watches Future Boy Conan where her passion becomes etched in stone intrinsically. Miyazaki was her Gusteau, the bonafide inspiration that, taking it all in, made a simple hobby into a driven pursuit. Ratatouille more or less streamlines this whole moment with narration (makes sense cuz it’s a film) but they nonetheless bring home how a talent can be solidified if given the right push. Even if you didn’t have a desire to have a fulfilling career from it, you can’t deny that there was a moment in your life where something (be it a show, game, book, etc.) was the foundation to your biggest hobby, which then allowed you to explore it more as you grew up.

One thing to note is how Ratatouille handles Remy’s character with his interest. In spite of his palette gift, he doesn’t become a snob or too good towards his rat family; there’s not a moment where he claims he knows better than his skeptic father, they just idealistically disagree and their connection remains intact throughout the film. He has taste and knowledge, but isn’t smug about it. Midori is rounded the same way, she doesn’t push Kanamori or anyone to accept that anime is the best thing ever, and there’s that layer of anxiety to her love of anime that humanizes her aspirations a little more than Remy. It was a lot easier for Remy to be a cook than it was for Midori to make anything beyond concept art, or be sociable about it for that matter. At the same time, both remain humble in their ignited desires and understandably had to deal with an initial drawback to pursuing their dreams which is where...

The Helping Hands

Now, I’m not saying Midori is puppeting Tsubame or that Tsubame is a subversion of the whole rags to riches trope. I say like Linguini, Tsubame is one of the bridges for Midori to live out her desire, with the added bonus of being just as on board in scaffolding Asakusa’s passion to its most palpable form with her own dream of being an animator. Midori and Remy, be it their figurative or literal limitations, needed the likes of Linguini and Mizusaki to make things come to fruition. Even when Linguini doesn’t desirably wanna be a top chef himself, he witnesses Remy’s skill and is willing to put himself out there to work together and make the best cooking at the restaurant. Likewise, Tsubame is more than willing to work with Midori if it means not being forced into doing what her parents want and sharing that pathos of anime with a similar mind. And unlike Ratatouille, it helps that Tsubame is already adept in animating; I’ll talk to more on this later, but I’m glad Ōwara didn’t force us a character that wants to be somebody but has done nothing for herself. That’s what I noticed with both of these features, there’s a great semblance of support when passion is there but can’t progress singularly. There can/will be people out here to help you and they will come when you least expect it. Linguini and Tsubame both work well as the muscle of the cast, the character that does the heavy lifting in bringing the meal or anime to life. As such, we essentially have our director and the more hands on conductor of the project, but this all can’t be done without the producer.

Colette and Kanamori serve well as the anchor for our respective characters; we can’t just have the four characters go nuts with whatever, there needs to be some stability, a reality to the ambitious madness that can come with creating. Kanamori isn’t teaching the two any ground rules of anime, but she understands the analytics and guidelines to keeping things on track. Colette helps Linguini, by extension Remy, on the known etiquette to being productive in the kitchen, the same can be said for Kanamori in helping Tsubame and Midori in getting the film done clean and timely. While making a meal isn’t the same as making a whole cartoon, the ins and outs of getting things done have a parallel organized track. There’s especially more to making animation, especially on a deadline, and I’m glad Eizouken doesn’t shy away from giving you the thought process in what might go on behind the scenes; it practically gives you the ropes on what could happen if you were in each of the trio’s shoes. 

Additionally, these two are the most resolute of the three characters; they stick to the mission understanding where Remy and Midori are philosophically, and Tsubame and Linguini are fundamentally, coming from. She and Kanamori exhibit the practical outsider, the one to truly stick their neck out, don’t put up with bullshitting, to push the creative drive further. Both see the weight that comes to production and while Colette has her fallback in the 3rd act, they make sure everything goes as planned. They truly practice what they preach and are the glue that holds things together. The only disadvantage Colette has is that she lacks a relationship with Remy, it’s mostly indirect at the end while Asakusa and Kanamori are initially on better terms since they were already close friends. But with our characters on the move, there’s hardly such thing as a perfect run,,,,

The Fallback

This part is where Eizouken and Ratatouille truly divide because the problems that arises for our characters come in differently. Ratatouille has more outside factors coming in with the fact that Remy is a rat and is pulled between his connection with humans vs his own kind. Eizouken is more in-fighting between the three where Tsubame and Midori’s ambitions have to face off against Kanamori’s more realistic shut downs and options. Eizouken also presents the compromises that can come with being a creator where Ratatouille reasonably montages through the hardships that can come with human puppetry and becoming an instant hit in the kitchen. Success is portrayed more consistently in Ratatouille than in Eizouken, which focuses more on the progress. It’s obvious given that, again, making food is not as time and energy consuming as making a feature; we see that animation is a lot more than just drawing all your ideas onto the equivalent to a flip book.

