#and it's been years it still fucks me over just how natural the manga makes that

[franeridan]

still thinking about it btw, the way he says he'd like to mourn suguru's body has me stuck and unmoving

[kaycode1999]

Hi, I hope you are doing well. 

I’d like to have a JJK matchup haha

Pronouns: they/them and she/her

Sexuality: Biromantic Asexual (but I prefer men)

Height: 150cm (I’m travel size, but I’m an athlete. I throw hands)

Visual info: I’m Southeast Asian with short straight black hair, somewhat pale skin, and black almond shaped eyes. I have a boyish appearance: flat chested, masculine mannerisms, and slim swimmer body. I rock a suit with sunglasses. Seriously I dressed like that for a presentation and got the best compliments. I don’t wear makeup, not because I’m poor but because don’t have time and I have sensitive skin. 

Personality: ISFJ, introverted but very affectionate/teasing with friends, been described as a cat (skittish around people I don’t know well but all over my favorite people), very professional but I laugh when I’m too nervous or struggle to tell a joke, a lot of profanity when I’m confident (example of something I actually said: I am dressed good. Therefore I have no fucks to give. I ignored his ass. I ignored his hair still recovering from his bad dye job when he tried to look like Yung Gravy last year. Just kidding I noticed and I still laugh at it.) 

Likes: I love feeling confident in masculine clothing but I don’t have the money :(. I like singing while doing chores. Sometimes I sing like I’m tipsy. I love krnb, Korean dream pop, sometimes Kpop for working out, Japanese city pop, Mitski, and wave to earth. I love science, mainly biology stuff (best place I went to with a friend was a natural science museum that had a live butterfly exhibit). As for food, I love seafood, meat, fruit, and coffee gelato. 

Hobbies: I’m a swimmer. I like to write (working on a short story for young adults and I like making essay on things I like). I like anime and manga obviously, mainly ones that are sad or psychological, sometimes romance. This taste also applies to the books I read. I’m a bookworm that loves depressing contemporary fiction and classics. I used to be in a dance class so now I know how to dance like an idol (poorly). 

Dislikes: Disrespect, people not taking me seriously, the obvious racism and homophobia, people who try to push their beliefs onto me, spicy food, obnoxiousness

My type: Glasses (๑^ω^๑)

Extra: I’ve never been in a relationship before, but if I were dating someone I’d be very committed. I would make them food and wrap them in a fluffy blanket as we sleep or cuddle. I know ASL and Vietnamese so I’d like to teach my partner if they want to learn, especially Vietnamese (it’s not my first language but it’s important to my culture). I’m a mess but I try to be organized. I’m pretty smart and often help my friends with work. I’m aiming to be in the medical field but if that fails I’m gonna be a writer. Because I’m interested in the medical field, I put health and happiness as the top priority for my partner, but I am likely to forget that for myself. And lastly, I often cry after getting yelled at. 

Thank you for reading this 

Hope you have a great life ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

JJK

I match you with

Kento Nanami

He is also introverted

He is more so the type to just stand there and watch you sing while you’re doing chores and he has a fond smile on his face

Will never be disrespectful to you but maybe sometimes to Gojo because you know Gojo likes to mess with him

Demon Slayer/ Kimetsu No Yaiba

I match you with

Kyojuro Rengoku

Your introverted makes a nice balance to his extroverted nature

Will both join in on the singing while you’re both doing chores and stand there watching you with a big smile

Rengoku loves all food so he’s always down for whatever you want to eat

He doesn’t mind if you curse but he doesn’t do it at least not in front of other people

Combined

Both appreciate your affectionate and teasing side and love to see that you truly trust them

They both think it’s really adorable that you’re short

They both appreciate that you have some professionalism to you, but also find it funny and cute if you do a nervous laugh

They both would spoil you with whatever clothes you wanted

Both enjoy learning about all types of things along with you

Both are so supportive and enthusiastic of your hobbies and are your #1 cheerleaders

Both of them also dislike disrespect and are respectful

They both definitely enjoy being brought into your music taste

They both would love to learn ASL and Vietnamese not only because it’s important to you but because it helps them communicate with more people

They both make sure to have their home stocked with favorite foods and drinks

Being in the medical field would work well with both of their professions

They both really appreciate that you’re concerned about their health and happiness and just that you dote on them in general

However, they both make an effort to be as doting and caring as you are because you deserve someone who will put just as much effort and care into you as you do them

Sorry this took so long, I started my new job last week and unfortunately I caught a bad cold almost immediately so I haven’t felt the greatest🤦����‍♀️

I hope you enjoy though!

[sonofthesaiyans]

A 21-Gun 'Fuck You' to Isayama's little bastard child....

Well guys, another day, another birthday in the Attack on Titan canon. But there are no warm wishes, no fond feelings to be had for this one. Nothing but the blood of the innocent innocent all over her hands. And the beginning of the end of Titan as we knew it.

For it is none other than the biggest mistake in all of anime, GABI BRAUN.

There's the look of a girl who's out to fuck an entire franchise.

To have to put her face on my profile truly makes me feel uncomfortable; I would feel better off if I never had to acknowledge the existence of someone as unlikable and as forced as Gabi, the character who has singlehandedly ensured that I will never EVER watch the series again from start to finish.

Still not enough words to describe my hatred for this bitch. Ever since her debut in the manga, Gabi has been nothing but poison to damn near every aspect of Attack on Titan, and while fans and critics may remain convinced that Eren Yeager was still the focus of the story after the ocean, that for a time was nothing but a motherfucking lie, as everything seems to shift its gears towards forcing Gabi Braun as the new hero of the franchise, a similarly overpowered, out of her depth suicidal bitch who Hajime Isayama REFUSES to let come to harm under any circumstances, and in fact seemed to take a perverse pleasure in how much he could defy the fandom's hostile reactions to her obnoxious, overzealous, and aggressive personality.

I've spoken at length about how truly awful Gabi is, for how much she takes over the story out of the blue and how far her worst fans will go to defend her, with Isayama himself and his overly defensive fans and critics pushing this nonsense "redemption arc" that some still insist was critical to Titan's final resolution. Right, a character who was only introduced in the final act of the story is the one who takes priority over everyone whom we've followed since season one, over her own fucking cousin Reiner, over Eren, over Mikasa, over Historia.....And that's not even getting into the biggest victim of all of this yet.

Yeah, this is the girl so many deluded fans will rush to defend, you take one look at this and you realize right out the gate she's nothing but bad news. An overly toxic character who by herself makes the story increasingly more uncomfortable to sit through, and yet gets a free pass because, say it with me now........"SHE'S JUST A KID"......

Yeah. A kid who regardless of upbringing clearly is NOT right in the head.

And yet THIS is the character we push this goddamn "break the cycle" message with, this is the kid who we have to thank for that "children of the forest" horseshit. Well maybe some people are not worth rescue from the forest......

Gabi just an open condescension of the audience, and Isayama does everything in his power to frame us as being in the wrong for following our natural inclination to hate her guts, and to force sympathy for her when she's done nothing to earn it, and has never received lasting consequences for her actions.

Any sympathy I could have POSSIBLY felt for Gabi went out the window years ago. And it all comes down to one fucking reason:

It doesn't matter how much time passes, it does not matter how many excuses I hear, it does not matter how many self-righteous little fuckheads I square off with online who try to hit back at me with "You just didn't get it!" ..........Absolutely NOTHING will make me forgive what Gabi did to Sasha. A character who had all the potential to be something so much more and who was so profoundly iconic in the series, just to be cruelly cut down like garbage to move the plot of an unwanted newbie who's name has since become synonymous with "garbage".

Never ever can I forget that horrifying from Assassin's Bullet, where Gabi stole Sasha from us. Gabi Braun is the only character in fiction to actually cause me lasting emotional and psychological damage. Of all the horrifying scenes Attack on Titan has given, that ISAYAMA has given us, Sasha bleeding out from the mouth and sent out on the most inappropriate and insensitive last words possible is the one scene I DID NOT NEED.

ALL BECAUSE OF GABI BRAUN!

