#and i should be able to ingore some things and focus on the things that make me happy but sometimes i just can't

[watercolor-hearts]

.

[fire-the-headcanons]

Follow the Beacon Raven—Quiet

[Link to Masterpost]

[Apparently I didn’t post the last few chapters on Tumblr? Use the masterpost to make sure you don’t miss anything]

[also hi, not dead]

The truck door opened with a solid click and let cold sea air wash through the cabin. Raven followed her brother out onto the gravel with an irritated shiver. She hissed quietly through her teeth. They're making us soft.

It had been almost as difficult to sleep on Summer's flat, even wooden floor as it had originally been to sleep on the spongelike mattress.

Summer yawned, stifling it behind her hand but drawing the attention of her mother. A familiar grin crept over Claret's face, identical to the one Summer wore when about to provoke someone. "Aww, I'm sorry, sweetie. Did you want to sleep in on the first morning of your first mission?"

"Mooooommm."

Professor Mesánychta's oft-repeated don't worry, that's how they show affection echoed in Raven's head. Seeing them with their parents actually made it make sense.

"You know that's contagious, Sum," Huang yawned as well, distorting his words. "Who's up for some fishing?"

Raven eyed the machines bolted down to the truck beds with a scowl. …They did look a bit like fishing rods.

"You're the worst," Tai grumbled, grabbing a bundle of straps and tossing half to Summer before shaking his out and shrugging it on.

Harnesses. Raven's gut clenched.

"In all seriousness, each person on a line needs a spotter," Huang said, looking at her and Qrow.

"Raven, will you spot me?" Qrow asked quickly.

She hesitated. Hang over a cliff or sit with Huntsmen? Which was worse? Then again—he was probably just trying to keep Misfortune away from the trucks, where more could go wrong. "Sure."

He nodded, accepting a harness from Mrs. Rose. She immediately turned her attention to Raven, however, explaining how the winch worked and how to keep the ropes from getting tangled.

"This is pretty straightforward work," Huang said, giving Tai enough slack to walk out toward the edge, and Raven copied his motions carefully. "Try not to fire on the cliff—we're trying to avoid eroding it here, and the damage adds up. Absolutely no ice Dust, it's hell on the rock, but stick to your blades in general."

Qrow nodded, riveted.

"Lastly—do not drop your weapon. Recovery is a big enough pain when the water's warm."

"Right." He glanced over the other tools in the truck bed and grabbed a short cord to tie the hilt to his hand.

Huang nodded approvingly. "Better safe than sorry."

"Hmm, you've got a point," Summer muttered, unclipping her gravity arrow and securing it to her belt before slotting in a spare. Fire Dust glistened through the clear window in the side.

"See ya!" Tai shouted with a manic grin, latching his shield-sled to his shoe and hopping backward off the cliff. A moment later the line tightened, metal clanged against stone, and a small skreeeee of rage cut off half-formed. Summer and Qrow yelped and followed.

Claret smirked at Huang with a quiet chuckle the three wouldn't be able to hear. "Oh, yes, they're so miserable."

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'll admit, they're taking it well."

In spite of her apprehensions around working with two professional Huntsmen—from Anima, no less—but mostly they and their children had distracted each other, content to let the twins quietly observe. With all of her teammates at the very edge of earshot, she braced for the inevitable shift in focus. Just stay calm and say as little as possible.

"So…what made you want to become a Huntress, Raven?"

Oh. Maybe she should have lied to Summer, before. "I wanted to stay with Qrow."

"His idea?" The Huntress asked, amused. "He was certainly quick to volunteer you to stay up here and do the boring work."

"He…" What would Qrow say? Her mind went blank.

…What would Summer say? "…I… dislike heights." There, put that way it wasn't even admitting weakness. "And Qrow doesn't mind them. He's just trying to be nice."

"Oh. That's sweet. …You two must be very close."

Raven nodded. She could do this. She could play along.

"I guess we won't have any of you trade off then." Oh, thank gods. "Well, what do you think of Huntressing so far, then?"

"Um…" she glanced at the edge of the cliff, where the three lines swayed gently and laughter echoed from below. "…Is this what you really do?"

"Oh—don't worry, there's not always so many cliffs involved."

"N-no—I meant—" Every Huntress she'd seen before coming to Beacon had been desperate, injured, dead. Expendable tools of people too weak to fight for themselves. "I thought it would be… harder?"