To sidetrack a bit, I came to agree with Jim that Monsters University is the antithesis to Ratatouille where the hard work that one puts into their dreams doesn’t mean imminent or easily delivered success. It’s a bizarro film in that, while not breaking new ground plotwise, MU is grimly realistic in that your passionate drive won’t always lead to getting the spoils you exactly want. Eizouken cleverly sits the middle of the two, where success is achievable if you put the effort in, but that effort realistically won’t go exactly how you want. Mizusaki wants everything hand-drawn and Asakusa wants a story, but come to understand that shortcuts need to happen if they want to get it done by the  council meet. Kanamori isn’t crushing their aspirations for the hell of it, she makes it clear that time and the student body are not on their side. As opposed to Ratatouille, the final boss that are the critic(s) are notably secondary to getting the project done somehow. As mentioned before, I’m glad Ōwara made Tsubame already apt in animating because we can focus less on her being able to do it, more on the limitations that come with doing it. She has the skill, but has to bargain on her capabilities with what’s necessary as we see the tolls that come with the job.

Where I say these two collide somehow is the facet of the outsider putting the effort in for their goals. Remy and Midori are gifted and near encyclopedic in their trades, but are reasonably setback by both internal conflicting question of how far are they willing to go in exercising their drives. Remy more external than Midori since he could literally be killed if the truth was out too soon, but there is that self doubt in both of them where it can be hard to imagine that anyone can cook or that creating the great world is possible. It’s near the end of the arcs where they truly stand up for their beliefs and I appreciate that both handle the determined directing of our MCs in a respectable, pretty relatable way. They finally get to call the shots. They never sacrifice what could’ve been for what could be dauntingly realistic either; both offer an organic sense of optimism. But, with this optimism, comes the endgame that truly puts it all to the test in...

The Moment of Truth

Mr. Anton Ego, Skinner, and the Student Council are undoubtedly the final piece to these puzzles. It’s smart that they’re only present by the end of the arcs, only mentioned initially as the antagonistic force Remy and the Eizouken need to convince; they didn’t need to shoehorn their looming gavels any further. Naturally Skinner parallels the council president, a disingenuous hothead that antagonizes our MCs in a more unfair light while secretary Sakaki represents Ego, an intellectually honest person with actual standards and can see the forest for the trees. Eizouken’s episode 4 perfectly conceives why Kanamori is the boss, as she effortlessly confronts the allegations against them; not so much bluffing as she is spotlighting the council’s rash judgement. Unfortunately Kanamori can only debunk them so far, which leads to Midori overcoming her anxiety to demand that they’re given a chance. It’s great that Asakusa can suffer in silence for only so long before pushing herself to say something. This falls in line with Remy’s dad showing his son the grim realistic front of humans and rats before coming back to help him when he realizes Remy’s determinism. It’s like the rat says, the only way to go, “With luck, forward.”

Like the scene where Ego eats the titular dish, the moment we finally see the anime in full is almost disgustingly perfect. It’s fitting that a riot was going on before the presentation only for the action packed film to essentially come to life and throw chaos right back at everybody with powerful air waves, tank shells, and the tank itself jumping off the screen, literally blowing the audience away. Eizouken has literally more louder of a scene than Ratatouille’s, but both offer that climatic impart equally hard in their respective moments. They don’t shy away from grasping that immersive feeling of what you loved the most about food and/or animation, those invested in the film/series are basically with Ego and the student audience as those moments happen. It kinda hurts the brain how perfect these two moments are. Eizouken and Ratatouille, in a meta sense, weren’t successful only because they poke at our nostalgia or love, but of how they go the mile to convey it significantly. Ratatouille by the end, thanks to Ego, provides the apt idea of open-mindedness; that greatness can come from anywhere. Eizouken does this but adds the step that being open-minded can come with seeing what the efforts of that determined greatness can lead to. And with this, we see how it ends, or how it begins...

The Step Forward

I mentioned this before, but I loved that immediately after their demo reel finished, they weren’t worrying about any approval from the council or audience but discussing about what to improve on next. We see the soon boundless enthusiasm of the trio when, regardless of , they want to improve and do more as a team, all while the secretary approves the club in the hopes to see the fruitful potential. Compare this to Ratatouille for while Remy succeeds in convincing his family and Ego of his talent, they don’t sacrifice realism too much. Gusteau’s is naturally shut down, rats and humans aren’t suddenly living together by the end. At the same time, the movie wasn’t really about that, but about achieving small victories, optimistically grasping that palpable progress. Like Eizouken, Ratatouille leaves us with the progressive prospect that there’s the potential for more, for better.

To quote Jim once more, I say what makes both Eizouken and Ratatouille work fundamentally is that they keep the finger on the pulse of their respective message(s) while still creating enjoyable moments; they don’t sacrifice the fun of getting things right for pushing why it matters. They don’t sellout the bonds between our characters for irreverent romps in the kitchen or studio. Both offer a meaningfulness to their respective crafts, blending its many flavors into a well made dish that explores what it means to create and the steps that come with it. What it means to have passion and utilize that to its capable extent. What it means to enjoy a meal while watching an impressively finished production. They’re also very well animated; thanks Yuasa and Bird.