The fact that that bastard Isayama would be sol deluded to think he can force sympathy for Gabi after having pulled a stunt like that, a scene so emotionally manipulative and disrespectful, the fact that he would have us tolerate her existence after such a spectacle....And the fact that she survived to the end after what she did to Sasha, and after all she did to provoke Eren's assault upon the world, again after facing no lasting repercussions for any of it.

And let me tell you something, looking up these images, seeing those disgusting scenes of Assassin's Bullet still brings great anger to me, reminding me how badly I still wish to see Gabi die for all of this, how much I hate Hajime Isayama, and how much I still wish to personally rip the man a new one for everything he's done since the day he published the chapter that brought on this VILE piece of animation.

And the fact that some fans have the AUDACITY to imply that Sasha and Gabi are anything alike, right down to their physical appearance, a notion that the anime and manga themselves promoted in their tasteless attempt to draw a parallel between the two of them in their encounters with Kaya.....It's a lie and a farce that I find personally offensive and stomach churning even now. There were so many ways they could have executed Gabi's story, and if it had been done any other way where she didn't have such egregious plot armor and wasn't so clearly overplayed and overpromoted by Isayama for the entire final act, MAYBE somewhere in my heart I might've found a speck of sympathy for Gabi.

If the story had made room for her AND Sasha, things might have been very different around here......

But it's far too late. The damage is done, and for me the damage is lasting. And there is absolutely NO number of excuses today by the few fans Gabi does have that could ever make me see things from her perspective, let alone wish her anything other than a cruel demise to match the one she dealt to Sasha and the billions she got killed by provoking Eren with her recklessness. And to this day, I will NEVER understand what the hell Falco ever saw in her. Nothing good can come from a relationship with someone with the kind of of blood on her hands that Gabi has.

So no sympathy points for Gabi, let alone a 'Happy Birthday'.

And as a parting gift to her and her fans....

A little souvenir from a friend of mine...

If you haven't figured out who I got this from yet....... let's just say she manages to make a chainsaw headed dog a lot cuter than any living soul could have accomplished voicing Gabi Braun. And for her, I have a lot more respect.

And if you know who I mean Gabi fans, sorry to tell you I got to say my piece first. Chew on that.

And speaking of chew.....

Happy Birthday, Gabi Braun.

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my head while watching this episode:

--For as many times as Tanjiro thought "this person," I was watching for him to verbalize it. I was almost starting to think Tamayo had read his mind for how long it took her to step in while Tanjiro got himself into a serious pickle, but it was really was almost the instant he verbalized "person" that she took action. It was as though she was waiting for it.

--Which is fair, seeing as for all she could tell he was just another Corp member trying to get a kill (understandable, but still).

--She had to have felt something stir in her gut when Tanjiro screamed bloody murder at Muzan, though. In this way, Tanjiro is slightly more of an equal to her than Yushiro, at least in terms of how their lives were so personally wrecked by that man. On my first watching I had found it overly convenient how quickly Tanjiro gained an ally in her, but knowing what I do now about her past, as well as her trust in Yoriichi, it makes total sense that she'd take a chance on Tanjiro--especially if she needs someone to go out and collect demon blood samples in the first place.

--Pretty Blood Technique is pretty.

--Muzan comes off as a one-note villainy villain, but you know what? That's a note he plays really loud. We already got the core of Muzan in that "you look sickly" reaction. That's really all there is to this man. BUT HE'S HAD OVER A THOUSAND YEARS TO GET REALLY, REALLY GOOD AT PLAYING THIS NOTE.

--And Muzan showing how his blatant disregard for others' lives in showier and showier ways? Forget dramatic plot device, that really is just Muzan's style to not give a fuck.

--Tanjiro having to make right by the udon vendor, because of course he does.

--Seeing as I usually reference the manga, I had totally forgotten how boyish Yushiro sounds. I think this is part of what gave me the initial impression that his feelings for Tamayo are just puppy love. Yushiro does have very serious depth to his feelings to be willing to carry out her will even if it means accepting her impending death, but unfortunately for him, I have never read Tamayo as having romantic feelings for him, or seeing him as anything more than a child. That's why I was pretty shook when I saw the inside cover of volume 21, in which the pose of photo studio like pose of changes to something more tender and intimate with Yushiro gently kissing her head. First, would Yushiro ever be so brazen!? If she were likely to accept it, he would, but he knows it'll never happen because she can't forget her former family life. And that's really sad and makes me hurt for Yushiro, this was doomed to be one-sided all along and I don't know how I feel about a romance between her future incarnation and his demon self. I hope he finds more to do to enjoy the life she granted him than just obsessing over her memory.

--Also, even though in my memory Yushiro feels more adult than Tanjiro, going back to this I see them both as immature children when they are put in a room together.

--Okay, the "I didn't hit him, Tamayo-sama. I threw him" line is funny and all, but it feels so, so, so much funnier to me in Japanese for how close the words for "hit" (naguru) and "throw" (nageru) sound to each other: "Nageta no desu, Tamayo-sama. Naguttemasen."

--This was the episode which floored me with Nezuko antics. How?? Can she dare??? Be this cute??????

--So Nezuko seems in her own world for most of this scene, right? Look at her face down in the corner after one of the times Yushiro beats up Tanjiro. SHE DID NOT LIKE THAT. ----I had to go back and watch this again. There's really no naturally way Nezuko would had been able to just notice and give that look based on how she was positioned in previous frames. She would have had to roll over and bend in tightly to give Yushiro that look from that angle. This wasn't in the manga, somebody at Ufotable had to have said, "hey, wouldn't it be funny if--" and then they had to find a way to squeeze it in.

--I initially thought I was going to sketch something dramatic like Yushiro protecting Tamayo at the end of the episode (and her accepting his protection for the close bond they do indeed share), but the emotional heart of this episode really is Tanjiro and Nezuko being invited these demons' home, and feeling completely at home there.

--That Tamayo smile got me blushing as mad as Tanjiro, she's so pretty. Please, let your voice wash over me, Sakamoto Maaya-sama.

--Aw, the Yahaba & Susamaru scene kind of left out that Yahaba is a neat freak... I do like the mild detail of how his eyeballs don't touch the ground, they do hover about it for the sake of plainly seeing. Also, his Blood Technique is among some of the most unique in this whole series. Even if there are other characters with tracking mechanisms in their attacks, Yahaba's really were multifaceted, like seeing arrows in footsteps. In some ways, his Blood Technique sort of steps outside the slow of time, showing both progressions which happened in the past and progressions which have not yet taken place.

--And then we've got their simple personalities, "let's be cruel, like the baddies we are, yyyyyyyyeah"

--I didn't draw it, but I love the composition in the final scene in how Tanjiro and Yushiro mirror each other by covering their respective most important lady (but let's be fair, Tanjiro, you need that coverage more than Nezuko does).

--TAISHO SECRET!! YUSHIRO'S DIARY!! Tanjiro is left with so many regrets. Here's a Taisho Secret for you!! The diary entry read was from my birthday!

[gumpistol]

❤️ + enruiinas

Send ❤️ + a URL and I’ll write something nice about them/their blog!