"You've been talking to Taiyang," Claret smiled, fiddling with the winch to give her daughter more line. "Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of Huntresses that go out looking for trouble. "Well—you went on some of Zelenia's expeditions, right? There's always something out there to hunt down or study—but yes, most of Huntress work is just… maintenance."

Huang nodded from his seat in the other truck bed. "These fledglings are no threat to us. But if someone untrained with their aura tried this, it could turn deadly fast. Add in the icy conditions and it's not really safe for Signal's students either. So we step in, because we can."

"What about bigger Grimm?" Raven countered.

"If you're doing your job right, you won't have any young and stupid Grimm that get big enough to be a threat. As for what wanders in from the wilds…"

"The old ones are smart enough to stay away from humans, at least when we don't weaken ourselves by attacking each other. And you should always have an idea of what's in the area."

"If you ever end up in a fight you're not prepared for, something went wrong a month or more ago."

"…What do you mean?"

Claret smiled again. "I'm sure by now you've heard Summer and Taiyang crack at least one joke about migration tracking."

Raven nodded.

"The Kingdoms spend a lot of resources keeping an eye on any large herds of Grimm that form." She turned out toward the ocean and pointed at the horizon. "You see those buoys out there? There's a listening station bolted to the seafloor under each one. Warns us if anything too big gets close to the island, gives us time to call Vale for backup if we need it. There's stations all over the mountains too, same thing, and the Kingdoms are putting them further and further out into the wilds every year."

"I suppose your farm would have been pretty far from any of the Kingdom's guard stations if you were growing something illegal, though," Huang added, too casually. "It makes sense you wouldn't know."

Adrenaline surged through Raven's veins, turning the world sharper and colder. "No—we grew—rice. It was just rice, and—" Of course she'd get them caught for the wrong thing—they'd be captured and discovered for sure—

"You're not in trouble!" Claret exclaimed. "They obviously threatened both of you—you didn't have a choice—" she froze for half a moment, repeating softly, "…you didn't have a choice."

"What do you mean?"

Huang cleared his throat with a different sort of hesitation. "…Apparently, Qrow let slip that the two of you had to keep watch for each other at night because the others would attack you. I hope I'm not the first person to say that's not normal."

That was pretty unlucky. At least if this is what killed them, it wouldn't be entirely her fault.

"You and your brother are safe with us. If you need help, or protection, we're here for you."

A trap. Like Professor Mesánychta's attempt to get her to confess everything to a doctor at Beacon. "We grew rice." She threw as much certainty into the words as she could.

The Huntress nodded, almost sadly. "It's all right. We just want to make sure you have somewhere else to go when the school year ends."

Raven didn't want to think about it. No, they didn't have a plan, and Qrow would have an unlimited number of threats and excuses to keep them in Vale and away from Vanta.

And he'd be right. His Semblance was no better now than when they left camp.

Maybe the Huntresses didn't have a reason to hurt them—yet—but they didn't have a reason to help, either.

"Why?"

Claret stared with a frown. "…Summer and Taiyang care about both of you. They appreciate what you've taught them, and they know you're struggling."

What we've taught them. Maybe she had underestimated how useful they were to their teammates.

Qrow laughed from below, and Raven held tight to the winch to lean out over the ledge to see, ingoring the way her stomach turned over.

"SIGnal POINT is FALLing DOWN," Tai sang, pushing away from the cliff on the half-beats and crashing back against the rocks in time to the song. Smoke and flames burst from under the shield clipped to his boots as it smashed through the fledglings' perches. One of the larger birds gave a high-pitched squawk as it flattened, and Qrow laughed again.

"…Seems to me like he's happy here," the Huntress murmured.

Refusal would be suspicious. They had let too much slip, and there really was nowhere else to go. "I'll talk to him about it."

***

"You kids are too good, that was supposed to take all day," Huang said.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Ms. Rose asked, taking Tai's hand and pulling him back onto solid ground.

Tai shrugged out of the harness and tossed it back into the box. "Ehh. This probably could have waited another month."

"There would be too much rain in another month," Claret pointed out, "and it shouldn't wait three or four more."

Tai shrugged sharply, unable to argue with that but still unhappy with it.

"Why did you want to become a Huntsman?"