♪ never gonna give you up! never gonna let you doown! ♪

    this is me, hanging onto dear life and clinging to saro whether she likes it or not! she is my ride or die, my brain twin, a fellow member of the AAA ( aro ace audhd ) club! i have so many things to say about her and how much she means to me, it hurts my brain trying to figure out where to start! but knowing me, it will be long, so buckle up buttercup~

    i will never forget our first interaction: i filled out her interest tracker, she came to my discord dms, and i swear we barely stopped talking with each other for the next 24 hours. when i had only known her for a day, it felt like we had been friends for years!! i still don't know what to make of that, but i don't think i've ever clicked with someone that fast. but the rest is history, and now we have so many threads in various verses together! 

    seriously, saro has such a massive brain with so many interests and thoughts and a desire to consume knowledge like i inhale a bucket of popcorn. she is one of the easiest people to talk to and bounce ideas off of. a good chunk of my character and story development for luffy ( and others ) are thanks to her picking my brain and asking the difficult character questions! she's excited to talk new ideas and what-ifs, and LOVES enabling me to write new muses. it is because of her that i ever started writing rosinante, robin, and penguin over on my multi~

    outside of writing though, she always makes me feel more excited to share and talk about my interests, including OP trading cards and my science-y rambles. SPEAKING OF! she loves me SO MUCH that today, despite hating making phone calls, she called her local card shop to see if they had a set of cards that i wanted!! as someone who also hates making phone calls, that is true fucking friend behavior right there ♡

    she really is quick to think about her friends. it could be the little things, like when she saves manga panels of unique luffy faces for me that i might not have yet, sends art of our muses, shares writing resources, or even just suggests reading the same science articles or listening to the same ologies episode together. she's also an excellent listener who gives meaningful words of encouragement, who refers back to things in conversation that i maybe said months ago, and who is a huge help when it comes to getting my brain unstuck on threads. 

    i haven't even touched on her writing and her Law portrayal though! when i say she puts SO MUCH work into doing him justice, i absolutely mean it. she analyzes even the smallest details, and her brain worms when she talks about him and his relationships are infectious. she got me so invested that she is the sole reason lawbin is now one of my favorite ships. she is the reason i put so much time and effort into a side character like penguin. and she is why i put so much stock into law and luffy's friendship. i. am. hooked.

    and i know she gets a little worried about the length of her writing sometimes, but the waiting period is worth it. the quality of saro's writing is so organic and it flows like reading a good novel. i'm convinced at this point that i could come to her with any sort of thread or verse idea and she could weave it into a beautiful story. god i'm so stupidly eager to write with her always!! 

    anyway, i wrote so much, but such is the nature of anything we write for each other. there's a lot that i didn't even get around to talking about, but in summary, saro is incredibly kind, fun, and so brilliant it makes me want to SCREAM! i love her a lot, she is one of my best friends ( if she disagrees then too bad ), and i'm incredibly happy that i get to be her friend :)

sent by: @mingos for: @enruiinas

[larathia]

So that's it for the BSD anime fans for a while. Probably a few years, really. At least.

Final thoughts, therefore, on the anime:

Fukuchi, you ....idiot. You 'made Fyodor stay in prison' because 'what could he do from Europe'? REALLY? You ACTUALLY thought you had ANY control over Fyodor's ability to affect your little plot? DUDE. I'll admit, I laughed out loud when he said that. That was just...the dumbest damn thing he could've said.

The manga had better not make this final episode take more than one chapter. YA HEAR ME, ASAGIRI? Y'GOT NO MORE DAMN EXCUSES FOR THIS CHAPTER POINT-FIVE BS. You've got a whole season's worth of anime to create, minus somebody deciding on another light novel adaptation for three or four episodes of it. Chopchop.

No. I don't think Fyodor is dead. Yeah, that was probably actually his actual arm. An arm does not a corpse make, nor has having two arms ever affected his ability to SERIOUSLY fuck people over. We still don't know the nature of his ability, and it's entirely possible that he will resurface later. At most, at most, he's been weakened - and even that may prove temporary. Fyodor is like the Joker; don't believe he's dead until you have a DNA-verified, fully autopsied corpse. Even then, check for clones.

Bram is...whole. On the loose. I mean, he clearly likes Aya, so yay there, but ...I don't think this is the last we see of him.

I honestly do not believe Fukuchi's plot did jack squat to avert a coming global war. He may have changed some parameters, but the way he went about things means a) nobody learned a damn thing and b) a LOT of people just got the shit and piss scared right out of them, and c) scared people are extra, EXTRA stupid.

Side Note 1: Fyodor has to enact his ability through touch. Does he use the hand that apparently got blown off? Is his power ambidextrous? Somebody go check and get back to me.

Side Note 2: Chuuya was never a vampire? How the hell did he manage to get ordered to go to Muersault without other vampires working that out? Vamps don't seem to be telepathic with each other, but they're ALL tied to Bram. Surely Bram would notice Chuuya's not vamped? I'm ...actually kind of hoping upcoming manga chapters clear this one up, because while I expect ass-pulls, this one feels weirdly egregious.

Side Note 3: So...let's see. Yes. Dead Apple, Corruption Arc, Guild Arc, and now this long plot. Dazai and Ranpo know how to handle Fyodor now. Spend a while struggling theatrically. Set up dramatic countermeasures so Fyodor sees his rats running the maze he's built. And then arrange to kick him in the balls at the point where he thinks he's won. Fyodor's plots have gotten more direct, more dangerous, and have ever more layers to them, so "the point at which he thinks he's won" but does not have Yet Another Maze waiting is the real tricky bit, it seems. But the procedure's pretty well down pat now.

I'm not saying it makes me unhappy, but the manga damn well better explain how Akutagawa is not dead and also not a vamp. I don't want that handwaved, please and thankyou, because it affects A HELL OF A LOT OF THE WHOLE PLANET.

[chibivesicle]

Trigun Maximum - I have feelings.

Ooooh boy.  I ended up at the shop for a bit this morning to have my HVAC controller in my car fixed and I had some down time.  I spent it reading the Trigun manga while the local CBS station had the morning news on the TV.  The pacing for this manga is fast fast fast fast and faster.  I will definitely need to go back and reread all of it after my first pass because it is both sparse and dense at the same time.  The amount of information that you have to glean from it - not sure if it is a stylistic choice or forces you to think about it just yet.

Yet, you know it is never a good sign when a character ends up bleeding profusely in the author’s notes.  Warning, mild spoilers ahead for up to volume 9.

Several plot points have just sort of made me go, ‘huh . . .’ and try to shake out why it would make sense in the context of things.

1.) Knives is the leader of his own personal crusade and he doesn’t need to convince anyone of it.  More that he simply tells himself that ‘sacrifices are necessary for the cause’, when the cause is himself? All other life is meaningless save for his own?  I hope the next few volumes clear this up a bit more since I’m currently struggling to really understand his motivations.  Especially, his idea to steal as many plants as possible, ‘eat’ his ‘sisters’ and to do what?  Even if the other ships get close enough to the planet and he absorbs them, then what?  I dunno man, what is your endgame?

2.) The Eye of Michael are an assassin group that recruits orphans due to the fact they lack attachment to others.  And their goal is to achieve what exactly?  They’ve been around for 133 years and they are far to obvious to act as a sort of covert group. I mean sure, if you kill everyone in your path there won’t be eyewitnesses but the giant cross - not subtle.  They are working with Knives but it isn’t the same - only part of them were sort of committed to the gung ho guns.  I really need to go back and glean from the text.

3.) Wolfwood is around 20 - max?!?! I’m also baffled how he got recruited based on what we’ve seen up through volume 9.  I found his words to be out of alignment with his age as a child at the orphanage.  Only going by the anime, I put him to be older, like 30s.  When he has his showdown with Chapel, we know that he was trained by him for ten years but the specifics are vague and it is clear he fucked off on his own when he realized he didn’t want to be told what to do.  In the anime, his realistic words of wisdom make sense for them to come from an adult with life experiences.  Yes, trauma and a harsh childhood can make you grow up faster but he always had that weird vibe that he was trained in some sort of religious philosophy that he could have more input into things.

Yet, in the manga he still has mature dialogue that I don’t quite get.  I hope volume 10 helps to explain things further in regards to this weird disconnect.  Wolfwood is there to oppose Vash in a constructive way, not in the straight out opposition that Knives is to Vash.  Yet, by having Wolfwood start out as someone who is good with others, willing help out and care about people.  It makes it obvious in retrospect he’d never be able to have given his all to the role that he was supposed to fill.  I mean the fact that he shot and crippled his mentor but didn’t kill him already speaks volumes.  Does he try to save everyone and not kill like Vash?  No.  Yet his destructive power is more tempered than many others.  He also has that built in protective nature which pops up all the time.  Though, he has spent a lot of time rationalizing that it is why he can kill people.

4.) Plants are technology that works on using the life force of angelic beings trapped in a bubble that are something - I need more info.  Pleeeeeeaaaase? Pretty please?  And are definitely modeled on more ‘realistic’ versions of angels e.g. not looks like a person with a pair of wings. And more in the this angel has a fuckton of eyes all over it and weird creepy manifestations, extra wings, heads, faces etc etc etc.

Does this mean that Knives is into a weird from of cannibalism?  He tried to absorb Vash as well but obviously since they are diametrically opposed to each other’s viewpoints we know that isn’t going to happen.  Isn’t he supposed to respect the other plants that he’s essentially using as an extension of himself?  How is this fair to them.  Hello plant ladies (?) allow me to rescue from your human oppressors - to serve me as a giant melded mess. . . . 

These aren’t my most organized thoughts - just the general feelings and questions that really pop to the surface.  I’ll try to reorganize my thoughts for the future.  I’m thinking of:

1.) Wolfwood analysis - I know lots of people have their own interpretation of him, but I’d like a crack at it too.

2.) Tone of the anime vs the manga.  Right now, I’m leaning towards preferring the anime; by no means is the manga bad, just they have different ways to get to the same sort of end.

3.) Review each episode (or two) of Trigun Stampede.   I’ve seen other commentary online which is being a little more gentle to it.  Not that I want to skewer it, but more point out where it works and doesn’t work in the context of the manga and previous anime.  I purposely, went ahead and rewatched the original just to prepare for watching Stampede.  I’m also getting the vibe that some people are like me and have done this while many other people’s commentary are coming from “I watched it on Adult Swim.” or “I’ve never seen it but it was apparently popular.”  Making me feel even older with the Adult Swim comment since I saw it before then on fan sub VHS.

4.) Why Trigun Maximum is a type of seinen that works for a female audience.  I think this also applies to Golden Kamuy.  The series do have some overlap and I’m beginning to wonder if there are other elements of these two fairly violent series that allow for them to have a more equal gendered fandom.

That’s all for now.  I need to put all my thoughts together and start cracking.

[lesbienbys]

so I recently just read all of the trigun manga in like 2 days bc I'm mentally ill (which I don't recommend bc my head hurt from crying all day) and it's literally changed my life. The characters, the themes, the story, everything was literally perfect and tailored for Me.

Spoilers for the whole manga series from here!

One of the first things that left me stunned about this series was the first two scenes in trigun of vash in his angel form. The panels are just so stunning and had me devouring the beautiful yet kind of fucked up concept. I love how the angel form isn't just *insert pretty angel wings* but is kind of all over the place and weird, but still really cool looking (for me anyways). Also the whole being a plant is SO dope and vash's hair getting darker as he uses his form more is just *grips table* I love.

What stood out to me and was the positive light in this series when shit got really heavy, was vash's connections with humans. You realize that he's been alone for 150+ years and many people who he connected with either died from non-natural causes or grew too old. And he's always left surviving on his own. And even if he has people who he connects with in the present (his home with his sensei or lina and her grandma) he doesn't stay for very long. With the exception of meryl, milly, and wolfwood who we see with him throughout the story. I personally would have liked to see a bit more from the girls, especially milly, but let me say I adore them so much. They are so swag.

Now let me get into wolfwood. This fuckin' guy has literally jumped to being my favorite fictional character of all time. 90% of the time when I cried it was because of this dude. I'm not good at explaining why I like certain characters, but his dynamic with vash just hit a certain way. The fact that he was able to click with someone like vash, who he both admires and dislikes because of his persistence with his ideals, is such a good way to show the difference in their characters. In the beginning wolfwood didn't care about shooting people if it meant he survived, and then near his death you can see him not taking the kill shots on his enemies. And one of my favorite things in media ever is seeing someone change because of another person. Also speaking of change, when wolfwood in the beginning is like "I don't think I'll ever change" when talking about murdering people and then later on vash is like "you can change" HDKFJSHD I'm in pain. How are they so good.

More on wolfwood, I think his death scene is one of the most beautiful death scenes ever. Like of course I didn't want him to die (tbh he had so many death flags that I was pretty prepared for it) but if I had to make him go out?? That's exactly how I would've done it. The confetti raining down, knowing that he saved his family, getting to finally treat vash to a drink even though the whole knives thing wasn't over yet.... like he got what he wanted! And I can't really complain about that because he deserved that (and so much more). But also wdym he died I just saw him in starbucks yesterday.

So yeah I think the connections that vash has with others is my favorite part of the series. The fact that he's more human than many actual humans. The way he loves humans with all his heart and believes in their existence. There's so much hope wrapped up in this funky little piece of media.

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 2

welcome back to the scrunko core

14) Ib (Switch, 2023)

One of the real classics of RPG Maker horror games, upgraded for the modern age in just a few little ways that manage to keep the experience feeling as it should. Ib has a perfectly bizarre and creepy atmosphere, making really good use out of its excellent concept of being trapped in a living art gallery, with decent enough puzzles to keep you engaged throughout. I'm a big fan of its vibes and its exploration of loneliness and art in general, and it has a really strong trio of characters and various different endings that I found myself liking a lot. Now's as good a time as any to check this game out. [4.5★]

15) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Movie, 2022)

Kind of a critical darling as well as an audience favourite around when it came out, and yeah, I agree with everyone else - this movie is fantastic. Really good and creative direction in an absolutely wild ride through parallel universes, family and generational trauma that I'm told can hit really hard for the Chinese-American demographic and others like it but can be enjoyed by just about anyone. It uses its ideas pretty much perfectly, and it has a whole multiverse of them to play with; I was fully engaged throughout the whole experience. It deserved those awards. [5★]

16) Fire Punch (Manga, 2016-2018)

Tatsuki Fujimoto's earlier manga series, wrapping up just before his biggest claim to fame began, really can feel like Chainsaw Man's fucked up older brother - and it kind of is, really. It does touch on some of the same things, but the world is even harsher and the suffering even greater, and the overall mood can seem a lot more nihilistic, but there is hope in there still. It's also a harder read than Chainsaw Man, but it stands alone as a rough tale of struggling through an apocalyptic world, and it gets bonus points from me for its heartbreaking trans character I don't want to spoil. I'm not sure how much I'd recommend it, with the particular kinds of misery involved feeling gratuitous at times, but I am glad I read it. [4★]

17) Super Lesbian Animal RPG (PC, 2022)

The title kind of says it all here, this is a superb RPG about anthro animal girls in lesbian relationships, and it does an excellent job at delivering exactly that with a lot more besides. The whole cast is likeable, even the asshole characters, and the story is a mix of really good fun and powerful emotional beats, naturally being queer as hell to boot. I really appreciate the gameplay too, it's by default a fairly easy game until pretty late, but it's quite well-balanced and goes out of its way to ensure you'll never even think about grinding (levels cap at 30, even), plus a lot of the fights are just really fun. Excellent visuals and incredible soundtrack too, just a perfectly well-rounded super lesbian animal RPG that I have no real complaints with at all. [5★]

18) Tembo the Badass Elephant (PC, 2015)

A little controversial back when it released for daring to be a Game Freak game not on either of the Nintendo consoles in circulation at the time, this game is... well, it's fine. Just a decent enough 2D action platformer that feels like if you modded Wario into a Sonic game with how you can speed through levels smashing up everything in your way, but the level design and even the odd boss fight reminds me of some of the worst parts of Sonic games at times, so I'm not super fond of it. It does have plenty of charm though, with a fun cartoony artstyle and some 3D setpieces that do make one wonder why it wasn't on 3DS. Controlling a badass action hero elephant saving as many people as possible is a neat idea, too. [3★]

19) Picross 3D (DS, 2009)

There have been many different takes on Picross over the years, under many different names as well, but almost nobody has done it quite like HAL did with Picross 3D. It feels like a whole different breed of puzzle, and it is indeed nothing like regular 2D Picross - the transformation into cube-based puzzles makes things far more advanced, often more difficult, and a lot more rewarding. There's not much more to this game other than the massive amount of puzzles to solve and the option to create your own, but it doesn't really need anything else. Some puzzles are extremely hard, but that's alright, and the game is the perfect fit for the DS hardware. [4★]

20) Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS, 2015)