"I want to do something that matters," he declared, accepting Summer and Qrow's harnesses and tossing them in with his own before popping the lid closed and latching it. "Not gonna stick with this kid stuff forever."

That didn't match what Claret said—and the Huntress took Raven's silent glance as a question. "There are, of course, some people who go out looking for trouble."

So that was the difference. All the Huntsmen that tracked down Vanta and Bones, that ambushed the tribe in the wilds or waited in villages that couldn't possibly afford them—

Something foul rose in the back of Raven's throat. "But—this does matter."

Qrow's mouth fell open.

"Well, yeah," Tai admitted, shrugging. "It's just boring. I want a challenge." With a teasing grin, he added, "Are you worried about me?"

She knew when she was being baited and so said nothing. Tai shrugged and turned away, giving her the chance to shoot Qrow a scathing glance behind his back.

"Let's get these back to the school," Huang said, gesturing for the twins to follow him back to the truck they arrived in.

"Everything go smoothly?" Qrow muttered, clambering in and offering a hand.

She nodded and took it. "You?"

"Fine."

Outside, Huang slammed the tailgate closed. Raven twisted at her vambrace. "…Mrs. Rose says this is what Huntresses do most of the time. Not the cliffs, the…cleanup."

"Really?"

Huang laughed, and the two nearly jumped. "You've been talking to Summer and Taiyang too much."

"But—" Raven frowned. Were they supposed to talk to them less? "They're our teammates." Or were they supposed to be talking to people outside of team STRQ more? Ugh—trying to learn the right things to say for just two people was hard enough.

He waved a hand, sliding into his seat. "Just an expression. I was the same at their age… desperate to get out there." The truck rumbled to life, crunching ice and rock as it started forward. "Too often people don't see the value in the little things until after we try to take on the world. They'll learn as they get more experience."

And what if they're killed before they learn?

Raven shook herself silently. It's not our problem. We're smart, we'll—damn it, we'll go HOME. They'd return, kill Vanta and Sanguin, take over the tribe, and teach the Huntsmen it wasn't worth coming after them. The children of Bones Branwen shouldn't have too much trouble with that—they'd only have to kill three or four to get the message across.

When both the tribe and the Huntsmen feared them, they'd finally be safe.

***

"I must have told him three times, 'Stay on the path.. Okay?' Then I turned around to get Summer out of her car seat, and when I looked back he was up to his knees in mud."

Tai froze, halfway out of the other cab, gaping at his father. "Are you telling them the—"

"Oh, I remember that," Claret said, thoughtful. "We never did find that shoe."

"He had them for two weeks! They were brand new!"

She giggled with a snort just like her daughter's, though Summer was currently trying to hide a smile from Tai.

"Are you two going to be this embarrassing all week?"

"I'm your dad, that's my job!"

Tai groaned in that exaggerated, joking way. "Let's just get out on patrol so you have to be quiet."

"Ah, you wound me!" he gasped, hanging the keys back on the wall.

"It's going to be dark soon," Summer said. "We really should get going if we're hiking to the cabin."

"You don't want to drive there on the second day of your first mission?"

"You're never going to let that go, are you."

"Hmm…" Claret smiled. "Ask me next year."

Raven followed them from the warehouse, out the eastern side of the fort. Half of one wall served as the local Huntsmen's base of operation, separate from the school—which apparently in a town this small just meant storage.

"Uncle Azraq?"

At the other large door—the main school entrance—a Huntsman froze on the threshold, head snapping toward Summer's voice, and his eyes widened.

"Uncle Az!" Tai shouted, and the two of them ran forward to hug him.

"Hey!" His eyes flicked past Raven, toward the other adults, only briefly. "How was your first day?"

"Ehh, nothing crazy. How was your mission?"

"…Just a false alarm," he lied, tension running under his voice.

"Aw, dang. Hope it didn't waste too much time."

"At least now you can meet the twins!"

"Of course," he replied, and they stepped aside to let him past. His gaze stayed trained on their teammates' parents, though, and he walked right past her—

Qrow stood with his head bowed, hands hanging limp at his sides. A knot of unease tightened in Raven's stomach as the Huntsman stopped right in front of her brother and spoke with a gentle voice.

"It's good to see you again."

Next Chapter: Qrow—Doesn’t Change Anything

[charged-to-be-free]

The Prowler

As soon as the elevator stopped, Megatron heard heavy metal footsteps coming towards his cell. Someone opened the doors that were keeping him isolated from the rest of the building and switched on the light. It felt like someone has punched him in the faceplates.

Megatron lowered his head and closed his optics, grinning. He spent so much time in the darkness that his vision became a bit sensitive to the brightness. He had to give it some time to recover.

“Megatron.” He heard a familiar monotone voice of a very moody policebot.

“Prowler!” The rebel cheered, slightly opening back his optics. He was able to see a blurry white and grey Cybertronian. His blue and red accents were reflecting the light and colouring his paintjob into at least four different colors which was rather funny. He came to the room and frowned dangerously when he heard the nickname Megatron gave  to him a couple of years ago.

“How many times have I told you to not call me like that.” Prowl walked to his little station next to Megatron and sat down, pulling out a datapad. He was filling reports on the rebel’s condition. Every five seconds he would look up and check his results on a gigantic screen behind him. A normal job, yet very risky. At least that’s what he said they say.

“...Was there a traffic  somewhere?” The ex leader asked, turning to Prowl.

“No.” Prowl replied, not looking away from his datapad. “Why?”

“You were late.” Megatron explained. ”You’re never late.” The policebot finally rose his head and gave the other a weird look. “Just because I was assigned to waste my time with you, doesn’t mean I don’t have other things to do. I had a work, I dealt with it, and now I’m here. End of the story.”

The Decepticon rose his optical rigid. Prowl seemed nervous. More nervous than usual that is. Something must have happened.  The policebot reached for another datapad that was already in the room and activated it. He tapped a few buttons and after a second, a small picture of Megatron appeared with his heat signature. Everything seemed normal, but there was a small area on his chest that was considered highly questionable. His sparkchamber appeared to have a higher temperature than it should and it was still rising. Prowl seemed to know what it was. His expression grew a bit out of focus.  “Did you get your Energon today?” He asked, looking back at Megatron.

“Depends when ‘today’ has started.”

“Ten cycles ago.”

“Really?” Megatron asked, grinning. “Oh well then, someone’s being lazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before I answer, can I ask you a personal question?” He was pushing it. He knew this was propably a bad idea, considering the situation he was currently in, but he grew curious. The guards of the prison had a special schedule prepared for him. A very specific and detailed schedule of his refueling which made the rebel really suspicious. He guessed that the rest of the prisoners haven’t gotten the same treatment as he did. After some time he figured out that it might be connected to his unusual spark temperature. Ever since the experiment, it was occuring in the very specific moments, and was diappearing whenever he got his Energon rations. He figured out that this couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Megatron, I swear to Primus-”

“What will happen when I won’t get my rations regularly? Would that be a problem?”

“I don’t know what you’re playing in, but I need this information. This is part of my job, and if you’re not going to answer me-”

“What if I told you that I haven’t had any Energon for half of a mega-cycle?”

“... Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“...Fragging... Ugh!” Megatron’s keeper grunted his denta and hit the table with his fist. His doorwings dangerously rose and he tightnened his grip on the datapad. There he went.

“I’ll be right back.” He hissed, standing up and heading towards the exit. “I need to check on something, try to stay alive while I’m gone.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” The Decepticon stated. Prowl ingored him and went to another room to check the situation there, locking the door. Just like that he proved for the rebel that this was indeed a problem. He just  didn’t know precisely what it was.

Megatron expected to be left alone again when he heard another footsteps, smaller than the policebot’s, coming from the vents. Way smaller. He rose his head and looked around. Thankfully, Prowl left him with the light on. How nice of him.

Suddenly, a crate in the wall before him began shaking. It didn’t take much time to break, revealing a slim figure sliding out of it and coming closer to the Decepticon.

“It has been some time.” The figure spoke in a raspy purr, sitting before him and waving it’s tail. Megatron immediately recognized the figure and the voice. Without any control over himself, he smiled, looking down at the new arrival. 

“Yes, it has. Hello, Ravage.”

[warlordgab]

One Piece shipping fuel: Manga Vs. Anime

This was made by One Piece fans from the Orojackson forum.