I technically played this a bit later, but I think it makes sense to put this next to the first game. HAL managed to do it again, innovating further on the 3D Picross concept with different shapes that you can turn blocks into - a simple change, but one that goes surprisingly far towards making the game more enjoyable. It's a lot comfier with its presentation too, and there's even some surprisingly great music in there. Not much more to it than that, but it's still filled to the brim with a huge amount of puzzles, including bonus special Amiibo unlocks (there is a homebrew program to bypass this), and that's all I can ask of it once again. I'd hope for a third round, but I don't know that I'd like it as much without stylus controls... [4.5★]

21) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (PC, 2023)

Sonic coming out of nowhere on April Fool's with a shockingly high-effort "joke" project was unexpected, but that blue hedgehog does have a way of blindsiding you. The game is a small but lovingly made point-and-click revolving around a murder mystery party with a few fun twists happening towards the end, and it's pretty funny for the most part, so that's the "joke" part down. On top of that, it has a really solid grasp of the characters and how to write them, seemingly on par with the IDW comics, which is more than we've seen from most of the games until fairly recently. It's something of a breath of fresh air, with plenty of fanservice, and my only real complaint is the "THINK!" segments being kind of... not very good. But as a whole, this game is really nice, and I hope they do more creative projects like this in the future. They even got the "self-insert" protagonist right, because they're such a weird and silly one. They should murder Sonic more often! [4★]

22-23) Escaped Chasm/Dweller's Empty Path (PC, 2019/2020)

I'd like to group these together, because they're kind of part of the same interesting project from Temmie Chang (yes, the Undertale Temmie). Both very short RPG Maker games with zero combat and a focus on exploring all the dialogue and plot you can get out of them. Both games have their dark elements, but Escaped Chasm definitely has the most - it's got some upsetting bits, and the ending is rather bittersweet, but I did enjoy the short tale of the lonely girl. It kind of serves as a prequel to Dweller's Empty Path, though you won't know it until you see a certain part. Speaking of which, that game is pretty nice, mostly just being a walking simulator that you can end at any time by going to bed, but there is quite a bit of dialogue for you to see that fleshes out the world and characters, with hints at what might be to come in the future. Both games adopt a Game Boy style pixel art look with minimal colour palettes and I kind of like that about them, and the developer managed to rope in Toby Fox and Camellia for musical contributions, which is awesome. Overall, the games feel like they're setting up something rather interesting, also being rather interesting in themselves, and I hope Temmie is able to do more with this in the future. [3.5★]

24) OFF (PC, 2008)

Another certified RPG Maker classic that has somehow never been re-released in any form, unless you count the official English translation from 2011, and it's certainly an odd one. The vibes are deeply unsettling throughout, the morality of the protagonist is dubious at best, and it has all kinds of strange setpieces showcasing the utterly bizarre lore of its equally bizarre world. It's kind of hard to tell what it's even really about, but it contains themes relating to religion, illness, capitalism and more besides. There are even multiple endings, including a random joke one serving as a "reward" for beating a strange and lengthy secret boss, and honestly I think the game is more of a weird French art piece than anything else. The puzzles and battle system do kind of suck in several areas, so it's all about the feeling of the game in the end, and it certainly made me feel... something. I don't think anyone completely understands this game, but I do like what it tries to do, and I respect it. [3.5★]

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[vanilla-blessing]

qb's top 10 seasonal anime of 2022

2022 in anime was a year of many known quantities, but what really ended up sticking out were the shows few saw coming before they took the world by storm, and before we knew it, everyone was watching a guitar-playing pink blob with severe anxiety while drawing her band on every album cover ever made. 2022 was the year I watched a new Gundam for the first time, I experienced unforgettable trash gems like Pride of Orange, ESTAB-LIFE, and Extreme Hearts, and I was let down more by the wasted potential of the Biscuit Hammer anime than any anime I've ever watched, easily. All considered, this year was unusually good on average for the shows I finished, so I ended up with a glut of series I wanted to put on this list that I had to cut down for time. I would make this list longer, but you know, then it might come out in 2024.

Top 10 in order:

Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Studio TRIGGER's take on the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was an unexpected contender - it was announced so long ago I sort of forgot about it, I wasn't expecting much from the batch release of a Netflix-Trigger anime after BNA's messy release, I underestimated the potential of Cyberpunk 2077 as a setting after the very public trash fire of the video game, and it should have been overshadowed by the next thing after a quick Netflix dump in the middle of a season. Should have had its lunch eaten by the similarly edgy violent action of Chainsawman, should have been yet another failed videogame anime, but none of this stopped Cyberpunk Edgerunners from being the anime I enjoyed the most from 2022.

Bocchi the Rock - the breakout hit school band anime of 2022 was also relatively unexpected, although I at least knew it was stacked with talented animators going in, I didn't predict the sheer memetic power of the result. This series shatters the fourth wall over its knee and livens up an already pretty funny manga with demented, free-flowing gags in a particular way that wouldn't work at all without detailed and well planned sequences which come off so naturally it's hard to believe this was originally a (lightly subversive but still) 4 panel strip. The album cover redraws were the best thing to come out of Bocchi and I hope they never end.

Pop Team Epic 2 - some kind of fucked up comic strip but aoi shouta is there? I thought they promised they wouldn't make this

Mob Psycho 100 III - everything I said about the second season of the popular shonen manga adaptation but moreso, it finishes out the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. Third OP is just mad flexing. look how many hands we can draw. Episode 8 changed my life forever. knowing they nailed the landing retroactively improves the whole series for me.

Do It Yourself - original anime by studio PINE JAM, DIY is pure aesthetic hobby-ani with a mildly entertaining cast of extremely animated characters. very enjoyable but may not have enough momentum or things happening for some. soundtrack is another standout by y0c1e but at a noticeably different speed from Gleipnir and Spyce.

Kaguya-sama Love is War: Ultra Romantic - everything I said about the second season of the popular romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches the climactic peak of the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. I'm still reeling from the entire rap battle episode (sub and dub), and can't believe the Starship Troopers ED was real.

My Dress Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) - excellent manga adaptation, effectively gets across the dangerously horny but strangely wholesome vibe of the series.

The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 - everything I said about the first season of the popular magical girl romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches an inflection point in the manga with exactly the same manic pacing and blatant disregard for breathing room I hoped it would. out of everything else on my list I hope the most this one gets another season, because it kind of needs it.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury - original anime in the long-running GUNDAM series which is sort of like Robot Jox for kids. This is definitely the first time I've watched anything from Gundam before it was completed and I immediately regretted not having more to watch as a direct consequence. Half of my enjoyment right now is coming from experiencing it in tandem with the rest of the internet, but it's sure to hold up in retrospect as one of the best modern Gundam seasons. Look forward to a future very annoying post by me claiming g-witch ripped off Granbelm.

Call of the Night - another above and beyond manga adaptation, probably the anime OP of the year. It strongly intensified my longing for studio SHAFT to not be dead anymore.

Assorted Shoutouts

Going by rating number scale rules, Chainsawman and Spy X Family should be here, but I'm not going by rating, I'm going by what I feel deserves more attention. those anime already have too much recognition.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road) - If you asked me what the most hidden gem is from 2022, this is what I would answer immediately. Irresponsibly complicated and unusual take on the hated isekai genre in the most disrespectful way possible, twisting anything familiar about that tired setting into an unrecognizable pretzel shape. Recommending this is a challenge, because the less I explain the better it is, but nobody would want to watch this on its face. Everyone should watch it though.

Ya Boy Kongming - banger soundtrack and some eye-popping color choice elevates this manga adaptation from average to a certified Cool Time.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: STONE OCEAN - My favorite (not best) Jojo part, the anime greatly improves the readability of the last third from the manga. Tokyo Mew Mew New - It's almost comforting how little they tried to update the love triangle of incredibly shit boyfriends in this remarkably normal magical girl anime reboot. I pleaded for someone to make a normal regular magical girl anime reboot and they delivered something totally acceptable.

Reiwa Di Gi Charat - Dejiko drags society kicking and screaming into the Reiwa era. This is the anime of all time of 1999, 2022 and 2023.

qb - friend of the no show (@queuebae on twitter still, unfortunately)

[wordsandrobots]

Ask 001, for two ships:

Ed/Winry

Mikazuki/Atra/Kudelia

For this ask game.

Ed/Winry (Fullmetal Alchemist)

when I started shipping it if I did:

So, the thing about me and shipping is that I don't do it much, or didn't for the longest time. I just didn't come into fandom via that avenue, which is why most of the relationships I have written are fairly solidly the canon ones. So the honest answer is, when FMA!2003 did.

my thoughts:

Again, to caveat: I've a bigger soft spot for the 2003 anime adaptation than I do the manga (Brotherhood I don't count at all). So my baseline is an anaemic version of Ed and Winry's 'intended' relationship. But I've always liked that 2003!Winry gets to be a proactive part of the goings-on, and her friendship with Sheska, and I like the sense of the person she is come Conqueror of Shambala. Similarly, I could always think of more to do with the broken version of Ed that ends the anime. He's a quieter, gentler character than his manga counterpart and I think that's why what I ended up writing for them coming together at last was almost a sigh of relief. It's not a deeply complicated relationship, they just share a lot of friendship, mutual attraction and feel safe in each other's company. It's hardly the romance of the century but then they're neither of them especially romantic people.

What makes me happy about them:

That they're prodigies in completely separate fields, who dazzle the socks off the people around them smart enough to know what they're doing, who're nevertheless hopeless dorks on a personal level and will, with perfect hypocrisy, call each other out for being so. Also, there is nothing quite like sticking Ed in a room with the auto-mail people who fawn over Winry's genius. It's the perfect collision of 'my girlfriend is so cool' and 'I haven't a fucking clue what these people are talking about and this is a scary new experience.'

What makes me sad about them:

Probably the fact that I can't imagine them ever losing the compartmentalisation in their lives. For both of them, there are areas that the other just Will Not Get, no matter how long they're together.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Not directly related to Ed or Winry but I kind of don't like it when people pair Winry with Al as a means of freeing up Ed for another relationship. That's never worked for me, with their personalities.

things I look for in fanfic:

It's been years since I read FMA fanfic regularly. But I think it'd be people leaning into them both being bloody knowledgeable, bloody-minded people and also Winry's lock-picking skills.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Winry and Paninya, naturally. Ed . . . genuinely I'm not sure I'd pair him with anyone else. I read him as being fairly slow to form attraction to people and I'm too much of a Mustang/Hawkeye sap to go for the obvious choice. (I never did get to explore it much but in my fics, Russell Tringham is very much fuck why are you hot about Ed but that was entirely one-sided. Still, that could be funny.)

My happily ever after for them:

Winry is a fabulously rich and renowned auto-mail mechanic and Ed helps by coming up with ever-better materials for her to work with.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

(They switch and try very hard to avoid auto-mail-induced bruises.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

I reckon they make for a very sweet pair of sappy nerds reading on a sofa together, off in their own separate worlds but sprawled over each other.

Mikazuki/Atra/Kudelia (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans)

when I started shipping it if I did:

Roughly two seconds after Atra did in-canon.

my thoughts:

OK, look, do you have any idea how refreshing it is to have a show eject love-triangle/pining nonsense in favour of explicit, no-holds-barred polyamory? Like -- push all the male-power-fantasy stuff aside for a moment and try to remember the last time you saw a character respond to nascent 'oh no my crush is talking to someone attractive' with 'but actually there's a way this can work out where everyone's happy', and then proceed to symbolically marry the three of them together? I love Atra so much.

I love how it plays with those power fantasy tropes, too, because you have to remember Mika isn't actually one of those, he's gradual decay dressed up to look like a power fantasy in certain lights. He doesn't just passively collect two girlfriends. He's the one who comes on to Kudelia (with a customary lack of manners) and repeatedly shows warmth and care towards Atra. Likewise, Atra is pushing them all together every way she can, having learned from the Turbines that it's possible to have that kind of family and determined to make it work. Kudelia meanwhile . . . well, Kudelia has no idea what's going on but these are her two favourite people in the world now.

None of this is one-sided, or 'just because'; they each have reasons to care about the others and they respect each other enormously, and it's all jumbled up with the immense pressures they're all suffering under. It's lovely.

What makes me happy about them:

All of the above but also that it's so very . . . not a big deal. It's good for them, they make each other happy, and it's very easy to imagine them just chilling together doing normal stuff. In the middle of everything, I think that was the perfect choice for this kind of relationship, for how it throws the rest into sharp relief.

What makes me sad about them:

Well. This story is a tragedy so no way was it ending well. And I wouldn't change that. That's too much the point. Mikazuki was always going to let go his happiness for the sake of following Orga and there was nothing either of the other two could do to hold on to him.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Bearing in mind that I regard Orga Itsuki as the most asexual man on Mars, I don't have a problem with Mika/Orga as a pairing. But I've read at least one fic that got on my nerves by too readily detaching Mika from Atra and Kudelia to make it work. It also gave Atra this long speech about how terrible it was for her to try to hold on to him by getting pregnant, that was clearly expressing the author's bugbear with what is, in-story, an act of desperation at a point where Mika is loudly committing to fighting 'til he's dead on account of his increasing disability (can we please not cram the literal child soldiers into some drive to acknowledge 'problematic' behaviour, they have enough going on already, thank you). BUT ANYWAY, my point is, it's not like you can't easily fold Orga into this relationship. If he wants to be Mika's wife too, that's fine.

things I look for in fanfic:

More IBO fanfic generally.

I mean, probably the fact Mika is a lazy bum who needs to be nagged into helping with the chores he doesn't like, Atra is a walking ray of sunshine who can handle the most cripplingly dark shit like it's nothing, and Kudelia blushes like a tomato over intimate stuff.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Well canonically --

The legal team has informed me this is the kind of behaviour that will get my kneecaps turned into castanets so --

Mika is surprisingly easy to picture shacking up with virtually anyone (he's like Shino in that regard), but the right answer is Hush. Just your average disabled mobile suit pilot and his service dog.

Kudelia . . . honestly, there is something in the idea of her and Orga as a couple, given the few times they get to work in sync on-screen.

And Atra . . . hmm. No one person per se but she'd fit right in, working with the Turbines.

My happily ever after for them:

Mika and Atra run a farm while Kudelia commutes to her job taking down the government. Not that I'd change a thing about the actual ending, mind you.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Kudelia is the big spoon by default. I don't think she minds.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Cooking together, eating together, bullying Mika into helping with the washing up together.

[thatringboy]

It is so refreshing to read a story (even a fanfic!) like Flowers, Sounds & Stones. Honestly, and I mean this in the best way possible, I was surprised to find out you were a man because of how well written the women are in this fic. I think anons have said it before but I’m repeating it after the two most recent chapters about Ume and Mitsuri

I don’t think I have words for the emotions those chapters left me with. Ume’s story made me sad because we already saw how it ended, but Mitsuri’s made me sad because quite literally NOTHING that happened to her was her fault even REMOTELY. And the duality between Ume and Ubuyashiki? That Ume acknowledged where she did wrong and showed remorse while Ubuyashiki literally tells people to get over it and think of him as a natural disaster?? FUCK dude that’s why you keep losing to her and her legacy!! And why all these other women keep beating your ass!! Nezuko, Makomo, Shinobu, and Mitsuri won’t be victims. Shizu, Rei Kibutsuji, and Koinatsu won’t be martyrs. Ume, and Tsutako, and Mrs. Agatsuma won’t Rest In Peace. And the women Ubuyashiki directly controlled and manipulated? His wife and daughter? His wife wasn’t strong enough to break free and it never once felt like it was her fault. Susamaru went out cussing and homosexual. She won’t be a martyr either

And I know it’s not a lot but it’s so nice to see women that are just people. Messy, broken, ugly people. Nezuko has a boob staring problem and cusses like a sailor! Nezuko Kamado! And she has a crush on Makomo, who regularly makes Kakushi members like Murata take on demons as a way to force them to train! And let’s not get started on whatever the fuck Shinobu’s got going on with Kaigaku! (This paragraph is completely illegible to people who don’t know anything about this fic, I know)

But like, they’re all still clearly women though. Other anons talk about Nezuko admiring her reflection and beating people up who call her ugly, and I think about Shizu Shinazugawa’s mental spiral being much more heavily criticized by the Demon Slayer Corps than Michikatsu’s. I think about how Mitsuri wears her revealing uniform but covers her mouth so that she can have autonomy over who looks at specific parts of her body that have been violated. I think about 13 year old Kiriena Kibutsuji being forced to find a husband before her birthday or die horribly because the family curse said that’s just what happens to the daughters. How Ume had to have an excuse for traveling with her friend the samurai, that they were related or that she literally had to marry him to continue traveling with him. How Obanai - who isn’t a woman but used to live as one - was beaten down into the mud on his wedding day in his wedding dress after he was left at the altar because the word of his future father in law trumped his own. How Kotoha Hashibira had her face disfigured and torn apart by someone she considered closed family because she did not return his obsessive and creepy advances AFTER she had already had to run away from her abusive husband and raise her baby on her own. How the first thing Shinobu ever says to Nezuko when she literally has a poisoned sword pointed at Tanjiro’s heart was to never plead for mercy because that’s how women get killed.