It seems that a considerable amount of people, non-shippers included, can acknowledge the remarkable strength and the impact of LuNa as a potent relationship. Still the fact people are able to grasp it is a great accomplishment for the manga, because the anime adaptation is not always on point when it comes to adapting the source material

Sometimes this happens because the staff at the time merely provide with their own interpretation of characters and story. And this interpretation is what defines the way they adapt the manga into the anime. So they ignored, changed, and altered scenes; and their take on characters and story affected the way anime-only watchers percieved characterization in One Piece

However, we should also recognize that sometimes they did something that could highlight the premise of LuNa. Something fans appreciated. One example would be the first anime episode, although their choice at that time was more likely a nod to Oda's original intent of having Nami as Luffy's first companion.

Other times the changes they made were justified because of censorship, such as this scene in the Kuro arc...

...or Whitebeard getting half of his face instantly melted away.

Both changed in the anime to something less "intense" (ultimately a good call on this 2nd panel)

But there are many times when they arbitrary overlook scenes, change them, and even add to them. And this trend heavily impacts the position people take regarding the relationships set in the story

This post will showcase how the anime adaptation downplayed one premise to overplay another. Most of the times it's subtle, sometimes it's not...

1) During the Buggy arc:

In the manga, we see Nami feeding Luffy and saying she basicaly has nothing against him, so she'll let him out later, which showcases Nami's morals aren't entirelly Lost and rotten. She is a kind person inside and can even overlook the fact that Luffy is a pirate, because he wasn't "bad" to her

In the anime... this scene doesn't exist. It was adapted out of the anime. What reason could they had to make such a call? We'll see it soon enough

2) Ending of the Kuro arc: In the manga, Nami's reaction to Luffy's odd mix of stubbornness and carefreeness is merely a sweatdrop...

In the anime Nami reacts more violently towards Luffy's attitude at that moment

It doesn't seem like much, but it's the start of a pattern that would be upheld by the TOEI for years to come. They started subtle but little by little they gained confidence in their very own way of portraying characterization 3) Sanji meets the SHs In the manga, Nami manipulates Sanji and warns the others to be careful. Next thing she sees is Sanji letching around...

In the anime, this moment is conspicuously missing. Sanji just flirts with Nami and gets interrupted by Zeff. What reason could have TOEI to remove that scene? Were they trying to show Sanji only focusing on certain girl? 4) Arlong Park... The arc that provided with, what many readers considered, he third most impactful pre-timeskip One Piece moment. What did TOEI changed?

In the manga we a simple yet beautiful and meaningful way during the conclusion of this arc: After Luffy provided with hope, comfort, strength, and emotional support, all through a highly significant gesture. Nami returns said gesture to Luffy in a silent scene...

In the anime, this was downgraded to a mere high-five (granted some shippers enjoyed this anyway, but others found it kinda upsetting)

What reason could TOEI have to water down what the arc stablished as a meaningful gesture between two characters? Well, if you lived in Japan by that time you probably got the answer

But, to be fair. They later corrected this in the OVA: Episode of Nami

Still, that doesn’t mean TOEI animation stopped the trend that started during these earlier days.

5) 98.72%

During the final closure of the Arlong Park arc, there was a scene that, at first glance, seemed like a bit of comedy, but it’s actual ship-tease...

Some people take this 98.72% scene seriously without realizing, the pervy cook never made such a calc in the manga

6) Before they arrived to Jaya In the manga, Nami angrily refuses Sanji's shell and walks away...

In the anime, we had another not so obvious change: while they kept her “funnily” aggressive reaction toward Luffy. They toned down Nami's reaction to Sanji:

So in the anime adaption Nami gave Sanji more of a preferential treatment when compared to the manga

Some of you might think this sounds like an exaggeration. But keeping in mind that TOEI offers their own take on charactes and story, take a look at the movies animated by Eisaku Inoue: "The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle" and "Episode of Alabasta", Luffy recieves the full force of Nami's overplayed wrath while Sanji gets, once again, a preferential treatment: either toned-down reactions or no anger at all

7) Skypiea (note: this one is a little bit tricky...)

I guess some people remember this AP scene:

When the AP building collapsed upon Luffy...

Well, during the Skypiea arc we had the Sanji/Usopp team helping Nami to scape Enel. Sanji stays back to buy some time, which leads to this...

And then they immediately jump off

But the Anime extended the scene in a way that could properly mirror that AP moment:

While the manga had a move or be toasted situation. The anime added scenes and dialogue where Nami questioned Usopp's quick call, adding an impact the manga version didn't have. It might not seem as much but as soon as we get to the latest ones, the pattern will be easier to notice

What makes this change impressive is that while they tried to both "improve" and "re-create" the impact of another scene, they also downplayed other scene involving a different character setup, which we’re going to see right now...