It’s the little things that I’m obsessed with here and I can’t believe this is just a fanfic of a manga that is basically “what if we shifted every character slightly to the left” so I need you to understand that I call BULLSHIT on your claim that most of the character swaps were at random!! I’m so sorry for the rant but I’m experiencing EMOTIONS.

Anon my love I am also experiencing the emotions 😭

It’s 2 in the morning so I’m half awake atm, but thank you so much for your kind words. I’m really happy my silly little fanfiction has touched so many people in so many ways and I’m happy my storytelling is up to snuff. And I really mean it when I say these swaps were random! I based the character swaps on general vibes, not stories, so it’s by pure coincidence and a lot of outlining that the story I wanted to tell about grief and womanhood is coming together like it is. FS&S didn’t originally start out as a narrative about the struggles of womanhood, I just wanted to write about demon slayer characters but Different, but the way that the character list fell had women in the majority of the main roles and I just rolled with it to the best of my abilities. Some of the writing is based off of my own experiences as a trans man (mostly Obanai’s life, but I draw inspiration/reference in other places) but the majority is me just writing out the canon events but with women in the main roles and that’s how we got here. I added some nuance here and there, and adapted the plot to incorporate as much real-world opinions/experiences the characters would have at the time (the time being early 20th century Japan), but other than that Gotouge did all the hard work for me

I’m really happy that my late nights and overwhelmed Microsoft word account managed to string together a narrative coherent enough to earn such praise. Mentally I’m giving you a sloppy kiss on the lips, thank you. I hope you, your family, your friends, and everyone you know have a happy holiday week and have a happy new year

[slowd1ving]

.・゜゜・NAVIGATION

about me .゜ call me res! I go by he/him and I'm 18. I typically write longer fics but could probably drop some headcanons and drabbles later down the line! usually my fics are more plot and world-building based but I do write nsfw occasionally (sometimes I write plot solely so I can get to that lmao). I generally stick to writing for male/neutral readers but might eventually write for female readers too (genderfluid legend) - but male readers are more of a priority due to the content drought for them. honestly went awol on here for a while because I post more on ao3 but I decided to bring my newer works here too <3 so enjoy the blog

fandoms I've written for .・ in the past I've written for bleach, genshin, and jjba. some of my newer stuff includes that's not my neighbor, twisted wonderland, more jjba, and some itsv i wrote when it first came out. however, check out the current interests section to find out different fandoms I might write for in the future, as well as the requests + asks section :)

current interests ゜・ started playing honkai star rail recently, honestly really enjoying how interesting the character stories are. some manga I'm currently reading include blue lock, jjk, sakamoto days and jjba. I read a wider variety of manhwa and novels though, including orv, lookism, how to fight, return of the mad demon, solo levelling, concubine walkthrough (really recommend this one), legend of a northern blade... I can't list them all since I've read over two hundred lmao (please ask me for fic recommendations I've got so many) in terms of my other hobbies since I do have a life (I hope this is obvious) I like art, history, and the sciences (fuck I use so many science metaphors in my work...), so if you ask for scientist!reader... yeah you know what's up

things of note •. yeah don't follow me or interact with my work if you're racist, homophobic, ableist, or if you don't believe in a free palestine. idc who you are that's an immediate block.

requests + asks ・゜ I write as a hobby and honestly just to blow off stress! currently am doing my studies in a myriad of subjects and have lots to do, but my ask box will be open; just keep in mind I may not reply immediately (sorry about that). I probably won't be able to write longer fics but less than 2k is light work fr, especially if it's something like headcanons or drabbles or things of that nature. again, will write for neutral/male readers so please keep that in mind when requesting. my ask box will be open for just discussions or other things :) as mentioned previously, I write for male/neutral readers, but I might extend it to female reader eventually (or depending on the fic idea?? really does depend). while the majority (all...) of my work is x reader, I don't mind doing character x character I won't write any weird ships (no incest, big age gaps, just weird ships in general), and I won't write nsfw of aged-up characters that are minors in the original work!! in terms of fandoms you can request for, any of the aforementioned should be good, I just may not be very familiar with the character so it might take a while to find their 'voice' to write for. however!! if the fandom in question has not been mentioned above you can send a request anyway because I've extensively consumed media so I'll have at least heard of it (probably/hopefully)

what I'm currently up to <3 as of june, I'm continuing my jjba long fic and currently redoing my entire blog (my older posts look so UGLY omfd). debating whether to make a side blog for just discussions and stuff?? I'm also thinking of medium/plot-based fics for other fandoms to give myself somewhat of a refresh I'm fresh out of end of year exams but still have a lot to do elsewhere so this blog is going to be my proverbial terrarium to nourish and take care of so I don't lost my sanity

OLD MASTERLIST ゜・★･ﾟMASTERLIST

TAGS FOR NAVIGATION (will continue to be updated) [navigation] for things like masterlists + the navigation post (this one) [masterlist] for masterlists [res ･ﾟ writing] for any of my writing [old writing] for my old stuff that my og followers know me for

[yuhi-san]

Okay so i really agree with this (especially because i am a sucker fort he whole ‚deliberately choosing to act kind despite it all‘ rather than ‘just being like that by nature and not wavering away from it despite it all’ thing) but I am thinking…

Stampede takes place ‘earlier’ than trimax, so to speak.

Yeah vash is already over a century old and carrying many, many scares. But there are a few things that make it make sense that vash is currently far more meek and consumed by guilt that is strong enough to override any anger.

For one, until the finale of stampede, vash had been entirely unaware that he could cause such destruction. Sure he could kill if he wanted simply by being one hell of a shot but he didn’t know just how destructive he could be. It takes some of the edge off, so to speak. There is no ‘if I flip my shit I might obliterate everything around me without even meaning to’

There is also ship three being a somewhat stable home that influences his actions and personality, since he didn’t live there when he was a child in trimax.

The other thing is yeah, vash has many, many horrible scars. Some might be down to pure cruelty but maybe not all of them. 150 years is a long time to get hurt in various ways especially if you live the reckless kind of live that vash does.

But most importantly, vash isn’t that kind of infamous calamity yet. It’s more rumors than anything else, the bounty is low, clearly a rather new thing and he is explicitly wanted alive. He hasn’t leveled an entire city in the past. Again, obviously he hadn’t have it easy in the past but shit is only now starting to hit the fan on the big scale for him.

That being said, I think that leaves a great opportunity for season 2 or so to explore vashs anger.

Like he hasn’t reached the point yet where he feels this enormouse anger. But things are bound to just get worse from here for him. So I hope we get to see the point where it changes. Where vash reaches his limit, where finally the anger overrides the guilt, where he just wants to hurt his enemy. Where he thinks you deserve to die where he wants to kill because he wants it all to stop and really, killing the enemy might do just that.

I’d like to see the vash reaching that point, realizing he wants to hurt, thinks, yeah, I should fucking kill you for that – and coming to terms that yes he is at that point, that’s his genuine thought. When he has to struggle because maybe for the first time, choosing love and peace is hard. Maybe for the first time it’s not what he wants, emotionally, right then and there.

Like, vash in stampede is so timid and guilt ridden but despite living like 150 years already, still far behind in his journey compared to trimax vash at the start of the manga. But I think that gives us a great chance to see the shift. To see vash grappling with the concept of truly starting to feel resentful at times, of genuinely thinking about killing, of starting to feel anger so strong it drowns out his immense guilt. Of him having to accept that he has these feelings that contradict what he says, what he so desperately wants to believe in but finding the pure determination to still choose kindness and love and peace and second chances over it all

I know it's been a little while since the Trigun Stampede hype has ended but, I can't get this main criticism out of my head after reading the manga--- I wish that they had made hints about Vash's willpower to restrain his anger.

In Stampede, he has the meek pacifist down, but he is mostly led by guilt. He doesn't hurt people because he thinks the planets' issues are all his fault and wants some form of punishment. In a way, it's self-inflicted flogging, which is what Knives says in the last few episodes of season 1.

In Maximum, he has guilt, but he also has a temper and often says that he does have thoughts of wanting to kill his enemies. But every single time, he still doesn't kill the object of his anger.

I think Maximums version of Vash pacifism is so much more meaningful. It's not self pity, it pure determination.

In Max, he actually feels like something that isn't human, and he is so scary if you really think about it from the normal human perspective. He is an other worldly angel/eldritch creature and he WILLINGLY chooses not to hurt people---when he has good reason too--- and instead offers kindness and second chances.

Since Stampde is supposed to be following Maximum closer than the 98 anime, I was hoping that they would still show that side of him. Who knows, maybe they will touch on it in the second season.

[ultraericthered]

Something in the analysis video linked to in the last post I reblogged really stuck out to me - the idea that Teppei in the original story not only cared nothing for his niece Satoko (obviously, given the beyond cruel way he treated her and just how hateful he was in his abuse), but he did not view her as a person, only an object for his pleasure, to use, abuse, scare, inflict violence upon, and even fuck in a few years time since he’d decided he’d groom her as his “new girl”. Because he’s a boorish misogynist and a misanthrope with only enough room in his tiny heart to care for himself and no others.

Which got me to really notice this interesting contrast between Teppei’s run in with Satoko in Hinamizawa that we see in the Gou anime VS what we see in the Gou manga version of Tataridamashi.

In the anime, he gets THIS look:

Satoko is still an object to him. Literally nothing has changed except for the way in which he intends on using that object (how he’ll treat Satoko). Rather than use her as an outlet for personal pleasure, Teppei realizes he can make nice with her and hopefully win her over to letting him stay with her so he can use her as an outlet for his idea of personal atonement (play the doting uncle without any apology for or even acknowledgement of his sins, and expect all to be fine), recieving care, and avoiding a miserable, lonely karmic demise. He doesn’t now care about Satoko for Satoko, he cares about Satoko for himself. A craven, opportunistic, self-interested bastard, even now.

In the manga, he gets THIS look:

It’s the exact opposite here - this is Teppei, for the first time in his life, looking at his niece and recognizing her as a person. As a human being like himself, young and afraid and vulnerable like he himself once was, not remotely deserving of the way he’d treated her in the past or the way he would’ve gone on treating her had he not had his nightmare-induced ephiphany of needing to change his ways. So it’s thus no wonder his instinct is to, once back home with her, let all of his remorse pour out and apologize profusely for how horrid he’d been to her, for all the vile abuse he alongside his deceased wife had ever put her through, and to commit himself to becoming a better man so that he doesn’t hurt her or anyone else that way ever again.

Again, this is why I wish Meguri could have its own take on Gou Episode 23, so that we could’ve gotten the sense of the Teppei Houjo we know and loathe ultimately becoming this new man through later loops, with the manga then going on to tackle the new Teppei’s arc of struggling with the growing pains of doing good by his family even when it’s not as easy or second nature to him like being a violent, abusive thug and money-grubbing grifter was. It could’ve been great!

[pikahlua]

As a fellow Bakugo fan I must ask, are you not even a little bit mad that Hori jobbed Bakugo (as well as others) so bad to make Deku look good? As a Bakugo fan who doesn't really like Deku, I'm considering droping the manga and I'm sad about it because I've been reading the manga for 3 years. I know that Bakugo will probably rise and do something but I still find the entire thing distasteful

Given how many asks I keep receiving to this effect, let me make this one thing perfectly, utterly, ear-ringingly clear.

[looks straight into the camera and leans in to place my lips directly on the microphone]

No. I ain’t even mad, bro.

1. I have not been holding back my disappointment or refraining from criticizing Horikoshi out of politeness. I genuinely enjoy what’s been going on with Katsuki in the manga 100% since the beginning of this arc. I don’t think anyone should or shouldn’t enjoy the arc just because they’re a fan of Katsuki. I don’t think it means anything about you as a Katsuki fan if you like or dislike it. The fact of the matter is, I am a giant Katsuki fan, and I like this arc--and it’s clearly because I see what’s going on in the manga differently from the people who don’t like it. It’s as simple as that.

2. The notion that Horikoshi “jobbed” Katsuki to “make Deku look good” is just, like, your opinion, man. I don’t see it. I see the heavy implication that we’re maybe supposed to think that for like a few chapters, but Horikoshi has signaled SO. FUCKING. LOUDLY. how this is a ploy that I can’t even be mad at how my ear drums are bleeding from the volume. I don’t know how many times I gotta say it: when a character SAYS THE TROPE OUT LOUD (e.g. AFO vs Jirou), you just know the trope’s about to be subverted. But to subvert the trope, you first must play with it.

3. Look, it’s easy to forget the big picture when you’re reading such short chapters like this with only one or two major plot beats per chapter each week. If you’re genuinely not enjoying the manga at this pace, I’d advise you to change it. Read a few chapters at a time. Don’t read weekly. I can only explain my own enjoyment by pointing out that I’ve very consistently followed along with the plot beats while demonstrating that I absolutely vibe with Horikoshi.

Remember that time I was the only one who realized THIS WAS LEADING TO SOME BAD SHIT?

That happened in chapter 344. February. Katsuki wouldn’t get bodied until chapter 362 in August. Did it seem like I was despairing over this premonition for half-a-year? (Well, I mean “despairing” in a bad way that implies I wasn’t enjoying myself.)

But this is what I mean when I say don’t take plot beats at face value, because we have to let the story resolve each situation at its own natural pace. Katsuki is supposed to look like he’s been “jobbed” for Izuku’s sake, and for that to affect us properly, we have to sit with it for a while.

The fact that the above interaction exists gives me all the comfort in the world that what you’re describing isn’t actually happening in earnest in the story. Horikoshi is well aware of what the fuck things look like. He’s reveling in the fact that you’re falling for it. With any luck, the resolution will be that much sweeter for you when he finally gets to it.

(Depicted above is Horikoshi lampshading the point even harder.)

If you don’t want to go through heartache to get to the sweet reward, if that’s not to your taste, then that’s cool. Do your thing. I’m gonna keep doing mine, and I’m having a blast with what we’ve got.

And what we’ve got is a plethora of Katsuki at every turn.

We keep joking about how I can make anything about Katsuki whether or not it’s merited, but at this point I’m convinced I’m supposed to be doing that. I haven’t written fusion theory yet because I’ve been so sleep deprived today, but chapter 369 really nailed home the fact that I’m supposed to be seeing all the characters in each other. AFO is Katsuki Bakugou. Katsuki Bakugou is Izuku Midoriya. Shouto and Iida are Izuku, and Dabi and Tomura are Katsuki, and everyone is All Might, and I could slot anyone’s names in any part of this formula and it will all work fine. The characters are converging on a singularity. So when I see any character do anything, including Izuku doing his thing right now, I am perfectly justified in seeing Katsuki Bakugou alive and well (although I do also get a certain smug satisfaction out of seeing his corpse on the ground like Horikoshi is winking at me each time he draws it).

(Like am I even supposed to be mad that he’s dead? When we’ve got so many other reanimated dead people walking around it might even be construed as a theme?)

Everything is Katsuki Bakugou and vice versa change my mind.