8) Skypiea: Luffy & Nami exchange... In the manga we get a lot about Nami prioritizing Luffy over the fate of Angel Island; Nami seems to make the point across that her priority in that moment was Luffy's life

While in the anime the conversation about Luffy's life ends here:

9) Skypiea: Luffy & Nami, again...

The manga gives us this little jewel, mutual trust/faith in action:

The anime once again downplays this scence. They even altered the dialogue and conveyed something quite different from the manga...

Why would they ingore and/or alter dialogue of such scenes? Yet try to add more impact to others involving a different character setup... 

10) Convo during the Fishman Island arc I was going to add the fact they adapted out Nami's first flashback after hearing about Luffy's hardship in MF. But by that time TOEI was a little bit more tamed, after all SW (written by Oda) was released. Also this post is already long enough.

As noted by some fans, old habits die hard, so TOEI started once again: In the manga, we had Nami recieving tea from Sanji but letting Luffy drink it instead...

In the anime, this scene doesn't exist. Luffy gets the tea off-screen 

11) Zou arc: Most obvious pander ever Manga: Nami and the rest watches hopelessly as Sanji is taken away by Capone

The Anime: Toeiland!Nami, in a very emotional manner, runs after Sanji...

By this point, subtlety is obviously out of the window. With this little bit we put into context most of the arbitrary changes and additions made by the anime adaption. If you still skeptical, the next one will be even more obvious...

12) Stealing moments (again), TOEI style Recall how number 6 didn't seem like much? Well, let's highlight another manga scene concerning Nami and a speech she gave about Luffy...

Nami's weatheria speech is acknowledged by some readers as a moment that highlights the dynamic and the chemistry between both characters from Nami's perspective

What did TOEI do during WCI? While Toeiland!Nami is facing Cracker to buy time for Luffy to recover, the anime adaptation gives us a "WCI speech":

Nowhere to be found in the manga

Fun thing is, I've seen shippers stealing moments from rival relationships and re-creating them in their preferred ship. But that’s to be expected from shippers, not from the staff in charge of adaptaing a best-selling manga into an anime

13) Carry me?

Now, a reader of the One Piece manga was watching the moment when Nami used Zeus against BM in the anime, on top of it looking bad (low quality animation), Toei can't help themselves:

Toeiland Nami turns her head to face Sanji and ask him to carry her and run, then tell else everyone else to run as far possible. In the the manga she was too focused on Zeus “transformation” to the point of forgetting to move (lol) and was clearly taken aback by Sanji’s sudden action, went with it and told sanji and everyone to run as far as possible eyes still glued on Zeus. 

They also didn't have Luffy  busy stopping Carrot  the page just before. Adding scenes is one thing, but they even changed actual scenes that happened on-screen in the manga.

They're not even in-character, It would have been more consistent for Nami to ask Jinbe to carry her since we have actual instances of her using him as a mean of transport (lol)

It may seem like a minor change, but an anime-only watcher can easily interpret it as Nami wanting (at least subconsciously) to be carried by Sanji when there are others options available (in the anime they’re all standing close to each other).  In the manga they’re hasty so she just let it be, having all her focus on something else.

It looks like some animators don’t even bother to hide their bias even if that conflicts with the source material

14) Pandering Wano-style

I didn’t expect this at all, but TOEI’s adaptation of One Piece shows they’re getting bolder when it comes to shoving their favorite premise into the anime. Case in point, this scene… 

…while the first panel doesn’t give us anything shippy, the anime gave us Toeiland!Sanji tenderly grabbing Toeiland!Nami, who responded saying his name and holding onto him all in a very sweet manner, before calling Carrot in a neutral tone.

TOEI is now blatantly trying to sell their favorite pairing to every anime-only watcher. And they’re not showing signs of stopping any time soon. In fact, the alterations made afterwards show how their bias is focused on specific characters.

Before Luffy reunited with Zoro, we had a little joke about Sanji’s thirst for women...

...this joke at the expense of Sanji’s character didn’t make it to Toeiland. When a hardcore fan doesn’t like how the story mocks one of their favorite characters they’re prone to dismissing such scenes.

But, once again, that’s not the behavior one would expect from the people in charge of adapting the One Piece manga into an anime.

The prelude to Luffy Vs. Kaido also featured ship fuel. While, Sanji nearly holds Nami’s hand to take her with him...

...such thing never happens in the manga

Due to this large history of wanking and pandering, we could expect that as soon as we get to the point Sanji scapes with Shinobu, Robin, and Nami of course, they’ll likely add shojo bubbles, flowers, and maybe a little blush to spice things up. At that moment, we’ll likely update this post once again

After all, “Toeiland is a magical place”

While it’s true Toeiland had several LuNa scenes. More often than not, they do them justice because the source material doesn’t let them do anything different... of course, as of now, they seem more than willing to fill their version with their favorite premises regardless of what happens in the manga

In spite of the anime adaptation providing with a not so reliable take on the author’s work in this particular regard, we still can draw three positive things from their animation… 1) Thanks to TOEI’s anime adaptation many people were introduced to One Piece and became fans of Oda’s work 2) The fact there were a least two groups of animators who tried to emulate the impact of LuNa and re-created in another premise, reminds us of the saying: “Imitation is the highest form of flattery”. The need to imitate LuNa to make another premise look believable is a proof that LuNa is far more solid and impactful than any other alternative 3) Despite all of TOEI’s changes, alterations and additions, many people acknowledge the strenght of the LuNa bond as one of the most potent, compelling and believable relationships in manga/anime. That’s quite an accomplishment for as we saw, their moments and interactions are diluted many times by the desires of the anime staff

Hopefully this post helps some people to think before they use an argument if they’re basing their premise on TOEI’s adaptation, or the author’s work

[des-shinta]

Been watching older Super Sentai, heard from some friends that newer super sentais have been suffering in ratings/sales than the older ones. Do you have any idea why that is?

4 answers I can give you, and in the grand scheme?  it’s likely all of them compounding each-other.The first is, there’s just a LOT more television stations out there than there used to be.  toei’s “Super Hero Time” block is 18 years old, and our equivalent of it (saturday morning kids programming blocks) Died in 2014 because there were cable stations out there which superceeded it.  That, and TV Tokyo’s programming, on average, has been far stronger for the same timeslot.  To not even get into streaming and digital media services that are also competing, which also did coincide with the original and most singificant viewership drop that began with Boukenger, but mostly seemed to stabilize with Go-Onger through Gokaiger.

2; this is the largest issue for the most part; Japan’s population is stagnant and declining.  Fewer Children have been born per year since the 90′s primarly because of the “Lost Decade” I mentioned in my reviews of Ohranger; people are more focused on trying to get by monetarily and often live at home (And yet are not called lazy by their parents for doing so as if it’s not something shameful, I hate millenial condemnations), and due to social/cultural constructs it’s more difficult to get attached to others romantically due to the expected distance and detachment in public settings; thus a large amount of the population are single and not looking to date; not helped by how their media rarely showcase people trying to date; harem comedies and similar wish fullfillment media a more preferred form of outlet for some than going out to try and connect with a real-life person.Or, in women’s case, there’s a similar societal expectation that once a woman becomes married and/or pregnant, they must permanently leave their job to become a stay-at-home parent and never return to employment, so many that wish to have a business-career in the modern age intentionally forgo dating. Made worse by (as an additonal stigma) single-income family’s not being able to support themselves anymore; so coupled with the prior points about social constructs concerning Mothers working, any money they might spend to spent on essentials, and less on Toys/games.So on both sides, No relationship?  No people making babies.Thus, Toei, with how they’ve been directing their shows to be more adolescent, are doubling down on monopolizing an ever-shrinking market, instead of trying to make their shows more accessible to a wider demographic….or their attempts to do so end up juvenile garbage, so default back to the more blatantly silly stuff.

This is the biggest one, as it’s something which has been mapped already by people studying the phenomena, and Sentai’s decline in ratings perfectly matches this population curve; but is still compounded by the former and following 2 points and informs why they’re influential, as due to a series that’s run for over 40 years there’s teen/adult fans that still exist which can choose to pick up the slack if it appeals outside the aimed-at child demographic like their shows used to.

3: Inflation and the appeal of merchandising.  This is a big one, as coupled with the increase in Merchandising via toyetic gimmicks since Go-Onger it’s something that makes it more difficult for collectors to collect stuff.  Due to the merchandising gimmicks, it’s encouraged fans to buy more, thus inflating sales to offset other cost-based issues.  But if the gimmick isn’t appealing (Ala Gobusters), that can severely hurt sales for a series that otherwise would not have been viewed a flop.  This is one of the more critical things, as it’s more important for toei and bandai to see that end-of-sales paycheck than anything, which means they’re ingoring other problems and thus leads to…

4:The writing’s just sucked, repetitious, been censored or been found unappealing by the masses.  Now this is three-fold; Toei has a lack of talented people to write for them right now, either from draining their talent dry over years and years of using them (Yasuko Kobayashi, Toshiki Inoue), scared them off from their horrific mismanagement and the disrespect shown to them from a caustic production environment (Riku Sanjou, Shigenori Takadera/Takatera, I always forget if it’s a T or D), or not giving the correct oversight to their newer talent so their writing flaws are more prevalent among producer mandates and anything else at toei that may be conflicting with their make.the second  Part of this comes from the ever-frustrating moral guardians which neuter Toei’s better productions.  Pretty much every time Toei tries to do something cool, over-protective moronic parents come out of the woodwork to complain, and those complaints have more weight than people criticising more critical things, as they have the backing of censorship board that after complaints will look at a show more critically even when it’s unecessary.  As Usually the parents that complain are those that don’t actually bother to watch the shows with their kids, so don’t actually know what the fuck they’re talking about.I mean, we have that right now in the US with both adult/mature cartoons and video games being complained about their content, despite moron parents buying their kids copies of call of fucking duty (and yes I’ve seen this happen) as they think just because it’s a game/animated it’s all automatically kids stuff and don’t bother to do actual parenting by explaining crap to their kids.  They’d rather just censor it wholesale instead of have them learn what they should and should not do, and sometimes actual educational shows can be just as damning with broken Aesops even the young kids can see plain as day (The starlight glimmer mess for MLP FIM I’ve mentioned elsewhere on social media in how they have yet to not make her act like a sociopath and have thus ruined other more interesting or liked characters by proxy).

In example of this for kamen Rider, I read an article containing a Gen Urobuchi interview about his tenure on Gaim (http://00tn2.blogspot.com/2016/04/katarou-555-blade-hibiki.html), who revealed that Fourze  (despite being the Second highest-selling kamen rider series PERIOD after OOO to the tone of 27 BILLION YEN!)  was considered a black-sheep at toei (and why Sota Fukushi’s apparently been blacklisted by them) because these parental watchdogs complained about how Gentaro Kisaragi looked like a traditional Hooligan/Teenage gangster and thus bad influence…WHEN THAT WAS THE ENTIRE POINT OF WHY HE LOOKED THAT WAY!  His character and mannerisms were made to contradict and destroy an outdated perspective on that, as part of the series theme was looking past the basic appearances of those around you to see the truth of that person.

But as a consequence of these asinine assholes, Toei is very afraid to do anything new, and thus the third part of this subset: they copy or straight rip-off what they think are their past successes,so such can be a nice safe show for them in bank on as that worked before…only for it to be found they have done them in worse ways nearly every time.  Because…THEY DID THAT SHOW ALREADY!  And the NEW show is not giving any new nuance to what was already done before, or sabotages any chance for there to be something good in and of itself as either A: they don’t give it, instead preferring to rely more and more increasingly on stock character roles which can be plugged into any situation; or B: Someone or thing superceeds that focus with respect to both story and character.

In this last case, it’s what I have been condemning with Toei’s shows for some time, Inappropraite stuffed-into-the-show comedy (A recurring thing with Toei that does go back Decades) and/Or Insufferable red Sentai that steal the show from the other cast members.  And we’re having that problem right now with Kyuranger; Idiot red hero, and once they hit the fourth episode everyone came to the realization that they’re ripping off Gokaiger

But they only put in that silliness and began to glorify the idiot (thus tying all these points together) to try and appeal down to the Shortbus brigade demographic of small children that are shrinking in number every year after there was that one show where it seemed to work (kyoryuger) because it was actually well written even if it was flawed.  The more juvenile it gets and the less justified it’s comedy and story focus are, the fewer people from older demographics that were fans will watch it, as there is now PLENTY of other things they could be watching now that will appeal to them more.  And the less people pay attention to the show, the fewer people will buy their merchandise until they get desperate, and thus the cycle will start all over again.

That’s all I got.